April 2, 2008
Morning Roundup: Keeping Hotdogs and Housing Affordable
Good morning, Washington, and congratulations to your Washington Capitals, who defeated the Hurricanes last night by a three-goal margin. The victory completes a dramatic march from the bottom of the NHL to the top of the Southeast Division (or a tie for it, anyway), and makes the team's first playoff appearance in half a decade seem tantalizingly possible.
Council Acts on Housing, Vendors: The Post reports on yesterday's D.C. Council activity. First up: the repeal of a law that allowed landlords to ignore the city's normally-stringent tenant rights laws if the property was vacant. As a Post series earlier this year detailed, some unscrupulous property managers were using this loophole to make sale or conversion to condos easier and cheaper — all they had to do was drive out the tenants first with abysmal conditions and service. Yesterday's vote aims to make that strategy no longer viable.
The council also took action to provide space for street vendors outside the new baseball stadium. The vendors by RFK had been promised spots, but the city had been slow to actually authorize their presence, which led to some vendors picketing opening day.
More D.C. Audit Delays: A planned audit of the city's finances has missed a second deadline, according to NBC4 — perhaps understandably, given the complexity of the tax office scandal. The Office of the CFO is now saying that the audit will be ready next week.
Prince William Chairman Criticized: Yesterday the Prince William County Board of Supervisors was supposed to receive a report on the state of the anti-illegal-immigrant crackdown implemented by the county over the past month. Instead Chairman and crackdown-architect Corey Stewart found himself under attack, both for the policy and for his recent criticism of the county's police chief. NBC4 has the details (and the video). The Post also has coverage of the meeting, with more of a focus on the actual immigration initiative: apparently 41 people have been arrested on immigration charges in the month since its inception — enough that ICE is having trouble keeping up.
Briefly Noted: A suspicious package shut down Key Bridge last night... MPD officer in coma after car crash... Police officer delivers baby in Fairfax... Man shot in head in P.G. County... The beltway near Branch Ave. will be a mess this weekend... No bail for father accused of murdering his three kids...
This Day In DCist: One year ago hometown boy José Andrés was beating smarmy Food Network jock Bobby Flay.
Image posted to DCist Photos by Flickr user mosley.brian
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PW County is screwing itself to the floor. Not only has their real estate market imploded (I read about $500k homes going on auction for $50k with no takers), but they're also harassing immigrants who actually want to live there and contribute to their economy.
This has got to be the worst idea since that "reimagining" of the Moby Dick story from the perspective of the whale's orphaned daughter, little Baby Dick. It actually wasn't all that bad, until that third act where the heroine encounters the illegitimate albino son of Ahab, who's also called Baby Dick. And that bit about travelling forward in time to kill Hitler seemed a little tacked on. Still, more entertaining than that tired, pooped-out nonsense Laura Lippman sells, but that's really not saying much. The FAQ on how to unblock your septic tank is more entertaining than Laura Lippman, and certainly more plausible.
Morning Roundup at 8:30?? Insane...
Does anyone know what all the hubbub was last night? Very strange with the cop cars up and down 16th St and the helicopter with the search light. This was around 10:00 pm.
Was this the Key Bridge thing?
Even if they repealed the policy and began a year long apology tour with a dunk tank, PW is still screwed. First immigrants settled in PW because there were jobs (construction) and cheap mortgages. Now with the housing implosion, the jobs dried up and the mortgages rates jumped, immigrants have no choice but leave.
PW county gets what it deserves. moving along....
i hope that MPD officer recovers. it's interesting to note that the office is in a coma though. didn't know that was possible.
Oh come on, it's District government -- of course the office is in a coma.
(Kidding aside, I wish the officer a speedy recovery.)
speaking of hubbub, any Old Towners know what all the commotion was around midnight last night? i hardly ever hear sirens in my room, but these babies were loud.
Anyone know whats going down at metro center. Lots of cops cars, like half the department and its all taped off. Presidential visit?
Seems like a lot of sirens, cops, and helicopter activity around town recently. Maybe they're helping look for the President's marbles.
To answer my own question, there is a suspicious package outside 12th and F entrance. So anyone thinking of using the metro center may want to reconsider. The work of edgy tourists?
One of the Metro Center entrances is closed due to a suspicious package - that's probably it...
Bad news: the Caps aren't tied for shit, and they're fairly unlikely to make the playoffs. They may have as many points, but Carolina has more victories, which is the first tiebreaker. It's a damn shame they could have played this well earlier in the season, I would have loved to see them in as a #8 seed so I could watch the Penguins knock them around the ice some more!
Please fix the link in: "Council Acts on Housing, Vendors. It is redirecting to some crime article on a father.
More hubbub to report from Woodley Park last night. Couple of cop cars (I think Secret Service) went FLYING up 29th between Calvert and Cathedral. Anyone know what was going on?
Whenever I read "suspicious package" I see a naked guy with a fake moustache/nose/eyeglasses combo covering his junk.
I'm switching to decaf.
If I were David Bowie, and I am, I would write a glam-rock ballad about the man keeping the people down in PW County entitled "The Rise and Fall of an American Suburb and the Immigrants They Hate"
Caps have two shit teams left to play.. Carolina plays the same teams. So they're not likely to get ahead on the tiebreaker. However, the Flyers have two against the Pens, and one against the Devils. Boston has NJD, Ottawa and Buffalo. There's definitely a chance.
TCM: The link should now be fixed. Sorry about that.
So, no hubbub, bub news?
I always, wonder "what's he building in there?"
Hey Monkey, was that you with the hole in the picnic table?
Plus, Carolina has to play Tampa on no rest. The Caps have a rest day between each game. The chance is totally there.
http://www.newsgroper.com/samuel-l-jackson/2008/04/01/one-picnic-basket-yogi-aint-touching
what other picnic table is there, really?
I have no sirens or police activity to report, although my dog did have a rather massive poop last night.
Re: the vendors outside Nationals Park -- I totally agree that vendors are needed there (although I did see two mobile vending carts from On the Fly, or whatever their name is). BUT, the original bill was for a minimum of 25 vendor spots to be given out via lottery. Then Barry amended that to require 40 spots, with a set number guaranteed to RFK vendors. Forty vendors! Why 40? Why not 30? Or 25? Or 3.14? Who knows! So now the city has to auction off 40 vending spots. The only spots that will be worthwhile are those in the immediate vicinity of the stadium. And how many spots will be in that area? Who knows! Why would councilmembers bother with those minor details? As Cheh said, the city will figure it out. Great.
And re the condo conversion bill - It was kind of disappointing, although hardly surprising, to hear so many councilmembers bad-mouth landlords. No doubt there are some douchebag landlords out there and the city has been very lax in prosecuting them. But there's also no doubt that there are some equally douche tenants out there who seek to screw over their landlords via self-inflicted damage to their buildings and then calling in the city to fine the landlord. The way the councilcritters were describing it yesterday, we've got a massive hoard of greedy landlords out there trying to screw over the sweet, innocent tenants. It's a little more complicated than that.
Well, while a good thing i also wonder how "suspicious" the package at metro center really was. It took them longer to suit up the bomb squad guy then for the guy to walk a block, determine there was no threat/bomb and walk back. The entrance should be opening back up soon as they are wrapping things up and letting people thru.
Re: Metro Center closure. I work in an office on F between 12th and 13rd. We were just told that the issue has been resolved and access to the building has been restored.
No surprise about PW cnty. I got to listen to a lot of political discourse from the trades who lived in PW when my house was renovated. It was like having someone read the National Enquirer out loud.
And yes, I know not everyone who lives there is a 'neck.
"all they had to do was drive out the tenants first with abysmal conditions and service. Yesterday's vote aims to make that strategy no longer viable."
Anybody know what the new condo conversion bill actually says? The WP article was so stunningly poorly written that you get no idea of the actual bill.
@ Hillman - my guess is the Posties wrote up the story based on what the councilmembers said about the bill and it's effects, not what the bill actually says. Probably, in my mind, because the Posties didn't have a copy of the actual bill and it's easier to write down talking points than actually read and analyze a bill.