Watch Your Speed on 7th St. NW

Today was another first for me. I saw a district police office actively looking for speeders with a laser speedgun. On a stretch of 7th St. NW between M & L, an officer was taking some time to catch morning commuters who were moving too quickly. With all the recent crime on 7th one can never be upset with police presence of any kind in that area. I think it's great to have the officers out trying to keep speeding to a minimum. It's amazing how fast some people will drive through city streets when there is some room between lights. I would love to see some officers catching more speeders on New Jersey & P where so many school kids cross everyday.

Today on my walk I noticed the work at Bundy School has slowed a bit. For the past few weeks construction crews have been in full swing, but today the scene was quiet. It seems the sewer and water work in the street out front has been completed so I imagine the contractor is about to begin a new phase of construction. Despite any visible work or construction crew presence there were still a ton of cars parked in the Bundy School lot on P st. It will be nice to have some life back on that block once the construction is complete and Safeshores opens up.

Finally today could be one of the last days to admire fall leaves in Shaw. Most of the trees have lost their leaves but it seems some of the big trees on 5th St. still have some color. We really have a good number of large trees in the neighborhood. I don't recall seeing so many 2-3 foot diameter trees anywhere else in the downtown area. For some reason the farther west (into downtown) you walk, the more leaves the trees have, must be something in the water.

This morning in Shaw began early today. The neighborhood was awake by 3:45am because of someone parked on the street, honking their horn every 30 seconds until one of my neighbors went out to the car. I'm not sure what the obviously critical problem was, because the important 3:45am meeting went on for more time than I stayed awake watching it. I woke back up about 10 minutes later and they had left and the streets were quiet again.

This experience makes me appreciate the folks at the fire station New Jersey Ave. and N St. for their attempts at being courteous. During the day, when many cars are on the road, they use their sirens to assure they can safely get to the scene, I have noticed that as evening progresses and traffic subsides, so does their use of the siren. In the evening we often hear a quick burst of a siren but the use is obviously metered with the need to notify traffic of their presence. I haven't yet woken up to the sound of the siren late at night, not that someday this won't happen but obviously the folks at Fire Station 6 are being conscientious of the neighborhood. So instead of only remembering to complain, I would like to extend my thanks for your efforts.

In closing, I hope the remanants of Hurricane Ida move out of the area soon as I have traded in my walking shoes for car keys today due to the downpour...

A Cold, Rainy, Fall Morning in Shaw

It was a dark and stormy November morning... (The only fitting way to begin a new blog)

On the inaugural day for this blog, the morning was damp and chilly. Fall has arrived in Shaw over the last week and a half, the leaves are giving up their struggle. Last night a group of kids from Kipp went door to door around our neighborhood with brooms asking if they could rake leaves for some extra money. There is definitely good money in raking leaves this time of year. The city has parked their street sweeping equipment for the winter and they will be around vacuuming leaves on the curb in Shaw over the next week.

On my walk through Shaw today, I didn't remember it was Veterans Day until more than halfway through my walk. I did notice there was no traffic on the streets and no people on the sidewalks, it was a very quiet morning is Shaw today. I didn't even see anyone dropping off dogs at WagTime, which is always busy. By the way, does anyone know what is going on with the building to the left of WagTime?

It looks like DCmud.com has posted an interesting story regarding development in Mt. Vernon Triangle. Obviously K St. development has been growing to the east but it appears the city may grow the true downtown corridor with more DC sized skybrushers (kind of like a skyscraper but not tall enough to scrape the sky, just to brush it...) but for now, like a line up of dominoes, we're waiting for someone to tip the first project which will likely kick the whole show off...