C A P I C O S T I A

 

  "... Jair Lynch  has set his sights on reviving the long-struggling Penn Branch Shopping Center in Southeast D.C., a site some nearby residents view as an important cog in the revitalization of the larger Pennsylvania Avenue retail corridor connecting downtown with the District’s East of the River communities...it could serve as a catalyst for a larger revitalization of the surrounding communities of Penn Branch, Hillcrest and Randle Highlands.... “We’re really trying to bring outside developers to the area to see if they have an interest in redeveloping or enhancing commercial properties in the corridor,” Robinson said. “We see ourselves as a mechanism, or in some cases even starting that conversation. There has to be somebody who takes these issues by the horns and has everybody sitting around the table to solve them.” Robinson, a planner for the town of Forest Heights in Prince George’s County, said an important factor will be getting buy-in from other Ward 7 residents. S...

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/wendy-s-at-center-of-dc-s-dave-thomas-circle-to-close-tuesday-mayor/ar-AAOBNuK?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531

  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...

"... Jair Lynch  has set his sights on reviving the long-struggling Penn Branch Shopping Center in Southeast D.C., a site some nearby residents view as an important cog in the revitalization of the larger Pennsylvania Avenue retail corridor connecting downtown with the District’s East of the River communities...it could serve as a catalyst for a larger revitalization of the surrounding communities of Penn Branch, Hillcrest and Randle Highlands.... “We’re really trying to bring outside developers to the area to see if they have an interest in redeveloping or enhancing commercial properties in the corridor,” Robinson said. “We see ourselves as a mechanism, or in some cases even starting that conversation. There has to be somebody who takes these issues by the horns and has everybody sitting around the table to solve them.” Robinson, a planner for the town of Forest Heights in Prince George’s County, said an important factor will be getting buy-in from other Ward 7 residents. Some ...

There're a lot of empty living rooms in Silver Spring. (Photo from ZedsCafe.com)   I like coffee, and THIS is the BEST COFFEE in the entire WESTERN WORLD! I wrote a review of Zed's Café and One Big Living Room, many years ago, on a now defunct WordPress blog, and I might have described little else, but, the coffee, ..which is phenomenal. So, this time, while there is much to praise about this legend of Silver Spring hospitality, I don't want to diminish that one, indisputable fact. Phenomenal coffee! Go anywhere else, where you are poured a cup of coffee, and the quality of the coffee that you will find at Zed's Café will surpass it, every time and at every hour of the day. How does proprietor, Zed Mekonnen, do it? He has a gold standard. Zed's Café, in Downtown Silver Spring, delivers the promise of what a cafe serves, coffee, and that standard is never compromised. Ever. The quality of the coffee - a cup of Nirvana, every time - and the paninis and ...

Penn Branch may be a little behind the times and short on modern amenities, but we got cars. We can drive, wherever we like. A major coffee retailer, with a name that sounds something like 'War-bucks' , will NOT be coming to Penn Branch or anywhere else in Southeast Washington, D.C. in the Fall of 2011, ..and if you read differently here, and this is a little bit of a letdown for you, I hope you aren't taking the truth too hard. Bummer, huh? It was all a big April Fool's gag , courtesy of yours truly. It might be a bitter pill to swallow, but, eventually, we're going to have to swallow it, my friends. The market research for this area (for reasons I won't get into here) is so terrible and nearly impossible to compile, that we are commercially invisible. Besides groceries, gasoline, liquor and a few other things, no retailer can determine, with any measure of certainty, what we are or aren't buying in Southeast or anywhere else, and, without the ...

Happy Turkey Day, Washington, D.C. (from Tenor.com )   For all of you, who're working so hard to make this holiday something special - in your kitchens, stuck in holiday traffic or sweating it out in the diners and big-box stores - for everything you're putting up with, out there, while the rest of us stuff our faces with turkey and Soul-style macaroni and cheese, thank you. God bless you... And Happy Thanksgiving. Mel of Seven Bee

By Mel Dyer Yes! Penn Branch has an urban legend. That of the Big Bird Witch  or Hawk-woman, who haunts our wild, emerald hills... If you're over 35 and grew up in the Southeast D.C. neighborhood, Penn Branch, in the mid-1960s, ..you've probably seen or heard of this creature, at one time in your life. You probably thought you were imagining things ..or that it was just crazy-talk. You may have even heard that it had a woman's head and white, bulging eyes, ..or that it was a witch. While I don't believe that part, I've seen the creature that might have inspired this urban legend, with my own disbelieving eyes, ..perched menacingly on a rooftop, at Carpenter Street and Highwood Drive! ...One neighbor recently told me that this thing, ..which she described as a witch in black feathers, with a chalk-white face and large, staring eyes, ..glided over a backyard family gathering, back in the mid-70s, and scared the hell out of their guests! An electrician, who no ...

  Seven Bee'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 - me, his nephew, his niece, his sister (my mother) and our Coyote-hatin' Goldiweiller, Kirby [RIP] - 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 ambi...

Just another day in that fabled, urban war-zone...Anacostia? So scary. Stay away.   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...t...

[Third Edition] This is a NAYLOR DUPONT EXCLUSIVE... A corporate website, listing local stores, presently available for franchise, solidly confirm that SEVEN ELEVEN will be opening a new store, between Penn Branch 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. Several Penn Branch Center merchants have confirmed the same. The new store will be a corporate store, meaning that it is owned by the 7-Eleven corporation - not a family or individual - and is listed as "UC" (under construction), at, "3218 Pennsylvania Ave SE...Washington DC...20020". Everyone in Penn Branch is talking about this, but, no one is reporting it. No one. Furthermore, there's nothing posted at the address, in the window of 3218 Pennsylvania Avenue, announcing the new tenant. Not sure why that is, ..but, this isn't a rumor, anymore. Th...

Union Square at 941 North Capitol Street, NE, currently hosts the Office of Tax and Revenue Customer Service Center (photo from Wikimedia Commons) Since the early 1960s, the once bright and modern shops of  Penn Branch Center - bank, drugstore, barber shop, liquor store - have sat at the corner of Pennsylvania and Branch Avenues, in the Capitol Hill area of Southeast Washington, DC. My once very strong desire to see them renovated into a small 'town center', with condos, has ..evolved. There was a time, when I could imagine a new shopping complex resembling newly renovated Fox Chase in Alexandria, Virginia, ..and I still can, truthfully. Though, I am not sure that would best serve Penn Branch and surrounding areas. I simply do not think that, with new developments on the horizon, like Capital Gateway (also in Ward Seven), promising to fatten the city's coffers with more annual revenue than Penn Branch can presently generate, that having a...

By Mel Dyer All of the speculation about Skyland Town Centre is very exciting. For those of us, who remember when Skyland gave us a movie theatre, a Sears & Roebuck  department store, a Safeway AND a Giant, a drugstore, a gentlemen's club, Discount Mart, Gussini Shoes, Blockbuster, law offices, a  diner ...[Sigh] it's especially exciting, because we remember when Skyland was our commercial center! Trust me, ..the excitement and the optimism is justified. Should this new Skyland be Seven Bee's town center again, and is that neighborhood, ready? Can it be? Here are some selections from our latest poll... 1) The new Skyland should be 7B's town center, and the neighborhood is ready.   2) The new Skyland should be 7B's town center, but, the neighborhood is NOT ready.   3) The new Skyland should NOT be 7B's town center, and the neighborhood is NOT ready!   4) We sheeple of 7B don't need a 'town center' and should continue t...

  The new name of the blog may be Naylor Dupont, but, the spirit's still pure, unadulterated 'CAPICOSTIA', ..and the same  optimism that got us through the worst of times, into these great neighborhoods,  still keeps us flying. We will never forget it.

The Santorini Islands, rumored to be lost Atlantis. I looked EVERY-where! [Wikipedia.org] Since re-focusing this blog, about a month ago, I've been desperately searching for two things: the lost continent of Atlantis ..and the Naylor Dupont Advisory Neighborhood Commission 's official website. Neither has proved easy to find; so, this afternoon, I did some digging on ANCFinder.org and made some phone calls about it. I found out that Seven Bee has a new website, and, like Atlantis... It's not in Anacostia . Can you tell I am really sick of West Bankers calling us 'Anacostia'? Is that showing, just a little, tiny bit? I sure as hell,  hope so. Anyway, ..have a look.