The Weekly Feed: Experimentation Edition
Morning Roundup: Change Edition
Former Blade Staffers Launch 'DC Agenda'
D.C. Unemployment Rate Reaches 11.9 Percent
D.C. Insurance Dept. Denies Birth Control Coverage Meddling
Good morning, Washington. If you're wondering why your Metro station platform might have been a little chattier than usual, it's because a program to expand cell phone service to non-Verizon customers in 20 of the system's busiest stations kicks off today. Sure, it'll be nice to be able to check email or send text messages, but the increased chances of having people make calls could well fill the system's cathedral-like stations with even more inane chatter than you might usually find. The expanded service won't yet include the tunnels, so that early-morning sanctuary you find on Metro will remain, at least for a while longer.
K Street to Get Facelift: The D.C. Examiner reports today on a plan to upgrade the traffic-choked K Street corridor by adding a dedicated bus lane and removing the existing service lanes. Even though the plan has been in the works for eight years (heck, I remember reading about it on one of my first weeks as a District resident), it's only now that money may become available for the project -- city officials have applied for a stimulus grant to cover the $139 million the upgrades would cost. Delivery services and cyclists aren't too happy with the existing proposal, which would see either a two- or three-lane busway up the middle of the street and do away with the current service lanes. A comment period on the proposal ends October 30; construction would begin in late 2010 and be completed by 2012.
McDonnell Leads Money Race: Both the Post and Examiner write that Virginia Republican gubernatorial candidate Robert McDonnell has $1.8 million more to spend in the closing month of the hotly-contested campaign than opponent Creigh Deeds. And though Deeds has been trailing in the polls, he may take solace in the fact that he was outspent in the Democratic primary, yet still managed to win, and that current Virginia Gov. TIm Kaine was also out-moneyed in his own campaign for the governorship.
Tolls on Local Roads to be Discussed: There's tons of traffic, very little money to repair roads and Metro could always use a little more cash. What do you do? Put tolls on roads in the Washington region. WTOP reports that the region's Transportation Planning Board is set to discuss putting tolls on existing roads, not just new lanes being built on local highways. The idea, which would mirror congestion pricing schemes implemented in London and Stockholm and almost put in place in New York City, will be part of an $80,000 study that could eventually lead to a pilot program. To give you an idea of how extensive the toll network could be, consider this -- the pilot program could include tolls on Rock Creek Parkway.
Briefly Noted: Wanna challenge Adrian Fenty? There's a million bucks in it for you ... Non-black Homecoming Queen provokes controversy at historically black college ... Is anyone else annoyed at how much coverage the Colorado balloon boy got? ... D.C. Council to hold meeting on teacher firings.
This Day in DCist: On this day in 2008, Michelle Rhee got a shout-out during a presidential debate and the GW Medical School was put on probation. In 2007, Mayor Adrian Fenty had to decide on whether to support meters over the zone system and The Red Derby, the best bar ever, opened in Columbia Heights.
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On this drab and dreary October of the soul, it's good to warm your hands by the flames of the WTOP comment threads. Highways may not be "free," but the righteous indignation of car-dependent sprawlaholics always warms the cockles of my heart. And nobody likes cold cockles. Just ask WizzyLiz.
I agree wholeheartedly. And as a cyclist, I look forward to contributing my share by paying a toll to bike along Rock Creek Parkway.
I guess the bourbon in my coffee is kicking in, because I read that blurb as, "D.C. Council to open fire on teacher meetings." Then I remembered that nobody on the Council knows how to shoot and it would end up a self-inflicted bloodbath with would be totally awesome.
Thank you for making me chuckle!
Then I remembered that nobody on the Council knows how to shoot
Au contraire, mon frere!
So you're saying Mendelson would end up standing on a smoking pile of his fellow councilmembers corpses? Replace his right arm with a chainsaw and you have the feelgood movie of the season. This thread just keeps on giving.
"Good, bad... I'm the one with the oversight responsibility over the Office of Administrative Hearings."
Hah!!! Mendo who thinks his .22 pea shooter is "heavy?" I'm running down the list, at first I thought Barry would win because he has eaten some lead and you'd think he'd know how to shoot. However, he would probably go "thug style" and just blast all over the place. I think the winner would be Evans. He has the cold dispassionate disposition to calmly take a good shot.
wait a minute, martin. i've been to the public information meetings for the k street plan (two nights ago and a couple months ago), and nothing's settled. i don't think the examiner article claims it is either. maybe you don't either. maybe i should just go back to bed...
the cycling community would love a cycle track, but we know that's highly unlikely, so i think a lot of us are pushing for that in hopes of negotiating down to at least a dedicated bike lane.
Yeah, I went to one of the public briefing meetings in August, and, like any transit project in this country, it's competing with some 100+ projects for federal funding. If there's no federal funding, DC doesn't necessarily have the cash to build it, so it's anything but settled.
Well, what is settled is that if they do decide to build it, the cross-town rush-hour traffic shall resemble Dante's ninth ring of hell.
Eh, people choosing to drive themselves to work on K St. have it coming to them and can either deal with it or get on a bus. At least the buses will no longer be caught in endless stop-and-go traffic.
Nobody drives on K Street anymore. It's too crowded.
It's too crowded = there are still people using it = those people will go to OTHER cross-town streets once K street closes. Joy to the world, all the boys and girls now...
dpr: you obliquely hit on an important point there. other streets. as in, the feds shut down two major east-west traffic arteries (pennsylvania ave. and E street), causing traffic to go up everywhere else. lots of bus routes that would have used E are up on K now, causing part of the congestion up that way.
When you get to the fork in the road, take it.
Mass transit should always take priority over automobiles. If you've ever been to a European city you can see how much better it works when it is setup that way.
If you ask me, I hope people get frustrated with the congestion and choose to take the bus/metro instead. If the bus goes that much faster it will hopefully encourage them. Most people driving into the city don't have a legitimate reason to not take mass transit, they just feel inconvenienced by it.
Agreed. Transit works much better in Europe. Is there any way we can replace the people in cars on K Street with sexy Europeans? Particularly the hideously augmented, leggy blond ones that appear in Rocco Siffredi movies? This would go a long way towards relieving the congestion IN MY PANTS.
+1 for the Rocco reference.
Obviously, as you said, it's not about money in the VA Governor's race. The Deeds campaign has the strength of a retarded infant because 1) their candidate is a stuttering (not his fault) mess who can't articulate his views simply enough to satisfy the Gump-like masses of Virginia and 2) Their campaign managers are brand-new graduates barely out of college long enough to get the drugs and alcohol out of their systems, who know nothing about the districts they're canvassing and don't do any research or ask for local volunteers' advice.
I'll still be voting for him, but it's almost like he doesn't deserve it.
"...the Gump-like masses of Virginia..."
Yo' Mamma!
As a semi-literate Virginian, I have learned the following things from the two campaigns.
Deeds:
1 - Will Not be raising taxes
2 - Except when he will be raising taxes
3 - He REALLY doesn't like a paper Mcdonnell wrote a long time ago
Mcdonnell:
1 - Has daughters and a wife
2 - Has women who worked for him
3 - Has a 'plan'
Also, McDonnell's daughters are no Meghan McCains (they have bad skin based on the commercial close-up and seemlingly do not have chestessess that could win a blue ribbon).
McDonnell also has a law degree from Christian Broadcasting Network University. I am not sure where this school ranks against West Hollywood Upstairs Law School, Costco University of Law, and MTV-U.
Did somebody just reference the "early-morning sanctuary" of the Metro car? WTF?
I tested the cell-service today and I was able to make a call at Metro Center. The bottom-level has spotty service, but the top level was good. I wasn't able to get internet on my iPhone, just phone service. Also, I was only able to place a short call since the tunnels don't have any service at all!
I like being able to get texts and calls, but I want to be able to access the internet as well, especially since I have a 1.5-2hr commute (on a good day) on the metro.
No data? These upgrades are useless to me if they don't include data. I make very few phone calls but I use the data network all the time.
edge data worked fine for me while on the trains in stations. I didn't try 3G or voice.
My Verizon phone has always had decent coverage even in some tunnels, but today, bupkis, anywhere.
Seconded on Verizon service. On the plus side, I see I now get more than one faint bar of 'EV' in the stations. I get nearly full signal. Alas, zero in the tunnels.
Hey! That's one way to stop people from using their phone while in the cars.
I got 3G data in L'Enfant on my iPhone this morning - both on the lower and upper levels. I was able to check e-mail, read dcist, etc.
I have Verizon and my phone never works underground or in tunnels.
I've never had a problem placing a phone call or texting in a metro station on any level, as long as I didn't go into the tunnel. That said, some very rare occasions I didn't lose the call in the tunnel. If I don't get service in the tunnel this upgrade does nothing for me.
"K Street Facelift - city officials have applied for a stimulus grant to..."
I do hope they allowed for a standing lane for limousines.
CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Monkeyrotica Transit Solutions, LLC is looking to partner with a locally-owned business to submit a proposal to replace most of K Street with jetpack-navigable canals. Please submit your non-refundable $100 application fee, along with swimsuit pictures and a 500 word essay on why Johnny Tremain should be made into a movie starring Keanu Reeves. No weirdos.
i'm sorry, sir, you must be lost. the citypaper personal ads are that way ----->
"K" as in Kanal?
Does anyone know what was going on last night at Park & 16th with all of the firetrucks, etc.?