Reports of communazis 'skipping in the streets' in DC as Obama clinches second term

Woke up this morning after a great election night and realized that my class papers are still due this week. Welp...

There were a lot of developments in the federal elections yesterday. Republican had a bad night. Democrats in the Senate picked up an extra seat between Indiana and Mass., and Angus King added another seat for Independents in Maine. The Senate makeup also became more "liberal" with the election of rising stars in the progressive coalition like Liz Warren and the first openly gay senator Tammy Baldwin, defeating former Governor Tommy Thompson in the most expensive Senate race in state history.

Control of the House, of course, will remain with Republicans, though not without losing several seats. Eight of the 12 undecided seats are projected to go to Democrats as of this afternoon (AZ-9, AZ-1, CA-7, CA-36, CA-52, FL-18, NC-7, UT-4). LA Times is reporting that of the 87 Republican freshmen in that election, just nine have lost their bids for a second term at last count. There is a common perception that the freshman class was stocked with Tea Party-ers, but just 19 of 87 GOP freshmen joined the Tea Party Caucus after the 2010 landslide. Two freshmen Democrats, Reps. Mark Critz of Pennsylvania and Kathy Hochul of western New York, also lost last night.

Shiny new tourism video makes DC look awesome

Washington DC has a new tourism video making the rounds this month, mostly among locals ironically. It's a pretty big improvement over other videos that the district has pushed
( >_>), most importantly because it includes pretty pictures and high-contrast landscapes and clips showing that people actually live here. It even goes so far as to suggest that some of those people choose live here by preference.



Unfortunately it's only a small glimpse of what DC has to offer in ways of culture and amenities. District Scoutmob puts it well. "For one, we'd have included a lot more food porn. Sure, we get a glimpse of Spike Mendohlson's dashing visage gazing upon us from above, a nighttime shot of Ben's Chili Bowl lighting up our bowels screens and a view of what looks like a downtown restaurant, but what about the rest of it? Mainly, what about all of our dope-as-hell food trucks?" Washington is definitely developing a new vibrant culture around its food scene, so why not hype it up a bit more?

On the other hand, I love that they included a shot of a cool-looking gal in a gauze skirt riding a Bikeshare cycle with pastel balloons tied to the back, showing that not all Washingtonians are permanently dressed for a call into the office.

District Bikeways, or "The obstacle course"

It looks like DC is finally looking to make moves on District bikeways just in time for the transit bill to take away local control of bike-ped funds. Yay timing!

Let me drop you some knowledge about biking in DC. It's not great. The District has received a lot of attention recently for its increasingly bike-friendly policies coming down the proverbial pipes, but the experience includes plenty of indirect routs, unprotected bike lanes, disjointed bikeways and drivers that are largely uneducated on right-of-ways and, on average, very bad at driving.

Quote of the Day

Found this gem in my land use planning course - it is a quote by an early-20th century planner that, in several variations, has nearly become a mantra for public planners.

"Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood and probably will themselves not be realized. Make big plans; aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical diagram once recorded will never die, but long after we are gone will be a living thing, asserting itself with ever-growing insistency."

-- Daniell Burnham, 1907

Mapping locals and tourists by photo tags

I have been following San Francisco's own "digital cartographer" Eric Fischer for awhile now, so I'm a bit surprised that I just found this set on his Flickr photostream. In 2010 Fischer presented a series of maps that documented the intensity of geo-tagged photography in over a hundred metro regions around the world. In his updated set he breaks this information down a bit further, into 'tourists' and 'locals' - users/photographers that uploaded multiple photos of the area more than a months apart.

The project was initially an effort to see if the earlier Geotaggers' World Atlas maps were primarily sourced by tourist photography, but the product became a veritable GIS map comparing trending tourist activity to areas where local residents spend their time.

Washington, District of Columbia

District Parks Divided, or "Occupy protesters vs. land use planning"

Is your local park locally or federally owned? I'm willing to bet that most of you have never really considered this question. For most people around the country there is no reason to (except for in places like the Presidio in SF, which is still a national park with apartments and storefronts in it). But jurisdiction over DC's parks is split between the federal government - specifically the National Park Service who manages them and the Architect of the Capital that plans and designs them - and DC local government. This has two important implications. The first is an issue of finance; since Washington government does not own the land or the structures on the property, it does not see any revenue generated from vendors/tourism and it cannot leverage them as collateral assets in financial planning (i.e. bonds, loans, credit ratings, etc). It might sound crazy to leverage a park or recreation area on a public loan, but it's actually pretty common and most local governments have many other tools for managing repayment issues so that they don't actually give up the property in a pinch.

But the second is a bit more interesting from a public interest perspective. This disparity was recently exemplified during the Occupy DC protest when - after several months of sit/lie ins in McPherson Square and other parks - District residents overwhelmingly supported the removal of long-term encampments. Despite Washington's overwhelmingly left-leaning political culture and recognition that Occupy had made its point, residents wanted use of their parks back. But there was one simple problem: DC government did not have jurisdiction over the parks.

Home designs for humanitarian crises, or "What do IDPs and hipsters have in common?"

A friend at school asked for a book suggestion last December as part of her effort to find the perfect Christmas present for her architecture and development inclined SO. By chance, I actually had a book on hand for exactly this situation! Architecture for Humanity collected information on dozens of innovative, low-cost, "sustainable" designs for habitable structures back in 2006 and featured them in a handbook called Design Like You Give a Damn.

Someone had bought it, presumably used it, and discarded it at the end of my freshman year of college at Santa Clara. After haggling with the book-nazi in the basement of our student center (not the nice gray-haired woman, the other old guy that didn't smile) to sell back my calculus text for more than $10 - and failing - I found this gem on the FREE table. It was brilliant. I read the book cover to cover and shared it with a few people, and I wound up working on our school's Solar Decathlon team the next year because I thought the whole idea was so nifty. After suggesting the book I read through it again, and I've been following their work for the past few months.

Economic inequality and development, or "This is where Occupy should have started"

I have spent a lot of time graphing Lorenz curves. It's a requirement of getting my degree. I hated drawing distributions of income/land/wealth and working out the calculations and derivatives by hand, but in retrospect this practice seriously matured my academic understanding of the effects of economic inequality (especially radical inequality) on the overall well-being and economic efficiency of a society. Greater inequality reduces domestic consumption, decreases political participation and representation, increases statutory penalties and abuses of police power, inhibits the accumulation of human capital necessary for advanced production and services, etc etc. All of these things are clearly established correlations, and many of them have substantial data to support causal relationships.

You can maybe imagine then, how strange it is to turn this critical perspective back onto the United States. Instead of starting with "greater inequality reduces well-being and economic performance" and "what can we do about it", domestic political conversations have to begin with a tedious explanation of why treating "economic inequality" is not the same thing as "envy of the rich", "commi-socialism" and "class warfare".

Employment in Washington, or "The intern phenomenon"

Forbes published an article in its online magazine this morning that ranks the top 10 cities for finding employment. Astonishingly, Washington D.C. was listed as #1. (Wow, us!) The Washington Metro Region currently boasts one of the lowest unemployment figures in the country at 5.5%, 2.6 points lower than the national average of 8.1%, and it even experienced a small drop of about .3 this past month.


And yet something doesn't seem to fit. Everywhere I go, I meet or run into people that complain about needing to find 'real work' (me included, full disclosure). And understandably! Most of my otherwise accomplished peers are seriously underpaid. After some digging, I think I've found the cause of everyone's dissonance.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics - which the Forbes rating is based on (5.5%, #1) - 'employment' includes unpaid work >.> :

"The household survey definition of employment comprises wage and salary workers (including domestics and other private household workers), self-employed persons, and unpaid workers who worked 15 hours or more during the reference week" (BLS Explanatory Notes)

Unemployment excludes unpaid, stipend-based, and underpaid positions (below minimum wage, for example) after 15 hours of work per week. For those of you less familiar with the DC labor market, estimates of local "unpaid" and underpaid interns (which fluctuate by season) are consistently between 20,000 and 40,000 on any given day, and that number skyrockets during non-academic summer terms when student and recent graduates from across the country flood into the District. DC's commercial industries are also very narrow compared to comparable metro-regions and are still largely limited to government and public contracting, telecommunications, computer software and hospitality services.

DC Metro Voices

The voices of train operators on the DC Metro system are one of my favorite parts of District life. Half of the time you will get a run-of-the-mill conductor, but the other 50% includes apparent guest appearances by Sylvester Stallone, Dustin Hoffman, Keanu Reeves, Jack Nicholson, Jason Statham and many more!

A fellow redditor had the foresight to turn on his video camera recently. This conductor is still one of my favorites.... (wait for it)



And another....

DC Metro Blue Line Announcer by gfesteves

New budget autonomy for DC in the work, or "Lieberman steps it up"

Senator Joe Lieberman (I-Conn) introduced legislation to the Senate last night that would grant the District of Columbia new budgetary autonomy. The initiative would severe the District's budget from the Congressional appropriations process, which currently exposes local administration to federal political infighting and often delays the District budgetary development by six to eight months. Lieberman was joined by Senators Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Dan Akaka (D-Hawaii) as cosponsors. Lieberman’s newest move comes as support continues to build in the House, where Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), chairman of the D.C.-focused Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has been recently spearheading the reform effort. Lieberman will be retiring at the end of his current term, and this latest bill is seen as part of an effort to button-down his legacy as a District-governance advocate.

The Give D.C. Local Budget Control Bill of 2012 would grant DC government the power to set its own fiscal year and develop a budget without interference from the Congress. The legislation does not entirely strip Congress from the equation, however; it will still have a period in which to review the budget and vote on a “statement of disapproval” that would also have to be signed into law by the president. While oversight of the District remains with Congress (as proscribed in the Constitution), this new arrangement would distance Congress from the formative budget process and require members to make and up-or-down vote on the final product.

Read the full story at Roll Call.

"Redline"

In the 9 months since I moved to DC, I have never - not once - managed to catch the connecting REDLINE train towards Glenmont at Metro Station, though I have on rare evenings such as this brushed the sliding doors with my fingertips as they closed on my hopes and slipped away into the darkness once again.

"17 MIN".

One day....

Eastern Market Vendor Apps, or "Make Dat Money"

Eastern Market is accepting applications from farmers for its new open-air farmers’ market that will be held on Tuesdays from 3pm – 7pm. The deadline for submitting applications is set for May 1. For those of you who have mentioned wanting to expand your hobbies into an actual small business here in DC (or know people who are thinking about it), this could be a decent opportunity. It sounds like the list is growing, but now overcrowded yet since it's a new market schedule.

Here's the application. The fee is only $35 for the Tuesday evening market, but the deadline is coming up soon. More info below, or see the full notice here.

“We are thrilled to expand the outdoor market’s operations to Tuesday afternoon and look forward to reviewing applications from local farmers and vendors,” said Brian Hanlon, Acting Director of the Department of General Services, the District agency that manages the market. “As a Capitol Hill resident, Eastern Market holds a special place in my heart and I am looking forward to enjoying fresh, local groceries from a new farmers’ market at one of my favorite historic establishments in the District.”

Eastern Market management is currently accepting new farmers for the weekday market only. Farmers must be third-party certified and be a regionally-based grower or farmer. The application can be found at www.easternmarket-dc.org. Successful applicants will be expected to sell every Tuesday under the outdoor farmers’ line shed beginning in June of this year.

You can also visit the home page of our website, www.easternmarket-dc.org, to download.  Applications need to be postmarked by May 1, 2012. A non-refundable application fee applies to each application.

Street Closure Permits, or "More Block Parties!"

The District isn't a city for block parties. Public streets are rarely closed for community events focused around food, drink, fun or local music. And when they are, it's most commonly for large annual events like the Beer Festival, Saint Patrick's Day or enormous foodie fests that are more like two day concerts with big-name headliners - quite a bit of fun, but not really a "community" event. At first I thought the remarkable absence of festivities was perhaps just my own biased perception, having come out of cities like San Francisco and San Jose where neighborhood parties are almost common phenomena by comparison. But DC has no lack of micro-community organizations, sometimes encompassing no more than three or four streets.

Neighborhood parties are a great way to get to know the people living around you, and the benefits of resulting social capital in areas of social stability, poverty alleviation, human security and disaster resiliency are pretty well documented at this point. But it turns out that getting a permit for a block party in Washington is at the "stupid difficult" level.

New concepts designs for the Mall, or "@__@"

The Trust for the National Mall released on Tuesday concept drawings of a dozen finalists in a competition to redesign the National Mall in Washington, DC.

Since last September, architects and designers have been competing for the chance to make over areas near the Capitol, Washington Monument and Constitution Gardens, which was once imagined as a pastoral park near the Lincoln Memorial. Each of the areas under consideration were selected in order to enhance their utility as public spaces, and refurbish features that have decayed over years of use. Each of the designs would bring major changes, adding amenities including food options and restrooms.

While the proposals have been largely welcomed in feedback in social media, there have also been voices of concern that the new designs might undermine the district's historical features. But to be fair, the current theater is pretty lame compared to most of the new concepts. I mean, the new one would come with fireworks and thousands of engaged audience members > >
Some renovation would probably be good for the District's less than premium public spaces.

Check out the rest of the ideas at the Trust for the National Mall's REACT webpage.

What Kind of Country, or "This American Life Presents..."

With the downturn of the global economy in 2007-2008, Americans were quickly faced with fiscal austerity decisions in their local and state governments. With less money on their books, cities like Trenton, NJ and Colorado Springs and, yes, even old homesteads like San Francisco and San Jose were forced to acknowledge  new realities that they could no longer afford the same kinds of services and benefits that were once routine. While cities, counties and states - and eventually even the federal government - grappled with technical tweaks to revenue streams and budgets cuts, residents began to confront expectations about what their governments could and should be doing. By the time we were fighting about healthcare reform in the US, it was apparent that these issues were digging at something deeper - questions like what is government, and what is the public community that we live in? Who belongs in it? What do we want from it? What does it want from us? We all began arguing about political philosophy (though not always well).

In a recent episode "What Kind of Country", Public Radio International's "This American Life" explored what these question mean to us through three stories from the across the US of how reforms have, and sometimes haven't, taken residents where they hoped.

District Government, or "Whaaaaaat?"

Every year the municipal government of the District of Columbia develops a draft budget and annual financial plan with the data that it receives from its agencies and departments, like all other local governments. Officials hold public hearings for review and input, finagle public opinion and internal politics, and eventually agree on a final working budget. The local council would then approve the budget plan, but when it comes to the District, the US Constitution says that the federal legislature gets a fair chance to ruin everything first.

Sunset over P Street

Thanks to mazzbazzle for this image (r/washingtondc)

By The Books, or "Welcome to the District (Part 2)"

Let's start this introduction with a basic profile before we get into the gritty stuff.

Hey look the Census made a profile graphic for just the occasion!

The District of Columbia is home to approximately 618,000 residents as of July 2011. Of that number, 50.7% are Black or African American, 38.5% are White. 9.1% are Hispanic or Latino (among all races) and 3.5% are Asian. The total population of the District grew by about 2.7% between the 2010 Census and the July 2011 survey. The federal District itself is only 68 square miles, including about 7 square miles of waterways.

One of the most interesting demographic features of Washington is the age distribution of its residents. Nationally, 24% of American residents are below the age of 18 years; but in the District of Columbia this rate drops to 16%. That means there aren't a lot of kids or teenagers around. Nonetheless the median age of Washington is 34 years, the lowest of any US state.

"So... DC is full of mid-thirty year olds," you might suppose. Cool, a young city! In reality though, the city is even "younger" than that. Who likes population pyramids?!

Welcome to the District, or "First time in a long time"

I've had some trouble conceptualizing how this blog could be useful now that I’ve moved from the ranks of San Francisco public employees to a mere graduate student in America's most politically obsessed and emotionally avoidant city. However, I recently realized that all of the oddity and nonsensical happenings of this town that made it difficult to write about coherently are perfect fodder. Many things about this place are counter intuitive, and neither you nor I probably understand what's happening out here these days, so let's see what we figure out together.