Breakfast links: Life on the street

by Thaddeus Bell • October 2, 2012 8:16 am

Photo by urbanbohemian on Flickr.

Food trucks collect tax: DC's food trucks have started collecting sales tax. Brick-and-mortar restaurants said the previous arrangement was unfair, since they had to pay sales taxes and the two often compete. (DCist)

Slow down on 17th Street: DDOT will narrow 17th Street SE on Capitol Hill to 1 lane plus a bike lane, and add bulb-outs and electronic speed signs to slow drivers. 19th Street will get sharrows. (Flahaven 6B)

More disability parking?: Mary Cheh has worked out a bill with DDOT to add red top parking meters. 11% of the District's total parking spaces will be reserved for drivers with disabilities in hopes of reducing parking fraud. (Post)

Don't dump in this yard: A construction company dumped debris in the Trinidad yard of the blogger behind Frozen Tropics, and then allegedly said DC officials never respond to complaints. This time, they did, and the company got a fine. (Huffington Post)

A vote for autonomy: DC residents might vote in a referendum on budget autonomy, under a bill to let DC spend locally-raised tax revenue without Congressional approval. Scholars are divided on whether the District can make the change on its own. (Post)

Change Stead Park?: A petition was circulating saying plans for Dupont's Stead Park would cut sports fields 25%, but the folks behind the plan say it's not true. There will be a public meeting Wednesday. (Borderstan)

Is mobile technology rewiring cities?: Lydia Depillis says mobile computing is responsible for shrinking big box stores and the declining primacy of private cars. Is the mobile revolution "changing the shape of cities for the better?" (The New Republic)

New York streets get more dangerous: New York City experienced a rise in traffic fatalities over the past year, after years where new traffic policies were accompanied by falling traffic deaths. (NYT)

And...: A driver lost control on 6th St NW and killed a pedestrian on the sidewalk. (Examiner) ... The U Street streetscape work resumes after a 5-month break. (Borderstan) ... WMATA has opened a new bus storage yard. (BeyondDC)

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Wait, they are just now collecting sales tax? I swear that some of the trucks had a note on their menu that sales tax was included in the price.

by Cassidy on Oct 2, 2012 9:10 am • link • report

Maybe they're collecting sales tax and building it into the price, so that the $9 burrito is actually $8.18+tax.

by ah on Oct 2, 2012 9:15 am • link • report

My point is that if they were saying that taxes are included but not paying taxes, than that very misleading. Seems like a moot point now, of course.

by Cassidy on Oct 2, 2012 9:37 am • link • report

The blurb is misleading. Previously food trucks paid a $1,500 fee per year in lieu of sales taxes. Now, the trucks will pay sales taxes instead of the fee.

by Corey H. on Oct 2, 2012 9:43 am • link • report

The City has got to enact something to address handicapped placard fraud. Removing the incentive of free parking is the obvious solution. It's true that will impact some handicapped drivers, but (a) most of the spaces are taken by cheaters now, and (b) most of the handicapped did not truly need the subsidy.

by Crickey7 on Oct 2, 2012 10:11 am • link • report

@Corey: Previously food trucks paid a $1,500 fee per year in lieu of sales taxes.

You might as well walk through the numbers. $1500/year, at the 10% restaurant tax rate, corresponds to only $15,000 in total annual sales. A typical food truck will do that much business in a few weeks.

by goldfish on Oct 2, 2012 10:14 am • link • report

DC's food trucks have started collecting sales tax.

Good. They're selling stuff. Of course they should be paying sales tax.

DC residents might vote in a referendum on budget autonomy,

I hope they're enjoy the vote, because it won't change anything. However wrong it is.

From a link:A vehicle went up on a sidewalk in downtown Washington this morning and killed a pedestrian, police said.

The accident occurred at about 9 a.m. Monday on Sixth Street NW, not far from the Judiciary Square Metro station. The driver lost control, and the vehicle went onto a sidewalk and struck a man, police spokesman Officer Anthony Clay said.

Gotta love the writing. Aparently this vehicle just "went up". It flew off! Just spontaneously? And that poor driver! He just lost control! Those automatic vehicles are a threat to society.

by Jasper on Oct 2, 2012 10:19 am • link • report

Those automatic vehicles are a threat to society.

Emilio Estevez has known this for years.

by David C on Oct 2, 2012 10:34 am • link • report

@ David C: As does Michael Knight! KARR was terrible!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lpkr2P90XZg

[Major nerd alert: There is a massive wiki on KARR: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KARR_%28Knight_Rider%29]

by Jasper on Oct 2, 2012 10:51 am • link • report

Did anybody else catch the reason why the U Street project has been delayed for five months? The contractors were apparently waiting on a permit from... WMATA? In what possible universe does the city need to go get a permit from WMATA to undertake public projects? And on top of that, it took five months to get it? Ridiculous.

by Adam L on Oct 2, 2012 11:20 am • link • report

10% seems like way to many soaces to reserve for the disabled. CM Evans is right. In parking lots with disabled spaces, those spaces are often empty and they comprise a lot less than 10% of spaces. The number of disabled spaces should be proportional to the number of disabled drivers.

Arlington has a well functioning red top disabled meter system DC should learn from that.

by Falls Church on Oct 2, 2012 12:20 pm • link • report

whats the proportion of handicap drivers in an average of cross-sections? 11% seems really high.

by Tina on Oct 2, 2012 12:21 pm • link • report

@FallChurch-I was making the same comment as you while you were posting yours- great minds think alike?

by Tina on Oct 2, 2012 12:23 pm • link • report

The budget autonomy referendum is an interesting idea - even if it ends up being struck down by the courts it's a bold move that might just move the discussion along, more so than the mayor et al getting arrested, anyhow. However, if the referendum proponents want to use the vote as an expression of the will of the people of the District, is a special election, with its likely low turnout, really the best time to present it?

by DupontRez on Oct 2, 2012 12:28 pm • link • report

That's right, Tina!

by Falls Church on Oct 2, 2012 12:51 pm • link • report

The number of disabled spaces should be proportional to the number of disabled drivers.

Rather than base the number of spaces on the number of users, advocates for the disabled tend to argue that it should be based on the principle of making every block "accessible," thus requiring that 1-2 spaces be made available on every block.

by Arl Fan on Oct 2, 2012 12:54 pm • link • report

@DupontRez

I think, more importantly is the % of people who vote for the ref.

In this case, imagine the ref says something like "should the district of Columbia be able to spend its own money, independent of oversight from Congress" I can imagine the "yes" votes going into the 90% level.

by Kyle-w on Oct 2, 2012 2:07 pm • link • report

@Arl Fan

Arlington has a set of policies for red top meters similar to what you describe. They do some kind analysis of the accessibilty of an area and designate disabled spaces accordingly. That sort of rational analysis makes much more sense than any kind of blanket approach. Arlington has refined these policies over a number of years to carefully balance accessibilty with ensuring spaces don't go empty. It takes more work than an arbitrary designation of 11% but good govermnet is rarely easy.

by Falls Church on Oct 2, 2012 3:12 pm • link • report

Odd, after months and months of high pitched squealing that forcing food trucks to collect and remit a sales tax would be cumbersome, expensive and force them out of business, I didn't see one fewer food truck around lined up on the street in front of my office.

by Foodtruck on Oct 2, 2012 3:53 pm • link • report

Is it just me, or is Ms. Jagoda's smiling face a big incongruous for the fatal pedestrian accident article?

by Kolohe on Oct 2, 2012 4:19 pm • link • report

Sales taxes are added to the bill and are actually paid by the consumer

by Native Washingtonian on Oct 3, 2012 5:46 pm • link • report

Re: the Stead Park item, it is proposed that some o the active field space will be cut but to make room for park benches and trees to make it usable to a broader segment of the neighborhood, such as the kids who throng the playground during the day and to whom the land was donated in name of. It's currently padlocked unless you have a permit (which the sports leagues are organized enough to get)--and it's a shame to keep the limited green space we have in DC so underutilized during most week days.

by kb on Oct 3, 2012 11:38 pm • link • report

Re : WMATA's new bus yard
Here's an article with a video from WUSA 9 -
http://www.wusa9.com/news/article/223356/433/Metro-Bus-Depot-Goes-Green

by Ted K. on Oct 7, 2012 3:04 pm • link • report