Meet Bloomingdale!

Ever wonder what it would take to change the direction of North Capital Street? Specifically the area between Rhode Island Avenue and New York Avenue. In the past few weeks I have found neighbors with an interest/curiosity about how we, as Bloomingdale neighbors, can help North Capital Street regain it’s footing as a great street. Imagine, the power of a group of neighbors to buy one vacant building on North Capital Street. Daunting and exciting.

Let’s meet.

My agenda is to meet you. ....and,

• Talk about what is needed to form an LLC. How is an LLC different/better than a 503c. Is there a better option?


• How would we start? Would we have an initial investment amount per person? $1000, $10,000. More, less?
  


• Do we organize the seed money first, and then find the property....that seems to make sense.


• What is our mission? Is it solely to clean up North Capital? Is it to entice more businesses? Is it to make money? Are we only considering those buildings for sale, or do we approach other businesses....would SAVEMORE be interested in a new facade? Would that be something we would want to think about.
  

So let’s meet Bloomingdale! Tuesday, March 25th, 7:00pm at Nellie’s Sports Bar (9th and U Street). Please email me if you would like to be included: Karen_and_Howard at verizon dot net.

Think. Think. Think about it.

Form Stone!

here is an interesting article on formstone/permastone/fake stone siding.

brick

there has been a lot of discussion on the community boards and blogs about brick sidewalks. r street nw is getting them. s street nw just got them. r ne is supposed to get them. some residents are thrilled, others a bit smug. personally i love the brick sidewalks but am a bit indifferent about fighting to get them. i agree with many that our efforts might be put to better use. I wonder though about the budgetary lines and if getting brick sidewalks really means not getting something else.

i'd like to start a pro/con list about brick sidewalks. this is assuming the brick vs concrete argument. i know there are other choices too.
please comment with your points.

Pro's
1. very attractive.
2. allows water to reach root system of trees.
3. ease to repair
4. befitting of the old character/materials of the neighborhood.
5. the whole broken windows theory.



Con's
1. Money
2. hard to shovel snow
3. hard to clean
4. bad for the handicapped
5. bad for high heels
6. Spalting
7. roots can easily cause uneveness in sidewalk
9 provokes tension over "gentrification" and appearance over people argument.
10. would expel a lot of community effort to get them
11. upheaval time to do the work.


are people gonna start wanting cobblestone streets too?