Washington City Paper: Contents for Mar. 11

This Land Is My Land
Lots of property owners have profited from the gentrification of near-downtown neighborhoods in the District. The Robinson brothers came close to cashing in on their land, too. Instead, they’re sitting on it.

Cover Story

Around 6:40 each weekday morning, at his home on 14th Street NW, Tommy Robinson loads a paint-splotched aluminum ladder lengthwise onto his vintage Ross bicycle. He hangs an old, scuffed white bucket on one of the handlebars, and then he rolls his haul down the sidewalk and through the back alleys of Logan Circle.

His destination is a roughly 12-by-10-foot patch of dirt off 13th Street NW that his family has owned since 1983. There he parks his bicycle, stands his ladder, and sets down the bucket that holds just about everything he might need for the day: some snacks, a small Styrofoam cooler filled with water, and court documents, marked by the District of Columbia Superior Court’s Civil Division, stuffed in a Target shopping bag.

Then, with all his belongings tucked inside, he sits on the open end of the bucket.

With the exception of brief bathroom and lunch breaks, Tommy rarely leaves the bucket until after 4 p.m., when he considers the workday over. He has no radio or television on his lot, and he never brings anything to read. For the most part, he just sits there. On cold days, he’ll sway on his bucket or occasionally walk down the alley to generate some heat. When rain or snow threatens, he wears a heavy-duty plastic bag with holes for his arms and head punched through. On his head, he wears a thick hunter’s cap and tops it with a green hard hat.

Tommy says he sits on his lot all day in order to protect his land from trespassers. In one hand he holds an old Vivitar camera loaded with film, to document any perceived invasion, and in the other he keeps a Manila folder to block the sun when he takes photographs.... Continued

Issue of Mar. 11 - 17, 2005

News and Features

This Land Is My Land
Lots of property owners have profited from the gentrification of near-downtown neighborhoods in the District. The Robinson brothers came close to cashing in on their land, too. Instead, they’re sitting on it.
Cover Story By Dave Jamieson
Educational Elements
D.C. students spread their passion for the natural sciences outside the classroom.
Feature By Jeff Horwitz
Hall Monitor
Selected readings from D.C. Public Schools incident reports*
The City By Mike Kanin
Truck Stop
Police install new cameras on Capitol Hill to monitor suspicious vehicles.
The City By Arthur Delaney
Batting $350
Nimby Tribunal By Josh Levin
Price Pick of the Week
Celebrating the District’s Real-Estate Boom
Seller's Market By Constantine Caloudas
Down to the Water
The Mail By Henry Custis
The Straight Way
The Mail By Kevin P. Morison
Black and White and Read All Over
The Mail By Frank Connell
Fer Crying Out Loud!
The Mail By Denis James
Sex and Violence
The Mail By Scott May