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I thought the following report last weekend from the MPD 1D listserv was a bit bizarre:

“We woke up this morning here in the 300 block of 11th St NE to find our front railing had been vandalized.
Someone needed a crowbar to bend the curl on this very strong wrought iron all out of place. (Photos attached.)
Please be on the look-out for this kind of anti-social behavior. Unlikely the perp was satisfied with just one “hit.”

Has anyone else heard of this type of vandalism before? Seems so bizarre and a lot of effort…

Danny Harris is a DC-based photographer, DJ, and collector of stories. In September, he launched People’s District, a blog that tells a people’s history of DC by sharing the stories and images of its residents. Every day, People’s District presents a different Washingtonian sharing his or her insights on everything from Go Go music to homelessness to fashion to politics. You can read his previous columns here.

“I am 101st Airborne and went everywhere from Vietnam to Iraq. I served proudly in the Army and did a lot of things that I can never talk about in service of my country. I learned a lot and the Army made me a better person. The thing is that things don’t always work out in life. After my service, I traveled around a bit and then came to Washington a year and a half ago because my friend had cancer. Shortly after he died, I fell on some tough times and have been living on the street outside of Union Station ever since.

“I realize that this is how things need to be for some people. In this case, some people happens to be me. I am not mad and know that I need to be the best person that I can be despite my situation. That is why you are always going to see me smiling and encouraging the thousands of people who walk by me every day to do the same. I recognize that smiling may seem like a little, irrelevant thing, but everyone has stories when they walk by me. Some are good and some are bad. I try and encourage people to focus on the good. I try and make our few seconds together enjoyable, so that their spirits are raised afterwards. I mean, if I am sleeping out in the rain and snow and can still smile, people going from a home to a job should be able to smile too.

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Photo by PoPville flickr user K’s Clicks

Sometimes it’s fun to be a tourist in the city!

Submit your photos to the PoPville flickr pool here. Follow PoPville on twitter here.

Photo by PoPville flickr user BrennaLM

Photo by flickr user Termin8er

Twitter is a buzz with word that Chick-fil-A is planning Urban restaurants from Atlanta Journal Constitution:

The College Park-based chain’s 1,500th store, opening Thursday, is about two blocks from the Coliseum in downtown Los Angeles, adjacent to the University of Southern California. Urban stores also are planned for Chicago and Washington, D.C. The company has fewer than two dozen “in-line” stores — part of an urban block as opposed to stand-alone stores or food courts.

“It’s going to be growing in importance,” said Steve Robinson, Chick-fil-A’s senior vice president of marketing. “It’s still a learning frontier for us. We need to learn. The markets that we want to grow in, whether Chicago or D.C. or Southern California, we need to know how to do this.”

I remember Chick-fil-A came up a few times when we discussed what chains were missing from DC.

You know it’s gonna be a sweet garden when you can see it through a fence from a half block away.

I can’t remember if I showed this Georgetown spot last year but every time I pass it, it knocks me out. The ivy on the rowhouse next door is phenomenal.

“Dear PoP,

This Raleigh bike was found (missing tires) on Sunday, August 8th near 10th Street NW in Petworth. We’re happy to return what is left to the rightful owner.”

Please email me if this is your bike and I’ll connect you with the reader who found it.

Photo by Flickr user *vlad*

“Dear PoP,

Our car was stolen yesterday from in front of our own house between 1:30 and 5:30pm in the North Petworth/16th street heights/brighwood area. There is more than the usual traffic(foot and car) due to the Legg Mason tennis tournament which we are only 2 blocks from. It’s a dark blue Honda Accord 4 door(2005) Washington DC plates DM 9762.

We had a Britax baby seat in the back gray/black. If people could maybe keep their eyes open for it. The cop said that usually they just take it joy-riding and then leave it somewhere and since we don’t live near a metro we hope they are from the area and stayed in the area.”

If you see the car please call the police.

Danny Harris is a DC-based photographer, DJ, and collector of stories. In September, he launched People’s District, a blog that tells a people’s history of DC by sharing the stories and images of its residents. Every day, People’s District presents a different Washingtonian sharing his or her insights on everything from Go Go music to homelessness to fashion to politics. You can read his previous columns here.

“I had my first overt symptom of multiple sclerosis (MS) two days after my 24th birthday. My right foot became paralyzed and I kept tripping over my feet. While my foot eventually got better, my overall condition became progressively worse. At the time, I didn’t know anything about MS. One day, I was in my room and looked up MS and the symptoms seemed consistent with how I felt. I told my Mom that I thought I had MS. She looked at first like she was going to dismiss it, but then she saw that I was serious. I began to cry and then she started crying too. I was not officially diagnosed until two years later.

“At the time, I was living in Mt. Pleasant and had a job that I loved with an aerospace association. The truth is that I know nothing about aerospace. I don’t know jet lag from a Safeway bag, but I worked in customer service. My work was great and allowed me to travel. Eventually, I became too sick to work and had to retire at the age of 27. After that, I moved home with my Mom and quickly went from a cane to a walker to a wheelchair to a motorized wheelchair to being bed bound. This is like a designer disease. It is like couture, if you will. It is tailor made for you. I have three distant cousins with MS, two of whom are sisters. We all experience this differently.

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Danny Harris is a DC-based photographer, DJ, and collector of stories. In September, he launched People’s District, a blog that tells a people’s history of DC by sharing the stories and images of its residents. Every day, People’s District presents a different Washingtonian sharing his or her insights on everything from Go Go music to homelessness to fashion to politics. You can read his previous columns here.

“I was born on a dairy farm on the eastern shore of Maryland. I grew up working on the farm, bringing in the cows, picking corn and strawberries, riding tractors, and spending time with pigs and horses. Everything we grew and butchered kept us through the winter. I think that it was a wonderful way to grow up.

“As a kid, I would go into Washington to see the circus or go to museums. Being exposed to the city life made me really want to move to New York. While I liked growing up on a farm, I saw this big world and wanted to go someplace far away from the farming life. When I finally did go to New York, it freaked me out and I got really scared. Washington seemed like the next plausible place to go. I spent a lot of my teenage and college years at Rehoboth beach and met a lot of Washingtonians, so I knew people here. I moved to D.C. at 25 and have been here for 25 years.

“When I first moved here, I worked in the restaurant industry. I spent about ten years at Old Ebbit Grill, waiting tables in the private dining room. I was really pushy and bossy and the managers wanted me out. They used to tell me that I acted like it was my own private restaurant. People told me that I needed to either be a manager or just do my own thing. At the restaurant, I used to move furniture around and organize the rooms for events. One day, I said the next time I am going to move furniture, I want it to be for me. It was a little thought that got stuck in my head, but I didn’t think much about it.

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