Man Stops Traffic at 17th and K to Demand $200 Million
Morning Roundup: Goodbye, Abe Edition
Judge Throws Out WTU Suit Over Teacher Layoffs
Vegetate to Close at the End of the Month
Morning Roundup: Rain Won't Go Away Edition
Good morning, Washington. Ice! Good lord, there's ice! Not much, admittedly — in fact, by this hour there's probably almost none. But still, the weather's been so unpleasant for the last day or so that we find ourselves wishing for evidence that it's transcended mere unpleasantness and moved straight into genuine deadliness. Today's weather is also supposed to be pretty miserable, but the rain should begin letting up toward the end of the afternoon.
Kaine Revisits Virginia Smoking Ban: Tim Kaine is taking one more shot at secondhand smoke in Virginia bars and restaurants, WJLA reports. The governor and freshly-minted DNC chair has met with disappointment on similar efforts in the past, but says he's optimistic that changes in the General Assembly make it more viable now. Even if this push fails, a soon-to-be-introduced bill with more modest ambitions — allow communities in Northern Virginia to issue their own smaller-scale bans — may still succeed, according to WTOP.
Key Bridge to be Closed for Inauguration: Well, that pretty much does it. WTOP reports that Key Bridge will be closed on the 20th, joining the 14th Street, Memorial and Roosevelt Bridges in being inaccessible to private cars on the day of the inauguration. This means that it will be more or less impossible for a driver to get from Arlington to the District on that day — with the possible exception of Chain Bridge, which officials say will either be closed or so clogged as to be completely useless.
Briefly Noted: School bus crash leaves three kids with minor injuries... Freez King, a Frederick landmark, is up for sale... Protest permits granted for inauguration... Montgomery County on track for significant increase in crime... Apartment fire in Arlington sends 15 to hospital...
This Day In DCist: One year ago Target was getting ready to open its Columbia Heights store and plans emerged for rebuilding College Park.
Image posted to DCist Photos by Flickr user mindgutter
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Wholly crap an morning roundup before 8am! Good work Tom.
this weather sucks. sucks. SUCKS! either warm up and really rain, or cool down and turn to snow. this in-between bullshit rubs me raw...
I'm sort of amazed that we haven't heard more from VA complaining about the bridge closures. Anyone who booked hotels in Arlington/Alexandria is really cut off from the District, whereas anyone who chose digs out in MD still has hundreds of routes into the city. I have a lot of relatives and friends in VA (and am due to give birth on the Inauguration, lucky me) and in effect, that sides of the Metro area is lopped off. Doesn't seem equitable.
My guess is that most of the folks who booked VA hotels are from way out-of-town and are probably not yet aware of the situation here. If you are already aware of the closures, you probably didn't really need to know in the first place.
It would be cool for the city (feds, state, Park Service) to close Memorial Bridge once a month for pedestrian-only access.
Tom, can you do Morning Round up every day? No. Seriously?
I'd rather stick my penis in a wood chipper than drive downtown on innauguration day. Were people honestly going to try and drive and park downtown on innauguration day? They've been announcing road closures left and right for weeks now, and even if the 2 million plus figure never materializes, who would want to be stuck on the Mall in a car in gridlock anyway? Screw that. Why be surrounded by slackjawed yokels when you can can watch President Bagger Vance walk the Green Mile and teach us the true meaning of Arbor Day from the comfort of home?
Who do I thank for finally getting rid of that pic of the fat guy with glasses in the header? That clown was creeping me out.
Sorry monkey, I still see your smiling face in the header, you creepy bastard. It's like big brother watching everyone, but with more pooh.
If sack and sugar be a fault, then God help the wicked! If to be old and merry be a sin, then many an old host that I know is damned. If to be fat be to be hated, then Pharaoh's lean kine are to be loved? No, my good lord; banish IMGoph, banish Hillman, banish blittle; but for sweet Monkeyrotica, kind Monkeyrotica, true Monkeyrotica, valiant Monkeyrotica, and therefore more valiant, being as he is, old Monkeyrotica, banish not him thy dcist's company, banish not him thy dcist's company! Banish plump Monkeyrotica, and banish all the world!
i'll gladly banish myself. let me just set up the paypal page that y'all can donate to in order to make it happen. we won't set too high of a threshold to be met, funds-wise...
This soliloquy should be performed at the Shakespeare Free For All this year (preferably without pants.)
Monkey, finally seeing what you look like is kind of like having The Residents unmasked.
Funny. To me it's like finding out that Darth Vader's this fat bald dildo.
Let me guess the headlines for 1/21/09.
Above the fold:
OBAMA STARTS FIRST DAY, BUSH GONE FOREVER, NATION CHEERS
Below the Fold:
CROWD TOTALS FAR BELOW EXPECTATIONS; LOCAL OFFICIALS ON THE DEFENSIVE AS RESIDENTS FUME
Sports:
WIZ LOSE AGAIN
REDSKINS SIGN 40 YEAR OLD WR AND WILL NOW CHARGE FOR TOILETS
Is the logic really..
'There will be a lot of traffic, so we better close the bridges?'
That really is pure genius.
So instead, all of Arlington will be a giant parking lot.
People in those neighborhoods near the bridges should put cones in the street in front of their houses and charge for parking.
This means that it will be more or less impossible for a driver to get from Arlington to the District on that day...
Oh come on. This might hold true even if all those bridges were open. I can't wait for the post Inauguration Morning Roundup: 'If they only kept this one road open, there would have been no traffic backup' or 'If they only ran more trains, Metro would have been fine.'
Because really, we don't want to see officials make the the best of a bad situation. We want to whinge and we need someone to blame.
@boondoggle I thought the bridges were being closed to provide extra parking for the 500-5000 expected buses.
Kinda like how Metro is expecting 1000 busses and only has received reservations for 35 spaces. They are now is opening up parking garages/lots they were hoping will be filled with busloads of wild eyed liberals coming to praise their new Jesus.
Right. The idea seems to have been to get the buses as close as possible to the inauguration so that the passengers don't jam the metro lines.
I think the best plan to reduce traffic would be to close I-95 from Baltimore to Richmond,the Beltway, rt 50 from Annapolis and 270 from Fredrick!
I've heard that DDOT has considered making the bridge closures leading into Virginia permanent and affixing machine gun nests on the District side to keep those whiny Virginians (and their cars) out.
And Tom, MAJOR KUDOS for getting a morning roundout issued in - how novel - the morning! Office drones around Washington rejoice in your diligent ways...
Virginia put the river there to keep out trash from DC and Maryland. You can keep your crime and hiptards on that side of the river.
Well, that's one way of dealing with the bridge and tunnel crowd.
Next step: blow up the tunnels at both ends so that only Sylvester Stallone can save us.
I have no problem with the Virginia bridges being closed. As a matter of fact, let's keep 'em closed!! Nothing ever good came out of Virginia.
Nice try. But I've come prepared. My anthracite fueled steampunk dinghy is no match for your puny bridgeblocking measures. Now, son of Jor El, KNEEL BEFORE ZOD!
George Washington
also Bill Clinton
willard scott
Nice early post!
Can we still walk across any of the Virginia bridges?
Yes, but all of the tourists will be standing on the left sides of the bridges.
At least the Key Bridge...
i hope so, for the sake of those who live close to them. if the crush on metro is what they say, it'll be easier and safer to walk across than to try to take a train only a few stops.
btw, fingers crossed our office manager wins out - he's trying to get our office closed on Inauguration Day. i only want to battle the masses if i can go to the Mall and photograph the crazies. i mean, tourists. i mean, supporters!
Not too late to move to Maryland then...at last I can be rid of those Virginians who stop for the green light! And the ones who stop 10 car lengths behind the car in front of them at the stop lights. And the ones who drive 25 in the left lane and absolutely refuse to move, no matter how many times I bump them from behind!
In all of last year, there were 21 homicides [in MoCo], compared with 20 in 2007. The numbers exclude two fatal shootings by police officers last year and one the year before.
Montgomery's violent crime totals pale in comparison with those from the less populous jurisdictions to the south and east. In the first nine months of last year, the District recorded 142 homicides and 3,180 robberies, and Prince George's County had 65 homicides and 1,919 robberies in the first eight months.
Can someone please tell me where there's a safe place to live? And don't say Iowa because I nearly choked to death on a loose-meat sandwich from Maid-Rite there and I'm never going back. The service was atrocious, but the gravy fries were not uninspired.
Yeah, I always wondered why DC has all of 4 bridges when other cities with rivers have them every couple blocks. I kinda figured it was to keep out Virginians.
If I were going to the inauguration, from my place, I would just walk the 2 miles to the key bridge. But I'm watching it from the comfort of my living room instead, which comes with climate control, bottles of champagne, and a convenient place to pee.
Maybe it's not enough, but I think we have about 11 bridges altogether.
Chain Bridge
Key
TR
Memorial
14th Street
South Capitol
295
Pennsylvania Ave
East Capitol
Benning Road
NY Ave
I think he means Potomac River crossings.
After the Cabin John Bridge, there is nothing upstream until you almost reach West Virginia. (White's Ferry doesn't count)
All this talk about traffic during the inauguration is like Geico sending me info in the mail about saving on car insurance. I don't have a car and I don't drive.
The bridge closings remind of some kind of military maneuver where they seal off the city and spray us with a calming agent that slowly turns us all into Republicans or
Zombies. Either way it's all good cause from what I hear,
if you prepare brains the right way..(I got this from a Republican friend of mine)..it tastes just like Scrapple.
MMMMMMM Good!
That Cheney told you, didn't he? That s.o.b. can never keep a secret when it comes to some fine hunting recipes.
Anyways, if we all turn into zombies, let me the first to wish you all:
Happy Hunting!
This whole seal the bridges thing is just the first stage. You don't think they'll ever re-open them, do you? Anyone ever see "Escape from New York?" We're gonna have to send in "Snake" Plisskin to save the President and Adrienne Barbeau.
I wish all the bridges were drawbridges.
Anyone willing to bet that far, far fewer people show up for the Inauguration than the several millions number being tossed around? That original estimate of 2-5 million was based on absolutely nothing other than Fenty's mental math calculation of how many people the Mall could hold. That's not a crowd estimate; that's just pulling a number out of your arse! And the media has been running hard on those numbers, even though those numbers aren't based on any actual estimate of any sort.
What if we held an inauguration and nobody came?
Remember an estimate can never be wrong. It can only be replaced by a better estimate or the actual number.
In Fenty's case, it seems like he was just signalling general unreadiness with his estimate of 4 million. Like when Mayor Nagin claimed ten thousand lives were lost during Katrina; he probably knew that number was way too high, but it drew attention to conditions in New Orleans.
Sure, an estimate can't be wrong, but after the fact you can certainly learn something about the accuracy of your model and I don't think you can get any less accurate the dart board approach.
How do you estimate attendance to this sort of event? I really have no idea.
I'm guessing Hizzonner is laying the foundation for his political future and it's not in the "local" city. (think: federal) If he gets this one right, he'll look like a frigging genius and gain the attention of Obama's people.
A short call and he's done for; a long call and everything will go smoothly. Who cares if the damned bridges are closed? Peeps shouldn't be out in that scrum anyway. Stay home, watch it on TV, walk downtown, or fly away for a week.
btw, Clinton never gave jack schitt about Sharon Pratt Dixon Pratt Kelly Pratt Dixon; never mind the GOP who tried to pretend there wasn't even a city here. I hope for much better from BHO.
I wish the world had all shiny people:)
I am happy Kaine is trying for the smoking ban again. I avoid bars and other venues in Va because of how nasty your clothes and hair end up smelling. Gross gross gross. DC trumps Va on this one.
DC trumps VA on many things.
yes, DE, but most of the things in which DC trumps Va are the reasons so many of us live in Va...
it's 11:37. where's the next goddamn post? hello? anybody out there?
i wish hot women grew on trees.
Just looking at all the comments congratulating dcist on the early posts. They probably did it to blindside us on the lack of posting later on in the day.
what's up with that? I actually worked for two hours today.
bet they're still hard at work sorting through the bugs. i don't wish that kind of work on anyone.
Yeah, agreed.
Have you figured out your problem? After I saw your response yesterday I threw my hands up in the air and went back to drinking my desk bourbon.
no, i haven't. i'll give it until next week, then bug the shit out of tom and sommer until they buy me a new pony.