Dear Senator Casey,

It’s touching that you have decided to rail against the Nationals new policy of selling to the home market first for games against the Phillies. Really, it is.

It’s not like unemployment is a problem, or there are massive deficits in the federal budgets, or heavy duty partisan bickering sessions over things that matter to Americans everywhere, like the new Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, or things of those natures. No, clearly Philly fans being told to wait their turn on tickets for a series three months from now rises to a level of concern for you.

Here’s something you should recognize about the District: we don’t tend to like it when out of town senators and congress critters try to influence city policy.

Take a hike.

The Phillies may have some of the best fans of the world, but they’ve also got some of the worst. Need I remind you of the projectile vomiting fan? He’s one of yours. I’m sure this little old lady is, too.

Please, do your country and your constituents a favor and get back to working on issues that matter.

Love,

Tom Bridge, Editor, We Love DC

PS -

One of Pennsylvania Avenue’s three most recognizable facades is that of the Old Post Office, located at 12th and Pennsylvania, and sporting DC’s third highest pinnacle at 329 feet. Yesterday, the General Services Administration selected the Trump Hotel Collection to refurbish the historic building and turn it into a 250-room luxury hotel including a fancy spa.

The name that the Trump group will give the hotel is similarly jarring: “Trump International Hotel, Old Post Office, Washington, D.C.” Is it just me, or does that sound like a bad Europhone translation of what we’re seeing here? I know that like a dog in the park, Trump likes to mark his territory, but wouldn’t just calling it the Old Post Hotel be a lot more “Washington” and a lot less “Jesus Christ, That’s Opulent”?

Ah well, it’s going to take a while before the bedraggled food court is ousted, and the new hotel goes in, with construction not beginning for two more years, and a 2016 date is posited for opening.

The United States Park Police did on Saturday morning what they had been threatening to do for a week, and cleared out the tents and violating equipment from McPherson Square Park. The four-month occupation of the park by a group of protestors discussing varied issues from income inequality to college loan debt to the war in Afghanistan. Eight were arrested, and one officer was hurt when he was hit in the head by a brick, but otherwise the action was without violence. For a more personal view of the action, I highly encourage you to read Dave Stroup’s take on Saturday’s actions, which speak to the ephemeral community of Occupy K Street.

The photos from the morning after are a sad coda to the state of the park, which had just undergone a refurbishment by the Park Service, with new sod and landscaping both destroyed by the four-month long protest. You can’t do the math on an event like this, though, and expect to get a proper sum. In the end, their issues are on the lips of many District residents, both to discuss, and to mock.

I was very glad to see this pass without significant violence, and without a high arrest total. The Tent of Dreams, pictured above, might have been Occupy DC’s finest hour, but it could only last so long.

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On a sunny February afternoon, it’s a wonderful thing to think about baseball and dream of the balmy summer evenings, the smell of the half smokes on the grill, the hum of an AM radio wafting on the breeze, and the thrill of the grass in front of you.

It’s a lot less fun to think about the drunk from Philly who’s two rows down in front of you throwing batteries at Jayson Werth.

The Nationals have opened up tickets for DC area residents ahead of anywhere else for DC metro area residents through an online pre-sale. This won’t keep the Philly fans out of Nats Park, but it will mean there are fewer of them. Go out and do your duty and cheer on the (drastically improved) Nationals this May.

While others have taken on the Primary election financial data, I spent yesterday combing through the financials of those Ward 5 Council candidates who have declared their intent to run. I’ve compiled my initial data into a read-only spreadsheet that you can use to dissect the race, and I welcome corrections either in the comments or via email. Using the campaign filings with the Office of Campaign Finance, I have examined closely the filings of the 12 candidates who returned the forms to OCF.  I’m surprised that there are at least eight who have taken out petitions who have yet to return file with the OCF, but there are provisions that would allow a candidate not to return forms right away.

There are four campaigns that have made efforts to fundraise in the first reporting period, representing approximately 20 days of fundraising time.  Delano Hunter leads the pack with just over $20,000 across 119 donors, followed by Kenyan McDuffie with just under $17,000 across 76 donors.  Frank Wilds made a $10,000 loan to his own campaign, but tracked no donations. Bloomingdale ANC Commissioner John Salatti was fourth with $7,600 or so.  No other candidate raised more than $550.

Looking at the data in detail, it was surprising to see so much of Delano Hunter’s contributions come from outside of the District, with more than half his donors coming from zip codes outside of DC, despite some clerical errors in his filing that lists DC state marks for many addresses in Colorado, Georgia, Maryland and other states. More than 55% of the money for Hunter came from outside of DC.  Kenyan McDuffie showed similarly strong fundraising capability, bringing in over $10,000 in online donations during the three days before the filing. In addition, McDuffie lead the candidates for donations coming from both DC residents and Ward 5 residents in both donor numbers and total dollars raised. McDuffie did receive approximately 40% of his funding from outside of the District, to the tune of nearly $7,000.

Coming in fourth, John Salatti saw donations from primarily his base in Bloomingdale, with few donations coming from outside the reach of the 20001 zip code that contains Bloomingdale.

When it came to corporate money in the race, Hunter lead the pack, accepting 10 corporate donations totaling over $4,000, including bundled donations from the owners of the controversial Stadium Club gentleman’s club, and former Prince George’s County Executive Wayne Curry and his Consulting practice.  John Salatti was tied for second in corporate donations, which included a pair of bundled donations from a construction management firm and its owners, and a Development firm and its owner. McDuffie’s campaign said in a press release that they will not accept bundled donations in this race.

Full Disclosure: I am a volunteer for the Kenyan McDuffie Campaign, and a financial contributor to the campaign. No information not given to the public is available in this article.

If you use the South Entrance of the Dupont Circle Metro Station, well, I hope you like walking. You’ll be doing more of it, soon. Starting Wednesday, the South Entrance will be closed for 9 months while WMATA replaces the 185-foot spans that rise 85 feet to street level. The company that makes the particular escalators used in that entrance have been out of business for some time, which has made finding parts of the escalators difficult. Given that the spans are some of WMATA’s least reliable, that’s a combo that means replacement and not repair.

WMATA will be putting standard escalators in place and widening the current entrance space to handle these new, wider escalator bays, and the entrance will be closed until November of this year.  Farragut North’s northern entrance is just 0.5mi to the south, and the North Entrance of Dupont Circle will remain open during the work. In the case of emergency, Metro will leave one exit escalator span in place during the work for emergency egress, along with a new spiral staircase. The North Entrance of the station will have additional on-call escalator techs in case of failure.

I’ve been trying to come to terms with this all day. I’ve been sitting on this post for a few hours, but it seems right now to post it. Since we moved to Brookland, our weekend haunt has been the beautiful steel diner on Bladensburg road, the Capital City Diner. I first set foot in the diner about two years ago, as we were looking at houses, and I sat down for the most amazing patty melt and milkshake I’ve had in this fair city. Since then, it’s been our Saturday and Sunday morning breakfast location. Seeing Cheryl, Matt, Frank and Sylvia each weekend has become a highlight in my week. Sunday, the Diner will close, but not before throwing one last hurrah this weekend.

When I heard today, I drove over to the Diner to get the news from owner Matt Ashburn. I was greeted at the door by Cheryl, who immediately wrapped me in a bear hug. That’s pretty much when I lost it. Cap City has been a weekend home for us. We brought Matt and Cheryl homemade jam, farm peaches, and cranberry relish, and they kept us topped up on coffee and Diet Coke, including one memorable occasion when despite being out of soda, Cheryl ran up the street to get us some.

Capital City Diner has been an oasis for us, and one of my DC Talismans, a place that I go when I need to feel that something in this world is in perfect order. The letter up on their website cites rising costs and nearby competition from a national chain that rhymes with Lenny’s. The end of the Diner may well be attributable to Harry Thomas Jr., who worked hard to bring the chain restaurant to Trinidad after seeing the Diner thrive. While perhaps bringing more business to Bladensburg Road near Trinidad is good for the local economy, something Thomas wasn’t exactly known for, his last good act might have killed the thing I loved most in the District.

Chicken and Waffle, Capital City Diner
courtesy of Kevin H.

Thank you, Matt, Cheryl, Sylvia and Frank, for the calm that you brought to my life, for the food that you made (seriously, I have no idea how you make that fried chicken, but it’s goddamned magical), and for your incredible support and friendship.

We’ll see you this weekend for one last finale. But I’ll probably cry.

I love DC’s many housing styles. The standard federal rowhouse is a DC fixture in the neighborhoods, but how can you ignore the beauty of the Victorians that line the great boulevards? Add in the bungalows and arts & crafts houses (my personal favorite in the free-standing varietals) and you’ve got some really amazing houses in the District. DC Urban Turf breaks it down which is which, as well as adding in a little history about each model. Know your houses, DC!

Boy, what a morning.

First up was Alex Ovechkin, who today opted out of the All-Star Game, citing a lack of passion brought on by a 3-game suspension for an off-his-feet hit on the Penguins Zbynek Michalek during Sunday’s game. I can understand his frustration with the league for a 3-game suspension when Michalek was cleared of a similar hit in the exact same game. It can be hard to be a professional hockey player. That is also why he’s paid $9.5M on average per season. As Don Draper says, “That’s what the money is for!” I suppose that he’ll instead be chilling in his new house in McLean, valued at $4.2M.

In acting the petulant teenager, Ovechkin hurts the fans and the league, when he’s really just angry that his team can’t seem to feed him the puck up close to the net. Look, Ovi, I know you’re having a rough go of it right now, but the answer here is to buckle down and do more not do less, especially in the face of criticism. There’s a lot of concern out there for the team’s work ethic, and that there’s no combined leadership on the ice. By opting out and saying that you’re just not feeling it, well, I have to wonder – have you felt it at all this season? I know you’re hitting like crazy, and your game against Pittsburgh this week saw you with 3 points, but I’m not seeing the leader that I was hoping for.

The Capitals, in standing by their star, are at least giving him an “honorable” out, and given the lack of discipline for Michalek, that seems to be at least justified in part. In doing so, aren’t the Capitals doing more to hurt the hockey capital’s enthusiasm for the sport as a whole? I had thought that this was an organization dedicated toward hockey as a whole, but this latest set of actions seem to belie that isn’t the case always.

And now on to the firing of Flip Saunders, first reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports.  The Wizards have started the year at a lovely 2-15, including a 20-point loss in Philly last night, a game in which they trailed by 30 at the half, which is something I was pretty sure was only possible when a JV team plays the varsity at DeMatha. Sadly, it’s not likely that the elevation of assistant Randy Wittman to the head coach, even temporarily, is going to change the slide of the Wizards – not that they can slide much further down the charts.

I can’t remember a more terrible day for Monumental Sports in the new era, and though it feels like piling on, the state of DC sports is fairly deplorable, given the Redskins’ back to back 6-10 seasons, the Wizards seemingly-perpetual last place position, and the Capitals struggles amid an abundance of talented players. How terrible is it that a .500 season from the Nationals seems to be the brightest spot in the DC Sports world right now?

So yes, Uncle Ted, this is a day for wicked pixels, but it’s hard to dodge these as just being the words of some pajama-clad bloggers when it’s the whole of the sports media with their head in their hands wondering what could possibly be going on.

It’s hard to say how important programs like DC Central Kitchen are to the District. There’s just so many aspects to it that carry such incredible value – is it their programs providing meals for homeless shelters? their programs working with school nutrition? providing produce to markets in food deserts?

Chief among the programs that DCCK champions is their job training program, that takes people that need a second chance, and train them to work in commercial kitchens all over this city. The Liberation is a Kickstarter project that will follow one class through the 14 weeks of training through to getting their jobs. They’ve got about four days left, and they need your help to make their goal.

Contributions over $50 will be tax deductible, as well, as the Big Sky Film Institute is a 501c3 non-profit.

Good morning, everyone. This post is specifically for Virginia and Maryland readers today, which means it’s sorta the opposite of what we strive for here at We Love DC, but for reasons that will become clear in a minute, we need your help, and all our friends that live in the District can’t help us the way that you can.

You’re going to see a lot on the Internet today, if you haven’t already, about a bill in front of Congress called SOPA or PIPA, depending on if they’re talking about the bill in the House or the Senate. It’s a pretty bad bill. Sure, its heart is in the right place, trying to stop online piracy, but the way they’ve chosen to go about doing it is pretty well awful. They’re going after a fly with a sledgehammer, and frankly, it’s just not going to work to stop piracy.

If you’ve got a second today, could you call your Congressperson and Senators and let them know it’s not cool to break the Internet?

In our environment here, we use some pretty cool tools to bring you all the news, including sites that open themselves up to host content, like Flickr, and YouTube, and other related sites. These are sites that could be paralyzed under SOPA and PIPA, and replacement companies couldn’t be created because it would require an army of lawyers just to get started.

Don’t take our word for it, see what Google has to say, or learn more about the blackout today, and then call your congresspeople.

It just takes a second to call Congress, and you don’t even have to get worked up. Just call their office, tell them your name and that you live in their District or State, and then just say, “I oppose SOPA and PIPA, and I don’t think you should vote for them.” Remember you’re talking with volunteers, and be nice, but do give them a call.

And, if you’re feeling a bit brave, or a bit cheesed off, ask for some voting rights for your friends in the District?

Well, at least part of DC life.

Local political advocates Bryan Weaver (you remember him from his At-Large and Ward 1 council campaigns), Sylvia Brown (An ANC in Ward 7) and Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells are teaming up to put a ballot initiative on this November’s general election ballot to end Corporate Political Donations for local campaigns.  Should the measure get on the ballot (not a certainty), and pass (doubly so), DC would join 30 states and the Federal Government that forbid corporations from donating to local campaigns.

The group would need at least 20,000 signatures in order to get the measure on the ballot, but first it must pass some oversight by the Board of Elections & Ethics, and survive a challenge period.  Should it do those things, it would end up on the November general election ballot.

There’s been a lot of focus on the national stage about the role of corporations in politics, and I would expect that this measure would draw out a number of groups both for and against the corporate contributions. This will be one to watch.

We had hoped to get the text of the proposed amendment, but Mr. Weaver did not return contact ahead of this story breaking at the Post this morning.

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If there’s a caricature in the media politics age that we live in, Rush Limbaugh is that clichéd, hackneyed caricature that you just can’t seem to scrub out of the landscape. On yesterday’s broadcast, the target of Rush’s ire was Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh, for her bill from 2010 about humane trapping of wildlife (not vermin, Rush, wildlife.), as well as her supposed authoring of the plastic bag tax bill (sorry Rush, that one is on Councilmember Tommy Wells’ record).  According to DCist’s transcription of the segment, at least Rush did get one thing right:

“This Mary Cheh babe — C-H-E-H — she is the woman behind the D.C. plastic bag tax”

Rush is correct; Councilmember Cheh is, in fact, a stone cold fox. However, as it’s wrong to objectivize women, or refer to them by a slang word for their looks, we would never call a public official that.

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Disruptive business models are hard because they challenge entrenched majorities who are often capable of regulatory backlash against new models of doing business that are more efficient and creative. Uber, the internet-dispatched creative car service, has had a rough couple of days. The trouble began on Wednesday, when the DC Taxi Commission chairman said that they were operating illegally. Their argument is that car services must operate on a time basis, instead of a mileage-based service like a taxi.

Today, according to DCist’s Benjamin Freed, Chairman of the Commission’s Ron Linton conducted a sting operation against of one of the drivers that contracts with the Uber service, that ended with the driver issued a citation, and his vehicle towed and impounded.

While I would absolutely expect taxi drivers to fight back against a perceived loss of business, Uber says they’re operating legally, based on the results of their internal code examination, and their attorneys findings. The DCTC is going for a pressure point: the limousine drivers that contract with Uber for additional funds.

Taxi service in this town, frankly, is abysmal. I live in a part of town where getting a cab takes an extra hour and costs an extra $5 to your base fare, let alone knows where he’s going. A car service is a fairly expensive, and hard to arrange unless you know where you’re going a few days in advance. Uber bridges the gap nicely between the two, and adds a level of convenience that even the taxis in the city can’t manage.

If you want to fight back, the DCTC answers to the Mayor. Mayor Gray’s office can be reached at (202) 727-6300, or via email at eom@dc.gov.

As you may be aware, this weekend is the celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, the first in the Nation’s Capital since the new memorial to Dr. King opened on the mall. You may be planning to spend your Monday holiday in service-related activities, or demonstrating for the lack of civil rights in the District, but local club Barcode wants you to drink away the night before with special MLK-themed bottle service and drinks specials.  They’re even using the civil rights leader’s visage on their fliers.

Of course, if that name sounds familiar, it’s not just you. Barcode is the same spot that had a special happy hour and bottle service for the muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr back in August.

I guess there’s no holiday out there that Barcode will leave be.

I, for one, can’t wait for Barcode’s new “Dead Presidents” cocktails for President’s Day, or the Tombstone Special on Veterans Day next November.

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Harry Thomas Jr, seen above at Brookland ribbon cutting, tonight released a statement that he intends to resign his Ward 5 council seat in the morning, and plead guilty to two federal crimes related to $383,000 of city money that was misappropriated by a charity that Thomas operates. In his statement tonight, Thomas said, “Tomorrow morning I will plead guilty to committing two federal crimes. I am resigning my position as a member of the Council effective immediately. I made some very serious mistakes and exhibited inadequate and flawed judgment. I take full responsibility for my actions. I am truly sorry.”

Thomas is expected in court at 11:15am tomorrow for a plea hearing in Federal Court to answer for the charges that were filed against him this morning. A plea deal has been rumored by several media outlets for the last few days, and may contain up to 3 years for Thomas in prison.

A special election would take place on the first Tuesday after 114 days from the certification of the vacancy of Thomas’ seat, which would likely place the election on May 8th or 15th.  Candidates have already begun to appear, with at least six possibilities emerging as prospective candidates in the last few days, to include some of Thomas’ former challengers, including Delano Hunter and Kenyan McDuffie.

censored(red stamp)
courtesy of �ậ�ëø

The Office of Cable Television is the entity that is responsible for the broadcast of Channel 13, DC’s public access network that broadcasts (and re-shows) various hearings and meetings of the city council. Local political writer Chuck Thies says that, at the behest of Council Chairman Kwame Brown, cameras were turned off during a public press conference, and the tape was edited to remove a question from a WTOP reporter in its online and archived version.

That question’s subject matter had every reason to be embarrassing to Chairman Brown: it had to do with the ethics of the council, something that has created a dark cloud over the body’s current term, due to scandals surrounding members both at-large and from the wards.  According to WAMU, Brown and his deputy Chief of Staff are denying responsibility for the cut, the OCT has said they were just doing what they were told.

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Cracked rails on the Red and Blue line this morning in commute-heavy portions of the above-ground part of the rail system have snarled morning commutes. The breaks, near the Pentagon and near Takoma, were caused by the rapid cooling of the DC area to a low of near 10 degrees Fahrenheit last night, according to Metro spokesman Dan Stessel. The breaks cannot be fixed during rush hour, and repairs will take place once morning rush is cleared.

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We only gave Harry Thomas Jr the #3 slot in 2011’s Worst of Scandals list, but it appears he will be the number one figure in DC politics for the next few weeks. WUSA9’s Bruce Johnson is reporting that Councilmember Thomas will resign as part of a plea deal that will send Thomas to prison for 2-3 years. In addition, according to comments obtained by the Washington Post, Thomas failed to make his second scheduled $50,000 payment this week.

Thomas’ resignation would leave Ward 5 without a seat on the council (excepting At-Large Councilmember Vincent Orange, who also lives in Ward 5) until a special election could be called. The District, according to law, must hold the election on the Tuesday after 114 days from the certified vacancy. Should Thomas’ vacancy be certified by Friday of this week, that election would take place on April 30th, but a May election date is more likely. Thomas faced three challengers in the 2010 primary, with none gathering more than 19%. No word yet on if any of his 2010 challengers would make a run for his seat.

Should Thomas resign, it would be nice to see the Council take efforts to, give the financial situation, amend the charter to add more flexibility to the special election options, including alignment to nearby primary and special elections, as well as provisions to allow for the Board of Elections to avoid days that could limit voters for religious reasons.

Map by MV Jantzen

We all have our own internal mental map of the Metro that takes into account weekend track work, single tracking, transfers between lines, transfers to buses, and I suspect they look an awful lot like MV Jantzen’s Distorted Metro Map. The cleverly-done HTML 5 app moves the iconic map around a polar scale, putting time distance between station at a premium instead of a clear map, moving stations into closer proximity if they’re closer by time than necessarily by distance.

There’s also a bad-ass Pac-man mode where you get to gobble up the stations like power pellets, which, frankly, is all I’ve ever wanted to do to the Red Line.