Driving Business Away
Dear Voters:
A reader who doesn’t want to be identified writes: “Can you do an
article on the bag ‘fee’? What agency is in charge of collecting the
funds? Does agency funding or their salaries come out of this tax? Who
actually gets paid to ‘clean up’ the river? Is there a projected
timetable for when the public can see some results of these ‘fees’?
DC has shown in the past what it is capable of when managing funds. What
are people supposed to do when going through the drive through or a fast
food place? Throw their fries and sandwich into one of these reusable
bags? What about the liquor store? Someone goes in to get something and
doesn’t purchase a bag, then just walks out with a liquor bottle. With
certain people, I can see that encouraging public drinking. I just don’t
think this stuff was thought out. This ‘fee’ and the new parking
rules just reinforce my shopping in other jurisdictions.”
Fair questions, all. If you can address them, please do so, and we’ll
work it out together. I have one more question to add. If you believe,
as I do, that the city council and the mayor have spent the past few
years promoting one after “another really stupid idea that makes life
in DC harder,” to quote Bob Levine below, what can we do about it? The
councilmembers are determined to promote their faddish enthusiasms. The
additional expense and inconvenience that they create for DC residents
and businesses, if they’re not the actual purpose of their laws, just
make their stupid ideas more attractive to them. What can we do about
it? Is there any chance that we’ll hold them accountable?
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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The new year brings us another stupid DC idea, the nickel surcharge
on a shopping bag. Another reason to take my business across the river
or to Maryland, where the goods and services are cheaper and I can get a
shopping bag without being nickeled and dimed to death. This is just
another way the DC government has found to make doing business in the
district more difficult. Of course, this will most affect the poor who
can least afford it and can’t take their trade to a more sensible
jurisdiction.
Congratulations, DC city council, on another really stupid idea that
makes life in DC harder.
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Regarding the record snowfall and the cost of snow removal, thanks to
Congress, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has a snow
emergency program that provides financial assistance that covers the
cost of snow removal for record or near record snowfalls. When I talked
with the Department of Public Works’ director’s office on December
30, they had no clue what I was talking about, nor could they refer me
to anyone who did. Of course, to qualify for the money one has to know
about the program, submit the proper paperwork, and keep good records to
document the costs. That is several strikes against DC right there, but
guess I will submit an inquiry to the Mayor’s Office. For those who
are curious, here is the link: http://www.fema.gov/government/grant/pa/9523_1.shtm
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What Works: the DC Youth Orchestra
Susan Ousley, slousley@aol.com
At http://www.dcyop.org/about.jsp?pageId=2092510601681261845886033,
you can watch a great two-minute documentary about the fine DC Youth
Orchestra Program.
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Homicides and Other Violent Crime in DC
Jack McKay, jack.mckay@verizon.net
Much is being made lately of the decrease in homicides in the
District and adjoining counties. The homicide count is down by 70
percent since the dreadful peak of 472 in 1990. The Metropolitan Police
are rather quick to assume that this must be, somehow, their doing. MPD
Chief Lanier is reported as saying, “It’s huge, we’re making an
impact” (Washington Post, January 2, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/31/AR2009123103039.html).
But there are a few problems in the assumption that the decline in
homicides is due to more effective police work. One is that this decline
began around 1997, a dozen years ago, so the cause of the decline can’t
be anything done only recently. Another problem is that this decline
seems to be observed everywhere nationwide, not just here, and surely
police departments have not everywhere implemented, simultaneously,
identical new police methods. A third problem is that, in the District,
violent crime rates have not been decreasing. Homicides are down
dramatically, to be sure, but robberies are up, and currently outnumber
homicides by a factor of thirty. If improved police methods are causing
a decline in homicides, it would seem reasonable to expect a decline in
other crimes of violence as well. But robberies in the District are in
fact up by 30 percent over the past decade. How is it possible for any
improved police methods, supposedly reducing homicides dramatically, to
fail to produce any decrease in robberies?
I’ve cautioned the police that, if they want to take credit for any
decreases in crime, then they had better be prepared to accept
responsibility for increases, as well. Better for the MPD to admit that
they really have very little control over crime rates, and it’s a
vanity for them to promise, as they do, decreases in future crime rates
as Agency Performance Measures.
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My Source for DC Crime News
Bill Layton, northeast, bill.layton@juno.com
Alan Henney doesn’t post all of the major crimes, but much of what
he does is breaking news and fresh, and often neglected by the
mainstream media. Sign up for his reports: http://www.examiner.com/x-21182-DC-Crime-Examiner
Click “Subscribe” to join!
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InTowner
Street Crimes Report Updated Through December 1
P.L. Wolff, intowner@intowner.com
As we previously advised, the Selected Street Crimes feature is no
longer included in the print edition of The InTowner, but instead
is available exclusively on our web site by clicking the Street Crimes
button directly below that for Community News. These are now updated
through December 1st and are added to the archived reports back to July
3, 2009.
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