Memorial Day
Dear Moviegoers:
Believe it or not, even I can occasionally suppress my normal state of
high dudgeon (I've never known anyone to be in a state of moderate dudgeon, much less low
dudgeon) on a holiday weekend. I'm not going to rant or rave about anything today, no
matter what the provocations or who the provocateurs have been. I'm just going to ask a
question. The big summer movies are going to start coming out, and I need to know where to
see them. Let your fellow subscribers and me know which movie theaters have nice big
screens, sharp projection, good sound systems, comfortable seats, polite audiences, nice
snacks, and good bargain prices. Are any of the new “luxury” theaters worth
their elevated prices? And let us know which theaters make us wish we had stayed home and
watched a movie on television. Please.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Staggered School Times?
Helen Hagerty, Helenmhag@aol.com
Let me get this right. Our sorry excuse for special ed transportation that
costs us tens of millions of dollars is still unable to pick up and deliver students on
time. Now the solution to make it easier for this inept company is to stagger the opening
of school? Let's not tout this crazy solution as a way for older students to catch up on
sleep. What about families that have more than one child in the school system? They would
now have to rearrange schedules to drop off and pick up kids. What about before and after
school care?
I hope that parents and teachers are able to voice their opinions about
this BEFORE a decision is reached. Any comments?
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Save It or Lose It
Ed T. Barron, etb@aol.com
The Mayor wants to spend most of the windfall income from the tobacco
settlement on new programs that would make health insurance available to seven thousand
folks who don't have medical insurance and for some health clinics in neighborhoods where
medical care is not accessible. These are laudable programs. BUT, as Councilmember Evans
points out, the D.C. government is noted for not spending the taxpayer's monies
efficiently (getting bang for a buck). The D.C. government is also not noted for spending
these monies effectively (picking the right things to invest in) either.
In any event, let's suppose these programs are started. Once they are
started, they will be around a long time. And they will certainly be around long after the
tobacco money stops flowing in. Then what happens? If the Mayor wants to initiate these
programs, then let us see how they can be funded by eliminating some programs that are
obviously not working or by slimming the bloated D.C. bureaucracy. Let's see a long range
plan for how these new programs will be funded other than by added taxes when the tobacco
money is used up.
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Wealthiest U.S. Neighborhoods
Mark Richards, Dupont East, mark@bisconti.com
Worth magazine (May 2000) published a list of the 50 wealthiest
neighborhoods in U.S., ranked according to the median price of homes sold in 1998 and 1999
combined. One D.C. neighborhood made the list — Georgetown ranked 31st ($563,500).
Upper East Side (5th-Park) in Manhattan ranked first ($2,300,000). Nine Manhattan
neighborhoods made the list, all above Georgetown. Fisher Island in Miami ranked 3rd
($2,110,000), followed by Pacific Heights in San Fran ($1,900,000). Three San Fran
neighborhood made the list. Back Bay, Boston ranked 8th ($1,350,000), with Beacon Hill at
11th. Brentwood in LA ranked 16th ($862,000), followed by Pacific Palisades, Bel Air, and
Westwood. Dunthorpe in Portland, OR, ranked 19th ($810,000). Other cities with
neighborhoods that ranked above D.C.: Indianapolis, Denver, Houston, Memphis, Atlanta, and
Seattle. Ranking lower than Georgetown: Rittenhouse Square ($530,000) and Society Hill
($432,000) in Philly; Gold Coast ($525,000) and Lincoln Park ($460,000) in Chicago, and
all the rest. Wonder how these cities compare on tenants rights, affordable housing, and
quality (and amount spent per pupil) on public schools — Worth didn't publish that.
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I am currently on call for jury duty at District Court, so I read with
some interest the goings-on in the jury room at the DeLeon trial. In that case eleven
jurors were intimidated into an apparently erroneous verdict by physical threats from the
twelfth juror, Ivory Teague. What bothers me is not that Mr. Teague somehow was placed in
the jury box. What bothers me is that NONE of the eleven other jurors had the decency
and/or common sense and/or sense of responsibility and/or courage to get up, walk out the
door of the jury room, and ask to meet with the judge. Each of those jurors represents the
worst of our society. (An acquaintance believes that some people look exclusively to
government programs to better their lot in life. Perhaps these eleven were waiting for the
establishment of a D.C. Mayor's office of jury intimidation.) The correspondents in
themail focus almost exclusively on the quality of our D.C. government. Perhaps we should
occasionally focus on a population that often sets new lows for behavior and is perhaps
getting the government it deserves. After all, where else could Marion Barry get
consistently elected? Where else in the United States can the Ivory Teagues of the world
take control of a court proceeding?
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Fire Trucks Instead of Ambulances
Art Spitzer, ArtSpitzer@aol.com
[Marcus Rosenbaum, mrosenbaum@usa.net, wrote that fire trucks respond to
emergency calls for ambulances because they often arrive much sooner, and the time saved
can save lives, as they saved his son's life.] That's a heart-warming story. But of course
the better policy would be to have enough ambulances so that an ambulance could arrive
quickly at the scene of a medical emergency. That would save a lot of lives that
firefighters are not equipped to save, and leave the fire engines available to fight
fires.
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It’s Time to Desensitize
Ed T. Barron, edtb@aol.com
It seems like the whole world, and in particular the folks in the U.S.,
have become overly sensitive. When we get bad reactions to the misunderstood word,
“niggardly,” and the objections to the use of the words “picnic” and
“outing,” then things have gone entirely too far. In the latter case a group in
NY wanted to host an event honoring the former black catcher of the Brooklyn Dodgers,
Jackie Robinson. They advertised a picnic in his honor. Some obscure group came forward
with the interpretation that a picnic was an event in the past when blacks were hanged.
This is a totally inaccurate portrayal of the origin of the word picnic. The sponsoring
group then changed the title of the event to be an outing. Another group, obviously gays,
came forward and said that the term outing was offensive to gays. The sponsoring group
gave up at this point hosting the event unnamed.
This is madness at its peak. Has the whole world gone whacko? People have
totally lost their sense of balance and sense of humor. A couple of years ago, when I was
working as a volunteer in a local campaign, a woman came up to me to complain about the
use of the round globe lights in the covered walkway of the remodeled Spring Valley
shopping center. She said they were an effrontery to women because they looked like
women's breasts. Well, I guess that you could say the same for all the street light globes
on thousands of lamp posts in the District. Should we tear them all down? How much more
fun it is to enjoy life (with all its foibles) with a broadened (can I say that word)
sense of humor, as opposed to flying into a rage over misperceived insensitivity. I'm not
advocating being insensitive to other's feelings, but it is clearly time to desensitize
when it comes to semantics.
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In a recent issue of themail a writer wrote, “In the past year, I
posted messages to this listserv about. . . .” The term “listserv” is
frequently incorrectly used to refer to various E-mail distribution systems. In fact,
Listserv is a registered trademark licensed to L-Soft International, Inc., http://www.lsoft.com, and refers to their specific
software product that performs this automatic function. themail does not use the Listserv
software.
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Anti-Theft Devices for Your Car
Mary Bloodworth, maryb@clark.net
Ed Barron writes, “The Club as an anti-theft device is totally
ineffective in preventing someone, who wants to, from stealing your car. Any ten-year old
with a simple tool can disable and remove the Club in about thirty seconds.” This is
true. But, as a smart car thief, you can save thirty seconds by stealing the unClubbed car
parked nearby. The reason that I use the Club is not that I think my car is theft-proof,
it is because it makes it just a little less attractive of a target than the next car.
And (gasp) in defense of the DC Police, in the 17 years I have lived in
the District I have had five cars stolen, some more than once. Every car was recovered by
the police, a 100% return rate, although I will grant you that it took longer than
Lojack's measure of four hours.
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In a recent issue of themail, Ed T. Barron wrote, “Unlike the Club,
which is made of Impervium, car thieves merely take a piece of a hacksaw blade (easily
concealed in the socks of their Nikes) and saw right through the steering wheel (which is
made of pure unadulterated crap).” I had heard that car thieves sometimes carry with
them a can of some sort of aerosol spray that they spray on The Club, which then freezes
and becomes brittle such that it easily shatters when struck with a hard object. No
steering wheel damage!
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I'll heartily second Ed Barron's comments on the Club. Years ago, my car
— my first new car ever, which had a curse on it as far as I can tell — was
stolen from the streets of Montreal, while it was “protected” by the Club. The
thieves helpfully left the intact club on the passenger seat. (They stole the alarm out of
it, though.) To make it more fun, I tried to take advantage of the “we'll pay your
deductible if it's stolen” guarantee only to find it didn't apply in Canada. Oh well.
Another auto question: I just spent some time looking at the DMV info on
the city web site. It's generally helpful about most things, but vague on one point. The
last time I moved to DC, I recall that you had to pay sales tax on a car to register it,
unless you could show you'd paid it somewhere else within some specified time period prior
to arriving in DC. Now I'm managing to have every life change there is a short period of
time (new home, new job, new car) and I want to get the sequence right so I don't pay too
much for things. The web site refers to an excise tax that must be paid, but is unclear on
whether it applies when you bring a vehicle you own into DC. If I've just bought a vehicle
in VA and paid sales tax, and then move into DC, do I have to pay again? Anybody know?
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It is important to recognize when DC city services do work. Last week I
went to the Motor Vehicles Administration. I had been dreading it for three weeks. I
needed to register my car, get new tags, get a parking permit, pay my purchase taxes of my
new, but used, car, etc. I literally had actual dread, with pains in my stomach
anticipating this experience. So I put away two and a half hours of my work day to do
this, and psyched myself up for that amount of time to be abused and annoyed by the
system. I prepared what I could by downloading from the web page the requirements and what
materials were needed (because you know you never have everything with you). Anyway, I
have never been more pleasantly surprised. I think the complaints and uproar of the past
few months have worked. It took me all of thirty MINUTES to complete all of this, AND the
people who worked there were helpful and incredibly professional. We all love sharing the
bad news, so I thought this might be some helpful information. Good Luck!
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DC License as a Valid ID
Joan Eisenstodt jeisen@aol.com
I am a non-driving resident of the District, and though I've not tried to
buy alcohol, I use my non-driver's ID (which looks like a driver's license unless you read
the back, which no one ever checks) for all kinds of stuff. Never had a problem. Though we
are not a state, most people are not that smart. IF the person who didn't take it knew
that, they should've been awarded a civics prize.
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Leila — Arizona Grocery Clerks Aren’t
THIS Bad
Jean Lawrence, JKelLaw@aol.com
Leila writes that someone she heard about was denied the right to buy a
six-pack in a Fry's store in Tucson because the store only accepted driver's licenses from
the 50 states. I checked with my Fry's here in Chandler, AZ, and they swear they have
heard of Washington, DC, and can accept licenses from there. Of course, at first, they
thought I said “B.C.,” British Columbia, and no, way! We got past that, though.
Sure, come on out and drink! That's what we do.
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“No Parking” Permits
Phil Greene, pgreene@doc.gov
In response to Dorothy Persiflage's query about those cardboard, red and
white “Emergency No Parking” signs, here's what I learned a few years back. You
can buy those signs at local hardware stores (that great one on 17th near P or Q has them,
I think) and post them yourself. The way it is supposed to work is that you are required
to get a permit from the local police station before you post them. For example, if I live
on a crowded street and I'm moving, and I need a wide space in front of my house for a
moving van, I can get a permit, then buy and post a sign. Of course, there is much abuse.
I sometimes park my car near Brandywine and Connecticut, and walk to Van
Ness Metro. A few years ago, residents of an apartment building at that corner were in the
habit of posting these signs in front of the building to deter people such as myself from
parking there. I had read about the misuse of these signs in the City Paper, and after a
few weeks of not parking there, I thought to myself, “what the hell, this is probably
a bluff, I'll take a chance.” I got a ticket. I called the 2d Police District and
spoke with a really nice cop named Battista, and he confirmed that no permit for an
“Emergency No Parking” sign had been issued for that day, or for any days at
that address, for that matter. I got him to sign an affidavit, submitted it with my
adjudication by mail, and the ticket was waived.
[What also happens is that the Department of Public Works passes real,
official no-parking signs out by the gross to contractors and utility companies. The
companies are supposed to go through the permit process before filling out the signs and
posting them, but no one really believes that they will. — Gary Imhoff]
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Sue Bell asked in the May 21 Mail for the dates of DC neighborhood
festivals. Wanted to let her and other themail subscribers know that Saturday, June 3, is
Glover Park Day 2000. It's our eleventh annual neighborhood fest from 11 to 5 on the
grounds of Guy Mason Rec Center at Calvert and Wisconsin. We'll have two or three bands on
stage, food from great restaurants, prize drawings, kids talent show, crafters, public
interest booths, and a flea market. Also, we still have space available for
artists/crafters. Anyone interested can contact me.
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RATS! RATS! RATS!, a community forum on the problems of rats in Ward 1,
will occur Tuesday evening, May 30, from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at the Academy for
Educational Development, 1825 Connecticut Avenue, NW, 8th Floor (at the corner of
Connecticut and Florida Avenue, three blocks north of the Dupont Circle Metro). Mayor
Anthony Williams will join Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham, along with speakers and
panelists from the D.C. Department of Public Works, the D.C. Department of Health, local
businesses, and community organizations. No tickets or reservations are needed, but the
film will begin at 6:30 p.m. sharp, so please arrive early. For more information, please
call Jeff Travers at 332-2303.
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CLASSIFIEDS — SERVICES
Just a reminder to current and prospective District Cablevision customers
that we can be contacted via E-mail at user_dclp@broadband.att.com.
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CLASSIFIEDS — RECOMMENDATIONS
Bicentennial Issue of Washington History
Mark Richards, Dupont East, mark@bisconti.com
The Historical Society of Washington, D.C. (formerly the Columbia
Historical Society founded in 1894) publishes Washington History magazine
semiannually as a member benefit (785-2068 or heurich@ibm.net). Kenneth Bowling is guest
editor to the bicentennial issue, which is just out and should be arriving in members'
mailboxes soon. This issue presents new scholarly research on what D.C. was like in the
early years, between 1800-1820. I understand this is a wonderful issue, so I'm passing the
word.
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We have a good cleaning person who would like more work. Her name is Ruth,
and her phone number is 301-942-4934. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions.
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Contractor needed for job excavating crawl space underneath house on Cap
Hill. It seems impossible to find anybody who has time to come out to at least give an
estimate. Does anyone have a suggestion? I'm totally frustrated. Phone numbers: 994-4390
(w); 544-7272 (h); E-mail: ortacb@gwumc.edu.
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