Posts Tagged ‘Housing Complex Day’
Shelter Studios Fit for a Dog
Pearl, a silky soft 3-year-old whippet mix, used to live outside as an abandoned stray. Now her home is a 4-by-9-foot kennel at the Animal Welfare League of Arlington. And you thought your studio was small.
A Quick Zing
“D.C. is the last place on earth where postmodernism exists,” says Julian Hunt.
The Big Stadium That Got Away
Some of Brett Abrams’ favorite stadiums never got built.
Abrams is a local historian and author of “Capital Sporting Grounds: A History of Stadium and Ballpark Construction in Washington, DC.”
Today he gave me a primer on the city’s sports architecture down through the years. We went to sites where stadiums and arenas used to be, and where coliseums still are.
And throughout our tour, Abrams filled me in on scads of buildings where local college and pro athletes never got to play in. The biggest venue that never made it past the planning stage was World War II Memorial Stadium, which, if built, would’ve meant the Redskins never would have played at RFK.
The New DCRA: Walk-Through and Wrap-Up
Let’s end this Housing Complex Day down at 941 North Capitol Street with nod of credit to where credit is due—that is to the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs for making some undeniable strides in how they deal with the city’s permit seekers.
The centerpiece of that is the new permit center, which spokesperson Michael Rupert explains opened in 2007. It brings all sorts of reviews into once place—structural, electrical, mechanical, water, historical, and zoning (”That’s what really causes people delays,” Rupert says), to name a few. As mentioned before, there’s a comfortable waiting area, complete with TV. Behind the scenes, there’s been a big effort to make all sorts of different computer systems talk to each other, to make the process smoother. And, now, more than 60 of the simplest permits can be applied for online—saving you a trip here.
How to Tell a Cheap Building
- Totally flat front
- Very thin façade
- No shadow
- No setbacks
Guess which of these Connecticut Avenue NW lovelies is a cheap building.
The Incredible Suckiness of Thomas Circle
“I don’t know how they could have missed this opportunity,” says Julian Hunt as we walk to Thomas Circle. He’s referring to the 2006 renovation of Thomas Circle, which restored its central shape but, as one blog post put it, turned Thomas Circle into “merely a nice place to look at while passing through to other destinations.”
Hunt is not quite so kind.
Landlord Tenant Court: Even the Urdu Interpreter Can’t Break the Deadlock
Earlier in the day, Judge Joan Zeldon made one thing perrrrrrfectly clear to her courtroom: You need an interpreter, you’ll get an interpreter.
But just because said interpreter arrives, doesn’t mean he or she will be able to make sense of things.
Case in point: Gulzar Hussain and his son Anwaar Hussain, both Pakistani-born, arrived at the courthouse bright and early to deal with a claim for nearly $40,000 in unpaid back rent to a Georgia Avenue property.
Now, at least five hours later, they’re at a deadlock with Hussain’s tenant.
Read More “Landlord Tenant Court: Even the Urdu Interpreter Can’t Break the Deadlock” »
The New DCRA: More Bodies Means More Money, Says Contractor
Jim Conner strolled out of the permit center today at about 4 p.m., and he says he’s just “tickled to death” by how easy it was.
The 20-year-veteran electrical contractor says he’s averages five visits a week to 941 North Capitol, and he says the new permit center is a big improvement over the old process, where you’d “wait and wait and wait.”
“Love it here,” the cheerful Conner says—there’s not as much waiting, and there’s a numbering system in place.
Read More “The New DCRA: More Bodies Means More Money, Says Contractor” »
Before Rayful Edmonds, Trinidad Had the Washington Senators
Sad admission: About the only thing I knew about Trinidad before this morning is that Rayful Edmonds once ruled the roost there.
Now I also know a happier part of the neighborhood’s past, thanks to Brett Abrams: It’s the birthplace of interleague baseball.
Read More “Before Rayful Edmonds, Trinidad Had the Washington Senators” »
The New DCRA: Business Permit a Breeze for First-Timer
Lance Robinson came down to 941 North Cap today to get his new business in order. It’s called LRL Services—a home-based operation to sell various merchandise, jewelry and gifts and such online. Getting such an operation in the good graces of government means (a) registering a trade name, (b) procuring a business license and dealing with the Office of Tax and Revenue, and (c) getting a permit for having a business in your home.
Robinson came showed up at about 1:30 p.m. today with his sister, Lenya Perkins, who owns a 16th Street Heights beauty salon. She’d been through the DCRA rigmarole before. What they found was pleasantly surprising: Less than two hours later, Robinson had left to do was pay for his home-business permit.
“We got great customer service from every office,” Perkins says. (So good in fact, that they were identified as satisfied customers by DCRA spokesperson Michael Rupert and ferried over to speak with this reporter.)
Perkins contrasts the experience with the opening of her hair salon last year; the building had been a salon before, she says, so “I thought it was a switchover.” Not so. Then after she got all of her building issues in order, she found out she still needed a basic business license. That took another three weeks, she says. In the end, she planned to open in August, but it didn’t happen till October.
“I waited a long time,” she says. But not today!
