September 20, 2006
Morning Roundup: Let the Sunshine In Edition
It's shaping up to be a beautiful day here in Washington, with a high around 70 degrees and mostly sunny skies. Here's hoping the great weather can brighten the days of Montgomery County election officials, who are reporting that they won't have a final count of all provisional ballots in the county until sometime next week, thanks to mistakes which forced many early morning voters to cast the paper ballots. We know the idea that one of our country's wealthiest counties runs their elections about on par with a small town in Kyrgyzstan is definitely going to add a little spring to our collective step this morning.
Fenty & Ramsey Play Friendly Game of Risk: We wonder which one of them starts with Australia? The Democratic Mayoral nominee and the police chief put on friendly faces for the press yesterday, despite what can be guessed to have been a somewhat tense meeting between the two men. Fenty has been a vocal critic of the Chief during his campaign, but said he would put off making a final decision about Ramsey's future until after the November election, which he is all but assured to win. The Post notes that last week "Fenty also predicted that under no circumstances would Ramsey remain for a full four-year Fenty term." So really, the question seems to be more when, instead of if, Fenty will ask Ramsey to concede defeat of the Asian continent and fade into history.
Tourists Not So Bad After All: Sure, they're annoying, but The Associated Press reports that tourists and business travelers spent 5 percent more in D.C. in 2005 than the previous year, contributing a total of $5.05 billion to the local economy. We guess we can admit it, we can probably deal with the unruly spring and summertime hordes if it means local restaurants and other services are doing a healthy amount of business, and we're potentially not having our taxes increased as much as we might. We can still complain to each other about their rude Metro behavior though, right? Even as we show them big toothy grins and hold signs that say "Welcome to D.C., Your Money is Welcome Here"?
Bomb Squad Called To NE Rec Center: Police were called to the Kenilworth Parkside Recreation Center Tuesday afternoon after crews digging on the property found an unexploded 75-mm shell. When the Army Corps of Engineers arrived they assured officials that it was not live and said it probably dated to the early 1900s. The site was reportedly never used as a military installation, so the Army isn't sure how the shell got there. Let's just hope Kenilworth doesn't get a taste of Spring Valley's 26-year ordnance ordeal. (Lindsay Gibson)
Briefly Noted:
Fujifilm Giant Panda Habitat to open Oct. 17 ... Man electrocued at closed elementary school ... UVa student graduates in one year ... George Allen proud of Jewish heritage ... Redskins sued by deaf advocates to provide closed captioning.
This Day in DCist: Last year we sang sad Irish songs a shed a few tears for the death of Beer Pong at Dr. Dremo's and looked deep into the heart of Supreme Court Justice Scalia only to find a wine bottle. In 2004 we first started hearing about the demise of Visions theater and gave some love to our favorite local music web sites.
Photo snapped by Flickr user amishah.
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FTA: "Tourists and business travelers spent a record $5.05 billion in the nation's capital last year"
Interesting that they managed to do that since so much of the tourist-ey stuff is entirely free. Muahaha, silly tourists!!
I would hardly call tourist Metro behavior as rude. We are the rude ones, they are just ignorant, naïve, annoying and adorable at the same time. Fact is the nicest people I have ever encountered on the Metro have been tourist, however I shot them the evil eye when they ask me question though.
Maybe we got $5.05B out of them on Lincoln Memorial keychains and $2.50 polish sausages, but how many TRILLIONS of dollars in Hill intern work-hours and Kickball league attendance were lost to idling behind tourists on Metro escalators because they stood on the right? The humanity!
Not to nitpick, but it's "ordnance", not "ordinance".
"When the Army Corps of Engineers arrived they assured officials that it was not live and said it probably dated to the 1900s."
Is there an "early" missing from this sentence? Otherwise, those shells could be as young as six years old.
RJ, yes, the tourists do exhibit some rude behavior. Congregating outside a train door you've just exited to regroup the haordes, for example, is quite rude, not ignorant.
But if you're glaring at people that ask directions, perhaps your sense of proportion is askew. That *is* rude. As much disdain I hold for tourists, I still treat them kindly and with the utmost friendliness. Having disdain for them doesn't mean you don't also have a social responsibility to be courteous.
I actually like giving tourists directions, I enjoy being the fountain of local knowledge for folks in from the provinces. I figure if I just tell them how to get where they're going, they won't be standing around in various locales like big pieces of human cholesterol clogging the city's arteries.
"Interesting that they managed to do that since so much of the tourist-ey stuff is entirely free. Muahaha, silly tourists!!"
If you know anywhere where I can sleep for free, and eat for free, do let me know. I may in that case become a resident 'tourist' myself.
rrjfd - Please direct me to the free food and hotels..
Provincial v cosmopolitan:
While some DCers seem to take pride in being annoyed by tourists, NY is (successfully) attempting to reform the rude NYer image this DCer grew up hearing stories about.
There's the Mitch Snyder Bed & Breakfast
I'm only rude to tourists if I can tell they're Republicans.
OK Politburo and Bill:
Obviously I was not referring to the hotels and food. I said that much of the stuff is free, e.g: National Mall, the zoo, museums, other historic sites, etc...geez do I really have to clarify this?
(Sorry if this is a double post)
"geez do I really have to clarify this?"
Well uh, yeah. Perhaps you could start by clarifying why it makes tourists silly for spending so much money when the largest expense on any trip, namely food and shelter, are by no means free. What exactly are you laughing at them for?
I don't even know why I hang out here.
Yes, everybody: I am aware that DC is not some magical free-everything land. For Christ's sake. The amount of activities open to the public at no charge is something that is fairly unique to the area. Most other family vacation destinations charge a substantial admission price for every single thing you do.
It was a prety benign comment, I thought. But thanks for chiming in with your ever-so-important clarifications. You can all go back to complaining about escalators and Whole Foods now.
Ah, yes. The Mitch Snyder homeless shelter. Taking up an entire block of some of the most expensive real estate in the entire country.
They could sell that crappy two-story hellhole and with the proceeds they could build 10 massive, glorious homeless shelters, complete with actual job training and drug abuse centers.
But they won't.
Why not?
Because it's very existence is a cheap political statement. They insist on being there to 'keep the homeless downtown'.
So they do a disservice to the very people they are supposed to be helping, all for cheap politics.
They could sell that crappy two-story hellhole
Who actually owns that building & property?