C A P I C O S T I A

  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 ...

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

REP. JAMES TALARICO, TX (D) ...interviewed on MSNOW's 'Morning Joe'--did you see that? I just watched some of it. I'm doing my homework on this young, dynamic, Southwestern Democrat, ..and I like what I'm reading. There's something hopeful about what he's showing us and, more importantly, the issues he's taking stands on: civil rights for all, the Border, culture war fatigue, affordability at home. Don't want to jinx his mojo or make another Beto O'Rourke of him, ..but I'm almost moved to use the K-word in consideration of him...of how he presents himself. There's no real comparison to be made with that icon, this early in the game, but James Talarico's got something. I think leadership coming from the WEST or the SOUTH might do our great nation some good, ..and the farther away from the big, Northeastern cities, the better. Someplace where plain, clean and 'corny'--that's what the young folks are calling old-fashioned--is...

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 Time-travel! Of all the great super-powers I can dream of waking up with, THAT is the one that I would find most useful, ..for awhile. If only I could turn back time... If I could turn back time, every time I was about to eat something sweet, buttery, fried or fatty, ..I would just pop myself back there and knock it out of my pudgy, little hands! If only I could go back in time ..and avert the cosmic disaster of my ever becoming  fat. Seriously, ..no slice of cheesecake (my favorite), pile of Doritos, cup of coffee (my second religion), steak, ribs, Mama's spaghetti, Daddy's Dungeness crabs, a pizza, an enchilada, soul food (ALL of it) - none of it is worth the crapload of misery that comes from touching these things. I would send every morsel back to the kitchens. If you're feeding your kids this stuff, before they even know what a good life, in a fit, attractive body, has to offer them, may God have mercy on your souls... Especially, if you're f...

For the people...is it, really? [Photo from the the51st.org] by Mel Dyer I have very good reasons, being a resident of Ward 7 and ANC-7B, both in River East, to oppose DC statehood.  I'll try to state them, as plainly as possible, here. Ward 7 simply isn't ready to be a city/county.  Nor is ANC-7B. Neither have the commercial development or subsequent REVENUE to build strong enough economies to successfully sustain a city or county--to support public works, police, EMS, good schools and to attract subsequently necessary growth.  I see people Downtown, some from Wards 7 and 8, raving about DC statehood, and I continue to ask them how it would benefit Seven Bee and the rest of River East--no answer.  So long as we, east of the Anacostia, have no means of creating industry, DC statehood remains something for affluent people in thriving neighborhoods, like Capitol Hill, NoMa or Georgetown, .. west of the River. There must be s...

  Surprised and delighted to find live music and cafe life, just past the D.C. state line and sitting next to an art gallery, in Mount Rainier, Maryland. Seriously. I am not imagining this. When I recently learned that the  Urban Eats Arts and Music Cafe has just celebrated two years in business, at 3311 Rhode Island Avenue (Mount Rainier, MD), ..I was thrilled! As I'm always looking for places like this, away from the bustle of Downtown Washington and Capitol Hill, and rarely finding them, ..clearly, I have been missing out. There's a cafe area, with charming, little tables for two or three, and a couple of larger, roadhouse tables for small meetings, over coffee. There's the prerequisite, cozy, little lounge area - a coffeehouse standard - with cushy sofas and loveseats, ..where a good buddy of mine reads his comics, while locals soak up the FREE WI-FI on their laptops. The lounge area gives you a fro...

  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

Part Two of 'The Drive-by', the second episode in our CAPICOSTIA HEAT video series, takes you back to the streets of Washington, D.C.'s historic Naylor Dupont district ..for an up-close look at the dark, urban labyrinth, between Anacostia and Capitol Hill! This brief tour of Seven Bee, shot in 2012, covers Good Hope Marketplace, Anacostia Park, the Randle Highlands, Fairlawn and rare footage of the now-demolished Skyland shopping center. What happens, ..when the gritty struggle for survival in this no-man's land reaches its breaking point? Capicostia Heat is back!    

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.