C A P I C O S T I A

Marcus Garvey believed 'We can', before President Obama. [photo from 'The Guardian']   Baltimore City, Maryland has problems. Big problems. If you have been watching the news or reading the paper, over the past day or so, you may be wondering how Baltimore's government and the people, who live there, will ever solve them. Mixed in with the problems that government CAN solve in Baltimore, ..the disenfranchised young residents, burning everything down, over there, have problems that the government and the mayor cannot solve, even with billions of dollars investment in ..and subsequent development of their communities. Government can give tax incentives to entrepreneurs, who open businesses in the economically depressed communities, where many of us live. The Prince George's County Economic Development Corporation is offering expedition of permits, tax abatements and workforce assistance to people, starting new businesses in depressed areas of Hyattsv

  Capicostia's Laughing Airman, ..my Uncle Stanley!   In his life, he was a warrior - a veteran of the Viet Nam War - a scholar and an artist, and he was always there for the people he cared about, when they needed them.  In the 1970s and 80s, he worked, side by side, with a Penn Brancher of long-standing - the late Mrs. Barbara Jean Harvey - in D.C.'s Department of Mental Health, bringing economically challenged citizens closer to the psychiatric care and social services that they so desperately needed to live. After living half of his life in Northwest Washington, he eventually settled into a small house in Marshall Heights and frequently visited us - his nephew, niece, his sister (my mother) and our Coyote-hatin' Goldiweiller, Kirby - and we will always remember how much laughter and wisdom he brought us, right here in the Naylor Duponts.   I think this photo captures the enduring pluck and ambition of the generation that settled in ANC-7B, back in the 60s!

It looks like another major coffee retailer - this one, named for a famous metropolis in the American northwest - will be setting up shop in quaintly middle-class Penn Branch (Washington, D.C.) in October 2015. A reliable source tells Capicostia that the world-famous coffee giant's Penn Branch store will be located between PB Center’s old, broken down escalators and the H&R Block, in a space that will soon be vacated, by Beltway Beauty and Barber Supply  - that's just four doors down from the CVS Pharmacy . See you in October. Mel Dyer

Much has been made of Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign for President of the United States becoming a coronation. Well...coronation-schmoranation! EVERY presidential election is a coronation to some degree. Ronald Reagan was certainly a coronation of departure from the sociopolitical consciousness of the 60s and 70s - a return to the rugged individualism that America indulged so unapologetically, before the progressive social unrest of the 1960s. If you want Clinton or any other candidate, you consolidate your political power into a voting block, hold your candidate accountable for your issues ..and CORONATE them! There are other candidates running for that office. When I find one that I think represents what's important to me, I will bloody coronate them... So, why NOT Hillary?

Capicostia is now also on Facebook, at these coordinates... https://www.facebook.com/capicostia  

Why 'Capicostia', again, you ask? Because, if you're living anywhere east of the Big Dirty - that's the 'Anacostia River' for you, greenhorns - you're probably sick and tired of being referred to as 'Anacostia', ..unless you're actually, propely  living in Anacostia. Most of us aren't, and most people don't know that Anacostia is only a small part of the River East area of Washington. There's Twining City, the Randle Highlands, Penn Branch, Fairfax Village, Fairlawn, Hillcrest, Good Hope, Naylor Gardens ...all here and all always misidentified, as 'Anacostia'! We residents of ANC-7B don't hate it, because we hate Anacostia ..or Capitol Hill, ..or being sandwiched between them. We hate it, because we want to be appreciated, as something uniquely our own. We've worked very hard to be, and  'Capicostia' is a way of acknowledging that problem, while creating a new, safe place, east of the Anacostia River,