November 12, 2008
Morning Roundup: The Watchful Eyes Edition
Good morning, Washington. Did you happen to feel like someone was watching you while you walked down the street today? That might just be because there have been 5,200 city-owned cameras trained on D.C. citizens since June. The Examiner reports this morning that the VIPS camera network, which was consolidated into a unified system on an emergency basis for only 120 days over the summer, is still operating today under murky standards. To clear up those questions, the Fenty administration is now proposing new official regulations for the cameras that would take effect before the Jan. 20 presidential inauguration. The video-only network would be monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week, but could not be used “for the purpose of infringing upon First Amendment rights.” Seems a little murky still to us, but since Fenty pretty much already won this battle months ago, it's unlikely the network is going away anytime soon.
Metro Seeks Protection From Bank Action: Today's the big day in court for Metro, where it will ask a federal judge to temporarily bar a Belgian bank from collecting $43 million from the agency. Metro's money problems stem from the recent credit downgrading of insurance company AIG, which had guaranteed a long-term financing agreement between the bank and the transit agency.
Graham Proposes Parking Meter Rate Hike: Ward 1 D.C. Council member Jim Graham is proposing increasing the amount D.C. parking meters charge. Graham's proposal would increase the fee from $1 per hour to $1.50, which he says would generate $8.5 million and, hopefully, encourage more people to use transit instead of drive. Sounds like a good plan, and in fact is maybe a little timid - why not go ahead and make it $2 per hour, especially downtown?
Briefly Noted: Fire at FBI Building Tuesday evening forces evacuation ... Assistant police chief named to head academy ... Woman attacked and beaten in Southwest, tells NBC4 she believes the teens attacked her for fun.
This Day in DCist: One year ago, the Washington Post's classical music critic was placed on leave after insulting Marion Barry.
Photo by jng03
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Woah, hey, what? Fenty? Overstepping? Making poorly conceived decisions without details?
Say it ain't so.
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This is becoming a disturbing and increasing trend. Besides the blogger who was attacked by a group of teens with what appeared to be no motives (this after he was attacked only months before by someone else), a good friend in Brooklyn was just mugged for the second time in a month, this time by a group of teenagers (he didn't guess that to be older than 15) wielding steak knives.
Something needs to be done, or else there are going to be some dead teenagers in the community soon.
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I love that a man (the Grahamstander)who preaches using mass transit drives his car (and parks it illegally) everywhere...s
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I wonder. Is there any relationship between Graham wanting to charge more for parking and the fact that he doesn't have to pay anything?
It's crap like this that has me rooting for SkyNet to become sentient. It's already got cameras everywhere. I won't be happy until DC has its own army of armed Enforcement Droids blaring, "Your parking meter is expired! You have 20 seconds to comply!" Certainly would make Georgetown a more interesting place to visit.
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Something needs to be done, or else there are going to be some dead teenagers in the community soon.
Yeah, right. No concealed weapons permits allowed in DC, so going Charles Bronson on them isn't an option. About the best you can hope for is Lanier declaring the block a Neighborhood Safety Zone, Fenty making some speech about zero tolerance, then forgetting all about it.
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A person can be "placed on leave" for telling the truth about a racist, crack-head?
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Was it a pack of teens? Or a gaggle? Perhaps a flock?
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It thought we agreed the term would be "a loiter of teens?"
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no more caffeine: It was a tackle of teens.
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They say they won't use the cameras to violate my first amendment rights, but what about my third amendment rights? Where's the gaurantee that they won't use cameras to look into my apartment and decide that I've got enough space to quarter troops during a time of peace?
And for reels on the meter thing. It should be a lot more. However, until they install everywhere those fancy meters that accept credit cards, there's a limit to how much change they can expect people to haul around.
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Last week, a uniformed police officer approached a group of teens standing outside a CVS near the mall in the middle of the day and asked why they weren't in school.
Police said the teens jumped the officer, stole his police radio and tried to steal his gun.
Holy crap, how did I miss this?
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DC needs to take a cue from the gas stations and start using those meter machines to sell ad space and generate revenue. At the very least, they should have speakers installed to blare annoying advertisements at passers by. I'll also remind you all that country and classical music is a known deterrent to teenage loiterers. Set those meter speakers to Toby Keith and watch Antwayne and Ray-ray run screaming. And if they try and vandalize them, send in the Enforcement Droids with the chain guns.
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I wonder how many other cities have exempted their City Council members from parking meters and parking restrictions.
It's a bit ballsy for Graham to even mention parking meters when he has exempted himself from paying.
And by 'ballsy' I mean annoying, hypocritical, and stupid.
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are the meters really only $1/hr!? sheesh, I think they should be waaaay more than that.
$1/hr is de minimis.
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We yuppies need to organize into groups of thirty and start jumping teenagers at random, just for fun. First we'll start in NW with an occasional spree in SW, then we'll go all out and start teen-hunting around Trinidad and Congress Heights. Make em scared.
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Why is $1/hr the minimum you'd charge?
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"I love that a man (the Grahamstander)who preaches using mass transit drives his car (and parks it illegally) everywhere...s"
Though I'm all for a rate hike (@ $2/hr that's only $16 per day roughly for the commuters who insist on street parking), I thought the exact same thing. Is there a reason why council members are exempt? Or was this just another example of "unchecked" DC politics?
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Also, for what it's worth, InShaw has posted a few reports of teen-assaults taking place in and around Truxton Circle (bloomingdale/eckington)
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yep ... she's right near my neighborhood. Unfortunately we were also witness to one of these attacks a few months back. The kids scattered when a neighbor, myself, and my German Shepherd pursued them. Chiken shits.
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err ... "chiCken"
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Why is $1/hr the minimum you'd charge?
I 'unno what Tenleytownist's reason is, but considering that downtown parking garages seem to be asking $7-$8 per hour base, maybe $5-$5.50 per hour for multiple hour and/or weekend use, $1 per hour seems hella below market rate.
If I owned a parking garage, I'd be pissed that the government was undercutting me like that. Hella pissed.
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Raising the price of parking meters will have no impact whatsoever on the availability of parking.
I mean seriously. If you own a car, - which costs you something like 35 cents a mile over the life of the car to drive, not even counting the $100 per month in car insurance you're probably paying - are you REALLY going to take public transit instead of drive because... ummm... it will cost you another buck (or two or three) to park for an hour?
I'm fine with raising the prices, but this is about revenue generation, not about increasing parking availability. People who area already paying the huge overhead costs of owning a car will drive if it's more convenient, period.
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cminus, did you really just type "hella"?
just checking
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Whatever their moniker, DC teens are quite a punchy bunch these days. Angrier than Janet Reno’s blind date. As Benjamin Franklin once said: Whatever is begun in anger ends in shame.
Again, very much like a blind date with Janet Reno.
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Is there a reason why council members are exempt? Or was this just another example of "unchecked" DC politics?
Council members got tired of making their secretaries run down to DMV to void their tickets out. It wasn't like they were paying their parking tickets anyway. This was one of those under-the-radar rules they crowbarred into existing legislation right before they went on vacation and nobody noticed until it was too late. Same thing with that law allowing Barry unlimted refills at the live baby buffet at the Donner Party Cafe.
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Is there a reason why council members are exempt? Or was this just another example of "unchecked" DC politics?
If I recall correctly, it began with an effort by Carol Schwartz to get Congress to pay their parking tickets, which they refused to do, citing the Congressional privilege of non vólumus obtempero lex, sic peto abyssus. In response, Schwartz turned to the common-law principle of si vobis non evinco lemma, tunc suo per lemma, and introduced and got passed legislation exempting City Council members from parking tickets as well.
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I'm fine with raising the prices, but this is about revenue generation, not about increasing parking availability. People who area already paying the huge overhead costs of owning a car will drive if it's more convenient, period.
The primary objective with raising meter rates is to encourage more people (particularly commuters) to use garages. This will free up more street parking (which aomng other benefits may benefit retail stores). If you offer free, or nearly free, street parking more people will try to find street parking and stay there as long as possible. Once the price advantage of street parking is diminished, the convenience of garage parking will attract more drivers and street parking will attract shorter term parkers and thus turn over at a higher rate.
And to the extent that this increases DC revenue: so what? That's my response to any complaint along those lines. Whether it's complaints about red light or speeding cameras or parking tickets, who cares that we're taxing an undesirable activity? I'd much rather hike up a vice tax like that than raise taxes on desirable activities such as labor.
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No more caffeine, it was today's word on my "Word-a-Day" calendar. And why do I make it a point to use the word of the day? 'Cuz I'm hella cool, that's why.
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We yuppies need to organize into groups of thirty and start jumping teenagers at random, just for fun.
Hey, I was just thinking that! I don't have an iPod and my old cellphone is an embarrassment, so I vote for robbing the teenagers (instead of administering random beatings), who will undoubtedly have lots of nice shiny electronics on them. Those teenagers better watch out when us nerdy 40-year old mid-level managers get together in a wolf pack!
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Not sure how it works around here since I've been car-free since moving to DC, but in Ann Arbor I used to park at meters all day and put no change in them. If you payed the ticket the same day at the drop box it was only a $5 fee which is way less than you'd spend in change at the meter for the day, and way way less than you'd pay in a parking garage for 8 hours. Damn the man! Save the empire!
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"We yuppies need to organize into groups of thirty and start jumping teenagers at random, just for fun."
We are bigger, smarter, and we have insurance.
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Try not feeding a meter in Bethesda. You'll have a ticket about 4 seconds after your paid time expires.
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Those teenagers better watch out when us nerdy 40-year old mid-level managers get together in a wolf pack!
It's Office Space meets Death Wish. Comedy gold, Jerry. Have your machine call my machine and they'll do lunch.
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if there was a trend of white teenagers brutally attacking almost exclusively older black people i think we'd all know immediately what was going on. Why isn't anyone calling these racists attacks for what they are?
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Very true, Kev. I swear those meters have notifications to the meter maids once they reach a certain threshold, say 3 minutes before, so they can literally watch it turn zero. They probably have the ticket written up and ready to put under the windshield. I don't know how else they do it, unless my watch is a little slow, because it's a guaranteed ticket, like clockwork.
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"If you offer free, or nearly free, street parking more people will try to find street parking and stay there as long as possible."
In most shopping areas, you can't park for more than an hour or two at a meter no matter what. I don't park at meters because it's cheap, I park there because it's a heck of a lot more convenient than finding and dealing with a parking garage.
Now at night it's a totally different story - because you can leave your car at a street spot all night for free. But this proposal isn't about extending meter times past 6:30 PM, it's just about raising the prices when they are in effect, and already limiting your stay.
"And to the extent that this increases DC revenue: so what?"
I agree. That's why I said I'm fine with raising the prices.
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if there was a trend of white teenagers brutally attacking almost exclusively older black people i think we'd all know immediately what was going on. Why isn't anyone calling these racists attacks for what they are?
Alright. You're a racist. Happy now?
I kid! I kid! Actually, this is like that Richard Pryor bit. "You know what an 'epidemic' is? It's when it starts happening to white people." You don't read about it in the Post, but black teens have been mugging black people since forever. Why do you think they all moved to PG County when they got money?
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Monkey, it's not so far off. You want robo patrols? How long from military to police applications?
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Well, if you've done nothing wrong, you've got nothing to hide, right? There's no reason to be afraid of the giant Officer Friendly droid armed with twin chain guns, a search warrant, and a hideously augmented cyborg wang, its tip glistening with an anticapatory drop of "gleet."
The wang is also cursed.
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yeah, there's no arguing that there's a lot of crime in the black community, and it needs to be addressed as well.
But this isn't black crime spilling over and effecting white people. These aren't muggings -- these kids don't want anything other than to to hurt people. This is a new act, a new crime, and I think that if people approach it planning to solve it like traditional muggings they're going to fail.
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Well good luck getting your black-on-white attacks labelled "a hate crime." You need to take a ticket and get in line behind the gay guy at Be Bar who got his ass KILLED. Yeah, totally NOT a hatecrime, either.
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What's with the "round-up the black teenagers" attitude.
So much for all the post-racial election euphoria.
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I'm kinda thinking the whole beating-up-white-folks-for-s**ts-and-giggles would have something to do with it.
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Once Obama is sworn in as POTUS, all our troubles will disappear.
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that's why i'm advocating rounding up all the teenagers, regardless of race, and shipping them to kerguelen.
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I'm with IMGoph. If we're preemptively rounding up people I feel much more comfortable discriminating on the basis of age than race.
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If you're gonna have $1.50 or $2 per hour parking, you gotta have those boxes all over the city where you can use bills and then stick the little ticket behind your windshield. No one is walking around with $2 in quarters.
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No one is walking around with $2 in quarters.
Speak for yourself. You are aware that a $10 roll of quarters makes an excellent knuckleduster? Try socking a mugger in the junk with that. Better than sap gloves and, once the cops show, you dispose of the "evidence" in the closest parking meter.
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Monkey is always about the public service. Vigilante justice followed by paying it forward.
I have found the messiah. Unfortunately he seems preoccupied with junk-punching and 'droid wangs.
Not that there is anything wrong with that. Just don't junk-punch the 'driods.
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no one's saying round up the black teenagers. i don't understand the insufferable white guilt attitude that no member of a minority group can do wrong simply because they can also be a target of discrimination. For example, consider these communities where discrimination is known to exist: Koreans don't like black people, black people don't like gay people, and gay people don't like tacky people. There's enough discrimination to go around.
White people don't have a monopoly on racism.
and monkey's right. the dc police aren't too keen on adequately prosecuting hate crimes in general.
if more white people carried socks full of quarters i think it would be a lot easier to track down the gaggles of civility-challenged teens.
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Let's round up Mayor Fenty and Jim Graham and poop on them.
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of course, if you're carrying around a bunch of quarters in a sock, and a cop asks you what you're doing, you can just say you were trying to chase those kids down to give them some money because you love them so much.
if their heads get in the way...oops! ;)
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if prosecuting assault makes me a homophilic racist, then sign me up for the log cabin kkk
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Bring back impressment. We can't send these teenage sociopaths to jail but we can send them to the next best thing: the U.S. Navy. There they can work out their agression in nightime bombing raids, forced sodomy, and shore-leave child molestation. At least they're doing it somewhere else.
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Monk, add mandatory keelhauling for the little shits!