Breakfast links: Watch out for riots

by Eric Fidler • August 11, 2011 8:24 am

Photo by No|More|Saviours on Flickr.

Alexandria braces for BRAC: Alexandria is preparing for its own "carmageddon" as employees move to Alexandria's Mark Center from Metro-accessible offices. The lack of restaurants within walking distance will further drive up car traffic, just as Tysons's lunchtime traffic exceeds its rush hour traffic. (Post)

Restaurateur afraid of riots: A downtown restaurant owner fears that a youth program Friday will devolve into London-style riots. The city is hosting the event to supervise and occupy youth. (Examiner)

Parking lot to become DC skatepark: Part of the huge parking lots around RFK will get a more active use: a skatepark, complete with "freedom ledges" (really). It'll be built for a skating competition in September, and then will stay permanently. (City Paper)

DC challenging Census numbers: The District is challenging its 2010 census numbers, but Harriet Tregoning expects only minor revisions. Census data, for instance, show people living in street medians. (Post)

Homicide stats diverge: So far in 2011, DC's homicide numbers declined 11% and robbery numbers declined 7%. (Post) ... Meanwhile, Prince George's County is seeing an increase in homicides. (Washington Times)

WMATA culture gradually crushes innovation?: A culture of discouraging people from making suggestions gradually induces "learned helplessness" in WMATA employees, argues the anonymous former employee blogging at Metro From the Inside Out.

Metro morsels: Metro is preparing for the Aug. 28 MLK Memorial dedication by prohibiting bikes and shutting down escalators. (Examiner) ... See how workers replace ties and weld rails. (TBD) ... What happened to the benches at Gallery Place? (DCist)

Spatial grid shows Tube distortion: The London Tube map, like our Metro map, distorts space for readability. How much? To help visualize it, one resident overlaid a spatial grid on the map. It'd be interesting to see the same for WMATA... anyone?

And...: Borderstan interviews Mike DeBonis ... Federal budget cuts might mean fewer farmers' markets (WAMU) ... A cyclist was hit in Rosslyn at a place slated for ped/bike safety fixes in 3 years (ARLnow) ... The Prince George's council doesn't broadcast the important discussions between members, just formal votes. (Gazette)

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18 comments

Tags: Alexandria, Arlington, bike safety, BRAC, budget, bureaucracy, Census, Chinatown, crime, DC, downtown DC, escalators, excessive parking, farmers markets, Gallery Place, Harriet Tregoning, links, London, maps, Mark Center, Maryland, Metro, MLK Memorial, open government, press, Prince George's, Reservation 13, Rosslyn, skateparks, track work, traffic, UK, Virginia, WMATA, youth

Eric Fidler has lived in DC and suburban Maryland his entire life. He likes long walks along the Potomac and considers the L'Enfant Plan an elegant work of art. He also blogs at Left for LeDroit, LeDroit Park's (only) blog of record.

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Re: Census

I did notice that the Census has the population for the Sonata Condominium in Mount Vernon Triangle in a block that is a traffic median. But I suspect it was nearly inevitable as the Sonata has a Mass Ave address (301 Massachusetts Ave NW) it doesn't truly deserve as the building actually sits at the corner of 3rd and H Streets.

by FourthandEye on Aug 11, 2011 8:31 am

If I were a business owner in Gallery Place I would be beyond PO'd. I'd be asking why the city isn't doing more to encourage youths to not loiter there.

by Fitz on Aug 11, 2011 8:35 am

About time they fix that corner at Lee HWY. I used to take that every day on my commute and saw how dangerous it really is. The corner is made for highway speed turns not for any pedestrian or bike safety, despite being a major bike and foot intersection.

by Erik Bootsma on Aug 11, 2011 9:21 am

Linking to the Onion makes more sense than linking to the Examiner, which is all about fear and sensationalism.

by Rich on Aug 11, 2011 9:25 am

Why is it unbelievable that someone is living in a street median? Isn't the census supposed to count the homeless as well? I'm pretty sure I've seen a lot of homeless people living in all sorts of places that might not look livable.

by ah on Aug 11, 2011 9:25 am

The Census is supposed to count "hard sleeping" homeless people wherever they're found. The Census used to organize a nighttime enumeration sweep shortly before the official census to count these people, and I assume they still do. I don't think its outside of they realm of possibility that they actually did find someone sleeping in a median or triangle somewhere along Mass Ave.

by Matt on Aug 11, 2011 9:48 am

Bikes won't be allowed on Metro ALL DAY for the memorial dedication? That makes no sense. The trains aren't going to be packed like they are during rush hour all the way from 5AM until Midnight. They should just ban bikes three hours before the ceremony and three hours after.

by Falls Church on Aug 11, 2011 9:58 am

Census data, for instance, show people living in street medians

Oh the horror! The Census found homeless people! Mayor Gray now apparently tries to deny their existence. Well done sir. Spoken like a true politician. People who didn't vote for or donated to you do not exist.

by Jasper on Aug 11, 2011 11:27 am

Jasper,
I seriously doubt the accuracy of the estimate of 492 people living on two traffic islands at H St and Massachusetts Ave NW. The numbers were probably misallocated from the adjacent block. Meanwhile, the population count of a triangle park where I see homeless people every day is 0.

by Eric Fidler on Aug 11, 2011 11:52 am

A culture of discouraging people from making suggestions gradually induces "learned helplessness" in WMATA employees

Sounds like every corporation I've ever worked at.

by andrew on Aug 11, 2011 12:13 pm

I hope the article about learned helplessness reinforces the need for accountability at both the union level and management.

by WRD on Aug 11, 2011 12:30 pm

@ Eric Fidler: I seriously doubt the accuracy of the estimate of 492 people living on two traffic islands at H St and Massachusetts Ave NW. The numbers were probably misallocated from the adjacent block. Meanwhile, the population count of a triangle park where I see homeless people every day is 0.

So, a miscount of 492 on a total count of 308,745,538 was found. Or 601,723 if you only look at DC. That's a miscount of 0.08% on the DC population. Or, more likely, someone entered the wrong tract number for the 492. Is this really significant? Is this really what we want many civil servants, including the mayor, to spend their time on?

by Jasper on Aug 11, 2011 12:44 pm

Jasper: There are other blocks where the population was found to be incorrectly allocated, and there are certainly many more all around the United States. Speaking as one of those civil servants, yes, we do want everything to be as correct as possible.

by Geoffrey Hatchard on Aug 11, 2011 12:48 pm

I really think WMATA needs to decertify it's unions, remove it's management, and start over. At some point, everyone's so distrustful, that you can't move forward. You can, and have, replaced management, and nothing's changed. You can, and have, removed low line workers, and nothing's changed.

You really have to wipe out the organization and start from scratch.

by ahk on Aug 11, 2011 1:02 pm

Jasper,

That's why Tregoning said to expect only a small change. I don't know her exact motivation for the challenge, but I can see why she wants corrections: decennial census numbers carry legal standing for 10 years and determine where district lines and drawn and how some services are distributed.

If somebody sues the city for providing services based on its own corrected count and not the official, erroneous count, a court may very well side with the obviously erroneous count since that's what the law says.

by Eric Fidler on Aug 11, 2011 1:13 pm

@ Geoffrey Hatchard: Speaking as one of those civil servants, yes, we do want everything to be as correct as possible.

Not that I like sounding like Scott Walker, but as a civil servant you have an incentive to create as much work for yourself as possible. So, of course, you want to keep counting until infinity. The question is whether tax payers are willing to foot the bill for that.

Let me put it differently, it is not possible to determine the exact number of Americans living in the US - simply because every few seconds, a baby gets born, and every few more seconds, someone dies.

So, the question is: What uncertainty are we willing to accept. Or, what accuracy are we willing to pay for.

@ Eric Filder: That's why Tregoning said to expect only a small change.

The question remains, whether that small change is relevant. I have seen no proof of that.

I maintain that those 492 people belong in another DC tract, probably with a similar code. As long as that tract is not in Delaware, it does not matter.

by Jasper on Aug 11, 2011 9:35 pm

@ Jasper: As long as that tract is not in Delaware, it does not matter.

If you attended or watched the ward redistricting hearings, those kinds of discepancies do matter. If you know something is wrong, why not make the attempt to correct it. This isn't costing millions of dollars and thousands of man hours.

by Leo on Aug 11, 2011 10:26 pm

So far in 2011, DC's homicide numbers declined 11% and robbery numbers declined 7%. (Post) ... Meanwhile, Prince George's County is seeing an increase in homicides.

Suburbanization of poverty...

by oboe on Aug 11, 2011 11:15 pm