October 1, 2007
Morning Roundup: Not So Fresh and Clean Edition
Ahh, rise and shine, Washington! It's another beautiful fall day, so stretch and breathe in deep ... but not too deep, unless you enjoy inhaling some of the worst air in the nation. Scientists are putting numbers on information our lungs already knew: the D.C. area "produces more carbon dioxide than several medium-size European countries," the Post reports. This is due primarily to Maryland's coal-burning power plants and our stand-still traffic, we make more carbon dioxide per capita than the rest of the country, though the study notes that this doesn't include other greenhouse gases, like methane. Still, seems like investing in asthma inhalers isn't a bad bet.
Teen Violence Overshadows Weekend: The Post reports the grisly news that ten people were shot in the District since Friday, including a triple-shooting around 1 a.m. Saturday morning that killed a 15 year-old boy and wounded two others. The confrontation began with an argument near 14th and U Streets NW and ended at a bus stop in Brightwood. Three other people were killed this weekend, bringing homicides for the year up to 143; this time last year there were 131.
Audit Reports Improper Bonuses for D.C. City Workers: After Mayor Adrian Fenty reeled in the city's bonus system last week in the wake of D.C. Auditor Deborah K. Nichols' report, the full audit and its gross details have been written up in the Washington Times. It seems that $525,846 of taxpayer money was given to employees without written justification, including $15,600 given to Former City Administrator Robert C. Bobb a month after he left office in September 2006, and, perhaps because he was doing such a great job no longer coming to work, only two months after he had received another bonus in August. But the award for Ballsiest Employee goes to Lisa Marin, head of the Office of Personnel, who authorized $11,053 for herself, more than double the recommendation. Nice.
Briefly Noted: NoVa commuters might have it easier with the half a million allocated for a Bus Rapid Transit system, while Metro riders suffered through more delays this weekend ... Six figure families are living in subsidized housing in Fairfax ... Triathletes swim through, try not to swallow, the Potomac waters on Saturday; so far no new extraneous limbs have been reported ... Single-sales go into moratorium on H St. NE today.
This Day in DCist: In 2004 we were awaiting the opening of IndeBlue and noting Michael Moore's uninvitation from GMU, while in 2005 we went to see Washington National Opera's Trilogy.
Image by andertho.
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Gee, I've got a wedding coming up in 9 months, maybe I should work for the DC government! Those bonuses would sure come in handy....
BRT, “railcars on wheels” – is there no end to the rhetorical contortions needed to get the middle class to ride the damn bus?
City Records show that DC councilmember Jack Evans (Ward 2-Democrat) was paid $92,500 as a council member and reported earning a Patton Boggs salary in 2006 of $240,000 a year, a raise of more than $50,000 above what the firm paid him in 2005.
Mr. Evans is chairman of the DC council’s committee on finance, overseeing the DC Office of the Chief Financial Officer, which is handling the lobbying contract.
Mr. Evan’s defense is that he doesn’t vote on issues pertaining to Patton Boggs as a councilmember.
The only catch is that DC council has never voted on a Patton Boggs contract because the contract does not exceed $1 million a year. "Mr. Evans is the chair of a committee on DC council who oversees lobbying contracts all while working for a lobbying firm who benefits from a lucrative DC lobbying contract.
Mr. Evans’ actions clearly demonstrate a conflict of interest that taints our political system for personal gain.
Busses are for losers. Wake me up when they replace the X2 line with a pneumatic tube full of personal transit pods. If I'm in a hurry to get blown up at Carousel, the last place I want to be is stuck next to some maniac screaming at his shoes.
I'm not sure if it's the Post's reporting or DCist's that's confusing me, however these statements:
and
seem at odds with this post's statement:
I’m a bike-riding, transit-cheering eco-geek, but it’s probably worth pointing out that carbon dioxide doesn’t have directly negative consequences on lung function. The problem of warming caused by CO2 and other greenhouse gasses is second-order and global. Even if DC produces more than its fair share of greenhouse gases, the effects are doled out according the vagaries of the climate system and geography. That said, coal-burning power plants produce lots of other directly nasty emissions like sulfur dioxide and fine particulate matter that make people sick.
Mr. Evans’ actions clearly demonstrate a conflict of interest that taints our political system for personal gain.
Heh, heh. You said "taint". No wonder DC politics is so stinky. They don't wash down there.
justjack: This post is wrong. If you read the article, it's pretty clear.
IndeBleu has been open for 3 years. Wow. Seriously, how does that place stay afloat? The food is awful and the rent has to be sky high.
"BRT, “railcars on wheels” – is there no end to the rhetorical contortions needed to get the middle class to ride the damn bus?"
I don't know about you, but I'm excited about railcars finally getting some wheels. I guess Amtrak's been using sleds up to this point, which might explain a lot.
But seriously, I recognize the reality that most middle-class (and up) people don't like riding the bus. And I say that as a daily bus-rider. I imagine the reason people don't like buses is that there doesn't seem to be much of a trade-off. My observation is that mass transit works best in two situations: 1) when people go short distances from and/or to a place where parking is scarce or expensive or 2) when the car trip from Point A to Point B is long and very traffic filled, even if cheap parking is available.
Long distance bus systems don't work well to attract that second group of people if the buses are stuck in the same traffic. However, a good BRT system with a ROW could serve that second category pretty well. I'd prefer a more robust commuter rail system, but it's a start at least.
Actually, if you've got asthma, you should be more worried about diesel-spewing Metro and school busses and idling trucks than CO2. But I don't suppose that jibes with the usual car-bashing agenda.
Actually, if you've got asthma, you should be more worried about cats (cat allergens were found to account for 29.3 percent of asthma cases - per new NIH Study). I think cat-bashing is more in order.
DC and CO2: More CO2 is produced here because people get so busy blogging that they let their Diet Cokes get warm and flat.
http://notionscapital.wordpress.com/2007/09/28/diet-coke-carbon-footprint/
Asthma?
We can reduce the DC carbon footprint if we all hold our breath . . .
Since C02 is what we exhale when breathing, and apparently we now think C02 is pollution, breathing = pollution.
That's right. Every time you breath heavily, whether jogging or doing it or whatever, YOU ARE KILLING MOTHER EARTH!
:-P
Heather Goss is so cute. Too bad she's only into fiction.
Jesus people. It was 1 am and I read the story too quickly. My extreme apologies.
BostonRay says: You gotta luv WaPo for it's dedication to WaPoop. The world's oceans produce 90% of the carbon dioxide as a natural product (it's organic, cool). That leaves 10% inclusive of all the lakes, rivers, streams that take care of 3%. Man only gets involved in 7% at the most. Even the eco-moonbats interviewed said their data was "rough". (Translated: fictional crap.) Al Gorebull Warming Trash. Just stop breathing and don't forget to recycle thy dead self. Meantime I'm going to take a spin in my Hummer H2.
#17 has not gotten laid since having his heart broken by an early eco-warrior in 1973. Hence the barely constrained spittle-choked rage...and the excess of free-time to invent neologisms like "Al Gorebull Warming Trash".
Late at night, on most Sundays, I rummage through your trash, and separate the recyclables from the non-recyclables.
GLUBBA-WUBBA DINGA-LING!!!1!
>an early eco-warrior in 1973.
Who was, at the time, warning everyone about the impending global cooling crisis.
;-)
BostonRay does not recycle: Since the Alexandria City Council reaps a profit off of recycled material and uses the bucks to pay off lawyers to defend their "failed agenda based rule" to the tune of $3 million plus down the toilet, it is only fitting and worthy that BostonRay gets to participate. If they pay me at my going rate of $245 per hour with a minimum of 2 hours per day (bargin) I would be glad to recycle. As soon as I see that first weekly city check for $3,430 hit my mailbox just watch those (now used as nifty storage) yellow and blue bins fill up. Trust me, I am willing to help! I will even, like Al Gorebull, buy my carbon offsets from my own company. For every carbon offset of $10,000 I will plant a blade of grass to stop this C02 tragedy.