C A P I C O S T I A

by Edgar Miraculous Dyer Who  do  we  think  we are? There are perfectly sensible people living along Pennsylvania Avenue, between the Sousa Bridge and the Southern Avenue D.C. State Line - in Naylor Dupont, ANC-7B - who think that they live in as colorful a scattering of socially and politically diverse neighborhoods, as to be found, anywhere else in Washington. They  think  they live in neighborhoods, called  Greenway, Penn Branch, Fairfax Village, Hillcrest  and  Skyland , ..in spite of the fact that so many Washingtonians, west of the Anacostia River, persist in dismissively referring to these neighborhoods, as .. 'Anacostia'. There are people living on exclusive  Westover Drive,  secluded in the emerald majesty of historic Fort Davis Park, where Ohio Representative, Dennis Kusinich, presently resides, who are so removed from the fabled, urban grit of Southeast Washington...they might think they're ...

by Edgar Miraculous Dyer Jamaican American journalist, ANDREW RICKETTS, recently wrote an article, presently featured on MSN.com - HOW MANY DARK WOMEN SHOULD I DATE TO CURE MY COLORISM? I have a BIG problem with the question posed in that title. I will try to be sensitive in addressing my problem with the titular question. I will try to court clarity and eloquence in my exposition on it, ..but bear with me. A wide berth below will be appreciated, where you can intellectually afford it. Thank you in advance. I am an unremarkably orangish-looking (but proud) American man of Afro-American, Mexican and Near Eastern ancestry - light-skinned, but not the lightest - and I have dated more than a few women of almost any color, you can think of. My maternal grandmother was a regal, brown-skinned, Afro-American woman, whose gentle beauty, just yesterday, was compared to a Disney princess's...by me. [Ha'ha.] Her daughter, my mother, was a brass-toned beauty, alternately compared to Halle B...

by Edgar Miraculous Dyer COYOTES are loose in Southeast Washington, D.C. ..and ANC-7B, most specifically! We're surrounded by deep, unspoiled, picturesque woodlands in Fort Davis, Dupont Park, Penn Branch, Randle Highlands, Pope Branch Park, Hillcrest and Westover! That's charming...even comforting to some of us, ..but these areas also offer shelter and food resources - Nature's supermarkets - to our resident wildlife. So let's be careful, out there, coming home or taking out our garbage after dark. No, amigo--that's NOT the neighbor's COLLIE. Where'd Mr. Paul's Collie go? Lassie...? Oh, no. (Original photo from Wikipedia ) Do you know how long I've been telling my Fairfax Village neighbors that we've got coyotes passing through, along our patios, back doors, parking lots and back walkways? They have been sniffing around and foraging from our trash, since at least 2012, ..and spotted as far Southeast as Savannah Terrace, just off of Stanton Roa...

The gentlemen of 'East Washington Heights', had big plans for the land between the Hill and Anacostia. [Photo from PennAveEast.com] If I had a nickel for every time someone in the blogosphere outright dismissed the authenticity of this blog's title, Capicostia, ..or asked me what the hell it pointed to in Washington, D.C. - well, I wouldn't be publishing an obscure blog on a Friday night, let me tell you... Ha. In the 1980s, at Jefferson Junior High School in DC's Southwest Waterfront District, ..if your East-of-the-Anacostia-River home's close proximity to the John Philip Sousa Bridge, the Anacostia River beneath it or Capitol Hill on the other side of that bridge ..confused you enough to think you actually  lived on Capitol Hill...no worries! If you said it out loud in a classroom, after being told that by sympathetic elders, hoping to give your or their egos, a boost,  ..there was always someone happy to correct you - tp talk you down..."Nau-uuw, son. ...

The Poowe Brothers, Hubble and Kirby, patrolling historic Peace Landing in happier times. [Photo, Mel Dyer collection.] by Edgar Miraculous Dyer SNOWSTORM...this one, forecast to be one of the worst our region has ever seen. The following shares some thoughts I recently shared on Facebook: Thinking about it coming here, to Washington, D.C. and the foot and a half of snow, local news says it will dump on us, ..depresses me, greatly. Our cottage in Penn Branch has been a difficult place to be in storms, like this, ..because we are on the backstreet of a side street, off of Pennsylvania Avenue and a good hike from Capitol Hill. DC Government has historically been slow in servicing/clearing our streets, which, in spite of our BEST individual efforts to prepare to be ready for the WORST outcomes, ..leaves us trapped on our hill and cut off from speedy response by emergency services and resources. I cannot watch the local TV news coverage of the storm, anymore. It's simply too much to ke...

CENTS OIL CO is the kind of fuel delivery company that so many older, oil-burning households in Washington, DC's  Capitol Hill and  East-of-the-River neighborhoods (Capitol Hill, Skyland,  Penn Branch-Hillcrest, Marshall Heights,  Anacostia, Congress Heights and more) ..depend on. Penn Branchers, like me, choose Cents, because it's e xceptional. Nothing common about this Cents! Competent, right-on-time SERVICE with SKILLED engineers and smart PRICES ..is the standard. It's also an environmentally responsible company, ..keeping its impact on the  SAFETY of  our water and  air, right here in South and Northeast DC and the rest of our Nation's Capitol, a top priority. Capicostia's got CENTS . Get some Cents, out there!  Call CENTS at (202) 498-2367. Mel Dyer CENTS OIL COMPANY 5600 Sargent Road,  Hyattsville,   MD   20782

I wish that I had better words and means to express my thanks to and consideration of the heroic VETERANS among us. I do not... But will try most earnestly, with what I have. To the men and women, who served our country in uniform...answered a call to sacrifice their civil security to defend our collective and individual FREEDOM, ..put their bodies in harm's way, between their fellow Americans at home and this great nation's very real enemies ..to preserve DEMOCRACY, ..I cannot match in words my GRATITUDE to each and every one of you. To the brave Americans we've lost in these noble enterprises, to the people, struggling with grievous, life-long injuries...seen and unseen, incurred in BATTLE, ..and to their families...our expressed gratitude doesn't seem enough, for what you've sacrificed. Let us serve you, now, in any way we can, as selflessly as you've served all of us. For your unique courage and patriotism, when we seek the finest examples of the American ch...

 

From W-JLA Channel 7 News "...At a time when D.C.'s office vacancy rate has soared and many businesses have either left or are struggling – especially downtown...D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and Acting Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Nina Albert...emphasized that $19.6 million in grants are available...$3 million available in grants to help businesses that want to open or expand in commercial space that has been vacant for at least six months downtown..." A patron saint for Downtown Washington's bloat, gouging, sharky office space developers? (Shark-R Salas/M Bowser-AP/C Brehman/Photomanip-Capicostia) From the Capicostia Desk... 'Bail out' may be a more fitful accounting of Mayor Muriel Bowser's valiant campaign to revitalize a Downtown Washington, underwater with vacant, overpriced office buildings and retail spaces, not accruing valuable revenue for the DC Treasury - more fitful than 'prop up', I think. The loss of revenue, being ...

By Mel Dyer At ease, with our own... Knowing our own and what it took to get us here, to this moment. Having respect for that...that's Sevenbeeism. That's part of it. The last three and a half decades, post Civil Rights Movement, post-desegregation, post-riot, post-urbanism, post-inflation, has been rough on Penn Branch ..and the rest of Seven Bee (ANC-7B), generally speaking. We want commercial development - now, it's here - and always have, ..but, not the kind that attracts people, who don’t respect or appreciate the wholesome, small-towny, slightly Cosbyesque thing we’ve got going here–the Brancher Way. If gang violence, over-crowding, loitering and the pungent fragrance of urine wafting up Carpenter Street is the price of having a cineplex and steakhouse burgers and a proper bar in the neighborhood... No thanks! We also like people! We like music, color and laughter in the air! We like carefree retirees, newlyweds, families and big, goofy dogs! We like to work hard an...

by Mel Dyer A 'Capicostia' blog?  Again? Kinda trying this on. Feeling it out. Capitol Hill + Anacostia = Capicostia?! I think River East needs a blog that speaks to the frustration and quiet hysteria of what it's like to live here, but, sometimes, feel some small part of you might belong on the other side of the river, ..where political intrigue and urbanity slink down the sidewalks, stopping for the occasional latte or imported beer. Mmmm...I'll cop to the angst. Even if you won't. There's something about living here, ..in Penn Branch, Fairfax Village, Pope Branch, Dupont Park, Twining, Hillcrest, the Randall Highlands and probably Fairlawn, too, ..that's different than living in other parts of River East, and the culture-angst is something only we can understand. When you think about it the only thing separating us from Capitol Hill and everything the Hill represents--sophistication, culture, history, relevance, style--is a stupid bridge and ...

  There's a reason Master Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, newly born son of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, won't properly be 'His Royal Highness', ..and it's got nothing to do with his mother being a commoner or a biracial African American woman. And so long as he's 'Prince Archie' to you and your aunties, ..does it matter?   What does any of this have to do with living, between bloody Capitol Hill and Anagoddam'costia? Absolutely nothing. TownAndCountryMag.com breaks it all down for us, here. https://www.townandcountrymag.com/society/tradition/a27421887/archie-harrison-mountbatten-windsor-title-prince-charles-king/

It's really small, not very informative ..and boring. Like Naylor Dupont ...sometimes. Have a look.

  By Mel Dyer   While I don't spend as much time, there, as I used to, I can't give up hope that my home of over twenty years, FAIRFAX VILLAGE, will soon escape the pessimism that some of us have inflicted upon it, since the early 1970s, ..and return to its pastoral niceness, someday. While I have enjoyed friendships, with a wide variety of people from every corner of the planet, I don't think the Village needs cultural OR economic gentrification to make that happen.   Inflicted? Did I say... yes, ..I did. So, what am I talking about?   In the late 1960s, there used to be an Italian restaurant - a RISTORANTE, with a piazza and bistro tables, with candles on them, at night - literally, a mere couple of blocks, from my condo. Long before I moved here in 1995, lovers, old ones and young ones, used to amuse each other, over candlelight, in that piazza, ..right up the street. What happened? I don't care if the lovers are East Indian, Polish, Jamaic...

  by Mel Dyer   In case you haven't been paying attention, CHARACTERS and panhandlers are hanging around our Shops At Penn Branch, now.   As they gather in number - I saw TWO pretty obnoxious ones, out there, tonight - they will create an environment that attracts criminal opportunists. Soon, the word will get out that it's OPEN SEASON on Branchers, ..as we stop to dig in our pockets, open purses, etc. They will create opportunities for intimidation, purse-snatchings, slightly more violent smash-n-grabs and straight-up ARMED ROBBERY, ..and right in the parking lot! It all starts with a few harmless regulars ( characters, we used to call them) hanging out front and in the lot, hustling a little change, harassing passersby, ogling women, dancing [I've seen it!], prostituting themselves, dealing or consuming drugs and, most importantly, ..distracting Branchers from paying attention to their personal safety.   Popping into the...

  The Marine Corps War Memorial from CNBC.com   Wishing all of you, who have answered the call to defend our great nation, here in Seven Bee and everywhere...a dignified and respectful Veteran's Day celebration.   Mel Dyer