Curbside Refilling
Dear Fillers:
Yesterday, with great fanfare and to great applause by the media, the
DC Department of Transportation demonstrated its first Curbside
ChargePoint Charging Station in the District (http://tinyurl.com/2g7sljw,
http://tinyurl.com/24bd6cd,
http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local-beat/A-Plug-for-Cleaner-Air-108500954.html).
The charging station, which is located at the Reeves Building at 14th
and U Streets, NW, is associated with a street parking space, so that an
electric car can park on the street and recharge its battery at the same
time. The District says it will install about five hundred ChargePoint
stations throughout the city. That will mean about a few hundred street
parking spaces will be dedicated to recharging electic cars.
The Chevrolet Volt, which is currently the most practical consumer
car with an electric (gas assisted) motor, takes four hours to recharge
its batteries fully with a 240 v. recharger, which is the most powerful
recharger it is designed to accept. Its urban driving range on
electricity alone is twenty-five to fifty miles, so someone who used the
Volt for commuting would most likely have to recharge it daily. The
District is going to charge three dollars an hour for charging, which
will result in a twelve dollar cost to park and recharge a battery
fully. The Volt’s gas tank holds 9.6 gallons, and its driving range
with a fully charged battery and full gas tank is up to 350 miles (http://gm-volt.com/full-specifications).
You can find alternate specification estimates for the Volt on the web,
though most car critics say the numbers released by General Motors are
overly optimistic, or you can find specifications for other electric
cars. In any case, it’s hard to make an economic case that makes sense
for buying a Volt or other electric car, even with the large federal
subsidies and tax incentives that are being given to finance building
them, buying them, and installing recharging stations for them. Since
few electric cars are likely to be sold in the next several years, and
since electric cars can be charged on home electrical current overnight
without paying three dollars an hour, it’s highly unlikely that five
hundred charging stations will be needed — yet at the same time the
cars can’t be sold at all if public charging stations aren’t readily
available.
Recharging electric cars is inefficient in terms of time and space,
as well as cost, compared with refilling conventional cars with
gasoline. Gasoline cars refuel in about five minutes, and centralized
gas stations take little space in a city. Electric cars take about four
hours apiece to recharge (or eight to twelve hours on household 120 v.
current), and the District’s plan is to reduce the number of street
parking spaces in order to install recharging stations, instead of
building recharging stations on centralized parking lots. Of course, in
the viewpoint of the District’s transportation planners, reducing the
street parking available to conventional cars is an attractive feature
of the program, not a disadvantage. The District’s planners are eager
to spend the most money and effort on the transportation alternatives
that are used by the smallest number of people (bicycles, electric cars,
Zipcars), but they are even more eager to make life difficult for people
with plain old gas-powered cars.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Correction to DC Government Open Enrollment
Information
Everton Johnson, ej at eastwestfinancial.com
A recent DC Department of Human Resources E-mail attachment entitled
"Open Enrollment 2011" describes some of the option for DC
employees’ health benefits for next year. Unfortunately it gives some
wrong information that could have detrimental consequences for the
employees who have a Flexible Spending Account. Specifically, it says
that "Over-the-counter medications will be ineligible for coverage
under the Flexible Spending Accounts." This is just plain wrong.
Beginning next year certain over-the-counter meds and drugs will be
considered ineligible expenses unless you have a written prescription
from your doctor. So, if you get your doctor to write a prescription for
an over-the-counter med or drug and submit it with your claim, that med
or drug will still be eligible for reimbursement.
I tried to contact DHR for over an hour, but was just shuffled from
one person to another and no one would either take responsibility for
this error or give me to someone who could correct it. I then sent them
an E-mail and got a response back that said "We will revise this
information in our upcoming e-blasts."
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Trash, Recycling, Leaf Collection over
Thanksgiving Weekend
Kevin B. Twine, kevin.twine@dc.gov
The Department of Public Works announced that there will be no trash
and recycling collections on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 25.
These collections will “slide” to the next day. Thursday’s
collections will be made Friday, and Friday’s collections will be made
Saturday. This applies to both once-a-week and twice-a-week collection
neighborhoods. Trash and recycling containers should be put out for
collection no earlier than 6:30 p.m. the night before collection and
removed from public space by 8:00 p.m. on the collection day. Parking
meters will not be in effect. Residential parking and rush hour lane
restrictions will not be enforced. Also, DPW will not tow abandoned
vehicles.
The Ft. Totten Transfer Station, located at 4900 John F. McCormack
Road, NE, will be closed Thursday, November 25. It will be open Friday,
November 26, 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., for residents to bring bulk trash.
Residents also may bring bulk trash only on Saturday, 8:00 a.m. to 3:00
p.m. The next Saturday Household Hazardous Waste/E-cycling/Document
Shredding drop-off day is December 4, 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Directions
to Ft. Totten: travel east on Irving Street, NW, turn left on Michigan
Avenue, turn left on John F. McCormack Road, NE, and continue to the end
of the street.
Leaf collections will be made from most “Area B” neighborhoods
between Monday, November 22, and Saturday, December 4 (including
Thanksgiving Day). In Ward 5, Area B neighborhoods’ collections will
be made between November 15 and 27. DPW is following the collection
schedule published in the leaf collection brochure mailed to households
that receive DPW trash/recycling collections. Area B residents should
rake their leaves into their treebox spaces by the Sunday before their
collection weeks. Those without a treebox space are asked to pile their
leaves adjacent to the curb but not in the street. All services will
resume on Friday, November 26
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Developers and Contractors
Dennis Dinkel, dadinkle@comcast.net
[Re: themail, November 14] I don't always agree with everything you
say. In fact, frequently I disagree with most of what you say. I do
respect the manner in which you say it: level-headed, not using
profanity, civilized. However, I could not agree with you more on the
opening of themail today regarding the scandal just coming to light in
Prince George's County; and I agree it applies to the District of
Columbia and the State of Virginia. Why do we tolerate it? What is it in
our politicians that turns them into money grubbing, greedy, arrogant
public servants when they're elected to hold positions of high trust in
public office?
I worked fourteen years at the House of Representatives, and I saw it
time after time: Abscam, the post office postage stamp scandal, the
House bank scandal; and though nearly twenty years removed from my
employment there, I continue to see it. And it happens at the state and
the city level.
I hope that those responsible for this mess in Prince George's County
are prosecuted to the full extent of the law; and I hope that if similar
actions have occurred in the District, under any administration, in any
department, those offenders are also prosecuted and that they do hard
time in prison. This abuse of the public trust is inexcusable and the
attitude of cynicism it engenders in people is truly unfortunate.
###############
High Five for DC’s Kids Campaign
HyeSook Chung, info@dckids.org
I have some good news to share: support is building across the city
for DC's youngest citizens. To date, eight organizations on the front
lines of serving children and families in need have signed on as
partners of our High 5 for DC's Kids campaign. The latest to join are DC
Hunger Solutions and the Healthy Families/Thriving Communities
Collaborative Council — see the full list at http://tinyurl.com/25egf3u.
We are grateful for the support of all of our partners and those of
you who have signed on as individuals. But to bring positive change for
all of our children, we need to increase our numbers and go beyond those
of us who work on early childhood issues every day. If you haven't
already, please click http://tinyurl.com/25egf3u
to view our platform and sign on, or take a moment to forward this
E-mail to three friends.
And if you are looking for more ways to get informed or take action
for young children, check our our online calendar of events around town
at http://www.dcactionforchildren.org/content/calendar.
On behalf of our partners and DC's youngest citizens, thank you again
for your support.
###############
The School Is Not an Island
Richard Urban, Rurban@rufordc.com
I agree with Alvin Frost's analysis in themail [November 14].
Education starts at home with the parents. It then continues at school
with those in a parental position, the teachers. When the majority of
students do not have both parents in the home, or even one parent, in
many cases, then the children are much less likely to come to school
ready to learn. Technological fixes, like using Impact Evaluations and
bringing in more Teach for America Teachers, are not going to be
effective. Academic knowledge must be learned on the foundation of
character education that begins in the home and continues at school.
When that home foundation is lacking, teachers have a much harder job.
Furthermore, the current school administration has made the situation
worse by discouraging character education, such as abstinence centered
HIV/AIDS and pregnancy prevention education. The current administration
has also made it harder for community groups to work in schools by
applying unnecessary insurance requirements that the DC Code
specifically says are not needed to any nonprofits wanting to use school
space after school. Another negative factor is that the current school
administration promotes values that are antithetical to most parents and
guardians, such as the acceptance of all sexual lifestyles, as evidenced
by the recent uproar at Hardy Middle School over the "Making Proud
Choices" program (http://rufordc.com/post/Parents-upset-by-e2809cSex-Teste2809d-at-Hardy-Middle-School.aspx).
This kind of program helps propel children on a path that is not likely
to move them to success. Instead of discipline, serf restraint, and
abstinence, students get a message that any kind of sexual exploration
is okay. This can lead to outside-of-wedlock pregnancy, loss of focus on
school work, and a greater likelihood of school suspension, drug use and
emotional consequences, especially for girls. We need to include
character education in schools, and good character begins with self
discipline and sexual abstinence before marriage.
###############
Effective Teachers and Successful Schools
Liane Scott, liane@dcvisions.org
I'd like to send a hearty "Amen" to Alvin Frost for his
article, "You Can Take that to the Bank" [themail, November
14]. I've taught for a number of after-school programs within DCPS, at a
variety of schools. I don't know how the teachers at Ballou and
Anacostia, etc., do it. There resources are so limited and the
kids can be so rowdy. Wealthy parents have a different expectation of
their kids when it comes to education, at least that is my experience. I
have been waiting for school reform to finally start placing some of
these so-called highly effective teachers into the schools where they
are most needed. Now that would be a show!
###############
Googling Around
Malcolm Wiseman, mal@wiseman.ws
I think you'll find some error in your report of the Google results
for the cash in Jefferson's freezer. If you meant to say that your
search string was, as you wrote, "freezer cash," that is the
quotes being used as a way of telling us the actual words in your search
string, but not a part of the string itself, then yes, the result
includes 2.4 million pages. With such a search you are finding not only
the pages that have the phrase "freezer cash" but also those
pages that have "freezer" and "cash" but located
distant and unrelated from each other on the page. So the page has
nothing whatever to do with cash in a freezer.
You probably know that to confine a search to find only pages with
freezer and cash together, one must include the quotes (as in
"freezer cash") in the Google search string. This will find
about 29,700 pages. When one adds "Jefferson" to the two
different search strings — (freezer cash jefferson) and ("freezer
cash" jefferson) — the yield is about 240,000 and 18,000
respectively. You are correct: most pages about cash in a freezer have
it in Jefferson's icebox, but 18,000 is far from "almost all"
of 2.4 million.
[Mal is close to right, and the figures he got are probably closer to
the real number of pages, but Google describes its search method
slightly differently: “By putting double quotes around a set of words,
you are telling Google to consider the exact words in that exact order
without any change. Google already uses the order and the fact that the
words are together as a very strong signal and will stray from it only
for a good reason, so quotes are usually unnecessary. By insisting on
phrase search you might be missing good results accidentally. For
example, a search for [ "Alexander Bell" ] (with quotes) will
miss the pages that refer to Alexander G. Bell.” In other words, a
Google search is more sophisticated than what we normally think of as a
mechanical computer search; a search for “freezer cash” without the
quotes will not necessarily catch pages in which the words are distant
and unrelated, but it will catch pages about “cash in the freezer.”
— Gary Imhoff]
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Annual Adoption Day, November 20
Leah H. Gurowitz, leah.gurowitz@dcsc.gov
This Saturday, November 20, from 10:00 a.m. to noon, the DC Superior
Court and Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) will host the
twenty-fourth Annual Adoption Day. Twenty-two foster children will be
adopted into eighteen new “forever families.” Debra Lee of BET will
be the keynote speaker and, as always, local news anchor Barbara
Harrison will emcee the event, introducing each of the children to the
audience before their adoption is finalized by their judge.
The ceremony is designed to celebrate the joy of adoption and
encourage area residents to consider adopting or fostering a child in
the District’s public child welfare system. CFSA is currently seeking
adoptive homes for approximately one hundred sixty children in DC foster
care. The public is welcome to attend this event; social workers will be
present to answer questions about foster parenting and adoption. Anyone
who cannot attend, please call the CFSA recruitment hotline
202-671-LOVE.
###############
Design Apprenticeship Program Final
Presentation, November 20
Johanna Weber, jweber@nbm.org
Young designers in the fall 2010 Design Apprenticeship Program
focused on building blocks and how they are used to create spaces. These
teen participants designed and built chairs using one of the many
building blocks they explored during the program. Through a series of
hands-on exercises participants explored the configurations of various
modular building blocks such as wood, bricks, or tiles. Students visited
Daniel Donnelly Modern Design Studio to learn more about furniture
design before dividing into teams to complete their chair design
challenge. Volunteer design professionals worked closely with
participants to help develop the students’ design skills. During the
final presentation, students will discuss their design process and their
final projects will be on display.
The Design Apprenticeship Program (DAP) was created in 2000 by the
National Building Museum in order to build on the work of CityVision and
Investigating Where We Live. DAP offers previous outreach program
participants or students with a demonstrated interest in art or design
the opportunity to get hands-on advanced experience. In this short-term
program, middle and high school students design and construct full scale
projects that they control from concept to completion
At the National Building Museum, 401 F Street, NW (Judiciary Square
Metro, Red Line). Free, no registration required. November 20, 1:00-3:00
p.m. For more information, contact Tara Miller, tmiller@nbm.org,
272-2448, ext. 3201
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Massachusetts Avenue in the Gilded Age,
November
21
Rosemary Reed Miller, rosemaryreed4@hotmail.com
Join us at the DC Historical Society, 801 K Street, NW, on Sunday,
November 21, at 2:30 p.m., for a free program by author Mark Ozer: Massachusetts
Avenue in the Gilded Age. Welcome to Millionaires Row, where the
Gilded Age mansions of what is now Embassy Row still exude a faded
elegance. It was here that Martha Blow Wadsworth, an avid sportswoman,
competed with Theodore Roosevelt and wealthy hostess Nellie Patterson
competed with her sister Kitty McCormick over who had the larger mansion
and whose children would run The Chicago Tribune, the family
newspaper. From Union Station Plaza to Dupont Circle and Washington
National Cathedral, author Mark Ozer examines the extant Beaux-Arts
architecture and tells the stories of the buildings, their architects
and the socialites and the politicians who lived and played behind those
grand facades. Mark Ozer has translated his interest in Washington into
a series of books. The first, Washington, DC: Politics and Place
has now been succeeded by a book that focuses on one of the great
streets of the world, our own Massachusetts Avenue.
Mark Ozer, an honors graduate in History and Science of Harvard
College ’53, has in his travels explored the interaction of history
and geography of many of the great cities of the world. Since retirement
after a fruitful career as Professor of Neurology at Georgetown School
of Medicine, for the past ten years he has given courses on history of
many of the world’s cities, including Washington, at Osher Lifelong
Learning Institute at the American University. A resident of Washington
since 1964, he has found the place of especial interest as he has
interpreted it to those from all over the world seeking a deeper
understanding of the meaning of America.
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