If you think cars are a problem, get rid of your car, not your neighbors

There's a push in D.C. to selectively bar DC residents from getting Residential Park Permit (RPP) stickers. 

Developers of new buildings, as an incentive to winning approval for their project, will agree to bar provisions that bars its residents from RPP.

I no longer own a car because, at this particular point in my life, there wasn't much need for one. But, nonetheless, feel very strongly about this issue: To create a class of citizens permanently barred from RPP is wrong.

David Alpert, at Greater Greater Washington, recently summarized the issue. It begins: 

Councilmember Tommy Wells re-introduced legislation this week to let a developer of a new building promise that tenants can't get stickers to park on neighborhood streets, if they choose to offer such a guarantee to neighbors. 

People who end up in RPP-excluded building are going to be a permanent of class of very irritated residents. I would not be surprised if the buyers of these units have no idea that they couldn't get an RPP. Many condo buyers only learn after the fact that they can't rent out their units because of condo-board limits. First time condo buyers don't know how things work, and first time DC residents won't either. Sellers and agents tend to leave out the unpleasant details.

Life changes. Someone buys a unit in one of these buildings. Their job is relocated to outskirts Va. They now need a car. Tough luck on parking.

It is wrong to take away rights from a group of people who have no input into it. Anyone who thinks this is a solution is selfish.

If you think cars are a problem, get rid of your car, not your neighbors. The best people live by example. The remainder run for office.

Ugly, yet something else in the light

The Suntrust plaza at Columbia and 18th is not very inviting. It really doesn't encourage people to linger. It's not as energetic or interesting as the area around the Columbia Heights fountain, where children play and couples sit.

What the plaza lacks can be described. What it can become is harder to imagine, especially on a chilly winter day when the late afternoon light stretches out the shadows.

Lincoln Memorial circa 1940s-50s

14th Street March 3

Bird building in Adams Morgan

This building at 18th and Columbia always attracts a large number of pigeons who usually sit on the ledges on the upper floors.

Bomb scare in Adams Morgan?

The block between Columbia and 18th and Calvert Street at Lanier/Adams Mill Rd., was blocked off with yellow police tape late this morning into the early afternoon. A posting on the neighborhood mailing list said it was in response to a bomb scare. The Washington Post said it was a suspicious package.

This is the second weird thing to happen on that block in relatively short period. On Friday, the Wells Fargo branch on this block was robbed by a man with a gun, the Washington City Paper reported.

DC Street Scenes