August 21, 2008
Morning Roundup: Drive South
Good morning, Washington. Sad news: although the last word at the end of yesterday indicated that Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones was still fighting for life, the trauma of the aneurysm she suffered proved to be too much. The 58-year-old Democrat from Ohio passed away at 6:12 p.m. last night.
BW Parkway Closed In Both Directions: Yikes. A fatal crash has shut down the thoroughfare near Powder Mill Road, according to WTOP. The accident seems to have happened around 5 a.m. and involved a motorcycle and at least three other vehicles. There's no indication yet of when the road might reopen.
D.C. EMS Director Resigns: The Post is reporting that Michael D. Williams, the official responsible for reforms in the wake of D.C. Emergency Services' mishandling of journalist David Rosenbaum's assault and subsequent death, has resigned. It's not yet clear why Williams is calling it quits — his superior says he was not asked to leave, although when the Post reached Williams by phone he said, somewhat cryptically, "I think it was thought best that I resign".
Council Weighs In On School Renovations: Yesterday we learned that some repairs to the District's schools wouldn't be completed in time for the start of the academic year. Now a letter from Vincent Gray has made the City Council chief's opinion on the matter known, as the Post reports. In the letter Gray expresses disappointment at the delays and concern over the varying quality of the repairs. Notably, Gray does not hold Allen Y. Lew, the man in charge of the reconstruction effort, responsible for the delays, and instead acknowledges that completing the work on time was impossible.
Briefly Noted: Man rescues two women from fire in Southeast... Suspect in Silver Spring killing arrested in Houston... The Amtrak worker struck by a train yesterday has died... Maryland may sue the Army over pollution at Ft. Meade... Dog attack in SE results in injuries to girl, destruction of pit bull...
This Day In DCist: One year ago the city government and ANSWER clashed over the latter's omnipresent posters and Virginia's lax gun laws attracted criticism.
Image posted to DCist Photos by Flickr user volcanojw
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"I think it was thought best that I resign".
That's what I hate about passive voice. To what does that "it" refer? WHO thought he should resign?
I'd like to believe it was Cool "Disco" George Washington pictured above, who is clearly rocking out to Charlene's "Never Been To Me."
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"Gray took no responsibility for the delays, although his concerns about the costs and education policy implications of the school realignment delayed council approval of some funding and slowed work at some sites for about two weeks." When will DC elect officials who are willing to look inward rather than to point the finger at someone else?
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Geez - depressing roundup this morning. Also just learned that Gene Upshaw died yesterday. I work in NFLPA building and it's pretty somber here today.
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When will DC elect officials who are willing to look inward rather than to point the finger at someone else?
Have I stumbled across Utopiaist by mistake?
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The dog attack was on Capitol Hill, two blocks south of Lincoln Park ... I definitely wouldn't consider that 'SE'.
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I dont know what else you'd call it. If it's south and east of East Capitol Street, by definition, it's Southeast. I suppose they could have called it Lincoln Park or East Capitol Hill or even East Dupont of you're a marginally retarded realtor.
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Technically it is in the SE quadrant, but I get you, not "THAT" SE. I bet you could get a grassroots movement to change the directional suffix of streets in the SE quadrant west of the Anacostia from SE to CH for Capital Hill...I know realtors would love that.
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AMDCer@3: you're not kidding. Prior to news of this morning's accident the original title was "Morning Roundup: Frankly, Pretty Depressing Edition".
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Quadrants are pretty meaningless when designating crime locations anyway. Plenty of breaking and entering in Northwest, and plenty of people manage to walk down the street in SE without getting raped. It's just lazy reporting by stringers who live in Herndon. They should focus more on established neighborhood designations. I mean, everyone knows that you go to Ivy City for heroin, Trinidad for pointless roadblocks, and Georgetown for LNS douchiness. So they just need to say there was a dog attack on the boundary of East Honkeytown and Upper Crackton.
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Regarding the "This day in DCist" -
Did ANSWER ever actually have to answer (hurr hurr) for all those crappy pastings everywhere? That really did piss me off, and I'm glad that their march was a relative un-success only because of those signs.
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@RJ
Part of what has kept Capitol Hill tolerable is that people who assume "SE=Anacostia" and "NE=Hell" continue to ignore our little slice of paradise. I've been on the Hill since '97 and have yet to meet anyone who said, "I love the Hill, but if only we weren't associated with all those negroes in SE. I wonder if we could change our quadrant designation to something a little more upscale like 'CH'."
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That picture above reflects the principles this country was founded on: laying down deep funk grooves and growing hemp for 'industrial use'..
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Who says Freemasons with bad oral hygiene can't get their funk on?
All that statue needs is a "Whoomp! There it is!" teeshirt and a gold lamé do rag.
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Technically, First St. and A St. SE is considered 'SE', but who in their right mind would call that Southeast??
That being said, pitbull attacks in SE happen rather frequently, but a pit bull attack at or near Lincoln Park is pretty rare and newsworthy...
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"Gray took no responsibility for the delays, although his concerns about the costs and education policy implications of the school realignment delayed council approval of some funding and slowed work at some sites for about two weeks."
Gray's an asshole. What can I do personally to help him lose his primary?
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I just have a hard time understanding why these people continue to win their reelection campaigns when their ineptitude is blatantly thrown across the news blurbs of the Post, Times, etc.? What's wrong with us? Why can't we either find a better choice or at least put pressure on the current administration to make the proper changes? ... i.e. dump the two faced bums who love to talk their way out of parking tickets at softball games.
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If you think what you've got now is bad, think of the people who didn't get elected. Unlike Chicago or NYC, DC has few options for career elected officials. There's the ANCs and the School Board and that's it. You don't have a broad range of elected offices where people can get the kind of experience necessary to properly run a crime-ridden Third World sh!hole. So you're kinda stuck with weak-kneed political timeservers, corrupt racebaiting jackasses, and unrepentant cannibals.
But at least you're not Reston.
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I refer to Capitol Hill as Swampoodle South.
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Technically, First St. and A St. SE is considered 'SE', but who in their right mind would call that Southeast??
Well, probably someone who was giving directions. Kinda sucks trying to meet someone when they neglect to include the quadrant in their address.
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Technically, First St. and A St. SE is considered 'SE', but who in their right mind would call that Southeast??
It's not "considered" SE, it is SE.
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Is it really possible that you people don't understand my point, or are you just messing with me!? Everytime I read about a murder in SE, I'll just assume they might mean right next to the Capitol building from now on. Happy?
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@ monkey: Though sarcastic, you're absolutely right. I don't believe that I've really seen that many good choices for office in the 10+ years I've lived in DC. I just wish that someone (I don't know ... the mayor maybe?) would step up and do something rather than pontificate. Then again ... that is "politics".
A counterpoint ... I really haven't tried to make much of a difference either in regards to DC politics. Maybe I should be looking inward ...
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that pit bull attack was a block from my house. while the neighborhood has definitely changed even in the 4 short years i've been there, it's not exactly mayberry. when i can walk around, showing out-of-town friends the lovely city i live in, *without* passing someone taking a dump on a front stoop 3 blocks from my place, then we can rename the "good" part of SE. ditto finding men with guns hiding in some bushes around the corner.
until then, it's still SE.
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"Well, probably someone who was giving directions. Kinda sucks trying to meet someone when they neglect to include the quadrant in their address."
When I tell people to meet me on Capitol Hill, I don't tell them to meet me "In Southeast".
-Hey, where do you live?
-In the United States.
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I just have a hard time understanding why these people continue to win their reelection campaigns when their ineptitude is blatantly thrown across the news blurbs of the Post, Times, etc.?
It's because you fail to understand city politics. Ineptitude and failure mean different things to different groups. Unlike the national political scene, city politics historically break down into machine vs. reform. If you're a machine partisan, failure means something completely different from what a reform partisan considers failure.
For instance, for a machine partisan, the tragedy of the Barry mayoralty was his arrest, not his years of cronyism. For a reform partisan, government incompetence doesn't matter as much if it's the product of a cleaner process (and besides, most reform partisans reply on the government much less than most machine partisans do).
Of course it's not always that cut and dry, but as a general principal, it explains why people keep getting reelected. That, and the built-in advantages of incumbency.
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fuckregistering, are you kidding? I'm sick of people generalizing quadrants anyway (with the exception of SW, maybe). They're huge areas and really not descriptive.
And, if by "that southeast" you mean East of the River, you can use that designation, instead of SE, which also emcompasses Capitol Hill, and "near SE".
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Hey Luci,
I'd prefer more specific definitions than "SE" or "Capitol Hill". Why do the news agencies say Southeast? Why not specifically say "Anacostia"? Plus, anyone who knows the area knows "Capitol Hill" and "Capitol Hill East" are two very different areas, so why not make it more specific?
The news usually says "Southeast" when talking about the ghetto. "Southeast" does not usually mean Capitol Hill. You don't like it, you should write them and tell them to be consistent.
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FR: You're basically saying this: "How dare you use a broad generic term for a neighborhood I like, because I use that broad generic term to describe other neighborhoods I don't like."
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And if I were telling someone to meet me in Anacostia, I wouldn't tell them to meet me "in Southeast" either. I think Monkey's got it right by directing any ire towards Herndon.
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Reid: I'm saying it's stupid to call "Capitol Hill" "Southeast". Is part of Capitol Hill considered "Southeast"? Absolutely. It's also part of Washington, DC and the United States. Why not make the location as general as possible? "A pit bull attacked a girl on Earth"
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Methinks the problem lies within, fr.
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Actually, the link doesn't say "Capitol Hill" OR "Southeast." It just says "200 block of 11th Street" with no quadrant designation AT ALL. So there's your sloppy reporting for you. Probably some stringer who thinks there's only one 200 block of 11th Street.
I used to live right around the corner on 12th at East Cap. In no way is that neighborhood "ghetto." And I'm sure the Lincoln Park Neighborhood Association would be thrilled if the cite was more specific.
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cue comments on rock throwing kids...
@ahark, a dump three blocks from your door? Damn, did I forget your address? ;)
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Just which quandrant would it be more appropriate for Capitol Hill to exist in? Personally, I prefer telling people I live in SE.
But then...with the logic that has been used thus far, you should in NO WAY refer to anything east of Columbia Heights but west of N. Capitol NW...
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Re sloppy reporting, I'm wondering whether the fault is DCist's, because nowhere in that actual story do I see the "SE" designation.
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FR, now you're just back-peddling. Your original objections were not over the lack of specificity, but rather the innacuracy of describing that location as "SE".
To quote:
"I definitely wouldn't consider that 'SE'."
"but who in their right mind would call that Southeast??"
It's not that you think it's too vague to describe a Capitol Hill neighborhood as "SE", it's that you think it's just not correct to do so, namely because you have bad associations with the term "SE".
So basically, because you only consider the bad parts of South East to be "SE", you think it's offensive to call the good parts of South East "SE". I agree with FN, the problem lies within.
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Just which quandrant would it be more appropriate for Capitol Hill to exist in? Personally, I prefer telling people I live in SE.
There are parts of Capitol Hill in NE as well.
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FR brings up an interesting connotative/denotative divergence: "Southeast" means different things to different people. Like when people from Herndon, when they go on vacation, and people ask where they're from, they always say, "We're from DC!" because Herndon has all the prestige and social cachet of rugburn. Yet these same people, when you tell them you live downtown near Capitol Hill, will immediately clutch their purses and ask, "Is it safe?" Because all they know about DC is limited to the Mall, and Georgetown where they hang with their LNS douche pals, and that baby-raping cannibal ex-mayor you keep reelecting.
Long story short, if you're going to live in Herndon, don't go on vacation. More importantly, if you see a guy in a "Whoomp! There it is!" teeshirt, a gold lamé do rag, and a gorilla mask rocking out to Charlene's "Never Been To Me" leave him the hell alone. I'm on vacation.
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37 posts without a junk-punch reference. Stellar.
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I know exactly what neighborhood they're talking about when I hear Soufeast. Same goes for Southeast.
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gmg@35: You're right that the WJLA story does not refer to the neighborhood as Southeast, but the WTOP writeup, which I was also looking at, did. I believe WRCTV's post-Olympic newscast may have referred to it this way as well, although I can't confirm that.
Regardless, I think it's a bit unfair to call this "sloppiness" when the attack did, in fact, occur in SE.
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Well, what do you call it when a news agency reports an attack in DC, gives an intersection, but no quadrant?
Because if you say something like "aspirational time horizon" or "known unknown" you're asking to spend some quality crotch time with Sweet Lady Junkpunch.
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dang, Reid, breaking it down...
Call in the synchedoche police! I'm from "DC" usually gets a shake of the head as if my bedroom is IN the Capitol.
yeah. Quadrant, big thing. Neighborhood, smaller thing.
Hulk smash.
Steve Holt.
Anyway, why was that kid on the street after dark! ;)
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Sorry, synecdoche I can think gud, I just can't spell gud.
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@Disco Stu
How disappointing, I was hoping that "synecdoche" was some fancy variation on douchebag or perhaps the origin of the term.
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Call in the synchedoche police!
It's 518-382-5239, if you don't have a head for remembering telephone numbers.
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Yeah, that's typical me: just as soon as I get your hopes up, I let 'em down.
But then, I also like to come thru in the end. Like Han Solo at the end of Episode IV. hillrat, I give you douchebaggery.
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It's 518-382-5239, if you don't have a head for remembering telephone numbers.
The City Court Judge of Schenectady?
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@discostu: sorry for the delay, got distracted curing cancer. yup, dump. yup, 3 blocks. i believe i even pointed it out, as in "and down the street is the Marine Barracks, and there's the Capitol all lit up in front of us, and oh! to the right, a woman apparently taking a dump on someone's stoop. awesome." and we walked on.
but, hey! now we have a Harris Teeter, so that little shit who threw a rock at my car can bag groceries after school! wooo hoooo
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This whole exchange on SE vs. Capitol Hill reminds me of an argument on the newhilleast listserve a few months back after someone referred to a police helicopter as a ghetto bird. Boy did that ruffle some feathers i.e. my neighborhood is NOT the ghetto! and - how dare you call it the UnSafeway!
Monkey had it right, Joe Suburbia has no concept of DC neighborhoods except Georgetown and maybe Dupont Circle. Capitol Hill is a big white building with a dome, not a neighborhood. Mention just about anywhere else in the city and a look of fear and apprehension envelopes Joe Subs' face. Especially when he hears "Southeast"
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And to throw more confusion into the quadrant quandary, "East of the River" can include sections of NE as well as SE.
For 13 years, I stated I lived on Capitol Hill near Union Station or simply, Stanton Park. Now I have to deal with the whole Takoma vs. Takoma DC vs. Takoma Park vs. Takoma Park, Maryland identifier. Sheesh!
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And to throw more confusion into the quadrant quandary, "East of the River" can include sections of NE as well as SE.
It gets real annoying when you tell someone you live east of the river and they automatically assume you're in Anacostia. Sure, two entire wards on this side of the river are "Anacostia."
Oh well, to us east-siders, everything west of Rock Creek is "Georgetown."
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Hillrat: It's also given by Google as the number for the Schenechtady police court. Schenechtady police, synecdoche police. Whatever, I'm not the only person to make that mistake.
Also, notice how I worked in an example of synecdoche into my earlier posting? A nice example of synecdouchebaggery, if I may say so myself.
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cminus, the phone book lookup was random, brilliant, and i loved it. and yes, the bigger thing for the smaller thing. perfect.
js adams, you say takoma, i say takoma.
ahark, that's truly awesome. but then, my sense of humor is one that finds poo hilarious. not to mention a valid and protected example of free speech. Maybe that stoop had it coming and there was just no other way for that Good Citizen to get her point across? ;)
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OMG - this thread is so much funnier now that I looked up "synecdoche"!
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Southeast!!! Oh, no!!!
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"Oh well, to us east-siders, everything west of Rock Creek is "Georgetown."
You and every Craigslist sublet.