Continuing on with the Asian theme (see post below) I spotted these gigantic prayer flags up in Forest Hills. I’ve seen the little ones on people’s porches before but the ones above were gigantic.
What do you guys think about the size – is it cool or a bit too large for a private residence?
Ward 4
“Dear PoP,
When I was out walking yesterday, I saw the most lovely sight—a city employee hanging an “Adopt a Block” signs on the corner of 11th Street and Irving. I checked into it and this is part of the Clean City Initiative. As I told you before a group of my neighbors and I have been cleaning our block (400 block Kenyon and Irving) for about 6 months, so this initiative is welcome news. Any ideas on local businesses/groups would be interested in adopting blocks in our neighborhoods? According to the website, very few blocks have been adopted in our area.
As residents, we need to ban together to keep our neighborhoods clean!”
Ward 1
“To be a part of the clean&greenDC: Adopt-A-Block Program, a group:
* Adopts a minimum of 2 square blocks of a residential or commercial area.
* Agrees to conduct a quarterly, clean-up day and weekly litter pickup in the adopted area.
* Maintains this agreement for 2 years.”
You can learn more about the program here.
I’ll be happy to spread the word on anyone/group who takes the initiative.
A recent Rental Option post provoked a lot of discussion about the Woodner, located at 3636 16th St, NW. A resident wrote in asking to share his experiences (both good and bad). The history is quite interesting. Tony writes:
“I hear people get raped and mugged in that building all the time.”
“I hear the entire place has bedbugs.”
“Aren’t you afraid for your safety there?”
I’ve heard all of the above when I talk about life in the Woodner, a massive apartment complex with its own bar, grocery store, dry cleaner, and hair salon. People look at me with a strange mix of pity and bemusement. They usually following those questions with this one: How did you end up there?
I was in the process of moving back to the District from the suburbs and had seen at least fifteen apartments already. I was short on time. One of the sales consultants at the Woodner, a fresh faced kid with Dixie in his voice, must have sensed this and after viewing a few units, I settled on a carpeted unit on the 12th floor. One of the other sales associates later told me over a drink at the downstairs bar that he (along with the entire sales staff) got shuttled in and out of town in six week intervals. Oh, the things I learn in that bar.
The Woodner was built as an apartment and hotel in 1952. The sales staff here is fond of saying that it was the largest air conditioned building in the world when it was constructed. The lobby looks like it hasn’t been renovated since. Cracked marble floors spread out in odd curves and patterns. The first floor has pictures of this place in all of its former splendor. Black and white photos of Bob Hope and Duke Ellington and Jayne Mansfield. My favorite one is that of a guy with a pervy smile on his face getting shot with fake pistols by a gaggle of women crowded around him dressed as cowboys. I swear to God, when I move from here, that picture’s coming with me. Everything, the hall of pictures, the cracked marble, the spiral staircases, the swirls of spackle on the ceiling, it all imparts a sense of deep history to the place. Makes you wonder about your surroundings. Who stayed in my apartment? Was it ever anybody famous? What were their lives like? Did they have kids? What were their hopes and dreams and fears as they slept under the same roof that I sleep now?
Odd sirens and alarms wake you out of your reverie. It’s common to come home and see multiple police cars parked in front of the building. We never find out why, except under the most grave of circumstances, like when Nori Amaya, co-owner of Coppi’s Organic Restaurant was strangled to death last November. Management informed everyone with a flyer near the elevator banks on each floor. The crime is still unsolved. It’s a bizarre thought, to think that you could be sharing an elevator with a murderer.
And yet, the residents here are resilient. Given the building’s reputation, you’d expect the residents here to be hard-edged but the thing that amazed and continues to amaze me is how much nicer the people are here than they ever were out in the suburbs. When I first moved in, one of my neighbors helped me move my mattress. We talked for a bit about her job and my job and how long she’d been living in the building. Our conversation lasted three minutes and yet that was two minutes longer than the sum of all of my conversations with all of my neighbors in Fairfax.
Because of the kindness of so many of the residents, It’s hard not to feel a kinship with every resident of the building, one borne out of the sheer exhilaration of so many lives pressed up close to one another. Some of us have just arrived, some of us have been here for years. One night coming home from work, I met a woman on the elevator who’d been living in the building for fifty years now. “This was a nice building back then,” she said, shaking her head. “It still is,” she continued quietly. “But not as nice as it used to be.”
“Dear PoP,
I’m a long-time Arlingtonian who’s got a contract on a house in Brightwood. I assume some of your readers live in that neighborhood, and I’d love to see some discussion of their likes/dislikes, and general quality-of-life issues. Are there any community groups that should I look into joining in order to have some say in the improvement of the neighborhood’s quality of life?”
You can find some info from the Brightwood Community Association here. There was also a bit of discussion about Brightwood back in August here when we discussed a GDoN. Any readers who live in Brightwood want to weigh in here?
“Dear PoP,
The plight of the park at 11th and Monroe, NW continues. Despite the mayor’s pledge at a public community meeting that there were funds to renovate the “drunk park”, these funds have disappeared and have been shifted somewhere else. Why does the city continue to turn its back on the citizens of Columbia Heights? Drunks and children don’t mix. It’s just a matter of time before real tragedy happens in that park. Friends of POP: please contact the mayor’s office and let them know “no more drunk park.”
The emails for contacting the mayor’s office are: [email protected] and [email protected]”
We’ve been discussing issues with this park for a few years now. Does anyone think that issues with the park have improved over the past few years?
Photo by PoPville flickr user Rukasu1
“Dear PoP,
We have some neighbors who are really loud and dis-respectful. My fiance and I realized that we just passed the 2 year anniversary of when they moved in (I was away, but they blasted heavy, bass thumping music all throughout the very first night they moved in).
At first we tried the respectful neighbor approach and tried talking to them, hoping they’d be able to understand that we didn’t want to hear their music at all hours of the night. One of them was quite belligerent to us, but the other was semi-respectful and understanding.
The noise would come and go and our tolerance level would increase and diminish, too. Eventually we worked out a bit of an understanding that if we called them and their music was too loud they would turn it down.
One day about 6 months ago i called them and the one gentleman who had been friendly was very rude. He tried to explain his “rights” and said that my fiance and I could “go fuck ourselves.” At that point I determined that I would no longer try to reason directly with them. Instead, I would phone the landlord (who lived in the house with his wife and small child for the first 3 years I owned the house – and there were never any problems) or 911. The landlord did not seem terribly cooperative, but with enough harassment on my end I believe he had some conversations with them.
Today they were blasting music again, so I called the landlord at 8am. He was not available. I went for a run and the music was still blasting when I returned, so I called 911. I was still home when they arrived at the door of our neighbors. As has happened in the 5 other times we called 911, our neighbor got very defensive. Luckily the police man and woman were on our side. In fact, when the neighbor said “we live in row houses and they should expect to hear things” the male police officer responded “I can hear your music from the sidewalk, so it’s definitely too loud.”
Our other 911 calls have been met with mixed reviews. If the neighbors doors and windows are closed, the music isn’t incredibly loud from standing on their front porch (they often use a sub-woofer which just vibrates and resonates through our small house). This got me to thinking about 911 calls and what happens when I call 911. When a unit is summoned to respond, do they get any history to go along with it? Did the police officers responding this morning know that we’ve called 911 in the past for the exact same reason, or is every even isolated (my suspicion).
Other than calling 911 or dealing with the landlord, is there anything else we might be able to do? Is there a community police officer that might be able to speak with us about this?
I have lived in a ton of places and various situations throughout my lifetime, and have never been so frustrated with one of them. For a long time the neighbors not only kept their music or TV on in the living room, but would keep a TV on all night in their bedroom (which shares a wall with ours). In fact, I had my contractor try to install another wall to dampen the sound, but unfortunately I believe the noise travels through the floor, ceiling and even the electrical junction box. Again, I’m not so naive that I think that I won’t ever hear noise from a neighbor I share walls with. However, as I said, I did share walls with the landlord of the building for 3 years when his wife and newborn were there, and never had any complaints.
Any suggestions or recommendations you might have would be greatly appreciated.
I’m at a loss as to how to rectify this situation, other than to move, which currently is not a feasible option.”
Ed. Note I have edited the original email for length. I think neighbor disputes are among the most difficult to deal with. It’s like the rational actor model. If you are not dealing with a rational actor it seems most people in these situations are screwed. It seems to me if you have had (a polite) conversation with your neighbors but they continue to persist in loud activities then you are left no other choice but to call the police. However, I can’t imagine how awkward the encounters would be after involving the police… Anyway, I emailed a number of folks at MPD to see what they suggest. MPD 3rd District Commander Kishter responded and is going to follow up on this particular case. He writes:
“The histories of calls for service are available at the officer’s fingertips from their mobile computers. They can also get an address history from the dispatcher. We also now have the ability to measure noise and can enforce any violations. Additionally, we can reach out to DCRA for regulatory enforcement.”
Has anyone dealt with a similar situation to this before? If so, how did you resolve the situation?
While I’ve admired these posters in the past it does really upset me when I see workers straining to have them removed. This one is from 18th Street in Adams Morgan near the old Carribou Coffee spot. I wish there was a designated spot for protest posters. I used to have to remove grafitti for my town (Rockville Centre, NY represent) and it was a huge pain in the ass (not court ordered, just a summer job). I felt so bad for this guy scraping away the poster that was not coming off easily.
Where, if anywhere, should these posters be allowed to go? Do you think there should be something like a designated protest poster spot or does that sorta defeat the purpose?
Ward-1 Council Member Jim Graham writes on his Web site:
Our friends in Northwest Columbia Heights, in the Spring/Perry and Oak Street areas along 14th Street have a great deal to be thankful for. There are several new businesses, moving into the attractive space created by the renovation of apartment buildings. Other renovations, some done by building owners, some forced by the city and some completely city managed are underway.
What we found in the walkthrough is that more work still needs to be done. We received reports that the drug territory we thought we had taken back is now being invaded by dealers from other neighborhoods. And in one case the dealer moving in is from Maryland. The police are aware of the problem and are actively investigating.
Photo by PoPville flickr user Matt.Dunn
I just saw the following on the Columbia Heights Listserv:
“I live in the 1300 block of Girard and got a message in my mailbox over the weekend that there is a meeting this Thursday concerning potentially changing Girard and Euclid (or Fairmont, can’t remember which) into one way streets. Is this seriously under consideration? Anyone have any information?”
This is the first I’ve heard of this so it’s not clear if this under consideration (I’ll see what Graham’s office has to say). But I’m curious if there are any folks who think this would be a good idea?
This put a huge smile on my face. You can find more videos like this here.