A regular summary of irregular news and notes from neighborhood blogs and email lists around the District.
Fixer-Upper: New Columbia Heights rails against the 1300 block of Girard Street for its dishevelment and disrepair. Is it the “crappiest block in the neighborhood,” the blog asks? “The other day I was walking along Girard, and noticed that the northern side of the 1300 block is really in bad shape: out of 7 buildings, 1 is abandoned and being renovated (slowly), another is empty and being renovated, two are in pretty bad shape, and 1 is a massive renovation on an apartment building, so it’s all screwed up too. It’s the worst side of a block in the neighborhood.” Worthy of comment is the address of political commenters and DCWatch authors Gary Imhoff and Dorothy Brizill. A commenter writes, “You should see the back of Dorthy Brazill’s house now. A large tree toppled into it Monday, two days after the hurricane. At least we think it fell Monday. Maybe the house will be re-condemned. The ‘fixed-up’ front is a total façade. The back looked like it was about to collapse before the tree fell into it. I’m surprised it is still standing.”
Fixer-Upshur: Readers of Park View DC are overjoyed with the opening of a hardware store in their area. The blog reports, “Here’s some incredibly exciting news … our area is getting a new hardware store called Annie’s Ace Hardware. It will be located at 1240 Upshur Street in Petworth and is planning to open by November 2011. You can read the entire press release here.” “This is really great news! I cannot stand Home Depot and often go all the way to P street or NYA to go to ACE. Its a great space, but I hope enough people get windo of it to know its there and it will be a great success,” writes one commenter. Another agrees, adding, “Fantastic news. Especially as one that’s at Home Depot every other weekend. I really hope they use that bare concrete in front of the building between the sidewalk and the façade for something that engages that sidewalk and the street. Like a display area or part of the home and garden stuff. Could be a really nice, inviting place to walk past too if they do it right. Hoping it won’t just be 6 parking spaces instead.”
Outed: Some residents of Tenleytown are still feeling the effects of Hurricane Irene’s Pepco knockout. “No Pepco! No power. I see no indication of Pepco in the hood. 4 days with 3 inches of rain? If I ran my group like this I would have been fired long ago,” writes a member of the neighborhood email list. But he seems to be in the minority. Other members write in to affirm that their power is back on—and one replies, “My street still hasn’t been plowed from Snowmageddon.”
For Sale in Chevy Chase: Available for purchase on the Chevy Chase email list are “3 pairs of girls riding boots—size 5, 6, 7.” Available for rent is a “Rehobeth beach cottage for fall.” Available for free are “old Smithsonian magazines, egg cartons, cardboard tubes.”