Saturday, September 20, 2014

Popeye's?

It looks like Popeye's is finally being renovated/torn down. A sign on Popeye's said it was closed for renovations ages ago. Honestly, I hope it gets torn down, and someone puts another gas station in. :)

Just kidding. No more gas stations. It would be nice if Popeye's gets turned into a urban store with the storefront closer to the sidewalk. Otherwise the parking lot in front looks like it belongs in a strip mall, not our pedestrian-friendly neighborhood.

But really the whole corner is in need of some love. The derelict McDowell business center is seeing a lot of business recently, just not the type intended. I wish someone had put a 5x5 project in there.


Wednesday, September 17, 2014

New fence at Shepherd Parkway!

The playground at Shepherd Parkway has a new iron wrought fence. It's only half way installed, but the part that's there looks great and much more durable than its predecessor. The chain link fence there previously was torn down repeatedly.

Thanks National Park Service! My baby and I thank you from the bottom of our hearts!

Tour 1347 Maple View Place SE!


I received an email that L'Enfant Trust is having a open house of 1347 Maple View Place SE, the second house they've renovated in Anacostia on Oct 13 at 11 to 1 pm! I don't know if I can make it, but I can't wait to see the pictures. They are asking people to RSVP. I'll post the contact info when I find it.

Congress Heights suffering due to commute?

Living within walking distance of my job and a very short drive from downtown DC are among the reasons I love living in Congress Heights. It boggles my mind that people would choose to live somewhere that requires them to literally drive several hours a day to work and back and then complain about it.

Imagine my surprise when I saw this Curbed article that said the average Congress Heights commute was seventy-five minutes! Never mind that the statistic for the average commute from Anacostia was listed as thirty-five minutes and Congress Heights is located only minutes away from Anacostia.

Kudos to the Curbed journalist who managed to describe Congress Heights' proximity to downtown DC as something we "suffer" over. Willingness to invent reasons to put down Congress Heights a good journalist does not make.

I try not to be snarky in comments, but in this case I couldn't restrain myself because the numbers so obviously didn't add up. The author seemed to willfully choose Congress Heights because the statistic was so absurd. She probably looked at Anacostia's commute and saw that the average was too reasonable and decide to write on the bogus "statistic" for Congress Heights instead. Because if you find it on the internet, it must be true!

Monday, September 15, 2014

Best pizza ever!

I am somewhat embarrassed to admit I'm a Martha Stewart junkie, but I made this amazing pizza with this pizza dough recipe from her website. It is so light and airy, not doughy at all.

It reminds of the pizza I used to have at one of my favorite gourmet pizza shops.


Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Supercan saga ends!

So the mountains of old trash cans being stored on S Capitol disappeared! I had pontificated earlier that these trash cans were the ones collected to make way for the new supercans.

I am happy to say my baby no longer has heaps of old trash cans to point at on our commute. Now he can just point at the streetcars, which sounds like a healthier fascination. Yay! I wonder where the trash cans went.

Congress Heights rowhouses are adorable

So Washington City Paper linked a cute rowhouse EOTR yesterday on its Housing Complex morning links. It definitely is a quintessentially cute EOTR house.  I love it!

Which reminds me I wanted to say a while back that the not so recent DCist or Urban Turf article about the ten most expensive houses for sale in Congress Heights disappointed me because it barely included any of these typical for the neighborhood cute houses. Not the authors fault. At that time, there wasn't a lot of new inventory on the market in Congress Heights., and there still isn't. So what we got were the leftovers. :(

The well-staged and renovated houses off the main streets here sell fairly quickly from what I've seen. I bet this one will go fast too.

Crickets chirping

Ah.... So pleasant to wake up to the soft noise of crickets chirping outside my windows. A cool morning breeze is wafting through my curtains. I'm definitely enjoying one of the last summer mornings for the season. Who would expect Congress Heights to be so peaceful?