I may have questioned before as to where my tax dollars were exactly going. Well this summer I found out when they started repaving S street. What used to be like driving on the surface of the moon is now one sleek, smooth, stretch of pavement. Thanks, DC! Now when winter comes, please take care of your shiny new street by plowing the snow instead of letting it turn into a giant sheet of ice. Then I’ll really be impressed!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Wayan’s DC Photos

I can understand the State Department wanting to keep a low profile, what with its shoddy Bush-led foreign policy. And I can even appreciate it not wanted to broadcast its location too far and wide.

But I have to say this crosses the line: erasing your name from the sign out front.

While they might fool a few folks by scrubbing off the white paint on the 23rd Street sign’s letters, there’s no mistaking the third largest federal building in DC. Not even re-naming it the Harry S. Truman Building will hide the block of ugly.

Nor will it stop visitors from being confused on which entrance they need or deter taxi drivers from going for one more zone, 23rd being one block past Zone 1.

Its only gonna make me want to call in my favorite sign-maker.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Petworth Eyesore Photoset

Just when I didn’t think it could get any worse, the Petworth Eyesore took it to the next level.

Just take a close look at the front door. What was once a beautiful, arched two-door entrance is now a poor in-filled single door.

I really don’t know how much worse the builders can make this house. Its already a remodel job from hell, what with the ill-fitting addition and broken windows.

It’s so bad that we all give directions by it, “Take a right at the eyesore. Yeah, trust me, you’ll know it when you see it.” Even the neighbors are moving out!

And it’s at the end of my block.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Now this is some cold-ass eviction. This is the street outside 2918 Sherman Avenue NW last night in Columbia Heights.

That mess on the street isn’t garbage, it’s the combined possessions of the tenants, or now ex-tenants, of what was their communal rooming house. Neighbours say that a contractor came by yesterday and had his workers toss the residents’ belongings out the building’s windows, with no regard for the lives destroyed or the street trashed.

And so we now see the result. Chaos and sadness for the former occupants, a hazard for city dwellers, and a lawsuit waiting to happen because the building owner couldn’t follow DC eviction rules or even decent street etiquette.

Good luck to the tenants, that shit ain’t right.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I see many shots of DC that are just that – shots of DC. The monuments, museums, and protests are all great things, and after all it’s easy to shoot what’s in your neighborhood. However I’m really impressed when I see a photo taken in our city that is timeless and that could have been taken anywhere, like this shot from chip py the photo guy. The photo’s title, “Man on Escalator”, tells you everything you need to know. It doesn’t matter what year, which city, which escalator, or even which man, it’s just a superbly exposed black and white photo of a guy living his life and going about his business.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Wayan’s DC Photos

Can I get a date check? Is it not September 19th? Four days and counting after the ANSWER anti-war protest march.

Isn’t it about time that these obnoxious yellow fliers are removed by the earnst protesters who blanketed our city with them?

I’ll even pay the postage to send every single old poster back to the ANSWER HQ, by COD of course.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

The ingrate on the right is Senator Max Baucus, the lone Democrat to vote no on the bill. Personally that doesn’t mean much to me, but what does stick in my craw is that when he’s here in DC – according to Mark Plotkin – he resides in Georgetown. It burns my ass that he spends his nights in our city and then goes home or gets himself an absentee ballot for Montana and casts his votes for congressional representation.

I’m happy to say that Jim Webb did the right thing and voted yes, and saddened to say that John Warner did not. Ben Cardin and Barbara Mikulski of Maryland voted yes, as did both Senators in Delaware and Pennsylvania – good neighbors.

Kudos to Robert Bennett, Norm Coleman, Susan Collins, Orrin Hatch, Richard Lugar, Olympia Snowe, Arlen Specter and George Voinovich who voted across the party line to support the right of DC residents to have a say in their own governance.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Majority Whip Mitch McConnell, doing his best Scrooge impression, ended this term’s hope for a legislator for the District of Columbia, as today’s procedural vote for cloture failed 57-42. 60 votes in the affirmative were required to end debate on the floor and get the bill passed through the Senate and sent to committee for resolution before being sent to President Bush, who had promised a veto for the Bill. Looks like DC will have to wait for a change of administration in order to get their right to vote.

It’s a tough thing to see this come so close, only to be ripped out by a mere procedural vote’s failure. This is one of those times where I sit back and can’t decide whether to laugh or to start drinking. DC’s got more people than Wyoming, yet Wyoming gets a vote in the House and two in the Senate, while we get just a delegate with no right to vote. It’s so frustrating to see such a well-spoken and intelligent woman not get the vote in the House that she rightfully deserves, and to see DC deprived of proper representation, all because it might be a firm Democratic stronghold seat.

Look. We’re Americans here in DC. We are, I promise. If you get born at GW Hospital, you’re an American the same as if you’re born in Fairfield, California or Ely, Minnesota. We pay our taxes, but we don’t get a legislator to lobby for our funding. We don’t get a vote on major issues, we don’t get a spot in committee, we’re pretty much boned.

And today, when it looked like we had it set, we were shut down. Damn Congress, you always leave me walking away muttering under my breath, wondering what possible subset of jackasses and morons brought you here to our town.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

When I was shopping for condos in late 2003, I had two options. Either buy a brand new place that required no work but more money up front, or buy a cheaper place that needed some remodeling done. Unfortunately I chose the latter option, but in hindsight I should have gone with the first option. Remodeling is NOT fun. But by hiring the queenslander renovations bulimba services you will avoid the headache and ensure a quality work will be done This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs Continue reading →

That’s what I need, passport photos. As I am standing here in the passport line crowd control of M Street NW, waiting to renew my US passport.

But where can I get passport photographs in Washington DC? Who knows the passport agency rules on how to shoot and crop photographs? Who uses the right paper stock for the prints?

I wish there was a store around here that took quality passport photos. If only there was a sign…

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Well, were you car free on your morning commute? Did you pass Tommy Wells (Ward 6) Car Free Challenge? I know I did, I ran into work at my new job.

As I ran, I wondered how they came about naming today “CarFree DC Day”. Might they have read my “Good Idea: Car-free DC” post, itself a copy of a Craigslist ad?

Probably not, since they have a whole usage model around car + free that is way more complicated that I could ever be:

• Carfree (adj.): Refers to “World Carfree Day”
• CarFree (n.): Refers to “CarFree DC”
• Car-free (adj.): Describing a car free way of being
• Car free (n. + adj.): To be free of cars

Sheesh, they make it so complex I just wanna drive away.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Much love to Nats Blogger Miss Chatter for blogging about her recent trip to see the Nats take BP at the new stadium:

I was walking down the road into left field and saw everyone, so froze and took video and photos from there. Wily Mo Pena hit a home run over the left field “wall” while I stood there. Pretty cool!

While things do still look pretty rough and construction-y at the new yet-to-be-named stadium, the Nats have a lot to look forward to there. It looks like the giant display in right-center should be pretty awesome there, and the new park will likely be much more hitter-friendly, which will be great for the Nats’ offense, but likely horrific for the Nats already 10th of 16 Pitching staff.

That is, unless Stan and Jim have a surprise for us in the offseason like I hope they do?

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Protest signs DC made or bought?

What do you think the economic impact of ANSWER Coalition’s protest yesterday? How much money did Washington DC businesses and government gain from the protesters?

I’m sure that the hotels, buses, and vendors were happy with the protest influx. Also the sign makers, Port-a-let renters, and even the DC government, with the tax revenue.

Add to it, all those overtime-paid police and security guards who made bank babysitting screaming adults and will now spend said bank in DC.

But what about the drain on DC services, the overtime that came from DC government coffers. Was it more than the tax revenue for the tourists’ taxes? Does DC come out ahead, money-wise, when we have a protest, ineffectual or not?

Armchair economists, compute!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Photo by Carl Weaver

I have had a great time with my garden recently and am slowly capturing some of it digitally as the harvest ripens and my green fruit starts to blush. The peppers, especially, have a really cool look about them. Each is shaped differently from the others, showing something of a personality and unique, dliecious beauty.

What do you have growing in your garden? Take a picture and post a link in the comments.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Kickball. Fun pastime or Scourge of the District? To hear the Anti Yuppie Kickball Guerilla Front tell it, you’d think that Kickball was the favored activity of all manner of evils from Napoleon’s Imperialism and European Fascism through to modern Islamist Terrorism. Check out their charge to battle:

Think of those eyes now turning to you my friends each time you hear that whistle and the whack of an adult foot on a rubber playground ball. What do those eyes tell you when the asshole-parade of rainbow shirts suddenly crowds into your holy places of drink and real camaraderie? What will you say to your children whom you allowed to be so cowed by the yuppie class war that they whine about your feet and cannot begin to function without a social life you had Fedexed for them from China? I’ll tell you your answer! I say NO! NO! NO to the Reebok boot of chump-hood against the neck of our future! NO to the gentrified repackaging and reduction of our heritage to predetermined color-codes. NO to this flight from reality back to little-league baseball insulation! And God Damnit NO to this invasion stupefying lock-step collectivism into our beer-flowing foundries of revolutionary thought!

Folks, this site is an epic masterpiece of Kickball-hatred the likes I haven’t seen since my friend John was picked last for Kickball in the fourth grade. The tirade that he spouted, aged up to his current near-thirty vocabulary, looks remarkably similar to the screed of the new Guerilla Front. Check out their methods of operation, or tell them that your hatred of kickball is best described as an 18-wheeler packed with starved wolves.

Viva la revoluciòn!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

That’s the question I ask thinking about today’s march on the Capitol – was it effective?

First, did “thousands” of protesters change anyone’s mind? From what Michelle Boorstein says, I don’t think so:

Things got ugly for several blocks along Pennsylvania Ave., where war supporters, held back by metal barricades, wore T-shirts, held signs and screamed things at protesters that frequently were obscene.

On the corner of 10th street, two middle-aged men wearing white T-shirts emblazoned with a soldier’s photo shouted obscenities at the top of their lungs in the face of a young man wearing full camouflage and a bandana covering all of his face except his eyes.

And then we have to wonder if it motivated anyone to take action more and/or more effectively than before, no matter what their ultimate goal might be from that action.

Do you think there will be a new groundswell of voter-action? New conversations with new people in homes, churches, or civic groups? Did the protesters at least do a sit-in until they met with their Congressman?

Probably not. Most Congressmen were back home with 4 days off for Rosh Hashana and I dare to say that most protesters did what they do best today: scream and shout like the woman loco_moco witnessed:

I heard the most profanities from a large, middle-aged woman counterprotestor with a big bullhorn. As I was passing, she suddenly lunged over the barrier and tried to smite somebody with it. She had to be restrained by her compatriots.

I’d make that “patriots” but I wouldn’t call her very effective. She’s just one step up from ineffectual protesters I protest.

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

Wayan’s DC Photos

Today there was a whole other protest. It wasn’t about war, though the opposing sides are just as bitter. There were accusations of killing, death, even murder. And people did need escorts to keep fights at bay.

But this protest isn’t new, or even unique to DC. This is an abortion protest, and it happens across America at Planned Parenthood centers.

On one side you have guys like this one, ready to pounce on any woman entering, pregnant or not. On other you have the escorts, in bright shirts, ready to body-block for those looking for family planning advice.

And sadly, unlike the protest on the Mall, this protestation happens on a national scale every Saturday. Its enough to make we want to quote.

“Can’t we all just get along?”

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs

I hadn’t intended to post to DC Metblogs while I was here in Chicago, but I spotted this old tug from Lakeshore drive yesterday when coming in from the airport. So today I walked down to Lake Michigan to get a better picture and noticed its registry location – home!

This post appeared in its original form at DC Metblogs