Serious business

Events

Serious business

by David Alpert • March 31, 2010 11:59 pm

Tomorrow (Thursday) is a big day!

Image by redstamp.com.

Among other things, the NW DC and WMATA budget hearings, the last two in the series, will take place at 7 pm with an open house at 6:30. Sign up by emailing public-hearing-testimony@wmata.com.

~~They will probably be pretty full, so arrive early to get an early speaking slot. If they're like last time, they'll take speakers in the order they arrive, regardless of signup order.~~

Update: They'll be taking people in the order they sign up, so sign up ASAP. Online signups close at 2 pm; after that, you can still sign up in person, but will go after the people who signed up online.

At 11 am, Mayor Fenty will announce the DC FY2011 budget, and we'll find out whether it has room for added transit contributions or whether it sets the region on the edge of the "death spiral."

Finally, DDOT Director Gabe Klein will appear on the Kojo Nnamdi Show for a long segment at 12:06. (The first six minutes are the news.) Call in with your questions about WMATA funding, streetcars, bicycle lanes, bus priority, performance parking, pedestrian safety, snow, and more.

Meanwhile, throughout the day, feel free to use this as an open thread to discuss the serious news of the day.

10 comments

Tags: budget, DDOT, Gabe Klein, WMATA, WMATA budget

Sign up to testify at Wednesday's WMATA budget hearing (Jan 22, 2010)
Riders pack efficient hearing to push for Option 4 (Jan 28, 2010)
Gorge yourself on streetcars (May 5, 2010)
Struck in DC this week: 8 pedestrians, 4 cyclists (Aug 8, 2010)
Maryland, Fairfax, Alexandria take steps toward needed WMATA funding (Mar 11, 2010)

David Alpert is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Greater Greater Washington and Greater Greater Education. He worked as a Product Manager for Google for six years and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He loves the area which is, in many ways, greater than those others, and wants to see it become even greater.

Comments
Add a comment »

I use public transportation to ad from work everday. Last night due to the shooting in Souteast, the bus (A8) did not run on that street. Since I did not listen to the news before leaving the house at 20:30 I did not know about the shooting. I waited for 45 minutes before realizing no buses were running. There was no post on Metro website and no information over the phone.
Tonight there was a fire on McArthur Blvd, so the D6 was not running. Again no information was available.
I live and work in DC so I used to like using public transportation, but as it now takes me 2 to 21/2 hours to travel one way, I'm seriously thinking about getting a car.
Since the bus scheduals were changed in January, buses do not connect like they used to. Before when you travelled, you disembarked from one bus and did not have to wait more than 15 minutes for the connecting bus. Now you find you've just missed the bus and you have to wait 30 to 45 minutes for the next bus.
If Metro doesn't want to loose more riders, the bus and train scheduals have to be tweeked so during non-rush hours passengers are not waiting forever to make connections.

by Anon on Apr 1, 2010 1:58 am • link • report

Everything in the budget get cut this year since it's impossible to raise taxes.

by crin on Apr 1, 2010 7:02 am • link • report

Since GGW apparently isn't doing a serious post on links today, I thought I'd point out this WaPo article. There's concern that Metro's ongoing deterioration could jeapordize Federal funding for other transit projects, namely streetcars and the Purple Line.

by Froggie on Apr 1, 2010 8:24 am • link • report

The PG hearing called speakers in the order they signed up. If a signed up person was not present when it was their turn, they were skipped, and recalled at the end.

by Matt Johnson on Apr 1, 2010 8:54 am • link • report

Heard on the radio today that Metro accidentally put together a 14 car train and it actually ran. I don't THINK it was an April Fool's.

by Jazzy on Apr 1, 2010 10:31 am • link • report

Nope. Happened the other day.

by Froggie on Apr 1, 2010 11:37 am • link • report

@Jazzy, Froggie:
The 14 car train was an 8-car train which rolled back in the yard and coupled with a 6-car train. The yard operator brought it to the platform at New Carrollton, where he noticed the problem.

It was immediately taken out of service and returned to the yard. It did not "run" in revenue service.

by Matt Johnson on Apr 1, 2010 12:00 pm • link • report

Tommy Wells sent out a tweet about how the mayor's budget was going to take revenue raised by the Tommy Tax and use it for street sweeping operations.

It was cute in its naivete of how budgets work in an economic mess.

by Fritz on Apr 1, 2010 1:01 pm • link • report

So does that mean you will be opposing it?

It's funny that you call it the "Tommy Tax," when he's clearly opposed to abuse of the revenue.

by Neil Flanagan on Apr 1, 2010 1:08 pm • link • report

@Neil: I oppose the tax b/c it's ineffective at reducing pollution in the Anacostia.

I'm just entertained that Wells thought the budget counters thought this was some sacred cow, as they're scrambling to close budget holes in FY 10 and FY 11.

I think it's equally entertaining to see the revenue estimates for the Tommy Tax that the budget folks are using. Apparently medicinal marijuana is already being dispensed around the Wilson Building.

by Fritz on Apr 1, 2010 2:26 pm • link • report