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On Friday, we noticed for the first time that someone has painted over the second half of this famous Shaw neighborhood sign on 9th Street NW between Q and Rhode Island Ave. In its entirety, it used to read "Bienvenue a Shaw, Slum Historique." We still haven't been able to determine who painted over the "Slum Historique" part.
The mural was originally painted by long time neighborhood resident and rabble rouser Ray Milefsky, who began painting scenes on the building over four years ago in an attempt to keep out prostitutes and drug dealers who had once occupied the building.
"I drove them out with an NAACP lawyer who lived on Rhode Island (Ave.)," explained Milefsky. "I painted the Bistrot au Ghetto, renamed Cafe Putain qui pue (smelly whore cafe), after hearing about (New York City Mayor Rudy) Giuliani's success with having landlords paint vacant buildings with cheery scenes -- the broken window issue. It worked and the whores did not come back."
The portraits on the adjacent wall of Civil War Colonel Robert Gould Shaw and Duke Ellington, along with a mural depicting a quote from Carter G. Woodson, were added later by volunteers at the behest of current ANC 2C commissioner Alex Padro. Milefsky does not know who painted over the words "Slum Historique," but seemed not upset by the news: "The whole building should be painted over (now)," he said. Coincidentally, the neighborhood blog Remaking the Slum Historique recently changed its name to Renew Shaw.
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um, rhode island isn't actually an island. you live in it, not on it.
I'm sad that the mural has been changed!
Damn. That was the highlight of Shaw. I used to take friends over there to see it.
Too bad they have not bulldozed that fu&king eyesore. The owner is a complete a$$hole scumbag who has sat on a property while paying almost nothing in taxes. He has been offered millions for the property and his greed keeps it vacant...just like Shiloh.
Maybe the Park Service will start moving on Carter G. Woodson Memorial and then all of the scumbag speculators can sell the slums and we can actually have a nice neighborhood.
guest #1, he meant Rhode Island Ave., I've indicated that in the post now to avoid confusion.
Perhaps you can get a grant to restore the painting.
Actually, there is an island called Rhode Island. It's the island that Newport is on. In fact, the full name of the state is Rhode Island and the Providence Plantations.
You do in fact generally live *on* Rhode Island in DC, Snotty Guest #1, as it is a street name. But "um," be happy to give it a shot.
How is the landlord greedy if he's not taking millions of dollars??
Disco Stu - because he wants more money and is holding out, despite the overall negative effect that abandoned, decrepit old houses are having on the neighborhood?
PS - As a great fan of this work and Shaw resident, I will paint it back sometime this year, mark my words.
Guest 1 has somehow remained unaware that there are avenues named after states in DC and presumably travels only on the cartesian grid of alphabetical and numbered streets.
Guest 1 is dumb as a bag of hair....
I think its fitting someone painted over it. Over the past few months I've gotten this feeling that things in Shaw are really starting to gel and that the neighborhood is finally taking off. I don't see it as just a slum with affordable rent like I did when I moved here.
I keep hearing about new restaurants and shops opening up. Development is picking up speed. And this past week, I keep been hearing buzz about The Space opening, and I mean from friends in Georgetown and upper NW, not just from other Shaw people.
I guess it just sort of hit me this weekend that I'm living in a cool neighborhood.
Guest #1's a douche
Ummm....I want to like a guy who paints cheery murals, but something out the way he tosses around the word "whore" just wholey disturbs me.--katmere
Yeah, guest 13 - the Space, with its rumored $200+ a month membership fee, is really going to drive development in the hood.
When your G-town friends are done partying there and cant find a cab home tell them to walk a block over to the section 8 housing and ask for a ride.
Shaw has a long, long way to go.
Shaw has a long way to go, too, b/c of efforts by churches like Shiloh Baptist to inhibit development, growth, and the improvement of safety, by, among other things, blocking liquor licences for new establishments (i.e., Queen of Sheebah and Vegetate) or through its position of slum lord of dozens of buidlings that are dangerous and falling down.
I like the idea of painting buildings to reflect their true identity. Can we paint the Capitol to look like a bank?
Better still, paint it too look like an ATM!
What I find interesting is that they haven't whitewashed "Cafe Putain qui Pue". Do they just not know what that means?