‘Sidewalk Closed Signs’
courtesy of ‘Mr. T in DC’

Not every street in DC has a sidewalk. In fact, there are large swaths of the city where they’re a bit more rare than we’d like. DC City Council has been looking at a common sense law to add them in where they’re missing for the last two years, but haven’t come to any kind of conclusion over whether or not they’ll be in place anytime soon. At question are property-owners’ rights, many of whom without sidewalks are requesting that their right not to have them be granted. There’s $9M in stimulus funding for sidewalk creation and improvement in the District’s budget this year, and it’d be nice to see used before we lose it, Council.

‘DSC_0125 (1)’
courtesy of ‘D©Bloom’

DDOT’s Circulator buses are one of the best things happening in the District from a transit perspective. Short routes, yes, but reliable service and comfortable carriage make up for the fact that they don’t go everywhere. Ridership has proven strong along the five routes that go from business to entertainment districts and back. The City Council is hoping to expand service and add another route: Dupont to Rosslyn and back.

One small problem: The Circulator can’t leave the District unless there’s a change in the law. This route, which would replace the current Georgetown Connection buses, would require a change in the charter for Circulator buses. The council can vote to grant that, and is expected to do so after some public handwringing in the coming months. Councilman Kwame Brown was hoping that the Circulator’s sixth route might be a bit different, and run from Union Station to Southern Avenue. That plan was rejected out of hand for the time being.

‘Walking Past a Fight’
courtesy of ‘Karon’

That’s how the new legislatural session looks to the Washington Post: A showdown between a State’s right to govern itself and the Federal Government’s right to make national policy. They have their eyes on three proposed bills in the Assembly which seek to start court fights to protect the rights of the States: one to remove the requirement of the Health Insurance Reform Act for all citizens to carry health insurance, one to prevent the federal interference in intrastate commerce, and one to prevent federal regulation of firearms that are made and sold within Virginia.

While it’s not clear how much support these bills have within their respective houses, it’s hard not to see each of these as a challenge to the Federal authority in Washington DC. These are court fights that would last years, but could protect the individual state’s sovereignty against the Federal Government. It’s also very possible that should Virginia succeed in the courts, that many other states would follow suit.

Tomorrow, when Congress gavels itself back from recess, the 30-day clock on a number of important DC legal measures begins. If you’ve not been following along, you may need to be reminded: Every law passed by the City Council and signed by the Mayor must in turn be reviewed by Congress. Now the 30-day clock is session days, and not calendar days, but best guess would be that the bill would pass out of Congress’ authority by the end of February.

Update: We received an update from the Congresswoman’s office: The 30-day calendar actually began on January 5th with a Pro-Forma session, meaning we’re five legislative days closer than initially reported.

‘Totally stopped traffic’
courtesy of ‘dmuth’

Much of the western part of DC is a traffic jam this morning thanks to a smoking power line at the Rock Creek Parkway and Pennsylvania Avenue that closed both the Parkway, in both directions, and Pennsylvania Avenue, and impacted the Key Bridge as well.

Police and Fire are waiting for Pepco at this time to shut off the power so they can make the repairs and restore traffic flow.