Dogs Don’t Lie

No mention of Columbia Heights would be complete without a word about our neighbor Mr. Tim. We first met Mr. Tim during the home inspection for our condo. He walked up with his trademark broom and dustpan and began telling us how the building we were about to move into used to be an open air drug market. (NPR did a story around the same time about some young men who lived in a foster home at the same address; check it out here). We assumed he was drunk or crazy or both and tried to ignore him.

Since then, we’ve learned a lot about our neighbor. He was born in South Carolina, the son of a Baptist preacher, and moved to Washington, DC when he was still a boy. As a young man, he volunteered for combat duty in Vietnam and was awarded a Purple Heart for meritorious service. Later, he came back to Washington and earned a degree in accounting from Howard University. After graduation,* he worked for many years as part of the US Naval Audit Service. For most of his adult life, Mr. Tim has resided at 1306 Park Road, just across the street from our condo. During the really bad years, when the neighborhood was depressed and crime ridden, he would stand watch at night with his shotgun to keep the drug dealers and gang bangers away.

Mr. Tim pretty much owns the 1300 block of Park Road. He sweeps the streets, clears the snow, and maintains the vacant lot on the corner. He knows all the neighbors, and they all know him (even the ones who pretend not to). By his own account, daytime is not Mr. Tim’s element, but in the late afternoons and evenings, especially in the summer, he likes to sit on his stoop with a Steel Reserve and call out to passersby. He even has his own catchphrase: “Dogs don’t lie and dogs don’t steal, but they do kill.” We never quite figured out what that means, but it seems to keep the undesirables away.

Despite his bluster, Mr. Tim is one of the sweetest men you’ll ever meet. He took a liking to us early on, probably because we weren’t afraid to stop and talk with him. He watches our car, helps Elise with the groceries, and on special occasions like birthdays and Mother’s Day, makes us banana pudding. He has saved every birth announcement, Christmas card, and thank you note with Henry’s picture on it and keeps them on a table in his living room. For Henry’s first birthday, Mr. Tim gave him a book of children’s poems that he owned as a little boy and a copy of To Kill a Mocking Bird, for “when he’s older.” With Mr. Tim around, we always felt like we had a good friend in the neighborhood.

Mr. Tim claims to be writing a book about his time in Columbia Heights. Chapter 23 is supposedly entitled “The Morrises Take Flight.” We’re not sure his book will ever make it to print, but we were grateful to get to know Mr. Tim and hear his stories. Mr. Tim always said “I’m not responsible for your education,” but we learned a lot from him.

* When he’s wearing his Howard sweatshirt, people often ask Mr. Tim: did you go to Howard? His reply: “A lot of people went to Howard. I graduated from there.”

A Fond Farewell to Columbia Heights

After about two months on the market, we received and accepted an offer on our condo. We’ve spent the last few weeks searching for a new home and getting ready for the move. After several disappointments, we finally located a nice rental home in Alexandria, Virginia, close to Old Town. If all goes according to plan, we should move on June 20th and close on June 26th. It’s been a hectic process, but we’re excited to have a backyard for Henry this summer. Our new home is located at 601 Hilltop Terrace. We’ll post some pictures of the new digs after the move.

As excited as we are to be moving, we’ll miss living in the city. Our old neighborhood, Columbia Heights, has gone through many changes in recent years. We moved to the area in 2006, when there were no restaurants, shops or amenities save for a single independent coffee shop around the corner. Today, Columbia Heights is one of the "up-and-coming areas" of DC, with a huge shopping complex (Target, Bed Bath & Beyond, Best Buy, etc.), several high rise condominiums, multiple restaurants and, of course, a Starbucks. We knew the neighborhood was on its way to being gentrified when the Starbucks arrived. This summer, the city is completing plans to install a public square with a fountain and space for a farmers’ market. And there’s a Giant supermarket and Metro stop just down the street.

Our favorite thing about Columbia Heights is the diversity of the people: walking down our street, Park Road, we pass older African American neighbors who have lived on the block for 20 years or more, newer Hispanic families, yuppie couples, and Vietnamese immigrants that moved here in the 1970s after the war. Our church, Sacred Heart, has Masses to cater to each of these groups: 10am (English), 12pm (Spanish), 3pm (Vietnamese); and 4:15pm (French and Haitian Creole). The neighborhood was devastated by riots after Martin Luther King’s assassination and slowly declined throughout the 70s and 80s, but has since been revitalized. Now, despite some grumbling from old timers and the bohemian crowd, the neighborhood has managed to reinvent itself without loosing its eclectic feel.

We'll miss our old neighborhood!