Eddye Williams, the District’s oldest resident, turned 110-years-old today at her home in Ward 5.

What’s her secret?

Love everybody. Don’t hate. Don’t gossip. Take care of your own business. And take care of your body.

Amen.

Happy New Year!

Now pay up.

Our city council and mayor, ever desperate for new sources of revenue, have levied, effective today, a five-cent tax on every paper and plastic bag.  So unless you carry reusable bags in your pockets for every unforeseen trip to the store, get ready to shell out.

The stated purpose of the tax is to clean up the Anacostia River and three or four cents of every nickle collected will go to the Anacostia River Protection Fund.  Some stores have the option of offering a five-cent credit to customers who bring their own bags.  In such cases, store owners will be allowed to keep two of the five cents of the tax they collect.

The bag tax applies to every store that sells food or alcohol.  Since Best Buy sells candy near its check out lines, the tax applies there, too; you’d better take a reusable bag to carry your new DVD player home on the Metro.

Paper bags, which are biodegradable, are also taxed, not because of any potential impact on the Anacostia, but because of politics: store owners feared that a tax on plastic bags would encourage customers to opt for their more expensive paper counterparts.

For those who own cars (your author is not one of them), it might be easy to store one’s bags in the trunk and to pull them out at the store.  The rest of us are expected to carry bags on our persons, which is a nuisance that the mayor, with his city-provided SUV, and the council, with their free street parking in front of the Wilson Building, probably don’t understand.

Our biggest complaint about this tax is not so much the money, but the degree of condescension it exudes, implying that those who use plastic bags are sinners destroying the Anacostia.  Readers of this blog will note our distaste for litter, especially the heaps of it that pile up in front of the Howard Theater on the Block of Blight.  It’s easy to levy a feel-good tax, whereas a sustained effort to fine people who litter and to sanction businesses whose customers litter isn’t nearly as sexy.

New Year, Newspeak

Adding to the condescension is the legislation’s wording, which refers to the tax by the more innocuous word fee, as though city residents are too stupid to identify a tax when they see it.

The District Department of the Environment, which is responsible for administering the new tax (oops, I mean “fee”) has jumped on the Orwellian bandwagon, too, refusing to use the word tax.  Even worse, their campaign against plastic bags (see the image above) is an exemplar of newspeak, urging us to “skip the bag [to] save the river”.  For those of use who don’t litter— the majority of District residents— to “skip the bag” will not “save the river” since we wouldn’t have littered anyway and by reusing other bags, we avoid paying the tax to finance the river clean-up.  Ironically, by skipping the bag, we are not helping to save the river.

Cleaning up the river is a worthwhile goal, but levying yet another regressive excise tax wrapped heavily in moralistic rhetoric is neither honest nor fair.  Financing river cleanup should come from proven sources of river pollution, including sewers (by taxing water bills), impervious real property (WASA already charges a fee for this), and by enforcing anti-littering laws more aggressively.  Many of us, the majority I’d expect, use plastic bags and dispose of them responsibly so they don’t soil our communities and rivers.  Nonetheless, we are the scapegoat pretext for this new tax.

We are willing to bet a shiny nickle that this latest feel-good tax will do little to curb littering and we expect the heaps of garbage to continue to pile up in front of the Howard Theater.

We came across this proposal for Hartland Commons, a boutique hotel proposed for the site across T Street from the Howard Theater. We certainly think it’s a step up for what we have named the Block of Blight, but we’re not sold on the modern design and the destruction of some of the existing historic buildings.

Given that there’s no development application that we’re aware of, we suspect this is more of a conceptual design with no legs.  The design, by Georgetown-based Group Goetz Architects, certainly contrasts with the neighboring architecture, though.  Have a look.

View of the south façade along T Street

View from Duke Ellington Plaza at T Street and Florida Avenue NW

T Street façade, opposite the Howard Theater

T Street façade during the day.

Florida Avenue façade

While investigating the background of this project, we came across an earlier conceptual design by the same architecture firm, which, coincidentally, is located next to the Swedish Embassy. The façade resembles a fabric we’ve spotted at IKEA— perhaps “boutique hotel” is just a front the Swedish spy agency!  If a motorcade of black Volvos emerges from the garage one day, don’t say we didn’t warn you.

We’ve been busy for Christmas and we forgot to wish everyone a merry Christmas.

Here are some Christmasy photos we’ve taken around town lately.

At the Willard:

At the U.S. Botanic Garden:

The National Christmas Tree:

Stay tuned— more posts to follow!

Next year is the decennial census, and though this ten-year period is mandated by the Constitution, the U.S. Census Bureau continues to collect detailed demographic data, including population estimates, for the other nine years.

From July 1, 2008 to July 1, 2009, the District gained 9,583 people, raising our population to 599,657, just a tad short of the tantalizing 600k mark that we haven’t seen since 1991.

That amounted to a 1.6% increase.  Only four states gained more proportionally: Wyoming (2.1%), Utah (2.1%), Texas (2.0%), and Colorado (1.8%).

Increased population densities bring many advantages economically.

An increasing population expands the demand for housing, thereby securing the equity stakes of current homeowners.  Detroit residents have lost small fortunes as the values of their homes have declined over the years.

With more people comes a greater demand for restaurants, bars, and stores.  The more people who live withing walking distance of a commercial district, the more vibrant that commercial district becomes as there are more potential customers for the same amount of retail space.

With greater densities comes a greater demand for transit, making frequent transit service more economically viable.

Whether or not one likes living in a mid- or high-density community is really a matter of personal taste— there are certainly some downsides, too— but keep in mind that the densest Census tract in the nation is on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, a tony and desirable neighborhood.

Nevertheless, we see the District’s positive population change as a positive development overall.

DC’s Urban Forestry Administration has released its tree-planting list for early 2010.  UFA aims to plant 3,000 trees between the curbs and the sidewalks in the coming year to help expand the city’s tree canopy.  Trees prevent erosion, lower cooling bills, absorb pollutants, and just look pretty.

We have plotted each planned tree for LeDroit Park and Bloomingdale on the map below.

View LeDroit Park-Bloomingdale Tree Planting Schedule in a larger map

These trees will be added to public space, which typically stretches from one sidewalk’s outer edge and across the street to the outer edge of the other sidewalk.

If you would like a tree planted in your private yard in the coming spring, the District Department of the Environment is offering tree-plantings for $50. Order your tree now!

The record snowfall ended around 1 am on Sunday morning, leaving one to two feet of accumulated snow across the region. We spent much of the day out around town. With many stores closed and little to do, we found fellow Washingtonians friendly and relaxed.

At Meridian Hill Park, about 40 people showed up to sled down snow-packed steps.

Most were just spectators, though.

Christmas is here,
bringing good cheer,
to young and old,
meek and the bold,

Just a few blocks away at Fourteenth and U Streets, futureMAGINING, the folks responsible for the pillow fight a few months back, hosted a whimsical snowball fight, which wasn’t without its own tempest.

And the Postal Service held to its motto.

Metro halted all bus service and at 1 pm train service was limited to underground stations. The District government claims to have plowed every street at least once, but we encountered many streets (especially the narrow ones) that don’t appear to have been touched. Main roads, such as Fourteenth Street, received their needed treatment.

We took the Green Line downtown and found the streets, including Pennsylvania Avenue, deserted.

Some took the opportunity to play football on the Mall.

The Senate was still in session, though it’s a surprise that any Senators could find their way to the Capitol.

We spotted birds huddling for heat on top of a warm Metro vent next to Seventh Street on the Mall:

We helped build a snow Java the Hut.

The Smithsonians were closed, as were the National Gallery of Art and the Sculpture Garden.

Farragut Square was deserted.

‘Twas the week before Christmas, when all through the White House
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse

God rest ye merry gentlemen.

Councilmember Jim Graham (D – Ward 1) informed his constituents via email this afternoon that the Deputy Mayor for Economic Development will rebid the construction contract for the park project in LeDroit Park.

The project is back on track, but the rebidding process will necessitate a delay of several months.

View Larger Map

Over in Shaw, the billboards at the intersection of Fourth Street, P Street, and New Jersey Avenue have been removed after the billboard’s owner, ClearChannel, reached an agreement with the District.

The Other 35 Percent details the billboards’ downfall.  And there’s a video, too:  (skip ahead to 2:30 and then to 4:25 to see the massive billboard crash to the ground.)

The D.C. Council voted unanimously to reorganize the controversial park construction contracts.  Ten of the contracts will be managed by the Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization, which mainly handles school reconstruction.  The office is highly regarded as efficient and reliable.

Three of the contracts, including the one for the park in LeDroit Park, will be handled by the Department of Parks and Recreation and not the Housing Authority as originally planned.

Banneker Ventures, which had received all of the original contracts, is threatening to sue the city for a breach of contract.  D.C. Attorney General Peter Nickles believes Banneker has strong legal footings upon which to build a case; the Council is not so sure (or doesn’t care).

Councilmember Jim Graham (D – Ward 1) believes the three contracts directed to the Dept. of Parks and Recreation may be able to go forward as originally planned because of the more open nature of their original approval.

Perhaps our local mud pit will open next year as verdant as planned after all.