Play Loud

Musicians (or performers of all kinds) take note of a nearby resource – One World Studios. It’s  rehearsal space located on an alley off 9th St. NW, one block from the Convention Center. Two rooms, each with PA, mikes, guitar and bass amps and basic drum kits, all in good shape. Plenty of soundproofing as well.

I sat in there on Satuday with Swagfunk, a group that includes one of our neighbors, master drummer Al Warren, and found One World a great place to play.

One World advertises recording and engineering services as well. For more details: www.1worldstudios.com.

 

Q Street Pond

The pond forms on the northwest corner of Q and 3rd with any good rain. Yesterday’s rain gave us the pond’s latest appearance, depicted below.  The storm drain at that corner presumably is blocked, and has been for some time. I’ll be sending this picture to the appropriate city department. But I thought I’d share it.

Our rain pond

Digital H1N1 Divide

Some may have noticed the absence of a campaign to inform people where and when H1N1 flu shots are available.

For the digitally connected, info has been readily available. The upshot, as the Washington Post reports, is that lots of unconnected people aren’t getting flu shots. For anyone who has neighbors or friends who want to know where vaccinations will be available, here is a chart that’s been flying around the email chains:H1N1_vaccine_clinic_schedule_youth_pregnant_women

H1N1_vaccine_clinic_schedule_youth_pregnant_women.pdf

The Fenty Session

Scott Roberts’ speediness in posting his account of the Monday night BACA meeting has spared me the necessity of doing likewise.  I’m assuming that everyone has read Scott’s piece, and/or heard about the meeting or was there. So I thought I’d post some thoughts and questions:

• What were the criteria for evaluating the proposals for the Cook School and what were the scores for LAYC/Youthbuild and KIPP? Mayor Fenty referred frequently to the “process,” in terms that suggested, at least to me, that he considered it a model of objective assessment. Maybe one of us knows something about the evaluation system. If not, would it be worth finding out?
• The resolutions seeking reversal of the decision aside, is there an appeal system built into the process? Can the City Council reverse it?
• On a more practical note, I’m curious why LAYC didn’t appear before us until it had been awarded the contract. Perhaps LAYC had made pre-award presentations to the ANC. But the failure to show up at BACA during the evaluation process sure didn’t help its case. Was this an oversight? Or did LAYC foresee that the project would be controversial?
• The decision to bring Youthbuild students to the meeting was unfortunate. Virtually all the project critics made a point of complimenting the organization’s work – and the students themselves, in one case. But they clearly took the neighborhood opposition personally, which was understandable, and inevitable.
• Though the LAYC issue had nothing to do with the conflict over the city Parks and Recreation director I  also found it unfortunate that a neighborhood resident questioned her citizenship as a way of criticizing her appointment (she’s Latina, and the Council has now vetoed her appointment). One BACA member has wondered on this blog if the LAYC’s name explains the neighborhood’s opposition. I don’t think that’s the case, but the raising of the citizenship issue could make someone wonder.

Lastly, the Cook School conflict overshadowed a few items that never got covered. Among them: citizen access to Dunbar High School sports facilities; and nuisance and vacant properties.

Non-Yuppie Yoga

Our neighbor Neda Ulaby had an interesting story on NPR this morning about yoga classes for homeless kids. One of the training programs for people hoping to teach these classes took place in DC. Whether classes for actual kids are in the offing any time soon seems a bit uncertain. But the theme of the program, and of Neda’s report – that yoga isn’t just for the over-privileged – strikes me as valuable.

Young people forced to deal with very tough circumstances have been able to benefit from “Street Yoga,” the program’s founder told Neda. Rings true to me.

Crime Scene

I got off the G-2 a few minutes ago to find crime scene tape blocking off part of the 200 block of Q St. NW. A Channel 5 newsman told me that two people had been stabbed; one of them killed.

The official word via the MPD listserv:

Today at approximately 1430 hours the Fifth District experienced a homicide in the 200 block of Q Street NW. Thus far we have established that two subjects were walking in the block and were stabbed by a black male suspect dressed in all dark clothing, the suspect appeared to be in his early thirties with a close hair cut.

The subject was alleged to have fled west bound on Q street. One of the victims died as a result of his injuries. Anyone with additional information relative to this incident please call 202 727 9099 immediately.

This blog, of course, isn’t a collection of crime stories, but the topic does have a way of becoming unavoidable at times. Homicide in the middle of the day is one of those times. Hopefully this perpetrator will soon be taken off the street.

Update from Caryn: Here’s a story from the local news on it. http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/news/local/082609_q_street_double_stabbing

New Apartment Project

The long-vacant 304 Q NW is on its way to becoming an apartment building. Buyer Jason Bonnet of Bonnet Development Group, who was wielding his weed-wacker in the property’s front yard on Saturday morning, plans to build a 2-BR, 1-bath apartment on each of the structure’s three floors. An additional basement apartment is possible, if digging a basement proves feasible. Bonnet is exploring the possibility of supplying some of the building’s energy needs from a rooftop solar panel.

Apartments would be rented at market rate. Some or all could become condos. Bonnet, who as you can see on his Web site completed a similar project on 6th St. NW near Q, knows the neighborhood. He’s open to the idea of attending a BACA meeting and explaining his plans in person.

To all appearances, the project is the kind of small-scale development that seems to work best around here. The big projects, as we’ve seen, have a way of getting announced and coming to naught.

Neighborhood Wins

I don’t know yet who took first place in the various Flower Power categories. But it’s clear to me that the big winner is the neighborhood.

On the tour of the nominated sites that I took with some neighbors Saturday, our corner of Shaw, or Truxton Circle or whatever you want to call it, positively shone. The sunshine helped, of course, but the streets and alleys were clean, almost of the yards – nominated or not – looked spiffy even if not filled with plant life. The people we ran into seemed happy about the Flower Power competition, even if they had nothing to do with it. And, as one of the tour leaders noted, not a siren sounded all afternoon.
I shouldn’t get too carried away, I suppose…No, I take that back. Nothing wrong with getting carried away, at least for a while.
Mary Ann Wilmer created the project some years back as a way of building enthusiasm for sprucing up our environs, and her vision is being fulfilled.
So hats off to everyone, and a standing ovation to Mary Ann.

Storm Over Cook

Monday night’s good news is that BACA found out formally that City Hall has approved a plan for the Cook School building on P Street NW. The bad news is that it’s not the project we thought we were going to get.

The word was that KIPP was going to open another of its schools at Cook. KIPP reps spoke to BACA some months ago, they seemed confident that their proposal would get the nod. Neighborhood folks seemed happy at that prospect, given KIPP’s excellent academic record.

Instead, as Caryn posted previously, the Latin American Youth Center won approval for a school to include residential units for 40 of 200 (not sure of the latter number) students planned for the project.

I’m going to keep this as brief as possible.We’ll all be hearing/talking plenty about it in weeks to come, I think.
LAYC is aiming its program at young people aged 18-24, many of whom have aged out of foster care, but need diplomas and/or job training. Some of that training would be in construction, with coursework including building the school. Construction would start about one year from now.

The LAYC people aren’t fly-by-nighters. They’ve been operating in Columbia Heights for 35 years, Mai Fernandez, the organization’s legal and strategic director told the meeting (the organization’s name is a bit misleading, probably for historical reasons; its service population is 60 percent Hispanic and 40 percent African-American). Among other activities, it operates a charter school.

Jim Berry and others in attendance praised LAYC’s work. But Jim summed up what seemed to be the dominant feeling of the group – that the project isn’t suitable for our neighborhood. The major objection is that it would add a large number of young people to a zone that already sees far too many people from elsewhere accessing services here.
Plans to have more than three dozen of them living there gave rise to further worries about their off-hours activities, their visitors, and so on. Mary Ann expressed special concern on that aspect of the plan. Underlying these  objections was the fact that the project was sprung upon BACA as a done deal.

Fernandez said she understood that bitterness, as well as the doubts about the program. On the latter points, she promised heavy staffing, including a live-in adviser for the project’s apartment-dwellers. LAYC’s considerable experience in residential programs grows out of a smaller one (for 24 young people) that it runs in Columbia Heights.
Nevertheless, anger and frustration have been simmering for some time over city government’s high-handed ways in our corner of DC. Given that record, as well as the clear indications that Cook would become a KIPP school, Jim said that despite his respect for LAYC, if he could undo the decision, he would.

How possible that is, I don’t know. But if LAYC does manage to keep its project here, it has its work cut out for it in the winning-hearts-and-minds department.

Unsung Heroes

Whoever he is, this resident of the 1600 block of 4th Street has taken it upon himself to sweep the gutters along his block, and at least part of Q Street as well. The work makes a big difference.
He’s only one of many people who are doing their parts – more than their parts, actually – to maintain our neighborhood. Some people sweep sidewalks, others hang plastic bags on fences to give people a place to throw trash. These are only the jobs that come to mind immediately. I’m sure that I’m leaving out quite a few.
On a nice day, such as today, the results of everything you’re doing are especially noticeable. Many thanks to all of you.