quality of life

Photo by PoPville flickr user Eric P.

Thanks to all who sent links to the much talked about MarketWatch report:

“Here are the 10 cities where it is most expensive for two parents to raise two children …

1. Washington, D.C.

A family of four needs $106,493 just to get by in Washington — making this city the most expensive place for parents to raise two children. Child care here is particularly pricey, at $31,158 a year, on average — that’s the highest in the country.”

As one who’s second daughter just arrived – please for the love of God click on some of the ads… You can see the rest of the top 10 most expensive cities to raise a family here.

Photo by PoPville flickr user Jennifer

Update from DC Water:

“We’re connecting the final section of that block’s water main today at 5 p.m. and it will take approximately three hours to complete. Pressure should be restored to the building once the work is completed. The drop in pressure occurred because the building was at the end of a capped water line similar to a dead end which resulted in insufficient pressure running to the building. Once DC Water completes the tie-in and thereby, completing the “circuit,” pressure will be restored.

The drop in pressure was unanticipated. We have been doing quite a bit of work in the Adams Morgan neighborhood and we suspect that this building also suffered a water outage on Monday night when a contractor struck a water main.

This explanation is probably of little comfort to the residents that were inconvenienced. And for that, we apologize. We’re going to work with our teams to prevent situations like this won’t occur in the future.”

“Dear PoPville,

Writing this has helped me pass the time stuck managing a building without water for nearly the last day. No water main broken, minimal crew have been sent, countless complaints sent by me and residents, still awaiting resolution.

I know water infrastructure in this city is old and needs to be changed, but DC Water has shut off water or radically reduced pressure to the building I manage about half a dozen times without warning since they started working on replacing the main in our block. Their communication has been poor, service has been slow and the following tale is one of privileged woe, since at least I live in a place that has running water, the city doesn’t condemn it’s residents to get lead poisoning to save money (Flint, MI), and I can at least call a number where someone picks up to air my concerns. Here goes.

The first few times we lost water were short–20 minutes, an hour; annoying things to happen without warning, straining our hot water recirculation pumps, but not much else. Then they started digging out the main access points. This involves the delicate jackhammering toward an old-ass water pipe, with the idea that you stop jack-hammering before the pipe and dig out around it. We know where this is going–broken main, patched for a few hours, shut down that night for repairs. I get that–old pipes are basically half rust and you need to uncover them quickly, mistakes happen, etc. Except that night happened to be the coldest night of the winter so far and our boiler is steam-powered–without water, it could be damaged, so we get to hand out space heaters all afternoon to prep. Things can’t get worse, right? (more…)

Photo by PoPville flickr user Eric P.

Apparently I missed a massive power outage this morning – sorry I missed all the tweets:

“15,000 people in DC without power this morning including myself.”

Fortunately it seems to have been restored around 11am. Neighborhoods affected were Shaw, U Street, Columbia Heights, LeDroit Park, Bloomingdale, Mount Pleasant, Adams Morgan, and Dupont Circle. Anyone else? How long did you lose power for?

Photo by PoPville flickr user Randall Myers

“Dear PoPville,

I’m wondering if people have suggestions about a neighbor’s barking dog. This dog barks at all hours, and it’s driving me up the wall! I have to turn on a fan at night to drown out the barking. My husband works from home, and has a hard time concentrating. I want to knock on the neighbor’s door, but I’m not quire sure what action s/he can take (aside from keeping the dog indoors, which I assume s/he doesn’t want to do). Appreciate any suggestions on how to approach this problem. Thank you!”

Ed. Note: I’m sure the OP is looking for advice beyond the inevitable (and sage) “talk to the neighbors” – however, if there is tactful advice about how to broach the subject I’m sure that would be especially appreciated.