Tag: dc

Columbia Heights associations meeting

Last night, the wife and I went to the joint meeting of three Columbia Heights community associations. Muriel Bowser (councilmember from Ward 4) and numerous high-ranking members of the police force were there.

The biggest topic of conversation was a letter that went out to many residents that, among other things, called the park at 14th and Girard NW a “hellhole”.

As you can imagine, many people who spend time in that park took offense. Much of this anger, I think, is because they feel this is an attack by the rich white people moving into the neighborhood on the poor black people who have lived there for years. And they probably have a point.

As one of the white people who has recently moved into the neighborhood, I try to be sensitive to this kind of thing. I don’t want to remake Columbia Heights in the image of Fairfax County. I don’t want to drive out the long-time residents. I LIKE Columbia Heights. Sure, there’s some crime, and I want to help get rid of it.

I think there is a communication problem. For example, I frequent the Columbia Heights Community Forum.  There are people there who want to close the park.  They think the shootings recently on the 1400 block of Girard originated at the park, and I think they are totally wrong.  But I didn’t see them at the meeting.  They communicate online.  And frankly, that’s my preferred way of communicating.  But it has to go beyond that.  The people at the meeting last night don’t read the forum.  I think many people on the forum would think differently about the park if they listened to the people who spend time there.  I was also disappointed that there was no representative from the Latino community at the meeting.  Columbia Heights has a large Spanish-speaking population, and I didn’t see it represented.  I don’t know whether this is from the meeting organizers not reaching out, or the Spanish-speakers not responding, but it needs to change either way.

I wish I knew what to do about it.  I want to stay in Columbia Heights.  I want to raise children here, and I want to be able to send them to public schools and know that they’re safe, and that they’re getting a good education.

But I don’t really know what to do.  I think we’ll keep going to the meetings.  The police attendance at this one was not the usual, and this meeting felt rushed, so maybe normal meetings are different.

NB:  I changed the name of the post from “Columbia Heights associations’ meeting” to “Columbia Heights associations meeting”, because the second version is correct.  HOWEVER – I wasn’t as dumb as you think the first time.  I really did mean to use the plural posessive.  However, I don’t think the plural posessive is appropriate here.  Arguments welcome in the comments.

Is traffic that bad right now?

I keep seeing articles about how this week is supposed to be really bad for traffic because everyone is back to work after various summer vacations.  Yesterday (Tuesday) was supposed to be the worst.

But I’m not seeing it.  In fact, today was one of the least crowded days on the Metro that I’ve seen in a while.  I actually had a seat to myself from Mount Vernon Square all the way to Pentagon City on the Yellow line, which almost never happens.

I don’t know if car traffic is worse – I haven’t driven anywhere since Sunday, and I don’t think that counts.  For those of you poor saps who drive to work in the DC Metro area – has it been bad this week?

N Exactly IMBY

Welcome to MissionDCFacts.Com – A Fact-Blog based on FACTS!

Central Union Men’s Shelter is seeking to move from the current location they own and maintain at 14th and R Streets, NW. The current location houses an approximately 30,000 square foot men’s shelter containing 84 beds. The Mission is seeking the new facility on Georgia Avenue to be built at a whopping size 70,000-80,000 square feet and 200-250 beds – more than doubling their current size.

I’ve been meaning to look up this website ever since I ran past a few signs on 11th Street advertising it. It seems that, because 14th and R is such a sought-after location, they want to build condos there. And since Georgia Ave is still a little rough, they’ll put a giant homeless shelter there.

I have no idea how I feel about this. It does feel a little like the rich developer taking advantage of the poor residents of less gentrified area. On the other hand, the guy is probably just making a good business decision – take the prime real estate for condos, and move the homeless shelter to a cheaper neighborhood.

But it’s not exactly my neighborhood. The proposed site is not somewhere I pass by very often, if at all, even if it isn’t all that far from my house.

I think it’s kind of funny how the website I linked goes to great lengths to describe the fancy development in Alexandria where the head of the Mission lives.  Although I do agree – I’m always somewhat annoyed when someone who lives in expensive Virginia suburbs tries to make rules for DC.

Anyway, I’m not sure where I stand on this.  But I finally remembered to look at the website, so I thought I should mention it.

I win again!

That’s two more parking tickets adjudicated. I guess that means forgiven. I leave looking that up as an exercise for you, the reader. DDOT got back to me, and said that the Zone 1 parking restrictions were not supposed to be enforced until August 27th, so both of my tickets will be forgiven. So, if you live on the 1400 block of Harvard Street, NW, and you received a ticket for failure to display a Residential Parking Permit for Zone 1 before August 27th, 2007, you still have time to contest it. Contact the DMV, or contact Councilmember Graham’s office if that doesn’t work. Just don’t pay that ticket.

All you need to know about DC parking tickets

To the person who found me by searching for “can you get a parking ticket in dc for having va tag where there are no sign”:

Yes.  If it involves a non-moving car, you can get a ticket for it in DC.

If you remember that rule, you may save yourself a few parking tickets.  I won’t say that you will save yourself from getting any parking tickets, because that’s impossible.  But you can perhaps minimize them by assuming that you will always be ticketed.  You will usually be right.

Anyway, I suggest you contest any ticket you might receive.  It makes you feel better, and you can do it by mail, so it hardly costs anything.

Worst street in Columbia Heights?

Two more shot on Girard Street last night.  One died, one in the hospital.  I park on that street occasionally when our block is full, and it really doesn’t seem that bad.  And there are frequently police cars around.

It kind of puts parking tickets in perspective, I guess.  I get pretty worked up over the city’s campaign to make me sell my car, but at the same time, there are a lot more important things going on.

Lets get the Councilmember involved

I wrote to Jim Graham today.  I’m looking for a little help on my parking ticket problems.  I figure that taking up Graham’s time is more efficient than taking up the time of a clerk in the DC traffic courts – Graham’s time is billed at a much higher rate, and it will take less time to reach the $60 they’re trying to take from me.

When I hear back, I’ll let you all know.  And then I’ll contest my tickets.

Spying on ourselves is bad

Boing Boing: Police camera spying on the rise in California

Backed by millions in Homeland Security dollars, California law enforcement authorities are quickly expanding video surveillance camera spying in public rights of way, a move the American Civil Liberties Union says is stripping away privacy rights while failing to dent the intended purpose: crime.

We were just talking about this last night, in the context of the hit-and-run accident early Sunday morning. The wife and I saw the victim lying in the middle of 16th Street, face down. The driver has not been caught.

We were talking about the trade-offs: privacy vs. safety. Would you be okay with more cameras in public spaces? When something like this happens, and we want to catch the driver, and more cameras would certainly help.

But, on the other hand, do you really want to be on camera all the time?  It’s not that I want to be able to break the law and not get caught.  It’s just that I don’t want to be watched all the time.  I don’t mind if there’s a camera at the ATM, or if I walk past a monument and I’m in some tourist’s vacation photo.  What I have a problem with is being watched all the time.  While cameras on 16th Street probably could have gotten the license plate of the speeding white SUV that hit this guy, they’d also catch all sorts of other things.  I know you don’t have any reasonable expectation of privacy in the middle of the city, but you have a reasonable expectation of not being filmed every moment you’re out of your house.

So, what’s the proper balance between safety and privacy?  Well, the current administration hasn’t found it yet, although by all indications they aren’t actually looking for balance.  Ideally, there would be a camera on everyone committing a serious crime, and no cameras anywhere else.  I don’t suppose that’s really feasible, though.

And, as you can see above, the ACLU doesn’t think that it’s helping to stop crime.  I don’t know what the ACLU knows about crime rates.  They certainly know a lot about protecting civil liberties, like the freedom to not be on camera all the time.

Some nice fruits and vegetables

We finally made it down to the U St. farmers market on Saturday.  It happens every Saturday, 9am-1pm, at 14th and U St NW.  I was quite pleased with the visit.  We got some really nice vegetables that the wife turned into brunch shortly thereafter, and I got some great apples.  I don’t remember what type they are – nothing I’d ever heard of.  But they’re very good.  I just ate one this morning.

I’d like to do more shopping at markets like that.  I don’t know how local the actual farmers are, but certainly more local than almost all the produce you find in the grocery store.  There’s a big debate among hippies as to whether to buy organic or local.  Obviously both is best, but if you have to choose one, it’s not clear which is the better choice.  I tend to think that local produce is better, since it uses fewer resources in transit.  But I’m open to other arguments.

Those heartless, inflexible bastards

I got another ticket today.  Right on top of the note I left explaining the situation.  I understand that the parking enforcement people are doing their job.  But if I can get a ticket for failure to register my car because they’ve noticed it parked there for a while with non-DC tags, why can’t they also notice that it’s been registered for a few months, they’ve suddenly changed the rules for parking without telling anyone, and cut me a break?

Apparently paying attention from day to day only works when you’re trying to bleed the taxpayers.  This is now six tickets in DC, including one before I moved here that was my fault (I misread a sign that was pretty clear, I’m not really sure what my problem was).  Do you know how many parking tickets I’ve gotten in the entire rest of the planet?  One.  I went to Blacksburg to pick up my brother from Virginia Tech and got a ticket on campus.  I parked illegally, figuring I wouldn’t be there long.

So, on one hand, we have twelve-plus years of driving and parking in Maryland and Virginia.  One ticket.  In less than two years of parking in DC, I have six.  It is abundantly clear who is at fault here.

I don’t park illegally.  I don’t double park, I don’t block hydrants, I don’t park in front of driveways.  But six tickets.  It’s mind-boggling.

I’m going to ask the wife to help me contest these two tickets, and I’m going to send a copy to our councilmember.  He’s all about the ineffectual but flashy solutions to problems.  Maybe he’ll give me a “get out of parking tickets free” card or something without addressing the underlying problem that this city needs to figure out a new way to combat parking and revenue issues.