logan circle restriping

(this is where having a working camera would really help. i think i'm going to finally do something about that this weekend...)

anyway, people often complain about the traffic markings in and around logan circle. i'll admit it can be confusing if you're a resident, and people coming through for the first time can just be completely lost. but, biking through yesterday afternoon and this morning, i noticed that they're getting ready to restripe things.

at the point there southbound 13th street traffic exits the circle, it looks like they're going to realign the lanes and get rid of the parking that exists there between the circle and o street. i'm sure the people around there are not going to be happy, even though that's only 2 spots.

street cleaning

1) boooo....this means i have to worry about moving my car back and forth across the street every week. it's really making me think about completely getting rid of it when it comes up for registration renewal this summer.

2) yaaay!!!! the street won't have so much garbage in them anymore. i was skeptical that cleaning would really start today, but i just got home, and lo and behold, the south side of seaton and the east side of 1st street both look to be free of detritus it in their respective gutters.

now, to get the garbage off the sidewalks....

dc vote

ok, this might be a running commentary on the house debate on voting rights...

1) pete sessions is an ass. his discussion of the voting rights bill notwithstanding, the fact that he has multiple times insisted on referring to the majority as the "democrat majority" instead of the "democratic majority". he knows his use of this is needling democrats.

hey pete sessions, stick to the issues. i agree the bill is flawed. but let's vote on this, not demagogue.

2) sensenbrenner is right...this shouldn't be an at-large seat for utah, it should use the four districts that were drawn up for this last year.

3) bob bishop has a good point. i don't know if i agree to him, but we have to take what we can here. his sense of humor is pretty lame though (i should know, i have a similar sense of humor).

4) lynn westmoreland is just rambling about stuff that isn't germane to the bill. he wants to make sure that DC can never have senate representation? and he just made up the word "bipartisanism"...at least i've never heard that word before.

5) david dreier brings up a point about amending the constitution. unless we figure out whether the tack we are on with this bill is really constitutional or not, we can't move forward on potentially amending the constitution. the minority party is not interested in statehood or representation for DC. you can claim constitutionality or not for this bill, but you can't actually RULE on that. the courts must. but THEY CAN'T RULE ON A BILL UNTIL YOU PASS IT. he's just demagoguing about taxes, not discussing the actual merits of this bill.

6) ahhh candice miller. she used to be the secretary of state in michigan. her name was on my first driver's license. but her statement about trying to get as many people as possible registered and able to vote in michigan while she was the SOS is baloney. she was intrumental in getting the motor-voter law passed there, which makes it more difficult for students to vote.

7) tom davis' discussion about what senators and representatives actually represent is interesting. the house can give us a vote because of the district clause, but we can't have senators without an amendment. interesting....

8) eleanor. lots of emotional stuff. meh. could be more moving, but oh well. is mike panetta allowed on the floor?

9) dana rohrabacher makes an interesting point, and a gracious offer, but DC wants to be able to represent itself. maryland's senators would not be able to dedicate their full attention to matters in their own state as well as our city.

in conclusion, statehood (or an amendment that gives us everything that statehood entails) is the conclusion we must meet.

mulch

is there work about to begin on carter woodson park? (scroll to the bottom for a picture). there's a big pile of mulch that was placed there yesterday. it looks like people are taking a fair amount of mulch out for their own use. if that's what it's there for, that's great. it's nice to have little neighborhood benefits like that around for everyone to use. if it actually is for work on the park, then the NPS better get to it, because the mulch might all be gone soon!

treebox vodka

ok, what an awesome name for a blog. it's great to see other people think that the city just needs a little spit and polish around the edges!

(h/t to remaking le slum for pointing this one out!)

graffiti

ok, one thing that i don't much enjoy about city life is graffiti. i know some will say that this is my rural upbringing coming to the fore here, but i don't buy the meme that it's simply 'kids expressing themselves' and 'kids are bored because there's nothing to do in the city'. i basically call nothing but b.s. on that. when i was a kid, i lived in three different towns where there was significantly less to do than there is to keep one entertained here in DC. for some reason, none of the kids in those three places (in georgia, pennsylvania, and michigan) graffitied anything.

i'm not saying that kids there were angels either, but the willful and wanton destruction of another's property (which is what graffiti is) is illegal and stupid. if there's anything that stuck with me from nine years of catholic school (and believe me, a lot stuck with me), it's the golden rule. treat other's as you want to be treated. and no one wants to have their house spray painted by someone else, especially without their permission.

in DC, there are parks, museums, open fields, etc., where kids can keep themselves entertained. all for free. and all within a bike or bus ride from anywhere in the city. i didn't have that opportunity as a kid, though i'm not complaining.

anyway, enough of my rant. i've reported a few graffiti issues to the city's service center, and the one across the street from my house hasn't been dealt with yet. one in shaw has though, so that's encouraging. the ongoing war to have a livable city goes on...

whole foods took my nerdiness away

i used to rely on the p street whole foods to supply me weekly (and monthly) with copies of the dupont current, city paper, intowner, dc north, and even the hill rag, if you got it within the first couple days of the month.

turns out that now, the store has decided to not allow community papers to be placed in the vestibule near the elevators. it's really a shame, because they were providing a great community service, keeping all those papers in one place (in addition to the papers i religiously read, the washington blade , metro weekly, and downtowner were always available there as well). it was one-stop shopping for a local news nerd like me, and now it's gone. for someone bicycle-commuting from downtown up to bloomingdale, it was a perfect location, since it was basically on my way home. now i've got to bike around town to get my newspaper fix. grrrr.....

laundromat in bloomingdale

in the old sylvan theater just west of 1st and rhode island nw (it's a little to the left of the arrow on that map) on the south side of the street, there is a sign for a laundromat, though it's closed.

well, looks like that's going to change. i saw a sign that said a new laundromat is soon to open in the building. i can't remember the name, but i'll post an update on that when i get home later (unless someone beats me to it in the comments).

UPDATE: ok, i finally walked back over and looked closely at the sign. if i only had a working camera, i'd put a picture here. anyway, it says 'COMING SOON - Dexter Laundry Equipment' and it has the horsehead logo found on this webpage on the sign as well. anyone care to speculate on what this all means?

potholes

there aren't any on my street. luckily, the 100 block of seaton place nw (and the unit block) were repaved in the fall. it was right after i moved into bloomingdale, and it was great to see all of the holes and patches gone on my block (it made riding my bike up and down the street a lot more comfortable).

unfortunately, there will be some soon. i know it's just something you have to expect living in an older part of the city, but a water main was leaking on our block last week. wasa came and fixed it, but it meant they had to jackhammer a big hole in the center of the street right in the middle of the block. they did a really half-assed job of patching the spot, and i'm sure that with just a couple freeze/thaws, and a plowing or two (we're going to get more snow tomorrow), potholes will begin to open up. at least we had a smooth street for almost six months.

and oh yeah, t street nw is going to have the same problem, because when i walked up the unit block on sunday, there was a water leak there, and i'm sure wasa will be doing the same thing there (they were also repaved last fall).

help us save internet radio, part 2

ok, the good folks at radio paradise and other internet radio stations have gotten together and decided to put up a petition and begin an informational drive to get folks to petition congress and make them aware of how this decision could negatively affect the future of internet radio. here's where you need to go to help make a difference:

- the petition

- send a letter to your member of congress

i've already sent a note to Eleanor Holmes Norton, and i hope that others out there will be sending letters or personally calling their representatives. congressional offices likely know little to nothing about this, so we have to lobby and educate them as concerned citizens in order to counter the professional lobbying that the RIAA and other large organizations can pay for. please, link to this blog post and spread the word!

thanks so much!