The Weekly Feed: Experimentation Edition
Morning Roundup: Change Edition
Former Blade Staffers Launch 'DC Agenda'
D.C. Insurance Dept. Denies Birth Control Coverage Meddling
Controversy Over Rhee Now to Include Sex, Congress
In case you missed the news yesterday, the Washington Post has devoted an extraordinary amount of front page column inches to the record breaking temperatures D.C. saw yesterday. At 12:05 p.m. on Wednesday, the temperature hit 102 degrees at Reagan National Airport, according to the National Weather Service, breaking the previous all time high record for Aug. 8, of 101 degrees, set in 1930. The oppressive heat also had a number of other newsworthy outcomes covered in the story: the Metro delays, of course; power outages all over the region and an energy emergency declaration from Pepco, which asked customers to cut back all nonessential electricity use, including air conditioners; and even interns passing out in the sun. So right, just in case you hadn't noticed, it's hot, got that?
Md. Panel Goes After Verizon for Delayed Repairs: For the first time in our lives, we're fantasizing about how wonderful it must be to be a member of the Maryland Public Service Commission. Why? Because they're the folks currently living the dream of being able to force Verizon to answer questions about why hundreds of customers have waited days and even weeks for telephone repairs this year, exceeding the state standard for missed service appointments five months in a row. Will Verizon be scared enough by the headlines to get their act together? The Post has the details.
Some Good News for D.C. School Children: Two more upbeat items to report for a change concerning the state of D.C. Schools. For one, the Washington Times says that more than 97 percent of the District's public school students now have up-to-date vaccinations, which constitutes a huge improvement since the Marion Barry administration, when less than half of students were vaccinated, and possibly makes D.C. the top major city in the country in terms of vaccine compliance. Two, Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee now says that "the vast majority" of the District's public school students will start the academic year with the textbooks they need, even though more than half of the schools do not have a sufficient number of copies for their students.
Briefly Noted: Charter School Board rejects proposed move of Washington Latin School to Penn Quarter ... Prince George’s to purchase trash trap for Anacostia River ... MPD cancels move of headquarters to Southeast ... A 4-year old girl was found wandering on Tennyson Street near the border of Chevy Chase.
This Day in DCist: In 2005 we bugged Mayor Anthony Williams about deciding whether he would run for a third term, and in 2004 we rejoiced in the news that SmarTrip cards were finally being accepted on every single Metrobus.
Photo by Samer Farha
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The city signed the lease in December for the site at 225 Virginia Avenue Southeast. Officials had a six-month grace period to change their minds before paying rent on the 400,000 square foot building. They made the first $542,000 payment in July.
O.......kay. So they spend half a mil on rent on the place, then decide it's too expensive to move? Isn't that like putting a down payment on a mortgage then deciding that owning a home is too expensive? WTF?
I know, monkey. I think I might have to do a separate post about this.
I think Mendelson needs to get the Inspector General to check this out. And Ghandi's auditors need to examine that "cost analysis" that the DC Office of Property Management cooked up. Unless everybody here's just dandy with MPD pissing away half a mil. Hey, the District's coffers are still flush with cash, right? They'll make that money back in no time.
I'd like to know who exactly was on the recieving end of that $542k and what is their relationship to MPD.
Sommer- If you're gonna do a followup, please address the cost/benefit of taking (the obvious) 500K loss now, vs the relative cost(s) of operating that 400,000sf property in comparison to their preferred option. And project forward for, say, 5, 10 and 15 years.
Guest 4, I suppose that might be interesting, if somehow the numbers indicate that backing out wouldn't save money. But otherwise it's hardly the point.
If someone's gotten us into a position where the best move is to waste half a million dollars, the proper response is not to say "Well, the decision's been made, and we can't do anything about it now, so that's water under the bridge." We need to find out how the mistake (or "mistake") was made and hold people accountable.
How times have NOT changed since the crackhead Barry days. Schools without books, bad property management, mismanagement of federal grants for education, the list goes on…
500K per month could put a lot of cops on the street. Of course no one will be fired for this.
Read the article. It says a "vast majority" of DC students will have books. In DC, 51% qualifies as "vast majority."
At least the kids got their plague vaccinations. What about the HPV virus, or did the so-called Christians shoot that one down as encouraging kids to have sex?
I think 51% is just a simple majority. You need 52% to be "vast".
#4 Here, again.
KC, I don't think we disagree. I had meant to suggest by my suggestion that the decision to move MPD, which was made during the last admin, was apparently so irresponsible as to make the prospect of a 500K hit preferable. I'm reasonably confident the numbers would bear that out.
Where we may disagree is in the matter of accountability. I think it likely that those who made (and approved) that decision are very likely to have already been replaced. The heads of OPM, MPD, the City Admin, etc are all new under Fenty.
I guess what I'm getting at is that, though I'm sure there's a story here, the large(st) portion of it will be of historical interest.
Don't just give praise to DCPS- the office of the attorney general was involved, too. DCPS excluded the non-vaccinated kids from class, then OAG went after the parents for truancy. Easy way to get 97 percent.