We’ve ALL thought about it, we’ve even talked about it to each other once and a while. Well, here is a post for us to discuss/plan a block party!
In meeting neighbors for my little tree project, a lot of people have expressed enthusiasm for a block party. So what are we waiting for? Discuss below…
Just wanted to let you all know that we should be getting 21 to 23 new trees on the 500 block of Nelson Ave. soon!
I’ve completed the tree survey and worked with John Noelle, the city arborist to finalize the list. The next steps are for John to get the stumps removed and I am getting signatures from the lucky people who will be getting new trees. Once we have the stumps removed and signed forms, new trees will be planted by a contractor to the city (a contractor also will remove the stumps).
I am hoping that within a month or two this little project will be completed but you know how slow things can be when working with government…
Do you want to get involved? Let me know (EZ) by posting a comment.
~EZ
This post is slightly off-topic as it doesn’t have a lot to do with Nelson Ave. or the neighborhood. However, there are a lot of eco-friendly people on our block and I bet some are wondering the same thing I am: what to do with those “eco-friendly” produce bags from Harris Teeter?
Our local Harris Teeter stores, where I shop occasionally, offers “100% degradable” plastic produce bags. I buy a lot of lettuce, and I have eco-guilt: in other words, what the heck is “100% degradable”? Aren’t these still going to a landfill?
The answer is yes, more or less. The produce manager at Potomac Yards’ Harris Teeter told me that the store accepts the bags back for recycling.
However, representatives from the bag manufacturer, Epi-Global, says that recycling is only appropriate for clean, pre-food bags. Once the bags have been sullied, it’s best to either compost them or toss. Like the corn plastic peanuts, they’ll break down in a regular (non industrial) compost environment, but it’s going to take awhile. My produce bag has been in the compost pile for about 4 months, but Epi-Global estimates it will take 3 years to disintegrate. There is a cool photo on their site, epi-global.com, that shows a bag disintegrating in two weeks. Don’t be fooled, this is a best-best-case scenario.
Biodegradable plastics are better than regular plastics, of course, because they will eventually return to CO2, water and biomass. Still, this inquiry didn’t satisfy me. Does anyone have a better idea of how to stop all the produce bags? Also–if you have a better way of getting restaurants to stop using polystyrene leftover containers, and it doesn’t involve hauling your own Tupperware to a nice restaurant, please let me know.
–Rebecca, 529
In February, the city of Alexandria acquired the parcel on the corner of Commonwealth and E. Del Ray Aves., 1 & 7 E. Del Ray, for a then-undisclosed amount. The site had been on the city’s pocket park acquisition for some time, and will eventually become an improved passive-use site open to all.
At the time, the combined assessed value for the parcels was about $520,000 on the city’s Parcel Viewer. (You can check it out on alexandriava.gov.) I checked this morning and it looks like the above figure, $628,778 is the combined value of both properties, which seems a likely figure the city would have paid. Of course, I have not called to verify this information with Parks & Recreation or Real Estate Assessment, but I think the number is reliable.
Hi everyone! I just wanted to introduce you to FireStar- it’s FireFlies new music “contest” on Tuesday nights, beginning April 1st. Basically, several bands will play on Tuesday night to compete for the chance to play on Thursday. Customers will be able to vote for their favorite band. The band with the highest number of votes will be invited back for a full gig on Thursday night. All music will be from 6pm-9pm.
It should be a lot of fun!
I hope to see my fellow Nelson Avenue-ers there!!
Marylisa
Hi All:
We’re parents on East Nelson and we’re starting the process of looking at our schools. As you know, we’re all in the Jefferson-Houston district.
We’ve gotten involved in the work going on at Jefferson-Houston, and I’m curious if any of you are in the same boat.
So, if parents could email me with some info at smostow@yahoo.com, that would be great.
I’m curious for: Kids, Ages, Have you chosen a school yet, Which one, Your email address.
Thanks,
Steve
Hi all,
EZ here again… This post is to let you know that I’ll be hosting a rain barrel seminar on Sunday, March 30 from 2-4pm in my backyard.
Some of you may have noticed the two large blue barrels in my backyard - those are my rain barrels. I’ve gotten a lot of interest in them since building the system and the response from the DRCA list serv email I sent out was amazing. So, I wanted to let you know, in case you are not on the DRCA list serv, when this seminar is. I’ll cover the theory, design, construction and maintenance of rain barrels and, of course, answer any questions people might have.
Send me an email, call me or just stop on by to let me know if you’ll be coming so I know how many people to expect.
~EZ
Some of you may have seen me (EZ) out yesterday (Saturday the 8th) with my tape measure recording the trees (or lack thereof) on the 500 block of Nelson Avenue. I’ve been working with Jim Snyder of the DRCA to document the pitiful state of the trees on our block and, like any project, we need to know the “current state” first. Hence, the tree survey I performed yesterday.
It sounds to me like there are four things which can be done about this situation:
1) You can plant a tree in the planting strip yourself. You could plant an acorn, go buy a sapling, whatever… The city has had several tree sales where they offer trees at a discount for residents to buy. The event has been quite popular and they have sold out every time (despite increasing the number of trees available each time). I’ll post in the future when I learn of the next sale.
2) If there is a stump in front of your house, you can contact the city arborist to have the stump removed. The city contracts this service out and, as best as I can tell, it is through laziness that the stumps are not removed. This is similar to the bait boxes in the alley behind Ginat/CVS - if we don’t keep on them, they don’t keep checking/rebaiting.
3) I do not yet know the detail but as I understand, the city will plant trees in the planting strip in front of your house. I’m sure the city arborist would be happy to provide you the details if you were to call. Maybe tell is what you learn by leaving a comment.
4) The DRCA is sponsoring a program to plant 100 trees (I suspect there will be more than 100?) in and around Del Ray. I am working with Jim Snyder to get as many as we can on the 500 block of Nelson Avenue. If you live in the 400 block and want to help, let me (EZ) know. I just don’t have the time to survey more than the 500 block.
One important thing is that any new tree needs extra care the first 3-5 years it is in the ground. And, by extra care I mean periodic watering when we don’t get enough rain. We lost a few new, young trees last summer due to the drought. If they have been watered a few times, we would not have lost them. So, if you plant or get a new tree in front of your house, keep it well watered the first few years and, hopefully one day they’ll grow as big as those beautiful trees in front of 409 Nelson Avenue.
You may have seen the knocked down sections of the fence which separates the Giant/CVS parking lot from the alley a few weeks back. Some of us actually got to see the nice, new Audi which knocked the fence down. I don’t know why she did it (if you know what happened, please tell us in the comments!) but I saw the older woman (in her 50’s) who did it - she must have been going pretty fast to have knocked the fence down and gotten her car so precariously perched, almost half-way into the alley. Peter is probably pretty happy she wasn’t going much faster - she would have smashed his SUV pretty good if she’d actually leaped the retaining wall.
One neighbor told me her husband was none too pleased when he arrived along with a tow-truck to remove the car (front wheels were well off the ground so she could not drive away). Sorry I did not take any pictures…. I will start doing this for things that happen to liven up this blog.
Through a neighbor (Paul) I have inquired as to the status of fence repairs - because, even though the broken fence has reduced my walk to Giant by about 30 feet, we all know that good fences make for good neighbors. Paul said that the management is well aware of the incident and, once the insurance is cleared up, they will repair the fence. Somehow I doubt there is much debate about who is at fault. Hmmm… inanimate fence or reckless driver? Hmmmm…..
OK, I am getting tired of the various flyers and other junk left on or near my door. Are you too?
We’ve mentioned this before here and here. I have tried various strategies - calling the companies, speaking with our elected officials, … and, bottom line is that there does not seem to be much we can do as individuals about it. So, knowing that the group is much more powerful than the individual, I am beginning the “Solicitor Hall Of Shame” here and will list the various businesses who leave their flyers on my door. Feel free to add to the list in the comments if I miss some. I (EZ) highly recommend you do not use the services of these businesses and let them know why!
So, without further ado, here they are (I’ll update this list as they leave more flyers on my door):
Hector’s Place I returned from work today to find a business card for this restaurant laying on my front porch. I wonder how they would feel if I just randomly threw trash in front of their door.
Date added: 31 March 2008
Comcast & Ben Enterprises I spoke with Victor (571 484 8994) and his manager, Alex Villasenor (571 991 6582) of “Ben Enterprises”. Apparently, this firm is based in Texas (note - not an Alexandria business) and a contractor to Comcast. I have heard that an argument for allowing flyers is that it helps promote/support Alexandria businesses. How does this benefit our city? Two people who do not live in Alexandria working for a Texas-based company which is a subcontractor for Comcast. Hmmm… sounds pretty fishy to me.
Date added: 24 March 2008
The Gentleman Plumber, A division of Harry Braswell, Inc. (website is www.thegentlemanplumber-va.com)
This hangtag was nicely printed - two color, glossy paper and a complete waste of my time because I do my own plumbing. Hopefully if you don’t do your own plumbing you will use someone else’s services. I’ve noticed R&B and Kesterson’s don’t put unsolicited crap on my door.
Zpizza (website is www.zpizza.com)
Maybe a new restaurant? Or one who’s desperate for new business? Well, they’ll not get any of mine.
Mario’s Painting (No website; phone is 703-830-7996)
This was an interesting hangtag because it advertised three businesses (Mario’s and the next two). One of them being the company which makes/distributes the hang tags. Mario’s painting looks pretty sketchy to me since he promises to do much, much more than painting but he doesn’t seem to be able to use a spellchecker.
Virginia Cleaning Plus (No website; phone is 703-543-4359)
Not much to say… another cleaning business. I wish they’d stop dirtying up my neighborhood with their unsolicited flyers.
Lucky Bag (website is www.luckybagcfd.com)
This is the company which prints/distributes flyers. I haven’t called them yet but I urge you to call them and tell them you no longer want their trash being strewn about your yard. I’ll update this posting after I call them.
Tsim Yung (No website; phone is 703-518-8880)
Hmmm… what’s worse than bad faux Chinese food? Maybe the flyer they left on my door. They need to hire a graphic designer. Not that I’ll be dining there but they do indicate they do not like MSG.