Our Little Neighborhood Post Office

Lately I've been using that little post office at the intersection of 4th and RI and Florida avenues NW to drop off my mail as I just can't be bothered to drive or bus down to the Post Office at Union Station and, well, I just don't trust the mail boxes on the streets. I expect they are safer now but I do remember learning that the kids would dump their soft drinks in them or light fire crackers and post them in the mail boxes. And when I send mail I really do want it to get to the destination intended.  After all, it's quite a bit of trouble to do real snail mail (it's amazing that email has become the baseline, isn't it?) What I do like about this post office is that it has a  parking lot so I can just drive in, drop the mail, and drive on to the library or whatever from out the other side of the lot.  Very convenient.  I did read some Yelp reviews where there was criticism about how it sometimes opens late or the staffer on duty takes a long lunch hour and it closes at 5pm and isn't open on the weekends. Also, some reviews about how the staffer isn't always so friendly or as helpful as the user would like. But really, does everything have to be open 24 hours, 7 days a week, every day?  Can't some people just have a bad day at work and not be particularly helplful? It really feels more like a neighborhood post office with these kind of attributes, don't you think?

Frazier Funeral Home Before and After

I pass by 391 Rhode Island Ave NW all the time either on the bus or walking or in a car and have been watching with fascination the transformation of Frazier's Funeral Home to condominiums.  Apparently the building was sold in 2011 for about $850,000 and is being re-worked into a multi-unit residential property.  Interestingly, originally it was three row houses that had been turned into the funeral home back in the day.  The dividing interior walls were removed when it became a funeral parlor and so the new developer has probably sliced this up in a new way.  There are some websites discussing this re-use of the building with lots of conversation about bringing the dead back to life, dangers of embalming chemical residue, and whether or not there are ghosts haunting the place. It's a crazy traffic corner there at Florida and Rhode Island and 4th Streets NW -- apparently there is an abundance of accidents due to people running the light -- so I hope the developer put in good windows or the new live tenants will go nuts from noise.

Wild Yard at Shaw Public Library

At first I didn't like the "weeds" growing outside the Watha T. Daniel DC public library branch building in Shaw at the intersection of Rhode Island and R Streets NW, but, upon a moment's reflection, I decided I liked this seemingly unkempt yard space alongside the sleek modernity of the new glass building. Not only do these grasses and plants smell nice in the summery heat but they also make for pleasant mirror reflections. There's something very country-side about these three foot high grasses and that made me think of fields and river banks.  I had no idea if this planting was intentional or not but the idea of letting  plants grow a bit wild in a confined space, just to see what happens and how it looks, appeals to me. I just hope that rats and other nasty critters don't make this their home too! A garden is a garden, isn't it, even if it's not really planned and doesn't look like what you'd expect. And surely there's intention in that.  I've researched a bit further now (July) and discovered that these plantings are intentional. That is, the aim was to plant things that need minimal water, help purify the air (don't all plants do that?), help reduce soil erosion (don't all plants do that?) and limit the need for pesticides. This is according to a nice little plaque tucked away near the library front door which gives the reasons for the design.  The plaque also lists the plants growing there and which have lovely names:  Prairie Dropseed, Weeping Brown Sedge, Northern Sedge Oats, Kiwi Weeping Sedge, Giant Fescue, The Blues Little Bluestem, Liriope Big Blue, Lily Turf, Snowy Wood Rush, and Greater Wood Rush.  Who knew?

Hess Gas Station in Bloomingdale Shaw LeDroit Park

View of Hess gas station from bus stop on RI Ave NW

I really don't know why I like the Hess gas station so much that is at the intersection of Rhode Island Avenue and New Jersey Avenue (and near Florida Avenue) in NW as much as I do. Maybe it's because of the great location, maybe it's because gas is always less per gallon than the other nearby gas stations, maybe because it's easy to drive into and usually there's an available pump, maybe because there's a Dunkin Donuts "alliance" store there and they have great coffee, or maybe because they have car vacuum cleaners and an air pump that works. I asked a friend whether he liked it and said no, he didn't and the reason was that he always had to wait to pay for gas as the cashier was taken up with people buying just one soda or a pack of cigarettes or lottery tickets.  He just wants to get gas, pay for it, and go. I think I'll start a poll on this one and see what comes up. How do you like your neighborhood gas station?

Carter Woodson Corner, RI Ave NW and 9th

On the SE corner of Rhode Island Avenue NW and 9th Street stands this decaying building that you just know is going to get bull-dozed out of history one day. I think they are trying to sell it as it's been painted over sort of to make it look more like one building.  It used to be a lot more interesting looking as it had writings and Egyptianesque paintings in bright blue and green painted on its walls.  At one point a lot of people lived in the building and it was clearly a religious sect of some sort, with women in full habibs going in and out. But these days you just look at it and say to yourself "that's going to get bull dozed over" one day and a nice new block of brick front condos is going to get thrown up there that won't look a bit like this old building.  I wish I had taken a photo of the mural that used to be on the side of the building that had a quote in French that said "bienvenue a Shaw, slum historique" alongside some renderings of Carter Woodson, an African American historic figure.He's the guy known as the Father of Black History, if you didn't already know that!  One of his most famous quotes used to be painted on the side of the building too: "We should emphasize not Negro history but the Negro in history..."   (see other view of this quote here). But this month is when I finally got to photographing this building and it's the best I could do to capture some local history.Nearby, at 1538 Ninth St NW, is the Carter Woodson home, where there will be the 135th Birthday Anniversary Celebration on December 18, 2011. There is little doubt that history is all around us all the time. And thanks to others for preserving the colorful quotes and images that were on the building previously!

Related articles 

• How many honors did Carter G Woodson earn (wiki.answers.com)

Rustik Tavern in Bloomingdale

Well, it's just amazing to me that there is now a decent bar where we can go for a drink and snack and that is within walking distance of my house in this section of the city I have lived in for over 25 years. This is the Rustik Tavern which opens at 4 pm every day and serves drinks and pizza and a few other things up to 1 pm daily. We went there Saturday evening about 5 pm and hubster ordered a Ying Ling beer and I had my customary vodka martini while sitting at the bar watching Manchester United beat Manchester City on the large HD TV screen hanging over the bar. The smiling waitress also served us a pizza -- I think we got some sort of veggie thing -- that was about 12 inches diameter and enough of a snack for two people. They make the pizzas in a fiery gas oven over on one side of the tavern that you can watch while they cut and chop and bake 'em.  While we were there nearly all the tables filled with mostly all the young people who have moved into the neighborhood over the past four to five years. They even bring their kids in with them as one little girl was running up and down between the tables and the row of bar stools.  It's a very nice atmosphere and we stayed for a couple of hours and even noshed on some baked potatoes with bacon and cheese bits and a poached pear dessert during our second round of drinkies.Of course, I had to check and see if there was a wheelchair accessible doorway that my son could use when he comes home and wants to go out for a beer or whatever. And yes, they have such a doorway but it's a bit blocked by surplus chairs on the inside. That's a No-No!  I got the impression that this bar attracts more singles later in the evening but I'm really not sure about that.  It's clear that when the weather gets warmer they will have tables outside and that might be a fun activity too, watching the world go by on Rhode Island avenue in Bloomingdale.   I might try the kale salad then, which I'd seen being delivered to another table. Well, we'd prayed for the neighborhood to improve, and now, prayer answered! Thank God!

Chinese Dragon In the Neighborhood

Apparently the owner of the Chinese Dragon take-away food store on the corner of Rhode Island and First Street in our neighborhood got some money from the city government's facade improvement program (that is, from us taxpayers) to improve his store front. Previously, this was just block letters and there was not a little dragon logo over the store windows. I think the front wall was also repainted yellow and the windows have also been washed too so the whole effect is to make this place look a lot smarter. You would never know it but this food establishment was the scene of some drug related shootings back when we had a serious crack cocaine problem in the 'hood. I think someone was even killed right in front of this place, shot to death on the sidewalk. Back then, this corner was a thriving drug market, thanks to the Washington Post for putting the corner on a map of drug dealing locations they routinely printed (to help suburbanites find inner city drug markets).  Today, however, the neighboring store is a more up-market grocery and wine store than what used to be there -- a liquor store -- and the Chinese Dragon has also gotten fixed up.  I've never bought anything to eat from here as I don't "eat on the street" nor have I thought to go in and see what that's there but maybe I should try it.  Does a cleaned up facade mean the food might be more appealing? Some people think so as two people have given positive reviews of this Chinese Dragon here on Yelp.

DC Metrobus G8 Kept Me Waiting in the Cold Too Long!

Twenty-five minutes is too long to wait for a bus on a cold Monday morning! After waiting for about ten minutes in the freezing windy cold at 8:50 am on Rhode Island Avenue along came a bus!  However, it zoomed right past with the driver apparently unable to tell the standing passengers to "move back" so he could say he had no room for the six of us waiting.  So he didn't stop. You'd think another bus would come along within a few minutes? Nope. It was another fifteen minutes later before a bus arrived for us poor freezing passengers. And the driver had draped a jacket over the Coin/Smart Trip fare machine as apparently that wasn't working well either. Or were we given a free fare as we'd waited so long for the bus?  How can DC Metrobus keep on not running enough buses to pick up passengers on time IN THE MORNING?  It wasn't raining. It wasn't snowing. The traffic wasn't even heavy. It's not like this isn't a busy route as there's usually at least half a dozen passengers at this G8 stop every day and the bus fills up. And why the no-fare or broken fare machine?  On reflection, at least once a week I get on a bus and the fare machine is broken or not working or the driver just waves us past. How can WMATA make any money this way?  Just what is going on?