Friday, July 14, 2006

9 1/2 Street NW


Looking along the 1900 block of 9 1/2 Street NW in Washington, DC. Note: 9 1/2 Street is only one block long.

36 comments:

  1. nice picture ... cool street

    ReplyDelete
  2. “‘We continue to believe the Washington, D.C., market is headed lower as excessive speculation and overbuilding will weigh on the market for the foreseeable future,’ Raymond James analyst Rick Murray wrote.”

    ReplyDelete
  3. It was just me, but at first glance I thought the analyst's name was

    Rick James

    B*tch!

    ReplyDelete
  4. DC has a 9 1/2 St.? Wonder how that came about?

    ReplyDelete
  5. there are other 1/2 streets. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. From the map it looks like this one started life as an alley. Some 1/2 streets were added because by the end of the 19th century it was felt that the generous-sized lots of the L'Enfant Plan were not economically feasible. So we ended up with Swann between S and T NW, Cocoran between P and Q NW, etc. Another 1/2 street I know of is Half Street SE down where they are now putting the baseball stadium. I suppose we'll lose that one to the field.

    ReplyDelete
  7. It looks like a cute little neighborhood.

    I remember when the Post did a feature article on "Alley Way" streets. Fascinating stuff.

    ReplyDelete
  8. It seems likely that this is the kind of place David wants. But his price threshold is in the sub-$100K range.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Alley streets have fascinating histories. They were essentially the only places that the working poor could afford to buy. Many alley streets eventually became incredibly dangerous because the police rarely ventured into them (in particular, the old alley streets in Georgetown and Foggy Bottom - back when both were home mainly to black working class folks - were notorious for crime, gambling and lack of any police presence).

    They are tiny homes, with just the essentials (bedroom, bathroom, small kitchen, living/dining room, couple of closets). And, of course, they now cost a very substantial chunk of change.

    ReplyDelete
  10. fritz,

    Thanks for the historical perspective. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  11. I like the bars on the windows...

    ReplyDelete
  12. Wait wait wait wait... you mean Georgetown had a lot of poor people at one time?! I go out there with my friends (we drive there from the suburbs after work), and everything seems so nice and so very expensive.

    Are you saying it hasn't always been that way!? Are you saying that *things change over time*?!!!?

    But, but, but, the way things are today is the way things have always been! If that isn't the case, then sometimes things really do change, and sometimes it is fair to say "things are different this time".

    (Georgetown was separate from DC, and was a notorious haven for drug users and prostitution. What happened?! Did things change?)

    ReplyDelete
  13. David, in your opinion, what is a fair market price for these homes which you took the time to photograph and post to your blog?

    ReplyDelete
  14. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13834211

    I stand in utter amazement that all this violence and death all the time doesn't affect prices?

    ReplyDelete
  15. It might affect prices if DC weren't the official home of the President of the United States; or the official workplace for every Senator and Congressman in the United States, or the workplace and home of every ambassador to the United States, or the workplace of each of the Surpreme Court Justices.

    Justice Souter was mugged a couple of years ago while jogging near his capital hill home. It didn't influence prices in his neighoborhood at all.

    Yep, strange but true.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Patch Tuesday said...
    "I like the bars on the windows..."

    yep, you don't get that in your ordinary suburban home. anyone can break in at any time. at night in the summer i like to sleep with the windows open know that i don't have to worry when I sleep because the bars will keep people out!

    ReplyDelete
  17. What I like is the obsessive concern about "safety" most people have. Stay out of the drug business, and you're likely to remain "safe".

    On the other hand: sit in your suburban apartment, with your home life revolving around your couch and your television set; unable to run errands without a car, and be totally oblivious to the arterial blockage accumulating in your blood vessels. Yep, you're safe alright.

    Statistically, do more people suffer harm and/or die from chronic health problems that stem from suburban lifestyles? Or from living in DC? The stats are pretty decisive on this matter.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Do the safety bars make it any easier to get out in a fire?

    I would never live in a place that needed bars to make me feel safe at night.

    ReplyDelete
  19. "I would never live in a place that needed bars to make me feel safe at night."

    Then you should stay in West Va.

    ReplyDelete
  20. "David, in your opinion, what is a fair market price for these homes which you took the time to photograph and post to your blog?"

    Currently they would sell for high 400's. They are real small.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Why do so many city folk have such a chip on their shoulder when it comes to the "suburbs"? I'd imagine it derives from a hatred that people would have the ability to choose of their own free will to live a different lifestyle. God damn those people, I'm RIGHT! The city is better, those people are stupid heads.

    I've lived in urban towers, suburban houses, and the far out exurbs. I'm near Old Town now. They're all perfectly fine and have their own distinct benefits, but certainly don't differ that much in the banalities of every day life. Given how suburban in character much of DC proper is, I'd suspect there wouldn't be so much venom.

    Let me tell you I got more exercise hiking/mtn biking the woods, walking my street and working the yard in the exurbs than I've ever gotten living in the city.

    ReplyDelete
  22. The exercise comment was rather amusing being that New York City is suffering from an outrageous epidemic of diabetes among persons of all age groups, to include children, due to their sedentary lifestyle and bad diet...

    ReplyDelete
  23. anon said:
    "I would never live in a place that needed bars to make me feel safe at night."

    you're just deluding yourself if you think because you live in suburbia that you are safe at night from someone just breaking a window and entering while you are sleeping. check your local jurisdiction's record's on "breaking and entering" and "burglary" ...

    ReplyDelete
  24. 14 murders in July speaks volumes all by itself...

    Has anyone else been to the big European cities that don't have bars on the windows? Are they much safer or is it just an illusion?

    ReplyDelete
  25. patch said:
    "Has anyone else been to the big European cities that don't have bars on the windows? Are they much safer or is it just an illusion?"

    uh ... I guess you didn't notice that they have shutters on their windows and doors ... that get closed every night?

    www.allaboutshutters.com/europe-shutters.htm

    ReplyDelete
  26. That's just for the beer bottles after soccer games...

    ReplyDelete
  27. Patch Tuesday said...
    "That's just for the beer bottles after soccer games..."

    ha! and I won't argue with you that by and large, European cities are far safer than most American cities (or suburbs). I remember reading (over there) that even during the worst time of "the troubles" in Northern Ireland, the chances of experiencing a personal attack on one's body was something like 100 times greater in Washington than it was in Belfast. I think that has more to do with our being on the "leading edge" and a melting pot for all the world's cultures ... and Europe being, old, established, and civilized --- like an aging grand dame is apt to be.

    ReplyDelete
  28. I spent alot of time in Germany, and I would prefer to take my chances in their worst city over Washington, D.C...

    ReplyDelete
  29. Patch Tuesday said...
    "I spent alot of time in Germany, and I would prefer to take my chances in their worst city over Washington, D.C... "

    the reality of the situation is that even your very comfortable and realitively "safe" suburb is far far more dangerous than their worst city. it's the price we pay for being "where the action is". like i said, now that i know the peace of mind that comes from having bars on the windows, i would want them even if i lived in the suburbs in this country.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Lance, that's just not true, our suburbs are significantly safer than European cities. Just look at the statistics. American crime is concentrated in small areas. While in Europe, crime is much more evenly distributed across regions.

    ReplyDelete
  31. If you've ever spent some time in southern MD, you'd know that poverty and crime are an integral part of that area.

    How many run-down old single wide trailers are there southern MD? How much do they sell for? Is there a run-down old trailer bubble in Southern MD?

    ReplyDelete
  32. Southern MD?

    Well for 250K, you can get a trailer on a lot (Seller is a Real Estate Agent) that will allow you to safely leave your windows open, (bar-less windows) providing you are at home with your dog and your shotgun...

    If you're willing to forego having your windows open, we can get you a better deal in Lexington Park. Down in the Park, we have drug dealers, robbers, murderers, and pretty much everything else you would need to feel at home as a former D.C resident...

    ReplyDelete
  33. It would be interesting for someone in the press to write an article comparing Washington, D.C with the Green Zone in Iraq.

    Think about it? In both places you're only truly safe if you don't leave headquarters...

    ReplyDelete
  34. "providing you are at home with your dog and your shotgun...."

    "we have drug dealers, robbers, murderers"

    Yep, an accurate description of Southern Maryland. But you left out the grinding poverty and lack of opportunity for advancement.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Oh, and you left out the copious amounts of road kill (dead dogs and cats included) in Southern Maryland.

    ReplyDelete
  36. You should check out 9 1/2 Street now. There are sidewalks, trees, bricked alleys, parking signs, etc. It still has it's "small-random-street" charm, but looks much, much better! A total transformation.

    ReplyDelete