3910 Georgia Ave., NW Sept. ’08 One of Georgia Avenue’s many retail teases…

“Dear PoP,

I am closing on a house on 4th Street in Petworth on January 25th. I have been doing some research on the area and it doesn’t seem like there are many fitness/gym options in the area for me within walking distance. I used to live in Columbia Heights and there is a decent WSC there, but is that the only option I have? Is there anything planned in the future in the Petworth community?”

Back, back in the day we were told that a Results Gym was going to come to Georgia Ave in the new building at 3910 Georgia Ave, NW across from Qualia Coffee. That deal fell through and a clinic/school is coming in its place. I haven’t heard anything else about a new gym. I assume many use the WSC in Columbia Heights or places near their work. Any Petworth area gyms that I’m not aware of?

We looked at some city wide gym recommendations here and here.

This home is located at 1808 24th St, NW:

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The flier says:

“Renovated and expanded brick and limestone townhouse located in one of Washington’s most elegant and rarely available rows. Home features formal entertaining spaces with lovely original detail, gourmet table space kitchen plus wonderful open family room and charming flagstone patio with deck. Amenities include an elevator, all new systems & windows and a generous 1 car garage.”

You can find more info here and a virtual tour here.

I’ll be honest, this isn’t my favorite house porn post but I’ve always been curious to see what the homes inside this block look like. I couldn’t give up this chance. Thought others may be interested as well. So what do you think? It’s yours for $3,795,000.

Photo by PoPville flickr user urban sherpa

“Dear PoP,

I normally park my car on Florida between 11th and 13th St, NW (right at the edge of the high school), but after reading about break ins there last week, I’ve been parking it overnight in the actual HS lot (generally if you move it by 7:30 or so, no one gives you any trouble). I thought this would be safer, but it seems it just delayed the inevitable. Although there was absolutely nothing visible or worth stealing in the car, my back window was broken into sometime between 11pm and 7am. They went through my car and trunk and didn’t take a thing. The worse part was that a cop car was parked across the street most of the night…but no cop to be found.

It seems no matter how empty your car is or where it is parked around there, it won’t be safe. What a great early Christmas present!”

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t. Sorry to hear about this.

Corduroy is located at 1122 9th Street, NW near the Convention Center. I’ve gotten some emails recently and I wanted to show them some love given their proximity to a construction zone that they’ll be enduring for a while. We last judged them back in Jan. ’09 to very positive reviews. You can see their menu here. Folks still digging them?

Back in May we learned that a place called the Museum of Arts and Sciences was coming to 915 F St, NW. Didn’t know much more beyond that and the mystery continues. Thanks to a reader for sending the word:

“At noon on Tuesday, December 21, 2010, the ownership of Museum (Museum of Arts & Sciences, LLC) unexpectedly suspended all operations and shuttered the business.”

You can find a bit of background on the space from DC Mud here.

Anyone ever check it out?

Photo by PoPville flickr user Brandon Kopp

“Dear PoP,

There’s something I wanted to pass on to the community. I just found out about a program called HARP (“Home Affordable Refinance Program “) that we are using to refinance our place without hardly any paperwork and at a much lower cost that a traditional refinance would likely have entailed. Basically, I think that, unless your rate is under 4.5%, you can probably reduce it using this program.

Just for comparison, for us, it will cost $395 up front (for the appraisal), and an additional 1600 rolled into the loan itself (various fees), but this means that we are able to shave some interest off our loan and save about $150 per month. So, yay, it pays for itself in less than two years and takes some pressure off each month. One of the reasons it works for us even in this crappy market is because, unlike a regular re-fi, the appraised value just needs to be within 125% of the loan amount (a regular re-fi requires 80% – which is often hard for people to get at the moment due to the reduction in home values across the board).

Anyways, it is always nice to save money, especially in this economy, and I thought I would pass on the info. For anyone who is interested I would suggest they call the bank that holds their mortgage and see what they say – I believe that by law they have to offer HARP options to you if you qualify (and unless you’ve been late on a mortgage payment in the past year, you probably do qualify). In fact, the only way we found out about this is because our bank called us out of the blue and told us about this program.

Some more info can be found here:

http://makinghomeaffordable.gov/about.html
http://makinghomeaffordable.gov/refinance_eligibility.html
http://makinghomeaffordable.gov/refinance_yes.html”

Anyone else use this program?

And thanks to DC Mud for sending word that, Congress Renews $5000 DC First Time Homebuyer Credit:

“The Federal tax credit is a $5,000 below-the-line credit against federal taxes for the purchase of a home in DC for taxpayers that did not own a principal residence in DC during the previous year.

The nationwide $8,000 tax credit for purchasing a home expired last summer.”

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From MPD:

“RE: Attack/Robbery at 10th and Girard NE (Monday around 1930 hours)

The complainant was walking northbound when she was grabbed from behind by the suspect. The suspect then produced a taser gun and proceeded to taser the complainant about the face and upper body as the second suspect took her purse. Both suspects fled on Franklin St NE.”

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From MPD listserv:

“I was walking between 4th and 5th on T St NW [in LeDroit Park] at three this afternoon [Tues.] when a young black man crossed the street towards me with a handgun and told me to empty my pockets. He was wearing a red parka and was accompanied by a second young black man in a black coat. I immediately ran and wasn`t chased. I called the MPD when I got to Florida Ave and two cars met me at Georgia and Florida to take my statement. I rode with one officer as they canvassed the neighborhood for a few minutes, then gave a statement to a detective. The officer I rode with gave me his card and my case number. When I left the officers hadn`t found anyone.

There was a second robbery at 2nd and T St. NW at almost the same time which the officers were talking about, but I don`t know if they were connected.”

I’m not sure it’s the smartest idea to run from someone with a gun pointed at you but I’m glad this individual was ok.

Photo by PoPville flickr user jthorpephoto.com

At least “Skateboard P” has been taken off the streets…

“Today [Tues.] at approximately twelve noon, the Fifth District Burglary Tactical unit arrested Allen Brown aka “Skateboard P” for a Burglary he committed in the 3500 block of South Dakota Avenue NE on 10/13/10. Mr. Brown was chased by officers on October 13, 2010 after being suspected of committing the burglary but made good his escape. Further investigation by the Tactical Unit and Fifth District Detectives further connected Mr. Brown to the South Dakota Avenue Burglary and an additional Burglary off the Rhode Island Avenue corridor. Detectives were able to obtain an arrest warrant leading to today’s arrest by the tac unit.”

Thanks to all who sent links to updates. I’m not even gonna pretend to understand what’s going on here. TBD writes:

The Office of the U.S. Attorney for D.C. has just released a statement on the medical examiner’s findings — no move to re-file charges at this time, but they “intend to carefully study these conclusions as part of our legal analysis of this tragic incident.”

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has confirmed that the manner of death was a homicide, and the cause described like this: Excited Delirium Associated With Arrhythmogenic Cardiac Anomalies, Alcohol Intoxication and Physical Exertion With Restraint.

DC 9 reopened this past Friday.

You can see some background on the incident here.

Anyone want to speculate what’s going to happen?

I spotted this sign up in the Palisades and it really cracked me up. Not sure it’ll make a great caption contest but I have faith. Your captions in the comments and winner picked Thursday.

Crooked Beat records from 18th St, NW in Adams Morgan getting into the game.

I’ve been meaning to post this for weeks but forgot I had it on my phone. Anyway, this is a replica of a friend’s row house near H St, NE. The party was celebrating the 130 year birthday of the house. Way too cool.

I will never get tired of posting this one from Dupont.

“Dear PoP,

On the 600 block of Florida Avenue there is a dyanamic community arts organization called CapoeiraDC (www.capoeiradc.com). CapoeiraDC is a community-run nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering the Afro-Brazilian martial art of capoeira in the nation’s capital through classes, community outreach and access, and youth development. Capoeira is a unique blend of martial arts, dance, and music that evolved from the vibrant Afro-Brazilian culture.

We are the largest and longest standing capoeira contemporânea academy in the DC metro area. In addition to to offering seven adult Capoeira classes and two youth capoeira classes to nearly 100 students, we are committed to making Afro-Brazilian arts accessible to the community by offering free Capoeira and Samba workshops several times a year and teaching free Capoeira classes at afterschool and summer programs at the “Capoeira Spot” and in the Adams Morgan, Columbia Heights, Petworth, and Anacostia neighborhoods.”

Sounds great. I’m sure lots of folks have walked by this space dozens of times. Very cool to learn more about it. You can find more info here.

“Dear PoP,

Heard last night from a girl who works at Starfish that they are closing down their cafe on 8th but reopening an Italian place instead. Not sure if you’ve heard anything similar or have more info to provide. I, for one, will miss the only New Orleans style place in that area!”

I couldn’t get any confirmation so this’ll have to remain scuttlebutt for the time being but I promise to update as more info becomes available. Starfish Cafe is located at 539 8th St., SE. You can see their menus here and we judged them here back in Oct. ’09. Anyone else hear this rumor?

Pretty impressive progress. You can see what it looked like in March here. This is going to be a condo project called Swann’s Way. I’ll be sure to repost when completed and units go on the market so we can take a peek inside. But in the meantime – how do you think they look?