“Dear PoP,

I’m finally feeling excited about the progress of this park… I’d been desperately waiting for some greenspace here!”

This is the old Bruce Monroe School site. You can see some playground equipment in the background as well. Wow, this is wild.

“Dear PoP,

Whenever I walk into my garden and stare at my ginormous tomato plants (and eggplants, and cucumbers, etc) I can’t help but hear them say “FEED ME SEYMOUR!”

For your tomato envying pleasure.”

Nicely done! This city garden rivals the country one selected as garden of the day.

If you have a great garden, spot for a morning cup of coffee or simply a great tomato send a photo to princeofpetworth(at)gmail(dot)com.

Who knew there were this many ridiculous album covers out there. Som Records is truly the master at finding them.

The owner writes:

“My garden is outside the city but it’s planted in straw bales, which can very easily be done on a balcony or in a rowhouse yard. Put some sheet plastic under the bales, cover in compost, let them rot for a few weeks, and plant. When you’re done you can pretty easily compost up all the straw.

I forgot to pick a zucchini for a day or so:

Farm haul from the other day:

it’s so easy to urbanize the concept.”

After the jump check out a phenomenal chicken and an odd bonus garden. (more…)

I’m giving this one house of the day honors because it was a shell for many many years. It’s on M St, NW in Mt. Vernon Square but I can’t find a picture of the shell in my archives. Trust me, it was a total shell. I’m thinking it looks great now.

Thanks to a reader for sending in the news. In a newsletter Elizabeth from Yoga House writes:

“Our 5 year lease is ending at our current space [3634B Georgia Ave., NW] at the end of August, and we have decided to vacate these premises. We love our beautiful Yoga House – but we know that it is not the building we love, it is the sweetness of all the amrit velas, all the yoga and meditation that we have done there that have created the beauty of this space – and we are not attached to this one building no matter how much we have enjoyed it.

Yes we are planning to re-locate and re-open, but it won’t happen before 2011.”

I emailed Elizabeth to confirm and she says:

“If you do write about this will you tell everyone how teaching at Yoga House has been the best time of my life, that I have loved getting to know the Petworth and Columbia Heights community and I will be back soon!

If folks want to keep up with me they can sign up on the front page of my newsletter (www.yogahousestudio.com) or follow YogiElizabeth on Twitter or find Yoga House Washington on Facebook.”

I interviewed Yoga House’s owner, Elizabeth Greathouse, back in July 2007. I wish her and her team the best of luck and I’ll be sure to post their new location in 2011. In the meantime their current location will be open through August.

The groundbreaking for this project, located at 1330 Missouri Avenue NW, will be this Tues. From a press release:

“VIDA Senior Centers invite you to join Mayor Adrian Fenty, Angel Luis Irene of VIDA Senior Centers, representatives from City First Bank of DC, city officials, friends and neighbors at the groundbreaking for the construction of 36 units of Affordable Housing for Seniors and a new Senior Service Center at the future home of the VIDA Senior Residences at Brightwood located at 1330 Missouri Avenue NW in Brightwood (between 13th and 14th on the south side of Missouri Avenue)”.

More details about the building after the jump. (more…)

Ed. Note: Entries accepted through Friday, July 23rd. Remember if you have a favorite please let me know. If you emailed a photo of your pet I promise all photos will be posted, patience please, there are tons (literally hundreds) of pets in PoPville!

A little clarification on voting – these are the preliminary rounds. Your comments help me a lot in selecting semifinalists for Dog, Cat, Other and Group. At this round of the selection process it is still a bit arbitrary. Though I may enlist the winners from last year to help out a bit. There will be semifinal voting (in a poll format) for every group then the winners of each category will face off for the ultimate winner. Stay tuned!

Jolene

“This is Jolene. She is a seven year old retired greyhound. LIKES: napping, just kickin’ it, chillin’, leftover rice and being aloof. Dislikes: Squirrels, water deeper than her ankles, temps above 90 and effort.”

Sadie

“This is Sadie, she’s a 7 year old Jack Russell who was rescued this year from the DC Humane Society. She lost her eye to glaucoma, it got infected while she was stray and was too bad to treat. But don’t worry, she’s happy and doesn’t seem to notice, except when she runs into things.”

Fritz

“This is Fritz using the toilet to do his business. He’s my first cat and I hate litter boxes, so the first thing I did was teach him how to use the toilet. He can’t flush by himself, but as long as I don’t have to buy litter or scoop his poop, I don’t care!

Oh, the deets: Fritz is 11 months old, I adopted him in February from the humane society in NE and we share a 1bath apartment on the Hill.”

Lots more great entries after the jump. (more…)

This rental is located at Beekman Place by 16th and Florida Ave, NW:

View Larger Map

The Craigslist ad says:

“Chic two-level townhouse in gated community.

Just minutes from Dupont Circle, Adams Morgan and U Street.

24 hour security and parking.

large one-bedroom apartment, two bathroom unit, on two levels, with private patio.”

You can see the Beekman Place Web site and photos here. It says, “Beekman Place is situated within the historic walls of the former Henderson Castle.” I’ve always been curious about these homes. What do you think? Does $2980 sound reasonable?

Photo by PoPville flickr user AWard Tour

“Dear PoP,

I’m writing on behalf of a friend of mine. She is Ethiopian and lives in an apartment on 13th St., NW. She has been having problems with bedbugs and contacted her landlord. She tells me that her landlord responded that it wasn’t his responsibility and that only his Ethiopian tenants had problems with bedbugs. I don’t know about that but it seems he does have a responsibility to take action on the bug infestation. What would you advise?”

We learned how devastating bed bugs can be last week. I would think that it is absolutely the responsibility of the landlord to attempt to treat this problem with regular extermination visits. Does anyone know what government office should be contacted for this situation? DCRA?

Photo by PoPville flickr user Columbia Heights Climber

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

Photo by PoPville flickr user bajidc®

“Dear PoP,

Have you heard an update on the Gage-Eckington park? It does not look like any progress has been made since the weather broke. I thought the contract mess got sorted out. Any news?”

Last we heard back in March Jim Graham annouced that money had been found for the project. The Ledroit Park Civic Association updated back in April that the project was slated to be completed by Nov. I too noticed that not much progress has been made after demolition and the fences went up. Anyone have the scoop? I’ll also email CM Graham’s office to see if they can update.

This home is located at 1118 Florida Ave, NE:

View Larger Map

The flier says:

“Two units zoned residential/commercial in a sought after rental area. Fully renovated in 2007, each unit has Stainless/Granite kitchen, gas appliances, Jacuzzi, exposed brick, rear deck, parking for 4 cars. Located in the H Street/Atlas District, a short commute to Metro, Downtown, Capitol Hill, and easy access to Gallaudet University, shopping and eating establishments.”

You can find more info here and photos here.

The reader writes:

“Hey, I saw this property and its neighbor pop up a few weeks ago and can’t figure out why they’re so cheap. Perhaps it’s the stigma attached to the Trinidad neighborhood, but I’d be interested to see whether people thought this was a GDON or not. The second link is the property right next door and has probably been renovated by the same person.”

That is bizarre. This 4 bed/2.5 bath is going for $319,000. This is truly bizarre. In June 2006 it sold for $615,000. Does the $319,000 sound realistic or will it get bid up much higher? The house next door that the reader mentions went under contract for $349,000.

H Street, NE, at 15th Street looking east toward Benning Road (ca; 1945) courtesy of DDOT

The District Department of Transportation (DDOT) just created a new flickr page with sweet historic photos. I could spend hours looking at these photos. Awesome.

9th St & Florida Ave, NW, (ca: 1958) courtesy of DDOT

Capital city Subs is located at 751 8th Street SE (at the bottom of Barracks Row). While, pretty small it looks like it could be very promising especially with the old school seating:

Is this like a mini Florida Avenue Grill? Any fans?