The DMV tells me that it only takes 15 signatures to get a street zoned, so maybe it actually happened. You’d think maybe they’d notify the residents. But, the woman I spoke with couldn’t tell me whether our street had actually been zoned, or if the signs were just wrong. She transferred me to someone who could, but no one answered. I have the number, though, so I’m going to call back.
Tag: Harvard Street
Cant I just park in front of my house?
I spoke too soon. In late July, I sent this letter to contest a parking ticket. I thought I had achieved victory when they forgave the ticket.
It turns out that I just won round one. Round two has now begun.
Yesterday, I looked out the window and noticed a parking ticket on the Disaster Magnet. Since my car was parked a few spaces away, I went to check mine.
Sure enough, there was the ticket. $30 for “P003 RESIDENTIAL PARKING”. Do you know what they’ve done? Sometime over the last week or so, they replaced all the parking signs on our street. They now state that a zone 1 sticker is required. No one notified me that there were new parking restrictions. I don’t know if the city is legally obligated to tell me, but they should be. Now, the DC DOT website still lists our block as un-zoned. I don’t know whether it just hasn’t been updated, or if they put up the wrong sign. In any event, at 9AM on the button I’m calling the DMV to find out what’s going on. I left a note on my car to hopefully prevent another ticket. I politely stated that I live on the block, I became aware of the new parking restriction last night, and I’m going to the DMV today. I have no idea if it will help.
So, let’s summarize my tickets since I moved here. The first I paid. It was for violating a temporary ‘No Parking’ sign. I thought I was past the area where parking was restricted, but there’s apparently some rule that you must be a certain distance away from the posted sign that isn’t printed on the sign. Maybe I could have contested it, I don’t know. My second was the $100 ticket for failure to register that I got while I had a temporary permit from the police. That one is still being contested. I think we’re going to call soon to see the status because we haven’t heard anything. The third was $30 for not having a residential permit, which we contested and won. And now this one, the fourth. All of these tickets, mind you, are for parking within 100 feet of my front door.
I hear rumors that the DC government brings in a huge portion of its revenue from parking tickets. I don’t know if that’s true, but I’m starting to feel a little persecuted. We have tons of people living in Maryland and Virginia who drive past Metro into the city for work. Shift the tax burden to them! Shift the burden to the giant beaurocracy of the federal government! Shift it anywhere but your residents, who already pay extremely high tax rates.
Anyway, I will keep you updated. I don’t think I’ve adequately expressed how infuriating this is. It’s going to make me even madder if my suspicions prove true – that this is a sign mistake, not a change in parking rules. I was told by the DMV that it requires approval from a ridiculous percentage of the residents of a street to zone an un-zoned street, and no one knocked on my door.
If I ran for mayor with a platform of, “Let the Marylanders and Virginians pay the parking tickets”, do you think I’d win? I’d vote for me.
Curse you, four car train
Seriously, I’ve had it with the four car trains. Someone at WMATA needs to get it through their head that you can’t send a four car train ANYWHERE during peak commuting times. I didn’t even have space to read the Economist. How am I supposed to be informed if I can’t read on the Metro?
I don’t know if it’s a money thing. I suspect it is. It probably won’t really work to raise prices. They’re already pretty high. A tax to shift the burden to people who don’t actually ride Metro would be nice. If people want to drive in the city, that’s fine, but they’re going to subsidize those of us who avoid it as much as possible.
Anyway, it’s a crummy way to start the day.
ColumbiaHeightsNews.org back from the dead
Columbia Heights News – Washington, DC – Two Retailers Sign Lease With DC USA
Peter Mallios of Newmark Knight Frank, the leasing agent for DC USA, was equally mum about Ellwood Thompson’s. Mallios informed us that he is no longer allowed to speak with after the backlash from the whole Ross Dress for Less. See Whole Foods Or Ross? This is unfortunate as Mallios had been so informative. But perhaps this means Ross is backing out? We will keep you updated as we learn more.
This is what you’re missing out on by not reading the Columbia Heights forum and the mailing list. Locals got so upset that Ross was coming to DC USA instead of Whole Foods that DC USA has cut us off. It was quite a heated response, I suppose. I don’t actually read the mailing list – the forum is heated enough for me.
Although occasionally a little heatedness can have positive impact – the site linked above has come back from the dead after a forum member made a replacement site. They hadn’t really updated in a few months, but now they’ve been posting more or less regularly. The site owners claim to have been busy with having a new baby. Mind you, they have not yet produced this baby. Although, I don’t actually know them in real life, so maybe I just missed it. Nevertheless, it can’t be considered a real excuse until I see a baby.
The unfortunate part is the supposition that Ross might be backing out will undoubtedly renew the discussion on the merits of Ross. I’ve never actually shopped there, so I can’t really comment. I suppose I’ll have to give them a shot when DC USA opens.
No more four car trains at rush hour!
Don’t get me wrong, four car trains are great if they save a little energy at off-peak times. But how can you use them on the Yellow line at rush hour? The Yellow line, unlike the Orange line, actually has seats available most of the time. But not this morning. This morning, I was waiting as usual at Mount Vernon Square where the Green line dropped me, at my usual spot. My usual spot is near the back end of the train, because that’s where the Columbia Heights escalator drops me, and I’ve never really had a need to move. The end cars are usually empty compared to the rest of them.
This morning, the WMATA powers-that-be decided that they’d just skimp a little and send a four car train. I have no idea why. It’s quite possible they had a really good reason, but I frankly don’t care. This means that everyone standing in front of where they expected cars five and six to be has to run down the platform and get onto the last car. This makes it somewhat crowded. The fourth car was full by the time a few people pushed on at Archives, but it didn’t get really bad until 300 clowns going to the Pentagon jumped on at L’Enfant Plaza.
I’ve been riding the Green and Yellow line since the end of March, and this is the first time been jammed into a train like this. Yes, I realize I shouldn’t complain. But when there is plenty of room on the train for five months, and then suddenly one day I have a sweaty Marine pressed into my back and a large shoulder bag pressed into my groin, someone is wearing really bad cologne, and people are making dumb “stuck in an elevator” jokes, then WMATA has failed. Perhaps they were too busy playing with their new maps to notice.
But I notice. And fear not, WMATA, I will continue to notice, and to complain.
Also, a note to people who pile on to an already full train at rush hour – there will be another train in six minutes or less. Seriously. You can wait. You’re just going to work.
Welcome to Web 2.0, WMATA.
Metroblogging DC: Metro Unveils New Online Station Maps Powered By Google
Metro’s unveiled new online maps for their stations, which include local business listings, all powered by Google Maps.
Well, not exactly. I mean, they still have all their vowels, and I don’t think they have an AJAX “search as you type” function. But they’ve finally gotten a decent map. The next step would be to integrate local public transportation search into Google Maps. That would be cool. You could choose driving or walking or riding public transportation when you tried to get directions. They’re probably working on it.
I win! Im a big winner!
Some of you may remember that I contested a ridiculous parking ticket last month. I left the response letter at home, so I can’t post it now, but I can summarize.
Dear Sir, Your relentless powers of persuasion are too much for us. We have tried to formulate a response, a scenario where you might possibly be in the wrong, even a little bit, but we have failed. As such, please do not pay us any money. We’re sorry. Sincerely, DC Adjudication Services
I’m pretty sure that’s almost word for word. I may have taken a few liberties and substituted a word here and there to get down to what they really meant, without the posturing and bureaucracy. We’re still waiting on a response for the big ticket, the $100 ticket. The wife wrote that letter. She’s a lawyer, so she should be better at convincing them, but we had a much stronger case on the one that I contested. So we’ll see.
71% is good?
The folks over at DCist write that, according to an article in the Examiner, 71% of the DC area drives alone to work. They say this is good because we were at 74% three years ago, and the nation is at 77% and rising.
That’s kind of depressing. I’ve been taking Metro to work since March, and I love it. I don’t worry about traffic. I’ve done more reading since then than in the previous three years combined. My biggest worries are four car trains at Pentagon City and loud tourists.
I know many people don’t have the opportunity to take public transportation, and carpooling can be hard. But only doing 6% better than the national average in a city like DC is kind of sad. I wonder what the percentage is in London, for example, where they have huge congestion taxes. Now that I’m an excessively smug city resident and Metro rider, I say $20 to drive your car into the city! $30 if you’ve come from more than ten miles away! We’ll give two monthly exemptions for people who just have to come to the city every once in a while, like they way I have to drive out to Manassas once or twice a month for work.
We can use some of that money to pay for whatever it is we’re paying for with all the parking tickets DC gives out. I think more and more that DC gives out those tickets maliciously. I think I’m going to start contesting them regardless of guilt, just to spite the city.
City wildlife
I saw a deer! In DC! I was out running (Well, running and walking. It’s hot out, and I haven’t really run in three weeks) down along the Rock Creek Parkway path, and across the creek, behind a big tree, there was a deer. Well, its rear end, anyway. I couldn’t really see the rest.
Other than that, the run pretty much sucked. A hole is wearing in the heel of my left running shoe, and the shoes are only two months old or so. Maybe I’ll take them back and see if Fleet Feet can send them back to the manufacturer or something. I know I have skinny, bony feet, and I tend to be hard on shoes, but this is a little ridiculous.
Honestly, I would pay $300-500 for a nice, custom pair of shoes that would last me five years. Maybe not running shoes. I don’t know if they could make them last that long. But a nice pair of work shoes, lightweight, comfortable, and sturdy, that really fit my feet, would be great.
Can I get that somewhere? Or am I looking at more like $3000?
$10 minimum?
I need a new dry cleaner. I just picked up five shirts. The total was $7.13. They wouldn’t let me use a credit card, and I only had $5 in my wallet. She said there’s a $10 minimum on credit cards. Is it just me, or is that pretty high? I’ve heard of $5 minimums, but $10 seems steep.
Anyone know a good dry cleaner in Columbia Heights? I’ve heard nothing but bad stories about Georgetown Valet and Oxxo or whatever they’re called.