An IHOP opened in Congress Heights three days ago. Normally, this would not qualify as big news. The International House of Pancakes isn’t exactly a place of culinary wonder; its slogans are either corny (”An American Icon”) or sad (”This is My IHOP”). The sorriest thing in the world isn’t John McCain’s new ad featuring Britney or Fox’s morning show. It’s this video of a marriage ceremony performed at an IHOP. IHOP is no Original House of Pancakes (the best breakfast place of all time).

Still. The pancake/crepe/T-bone joint is the first major sitdown to open up in Ward 8 since forever. Or long before Barry used the ward’s council seat as his retirement fund. Zing! So Ward 8 finally enters the world of food–huge, huge portions, low, low price–made for old people and drunks.

The CW is that IHOP is a greasy spoon made somewhat depressing by the embarrassingly-named deals, super-sweet concoctions (it’s latest being an apple-cobbler-themed pancake special), and the fact that you must be hammered to consume such products. The food seems created by incredibly stoned evangelicals: wholesome turned vaguely unwholesome.

These are food stuffs mainly inhaled during the hours of 2 a.m. to 4 a.m. It’s dark outside and lonely inside. You only go to IHOP when you’ve struck out for the night. You aren’t getting laid. Fuck it, you go to IHOP, your drunken stupor made correct with eggs, sausage, bacon, three buttermilk pancakes, and bottomless coffee.

That was the Old IHOP.

The New IHOP is located on Alabama Avenue SE just inside the Camp Simms Giant parking lot. The New IHOP is bright, warm, inviting, clean, and boasts 37 cheery employees for every customer. The New IHOP has Karen: The Most Dedicated Waitress Ever.

Karen was our server.

When Karen approached our table, she glowed. This was her second night, she told us. Thank you sitting in her section, she told us. She is very excited, she told us.

My source I was eating with offered a nervous smile to all her replies. After she gave us our bottomless sodas and iced-Ts, she smiled some more. You guys ready, she asked.

My source wanted to know why she was so excited.

“I’m alive,” Karen said and then took in a deep breath proving she was alive.

OK.

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A week or two ago, I spent serious time commuting to and from Henson Ridge for a story on the struggling Hope VI community. As far as appearances go, the neighborhood is well-made, well-designed, and has some nifty new playgrounds. On closer inspection, teenagers still gravitate toward the decrepit rec center and crummy basketball courts, and have converted a set of jersey barriers into a hangout spot. Violence has inched up. Residents have started complaining about trash piling up at those new playgrounds, the lack of routine upkeep, and the need for more cops on their new streets.

There’s tension between renters vs. homeowners, grandmothers vs. bored teenagers, and residents seeking comfort and quiet vs. residents or visitors sipping the cheap stuff in public.

But what felt so much like the old housing project days wasn’t these gripes. It was hearing residents talk about the management company–Edgewood.

Of course, I didn’t interview every resident. And some I did talk to had no complaints and loved Henson Ridge. But there were others who shared a different history. There was the resident whose air conditioner had been broken for a week. She says she called Edgewood multiple times and even visited their offices in Henson Ridge twice. She was still without AC.

And there were the three residents who had bullet holes in their walls. Two of whom made reference to promises Edgewood had made to them. And still the holes hadn’t been fixed. I don’t know about you but I’d prefer a kitchen without a bullet hole.

Schnetia Green, 65, had lived with a bullet hole above her kitchen table for more than a month. She had complained but could get no one from Edgewood to fix it. Then I showed up at her door.

A few days after my story ran on Henson Ridge, she called to give me the good news. The hole had been fixed.

“It just got fixed Monday,” Green says. “But look how long it was open before they fixed it?”

Yeah. But that was before Washington City Paper came to the rescue, right? Did the management company, um, mention my story?

“They didn’t mention it,” Green says.

Very interesting. Edgewood not only fixed her pocked wall but they went ahead and fixed her droopy ceiling. They probably expected a follow-up expose! Right?

The on-going battle over vending operations around Nationals Park took a step toward a resolution this afternoon. A D.C. Superior Court judge ruled against three vendors seeking to halt the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs‘ current practice of assigning vendors to sites outside the stadium via a lottery.

Judge Brook Hedge denied the vendors’ motion for a preliminary injunction against DCRA.

The vendors had serious gripes against the city agency for a number of reasons–some of which were sketched out in the motion, some were not. The city took too long in formulating a system for assigning vendor sites at Nationals Park, they say. After emergency legislation was passed for some 40 possible locations, DCRA awarded only 28 locations–and all the locations were north of M Street. Most of the sites would be lucky to get a handful of Nats fans let alone make any real profit. You can see the 28 locations with this handy map.

Another 14 sites had been awarded in a lottery last week. Those sites were closer to Nationals Park. Another lottery is scheduled for today.

Update 5:19 p.m.: The vendors had argued before the court that DCRA should not have held the lottery–that the D.C. Police Department should be in charge. There also needed to be more back-and-forth over the lottery process itself.

Judge Hedge wrote in her opinion: “Plaintiffs’ claims rest on shaky ground. Contrary to plaintiffs’ arguments, on April 23, 2008, the Mayor did issue a delegation of authority for the vending site and vending selections at Nationals Park to the Director of the DCRA…The proposed regulations do not require that non-R.F.K. Stadium-vendor-applicants be licensed prior to entry into the lottery.” The Judge went on to write that the vendors weren’t losing that much money since working the Nationals Park was only a part-time job. And that the vendors’ gripes were minor.

Judge Hedge wrote: “It is evident from the legislative history discussed above that this was a fast-moving situation and that, in order to maintain peace and tranquility, given the prior events which led to the vendor moratorium, and that the City Council expected vendor sites to be allocated for the full baseball season, that emergency regulations were necessary…”

This might be my final installment into the saga that is the life of Captain Melvin Gresham—a D.C. Police Department official who appears to always be in the center of intrigue and controversy. According to his civil-suit complaint filed in June, Gresham is a hero/whistle blower/all-around standup cop. To cop sources, he’s a supervisor who needs some leadership training asap.

“I had to bang heads with him, very disagreeable is the way he investigated things. He never has any proof. When we go to arbitration against him, he loses most of the arbitrations. We’ve had several arbitration hearings with our members and he’s lost. All the evidence is, ‘What I heard.’ Nothing ever of substance. He never has any real evidence against anybody. When you’re a policeman, you have to have solid facts,” says one veteran officer.

Gresham has his followers. Many of whom have commented on this post and our last installment.

The current Gresham dustup stems from a traffic accident. The allegation: Gresham got into a fender bender and pressured an officer to change the accident report in his favor.

In Gresham’s complaint, he addresses the accident on page 10, bullet-point No. 23. Or rather, he dances around the allegations, focusing mainly on picking apart the testimony and character of Lt. Mike Smith.

The complaint hones in on anonymous letter (was it written by Smith?), Smith’s believing that Gresham is a very rich man, and the allegation that Smith admitted to “tampering” with evidence. “Lt. Smith was off duty and had no actual basis for interjecting himself into the investigation,” the complaint states.

The complaint notes that the police department withdrew the charges against Gresham. “However, Chief Lanier insisted on serving Cpt. Gresham an official reprimand.” The reprimand addresses the very serious allegation of witness intimidation:

According to the complaint, the reprimand reads:

“Internal Affairs Agent Denise Garrett investigated the alleged misconduct. Agent Garrett determined that your demeanor and subsequent confrontation with the reporting officer was intimidating and may have jeopardized the impartiality of the accident investigation.”

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The recent terrifying muggings of a journalist and a punk rocker would normally mean nothing more than a shrug from long-time residents. Oh muggings? Not exactly news. But for some reason, both got me pretty angry. Both took place in high density areas of Adams Morgan. Both were brutal in execution.

At least in the case of Christopher Savage, police haven’t solved his mugging–which may or may not have led to his death. I’m not sure if the journalist’s case has been solved or not.

If you are a mugger, you have a more than 80 percent chance of getting away with your crimes in the District.

The D.C. Police Department’s closure rate for robberies is 15.8 percent through April, according to department spokesperson Traci Hughes. That’s down from the national average. It appears the national average according to 2006 FBI stats is roughly 25 percent. The closure rate is 21 percent for cities with a population over 250,000.

Oh, and muggings appear to be up in Adams Morgan. Stats show a bump in robberies for the area, according to police and a city official. They are possibly up by more than 20 percent.

The Grounds Crew, the Washington Post’s blog devoted to Nationals Park, is really starting turn on the home team and the home field. But this one is just sweet, one blogger notes: “The Other Nationals are Pretty Great.” She writes: “I went to my first Potomac Nationals game on the 4th of July. It was exactly like the big Nationals only cheaper and the team played better. I was completely charmed.”

Mr. T in DC hops on the Bolt Bus bandwagon and it isn’t all that cheap. Cheaper than Amtrak. Cheaper than Greyhound. But it wasn’t a buck: “The one thing that makes me nervous is they don’t have a phone number of any kind, so if the bus is late or has a problem, you can’t call to ask what’s going on. The buses look nice and clean, so that’s good. We’ll see.”

And Now, Anacostia shows an aerial shot of their turf circa 1921. Even then, not a lot of sit-down restaurants. Blogger uses the shot to point out a history of terrible land-use decisions.

Penn Quarter Living wonders if “Bones” is/was filming on E Street.

Congress Heights on the Rise implores residents to attend PSA meetings!

In Shaw discovers the source of That Ringing: “I’ve figured out where the bells that ring the hours come from. I was walking near Immaculate Conception on 8th and N one evening and heard the bells there, sounding like they were coming from the church. All this while I was guessing it was coming from LeDroit or over by Howard. Si (of MVSQ) mentioned that sound bounces around on the buildings, which could explain my confusion.”

stop, blog, and roll R.I.P. Or maybe not.

Pop Cesspool on the Secret History of Pop Cesspool Vol. 5.

Your morning wake-up song: Carla Bruni’s “Quelqu’un m’a dit” (thank you Said the Gramophone).

*photo courtesy of Intangible Arts.

In our latest installment on the complicated life of Captain Melvin Gresham, we dip back into the complaint he filed in late June as part of his civil suit against the D.C. Police Department and other top officials.

[Wanna play catch up on this exhaustive blog series: go here, here, and here.]

I ended the last installment with a rundown over Gresham detailing a sexual harassment case brought by Lt. Rhonda Nunnally. In his complaint, Gresham had claimed to have stood up for her when she was allegedly physically assaulted by a “Lt. Delgado.” Gresham claims in the complaint that he was barred from arresting Delgado.

The complaint goes on to allege:

*Gresham’s help was sought in covering up for Nunnally’s attacker Phillip Graham. Delgado, the complaint states, leaped over Gresham on the org. chart going from an Lt. to an Inspector. “Cpt. Gresham was then assigned to Lt. Delgado in what can only be a retaliatory act,” the complaint states.

*In October 2007, two lawyers from the Office of the Attorney General met with Gresham. At this meeting, they allegedly offer him a promotion and a “prestigious assignment in Police Headquarters if he changed his testimony and DENIED that ‘he had been instructed to target Lt. Nunnally and drive her from the workplace.’ Gresham immediately ratted out these two lawyers to Nunnally’s counsel. Superior Court Judge Natalie Combs-Green refused to permit Capt. Gresham from testifying about this incident.

Green stated, according to the complaint’s transcript:

“I thought it appropriate to have a hearing, if for no other reason to permit the parties an opportunity in open court to briefly express themselves and to give the Court, quite frankly, the opportunity to express my disappointment at this type of filing.”

“Particularly, I guess, the type of language that was used in the filing and upon closer examination, the sort of, and I will make specific reference, careless throwing around of names in the pleadings, which could be injurious to the professional stature of all the attorneys involved, and which I think diminishes our system for all of us of justice.”

It gets better.

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John McCain on the U.S. invasion of Iraq: “We were greeted as liberators. We mishandled the war for nearly four years. We mishandled it in a way that was so harmful that I stood up against it.”**

Nevermind that it took McCain a really, really long time to stand up against the Iraq War strategy. He may have even hedged his bets on supporting the surge.

But were we really greeted as liberators?

**McCain quote taken from an interview he did that aired today on “This Week…” McCain also oddly invokes the Oil-For-Food scandal as part of a laundry list of reasons we invaded Iraq. I hadn’t heard that reason.

Children’s Rights, the New York-based group behind a long-standing lawsuit against the city over it’s care/treatment of children, filed a contempt motion in U.S. District Court yesterday. The motion was filed over the recent–and not so recent–troubles at CFSA.

Children’s Rights clearly did its homework. The motion totals 35 pages. The filing alleges breakdowns across CFSA as the introduction makes plain:

“After years of planning, reorganization, investment of additional resources and capacity building to improve the system, the District’s executive leadership has allowed the child welfare system to return to a dysfunctional state. As a consequence, the reform effort in the District has stagnated and begun to retreat. For the children who depend on the child welfare system for their basic protection and care, this return to the past means a future filled with uncertainty, instability and further harm. …”

“Though significant strides have been made to improve the quality of services and outcomes provided to the abused and neglected children in the District over the past 15 years, the District has never achieved compliance with the applicable court orders now even these advances are at grave risk. …CFSA’s performance in many areas of child welfare practice is substandard or declining or both. This erosion in CFSA performance directly flows from an unstable and deteriorating management situation with CFSA.”

The filing goes on cite untimely and poor investigations for children at home or in foster care, a foster care system that fails to place children with adequate families, and fails to match up kids with adequate medical needs.

You can read the entire contempt motion here.

As promised, City Desk has more from the Captain Melvin Gresham saga. The first installment provided a recap of events and the detailing of Gresham’s lawsuit against the D.C. police and various named officials. Gresham cited the Whistleblower Protection Act and various alleged conspiracies to get him and other top brass.

Here are some more allegations Gresham puts forth in his civil suit complaint:

• Gresham accuses then-Assistant Chief Jose Acosta of ordering him to “set up” Commander Winston Robinson. Acosta allegedly wanted Gresham to “assist in sabotaging Commander Robinson’s leadership initiatives.” According to the complaint, Acosta told Gresham that the order was at the “behest of the ‘Chief’” and if he didn’t comply he “would be targeted.”

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A while ago, I posted a blog item noting WTOP’s reporting that Capt. Melvin Gresham (at the time a supervisor in the 3rd District) had gotten himself into some hot water over a traffic accident.

WTOP wrote:

“WTOP has learned Capt. Melvin Gresham from the Third District Police station in Northwest was involved in an accident with a Metro bus while driving his department vehicle. Gresham told a subordinate officer, who responded to the accident, to change a police report to indicate the Metro bus driver was at fault.”

I went ahead and interviewed two police officials about the incident. One of them was Lt. Mike Smith who was interviewed by internal affairs about the incident. Smith had come on the accident scene and was well versed in the events on the scene. I also interviewed another police official who had previous dealings with Gresham and characterized the supervisor as “not a fair person.”

The blog item was fairly run of the mill: a graph or two taken from the WTOP piece and some quick phone calls piggybacking on the news. This did not stop the comment box from filling up with allegations that my reporting had been way off or to keep everyone updated on the latest in the case or personally slam Lt. Smith.

In late June, Gresham filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court. He listed as the defendants in the case: Chief Cathy Lanier, Assistant Chief Jose Acosta, the police department as well as other officers and officials including Lt. Smith. The complaint alleges the defendants retaliated against Gresham under the Whistleblower Protection Act, defamation, breach of contract, and “intentional infliction of Emotional Distress.”

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I just got a new apartment at 16th and Irving Streets NW. After dropping off the security deposit, measuring a space for a desk and figuring out where my records would go, I had one more decision to make: Where to celebrate?

I turned down Irving and made it to Mount Pleasant Street. I knew it well having lived in the neighborhood years ago.

The problem: The strip hasn’t changed all that much since I left. Gone: the wildly expensive organic grocery, the amazing pho place and the diner. Still around: laundry joints, cluttered discount shops, a great hardware store, a terrible-but-beloved bakery, and crummy restaurants aimed at the new homeowners.

The neighborhood joints range from just pretty good (Haydee’s) to always fun (the Raven). It’s the new places that are such disappointments.

A salad, a pizza, and two beers comes to $50 at Radius. Only the beer is worth it. Their pasta seems inspired by elementary-school cafeterias and Wheat Thins-covergal Rachel Ray.

Dos Gringos. Even the name is offensive.

Marx Cafe is the worst restaurant on the strip. I’ve eaten there twice. When it first opened, I tried a tofu dish that managed to be both bland and salty. A few months ago, I ended up there and attempted their hummus. It was the worst hummus I’ve ever eaten. It tasted like it came out of a can.

Tonic is pretty decent. But it’s bar food. Skip their brunch. Service is kinda slow and the food is pretty bland. Nothing inventive.

After some tense moments, we ended up at Radius for their pasta special. Big mistake! We grimaced through the greasy pasta. I came away thinking we should have just eaten in a different neighborhood. We could have walked down to U Street.

There has to be better food options on Mount Pleasant Street. Is the neighborhood only known for Laurie Collins, bad food, and people hating on Dos Gringos?

My sister has informed me late last night that “writing about Spike” is lame and “old news.” Hey, sis. I know. So moving right along:

In Shaw writes about “feeling safe.” They write: “The shotspotter coupled with the camera don’t make me feel any safer. They are good to have and deal with certain trouble spots in the neighborhood. I’ve told folks before that I’m more worried and more likely to get hit with a car (SUV probably) than shot.”

Bloomingdale invites all readers to help create a LeDroit Park & Bloomingdale heritage trail. Readers are asked to submit photos, memories, etc., and bring them and good vibes to a meeting at St. George’s Episcopal Church, located at 160 U Street NW, this Wednesday. Congrats. A trail is a big step in increasing your community’s visibility. Maybe one day we will think of your neighborhoods with more respect!

Penn Quarter Living leads off with a very misleading headline: “Platinum Opens Again On Saturdays.” Wow. Big news if it were true. PQL goes on to report that it’s actually not the famous club but a 18-and-under space called “Club Bounce” which hosts events on Saturdays from 7 p.m. until midnight. Nice that downtown has a space for kids other than the chain stores! One comment: “I have observed the crowd: relatively orderly, nice kids. No noise issues, and since its over at midnight — no real fuss.” (Note: Club Bounce is not this Club Bounce).

Congress Heights on the Rise looks back for an appreciation of the old Congress Heights High School building: “I LOVE this building! Everytime I pass by it or go to the Ward 8 Farmer’s Market which is held on it’s grounds I find myself wishing that someone would restore it ASAP to it’s former glory.” I should have included this in the neighborhoods issue.

The District Domestic’s tip of the day: Dry Your Herbs.

D.C. Foodies pens an ode to peanut butter: “There are a million childhood memories, songs and lunchtime favorites I could site in my introduction to making peanut butter, but I’ll skip the trip down memory lane and just say this – you should be making your own peanut butter.”

The Vinyl District spotlights Robert Wyatt.

Your morning wake-up song: “Three Women” by Stereolab. We wrote about this new song and the band’s upcoming LP yesterday.

*photo courtesy of Prince of Petworth.

Trinidad: the one neighborhood that could crash ShotSpotter was at it again this past weekend. Every other month, Trinidad picks a weekend to go bonkers and just kick the crap out of families and loved ones. Trinidad is nothing but a tragedy machine. This weekend brought about some particularly awful stuff–a teenager visiting his sick great-grandmother was killed.

And the checkpoints are back–during daylight hours.

Can the city admit that they don’t have an answer for the violence in Trinidad? Can they just say “We don’t know how to stop it?” The checkpoints are a dubious idea–a somewhat effective gimmick at best, at worst a distraction and hinderance for detectives trying to sleuth out murder suspects. At least that’s what this pro says.

No one has a good solution.

In a craigslist ad posted today, there’s a listing for a 400 sq.ft. efficiency for $1250. That’s a tough sell. There’s not a lot you can do in that tiny space: push-ups, drinking a six-pack, watching “Law & Order” on a medium-sized TV, make eggs, read a book—maybe not Infinite Jest—in an Ikea chair, use a cellphone.

But the small space does include a Murphy Bed:

What an old-school space saver! But I’ll pass. I know I will never put the bed in the upright position.