142 Q Street NW

So I was recently told of this house.

I'm not going to do a deep investigation of this, because apparently the house has been vacant for 8+ years. It's not a problem for the neighbors, right now.
It appears that it was bought in 1987 or 1988 by 142 Q St NW Inc... might have been before LLCs were a thing, for what looks to be $80,000. And it looks, because I'm scanning, not really reading the documents, like it was bought at auction. So it has been owned by the owners for a very long time. The owners, are located in Plymouth, NC.

Looking at the tax database, this property is not charged at the Class 3 - Vacant rate. Another quick scan of the documents and maybe there is some legal problem as there are trustees attached to it.... I dunno. Going back to 2005 it looks like they've been charged the normal rate for this multi unit (2 units as far as I can tell) semi-detached townhouse.

From the street it just looks like a duplex that is a tad shabby.
There is another house on the block that looks more vacant than this one. I may do it next.

448 Q Street NW- Looks vacant to me

I've passed by 448 Q Street NW many times and found the lack of stairs to the front door odd (notice in the 2004 photo left).
According to DCRA's PIVS the inspector does come out once a year since 2014 and most of the time it is cited as vacant. One year, 2015, it was noted as occupied. Only the adjacent neighbors know for sure because the lack of stairs into the front a home (I know this sounds crazy) does not necessarily mean it isn't occupied. There is always the back door. All I know is when I come by, Summer, Winter, or Fall, day or night, I see no signs of life, just maintenance.
When I look for the latest sale date I see 1901! Yes, according to DCRA's PIVS the last date of sale was over 100 years ago. Going over to the tax assessors website, there is no date but I see the owner, Andres R. Alquinta is receiving the Senior Citizen Homestead deduction. Yeah..... my aunt was 102 when she died and has been paying that discounted homestead deduction after her death, so I'll have to dig further to see if the owner is still alive, or more than likely dead like my beloved great-aunt.
Looking at the paper trail, it appears Alquinta is out of the picture and hasn't signed for anything in this century. He (I'll just assume male) has a guardian, as one might have as one enters the twilight of one's life and that guardian has been dealing with what looks to be developers MSC Development and the 448 Que Partnership.
I'll keep my eye on this one. If there is an elderly person living here using the rear please alert me so I can take this post down.

NOTE: I have the memory of a gnat- I've posted on this house before.

1547 7th St NW- Coming Soon!

Neighbors on the Shaw Neighborhood email list are complaining about this slowly crumbling building at the corner of 7th and Q Streets NW.
Rightly so.
It has been shuttered and vacant as long as I can remember and I moved here in 2000.
I'm not going to give this a deep look but just post the basics.

1547 - 1549 7TH ST NW  Square 0445 Lot 0197
Owner since 2001- WILLIAMS SEVEN STREET LLC
2016 Assessed value-  $1,021,640.00
Tax Class- 2= Commercial
2014 taxes paid Jan 2015= $29,719.84
2015 EXPIRED TAX SALE- Sold to Buyer-$56,257.71
Current tax bill is either $114,261.33  or  $75,620.75. Doesn't matter, it is a whole lotta money.

Yes it is not taxed at the vacant rate, but rather the commercial rate which is a lot too.

The Vacant lot at FL and Q has a Twitter hashtag

In my day we called them pound signs. The Bates Area Civic Association blog reported about the hashtag, regarding the September 8th meeting where two developers gave presentations regarding the vacant government owned property at Florida Ave and Q St NW. The hastag is #FlaQNW.

One of the developers has a email, (engage@fluxonflorida.com) but no website. The other developer was a bit more old school and had big posters of what they hoped to do on the site.

Florida and Q (Sq 0615, lots 75, 149, 152, etc) NW

This is old news, but the city is soliciting offers for several parcels of property owned by the District of Columbia, with the goal of making them into something useful. This includes the lots at Q and Florida Avenues NW, which is across the street from Joe Mamo's lot.
There was a hope to turn this sunny lot into a community garden, but the tide in the city seems to be turning away from green spaces to mixed use development.
Since the property is currently owned by the city, it pays no taxes, and as with the city, it takes a while for things to eventually get developed. Thankfully, it is not a school.
A quick look at the solicitation it appears the city wants a developer-buyer to create a mixed income and mixed use development, with the residential units being 51% affordable (residents at 80% AMI). Luckily, the city defines AMI (Area Median Income) with 1 person household earning $59,920, a 2 person household at $68,480, a 3 person household $77,040, 4 person $85,600 and so forth. The city wants it to be a LEED building, and there are other requirements that deal with the city.
According to the Department of Housing and Community Development developers have until October (10th or 24th) to submit proposal applications.

448 Q St NW- Senior Tax Deduction Vacant

I debated if this house at 448 Q St NW was vacant for years. The stairs to the front door are gone, which I always thought as strange. That doesn't mean that it could have been attached to 450 Q St (which is a huge property) or that the occupants enter from the rear, or that it is just poorly maintained. But then, construction work began on 450 Q St, and it was very clear that the two buildings are not connected with each other, except by party wall.
Looking to see if 448 Q was listed as vacant, I see that it is not. Instead it is " ** Currently receiving the Senior Citizen Homestead Deduction*. " The owner, Andres R. Alquinta's, contact information is a PO Box in Springfield, Virginia. Can you get the homestead deduction as an absentee? I searched the Social Security Death Index and did not find Mr. Alquinta. Looking at the property taxes paid since 2007, Mr. Alquinta's tax bill has been slowly going down and is in the $1,400 range for 2014.
The building, from the front, seems to be fine, except for that missing stair. The stair is no small issue (and I should have taken a picture), go to Google Street view for the address and you can see the door is about 2 feet off the ground.
Interesting.

9th and Q- no vacancy

This image is a chestnut from 2008, showcasing guerrilla citizenry or guerrilla government. Ray, an oldtimer who lives near the intersection of 9th and Q, is credited with painting this abandoned. Not just slapping a random coat of paint on, no, he painted on the wishes and dreams of the neighborhood. A wish for a nice cafe, with chairs and a white table cloth and maybe Starbucks like coffee being served would appear where a rotting corpse of a building sits. If you can read French, which I can't, there is some humor in the words painted.
Well fast forward to today and there is no cafe but rather nice looking residence. On the list on right there was a link to a now defunct blog Off Seventh about the problem area that was the intersection of Q and 9th Streets NW.
Around the mid-00's this area was an intersection of vacancy. Even across the street, opposite of 821 Q NW, was a hole of despair. Ray or some others called it "Lake Woodson", as it would fill up with rainwater. It was not a pretty sight, but if you want to see what it looked like visit https://flic.kr/p/8GNn4 and https://flic.kr/p/7xiSW . Now that former hole in the ground is a residential building with a couple of units, as seen in the image below.


The area has gentrified and there are still vacant holes along 9th Street needing to be filled, which displaces nobody, unless you count homeless squatters and rats. Just around the corner are vacant and possibly vacant properties, those I will deal with next week.

455 Q St NW

CCCA President MM has posted this as a problem house:

"The front yard is a mess, the front door ajar, people have broken into
the house through the 2nd floor. A unlocked and open door is an invitation for the many homeless vagrants, former offenders and sex offenders, thieves (and God knows who) -- that pass through our community every day as they take advantage of local services -- to squat, engage in crime, illicit drug use, stash weapons, hide and escape from MPD pursuit, and/or start fires. Properties like this only make things more difficult for others in the community who want to maintain and clean and safe neighborhood."