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August 24, 1997

Your Electronic Backfence

Dear Neighbors:

I saved my contribution this week to the end of the "editorial" section. Scroll to dc.queries if you absolutely have to avoid reading what I have to say in this issue. Meanwhile, DC home rule takes another licking by Jacob Weisberg in Slate magazine. Check out the web link below.

Strange Bedfellow: Last week, Congress all but abolished democracy in the District of Columbia. Jacob Weisberg wonders whether D.C. deserves this Capitol punishment. http://www.slate.com/redirect/announce.asp?gotoT=/StrangeBedfellow/97-08-23/StrangeBedfellow.asp

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In this issue of dc.story, bikers and motorists verbally weave in and out, a disappearing CVS, blowing the roofs off of DC schools, and Anigbo, Round II.

Cheers,
Jeffrey Itell

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Also free! dc.movie: Free movie passes, short movie reviews, and movie discussion. Send an email message to story@intr.net to subscribe.

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If Pigs Could Fly . . .
Paul Penniman unclepaul@aol.com

If I have to read one more person intent on predicting specious conclusions to ridiculous hypotheses . . . I may run into the street screaming. In the last issue of DC Story, a reader presented the following nagging riddle: An Anacostian youth without a prestigious summer job but with a small car anyway is crushed by an errant dump truck. Would s/he receive the same amount of publicity? Please. I’d even rather read ridiculous brunch reviews.

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Ugliest CVS
Michael Kirshenbaum mkirshenbaum@TobaccoFreeKids.org

In response to the question from Galed Modan in the Aug 20. dc.story about the CVS closing at 18th and Columbia, a clerk in the store told me last week that the place was shutting down because the building owners were raising the rent but refused to make any of the improvements that CVS had been requesting. (CVS vs. greedy landlords — it’s hard to feel sympathy for either side in that battle). The clerk then gazed at the store and said: "This must have been the ugliest CVS in the United States." No arguments there.

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CVS Closing
Virginia Johnson vjohnson@capaccess.org

The CVS west of Columbia Road, NW, near 18th Street, closed last week because the owner of the building raised the rent. So I heard. The Boston Chicken next door closed too, before that. But I’m not sure if that closed for the same reason. I heard they’re going to move the Block Buster that’s further up Columbia to the CVS space.

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Housing Regulation — The Charade Goes On
Nick Keenan nick@gsionline.com

Friday’s Washington Times had a cover story about housing inspectors from DCRA tagging a bunch of upper Northwest homeowners for niggling violations — chipped paint and loose gutters were the examples cited. It seems this is a semi-annual event, spring and fall: DCRA aggressively tickets a nice neighborhood, usually in upper Northwest. The victims run to the local paper, usually the Post, which runs a cover story. DCRA repents, orders the ticket writers to be less aggressive, and fixes the tickets. DCRA comes off looking like a slightly over-zealous but determined watchdog.

This choreography is just a charade. The reality is that you can’t get DCRA to ticket a truly problem property to save your life. My neighborhood association has been trying to get DCRA to act against properties that are a nuisance in our neighborhood — we’re talking no doors, bricks falling onto the sidewalk, sagging roofs, no running water, high piles of garbage. One building that we had noted was BLOWN OVER in a windstorm last spring! DCRA has done absolutely nothing — although when I call, they are familiar with the properties (and me by now). Excuses I have heard include: "We would need a search warrant to ticket the property" and "That property has so many complaints we’ve stopped taking new ones." I’ve tried going through the Mayor’s office, and Jack Evans, but to no avail. I had hoped that when the control board took over DCRA the charade would end, but Friday’s events seem to show otherwise.

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R*E*S*P*E*C*T
Claude Seymour cseymour@capaccess.org

If bicyclist, Rich Rothblum, wants respect from motorists, a good step toward earning that respect would be to cease believing his law violations are only "technical", and obey the law, to the letter, all of the time. Who would obey the law, if a scofflaw is respected?

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Turtle Reincarnate
Gaelyn Davidson gdavidso@nas.edu

Rich Rothblum writes in response to Ken Levinson’s remark that he has seen just as many bicyclists "terrorizing" motorists and pedestrians as he’s seen "aggressive" drivers. I drive AND ride my bike. When I drive, I drive assertively but fairly. When I bike, I behave like a car and obey traffic rules. Naturally I feel like I do both well. Naturally I have some unladylike things to say about those who don't---both car drivers AND bike riders! Cars have the ability to "bully" other forms of transportation---they can and do ignore crosswalks and the pedestrians in them, run bicyclists into curbs and ditches by passing too close, and chase other cars in order to tailgate or flip them off for some perceived transgression. Bicyclists can choose to act like traffic OR pedestrians (depending on which best suits them at the time, but how’s a car to tell?), weave in and out of slow-moving traffic (paralyzing a car that doesn’t want to hit one), run red lights (sometimes across the bow of traffic that clearly has the right-of-way), ride in the middle of the street, hop curbs in and out of occupied lanes of traffic, and otherwise surprise a driver who expects them to act like traffic. Bicyclists do more than endanger their own lives when they drive like that---they endanger pedestrians and every car in the vicinity that might (a) swerve to avoid them, (b) be hit by a swerver, or © not swerve, hit the bicyclist that caused the problem, and be sued. And it’s not just the couriers!

In my own private utopia, there’d be instant capital punishment (shazam!) plus reincarnation as TURTLES for drivers and bicyclists that endangered each other. Maybe they should ALL be nervous pedestrians for a while.

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Bikes in Rock Creek Park
Steve Gresham stevegresham@compuserve.com

I’m really missing something here. I commute along Beach Drive and through Rock Creek Park nearly every day. I would LOVE to know when Beach Drive is clear enough to allow traffic to reach speeds of 40 to 50 mph. It is more typically 10 to 15 mph when I head in at 7:45 am. As to the ride in the road being harrowing, I believe there is a bike path that parallels Beach Drive for most of its length. Instead of having constant conflicts between cyclists and drivers, inane requests to eliminate all cars from the park, perhaps a more reasonable solution would be to have both groups work with the Park Service to improve the bike routes. I know there are several 90 degree turns on the bike paths that must be difficult for cyclists - let’s straighten them out and make the park truly bicycle friendly. It helps the cyclists, and by removing them from the drive lanes, makes it better for the drivers, too!

In the meantime, would all the cyclists who ride in the drive lines at 15 mph, forcing us to pass them only to have them cruise between lines of traffic, forcing us to pass them again, consider using the bike paths? I haven’t yet seen even one who can really keep up with the pace of traffic, even at its slowest. It’s not safe for you, it’s not safe for me. You have an alternative (bike paths). I don’t .If you will do that, I promise to support major improvements to the bike system. Sounds like win-win to me. Fair enough?

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Wild Riders
Steph "Used to own a bicycle but got too scared to ride it" Faul steph@intr.net

While I’m absolutely on the side of bicyclists vs. automobiles, I’m also absolutely on the side of pedestrians vs. bicyclists. There are a few — admittedly a very small percentage of the total — bicyclists who have no concern for anybody’s welfare, not even their own. Just last week I nearly became the first person in years to be run down in front of the White House when a bicycle courier missed me by inches. I’ve more than once had to jump out of the way for a courier riding on the sidewalk. Bicycle couriers are fascinating, vaguely romantic figures — the last of the outlaws, independent and free-living, bravely risking their bodily integrity for a life without neckties, etc. — but they can also be a serious pedestrian hazard.

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Right On, Kathy
Ed T. Barron edtb@aol.com

Kathy Patterson’s open letter to General Becton in this week’s edition of the Current is right on the money. If you looked at the list of schools requiring major roof repairs and the percentage work accomplished when that list was published about two weeks ago, it is painfully clear that many of these schools will be unable to open at the third week in September. Some may not have the work finished by the end of October. The schedules developed for the roof repairs are , likely, success oriented schedules little or no time for contingencies. In the real world bad stuff happens. And when that bad stuff happens the schedules will be blown. It’s time for a real assessment of the safety, or lack thereof, of the schools being repaired to get those that can be occupied open on schedule. This would allow the roof repair contractors to focus on those roofs which cannot safely be repaired while the school buildings are occupied.

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DC Schools
Klaatu klaatu@clark.net

Somehow I suspect that the only sure cure for the District’s schools late opening-date would be the radical expedient of setting up temporary schooling at some remote location outside of the District (maybe the General could find a decent facility at some regional recently-closed military base?). In this way one could assure new buildings, safe conditions in those buildings, and most importantly for the most at-risk students - safe neighborhoods. This would also allow for a total rebuild of the most damaged of the buildings, and rumor has it that the boarding-school approach provides the best possible education.

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Anigbo
Marcos Wilson MarcosWilson@InternetMCI.com

Jeffrey Itell complains about lack of penalty speed in the Anigbo case is in itself a bit hasty. I am no fan of principal Anigbo and I was also convinced (before the trial) that she did what she was accused of doing. She has no business being at the head of a school for children. How did I know she did it?, My gut told me so, isn’t that enough?, Well not really. Thank God for due process and the principle of innocent until proven guilty for keeping the darker judgmental side of the likes of Jeff and I at bay.

Think about it, someone accuses you of a crime, your defiant and angry attitude make it seem probable to others that you did indeed commit the crime. Should you lose your job before the facts are sorted out?, should your place of employment be penalized before the facts are sorted out? Last I checked this was not Lima, Peru. Keep the powder dry and put that rope away.

[As list moderator, I have the advantage of responding to comments sent my way when they are posted. Life is unfair, but then no one else on this list has to fix everyone else’s spelling, so I guess it all evens out. If you remember our previous conversation, Marcos accused David Yassky and me of jumping to hasty execution in the Marcus Garvey charter school case. Marcos, your posting this time doesn’t advance your argument, except for your cryptic implication that Anigbo’s conviction somehow exonerates her.

Due process, innocent until proven guilty, and accusation of crimes are all part of the criminal justice system. I’m discussing whether Mary Anigbo deserves the privilege of running a DC charter school. I believe there should be a fair process for both judging her and ensuring school children receive schooling in a safe, conducive environment. Whether Anigbo is guilty of a crime matters not. Whether she’s fit to run that school matters all. The school’s charter board is responsible for making that decision and so is the Board of Education. Why that process should take so long has not been addressed to my satisfaction. Jeffrey Itell]

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dc.queries

Hyatt Classic Senior Residence

Does anyone have older relatives living at the Hyatt Class Senior Residence on Connecticut Avenue across from the Chevy Chase Library? If so, I’d love to know how they like it.

Cynthia Harrison harrison@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu

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dc.market

Room To Let

We have a room opening up in our shared student house. Walking distance to Van Ness subway stop. Large attic room with a/c. Friendly house mates. About two miles from American University campus. Walking distance to UDC and Howard Univ. School of Law. $425/month, plus utils. Available 9/1/97. Phil Shapiro. (202) 686-5465.

Phil Shapiro pshapiro@his.com

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Sublet for Sept. and Oct.

Fabulous fully furnished one bedroom apartment on Capitol Hill four blocks from the Eastern Market Metro. Spacious one bedroom, living room, dining room, kitchen with washer, dryer, dishwasher and wonderful screened in back porch. Furniture, linens and dishes are part of the deal. All I am asking for is close to $600 (or best offer). Don’t wait! Call now! home (202) 544-7351 or work (202) 401-6953. Ask for Samara.

Robert Meisnere RMeisnere@TEI.ORG

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For Sale

* Futon frame, which folds into a couch, for$55/OBO. * Futon mattress for $35/OBO. * Pier One wicker/glass top end table $30/OBO.

Daniel Helfman 202.364.8018 helfman@dc.infi.net

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dc.story is a discussion group. The opinions stated are the sole responsibility of the authors. dc.story does not verify information provided by readers. Kibitzing by Jeffrey Itell. Copyright © 1997. All rights reserved.


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