C A P I C O S T I A

Bullethedd.com , the Official Website of Steak Island, has a new look, this week! From now on, the week's latest vignettes - the fresh steak - will be featured right on the index page, making some pretty smart changes to the way you get this cartoon. Tweeted links will now bring you directly to the latest feature, while also giving you easy access to all the features of the homepage! Your favorite archived issues of Steak Island,  a quick introduction to Island' s creator, (me) Mel Dyer, and (soon) mini-bios of the characters, and all of our Twitter, Facebook and Blogger, with the latest news and developments on the cartoon; all of that can now be accessed with one link! That's a big pile of new-new, my friend! Stay tuned for a Special Presidential Debate Night Edition of Steak Island, ..posting the evening of President Barack Obama 's second debate with GOP candidate, Governor Mitt Romney - Tuesday, October 16, 2012! That's only TWO DAYS! S...

  In STEAK ISLAND, the red-skinned, pointy-headed alien strongman, Bullethedd, stocks shelves and unloads trucks for the metamythically gargantuan Bygmo warehouse store. Among the denizens of Steak Island, are Bygmo's general manager, the Iron Munkee, a grumpy, living statue, a fallen health goddess and others – all brought to life in weekly, one-panel vignettes, struggles desperately ..to be liked. Steak Island creator, Mel Dyer, is an American freelance website developer and weblog publisher, who grew up in a hard-working, middleclass, Catholic family in Washington, D.C. Between them, his parents privately operated two successful small businesses, a print shop and a detective agency, for nearly fifteen years, while holding down full-time jobs. At home, the political views of his mother, a right-leaning liberal, and his father, a pro-labor conservative, inspired strong populist patriotism at an early age that endures, today, ..and he is very proud of his Southern American her...

Councilwoman Alexander and Mayor Gray leading other D.C. officials in protest for municipal budget autonomy. (Staff photo from YvetteAlexander.org) Editorial [Second Edition] This will be my last editorial as a community blogger ..and as the publisher of what might have been (with better marketing) a great D.C. blog,  Capicostia Heat.   It has been my experience, as a writer and a man,  that, sometimes, the grandest things are best said simply and sincerely, ..with authenticity.  So, there you have it. There were times, just a month and a half ago, during the disastrous aftermath of the rogue storms that devastated the D.C. area, that it seemed my mother's Penn Branch community had been entirely abandoned by the District of Columbia.  Penn Branch was left sitting in the dark with no power, no visible police presence (police patrol cars, etc), in the middle of the worst heatwave of recent memory - temperatures of one hunde...

It seems I'm always bummed about the abysmal retail options in Penn Branch and the rest of Capicostia. Is it just nostalgia for the Capicostia of yesteryear, ..a place with movie theatres [Yes...theatres!], restaurants, bars, bowling alleys, pet shops and hardware stores? Business improvement in neighborhoods, like Atlas, Near Southeast, No'Ma, Georgia-Petworth, Anacostia  and U Street seems to be the order of the day,  in D.C. The question our new poll asks is this: Why is commercial development or 'business improvement' so important to a neighborhood? 1. "Tax revenue from retail and leasing make communities more compettitive for city resources and services." It's the old game of keeping dollars in the neighborhood -shops, schools, restaurants. 2. "High retail/residential/leasing areas are safer, get better policing." Look at H Street or Barracks Row! Business owners demand competent policing for their communities ..and usually get it. 3. ...

[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...

"Artista. Intelecto. Periodista guerrero ..." I once used those words to describe Mr. Carlos Quiroz, publisher of Carlos In DC , who was the first blogger of Latin American (Peruvian and Italian) heritage to encourage my work, ..and I, a proud grandson of Mexican and Tejano migrant workers, was honored by that. His seemingly inexhaustible dedication to justice and truth and his in-depth investigative reporting on local issues -labor, immigration, racial discrimination, unemployment and gentrification- has shown all of us lesser bloggers (myself included) how consistently powerful this medium can be. Not so long ago, when I suspended publication of this blog for a time, I reached out to Carlos, who, with no concern of competition between us, encouraged me to keep the blog online and shared his news resources with me, that my work should be as well informed as his. It reminded me that, empowering the people with relevant information about the world around them, ..and NOT som...

[June 2, 2012, Washington, D.C.] "...Last Saturday, a robber on a bicycle demanded property from someone in the 4500 block of Quarles Streeet NE, in the Deanwood area, police said. The victim refused, tried to flee, and was shot, police said. Police made an arrest on a charge of assault with intent to rob..."  Busy neighborhoods - The Washington Post "The officer, who was responding to a complaint about drug activity near 51st and H streets SE in the Marshall Heights neighborhood, approached a group of people standing in the area shortly before 2:30 p.m...as police tried to speak with a man, he ran and police chased him a short distance in a neighborhood of townhouses and apartment buildings...At some point, the man drew a gun and..."   Crime Scene - The Washington Post The badguys are busy out there, so watch your back, Capicostia.