DC Government

Horse’s Ass Award (Reader Nomination)

By Prince Of Petworth

A reader wrote in suggesting this property in Eckington be nominated for this week’s horse’s ass award. The work this reader put together is incredible. He compiled all of his research in PDF format here:  329 Rhode Island Ave NE

The reader writes:

“My Eckington neighbors and I have been battling the owner of 329 Rhode Island Ave NE (a 6 story boarded up building that has stood vacant for 12+ years). It’s been on a “watchlist” since 2000 (http://www.dcwatch. com/mayor/ 000314.htm). Last year, it magically caught fire a day after it was placed on the tax sale list, and burned for 3 days since the firecrews couldn’t extinguish the tar roof. You also featured video of the blaze on your website… And now the building owner has collected his insurance money, but the building still languishes and the owner gets even more exemptions from vacant and blighted property taxes.

DCRA has been unwavering in their dedication to giving exemption after exemption to the building owner, since he always says he’s trying to renovate it, or sell it. However no work is ever done on the building, and there certainly isn’t any MLS listing the building as “for sale.”

Continues after the jump. (more…)

Graham Campaign Responds to Dear PoP Letter

By Prince Of Petworth

“Dear PoP,

Yesterday you posted an anonymous letter from someone who observed campaign posters for Jim Graham being hung by employees of the MC Dean company. The letter writer didn’t have all the facts and as a result jumped to conclusions (or had a political agenda he failed to disclose).

First, the campaign contacted several possible vendors who could perform this service. Those vendors referred us to MC Dean. In the past, MC Dean has hung posters for candidates in DC and elsewhere. As a result, the Graham campaign hired MC Dean.

Second, MC Dean invoiced the Graham campaign for all the work performed.

Third, any suggestion that this work agreement is inappropriate is far-fetched. There are no regulations that prohibit a business that does work for the city to also perform work for a campaign. Thousands of businesses have contracts with the city. What if MC Dean was a printer that produced campaign fliers? Many DC campaigns have hired businesses that perform functions for the city. What’s the big deal? This is why we file campaign finance reports: transparency (as the photo posted to PoP demonstrates, MC Dean performed this work in broad daylight. Obviously, the campaign was transparent about the work).

Fourth, we know that individuals with a purely political agenda promoted this smear to several news outlets, and did so by combining misinformation with a selective use of facts. At least two news outlets reviewed the story (and the misinformation supplied to them), and decided not to report the story. The one outlet that did cover the story, the Washington Post, did so only on its blog and updated the story with facts that were not gathered before the story was originally posted.

Campaign season is often referred to as “silly season.” This comes as no surprise to any of us. While the Graham campaign is talking about issues of great concern to the community, this race is being tarnished by parties who have distorted the truth on more than one occasion and offered wild allegations without an iota of fact to support them.

My point: readers beware. If you read a campaign article that supplies but one side of the story you’re probably being spun.

Thank you for the opportunity to respond.

Chuck Thies
Re-Elect Jim Graham 2010″

Dear PoP – Whoa – is this what corruption looks like?

By Prince Of Petworth

“Dear PoP,

We were sitting inside Room 11 last week and looked out to see these MC Dean contractors hanging a Jim Graham campaign sign. I can’t say that I saw them placing the sign, but I did notice them stapling it and placing it just right. I thought at first (trying to give them the benefit of the doubt) they were just adjusting it so they could do real city business on that lamp pole, but nope. After dealing with the sign they just packed up and moved on.

MC Dean is a locally based contractor, but they’re international (a friend works for them, contracted by the US Army in Germany), so it seems like they’d be a bit too expensive for Graham’s campaign coffers to hire just for the sake of hanging his signs.

This just seemed wrong, and all of us sitting at the table were shocked.”

Sorry for the delay in posting but it fell off my radar until I saw this Washington Post article:

“Bill Dean, president and CEO of M.C. Dean, said his crews covered “specific areas” of the ward for Graham, with employees working several nights last week. A portion of the work, he said, is being done as an “in-kind” donation to Graham. Dean said he closely tracks the work to comply with campaign finance laws — which, in D.C. ward races, limit any individual or corporation from donating more than $500 to any one candidate. The Graham campaign would be billed for any overage, he said.”

Dear PoP – Parking Meter FAIL, literally

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo by PoPville flickr user Madame Meow

Ugh, this is frustrating. I know it’s not bike related but perhaps DDOT could take a second to look into this…

“Dear PoP,

Have you fielded any complaints from DC drivers regarding “self-correcting” parking meters? These are meters that may initially accept coins but then display an “out of order” message, and thereafter stop registering the deposit of additional coins. Drivers are left with the choice of finding new parking spaces or calling in the meters as broken. If a driver decides to call in the meter as broken, and leave, even for 10 minutes, the driver faces the risk that the parking meter will “self-correct” during his/her absence. “Self-correcting” means that a parking meter resets itself, showing “00:00”, as if no money had ever been deposited. According to a recent Washington Examiner article, 74 percent of the City’s meters are designed to “self-correct.” Here is the rub. The City’s meter enforcement officials ticket cars at meters that have self-corrected; to them, the cars appear to have been parked at functioning meters and that their drivers have not deposited the any money.

In my particular case, I deposited 75 cents at a meter outside Whole Foods on P St., NW. The meter then displayed out of order. I called the meter in as broken, was given a confirmation number by the City, and was told I could park at the broken meter for up to two hours. Returning to my car 15 minutes later, I found a $25 ticket. I appealed the $25 fine and the City rejected it, on the grounds that the City had checked for “complaints, outages or repairs during the time period the violation occurred” and had found none. In order to appeal that decision, DC regulations required that I pay the $25 fine and a $10 appeal fee. Last night I received a letter stating my payment was an admission of guilt and the City considers the case closed. I guess the City is now $35 closer to closing its several hundred million dollar budget gap…”

Library News, Sales, Bike Rides, and Open Houses

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo from PoPville flickr user hellomarkers!

I thought this was pretty cool from DCPL:

The Library Store, Books Plus

Where Every Purchase Supports Your Library!

The library store offers used books, greeting cards, postcards, posters and small gifts for sale.

Proceeds from the sale of items in Books Plus are used to buy new books and materials for the library.

You can also support the library by buying Books Plus books online through Better World Books or B-Logistics.

Store Design

The distinctive curvilinear design of Books Plus, The Library Store, was conceived and created by the D.C. architecture firm of Arthur Cotton More in 1984.

Store hours: Tuesday-Friday, 11 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Location: Great Hall
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library
901 G St. N.W.

And in other Library news the Tour de DCPL is this Sat.:

“May 22, 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. Starting @ Martin Luther King Library
Join us Saturday May 22, for the Tour de DCPL, and explore D.C. through your libraries!
The Tour de DCPL is a library-oriented bicycle ride of downtown D.C., stopping at five DC Public Library neighborhood libraries. It is being organized by bicycle-loving library staff as a way to promote environmentally friendly transportation to D.C.’s libraries and show what all the excitement at DC Public Libraries is about! The ride meets at the Martin Luther King Library (901 G St. N.W.) at 9 a.m. and begins shortly after.

The ride will end back at Martin Luther King Library at 12:30 p.m.

Register using this form, and e-mail [email protected] for more information.”

Finally, Also on Sat. “ Mt. Pleasant Interim Library Invites Community to Open House”:

What: Celebrates Opening Mt. Pleasant Interim Library with Open House featuring family-friendly activities.
When: Sat., May 22, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Where: Mt. Pleasant Interim Library
3162 Mt. Pleasant St. NW

The Mt. Pleasant Interim Library will serve the community until spring 2011, when the renovated Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Library re-opens at its 16th St. location. Family-friendly activities will include children’s story time and craft activities.

Dear PoP – Newark Dog Park?

By Prince Of Petworth


View Larger Map

“Dear PoP,

I think this is worth debate. The city is spending 400 thousand dollars on a dog park going into a wealthy garden community in upper NW. McLean Gardens. Now I can see the city building dog parks in our dense inner city areas with few green places to walk dogs even on a leash, but there are ample places to do so in Mclean Gardens. But what really raises my brow is that at a time when the District claims to be struggling to come up with money for funding safety net programs they are spending 400 THOUSAND dollars on a dog park. Does it really cost 400k for a dog park? I could bulldoze my house and build a new one for 400k. If the residents really want their dogs to be able to run off leash can’t they just put up a chain link fence for 10k and call it a day? Isn’t that what the city did for a dog park in Adams Morgans’ Walter Peirce Park? And in addition to the 400k the city is spending the neighborhood raised 25k for amenities to add to the park after the citys investment. Will there be a pool and sauna? Does the city make public the break down for the costs associated with a project like this? I think we are getting ripped off. I’m picturing the invoice charging us 5000 dollars for a box of nails. and 30,000 dollars for a trash can sort of thing. Is this another no bid contract? I have an uncle that would gladly bid 50k to build McLean Gardens a sweet Dog Park.”

WTOP says:

“The 11,000-square-foot park will be located off Wisconsin Avenue at 39th and Newark Streets in Northwest.

The District is spending more than $400,000 on the park, and residents raised another $25,000 to pay for amenities, such as park benches.

The park is scheduled to open in August.”

Are New Tax Brackets a Good Idea?

By Prince Of Petworth

I saw this sign on 11th St, NW on Sunday and then this morning received the following email from Save Our Safety Net:

Wed, May 19, 2010
8:30 AM – 9:30 AM

We’re in the final stretch of the DC budget process — and millions of dollars of funding for safety net services are at stake.

We’ve proposed that the City can save our safety net by creating new tax brackets for the highest-earning 5% of DC residents. Six Councilmembers have declared their support for progressive tax increases — but we need a seventh!

So on Wednesday May 19th, we’re going down to show City Council what a real safety net looks like. We’ll ask Councilmembers to join us in building the net that keeps our city healthy and stable.

And to do all this, we need you too! Come down to the Wilson Building (1350 Pennsylvania Ave NW) to join with us in this action.

Further explanation:

The top tax bracket in DC currently starts at $40,001. (That means everyone making more than that pays the same tax rate.) The city could raise approximately $50 million in revenue by creating additional tax brackets: 9% for DC residents earning more than $200,000 (a .5% increase), and 9.4% for those earning more than $1,000,000 (a .9% increase). Together, these increases would affect less than 5% of our population — but they would enable the city to protect safety net programs that keep our communities safe and strong.

Do you think creating additional tax brackets is a good idea or will it drive wealthy residents out of DC?

Friday Question of the Day – Soda Tax?

By Prince Of Petworth


Photo by PoPville flickr user gc-dc

I know we’ve been talking a lot about taxes lately but given the budget it looks like a lot of ideas are gonna be debated. I just received an email about a group called Support the D.C. Healthy Schools Act. They say:

The Healthy Schools Act is a landmark bill that will:

* substantially improve health, wellness, and nutrition in our schools
* raise the nutritional standards and improve the quality of school meals
* bring more fresh, local fruits and vegetables to schools
* triple the amount of and vegetables to schools
* triple the amount of physical and health education by adopting national standards
* create school gardens and support other environmental initiatives
* expand school-based health and wellness programs

The proposed Healthy Schools Revenue Act would fund this initiative by:

* adding a one-cent-per-ounce tax to sugar-sweetened beverages to fight obesity
* the tax WOULD NOT include diet soda, non-caloric beverages, juices, milk, and water
* the soda tax would be imposed on distributors – NOT our small, local businesses. It would not apply to concentrated syrup, which is primarily sold to restaurants and bars

Apparently there is some serious lobbying against this act. Given the fact that obesity is such a problem in DC’s schools (and the budget deficit) do you support a soda tax?

Dear PoP – Veranda’s Patio Targeted

By Prince Of Petworth

“Dear PoP,

There is someone at the DC Gov that wants to destroy the patio at the Veranda because it is six inches above the side walk. Why are there other patios in town that are higher than 6 inches?”

Interesting. Let’s check with @DCRA and see if they can confirm, deny or add some details. From the photo above it doesn’t look too treacherous. We judged Veranda (11th and P St, NW) here.

DDOT to Debut Barnes Dance at 7th and H Streets, NW

By Prince Of Petworth

This sounds pretty wild, from a press release:

“The District Department of Transportation is launching a new pilot program aimed at providing safer crossings for pedestrians at one of the District’s most traversed intersections: 7th and H streets, NW in Chinatown. The new traffic pattern, commonly called a “Barnes Dance,” allows pedestrians to cross in every direction, including diagonally, at the same time while vehicles on all four sides of the intersection are stopped at a red signal. The change is scheduled to be implemented on Wednesday, May 12 at 10 am.

Continues with some history after the jump. (more…)

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