August 17, 2007
Morning Roundup: Get the Lead Out Edition
Good Friday to you, Washington. Are you getting psyched for the weekend already? No? Did we mention how nice the weather's going to be yet? Predictions are for mostly sunny skies and low humidity levels on Saturday with below-normal high temperatures in the low 80s and overnight lows sinking down to, get this, the low 60s. It's like Christmas in August!
District Plagued By Lead Concerns: It's sure starting to feel like we're having the same arguments and concerns about lead safety we were having several years ago. Earlier this week, the Washington Times reported that the city has been failing to comply with a federal court order from 2003 to screen thousands of low-income children for lead poisoning. Yesterday, Mayor Fenty and Attorney General Linda Singer unveiled their new crusade to solve the long-standing problem, which includes the filing of dozens of lawsuits against local landlords who have failed to comply with lead abatement orders. As the Examiner's Harry Jaffe points out, this particular battle, one that has long plagued the District, should be an excellent test of the Fenty administration's abilities to actually get things done.
Police to Redefine Crime Hot Spots: Mayor Fenty has asked the MPD to re-examine where the city's crime “hot spots” currently are in order to better deploy a concentrated police response to the right neighborhoods. Neighborhoods on the current list include Columbia Road and Euclid Street in Adams Morgan, three Southeast communities, two on the Georgia Avenue corridor and five in Northeast. Everyone would probably like a little more police presence in their neighborhood, but which blocks do you think ought to be hot spots that currently aren't?
Briefly Noted: Special Metro service planned for Nats, Redskins games Saturday ... Beltway's outer loop to close Saturday night ... Driver in fatal Beltway crash was drunk ... National and BWI among nation's top ten airports for transportation.
This Day in DCist: In 2005 we welcomed Mayor Anthony William's short-lived blog to the interwebs, and in 2004 we wondered about whether local private art collectors would ever come together to share their art with the rest of us.
Photo by lifeinthedistrict
|
Never quite understood the "crime hotspot" mentality. When a hotspot cools off and the cops leave to go to another hotspot, the former hotspot gets hot again. Look at Euclid Street, any Euclid Street anywhere in America, and it's a crime hotspot. The one in Northwest has always had dealers on it since the 1970s. Have they gone anywhere? What happened to the "mobile community crime centers" which consisted of a cop, a cheap plastic table, and an umbrella? I recall seeing one off Georgia Avenue but that was years ago.
Combine this band-aid approach with the reluctance of locals to cooperate with the police ("snitches get stitches") and you're not just rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, there aren't even any chairs. Just pegs; pegs with a thousand tiny Senso-Ribs and Passion Spikes "for her pleasure." And by "pleasure" I mean "having a 13-year-old laugh while he hits you in the face with a pipe."
Here's the Shaw mugging link that didn't get posted.
Sommer, BWI and National are in the nation's top ten for transportation. The text you posted is a little misleading..
Sure enough, guest[3], I just made an adjustment to reflect that, thanks.
Also misleading, PART of the outerloop will be closed, not the whole thing.....
I'm interested to know if the hotspots are cooling off because the crime is moving over a few blocks, creating new hotspots.
To be fair to Summer, unless you check out the link off of WTOP, you'd assume from the article that we're just talking about "best overall airport" not "easiest airport to access." While DCist could have been a bit clearer, WTOP should be taken to task for the sloppy reporting.
monkeyrotica
You're not joking. Euclid Street/Avenue/Boulevard, ANYWHERE, is always a hotspot. Why is that?
I'd like to see crime hotspots (which represent a valuable allocation of police resources) defined in part by the willingness of the neighborhood to help the police. If the entire neighborhood sits by idly without giving names and addresses to the police, I see no reason why that block should get added resources.
Guest #9, that is the silliest suggestion I have ever heard. There have been a few really good articles in the Times about Newark and the whole "stop snitching" phenomenon. They point to a myriad of factors that affect police/resident relations, but it's never as simple as the "entire neighborhood sitting idly by". One major point was that the police do not have the resources (officers, cars, equipment, etc) to protect law abiding residents who might want to cooperate. To address the problem by taking away MORE resources makes absolutely no sense.
The tragedy of those four young women getting killed is bad enough, I really don't think it does any good for the Post to trumpet the news that there was some alcohol and marijuana involved. All the laws and campaigns against drinking and driving are a mechanical change driven by enforcement, and not very effective. The only solution that really works is a commitment freely taken on by society.
Euclid Avenue in Syracuse is the bastion of suburban wholesomeness, actually. It's Westcott Street that draws the underbelly of society over there.
I think #9 basically described why Georgetown is full of cops on Saturday night, while none can be found on Euclid.
I live at 15th and Euclid and somehow I'm missing all this crime that goes on there. Where's all the crime occurring and when is it happening there? I can't imagine people are being mugged in Adams Morgan considering there's practically cops parked out from of the corner store between 16th and 18th streets on Euclid....
#14....that would be the infamous "17th and Euclid". (the same intersection that has the crime camera) If the police presence would be removed, within a few weeks you wouldn't want to walk near there at night.
Between the car breakins and the attempted homicides, the stretch of Euclid between 14th and Georgia is your best entertainment value on a Saturday night.
are the crack whores still strolling Euclid?
There's no friggin way Logan airport is more convenient to get to than Reagan National. And the BWI shuttle adds another sizable leg to the trip to the airport. How is that convenient?
it seemed like their point with logan was that there are so MANY public transportation options for getting there, from so many areas. national is only more convenient if you live next to a metro line (which, admittedly, is awesome).
i'll take any of them over an airport that you need to drive to and/or take some sort of infrequent shuttle to. options are nice.