“Dear PoP,

There was a fire in a building on t street (around 1:30pm) that seemed pretty bad–there were about four firetrucks on the street and smoke could be seen coming from a first floor window. I overheard someone say the fire was out, so I hope everything is okay! Pretty scary, though, we had firemen running through our back alley with axes.”

J Y W captures some great, if random, finds this weekend.

Submit your photos to the PoPville flickr pool here. Follow PoPville on twitter here.

“Dear PoP,

On N Street, NW, between 17th and 18th Streets, there are four boarded-up buildings on the north side of N, just two doors down from the Tabard Inn. They look like they’re in great condition, but I think they’ve been boarded up for quite a while. Do you know what the story is behind them? Who owns them? It’s a shame that such lovely historic buildings are boarded up like this.”

We discussed these buildings back in back in Sept. ’09 sadly it seems there has been little visible progress. At the time we learned that apparently the developer, Mr. Morton Bender and his company N Street Follies Ltd, would like to develop the properties into a hotel but the issue of parking has been a major hold up. The impasse has gone on for years and there are those who think it’s time to go back to the drawing board.

This home is located at 1342 Oak Street, NW:

View Larger Map

The flier says:

“Beautifully renovated, 3 level, 3 bedroom, 3.5 bath row house. Brand new, expanded kitchen. Full bath added upstairs. Half bath added on main level. New hardwood floors on main level. Fully finished, newly renovated basement with front and rear entries. Many, many other upgrades! Quiet block, right off 14th, 3 blocks to Columbia Heights restaurants. Walk to Metro!”

You can find more info and photos here.

What do you think of the renovation itself? It’s yours for $569,900. The reader who sent in the request thinks it’ll go for more. What do you guys think it’ll settle at?

“Dear PoP,

Yesterday you posted an anonymous letter from someone who observed campaign posters for Jim Graham being hung by employees of the MC Dean company. The letter writer didn’t have all the facts and as a result jumped to conclusions (or had a political agenda he failed to disclose).

First, the campaign contacted several possible vendors who could perform this service. Those vendors referred us to MC Dean. In the past, MC Dean has hung posters for candidates in DC and elsewhere. As a result, the Graham campaign hired MC Dean.

Second, MC Dean invoiced the Graham campaign for all the work performed.

Third, any suggestion that this work agreement is inappropriate is far-fetched. There are no regulations that prohibit a business that does work for the city to also perform work for a campaign. Thousands of businesses have contracts with the city. What if MC Dean was a printer that produced campaign fliers? Many DC campaigns have hired businesses that perform functions for the city. What’s the big deal? This is why we file campaign finance reports: transparency (as the photo posted to PoP demonstrates, MC Dean performed this work in broad daylight. Obviously, the campaign was transparent about the work).

Fourth, we know that individuals with a purely political agenda promoted this smear to several news outlets, and did so by combining misinformation with a selective use of facts. At least two news outlets reviewed the story (and the misinformation supplied to them), and decided not to report the story. The one outlet that did cover the story, the Washington Post, did so only on its blog and updated the story with facts that were not gathered before the story was originally posted.

Campaign season is often referred to as “silly season.” This comes as no surprise to any of us. While the Graham campaign is talking about issues of great concern to the community, this race is being tarnished by parties who have distorted the truth on more than one occasion and offered wild allegations without an iota of fact to support them.

My point: readers beware. If you read a campaign article that supplies but one side of the story you’re probably being spun.

Thank you for the opportunity to respond.

Chuck Thies
Re-Elect Jim Graham 2010″

You can talk about whatever is on your mind – quality of life issues, a beautiful tree you spotted, scuttlebutt, or any random questions/thoughts you may have. I’ll open this thread every Monday and Friday. So anything good happen to you this weekend?

“Dear PoP,

While sitting in Columbia Heights coffee the other day, I overheard a food wholesaler mention that a bakery was coming in across the street on 11th street. Have you heard any details about this? A good bakery would be a great addition to one of my favorite streets in DC!”

Perhaps this is the development in the works for 3313 11th St, NW? I know folks have often mentioned the desire for a good local bakery. One would probably do very well in that location or elsewhere on 11th St.

Anyone else hear this rumor?

I’m gonna be honest, the details of this event, from the comments of a previous update sorta make me dizzy. So let me just say that Abu the Ferret has been found and returned to the owner. I think most can agree that this is great news.

The reader says that the following two groups were key in bringing Abu back home:

http://www.theferretinn.org/index.html

http://baltoferretclub.com/contact.html

Petworth’s Safeway on Georgia Ave (3830 Georgia Ave, NW)

Georgetown’s new Safeway on Wisconsin Ave (1855 Wisconsin Ave, NW)

While I’m very happy with the YES! Organic Market a bit further up the block at Georgia and Taylor, I find it pretty appalling to compare the Petworth Safeway to the Georgetown Safeway. I understand that Georgetown residents have a lot of money to spend so obviously they are going to get a nice store but Petworth residents were told time and time again that this relic on Georgia Ave was going to be upgraded. Whenever I ask Mayor Fenty or Council Member Bowser they say, plans are still in the works. But Lord – how long must we wait. Quite frankly I just don’t like all the bullshit. If they’re not going to upgrade the Georgia Ave Safeway then just say so. Be honest with us, we can take it. I’ve heard lots of rumors as to why the Safeway upgrade has stalled. Some blame residents, some blame Safeway, some blame funding/tax break issues. But are we not entitled to an honest answer?

So once and for all – should the Georgia Ave Safeway be upgraded? If so, what is the responsibility of Safeway, our elected leaders and/or the residents to make sure this happens.  I believe that Mt. Vernon Square (City Vista), Adams Morgan, Georgetown, Navy Yard (SW Waterfront) all have new or upgraded stores.  Besides Petworth what other neighborhoods do you think are due for an upgrade?

I can tell you when I walked into the Georgia Ave store this weekend I was hit with a foul odor. When I walked into the Wisconsin Ave store, I could swear that the aisles were paved with gold. Not to speak for all but I’d be happy with half as nice an upgrade in Petworth.

Luncheon meats at Georgia Ave above.

A portion of the cheese selection at Wisconsin Ave below.

Photo from PoPville flickr user icubaji

Well this is a rather random sight (from last week). icubaji writes that the shot was taken around 31st street just south of M in Georgetown.

This one of my favorite parts of living in DC. It’s not the festivals in and of themselves, rather, for me, it is simply stumbling upon them that is so much fun. This happened to me both Sat. (more on Sat. tomorrow) and Sun. On Sunday I stumbled upon the Festival of the Americas on the property of the Organization of the American States (17th and Constitution, NW). There was great music, food, drinks, and performances. Anyone else check it out – planned or unplanned? Plus I got to see this phenomenal pool and sculpture:

Lots more photos after the jump. (more…)

“Dear PoP,

We were sitting inside Room 11 last week and looked out to see these MC Dean contractors hanging a Jim Graham campaign sign. I can’t say that I saw them placing the sign, but I did notice them stapling it and placing it just right. I thought at first (trying to give them the benefit of the doubt) they were just adjusting it so they could do real city business on that lamp pole, but nope. After dealing with the sign they just packed up and moved on.

MC Dean is a locally based contractor, but they’re international (a friend works for them, contracted by the US Army in Germany), so it seems like they’d be a bit too expensive for Graham’s campaign coffers to hire just for the sake of hanging his signs.

This just seemed wrong, and all of us sitting at the table were shocked.”

Sorry for the delay in posting but it fell off my radar until I saw this Washington Post article:

“Bill Dean, president and CEO of M.C. Dean, said his crews covered “specific areas” of the ward for Graham, with employees working several nights last week. A portion of the work, he said, is being done as an “in-kind” donation to Graham. Dean said he closely tracks the work to comply with campaign finance laws — which, in D.C. ward races, limit any individual or corporation from donating more than $500 to any one candidate. The Graham campaign would be billed for any overage, he said.”

This is the first time I’ve seen this red cross sculpture near George Washington University.

This is one of the nicest tree box gardens I’ve seen this season.

It’s all about the face on this one: