June 1, 2007
Morning Roundup: June First Edition
Welcome to June, Washington. Also welcome to the end, at last, of your short post-holiday work week. We do hope it wasn't too painful. Even if it was, the good news is that it's going to be relatively pleasant, if a touch on the hot and humid side, most of the weekend. So spend some time sitting on your front stoop sipping iced tea. Just remember to slather on the sunblock, and of course, invite us over to share.
H2O to Remain Closed: The D.C. Alcoholic Beverage Control Board ruled yesterday that H2O would stay shuttered at least through Wednesday. D.C. officials, including Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier and Assistant Attorney General Vanessa Atterbeary, are pushing to revoke the club's liquor license permanently after a fatal shooting ocurred just outside the night club earlier this week.
Barry Pushes Affordable Housing: D.C. Council member Marion Barry is introducing five new measures that address the city's lack of affordable housing, including a controversial rent-control bill that would protect low-income residents from losing their homes. Another would create a rent-to-own plan that would give some public housing residents the option to buy their rental properties.
Briefly Noted: Md. woman videotaped deadly Beltway crash ... Georgetown University dean Judy Feder to challenge Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) again ... Greater Southeast Community Hospital settles claims about high executive salaries.
This Day in DCist: In 2006 we learned the truth behind the moniker "Zero Hero", and in 2005 we honored the first of the month by exploring landlord-tenant law.
Photo by easement
|
Okay, full disclosure. The rent control story cites the DC Fiscal Policy Institute, which is basically just one guy: Ed Lazere. He gets airtime on WAMU and WTOP and his standard one-size-fits-all fix for ANY problem involves raising taxes. Traffic congestion? Affordable housing? Affordable healthcare? You know what the DC Fiscal Policy Institute's answer will be.
I'm not saying it's an invalid proposition, I'm just saying it's just one guy's opinion, not some huge thinktank with massive research resources.
As for rent control itself, it's basically dying on the vine. Landlords don't take public housing vouchers as a rule, and the existing loopholes you could drive a bulldozer through. Throw up a dividing wall, or tear one down, and bingo, your rental unit is no longer under rent control.
Monkeyrotica: Ed Lazere has been doing a job nobody else will do: actually counting the DC Budget's beans and making the information accessible to the general public. Try it sometime and you'll see why he has a great reputation and gets the media calls.
There are also two other people on the DCFPI staff and (attention job-seekers) they may be hiring another Policy Analyst (the job announcement looks pretty stale, though).
I agree with both of you: Ed does a great job counting beans, in a way not many else would bother, but at the end of the day his conclusions are invariably that we need more beans from rich and not-so rich people.
I think he earns his way onto the media, but I just wish the media would qualify his statements a bit.
The DC Fiscal Policy Institute is a political organization and the analysis they provide is designed to support a pre-determine outcome. Their research is not objective.
When DCFPI compared 2005 property taxes with 2007 and found them to be lower, it seems homeowners received a tax cut. They did not do a thorough comparison using 2004 or earlier because that would show a large tax increase.
DCFPI reports are all on their website so those interested can judge.
If you disagree with the DCFPI analysis you will have actual, meaningful numbers to try your own.