Ballou HS Rocks the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
Photo of the Day: November 27, 2009
Morning Roundup: Black Friday Edition
Car Pushed Into Anacostia River By Train
The Saturday Morning Post
Mayor Fenty, Chief Lanier and Ward 1 Council member Jim Graham today showed off the new Closed Circuit Television camera that's been installed at Kalorama Road and Champlain Street NW. The intersection has been the site of several recent violent crimes, including an officer involved shooting in which a suspect was fatally shot and two police officers were injured. "This technology is instrumental to our work as we continue to fight crime, and make our neighborhoods safe," Mayor Fenty said in a statement. Does the camera make you feel safer at that corner/in that tunnel, Adams Morgan residents?
New Crime Camera at Kalorama Rd. and Champlain Street NW
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We went to the Macy's at 12th & G this morning for the Black Friday morning specials. There was a sh
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Does the camera make you feel safer at that corner/in that tunnel, Adams Morgan residents?
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, I'm sorry, what was the question?
Check out Chris Chen's beautiful photo of the Marie Reed Center in Adams Morgan.
Marie Reed Center at Night
It makes me feel safer just like having Bush in the White House made me feel safer. Same answer to both. No.
Safer, no. But doesn't that camera make my ass look too big?
I can only guess your ass is perfect.
No. Your ass makes your ass look big. (could not resist)
Whoever you are, I have always depended on the kindness of strangers.
I am just jealous that your retarded monkey avatar looks more retarded than my retarded monkey avatar.
People will say we're in love.
Get a room you two. Preferrably one with a retarded monkey hanging in the closet.
Over the River: Take notes grasshopper. You went with the compliment and it got you nowhere. I, on the other hand, played on her insecurities and accused her of having a big ass. BAM!! and like that, I am in. From here on out it would be a simple matter to play the indifferent shallow bad boy for a while before I invite her to the museum and drop a "man's inhumanity to man" on her. From there it is a short cab ride to knocking boots.
Of course, this would assume that 1) I am not married (which I happily am); and 2) Wizzy is not in reality a middle-aged guy with Cheetos breath.
As long as there are kickballers roaming around that area, I will never feel safe
I've never personally felt unsafe there in the first place. I did stopped a mugging there (like ten years ago) though.
It is a step in the right direction, and should have been done years ago. Kickballers make the area safer, talklikepeople. Stop being a hater. Now lets see better lighting on the side streets and a few more cameras.
Also lets widen the the sidewalks on 18th!
This camera will be as helpful as the one on the corner of 17th and Euclid was at helping the police catch the suspects in the drive by that happened under the camera.
Or not.
Maybe they'll get some nice footage of the Real Worlders holding each others hair back while they yale their dinner and talk about their feelings.
Or not.
Why isn't anyone talking about the public housing project that sits at the Southeast corner of Kalorama and Champlain as a possible source of all the crime? Those people are always out on their porch screaming and yelling and causing problems. There is never a Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night where a group from that project isnt causing a raucus in their yard and spilling into the street in front. I think if those people are moved or if the Police pay more attention to them, crime might stop. You can't tell me that, with as much as they are outside, they don't see something or know something. I bet they do. Why is no one talking about this????
Why isn't anyone talking about the public housing project that sits at the Southeast corner of Kalorama and Champlain as a possible source of all the crime? Those people are always out on their porch screaming and yelling and causing problems. There is never a Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night where a group from that project isnt causing a raucus in their yard and spilling into the street in front. I think if those people are moved or if the Police pay more attention to them, crime might stop. You can't tell me that, with as much as they are outside, they don't see something or know something. I bet they do. Why is no one talking about this????
It's actually a co-op. Just because black people hang out in front of it doesn't make it a housing project.
18thandCali; check your facts before you post. The building I am referring to at the corner of Champlain Street and Kalorama is NOT, I repeat NOT a co-op -- it IS public housing. I love how whenever someone talks about crime in this city, and it might involve an African American, the person talking about the subject instantly becomes the villain and the people committing the violent acts become the victim! Nice try, 18thandCali. If we were living in Kentucky, I wouldn't want to live next to public housing if WHITE criminals lived there either! Again, stop trying to affix racist labels to me. I just don't like crime. I think it's an insult to African Americans for you to make the connection between African Americans and crime when I have made no such connection. Stop confusing the issue!
I think you should check your facts. Oh, and you are an asshole.
I just did. Asshole.
Not only are you a douchebag, but you're full of shit.
http://www.trulia.com/homes/District_Of_Columbia/Washington/sold/82202-2201-Champlain-Street-Nw-Washington-DC-20009
FACT: THERE IS HIGHER CRIME AROUND PUBLIC HOUSING!!! This is actually true in most cities. You just going to pretend this is not the case?
Because, DCNimbus, that would not be politically correct.
I know, right? Can we just be honest about issues relating to life and death? I mean the residents of that Housing Project sit on their stoop and see young drunk people with cash in their wallets stumbling home along Champlain and they are like moving targets-- or sitting ducks for those people! I mean, let's look at Adams Morgan -- what is so different about THAT corner than any other corner in that area? It's not the dead end people...its the SECTION 8 HOUSING PROJECT! And this should serve as a warning to bar patrons leaving bars stumbling drunk. Take a cab home even if it's only a few blocks! I helped a bleeding beat up guy call the police after he left a bar super drunk to stumble home. He was so drunk he could only describe one thing about his perpetrator that he kept repeating over and over.
"residents of that housing project"...oh you mean N*****s? Yes, let's cleanse DC of "those people."
Kenyon, by implying that 'those people' are of a certain race, you my friend, are a racist.
People hanging out on their porches at Kalorama and Champlain do a lot more towards making me feel safe walking home late on a Saturday night than any crime camera.
Except when they're "those people."
Uh, I don't feel safe if people are in their yard smoking weed, screaming at each other, drinking beer out of a paper bag, loitering and looking at you with contempt as you walk by. Sorry, I'd choose walking down a quieter street; which is why I usually walk up Ontario and cut over to Champlain above that housing project. And regarding monkeyrotica's reference to "those people" I don't look to anything other than observed behavior of the person. So don't give me that BS that it's because I'm some kind of racist. No one else in the residential part of that area is acting like the people in that public housing complex, and the residents are racially diverse too. I don't care what race you are, if you are acting suspicious, you are acting suspicious! To reference a Dave Chapelle skit -- it's not because you are of any race that we are afraid...its because YOU'S A FRANKENSTEIN!
"Uh, I don't feel safe if people are in their yard smoking weed, screaming at each other, drinking beer out of a paper bag, loitering and looking at you with contempt as you walk by."
I agree with DCNimbus. I hardly if ever see this lively activity in Spring Valley, except for the occasional Au Pair on Friday afternoons.
Another tid bit worth watching. My suspicion is that 18-year-old Michael Griffin (the kid caught robbing someone who then shot the police officer) was likely committing a lot of the recent robberies on and around Kalorama and Champlain, so crime may go down a little bit by virtue of policing exterminating him, but I bet police will attribute any fall in crime to the presence of the camera and not the death of the likely perpetrator of ALL the crimes. (I'm sure we'll also never know any connection Griffin might have to the housing project I referenced above.)
Kids loitering on their parents' stoop, screaming at each other, drinking beer out of a paper bag, and checking me out as I walk by are too busy with their own fun saturday night to rob me. Your mileage and junkpunch-magnet power may vary.
pru -- I want you to meet me at 18th and Florida (a safe distance for me from the Sect 8 housing is on Kalorama and Champlain) at 3am on a Saturday night of your choice, where you will walk from me, through the Reed Tunnel of doom and past that housing project, and then back to me. If you make it all the way back to where I am standing, I'll ask you if you want to revise what you say above.
I lived near a Section 8 apartment complex once and witnessed a robbery in front of my house. I ran out and grabbed the robber. The guy being robbed was confused and thought that I was another robber and took off. The robber wrestled himself loose and ran away in the opposite direction. There were several tenants from the Section 8 apartment complex sitting on the front steps just watching it all take place. One of them said," Aww man,
why'd you stop that!?"
Wow.
Dude, you were so profiled.
what happens when gentrification takes over and the median income for the city is $100k thanks to the high volume of lawyers? will they get rid of the cameras then?
wait, what am i talking about, $100k for a dc lawyer? i mean the median income is 350k. morning blurriness.
Closer-- that has already happened in DuPont, but the city still chooses to keep a "tranitional housing" center open in the middle of the 1700 block of P Street,NW much as they are doing with the Section 8 building on Champlain St. The city needs to understand that if it's looking to increase property values and therefore property taxes, these programs need to be relocated. Again, not about race; rather it is, as you suggest, all about income and how people making that kind of investment are looking for a certain minimum level of quality of life in the city. You don't get that kind of attitudes about neighborhood with people in transitional housing. Heck, I see the uncaring attitude even among the renter population in my condo building, except the renters in my building aren't mugging people and they don't get angry when someone interrupts a mugging.
Property values my ass.
It's about mixing it up. You know, dispersing poverty. Showing people new cultures and environments. Keeping it diverse. One house isn't going to bring down property values on the 1700 block of P, not when single family homes there start at 1.25 million.
They're not "programs." They're people's homes. Please stop being a classist (since you don't like the term racist) asshole.
Politically correct rewrite edition (polishing the turd):
"Those people are always out on their porch screaming and yelling and causing problems." & "Uh, I don't feel safe if people are in their yard smoking weed, screaming at each other, drinking beer out of a paper bag, loitering and looking at you with contempt as you walk by."
Becomes:
The genteel character of the area is reflected by the residents, who are often found outside, enjoying refreshments whilst participating in lively discussions on the topics of the day, lending a homey touch to the area.
and:
"There is never a Thursday, Friday, or Saturday night where a group from that project isnt causing a raucus in their yard and spilling into the street in front." Combined with: "I mean the residents of that Housing Project sit on their stoop and see young drunk people with cash in their wallets stumbling home along Champlain and they are like moving targets-- or sitting ducks for those people!"
Becomes:
Visitors to the area soon discover that this is not merely a neighborhood, but a vibrant community that is more than willing to actively engage with them.
Reality of who Fluxgirl is:
Delusional resident of the Champlain St. Section 8 housing who has a false sense of reality about her and her neighbors in the housing project (from the 'forest being burned down' in the front yard.)
In the alternative:
What Fluxgirl writes is what the Champlain Street Sect 8 Housing residents tells the cops when they come responding to a mugging call.
"Officer! We didn't see anything! I'm just drinking this snapple iced tea of of this paper bag...smoking a home rolled cigarette! I don't know why that guy called the police! He was just drunk I guess!"
Fluxgirl...puhhhhhleeeeeez! spare me!
Did you just here a whizzing noise above your head?
Whssshhhh!! Dude you totally missed the point of her post.
Yeah, I'm with DCNimbus. Let's bus them all out to a Section 8 in SE. Forced relocation has always worked out great.
P.S. DCNimbus - no one else has told you directly in this thread, so I thought I'd take the chance to tell you that you sound like a real asshole.
majapa -- I can come off as an asshole when people try to make me be part of a failed social experiment at the expense of my own life and safety. I have a low tolerance for stupidity, too. So, the former coupled with the latter does make me come off like an asshole when engaging in an anonymous conversation about topics like this. I kinda want to live a long life free from bullets and other things causing physical harm. But, if you knew me in real life, as Jerry Walk sang, "I think I'm an all right guy; I know I ain't perfect, but God knows I try." I think I'm an all right guy.
Oh, majapa, by the way, I've read your other posts, and actually given what you've written, the same could be said of you. Be careful in that glass house of yours!
I kinda want to live a long life free from bullets and other things causing physical harm.
So naturaly you chose to spend your spare time hanging around Section 8 housing. That's like moving to Mordor because you're trying to get away from the poisonous fumes and that Big F**king Eye.
Right, except no one expects to find public housing in DuPont or Adams Morgan. My friend's $600,000 loft is right next door to the Champlain&Kalorama housing project. DC really needs to pay more attention and move these projects to southeast or make a deal with Maryland and get them over to PG County. I mean that's IF they want the revenue from increased property tax and less need for police overtime, disability and hazard pay. You can't have public housing nestled between high end properties. You just can't.
Wow, just wow. For a brief moment I was with you. Concentrated public housing is part of the crime problem. But not you want to forcibly move "those people" to SE or PG where they belong?
Please make note that the projects where there long before the "high end properties."
I take it your friend was fully aware that he/she was spending over half a million dollars for the privelege of living next to a housing project. If so, I don't see the logic in knowingly moving next door to an existing problem and then demand that the problem move elsewhere.
If not, perhaps your friend should seek legal action against his/her realtor for misrepresentation.
Actually, it is a known phenomena. In general people can't afford to live in the neighborhood they want, so they move into something that is close to it, and try to change it.
Folks complaining about airports, gun ranges, farms, public housing, strip clubs, industrial sites, etc. are always newcomers who knew exactly what they were buying into. Invariably someone will Lovejoy the argument by saying "we need to think about the children"
I understand, but why not try and find a place that doesn't have a housing project next door? I mean, they do exist. This just sounds like those folks who bought the condos off 18th Street and then complained about the noise from the bars. WTF? You live right next to the noisiest, dirtiest bars in town. Did you not notice the loud bars when the realtor gave you a tour? Did you not step in Jumbo Slice vomit while you were walking your labradoodle? Did you not notice the LNS douches using your flowering arbutus for a toilet?
Like I said, because they want to live in Dupont, but can't afford it, so they move to something close to it, and bitch to get rid of all the things that contribute to it being cheaper.
So when their bitching finally gets the projects closed and they can't afford to live there anymore because they're surrounded by rich people who think "the AdMo" needs to be trendier, what then?
That's right. Find another bunch of projects to move right next to.
Welcome to Swampoodle.
Population: You.
"no one expects to find public housing in DuPont or Adams Morgan"
1- It's Dupont, not DuPont
2- Both Dupont and Adams Morgan have had subsidized housing for decades.
3- Grow a pair and stop being so hysterical. You're more likely to get struck by a car on Champlain AFTER it's reopened as an alternate to 18th than you are shot or stabbed on Champlain now.
Are you for real, dude? Because I'm pretty it would be impossible for a real person, ie not a parody of an overprivileged bobo/yuppie, to sound ANY MORE entitled. Where the fuck do you think we're living that forced relocations would be good public policy? Beijing? Those people were there first. Many of them for years or decades. (And many of those are NOT the people who are committing crimes. They just want a reasonably priced place to live.) Your friend with the ridiculously overpriced loft should simply KEEP CALLING THE COPS if he/she has a problem.
gmg -- I dunno..are YOU for real? All I'm saying is that we need to get rid of the criminal element. EVERYONE is entitled to a crime free neighborhood.
When PIGMAN applied for a job with the DC Metropolitan Police Department, he was turned down. He asked, "Is it because I'm overweight?"
"Yes!", was the reply.
dcnimbus, I assure you that you are not sounding like an asshole. On DCist, if you don't have a 'certain' view regarding race, religion, or sexuality, you are automatically considered an asshole. The ironic part is with your original post you didn't even mention race ... yet people immediately associated your post as racist. Because everyone knows that all the residents of public housing are of a certain race ... right?? The reality is that public housing is the problem ... regardless of the race of people living there.
And as for your friend, I have no sympathy for him. Paying that much for a condo in an area like that is ridiculous ... same goes for anyone who buys expensive properties in Columbia Heights and is shocked when they get shot at on their block. I had friends in Columbia Heights and if I went to visit, I knew that I was risking my life and I dealt with it...
Oh, good GOD
Risking your life. Yeah, I guess. Thousands and thousands of people walk, drive, sleep, party, shop, work, screw and worship in Columbia heights each and every hour of each and every day. And, what, maybe a dozen get killed each year? And most of those by people they know? Do you also avoid ladders, bathtubs and ex-spouses? Seriously.
When there are drive by shootings on your block, I'd say that's a little too close for comfort. Am I afraid of falling off ladders? No. Am I afraid of falling off ladders that are 50 ft high? Yep.
Dude, rub some bacon and PIGMAN will get the scent, he will gladly escort you through high crime areas.
No doubt. I agree. I've lived on blocks in "columbia heights east" aka Pleasant Plains where the sound of gunfire was an every other day thing. But to say "I had friends in Columbia Heights and if I went to visit, I knew that I was risking my life and I dealt with it..." is just smidgeon over the top.
SAN DIMAS HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL RULES!!!!
You hipsters are so funny. You enjoy “living with the people” and even though you're getting mugged and held up at gun point but you'll still rather live in Adams Morgan or Columbia heights than live in Glover Park or Capitol Hill. The facts are undeinable. People from those projects or probably their friends from PG are the ones that are robbing you, selling drugs in the neighborhoods etc. We can be PC about it and tip-toe around the issue thus never solving the problems, or you can admit it and take back your neighborhoods. Until then, I'll stay west of 18th thank you.
My house in Glover Park was burglarized. That was really fun! Then I moved to Columbia Heights, where a)I've never felt unsafe on the street or in my apt, and b)I'm walking distance to both my office and the Metro. Meanwhile, your fear-mongering, racist generalizations are really making you miss out. Incidentally, they also make you look kind of stupid. (In particular, I'm not sure exactly how much of Capitol Hill fits your narrow definition of "safe.")
But hey ... thanks for playing!
1) are you now going to tell me that adams Morgan and Columbia Heights are safer than Capitol Hill? Have you ever looked that the police blotters? Your trendy neighborhood ranks near the top in crime this city.
2) Is the automatic response to call someone a racist that points out crime patterns? You have no idea what race I am but I'm automatcally a racist because I point out the fact that a lot of crimes in our are commited by PG residents who cross over into DC but can not afford to live here. Again, check the MPD website. Please refrain from calling people racist at a drop of the hat.
DCNimbus is absolutely right!! DC could be an awesome awesome city like NYC and Chicago, however it is so lame at dealing with the crime!!! (please refrain from the debate and talking about how dc is smaller than both..you get the gist). If the crime drops, property values will go up, and areas other than certain parts of NW will be able to be lived in and thus the city will be more walkable, more fun, and more urban. Lets get real here!
We all love DC, but the crime overshadows the praise it deserves.
DC doesn't have an affordable housing problem, it has a crime problem. And a perceived crime problem. And a hella lot of culture and class issues.
Nice (really really nice) historic single family homes in Anacostia, a 5 minute jaunt from downtown, are now languishing, unsold.
I equate Adams Morgan to the Village in NYC, in terms of funkiness, yuppies, hipsters etc.. Is there a housing project in the Village??? Is there a housing project on Bleeker, by NYU, by Washington Sq Park..UGH NO! GET REAL!
Why can't we just clean it up; especially the areas that are hip/cool desirable ( like Adams Morgan). It's pathetic!! It undermines our city, the city we all like dearly and want to see flourish!
Why can't we just clean it up,/i>
Who knew that economic development, housing, education and social policy were so easy! "Just clean it up!"
Somebody call the mayor.
The mayor'd be able to pickup the phone if he weren't dripping with Wesson and Crisco.
Just...wow.