In an article titled, D.C. Church Avoids Paying Taxes on Vacant Properties, ABC 7 says:

“A D.C. church is under fire for its efforts to avoid paying taxes. Now, some residents in the District’s Shaw neighborhood are calling the Shiloh Baptist church downright shady.”

Then the quoted woman who says:

“It’s sheisty is what it is,” said Danielle Boudreaux, a D.C. resident. “It is sheisty — it doesn’t go along with what I think the core values of a church should be.”

It’s actually the reporter who calls the practice “Shady”. I’m just saying…

Anyway, I hope they do have to pay higher taxes for these properties but I also think ABC really overdid the “Shady” bit (you have to watch the video to see what I mean).


This is another one of those situations in which you have no idea how you will react until it happens to you. Lots of folks have told me about the problem of rock throwing in Columbia Heights but I’ve probably spent half my time walking around CH and have never seen it and certainly hadn’t experienced it. Sadly, that changed this evening. I was heading up 14th Street on my way to an interview at Commonwealth (more on that later).

At 7:50 pm I felt something hit the top of my head. It was more of a lob shot than a fastball. I was actually quite confused. There were 4 twelve year old boys behind me. So I had to decide what to do. Oh yeah, this happened at the corner of 14th and Harvard. So I have my ipod on and am just staring at them, thinking to myself, ‘did they really just throw a rock at me’. I was definitely in disbelief.

Well, I’m not a super tough guy but I’m pretty sure I can beat the shit out of a 12 year old kid. So I’m thinking to myself, do I just go over there and punch one of the kids? No, I can’t do that. You can’t punch a 12 year old kid. I’m also thinking, ‘well I don’t want to break my ipod if they all jump on me’. I swear to you, these are the thoughts going through my head. I’m not necessarily proud of them.

I decided to just turn around and continue my walk up 14th Street as I had an appointment and all. But then an older man comes up to me and says, “did those boys just hit you with a rock”. I said, ‘yeah they did, I was just deciding how to react’. He said, “yeah I saw that”. Then he said, “what you should’ve done was grab a stick and whoop them good, then they’d know not to throw rocks”.

So, I don’t know if there is a lesson here but this is not good. I don’t necessarily think violence would’ve prevented this in the future. Not to mention violent crime is not unheard of on this street corner and who knows how these things could escalate if someone else decided to get involved. I don’t know if there is a proper response. What would you have done?


I’m happy to report Kiko’s Chicken, located at 3703 14th Street, NW, has some pretty good chicken! And I’m also happy to report that the store itself looks really nice for a fast food place. It has two levels (see photos after the jump). Also the folks working there were really nice except for one guy who threatened to sue me if I took his picture. But honestly everyone else there was super nice. I had a delicious biscuit, plantains and buffalo wings (and a fountain soda). It was good but all that cost me 10 bucks. So not fast food cheap. But then again the food is of higher quality than fast food. Anyone else check them out yet?

More photos after the jump. (more…)


You can see last week’s winner here. I’ve noted this house in the past which always makes me laugh because of the boarded up windows behind the sign. Your caption in the comments, winner announced Friday.


“Dear PoP,

I was watching the news at 11 pm last night and happen to catch the report on Mayor Fenty’s planned legislation of having residence pay an extra $4.25, business’s pay $16.00, and other pay $42.00 for streets lights. I consider this a light tax. I also find this absolutely crazy seeing as most of the lights are out to begin with (grant circle). What about the elderly and financially challenged? $4.25 seems like a small amount but over a years time it could add up to someone’s medication or other more needed items. I have already called Councilwoman’s Bowser’s office and Councilman Graham’s office as well as the Mayor office. Is there any chance you might could look into this and see what other information you can come up with. Supposedly its up to Councilman Graham to whether this legislation will move forward.”

The City Paper wrote about this earlier in the week:

“Now, the proposed legislation pumps all of this money into a separate streetlight fund to be held separate from the city’s general operating fund—so there’s little danger the city will use your streetlight money to, say, pay for potholes. Also, the language provides that low-income residents can get assistance paying the fee from the city energy assistance office.”

Anyone think this “light tax” is a good idea? Shouldn’t our regular taxes pay for this sort of thing?


Wild, yeah? This is a seemingly normal fence with two clear plastic bubbles toward the bottom. The only thing that I could possibly think of was maybe to give some pets a view? Any ideas?


It looks like a normal rowhouse, yeah? But this house on 13th near Lamont gets honors because it used to be nearly entirely covered in ivy. I had to do a triple take when I recently walked by it. I have to admit, I kinda miss the ivy…


A reader writes:

“I have a question about the “work in progress” on the northeast corner of 12th and S NW. There was a lot of activity rebuilding the house for a period of time but it has not sat abandoned for months. Even the fence has fallen down. What’s going on with this property? It looked like it was close to being finished.”

Sadly, when I went over there this weekend to snap the photos there was not a soul around to ask. From this photo:

It certainly looks like they were going to be condos. And it does look super close to being finished. I wonder if the developer ran out of money. Anyone know the scoop here?


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