Shaw: Slum Historique No Longer?
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.
