BaancBlog

The editor met Harry Thomas, Sr., several times many years ago, usually at City Council related things. He seemed like a decent sort, but not terribly interested in the world beyond Ward 5. And it was legend that there was no Ward funeral unattended by the Councilman during his tenure in office.

The editor understands that his son is not quite the same. About the only encounter the editor has had with him was during the editor's testimony on the new Convention Center Hotel, and the follow up questions. Thomas seemed only interested in what Ward 5 could get out of it. A neighboring ward, or the District as a whole seemed of no concern. While some local boosterism is expected, the tenor of it was surprising to the editor.

The editor is still at a loss, however, as to how Junior managed to party that hard in Ward 5. It seems so quietly residential.

Or, how to turn a normal two-minute task into a wasted hour.

The editor and wife dropped by 3D yesterday to get one of those "Don't Park Here on This Date" thingies as we had some folks coming over to do work in the house and they needed to park sort of in the front. Usually, it's like getting a parking permit for a visitor. You walk up, show some ID, sign something and the police person puts something in a log book and you're done.

Someone downtown decided that was too simple and needed complicating.

Yesterday we had to go to "kiosk" (actually a PC sitting in a hallway) and do it the modern way. The editor tried, and after 20 minutes of entering all sorts of personal information including the race/ethnic thing, found out that he must have dropped a letter in his "userid" or password from what he thought he had entered. At home or office, one just goes back and tries again. Here, the wife took over and tried. Got all the way through. Then went to the counter and asked how she paid for it. Answer: The machine asks for it. She hadn't seen it. The police on duty had no idea where one does that in the software. No permit. Wasted hour.

In chatting with the folks in the station it was clear that the editor and wife had a lot of company and the police had a lot of complaints and could do nothing. The editor wonders if this is an MPD thing or from somewhere else in our dear government. If so, the editor would lay odds DCRA.

The editor was not impressed with the user interface. Elementary at best. That's a nice way of saying that they didn't spend a whole lot of money on developing the system. Quirky, too. It's a little thing but the "delete" key on the numeric pad (with NumLock obviously turned off) didn't work. That is, it normally deletes the next character in a string. This software just throws away that keystroke. The editor tried the "delete" key just to the right of the "Enter" key didn't work either. The editor had to move the cursor on past the character to be deleted and backspace.

The editor does understand that one may want to mask out (disregard) certain characters in some edit windows, such as "$" in personal names. And he understands how on first try, "delete" might be in the disregard category by mistake. If that system gets to the field with that boo-boo still in the system, some serious incompetence is being advertised. It seems as if beta-testing is an unknown concept for someone.

Another Gripe

The whole rigmarole of logging in and doing the userid and password thing seems like overkill. Most sites have the registration thing for regular users. For example, a supplier of laptop batteries will have such for businesses or individuals who buy a lot of batteries. Then they can enter the card number and other private items once, and skip to purchasing more quickly. But for one time users, or once every few years users, that usually have a way of getting bill-to and ship-to informations, and payment stuff on a one-time basis. It's faster than registering.

Maybe the editor and wife have seen the future of DC government, and failed to register properly.

Yesterday, 20 September 2011 at 11:00am. FedEx ground truck parks up for a bit by Modern Liquor at Ninth and M. Parked the wrong way. Doesn't deliver anything.

Then, when the 900 block of M seems clear, drives west on the 900 block of M, the wrong way on a one-way street. Then stops, and backs up Blagden Alley (north).The editor guesses that the driver has done this before.

Didn't see any truck numbers and by the time the editor got over his dumbfoundment (Definition of dumbfoundment is provided by 1913 Webster's Dictionary) he couldn't see the license plate.

First:

Since OneCup was closed today, the editor walked down to the other place by the Tenth Street Park, the long way, to get the WaPo. That is, he walked down Ninth then over on L. At the corner of Ninth and L, in front of the old Central Lock, he saw a young guy, cargo shorts, those work boots that say "I do real work just not cement finishing", civil engineer look, folded blue prints in hand with a tape measure, the 25 foot Stanley kind. So the editor says "How soon do they start construction"? Turns out, or at least the cover story is that he's just surveying the block to see how much has changed since last it was measured by whomever.

So it sounds like something is happening someday.

Second:

The editor had to go downtown by 6:30am yesterday morning for a medical procedure. Don't ask, it's a family blog. Just figure that that since this blog is being posted the editor survived.

He called Yellow Cab. 10 ringy-dingies and a message. Walked outdoors to the corner of Ninth and M. No cabs. The editor was under the false impression that this place had "gentrified". Tried Yellow again. Just a message about would the editor like to wait a small eternity. The editor gave up. Walked toward Logan Circle, figuring there might be cabs there. Saw a cab driving down Eleventh, and made it on time.

The editor asked the cabbie which was better for business, Ninth or Eleventh. No hesitation: Eleventh. So the next time he has to catch a cab at 6:00 in the morning, say in five years, it's Eleventh from the gitgo.

Mari has a post here on the purple tide that just swept through. They (the Omega Phi Psi fraternity) were also out on the west side of the Convention Center in droves. And driving downtown. When you noticed a purple shirt on a K Street sidewalk, there would be a honk and wave from an SUV on your left, even in Clarendon.

The editor checked with a neighbor. The editor asked, tongue in cheek, where his purple t-shirt was. He smiled and said he was a Kappa. (His license plate holder does, too.) The editor admitted to being unsurprised, as the neighbor was a bit tall and thin to fit the group. He grinned and added something else. The editor commented that he had seen Jim Vance cover the story on channel 4 news. He said that Vance was a Kappa and hid his disdain fairly well. The neighbor knows Jim Vance personally and understood.

Update

Had a short conversation with a waiter at a local watering hole where the Omega's ate and drank a lot.

They don't tip. Not badly. Not meagerly. Just don't.

Just a few notes from the Blagden Alley and Naylor Court Association meeting. What was said applies to most downtown neighborhoods.

Sgt. Terestre of 3D/PSA207 was there, and did the usual monthly crime report. Only two categories of crime were up, and that was robbery without weapon and burglary. The robbery was almost all iPod or cell phone, and from people so concentrating on their texting or marketing plan or whatever that they were not paying attention to their surroundings. They get shoved to the ground, device stolen and gone. The editor does understand that the neighborhood seems "safe", and it really is. It is not, however, perfectly safe, nor are most of the other neighborhoods in DC. One has to skip the communications for a few blocks, especially when the streets are not crowded.

The second problem is TFA, Theft From Auto. It seems as if that's a constant around here. If you leave a laptop or cell phone in a car it will leave, usually through a broken window. If you can't read maps and use one of those GPS thingies, obviously you don't leave it. But if you leave the suction cup ring on the window, you're liable to get a broken window to check out whether you have left the device in the glove box. Or the trunk, now that the "open trunk" button is available. TFA is frequently a problem for people from out of town, with non local licenses. The perps believe that the mark won't come back to town to testify if the perp is caught. Apparently there's some truth to it. But locals do get hit. If you see a neighbor's car with too much visible parked on the street, gently tell him about TFA. If you have lived here for a while, you know several people that it has touched.

The other item was that there have recently been a number of burglaries in the neighborhood, usually during the day when folks are at work. One yesterday was through a skylight on a four-story apartment house. If you don't have bars on your windows, you're making the editor safer by providing a better target. In the editor's experience, for what it's worth, it sounds like a couple of experienced individuals who will be taken down in the near future and burglaries will stop or go way down for a year or two. Then the same thing will happen in another neighborhood, such as Logan Circle or Dupont Circle, and the cycle will repeat.

As the editor was building that last post, the various blog host servers were taking their own sweet time he thought. Then, he checked here and saw:

In other words, the internet in North America is running really slow. If you drill down by touching the North America link, you see all the servers involved and you see way too many in red. Not good. But one of those days.

Lisa Amore and Bruno walk a lot, so get to know the neighborhood around the 900 block of M rather well. The sights, sounds, smells. Ah Smell.

Which prompted this letter from Lisa to Jack:

From: Lisa Amore
Sent: Sunday, June 26, 2011 7:48 PM
To: Evans, Jack (COUNCIL); Kimbel, Sherri (COUNCIL); Brabham, Amorde (Council)
Subject: Gas leak? Smell of gas in front of 943 M St. NW.
Importance: High

Hi Mr. Evans.
I’m writing you with the hope that your office will investigate a potential gas leak at the NE corner of 10th and M St’s NW, where a single row house is located at 943 M St. NW.

I’ve called in to Washington Gas at least a couple of times in the past year or so when I’ve been walking my dog and smelled gas. They operator told me that they’d send someone out, but it doesn’t seem as if that’s been the case.

This morning around 10am, I smelled a pungent gas smell at that corner (the smell was most strong immediately closest to the corner of the house’s wrought iron fence). And now, yet again, when walking my dog, I smelled the odor again. There’s at least one very elderly person who lives in that building, and I’m concerned for everyone’s safety, let alone the safety of the neighborhood, as I live right down the street in The Whitman.

I feel that placing another call to Washington Gas is futile. Please help!

Thank you. Lisa

Lisa Amore

Then

Lisa took this picture about 4:00 PM on June 29.



Smell gone. Good job Sherri.

Here in the land of the small dogs, we occasionally have those who don't pick up after. It so happens that we are not alone. This is another local observation.

But there may be a solution. Today Drudge referenced this nice neighborhood and a possible way to catch perps.

The editor and wife have two cats, so all such problems are kept at home. OK, occasionally the feral alley cats will take advantage of the backyard mulch, but that seems minor.

Update:
There is a dog problem in the middle of Manhattan and they are doing the DNA thing too. Can historical districts do it as well?

The street view of google a maps streetview on M Street (here).

It displays fine in Opera. FireFox doesn't like it. But it likes this.

The editor uses IE about once a year under extreme duress, so no clue.

There. Isn't that better than some blog post about a white DC utility vehicle coming out of Shepherd's Alley at about 9:00 pm Sunday and heading to Ninth and M fast, hitting the light as it went red and going north up Ninth? Sure.

The editor dropped over to OneCup yesterday to get a Breakfast BLT. (The "Breakfast" means egg as well.) The DC Midcity was there. It's free. Done by the same people who do the Hill Rag and a couple of other free weeklies.

There was a column in it called "the Nose" entitled "Redistricting, It's a White Wash!" It had the usual drivel about how Evans is a racist and is picking on everyone. In it the editor learned that there are census "tracks". Perhaps like the Mommy and fast tracks. The editor found the logic intractable.

Something has happened over the twenty years or so, with emphasis on the last ten: The central city is getting built out. It added thousands of people while the rest of DC was relatively stable, although Ward 6 is obviously getting seriously built up with high rises too. If one looks at the condos and coops on Wisconsin and Connecticut Avenues and side streets, one can see where Ward 3 did the "built out" thing in the 90's. Hence, the ceding of 2 precincts to Ward 4 at the top and Georgetown to Ward 2 before that.

The gentrification of Logan Circle began in the 70's and the gentrification of the Blagden Alley and Naylor Court environs began in earnest in the early 80's. That doesn't mean population increase, but the renovation of (often abandoned) housing. With the accompanying decline in drug dealing and murder in the territory, it became safe to build the available zoning envelope. That is, a lot of condos and multi-unit rentals. That's the population spike relative to the rest of DC. That's mostly over.

One of the reasons for the initial gentrification is that renovation-possible housing was cheap and close to the core of the town. That housing is no longer cheap. Ward 6 is no longer cheap. That leaves Ward 5. The gentrifiers over there are paving the way for a possible spike a la Ward 2 in the 00's. It's getting safer. It's close. Who knows, in 10 years Truxton Circle may be in Ward 4.

The editor should not make development predictions, however. In the late 70's, when he was on the Foggy Bottom ANC (Chair two years, Treasurer two years, future wife, same thing) he was involved in serious development issues with a major player called George Washington University. At one of the meetings, their lead zoning lawyer Norman Glasgow (Sr) carefully explained to the young semi-politician that serious building had to occur in the GWU area since no development would ever occur east of Sixteenth Street. Glasgow was a straight shooter, and that is what he really believed. Look at where we all are now.

Mari over at InShaw had a nice pullout of the interesting parts of the current redistricting plan. The editor has copied it out and resized below

The original is here.

The editor's guess of Ward 2 going north along Seventh until P or so and then going west is wrong. The left turn is at N. Since so much of the discussion so far seems to be that DC east of Ward 2 is on the wrong side of the river Styx and is in need of sympathy and help, what DC is doing to the Immaculate Conception Church seems unkind. Since the O Street project will someday have (a guess) one to two thousand residents, that may satisfy some redistricting need. The editor doesn't know. But the project itself guarantees that a major developer spends time in the Ward 6 Councilmember's office as opposed to Ward 2's office. That probably has some value.

Some folks are hyperventilating. They should reach for a brown paper bag. What the editor finds interesting is "A few residents think Mr Evans should give the Convention Center back to the Shaw community...". He is unaware that the Convention Center ever belonged to a community. Or, in fact, that Shaw is a "community". He's well aware that a number of efforts have been made to treat is as a neighborhood, but it's too darned big for that. Well, OK, greater Shaw is apparently smaller than he thought. Apparently the Convention Center west isn't part of historical Shaw in the quoted statement.

The editor can understand intense dislike of new boundaries. He had severe problems with the last round. That said, he handled it. He understood that many of his problems would be resolved by population gain to the west of the Convention Center.

There is another. perhaps unmentionable, problem: Not all councilmembers are equally competent. Some have not just a local view, but also a city wide view. Several don't. The Ward 5 councilmember has always been very locally focused. If nothing else, sitting in or testifying at at Council hearing on a downtown project brings it out. Some ask questions having to do with general benefit to DC as well as their ward. Others seems to have no idea or concern beyond their ward. Such councilmembers shouldn't get their hands on assets with city-wide import. Such assets aren't play toys.

Some pictures of Blagden Alley at about 7 last Friday evening:

Looking north from the south end of the Alley:

The LongView is on the right side of the alley here, almost to the end.

A bit closer:


Obviously, there was a shindig earlier. Fancy one. (OK, that means more than a keg of Miller Lite.)
Turning left we have

The opening on the right was also having a small (catered) thing, probably to kick off a new phase of construction for the new 24 restaurant. (The editor likes the number 24. It was a fun series. 24 is also a "fasctorial". It's not a perfect number, though. That's 28, albeit a small one.)

One notes the probable difficulty of a fire engine negotiating the alley, either to the backs of the business on Hinth Street or the residences on the north side of 900 M or 900 N.

Going to the center of the alley we have:

and, looking north:

A parked (perked?) car, no driver at this point.

The editor has had fires, either in his house or close by. They are frightening. Many of the older houses have some susceptibility to fires, given that over the years birds have built nests which have managed to fall between the exterior brick and the wood framing. That's dry straw. Add in an idiot taking paint off with a propane torch, and a single spark falling between said bricks and there is a fire, which will be visible several hours later.

The editor was told by someone who was there that a Fire Marshall and a guy from the Mayor's office were there and tickets were handed out. The editor suspects that it was the Ward 3 Constituent Service guy who is filling in for the Ward 2 person who is on vacation and was who at the Blagden Alley meeting Thursday evening and who was really good. The editor. unfortunately forgot his name, but he tried to call the general number (727-6900) of the Executive Office of the Mayor. After 15 ringy dingies he gave up. But it does say that someone downtown is doing a solid job.

Alem has this up at OneCup. This is a bit lower density than the actual photo. One of the children in it left it, and should have a name and more in a month or two. The editor has added a bit of contrast to the original for the internet [sic, the unix people avoided upper cased].



The editor always thought that the Royalton was where these townhouses were. The editor's wife thinks it was more up toward Shepherds Alley, but not on the Mount Vernon Plaza side of the alley.

It's interesting to have the wrong idea for thirty years of he history of what you've lived across from.

The editor had his car (the Saab without the FONZ sticker) parked at the easternmost legal parking spot on the north of the 900 block of M Street a week ago Friday evening. The one closest to Modern Liquor. Sometime that night, this happened:

The editor saw it about 7:30am on his way back from One Cup Saturday morning. A contractor working on 901 M said it was OK at 9:00 or so the night before. He noticed it Saturday morning. He said he's learned to look at cars parked at corners. A lot of them seem to have been recently sideswiped as the drivers start their turns too early.

The right side turn thingy and the panel had some damage:

The interesting thing was that, because of springines of modern side mirrors, the debris was thrown backwards:

The editor called 911. (311 is a waste of time, but the editor called anyway.) Officer Leo of 3D took the details, and gave a case number.

The editor then called the insurance company. Travelers.

The lady on the phone was clear, thorough, and very professional. The editor picked the Falls Church Auto Body Shop. Turns out there is a little Travelers office right there. Showed up at 9:30 and was out in a rental by 10:30-11:00. The rental was a Chevrolet Malibu. Typical rental car. The editor doesn't have a problem with them in places like Phoenix, where the roads are straight and wide and parking spaces are ample. In DC, it's like piloting the Queen Mary on a slalom run. Work.

By Friday morning, the editor retrieved his car. Like new. Said an extra thanks or two to the Travelers people. The are courteous, efficient, and very, very coordinated.

The editor didn't really take notes, but he remembers two topics standing out.

First, there were a lot of "new" people there, which means people who haven't been to a meeting before, but who may have lived in the neighborhood for a few months or a year or two. One of the things that means is that many haven't heard from folks who've been here a while about living in the neighborhood. In particular, about TFA, or "theft from auto". That's for leaving a laptop visible in your car. It can cost a new window (assuming you've locked your car) and a new laptop. It's really, really tough for the police to prevent because it happens so fast and the perp is long gone. In this neighborhood, we get a lot of those, but mostly to foreigners (not DC, MD, or VA tags) and new people. The foreigners get hit because they perps are pretty sure that someone from Ohio won't come all the way back for a court trial and the newbies because they have provided an irresistible occasion of sin to the perp.

If you leave it visible in your car, it's going to walk. Perhaps not in the fancier spots of Ward Three, but just about anywhere in Ward Two, including downtown or a parking lot. If you park, put your laptop in the trunk, and leave the car, it's just as stupid. If you need to do the trunk thing, put it in the trunk a few blocks away. The neighborhood's not really dangerous, but don't get stupid. Basic rule.

Second, most of the meeting concerned the Mood Lounge at 1318 Ninth Street, formerly EFN, and BeBar, and vacant property prior to that, the editor guesses. The manager of said place was there, along with a lawyer and a couple of assistants. Many of the nearby neighbors were also there.

The Mood Lounge sounds like of those places that is screaming to get itself shut down. They draw a crowd guaranteed to wake up half the neighborhood at 3:30 in the morning. That is unsustainable. The normal course is to get the place to agree to certain restrictions, perhaps at ABRA (OK, it used to be the ABC, which everyone, everywhere understands as the booze board). That agreement will fall apart. There may be another try. Finally, the various authorities will convince the place to close. Perhaps it will be by severe police presence, cramping the style (business model) of the place. Perhaps by ticketing and towing cars and convincing the customers to take their business elsewhere. The one thing that normal people would think would make a difference is shame. It doesn't phase businesses like Mood Lounge.

Note to the neighbors: This too will pass, although not as soon as you'd like. When the O Street Market thing gets near completion, the businesses on Ninth will be higher end, interested in higher income customers and the long haul. At the moment, those businesses would have a hard time. Most of the long term residents have survived a couple of years of this kind of thing. Not pleasant, but it pays off in the end.

NSFW only in certain parts of the DC gubmint.

Here.

One of the problems with the neighborhood is that there is not enough public grass to keep the horde of dogs from the condos satisfied. But there is sidewalk:

This is from a couple of days ago in front of 907 M.

Actually, most of the dog walkers who carry those little baggies use them. To the select few, they are just a fashion accessory.

The editor was out exercising the camera this morning about 7:45am. He walked up Ninth to M Street, and saw something he doesn't recall: Total meltdown in 18-wheeler staging discipline for the Convention Center. The last time he saw this was here, about three years ago at this time of year.

Trucks all the way down the 900 block of M:


Some licenses:
and



Normally, the trucks are supposed stand by farther out New York Avenue. This time they did it under the M Street tunnel. It essentially closed off the eastbound lane of the 700-800 block of M Street.
A police utility vehicle was forced to do the traffic equivalent of go up the down staircase (not that he stopped, or anything): And some poor little sports car must have been late for something really important.


The editor just bets that the traffic management types at the convention center were blindsided by this. He would just love to hear the phone calls to the people organizing the trucks. Then again, it's probably just bleep sounds.

This is the sign facing west at the corner of Tenth and M, NW. The "No Thru Trucks over 1 1/4 Capacity" has been then there for years, even before the current convention center began construction, if the editor remembers correctly. The "No Buses" has been there since the early days of the convention center. (Wonder why?) It spent a couple of years upside down, but it looks right now.

3D really doesn't like to ticket violators since it's a moving violation. That gets the driver's Commercial Drivers Licence (CDL) yanked, and that's draconian. At times there has been discussion of ticketing the company, but that has fizzled out so far. While a company could trash the ticket the first time, the second time they would have to get the truck (or tour bus) out of impound. Or something. It isn't just neighborhood aesthetics and safety. Theoretically there is some concern on the part of the authorities about very heavy trucks on roads not built for that stress.

We'll get back to this in a minute.

The editor dutifully attended. One, because he is interested in things such as community impact (i.e., how bad is it going to screw up parking in the near term and upgrade Ninth Street in the longer term.) And two, it’s one way to put something useful in the blog. The December meeting was covered here.

The agenda was (with some elisions):

• Project Status from Hensel Phelps
• HP Intros
• Updated Jobsite Photos
• Monthly Project Status Report
• New and Open Community Issurs and Status
• Status Report, DDOT (James Cheeks).
• Remarks, Jack Evans
• Remarks, DPW William Howland (i.e., parking issues around the site)
• Feedback of survey of meeting dates
• New Issues
• Adjournment

Jack was running late so he went toward last. He did his fairly standard spiel on the state of finances and downtown projects in the District, which is always useful.

And then meeting took a different course. There are several provisions for training District residents and hiring them as the hotel is built and when it begins operation. A "good" thing. Let’s just say that there were several people from other parts of town concerned with this aspect of the new CCH, and the whole idea that the CCH was to be a benefit to the city disappeared for a while. Many in the audience seemed most concerned with how the take from the project for the training and jobs thing could be maximized. The editor also had that impression from a few of the Councilmembers when he testified in favor of the CCH here. (It seems so long ago.)

The editor believes in transparency. This jobs and training part of this project in the District is mostly mentioned in passing when it’s discussed in a general setting. The editor has the feeling that it’s bigger than we think. Hensel Phelps and Marriott have to factor in the training costs, the costs of hiring many not quite up to speed personnel and the attendant handlers and lawyers to make sure the “right thing” is done that it probably adds several million to the cost of the project and the on-going operation by Marriott.

It would be nice to see that number broken out, as there is a jobs number but not a dollar amount. Surely HP and Marriott have projected the costs, probably having done such things elsewhere. They surely have a carefully budgeted number. It would be nice to know that. But it’s buried in the overall cost to Marriott and the District. Don’t forget, we the taxpayers here have a large piece of the action. What we have in an off-the-books welfare (okay, “job training”) program of non-trivial size buried in project, which we are paying for. The editor recalls an old IBM salesman joke about burying expenses. It’s what the project is doing.

Begin Rant

One of the of differences between government thinking and that of the competitive world is that competence is priced differently. In the private world, one wants people competent enough to get the job done while paying the least amount. In the government world, many, many job descriptions can be filled with a range of competent people and the job can still be done. In the private world, there is competition, and the company which can more closely match competence and job pay and requirements over time will thrive more than many competitors.

The recent proposed 20%-70% hiring requirement for contractors doing work in DC is an attempt to bury serious extra employment costs in project prices. The editor considers it insane. Those extra costs will show up, either in higher taxes, lower bond ratings, or simply things that don’t happen because business is more profitable and transparent across the Potomac River.

The editor also remembers the 1980's living in 3D. We had a number of police officers of questionable honesty at the time, a lot new hires. There was, at the time, a very, very strong push for local hiring, almost to the exclusion of other considerations. Thus, vetting was not what it should have been. Over time, and better management in the MPD, that seems to have disappeared. It would be nice if it stays that way.

End Rant

Concrete Trucks

The editor's wife spotted what she thought was an "Aggregate Concrete" truck going east on Ninth Street onto Ninth last Tuesday at about 10:00am. It had blue or light blue lettering, and the number 472. It headed north on Ninth, so it was not a new Convention Center Hotel problem. But it's still illegal on 900 M Street. FWIW, a quick check shows an Aggregate Concrete in Fort Washington.

After the start of construction for the CCH and one day of dump trucks, have not seen a single concrete truck except this one. The CCH folks must be cracking a serious whip on their contractors. Good for them.

The editor expects flareups of earth moving and concrete trucks hitting local (and posted) streets like M, N, and O during the next year or two, given all of the upcoming major construction. If the management of the other projects is as attentive as the CCH people appear to be, problems will be resolved quickly. Too many of those trucks on residential roads will, at the very least, stress minor roads severely, to say nothing of the truck width and maneuverability on narrow streets.

Surveys

The editor and wife got two phone survey calls last week. Refused both.

Wednesday, one week after the TCP meeting posted immediately below.

Editor gets into car, parked eastbound in front of the Whitman. The editor is going to the car wash. As he gets in, he notices (hard not to) a concrete truck going by on M Street.

Number one, that's a ticketable offense. But the editor is more suspicious than that. So he postpones the wash for a few minutes and follows the truck down Ninth to L, where it is welcomed onto the CCH site by their traffic director. The truck was a Tiger company truck, either 06 or 09. The editor forgets.

The editor does not recall M Street as being on the fancy diagram at the meeting, any part of it. But, of course, "earth moving" trucks, were the subject of the meeting. Not concrete trucks. Maybe the editor is missing something.

Last night the editor received another call during dinner from DHS. This makes 5 so far. This was "Michael". When told that the editor was not going to do a survey, Michael got a bit huffy and asked for justification for not taking the survey. The editor hung up.

This DHS obsession was previously addressed in a previous post. While the editor finds some surveys in the electoral season fun, inquisitions by a local government which addresses you by name is creepy.

It would be interesting to find out who is managing this survey and what pressures he (or she, of course) is under. The editor does not recall this sort of thing happening before. But Michael and Bethany are strict orders to get all of a certain list of people interrogated, apparently.

In a conversation last night with someone new to the neighborhood, it occurred to the editor that many people have not heard of the collapse of the Convention Center during construction. So the editor went to his old picture file, and found these:

The morning after, from 905 M Street:

And a bit later when the tower crane was put up to help with the deconstruction:

And what the still standing steel looked like about then:

That building on the right became Breakwells and then First Cup.

The editor found this referring to the mishap.

A few days later one of the steel workers was in Modern Liquors and said he'd seen such before. If the editor remembers correctly, it was something about the steel being put up first with some give so that when everything is hooked up the structure can be tightened into exact alignment. So there is a few day period between hookup and complete tightening. When it is not entirely tight, and there is a windstorm such that a resonant frequency (with more on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge) is hit, then problems can occur, even though they are rare. A short film on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge is here.