Good Friday to you, Washington. Are you getting psyched for the weekend already? No? Did we mention how nice the weather’s going to be yet? Predictions are for mostly sunny skies and low humidity levels on Saturday with below-normal high temperatures in the low 80s and overnight lows sinking down to, get this, the low 60s. It’s like Christmas in August!
District Plagued By Lead Concerns: It’s sure starting to feel like we’re having the same arguments and concerns about lead safety we were having several years ago. Earlier this week, the Washington Times reported that the city has been failing to comply with a federal court order from 2003 to screen thousands of low-income children for lead poisoning. Yesterday, Mayor Fenty and Attorney General Linda Singer unveiled their new crusade to solve the long-standing problem, which includes the filing of dozens of lawsuits against local landlords who have failed to comply with lead abatement orders. As the Examiner’s Harry Jaffe points out, this particular battle, one that has long plagued the District, should be an excellent test of the Fenty administration’s abilities to actually get things done.
Police to Redefine Crime Hot Spots: Mayor Fenty has asked the MPD to re-examine where the city’s crime “hot spots” currently are in order to better deploy a concentrated police response to the right neighborhoods. Neighborhoods on the current list include Columbia Road and Euclid Street in Adams Morgan, three Southeast communities, two on the Georgia Avenue corridor and five in Northeast. Everyone would probably like a little more police presence in their neighborhood, but which blocks do you think ought to be hot spots that currently aren’t?
Briefly Noted: Special Metro service planned for Nats, Redskins games Saturday … Beltway’s outer loop to close Saturday night … Driver in fatal Beltway crash was drunk … National and BWI among nation’s top ten airports for transportation.
This Day in DCist: In 2005 we welcomed Mayor Anthony William’s short-lived blog to the interwebs, and in 2004 we wondered about whether local private art collectors would ever come together to share their art with the rest of us.
Photo by lifeinthedistrict
