Another Shining City On A Hill, ..Again!

Check out the plans for the new Penn Branch Center... http://www.icgproperties.com/retail.asp?id=10 on ICGProperties.com!

Check out the airy, light-friendly glass and steel architecture, the environmentally conscious green roofing, the restaurants, the sidewalk cafes and the people! Imagine spending a Saturday afternoon, dozing over your laptop at Dunkin' Donuts or Panera or Caribou Coffee! Imagine heading down to a bar for drinks with the fellas on Cinco de Mayo! Imagine celebrating your whatever with your whoevers, amidst the primal, smokey scent of STEAK on the grill, wafting up and along Carpenter Street! Imagine all of the schemes you'll have to come up with just to drive by this place, without pulling over for something.

You'll never get downtown. You will never see Capitol Hill, again.

And speaking of downtown, imagine the GATED PARKING that will end the abusive over-crowding of Penn Branch Center's parking lot by commuters. It's so crowded during the day, it sometimes takes several minutes to get around the lot or to find a parking space.

"I spoke with the real estate broker a while back," Ms. V of the Fairfax Village blog, LIFE IN THE VILLAGE, told me in September, "and the new facade on the existing building and two new pads in the existing parking lot are scheduled for completion in [December] 2010."

Just thought it might be nice to post another link to ICG's spectacular plans for Penn Branch Center, in case some of you missed the original post (now deleted).

Don't know when this thing is supposed to be built, considering that construction was supposed to start on the first of October, and I am still concerned about what will happen to our favorite nighborhood businesses, like Star Pizzeria. As far as I know, the rumours about PBC businesses being moved into trailers, during the big renovation, are still just rumours.

I'll tell you this--you haven't had a chicken cheese-steak, until you've had one with extra cheese, at Star Pizzeria. Yum-mmm! Get down there, Brangler!

Mel Dyer

Dracula Should Be So Lucky!

Is that a...?

I think I we just drove past a...

Can't be a...not in Southeast, Washington, D.C.!

But, actually, ..it is.

Someone is actually building a something that looks very much like a small castle, right here, in Southeast Washington, DC!

The expansive, red brick mansion being erected on Texas Avenue is getting quite the buzz around here, and, upon its completion, will be one of the largest houses ever to be built in Penn Branch. It's flanked by a patch of woodland on its left and a spacious backyard on its right, ..and, from the looks of the grounds, will probably feature a stately manor driveway sweeping up to the front door and back out to the street. While the Gothic influnce is clearly distinguished by the masonry accents over the windows and the arched window over the double doors, there's also a plethora of other architectural styles being used here that I can't begin to recognize.

The overall effect is powerful. Arresting. Quirky.

It takes real guts to build something this weird in this middle of sleepy, little stretch of Texas Avenue. There's something about people, who make their homes on mountains, even small ones, that will always run roughly over the boundaries of consensus normality, ..and it's something Penn Branch understands.

We Branglers tend to live a little on the wild side.

Whoever's putting this house together should fit right in, around here.

Mel

An Evening With the Bard

In case you haven't heard already, Councilwoman Yvette Alexander (a Penn Branch native) will be hosting Ward Seven Night at the Shakespeare Theatre, TONIGHT--on Wednesday, September 9, 2009, at Sidney Harman Hall, located in the Gallery Place area of Downtown Washington.

According to Ms. Alexander's website, "400 complimentary tickets" will be available to residents of Penn Branch and other Ward Seven neighborhoods (Hillcrest, Fairfax Village, Goodhope, Capitol Heights, Deanwood, Greenway, etc.) for this big-box production of William Shakespeare's Taming Of The Shrew. The magic begins at 7:30pm, ..but, the Shakespeare Theatre Company website warns to get down there early, as their lines usually start forming four hours before a show starts. With director David Muse's inspired all-male production of Romeo & Juliet still the talk of D.C.'s theatre circles, this production promises to be a quirky, unconventional, eye-bending spectacle, typical of his critically acclaimed interpretations of the Bard's works ..and not to be missed.

The speed-humps on Carpenter Street (around the corner from where my mother and sister live) are high enough to ski on, and there is more opossum and racoon on this hill than you can shake a hunting rifle at, ..but, Councilwoman Alexander continues to be a Penn Branch gift that keeps on giving. Events, like Night at the Shakespeare are so vital to the wellness of River East Washingtonians, and especially to our kids, many of whom often express a feeling of being a scarred, exiled and forgotten part of our otherwise opulent Nation's Capital. I think Yvette Alexander knows that these events connect all of us to a larger world of art, culture and opportunities that simply haven't landed in our part of town, ..yet. In spite of the considerable challenges facing much of her community, Alexander continues to bring insightful and forward-thinking solutions to us, and we are all the wealthier for calling her one of ours.

She is a light, my friends.

She is a light with free tickets to a play at Sidney Harman Hall, ..after which a night of shameless, frivolous partaying in Chinatown and points farther west must be had by all.

Go, you must. *Go! Vanish into air! Away!

Mel Dyer

*That last bit, "Go! Vanish into air! Away!" was inspired by (or stylishly lifted from) William Shakespeare's infamous Othello. Hey--I'm an English Lit major, here! Look the other way and let me have my fun.

Saddle up, Branglers!

The Penn-Branch Citizens/Civic Association is meeting tonight in the basement multipurpose hall of the Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church, located at 3000 Pennsylvania Avenue, in Southeast Washington! Come around to the back of the church, and you'll find us.

See you there, my friends!

Mel Dyer

Old Alliances

On a quick errand, some years ago, I remember driving through a very different Benning Terrace, at 46th Place and G Street SE, than the one that exists today.

Having grown up (like many Penn Branch folk) with firearms at home and knowing what they can do, I ignored my neighbor's urging to drop him off and speed away as fast as I could drive. Something seemed wrong and shameful about doing that--wasn't raised to think that way and didn't particularly care to regard Benning Terrace or any other troubled River East neighborhood as a leper colony or some mythical leviathan.

I knew that speeding through neighborhoods like Benning Terrace or building freeways over them, as was done in Southeast Capitol Hill (now 'Hill East'), doesn't make them magically go away or solve their problems. I knew that running off doesn't make them any better for people who have to pass through them to get somewhere else--certainly doesn't make them better for the folks, who have to live there.

So, this one didn't run.

Instead, I took a really good, hard look at the place. I saw the drug activity, loitering, noise, litter and stench thereof. Drank it all in deeply, and I could see very well that some of the horror stories I had heard about Benning Terrace were based in fact.

I could see very well how lucky I was to have grown up where I did, in Penn Branch, and was overwhelmed with pride for the men and women, who work so tirelessly and vigilantly to keep our opossum-littered hill [Got two opossum watching me through a window, as I type this!] such a great place to come home to. As Benning Terrace disappeared behind an umbrella of maple trees in my rearview, I thought about all the neighbors, who watched out for me, as I grew up, ..and how lucky I have been to know their discipline, love and protection.

I felt very proud and, at once, very humble also.

Today, there are people, who feel that way about the Alliance of Concerned Men and how, just a few years ago, this grass-roots nonprofit organization rallied the people of Benning Terrace, once nicknamed 'Simple City', to solve their own problems and invest, spiritually and economically, in a better future.

I have just added a link to the Alliance of Concerned Men, who mentor at-risk youth residing in high-crime areas of the D.C. Metropolitan area, to our Great Folks, Great Stuff section. I am very proud to do so.

Support these guys any way you can, my friends.

O Street Creek?

A few days ago, my former social studies teacher--great lady, who still lives on southern-most end of Carpenter Street--tells me there's a CREEK [Another creek?!], running behind the houses on O Street and along the back wall of the Penn Branch Shopping Center. When I heard that, I could've had a baby right on her porch!

My mind flooded with questions...

How big or deep is it? Where does it go? What kind of animals, besides our lovable and prolific Brangler opossum, are living down there? Can the people, who live along O Street actually see the creek from their backyards? Does anybody have any cool stories about this creek?

Recently, I've noticed there was a rather thick patch of woods, behind the PBC; truthfully, I couldn't guess how thick it might actually be. It is a pretty wild patch and hard to see into, but, I would love to get a look this creek! From what Mrs. G told me, I would wager it is not as big as Pope Creek, which runs along the backs of the houses on Pope Street. Perhaps, when re-development begins on PBC, and that back wall gets torn down, we might get a peek.

There was a great creek behind the private school that I attended, as a child. We played in it, swam in it (sometimes), fished tadpoles, frogs and crayfish out of it, and I have never forgotten my affinity for creeks and streams.

Mel Dyer

Tennis, Anyone? Anymore?

Since its founding in 2001, the Recreation Wish List Committee, chaired by Dr. Cora Masters-Barry, wife of former Mayor Marion Barry, had been operating a tennis academy for the Southeast Tennis and Learning Center, nestled beside a broad, golden creek at 701 Mississippi Avenue in Southeast Washington. On Thursday, August 13, 2009, the government of the District of Columbia sent an eviction notice to the Committee, which, according to Attorney General Peter Nickles, was served because the Committee’s corporate registration had been revoked in 2006, prohibiting its continued operation.

So, this Southeast Tennis and Learning Center, which has served the lower income and at-risk youth of River East for nearly ten years, closes. What does it have to do with life in Penn Branch? Why should we care?

What’s the big deal?

As a member of the *Kiwanis Club of Capitol Hill and volunteering with the *Southeast White House’s Homework Club (an after-school program), I learned there are courageous, iron-willed, young people, right here in River East (Southeast), for whom that is very much a big deal. For these kids, who walk out of their apartments to wade through open-air drug markets, impending gang violence, prostitution and trash on their streets—the Southeast Tennis and Learning Center and institutions like it can radically change their perception of the world around them ..and of their place in it.

At its best, the Southeast Tennis and Learning Center introduces them to an ordered and functional world beyond the chaos of their streets. It is a world, the air of which is charged with the intensity of hard competition, but, also one shaped by time-honored rules, discipline and the expression of mutual respect between competitors. It is a world driven by a collective ambition to be the best at what you do and even to exceed one’s own expectations for individual progress. Furthermore, the Southeast Tennis and Learning Center shows these young people that the world beyond their street is one they can compete in ..and win in.

It’s a better world. It’s light in the darkness. It’s hope.

That is the big deal about the closing of the Southeast Tennis and Learning Center, ..but, what does it have to do with life here, in Penn Branch?

Whenever and wherever it’s in our power to do so, we ought to support such institutions, especially ones serving youth, right here in River East, because this is where D.C.'s future conscientious neighbors and community leaders are being made. It is from institutions like this, where young people are encouraged to think and dream beyond their immediate circumstances, however challenging, that society will welcome its next problem-solvers. If we're lucky, maybe, they will want a stake in this great neighborhood or another like it—to live and raise their kids here, champion its old-fashioned ideals ..and to fight like hell to keep it just as wholesome and nurturing a place as it is, now.

Maybe, they will even appreciate our scrappy, waterlogged, mosquito-ridden, opossum-infested montanita, as much as we Branglers do!

All controversy and political intrigue aside, in an August 13th interview with WJLA TV, Dr. Cora Masters-Barry insists that the Southeast Tennis and Learning Center’s corporate and tax exempt status is above board. Last Thursday, the Washington City Paper reported that Mayor Adrian Fenty’s office said the revocation of the Center’s corporate registration was discovered in a random check of nonprofits that have been operating in D.C. for years ..and, of the closing, assures all concerned that something can be "worked out".

Mel Dyer

*The Kiwanis Club of Capitol Hill and the Southeast White House, located at 2909 Pennsylvania Avenue in Southeast Washington, D.C., are GREAT organizations that tirelessly and selflessly serve the economically and culturally diverse communities of River East. They welcome your time, your ingenuity and your financial contributions, however great or small. To get involved, check out the 'Great Folks, Great Stuff' links on the right of this page.