Rolling Stones and Peter Pan

Dear Rolling Stones:

Over the past few weeks, I have pointed out that Greater Greater Washington and David Alpert, its funder, spokesman, and creator of its web site, advocate policies that make it more difficult and expensive for drivers to own and operate cars in Washington. This has angered Alpert, who has now replied with an ad hominem attack that accuses me of "transportation birtherism." "Transportation birtherism" is not an immediately clear phrase, but it is meant to convey that I have a "silly conspiracy theory," and I am therefore exactly like people who believe President Obama wasn’t born in the United States.

I don’t quite know how to reply to this, because aside from his personal attack there’s no argument to reply to in Alpert’s article, http://tinyurl.com/bpt4lt6. He does say, however, that the disagreement is a generational one, that it’s young DC residents who don’t want or need cars, and that those who take a different position are easily dismissed. "Few newer residents care how people from a different generation in a different neighborhood live. Honestly, most hardly give it a second thought." Honestly, it’s a losing proposition to argue on the basis of the generational superiority of the young, as Alpert does. First, it’s a phony argument, since Alpert doesn’t represent "the young," but only a small sliver of the young. Second, the young get older, and their needs and desires change as their lives change, as they date and form couples, have children and create families, and find reasons to visit neighborhoods other than their own, even neighborhoods in other wards of the city and in the suburbs. Young people have always owned cars at a lower rate than older people. But young people age. It’s a natural progression. No matter how often Peter Pan or Alpert repeats "I’ll never grow up," the people around him do grow up. The average age of the Rolling Stones is now two years higher than the average age of Supreme Court justices.

The Department of Transportation will hold a "parking summit" open to the public on Tuesday night, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., at 441 4th Street, NW, in the old council chambers. The presentation DDOT will give at the summit is at http://ddot.dc.gov/DC/DDOT/Publication%20Files/Services/Parking/ThinkTanks/ParkingThinkTank_Presentation.pdf. As with most government affairs of this sort, I suspect that the government will present the plans it has already determined it will implement, and responses from public attendees that don’t fit those plans will be dismissed, but it can’t hurt to try.

Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com

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Another Election, and a Change in Election Law
Dorothy Brizill, dorothy@dcwatch.com

Haven’t we just finished an election? Well, another citywide election is coming up, to fill the at-large councilmember seat that Phil Mendelson vacated when he was elected chairman of the city council. The Board of Elections will issue nominating petitions for candidates on Thursday at 8:30 a.m. Petitions will be due at 5:00 p.m. on January 23, and the election for the at-large seat will be held on April 23.

The long list of potential candidates for the seat who have mentioned themselves, or who have been mentioned by their supporters, includes Sekou Biddle, Anita Bonds, Michael Brown, Kwame Brown (yes, he would be eligible to run again), John Capozzi, A.J. Cooper, Patrick Mara, Ron Moten, Kathy Patterson, Carol Schwartz, Peter Shapiro, Doug Sloan, Leon Swain, Leon Swain, Ted Trabue, and Brian Weaver.

In preparation for the election, the city council will vote tomorrow on a bill, the "Board of Elections Petition Circulation Requirement Emergency Amendment Act of 2012," that would eliminate the requirement that petition circulators for candidates be registered DC voters. Chairman Mendelson says that he strongly supports the bill, although he hasn’t seen or read it yet, and hasn’t circulated it to the other councilmembers. There has been no public hearing on the bill. The bill is being introduced at the request of the mayor, who is being urged to introduce it by Attorney General Irv Nathan. Nathan is prompted by a lawsuit that has been filed by the Libertarian Party and by the sponsors of the failed slot machine gambling initiatives, who were fined twice by the Board of Elections for breaking DC election laws. The Board of Elections has not taken a position on the bill, since its members haven’t been shown it yet, and weren’t informed that the city council was going to vote on it until I called them on Monday morning.