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Articles
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| Lazy, hazy, crazy ... |
VOICE writes, " Maybe it was the heat, but we couldn't help noticing an emergency no-parking sign on Capitol Hill.
In bold black letters it read: "Emergency No Parking Before Until 10 a.m."
Still can't figure it out. We parked anyway.
• More, better policing. The overbudget, overwrought and overdue Capitol Visitor Center is finally going to open soon and, of course, it's going to require even more uniformed officers to staff the security stations we can't seem to do without.
D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton has a reasonable idea. She wants to combine into one the various federal police forces on the Hill.
"After six years and spending billions of dollars on 'homeland' security," she wrote recently, "Congress cannot even rely on its own Capitol Police to communicate with one another ... let alone the D.C. police and the scores of other federal police forces [here]."
She notes that the Capitol Police force has increased 50 percent since Sept. 11, 2001, while the U.S. Park Police has struggled to make ends meet.
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And Norton said the Library of Congress Police force is being merged with the Capitol Police, but the Supreme Court Police force remains independent.
Norton used the hideous word "interoperability" in several sentences, but we won't. It basically means the various forces should be able to work together.
What a novel idea.
• No big splash. All efforts to get Mayor Adrian Fenty to jump into a city pool to start the summer swimming season have failed.
He didn't do it last year, and this year recreation director Clark Ray performed in the role that Mayor Anthony Williams created.
Note to mayor's office: Media coverage has dropped off considerably. Gotta jazz up that pool-opening press conference.
No mayor. No splash. No story?
• More development. On the positive side, the mayor continues to announce development projects despite the national economic downturn.
One of the latest is the city's old fire station at 4th and E streets SW.
"This is a real opportunity," said Neil Albert, the city's deputy mayor for planning and economic development.
The sprawling station is big enough to be split into two projects. The city says proposals must include building a new fire station on the site, or allow for it to be built within a few blocks of its current location. Any proposal without a fire station will not be considered.
No other specific use for the site is mandated. Proposals are due Aug. 15.
• Development, continued. The national economy is a real bear, but the Washington region is holding its own.
The "gross regional product" is still growing by about 3 percent a year overall, says the Greater Washington Initiative, a research and marketing group. And professional business services now account for about 23 percent of the jobs.
You can see the whole report at greaterwashington.org.
• Thanks, Dr. Reed. The turmoil in city schools that prompted reform has been well-hashed in the media for decades. But the times were not all bad.
Vincent E. Reed was superintendent from 1975 until 1980.
Among his lasting achievements was creation of the Benjamin Banneker Academic High School, which graduates scholars and college-bound students by the dozens every year. It opened in 1981.
"Every school ought to be like that," said Washington Post chairman Don Graham as he looked over this year's honor roll posted outside the auditorium last week.
Graham was there to help announce a bronze plaque renaming the school's auditorium for Reed.
"I want to talk to the students," Graham said firmly, saying the students ought to know the man who created their school despite petty bickering and politics on the then-elected school board.
Reed, who is in a wheelchair and unable to speak publicly, sat next to the lectern with his wife. Council Chairman Vincent Gray commented that it was good to give him the accolade while he is still with us to hear it.
Council member Carol Schwartz, who served on the school board while Reed was superintendent, summed it up by saying, "Dr. Reed, God bless him, persevered, and ultimately his vision came to fruition here in D.C."
• More of the same? Schwartz is one of the city's longest-serving elected officials, although her several tries never landed her in the mayor's office.
This past week she announced she's running for re-election to her at-large seat on the council. It's unusual in a "change" political year that Schwartz promised "more of the same." But that's Carol.
"If I am re-elected for another four years," she said in her prepared statement, "I can assure our residents that they will get from me more of the same -- more of the same devotion and commitment, more of the same energy and hard work, and more of the same passion -- and compassion -- that I have demonstrated over the past four decades."
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Posted on Jun 16, 2008 20:31pm.
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