The illegal posters on Shiloh's vacant properties at 1526 and 1528 9th Street are no longer cluttering the streetscape along the 1500 block of 9th! Perhaps in response to the activism of one concerned citizen, (presumably) the church had them covered in brown adhesive paper recently (I noticed it last night). Also covered in the brown paper are the fading portraits of Langston Hughes and Harriet Tubman painted on the boarded up first floor windows of 1532 9th Street.
Many thanks go out again to the citizen who took action in calling attention to this issue and to the Church for taking responsibility. I was surprised to see what a difference this makes on the 1500 block--things already look a lot cleaner. Hopefully this will be one of many positive actions that the Church's new leadership takes in addressing the Church's historically poor property stewardship in Shaw.
10 comments:
IMHO, it's kind of sad about the portraits of Hughes and Tubman. But overall this makes the street look much cleaner. Cheers to the activist.
Cheers to the activist and all you Shaw bloggers...your efforts are really starting to pay off in improving this community and I, for one, appreciate all of you!! Keep up the good work!
this does look much better! also, does anyone know when the mongolian grill is coming to 9th?
It looks like they have recently upgraded their street banners a bit also, at least since the last time I bothered to look up at them.
interestingly enough the Hughes and Tubman portraits were not there's to cover since National Park Service bought those properties from Shiloh - only 1526 and 1528 9th which had the commercial posters are owned by Shiloh and therefore in violation
JMC38 - Actually Shiloh does own the building that featured those portraits. Of the vacant buildings on that stretch of 9th, Shiloh owns 1526, 1528, 1532, 1534, and 1536. The NPS owns the Woodson house, 1538, and the house to the right of the Woodson house, 1540.
See http://shilohdc.blogspot.com/ for a run-down of Shiloh's vacant properties.
Alex roped well-meaning whitefolks from Americorps to paint the Hughes and Tubman posters -- as well as the Afrika-Woodson, Ellington, Shaw murals a block northward on our ghetto properties -- to uplift our downtrodden spirits. Thank you, James, for your persistence. It is a wonderful Easter gift to the "vortex of neglect."
that has got to be one of the ugliest colors i have ever seen. where did they find the paint, in the dollar pile at Duron?
rr 446 - in their defense, this shot was taken from my camera phone and probably isn't the greatest photograph. The brown paper definitely cleans up the look of these buildings. Ideally these buildings would be restored and put to a good, neighborhood-enhancing use, but this baby-step toward better stewardship is a start.
baby steps indeed, and a little victory, if you will. these efforts seemed to champion the persistence of Ray over the years as well as the continued exposure of Shiloh in the blogosphere...
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