Thanks to a reader for sending:

“I thought you might be interested to see my photos from my wife and my experience of removing hideous carpet and renovating original floors in our rowhouse on 2nd street in Ledroit Park.”

Looks awesome! If anyone else has worked on some home improvement projects or is currently working on one please send photos to princeofpetworth (at) gmail (dot) com.

IMG_3468, originally uploaded by Prince of Petworth.

“Dear PoP,

Well we threw a small get together Saturday night and several of our friends from thr CH/ Mt. P area came and helped us drink and be merry until about 1 am. Our Mt. P friend is a distance runner and an avid walker, especially when it involves not giving a DC cabbie any money to hear him gripe about how hard DC cabbie life is (not that they come out to Petworth anyway). So he was walking home and happened to take park road over. Well he made it past Giant and the courtyard and crossed 14th, noted the DCPD cruiser by the metro, and was cruising past Pollo Sabroso when he suddenly found a leather belt around his neck with 2 guys not exactly asking if they could borrow his phone and ipod. The one guy came up from behind and pulled a mobster piano wire choke hold with a leather belt while the second guy jabbed him in the abdomen with an unspecified object that possibly was a gun or at least that was the intended effect. They made off with one of his phones and his ipod, but not his other phone (don’t ask) or wallet. He used phone 2 to call the police and when they showed up over 5 min later (?) he filed a statement and became just another statistic.

To get to the point of this rant WTF is going on? I understand the increase in crime and many of the reasons for it, economy, unemployment, gentrification, gangs, etc. But W(here)TF is the police in all this? How many windows need to be broken? How many crimes must be committed before we see an increased effort by the Police to crack down on crime in CH and all throughout the city? Is Fenty too busy firing people for not letting his 9 yo boys beat up on 8 and under basketball players to do anything? I will say I was at least relieved to hear he got mugged in CH and not Petworth because I would hate for anything to happen in our neighborhood that might cause our friends to not want to come visit us here. ”

I’m sorry to hear about this incident. It just sounds awful. Recently, I have no idea if crime is increasing or if I’m just getting more emails about it. I’m definitely not complaining but I get emails every week related to some crime incident from Shaw all the way up to Ft. Totten.

A friend of mine lives on a very nice section of 15th Street and I asked her if she feels safe. She said no. But she explained that she receives alerts every time a crime happens in that vicinity and at that point started feeling unsafe. I certainly believe in being aware of one’s surrounding but I’m not sure these alerts are so healthy. If I combined all the crime emails I received for a month and read them all at once, I’d never leave my house. I’m not sure if I’ve become a bit of a fatalist or what. But I probably walk the city, well, more than nearly anyone. And 99 times out of 100 I have no problems. I don’t mean to be flippant about this but I’m seriously wondering if I posted everytime a car accident occurred we would then feel there was an uptick in car accidents?

Sorry I’ve gone off on a bit of a tangent. I truly am sorry to hear about this incident. I do wish MPD, the Council, the Mayor, the Prosecutors and the Courts were able to do a better job. And I do think we need to keep up continued pressure on the powers that be. But one of my fears remains that we will lose a bit of perspective reading about every mugging that takes place. Sadly, muggings happen and I think they always will. The question is – are we seeing an increase in muggings or are we just becoming more aware when they happen?

You guys tell me, do you find it useful reading about every crime that occurs in our neighborhoods? Do you think there is a crime wave under way? Do you think Fenty needs to make the issue of crime a bigger priority?

DSCN8167, originally uploaded by Prince of Petworth.

I don’t know why but I couldn’t stop laughing when I saw this. It was just so insanely random. Consider this a bonus caption contest opportunity!

DSCN8209, originally uploaded by Prince of Petworth.

After receiving a Dear PoP about this on Monday I have received a response from the developers:

“Though we held our ceremonially groundbreaking last September and fully expected to begin work on the project shortly thereafter, we too were not immune to the virtual standstill in lending and associated economic downturn experienced worldwide. That being said, we are now hopeful that demolition will begin sometime this fall, with expected delivery of the new YMCA in late 2011 and the residential and retail portions shortly thereafter. (And yes, the facades and extended sections of the row houses along 14th Street will be restored and incorporated into the new construction.) We remain very excited about this project and work every day to ensure its success.”

Let’s continue to hope the economy gets better!

DSCN1635, originally uploaded by Prince of Petworth.

“Dear PoP,

I walk down Hiatt (behind DC USA) every day on the way to the metro, and I pass by a few things that might be of interest. There is a huge undeveloped lot behind DC USA that I would love to see turned into a public space. Do you know what the plans are for this area?”

Hmm, this was the old Bell Multicultural School which was demolished back in June. So does anyone know what is going to happen to this land?

DSCN8229, originally uploaded by Prince of Petworth.

This is a pretty wild one. It’s really small and a bit random in an awesome way.

DSCN8283, originally uploaded by Prince of Petworth.

Clearly this isn’t a typical door of the day but it just struck me as kinda cool. I guess it’s eye of the beholder as someone said yesterday…

DSCN8320, originally uploaded by Prince of Petworth.

I like finding these small ones that are recessed from the curb a bit.

A reader writes about the store (on Macomb Street just west of Wisconsin) pictured above:

“Some combination of the guys that own Jettie’s and Surfside (and Smith Point and the Rookery) are opening a place called Something Sweet across the street from Cactus Cantina and Two Amy’s. It’s going to have cupcakes, ice cream and coffee.”

Sounds like this could be a chill little spot.

This photo is of course the famous Wonder Bread building on the 600 block of S Street, NW. Sadly, there has been no movement on its development. It is such amazing building:

Do you think the developers are just waiting for the economy to get better?  Or is there a larger issue at play in the lack of development?

Hmm, I should’ve got a closer shot. But I think the white “frame” is really unusual. This is from 16th Street. Any fans?

Well this is a super cool edited shot of a DC alley from clintonbphotography

Submit your photos via email or to the PoPville flickr pool here.

This house is located at 1520 R Street, NW:

View Larger Map

The flier says:

“This stunning 1885 five level, bay-front townhome is perfect for elegant entertaining. With careful attention to every detail, this home boasts soaring ceilings, a grand reception hall, exquisite millwork, multiple fireplaces w/ antique mantles, Granite, SS kitchen and a self-contained In-Law/ Aur Pair Suite. Property Conveys in AS IS condition.”

More info and a killer virtual tour found here.

So for those of you who like original details, you are gonna love this. Holy cow, check out the fireplace and mantle on the first floor. As with all house porn let me know what you think of the house but for the curious it’s yours for $1,999,000.

The Argonne Cafe is located at 1629 Columbia Rd NW. It looks like it has a nice little outdoor dining area. Whenever I walk by it doesn’t seem to be particularly crowded so I’m thinking this could be a good breakfast spot when other spots are all smashed. So what’s the scoop? Good breakfast? Lunch?

From a reader:

“I was over at CHC Saturday morning, and some folks had opened up the shuttered space next door (where CHC was unfortunately unable to expand) and they were messing around in there. I distinctly overheard someone say he was planning to sell vintage furniture in there.”

I wasn’t able to confirm this info so please consider this strictly, strictly scuttlebutt. There is a distinct possibility that this space will become something else. But, damn it, I enjoy scuttlebutt. While many of us were truly saddened that CH Coffee was unable to expand, I’m curious, would you be happy if this space turned into a vintage furniture shop?