February 5, 2007
Morning Roundup: Postgame Hangovers
So we're making this proposal to The Man, right here, right now: make the day after the Super Bowl a holiday. We'll use it to celebrate sloth, gluttony, and our blessed capitalism. We can observe it by eating microwave burritos in our pajamas and watching our favorite Superbowl commercials on the internet. In return, we'll give back President's Day. Hell, more Americans know Lombardi and Parcells than know Monroe and Coolidge, right?
Be careful outside today, kids, that wind chill factor isn't climbing very far above zero.
District Ramps Up Pedestrian-Friendly Measures: Twelve percent of District employees walk to work. Many more walk a few blocks between a Metro or bus stop to the office, or stroll to lunch. WaPo reports that DDOT is investing a quarter million dollars to find ways to get more folks into their walking shoes, and to make pedestrian trips safer and more pleasent. The effort is known as the Pedestrian Plan, and it will encompass measures such as public meetings, maintenance procedure reviews, and an online survey. In the latest of a number of recent surveys focused on improving the city, the DDOT questionnaire gets to the finest details about what makes people opt to avoid walking, from sidewalk conditions, to public safety, to intersection design. The results of the survey will be available online on February 9th.
Reason #1329 Why I'm Happy I'm Not a Kid Today: What sounds like a nightmare to many may be becoming reality soon for District students: school all day, every day. With pressure building from all sides on public schools in D.C., Superintendent Clifford Janey and Mayor Adrian Fenty are interested in the merits of extending school days to as long as 12 hours, as well as year-round instruction. Schools in other states, as well as some local charter schools, credit a great deal of improvement in performance to the longer days - especially for poor and minority students.
Catholic U. Names New Provost, Thousands Don't Protest: Unlike some other local schools with troubled leadership transitions, CUA will quietly name James Brennan as Provost, from the same position at Towson University. In June, Brennan will officially replace John Convey after his decade of leadership.
Briefly Noted: WTOP reports that Marion Barry could be in serious trouble again (surprise!) for not following through with the payment of back taxes that he agreed to in the terms of his probation... Montgomery County Zoning Board is a pushover in court... The National Zoo's Bandit the bear celebrates her 30th birthday with yummy cantelope and smelt (mmmm)... Virginia legislature kicks off debate to amend state budget priorities.
This Day in DCist: Last year, an Opinionist wrestled with the choice between career opportunities in D.C. and hometown cultures left behind... In 2005 we welcomed the National Zoo's adorable new cheetah cubs.
Photo by Flickr user jsmjr.
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An easy pedestrian link between Wisconsin Ave and Connecticut Ave in Glover Park would be nice. Currently, there is nothing between Macomb St (really, Porter is you plan on going even further east) and Q St. That's a long stretch for walkers.
But DCPS can't get rid of summer vacation! Who will help Ma and Pa Kettle bring in the crack harvest at Barry Farms? Summer is that special time in a young boy's life when dad teaches him how to make a soapbox racer and build a basement meth lab. It's when little girls learn about jumprope and how tough it is on the street for a pimp. Don't take that away from the kids!
And while we're at it, can we switch the gradeschool/highschool starting schedule so that the teenagers can get an extra hour of sleep. The tiny tots are already bouncing off the walls by dawn anyway.
Year round schedules are a very good idea. Students don't spend the fall relearning what they forgot over the summer, there's still plenty of time for breaks & vacations, and the city doesn't have to worry about tens of thousands of bored hot kids in the summer. The group with the biggest pushback on this might well be the teachers, who'd rather not lose their summer.
Also? Don't be an ass, Monkey.
So if, as WTOP reports, Barry has yet to start paying any federal taxes, isn't it also highly unlikely that he has been paying DC taxes? Shouldn't someone be looking into this? And shouldn't there be some sort of law stating that if anyone has been failing to pay DC taxes, then that person cannot be a member of the City Council?
"An easy pedestrian link between Wisconsin Ave and Connecticut Ave in Glover Park would be nice. Currently, there is nothing between Macomb St (really, Porter is you plan on going even further east) and Q St. That's a long stretch for walkers."
Personally I wouldn't consider the area north of Macomb to be Glover Park (I'd call it either Catherdral Heights or Cleveland Park, depending on how east you are) But anyway, there are several east-west routes between Macomb and Q. There's Woodley and Garfield. Plus you can walk through Dumbarton Oaks to get from Social Safeway to Whitehaven, then you can take trails through Normanstone Park over to Woodley Park (or alternatively you can just take Rock Creek Drive to Calvert).
Annapolis is also pushing a year-round school schedule and the teachers union is going to give them the fight of their lives. I don't see it being any different in DC. And if it does pass, look forward to yet another flight of teachers to Montgomery/Fairfax Counties.
Teaching isn't a 9-to-5 job. Once the bell rings, they're grading tests and prepping lesson plans for the next day. It's more like a 12-14-hour workday. And in a DC teacher's case, there's also the out-of-pocket expenses of paper, pencils, and everthing else that central admin is too stupid/getting paid too much to be bothered with. Making a year-round schedule work is going to take more than a "bold initiative" and a few more bucks.
A great idea in theory. Like No Child Left Behind, social promotion, and representative democracy. In practice, it's going to be very messy.
A few years ago, the NFL moved the Superbowl into February to coincide with TV ratings "sweeps" that take place in February, May, July and November.
As long as they've gone that far, though, they ought to put the game on the Sunday before Presidents Day for those who would like to party hard and sleep in the next day.
i heard on the radio that over 5% of the work force will call in sick today. while that doesnt seem like a very big percentage, thats millions of people not working today.
i should have stayed home, too
Five bucks says the fools elect Marion AGAIN.
Personally I wouldn't consider the area north of Macomb to be Glover Park
Oh, I know, and I agree - I just think there should be a pedestrian link from the Glover Park area of Wisconsin over to Connecticut.
there are several east-west routes between Macomb and Q. There's Woodley and Garfield.
Woodley and Garfield do both run to Connecticut, yes; however, to access them, you have to go north to where Wisconsin and Mass Ave intersect, and area which, as you already pointed out, is well north of Glover Park.
Ideally, I would like to see something linking the area near the intersection of Calvert and Cleveland to Observatory Circle that would remove the reliance on trails (which are no good in lousy weather) and hills. This would allow office workers significantly improved access to the Woodley Park metro station. It would still be a considerable hike (probably a mile and a quarter), but given that there are already a lot of offices on Wisconsin in Glover Park and the fact that DC is increasing the zoning density in the area, that would be a very nice alternative.
I definitely agree with this Post-Superbowl National Holiday idea. I woke up this morning, looked at the clock, felt my pounding head, and promptly went back to sleep. I don't REALLY need to go to a 10 am class...
Although no one has expressed this notion explicitly or alluded to the possibility, it seems that more time in schools means less time in the streets...less time going to empty fridges...less time around crying babies, and less time being exposed to all the other social ills that plague the success of low-income.
Basically, increased exposure to academic environments leads to better learning and low-income to do experience academic environments outside of the school house.
In regards to a Post-Superbowl National Holiday, I think our democracy should lobby for a national election day holiday every presidential election year - Super Tuesday. Given the fact that elections are held on a leap year, the economic effects based on GNP and daily averages would be nil.
Most employers outside the public sector do not provide for leave plus long lines before/after work feed electorate apathy. More folks vote for American Idol than for elections . . . every little step, symbolic as it may be, should work to encourage civic engagement.
Would teachers more likely be encouraged to teach a full year or discouraged if the pay was increased to compensate? If DC schools demanded more out of them, but offered a greater income potential in return, what net effect might that have? I don't have the answer to that.
Monkey, you're right about the "in theory" part anyway. There are many teachers that work as hard as you say, but for every one of those, there are two more that recycle 20 year old curricula, make all tests multiple choice, and are out of the parking lot before the student buses have even pulled away. The unions give them the flexibility to be a good teacher or a mediocre teacher, and many take advantage of that. (Speaking from my own experience, not with the DC school system)
I seriously doubt an extra couple hours/months of sub-par patronizing will have much impact on performance, test scores, or dignity. If your work day went from 8 hours to 12 hours, would you really get a lot more work done, or would you spend that much more time thinking up interesting ways to avoid doing your work? Forcefeeding more of the same pabulum allows educators the convenience of avoiding the nasty question as to why these kids aren't learning in the first place.
Taco Salad,
Seeing as the Woodley Park Metro is about as far north as Garfield, I don't see how a straight through road would even help much. The reality is that it's hilly to get from Wisconsin to Connecticut, even if you could walk straight through Observatory Circle.
But more to the point, I agree with your observation that it's probably too far to expect much of a pedestrian connection. The real answer is the proposed streetcar line from AU to Skyland SE. That is supposed to go from AU down Mass to Garfield, over to Woodley. Personally I'd rather see it originate in Georgetown to connect Georgetown, Adams Morgan and U St. on one line, but for what it's worth, there should be connecting service with a Wisconsin line right at the Catherdral.
It'll be a great system, for our grandkids that is.
Reid,
I am going to have to disagree with you here - the Woodley Park metro is at the intersection of 24th and Connecticut, which is well south of the route that you have to take to get to Garfield.
More to the point, the distance between Q St and Garfield St on Wisconsin is nearly 1.5 miles, almost all uphill. This is the largest gap along the two roads within DC, by far. A pedestrian walkway - which would really only have to span a few short stretches over Normanstone Park, improvements to the pedestrian stairs between Normandstone Dr and Woodland Dr, and paving the trail south around the Observatory - would be a fairly low-cost method of bridging this gap in the pedestrian system in DC.
Well I wouldn't call that "well south" but whatever. I think the point remains that the distance between Woodley Park and Glover park is quite far and not easy to traverse. I personally doubt making a walkway through Normanstone Park would encourage much more foot-traffic, and you've got to deal with the National Park Service to get the path through Normanstone turned into a "walkway" (whatever that would entail). Plus the incredibly rich residents of the Normanstone neighborhood would probably have to get on board.
The biggest obstacle to your plan is the VP's mansion. The second biggest obstacle is Dumbarton Oaks Park. Neither of which are under DC's control. In fact, the NPS wants to close access to Dumbarton Oaks Park at Whitehaven, and make the Lover's Lane access the only one.
But until then, I still think the best way to get from Glover Park to Woodley is to go through Dumbarton Oaks, down Whitehaven and down Rock Creek Drive to Calvert. It's not a straight line, but it's about the closest you'll get without getting shot by Secret Service (assuming you don't stumble onto the Clinton's property on Whitehaven).
I seriously doubt an extra couple hours/months of sub-par patronizing will have much impact on performance, test scores, or dignity.
It's a matter of what DCPS does with the extra time they get. If they keep applying the same failing strategies then it's a waste of time and money, but if DCPS leadership uses this as opportunity for more individual instruction and to address current structural problems then it could be successful.
No matter what the route, walking between Glover Park and the Woodley Park Metro is too far to be practical for the average commuter. How about establishing a direct bus route between the two neighborhoods? Perhaps the 90 bus could be re-routed to continue west past Calvert Street onto Cleveland Avenue, then onto Garfield Street and then south on Wisconsin, toward Georgetown.