re: students and parking permits

Except in extraordinary circumstances unique to DC (e.g., congressional staff, diplmoatic plates), if a car's not registered in the District, why should the owner have the right to get an on-street permit?

If students want a car but don't want to register it in DC, they can park in a private lot. Street parking should be for residents, with the limited exceptions noted above.

by annonny on Dec 22, 2011 9:14 am • link • report

I think we all pretty much knew that vincent gray was going to be the anti-bike lane mayor. Watching the l and m street cycletracks, which were ready to go a year ago, become the victim of constant delays and studies is making it seem like there is no intention to build these at all. Hey, but at least cabbies are getting taken care of

by aaa on Dec 22, 2011 9:14 am • link • report

I think the Coburn / CH flack is pretty funny. Coburn argues against funding the building of an IHOP, but the locals protest even though the IHOP just contributes to the gentrification of the neighborhood.

by movement on Dec 22, 2011 9:25 am • link • report

Re: student parking permits

When I went to school in Boston if I wanted to a get residential parking permit I had to change my registration to Mass. Instead I dad to shell out for school parking which was farther away and more expensive. I don't have much sympathy for the students here.

by jj on Dec 22, 2011 9:43 am • link • report

Wrong answer, jj. DC is anti-education.

by selxic on Dec 22, 2011 9:50 am • link • report

re: student parking permits

They should either require that you register your vehicle here, or raise the price so that it's comparable to registering your vehicle here.

Actually, $388 is probably more than what it costs for registration and RPP.

by MLD on Dec 22, 2011 9:51 am • link • report

The Gray Administration did not even come close to meeting the performance target for bike lanes. Whether the cause was paralysis thru analysis or something else, I'm not sympathetic since they set their own goals. Create the bloody lanes.

by Ward 6 Guy on Dec 22, 2011 9:55 am • link • report

Whether students should be able to get RPPs is a legitimate question, but the idea that it somehow will solve traffic problems or parking problems is a bogus justification. Wake me when they (a) require residents to move their cars regularly and (b) limit residents to 1 (or 2) cars per household.

by ah on Dec 22, 2011 10:00 am • link • report

@MLD: when you factor in the excise tax (6% to 8% of the vehicle's value) on first time auto registrations in DC, I'd imagine most students would be paying more than $388 to register (at least for the first year).

For a <3,500# vehicle, once you back out basic registration ($72), residential parking ($35), and inspection ($35), the car would have to be worth less than $4,100 for the student to be paying less for registration than the current annual permit.

by annonny on Dec 22, 2011 10:20 am • link • report

Leave it to a poet like former Czech president Václav Havel to give us a beautiful description of our human condition in the modern world. People like Jane Jacobs, James Howard Kunstler and Andres Duany have all dealt with this issue in their own ways, but Havel really sunk his teeth into it. I would only argue that this human pride has always been with us, yet coupled with the absolutism that man seems to have transfered from the religious realm to the scientific realm, we have destroyed our environment to an astounding level. The following point he makes about modernist zoning is something most people on this blog will recognize...

"In the inter-war period many otherwise brilliant avant-garde architects already shared the opinion that confident and rational reflection was the key to a new approach to human settlement. And so they started planning various happy cities with separate zones for housing, sport, entertainment, commerce or hospitality, all linked by a logical infrastructure. Those architects had succumbed to the aberrant notion that an enlightened brain is capable of devising the ideal city. Nothing of the sort was created, however. Bold urbanist projects proved to be one thing, while life turned out to be something else. Life often demands something quite different from what the architects offer, such as an urban district consisting of the strangest hotchpotch of different functions."

When speaking about architecture, ie. specific built objects, whether they be fountains, or buildings I think his case for the trade aspects of the proffesion are quite compelling.

"...every illiterate medieaval blacksmith, when asked to forge a bracket, infallibly forged a Gothic bracket, without needing a teacher of Gothic or a Gothic designer."

Many in today's architectural climate would say that the only reason this blacksmith, or today's architect would design a house in a traditionally historic style is their nostalgia for a past that is long gone. I think Havel's point that novelty for novelty's sake is another one of modern man's egocentric follies, that we must always outshine the past, but which in the end leave us constantly craving for something newer.

by Thayer-D on Dec 22, 2011 10:23 am • link • report

fitting that a socialist would be against "sprawl". people laugh, but one need only look at GGW to see socialism creeping into america.
"live as i say, not as i live"

by hauser on Dec 22, 2011 10:54 am • link • report

I'm having a hard time understand how the delayed cycle tracks reflects an "anti-bike lane" position. There's a lot of committments this city has and in this economic/politcal environment, some things will be sped up while others will not. DDOT maintains it's committment to installing the lanes in the spring.

It makes sense that the segment of DC residents this most affects will be upset. But let's be serious here, installing bike lanes isn't the most pressing issue..it just isn't. Doesn't mean they aren't still committed though and it's unfair to suggest otherwise.

by HogWash on Dec 22, 2011 11:02 am • link • report

@ah,

It's already illegal to leave a vehicle parked for more than 72 hours on a DC street, but it's hardly ever enforced.

by Paulus on Dec 22, 2011 11:08 am • link • report

@hauser,

...fitting that a socialist would be against "sprawl". people laugh, but one need only look at GGW to see socialism creeping into america...

Yankee imperialist running dog! When the Worker's Revolution comes, you'll be getting your re-education in the harsh saddle of a pedi-cab! Oh! glorious day!

by oboe on Dec 22, 2011 11:08 am • link • report

At what point are people going to stop acting like it's their God-given right to park their cars on public streets?

by Gray on Dec 22, 2011 11:14 am • link • report

fitting that a socialist would be against "sprawl". people laugh, but one need only look at GGW to see socialism creeping into america.
"live as i say, not as i live"

At the risk of attempting to make sense out of this kind of unexamined yelping, but...is it Havel you're referring to when you say "socialist". I know Wikipedia's off-limits to a certain segment of the truly nutty right-wing, but this is right up there with calling Soros a "socialist".

by oboe on Dec 22, 2011 11:15 am • link • report

DDOT maintains it's committment to installing the lanes in the spring.

Free Beer Tomorrow!

by oboe on Dec 22, 2011 11:18 am • link • report

@Paulus,

The 72 hour parking rule was repealed back in 2003.

by ontarioroader on Dec 22, 2011 11:32 am • link • report

When I was a student in Minnesota, I had to switch my car's registration to Minnesota so I could get a parking permit. Students in DC get a raw deal a lot of the time, but not in this case.

And, really, calling Havel "socialist"? Oh my. You really just have no idea about that man, do you? I don't know if I should laugh or cry. Probably cry.

by Birdie on Dec 22, 2011 11:39 am • link • report

re "DC is the fastest growing 'state.'"

Great news! And these new residents are predominately middle-class residents with large taxable income. Hopefully they'll start voting in ever greater numbers.

by oboe on Dec 22, 2011 11:40 am • link • report

Adding 16,237 residents in a mere 12 months is remarkable growth.

We'd better keep adding density to accommodate it.

by Alex B. on Dec 22, 2011 11:51 am • link • report

Oh gee! So Post-Fenty, the people didn't flee the city en masse after all. Who would've thunked.

Yes this is great news indeed!

Hopefully they will not add to the city's current state of division

by HogWash on Dec 22, 2011 12:31 pm • link • report

@HogWash Of course they didn't flee the city, they're still underwater on their mortgages. ;)

by Moose on Dec 22, 2011 12:39 pm • link • report

"when you factor in the excise tax (6% to 8% of the vehicle's value) on first time auto registrations in DC, I'd imagine most students would be paying more than $388 to register (at least for the first year)."

If you already have the vehicle titled and registered in your name in another state it is exempt from DC excise tax. I'm speaking from personal experience: I registered a car in DC a few months ago and I received this exemption.

by Phil on Dec 22, 2011 12:54 pm • link • report

@hauser

Since when did "density = socialism" and "sprawl = capitalism"? This is more right-wing propoganda. NYC, London, and Hong Kong are about as capitalist as you can get, holding the most capitalist markets in the world, yet all three are famously dense. As a matter of fact, I'd almost argue the reverse, that sprawl encourages the homogeneity, same-ness and conformity that you seem to ascribe to "socialism".

RE: CH IHOP

Isn't tony spelled without an "e"? Figures that an article like that the reported would spell tony wrong :D

by dc denizen on Dec 22, 2011 1:06 pm • link • report

@Moose, HA! Good one!

by HogWash on Dec 22, 2011 1:07 pm • link • report

Oh gee! So Post-Fenty, the people didn't flee the city en masse after all. Who would've thunked.

Judging by the current polling numbers for Gray/Brown, I'm not so sure we're post-Fenty.

Of course they didn't flee the city, they're still underwater on their mortgages. ;)

Looking at housing prices, that's unlikely to be a large number of residents.

by oboe on Dec 22, 2011 1:20 pm • link • report

Oh, and I don't mean to say Fenty's coming back (though I wouldn't put it past him, out of spite if nothing else). Just that our next mayor's going to look a lot more like Fenty than Gray.

I wonder what Wells' citywide numbers are right now...

;)

by oboe on Dec 22, 2011 1:22 pm • link • report

Judging by the current polling numbers for Gray/Brown, I'm not so sure we're post-Fenty.

What exactly does Kwame Brown's numbers have to do with Gray or Fenty? You said that to show what exactly? That they're of the same kind? I hope that's not your point. If Fenty is no longer in office, I don't see how we're "not" postFenty. We're also "post-Clinton" and I would imagine any poll would prefer him over Obama.

I wonder what Wells' citywide numbers are right now...

Considering the resources available at his beck and call, I'm surprised they aren't even higher. Fenty also had big numbers from the same interests who praise Pope T Wells. But he lost. If Gray had even a 1/10th of the good will the interests bestowed upon Fenty, he'd be looking a lot better.

:)

by HogWash on Dec 22, 2011 2:23 pm • link • report

The out-of-state parking exemption for students already doesn't apply to GW, or at least it didn't in the late 90s when I went there. The fuddy-duddy ANC got Jack Evans to disallow it in the neighborhood, so GW students either had to get private parking or register their cars in DC.

And color me shocked that there's no post on Gray's dismal poll numbers. Must be an editorial oversight.

by anon on Dec 22, 2011 2:59 pm • link • report

anon: The poll came out after the links were up. Unfortunately, our link editors don't have a time machine to be able to see news that's yet to break. If someone wants to write a more detailed article with thoughts about the poll, we'd of course welcome it; we're always looking for good contributors.

by David Alpert on Dec 22, 2011 3:05 pm • link • report

What exactly does Kwame Brown's numbers have to do with Gray or Fenty? You said that to show what exactly?

Sorry, just to connect the dots: Gray and Brown are the two most high-profile elected officials in DC. If Gray's numbers stay in the crapper, obviously someone's going to challenge him in the primary. The obvious challenger is the Council Chair. Of course, Brown may not serve out his term, so we can write him off. So who's the challenger? If DC keeps adding 16k residents a year, the electoral landscape of the city is going to radically change. What do you think 45k new residents moving into the dense urban core are going to do to DC's at-large races? Can Council Chair Wells be far behind? I'll take it a step further, and utter the two words guaranteed to make HogWash's head explode: "Mayor Wells".

I wonder what Wells' citywide numbers are right now...

Considering the resources available at his beck and call, I'm surprised they aren't even higher. Fenty also had big numbers from the same interests who praise Pope T Wells. But he lost. If Gray had even a 1/10th of the good will the interests bestowed upon Fenty, he'd be looking a lot better.

I don't disagree. Although, if Gray gave 1/10th as much time and attention to Fenty's pro-growth agenda as Fenty did, he'd have that support.

by oboe on Dec 22, 2011 3:42 pm • link • report

I'd agree that Gray is not anti-bike. He's just not interested in prioritizing bike needs. His interest lie with Skyland and other EOTR projects. In fairness, you could say that Fenty prioritized WOTR over EOTR.

by Falls Church on Dec 22, 2011 4:02 pm • link • report

@Oboe, I'm not sure if Brown is the obvious challenger. Fenty wasn't a CM chair and challenged Linda Cropp. She (I don't believe) didn't challenge Williams. So I don't know about that.

I'm not sure what to make your suggestion that the more middle class residents the city has, the better it positions Wells for the chair or mayorship. I guess I don't get how one supports the other. No, saying or even me typing, "Chair Wells" or "Mayor Wells" doesn't make my head explode. Of course I wouldn't vote him but only because I think he's divisive (not a uniter) and plays politics to the rest of our disadvantage.

I don't disagree. Although, if Gray gave 1/10th as much time and attention to Fenty's pro-growth agenda as Fenty did, he'd have that support.

HA! I recognize the hyperbole and am comfortable saying that you really don't believe that. You, oboe, do not believe Gray hasn't focused a minimum of 1/10th his him to the city's pro-growth agenda. BTW, why do you consider pro-growth "Fenty's" agenda? I've always heard that although Fenty did think of some creative things, he ended up moving on projects that may have lain dormant.

@Falls, I don't think it's fair to say that Fenty prioritized WOTR over EOTR.

Gray lives in Ward 7, not far from the Skyland project. You can't possibly think it's "fair" to criticize him for pushing for things in his own Ward. A ward that has not been at the forefront of the city's progress.

Now now! Stop that. You don't believe it.

by HogWash on Dec 22, 2011 5:08 pm • link • report

If the bill passes and residential parking stickers are no longer for sale to non-resident students, then they will be treated exactly like other non-resident drivers. That is not discriminatory. That is fair.

If non-resident students wish to park on neighborhood streets with residential parking permits, they should do what everyone else does: become a citizen of the District of Columbia; register their car; get a D.C. drivers’ license; and register to vote.

-Bob Summersgill, ANC 3F07

by Bob Summersgill on Dec 22, 2011 10:09 pm • link • report

@movement, which locals?

@dc denizen, I've seen it both ways, and the CBS person used "toney"

by Andrew on Dec 23, 2011 3:06 pm • link • report

@hauser

I'm a bit late but your know-nothing comment deserves direct response, not just snark. Havel was a dissident under Warsaw Pact communism and had true courage. Please do not drag his name into your paranoid self-aggrandizing hero plays about "creeping socialism" in the present day United States.

Apologies to all if this was meant as parody. Assuming not, to take a true hero of actual anti-communism and thoughtlessly defame him because he says something that annoys (or whatever) is a succinct example of how movement conservatism's self-absorption is wrapping our country around all sorts of ridiculousness instead of facing actual challenges.

by David Duck on Dec 24, 2011 2:21 pm • link • report

I’m a long time watcher and I just believed I’d drop by and say hello there for your very first time.

by proxy list on Dec 30, 2011 8:18 am • link • report