Results tagged “tommywells”

The District Department of Transportation is bringing its show on the road in the coming month in an effort to do public outreach in all eight wards on the biggest projects in its pipeline, including those streetcars you've been hearing so much about. You may have seen different versions of this list of upcoming public meetings, but below is the revised, and most up-to-date, calendar now available.

For those of you following yesterday's broad daylight double shooting in Southwest, one of the victims is now reported to have died. From the Post's Paul Duggan: "The slaying victim was identified as Chicquelo Abeny of Southwest Washington. Police did not identify the second victim because he survived the shooting and is considered a witness." Police are still not offering any ideas as to a motive in the shootings, but Ward 6's Tommy Wells is already tweeting up a storm about setting up a community meeting "to determine if they are retalitory [sic] shootings or unrelated incidences."

Councilmember Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) has sure had a busy start to his autumn. First, he came to the defense of disabled Segway riders who wanted to ride on the sidewalk. Then, he battled the oppressive governmental restrictions on raising chickens in your backyard. Now, all he has to do is work around the District's $20 million reduction in funding for homeless services in the budget for fiscal year 2010, a move that could be quite problematic for the District's network of homeless shelters and service providers.

The plight of the D.C. urban chicken owner has been a hot topic this year, with a big write-up in the Post about how awesome it is to have fresh eggs, and how much of a drag it is to be forced into adopting a clandestine approach to chicken ownership. Enter Ward 6's Tommy Wells, who, in addition to a chicken in every pot, would like to see a chicken in every backyard. Wells has introduced legislation that would do away with the current regulations, which prohibit fowl within 50 feet of any building “used for human habitation,” the Examiner reports.

Ward 6 D.C. Council member Tommy Wells is first out of the gate with a statement admonishing his colleagues for considering diverting funding away from longstanding projects in order to fund the construction of a new Convention Center Hotel. Word of such discussions, which would involve taking away dedicated subsidies from projects like the Southwest waterfront, the Capitol Riverfront, the Skyland Shopping Center and the O Street Market, first surfaced earlier this week.

              

Members of the D.C. Council knocked to the floor while protecting the lane against aggressive offensive moves by much younger journalists. Disputes over fouls and scoring. The District's most even-tempered radio voice handed a technical foul for being a little too lively a coach. Getting driven to to the hole by Council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) on your first play in the game. Yes, this was all part of the first ever basketball game between members of the city's legislative body and the journalists who cover them.

There's an obvious tension between the media and most elected officials. Journalists are a prying bunch, and even the best of our public servants like to keep things under wraps now and then. In public, things remain somewhat cordial. On the court, all bets are off.

    

As anyone who has ever tried to get to H Street NE without a car knows, the area isn’t terribly accessible. Visitors to the area are often faced with a long walk from Union Station, trying to figure out the X2 bus schedule, or the often difficult task of finding a cab back at the end of the night. But all of that is has now changed.

The ban on the sale of single beers keeps marching on, so it seems.

D.C. Council members Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) and Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) and District Office of Planning director Harriet Tregoning met with reporters this afternoon at a miniature street festival designed to highlight today's Car Free Day event. F Street NW between 9th and 8th will continue to be closed to motor vehicle traffic until about 3 p.m. while vendors meet with residents to promote various businesses that can help D.C. residents live in the city without a car.

We've been interested in D.C. Council member Tommy Wells's amendment to add additional fines for drivers who double park in bike lanes for a while. Greater Greater Washington has been all over this story from the beginning, so it's no surprise you can read the news there: yesterday the Council passed a set of new laws regarding new fines for drivers who endanger pedestrians and cyclists, and Wells's revised amendment was included. The fine for drivers who park in bike lanes will be $65. Wells said he believes drivers who are ticketed for double-parking, however, will generally not be issued two tickets for both infractions, so the fine may be limited only to drivers who park in bike lanes that are not adjacent to parking lanes. The same bill also raised the fine for drivers who fail to yield to pedestrians from $50 to $250.

Let the bike vs. car wars continue! Toward the end of last week Matthew Yglesias linked to a new D.C. version of MyBikeLane.com, a site that allows users to upload photos capturing the license plate numbers of cars that park in city bike lanes. Yglesias promised to start uploading photos straightaway, and sure enough, a handful of photos at the top of the page are courtesy the Atlantic blogger, including the one above.

Over the last few years a number of ANCs and Wards -- including a stretch of H Street NE, part of Logan Circle, and wards 4, 7 and 8 -- have banned the sale of single cans and bottles of beer, citing their tendency to cause their drinkers to pee on sidewalks, litter, and generally make trouble.

The D.C. Council earlier today passed an amended version of the noise bill first introduced by Tommy Wells and Mary Cheh that was born out of Ward 6 resident David Klavitter's crusade to put an end to amplified street preachers keeping him awake at his home near H Street NE. But Wells and Cheh actually voted against this bill, after it was basically gutted by an amendment introduced by Ward 5 Council member Harry Thomas Jr. that was a major concession to union groups.

Adrian Fenty: Fine, I might not run this city, but I sure as hell beat Mayor Adrian Fenty in a bike race. No, seriously. A few weekends ago Fenty -- who runs, swims and cycles, sometimes all in one day in local triathlons -- participated in the Carl Dolan Memorial Spring Classic, an annual road race in Columbia, MD sponsored by local cycling team DC Velo. He was in my race. And I beat him. Fine, he probably didn't get much sleep the night before, what with the schools, crime, voting rights, meters in cabs, laundry, his kids wanting a drum set, and plenty of other things on his mind. But I showed him who was boss that morning. If you want to beat him and his fancy pants Cannondale, he's also been known to ride MacArthur Boulevard and up the famous Angler's Hill on weekends.

Earlier this year it looked like a measure pushed by some Ward 6 residents to impose volume limits on protests in residential neighborhoods was destined for failure. As we briefly mentioned yesterday, though, the D.C. Council endorsed an amended version of the legislation.

David Klavitter doesn't blog about presidential politics, sports or trashy entertainment gossip. No, he just wants some peace and quiet, dammit.

Short of making opening day at the new baseball stadium "Ride Metro Here and We'll Give You $100 Day," city officials and team owners are still trying to find a way to deal with what is likely to be a traffic and parking crush come March 29.

After a fire gutted Eastern Market last April, the stretch of 7th Street SE adjacent to the market building was closed off on weekends to accommodate vendors, construction of the temporary East Hall and reconstruction of the South Hall. In an interview on WTOP (link to audiostream) last week, Ward 6 Council member Tommy Wells said he wants to keep 7th Street that way. The Hill picked up the story on Wednesday, and the Hilleast...

Imagine this -- the District could have hybrid taxicabs before it even resolves its long-running dispute between meters and the zone system. Councilmember Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) yesterday introduced legislation that would offer a one-time tax credit to encourage the purchase of hybrid or alternative fuel vehicles for use as taxicabs. The legislation would also establish a set of goals for converting the city's taxicab fleet to hybrid vehicles -- 5 percent by 2009 and...

Do you have the option of taking public transportation or riding a bike to work, but still choose to drive for personal reasons? The D.C. Council is asking people like you to pledge to give up your car for just one day tomorrow, Tuesday, Sept. 18, for its first annual Car Free D.C. Day. If you'd like to take the Car Free Pledge, head over to Ward 6 Council member Tommy Wells' site to sign...

Vendors at Eastern Market will finally be able to open up for business in their temporary structure. After a few delays, the $2.6 million, 230-by-50-foot structure will be ready for shopkeepers on Aug. 18 and will open for business on Aug. 25. Mayor Fenty made the official announcement at a press conference this morning, along with Ward 6 Council member Tommy Wells.

Good morning, Washington. If you're the sort of person who likes to start thinking about their lunch break just as soon as they sit down at their desks, we have excellent news for you in the form of a planned DC Vote rally for voting rights between noon and 1:30 p.m. today. Anyone who'd like to show their support for voting rights is encouraged to meet on the north side of Constitution Avenue between First...

The Post's David Nakamura reports that Mayor Adrian Fenty plans to endorse Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination. An official announcement has yet to come, but the actions of Fenty adviser Jim Hudson, who organized a fundraiser for Obama, suggest the mayor looks set to get behind the Illinois senator's campaign. Hudson collected $600,000 and endorsements from some of the mayor's more loyal D.C. Council members: Yvette Alexander (D-Ward 7), Muriel Bowser (D-Ward 4)...

Former Editor-in-Chief Ryan Avent writes a weekly column about neighborhood and development issues. It wasn’t easy to keep up with the business flooding through the Council as the latest session neared its end. Amid the bills dealing with Greater Southeast Community Hospital, authorizing development bonds, addressing land deals in the West End and over the Center Leg Freeway, and placing moratoria on new Adams Morgan taverns, an interesting pattern nonetheless emerged. In just this past...

If you've been waiting for an official endorsement of your plan to rollerskate to work, this is about as close as you're going to get. Today the D.C. Council unanimously endorsed legislation that designated September 18, 2007 as "D.C. Car-Free Day." The measure, which follows World Car-Free Day, currently celebrated in 1,500 cities in 40 countries, was sponsored by Councilmembers Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), and Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) and council Chair Vincent Gray. Wells...

The D.C. Council's Committee on Public Works and the Environment voted unanimously Tuesday to move forward on legislation that would place a 3-year moratorium on single sales of alcohol at stores located between 700 to 1400 block of H Street, NE -- the same area that developers have dubbed "The Atlas District," which is now home to a number of new bars and restaurants. The proposal still requires approval by the Council, but the committee’s...

A groups of D.C. residents took over part of Adams Morgan yesterday with the expressed purpose of annoying people with a megaphone. Their point? That what they were doing was really annoying, and should be illegal under District law. Operating under the monikers Quest for Quiet and Free Speech Should Not Mean Forced to Hear, the group protested for the second year in a row (last time in Georgetown) in the hopes of bringing attention...

At a hearing before the Public Services and Consumer Affairs Committee yesterday, the D.C. Council heard testimony both for and against the so-called payday loan industry, which has often been criticized for predatory lending practices. The businesses market themselves as a way for lower income individuals who don't qualify for credit or a bank loan to get emergency cash. The industry's opponents charge that payday loans prey on our society's most vulnerable people by charging...

As you'll recall from last summer's round of Crime Emergency-associated legislation, teens in the District were forced to obey a curfew of 10 p.m. throughout the summer months in an effort to stem the tide of law breaking that was often blamed on youths being out on the streets, up to no good. Did it help? Not particularly as far we could ever tell, though it did allow police to release figures about how many...