5.14.2007

I Don't Need Their Civil War

I spent the weekend hiking and drinking on the "tallest mountain on the Eastern panhandle of West Virginia." No television and no Internet. Sweet release. My one demand was that we drive into town in the mornings for a newspaper. I needed to know how my beloved Red Sox were doing. They are doing quite well.

To my surprise, Saturday's Post featured a cover story on some development in Friendship Heights on Wisconsin and Ingomar. The property there is currently being wasted on a dilapidated used car lot, flower shop, and abandoned PEPCO substation. It couldn't hurt to have something a little more exciting there. However, I also sympathize with the people who want to keep everything as is. I mean, the neighborhood is already frighteningly close to some high-sclare retail. Unfortunately, both sides of this argument are acting like total douche nozzles.

Jim Sefcik thought he was buying a slice of urban nirvana when he paid $700,000 to live in Northwest Washington. Then he went shopping on his stretch of Wisconsin Avenue, with its pet shop, trophy store and boarded-up buildings, and he decided he had moved to a retail wasteland.

I'm sorry, but, you invested how much money into your house before having any idea what the neighborhood was like? You know, some people like the retail around where they live. As much as I despise the city, I could do a lot worse than living next to a charming coffee house and the little grocery store that sells beer cheaper than anywhere else in the city. Who the Hell does Jim Sefcik think he is? I hope the people opposing the condo project are a bit more sympathetic. Of course the NIMBY folks are never sympathetic.

"They're coming in to rape our [expletive] neighborhood," Carolyn Sherman, an advisory neighborhood commissioner and an opponent, said of developers in general as she toured the site.

Hyperbole much? I mean, it would be one thing if they were trying to push out all the little stores that I like. I suppose that could happen in the long term if the development keeps seeping into the city. But, Wisconsin and Ingomar is a dead zone. It is not charming. It is all but abandoned.

On the other side, Reed Fawell, a project supporter, compared the block where the proposed project would be to a "Third World country," albeit one within walking distance of a Williams-Sonoma.

Oh my God. I had the decency to call the area a "dead zone." "Third world country" is a bit much, don't you think? The location is within walking distance to stores that sells $600 shoes and $1,800 purses. Fuck you, Reed Falwell, you insensitive prick.

Team NIMBY isn't done acting silly either.

The opponents refused an invitation from The Washington Post to appear in a photograph with the project's supporters, saying it would convey the impression that the neighborhood is evenly divided over the issue. (They also declined to be photographed on their own.)

This isn't really fair, but the guy who came to my doorstep to get me to sign an anti-development petition was really unfortunate looking. I think that's the real reason why this group wants to keep their faces out of the papers. That has to be the reason. They knew refusing to have their picture taken would make them seem like paranoid morons, right?

"How many of your members live within one half-mile of this site?" Lucy Eldridge, a leader of the opposition, demanded of a supporter testifying last month before the zoning commission.

Well, I live within a half-mile radius of the site. So I guess that makes me qualified to have an opinion here. My opinion is for both sides to chill out and shut the fuck up. You're both acting like babies. Why don't you both pool your resources into doing something for Washington's schools or homeless or anything other than a way to maintain your property values.

22 comments:

  1. maintaining property values isn't really a bad thing, rusty. otherwise, you end up with the crap like south dakota between new york and michigan aves. those people don't really care and it's clearly now a trash hole where a nice neighborhood clearly once stood.

    on the other hand, it's agreed, everybody in any development process is a flaming bag of poptarts and they do have bigger issues to deal with.

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  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. Jer-ry! Jer-ry! Jer-ry!
    Somebody throw a chair!

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  4. AnonymousMay 14, 2007

    I'm so glad I moved off Harrison street when I did. The construction alone would be enough to do my head in.

    Here's the real question...is crazy homeless lady still around? Where's she gonna hang?

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  5. AnonymousMay 14, 2007

    "Brenda" is gone. She was replaced by a quier homeless man.

    ~Rusty

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  6. AnonymousMay 14, 2007

    Here's the real question...is crazy homeless lady still around? Where's she gonna hang?
    "Brenda" is gone. She was replaced by a 6TH round Redskins pick.

    GO REDSKINS!!!!

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  7. AnonymousMay 14, 2007

    heck that felt so good, a coiu[ple more free of charge:
    GO REDSKINS!!!!
    GO REDSKINS!!!!
    GO REDSKINS!!!!
    GO REDSKINS!!!!
    GO REDSKINS!!!!
    GO REDSKINS!!!!
    GO REDSKINS!!!!
    GO REDSKINS!!!!

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  8. AnonymousMay 14, 2007

    There is a store on H street called Family Liquor.
    Awesome!

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  9. AnonymousMay 14, 2007

    Rusty is a Douche ....

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  10. AnonymousMay 14, 2007

    I read the article too and I'm all for the development. I believe the Sierra club has come out in support of it too (though maybe I'm mixing up projects here). This is infill development and it can't get any better than this-- great access to transportation, creative reuse of prime real estate, well situated between 2 major job hubs: Dupont and Bethesda. If these people want BANANA (Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything) then they need to move out of DC. They can't insist on things remaining as they are when they're living in an economically thriving city.

    Didn't they get their damned cell phone tower taken down? They can't stop progress forever.

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  11. AnonymousMay 14, 2007

    700k?

    Is that what I have to look forward to 8 years from now when I enter my 30's?

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  12. AnonymousMay 14, 2007

    well you're a big NIMBY supporter as you believe that homeless shelters should only be built where the homeless live...well they're HOMELESS so I think they'd like ANYWHERE....in fact, I wish they would build it in your neighborhood so you and your snotty white neighbors would get a wake up call. how DO you spell hypocrite...calling people babies!

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  13. AnonymousMay 15, 2007

    Building homeless shelters in nice areas is a bad idea.
    Push all the wealthy residents out of the city and into the burbs.
    Thats great.
    then who will pay for all of the city services?
    the liuquor stores, wig shops, and check cashing places?
    and I live in the ghetto.
    but its nice to know that not all of this crappy city is ghetto.

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  14. "Douche nozzle." OMG that rocks.

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  15. Nice semi-obscure GNR lyric reference!

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  16. AnonymousMay 15, 2007

    I'm anti-homeless shelter? There's already a homeless shelter in the neighborhood between Tenleytown and Friendship Heights. No one has a problem with it. I wouldn't mind more.

    ~Rusty

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  17. AnonymousMay 15, 2007

    Immigrants and f*ggots
    They make no sense to me
    They come to our country
    And think they'll do as they please
    Like start some mini Iran,
    Or spread some fuckin' disease
    They talk so many goddamn ways
    It's all Greek to me

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  18. AnonymousMay 15, 2007

    it happens everywhere. the rich vs the poor is perpetual. fortunately the poor have the numbers haha but the rich can do all kinds of powerful stuff like not find budget enough to fix the roads so third gear doesn't up and fall off, whilst ceasing~and~desisting all plans for energy~producing, view~mucking~upping wind turbines. *marvels*

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  19. AnonymousMay 16, 2007

    OMG, this blog fucking sucks.

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  20. AnonymousMay 16, 2007

    MORE POSTS, MULE!

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  21. AnonymousMay 17, 2007

    Did Rusty get run over by a red line train?

    BRING BACK KING FRIDAY!!!

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  22. AnonymousMay 17, 2007

    Let me guess:

    The side that is rabidly against development consists of mid 40's to late 50's folks who moved to the area in the late 1980s, when it was still an affordable neighborhood prior to the Friendship Heights area Wisconsin Ave rebuild. 20 years later, they've made $600,000 on their homes, but still want to live in the quaint "village like" atmosphere. Fuck em.

    The side that is rabidly for development are early to mid 30's folks who blew every last dime on a down payment for their houses and/or condos, and seeing the effects of the housing bubble bursting, will latch onto any project that could potentially drive up property values. Fuck em.

    Both sides know they really have no leg to stand on regarding being for or against the development. They're all doing it for their own petty, selfish reasons. Fuck em all.

    That said, I'm for the development.

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