Friday Question of the Day

Are you familiar with the urban legend Flash Your Headlights and Die? Well, I don’t know if it is just me but lately I’ve seen a number of cars driving without their headlights on 14th St, New Hampshire Ave, and other side streets. I can’t believe that there are that many absentminded folks out there. Do you think there is a criminal element involved in driving without headlights? Have you also seen folks driving without headlights? What do you do – flash your head lights? Honk? I didn’t do a damn thing because I’m too young to die…

Friday’s question of the day is honor of Columbia Heights Chic who got me thinking. What would you do if a homeless person set up camp on your stoop or your condo’s stoop? Do you just call the cops? Do you confront the homeless person? It is a very sad situation for which I blame Ronald Reagan, but what can you do about it? I haven’t seen many homeless people in Petworth or Columbia Heights. Have you? What would you do if there was a homeless person setting up camp on your block or condo?

So we’ve talked a lot about 11th Street lately. 11th St. is home to some of my favorite places, Columbia Heights Coffee, Red Rocks, Wonderland, 11th St. Deli and soon home of the Warehouse. I mention this because the street itself reminds me an awful lot of Upshur St. Both streets seem to have a similar mix of residential rowhouses peppered with businesses. So my question is: Does Upshur St. have the potential to become the next 11th St.? Do we want Upshur to become like or attract the same businesses as 11th St.?

We’ve had discussions about Domku, Red Rocks and Colorado Kitchen and one of the common themes, besides that I love all three of them to varying degrees, is that sometimes the service has been less than optimal. But since they are all unique, local business, in my opinion, filling a desperately needed service in sit down local dining; isn’t it worth supporting them even if at times the service can be slow? If we don’t support them and God forbid they were to go out of business, do you think other restaurants would take their place or would they just end up boarded up or take out joints? Won’t their success contribute to other similar establishments opening up nearby? Again, in my opinion I believe they have markedly improved each of the blocks where they are located. So, shouldn’t they be patronized for their “pioneering” spirit?

WTOP reports that DDOT is considering ways to ease parking on U Street. There is a lively debate going on over at DCist. So I thought we should add our own two cents. Do you think angled parking is a good idea for U Street? Or are we so close that it doesn’t really affect us?

The last profile of a Petworthian really got me thinking about the different neighborhoods in DC. It seems that people who move to Petworth often consider moving to Shaw, Bloomingdale, Brookland, Eckington, H Street, NE and Columbia Heights. I feel a strong solidarity with these neighborhoods and you’ll notice that we all link to each other’s blogs. When I was looking to buy a house I really only looked in Petworth and Columbia Heights, I’m embarrassed to say I hadn’t even heard of Shaw then. Now I happen to have a bunch of friends who live in these other neighborhoods and we often joke with each other about who lives in the best neighborhood (of course I always win). At any rate what I’d like to know is how do people chose one neighborhood over the other? It obviously isn’t the school districts and the quality of life seems to be quite similar. I know that I am grateful that I “stumbled” upon Petworth. But now that the word is out about all these great neighborhoods how does one chose? Is it just based on the physical house/condo/apt. alone? Tell me, how did you decide to buy/rent in Petworth or one of the other neighborhoods listed?

As I think is very well known, I love Temperance Hall. I honestly think it is near perfect. So do we need another neighborhood bar? Or would you rather have something that we don’t have yet like a bookstore or all the other ideas people put forth a few weeks ago. Yet, if you look at H Street, NE there seems to be bar after bar opening and they appear to be doing well. So what is the best way to spur development – to open a series of bars/restaurants and hope other development follows? Or can we have one perfect bar and hope that, that will attract the other types of development that we seek, ie coffee shop, bakery, chocolate shop etc? Will it occur when the big condos over the metro are built? So are there any economists out there? Urban planners? How the hell does “development” occur? And what role will the great streets initiative play? Somebody explain a few scenarios to me please.

This issue has been getting a lot of local press lately. Street Harassment. The blog Don’t Be Silent has done an excellent job documenting it. But my question to you is: Do you face street harassment in Petworth?