Your Electronic Backfencedc.story: presented in association with Washington’s News Station WTOP-1500 AM and 94.3 FM***They're both WTOP!
WTOP "Call for Action" volunteers are available to help you with any consumer-related issues—from home or lawn improvement to health club problems. Contact a volunteer from Tuesday through Friday, 11 am to 1 PM, at 301/652-4357 (301/652-HELP).-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ Dear Neighbors: Chief Larry Soulsby has quickly turned into the Seargent Schultz of the District Government. *I know nothing!* To which we say, bull-hockey. Apparently, Soulsby forgot DC’s finest had a homicide squad. One would think a quick flick around the prime time television dial would remind him of that fact—Hello Baltimore—but Soulsby claims his priorities laid elsewhere. Suggestions, anyone? Other than being politically connected, Soulsby is not an obvious choice for the job. Yet somehow he’s managed to not merely hang on, but to thrive. It’s not his stellar credentials—Soulsby gets by with a mere high school education when advanced education and experience is a requirement for getting ahead elsewhere. I say he’s gone the J. Edgar Hoover route. He’s got photos. Wigs, panties, toupees, bras, the whole bit. I feel like I’m falling into the Roswell, New Mexico zone here, but there’s no way to understand Soulsby’s continued tenure. Now that the chief doesn’t haven’t to work for the mayor, can’t we find someone who dusts for fingerprints in the homicide unit? **** A correction from the last issue: Jim Farley is the Director of Programming at WTOP radio. Also, Elizabeth is the Queen of England (not the Big Lady), Bill Gates is the President of Microsoft (not the Lord Emperor), and Peter Angelos is the owner of the Baltimore Orioles (not the Inquisitor). -^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ ***It's Time to Preserve Your Family Memories.*** Video History Services of Washington provides quality audio and video interviewing services for people who wish to preserve their family history.
VHS Staff use skilled interviewing techniques to capture the warmth, energy, sense of humor and overall personality of those being interviewed. Photos, home movies & video, favorite music and other memorabilia can be used to edit-together a video biography that tells a colorful story—for the benefit of future generations.For the free publication, "VHS’s Top 20 Questions For The Video Biography", contact Reed Dewey at 202/363-8433 or rdewey@erols.com. -^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ In this issue of dc.story, crime and inflation, dead trees and death-defying motorists, and VISA everywhere you want it — unless it’s a late night movie. Cheers, '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' Tregaron Meeting Canceled The meeting regarding development plans for the Tregaron woods, scheduled for Monday 6 October, has been canceled. ***** Maryland Maybe My Maryland The possibility of DC voters getting out of their two hundred bind is in better shape thanks to a lawyer named Frank Howard. (See Larry Mirel’s post in the last issue.) Howard has sued the Maryland Board of Election to let him vote in Congressional elections, based on several legal issues. Most important, when Maryland ended DC voting in 1800 it may have violated the 5th amendment due process clause. The argument turns Congress’ inaction on DC voting on its head: by doing nothing Congress preserved our right to vote in Maryland. The US District court, in a legally poor one page opinion, said no to Howard. Without comment, the Court of Appeals confirmed. Howard may go to the Supreme Court. I’d encourage a different tact. Quit while you’re behind. This is a winnable issue, but not in the federal courts. Our argument is with Maryland, and its Attorney General, Joe Curran. It’s one thing for the AG to oppose an obscure case in federal court. Better we should lobby our position with Maryland’s supposedly sympathetic politicians. Visits to Shmoke, Cardin, Milkulski, Sarbanes, Duncan, etc. could create some understanding and even get the point across that this isn’t statehood or retrocession.. Creating a good climate or at least one of non opposition may change the AG’s mind. It’s worth a try. ***** Crime Rates As the DC homicide squad collapses into near-total ineffectiveness, the homicide rate drops 26%. This is saying something. Actually I heard some academic claim that crime rates correlate very closely to the inflation rate. I can’t think of any refutation of this correlation. Crime was very low during the Depression, and high during the properous 80’s .Any thoughts? **** Dead Trees I am compiling a list of dead trees that need to be taken down in my neighborhood. If you live in the Tenleytown/Forest Hills/Van Ness area and know of a tree that needs to come down, please let me know and I’ll add it to my list — which will be given to Gary Burch’s office in a few weeks. **** Whitehurtz Freeway Forget the Park in the Dark, although Paul Bickard is right on about whether there’s a there there. But even if there were, how could we tell? It’s too dark. What really irritates this death-defying motorist—as are all who get behind the wheel in this town—is the lack of ANYTHING being done on the Whitehurtz. When’s the last time—make that the FIRST time—you saw ANY movement on any piece of that boondoggle? Talk about the Eternal Resting Place! All we know is that it’s closed eastbound from 2pm-10pm and on weekends/holidays. Or is it the other way around? Either way, it’s the ultimate symbol of the status quo. Good thing I enjoy playing in traffic. I’ll be doing it for my next nine lives. ***** Not Quite Paving (All Of) Connecticut Avenue Does anyone know why DC paved all of Connecticut Avenue, except the section from the Zoo to the block before Tilden Street? Could it be because I complained about the continually-collapsing cable ditch MCI dug across Park Road, up Porter Street, up Connecticut Avenue and up Tilden Street??? Maybe somebody is getting even with me for complaining about the MCI car-eating ditches by not paving the section in front of my building on Connecticut. While neighbors elsewhere on Connecticut have smooth-flowing traffic, I and my neighbors continue to be wakened all night long as trucks and cars slappety slap/bang-rattle their way past our building. [Speaking of which, does anyone know when DPW might get around to painting stripes on repaved Wisconsin Avenue? I don’t mind jostling for the lead position, but I like to know the competition is heading in the same general direction as I am. Jeff] ****
NPS Loses Recycling DumpsterSteve LeBel Steve_LeBel@nps.gov Please be advised that our funding for the recycling dumpster in Grove 6, just north of Military Rd. and Beach Drive, in Rock Creek Park, has expired. Rock Creek Park cannot afford to replace it from base funding, as the cost is over $18k/y. The dumpster will be removed shortly. ***** Defying Convention It’s admirable, as Leslie Miles writes, that 25 people took part in a "huge community march" in favor of the proposed convention center — even if they included paid staff of the Washington Convention Center Authority and convention pusher Jack Evans. But the real news is contained in a D.C. Council bill introduced by Charlene Drew Jarvis that would put an unlimited surtax on D.C. businesses and residents to raise whatever funds are needed to pay for this boondoggle. D.C. businesses and residents are currently taxed to pay for the convention center through the corporate and unincorporated business income and franchise tax, taxes on restaurant meals, and sales taxes on certain other items. But the legislation would require the Mayor to raise the dedicated taxes as much as needed to pay for the project. Businesses could pay an extra 2 percent or 20 percent — depending on the cost of the project. The costs are already out of control. Offical estimates have bolted from $450 million to $650 million. Now the GAO says the budget is more like $737 million, and the newspapers say the sole bidder on the project, Clark Construction, bid $100 million over budget. That adds up to $837 million before one spade is turned. When confronted with these irritations, Evans, Jarvis and the hotel/restaurant industries say, "If we don’t build it, Virginia will." But Rep. Tom Davis is not that dumb. He knows what the GAO reported last month, that the suburbs will reap $24 million in tax revenues each year if the D.C. convention center is built — compared to $4 million for the District. And Virginia won’t have to spend a dime. The D.C. convention center is just the kind of economic development Virginia needs. ***** Fresh Fields Has anyone been experiencing a problem with the milk they purchase at Fresh Fields in Van Ness? At least twice a month for the last 4 to 5 months I have to return milk for going bad long, long before the expiration date. (There isn’t a ghost of a chance of the milk staying drinkable "up to 7 days past the date stamped on the carton.") Many times the milk is bad even when just opened. I have taken to opening the cartons prior to purchasing them....which reaks havoc on my trunk carpeting. Or does anyone have a suggestion of another place where I can buy organic milk? ***** "How Did You Get My Name And Number ??"Larry Seftor Larry_Seftor@compuserve.com Joan Eisenstodt’s query about how to get a response from public works reminded me of an incident from a few years ago. Apparently the D.C. water department once had a program to replace water meters in the city, but had run out of money before they reached my house. Since I was going to have extensive plumbing done, I wanted a working cutoff value outside the house. And as it turned out, getting that value was part of the defunct meter replacement program. So we started making calls, trying to find someone in the D.C. Government who could get the work done. We eventually found a woman who told us that we needed to call a Mr. X at a certain number. Well it turned out that Mr. X was indeed the man to call because, with some irritation, his first question was "how did you get my name and number?" There was a crew at my house the next day. **** Convention Neighbors Stephanie Faul writes about convention centers that are adjacent to residential neighborhoods. Hynes Convention Center, Boston. I used to live a few blocks from it. [Speaking of which, did you see the artistic rendering of the Convention Center in Saturday’s Post? Why don’t the multi opposing sides concede the obvious—if this project goes through, which is likely, Shaw is more likely to become prehistoric than remain historic. Dropping this behemoth into the neighborhood will be akin to the appearance of that black handball court in *2001: A Space Odyssey.* Jeff] **** Theatre Monopoly Regarding the planned merger of Cineplex Odeon and Sony Theatres, we won’t have to worry about a monopoly just yet. The Union Station theatres are owned by AMC, so even with if the merger goes through Cineplex Odeon won’t be fully monopolistic. That’s not to say the duopoly we have now is much better. A bigger concern, in my opinion, is that there’s only one movie theatre in the eastern half of the city, and none in a majority black precinct. **** Late Night Movies Has anyone noticed that late night movies seem to be one the way out? The weekend-only starting times of 11.30pm or midnight, already restricted to a few theaters, have disappeared in recent weeks. Does anyone know why? Is there really no audience in a city the size of Washington for late night movies? **** Woodley Park Prefers Visa? I ventured inside the Beltway on Saturday to wander through the National Zoo. As I was trotting up Connecticut Ave., I noticed all these banners hanging from the streetlights saying "Woodley Park prefers VISA", with a reference to the Lord High Mayor. A couple of questions occurred to me as I was climbing the hill: How long have they been up? Who gets the advertising revenues? Does Woodley Park really prefer VISA? **** Just When You Thought You’d Seen It All There are still some things that surprise me here in Dodge City. The latest eye opener happened last week. Some students attending the AU Law School ride bicycles to the school (a great idea). Unfortunately, AU has no bicycle rack in either the front or rear of the building. Students wanting to lock their bikes (another good idea) lock them to the lamppost or to the "No Parking" sign on the grass strip in front of the building on Mass. Ave. or on the side of the building on 48th St. These bikes are on the grassy median and don’t block the street or the sidewalk. The Parking Enforcement personnel last week placed tickets on the bikes that were locked to a lamppost or a street sign post. If they had not been locked I suppose they would have been "towed" .What, on earth, is the purpose of ticketing a bike? Does it have a license plate that can be traced? This looks another folly similar to that of yesteryear when folks were ticketed for not raking their leaves. *****
NARPAC, Inc. Updates Its Web SiteLen Sullivan lsnarpac@bellatlantic.net The National Association to Restore Pride in America’s Capital has updated its web site (www.narpac.org) for October with additional headline summaries and more web site crosslinks. More important, it now includes the three final reports of the DC Agenda Task Force on DC Governance, and the six background reports prepared for that task force by the Georgetown University Public Policy Institute. It has also added its critique of the recently enacted "DC Rescue Plan", and updated its essay on the Special Role of Regionalism in DC’s Future Government. ================= ***For information re advertising, contact Jan Genzer—the dc.story marketing maven—at Oltjan@aol.com or 202/364-0383.*** ================= dc.events Volunteer to Help the Homeless The Homeless Breakfast Program of St. Margaret’s Church needs volunteers with cars to deliver once per week baked goods to homeless shelters and soup kitchens in NW DC. Volunteers are also needed to pick apples at an orchard in Sperryville Virginia and deliver them to DC. Help is also needed in the kitchen Friday mornings. ---- Volunteer to Help the Good Knight Child Empowerment Network The Good Knight Child Empowerment Network needs volunteers to help with media relations, fundraising, and wordprocessing. Help is also needed in organziing special events like our fall concert series. Most assignments may be done from your home. The Good Knight Child Empowerment Network protects children by providing them seminars and educational materials on safety awareness. Bruce McBarnette (703) 404-8429 mcbarnet@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu ***** Zoos: Where We Came From, Where We’re Going. 9 October 1997. 7 p.m. Book Signing, 8 p.m. Lecture. Education Building, National Zoo. Enter at Connecticut Ave. Park in Lot A. Free, but please RSVP by calling (202) 673-4801 or sending e-mail to nzpem053@sivm.si.edu Chris Wemmer, associate director for conservation at the National Zoo’s Conservation and Research Center in Front Royal, Virginia, and Bob Hoage, chief of the National Zoo’s Public Affairs Office, will present a retrospective on the history of zoos and a look at how they will face the challenges of the next millennium in "Zoos: Where We Came From, Where We’re Going." Before the lecture, Wemmer and Hoage will sign copies of their books, "The Ark Evolving" and "New Worlds, New Animals: From Menagerie to Zoological Park in the 19th Century." Margie Gibson NZPEM053@SIVM.SI.EDU (202) 673-4866 ***** Chevy Chase Players The Chevy Chase Players is presenting "The Skin of Our Teeth," by Thornton Wilder. Performances are November 7, 8, 14, 15, 21, and 22 at 8 pm at the Chevy Chase Community Center in D.C. Tickets are $8 for adults, $5 for students and seniors, or join the Players and see the entire season of plays for free! For further information or directions to the show, please call 202-387-1191. Wendy Green wgreen@aaas.org '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' dc.market ANC in ward 3 is looking for a part-time Office Administrator. Duties include book keeping, fielding phone calls from constituents, setting up for monthly meetings, taking minutes, running errands in the neighborhood, and other light office work. Interested parties please send me an e-mail.Martha Saccocio MarthaNS@aol.com **** For Sale: Black leather jacket [size 40]. Mint condition $125 [202] 244-8598. Fred Davidson Fred.Davidson@pccip.gov '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' Also free! dc.movie: Free movie passes, short movie reviews, and movie discussion. Send an email message to story@intr.net to subscribe. -^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^-^ 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. |
Send mail with questions or comments to webmaster@dcwatch.com
Web site copyright ©DCWatch (ISSN 1546-4296)