Whistling in Washington
Dear Advanced Primates:
A prominent Washington resident has received widespread international
attention recently. Bonnie lives at the National Zoo, and she is the
first orangutan known to whistle. Primatologists are excited by this
because orangutans were not known to be physically able to whistle,
because Bonnie picked up whistling spontaneously without being trained,
and because her whistling has now been imitated by another orangutan at
the zoo. Bonnie is proof that animals can pick up sounds from other
species and spread them, and primatologists believe that this may
provide clues about the development of human language. According to
Google, her story has been told in the National Geographic, Science
Daily, Discover Magazine, the Des Moines Register, the London
Sun, and the Hindu of India (through the Guardian
news service) (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/12/081222-whistling-orangutan.html,
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/12/081211112004.htm,
http://tinyurl.com/7e7grp, among
others).
At least according to Google, Bonnie’s story has not been reported
by The Washington Post, The Washington Times, The Washington
Examiner, or by any Washington television or radio stations. Why? It’s
a crackerjack human interest (or at least higher primate) story, it’s
highly local, and for television and radio stations there is
irresistible video and sound tape of a whistling ape. What more could
you want? I suspect it’s part of the general trend among Washington
media to cover national and international news at the expense of local
stories; the Post has cut back its local coverage and the Times,
which a few years ago rivaled and often beat the Post to local
stories, has eviscerated its Metro section. But in a time of widespread
media cutbacks, it is local news that could be the salvation of local
media outlets. With the Internet and cable news networks, news consumers
can get stories about federal Washington anywhere. We won’t see
stories about our neighbors and our neighborhoods anywhere else except
in local newspapers and local broadcast stations; if they don’t cover
Bonnie and our other neighbors, they’re abandoning the field to their
lowly competitors, blogs and bloggers. Thanks, guys.
In the last issue, I asked for your year-end summaries of 2008 in
Washington. This issue contains a couple personal versions of what
happened in our city last year; please continue to send them in.
And, of course, Merry Christmas to us all.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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I recently parked at a broken meter for ten minutes, one of those
clearly broken-for-weeks meters that is a prized spot. The ticket writer
not only gave me a ticket but parked in a bus stop for a half hour while
shopping for personal stuff. I had called in the broken meter, and so I
appealed the ticket to adjudication services. They sent me a letter with
some mumbo jumbo about “special software that monitors the meter
status at all times. Outags (sic) and repair times are recorded
by the software, which is then used to confirm whether there was an
outage during the time period your ticket was issued. . . . the internal
meter mechanism was tested, the meter status report was reviewed for the
date and time of your violation . . . no outages were found on the date
the violation occurred . . . the meter’s internal mechanism was
functioning properly.” I walk past the meter several times a week, and
it is still clearly broken. Should I take a picture and send it in? I
have until the thirtieth to pay up, apparently. No in-person appeals are
possible.
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Dodged the Bullet
Ed T. Barron, edtb1@macdotcom
Whew! That was close. The Nationals nearly dumped $180 million on one
ball player. How stupid can the Lerners be? One ball player would not
have made the Nationals a contending team. They would still wind up in
last place next season. Much better to spend that money on ten young
ballplayers who show potential. Even if only half of them succeed, you
will have a much better team over the long haul. Mark Teixiera may well
turn out to be a super star with the Yankees, but they can afford to buy
him and have a relatively strong team to fit him into. He would have
died on the vine here in DC and been very unhappy with a non-contender.
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A couple of points in response to Jack McKay’s posting [themail,
December 21]. First, as to the opinion of the residents of a particular
neighborhood, the point of historic preservation is to preserve the
buildings for the future. It’s like the wristwatch advertisement —
you never really own a Patek Philippe, you merely look after it for the
next generation. So if the policy goal is to maintain the city’s
character and charm over the long term, the wishes of current residents
wouldn’t be the most critical factor. Often, with historic
preservation, the point is that the current population is unable to
foresee the value future generations will place on existing buildings.
Also, historic preservation is for the collective good of the city, not
just that of a particular neighborhood — it increases the tax base,
attracts tourism, etc.
Second, as to his claim about the “steep costs” to “meet
historic preservation demands,” I think the claim is exaggerated. With
forty-five existing historic districts, hardship complaints are not
widespread, to my knowledge, and Mr. McKay frequently cites to only a
few non-persuasive examples. For instance, he previously mentioned a
woman who had to take out the non-compliant windows she put in without a
permit, because she didn’t purportedly didn’t know she was in a
historic district. But that was the fault of her ignorance of the law,
not historic preservation per se. (All sellers are now required
to disclose to purchasers whether the property is in a historic
district.) And what exactly are the “demands” he refers to? The
historic preservation office doesn’t demand anything other than that
the homeowner not let his property go to rot and ruin. On the other
hand, if the homeowner can afford to voluntarily spend thousands of
dollars replacing windows, putting on an addition, or whatever, then
they do require certain standards, just as the city’s zoning and
building code offices might also impose. But are we seriously debating
whether the owners of million dollar homes in Chevy Chase and Lanier
Heights might have to spend a little more or less on renovation projects
that they didn’t have to undertake in the first place?
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Dino’s Holiday Newsletter
Dino Drudi, drudi.dino@bis.gov
My Michigan Park neighbors and I, for all living memory, have enjoyed
an idyllic existence — affordable housing (thanks, ironically, to how
badly misgoverned the city is, which makes DC less desirable, decreasing
housing demand and therefore price) in a safe, attractive neighborhood.
But seemingly out of nowhere, our idyll is no more, so I bought a
townhouse in Old Town Alexandria and hope to sell mine in DC before the
housing market tanks.
DC’s Office of Planning is absolutely determined to cram “‘smart’
growth, transit-oriented megadevelopment” down our throats — a
half-mile arc of a dozen six-story buildings in a neighborhood of
single-family homes and garden apartments with only a handful low-rise
apartment buildings scattered around, all as PUDs because the underlying
zoning would not allow such development. OP’s plan would so savagely
alter our low-density residential neighborhood’s character it would no
longer be recognizable as what it had been. OP has done similar things
in other neighborhoods, sweeping aside lawsuits (Takoma) and allowing
buildings so close to the tracks that a derailment would take out them
and everyone in them (Takoma and Fort Totten). In the past, the
neighborhood turned out en masse to roundly condemn and
ultimately nix less dense development, but is, in the face of OP’s fait
accompli, it has been strangely silent.
In the past five years there were eleven homicides within five blocks
of my house, whereas the previous five years saw only one or two, and
the time before that, even when DC’s homicide rate was making
headlines, hardly any. The decline in homicides citywide has reversed in
the past two years and no one in city hall seems to know why. But in
1993 I warned the city council to reinstate publicly funded abortions,
which Congress had discontinued under the Reagan administration,
anticipating crime would spike when the youths who otherwise would have
been aborted reached their late teens. But, as usual, the city council
ignored my advice.
Mayor Fenty, who understands that running things like a dictatorship
is the only way to turn the city around, is the sole relative bright
spot, but don’t be too surprised if some “business-as-usual”
challenger takes him out in two years. But never have we had so
atrocious a city council: The council contorted the committee structure
to put the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration with the
Department of Transportation and the Department of Public Works so our
transit system would be at the beck and call of the hospitality industry
(e.g., extended weekend Metrorail hours are a huge money loser, but
benefit the hospitality industry). Then the hospitality industry shows
up, makes a pitch for allowing nonstop alcohol sales during the
inauguration, and bingo — done, almost before the rest of us find out
about it! Fenty and Graham balked at including nightclubs so that when
the hospitality industry’s other lackeys voted to include nightclubs
Graham had to vote against his own bill! Only when there was enormous
pushback from everyone else affected — police, Congress, neighborhood
residents, Metro (which isn’t planning to run ’round-the-clock
service) — did the city council have to back off a little bit, but the
point is they acted initially without consulting the public based on a
request from one of their most favored interests. Nor is this the first
time they have done so for the benefit of favored industries. Look at
the TIFs for commercial development, or the West End Library giveaway
(later reversed), or the southwest waterfront giveaway where city
council offices couldn’t even tell the public what was in the deal
they were voting for. Would the council give such unquestioning
deference to anything any of us were to propose? The city council has
saddled the people of the District of Columbia with enormous debt for a
nonperforming baseball stadium; TIFs galore; profligate spending, where
for every $3 collected, $1 goes to fraud, $1 to waste, and $1 to its
intended purpose.
At the last Federation of Citizens Association luncheon I paraphrased
Twain’s “Americans enjoy the best government money can buy,” with
the rhetorical reply, “So why then is it that DC ends up with the
worst government money has bought?” The dies irae is not far
off; the bills are coming due, and I don’t want to be around holding
the bag when that happens. Thoreau’s response to Emerson applies here.
“What are you doing in there,” asked Emerson when he visited
Thoreau, who was in jail for refusing to pay his Mexican war tax.
Thoreau replied, “Emerson, what are you doing out there,”
questioning why any moral person would pay the tax for a war he believed
immoral to forego jail. Why am I leaving DC? Why are you not?
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Reflections on 2008
Ed T. Barron, edtb1@macdotcom
Much has transpired here in DC this year. The city is now in the
throes of an economic downturn. We’ll survive that. We have seen more
corruption, more murders, struggles to improve the schools by the mayor
and School Chancellor Rhee. We have seen a venerable councilmember,
Carol Schwartz, lose her election bid. Public schools are losing
students every day as the charter schools seem to be proving they can do
a better job of educating our students. Many DC agencies seem to be
doing what they always do, making do. There seems to be a lack of
enthusiasm, vigor, and creativity in most of the DC organizational
elements. There is still much malaise in the public school system. The
teachers’ union and the custodians’ union bear much of the
responsibility for this malaise.
The mayor’s office is an exception to this malaise. One could not
just sit still with Mayor Fenty charging around in the office. I can
only hope that the mayor, in this new year, will charge into the offices
of all of the organizational elements of the city to shake them out of
their stupor. Make these agencies put forth some real goals to make
things happen that will make the city better for 2009.
There’s lots of criticism of the city’s leader, Mayor Fenty, and
of Chancellor Rhee, as well. But they are doing what they truly believe
is right for the city and the taxpayers. Over the long term the most
important thing that can be done for the District is to provide a good
education for our kids. That will solve many of the problems we have
today. These folks who are trying to make the right things happen
deserve our thanks and our support for their efforts in 2008.
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[Re: Phil Shapiro’s post, themail, December 21] My joke for decades
has been that the most important class I ever took in high school was
typing because, unbeknownst to me, microcomputers would become useful
and ubiquitous five years later. Typing and speech and learning how to
write are likely the most important achievements that should result from
the high school experience. These days computer programming, graphic
design, and math (I am not that good at it) are equally important.
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
This New Years Eve, celebrate with friends and family for an
unforgettable artistic journey that’s free and open to the public.
Embark on a global adventure through Arts Eve DC. Explore the arts and
cultural traditions of Italy, Mexico, Korea, and Ethiopia. Live
international performances, arts and crafts, dance instruction, short
film screenings, poetry, and much more! Wednesday, December 31, 1:00
p.m.-5:00 p.m., at The Historical Society of Washington, 801 K Street,
NW, at Mount Vernon Square. Perfect for youth ages three through
sixteen. For more information, call 724-5613 or go to http://www.dcarts.dc.gov.
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