And the crime covered up. For a nice set of photos of the crime in progress, check out Gwadzilla (whom I hope has learned his lesson about asking permission, first).
Category: DC Page 20 of 26
At the tip of Hains Point, where the Potomac and Anacostia rivers come together, there is an amazing bit of fancy, completely out of character for DC. And that’s why I love it, this sculpture called “The Awakening.”
Unfortunately, it’s been sold (apparently it was only “on loan” to Hains Point for the past 28 years . . .), and will soon be relocating to Maryland, where it’ll likely get lost amongst commerce. If you’re in the DC area, and have never seen it, you owe yourself a trip down there in the next day or so.
Update: Went down to Hains Point with the hope of getting one last ride past the old man (and some shots of the usual lunchtime training crew going past it), but they’ve already blocked off the tip of Hains Point. The crew working on it, however, was very cool and letting folks get in close for whatever shots they wanted. Not sure if it’ll be like that tomorrow, though.
The cones and tape and construction equipment really changes the feeling of the piece. Instead of awakening, he looks like he’s getting sucked down to his death.
As I’ve mentioned, my local bike shop* takes care of Bush’s bikes for him (and half of DC law enforcement, apparently). For those that are interested, here’s a recent interview with Pinky (co-owner of the shop) about the task of keeping George happy and rolling. Please forgive the illiteracy of the piece – it’s the Georgetown student newspaper.
*actually, this placed used to be my shop. However, I’ve since moved onto Conte’s, with whom I’ve been quite pleased.
It seems DC is now paying a team of officers to sit and watch CCTV all day. What channel? You. The Washington Post tells us:
[F]or about 40 hours a week, a small team of officers in the department’s Joint Operations Command Center watches the live feeds from 10 to 15 of the cameras. They choose locations based on the latest crime trends — focusing, for example, on areas in Southeast Washington beset by gun violence.
[ . . . ]
The District’s cameras have quite a range, officials said. Officers can rotate angles for different views. They can zoom in on faces of potential suspects and pick up license plate numbers from cars several blocks away.
Forgive my reluctance to believe that the DC Police Department will actually achieve anything more than gawking at hookers walking down the street with this new measure. Remember, this is the place where guys like this get promoted to captain. But wait, there’s more:
London is often credited with having the most extensive network — 500,000 cameras that make up the “Ring of Steel,” dating to the early 1990s. “I’d love to have the whole city wired like London,” said Lanier, adding that she didn’t anticipate that becoming a reality.
Coming soon to a budget markup committee meeting near you. Bet on it.
. . . why I love my neighborhood).
Each photo links to its flickr page (with more sizes available). A few more shots of the Clarendon Mardi Gras parade here.
Bill Stewart auctions off one of the old Dremo’s beer taps. The final semi-public night for the place had Bill and Andrew auctioning off most anything in sight. It was a curious mix, with the majority of attendees apparent onlookers, a few serious buyers (at least a couple of people were clearly buying for other bars), and a number of folks interested in specific low-value items (that would be me).
The first sale of the evening was a new Camel-branded metal ashtray for 25 cents. Notable sales included $250 for the metal silo (known as the Sin Bin, for those of us recalling the Bardo days), $15 for the (ex) parrot, and $100 (plus an unknown amount in transport costs) for the Dremo’s totem.* Ridiculous little items went, too, including a $1 paper Spaten flag, menus, etc. Surprisingly, none of the pool tables sold (if you’re willing to spend between $500-800, I suspect you could get them to part with one between now and Thursday). Much to my annoyance, a Dremo’s employee beat me out on the sole item I was interested in, but I did end up with a bit of classic Bardo art (I’ll have to take a picture and post, sometime).
Greg Kitsock (WaPo beer critic, among many other things) was there and taking notes (as well as winning a Foggy Bottom poster for the princely sum of $3), so I’m sure you’ll soon be able to read more about it.
(The last night actually open and serving was a brief affair, for me. Saturday turned out to be a long sad day after a great but long Friday night, and it was all I could do to haul us into Bardo’s for one last drink. The final round consisted of Dremo’s James Brown Ale and Dogfish 60 Minute IPA (they were out of Racer 5). After I noticed the fifth girl with glitter on her face, I realized that there were probably more people in the bar that had never been than not. This bittersweet fact turned to a bit of pleasure when we exited to find a long line of Clarendon Ballroom refugee tourists shivering on the sidewalk, waiting to be let in.)
*The Dremo’s totem was rescued by a long time customer who “just didn’t want to see it in the dump”, and will soon be making its appearance in his backyard (as soon as he figures out how to get it there). He told me that if they want it back when (if?) they reopen, they can have it.
Yesterday was absolutely beautiful. The very best I could ask of from a January day in DC. So, instead of working, I went for a ride. Titles come up when you mouseover frame (but not photo, it seems):
Try it yourself, some time.
DC area readers will recall the incident last February, in which Metrobus Driver Victor Kolako killed two women crossing with the light in a crosswalk. One of the women’s family has released a video, taken by the National Archives Building security camera, that shows the entire event. WaPo’s Marc Fischer linked the video, with the appropriate warning that even though it’s shot from a distance, it’s still hard to watch.
I’m linking it here, too, for a couple of reasons. First, I hope this will serve as a reminder to my fellow pedestrians and cyclists that we absolutely cannot trust our lives to the assumption that a bus driver (or any driver, really) will obey traffic signals. Second, I post this as a reminder to everyone else that Metro needs to face some serious public pressure over the safety training and basic quality of its bus drivers. This is the video.
The driver received one year in jail.
. . . the Ron Paul Blimp to attempt to enter restricted DC airspace and get shot down. I can only imagine the sound of the heads of Ron Paul supporters popping across the country.
. . . the GOP primary to turn into an all out religious war. Really, let’s have a full examination of the actual religious beliefs of the candidates. Giuliani could ask Mitt just how gullible you have to be to believe that con artist, Joseph Smith. And then Mitt could hold up a glass of wine and say “Dude, are you telling me that you really think you’re drinking BLOOD?!” And it would be a grand old time.*
. . . someone to put together a Greatest Hits of the 90’s video so Democrats can be reminded that the GOP machine isn’t just willing to lie about issues of international importance, but about pretty much every little thing. Josh Marshall, in the context of Huckabee’s efforts at rewriting the story of how he encouraged the parole of a serial rapist, reminds us:
Most of our staff at TPM are in their twenties. And we had a moment today when it occurred to me that if you weren’t politically aware in the 1990s, it’s difficult to get a sense of how much a series of seriously deranged conspiracy theories became almost mainstream.
*Except not really. I don’t think that that would be the public conversation – it would inevitably narrowly focus on Mormonism. And while I’m perfectly happy to examine some of the more ridiculous bits of the story underlying Mormonism, I don’t want it to be just Mormonism. If we do that, we’re just doing more of the evangelical right’s dirty work for them. The necessary conversation is bigger than politics, but in this case, it would only serve politics. So I kinda want it, but not really.
In a nice change from our frequent positioning near the bottom of a list, a Brookings Institution report ranks:
the Washington region first among the country’s major metropolitan areas in the number of “walkable places” per capita, thanks to changes in just the past 15 years.
Being able to walk for most of my daily activities is one of the things I love most about living here, and I wouldn’t trade it for four bedrooms and a three car garage in a million years (which is the approximate amount of time I’d have to spend in traffic, if I did). I managed to pull this same situation off near the end of my time in Atlanta, too, so it’s not something that’s reserved to old East Coast cities and San Francisco. Here’s the top 10:
- Washington
- Boston
- San Francisco
- Denver
- Portland
- Seattle
- Chicago
- Miami
- Pittsburgh
- New York
I should note that I think the methodology is a little suspect (I mean, Atlanta is #15 on the list . . .), so don’t go wild with the DC v. NYC bit. I’m pretty happy to see Arlington get a nod for the work its done, though:
Good planning also helped in the Washington region, particularly in Arlington, Leinberger said.
When the Metro was being built, county officials lobbied to put their portion underground along a central commercial road, rather than above ground and along the interstate. The county then loosened zoning regulations around each Metro stop, a policy that gave rise to “urban villages” such as Ballston.
[ . . . ]
Walking among Ballston’s tall buildings recently, Leinberger praised the mix of commercial and residential spaces, the picturesque courtyards, and the use of underground parking instead of surface lots.
Of course, Arlington’s not perfect:
The one big mistake is Ballston Commons Mall, a suburban-style mall that has failed to attract many national retailers, Leinberger said.
On the upside, the mall does include a fantastic ice-skating facility, where you can (sometimes) go watch the Capitols practice or take to the ice yourself. And really, Ballston is much much better than it used to be.
In any event, it’s an interesting assessment of the progress in planning and development that many American cities are making. Report here.