Fourteen people serve as directors and alternates on the Metro Board. Of the 14, two are women. Shameful.

by Mike R. on Nov 1, 2010 8:53 am  

I guess Keith Fimian doesn't understand the power of regional congressional coalitions...amateur.

by RJ on Nov 1, 2010 8:59 am  

I like the theme of this morning's links.

Are the numbers for the rally way more than people expected? I thought they weren't even expecting a tenth of that.

by Canaan on Nov 1, 2010 9:34 am  

Huge fail on Metro's part over the weekend. I live pretty close in, and let 5-6 trains go by before I finally gave up.

The station manager let me out without tapping my SmarTrip, and the station managers at Gallery Place were giving overrides (ie. letting people hop the gates) to anybody who asked later that night. Apparently, quite a few people got caught in my situation.

Also, from what I heard, the enormous parking lot at greenbelt filled up, which is pretty impressive.

(After giving up on Metro, I grabbed a Bikeshare, and took it right to Judiciary square, where there were plenty of open docks. Kudos to them for keeping the docks balanced before and during the rally!)

by andrew on Nov 1, 2010 9:34 am  

"Would Fimian have told the Founding Fathers to quit complaining and move to England?"

And here I thought the Founding Fathers wrote Article 1 of the Constitution. Anyway, kudos to GGW for cramming so many logical fallacies into one argument. Emotional Appeal, Straw Man, Causal Error...

by OX4 on Nov 1, 2010 9:39 am  

I am also going to comment on how metro failed over the weekend. I tried to take the metro to the rally but once I got to Shady Grove I realized there was no way I was going to get on a train, my friend found the same problem at Greenbelt.
So instead I drove to Arlington cemetery, which was shockingly easy. There was little traffic, and even with 2 accidents and construction it took 45 minutes, and parking was plentiful.
I can understand metro not being prepared for this event, I think there were a lot more people there than anyone expected, my issue is why are there not systems in place to call in extra employees or add extra trains on a day like Saturday?

by Matt R on Nov 1, 2010 9:42 am  

@OX4

The found could have also not realize that the town they picked as the capital could have become a city full of people to help support a large federal bureaucracy. There are ways to give the people of DC voting rights and you wouldn't have to change the constitution at all. Fimian is wrong because he thinks voting rights are tied to geography rather than the constitution.

by Canaan on Nov 1, 2010 9:48 am  

will fimian use government funds to pay for all of the poor who can't afford to move to get housing in a state outside of DC? i'm guessing that, as an uber-conservative, he would be opposed to such government handouts.

by IMGoph on Nov 1, 2010 9:50 am  

It really shouldnÂ’t be a surprise if the Rally to Restore Sanity had more attendees that Glen BeckÂ’s rally. I mean, how many twenty-somethings in Greater Washington werenÂ’t down on the mall on Saturday afternoon? Stewart and Colbert just had to get people to come a couple of miles. Glen Beck needed to draw people from some fairly faraway places.

by Rob on Nov 1, 2010 9:58 am  

Scientific estimate: ‘Sanity’ rally more than twice the size of Beck’s August tea party" Raw Story: http://tinyurl.com/33mthed

by Mike R. on Nov 1, 2010 10:05 am  

Metro was a complete failure and an embarrassment for D.C. over the weekend. Metro had track work that prevented them from running more trains. Fine, I get that. The fun part about WMATA is that they operate both trains and buses. There is no reason why Metrobus should have been operating regular Saturday service. The lack of service on Metro could have been easily alleviated by running more buses.

WMATA thought it necessary to put out a special release in advance of the the Marine Corps Marathon, while no such release was provided in advance of the rally. There was in fact no communication from Metro in regards to the rally except to warn riders of the P6 line that the route would be detoured around the Mall. In addition, Metro never explained where the buses were being detoured. I had no idea where to catch a 70 bus (being detoured around Georgia Avenue due to Howard University homecoming) if I wanted to take it downtown direct to the rally. No communication, no planning, epic failure.

by Adam L on Nov 1, 2010 10:10 am  

People arguing for or against retrocession always seem to overlook that one might combine DC with Maryland solely for the purposes of the Congressional representation, as was done before the Organic Act of 1800.

In fact, should the bill to provide one Congressman to DC ever be challenged as a violation of US Constitution, one of the rebuttal arguments would be that DC is (in effect) being included with Maryland for purposes of Re-apportionment, and that Congress is exerting its exclusive jurisdiction over DC by gerrymandering one of the Congressional districts to follow the DC/Maryland line.

by Jim Titus on Nov 1, 2010 10:13 am  

Great themed links!

@OX4 The Founding Fathers did indeed write Article 1, which includes the District clause. Yup, I read it. Nothing there about how taxation without representation is ok. In fact, if you read the Federalist Papers you'll find evidence that land ceded for the formation of the District was not intended to disenfranchise Americans.

Congress can shrink the District by simple majority to the National Capital Service Area, which has 0 residents other than the First Family, leaving the territory currently known as DC to petition for admission to the Union as a state. It's not that hard to restore democracy, people. Baghdad did it, so can we.

Or we can try Fimian's solution and send a fleet of moving vans to pick up the stuff of 600,000 people and move them out of the democracy-free zone.

by Ward 1 Guy on Nov 1, 2010 10:13 am  

@OX4: The Founding Fathers did a lot of things wrong. They only wanted white men who owned land to vote. They thought slavery was a-okay. They thought prayer in school was fine.

God didn't hand the Founding Fathers the Constitution from atop a mountain. It's not a sacred document that ought never be changed. And the Republicans think it's their strongest argument against DC voting rights.

by Tim on Nov 1, 2010 10:16 am  

@Ward 1 Guy

The 23rd Amendment very seriously complicates any statehood/retrocession proposal. Any "National Capital Service Area" would still get 3 votes in the electoral college. A slight problem.

by Adam L on Nov 1, 2010 10:17 am  

Let me get this straight: the estimate for the crowd was 215,000, but Metro had almost 500,000 more riders than a typical Saturday -- and set an all-time record for Saturday ridership. Where were those 500,000 people going?

by danviro on Nov 1, 2010 10:18 am  

@danviro: many of them probably rode round-trips.

by Michael Perkins on Nov 1, 2010 10:24 am  

@danviro

umm...215,000 people multiplied by a RETURN TRIP = 430,000 people, not too far from that 500,000 rider estimate

by Marc on Nov 1, 2010 10:26 am  

If even 10% of DC residents took Fimian up on his suggestion and moved to the district in which he's running, he'd have about as much a chance of getting elected as Glenn Beck. Hmmm . . .

by dcd on Nov 1, 2010 10:31 am  

@Ward 1 Guy: Why exclude the National Capital Service Area?

The Constitution says that Congress may form a federal district, not must. Congress only needs a simple vote to admit a state to the union. In other words, Congress could make DC a state by a simple vote. No Constitutional amendment needed, no supermajority, no input from state legislatures.

by Tim on Nov 1, 2010 10:52 am  

@Adam L. Can you confirm that if DC were combined with Maryland solely for congressional representation (as in pre 1800) that the 23rd amendment would simply mean that Maryland and DC votes for President must be tallied separately? Or would Maryland get an extra elector?

by Jim Titus on Nov 1, 2010 11:01 am  

I don't think the 23rd amendment would be a huge problem. Congress could simply pass a law that the District's votes go to the winner of the popular vote or electoral college. Or in the case of a tie, they could simply abstain. I don't think they have to vote. It would complicate things because it would still mean you need 270 votes to win, despite three of those votes going unvoted. Also, this system would benefit Republicans since it effectively takes two automatic electoral votes from the Democrats (the District would now only choose one and vote towards Marylands two extra votes). Maybe that would be an incentive to Republicans to support it?

by Reid on Nov 1, 2010 11:06 am  

To clarify on the GU campus plan/smokestack thing: the reason for the proposed structure is that current emissions are being entrained by buildings on campus because the release point isn't high enough. This is not a good thing for on campus residents. No additional emissions would accompany this project; existing emissions are far lower than what is allowable under governmental regulations as it is.

Also: We know that Georgetown not only has the space to build dorms, it has the means to build dorms, if it so chooses,” she (Leonore Rubino) said.

This is a lie so boldfaced that I'm amazed she was able to git it out with a straight face. Anyway, a great position they all seem to have: all students should live on campus. And while there, they should have to breathe in emissions because someone, somewhere, from some obscure vantage point, might see the smokestack.

by Dizzy on Nov 1, 2010 11:08 am  

Will the surface parking lot on the Georgetown campus next to Reservoir Rd be developed as part of the campus plan? This seems like an excellent place to put more on-campus dorms.

by Ben on Nov 1, 2010 11:20 am  

Regarding Keith Fimian, I received this email yesterday. It looks like a great way to spend the afternoon. If 600,000 tax-paying residents can't vote in the District, at least we can help one of our neighborhing members of Congress out.

"The Gerry Connolly campaign urgently needs more volunteers Monday and Tuesday in Falls Church. So we're putting out an urgent call to everyone within driving distance who can possibly help out—please sign up for a volunteer shift now.

This is one of the most competitive races in the country, and the MOST important time to talk to voters. The www.moveon.org campaign is sending over at least 127 volunteers, and they only have 85 so far and need our help."

http://pol.moveon.org/2010/signup.html?l_id=634&chain_multi=1&id=24873-17568579-5g8UOGx&t=1

P.S. Here's a little more about why this race is so important: Gerry Connolly is facing a rematch against his opponent from 2008, but this time the Republican is benefiting from almost $1 million in corporate front group money. Connolly is leading narrowly and his efforts to turn out voters could be the deciding factor."

by "I apologize to BP" --Joe Barton (R-TX) on Nov 1, 2010 11:25 am  

Will the surface parking lot on the Georgetown campus next to Reservoir Rd be developed as part of the campus plan? This seems like an excellent place to put more on-campus dorms.

If you're referring to the one that's right off of Reservoir, i.e. the one in front of St. Mary's Hall, that space is a non-starter for a large building. Residents have previously made it clear they do not want a tall building there, fronting Reservoir, opposite a row of single-family homes and adjacent to The Cloisters.

More to the point, the neighbors don't quite seem to realize that a significant portion of the undergraduate student body will always choose to live off campus. What portion, we can't be exactly sure, but I believe it to be no less than 10%. What they want is for the university to make living on campus mandatory for all undergraduates, something that is basically unheard of outside of the service academies.

by Dizzy on Nov 1, 2010 12:52 pm  

Saturday morning there were hundreds of people queued at the Shady Grove Metro station, all the way out the entrance tunnel and well into the parking lots - not to ride but to purchase fare media.  Folks who already had a ticket were able to go straight to the platform where trains filled before departure and carried crush loads from Rockville on in.  The one I rode left people on the platform at each station. 

Fail points:

• "Nobody ever rides on a Saturday, let's shut down for some maintenance and not bother with surge capacity" meant trains idle in the yards and the help taking the day off.  WMATA's budget heroes did manage to save on the overtime though. 
• Fare system clearly not up to taking on lots of out-of-towners at once.  A good contingency plan would be for somebody to stand out there (or in a booth) with a stack of $5 farecards and sell 'em for cash.  Oh, wait, never mind, I'm sure the party line is that the staff would pocket the money, or get mugged, or both.  But for any retail operation fortunate to have > 100 customers in line some sort of express checkout makes sense, at least for outfits that care about customer service. 
• Escalator at L'Enfant Plaza station: DC Fire & EMS responded as usual (they consider any incident in the Metro as a potential mass casualty event and respond accordingly).  Points to them for being prepared for worse but points off to Metro for allowing it to happen at all.  Time for a "culture of maintenance?". 

Had adequate resources been made available it could have been a real transit success story.  So far I'm still a disappointed optimist rather than a vindicated pessimist but at some point the potential-vs-performance gap is going to push me over the edge. 

by intermodal commuter on Nov 1, 2010 1:00 pm  

Dizzy,
I'm generally a skeptic when it comes to the angry neighbor crowd, but your statement about students' preferences to live off campus is wrong. Many colleges restrict off campus housing to a certain number of seniors. My own college did that. And besides, it's a weak argument. There are a lot of policies that students would simply prefer, that doesn't mean they are worthwhile. The fact is that the university can make any rule the it wants and students will still attend. After a few dozen angry student newspaper editorials the protests would whither away. That's just how universities work. The only question is whether GU wants to and can build more dorms on campus. I suspect they could on the large parking lot next to the tennis courts, but I really don't have a dog in this fight. Either way, saying that it would be an aberration to restrict off campy housing is just misguided.

by Reid on Nov 1, 2010 1:27 pm  

I fail to understand why Metro did not cancel track maintenance on Saturday. The single tracking made the Red line a mess. At 1 PM the Silver Spring platform looked like Tokyo at rush hour. At 6 PM The Gallery Place platform was at crush condition. Metro announcers were imploring people to take care not to fall over the edge of the platform.

If this happened the day of the Glenn Beck rally, we'd have heard about it for a month from Fox News.

by Paul on Nov 1, 2010 2:27 pm  

The Metro System was an embarrassment on Saturday. I understand that preventive maintenance is a high priority of Metro but Metro needs to be able to assess and adapt to conditions. The headways were atrocious. Platforms were packed. I heard many of my friends rode trains out to distant stations only to find out that everyone else did so as well, and subsequently they never made it to the rally.

Metro is the transporter of the tourist. If Saturday was my first visit to the DC region, I would never come back based upon my experiences with the Metro. Shame on Metro. Stop being a bureaucratic behemoth and become able to quickly adapt schedules to accommodate massive projections in ridership. You failed WMATA, you truly failed.

by Murn on Nov 1, 2010 2:35 pm  

Reid,

Please find me an example of a non-service academy college that makes living on campus mandatory for all undergraduates. Georgetown already houses a higher percentage of their undergrads on campus than any other school in DC at over 80%.

There are a lot of policies that students would simply prefer, that doesn't mean they are worthwhile.

Ok, but the onus is on you to explain why restricting someone's rights (in this case, the rights of adults to live where they choose) is worthwhile. The university has determined that it makes sense to do so for community-building purposes for the first two years. That's fine. But given priorities and extremely scarce space and resources, it does not make sense to make it universal. I have yet to hear any argument for this that does not boil down to "get off my lawn, you stupid kids!"

In any case, the campus plan proposes no added undergrads, so this is largely an attempt to put up opposition out of spite for having lost past battles. The proposed increase is all graduate students, most of whom are not likely to live in the neighborhood. Of the ones that do... what of it? Are we to mandate all graduate students live on campus as well? Are we to pass regulations disallowing graduate students from living in these neighborhoods?

by Dizzy on Nov 1, 2010 2:35 pm  

@Jim Titus

The last bill that would have allowed DC residents to vote as Marylanders would have included the population of DC as residents of Maryland, and would have entitled the state to an additional representative and senator. Which then gets to Reid's point that Congress could just not enforce the 23rd Amendment.

I'm really not sure it would be that easy to side-step an amendment, but in any event, the argument over semantics is really unnecessary. The same opponents who believe that D.C. resident cannot legally have representation in Congress would make the same argument regardless of whether they were technically being represented by Maryland. If you're going to go that far to stretch the meaning of the Constitution it seems like it's just easier to give DC its own seat.

by Adam L on Nov 1, 2010 3:03 pm  

@Paul and Murn

I agree completely. I'm not sure that they would have been able to stop track maintenance. It's not fair to ask Metro to suspend its tight maintenance schedule whenever somebody decides to descend on the Mall. And, just for the record, Metro did perform track maintenance on the red, blue, green, and yellow lines the day of the Glenn Back rally.

The problem is that Metro did nothing to alleviate the congestion they knew was coming. For starters, they could have providing travelers with information on alternate ways to get downtown. For example, running more frequent service on bus routes that travel downtown to the Mall, and publicizing that information. The fact that they didn't was a massive fail.

by Adam L on Nov 1, 2010 3:21 pm  

Re: "would have entitled the state to an additional representative and senator"

I meant to say "elector", not senator.

by Adam L on Nov 1, 2010 3:28 pm  

@intermodal commuter

Actually, they were handing out $6 day pass cards when I arrived at New Carrolton. I purchased 3 for myself and 2 friends.

Is everyone sure 215,000-250,000 people attended? It felt like many more were present.

by MikeS on Nov 1, 2010 3:53 pm  

According to some of the tweets I've read this afternoon:

- The maintenance was planned long in advance (likely longer than the rally), and some of it had to be done.

- Metro asked the rally organizers if they were willing to pay for additional Metro service. The rally organizers declined. By comparison/contrast, Marine Corps Marathon organizers paid for extra service yesterday.

- Part of the problem was nobody had a clue on the size of the expected crowd. Metro was apparently told "no more than 100K".

- Adam Tuss (WTOP) was reporting that Metro had 20 extra trains "on standby" at the beginning of the day Saturday, and eventually pushed them into service when it was clear the crowd was larger than expected.

As a side note, nice photo, Bossi. :o)

by Froggie on Nov 1, 2010 4:25 pm  

Metro was a mess indeed! Shame of them for not putting extra trains! Whilst I haven no idea what the extra cost would have been, the extra ridership revenue must/should have compensated for it!

As to what I did: I scootered!

by Vincent Flament on Nov 1, 2010 5:21 pm  

Egads, my Flickr stats have exploded :)

I was thinking of Circulating, but instead opted to walk when I missed the bus by about 30 seconds. The 20 minute walk ended up being quite pleasant and congestion free.

Er, except for the ~30 minutes or so spent foolishly attempting to reach the middle of the Mall via 7th St, soon followed by attempting to get back out. Apart from that it was clear sailing.

by Bossi on Nov 1, 2010 5:31 pm  

@Froggie

The Marine Corps paid to open early. But Metro shouldn't demand payment to provide a base level of service for during the day when they should be operating. In fact, they could have easily made up the cost of running additional buses if running extra trains was impossible. It was poor planning, pure and simple.

by Adam L on Nov 1, 2010 5:54 pm  

agree that round trips account for some reduction in crowd numbers, but disagree that EVERYONE returned by Metro (esp after what a mess it was), or that all ralliers arrived by Metro (biking, walking, busing, cabs, etc). So it still appears that the VERY HIGH Metro ridership along with these other potential trips means there were in excess of the estimated 215,000 people in the crowd.

by danviro on Nov 1, 2010 6:33 pm  

@MikeS

Hey, that's completely awesome.  One hopes for two things, first that it helped manage lines (if there were any at time time), second that if it was a random act of kindness the employee responsible won't get in trouble for it. 

Spent much of the day more or less in the middle of the crowd and therefore had no reasonable way to judge the numbers but it sure seemed there were a heck of a lot of people there, all quite polite too.  For some reason it hadn't occurred to me to attend the Mad Hatter's Tea Rally earlier in the year so I don't have a basis for comparison. 

by intermodal commuter on Nov 1, 2010 6:49 pm  

Just to offer these two links comparing Glenn Beck to Fear/Sanity:

From the Washington Monument-
http://cl.ly/0d7e01f48be2dd3c8abf

Comparing aerials-
http://i.imgur.com/AoxXh.jpg

Though bear in mind that the latter doesn't include the endless stream stretching up to Chinatown which persisted throughout the day nor those who were turned away because they couldn't make it into the city (most of my friends who attempted to get here weren't able to get in from their lodging in NoVa).

Neither include any comparison with the One Nation Working Together rally on October 2nd (the more formal antithesis to Glenn Beck; as opposed to Fear/Sanity which has come to be considered as such), which I'd say was comparable to the Glenn Beck rally despite a fraction of the media coverage & rather lacking marketing on behalf of the rally. I ran into several folk at Crafty Bastards in Adams Morgan who didn't know of the rally, and several more who knew of it but didn't know what it was about... not even whether it leaned left or right. I wasn't entirely sure, myself, until I made my way down there.

by Bossi on Nov 1, 2010 7:01 pm  

I agree wit those DC plates that says "Taxation without representation".

I'm in favor of DC being taxed with out representation too!

Not a state. No rights for you!

by Mike on Nov 1, 2010 8:25 pm  

danviro, I think 215,000 was the peak participation. But I'm sure many people came, realized they could see and hear nothing, and left early. There were others who showed up late. As we were leaving (around 1:45pm) trains were pulling in full. So there may have been as many as 300,000-400,000 people who went down there, but never more than 215,000 there at once.

Jim Titus - another problem with treating DC residents as Marylanders for the purpose of voting is that it leaves us still not 100% represented. We would be left without a voice in the Maryland legislature, so we'd not be able to vote on Constitutional amendments. We wouldn't be able to vote for the Governor, and the Governor fills empty Senate seats. We'd need to be Maryland residents and vote in all Maryland votes to be real American citizens.

by David C on Nov 2, 2010 10:35 am  

Total FAIL for Metro on Saturday. It was the lack of sufficient buses and trains but also, and maybe more importantly, the lack of communication on detours and from station managers.

Metro still just doesn't get it.

And until they do, its apologists' calls for more funding will fall on deaf ears.

by Fritz on Nov 2, 2010 12:58 pm