NC's Best Home, This Month: Mondo Condo Near Skyland Town Center

Looking for roomy, sensibly priced apartments or condos in the picturesque, lushly forested Near Capitol neighborhood of Hillcrest ..AND within walking distance of upcoming Skyland Town Center? Have a peek at this YouTube video, from Washington, D.C. Apartments...

And see for yourself.

NC's Best Home, This Month: Old Southern Elegance In Fairfax Village

The house at 3607 Suitland Road is another GEM in the well respected, sought-after, safe, middleclass neighborhood everyone, west of the Anacostia, is talking about - Hillcrest, of course!

On first glance, this house's pillared veranda recalls the stately, Georgian mansions of the Old South, ..and elegantly enough to impress. It's a great home for a young, urban professional in a quiet, tree-lined Near Capitol neighborhood that looks and feels alot like Van Ness or Friendship Heights, with the cafes and night life of Capitol Hill, barely seven or eight minutes away! Perhaps, you should ask D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray, if the Safeway and the post office are close enough to comfortably walk to, ..since he's in the neighborhood.

"The Mayor's just around the corner from me," sounds none too shabby, at all. I do it all the time.

On that note, the house's homage to Southern colonial style leaves its Victorian-look glass door oddly matched. A fully wooden one, painted ONE color, would be in better taste.

While the property is listed in Fairfax Village, it should be understood that Fairfax Village is, itself, actuallyin Hillcrest, ..and Hillcrest is about to be very close to Walmart and a very nice town center. The time to buy in great Near Capitol neighborhoods, like Hillcrest, Fairfax Village or nearby Penn Branch (where I grew up) is right now!

See 3607 Suitland Road for yourself, here, on Weichert.com.

Mel Dyer

NC's Best Home, This Month: A Cape Cod On The Woods

You want the skinny on this property from someone living, right here, in Hillcrest? Well, here it is...

Your friends will be surprised how much this woodsy, quiet, safe, middleclass neighborhood - great for young couples with children OR happily retired - looks and feels like Rock Creek Park or Chevy Chase. This house is located in the BEST the Near Capitol area has to offer, with bars and cafe life on Capitol Hill barely five minutes away! Safeway, post office and retail are close enough to walk to, in a neighborhood safe and friendly enough to enjoy the stroll! Maybe, you'll jog past a U.S. Congressman - we've actually got one around here, somewhere.

I can almost see Skyland Town Center from here. Almost. Upon completion, it will be a short walk from 2109 Thirty-first Place's doorstep, ..and ground-breaking starts, Fall 2013! Yes, ..I said town center.

Looks like a SMART investment in a great neighborhood your friends will envy. Now, go see for yourself!

2109 31ST Pl SOUTHEAST, WASHINGTON, DC 20020 | MLS# DC7967077 | Redfin

Mel Dyer

Spare The Sharks And The Crocodiles...Spoil The Child!

 

I just saw, for the second time, the most facinating and INSPIRATIONAL film on LINK TV, ..and it is ALAMAR, by Mexican filmmaker, Pedro González-Rubio!

In the film, we a fisherman raising his son, on and beside the ocean. We see a father, who involves his child in the immediately relevant work and economy of their family, ..giving his son a TRUE sense of self-esteem, ..in ways an endless string of meaningless, irrelevant, organized activities (Ancient Tibetan basket-weaving, hip-hop yoga, Israelli bagel-painting, etc) NEVER could.  We see a father, who plays in the natural world with his son ..and a child, who never stops being excited about learning. We see a child, who knows his place..and, trusting that it is a cherished, loving and protected place, has no need to constantly and wastefully question and challenge authority, ..growing up without the subsequent uncertainty, insecurity and life-crippling anxiety that so many of our American kids are experiencing (with the highest suicide rates and violent behavior, than ever before).

Suicide, according to Centers for Disease Control, is the THIRD leading cause of death, among young Americans, ages ten to twenty-four years old. That is crazy ..and it is unconscionable.

With all the freedom, leisure and privilege we see so many American parents giving their children - encouragement to think of them as a best friend (as much as parent), permission to call them by first name, to question their every decision, to challenge the authority of teachers and school administrators, unsupervised time at the mall with friends, enrollment in a string of fun, organized activities, expensive clothes and toys...

Why, why WHY are our children SO unhappy?!

In Alamar, we see a devoted father, who, through work and play, gives his son's life order and the value of commitment, ..and a child, who is genuinely HAPPY with his simple, meaningful life. He gives his son's life something sorely missing in the lives of today's young Americans, ..and that's simplicity. It is a simple, beautiful life, as surrounded by water, as by LOVE.

And good, hard work. Not activity. Work.

Pedro Gonzalez-Rubio's ALAMAR is a great film for fathers and uncles to see, as much as for mothers to understand what makes willful, curious boys into good, strong men. Blending real-life people and places with improvised situations, it is a docudrama and can't be called a blueprint for raising perfect children, ..but, it might point us to something we seem to have lost, here in the West (particularly, in America).  Alamar is a movie that might show us how we can make more relevant, life-long contributions to our children's lives that I believe will benefit our societies.

See Alamar, here... http://www.fandor.com/films/alamar

Mel Dyer

The Secret Of Near Capitol?

Does Washington, D.C.'s River East area have a secret? You bet!

'Near Capitol', our nickname for the cluster of River East neighborhoods properly called the Naylor Dupont district, is a declaration of independence. Near Capitol is a free spirit and not defined, culturally or economically, by either of her enduring lovers, neighboring Capitol Hill or Anacostia. Naylor Dupont has its own claims to relevance!

Near Capitol is THE best-travelled gateway to Capitol Hill, east of the Anacostia River, and ninety percent of it's so close to the Hill, you can walk there, without breaking a sweat! The same Pennsylvania Avenue running straight down the center of the Naylor-Duponts will take you all the way to the White House. You will find no River East neighborhoods closer to Capitol Hill, geographically or culturally, than those, right here in Near Capitol!

Heavily forested Fort Davis Park, which holds a real fort, once charged with defense of the Capitol in the Civil War, stretches from its Massachusetts Avenue side in the north to its Naylor Road side in the south.

The much celebrated historic Hillcrest neighborhood, presently the home of Washington, D.C.'s Mayor Vincent Gray, also once counted FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover as a resident -his house, barely a block from Gray's stately hacienda on Branch Avenue. Now, Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) has settled in the equally historic Randall Highlands.

Hawk, deer, fox, coyote, wild dogs, geese, ducks, turkey vultures and wild turkeys pass through our picturesque forests - not a boast our neighbor, Capitol Hill, can make. It was well-reported that, just before Thanksgiving of 2012, a full-grown, tawny BUCK (antlers and all) strolled down the streets of Penn Branch, like he was window-shopping in Georgetown! Rock Creek has nothing on the wild hills of Near Capitol...

And we love them wild.

In spite of all that, the Naylor Dupont district always gets the short end of the stick in this word association game, because people, who come here with no prior knowledge of the area, are -and almost, at once- alternately disappointed that it's not Barracks Row or Eastern Market, ..or so pre-occupied with the mythical threat of impending danger in Anacostia, that they can't see all the good Naylor Dupont has to offer, at all. In the eyes of the former and the latter, the Naylor Dupont cluster is invisible -its proud, hardworking, law-abiding residents, whom I grew up with, ..irrelevant.

Beneath notice. Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.

So, the nickname 'Near Capitol' has a very practical purpose. Naylor Dupont is its own separate and distinct entity with its own highs and lows, and it should be appreciated or derided for all of it.

Find out more about its rich history and evolving cultural identity, by visiting the Naylor Dupont Advisory Neighborhood Council website.

Mel Dyer

[Excerpt from "The Secret Of Capicostia?", originally published April 19, 2012]

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU!

Thank you so much for all of the encouraging e-mail and just for looking us over, in 2012! Coming next week, ..2013 begins with more Bullethedd, Iron Munkee, Twinkly Blanket (above) and BRAND-NEW, quirkier-than-ever Steak Island vignettes.

See the best of 2012, by visiting the 'Archives' at Bullethedd.com

Mel Dyer

Merry Christmas, America!

A new vignette, every WEDNESDAY, ..starting right here. Right now. More changes to come in 2013! To all who followed this quirky, little experiment called Steak Island, ..a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everywhere!

Mel Dyer