C A P I C O S T I A

CAPICOSTIA HEAT is a video series that will take you straight to the streets of Washington, D.C.'s historic Naylor Dupont district, to talk to the people, who live here. I've just finished editing 'Part One' of a brief video tour of Seven Bee, shot way back in 2012. Covering Dupont Park, Fort Davis, Fairfax Village, Hillcrest, Naylor Gardens and Fairlawn, it is one of the most comprehensive looks at our River East neighborhoods that you will find, ..and here it is.  

 

  I just saw, for the second time, the most facinating and INSPIRATIONAL film on LINK TV, ..and it is ALAMAR, by Mexican filmmaker, Pedro González-Rubio! In the film, we a fisherman raising his son, on and beside the ocean. We see a father, who involves his child in the immediately relevant work and economy of their family, ..giving his son a TRUE sense of self-esteem, ..in ways an endless string of meaningless, irrelevant, organized activities (Ancient Tibetan basket-weaving, hip-hop yoga, Israelli bagel-painting, etc) NEVER could.  We see a father, who plays in the natural world with his son ..and a child, who never stops being excited about learning. We see a child, who knows his place..and, trusting that it is a cherished, loving and protected place, has no need to constantly and wastefully question and challenge authority, ..growing up without the subsequent uncertainty, insecurity and life-crippling anxiety that so many of our American kids are experien...

Looking for roomy, sensibly priced apartments or condos in the picturesque, lushly forested Southeast Hills neighborhood of Hillcrest ..AND within walking distance of upcoming Skyland Town Center? Have a peek at this YouTube video, from Washington, D.C. Apartments... And see for yourself.

The house at 3607 Suitland Road is another GEM in the well respected, sought-after, safe, middleclass neighborhood everyone, west of the Anacostia, is talking about - Hillcrest , of course! On first glance, this house's pillared veranda recalls the stately, Georgian mansions of the Old South, ..and elegantly enough to impress. It's a great home for a young, urban professional in a quiet, tree-lined Southeast Hills neighborhood that looks and feels alot like Van Ness or Friendship Heights, with the cafes and night life of Capitol Hill, barely seven or eight minutes away! Perhaps, you should ask D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray, if the Safeway and the post office are close enough to comfortably walk to, ..since he's in the neighborhood. "The Mayor's just around the corner from me," sounds none too shabby, at all. I do it all the time. On that note, the house's homage to Southern colonial style leaves its Victorian-look glass door oddly matched. A ful...

You want the skinny on this property from someone living, right here, in Hillcrest? Well, here it is... Your friends will be surprised how much this woodsy, quiet,  safe,  middleclass neighborhood - great for young couples with children OR happily retired - looks and feels like  Rock Creek Park  or Chevy Chase. This house is located in the BEST the Southeast Hills have to offer, with bars and  cafe life  on Capitol Hill barely five minutes away! Safeway, post office and retail are close enough to walk to, in a neighborhood safe and friendly enough to enjoy the stroll! Maybe, you'll jog past a U.S. Congressman - we've actually got one around here, somewhere. I can almost see Skyland Town Center from here. Almost. Upon completion, it will be a short walk from 2109 Thirty-first Place' s doorstep, ..and ground-breaking starts, Fall 2013! Yes, ..I said town center. Looks like a SMART investment...

  I just saw, for the second time, the most facinating and INSPIRATIONAL film on LINK TV, ..and it is ALAMAR, by Mexican filmmaker, Pedro González-Rubio! In the film, we a fisherman raising his son, on and beside the ocean. We see a father, who involves his child in the immediately relevant work and economy of their family, ..giving his son a TRUE sense of self-esteem, ..in ways an endless string of meaningless, irrelevant, organized activities (Ancient Tibetan basket-weaving, hip-hop yoga, Israelli bagel-painting, etc) NEVER could.  We see a father, who plays in the natural world with his son ..and a child, who never stops being excited about learning. We see a child, who knows his place..and, trusting that it is a cherished, loving and protected place, has no need to constantly and wastefully question and challenge authority, ..growing up without the subsequent uncertainty, insecurity and life-crippling anxiety that so many of our American kids are experien...

[June 14, 2012, Washington, D.C.] "...man was shot and another was stabbed in Southeast D.C. Monday night...Another man was found with multiple stab wounds in the 2800 block of Gainesville Street SE at about midnight. He was also conscious and breathing when he was discovered..." Crime Scene - The Washington Post "...Skeletal remains that were discovered in a wooded area in Hillcrest Heights Monday morning, authorities said...not far from Hillcrest Heights Elementary School...not yet formally determined whether the remains are those of a..." Crime Scene - The Washington Post "...A District man was killed Monday evening in Southeast D.C., police said. When police responded to the scene in the 3400 block of 13th Place SE at about 7 :15 p.m...found Brian Dewayne Bloomfield, 26, of Southeast suffering from “stab or gunshot wounds.”..." Southeast neighborhoods - The Washington Post It's getting nasty out there, Capicostia. As the summer presses on, ..and th...

Brangler Oppossum (above) is the only thing gathering in these hills, my friends. (Originally published, July 23rd, 2009) If it seems some Penn Branch folk are always bellyaching about the lack of quailty retail in our neighborhood, don’t judge us too harshly. It’s more than just bellyaching. Prior to the Reagan Era 80s and the Inflation that preceded it, this neighborhood had plenty! I remember drugstore diners with GREAT coffee, movies at the Hyland Theatre (at the Hyland Cinema , once located next to the Pope Funeral Home) and, with valet, at Coral Hill . There were even several restaurants, a cocktail lounge or two, a bowling alley, ..and all right here, in and around Penn Branch. I remember seeing my neighbors at these places and the feeling of relaxed belonging and protection it gave me. I remember hearing my father laugh about bumping into Mr. Such N. Such at that cocktail lounge, and how, after the encounter, he’d decided that Such N. Such probably wasn’t such a bad guy, after...

(NYTimes.com) As the four of us headed toward the eastern gate of Ajdabiya, the front line of a desperate rebel stand against the advancing forces of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, a car pulled up alongside. “They’re in the city!” the driver shouted at us. “They’re in the city!” Lynsey and Steve had worried that government soldiers might encircle the town, trapping us, but Tyler and Anthony discounted it. We had covered the fall of two other rebel-held towns — Ras Lanuf and Brega — and each time, the government had bombed and shelled the towns for days before making a frontal, methodical assault. When they did, rebels and journalists fled in a headlong retreat. If Ajdabiya fell, Colonel Qaddafi’s forces would be on the doorstep of Benghazi, the opposition capital, and perched on a highway to the Egyptian border, from... Read full story here

(Yahoo! News) "NAIROBI, Kenya – Four Americans taken hostage by Somali pirates off East Africa were shot and killed by their captors Monday, the U.S. military said, marking the first time U.S. citizens have been killed in a wave of pirate attacks plaguing the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean for years. U.S. naval forces, who were trailing the Americans' captured yacht with four warships, quickly boarded the vessel after hearing the gunfire and tried to provide lifesaving care to the Americans, but they died of their wounds, the U.S. Central Command said in a statement. Two pirates died during the confrontation and 13 were captured and detained, the U.S. Central Command said in a statement from Tampa, Fla. The remains of two other pirates who were already dead for some time were also found. The U.S. military didn't state how those two might have died. Negotiations had been under way to try to win the release of the two couples on the pirated vessel Quest when the gunfire.....

(Yahoo! News) "George Washington's name is inseparable from America, and not only from the nation's history. It identifies countless streets, buildings, mountains, bridges, monuments, cities — and people. In a puzzling twist, most of these people are black. The 2000 U.S. Census counted 163,036 people with the surname Washington. Ninety percent of them were African-American, a far higher black percentage than for any other common name. The story of how Washington became the "blackest name" begins with slavery and takes a sharp turn after the Civil War, when all blacks were allowed the dignity of a surname. Even before Emancipation, many enslaved black people chose their own surnames to establish their identities. Afterward, some historians theorize, large numbers of blacks..." Then, came Jamal, Tyrone, Delante, Pookie, Booboo ...read more here

(People.com) "It's baby no. 2 for Jessica Alba and Cash Warren. The actress announced on her Facebook page and Twitter account Wednesday that she and her husband are expecting their second child. "I thought I'd drop by to let you all in on some exciting news – Honor is going to be a Big Sister!" Alba, 29, wrote. "Cash and I are thrilled and wanted to share the news directly with you so you didn't..." Full story here Since the ethnicity of this gorgeous couple seems to pre-occupy some of us, I'll try to simplify things for you, here. Both Mr. and Mrs. Cash Warren are, like yours truly, Americans of Mexican descent--Jessica, with a Mexican American dad, and Cash, with a Mexican American mom. To keep things interesting, you may also like to know that Jessica's mom is of Danish and French Canadian heritage, and Cash's dad is Emmy-nominated star of the classic TV cop drama, Hill Street Blues , and, also like yours truly, is Afro-Americ...

(NYDailyNews.com) "Authorities say a young South Philadelphia teen was so angry his mom took away his PlayStation that he killed her with a claw hammer. The motive was revealed as Kendall Anderson's confession to the brutal crime, committed on the day after Thanksgiving, was read in court, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported on Tuesday. The 16-year-old allegedly told police he decided to kill his mother, Rashida Anderson, after a 90-minute argument that culminated in her taking the video-game console away. Anderson considered his actions before killing his 37-year-old single mother, said the judge who read the teen's statement in Philadelphia Municipal Court. The teen paced for three hours mulling over what he would do before deciding to kill her, said his confession, which he gave to a police detective. Anderson struck her 20 times with a claw hammer while she slept. In an effort to get rid of her body, he tried to "cremate her" in..." Read full story

The Wikipedia listing for Anacostia (here, meaning all of D.C. 'East-of-the-river' ) ends abruptly with the opening of an unnamed supermarket in 2007. So, where's the rest? There's Denny's (a Dyer family fave), the Fireside Resaurant, Honfleur Gallery, the River East Emerging Leaders, Ray's The Steaks, the Savoy, the Grays, Big Chair Coffee, Uniontown Bar/Grill, the Hive and two NEW libraries and a museum . All of that is happening right here, in River East, and everyone should know. So, if you already have a blurb somewhere on all of the above and any new developments I might have missed, send it to the people at Wikipedia, so they can get this right. Mel Dyer

"Artista. Intelecto. Periodista guerrero . We need more young writers like this, my friends..." I once used those words to describe a dedicated journalist, whose understanding and whose substantive and investigative reporting on complex D.C. issues, like poverty and gentrification, has been truly inspired and will be sorely missed on this weblog network. I once wrote that "anyone calling themselves a journalist in a city as diverse and (often) divided as Washington, D.C. will do well to follow Carlos In DC 's lead" and that, amidst "so much routine criticism of the blogosphere by established journalists and politicians, if you are not reading Carlos In DC , you are missing a fine example of how consistently relevant weblogs can truly be." For that reason and too many others to name here, this Brangler is a follower of the journalism of Mr. Carlos A. Quiroz, today, and will continue to be a follower of his work, now that he has left Blogger.com to co...

Landon Donovan at the 2010 FIFA World Cup. (Photo from Wikipedia ) Ending a second valiant effort to establish American supremacy at the FIFA World Cup, with unbelievably skilled playing by Clint Dempsey (the first American to appear in a European final) and Landon Donovan, Ghana's Black Stars run off with a 2-1 victory over the U.S. Soccer Team. After a 1-0 win over Algeria, American soccer fans were celebrating what many of us hoped would be the conquest of the 'other football', but, it seems Ghana's renowned toughness may have put that dream on ice, at least for a while, with today's match . This is the Yanks' second trip to the FIFA Cup. We will be back. Mel Dyer

It's STEAK, River East! Run for your lives! (Photo from Wikipedia ) It bothers me that the opening of something so ordinary and Middle American as a simple steakhouse in River East could generate so much resentment and gentrification paranoia among our neighbors, considering that River East has been deprived of this kind of mid-upscale retail for so long. We are already hearing, "That ain't for us!", "What THEY think they doing putting that here?" and "**** that white ****! I'm going to Clinton!" It's in line at the bank. It's on the subway. It's everywhere. Before *RAY's THE STEAKS opened in the colorfully chaotic and rapidly developing Benning Road-Minnesota Avenue area of East River Park , we were grumbling about not having the kind of sit-down restaurants in River East that other parts of D.C. enjoy. When DENNY's opened, just up the street, we were all atwitter with how refreshing it would be to take our familes to...

Problems facing the penitentiary system of Costa Rica will be very familiar to us...a link . President Laura Chinchilla is making the prosecution of drug-related crimes, even non-violent ones, a top priority of her administration, and the country's prisons are finding it all difficult to manage. Mel Dyer

Brangler Oppossum (above) is the only thing gathering in these hills, my friends. (Originally published, July 23th, 2009) If it seems some Penn Branch folk are always bellyaching about the lack of quailty retail in our neighborhood, don’t judge us too harshly. It’s more than just bellyaching. Prior to the Reagan Era 80s and the Inflation that preceded it, this neighborhood had plenty! I remember drugstore diners with GREAT coffee, movies at the Hyland Theatre (at the Hyland Cinema , once located next to the Pope Funeral Home) and, with valet, at Coral Hill . There were even several restaurants, a cocktail lounge or two, a bowling alley, ..and all right here, in and around Penn Branch. I remember seeing my neighbors at these places and the feeling of relaxed belonging and protection it gave me. I remember hearing my father laugh about bumping into Mr. Such N. Such at that cocktail lounge, and how, after the encounter, he’d decided that Such N. Such probably wasn’t such a bad guy, after...