white knuckled wanderer

The Appellate Court Judge on Eric Volz

2007-12-21T09:25:00.000-08:00

One of the appellate judges who ruled Eric Volz should be released from prison was interviewed as part of the package on the Today Show earlier this week. He looked at the evidence and clearly saw that there was no possible way that Eric could have possibly committed the crime he was convicted of, ruling that he should be immediately released.

Unforunately, if past record serves as an indicator, he'll probably lose his job or began to face threats from the public due to the anger and propaganda surrounding the trial, which is a shame. As my brother said yesterday: you do the right thing, and sometimes it hurts you.

Too bad the original judge caved to the massive local and media pressure in the original trial in which she discarded the evidence in favor of the "easier" road of conviction. If only she had half the gumption of this man.

Watch the entire 6-minute package from the Today Show. (Video not embedded)

And as always, http://www.friendsofericvolz.com

Free Eric Volz!

2007-12-20T14:24:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in a long while, but I need to get some traffic going to Will Hinton's open letter to President Bush, urging his involvement in freeing Eric Volz, an American held illegally in prison in Nicaragua, from prison immediately. His conviction was overturned earlier this week, but Nicaraguan authorities are holding him in jail without cause or merit under the law.

Free Eric Volz!

Learn more at www.friendsofericvolz.com

Amazon still sitting on hands

2007-10-29T12:39:00.000-07:00

A full 10 days after placing an order for 4 in-stock items, direct from Amazon, and receiving a shipping message 6 days ago, I still get this message when I try to track the package:

And you know why? Because they haven't shipped it yet, even though it says they have. So Amazon: I'm not signing up for your silly prime service. So quit intentionally delaying my orders if you want me to come back. There are plenty of other options these days.

Amazon: Intentionally slowing down free shipping?

2007-10-25T12:55:00.000-07:00

We'll know in a few days, but I suspect the answer to be "yes". I ordered a few cd's last, all in stock, and all directly from Amazon and not a third party. As I usually do, I got the free Super Saver Shipping since the order qualified. I don't expect to receive the order in two days or anything, but I certainly expect it to be shipped as soon as the items are pulled and ready.

I made the order on October 19th, and it didn't ship until October 23rd, even though all the items were in stock. But even now, when I login to check the status of the order and click "track your package," a message comes up that says "tracking information not available at this time." I may be way off base, but I suspect that it hasn't been shipped yet and is simply on hold in a warehouse somewhere, since the estimated delivery date is October 31 - November 6th.

Seriously, 12 days at the earliest to deliver 4 in-stock cd's, when I'm in DC and likely near a distribution center of some kind? I'm guessing if I ever do get detailed tracking info that I'll find out that the package did not ship on the 23rd, but likely several days after that.

There's no form of shipping on the lowest rung, UPS, DHL, FedEx, or even USPS, that takes 8 days to make it to a destination that's not hidden in North Dakota or something. Once it's shipped, there's no reason it would take less than 3-4 business days to get here, unless the CD's were ONLY in a warehouse in Seattle. And even then, UPS usually still makes it cross-country in five days.

I've used Super Saver Shipping for years now, and I suspected that Amazon is intentionally delaying their free shipping to entice customers to sign up for their new Amazon Prime shipping service; a great deal if you order 9-10 or more times a year.

Turns out I'm not the only one who has noticed the drop in service:

http://www.epinions.com/content_289099452036
http://emperor.tidbits.com/webx?14@@.3c8c1fa5/3
http://michael1111.blogspot.com/2007/01/amazon-sucks.html

and most damning of all, their own customer forum

Amazon, if I'm way off base here, I'll delete this post. But I seriously doubt my order is even in the mail.

I'll be ok. Not a big deal, but this is seriously annoying.

2007-10-23T10:32:00.000-07:00

I nearly dropped the paper when I read this yesterday:

Fred Smoot, less than a role model already (Minnesota Sex Boat scandal), perhaps uttered the dumbest quote of the NFL year so far after the Redskins close win last Sunday. Smoot, apparently forgetting about some guy named "Mike Vick" for the moment, made a less-than-fortunate analogy to the Redskins' ability to finish teams off:

Later, cornerback Fred Smoot grumbled in the locker room that he and his teammates could not keep allowing these games to unravel. "Finish it off" is a phrase the Washington players often use to describe games in which they appear to be in control early. They had come close to not finishing "it off."
"Once you got the dog down you got to kill it," Smoot said.

Uhhh...Fred Smoot everyone! Let's give him a hand!

Moving update

2007-08-31T09:03:00.000-07:00

I never thought we'd be this far along after just four days, but we're nearly finished moving.

Courtesy of our gracious new landlords, they let us start moving "some stuff over" on Monday. I don't think they knew we were going to move absolutely everything over during the course of the week, but that's what we've done. After Tuesday, we had piles of stuff in the center of each room, but after he painted the living room on Tuesday, I figured that room was done anyway. So I started organizing and putting things where they go.

Since Monday, we've filled up my truck 8 times, and a friend's car trunk twice on Tuesday when we had help from friends. Not only did this save us the cost of having to rent a moving truck to do it in one day, the place is 3/4 unpacked and settled. Every night this week (except Monday when I just moved everything from the walls), I've taken the Bride back home and then biked back over to arrange the bedroom (Tuesday), arrange and unpack the living room (Wednesday), and put wardrobes together (Wednesday and Thursday).

Wednesday and Thursday, we just took one load in the truck over and then spent the rest of the time unpacking and organizing.

So now we have left: Couch, bed, dresser, dressing table, baker's rack, kitchen table, and bathroom stuff. That's basically it. So instead of a full 14 hour day on Saturday in the heat of packing an entire truck, moving it all into the apartment, and then unpacking in the midst of chaos, we're going to have 2 hours and 2-4 truckloads of big stuff left. That's it.

This is totally the way to move.

I'd post some pictures I took the other night. I found the camera after all, but now I can't find the cable to hook it up!

If we can get some help, we'll move everything but the bed tonight and sleep in a nearly empty house. We have Labor Day off on Monday, and up until yesterday, I figured we were going to be busy unpacking and recovering all day on Monday and not able to enjoy it.

Dude, we're going to be DONE on Monday.

But we might be recovering. Last week (coding and launching the new blog) and then this one at work (three speeches) have been crazy, and I haven't gone to sleep before 1:30 a single day this week after working at the new place late every night.

I think I'm about as tired as I have ever been. I'm totally going on fumes at this point. I'm not actually sure how I'm still sitting upright and getting work done at all.

I'll have some pictures once I find a cord. Later!

I'll be on the lookout for a pony-tailed Scottish guy with a big sword

2007-08-30T14:43:00.000-07:00

Man, I meant to post this the day it happened, but unfortunately I was actually working at work, so I couldn't. I was telling my friend Dan this story this afternoon, and it reminded me to post it. There's going to be some colorful language here, so turn away if you don't want to read it (ahem family members)

I'm sitting in Farragut Square with my friend Kasey last Thursday eating lunch. There are a few interesting characters who hang out in the park all day long, from the hordes of bike couriers, to the sleeping homeless guys, and occassionally the severely crazy people.

There's a woman I've seen there before, usually talking to herself hanging out in the park. Well, I'm in the middle of a conversation with Kasey, but I see her making a beeline for us from across the park with her eyes fixed on me. So I'm listening or talking one, but I'm totally distracted with this woman walking up to us.

And she stops right next to us, bends down closely, looks severely pissed off, waves a finger in my face, and says emphatically:

Don't you EVER tell me to settle down again! If you do, I will find a FUCKING Highlander to come after you! Do you hear me?

-speechless-

Kasey and I sorta just stared at her dumbfounded, and tried not to laugh as she waited for us to concur that we understood the ramifications of ever telling her to settle down.

I for one, am going to be on the lookout for this guy on my six'o clock for the next few weeks:

The moving has begun

2007-08-28T21:36:00.000-07:00

Well, I should be in bed now, but I have too much rolling around my brain. Measurements, boxes, furniture alignments, and all that's left won't stop cycling through my gray matter. The moving began on Monday. I guess it really began last Saturday when we started packing what we could fit in a corner of Meridian Place. Our new landlords were kind enough to let us start moving in early, and it's made all the difference in how this process has worked out.

The old tenants moved out the first week of August, and then our landlords went out of town 'til the 11th. I asked if we could get in a day or two early, and it turns out we got a week instead. Mr. Landlord is still painting the walls to make things look fresh, and handling a few other things, but we started taking our stuff over last night.

I tell you what, moving things over in batches during 75 degree evenings sure beats the experience we had last year. Hottest day of the summer, moving in the middle of the day...good night that was terrible.

Last night we started moving, just the two of us, and we got 3 full loads in the truck over, which was a lot of stuff! I did the last load by myself, and it was late enough that parking was terrible here so I had to ferry it halfway down the block to the truck. All our stuff basically got piled up in the center of the rooms over in Mt.P so the walls could still be painted.

Here's what it looked like with the other folks stuff in it:

We'll send pictures after this Saturday when we get all moved in and all.

After last night's tiring work by ourselves, tonight we had help. So thanks Laura, Randall, Yan, and Daniel for all of the great help. You are all good friends and you gave selflessly. We appreciate it.

When we suffered through the moving by ourselves when we got to DC, we comforted ourselves with the knowledge that we'd probably have some friends here by the time we moved again, so all that we brought in by ourselves, would be brought back out with the help of others.

Tomorrow night we're just going over with one load, maybe 2, and then beginning the process of putting things where they go now that walls are painted. We've got our IKEA wardrobes that we've got to put together, and lots of boxes to unpack. There's not a whole lot left to move before we're ready to really get all the way out of here. We'll be moving the bed, couch, and other big stuff over on Saturday, but hopefully finishing in time for the UGA vs. Okie State game later that evening.

Pictures to follow....

If I can find where I packed the camera.

The LA Times on Critical Mass

2007-08-20T08:18:00.000-07:00

For those of you who may not know what it is, Critical Mass is a monthly (or other intervals) bike ride by bike advocates. I took part in one back in Athens on my old BMX bike. Bike riders bike en masse, flaunting traffic regulations, blocking traffic, and doing everything possible to draw attention to themselves and the need for better bike facilities and conditions on our roads. Now, to be fair, not all Critical Mass rides across the country are as rude as the ones portrayed in this story from the LA Times, but many of them are.

As a biker, and one who is concerned about safety and accesibility of bikers in The District and beyond, I can't say I've ever thought these rides were a good idea. I know some would argue that when the pendulum has swung far to one side of the spectrum (designing for cars at all costs), overcompensation is required to swing the pendulum far back the other direction so it recenters.

While I was reading this story this morning, I thought of this analogy:

There once was (or is) a popular perception that all the major news and media outlets, especially network and cable television news, had a leftist or liberal slant. So along came Fox News. They came up with a nifty slogan—"Fair and Balanced". Which would be great, except they want to have it both ways.

They want to be known as the unbiased, fair, accurate answer to the perceived leftist slant, which they say has no business in journalism and isn't fair to viewers. But rather than actually living up to "We Report, You Decide", they clearly skew to the Right instead. So which is it? Fair and balanced, or "recentering the discussion by tilting the other direction? You can't be both. I wouldn't mind FN so much if they just came out and said, "hey, the playing field is unlevel, so we're just going to a news organization with a slant that serves as a mouthpiece for the Right, cus, y'know, they don't really have one out there."

I feel like Critical Mass does a similar thing. Yes it raises awareness about the car-centric view of roads, possibly like the initial discussion about Fox News got people talking about the bias of networks. (It sure did when I was in journalism school.) But at the end of the day, I think Critical Mass does more harm than good by escalating the issue (roads made for all users) into an open hostile polemicized "battle." And then they become exactly what they're protesting: One small user group dominating the roadway at the expense of the other.

A quote from the story illustrates this well: "For 29 days a month, cars call the shots. It's Auto Mass," said Kate McCarthy, a member of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. "But for a few hours of one day, we turn the tables. We take the streets back."

And in doing so in such a fashion where traffic rules don't apply, rudeness rules the day, and the needs of others fall by the wayside, they take what should be a reasoned discussion and devolve it into an oversimplified "Us vs. Them" battle that does no one any good.

I'd imagine that if I was a regular motorist in DC, and was on the fence about the need for more money for sharrows, bike lanes, or other bike facilities, this sort of action could certainly sway me against the bikers. It's self-serving and completely un-productive. More bikers organizing (like with WABA here) and positively reinforcing their message through events like Bike to Work Day and targeted lobbying of officials and business leaders will lead to much more of a productive outcome than pissing everyone off with blatant disrespect.

In the story, several of the riders complain about the perception that motorists have of them: that they're riding a child's toy and that they should grow up. And the biker respond with a monthly childish hissy fit, flaunting the rules that they say the drivers should have to obey. That'll teach em that you're not children!

If you're not willing to follow the rules on one day out of 30, why would you follow them on the other 29? And why shouldn't the cars box you in and smash their car into your bike for no reason if you do the same?

Thumbs down, Critical Mass.

Going hungry so the cars keep running

2007-08-10T08:30:00.000-07:00

Will ethanol save us from climate change, reduce our dependence on foreign oil (or oil period), and allow us to keep living the exact same way?

This is not just hype -- it's dangerous, delusional bullshit. Ethanol doesn't burn cleaner than gasoline, nor is it cheaper. Our current ethanol production represents only 3.5 percent of our gasoline consumption -- yet it consumes twenty percent of the entire U.S. corn crop, causing the price of corn to double in the last two years and raising the threat of hunger in the Third World. And the increasing acreage devoted to corn for ethanol means less land for other staple crops, giving farmers in South America an incentive to carve fields out of tropical forests.

Here's to hoping this story will soon shift from lefty type publications easily dismissed by segments of society and into the Newsweeks of the world. He may be too alarmist for some of you, but James Kunstler has been all over this one for years now.

As a Pennsylvania farmer put it to me in February: "It looks like we're going to burn up the last remaining six inches of Midwest topsoil in our gas-tanks." Friedman's statement also ignores the facts that running cars on ethanol would make no material difference in the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere, or that ethanol is 20 percent less efficient than gasoline, meaning we would have to produce and use that much more of the stuff just to stay where we are.

"And yooouuu are......?"

2007-08-01T09:54:00.000-07:00

AJC photo by Brant Sanderlin

"Hi, I'm new first-baseman Mark Teixeira. I just got here from Texas"

"Hi, I'm...uh....(mumble)-baseman Scott Thorman. Sit here, I was just getting up to catch my plane to Richmond."

-awkward silence-

Tex arrived during the seventh inning, in uniform after taking BP in the tunnel, and was greeted with a nice ovation. Wish I coulda been there. At least I'll get to see 'em three times in September against the Nats

As for how it felt walking out of the tunnel for his first time in the building as a Braves player?

"Once I found out how to get down there, it was nice," Teixeira said. "It was great just walking out there. I came out, the bases were loaded, and we scored some more runs. It was just nice being out there, and when the fans realized I was here and gave me a nice ovation, it felt great."

Street Mayors: A unique bit of city life

2007-08-01T07:53:00.000-07:00

Shortly after we moved to Meridian Place, we met a great man named Matthew, who lives down closer to 14th Street. He's lived in the same rowhouse since the late 50's or early 60's, and saw everyone leave after the riots, and has witnessed the slow—and rapid—transformation of the neighborhood with the opening of the Green Line in 1999 and plenty of other factors.

Matthew has raised all his children in this house, and now has more grandchildren than he can count on two hands. Almost every morning, as I set out for work on my bike, I'm greeting with a wave and a "hey there, young man" as I wave back to Matthew sitting on his porch. He looks out for everyone on the street, knows most of the people who have been there for awhile by name, and knows the rest of the faces, probably.

The Bride blogged about Matthew shortly after we moved here. We heard stories from other friends of ours, including our pastor Glenn at GraceDC who said they have a "mayor" on his street as well. (Turns out its the same guy as this WaPo story - Outlaw) The first time they tried to have a package delivered to their house, he came over and politely notified them that no one on the street has any packages delivered directly to their house — he receives all of them. And he showed 'em where he had keys hanging to nearly every house on the block, so everyone knew where they had a spare when locked out or could ask him to water the plants and feed the dog. His mayoralty is a little more involved than ours. Apparently, this phenomenon is not uncommon all over the city—of a longtime resident who looks after things for everyone.

On the many streets in D.C. full of rowhouses and townhomes, rather than tall buildings with doormen like other big cities, these de facto street supes are a welcome addition, making many of our neighborhoods great places to live.

The Bride sent me this story from the Washington Post about one such Mayor near Stanton Park on Capitol Hill.

In a city of workaholics who leave home early and return late, many neighborhoods have their version of William Outlaw -- or would like to. The 80-year-old retiree accepts packages for 130 Capital Hill neighbors when they are not home during delivery hours. His practice is so well established that delivery services often head directly to his door without stopping elsewhere on the block. Some neighbors call Outlaw the unofficial mayor of the street, not only for his grass-roots post office but also for the way he volunteers to clean sidewalks, check on homes while neighbors are vacationing and do other odd chores...His name is passed like a secret treasure among grateful neighbors, so much so that real estate agents have touted him as a selling point to prospective buyers.

Read the rest of the story in the Washington Post

Well, if you've gotta cut the neighborhood in half...

2007-07-31T14:29:00.001-07:00

...you might as well make good use of typically underutilized space. This is the area under the SE/SW freeway that cuts off the greater Navy Yard area (and greater SW) from the rest of 8th Street SE, Barracks Row, and Capitol Hill. I'm not sure how this came to be, but it's a great use of space that ordinarily just becomes parking or a haven for criminals and those who want to stay out of sight.

I was poking back through some old photos on Flickr, and I saw this photo from our self-guided alley tour we did of Capitol Hill awhile back.

Anyone local know how this got installed?

UnderpassBBall.JPG, originally uploaded by whiteknuckled.

The streets are filled with blood and crazy killers! Pictures at 11!

2007-07-31T07:57:00.000-07:00

After working (in newspapers) in a tiny media market in middle america and dealing with patently unwatchable local news that even from time to time just read our stories on the air, I was ready to be back in a town where local television journalism was taken seriously and done with excellence.

This is not that town.

The local news here is generally terrible, and there are way too many anchors who talk in "anchor voice" which sounds like me trying to do a really bad imitation of a game show announcer.

Anyway, I noticed this sad story from my neighborhood over the weekend, where apparently a homeless guy got stabbed by someone on 14th Street. Upon opening the link, I was greeted with this "fantastic" image, since they didn't have any video or photos to correlate with the story.

ABC 7: In the future, if you don't have any corresponding pictures, we can do without the blood-filled graphic and "angry" knife-wielding hand, which was probably only Frank the Office Page who got handed a knife and told to "act like you're going to stab someone while we photograph your hand."

You stay classy, San Diego.

Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens

2007-07-30T21:03:00.000-07:00

The Bride and I went out to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens for the first time over the weekend. Good stuff. I don't want to steal her thunder, so I'll just have a brief view, but check out the video of the water on the lily pad. If you do go, now is the best to see the flowers in bloom, and going after a rain can result in a sight like this:

I'm Lucky. Stupid....but lucky

2007-07-28T06:46:00.000-07:00

So last night we were headed back to our friend Jess's house in Columbia Heights following jazz in the sculpture garden, which is really a story in itself due the rain. I had all of our food and the blanket and stuff hanging on my bike, so I went home to drop it all off before biking over to meet The Bride and our friends Ben and Brooke who were walking over to Jess's

So at about 9:15 or so, I came by our rowhouse on Meridian, and laid my bike against the front steps, and went inside with the bags to set 'em down before coming right back outside to leave. So I'm inside for about 10-15 seconds, and I come outside, and as I'm coming up the basement steps, I don't see my bike wheel in front of the steps. "CRAP!"

I run up the steps, and my neighbor Josue sees me, looks at my face, and says "you just got your bike stolen, didn't you!"

He was walking up after parking his car and there was a guy walking up the street near our place. When he got to his house next door, he's going inside and sees the guy riding a bike across the street into the alley. Then I show my face, and he put 2 and 2 together.

We take off down to the alley on the S. side of Meridian place, look all the way to 14th, don't see him, and run around behind the building across the street. All this time, I have flip flops on and can barely keep 'em on running. We come back to the house, I grab shoes from inside, and we go to get in my truck and look through the neighborhood.

Josue and I both knew that whoever it was, they probably lived in the neighborhood, and the chances that they would bike it far away were unlikely. So we started driving around. After about 7-10 minutes, were getting ready to give up and head back. I'm coming south on Holmead, and right at Oak Street, there's a couple of kids on bikes turning onto Holmead towards us.

I see the first one, and can tell it's not mine by the shape of the handlebars. But as we get closer, the second one is DEFINITELY mine. So I swerve my truck in front of the kid as he turns north onto Holmead, so I block him in up against the curb.

He lays the bike down as Josue gets out of the truck and asks him something about "is that your bike." There are two couples walking by, and a lady sitting on her porch on the corner, so the kid just takes off up Holmead, leaving my bike on the side of the road. I grab it, and stick it in the back of my truck. The lady asks us, "did he steal that bike?" I said "yes", though I didn't know at the time that it wasn't the same guy who stole it. She said she knew him or something like that.

A cop came up pretty quick due to my truck parked basically across the road, we told him what happened, and he took off up Holmead to look for the kid.

After a few minutes, he came back and said he couldn't find him, and would I like to file a report. Josue says that neither of us could ID the guy who took it, the kid likely wouldn't be prosecuted anyway for receiving stolen property. I said there was no real point in filing a report, since I got my bike back, didn't get shot looking for it or confronting the thief, and we couldn't ID the guy who took it.

The cop said it was probably a crackhead or junkie of some kind who took it, which makes sense. It was an older guy, according to Josue, not a kid, and the cop said he probably biked around the corner and sold it for 10 bucks to the nearest 14-year-old and got his fix for the day. Jumping to conclusions, perhaps, but it makes sense.

Anyway, so despite being an idiot by leaving my bike outside, even for just 15 seconds, I managed to get it back within 15 minutes. He tossed off my bike lock and helmet, so I've gotta replace those today, but it's better than buying a new bike, eh?

The only other thing I really did lose is a convenient excuse to buy a new road bike, which I'd been thinking of doing since I'm still riding a 50 pound mountain bike to commute only. I guess I'll just have to save money for that instead.

Lake Mead goes down, grass comes out

2007-07-27T08:18:00.000-07:00

One look at this startling picture from Lake Mead near the Hoover Dam, and you can see why Las Vegas has no future. This very interesting story from the NYT is about how Las Vegas and the Southern Nevada Water Authority are paying current residents to tear up their lawns and replace it with more sensible xeriscaping that uses little to no water, while also making new development grass-free, due to the massive water shortage that the region is facing (and won't end anytime soon).

According to the story, watering lawns and gardens represents 60% of the water usage in Las Vegas, which is actually more than what the casinos use on the Strip and in the grandiose founatins. Lake Mead is at 2/3 of its normal level, and with drought conditions persisting and not going away anytime soon, all of the new development out west that survives based on cheap land, cheap gasoline, abundant energy to air condition it 10 months of the year, and abundant water will soon come to a crashing halt.

On a related note, during the timeshare presentation last weekend we attended to pay for our weekend away, our very nice saleslady told us we should visit Vegas sometime on a vacation, because "the architecture was so wonderful. I mean, it's like you're really in Venice, or New York, or Paris".

-grimace-

Griffith Stadium in NW DC

2007-07-25T21:57:00.000-07:00

(More photos added) I'll save all my yapping about this stadium for another post, but I wanted to show you some images I worked up yesterday on my lunch break.

Griffith Stadium was the home of the Washington Nationals, the Negro League Homestead Grays, and then the Washington Senators, from 1911 to 1965 when it was demolished without fanfare six years before the Senators left for Texas. It was a beautiful old park with crazy dimensions that had character oozing from its aged steel and concrete.

It basically sat on the site where Howard U Hospital is today, bordered by the alley north of U Street to the south, 5th Street NW to the east, W Street to the north (almost), and Georgia Ave to the west. There were about 4-5 rowhouses and one tree north of the U Street alley on 5th Street NW that the Nationals couldn't buy, and as a result, the centerfield fence juts right back into the outfield to compensate.

I've walked and biked the square, and I have yet to find any sort of plaque or marker commemorating the 70+ years of baseball played on the site (National ballpark actually sat east of this site, opened in 1892 and burned in 1911, leading to this place being built.)

It's a shame that the neighborhood could today feel like Wrigleyville if the park was still standing, with 5th Street as Sheffield and the U Street alley as Waveland Avenue. It wasn't as smooth a park as Wrigley, Comiskey, or Fenway, due in large part to the fact that it wasn't built mostly at once like Wrigley was. Griffith was just a lower deck for years before the second deck and outfield seats were added. The second deck didn't even really connect to the lower deck, so it would be a lot harder to buy cheap tickets and move up like you can at Nats games today!

I've decided to make it my personal mission to make sure that Cultural Tourism DC or some other DC entity recognizes this historic site with some sort of marker. I'm sure there's gotta be some other people out there like me that love baseball, baseball stadiums, and would love to see where Josh Gibson, Harmon Killebrew and others knocked the ball around a park in a DC neighborhood. I'll save my full "outrage" until I've thoroughly checked the area for some sort of marker, though I'm 99% certain there isn't one there.

I think it'd be a great thing for the neighborhood to memorialize and include in one of the Cultural Tourism walking tours, especially due to how the stadium fits into the African-American heritage of the greater U Street neighborhood, with the Grays using it as their "home away from home" for years.

Don't miss the note where Mickey Mantle's tape-measure homer landed back in the day. It was supposedly well over 500 feet, landing in the backyyard of 434 Oakdale, and significantly longer than the one he nearly hit over the RF roof at Yankee Stadium, or the one he hit over the seats in right-center at the Stadium.

Anyway, enjoy. Thanks to Google Earth and the power of the internets for the photos to make this sort of visualization possible. Click on any of them for a larger version

From the east, looking west/slightly northwest

From the southeast, looking almost directly northwest

From the northeast, looking to the southwest

From the east, looking west/slightly northwest. It's interesting to notice that the area was significantly more dense back when this picture was taken, which was the oldest aerial shot I could find of the stadium. There are few, if any, surface parking lots, and buildings fill out almost every block. I'm sure some of that is due to the riots, which were focused nearby at 14th and U street, but I'm sure some of that is the suburban-centric development mentality in the neighborhood over the last 30 years.

From the direct south, looking due north. Notice the rowhouses on U Street that are still there today, as well as a few of the ones on the corner of U and 5th that forced the outfield fence to jut back into play.

Same thing, just in black and white.

Check out:
• Baseball in Washington, D.C. by Frank Ceresi, Mark Rucker, Carol McMains
• And the always irreplacable Ballparks.com

For Sale

2007-07-18T07:40:00.001-07:00

For Sale: One Michael Vick replica jersey, size medium. This jersey was a gift a few years ago, was lightly worn during football season only, has never lived up to its potential, and is now too embarassing to wear. $1 or best offer. Consider adding a "1" to either side of the 7 and having a highly-prized "Eric Newman" or "Kurt Quarterman" jersey.

Overheard: Delivery Envy

2007-07-03T07:59:00.000-07:00

Overheard this morning while locking up my bike out front of my office on L Street:

FedEx guys are parked on the side of the street, and two guys sitting in the truck are chatting about all sorts of things right next to my bike. A UPS guy walks up with a package in hand to the open drivers' side door.

UPS Guy: "Man, I just want to know how I can get a job with FedEx....so I can sit around in the truck and talk all day. (Laughs)

14 years and 65 days later

2007-06-01T14:53:00.000-07:00

Well, after much chastising from my family that "my blog never has anything personal" on it anymore, I figured it was time for a post about something other than Columbia Heights, DC, or urban affairs and growth-related stuff. For the record, I haven't read Malcolm Gladwell's book and he didn't pay me to write this.

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I'm not sure why I even started thinking about it several weeks ago, but for some reason it occured to me that this Christmas will mark 15 years since my dad died. I remember marking years as I've grown older....1 year, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years....Once the shock subsided of processing a number as huge as 15, I recalled that I was 14 years old when it happened...leading me to start counting days in my head.

I was born in October 1978, and Dad died in December 1992. I was 14 years and 65 days old. Once I counted, I discovered that 14 years and 65 days since that day passed back in February. February 20 if you really want to know.

So more than 2 months after the fact, laying on my bed after midnight, my wife sleeping next to me, I came to the conclusion that I passed a tipping point: I had now lived longer without my father than I did with him. For the rest of my days, the time I possessed a father here on earth will always be smaller than the other half — even as that "half" slowly racks up days, weeks, and years, transforming from half to 2/3 and 3/4 and 5/6, capturing an ever larger share of life. And by that time, my two older brothers will have also joined me in the space following the tipping point. Mom, for better or for worse, has many years to go to reach such a point, but has certainly had the most difficult road — one that none of her sons understand. Even now as a married man, hers is a pain I can imagine but can't comprehend.

----

What does all that mean? I don't really know. I don't think there's any great significance to the fact that I'm the first in my family to pass this point, but it is a tipping point nonetheless. I was the last to join the family, and therefore the first to personally pass this moment.

Is life somehow different now? I'm not really sure. For a guy who always remembers when "the day" in December rolls around, I didn't even realize this when it happened. I had to break out a calculator to see if "it" had even happened. ("Hmm, I don't feel different", he said)

But I still can't shake the feeling that it "matters" somehow — that there's something worth noting. So here I am.

----

I meant to write about this weeks ago, but got pushed aside in the midst of other things. But last night, at my community group for Grace DC, I was the designated "chestnut". That sounds corny, I know, but it's one of the ways we get to know each other and push past the surface to get at what lies beneath. Once every 4-6 weeks or so, one person gets "roasted" — that is, they share whatever they want to share about themselves for the duration of the meeting, and everyone else asks questions. Nothing is really off limits, but the expressed purpose of this group is "community", which encompasses sharing that which may make us uncomfortable (and letting others care for our needs).

So before last night, I remembered I had a video of me giving my "testimony" (ugh, I hate that word) in 1996 during a youth event known as GoldRush that we hosted at our church. I hadn't watched it in probably 5 years since my friend Jonathan gave it to me after digging it out of the archives. In fact, The Bride had never even seen it before.

So rather than try to go back and try to remember what 1992-1995 was like, since dad's death was by far the emotional and spiritual touchstone and turning point for me, I brought the time machine known as the VCR over and showed this tape, using the 15 minutes of "17-year old Me" as a springboard for the rest of the story.

Other than it being slightly embarassing to watch myself, it reminded me of how central dad's death was in my life in those days. A day didn't go by that I didn't think of it or act out of the anger that resulted from it. Things are different now, though the grief is certainly still just as real. As my friend Ryan wrote in the prologue of his new album, I finally began to heed God's beautiful and seemingly upside-down advice: "Put down...all your weapons. Let me in...through your open wounds."

I guess that's really the signifiance of this "tipping point": It's not so much that I've lived longer "without" than "with", it's that I've been incorporating loss and grief into my life longer than than I was just receiving love and parenting. Which got me to thinking about grief...

----

A friend from community group emailed me today to thank me for my candor and willingness to share something so personal and emotional last night, mentioning that a friend recently lost a parent and that it was good to hear a story of how God cared for one of his children and was a "father to the fatherless". I wrote her back while at work, and told her this:

I would say that the greatest lesson I learned about grief is this: We hear very often about grief as a process that you go "through", or that it's eventually something you get "over". What really happens, and what I hope was evident last night, is that grief is really a process of taking something terrible that happened and slowly but surely incorporating that into who you are.

I'll never be the same as I would have been if it hadn't happened, and I'm certainly not over it. Last night was good evidence of that to me. But progress — if you want to call it that — happened when I began to dive deep into the grief and learned how to make it part of me.

It seems counter-intuitive, but that's my take on it. I will forever be a man who lost his dad as a teenager. That shaped me then, and it will continue to shape me — certainly as I have children and become a father myself one day. It's not necessarily any less hurtful now than it was 15 years ago, but I am much more at ease and peace with my dad's death being an inseparable part of who I am. But I still miss him unspeakably.

And that, my friend, is the process of grief.

I guess life on the backside of this tipping point will be much like life immediately on the side from which I came, right?. But it won't be like 14 years ago anymore than 14 years from now will be like today. Each year brings something new as I move into a different period of my life. I am forever marked by this, forever changed, and eternally different. I'm still deep in this tunnel of sorts that I was supposed to pass "through".

I tell myself that it's insignificant that more than 14 years and 65 days have passed since Dad died.

I tell myself that, but I don't really believe it...as my first 14 years and 65 days slip further into memory, growing smaller in the rearview mirror.

What a game, what a pitcher, what a guy

2007-05-25T07:57:00.001-07:00

150 saves, 15 postseason wins (MLB record), 1 Cy Young, 53 complete games, 7-time All Star, 3.26 career ERA, over 2800 strikeouts (17th all-time), 55 saves in 2002 (NL record).

And now.... 200 Wins.

Hear, hear, John Smoltz. The Hall awaits you.

New Circulator in the works?

2007-05-24T07:53:00.000-07:00

For one, I love the Circulator buses. They run all the time, and are lower to the ground, efficient, and comfy blah blah blah. I do wish they had bike racks sometimes, though. And that the one around the Mall ran all the time rather than just weekends in the cold months.

Anyway, looks like a new one might be coming our way to a much-needed N/S corridor that will help stadium traffic when the new ballpark opens.

From Jacqueline Dupree's new ballpark blog on the Post:

"And DDOT's Laden also said that an agreement is close to being reached that would add a Circulator bus line linking Union Station, the new U.S. Capitol Visitors Center and the Capitol South and Navy Yard Metro stations, which would give riders direct access to the red, orange, and blue lines without having to change trains at L'Enfant Plaza."

Democrats: The Pro-crime, pro-graffiti party in D.C.

2007-05-24T07:45:00.001-07:00

Interesting story today about the fledgling Republican Party in D.C. Thought this quote was kind of funny:

"'The people I talk to at the door, I find that people sound pretty Republican,' Hammond said. 'They want safe communities that support morals. . . . Right now, we're hoping to clean up the graffiti on North Capitol Street.'"

For me at least, that's why I registered as an independent. Because I haven't chosen yet between whether or not I'm for or against crime and graffiti, Democrat or Republican. Oh, and also because I like for my vote to just be a rubber stamp for whoever won the Democratic primary.

Y'know, since I'm a tax-paying citizen who lives in the U.S., but have no other direct representation to speak of.

Consensus Buildings vs. Robert Moses-style planning in Curitiba

2007-05-22T09:18:00.000-07:00

From Richard Layman's blog, I saw this story about Curitiba, Brazil in the NYT Magazine. The parts about Bus Rapid Transit were why I clicked the link, but what I really noticed was the reasoning they gave for why transit ridership, recycling, and eco-mindedness all seem to be trending downwards in the city.

It made me think of the current re-examinations that have been going on in regards to Jane Jacobs and Robert Moses. When Jane Jacobs died last year, it seemed no newspaper could write about her without mentioning Robert Moses. And they couldn't talk about "Death and Life" without talking about "The Power Broker". For better or worse, they're likely to be linked forever in history. (Which will only gain momentum in 2008 when Anthony Flint's new book comes out.)

It was a contrast in styles — Jacobs was the grassroots organizer and neighborhood activist. From the bottom-up, she was able to save the Village. Moses had more consolidated power and authority than any urban planner or mayor will ever have again. So it's often uttered that what we need is another Robert Moses, albeit one who shares a pro-city perspective that values Jacobs' urbanism and people-first planning. This thought used to sound appealing to me, but now it scares me.

Consider: In Curitiba, the plans and implementation in the 60's and 70's came from one man in who was in some ways a figurehead leader who had power because the military dictatorship handed it to him. Quite different from Moses, but maybe not all that different after all. Curitiba might be a good lesson as to what happens when there is no consensus-building, no ownership, no charettes, no visioning, and no citizen particpation in the process of figuring out what sort of city to become:

“Curitiba began early to look at recycling garbage — that is true, and it is good,” says Teresa Urban, a local journalist and environmental activist. “But the separation of recycled garbage is a little part of all the garbage we have here. There is no tradition of participation here. The mayor sold to the people the idea that this is a wonderful city. And the people think, This is wonderful, I don’t have to do anything.”

Like other left-wing critics, Urban traces the lack of participation to an original sin. The progressive urban planning of Curitiba was not initiated by a democratic process; it was set in motion by the military dictatorship that seized power in 1964 and ruled Brazil until the mid-’80s. Its environmentalism is rooted in authoritarianism. “They didn’t have to confront the public through public participation, and the decisions could be made by urban planners — architects acting as politicians,” says Clara Irazabal, who has written a book comparing the urban planning experiences of Curitiba and Portland, Ore. The city that has been called the most forward-looking in the Western Hemisphere is an outgrowth of an era that many Brazilians prefer not to look back on. Jaime Lerner, the archangel of the Curitiba green movement, was anointed by the dragons of war...

...“He never asked if something was good or not,” Rischbieter remarks. “He would say, ‘I’ll go do it.’ I would say, ‘You have to go ask people and get their opinions.’ He would say, ‘No, they won’t agree with me, and it has to be done.’ He is not a political animal, he is a dictator.”

The story closes with a graf that hammers home the need for planning at the regional and megaregional scale:

Nor is Curitiba a single town any longer. It’s a conurbation. Planning must be for the metropolitan region, not just for the municipality. Does it matter that Curitiba bans polluting industries if the neighboring town of AraucÃ¡ria has an oil refinery belching smoke on the city line? Similarly, if the new immigrants to the poor surrounding communities don’t recycle, then Curitiba’s landfill, the only such facility in the metropolitan region, will fill up even sooner. Like garbage, water does not respect city limits: Curitiba’s water supply depends on reservoirs controlled by municipalities outside its borders. What was never simple has become even more complex. For a long time, the citizens of Curitiba were so proud of the city’s reputation as an urban showplace that they kept re-electing urban planners — self-styled technical experts who seemed to be above politics and who vaunted their expertise in running the buses, building the parks and recycling the garbage. But a mayor today must be able to negotiate successfully with other mayors if reform is to work. Mayors need to be politicians, even in Curitiba.

Separated Bike Lanes from the NYC Streets Renaissance

2007-05-22T08:19:00.001-07:00

I've been away for a week or so, but I've still been updating my DC feed at the left if you're interested. The Braves were in town last week (getting beat, I might add) and I was busy busy busy going to all the games Monday through Wednesday.

This particular video is a few weeks old, but I absolutely love this video from Street Films, a project of the NYC Streets Renaissance. They have spent the last year chronicling the state of the streets in NYC, with an eye towards what we like to call "complete streets" — streets that are safe and equitable for all to use. Their plug line is great: "New York is a city best enjoyed on foot, yet we plan our streets for cars."

image from the NYC Streets Renaissance Street Films

Anyway, this video (click on picture above) is about the need for physically separated bike lanes in the city, which would go a long way towards making biking safer and increasing the attractiveness of biking in DC. I've certainly got a lot of friends here who like to ride bikes, but never ride around town because they don't feel safe on the streets. I can't say I blame 'em. I usually don't feel safe either, and I ride my bike like I drive: Very defensively.

A few of them attended the Confident City Cycling sponsored by WABA last weekend in Columbia Heights. But biking in a city that has for years been oriented around a built environment scaled for walking and transit shouldn't require classes and training to build up the courage to take on our streets.

Post picks up on the graffiti outbreak

2007-05-11T09:26:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately, though, they decide to put a picture of the graffiti in the freaking paper. What were they thinking? They describe what the tags look like...do they think that we need to see "NEHI" or "MAGIC" in living color in a photograph to understand what they look like? I'm glad to see the Post picking up the story and all, but stay away from publishing pictures of the tags, please! If they saw it this morning, I'm sure the offending parties all high-fived each other if they saw their work in the paper today.

The spray-painted tags recently began appearing on buildings, signs and other places in Northwest Washington: a burst of graffiti that has police and other city workers scrambling to keep up.

Magic. Tragic. Nehi. Inca. On block after block, these and other words are scrolled in fancy script two inches tall, blown up in bubble letters or scribbled in a crude style that can be nearly illegible....

When the new, $2.2 million Dance Institute of Washington in Columbia Heights was tagged March 26, the public works department quickly contacted the institute and offered help.

"We have a wall that's 25 feet long. Of that 25 feet, they wrote on 20 feet of it," said Lance Curry, the institute's deputy director. He said the city removed the graffiti April 6.

Places I've been

2007-05-11T09:21:00.000-07:00

You may not be at all interested, but I just wanted to save these for posterity once I went to the trouble of checking lots of boxes on the list.

create your own personalized map of the USA
or check out ourCalifornia travel guide

create your own visited country map
or check our Venice travel guide

Ugh: Urban real estate marketing makes me sick

2007-05-10T08:38:00.000-07:00

I'm doing a little research into the whole project, so I won't go into detail about it right now, but I just downloaded the National Gateway brochure from their website after reading this story in the Post over the weekend.

They certainly aren't the worst of the bunch, but half the time, whoever has to write the dreck that appears on the marketing materials of the developers of condos and massive projects in DC likely flunked out of greeting card-writing school. I mean, haven't we all seen some really awful ones out there?

Have you seen these:

• The "eat", "sleep", "play" designation on the floorplans for new condo buildings are beyond annoying. "Boy, I can't wait to have some people over once I buy that new condo," said the hip urban single male. "Hey everybody, let's head into 'play' now that we've had some good stuff from 'eat'. Later, maybe one of you ladies will be lucky enough to make it back to 'sleep'. I mean, provided you want to either read or sleep, though, because those are the only options."

• Words that make me want to egg your building: "Distinctive", "Upscale", "Sophisticated", "Breathtaking", "Up-tempo", "Spectacular", "Dramatic", "Stunning". And FYI, I'm pretty sure the Allegro uses half of these on a regular basis.

• Claiming to be "just minutes from" Adams Morgan, Dupont, Downtown, Georgetown, and Capitol Hill, all at once. If you haven't seen this one on Craigslist, then you haven't been looking for an apartment anytime in the last...well...forever. Why don't you just go ahead and say "convenient access to The Moon."

• Once in the city and not doing the park and ride thang from miles away, 2 miles away does not qualify as NEAR the Metro. Believe me, I know a thing or two about walking to Metro.

• Anything that claims to now be "the most desirable address in Washington DC" makes me want to vomit. Not that all of us want to be president or anything, but you're pretty much not going to top 1600 Pennsylvania.

• USING ALL CAPITAL LETTERS ON MAILINGS, CL ADS, OR REAL ESTATE DOCUMENTS. SERIOUSLY, PEOPLE, IS THIS THE FIRST TIME YOU'VE USED A COMPUTER?

Here are some direct quotes from condo websites I've seen lately:
• "With such an array of combinations, you can make the lifestyle you envision a reality." Provided you have an eternal supply of cash, of course.

• "Columbia Heights is turning into the golden child for DC developers." Uh...are you selling to people or developers?

• "A dynamic atmosphere with a unique personality, the neighborhood boasts a rare and unique blend of commercial, residential and cultural experiences for its residents." blah blah blah blah blah

• "The _____ appeals to those who seek balance — balance between modernity and warmth." ?????

• "Convenient NW location - easy access to the White House, Capitol, Central Business District, C&O Canal, Potomac River, & Reagan National & Dulles Airports." Dulles? Really?

Anyway, so what got me all started on this was some blurbs from the National Gateway brochure:

• "The project will integrate over 185,000 square feet of restaurants, services, and shops in an architecturally significant streetscape that will define a sense of place rarely found in an urban location."

• "At National Gateway we endeavor to create a unique business environment, one in which sweeping views of the Potomac River, Washington, D.C. and a lush Center Park become part of the everyday landscape. And one in which the alignment of location, environment, access and visibility combine to create a vibrant mixed-use community that is more than a work place.” – David Cheek, President, The Meridian Group

• And lastly, "Setting new standards in urban design, National Gateway at Potomac Yard, Arlington Offers tenants an innovative mixed-use experience."

Whoah, dude, I have TOTALLY been craving an "innovative mixed-use experience". I have SO been trying to put words to the feeling I've had ever since I fell in love with the city. Jane Jacobs could have saved herself so much work if she had just latched onto that compelling sentence to describe the Village in NYC. Take that Robert Moses! "Don't infringe on our innovative mixed-use experience!"

As far as "setting new standards in urban design", I wouldn't count on it. And why bother, anyway? The old standards are actually pretty good.

16th Street Redux

2007-05-09T18:58:00.001-07:00

I went back home up 16th Street on the same day, and got a better version where the light was a little better. I never get tired of this view every morning...especially on the clear non-hazy days. And let me tell you — that road is smooooooth now.

16thStreetNW2.jpg, originally uploaded by whiteknuckled.

Here's a zoomed in view of the same photograph...

16thStreetNW3.jpg, originally uploaded by whiteknuckled.

Water main repairs make this view possible

2007-05-04T13:26:00.001-07:00

16thStreeNW.jpg, originally uploaded by whiteknuckled.

When I came to work this morning, the work was still proceeding on 16th Street NW next to Meridian Hill Park from the burst water main a few days ago. Although it's a little washed out in this image due to exposing for the bulldozer and such, the closed lanes gave me the rare daytime opportunity to stand in the middle of 16th Street — where you can see the White House, Jefferson Memorial, Washington Monument, planes on approach to National, and the Wilson Bridge — all in sequence. And FYI, the Wilson Bridge is like at least 10 miles or so from here. I'm hoping it will all be closed off again this afternoon so I can get some more photos. I was in a hurry this morning.

And does anyone know why the square block was blocked off around the fire department next to the police substation on U Street? (U Street, 17th, V Street) Couldn't tell if it was all for construction or what. Anyone see that this morning?

Yamomanem redux

2007-05-04T07:09:00.000-07:00

In the spirit of Jazz Fest, going on this very minute in Nawlins.....

I posted months ago about a killer New Orleans-style jazz band I saw at the Wonderland Ballroom. Unfortunately I mispelled their name, which means that the guys in the band I chatted with could never find the pictures I took, since I just told 'em "hey, just google your band and you'll find 'em." I actually wrote down everyone's name and instrument as well as the band name to put with the pictures on this blog, but I think the Bride accidentally threw my little scrap of paper away.

Well, yesterday, Monty Montgomery managed to find this old post from months ago and left me a comment:

Hey man- someone sent me a link to your blog. The band is Yamomanem - Wonderland spells it wrong and we dont care. Stop by and see us again- thanks for the words.

His comment had a link to their MySpace page and I just realized that they played at Wonderland just two days ago and I missed it. And to top it off, the show was dedicated to Hear Mount Pleasant, the group that is trying to bring live music back to Mount Pleasant. For more on that, use the internets. I have no time today.

Go check out their MySpace page and check their show dates. I'll see you at Wonderland June 6.

Don Juan in Mount Pleasant: Beautiful new windows

2007-05-01T19:02:00.001-07:00

Don Juan.jpg originally uploaded by whiteknuckled.

The Bride and I noticed sometime back that Don Juan replaced their really nasty windows and redid part of the façade sometime over the winter. I was in Mt. Pleasant tonight after work getting some photos for the next Main Street Mount Pleasant newsletter so I grabbed this quick shot. The old windows were so dirty and old you could barely see through them. I wish I had a photo of the old windows. Night and day difference, I tell you...

Be sure to swing by sometime and check out their food. Maybe just a notch below Haydee's but still really good. Last time we ate there, we were the only gringos in the place. While I'm on the subject of Mount Pleasant, if you've never looked at the Mount Pleasant Project, be sure to check out Robert Walton's wonderful photos of a great neighborhood. Really good stuff.

This other picture is just for fun...just got around to uploading it after it sat on my desktop for months. I wonder where she bought the little kid...

ShoppingCart.jpg, originally uploaded by whiteknuckled.

A pretty good sign that Ford might not be around in 2030

2007-05-01T08:13:00.000-07:00

I saw this story this morning about Ford Motor Company's newest VP for sustainability and environment. While the fate is unclear for what James Kunstler calls the "Happy Motoring Utopia", there's no doubt that more people are realizing that we can't pave or drive our way out of congestion.

A few things that are likely true:

• We have a limited amount of resources with which to fuel the cars. Exactly how much, who knows. (until we build Mr. Fusion from Back to the Future II)

• Cars emit massive amounts of carbon and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, which is the likely cause for global warming, y'know, IF it's happening and all.

• Increases in fuel economy, efficiency, or emissions, have not, and will not be able to keep up with yearly increases in Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT), due to continued growth of creating solely auto-dependent places.

• Demand is growing for places where people can live in closer proximity to school, work, shopping, church, and other daily needs.

• Gas is not going to get cheaper. Ever.

• Our overall fleet fuel economy has not improved since the late 80's overall, due largely to the massive numbers of gas-guzzlers produced by companies like Ford, that have offset increases in efficiency by many foreign cars.

Anyway, I especially liked this quote:

"A lot of work can be done in terms of just lightweight materials to then make the engines more efficient, downsizing the engines," she said. "It's always hard to predict invention in terms of battery technology, but we're seeing some very promising things out there." The same array of vehicles will exist in 2030, she predicted, but hydrogen fuel cells will play a role.

I'd have to say this doesn't bode well for Ford, who will likely squander this great market opportunity to create more fuel-efficient cars and capitalize on massive demand that is currently going unmet by nearly all of the American companies.

To put it in perspective, due to the expanding nature of our cities and suburbs, each car is having to log more and more miles. (drivers as well, of course). In 1990, the average car traveled 11,107 miles a year. In 2005, that number was up to 12,084. That's a 9 percent increase in 15 years. If you extrapolate that number out to 2043, when we will have 100 million more Americans — and millions of their cars on the road — each car will be traveling more than 14,000 miles a year.

So if gasoline costs twice as much, or efficiency doesn't MASSIVELY increase to even attempt to keep up with the predicted increase in driving each year, driving will become so costly that it will become ridiculously expensive.

No advances in technology are going to come fast enough to keep up with this seismic shift in energy prices and increases in driving that our landscape dictates.

The real solution isn't in clawing at solutions for simply greater efficiency, because it's clear they can't keep up with the increases in miles traveled each year. The auto industry should be working towards efficiency, but a focus on keeping the cars running at all costs will distract us from the real challenge of a fundamental shift in how we plan our growth.

If we can reduce by half how far someone has to drive for their daily needs, or cut in half the average daily number of car trips (currently between 11 and 15), you've just had the same effect as increasing a car's gas mileage from 15 mpg to 30 mpg.

In the end, these sorts of solutions will have a greater impact on energy consumption and emissions than Ford's half-assed attempts to change a culture that has pervaded their company for 50 years.

Howard Theater - Permit me a detour out of CoHi to the 2nd bloggiest neighborhood in the US

2007-04-30T20:06:00.000-07:00

So I know that I've been writing more about my neighborhood up here in Columbia Heights/Mt. Pleasant/Petworth, but hopefully you 15 people won't mind the diversion to somewhere else.

Two Saturdays ago, we were planning on going out on some of the Cultural Tourism walking tours all over DC, but after a late Friday night and a misunderstanding about times, we ended up getting out to Eastern Market a little too late to catch the alley tours. I've got some pictures and stories forthcoming from that...but on the way home, we took the 90 bus up Florida, which passes right by the Howard Theater, pictured below.

Howard Theater photograph by whiteknuckled.

Fortunately, the bus stopped long enough for me to get a picture through the open window before we started bumping along again. (And let me first say, God bless all you people who have to ride the 90 bus from NE/Capitol Hill over to U Street. There was about 8 gazillion bus stops and the road is in terrible shape and quite bumpity bumpty.)

I'd biked by it before, but usually not along Florida Avenue, so I hadn't stepped back to see the whole thing like this. I got a little curious to see if I could find some older pictures of the theater, because I could tell that the façade didn't match the bricks and the detail down the side. It looked like there was a bit of a mismatch where a renovation had been done at some point.

Sure enough, I found this picture made back near the theater's opening in 1910

I mean, wow. I never would have guessed a Baroque and Beaux Arts exterior underneath that awful slab of concrete on the front of the thing today. I read somewhere (can't find it now) that there was a messy art-deco type renovation sometime during the 40's or 50's, which is I'm sure where the "HOWARD" sign and marquee came from.

Interestingly, integration was actually the beginning of the end for the Howard Theater. With integration, some of the notable black artists who frequently played there were able to play at larger venues elsewhere in the city. Combined with the devastating effects of the '68 riots and the flight by many to the suburbs, the Howard Theater was abandoned in 1970.

One effort to reopen the theater fizzled in 1975 after a few weeks, but did result in the national historic landmark designation. It's owned today by the DC city government, as best as I can tell.

It should definitely be handed off to someone who wants to renovate it and restore it to use, whether as a performance venue, movie theater, or future home of a place like HR57. It's an important piece of Shaw's heritage and should find a way back into circulation. It's a travesty that this place is chained up and vacant. It predates the Apollo on 125th/MLK in NYC by more than 20 years and was the earliest, biggest, and best venue in the U Street Corridor for years.

I'd tell you who all has played there over the years, but the answer is mostly — "everyone who mattered."

A few posters are still around....

Read more about the Howard Theater:
• DC Cultural Tourism
• WHUT Duke Ellington's Washington
• GWU Historic U Street Jazz project

The Chaining-Up of Columbia Heights

2007-04-26T09:38:00.001-07:00

DCUSAsite.jpg, originally uploaded by whiteknuckled.

While I participate in the Columbia Heights forum run by the same people, I usually don't pay much attention to what's posted on the columbiaheightsnews.org front page. I've missed a few good things on there, and it's problematic that there's a lot of discussion that goes on under each posted item there, without being integrated into the CH forum. That's probably why days will pass sometimes without a single new post on the forum...Anyway, I digress.

I noticed that more of the tenants have been finalized, including the absence (for the time being) of a Trader Joe's or Whole Foods, which were highly hoped for by the leasing agents. I don't want to stir up the grocery store hornets nest, so I'll just say that having a Ross instead of another grocery store isn't the end of the world. (Although I would love Trader Joe's—cheap, delicious, fills a niche that Giant and the local markets don't)

The bigger concern is that all of the confirmed tenants right now are all chains, as best as I can tell. In reference to the heated discussion of Whole Foods vs. Trader Joe's vs. Ross, I noticed this one post by Shaw resident Chris L who hits the nail on the head:

I live closer to downtown in Shaw, and hadn't really been keeping track of the status of DC USA. I have to say after reading this, the tenents so far really suck. Its an injection of suburban big-box stores right into the heart of DC.

While in other parts of the city they're struggling for more local retailers vs. national chains, you guys have completely accepting that you are getting national chains and are simply fighting for less shitty ones.

I'm not trying to rub your noses in it, but definitely try to take a lesson to the next project. Get involved and get involved early!

Ouch. I hate to say that he's right but the leasing business for DCUSA is less than transparent, even though the project received DC money and land to make the project work. The problem with injecting massive new construction and hoping for independent retail is one that Richard at Rebuilding Space writes about all the time. The rents are just too freaking expensive for most independent retailers to manage:

...The rule of thumb from the Main Street Approach is that a retail business pays 4%-10% of its annual revenues in rent (restaurants can and do pay slightly more). Figure it out backwards from what businesses can reasonably generate in revenues... yet the asking price for commercial buildings, asking prices for rent, and often the property tax assessments are completely out of whack compared to the revenue stream that successful businesses are likely to be able to generate.

To me, the issue is much more how we enculture and enable small business DNA into our residents and encourage entreprenurial ability. The only way that small business or most independent retailers were going to be able to afford the rents in this buliding would be for more subsidies from DC government. (which I don't necessarily think would have been a bad idea).

To me, they should have a policy like inclusionary zoning for businesses when the developer receives massive tax or land benefits from the city: I don't have a problem with chain stores in general, and I won't mind having a Target and Best Buy in the neighborhood for convenience sake, but 15% of the space should be heavily subsidized and filled with independent retail—ideally owned by people who have been brought through a city biz incubator program.

This is the reason why preservation and old buildings are important to the balance of a neighborhood. CH Coffee a few blocks away could likely never afford to rent space in DCUSA, but they can take an under-utlilized space a few blocks away in an older building.

Older buildings = lower rents, greater likelihood of independent biz.

Floors two and three can be seen below. Comments coming later...

DCUSA floor3.jpg, originally uploaded by whiteknuckled.

DCUSA floor2.jpg, originally uploaded by whiteknuckled.

Blossoms.jpg

2007-04-25T07:55:00.001-07:00

Blossoms.jpg, originally uploaded by whiteknuckled.

I'm glad we went down there the very first weekend of the festival, because, geez was the weather awful nearly every day after that...

A few things around town

2007-04-24T08:45:00.000-07:00

— A six-year-old girl was killed in a hit and run on 6th Street NE just below Florida Ave near Gallaudet yesterday as her mother watched from their front stoop. According to the story, she wasn't in the crosswalk when she got hit by a green Toyota 4-Runner with tinted windows and Maryland plates. Just terrible...

I do think it's interesting that the victim's brother concludes that it was a man when he tells the chicken-shit driver to "be a man." I wonder what the gender break-down is on people convicted of hit-and-run.

— The ever lovable Tai Shan will be here at least two more years, after National Zoo officials were able to reach an agreement with the Chinese Government, which apparently loves Pandas almost as much as censoring the internet and squelching freedoms.

— Lastly, don't miss Rob Goodspeed's comparison of Mt. Vernon Square here in DC with its counterpart in Baltimore. In one of his planning classes at UMD, he compared the qualities of urbanism between the two while trying to explain why filmmakers chose Baltimore to stand in for D.C. The reasons likely have everything to do with buildings doing a poor job of framing the streetscape, the design of the convention center, an underused (BEE-U-tiful) civic building which is at the terminus of a closed street that no one walks on, and a massive agglomeration of negative space with no rhyme or reason. Learn yo'self something about some basic principles of good urban design and check out this post.

The Awakening being dug up by "visionary developer" for sake of "controversy"

2007-04-22T20:09:00.000-07:00

If you haven't heard it already this morning from DCist, the Express, or pissed-off coworkers at the coffeemaker, Milt Peterson has announced his plans to dig up The Awakening from Hains Point and take it to his new fancy-schmancy Disney-esque National Harbor in PG County just below the Wilson Bridge on the Potomac.

Read the Post story here.

I was in CVS in Chinatown grabbing a pack of gum this afternoon while on my way into church when I saw this story on the frontpage of the Post. I picked it up while standing in the forever-long line after the picture on front caught my eye.

It's not enough that he's going to dig the thing up from the District, where it's in the public realm (though techincally privately-owned) on National parkland, at the majestic tip of Hains Point. But he has to go and show his mug for the cameras down there in front of the sculpture while all the kids are playing on it. For the record, when I told the Bride about this, she nearly started crying. Way to go, Milt. Thanks for that one.

Everytime we go to Hains Point, usually on bike, we remark how it's one of the best-kept secrets in the District. Most of the tourists walking around downtown and the Mall can't get all the way down there, many of the ones driving don't know how much there is to East Potomac Park and don't venture down there, and even people who live here don't know where it is or how to get there (though they certainly should!)

I think this is a terrible idea, even keeping the discussion separate from whether or not National Harbor is going to turn out to be a worthwhile place to visit for those people in pursuit of authentic experience that places like National Harbor and chain-store malls typically DON'T offer. I don't have the greatest amount of faith in the place-making abilities of a man who has spent his life plopping down suburban strip malls and office parks wherever he can in Northern Virginia for the last 30 years.

I don't like The Awakening being removed for several reason: a) I think it should stay in the District. I have no great rationale for this other than the fact that I'm biased, I love the District, and I think it's a great asset and a good fit for Hains Point. That should be enough.

But my greater concern is how it's going to be used on the waterfront at National Harbor. Supposedly, it's going to be the centerpiece of a grand avenue that is the "main street" of the development, with stairs going down to the sandy beach where The Awakening will rise up out of the ground. (I won't discuss right now how the avenue is going to be lined with "stonehenge" replicas, which really only makes me think of Spinal Tap and little leprechauns)

What I have yet to have explained to me is how the relationship between public and private space will unfold at National Harbor. Are all the streets and sidewalks public space? Or is National Harbor going to be a glorified shopping mall or "lifestyle center", which is fancy-real-estate speak for "mall with lid off that is a poor imitation of a real main street."

I'll reserve my final judgement about just how awful I think this plan is until I can clarify this one issue. I think the Awakening should be in a place that is publicly accessible, so that everyone can enjoy it without having to go to a mall (or Maryland for that matter) to see it.

If access to the waterfront and the streets in National Harbor are going to be private and restricted by the owners/management, I'll just go ahead and say that this dude just robbed the District and snatched one of our best pieces of public art in the District and put it in an awful place.

"It's going to be POW! It's going to be explosive! We're going to change Washington."

Someone needs to tell the guy that National Harbor isn't IN Washington. And people don't arrive by boat up the Potomac. Yes, a lot of people cross the Wilson Bridge, but the idea that Washington, the land of beautiful monuments and an inspired street plan to draw attention to meaningful civic buildings, needs a glorified mall to "change" it is ludicrous.

But this quote says it all, to me:

Moving the sculpture away from the District could create a stir, Peterson realizes. That's exactly what he's looking for. You want it to be controversial, he says. Provocative. The worst thing would be no reaction at all.

Awesome. You took The Awakening away from the District to put it in your mall to be controversial. That's fantastic.

----

Read some of Richard's thoughts on National Harbor from a while back, and a column in the Post by Michele Dyson

He's going to need LOTS of friends. And money

2007-04-20T08:45:00.000-07:00

He's still in this thing? And JUST discovering MySpace? I'd have to say I don't like his chances. After all, Hil and Barack started sending me friend requests MONTHS ago.

Re-Making the Suburbs

2007-04-17T10:38:00.000-07:00

Ryan Avent today on "making the suburbs:"

"The result is not hard to predict; once again, the wealthy are leading the way, but this time back into cities. In New York, Washington, San Francisco, Chicago, London, and other metropolises, urban living is now a luxury good. The challenge now is to try and duplicate in suburbs the aspects of urban life that allow cities to succeed amid large and growing populations."

In light of the tipping point reached sometime in the last year or two, according to the Brookings Institution, that for the first time in America's history, more poor people live in suburbs (mostly first-ring) than the urban core, this will be the next great challenge for America and our cities over the next 40 years: RE-making the suburbs into more urban — and urbane — places.

A lot of first ring suburbs in my hometown of Atlanta have perfectly suitable houses, but as a colleague said to me today, "they are "old" and out-of-date, in neighborhoods increasingly occupied by people of umber hues, with schools certified by local REALTORS® as unacceptable." And so people go further out because it's been reinforced to them that brand-new construction is the only viable option.

As commuting patterns in massive metro areas like Houston, Atlanta, or even D.C. continue to shift from merely suburb-to-core, the challenge will be increasing urbanity and access within our first-ring suburbs and making them livable places once more.

This is all related to the New Yorker's piece on commuting in this month's issue, but I'll save that for later

Third floor, meet floors 1 and 2. I'm not sure you know each other.

2007-04-15T20:18:00.001-07:00

Sherman extended house, originally uploaded by Prince of Petworth.

Awful addition to a house on Sherman Avenue, courtesy of the Prince of Petworth. This photo brought about some lively discussion, with most commenters agreeing that these sorts of unsympathetic additions are awful. From what I know of most of DC, though, it's nearly impossible to stop without a historic district designation, which doesn't exist in Petworth or Columbia Heights. I understand the reticence about "historic" designations, which can make improvements much more difficult than they should be, and I don't think it's always appropriate for entire neighborhoods.

But there's gotta be a common-sense way to regulate materials for additions. I mean, if your rowhouse is two floors of red brick with rectangular windows, you shouldn't be able to put a grey facade up with faux-colonial style dormer windows that aren't even centered either with the addition or the windows below.

Just hideous. Look for some more examples of unsympathetic additions and improvements to follow. I've been meaning to catalogue some of the ones around us for a while now.

And as always, check out the Prince of Petworth. Good stuff.

Bike Route to Old Town

2007-04-12T12:15:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago the Bride and I decided to ride our bikes to Old Town, partially for kicks, and partially to see how long it would take her to get all the way to work on her bike. She's talked about doing it, but we figured we'd give it a shot together to see how long it was. We stopped about a dozen times, a few of which were stops of 3-4 minutes, and it still only took us slightly over an hour. And we were riding pretty easy.

She's got a shower in her building, so this may be the way to get exercise each day when the weather is nice. We figure it can be done in closer to 45 minutes riding hard without any stops. Which is just crazy since it takes her about 50 to 55 minutes to walk and take the train (10 min. walk on each end to/from metro stops).

Whenever she moves along, her next job will be in the District.

Automakers: We reserve the right to pollute your state

2007-04-10T07:59:00.000-07:00

Oh boy. This is rich. Vermont joined a bunch of other states in trying to pass stricter emission standards for new cars starting in 2009. Apparently, the U.S. automakers are pissed that anyone would tell them that they need to build more efficient, less polluting cars. (For the record, only American companies have filed the suit.)

Basically, they think that any standards should be nationwide. But do they really? This is their quote from a lawyer:

"There needs to be a comprehensive multi-sector strategy at the federal level to effectively deal with this issue."

So what they're really saying is "let the federal government deal with it, because we all know there won't be comprehensive federal standards with teeth anytime soon."

A Walk in the Park—from Maryland to Columbia Heights

2007-04-09T19:45:00.001-07:00

Last Friday night, we went to my friend Taylor's house in NE for a little Spring party. At least, that was the idea. Instead, it was 30 degrees outside and we were all packed inside. Thankfully, we had a Wii to keep things interesting.

So the Bride decided to leave early with some friends who were driving. I stuck around for a while, trying to stay as long as possible while still being able to Metro home. So at 2:25 or so, I pack it up and head out the door, right as the snow starts falling.

I halfway ran/jogged across the miserable Giant/Home Depot parking lot at Rhode Island and through the acres of parking until I saw a northbound train pass through. I walked the rest of the way and got up on the platform at about 2:35. The Bride called while I was on the platform and I told her I'd be home in about 20 minutes or so. After watching a southbound train pass (more on that later), I hopped on a northbound train to Fort Totten. I know outbound trains run later than inbound ones, but I was pretty sure there was an inbound Green/Yellow line at about 2:50 or so from Fort Totten.

I was wrong. Uh oh.

The last one left at 2:44, meaning that when I got off the red line at Fort Totten and sprinted downstairs, I missed it by about 4 minutes or less. (Which also means I would have been better off taking that soutbound red train I saw to Gallery Place since the last green/yellow train comes through there at 3:15 or so.

As I ran down the escalator and saw the display sign on the platform with no trains listed, the station manager came on the loudspeaker and informed me that I was a dumbass. Except she didn't embarass me and instead just told all of us that there were no more Green or Yellow line trains going south. I thanked her quietly for the good graces.

By this point, the snow is really coming down. So I go over to the trusty street maps and without breaking stride, take a peek at which way to walk to get to New Hampshire Ave, which I know will take me all the way to CH.

I see one cab in the massive Ft. Totten parking lot, with a girl getting in the back. I don't have any cash with me, so even if I do manage to score a cab somewhere, I'm doing the dreaded post-midnight ATM visit somewhere on the way home, which is akin to begging someone to jam a gun in your ribs and empty your bank account. At least that's what I tell myself so I won't ever be stupid enough to make any ATM transactions after dark in the District. (or anywhere, for that matter)

It's just a bad idea.

So since I barely glimpsed at the street map, I failed to notice/remember that the green/yellow line runs east/west at Ft. Totten, and not north/south like I'm thinking in my foggy, sleepless, wine and cheese-saturated brain.

Upon walking through the parking lot, I promptly make a right turn instead of a left turn, heading back under the elevated red line track, which should have tipped me off that I was going the wrong way. Did I notice? Nope. So I tried to constantly head to my left while walking north on 3rd, and then 2nd NE, and eventually did get to New Hampshire Ave, where I was heading for.

Now here's where I get even stupider. I've managed to turn myself around in circles so badly that I probably couldn't have told you which way was up. So I turned right on New Hampshire and walked for three blocks until I saw Eastern Avenue — otherwise known as the road that lets you know you're about to be in Maryland.

D'oh.

So after whapping myself on the forehead, I walked the last 50 feet up to the intersection, and crossed it, so when I told all my friends this story, I could tell them about how I walked all the way to Maryland, and then back home.

Here's my route so you can see just how stupid I was:

As you can see, my wrong turn cost me at least a mile if not more. I didn't think I could cut across Gallatin Street and through the park, which would have saved me, oh I dunno, say a mile? Although I would have been a little leery about walking through the park at 3 in the morning. (More than walking all the way home from Ft. Totten at 3 in the morning, right?)

The snow is really falling as I start heading back SW on New Hampshire. My brown coat turned white with all the snow sticking to it and my hair was soaked. About 20 minutes down NH Ave, a cab passed me going the other way and slowed waaaaay down to see if I waved him over....

This is where my stubborn cheap streak comes in. I waved him on, figuring I didn't walk the wrong direction for 20 minutes and make it halfway home from Ft. Totten to end up paying 10 bucks for a cab ride home. So I waved him on and continued my pattern of running 2 blocks and then walking some. Ok fine, I was just running one block and walking 3. Geez.

About an hour and 15 minutes after I got off the red line train, I walked in my front door on Meridian Place. And let me tell you, I was tired. So I of course went back to our DC map to see how I had erred because I just couldn't sleep without knowing. And then I went to bed.

I started thinking about how far Taylor actually lives from me as I was telling him this story while we sat in the Verizon Center for the Caps game Saturday. (Can I tell you how sore I was just trying to walk 7 minutes to the CH Metro at noon just 9 hours later?) I suspected that I could have walked all the way home from Taylor's, and not only would I have gotten home sooner, but it would have been a shorter walk.

Thanks to gmap.pedometer.com, you can see that I was right. And so are you: I am an idiot.

My route, including stupid right turn: 4.35 miles
Walking straight from Taylor's with NO wrong turns: 3.51 miles

Hmm. I wonder if this works?

2007-04-06T13:52:00.001-07:00

EmptyVehicle, originally uploaded by whiteknuckled.

Such a sign will do wonders in protecting your car from literate, respectful, english-speaking would-be window-smashers in Columbia Heights and Mount Pleasant.

Seven and a Sunny Day

2007-04-06T08:25:00.000-07:00

Thank God for YouTube....I discovered a plethora of SDRE videos on YouTube last night, and thankfully, they have the first video SDRE ever made for mass viewing. I remember seeing this on 120 Minutes on MTV probably nearly a decade or more ago. Geez...is is that old?

"A new face, a soul reborn..."

Troubles on Morton Street

2007-04-05T10:01:00.001-07:00

725 Morton Street photo 5 of 5, originally uploaded by mwray_ch.

I meant to post these last week, but these photos are from Michael, who I know from the Columbia Heights News discussion forum. Apparently this building is over near his place on the east side of CH, and the permits all have a hold on them dating back to 2005. (located here in case you're curious:

It's unsightly, but more importantly, poses a hazard to the neighborhood with all the trash and spaces that are accessible by dealers and users that neighbors and residents can't see and monitor. According to Michael, he's notified Graham and some relief is on the way for neighbors. Here's what Michael has said about it over the last few weeks:

March 26: Does anyone have information about the building on Morton just behind the Murry’s? I’ve just moved to the block and it looks like they were building an apartment complex and stopped. There is plywood blocking off the front of the property, but part of that has come down and anyone can gain access. There is also an abandoned truck on the site that has been destroyed by vandals. Generally, it looks like development gone very wrong. I’m thinking of taking some pictures and sending emails to the city tomorrow, but wanted to see if anyone here has some history or advice. Thanks.

April 5: Yes, DPW removed the truck. DPRA will need to put up a new gate. There was still trash around when I want by last night. There was some talk about why the property did not appear on the tax roles, but they stopped cc'ing me on all the emails after that came up.

I can't tell if this was a new building, or an older one in the middle of some sort of conversion/renovation. It's strange how the front of it is clearly set back a significant distance from the next door buildings. That's pretty odd as Columbia Heights streets go."

Either way, the owners need to clean up the joint and secure the front gate. Here's the link to the permit page on the DC.gov site. And more photos.

725 Morton Street photo 4 of 5, originally uploaded by mwray_ch.

725 Morton Street photo 3 of 5, originally uploaded by mwray_ch.

725 Morton Street photo 1 of 5, originally uploaded by mwray_ch.

Nighttime on the basin: We should have biked

2007-04-04T21:22:00.001-07:00

CherryBlossomNight.jpg, originally uploaded by whiteknuckled.

The Bride and I went down to the Tidal Basin last night hoping to catch one of the NPS' Japanese lantern walking tours of the basin (not realizing that it wasn't happening). We left a little late, and due to some poor thinking, we ended up driving. I was planning on riding bikes all along once we came home and ate dinner, since we can get there in 15 minutes or so by bike. But the Bride didn't want to bike and I didn't force the issue...so we spent 20 minutes sitting on RC Parkway just getting to West Potomac Park.

D'oh!

We agreed that we both felt like schmoes sitting in our car while all the people walked by along the river in the nice weather on foot or with their bikes. So we sat in the car feeling like we were just another one of the carfuls of tourists.

Once we got there, I realized that after dusk ends the light is really and truly gone on the Tidal Basin. They have some lights on trees over by the FDR Memorial, but all the rest are in the dark, just like everything should be when it's...uh....well....dark outside.

So we grabbed a few photos, sat in the grass, walked a bit, and then poked back through the FDR Memorial. I hadn't been through the FDR Memorial since we moved here, although the Bride had seen it on a visit back in 2002, I believe. Let's just say that I think I have a new favorite memorial on the Mall. Part of it may be my extreme soft spot for FDR as a WWII buff—and let's all just admit that the WWII Memorial is a supreme disappointment—but the design of it is really genius.

It's the kind of civic art that I enjoy the most...the kind you get to experience with great thoughts given to how people will circulate, percolate, and experience the shape of the space. So it's no surprise when you consider that it was designed by a man who made his career studying public spaces and how people react within them—with an eye towards the fact that your journey through the memorial is an experience. (This is the reason why the Vietnam Memorial is fantastic, and the WWII Memorial feels like an anchorless slab of concrete where you wander aimlessly.)

Walking through the FDR memorial is like walking through a history book, a poem, and a film all at the same time. The sculptures, especially the one pictured below and the fireside chat sculpture, have the most beautifuul austere vibe about them. Although the action is each one is minimal (or non-existent in the case of the opening wheelchair sculpture), each one is like a painting that you can stand in front of and listen to. (yes i did say listen)

I'll spare you the play-by-play of walking through the whole thing, especially since we experienced it backwards because of how we walked through it, but I think nighttime may be the best time to see it. I'll spare you the obligatory FDR quote to close out this post, and do it with an image.

FDRNight.jpg, originally uploaded by whiteknuckled.

Think small

2007-04-04T14:01:00.000-07:00

I was telling a colleague about this tiny house in Alexandria that the Bride discovered while on one of her many lunchtime runs through Old Town. After my coworker said that she had never seen it, I started looking for a photo "out there" on the internets by using The Google. Turns out the Post wrote a feature about it two years ago, which you can still read here in A Narrow-Minded Pursuit

Jahi Chikwendiu - The Washington Post

It's 350 square feet, 7 feet wide, and sold for $125,000 all the way back in 1990. I wonder if the same guy owns it. This makes my place seem huge by comparison and less quaint all at the same time.

A bit of a departure: "Skin" by VOL

2007-03-30T09:40:00.001-07:00

This song just came on my iTunes at random a few minutes ago and I thought I'd share the lyrics with you. It's by far my favorite song by Bill Mallonee and Vigilantes of Love. It's about Vincent Van Gogh and so much more, but I'll let you figure all that out:

Now i'd seen him despondent
A few times as of late
Sometimes the answer that love gives
Is the hardest one to take
I know he was prone to paint
The voice of his own fear
So Vincent he picked up the blade
And he put it to his ear

Look at yourself in the mirror
You're all rumpled red stubbled and gaunt
You walk a dead end path in a dry corn field
And now this morose response
Your princess she don't wanna see you
No your princess she don't wanna hear
So Vincent he picked up the blade
And he put it to his ear

Now look if you're gonna come around here
And say those sort of things
You gotta take a few on the chin
You talking about love and all that stuff
You better bring your thickest skin
Sometimes you can't please everyone
Sometimes you can't please anyone at all
You sew your heart onto your sleeve
And wait for the ax to fall

You there with the paint box
You there with paper and pen
Me i got this blunt instrument
I'm gonna play on 'til the end
And you know you come with empty hands
Or you don't come at all
You deal your best hand out in the marketplace
And let the chips fall

The package it comes wrapped up
There is a lesson here
Vincent he picked up the blade
And he put it to his ear

Now look if you're gonna come around here
And say those sort of things
You gotta take a few on the chin
Yeah you're talking about sin and redemption
Well you better wear your thickest skin
Sometimes you can't please everyone
Sometimes you can't please anyone at all

Sew your heart onto your sleeve and wait for the ax to fall

Latest DCUSA rendering

2007-03-29T08:40:00.000-07:00

I found a copy of the latest rendering of DCUSA. Some people had pointed out that the picture they had been using was the same one for the last 5 years or so. This picture can be found on the Grid Properties site here: http://gridproperties.com/dcusa.html

rendering from Grid Properties Inc.

Keeping in mind it's just a developer's rendering, there's a few things worth noting in this picture:

a) The Metro shed isn't visible at the right of the foreground, although I can understand why they'd leave it out since it would obscure the view of the building. But the condo developers always manage to include it in their pictures. It's a selling point for DCUSA as well. At least it should be.

b) Notice the four very mature trees? Uh, yeah, those aren't there right now (although the area sure would look a lot nicer if there were.) I'm sure that they're planning on planting some trees on all the sidewalks once construction is completed, but those will likely be saplings. It'd take 15 years for the trees to look this good. You may remember, don't get me started about trees...

c) Is it just me, or is every single person in the rendering white? It's kinda hard to tell so I could be wrong, but it sure looks that way to me. The future, perhaps?

d) The little red car appears to be headed towards an certain collision with oncoming traffic on Irving. It's going the wrong way. Perhaps the driver's confusion comes from the fact that all of the traffic lights and signage are gone. It's possible.

d) Looks like they've confirmed some other retailers I didn't know about. I'd rather buy my coffee somewhere local and independent (Mayorga or CHC) but I'll take Caribou over Starbucks' bitter dreck across the street anyday.

Interesting.

Whaddya mean it wasn't made for people and books

2007-03-28T07:15:00.000-07:00

When the new Seattle Library was opened several years ago, it was hailed as a groundbreaking, iconic example of breathtaking civic architecture (Not by everyone, certainly) Now, even one local architecture critic who initially praised the building has changed his tune — now that he's actually had to USE the building, he's discovered that it's less than friendly and inviting to people. Imagine that.

An article in the Seattle Times from opening day has a comment from a fellow architect inspecting the library for the first time:

Yesterday he traced his hand along the library's walls. He sketched drawings and jotted ideas in a black journal. He said he admires Koolhaas because he doesn't rely on precedent or formality."

Not relying on precedent or formality is very often what leads to buildings like this.

A critic from the P-I has reevaluated his view on how the library works after he realized "when I need to spend a working day at a library, I retreat to the Bellevue Regional instead of Seattle's downtown flagship."

He concludes:

There's something missing from the art in this building, and it's so basic and simple that it can be captured in one word: warmth. A great 21st-century library building should stretch our imaginations and aspirations beyond the book-centered technology of the past, and this one certainly does. But we depend on buildings to remind us from where we've come as well as where we might go. The Central Library breaks so radically with the character of the traditional public library that nothing remains as an anchor except the books themselves -- and they seem almost like afterthoughts, dust specks adrift in deep space. This library feels communal and theatrical instead of personal and contemplative, focused so outwardly on the world that it has no time for the individual.

Based on this other quote from one of Koolhaas' colleagues who worked on their library, they're quite confused. "Question from P-I reporter: What is the one thing that you hope that the public will notice about this library? That it is not willful. That its design is totally in service to making a great library ... and that its form is an answer to how it functions."

So they threw out the book on library design for the last 200 years, but somehow managed to insist that they came up with a design where form follows function? If you wanted to make a building where the design is truly in service to making a great functional library where PEOPLE will enjoy spending time, maybe they should have paid attention to convention, precedent and history.

There's a good lesson here for DC Council members who are even now in the throes of figuring out what to do with the Central Library. While the building may carry some significance due to its creation by black box-creator extrordinaire Mies Van der Rohe, it's an abysmally-designed space inside for books and people — which by the way — are what libraries are for.

Perhaps you'd be more comfortable in a different form of government

2007-03-27T07:44:00.000-07:00

For those of you locals, you've probably read about or heard about the state of the voting rights bill in the House last week. I won't get into the entire discussion, but in case you missed it, you absolutely must see the comments from Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) that he made on the floor while debating the merits of voting rights in the House for District residents.

This is what he said: "I would submit to you that Washington, D.C. is also the only city in the entire country that every Senator and every Member of Congress has a vested interest in seeing that it works properly; that water works, sewer works, and and no other city in America has that."

Before I get into the absolute idiocy of what he said, you've gotta read what happened as a result of DCIst picking up the story, which made the Washington Post just the next day. First of all, CSPAN misidentified Gohmert as Charles Boustany from La. So as you can read from the DCist story, since Boustany/Gohmert had claimed that the District didn't need representation because we have 535 elected officials looking out for us, DCist urged everyone to send all of their requests and problems directly to his office.

After all, he claims to be our representative, right?

So after Boustany got flooded with calls, DCist corrected CSPAN's error and directed all of the letters, calls, faxes, and emails to Louie Gohmert. Just sheer utter hilarity is what it is. Well, at least until you really examine what Gohmert is claiming.

Now, I haven't studied politics other than my Civics class in high school and one Poli Sci class in college, but I'm pretty sure that Louie has some serious misunderstandings about how our republican and representative system of government works. He claims that we don't need our own representative because we already have 535 people with a vested interest in the District.

Excuse me, Louie? Did you get to be representative from Texas by just walking into Washington and saying, "well, I'm from there, so I"ll represent those people." No, you got ELECTED. Let me say that again in case you're hard of hearing.

You got ELECTED. That's how things work in America. You don't get to just speak up and say you'll "serve" as our representative. Those who govern do so at the consent of the governed. And no one in the District gave you their consent.

Let me give a ludicrous example that could never happen to prove my point: (Kind of like how ludicrous it would be for 650,000 people in the District to be taxed but not represented — TOTALLY and ridiculously unbelievable, right?)

It would be akin to the city of Richmond, Virginia not getting a representative in the Virginia House of Delegates, or a vote for the Virginia Senate. And then, when the lawmakers come to Richmond to do state business and the Richmonders are agitated because they're not represented, Rep. Joe Smith from Marion just pipes up and says, "I would submit to you that Richmond is the only city in the entire state where every Delegate and every Senator has a vested interest in seeing that it works properly."

Is there something disturbing to anyone else about an elected U.S. Congressman suggesting that we don't need a representative because some people in Texas sent him here, he and some other folks live here 200 days a year, and therfore he and the rest of Congress should just be our de facto representatives?

I would sincerely hope that for the sake of the first district of Texas, that Rep. Gohmert understands our political system and form of government a little better than he has demonstrated thus far.

And for your viewing enjoyment, I present you the new banner for his homepage that DCist created. And in case you're wondering, you can reach the new representative for the District of Columbia at 202-225-3035 and at 510 in the Cannon House Office Building.

graphic from DCist

I'll leave you with a poignant comment that the Bride heard someone say the other day: If the voting rights bill passes, and Bush uses the veto to strike it down, it will be ironic that his legacy will be an attempt to preserve democracy and freedom in countries all around the globe, while at home working to ensure the continued disenfranchisement of District residents.

Georgetown students apparently have time to spare as well as money

2007-03-27T06:44:00.000-07:00

Just in case you missed it....this was posted on DCist this morning. I had no idea there were that many people out after the game. This is M Street, which means it's the freaking center of Georgetown. I heard they walked all the way to the White House...

"That's how you do it in the 'NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE"

2007-03-26T10:31:00.000-07:00

Thank God.. I don't think I could have taken another season of Joe T. mangling Monday nights. It's a good thing they're making the change now, because I'm pretty sure he and TK would have come to blows at some point this year when Theismann says something ludicrous and the un-athletic TK points out how stupid it is, angering the meathead Theismann to the point of physical violence. Hear, hear, Worldwide Leader!

Music is Bulletproof

2007-03-23T07:29:00.000-07:00

For those of you who haven't been following the story, there is a great 3 minute video of Quike Morales, the bartender at the Argonaut on H Street who got shot in the head walking home from work last year. He's recovered well, and is thankful for all of the H Street patrons who raised money for his medical bills. As an aside, he's in need of a new skull, which you can find out about at Frozen Tropics.

Post video by DeNeen Brown

Also, I've added two feeds to the front page from my Google Reader (which is TIGHT), so you can see what I'm reading and what I think all of you should be reading. Get smart.

What we lost...(or rather, what Metro Properties and the Allegro took):

2007-03-12T12:10:00.000-07:00

Without writing an entire paper on the importance of the tree canopy—which has arguably, a greater importance in urban areas due to the decreased availabilty of space—I've discovered some good resources on the urban tree canopy here in DC.

Thanks to "Alaaro", another contributor to the CH discussion forum, I discovered the Casey Trees Endowment, which works on preserving and enhancing the tree canopy in the District. Here are just a few facts about the trees that were removed by Metro Properties, Inc., the developers of the Allegro:

There were 5 trees removed, which you can see on the graphic from the Casey Trees interactive tree map, which is one of the coolest things I've ever seen. I think they used their endowment to do a huge survey of all the trees in the District, which is just an amazing resource.

14th Street is running right through the middle of the graphic. (The yellow dot at the top on the west side of 14th Street is still standing, I believe) So, starting at the bottom left green dot and continuing north, here is some information on the trees that were removed.

Tree 1: Scarlet Oak

Height = 40 feet
Diameter at Breast Height = 14 inches
Crown Radius = 15 feet
Value = $3,597
Tree was rated 1-2 in health, with 1 being the highest

Tree 2: Scarlet Oak (in a treebox near the street edge)

Height = 50 feet
Diameter = 27 inches
Crown Radius = 20 feet
Value = $8,387
Tree was rated 3-4 in health (this was likely one that was due to be removed)

Tree 3: Scarlet Oak (set back near lot line - probably difficult to build around)

Height = 30 feet
Diameter = 17 inches
Crown Radius = 15 feet
Value = $4,499
Tree rated 1-2 in health

Tree 4: Scarlet Oak (in treebox near street edge)

Height = 35 feet
Diameter = 18 inches
Crown Radius = 15 feet
Value = $5,023
Tree rated 1-2 in health

Tree 5: Scarlet Oak (judging by health score, probably the other tree due to be removed)

Height = 50 feet!
Diameter = 28 inches!
Crown Radius = 20 feet
Value = $9,010
Tree rated 3-4 in health

One of the niftiest thing about the Casey Trees site is that they've calculated and quanitified many of the environmental benefits of these trees. According to their calculations, here are a few interesting stats about the combined benefits of these 5 trees. (Values rounded):

4680 kg of carbon currently stored to date.
130 kg per year of carbon that would have been taken out of the air and stored over the next year due to growth
154 grams of Carbon Monoxide pollution removed each year
1356 grams of Ozone pollution removed each year
$ 30,516 - total value

Compare that to a comparable newly planted Willow Oak over by the Giant. It's 2 inches in diameter and 15 feet tall, so it's a little smaller but pretty close to the ones that the Allegro proposes for replacement. After 2-4 years in the ground, we could probably expect numbers like these: 2 kg of carbon stored, .5 kg of carbon stored per year, 2.5 grams of CO removed each year, and 21 grams of ozone removed, with a value of roughly $70-$100. Multiply that by 6 and compare the numbers to the above figures:

12 kg of carbon currently stored to date.
3 kg per year of carbon that would have been taken out of the air and stored over the next year due to growth
15 grams of Carbon Monoxide pollution removed each year
126 grams of Ozone pollution removed each year
$ 420 - $600 total value

DC has some great resources from the UFA, which you can view online at the UFA/DDOT site. I found this one to be of particular interest, called "Trees and the Construction Process...Basic Concerns and How to Avoid Problems" It appears to be a presentation that former UFA employee Ainsley Caldwell made to government workers and other construction and maintenance related departments.

WHY ARE TREES IMPORTANT?

Trees represent a significant investment for the District in time and money
DDOT spends more than seven million dollarsfor annual upkeep and tree planting
Actual dollar value of the District’s street tree resource is estimated between 50-80 million dollars
Trees can add 7–20 percent to the value of a home

Here's what 3460 14th Street NW once looked like, thanks to Google Earth:

Does the Allegro REALLY care about Columbia Heights?

2007-03-12T11:16:00.000-07:00

(January 2006 image from columbiaheightsnews.org)

UPDATED with new information:
When walking my wife (and her brother who was in town for a visit) home from the Metro Thursday night, we walked by the site of the old Giant on our way home, like we always do. We've been watching the progress as the old Giant has come down and site prep has been done to clear the way for a new condo building. But what we saw last week certainly represented anything but "progress".

(all other photos © by me)

I was dismayed to see empty treeboxes, scattered limbs, and giant stumps sitting on the sidewalk, where there used to be 5 giant Scarlet Oak trees, all of which were more than 35 feet tall. I couldn't believe my eyes. Two of the trees were closer to the lot line, which is where the front of the Allegro will actually begin, where there was just a parking lot for the old Giant. But two of the trees were at the very extreme edge of the sidewalk in treeboxes, in line with the parking meters (still there) and city signage. I know that the developers of the Allegro will likely have to do massive infrastructure work along the front of their property to expand utilities, sewer and water pipe, and electrical conduit. So I could POSSIBLY understand the need to remove the two trees up close to the building.

But I can't imagine for the life of me why they had to remove the trees at the edge of the sidewalk. I also thought that there HAD to be laws on the books protecting the tree canopy in town and ensuring that construction doesn't eradicate them—or at least ensure that adequate replacements are planted.

Thanks to a tip from "nkatekwan", one of the many frequenters of the Columbia Heights discussion forum, I put a call into the Urban Foresty Adminstration of the District, which is part of DDOT. With a quick request for information I found out that the "request for tree removal" permit that was applied for by "Metro Allegro" for 3460 14th Street NW was DENIED.

Well, that was the initial answer from a woman in the UFA office, which was accurate according to the paperwork she had in front of her. So after ripping Metro and Allegro for 20 minutes of my lunch break, I got a call back from Ranjit Singh, who works for UFA at DDOT, so here's the current info:

Two of the trees were scheduled for possible removal by the UFA due to poor health and danger of falling. I'm guessing this would be the two trees marked in yellow on the Casey Trees survey, only one of which was close to the lot line. So their request to remove at least those two trees would have been fine, but they had to sell the UFA on why the other 3 should be removed.

Ranjit Singh told me that their office met with Metro Properties and the Allegro folks several times and they sold them on the removal of the other trees based on a few things that they pledged to do.

Metro demonstrated that they would have to completely remove the sidewalk to facilitate the upgrades to the site.
They proposed plans for 6 replacement trees, (3-inch saplings, according to Singh)
and improvements to the soil by installing something called "structural soil" which increases soil density,
And some sort of underground barriers that will give the roots room to spread out
All of which will make future tree growth more stable and successful.

When I inquired about the size of the 6 replacement trees and what we could expect there, he almost laughed when I asked if these trees were going to be large in size or in any way comparable to the Oak trees.

I also asked him if it wasn't preferrable to do absolutely whatever was necessary to preserve the trees in good shape at the sidewalk edge, acknowledging that no improvements to the soil or new saplings can replace old-growth hardwoods. He said that it was, but just didn't seem feasible on this site. For what its worth, he seemed bummed out that the trees had to go. I suspect the UFA is a fairly unpopular place among developers — and they have a tough job trying to preserve the things that get in the way of a lot of development and "progress". I'll expand on it some other time, but from what I could learn from the UFA website at dc.gov, they do a lot to promote the benefits of a healthy tree canopy—from a health, aesthetic AND economic competitiveness perspective, which is certainly the way to talk to developers.

The sad truth is absolutely nothing can be done to replicate what was there anytime soon and get these beautiful trees back in the ground—shading the sidewalk, removing CO2, and producing oxygen once more.

So at the end of the day Metro Properties and the Allegro may have gotten their permit, and they may be investing money in new (very tiny) trees and improved soil and root space, but they have permanently scarred their section of the street in a neighborhood that they tout and claim to "love". Somehow I doubt their devotion to the neighborhood, except to the few who have purchased a condo.

And for the record, these are the same people who initially refused to put in any space for retail on the ground floor, irregardless of the massive neighborhood support for it. Metro Properties' Jeremy Rubenstein even went so far as to post a letter stating why it was a bad idea to have retail in the ground floor. Which was funny about 6 months later when they changed their stance completely and claimed it had nothing to do with citizen feedback and everything to do with "the market" which had apparently turned overnight.

I tried to contact the Metro people through the Allegro website, leaving them a message about how dismayed I was, trying to find out why, and then telling them that when we do finally decide to buy a place in this neighborhood, we'll be sure to steer clear of the Allegro.

I got a form email back telling me "Thank you for your interest in Allegro." Gee, thanks for that. Consider this to be my middle finger raised high as I say, "we salute you, Allegro and Metro Properties".

----

I'll post more information as I get it. Let me know through the comments if you hear anything else about it. Also, if any of you have pictures of what this sidewalk used to look like, I'd love to see 'em or link to them. I've got some somewhere, but it'll take some digging to find them. And if someone from Metro Properties stumbles across this, feel free to clear up the situation for us if all is not as it appears. I'd love to hear it. And I'd certainly love to hear the amazing benefits of 3-inch saplings (according to Singh) compared with 18-inch Scarlet Oaks.

Here are the rest of the pictures from this morning. (Try to hold back the tears, coworkers might look at you funny.) I'd say this first one about sums it all up, don't ya think?

2007-01-30T08:26:00.000-08:00

Well said, Mr. PC person...

"The biggest reason for me is the new interface. It looks so much better than Windows XP," he said. "Apple computers have had nice graphical interfaces for some time. But it's the first time Windows has even approached that level."

Say Cheese

2007-01-29T07:22:00.000-08:00

I knew I should watch the mail for the next few weeks. Back in December, The Bride and I were driving somewhere. I think we were going to church on a Sunday that I had to play guitar, which is why we were driving and not metroing it. We were talking about something as I cruised down 14th Street towards U Street. Basically due to my inattention, I looked up at the light just a little too late and decided to not slam on the brakes when I saw that it was yellow, and coasted right through the intersection after it turned red. I knew as soon as I did it that it was one of the intersections monitored by the MPD with a traffic camera.

So I told the Bride, "I think I just got a ticket."

Sure enough, back at the first of the month, I got a ticket in the mail with a series of three pictures of me running the light. The files are large enough that they can blow up and enhance your license plate to ID your vehicle.

That's me, all the way over to the right.

"Won't happen again, officer."

I'm signing up today

2007-01-18T07:01:00.000-08:00

The Bride and I haven't signed up for Flexcar or Zipcar, partially because with one car, we really just haven't had to yet. There is always the trouble that she can't drive our car, since it's a five-speed, but I can take her where she needs to go generally. But after seeing that Flexcar is waiving the membership fee in DC until the end of the month, I think we'll go ahead and do it.

I think there's a larger lesson to be learned from this quote in the WBJ about why car-sharing works as well as it does in the city:

As for people returning cars late, messy or with gas tanks on "E", Schneider says it's not an issue. "This is not car rental," he says. "It's a shared neighborhood asset." Flexcar hopes to promote good behavior by positive reinforcement, such as crediting members' accounts when they gas up at the end of their trips.

I think there's a key to civics in there somewhere — when you give everyone a little bit of ownership, and they begin to sense that a commodity is an asset that belongs to them, they take care of it. Sort of like the difference between cleanliness of blocks where the houses are full of renters, and another one full of owners.

If we end up buying an apartment in the next year or so, we're definitely considering getting rid of the truck and putting the money towards a house and doing zipcar or flexcar fulltime, providing we live near where one is parked. Imagine that, no more car! We've been thinking about it, and the success of car-sharing in DC is the only way we'd be able to do it.

With the Examiner mention of Flexcar, I also saw this letter from a Metro user who is complaining about not being able to track usage on your SmartTrip card. Right now, you either have to go to headquarters at Judiciary Square or to Metro Center to get a printout of your usage.

"I liked the paper fare cards because you can see after each trip the amount remaining and can do quick math to understand what amount was deducted. With this SmarTrip card I have no record of transactions. Many times I have gone through the faregate and gotten messages such as “see attendant” or other various messages. On one occasion when I went to the attendant, he took the card and swiped it on a computer. I was told to re-enter and then leave again. It would not let me leave again! I asked to see for myself what records are on the card and was told only someone in some office in Virginia has that information. I can’t help but be suspicious that I have been erroneously charged. Since these cards are registered at WMATA why can’t someone go to WMATA’s website and look up the transactions online or even get a paper print out at any station. I believe, it would improve customer service to have this information available.

Metro still has a long way to go to streamline a few features with SmartTrip, especially if they want everyone to use it — or begin charging people who use paper fare cards more.

Yeah, so that it's right now. Boring stuff, I know.

Just a little memory

2006-12-21T13:55:00.000-08:00

I was looking at some old pictures and feeling sentimental of the time when I used to be able to go fly-fishing for trout within 50 minutes of leaving my house in Arkansas. A beautiful, foggy, summer morning on the White River...Mike, Jared, Chris, Michael, here's to you guys!

Jeremy Enigk in D.C.

2006-12-18T10:18:00.001-08:00

Jeremy Enigk 1, originally uploaded by whiteknuckled.

I have to remind myself to check venue listings each week to make sure I'm not missing a show that I should be seeing here in D.C. After two years spent living in Arkansas in a town so far off the live music radar map — unless you like crappy college-town cover bands or amateur bluegrass — I forget that nearly all the bands I like will make stops here in D.C., whether at the Verizon Center or at a tiny club on H Street.

Like where I saw Jeremy Enigk just two weeks ago. Just three months after playing D.C. (I missed it because I was still in "Arkansas mode" and didn't hear about it), Jeremy Enigk came back to support his newly-released solo album, World Waits.

The Rock and Roll Hotel is one of a handful of venues in the very happening H Street NE area that some call the Atlas District, though I'm not sure how all the locals feel about that. I should ask Elise from Frozen Tropics about that. Anyway, very cool place, first time I had beeen there. Reminded me of a bunch of the kinds of venues I hung out in high school going to various hardcore and punk rock shows. Except very clean and well-managed.

I went with my friend Taylor and it was a good show all around. Not only did he not play a single Sunny Day Real Estate song (not all that surprising), he didn't play a single Fire Theft song either, which was kind of suprising and a little bit disappointing, though all of his solo stuff is great.

We saw Copeland (from Atlanta) just a few days later, and I just found out that Explosions in the Sky are coming in March for $10! Sick of it All and Hatebreed are playing around Christmas, but we will be in Atlanta and it's $25 anyway.

Actual decent live music. One of the perks of being back in the city. Ahhhhh.....

And then you see it....

2006-12-16T21:49:00.000-08:00

While watching the Return of the King tonight, I decided that this scene was perhaps my favorite in the whole trilogy. (Non-LOTR fans, bear with me). During the siege on Minas Tirith, Gandalf and Pippin are barricaded behind a door, and Pippin is coming to grips with the end of the journey and his own mortality. They have this poignant exchange — even more poignant once you've seen the movie before and you realize that the melancholy strains of the "Grey Havens" music and "Into The West" replace the sounds of battle as they talk:

----

Pippin: I didn't think it would end this way.

Gandalf: End? No, the journey doesn't end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take.

The grey rain curtain of this world rolls back and all turns to silver clouds...And then you see it...

Pippin: What...Gandalf? See what?

Gandalf: White shores, and beyond. A far green country... under a swift sunrise.

Pippin: Well, that isn't so bad.

Gandalf: No, No it isn't

----

I didn't remember this description being attributed to Gandalf in the books, so I had to dig to figure out where it actually came from. As I suspected, it's Tolkien's words, but its a line from elsewhere in the book. In the first book, Frodo has a dream of the Grey Havens, Valinor, and the Undying Lands while staying with Tom Bombadil.

And when he reaches Valinor at the end of Return of the King, Tolkien describes it just like Frodo's dream of years before, "a far green country, under a swift sunrise."

This was one of my favorite things about the way that Peter Jackson and Co. wrote the screenplay, lifting lines from one character that might never have made it in the movie, and giving them to someone else to keep them in the story. And in the midst of the mighty battle for the city, Gandalf paints a picture of eternity for Pippin, using Frodo's description from the book.

This scene always makes me feel the same way I do when watching the end of the movie, as Frodo, Gandalf and Bilbo sail with the elves from the Grey Havens to Valinor, taking "the straight way" to the Undying Lands: haunted and sad as I think of them leaving — yet hopeful of the day when things will be as they should be.

Just like Sam says to Gandalf after he and Frodo are saved from the foot of Mount Doom, "I thought you were dead...I thought I was dead. Is everything sad going to come untrue?"

Yes, indeed. Merry Christmas.

painting by Tim Kirk

17th Street and Q Street NW

2006-12-14T09:05:00.001-08:00

17th Street and Q Street NW, originally uploaded by whiteknuckled.

Just thought I'd share a photo of one of my most favorite buildings in D.C. I see this one every day as the early morning sun hits the front corner of the building as I bike down 17th Street to work each day. Every day I wish I had my camera, today I finally did. I enjoy Dupont Circle and all, but I absolutely love the Dupont neighborhood that lies east of the circle along 18th, 17th, and 16th streets between Massachussetts on the south and U street on the north.

Today, I noticed that there is a "building for sale" sign on the upper west face of the building, but I can't tell if it's the whole corner building that's for sale, or just part of it. Either way, I can't even begin to imagine how expensive this beautiful corner house would be, considering the fact that it's three floors and at least 4000 square feet, if not much more. I'd like to find out some history about it. Anyone know anything?

Oh, and yes, I'm hopefully back on this. I had been working myself silly for a good reason since we moved here, and hadn't had time to pay much attention to this. I believe my hard work has paid off, but I'll talk about that later.

Air Force Memorial

2006-10-15T18:21:00.000-07:00

AirForce4.jpg, originally uploaded by whiteknuckled.

We went to the Air Force Memorial dedication ceremony on Saturday, which was quite cool. After flyovers by many different Air Force aircraft representing the 60 years of AF history, the Thunderbirds did a low-altitude flyover, followed by a performance of the Bomb Burst, the aerial that inspired the design of the memorial. Check out the few photos I took on my flickr site that I've been known to update one or two times a month.

Photo of the Week: September 20, 2006

2006-09-21T19:26:00.000-07:00

From the most beautiful Metro entrance in the city — Dupont Circle. Although exiting Judiciary Square and seeing the wonderful National Building Museum as soon as you hit the bottom of the escalator might be a close 2nd. Any other views I'm not aware of? There's plenty of stops I've never been to...

Adams Morgan Day Photos

2006-09-18T20:14:00.000-07:00

It's been a week, but I've got just a couple photos from the Adams Morgan Day festival. We didn't go over there until around 4:30 or so, and there were tons of people around. The bands at either end were great, and you can see the one young hiptser gettin' down to the beat. Lots of fun. Can't wait to have something like it in Columbia Heights, though we're a long way from having anything quite that cool.

Unconvenient Convention Center

2006-09-14T18:20:00.000-07:00

I was at the shiny new Washington Convention Center last Friday for one of the forums during the Congressional Black Caucus' legislative forum. I had written a speech that I needed to be there to hear. I brought my laptop along to try and get some work done since the forum was going to eat up half of a day when I had some other stuff to do before I could start the weekend.

So I opened up my laptop, figuring there would certainly be a wireless network I could use.

I open up a Safari window and I see this great message:

So our fair convention center doeesn't have any free wireless networks for the thousands of people using it everyday, many from all over the country (or the world). And not only do you have to pay for it, but it's ridiculously expensive. The cheapest you can get a day of usage is $24.95? Are you kiddin' me? And if you need more bandwidth, it's 50 bucks?

What a colossal mistake by the Convention authority. "Welcome to DC. Please empty your pockets (for what is free in other cities.) And enjoy your stay.

Way to go.

Yamomanem

2006-09-11T20:55:00.000-07:00

Just a few weeks ago, during our staff retreat, a few of us went out afterwards in Adams Morgan. I ended up getting David to go with me over to Wonderland, since he hadn't been there before. Just as we were getting ready to leave, we went inside to settle up, and heard a band playing upstairs. Turns out it was a New Orleans brass band cranking it out upstairs. David had spent lots of time in New Orleans lately, so we went up to check it out. I'm glad we did.

[band name spelling fixed!] Yamomanem (like, Yo mom and them) were playing some fantastic New Orleans jazz. So we stayed, hung out, took some photos, joined in on the tambourine and cowbell, and generally had a rollickin' good time.

I had been waiting to post these photos, because I had written down the names of all the members, but after coming back, the Bride managed to accidentally misplace the random receipt that i had scrawled it all down on in the dark. (I mean, how could she NOT know that little piece of trash lying on the bookshelf had important information on it, right? Doesn't everyone write down important information on receipts?

Anyway, so here are a few photos of Yamomanem. If you happen to hear of them playing nearby sometime, be sure to stop by, check 'em out, and fill up the tip jar. If any of the band members happen to stumble on this, help me save face and leave your name and instrument in the comments!

Bandleader and sousaphonist Monty Montgomery is at right.

Fairfax misses a chance. Again.

2006-09-07T06:44:00.000-07:00

It's official. No tunnel for Metro through Tysons.

I should start off by saying that it's not all Fairfax County's fault. Many of their current leaders have learned from their past mistakes with Metro and development, and were ready to do the right thing this go round. And I hate to slam Gov. Kaine for this one, because I think it's not totally his fault, although I would have liked to see him stand up to Tom Davis and tell him there's no way they're going to pull the federal funding. I think the blame for this shouldn't fall totally on Kaine in this regard. Part of it should definitely go to Tom Davis who made it clear that he never was willing to do whatever was neccessary to do transit "right" in Tysons.

You're talking about a place that is one of the largest employment centers in the entire country. There's 1/3 as much office space in Tysons as there is in the entire District! I have a hard time believing that if Gov. Kaine stood up for the tunnel, that he wouldn't have won that game of chicken.

The ironic thing about this latest failed opportunity to do transit to Dulles and Tysons right, is that many of the Fairfax supervisors and planners had learned from the past legacy of awful transit planning in Fairfax and were pushing for the tunnel because they knew how much of a difference it would make.

In the past, comparing Fairfax to Arlington or parts of Montgomery county (Bethesda) is a case study in harnessing the power of transit to channel growth and successful economic development with well-planned transit. In the book I just read, The Great Society Subway, Zachary Schrag has a chapter that uses Fairfax as an illustration of Metro done poorly in the suburbs.

I think a lot of today's Fairfax leaders remember these lessons. It's evident in this quote from the Post story:

"This will prove to be the wrong decision for the wrong reasons," said Fairfax Supervisor T. Dana Kauffman (D-Lee), who is also on the Metro board. "Ten years from now, I regret my son may pick up a planning text where Fairfax's long-awaited rail extension is highlighted as a failed attempt at service and economic development. It can't only be about the here and now."

What's the point of doing something halfway, even if it is cheaper? These lines are expected to be there for 100 years or more, and there's no sense in thinking only about getting it done as cheaply as possible if it sacrifices potential to make a great place.

I'd like to see more comments like the one I read in The Great Society Subway from Cleatus Barnett, a Montgomery County representative: "We were building these lines for eternity. You're not going to pick them up and move them if you put them in the wrong place. They are there forever. And don't tell me anything about the cost. If it costs more, it costs more, but that's what we're going to do."

So, while perhaps a majority of Fairfax leaders saw the wisdom of finally doing transit "right", karma can be a b---h. They had no less than three opportunities to take the Vienna line to Tysons instead back in the 60's and 70's. Instead, they put it out to Vienna, placed it in the middle of the interstate, and allowed next to no dense transit-oriented development around the stations.

And meanwhile, Rosslyn and Ballston are great places, friendly to cars AND people, while the area around the Vienna stop, is a magnificent, uh.....parking lot.

It's a shame that Fairfax learned their lesson just a bit too late, especially because all of us will have to deal with the consequences for years and years.

Tysons is a miserable place now, but now they've ensured that their future will be filled with years of miserable traffic, un-walkable streets, lack of distinctive character, and the unmistakable geography of no-place.

Tysons' best opportunity to position themselves to survive when gas is no longer cheap and people are tired of living entirely in a car just passsed them by. And it will continue to pass them by each day on the expensive elevated tracks running right through the middle of Chain Bridge Road and Leesburg Pike.

Don't call it a book report

2006-08-29T06:52:00.001-07:00

So, I've been reading this book for the last week, The Great Society Subway, which is all about the history of the Metro and WMATA here in the DC region. I think I first heard about it on Rebuilding Place back when it came out. (Actually, in this post)

Shortly after we moved to DC, I saw it in a bookstore in Union Station and picked it up. It had the backstory of how certain stations got their named change, or how Georgetown got left out of the system. Needless to say, it definitely piqued my interest, so once we got our library cards, I put it on reserve from the library.

I had to go pick it up at the MLK Central Library, which is an entire story in and of itself. I'd never been there before. Reminds me of a joke on Weekend Update, when Norm McDonald points out that Kenny G has a new Christmas album out. "So, uh, happy birthday Jesus, we hope you like CRAP!" In the case of the library, Mies van der Rohe is Kenny G, and Dr. King is Jesus. "Here's your library, Dr. King! I spent 5 minutes designing this black shoebox. Hope you like crap!"

I think I'm going to talk about different stuff from the book for the next few weeks, but I'll say that the writer of the book totally doesn't back up his thesis, which is that the Metro system was a product of the Great Society liberalism. It's not a bad idea, he just makes the statement in the front of the book that the Great Society thinking helped bring Metro around, and then he forgets that he has to defend that idea throughout the book.

It's a great book, full of fantastic quotes and deeply-researched information about the process that resulted in the 103-mile subway system of today.

But it's also a book that completely fails to defend his hypothesis. As best as I can tell, the subway was built by a government that alternated between wanting to build the subway and wanting to pave over the district with interstates, with no clear reason why other than to get the people back from the suburbs. Only by the intervention of key leaders, and massive citizen involvement, including the district leadership, did the subway get built. And even then, the process took 30 years because of obstinate federal government members.

That's a far cry from being a grand result of the "Great Society." There may have been a thought of the Great Society under Kennedy or Johnson at one point, but ultimately Metro became its own monster, completely free of any grand ideas like the Great Society.

It's amazing how much of the material is relevant today. I read a chapter last night talking about the difference between the approaches of two suburbs to Metro: Rosslyn-Ballston corridor in Arlington, and Fairfax County. One went from an auto-centric stripped-out highway to a dense transit-oriented community, and one stuck Metro in the interstate median, downzoned around the stations, paid no attention to where the line needed to go, and ended up with money wasted on Metro instead of using it to transform their communities. And it's really ironic hearing how the Fairfax leaders totally missed the boat on sending Metro to Tysons Corner. They even had 2 or 3 opportunities to re-study it, and failed miserably on directing Metro to where it needed to go.

And now, they're trying to figure out how to pay for putting Metro out to Tysons, which is where it should have been in the first place instead of Vienna.

Interesting fact: planners in Fairfax concluded that there was space for up to 950,000 sf of office/retail/residential development around the Vienna station, gradually tapering down to the surrounding single-family homes and blending in (much like Arlington). Instead, the Fairfax Board of Supervisors zoned the surrounding area for absolutely zero. Brilliant.

There's a qreat quote from Anne Watkins, a longtime Fairfax supervisor. "Fairfax has never had a transportation plan, because it takes political fortitude to adopt a transportation plan."

Contrast that with comments from Cleatus Barnett, a Montgomery County representative: "We were building these lines for eternity. You're not going to pick them up and move them if you put them in the wrong place. They are there forever. And don't tell me anything about the cost. If it costs more, it costs more, but that's what we're going to do."

I think rail to Tysons is a good idea; it's just shame that they didn't do it earlier when there was a much greater chance to use rail to alter the development patterns. Rail won't turn Tysons into Arlington, but it will lay the framework to make redevelopment possible that is friendly to pedestrians and not auto-dependent.

Too good to pass up

2006-08-24T12:54:00.000-07:00

Who wants to buy one? Act now, before interest rates go up again.

Life around town

2006-08-22T14:51:00.000-07:00

I think things have settled down enough so I can get back to this thing... I'm actually much more busy at work now; so I can't blog while on the job anymore. And now that I spend my entire day at a desk looking at a computer, I'm much less inclined to spend the evening looking at one.

Our Sunday evenings in a nutshell. Down the escalator at 14th and Irving:

Columbia Heights station. Did you know that the Washington Monument would fit laid down inside every vaulted Metro station in DC?

So we found a church that we love already. We made the mistake of singing loudly behind the pastor's wife a few weeks ago, and one week later, we were singing and playing in the worship service. So much for flying under the radar. GraceDC just moved to Calvary Baptist Church in Chinatown, which is this fantastic looking building:

We also went to see the Braves against the Nats last Tuedsay, which turned out to be about the worst game we could have possibly gone to. Pedro Astacio had a no-hititer going through 4.2 and the game was over in just a shade over two hours. Considering we got there about 40 minutes late, we missed like 4 innings. Most baseball games, if you're 40 minutes late, you might have missed the first inning. Not so in this case.

Go to a Nats game, and you've got your pick of seats:

Around the House

2006-08-14T17:58:00.001-07:00

So I've started uploading some videos to YouTube in the past few days; to let you folks living far away see what things are like here in the District. I've posted some videos of the inside of our house, but unfortunately those are viewable only by my family or friends. So if you think you fit in either one of those categories, then send me an email and I'll add you to the list. If you don't have a YouTube account, just sign up for one (it's totally free, and you don't have to upload any videos) and you can see our house.

Figured it was a good idea to keep random strangers from seeing the inside of our house and all.

This one.....is free. (and boring)

Yesterday

2006-08-13T08:37:00.000-07:00

So as you can probably guess from the last post, we went to the zoo again yesterday morning. The last time we went there, a) it was hot as blazes, and b) we only got around to half of the zoo before we melted into the pavement. And apparently, the giant pandas are the biggest attraction at the zoo.

Tai Xian, the baby panda, was born a year or two ago, and is in such high demand during the spring and early summer that you have to reserve an appointment to see Tai Xian. The really busy season is over now, and you can show up and see the pandas whenever. Except that they mostly just stay in their little cave and sleep once it gets warm. So we went early in hopes of actually seeing the panda this time. Fortunately, we're only a 5-minute bike ride from the zoo.

We beat the rush and got to see the panda father. It was humorous watching all the parents with kids looking uncomfortable when he turned his back to the crowd and started scratching his butt on the limb.

So the mother and Tai Xian were both sleeping the whole time we were there, but that didn't keep 100's of people from crowding into the tiny viewing area in hopes of a shot.

The weather for the last week has been fantastic. It's hot in the sun, but it's not humid, and as soon as you step into the shade, it's really cool. I think the lows were in the low 60's or high 50's last night. Reminds me of the weather for the first couple of Georgia football games in the fall: cool when you're tailgating in the shade in the morning, but still feels like 95+ in the sun when the game starts.

Makes us both itch for fall to come soon.

Congrats to Carter and Stacey on a successful move. Enjoy the cable, free babysitting, good food, and personal exercise room. And just know that your exercise room is probably the same square footage as our apartlette.

Hey, Lime Green is my Favorite Color Too!

2006-08-12T21:03:00.000-07:00

We saw this guy hanging out on a the upper platform over the giant pandas at the national zoo this morning. I stood right in front of him and took two pictures of him without him noticing. What a sweet outfit!

Back in Business

2006-08-06T11:16:00.000-07:00

My morning routine has changed a bit.

My commute is just a little bit longer (about 10 minutes). I'm sure that no matter where I moved, there's no way it could have gotten any shorter, since Rachel and I both had 30- or 45-second commutes most mornings in Bentonville, depending on whether or not we had to wait for one car or two cars before we could turn left into the newspaper parking lot.

I wouldn't trade my 10 minutes for the 30 seconds again. No way.

I spend the first 10 minutes of the day on the seat of my bike, weaving in and out of traffic going 25 mph straight down 16th Street, all the way to work.

Here's what I see all the way to work now: The Washington Monument poking up just behind the visible front of the White House. That's right, we just live about 2.5 miles directly north of Dubya. We're actually a little offended; because he and Laura haven't invited us over to dinner yet. The saving grace for the 100 degree mornings on the bike has been the fact that it's basically straight downhill all the way there.

Which makes for a sweaty ride home in the afternoon, riding all the way back up to our home in the 'Heights.

I still have a hard time getting used to the massive number of bikes on the road everywhere I go here in DC. I probably pass 50 or 60 people on bikes every morning. Yesterday, we were in Adams Morgan, and we saw a herd of 100-150 bikes cruise through on 18th Street. Reminded me of those "Critical Mass" bike events in Athens, when all the bikers would get together en masse to make a show of force. Of course, that was in a city where the government was slow to realize the need of making complete streets in the city that are suitable for bikes, cars, and pedestrians.

Anyway, there are bike lanes everywhere in the city, and drivers seem to know to look out for them/us on a regular basis. There's tons of places to lock up your bike on city sidewalks, and my building has a secured bike rack just inside the back that's monitored by camera.

I'm pretty sure that I can get to work faster in the morning via bike than bus or even driving. Takes about 10 minutes or so.

The only problem is that the hotter it gets, the sweatier I am when I get to work. Which is why its nice that I discovered a shower in the building....

Hopefully it's not monitored by camera as well.

Farewell After All

2006-07-25T19:14:00.000-07:00

Ok

This has been a long time in coming, but with the busyness of finishing work in Bentonville, packing up all our belongings, giving away half of them, and moving halfway across the country, I sort of neglected the blog there for a bit. Consider this my big fat farewell to the White Knuckled Wanderer blogging about NWA issues all the time.

Nearly three months ago, I took a giant leap and sent an application to Smart Growth America, one of the organizations that I've had under my links for quite sometime now. After a fairly drawn-out interview process, and much hand-wringing and waiting, I got the job, and we made plans to move. Maybe I'll tell some of the moving stories soon enough, but this isn't the time.

I lived in downtown Bentonville for more than two years, and really grew to love the place. I started fishing again (all the time), learned how to fly-fish, and was never more than just an hour or two away from great camping, hiking or floating. This was the first home for Rachel (gasp, real name) and I, and no place could have been more perfect. I had a fantastic job at the Benton County Daily Record that afforded me the opportunity to meet so many people and learn more about the area in two years than most people can learn in 20. And it's scary to say, that reading and blogging about these issues here in Bentonville is part of what helped me get this job.

I want to especially thank Matt, Greg and Andy, Rita, Techography, Don Elkins, and any other NWA bloggers that I'm forgetting about for all of the continual great banter and links back and forth. It's a bit discouraging to know that in DC I'm going to just be one tiny fish in a huge pond. Thanks to all of you guys for making the NWA blogosphere so much fun.

So if you want to stick around here, feel free. It won't be the same ol' White Knuckled Wanderer, but if nothing else, you'll be able to find some good pictures of DC on here.

I had my first day of work today at Smart Growth America, and I can say that moving and changing careers was definitely the right thing to do. Wish me luck as I abandon the skill set that has earned my paycheck for the last 3 years and I move on to something entirely different. A month ago, my day might have consisted of hunting for pictures in the park, photographing murderers outside the courthouse, covering a city meeting, and standing on the sidelines of a football game.

Tomorrow, my morning will be filled with scouring newspapers and blogs for smart growth-related stories, as well as reading papers on Kelo v. New London, eminent domain, and Oregon's Measure 37. Actually, I used to do that at work all the time. Except now, I won't to hide the fact that I'm doing it.

Thanks, and goodnight.

Three Things

2006-06-25T08:15:00.000-07:00

1) I went to the Art Walk last Monday, which was fantastic AGAIN. Lots of great art in different stores (or vendor offices) downtown, and Brenda Compton with Main Street said there were much more people at this one for sure, although I'm not sure how she counted them. I had the vision of her walking around with a clicker in her hand and counting people manually. I snapped some photos and I'll share 'em and tell a few stories about the Art Walk shortly.

2) I went to the Bentonville General Planning meeting on Tuesday, which was.....frustrating. Don't get me wrong, the meeting was fantastic, but mostly the meeting consisted of taking a giant map of the city, and placing down tiles that represent the future growth in businesses and residents on the map where you'd like the city to grow. I was at a table with the most clueless planning commissioner, and an older couple. The planning commissioner would probably rather have let the developers come in and put the tiles where THEY want them, since "it's really all about what the market wants", and the older guy just sat at the table with his arms crossed, leaving me and his wife to stick 4,000 tiles on the map.

Both of these items are going to be entire posts of their own, so I'll spare you from the time being. The General Plan meeting was great, I just wish I could have been at another table.

I did make an announcement to everyone the Bride and I knows in the planning office and the Mayor, which leads us to #3

3) We're moving.

I've taken a job in Washington, DC, that's going to give me the opportunity to participate in the conversation about planning and growth and city revitalization. I may start blogging with my real name once I get there, depending on what they think about me doing that. So stay tuned.

I'm going to keep at this for sure, but I guess I won't be an "Arkie" writing about Bentonville and NWA on a regular basis. You can be sure that I'll still be reading the paper and keeping my ear to the ground, staying informed on what's happening, but this blog with likely change a little bit in the next few months.

I'm going to DC next week to find a place to live. We've turned in our notice at work, and we're having a big going-away party this Friday. We'll likely be out of here by the second or third week in July, provided I can find a rentable closet in our price range next week.

I'll write a big farewell in the next few weeks, and say goodbye to everyone, as well as this city that I've grown to love. So stay tuned.

Until then....

Bentonville General Plan

2006-06-20T10:59:00.000-07:00

It's late notice, but I wanted to remind all of you Bentonville residents about the next meetings in the General Planning Process today at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. at First Presbyterian Church on NE J Street. I meant to write about this sooner, but it sort of fell by the wayside in the midst of other business, the World Cup included.

These meetings mark the point where the process starts to become more fun. Everyone who shows up (at either session) will be asked to gather around several tables with maps of the city on them, and mark out with colored squares where they think future development should happen, and what that should look like.

Anyway, in case you missed it you can read about in a weekend Daily Record story:

"BENTONVILLE — On Tuesday, residents will color-code a map — and determine the future of Bentonville.

In a hands-on public workshop, Bentonville residents are invited to give their opinion on the General Plan, a far-reaching land-use document being updated this year.

Public input is crucial to the process. "This is really an opportunity for citizens to become involved in the future of the community that they live in," said Planning Services Manager Shelli Rushing. "If people are concerned about what’s going to happen in the future for this community, this is the chance...."

The General Plan is a comprehensive document that meshes ihttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifssues such as zoning, land use, transporta- tion and parks. It will provide a list of prioritized goals, and consider details like aesthetics, design guidelines and pedestrian walkability. Normally updated every five years, this General Plan will extend to 2030."

There will be two sessions today, the first at 3 p.m., and the second at 7 p.m. Planners are allowing for around two hours at each session, though they anticipate that they won't take nearly that long. (Map to church here)

So here is your chance, citizens of Bentonville. Here's your chance to throw your two cents into the discussion on the future of this city that we all call home. Do you want to turn into Springdale by 2030, or do you prefer the tree-lined mixed-use streets of downtown Fayetteville?

Tired of traffic and strip malls fronting every major thoroughfare? Be sure to come tonight and voice your opinion. It doesn't have to be that way. But nothing will ever change unless citizens make their opinions known.

(You can also be sure to tell everyone that you'd LOVE to have a planning commission that won't promptly disregard our hard work and ignore the General Plan, just like they have with the last one, but that's another post for another day....)

In case you want to read about what these meetings might be like, albeit on a much larger scale, check out this story in the Baltimore Sun. Maryland is undergoing a similar process for the whole state, with meetings all over the region for citizens:

"If you think the Baltimore-Washington area is too crowded, just where would you put an additional 1.2 million people if you had to?

That was the challenge taken up yesterday by 250 planners, developers, community activists and elected officials from throughout Central Maryland.

United by little more than a belief that the region cannot afford to keep growing the way it has been, people frequently at odds over development plans hunched over tables in the Baltimore Convention Center and played a good-natured planning game with a serious intent.

Stacking colored Legos like poker chips on a giant map of the region, they pondered and debated where to put the increased population projected for the next 25 years, inside or outside the beltways girdling Baltimore and Washington, or along major highway and rail corridors. Plastic toy blocks of different colors represented housing and jobs....

In a tacit recognition of the public's concern, Baltimore Mayor Martin O'Malley and Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, who are vying for the Democratic nomination for governor this year, showed up to welcome the crowd and to promote their records as advocates for sensible growth.

"We need to do thinking outside the box," Duncan told the group. "The jobs are coming; the people are coming. Where are we going to put them all?"

O'Malley, who followed Duncan to the podium, acknowledged the concerns of suburban residents about traffic congestion and overcrowded schools. He urged participants to put their job and housing Legos on the map inside Baltimore, saying the city is pushing redevelopment in a bid to rebuild its population. "We welcome it," he said.

In interviews, Duncan and O'Malley criticized the growth-management policies of Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., saying he has cut funds for preserving land from development while not doing enough to promote transit or redevelopment.

"We need to get back to Smart Growth policies in the state," Duncan said, referring to the pioneering sprawl-fighting laws adopted a decade ago under Democratic Gov. Parris N. Glendening..."

See you tonight.

read more: bentonville, general plan, development, growth

Live-Blogging: World Cup 061706

2006-06-17T09:13:00.000-07:00

(ps, i'm reversing the order. Read from the bottom if you haven't been following along...)

3:50 p.m. Well, it's a tie, without managing to score a goal of our own. Keller had a good save in the last minute of stoppage time. Really an unbelievable game. Playing with 9 men for an entire half, making only two subs is quite a feat.

I can't WAIT to hear what the players and coaches have to say about this TERRIBLE, TERRIBLE referree.

I wish I could understand how embarassing a tie with the Americans must be for the entire nation of Italy. It's quite gratifying really.

One of the worst officiated games I've ever seen is finished, and we've escaped with a tie, although we had plenty of chances to make it a 2-1 victory (for that matter, so did Italy). So now we need a BIG Italy win over the Czechs on Thursday, and a win over Ghana of our own. Italy will have something to play for, because a win will give them first place in the group. I'm sure they don't want to finish second and play Brazil in the next round game.

3:47 p.m. The US is withstanding shot after shot. They've gotta quit giving up that space in the center right outside the box. I can deal with the crosses from the edges, but I can't deal with the Italians carrying the ball in the center of the field, chipping and passing the ball into space behind the defense.

Balboa is also wondering where Eddie Johnson is right now. The only thing I can think of is that he likes McBride better on defense and in the air. Playing for the tie right now.

3:38 p.m. Great move by Cherundolo to get into the corner, fires a great cross to the back post, and aerial talent Brian McBride just can't' get quite free enough to put it back on goal, rolling out behind the far post. Great chance. The US is controlling the outside of the field well and getting some fantastic chances from the play of Donovan, Beasley and especially Reyna.

The US has to be thinking counter right now. The middle of the field is wide open on the counter, giving speedsters like Beasley and Donovan chances to fly with the ball.

I wonder how long it's going to be before we see Eddie Johnson up top for McBride. We need freshness and speed. Could see it here in a minute or two.

3:30 p.m. Fantastic save by Keller. He's had several great ones in this game. It would be a shame if he didn't perform as well as he can.

Dempsey has since been subbed for by Beasley. Dempsey definitely provided a lift, running forward hard on the wing, opening up space and keeping Reyna and Mastroeni in the middle of the field. Good move by Arena. Dempsey had several chances and played well.

3:24 p.m. I'm trying to figure out if this ref experienced some sort of childhood trauma with the color yellow. He's just given another yellow card for a simple foul. I'm pretty sure his father beat him with a yellow belt or something while growing up in the mountains of Uruguay.

3:21 p.m. Great effort by Reyna, Donovan, and McBride to result in a great counter chance. Donovan is looking good in open space heading towards the goal.

I had to eat some lunch, which ran over into the first few minutes of the second half, where we saw Eddie Pope get a mystery red card and get sent off. US 9 men, Italy 10. Attention referees: Have you had enough face time on TV today? Are you satisfied with the fact that you are now the story rather than this fantastic game?

Meanwhile, Italy has been offsides more times than Britney Spears said "like" in her interview with Matt Lauer. One play in the first half, they managed to have four guys offsides on one play. Even the fans are getting on the refs on both sides. This Uruguyan ref is screwing everyone. If he's reffing the final, lookout.

Beasley goal disallowed because McBride was offside and screening the keeper. He easily could have held back. It's a darn shame. I wonder if my neighbors heard me screaming when Beasley scored?

2:48 p.m. Unbelievable.

Pablo Mastroeni gets sent off for a tough tackle on an Italian fellow. This hurts our midfield and our defense as well. Look for holes in the middle of the field for the Italians now. Everyone back at 10 men. Marcelo Balboa seems to think that this was a makeup call; looked like a pretty vicious tackle to me. Went in with the cleats on the players' ankles.

Coach Arena is not f@#$%$ing pleased.

2:34 p.m.Mastroeni just cranked a 40 yard shot that bounced off the top net. Maybe he lost some of his power when he cut his hair off like Samson.

Moments later, Donovan makes a great pass off to Reyna, who has his shot deflected. Great creativity and great pressure on the Italians. Donovan's playing where he needs to be today, facing up to the goal and with opportunities to attack and create. Good stuff.

2:27 p.m.Live-blogging back on! Woo hoo!!

Goal, US! Well, goal Italy scored in their own goal. Way to go Azzurri! A great cross all the way to the far post. Brian McBride is waiting to poke it into the net, but an Italian player decides to save him the trouble and just stick it in himself.

Moments later, Nesti swings a massive elbow into McBride's noggin, winning himself a much deserved red card. US 11 men, Italy 10. We've gotta find a way to stick the ball in the net now and get three points.

McBride back on the field. He needs to put on one of the schnozaroos made famous in the NBA. That would surely intimidate the mighty Azzurri warriors.

2:19 p.m.19 minutes in, and the US is looking great so far. Italy is totally losing the midfield battle. Every time the ball is loose in the midfield, it seems like there are 3 US players within a short distance of the ball. The US has had some quality chances so far, with Convey cranking a shot high over the goal, Demspey firing a shot wide, and Donovan falling on a great cross.

Speaking of Dempsey, for the record, I did pick Clint Dempsey as the US breakout star of this cup. He's a bit of a defensive liability, but he should provide quite a spark on the offensive end.

Goal. Italy. And my desire to live-blog is gone. I think Pope or Onyewu just decided to stop running with the Italian player and hold his hand up instead. Good decision.

12:23 p.m. The Czechs are finished. Muntari of Ghana just all day to settle a pass inside and fire a left-footed flamer into the high near post. The Czechs were so out of it on that play that it looked like a three-on-one, even though there were three Czech defenders and three Ghana attackers. Completely confused.

The only stinging thing about watching this is seeing the model of exactly what we needed to do to beat the Czechs. Come out with massive energy early, strike a early first goal, and play aggressively up top for the rest of the game, keeping the Czechs from settling into an offensive rhythm. Scoring first continues to be the most important decider of victory in the 2006 World Cup.

The US must score first against Italy to have a chance. There's no way the US can bounce back if they get in the hole. I hope they're watching this game.

btw, Gyan is the man of the match here. Forget about Essien, who plays for Chelsea in the EPL. Gyan has been everywhere, coming all the way back to the middle third to pick the ball up on counterstrikes, which really changed the rhythm of the game throughout.

12:23 Wow. Ghana wins a penalty kick on a tackle in the box. Gyan takes a card for shooting the PK after the whistle blew, even though there's no way he probably heard it. The whistle blew on a red card given to a Czech player. Gyan takes the yellow, which is a questionable call at best. Second attempt at the PK, and Gyan misses it, bouncing it hard off the crossbar. Ghana, still up only 1-0, though they'll be playing the last 23 minute with a man advantage. The red card was a little excessive for the Czech player. It's already going to be a PK because it's in the box. Do you really need to send him off?

I'd like to see the red card come to american football. Wouldn't that be great? Some defensive end late hits a quarterback up under the face mask, and his team has to play a man down on defense for the rest of the day. I think that might cut down on late hits.

Ghana is looking fantastic, controlling the midfield, challenging everything, continuing to put pressure on the Czechs. The Czechs, on the other hand, are showing absolutely no imagination on the offensive end, relying mostly on long crosses into the box. Their second passes in the area have been awful.

Cech just made another save on a great Ghana opportunity.

The Bride and I want to write our family that we support in Ghana about this game, but we're afraid they may not be able to see it since their village is quite poor. What do you think we should do?

11:02 I wasn't planning on writing anything about this game, but holy crap! Ghana just scored in the SECOND minute of play against the Czechs. It looked like no one on the Czech side even thought that was a possibility. Great control in the midfield, great ball to the wing, and a fantastic cross to a chest down by Gyan and quick volley into the lower right corner.

I'm not sure who I'm rooting for. I would rather just see the Czechs win the group and beat Ghana and Italy. That way, if we beat Italy, and the Czechs beat Italy, then we'll be able to finish second even with a tie against Ghana. To me, things get more confusing if Ghana wins today.

10:57 a.m. During the predictions before the start of the Ghana/Czech match, Alexi Lalas asks Chinaglia, who's buried more? Ghana, or the US? Chinaglia answers without hesitation: "the U.S."

10:47 a.m.Alexi Lalas, while making a point about Bruce Arena calling out his stars who didn't perform against the Czechs, asks Giorgio Chinaglia about World Cup 1974. Chinaglia, who failed to score in 1974, was supposedly one of the best scorers on that Italy team that managed to get eliminated in group play. Ouch. Point taken by grumpy old guy.

Why is he here? Other than for reasons of hilarity, I mean. Would you put your grumpy Uncle Frank on TV? It's kind of like that. All that aside, it's easy to see why MLS people hate Alexi Lalas after a delightful comment like that one. ha.

In ABC's World Cup Pre-Game studio, Giorgio Chinaglia just asserted that the US-Italy game will be 2-0, 3-0, something like that, because the US is incapable of playing defense. He also notes that the Azzurri has two central defenders, an unprecedented feat in soccer that will keep the US scoreless. Eric Wynalda was unimpressed, asking, "you don't think the US is capable of playing defense?" And Chinaglia says "no, of course not." There you have it.

10:36 a.m. It was about time they brought this guy back. Last go round, in 2002, ABC and ESPN routinely had the grumpy Giorgio Chinaglia in the studio with the lovable Tommy Smyth or Eric Wynalda. Chinaglia had all the broadcast presence of a bowling ball, albeit with some bonus grumpiness. He never smiles, thinks everyone else is stupid, and offers up such brilliant analyses like "yah, Brazil is the favorite to win the World Cup . . . . . . "

The Game of Our Lives

2006-06-16T21:24:00.000-07:00

Yes I'm still alive.

I'd like to give a great explanation as to my whereabouts for the last three weeks, but I'm going to have to stop short of giving away everything right now. I was on vacation in HIlton Head, SC with my family from the period known as June 3-10, A.S. (After Shareholders). And after that, I had some, uh, business to attend to out of town. Needless to say, there might be some large developments on the horizon for The Bride and I. Pins and needles all over the place, I'm sure.

AP photograph
The other thing I was tending to this week, was the mass watching of television during World Cup 2006. I shamelessly watched for large chunks of time at work, scheduled breaks and lunches to coincide with matches, managing to watch a ridiculous amount of soccer during times (the AM) when I should have been doing other things. I think I prefered the schedule during the 2002 Cup in Korea/Japan when I could just wake up at random times at night to watch crucial matches. There's nothing quite like waking up at 3 in the morning 25 minutes into the opening US-Portugal match to see the US already up two goals over the heavily-favored Luis Figos.

So tomorrow will be more of the same: Iran v. Portugal as soon as I wake up at 8, Ghana and the Czechs, and then.....the most important US soccer game in recent memory versus Italy. It's basically win or go home, with the US side needing a win to have a decent chance of advancing out of group play.

Let's just stop right now, and get all the soccer-bashing out of the way. No, you can't use your hands. Yes, matches can end in ties. Yes, fans of some other countries are insane. Yes, it's just a ball being bounced around a field for 90 minutes. Yes, players dive occcasionally, trying to earn a foul. Yes, world-famous soccer players are prima donnas. (and you're favorite NBA player isn't?)

Just go ahead and get all the predictable remarks out of the way. Try saying some of them out loud to yourself right now. Just get it out of your system.

I've already heard nearly every complaint possible from co-workers as the World Cup plays constantly on the TV at work. I still can't figure out why it makes some people I know so angry that people like soccer. I don't particularly care for hockey (except for the olympics), but I don't feel the need to make fun of it every single time someone is watching it or talking about it. Is it some sort of insecurity that runs rampant?

My boss has proved himself incapable of walking past the World Cup on TV without coming up with some oh-so-predictable comment about the "silliness" of soccer. Today, he was indignant that we couldn't find 15 guys (random number, I guess) who could go over to Germany and kick a ball in the goal more times than the opponent. I sarcastically told him that our soccer players have to fight against a nation full of people with ignorant attitudes like his for their whole lives; so that when the matches roll around, they're a little tired.

AP photograph
If you think soccer is silly, or don't like it, why in the world must you say something about it EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU PASS THE TV. Why would someone spend so much energy talking about something they don't care about? It's kind of like the guy you know who goes out of his way to tell you over and over again that he is most certainly NOT GAY and very much into having sexual relations with women. Do you suspect anything about that guy?

I have no agenda to make everyone in this country love watching soccer. I happen to love it. That's just me. But why in the world does everyone have to get angry at me because I like it?

The good news is that everyone around here has not had their world decimated by the World Cup being on TV. The guys at the fiveforty live-blogged the first (forgettable) US match, and might do it again tomorrow, so check it out. They've had regular updates on the other games as well.

I guess I'll be watching tomorrow's match against Italy in the comfort and safety of my own home, where I will be offending and hurting no one.

AP photograph
------

A note: The US is playing Saturday in Kaiserslautern, which is just down the road from 50,000 US military personnel at Ramstein AFB. Here's a fantastic article about the impact of this game on those folks. Well worth a read.

Can Parking Be A Pleasure?

2006-05-23T19:38:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I had to go to the Jones Center for Families in Springdale for one of the light rail forums, which I'll hopefully be sharing more about later. For those of you who live in NWA, believe it or not, I'd never been to the Jones Center before. So I pulled into the parking lot, running late because of work, and rolled around looking for a parking place. As per my usual routine, I just went straight to the back of the parking lot because I LOATHE spending any amount of time looking for the closest space possible. I'd much rather park in the shade a mile away, or just park at the first available spot and enjoy the walk.

When I got out of my truck, I noticed that the divider between the lines of parking couldn't be walked over. It was full of trees and bushes. This was not a problem, though, because by walking just 25 yards or so to either side, you found one of these wonderful walkways leading to the front door of the Jones Center:

The parking lot was laid out like a rainbow, with the building sitting sort of under the rainbow. So no matter where you parked, you had a pleasant walk on a sidewalk under a tree canopy to get to the front door. Jones Center aerial at left

It got me to thinking; why does it have to work out so that by virtue of having a large parking lot, it has to be the most unpleasant thing to navigate on foot to wherever you were going? If Wal-Mart's parking lots were laid out like this, I certainly wouldn't dread going to WM. (But I'd still prefer walking to Harps downtown) The parking lot can be a pain to navigate, and once I get out of my car, since I don't spend 30 minutes looking for the closest space, I have a fairly boring walk across acres of asphalt, dodging errant shopping carts and clueless drivers on the hike to the door. Store #100 in Bentonville below

Can't they (and everyone else) do better?

A lot of planning experts (including Planning Works, which is consulting with Bentonville for our General Plan) will tell you that you get exactly what you ask for. If you have no standards for retail development in your city, then you get the cheapest, simplest, most cost-effective building from national retailers. And you better bet that they're not going to spend any more money on trees or other design "extras" than the city's codes call for.

I'm going to Hilton Head (SC) in a few weeks, and it's a wonderful example of what good standards can do for a place. Everything looks so unobtrusive. Without getting into a lot of the specifics, parking lots have to have lots of trees, signs can only be made out of wood and are size-restricted, and sidewalks and bike paths are everywhere, including at the shopping centers. It can be hard to even see how big a parking lot is because you can't see all of it for the trees. It's almost like there's a tree canopy mandated everywhere. (I'll try to shoot some pictures while I'm there.)

It's a good lesson to remember as we're coming up on the next General Plan meeting pretty soon. As citizens here, we shouldn't be afraid to demand exactly what we want here. This market is continuing to grow, so no one should be afraid of pushing developers away because of standards. And if you push developers away who don't want to build what meets our standards, isn't that a good thing?

On another note, doesn't it seem like it would be in the best interest of developers or retailers like Wal-Mart to try making parking lots like the Jones Center? You probably sacrifice a number of spots to do that, and it's more expensive, but wouldn't it make shopping there so much more enjoyable? It's ironic that the parking lot at the "green" Wal-Mart in McKinney, Texas, is basically just the same as the others, albeit with a random windmill in the middle of it.

They provide a space to put your car; wouldn't it seem like common sense to provide a nice path for those shoppers to get from their car to your store and back?

Kudos the Jones Center for making a parking lot that is actually enjoyable to use.

(two more of the view at the Jones Center)

read more: photos, parking, sidewalks, sprawl, wal-mart, development

I'm Feeling Fallible

2006-05-23T14:34:00.000-07:00

Spotted recently at a Bentonville church....

Hmm. Infallible, eh?

read more: photos, funny, church signs

Baylor Ballpark

2006-05-22T08:55:00.000-07:00

So as you might have read last week, the Bride and I went to Waco, Texas last weekend to visit her grandmother. During our last visit, I discovered that her grandmother, who is 86, is a HUGE baseball fan. She watches almost all 162 Texas Rangers games, or at least every one that comes on TV. I was totally surprised by her knowledge about the team. She could name probably every player on the roster, and she started by telling me "oh, that Michael Young; I think he's just the best hitter on the team. I don't miss that A-Rod one bit.."

Needless to say, as much as I love baseball, this was quite a find for us. Never would have guessed it.

So after visiting last September or October, we told her that we'd come back in the spring during baseball season and take her to a game at Baylor's shiny new on-campus ballpark. So last weekend, we took her to the Saturday evening game against Nebraska. When we saw some of her other family on Saturday afternoon, they all seemed surprised we were taking her to the game. And the thing was, it was more for her than it was for us. I mean, we love going to baseball games and all, but the whole reason we went that weekend was to take HER to a baseball game.

And let me tell you, she freaking loved it. Baylor was up 2-1 in the third or fourth inning when the Baylor DH cranked a homer over the left field fence and the place went nuts. The Bride's grandmother stood up with us and clapped and cheered with the biggest smile I've ever seen on her face. She looked like she was about to cry.

That moment was worth much more than the bumpy Oklahoma roads, $100 in gas, and price of admission. We'll remember it for a long time.

We asked her if her back was hurting at about the 6th or 7th inning, because it's hard for her to sit in a hard seat for a long time because of some back issues. We told her we could leave whenever she wanted to, even if it was early. She said "I wouldn't miss the rest of this game for the world!"

-----

The stadium was fantastic, if a little antiseptic. Green and brick on the rear facade, which framed a concrete and steel seating area with chairback seats. There were bleachers beyond third base down the line, and a fantastic raised grassy knoll beyond first base down the line. No outfield seats though, which was one of the best things about Foley Field in Athens, Ga. If you've never been there, it's not actually part of the stadium, so students pile in down there (admission would be free for them anyway), and cook out with burgers and beer, jeering the opposition's right fielder unmercifully for 9 innings. (photo below)

Anyway, good stadium though. Better than a lot of colleges and certainly on par with tons of minor league stadiums I've seen. Just a few photos...

read more: baseball, photos, personal, travel

Have You Ever Played Telephone?

2006-05-22T07:58:00.000-07:00

Do you remember that game from elementary school where you get a group of people in a line and whisper a short phrase or paragraph in the first person's ear and they have to pass it down, whispering the whole way? And when you get to the end of the line, the last person says the message, and it's almost always completely different than the original message?

Even when the words are clear and plain as day, printed on the screen for all to see, sometimes the same effect can happen.

Gov. Mike Huckabee was in DC last week, sitting down with some reporters, talking about his "non-candidacy" for Prez in '08. While talking about illegal immigration, he mentioned that at least some of the people who are against immigration, might be motivated by racism. The implication was that this was not a large group, and certainly not descriptive of the majority of people who are against immigration. The title of the ADG story was even "Huckabee: Anti-alien mood has racist strain." From the story:

WASHINGTON — Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Tuesday that he believes he knows what’s behind the anti-immigration feelings of some Americans.

“If I were to say some of it is driven by just sheer racism, I think I would be telling you the truth,” Huckabee said as he shared sandwiches and salad with close to 20 national and regional political reporters.

“I’m not saying everybody who is very, very angry [about immigration ] is a racist. I want to be very clear about that. But I’ve had conversations with people, and it became evident what they really didn’t like is that people didn’t look like them, didn’t talk like them and didn’t celebrate the holidays they do, and they just had a problem with it.”

So, the Huckster, perhaps speaking from some personal experience in talking to some of his constituents, makes the "crazy" claim that some people who are opposed to any sort of immigration might be racists. I've lived in the South long enough and in close proximity to plenty of ignorant rednecks to know he's absolutely speaking the truth. (And keep in mind, he's not even getting into who is "right" and who is "wrong".)

But look at what happened when this story got referenced on a couple of my favorite NWA blogs. (Don't take this personally, you two..) From Rita's post last week:

If disliking those who break the law makes me racist, then yep. I'm a hardcore racist. Frankly I don't care if an illegal immigrant is pea purple polka-dotted. They are breaking the law. I have sworn an oath, two of them in fact, to uphold the Constitution, the laws of the United States, and the laws of the states of Arkansas and Oklahoma.

Apparently that means more to me than it does to our Rev. Gov.

And this man is thinking about running for the presidency?

Did I miss something? Now the Huckster has "said" that disliking those who break the law are racists? Did I read a different story?

After that, our good friend Matt at Overtaken by Events saw Rita's post and the confusion continued:

While, as Rita points out, our higher office-seeking Governor is telling the national media that most people who support controls on immigration are probably just racists, there's an interesting tidbit in an editorial in the D-G...

So there you have it. A case study in how someone says one thing, and all of a sudden, they've said something completely different entirely. The Huckster started with a claim that there is some racism inherent in some of the anti-immigration folk. (Personally, I think anyone'd be naive and foolish to think otherwise. There's probably more racism involved than we care to admit. Do people think that we somehow cured racism here in the last 20 years? Does anyone really think he's nuts for saying this???)

Now, Huckabee "believes" that most people who support controls on immigration are racists.

Wow. "Telephone" is alive and well.

(disclaimer. So the same thing doesn't happen to me, I'm not accusing ANYONE or EVERYONE of being racist who is anti-immigration. You can CERTAINLY be anti-immigration without being racist. Just like you can be anti-immigration and be VERY racist. Both are possible.)

read more: politics, huckabee, nwarkansas

Eyesore of the Week 051706

2006-05-17T10:19:00.000-07:00

This here is the new Superior Mazda on Moberly Drive in Bentonville. Soon to be followed by the Superior Commercial Building right behind it. Which will pour nearly 400,000 square feet of office space into a market so saturated with office space that they could stop building it now, and they'd meet demand for YEARS. But that's a whole other story.

I'm not sure what exactly was the desired aesthetic with the Mazda dealership, but if it was "garish nightmare of mismatched colors on a sheet metal box with windows that mimic a cage," I would say they succeeded brilliantly. I'm not much for the design of nearly any giant car dealerships, but have you noticed how much smoother and cleaner the Toyota and Honda dealerships look? And they seem to all be built to similar specs and out of similar materials.

This thing is visible from the interstate, barely, so let's see if crashes increase between 28th Street and 102 over the next few weeks as drivers look to the west and see this nightmare of an edifice.

At least the tic-tacs on wheels in the front row are fun to look at. They don't make a Miata in puke green, tiger orange and mazda blue; so why in the world would you adorn your dealership the same way?

read more: photos, development, eyesore

I Thought She Might Be Dead

2006-05-15T17:39:00.000-07:00

This weekend, while visiting the Bride's grandmother in Waco, Texas, I had one of the most chilling experiences of my life. Here goes:

--------

"Nice catch, man!"

"Thanks bud," I said, turning around to see who had just yelled at me and finding two young kids scrambling down a sloped embankment towards the western shore of the Brazos River, where I had just a caught a largemouth bass while wading and fly-fishing in the stretch of river just below the dam that creates Lake Whitney.

I didn't pay much attention to the kids, instead moving from a gravel bar where I was fishing out into some deeper water to look for bigger fish, towards the opposite shore from the kids.

There was an old rope swing hanging down from an ancient tree near the kids, who apparently lived up the hill in one of several trailers and tiny homes that were old as dirt. As I rolled my casts back and forth across a submerged weed bed a few minutes later, I saw the two kids pull the rope from its resting place against the tree and begin playing around with it on the heavily banked shore about 20 feet up from the river's edge, about 50-80 yards from me.

I concentrated on getting my fly-line looped low and straight and didn't really notice the kids much until I heard the younger boy, probably six years old or so, calling out "Sissy! Sissy!"

With my back to the kids, I turned around to see the girl, probably 8 or 9, dangling from the end of the rope swing with her brother standing next to her, continuing to call out to her.

I froze for a second. Something didn't look right. The girl's arms were flush tight against her side, holding onto nothing, and her feet were off the ground.

The girl had stuck her head up through the loop at the end of the rope, and had accidently swung far enough out on the slanted bank for her feet to come off the ground.

After freezing for what seemed like an eternity in my mind as I took in the scene, I remember muttering to myself "Holy shit, she's hanging to death." I threw my rod towards the gravel bank and started high-stepping through the water as I tried to take my tackle sling up over my head and off of my shoulder. I was running as fast as I could, watching the girl dangle with her toes starting to curl up and her hands balled into fists. I got my tackle belt over my head, dropping it somewhere in the river, still trying to run in three feet of water, which feels like running in mud.

The little boy was confused, and didn't seem to understand what was happening to his sister; why she wouldn't answer him.

"Pull her back!" I screamed to the boy as I reached the halfway point. "Pull her back so her feet can touch the ground!"

I remember looking down as I crossed a gravel bar to watch where I was stepping. When I looked back up, the boy had tugged on his sister just enough to get her pointed toes to reach the ground. The moment her feet reached the ground, everything must have lined up just right and the loop just slipped right over her head.

With her arms clinched right to her side, she was stiff as a toothpick. When the loop slipped off, she fell to the ground like a steel building just tipping over on its side and crashing to the ground. She hit the ground square on her side and her head, with her arms unmoving from her side, completely unconscious. She even started to roll down the hill a little bit.

By this point, I had reached the edge of the river and was just making it up the last 20 feet to where they were on the bank. Just as I got there, I yelled for the little boy to run and get help; get his parents if they were close.

I went down to my knees right next to the girl and picked her head up in my right arm, not knowing what I was going to do to try and wake her up, if anything. Just as I did, she came to and tried to sit up. I sat her up against my leg and she started coughing and sputtering and crying. She reached up for her neck, drooling all over the ground between us..

She was already sitting up, holding her head up by herself so I asked if she lived at the top of the hill and if her parents were there. She said "yes," so I scooped her limp little body up and started carrying her up the hand-made railroad tie steps to the top of the hill and the houses.

I'll always remember the way her little fingers were digging into the back of my neck as I tried to go as fast as possible up the steps. I caught up to her brother nearby and asked which house was theirs. He pointed at a yellow trailer in the middle and I started walking that way. I saw three adults over to my right, and as I moved towards the house, they started casually walking towards me.

I asked the girl if the lady was her mother, and she said "yes" so I started walking towards them. The three folks never ran, just walking casually towards me. I handed the girl to the lady and started to tell her what happened. She didn't even take her from my arms, she just kind of let me set her down on her feet in front of her.

"She got her neck stuck in the loop of the rope swing," I said.

The mom's first words were not:
"Oh my god, what happened to my daughter?" "Are you o.k., baby?" "Thank you!" or "Who are you and why are you carrying my daughter up here?"

Mom's first words after her daughter nearly died were: "What were you doing sticking your neck in the swing?"

I kind of stood there awkwardly for a second as mom barely acknowledged my presence. Not knowing what else to do and seeing that they weren't interested in hearing exactly what happened, I started to walk back to the river. Her daughter was fine, and she seemed to be uninterested in the how or why of what happened. I saw the mom looking at the bruises stretched around the girl's neck as I headed back to the river, my fishing done for the day.

---------

The two things that alarmed me most about this story was the lackadaisacal way that the parents/family treated what could have easily been the death of their daughter. I don't think they'll ever know how serious it was unless she tells them. And that girl will probably have nightmares about that day for years to come; something that her parents will never understand because they're ignorant of what happened. That kind of stuff sticks with you.

I remember getting a cross that I used to wear around my neck stuck on the bottom rung of a ladder in a swimming pool in 1990 or 1991. I was blowing out air under the steps or something equally silly. When I tried to come back up, my necklace hung on the step, and it took me a panicked 10 seconds to get it unhooked, freaking me out bad enough that I didn't get in the pool the rest of the week.

I can't imagine that this girl won't think about this for years to come. Maybe she blacked out quickly and won't remember any of it. But I doubt it. I know that the image of her feet curling up, toes pointing down, and tense arms squeezed hard against her side with fists balling up will stay with me for a long time. As will the sight of her eyes rolled back in her head as she dangled back and forth at the end of a rope.

The other thing that bothered me, is how long I froze before I did anything. It was almost like slow motion. I knew exactly what was happening long before I ever sprang into action, even looking around for some sort of confirmation that I should do something. I feel like I watched her hang for 10 second before I did anything. Maybe that's accurate, maybe it's not, I'll never know.

But I think I'll always feel that when the crucial moment came for me to do something in a tight spot to help someone in an emergency, I froze.

Thankfully, she was o.k. Believe me, I've spent plenty of time the last few days thinking about what might have happened if I didn't notice it until a minute later and still froze.

I can't imagine what it's like to bear the burden of knowing I could have done something to help and wasn't able to do it in time as someone lost their life.

Just like I can't imagine someone handing me my son or daughter who escaped death and not falling to the ground as I grasped them in my arms and wept over the fact that they were still alive.

read more: fly-fishing, travel, personal

Balance

2006-05-11T15:18:00.000-07:00

Wow.

It's been 7 days since my last post and it didn't even feel like a day. I've got tons of stuff to write about and some great photos from around town this last week. Good sidewalks once again, more bad sidewalks, and a poor schmo trying to navigate orange barrels and speeding traffic while walking on Walton Boulevard.

I've had the absolute craziest two weeks, reaching a level of stress that is usually foreign to me. For those of you who don't "actually" know me, I'm the consistently even-keeled one in this marriage. Not to say that The Bride is crazy or anything like that, but let's just say she's a little more prone to circumstance than I. Come hell or high water, I stay pretty even and balanced, keeping my emotions in check for the most part. Thankfully, I've changed a lot since I was 14-21 or so, when everything that happened was the biggest crisis in the world and I could easily have been accused of being manic-depressive. I'm sure my mom still thinks it's funny that I'm so sane and balanced now after being the receiver of many an adolescent rage caused by the slightest stimuli.

Typical example:

"Mom, I HAD to stay out three hours past curfew, because _____ and I had IMPORTANT EMOTIONAL stuff to talk about that COULDN'T POSSIBLY WAIT until tomorrow when the sun is up. WHY DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND ME!!!"

Now, The Bride and I could have a fight late at night, and I'll be calm 5 minutes later and ready to go to sleep. That doesn't work with The Bride. Unresolved conflict before bed doesn't happen.

All this to say, that when difficult circumstances arise in our lives for whatever reason, I'm the steady one who kind of holds things together.

Not for the past two weeks, I wasn't. There was just a little too much going on for me to handle, and it's stuff that doesn't just go away after a day or two or when you deal with it. It's just long, protracted stress that doesn't stop because you try to quit thinking about it. I'll stay out of the details, but change is on the horizon for us. Regardless of what happens in the next few weeks, our lives are going to change by the end of the summer, in all likelihood. (NO, we're not having a baby, so don't even ask. The Bride will kill you.)

So this weekend, we're getting the hell out of dodge and going to Waco, Texas for the weekend. The Bride's grandmother lives there, and we've been meaning to get down there during baseball season to see her. She's a huge baseball fan, so I bought tickets today for the three of us to see Nebraska vs Baylor at Baylor's beautiful new ballpark. I'm going to hopefully hit the Brazos River for some bass fly-fishing, gladly getting wet without my waders since it's supposed to be in the 90's Saturday (Isn't it always 90 in Texas, even in December?)

Image from Chris Shafer's Brazos
River Fishing Guide Service
on the World Wide Fishing Guide site.
Should be a nice break for us, getting us away from everything going on around here and relaxing with family. Hopefully, we can unplug and relax for the weekend.

And I can recover my inner steadiness.

-------

On a joyful note, join me in celebrating the return of the Quantum Launch to the world, albeit under a different name this time: The Relaunch. Welcome back, Jennifer.

read more: fly-fishing, personal

Crystal Bridges is Committed to Downtown

2006-05-04T19:13:00.000-07:00

There was a story in the Daily Record today about Crystal Bridges, the museum scheduled to open in Bentonville in 2009. Bob Workman, the executive director of the museum, was speaking to WM suppliers at a breakfast Wednesday morning sponsored by the Bentonville/Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce. As most of you know, this museum is going to occupy a site NE of the Bentonville Square on part of the Walton family's property. (See a map of the location here).

Part of the issue with the design of the museum is that the only car entrance will be from NE J Street, coming from I-540. So conceivably, you could have visitors come from far and wide to Bentonville, and never see downtown Bentonville, leaving right back out the way they came. There's only going to be one entrance (for automobiles) and that entrance is nowhere near downtown.

Bob Haynes with Main Street Bentonville is fully aware of this situation and is working hard to to figure out a way to connect the museum to downtown. There will be bike, pedestrian and trail access from several points, with one coming through Compton Gardens. Thankfully, as we can see from the Daily Record story, the musuem (through Bob Workman) is also committed to making the museum part of the downtown experience:

Crystal Bridges will also serve as a gateway for downtown Bentonville, if visitors find the museum from the interstate, Workman said. "We will have the responsibility to orient them to downtown. … We are seriously interested in developing that linkage (to the town Square)," through a bike/ pedestrian trail, Workman said. Bentonville’s Square is eight blocks from the west museum entrance. (which is only a pedestrian/bike entrance)

So part of the nice thing about the design of the museum is that cars could possibly be kept out of downtown. The key, however, will be making it easier for the museum visitors to access downtown without their car, than with it. But it's quite a walk from the western access to downtown, albeit a scenic walk past an interesting mix of houses that weren't built yesterday, but maybe too long for some people not accustomed to car-less transport.

One of the ideas coming from Bob Haynes and Main Street Bentonville is to run a trolley from the western museum access down to the square, which would help because it's quite a walk from the proposed access to downtown, . Hopefully this would be part of a bigger downtown loop. A loop from the Home Office to downtown has already been suggested, and might be in the works, bringing some of the thousands of WM employees who don't want to give up their precious parking spots to enjoy downtown's peaceful green space and restaurants at lunchtime.

The city is defintely working towards this end; trying to connect to downtown. Check out a quote from Mayor Coberly in this older Daily Record story.

"We want a nice trail system and/or trolley that will link (the museum) to downtown, with perhaps some parking and signage," Coberly said. "These are all just preliminary discussions, and nothing is in stone yet. We’re really excited about it and have a lot of ideas."

There's no question that the museum will be fantastic, and will draw people to the area from far away, as well as serving as a magnet for local tourism. But it'll be a shame if the involved parties don't figure out ways to successfully market downtown Bentonville and connect it to the museum. (Part of this process will be enhancing retail opportunities on the ground floor of downtown buildings, something Wal-Mart is painfully unknowledgeable about.)

Look for the city and Main Street Bentonville to come through in the clutch.

read more: crystal bridges, downtown bentonville, main street bentonville

Light Rail at 1/3 of the price?

2006-05-03T21:02:00.000-07:00

I don't know if any of you saw this, but I thought it was hilarious at the time and I managed to stumble back across it not too long ago. Apparently this website called Live From The Third Rail that collects news about transit and rail all across the country read some of the light rail stories a few months ago:

"Some folks in Bentonville, Ark., otherwise known as the home of Wal-Mart, are considering light rail. Instead of going to Washington for federal funding, they could just get Chinese knock-off trains for half the price and pay illegal immigrants $7 an hour to drive them."

I'm currently re-reading the NWA Light Rail study that was done by the UA Community Design Center in preparation of a few posts about it in the next month or so. (Which hopefully means it won't join the list of things I said I was going to post about but didn't.)

read more: funny, light rail, NWArkansas

No Fun to Walk on 8th Street

2006-05-02T21:47:00.000-07:00

I was going to save this photo for the day when I finally tackle some of the 8th Street issues, but it was really just too good to pass up. I see this sight all too often, I'm afraid. As the main east/west corridor between Central Ave and Hwy 102, it's a crucial road for automotive traffic. But I think its sad that those few who brave this stretch of roadway have to resort to navigating a thin line between near-death in the roadway and a difficult walk through a drainage ditch, dodging rocks and garbage.

It's no wonder that you don't see more pedestrians on streets like these. They're designed in such a way that they're not only unaccomodating, they're downright hostile to anyone not cruising along in 1 or 2 tons of glass and steel.

Whether or not the road gets four-laned from I-540 all the way to Elm Tree (read more here), there's no doubt that it needs to be improved. I know it's not feasible to go back to all of the city's older gridded streets and add sidewalks, but major corridors certainly need to have them.

But that leads to the next question. Should we be happy with just any sort of sidewalk, even if it looks like this?

Or should we all be pushing for sidewalks that are not only functional, but aesthetically pleasing and pleasant to walk on like Main Street here?

I really believe that aesthetics and the idea of enclosure actually are components of functionality. The more disconnected a sidewalk feels from a four or five-laned road next to it, the more likely people will be to use it. If on-street parking or trees separate the sidewalk from the road, more people will be likely to use it. If the trees are tall and mature enough to provide some shade and enclosure, the more likely people will be to use it. People like this lady above probably will walk on the sidewalk either way; since it looks like she has no choice. But people who live along 8th Street and are thinking about walking towards downtown or somewhere like that might choose to get in the car rather than to take a walk on a strip of concrete right next to a busy roadway.

The time isn't quite here yet, but when the city of Bentonville begins to work with a contractor or design firm on the 8th Street project, the people of Bentonville need to make their voice heard.

Just a strip of concrete smashed up next to the road isn't good enough. It's worth the extra design effort and money to make the sidewalk functional for everyone.

read more: eighth street, sidewalks

Running Hard

2006-05-01T13:53:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure exactly how much rain we got over the weekend, but it rained pretty much all night Friday, nearly all day Saturday, and again Sunday night. Had to be around 3-6 inches of rain since last Friday. Tanyard Creek waterfall in Bella Vista was still flowing hard this morning. Usually, it's calm enough that you can get under the water and get a relaxing shower. Today, I'm pretty sure this would have killed anyone who might have been stupid enough to try. Looks we're going to get some more rain this evening.

Thoughts On Fuel Prices

2006-05-01T08:38:00.000-07:00

I found a story this morning from the SF Chronicle about the fuel prices and most of Washington's short-sighted efforts to address the problem. Definitely worth a read. I don't know if anyone else around here has noticed that most of the solutions being suggested all really stop short of addressing what I think is the root problem: We've developed our towns, cities and suburbs in a fashion that gives us no choice but to drive everywhere we need to go. Most people don't have an option. From the story:

"The oil companies may be raising it a few cents, but that's not where the action is,'' said Severin Borenstein, director of the UC Energy Institute in Berkeley.

More important factors are limited refining capacity, uncertainty about world markets and a seemingly insatiable demand for gasoline. Investment in alternative fuels or domestic drilling might boost energy supplies down the road, but the quicker way to get prices to drop would be to curb demand, something politicians believe that Americans aren't ready to hear.

"There seems to be no political traction for reducing demand,'' Borenstein said. "Consumers don't want to hear about making any changes from the plentiful gasoline of the 1990s. And unfortunately, short of colonizing the Middle East ... there isn't a way back to that.''

The determination to keep energy flowing was evident this week when Bush declared the nation must break its addiction to oil, then promptly announced that energy suppliers are being investigated to make sure the addicts -- American motorists -- can purchase their fix at a fair price. The next step, he said, is to boost production so energy junkies can support their habit more cheaply.

I know that urging people to drive less and reduce their dependence on oil would be a great idea, but I think the problem is that most people don't have that option. They live 50 minutes from their job by car, and can't do any of their basic daily tasks without having to get in a car. This requires more work to reduce car trips, requiring transit in places where it doesn't work well, carpooling in a culture that views the lone driver as an inalienable right, and the need to sacrifice, which is patently un-American these days.

This reminds me of a recent post from Richard Layman's DC blog that I read everday where he was addressing President Bush's advocacy of hydrogen as the fuel of the future:

Hydrogen sounds like an energy "cure" not so much for oil dependency but to ward off challenges to the sprawl paradigm of more and more development farther and farther out. Rather than develop a planning and transportation paradigm that is more sustainable, it appears as if hydogen is touted as the next generation fuel to power the cars that fill the ribbons of roads that make up our asphalt nation.

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On another note, I found another blog worth checking out from time to time if you're interested in the growth- and city-related things I write about. The LincolnLog from Lincolnton, NC does a great job of keeping tabs on downtown revitalization and preservation in what looks to be a great place to live NW of Charlotte.

Clean-Up Day Cancelled for April 29th

2006-04-28T13:47:00.000-07:00

I received this email a couple of hours ago and wanted to pass the word along in case anyone was planning on showing up tomorrow morning on the Bentonville Square for the City of Bentonville's clean up day:

CLEAN UP DAY POSTPONED!!

Because of the threat of severe weather and rain tomorrow. The Keep Bentonville Beautiful Clean Up Day (Saturday April 29th) has been postponed!! The new date for the clean up is next Saturday, May 6th, 2006. Please contact your team members and hopefully everyone can participate next Saturday!!

Thank you!

Annette Brightwell
Special Projects Planner-
City of Bentonville

I'll do a better job this week of posting about the clean up day before May 6th since I didn't give much advance warning this last time. And I'll be back in full force after the weekend, maybe even during the weekend since it's probably going to be raining until Monday. Stay dry...

"Time is on my side"

2006-04-26T13:09:00.000-07:00

I've got tons to say and no time to say any of it, so I'm taking a break for just a few days. I've had some other non-work related stuff that's come up in the last week and I've been swamped while attending to it. Sound mysterious? It should. But I WILL be taking a break and walking over to the Ice House tonight with a bud...

FYI, Bentonville Clean-up Day this Saturday if anyone is interested. Below is the PDF flyer that's been handed around. It's not too late to come and help out. It may be too late to get a free t-shirt, but not too late to jump on board and help clean up the city. See you there.

Here's the link to the PDF online if the picture is unreadable (try clicking on it first.)

Learning How To See

2006-04-24T09:58:00.001-07:00

Just thought I'd share a quote that someone sent me this morning.

Edward Steichen, who eventually became one of the world's most renowned photographers, almost gave up on the day he shot his first pictures. At 16, young Steichen bought a camera and took 50 photos. Only one turned out - - a portrait of his sister at the piano. Edward's father thought that was a poor showing. But his mother insisted that the photograph of his sister was so beautiful that it more than compensated for 49 failures. Her encouragement convinced the youngster to stick with his new hobby. He stayed with it for the rest of his life, but it had been a close call. What tipped the scales? The vision to spot excellence in the midst of a lot of failure.

— Bits & Pieces, February 4, 1993

What made Steichen great (as well as lot of other great photographers), was their ability to see. Maybe even more important than just their mastery of technical skills, or their way with people and subjects, or their work ethic. Sam Abell once told me this was the thing that set great photographers and photojournalists apart from good ones: their ability to watch, see, and compose with their eyes, observing beautiful moments in the middle of chaos before ever lifting a camera to their eyes. Abell always composed his photographs in layers, from back to front. He'd find his background, sometimes a foreground as well, and then he'd wait for the moment to arrive. Which made for very distinct photographs.

Our lives are always filled with failure. It's been, and is always going to be, a constant. The key to success is spotting excellence in the space between the failures and capitalizing on those moments.

Was it Andrew Beckett (Tom Hanks) in the movie Philadelphia who said: "Fail. Fail Again. Fail Better." ???

What's a roll of film for a great photographer but 32 or 33 exercises in failure, highlighted by 4 or 5 moments of brilliance?

Yes, it's Freaking Open. Geez.

2006-04-21T13:48:00.000-07:00

So I noticed over the last few weeks, I'm getting tons of hits on my blog from people going to Google or wherever and searching for "Icehouse Bentonville." So to all of you folks finding this blog who are looking for the Icehouse, I have a special message just for you:

The Ice House of Bentonville is located on SE 5th Street in Bentonville between D and E Streets, easily reached from SE J Street if you're coming from 540 or Rogers, and easily accessible from the Bentonville Square by taking Main Street south out of the square, turning left on SE 3rd Street, and making a right on SE D Street. Can't miss it after that. For the geographically challenged, I've provided a link to a Google Map.

They are usually open at 6 p.m., 7 days a week, with lunches to follow soon. They close at midnight M-Th, 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, and 11 p.m. Sunday night.

The food ranges from tasty burgers and sandwiches for 6 or 7 bucks, up to steaks for 25 bucks, so there's a little of everything. There's about 10 beers on tap. The place is HUGE, with four distinct rooms. Two are dinings rooms, one with its own bar. There's a huge room at the other end with a stage for live music, usually Friday and Saturday right now. And next to that room is the main bar, with pool tables, a waterfall behind the bar, an ice surface built into the bar, and cool decor.

Anyway, it's like no place anywhere around here, Fayetteville included, so be sure to check it out.

If you want some more information, check these links out:

• Daily Record article
• Entry on the Ice House and the "third place"
• First meal at their VIP opening party
• Random update