Hoarding & The Human Tragedy of Eviction

I arrived home to Columbia Heights from work yesterday to a remarkable scene. The sidewalks in front of my house, indeed, up and down the block, were piled high with boxes, furniture, and all manner of things. Cleary, someone had been put out of their home. Or had the entire block been put out? If my entire neighborhood had been siezed through eminent domain, I had missed the notice.

My neighbor a few doors down had lost her job and had been evicted. She is a Venezuelan woman who had moved here more than two decades ago, and her passion was to collect things that may seem like basics of life to people in the United States, but were priceless to people from her native country. Before she became unemployed, she would periodically fill a shipping container with the objects she collected, send them to Venezuela on a boat, and meet the cargo there, to distribute it to people there who could use it.

TBD said "It's unclear how long she had been keeping the items she said she intended to donate, or whether she had ever sent anything." TBD apparently didn't talk to her for very long. I remember seeing the sidewalk storage container in front of her house a couple years ago, and though I didn't know its purpose at the time, another neighbor of mine confirmed that she had indeed been doing this periodically for a long time.

It is hard to express the sadness that I felt in looking around at this scene. My neighbor had apparently lost her job about a year ago, and couldn't afford to go again. I was told by another neighbor that she had been working as a housekeeper since, but it wasn't enough.

To be sure, she could have made different decisions. I thought about all the different things that could have been. Yes, she was clearly a hoarder. If she had just started selling some of these things, maybe she could have paid the bills for a bit longer. But a middle-aged Venezuelan woman with limited English probably didn't think well heck I'll just start up an ebay company.

But, at the same time, society failed her. The U.S. Marshalls, whose job is to perform these evictions, did not need to handle this like any other situation. This woman has lived there for more than a decade. They did their job, and apparently, their job is to remove the contents of a home and put it on the sidewalk without any consideration for the situation or the consequences.

Nobody knew what was in her home until its contents were expelled onto the street.

Someone could have decided let's just take a deep breath. Let's give her another month. Let's see if we can connect her with someone who can maybe help her turn all this stuff into enough cash to keep going for a little longer. Maybe there's an answer that can prevent this tragedy and even use the very items that make up this spectacle to prevent it.

It's sad that the letter of our laws are more important than human beings.

Jim Graham was there late into the evening, and arranged for police to stay on the scene overnight to ward off looters. He and his staff arranged for a couple pickup trucks to come and transport her most important possessions to a safe place. I give him credit for at responding and offering some help to a woman in a most desperate situation.

Update from TBD

TBD says "Diaz tells ABC 7 News she was also evicted from her apartment on Rock Creek Church Road one year ago. She abandoned her belongings that were set out from that residence. Diaz says she accumulated all of her belongings that were pulled from her home in Northwest within the past year. She says she's been evicted many times before, but the latest is "the most historic." Diaz hasn't worked full-time in 2.5 years, but has done odd jobs. She is currently three months behind on her rent."

This does not at all match with what I have been told by my neighbors who have lived on the street for far longer than I. I don't know what the truth is, and I have a very hard time believing that anyone could accumulate this much stuff in a year. Whatever actually happened it doesn't change my belief that this shouldn't have happened.

Update 2 - There Is Good In The World!

First NBC reports what I previously had been told - that she'd been in her home here for 15 years.

But they conclude with this bit of heartwarming news:

"While NBC4 was reporting on the story Wednesday morning, numerous calls were made to the newsroom with offers of help, including an offer from JK Moving and Storage in Sterling, Va. The company said it would pack up and store her belongings for a month for free, and then move them to a new home -- wherever that may be."

First Impressions: Meridian Pint (Updated)

Update, July 9, 2010

N. and I went to Meridian Pint again last night with a couple friends and I am happy to say that we greatly enjoyed our food this time, and the service and overall experience was excellent again.

I had the steak, and I have to say, it was a damn good steak. As I mentioned before, I'm always a little skeptical about a steak, especially something like a New York Strip, from a restaurant that isn't a steakhouse. Meridian Pint did a bang up job. I ordered it medium rare, and it was perfectly cooked, barely warm in the middle, juicy and delicious. The sauce it was served with was subtle and did not overwhelm or conflict with the natural flavor of the beef. The mashed potatoes and spinach were also very tasty. At $21 it's actually a pretty damn good deal for a steak!

N. had the grilled trout, and loved it as well. Cooked perfectly. Out guests had the double-cut pork and the burger respectively. I didn't try either but they both raved about them.

So I'll chalk my first experience up to either opening day, or maybe the beef rib sandwich just isn't a winner, but for last night's return visit everything was great.

I still think the menu could use a little fleshing out for carnivores, but there's no question that the chef knows what he's doing and the food was delicious.

We also took a look at the basement area last night, which we did not on our first visit. What a cool bar room. This is where the famous table taps can be found, as well as a long bar and two pool tables. The space is dark, cozy and sure to be a hit - a welcome addition to the watering holes that we already have in columbia heights, and having a couple pool tables down the street rocks!

Cheers to Meridian Pint - I expect to be a regular customer.

Original Post Follows



N. and I decided to embrace the glorious weather last Thursday with a ride on Merdian Pint's inaugural cruise. We've been watching the slow progress for what seems like an eternity now, and it's wonderful to see the place has finally opened it's doors for business.

The restaurant, which replaced the abanonded Bi-Rite Supermarket that was an icon of times past, is more than just another eating option. It's symbolic of the transformation of the 11th Street commercial corridor, which has been slow to evolve even as downtown Columbia Heights has turned on its head in just a few short years. The last significant opening on the block anchored by Wonderland was Red Rocks, across from Meridian Pint at 11th and Park. Red Rocks was the pioneer of this important yet languishing commercial strip. But despite their success and endearment to the neighborhood, there were few followers in the nearly three years since their opening.

So how was it?

The space is great. The front of the restaurant is flanked by two roll-up garage doors that create an indoor-yet-outdoor dining experience. It's got a mix of tables, high-top, booths and bar seating. This is surrounded by blonde hardwood floors, what looks like a tin or replica tin ceiling over the bar, paneling around the bar area, and beige-painted walls. The overall effect is a little conflicted style-wise but very inviting. It's warm, airy, and doesn't feel too crowded, even as a dozen people milled around in the entrance area.

Our service was good. Actually, considering it was their first day, it was excellent. We started with chicken wings which I thought were pretty good and N. was less enthusiastic about. Bear in mind, though, that I make the BEST DAMN chicken wings in Columbia Heights, if not the free world, so there is a very high bar to reach for there.

Food Foibles

We both seemed to have a little trouble choosing our entrees, and where we landed was a bit rough. I had the beef rib sandwich, which came topped with a purple cole slaw and no sauce of any kind. Unfortunately, it was entirely bland. I actually put ketchup on it. I am not sure if it was supposed to have come with some sauce, but it was pretty flavorless.

N. had the salmon salad with curried lemon yogurt dressing. The curry flavor was overwhelming to the point where you could taste little else. It was just kind of weird. Perhaps we just didn't like the salad, but the sandwich was unquestionably missing something.

Overall, I think the menu is a little tricky for me because I'm not a vegetarian, and it has a strong bent towards crunchy-friendly items. Among the ten entrees, three are vegetarian, two are fish, one is roasted chicken (who gets chicken at a restaurant?), and one (turkey and potato hash) is entirely unappealing to me. That last one sounds like something you would get at the end of the food drop cycle in an Iraq military base.

The remaining menu items are a steak, a pork chop, and short ribs. I have no problem with any of these, though steaks outside of steak houses can be risky. I suspect these three items are where I'll end up most of the time. Though I am not adverse to fish and chips once in a while either... I just wasn't up for the fried fest when we were there.

On the sandwich side, there's also not much that grabs me. The rib sandwich I had looked the most interesting. I'm not likely to order a $10 half-smoke when I go out to eat, and everything else is either veggie/wierd (soy smoke??) or boring (chicken salad sandwich and a hamburger).

Take all this with a grain of salt

I don't want this to be taken as overly negative, because I made one visit and we had a couple things, none of them entrees, that were less than stellar. But everything else about the experience was good. My overall criticism has mostly to do with the fact that I didn't click with the menu, than with one beef rib sandwich that needs some help.

I think expanding the sandwich options to include a couple more items that are NOT a hot dog, veggie, or a hamburger would solve the problem at that end. For the entrees, it would be nice to include a couple of interesting non-veggie, non-fish options. If you're a meat eater and you aren't feeling the fish, and you write off the chicken from the get-go as many do, the choices you're left with just don't seem that interesting. I think this could easily be corrected by just adding one or two more items.

I am looking forward to returning and trying these some of the other items that actually DO grab me when I return, actually, tomorrow. We have plans for dinner with a couple friends... and we're going EARLY since it's supposedly been packed every night since opening.

Other reports I have been hearing and reading about the food seem mostly positive, too. So I'm optimistic, even if my first experience was not earthshaking. The prices generally seem about right, too, so at the end of the day, I really only need to love a couple things on the menu to make it a regular stop for me. Tweaking the menu just a little would make a big difference, though, in terms of making the selection feel less constrained for carnivores. I am sure that it will evolve in time like any new restaurant.

Oh yeah, the beer: I loved my Founders Red's Rye IPA! The tap beer selection is awesome and they also have some decent wines by the glass. Don't change a thing here, the drinks are a win.

National Marathon from Columbia Heights

By some miracle, N. and I managed to get to 11th and Harvard around 8 AM to see all those crazy people running the National Marathon last Saturday morning. There were almost no spectators other than ourselves, which was surprising. I thought the Columbia Heights crossing would be a pretty popular place to watch, but apparently I was wrong. But the lack of a crowd made for some nice pictures of the race. You can see more pictures on flickr.

I think he's running faster than they are...




I'm Batman.




"Yeah, the race is going pretty well... I paid my taxes online at mile four, but I haven't updated my facebook status since mile 6."




No Loitering. And That Woman Is Hard Core.




Look in the dead-center of the picture. Is there nothing that cyclists won't do??




I just like this picture.

Snoverwhelmed

Roving packs of dogs now rule Columbia Heights

Somehow, despite being trapped in my house for days, I have not found time to blog yet. Honestly, I'm not even sure what day it is most of the time. It's just another day. I no longer wonder whether the office will technically be open or not, since there is no way for me to get there until the metro runs above ground again.

This is actually an improvement.

A snowplow did come by this morning. The result was interesting. While 11th Street might technically be passable now, it is impossible to turn onto any side street, since they are all now walled off by snowbanks about 4 feet high.

Most people's cars are hermetically sealed in the wall of ice and snow. That has not stopped a handful or eternal optimists from digging out their cars every day, though so far I have not seen anyone sucessfully leave their parking spot in two days.

Where we are at this point is full-on cabin fever. If I watch another NCIS rerun I will kill myself. Or, more likely, N. will kill me. Walking the dogs must be accomplished in the slim sidewalk area where they can actually walk. And that's only going to get worse when people start throwing salt down, which hurts the dog's feet. Last week, we put ziploc bags on Sully's feet once to protect him from the salt. It was pretty hilarious actually.

Worst of all, I have not been to Home Depot in more than a week. They'll probably be out of business by the time I make it back there.

At the same time, business has obviously been good for the local watering holes. We've been to The Red Derby, er, more than I'd care to admit, mostly because it's about the only place we can get to. It has been packed every time.

So we perservere. This is officially more disastrous than the Great Marion Barry Disaster of 1996. That is, my office has been closed for more consecutive days than that event, which seems like a good yardstick. Luckily (yes, really) the Internet means that I've been able to work most of the time, unlike last time around, when everyone in the entire city was clearly bonkers after about five days of being cooped up. I am trying to remember what we did for a week with no internet.

DC Snow Removal Up To Usual Standards

...for the Barry Administration, anyway. Yeah, this was a record-breaking snowfall. No, I don't exepect miracles. But at the same time, there hasn't been a snowflake coming out of the sky since late Saturday night.

Nor have I seen a snowplow since sometime Saturday. Nor have I seen any evidence of salt or sand on the roads, anywhere.

So, did Adrian Fenty decide that closing the DC government applied to snow removal as well? I have to say, though, I admire his optimism. Apparently, normal trash collection is scheduled to resume today. That will be quite a neat trick, since no vehicle of any sort has traveled through my alley since before the snow. I will be very impressed if the garbage trucks can drive through 18" of snow.

I heard anecdotally that a lot of snowplows had broken down. I don't suppose that there's any connection between the 700+ speed bumps that Fenty put throughout the city, and the inability to remove snow from the sidestreets? Couldn't be. Great thinking, there. Aother brilliant Fenty move: just do whatever you want, without thinking about the consequences.

Petworth - 8 AM on Monday. Illionois Avenue and 4th Street.




11th Street in Columbia Heights - Sunday Afternoon




Adams Morgan - Sunday Morning. At first I thought this guy was an idiot for trying to turn onto Euclid Street from Columbia Road. After he got un-stuck and traffic started moving again, I realized why. 18th and Columbia Road was basically unplowed and it was obvious that most cars wouldn't be able to pass.




As of 8 AM today, everything looks pretty much the same as it did on Sunday morning. So what were the snowplows doing all day Sunday? Or did the speed bumps kill them all?

I guess we'll just wait it out like the old days.

Up here in Silver Spring, everything is perfectly clear.

Yo, Fenty, here's a bit of advice. If you are going to install thousands of speed bumps, maybe you should consider that we actually have snow here. That's why we have snowplows. Though given how few I've seen this weekend, maybe you forgot about them? So here's something for you to check out: The snow-plow compatible speed bump.

Now that I've gotten the obligatory DC snow fail criticism out of the way... pretty awesome, eh? A few highlights are below. More pictures here! Enjoy.


My day started on Saturday with the realization that I did not have a snow shovel. I did, however, have a four-wheel drive truck. And there's nothing I like more that tooling around the city in the middle of a blizzard. So I started with a trip to Home Depot to solve that shovel problem.

I wasn't sure how it was going to work out, since you'd figure there had been a run on them on Friday. Luckily, even as the DC government was not prepared for the storm, Home Depot was:




After the first of many sidewalk shovelings Saturday, N. and I ventured in to Columbia Hieghts to find some breakfast and take in the spectacle. The Heights was packed and there was a wait. We were too hungry to put up with that nonsense - and frankly, I find The Heights to be the pinnacle of mediocrity. So we walked to Ruby Tuesday's. Plenty of seating!

So typical of Cohi attitude... we'll pay more for crappy food, as long as it's not a chain. Personally, I think RT has better food than The Heights. It also comes with a lower price and less attitude. Our server was fantastic. I am slightly concerned about the presentation of the bloody mary though:




RT closed their doors for the day right after we finished, as did much of the downtown in Columbia Heights. Our post-brunch Target trip was thwarted. But we ran into a friend who was about to head downtown to catch Avatar 3D and decided to join him. It seems likely that the Metro would be a disaster (and it was from all accounts) so we drove instead. The movie didn't work out. Shockingly, it was sold out an hour in advance. How did all those people get there? Guess we weren't the only people with that idea. But we had a lot of fun tooling around the city taking pictures.

Apparently, you didn't need necessarily need four wheel drive to get around. At least, you didn't if you are a completely idiot like this guy.




It seems that that guy wasn't the only one who just couldn't give up his bike in the middle of a blizzard. Ah, Wonderland.




As usual, everyone in DC freaked out and packed the supermarkets at the first sign of snow. We tried to go to Giant to buy a couple things on Saturday afternoon -- the lines were at least 20 people long. Umm... no.

So off to my new favorite alternative, the Petworth Safeway. It was far more civilized. There was plenty of parking and the lines were minimal. We got what we needed. Though certain things were hard to come by even there...




Sharing the Road took on quite a new meaning on Sunday, as pedestrians took to the streets as the only passable place to walk. Many people were out trying to dig out their cars or just walk down the street. Huge props to my neighbors - the sidewalks were 100% clear on my street as of mid-morning on Sunday. It was not so great in many other places.




Park Road between 14th and 16th on Sunday.




There was a lot of fun stuff to see out there. Everyone was great. My neighbors were all helping each other dig out on Sunday. Our dogs regarded the snow with some suspicion at first, but soon enough were having a blast. These guys had the right idea though:




All in all, I love a good snowstorm. It's been a long time for me - I was out of town for the big one in 2003. Glad this one finally lived up to the hype.

Columbia Heights has come a long way, but...

Last Friday, Petula Dvorak, the metro columnist for the Washington Post, published this article entitled "Columbia Heights still has far to go." The piece is a dismal portrayal of the neighborhood that is my home from the perspective of two poor neighborhood residents.

The article left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. Because I am really not sure what the point is. It seemed to say that despite the incredible changes that we've seen in the last few years, for the "have nots" in Columbia Heights, life is just as bad, and there's no hope. It casts Columbia Heights as a place where the gentrifiers gleefuly dance around in our new parks and malls while the long-time poor residents are still just poor and desperate.

Today, a new resident responded with a letter to the editor rebutting her characterization of the neighborhood. I wish that I had taken the time to write to The Post, because unfortunately, this response is in many ways just as bad as the original piece.

The author writes:

...As for criminals lurking in the shadows waiting to prey on immigrants carrying wads of cash, I could not help but chuckle as I thought about my own experience. I am often out after dark in professional attire or jeans and shirts appropriate for someone in their mid-20s going to a bar. To anyone looking, it is clear that I carry a Blackberry and an iPod, not to mention a wallet and a rather unthreatening stature. Yet, I have never felt uncomfortable or at risk of being accosted.

To this, I can only say, are you out of your mind? I am, frankly, dumbfounded that anyone would choose to move to Columbia Heights without so much as looking at a crime report. As much as Ms. Dvorak's portrayal of the neighborhood is absurdly one-sided and bleak, this response is just as idiotic in its ignorance of the reality of life in the city.

Crime exists in Columbia Heights. When Target/DCUSA opened, the poor did not magically become wealthy. Nor did they disappear. Their lives went on, just like everyone else's. And with poverty comes crime.

Ms. Dvorak paints an absurdly dismal picture of the effects of the development on the most desperate. Without a doubt, the availability of Target, Giant, and many other stores and services that did not exist a few years ago has benefitted everyone -- especially the poorest, who probably do not own cars. Shopping for basic necessities of life would have meant a trip on public transit to who knows where. I seriously doubt that anyone would say they preferred NOT being able to walk to Target and Giant. This has brought convenience, basic services, and jobs to the neighborhood.

But the author of the letter I quote above seems equally ignorant of the reality of life in an inner-city neighborhood. Crime happens. You can never forget that.

I love Columbia Heights. I can think of nowhere else I'd rather live in DC. But I never forget that safety cannot be taken for granted. I don't think it's unsafe here, but I certainly wouldn't walk around late at night advertising my iPod to anyone who happened to see me. At least, if I wanted to keep my iPod. I wouldn't do that anywhere in DC, frankly, becase that's just plain stupid.

Ms. Dvorak's piece is, at best, a misleading and badly-researched article with a hyper-narrow focus, and at worst, gentrification-hating and fear-mongering. While her point still eludes me despite discussing and thinking about it several days later, she's right about one thing: there are, apparently, some people in the nieghborhood who are totally unaware that all is not completely right here. At the same time, the vast majority of people who live here do not live in fear. We love our home and community, and there is certainly hope for the future.

The development has brought many positive changes to the neighborhood, especially for the poorest residents. But it's still new. This place is truly a grand experiment. I can think of nowhere else that's had such a dramatic transformation in such a short time. The fact that there are still many problems is hardly a surprise. But so far, there are many positive signs. The Target is the first-of-its-kind store: a big-box plunked in the middle of a walking community. You know what? It works. It offers amazing convenience without requiring a drive to the suburbs. It keeps people in the neighborhood and out of cars. It saves time and money.

But social problems don't disappear overnight. No amount of development, no matter how big and shiny and new, can make poverty magically vanish. We have a long way to go, sure. But we've come a very long way, too. Just because our problems haven't gone away completely doesn't mean we shouldn't recognize the positive things that we have accomplished and keep working to make things even better.

The Daily Trash: The Story Told By Rubbish

I wrote a while ago about my new hobby of picking up trash when I walk the dog in the morning. While not as glamorous as collecting cars or as interesting as beekeeping, it does have its moments. And it keeps the couple blocks around where I live looking pretty clean, which is nice.

But while some people read tea-leaves or speak to mediums to understand their world and predict the future, I look to my trash. It is a bellweather of the world around me, a sign of the times. Through trash, some mysteries of the universe can be revealed, if only slightly, while at the same time, the trash puts forth new questions daily. Such as, how did that 5 foot long section of someone's bathroom wall end up on the corner of 10th and Spring?

This week, occurring in greater frequency are rubber gloves. I have picked up at least three of them since Monday. This can only mean one thing: swine flu paranoia. I have not yet found a respirator on the ground. You know, those things people wear while sanding drywall which probably have absolutely no benefit versus airborne contagions. But I expect I will see them soon as H1N1 fear grips the nation.

Several days ago, the normal tranquility of Columbia Heights was disturbed by paramedics on my street. By normal tranquility, I mean police helicopters, gunshots, and drunken yelling. This is not the first time I've seen such things, but as we watched a stretcher emerge from our neighors' home, we wondered if things were not more serious this time.

The funeral procession observed yesterday afternoon by N. confirmed this. This morning's trash was a solemn reminder of the passing of a man whom I knew mostly by the clinking of his spoon against his cereal bowl as he ate his morning breakfast on the front porch. That sound from a few doors away, which had become a familiar part of my morning ritual last summer as I enjoyed a cup of coffee on my own porch, has been silenced. Rest in peace.

The final piece of trash will close this post on a lighter note. Outside "The Asylum," a DC outpatient mental health clinic near my home, I found this blister pack on the ground. Excited by the discovery of what I thought might be actual drugs, I peered purposefully at the pill pack. What would it be? Antibiotics? Antidepressants? A mystery drug which I would have to eat, identity unknown, like Alice and her mushrooms, in order to determine its true purpose? Would I take the blue bill??

No - it was ExtenZe. You know, the natural supplement for male enhancement you see relentlessly adertised by that smiling nerdy guy who gets wayyy more play than his much-better-looking buddies. Who says size doesn't matter... big is back!

Geeky sidenote: Am I the only person who has noticed the similarity between the "ExtenZe" logo and the logo for "ExistenZe," the creepy David Cronenburg flick from 1999 which is almost identically named? I made this connection the first time I saw one of those ExtenZe advertisements on cable TV but never dug further into this important matter.

It appears that I am not alone. A blogger answers the question we have all been wondering: eXistenZ vs. ExtenZe: Which is Better? Click through for the shocking conclusion.

What's Good In The Hood?

A few happenings in the NoCo/SoPet area lately, mostly good.

The best: Thai Tanic II, in The Allegro building at 14th and Meridian. While one must question the wisdom of naming your business after the ship that infamously sank on its first voyage, I have to say, this is some of the best Thai I've had in DC.

I've never eaten at Thai Tanic I, the original vessel of spicy deliciousness, and honestly, I can't believe what I've been missing. Every since the demise of Thai Town in Woodley Park many years ago, it's been next to impossible to find any Thai in DC that didn't cater to the bland. But TT II does not hold back on the heat.

Praise the stars. I'm not saying this will be like really authentic Thai on the west coast or anything, but it's damn good and the flame is on. Beyond the fact that they aren't afraid to put a little hot pepper in there, the menu is a lot more interesting than the typical Thai place, with lots of inventive dishes I've never seen before. I've beeen twice so far and had the Bird Nest on Fire (stir-fried chicken with chili & garlic paste, topped with red pepper & surrounded by crispy kale) and the Nua Ka Ting (beef slices marinated with wine, stir fried in Thai garlic chili sauce, topped with deep fried basil leaves). Actually, I just ate leftovers of the latter for lunch. Delicious.

Park Place at Petworth Metro is finally showing signs of being finished, meaning that walking and/or driving around the Petworth/Georgia Avenue Metro is no longer a giant pain in the butt as the sidewalk obstructions have finally been removed. It looks fantastic and I am eagerly awaiting the arrival of the first-floor retail that's planned there, to include a new restaurant from check Gillian Clark of the now-defunct Colorado Kitchen.

The New Plaza at 14th and Park - this thing is just so cool. Every time I've walked by it, there have been at least a half-dozen people hanging out on the grass or the seat-border, playing in the fountian, or just taking a breather. It's a really cool little space and I think the design came out wonderfully. Nice work.

Went to Social just up the street from Thai Tanic a couple weeks ago. Unfortunately, they were hosting some kind of event that evening and we couldn't even get to the bar to get a drink - it was packed. I hope this is a good sign for the place, because a lot of what I've been reading elsewhere is a little hit or miss. But I blame the mediocre reviews more on the classlessness of the reviewers, than on Social.

Without having tried their food or beverage yet, I hope they succeed. The space is definitely interesting and takes a different direction than most places in Columbia Heights, which tend toward the casual. Social is certainly not stuffy, but it's pricey and you just get a vibe that says "Smith Point" a lot more than "Wonderland." But quite honestly, while I'm not a huge fan of Georgetown-style pretension, there is absolutely nothing bad about having businesses that attract a higher paycheck of customer than the ones I generally frequent around here.

Because that can have only one consequence: In 20 years I will sell my house for three million dollars, and be able live out the rest of my days in Bali with a staff of three to prepare my pureed peas and change my diapers.

So keep 'em coming, and dammit, spend lots of money at Social.

New 4-Way Stop at 13th & Taylor Streets NW. I bet you didn't know about that one, did you? Well you have to get up pretty early in the morning to sneak one past this guy.

This intersection used to be controlled only by a stop-sign on Taylor Street. 13th
Street traffic did not stop. As I live nearby, I must drive through this intersection frequently. It is interesting that this happened, because I had become convinced that there was a home for people who are smart enough to get a driver's license, but too stupid to drive, somwehre nearby. More than any other place in DC, people attempting to cross 13th Street from Taylor never seemed to be able to comprehend that 13th Street traffic did not stop. I have had to slam on my brakes many times because of this. Apparently the idea of a two-way stop is mind-boggling to some DC drivers.

Anyway, my theory is that with all the new development in Columbia Heights, the resulting influx of population finally put enough pressure here that someone noticed and decided a 4-way stop was in order. I think it's a good idea. Taylor Street is the principal route into Rock Creek Park and points west from hereabouts, and there are so many other stop signs on 13th Street already down here, what's one more. It makes it easier to turn left onto Taylor into the park (especially in the morning during rush hour, with heavy southbound traffic), and it eliminates the possibility of some moron thinking you're going to stop even though you don't have a stop sign.

For the record I am not in favor of traffic signs that are installed to deal with the fact that some people are morons. In this situation, though, it was warranted. All hail the new stop sign. Cyclists: no worries, like every other traffic control device, it won't affect you in any way.

Three Questionable Waste Disposal Decisions

I wrote not too long ago about the daily proliferation of trash on my street. Since then, I've been pretty good about picking up trash every day on the three or four blocks where I walk the VERY BAD DOG who does not deserve such long walks because he tried to attack my neighbor and routinely ignores me and pees on the kitchen floor whenever our backs are turned. Ahem.

Anyway, back to the trash. There has been a noticeable impact. Sure, people still throw crap on the ground. There are these candy wrappers, some kind of peanut butter chew or something, that appear daily. Then there are the random Schlitz Malt Liquor cans and McDonalds trash on Spring Road.

But by and large, I pick up less and less trash every day. Whereas I used to only concern myself with cans, bottles, and bags, now, there often aren't any of those. So I pick up smaller things, candy wrappers, sometimes cigarette butts, and even stuff in the street if street sweeping is not coming up soon.

N. thinks all this is hilarious and bought me a grabber-thingy called the Gopher 2 for picking up trash. This thing is awesome. Although I have been too embarassed to actually take it with me on the dog-walk and use it to collect trash yet, it has many other uses, including ass-grabbing, pet-teasing, and, for those who are not strong with The Force and may need such assistance, remote-control-gettting-while-reclined-on-couch.

So while my moonlighting as a garbage man is generally going well, there are three things that have appeared on my block lately that are somewhat baffling, and beyond the scope of my morning efforts.

1. The Television

Has now been on the sidewalk for about a month. Guess what? Nobody wants your 24 year old Goldstar television. That includes the trash men, a fact which should have been crystal clear after it remained on the sidewalk despite the trash cans being emptied, twice a week, for the last month.


2. The Post Base

This has been sitting on the sidewalk for a LONG time. The guy on the corner redid his fence sometime in the distant past, like early summer or even spring. It's been there ever since. Now, generally, I can't complain about that house because they are good neighbors, keep things up, and I even saw him mowing the treebox once. ONCE.

Obviously, though, there is not a female in that household. Because while all dudes are born with the ability to selectively ignore things like this indefinitely, and indeed even convince themselves that the object in question is actually not there, the opposite happens for women. When there is something within the boundaries of their living space that should not be there, or is in the wrong place, it starts glowing around the edges, then becomes bright white, and finally screams at them like a dying banshee every time they see it. Which they in turn do to you. This I learned while I was married. No woman would permit that post to remain on their sidewalk for months. Clearly, the guy who lives there needs a girlfriend, and possibly a pickup truck.


3. The Compost Pile/Rat Feeder

This is the most problematic of the three QWDDs (Questionable Waste Disposal Decisions). While the first two are annoying, I can (and perhaps will) take care of them myself either with a call to bulk pickup, or by throwing them in the back of my truck the next time I go to Fort Totten. But this one keeps recurring -- and, like that strange itch that you got after that drunken late-night hookup with "Marisa" or "Melisa" or whatever her name was, it's hard to get rid of without involving someone wearing a pair of rubber gloves.

Some person, or perhaps people, are dumping old food in the treeboxes. I suspect that they think they are feeding birds. I really do believe their motive is not absolute laziness since it's always old-looking food, often bread products. In the picture from this morning, it's moldy bagels. I picked them up. Someone saw me do it and thanked me.

But take a closer look at the television picture. That orange pile next to the TV is rice. That also appeared this morning. That's disgusting, and there's no way birds will eat it anyway. There has been rice in the past at the spot where I picked up the bagels. As well as a huge pile of bread, and sausages, and all sorts of crap. Someone either thinks that the treebox is some kind of miraculous garbage disposal, or that they really are doing a service to all the starving vermin in DC by dumping old food on the sidewalk.

Today was the first time I picked up the food pile (the bagels, I couldn't deal with the rice) because it's starting to happen more often. Maybe they will realize it's not cool when someone takes it every day. If not, then hopefully I will see them doing it and have have a frank discussion with them about rats and the purpose of trash cans and sewers. If that doesn't work, then that leaves me with only one alternative. No, I'm not talking about a stakeout with a camera, followed by public humiliation in the form of leaflets under the windshield of every car on the block.

I'm talking about the Real Genius punishment.

Trashed in Columbia Heights

That's what happens to my street, about every day. It gets trashed. I don't mean like a bunch of drunk frat boys. And it's not as bad as, say, Bourbon Street after Mardi Gras. But people throw crap on the sidewalk all the time.

I've started picking up trash sometimes when I walk N's dog, at least every other day and sometimes every day. I didn't start this because I'm trying to be some neighborhood do-gooder martyr or something. It's because I wanted the dog the be able to piss in the tree boxes without having to worry about broken glass. So it began with picking glass out of the treeboxes. But it always starts small, doesn't it?

Now, this dog, while cute as hell, is incredibly badly behaved. He has a paper-product fetish. If you leave a napkin where he can get it, he will eat it. If he can get his mouth around a roll of toilet paper, you think it's Halloween and some drunk kids toilet papered your house. He will clean out the bathroom trash can in seconds. And don't even think about leaving actual food where he can get it. David Copperfield couldn't make a pizza disappear faster. It's pretty unbelievable, actually.

So I soon learned that just picking up the glass wasn't going to be enough. I had to keep the sidewalks clear of paper products, too. Any disgusting napkin or q-tip or McDonald's wrapper was a delicious treat for this demented dog. Rather than spend half of the time on the walk avoiding bits of trash here and there, I just started picking them up. It made life a lot easier.

I must admit, it has gone way beyond it's original purpose. I've started to actually look forward to picking up the trash on the morning walks. I get excited when I find a broken bottle I can clean up. I've maybe even been a little disappointed when there's no trash some days. Yeah, it's pretty sad. I probably should get a hobby, like shrub-sculpting.

But the trash, the glorious trash! Sometimes there's a lot of stuff, especially Sunday mornings. But lately, there have been days when I've gotten next to nothing. I feel like the rate of trash production on the block and a half I "maintain" has gone down since I started picking stuff up. My theory is people may feel a little bad, sometimes, about littering on an otherwise clean block. Not everyone of course. But lately, I've had to walk a little farther to fill up my Giant bag with trash in the morning. It used to be that just one turn on to Spring Road would guarantee me a half-dozen malt liquor cans or bottles and at least one mess of someone's lunch from Wendy's the day before. Now, it's only every few days that I even find an unbroken bottle.

I've also started to notice a lot of patterns in where and when the trash is produced.

1) The majority of the trash appears at roughly the same spots, and generally spreads from there. Bad neighbors. Bad.

2) Someone must be parking their car between 10th and 11th on Spring Road, eating their Wendy's, and chucking their trash on the sidewalk about every single day. Lame. On the other hand, they will probably suffer a heart attack within the next few years, so it's a self-solving problem.

3) People are a lot more likely to deposit trash in overgrown treeboxes. No surprise there.

Sullivan. Don't let his docile appearance deceive you. He is a bad dog.

4) People will leave trash on their steps or front yards for weeks and just not care. Generally, I only pick up crap in the sidewalk itself and the treeboxes, since the street sweeper will get the rest, and people's steps are their steps. But when I've seen the same rotting paper bag with a couple empty beer cans in it sitting on someone's step for a week, I might have to take it.

5) I am thinking about starting a new feature: "piece of trash of the day."

6) I'm just kidding. Sort of.

The point of this post is really just anthropological. I'm not on a mission to create the citizen's trash picking corps. Though it has occurred to me that if even one in ten dog owners picked up a few pieces of trash whenever they walked their dogs, the city would probably be spotless. Something to think about.

The Animal Kingdom, Part 1

In the sleepy month of August, there is usually little news in the world to take our minds off the stifling heat and humidity of Washington. Luckily, the animal kingdom has provided some amusement that has alleviated the ennui somewhat. As I may have mentioned before, N. and I spend a lot of time on the front porch watching the world go by, and today's post is a front-porch tale.

While organizing the kitchen recently, I came across some items in the cupboard that one of my recent temporary tenants had left behind. These included organic unsalted sunflower seeds, flax seeds, and some other hippie food I had either not heard of or could not identify. Either way, I certainly had no intention of eating these items, that most likely would need to be soaked, ground, or leavened before use. I was about to throw this stuff away but thought I would save the sunflower seeds for the birds out front.


It all started innocently enough. I'd toss a handful of them down the steps, and the little sparrows or whatever would come by and eat them. Then, a few days later, they started showing up in the morning before I'd thrown any seeds down. They would look up at us on the porch, sternly, agitated by the absence of sunflower seeds. Hey buddy, where's my breakfast? So I threw them some seeds, and they seemed content.

Then they brought some friends. It wasn't just a few birds like before, it was a small flock, a dozen or more. All hopping impatiently around the sidewalk and front stoop, awaiting their handout. Images of Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds started to materialize in my thoughts. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. But these are little birds, what harm could they do? They were cute, if slightly intense, and certainly entertaining. Little did I know that this was a harbinger of events to come.

A few days later, N. picked up a birdfeeder at Target. It was simple and attractive, and at $4.99 after its third markdown, a bargain. On Friday afternoon, the new birdfeeder was hung in the tree in front of our house. The birds seemed unaware of its purpose for at least a day. There was no evidence of any feeding Friday afternoon or much of Saturday. N. noticed that first bird had found it late Saturday. Hooray! Now they could feed themselves, and we would have a nice diversion to help while away the lazy summer days. In the beginning, it was delightful and pleasant. A bird here, a bird there. Sometimes two would land at once, and they would playfully bicker over a nut or seed that must have been especially tasty. The birds were happy, we were entertained. We went to sleep Saturday night pleased with our newfound diversion.


Sunday, everything changed. We were out for much of the day. Upon returning late in the afternoon, it was clear that all was not right. Though there wasn't a bird in sight, the bird feeder was swaying in the tree. Obviously, they had vacated quickly upon our approach. N. and I were unloading things from the truck. As I was putting a box away inside the house, I heard a scream from outside. Anxious, I ran to the front door. N. was staring at the birdfeeder, aghast. It was nearly empty. When we had left the house a few hours before, it was almost completely full.

How could a dozen sparrows clean out a birdfeeder, with at least a 6-cup capacity, in mere hours? What kind of ravenous beasts were these? How was it even physically possible? How would we afford the bird seed?

These questions were troubling indeed, but there wasn't time to think about the developments. As we urgently needed wine following our long day, we hurriedly cracked a bottle of Pinot Gris and settled into our regular porch-sitting positions. The birds had again increased their numbers. The new reinforcements numbered easily two dozen by one count. There was a noticeable amount of guano in the front yard, too. We watched them and drank. We drank and watched. We wondered if, perhaps, we owned the only bird feeder in Columbia Heights.


Monday morning, 7:15 AM. Today. I woke and leashed up Sully for his morning constitutional. As I emerged into the crisp August air (really, something you don't get very often in these parts), it seemed strangely silent in the front yard. Where were the birds? Perhaps sleeping in due to yesterday's indulgences? As I walked down the sidewalk towards Sully's favorite pooping spot near the asylum at the end of the street, I saw something deeply troubling.

Pigeons.

Two pigeons were walking conspicuously on the sidewalk mere steps from my front door. I thought to myself, I've never seen pigeons on our street before. As I had been asleep minutes before, and had yet to consume my morning crack coffee, I was apparently a little slow on the draw. I did not make the connection between the ill-conceived bird feeder and the existence of pigeons on my street. Sully conducted his business amiably, if slightly slowly, and we returned home.

There was a pigeon sitting on the lamp post in front of my house. It sat there silently for a while, then flew to the tree briefly. Then it landed on my car. The sparrows never land on my car, I thought to myself.

There are several things that I absolutely do not want in front of my house.

1) Pigeons.
2) Pigeons in my tree.
3) Pigeons shitting on my car.
4) Pigeons anywhere near my house.

Finally, the rusty gears in my groggy brain began turning, and the light dawned. We had brought this upon ourselves. Somehow, word had spread in the avian community that there was a bird feeder on 11th Street and it was open for business.

Sadly, this experiment had to be terminated, a mere three days after its inception. I took the birdfeeder down this morning. I can only hope that it's not too late, that the damage has not been done. Only time, and pigeon shit, will answer that question.


It is a sad allegory for life. It just takes one bird running his mouth to ruin things for everyone. Foolish sparrows, why couldn't you just enjoy what had been given to you? Why did you have to tell all your friends? Somehow, the word had spread to the pigeons of 14th Street that there was a birdfeeder on 11th. But this is a civilized place, a place for sparrows and squirrels, not for rats and pigeons. Perhaps this may seem discriminatory. Why can't I show the same love for pigeons that I do for sparrows? Why would I selfishly shut down the birdfeeder for all, just because I don't want to feed pigeons? Is it their fault that they were born pigeons?

No, it's not. I don't hate pigeons inherently. But I'll tell you why I don't want them on my street.

Because pigeons shit on my car and I can't afford 50 pounds of bird seed every week.

Look for The Animal Kingdom, Part 2: Cats and Dogs coming soon.

Picture of field sparrow from the Audobon Society. I took a picture once of a sparrow in my front yard. It would have been a really good picture, because it was of a sparrow making off with a chicken bone. Certainly something you don't see every day. Unfortunately, it didn't come out.

Nothing To Report, But I Will Anyway

It's August and it's slow as hell. Work has been pretty busy at least. I can't believe I think that's a good thing, but it is. But since I have nothing to report, and since half the planet is on vacation or otherwise doing something useful, I wanted to take this opportunity to tell you about some things that I've enjoyed recently.

A friend informed me that "CP" is a common abbreviation for child porn. I didn't ask him why he knows this. I assume because he is an undercover craig's list/chat room investigator. However, please reread my Cleveland Park post from a couple days ago with this in mind. It's way better. Really.

A commenter on my post about loser cyclists from a few days ago linked me to Bike Snob NYC, a brilliant blog about cycling in NYC. This guy is my new hero. The blog itself is amazing. Well written, incriminating photos, funny as hell, and intelligent. It's not local but it might as well be. Check it out.

Room 11 is now open, and I went with N. last week. I thought it was great. Check out my review on Yelp.

Saw Phish on Saturday at Merriweather Post. Had a great time. I already have way too many mediocre pictures of bands at big venues taken with my point-and-shoot camera so I didn't bother this time. But I did get this picture of what could be the best tee shirt since "For Every Animal You Don't Eat I Shall Eat Three." If you don't get it... just give it a minute. Hilarious.

My bathroom is still not done. All wagers will be paid in full.

The firebox at the corner of my street has not been repainted again. YET.

Picked about a dozen tomatoes from my hippie/ghetto front yard garden. DC tomatoes? Awesome. Accept no substitute. Though having tomatoes in my front yard is great, I feel that it is no match for having your own pumpkin patch as reported by Prince of Petworth. Next year...

The 3rd Annual Columbia Heights Day is next Saturday, August 29th. It promises to be awesome. I will be there at the grill like last year, though I cannot take any credit for planning the event. I've been out of the loop this year due to general life mayhem. But I can assure you based on the chatter, it's going to be great, come out and support your neighborhood festival!

That is all for now. I leave you with this, from a list of funny things that appeared in my inbox a few days ago.

"As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers, but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists."

Ahhh ha ha ha ha!! Ummm...

The Firebox Morphs Again!

Sorry kids, but my obsession with fireboxes continues to be fed, so you will have to endure it some more.

But could it be a coincidence that barely 48 hours after I posted a picture and complained about the awful paint jobs done to our neighborhood fireboxes, that it was repainted yet again?

I appreciate the fact that someone cared enough to do this. I really do. Maybe they read my blog, maybe a supervisor actually came around and saw what horrible work had been done. It's a nice gesture. But I am still going to complain, because this isn't a thank-you note. It's not just the thought that counts.

I am not sure if this is an improvement from the way it was before. While it no longer sports the "not being able to stay in the lines" bad painting from before, gone are the trim details. Gone is the nice gold that was originally there. It still looks pretty crappy. Beyond that, the fire-engine red is rather alarming, and it needs another coat. You can still see the old olive color through the red.

Please - give it up. The damage is done. Someone who cares will fix it again when they get sick of having to put sunglasses on to look in that direction. You simply are not qualified to paint things so please stop trying. I really appreciate that you are trying to do something good. I do. But it's OK. Really. Please don't react to this post by, for example, painting it fuscia. If the painter is reading this, then I'm sorry for being so picky. There are much worse things in the world, sure. I just wish you hadn't painted it in the first place because it didn't need painting.

Also, another observation: apparently up in the swanky part of town, they are being spared from the services of the mystery painters. While driving back down Massachusetts Avenue in AU Park yesterday, N. noticed that the fireboxes are painted really nicely. Kind of like ours used to be. Here's a picture of one, unfortunately from a moving car, but you should be able to get the idea. Nice navy blue with carefully painted gold trim. It looks fantastic. Like ours used to.

Nice huh? I'm half expecting that now that the location of a great-looking firebox has been exposed, the paint gang will be dropping by soon...

Citizens to Mayor's Summer Jobs Program: Please Stop. We Got It. Really.

It began with the flyers about the Mayor's Green Summer Jobs Corp. I got one in the mail. That's interesting, I thought. Then, a few days later, I got three on my front porch. And the sidewalk got about sixty of them blowing around. That's ironic, I thought. Especially considering that everyone already got one in the mail, now we're wasting paper to announce a "green" initiative and creating litter. Oh well, there are worse problems in the world.

Then the terror was unleashed. Twice this week we have read on the Prince of Petworth about healthy trees in treeboxes being cut down by the Mayor's Summer Jobs Corp participants.

Now all the fireboxes in my neighborhood have been repainted. Actually, my girlfriend thought that they had been vandalized. The one pictured here at the end of my block is far from the worst, too. If you can't tell what an awful paint job it is, please click for a close-up.

While I have no proof that the Job Corps people are responsible, it seems highly likely. The problem is, they didn't need repainting. Actually, they were beautiful. Operative word being were. They had all been painted in the last year or two, presumably by citizens who put time, effort and expense into making their own streets nicer. Much like the people who plant trees and maintain their treeboxes. Actually, all around my neighborhood, most people do a pretty good job of that. The treeboxes that have anything growing in them at all usually look pretty nice.

All I can say is, thank the stars the summer is almost over and these kids will be going back to school. Or at least not being paid to wreak havoc on the public spaces in this city. Hopefully by next year, we will all be able to undo the damage they've caused.

I appreciate the point of this program. In theory, it's a great idea to give kids something productive to do. I support programs that will teach people useful skills, and give them pride in their community.

So what the hell kind of values do they learn when they cut down new trees and mess up nice things? How are we going to instill pride if we let them slather paint all over something that was previously nicely painted? Would anyone really look at the 3-minute bull-in-a-china shop paint job they did on something that did not need to be painted and say "nice work, kids?"

Part of teaching people to do a job is teaching them how to do it, and teaching them to judge when it needs doing. You can't give kids a set of pruners and a can of paint and say "go at it." I'm not blaming the kids, I'm blaming the program, because it's obvious that there is little or no supervision. Or maybe the supervisors don't give a crap either. But all I can say is I've got three examples of things they've done being more harm than good. Actually, let me be more specific. Each of the three things I've mentioned are all harm and no good. The world would have been better off if they had stayed home.

So please take note, Mayor's Summer Job Corps. We can take care of the sidewalks just fine. We've been doing it for decades, since the city has never bothered before. We got it.

There are a million things that need doing in this city that are a lot harder to mess up. Why doesn't the jobs program tackle things like, picking up trash in the alleys and on the sidewalks? Are you too good for that? Because we all have to do that too. Oh yeah and we have to deal with throwing away the nice trees you cut down and left on the sidewalk also. Thanks. Or how about watering young street trees that desperately need it when it doesn't rain for a month? Oh right - much easier to cut them down. Silly me.

Please. A good idea can quickly turn into a debacle if you don't give a hoot how it's implemented. Considering that every single thing I've read about the impact of this program and the activities of its participants has been negative, I'm sure this isn't just perception. This program is making people angry. We all want to do things to provide opportunities to the youth in this city, but this is not productive.

Yes, I know, a sloppy paint job on a firebox is not exactly a national crisis. But the point is simple. We have a program that is supposed to teach kids something. But all I see them being taught is to not give a crap about what they are doing, and being paid to not give a crap. I guess we're training them to be future DC Government employees.

Below - the best picture of the fire box I could find before it was painted. But it's apparent it was well maintained and nicely painted. The nice gold trim was there before. The sloppy red paint is the "improvement" from this week.

DC Police: A Cartoon Review

A brief story. While at the Red Derby the other day, a really drunk guy started harassing people at the bar and walking by. There was a cop on the corner a block away at Spring Road. Since this looked like it could get ugly soon, but didn't quite seem 911-worthy, I walked down to the cop and told him what was up. He had been hanging out by his police car talking with someone, possibly a friend, for a while.

The cop told me (correctly) that 14th and Quincy was out of his PSA, but he'd call someone. Spring road is the border.

Nobody ever came. Things very nearly got ugly. Someone got sick of him harassing everyone and started something. Luckily, other more cool-headed people at the bar stopped him. Later, the drunk guy fell over the fence onto the table where I was sitting with my date, and while I was only trying to prevent him from falling down, he tried to fight with me because he thought I was fighting with him. It could easily have become a fight at any point with any number of people. Luckily, some people who knew him eventually came and took him home. But the cop could easily have taken control of the situation 30 minutes earlier, instead of just leaving a firecracker with a lit fuse. A lot of serious crimes probably start out as more minor altercations that could be defused early.

The cop one block away couldn't bother to leave his engrossing conversation to walk a block and deal with an incident, and if he even called anyone, they didn't come. He was clearly not busy with anything of consequence.

What Is Wrong With This Picture

DC seems to remain baffled about how to better deal with crime in this city. In the last few years we've seen a slew of untested, reactionary approaches to the citizen outcry whenever there's a crime wave.

These have universally failed. Despite Kathy Lanier's claims to the contrary, the drops in crime in DC this year are not due to "All Hands On Deck" and the other silliness she's implemented.

News flash Kathy: When crime drops everywhere in the country, it's not because of you. And even if this was a phenomenon unique to DC, six months does not a trend make.

But they continue to push forward with initiatives that not only seem mind-bogglingly stupid at first glance, but don't produce any lasting results. Even the beat cops don't like them.

Obviously, the lawmakers in DC need to have things simplified a little bit so they can understand why these policies don't work. In an effort to make things as easy as possible for everyone to understand, I have prepared this pictoral overview of the effects of each the gimmicky DC policing policies instituted in the last couple years.

What MPD Has Tried











What MPD Has Not Tried, Despite Being Proven Effective Elsewhere





Please, Kathy, stop this reactionary approach to crime in DC.

Do what's tried and true. Get police out of their cars and into the community. Instill in them values that getting involved in a situation, no matter how small it may seem, is better than not doing so. Get them to care more about things that concern the citizens who come and talk to them, than about their big-gulp or conversation.

I hardly ever see cops on foot. I hardly even see them on bikes and segways anymore. Get them out of their cars. Get them walking their beats instead of parking on the corner until something happens.

I have not seen a policeman on foot on my street, five blocks from the Columbia Heights metro and three blocks from the Petworth Metro, ever. This is one of the most publicized areas in the city for criminal activity. And I spend a lot of time on my front porch. A lot.

What is wrong with this picture?