Photo by PoPville flickr user Bogotron

“Dear PoP,

Just wondering if you knew when the normal street cleaning will resume or if the city planned unscheduled cleanups do the heaps of trash all over the streets in Petworth and CH? I regularly walk down the 500-600 block of Irving and it is just atrocious. It may as well be a landfill. Our neighbors are cleaning up our block but I’m not sure if we’ll make it over there…”

Street cleaning doesn’t normally resume until the end of March. The last couple of years it was March 23rd or 24th. I’ll post an update when the exact date is announced.

“Dear PoP,

Just wondered if you [or your followers] know of a company that would do a neighborhood shredding of documents in Columbia Heights? I was thinking of asking my condo board about it, but thought it would be great to get to maybe make it a neighborhood thing.

Any suggestions would be great!”

In the past DPW provided free shredding at the Benning Road Trash Transfer Station in North East. I think your best bet would be to contact Council Member Graham and see if he’d be willing to make this happen for Columbia Heights. Of course if you wanted to pay I’m sure there are plenty of companies that would be interested.

I’ve tried to take the above picture a million times but it never comes out as nice as this one from dullshick titled, “View from the Petworth Safeway”.

And below is a great shot of the 9:30 club by owash titled, “The Heart of Saturday Night (2/2)”.

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

This condo is located at 2001 12th Street, NW:

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The flier says:

“Bright & spacious 2BR/2BA unit facing courtyard, no city noise! Maple hardwood flrs throughout, gas fireplace in living area, upgraded gourmet kitchen w/ granite counters & GE Profile SS appliances, 2 master suites w/ upgraded baths. Fitness ctr, party rm, roofdeck w/ great views, pet friendly, FHA Approved, includes pkg! Perfect location, less than a block to U ST metro, shops!”

You can find more info and photos here.

I do think this is a phenomenal location. Do you think $459,000 sounds reasonable for this 2 bedroom/2 bathroom? A 1 bedroom/1.5 bath just went under contract a floor below ( Unit 208) for $405,000.

Matisse is located at 4934 Wisconsin Avenue, NW. I don’t get up to this location too often but I was really intrigued by the responses from the nearby Le Chat Noir restaurant. Matisse seems like it has similar potential if a bit higher end. You can see their menus here. It kinda blends into the block so it’s easy to walk by without even knowing it’s there. Is this a (sorta) hidden gem?

Photo by PoPville flickr user hohandy

Griffin & Murphy, LLP, is a boutique law firm in Washington, D.C. concentrating its practice in real estate law (including development, finance, leasing, zoning and condominium conversions), as well as estate planning and probate, civil litigation, and business law. The attorneys of Griffin & Murphy, LLP are licensed to practice law in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia. Griffin and Murphy, LLP was founded in 1981.

Please send any legal questions relating to real estate, rentals, buildings, renovations or other legal items to princeofpetworth (at) gmail (dot) com, each week one question will be featured. You can find previous questions featured here.

Back in the day the owners of the old Maggie Moos at 1301 U Street, NW asked PoPville readers to name the new spot. You guys came up with U Scream Ice Cream and it always makes me smile when I walk past that sign.

Now, I’m happy to report that they will soon be offering crepes.

And thanks to a reader for sending in the above photo.

Ed. Note: Ever since I saw the Larry David Sandwich episode on Curb Your Enthusiasm it has been a dream of mine to have a PoP sandwich. I can’t believe it but that dream has come true. I can now die happy.

Obviously the important thing here is that now we will soon be able to get crepes on U Street. And stay tuned for Point Chaud to open at 14th just south of S Street, NW. (Remember the other crepe place that was supposed to come to 14th and S is now becoming a burger spot.)

“Dear PoP,

I don’t know if you have addressed this, but the restaurant Seafood & Things on Upshur is still closed despite it’s door placard stating it would reopen after the Christmas holiday.

I walked by today and to my surprised found a yellow tabby napping on the counter INSIDE…see pictures…
My concerns are 1)is the restaurant permanently closed and 2) is someone feeding/caring for the cat???”

Perhaps they have gone the way of nearby Beveragemania open one day and closed the next. Does anyone know if they have permanently closed? For the record I’ve had a pretty good crab cake sandwich from them. I’m not sure if seeing a cat in there is a good sign or a bad sign…

Seafood & Things is located at 847 Upshur Street, NW.

Ready Set DC has started a monthly event called Art of the Blog. The event will focus on different areas (food, neighborhoods, art, music etc.). Anyway first up is neighborhoods. I’m looking forward to talking about what it is exactly that I do along with And Now, Anacostia blogger, David Garber. It’s starts a bit on the early side but should be fun. I’m hoping there will be a significant question and answer section so feel free to ask me anything (personal or professional) on your mind!

Friday, February 26th from 6 to 8pm
At DISTRICT | 2473 18th Street NW

It seems the old Webster School located at 940 H Street, NW has been boarded up for ages. This is such a prime location that it must be on someone’s radar. Does anyone know if/what the future plans are here?

I’m not sure if I’ve shown this one before but I really dig it. You may psychoanalyze me now…

Continuing on with the Asian theme (see post below) I spotted these gigantic prayer flags up in Forest Hills. I’ve seen the little ones on people’s porches before but the ones above were gigantic.

What do you guys think about the size – is it cool or a bit too large for a private residence?

More of a gate really but I was digging the Asian vibe. I’ve also been noticing tons of bamboo around town. I wonder hard that stuff is to landscape? Seems like it could get out of control in a hurry.

I really liked the wood siding on this one. Kinda had a bit of a farmhouse look as well.

Murphy’s Law recently opened up at 4624 Wisconsin Ave. NW near one of my favorite breakfast spots (Morty’s formerly Krupin’s). Has anyone checked them out yet? How do they rank in terms of Irish Bars in the city? We talked about some of the best Irish bars in the city here.

The great one above is located, of course, in the Forest Hills neighborhood. And a reader writes in about the Petworth Bungalow below:

“Thought you might be interested in this renovation that is going on! Since moving into the 300 block of Rock Creek Church Road, we learned that this single family, detached bugalow has been empty for a while and has been the ugly one on the block. Rumor has it that it was to be a boarding house for troubled girls, but the organizer ran out of funds. It has since been picked up by “We Buy Ugly Houses.” I spoke with the manager of their DC properties and he said it would be a beauty! Originally, the owners talked about demo-ing and trying to build a monster house. They decided against it as it was already quite sizable and they were ablet o avoid major changes to the permits (apparently, when they bought the place it came with approved plans!) Once done, it will be a 5 bedroom, 4.5 house with finished space over 3500 square feet! It was painted last week and is looking quite nice with new windows, a new roof and a new porch. This will be one to keep an eye on for a pulse on prices in the neighborhood!”