Too Many Curbside Dumpsters!!!

  In my area of Columbia Heights, I see contractors use dumpsters as transfer stations for other projects and leave the dumpsters out for months. There needs to be a time limit and a restriction about using the dumpster no parking area for contractor vehicles.

Georgetown seeks ban on curbside dumpsters

By GRAHAM VYSE

Current Staff Writer

October 1, 2014

Georgetown’s advisory neighborhood commissioners voted unanimously Monday night to request that curbside dumpsters be banned — or at least severely restricted — on residential streets in their community.

Commissioner Tom Birch said he and his colleagues still need to take their proposal to D.C. officials, but they said the time had come to prevent dumpsters used during home renovations from taking up so much space in Georgetown.

“We’re all familiar with the use and the proliferation of dumpsters in our neighborhood,” he said. “They’re available for long periods of time. The permits are cheap. They’re easily renewable.” As a result, Birch said, they are taking up an increasing number of parking spaces and jutting out onto narrow residential streets, frustrating residents.

Moreover, most dumpsters may be unnecessary because contractors working on home renovation projects in the area usually have access to waste removal trucks, he said. One resident told Birch her family had renovated four different houses in Georgetown without ever using a dumpster.

As of now, it costs a contractor only $75 for a permit to keep a dumpster on a D.C. street for a month. Birch said the District should consider emulating Old Town Alexandria, where a contractor would have to pay $1,900 to keep a dumpster out for that amount of time.

Commissioner Dennis Quinn said he supported Birch, but he would have “a very keen eye on making sure that policy outcomes are limited to Georgetown.”

Quinn expressed concern about advocating for higher permit fees in other neighborhoods without first consulting community leaders there.

But Birch pushed back, saying “some things will only happen if they’re applied citywide.”

“I would suggest that this problem may be a serious bother to the residents of other neighborhoods across the city,” he said.

Birch also said commissioners would need to be prepared to take on a wide array of dumpster-providing companies in the region that might fight against new regulations.

“I suspect there’s a dumpster lobby out there,” he said with a twinkle in his eye. Concerns about dumpsters in Georgetown have arisen before. Earlier this year, the office of Ward 2 D.C. Council member Jack Evans began working with the community on potential solutions.

http://www.currentnewspapers.com/admin/uploadfiles/NW%2010-01-2014.pdf

DC Sewage Politricks

Politics at every turn.......

As overflows continue, D.C. plan for sewage tunnels getting messy

Turf battles, firings occur over best way to control flow into city waterways

By Jeffrey Anderson  -  The Washington Times  -  Sunday, June 2, 2013

More than a billion gallons of stormwater and sewage flow into the District of Columbia's rivers every year, and there is a belief that George Hawkins is the man to fix it.
The D.C. Water general manager is a national environmental rock star, a charismatic man — as anyone who has seen him sketch a once-in-a-century infrastructure project on a white board can attest.
He is said to harbor ambitions of someday becoming administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
But with Mr. Hawkins acting in concert with D.C. Water's Chairman of the Board Allen Lew, who also is the D.C. City Administrator, the attempt to open up a 2005 federal consent decree requiring reduced overflows from the city's combined sewer system has gotten messy. The plan is to shift resources away from a three-tunnel project to divert and treat polluted rainwater that flows into the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers and Rock Creek, and into a pilot project to study green alternatives such as rain gardens.
Already, there have been consequences for D.C. officials who questioned the plan, with Mr. Lew exercising a heavy hand in firings and aborted attempts at firings. Meantime, Mr. Hawkins, with the approval of Mr. Lew and Mayor Vincent C. Gray, has quietly negotiated a "Green Infrastructure Partnership Agreement" with the EPA that could shift D.C. Water's financial burdens onto District agencies and taxpayers to support its stormwater projects.
On Monday, Mr. Gray and Mr. Lew will ask the D.C. Council to confirm appointment of the director of the District Department of Environment (DDOE) to the board of D.C. Water. But D.C. Water is supposed to be an independent agency, and DDOE is empowered to regulate stormwater management activities in the District.
Environmental groups see the maneuver as a conflict of interest, and Mr. Gray as willing to manipulate his DDOE director in spite of his regulatory authority in order to gain EPA approval of Hawkins' plan.
They are equally concerned the pilot project will forestall the tunnels in favor of newer technology that is unproven on a citywide scale.
Mr. Hawkins often plays by his own rules, according to those who have observed him up close. In promoting the pilot project, he reportedly bypassed EPA Region 3 Administrator Shawn Garvin and went directly to former EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson, a friend from when the two served as environmental protection officials in New Jersey.
Mr. Hawkins denies bypassing Mr. Garvin — a major "process foul" in EPA parlance — but during a recent two-hour interview he conceded, "We communicate with EPA [headquarters] more than other agencies because they're in D.C. Plus, I know Lisa from New Jersey."
Mr. Hawkins also admits that he kept DDOE — the city's stormwater administrator — out of the EPA discussions until the 11th hour, a decision that would not be possible without Mr. Lew's approval.
"If I had it to do over, I would have involved DDOE earlier and more often," Mr. Hawkins said. "I misjudged that, and should've engaged them early on."
Put D.C. at the forefront
Mr. Hawkins aims to put D.C. at the forefront of the clean rivers movement. Currently the project to reduce stormwater and sewage overflows is funded by D.C. Water, which provides 600,000 residents, 17.8 million annual visitors and 700,000 District employees with water and sewer service.
D.C. Water is spending $1.6 billion to build a tunnel along the Anacostia River to divert those overflows to the Blue Plains Advanced Wastewater Treatment Plant. Mr. Hawkins said D.C. Water will finish that tunnel by 2017, and that by 2025, it will reduce billions of gallons of annual overflows into the city's rivers by 96 percent.
But faced with a 2015 deadline to begin work on the other two tunnels, at an additional cost of $1 billion, he is proposing spending $30 million to $40 million to evaluate the impacts of green roofs, rain gardens, rain barrels and "pervious pavements."
Initially, Mr. Hawkins asked EPA for an 8-year grace period from working on the other two tunnels, but now he says he "mischaracterized" the plan. He says he is asking EPA to give him until 2015 to gain the support of the other necessary federal and local agencies. If he cannot, or fails to meet other benchmarks by 2017 or 2023, then D.C. Water will keep tunneling, he said.
Cities such as St. Louis, Cleveland and Indianapolis are working under similar consent decrees with a combination of tunnels and green methods. Philadelphia has a plan that is almost entirely green.
But environmentalists ask why the District hasn't made more green progress since 2005, and question whether green infrastructure can capture the amount of stormwater that the tunnels can handle.
'International green city'
In 2009, as director of DDOE, Mr. Hawkins spoke before the D.C. Council on the importance of "teamwork" in turning D.C. into a "leading international green city." He supported the Stormwater Management Act, a 2008 law that made DDOE responsible for "monitoring and coordinating the [stormwater] activities of all District agencies, including [D.C. Water]."
In January 2012, however, once Mr. Hawkins became general manager of D.C. Water, his agency argued in an EPA appeal that "the District government cannot impose financial obligations on D.C. Water," and that "DDOE cannot speak for or constrain D.C. Water with respect to [its] obligations…"
That appeal was dismissed, and DDOE still regulates stormwater management, but its status relative to D.C. Water has changed. According to a letter from Mr. Gray to Ms. Jackson, by March 2012, D.C. Water had made "significant progress in its negotiations with EPA to establish a framework that would allow for an exploration of green infrastructure as an alternative to the costly underground tunnels."
This was news to DDOE when, in July, Mr. Garvin notified former DDOE Director Christophe Tulou that a draft green infrastructure partnership agreement with EPA was in the works, according to multiple sources. At Mr. Garvin's — and Mr. Hawkins' — request, Mr. Tulou submitted comments on the draft agreement to the EPA. He was fired in August, purportedly for not getting the mayor's approval prior to submitting the comments, despite having sent them to Mr. Lew, Mr. Hawkins and the mayor's chief of staff, Christopher Murphy.
Mr. Lew would not respond to requests for comment. Mr. Garvin did not return calls. The Gray administration did not respond to questions about its relationship with D.C. Water.
Mr. Tulou was not the only casualty. His special assistant, Barry Weiss, who wrote the Stormwater Management Act, was fired. DDOE's general counsel and deputy general counsel were reprimanded, but only after D.C. Attorney General Irvin Nathan refused requests from Mr. Lew's office that they too be fired, according to multiple sources outside D.C. government.
Environmental advocates took note of the lack of distance between Mr. Hawkins and the Gray administration, embodied in the draft agreement with EPA and two letters to the EPA administrator signed by Mayor Gray — without DDOE's knowledge.
"George Hawkins has everyone under his spell at some level, and the city has consolidated power with D.C. Water with Lew as the chairman of its board," said Chris Weiss, former aide to Council Chairman Phil Mendelson. "The mayor is clearly deferring to Lew, and he doesn't seem to have a problem undermining his own agency heads."
'Fiscally irresponsible'
Mr. Gray's letters to Ms. Jackson, sent without Mr. Garvin's knowledge according to multiple sources, state that "it would be fiscally irresponsible" for D.C. Water to continue spending funds for the Potomac River and Rock Creek underground tunnels without first studying the impacts of green infrastructure.
Neither the Gray administration nor D.C. Water would say who drafted those letters or the green partnership agreement.
In an Aug. 12 letter to Mr. Garvin, environmental groups accused D.C. Water of negotiating a backroom deal with the EPA, and said the 60-day comment period after the proposal is unveiled may not be sufficient. They also question whether Hawkins' plan can meet the consent decree's deadlines, and point out that both the Stormwater Management Act and the 2005 consent decree required them to have undertaken that review by now.
Rebecca Hammer of the Natural Resources Defense Council says Mr. Hawkins' plan is vague, that the city does not have enough land to build green infrastructure on the necessary scale, and that it is underestimating the maintenance such systems will require.
"How do you do it on private property?" she asked.
Mr. Hawkins and Mr. Lew say the maintenance will create jobs. Mr. Hawkins also insists he has found public land in less developed parts of the city that are contributing to toxic runoff into Rock Creek.
But talk of cost is fuzzy. While there exists a notion that green is less expensive than gray infrastructure, Adam Krantz, managing director of government affairs for the National Association of Clean Water Agencies, says this is a misconception. "The idea that green is a cheaper approach is not true," he said.
Mr. Hawkins agreed that the city will be "spending like crazy on these [green] projects," and noted that monthly water bills have gone up by $7 since the tunnel project began. "But we believe we will get more bang for the buck," he said.
Speaking for Mr. Hawkins, the mayor's chief of staff added: "We owe it to the rate payers and, frankly, the environment itself to get more data about the effectiveness and cost of what some have called 'green solutions.' It's a question about effectiveness and whether one approach has more ancillary benefits."
So who will pay for D.C. Water's green pilot project, and any further tunnel plans going forward? The EPA draft agreement states that decision points for the project will weigh "the extent to which District departments will commit to revising capital expenditure plans to prioritize [green infrastructure] retrofits in priority areas" — suggesting costs could shift from D.C. Water to District agencies.
Mr. Hawkins brushed aside such concerns, but confirmed the agreement will be part of the proposed modified consent decree to be approved by EPA and a federal judge. Of the possibility that DDOE and other agencies such as the District Departments of Transportation and Public Works end up paying for his projects while having limited input, he said: "Not if the parties are working well together. I'm not going to be political about it, but I'll explain to any mayor or city administrator why it's important. If anything, the costs will be to D.C. Water and not the other way around."
DDOE's recently appointed director Keith Anderson, who is up for confirmation as D.C. Water's newest board member, said he has not spoken with Mr. Lew — both chairman of that board and, as city administrator, Mr. Anderson's putative boss — or Mr. Hawkins about the role his agency will play. Yet he bristled at the suggestion he could soon be taking orders from Mr. Hawkins. "I'm never going to be working for George Hawkins," Mr. Anderson said. "I regulate D.C. Water, and I work for the mayor."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jun/2/as-overflows-continue-dc-plan-for-sewage-tunnels-g/print/

 

D.C. mayor planning environmental initiative

By Tim Craig, Published: December 12

Hoping to jump-start his legislative agenda while boosting his standing with city progressives, D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray is undertaking an environmental initiative he thinks will one day make the city a national model for clean energy, urban farming, green space and car-free transportation options.

Gray (D), who is heading into his second year as mayor, said he formed his “Sustainable D.C.” initiative to strengthen city efforts to reduce reliance on fossil fuels and lay the foundation for proposals that would revitalize an administration criticized for lack of vision.

Although the details won’t be finalized until spring, the plan could include more solar panels on government buildings, gardens in vacant city lots, new walking and biking trails, storm water retention ponds and turning waste into fuel.

“To lead, we must be bold,” Gray said at a speech recently. “This isn’t about incremental improvement. It’s about leaping beyond the competition.”

But in a city where study groups and comprehensive plans are routine and follow-through less frequent, some activists are skeptical Gray’s initiative will have a substantial impact.

Gwyn Jones, chair of the Washington chapter of the Sierra Club, said the “jury is still out” as to whether the initiative will result in lasting change.

“The devil is in the implementation,” said Jones, noting the 2000 Anacostia Waterfront Initiative has not been fully implemented. “But they have good people involved who seem to really want to make a difference, so our approach is, ‘Let’s play and see what we can get.’ ”

Gray’s proposal comes as many big-city mayors are competing over who can be the greenest. With the federal government and many state legislatures gridlocked over climate change, cities have been on the front lines with new environmental initiatives.

Yet Gray is putting his own touch on the concept. Perhaps better than any other policy effort to date, his efforts highlight his 2010 campaign pledge to seek community input in government decisions.

Former mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) was often criticized for being isolated in his decision-making, but Gray has begun seeking consensus from residents and experts before formally unveiling his plan. And despite early concerns over Gray’s go-slow management style, advocates say his approach makes them feel more connected to the government.

In September, the city launched a Web site where residents could provide suggestions for what should be in the plan.

On Nov. 29, to kick off the second phase of the project, Gray gathered residents and experts to brainstorm, breaking up 400 people into nine working groups dealing with the environment, climate, energy, food, nature, transportation, waste, water and green economy. The groups are expected to report in late February so the administration can produce a draft plan by April.

“It’s got a lot of people energized,” said Michael Barrette, who works at the Environmental Protection Agency but also helps manage the Capitol Hill Energy Co-Op. “The mayor seems to be serious about getting citizen volunteer engagement, so we are really optimistic.”

The Sustainable D.C. Web site has generated hundreds of ideas, including building sports fields on the site of the old RFK Stadium, putting farms inside abandoned buildings, planting more trees, and a citywide ban on the use of Styrofoam and road salt.

Some suggestions seem far-fetched, such as charging a toll to enter the city or creating another “Central Park” in the city, in addition to the Mall. Others appear parochial, such as a suggestion the city remove the asphalt at Brent Elementary in Southeast.

In an interview, Gray said he views the initiative as way to help fulfill his goal of creating more jobs and foreign investment while also rallying a socially-liberal city behind a common goal.

“We have to set our sights high and innovate, but that is exactly how we will win,” he said. “To get there, we need to work together.”

With the city budget still constrained by the recent recession, Gray concedes that some costly initiatives may be out of reach during his administration. Complicating his efforts, the city is nearing its debt limit.

One likely proposal by the Sustainable D.C. energy working group — requiring most buildings to instill solar panels — could cost as much as $7 billion in public and private money over 10 years.

“We are after fundamental change,” said Robert Robinson, a member of the group. He said part of the cost would be offset by tax credits and energy savings.

Washington already is home to the nation’s largest bike-sharing system, 200 LEED-certified buildings and a 5-cent tax on plastic bags, and government experts say the District is well positioned to compete with other cities that lead the pack in sustainability efforts, such as Seattle, Portland, Ore., Denver and Chicago.

“In a weird way, the District, as a state and city, is the most interesting place potentially in America because they have a blending of state authority and local authority,” said Kevin S. McCarty, assistant executive director at the U.S. Conference of Mayors. “The District to me is a bellwether of what is achievable in the absence of any federal involvement.”

D.C. Council member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), author of the city’s bag tax, said Gray should be applauded for engaging the public. But Wells said he is not sure whether Gray has the political appetite to tackle the issue in a major way, which the council member said would require tough decisions on new plans to reduce the number of cars on city streets.

Wells added that Gray will have to change some of his own behavior, saying both the mayor and the council often serve bottled water during meetings.

“What does that tell the public?” Wells asked.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/dc-mayor-planning-environmental-initiative/2011/12/09/gIQAVqAgqO_story_1.html

DC Hemp Politics

D.C.'s Capitol Hemp Stores Raided

Updated: Thursday, 27 Oct 2011, 11:40 PM EDT
Published : Thursday, 27 Oct 2011, 10:56 PM EDT

Maureen Umeh
maureen.umeh@foxtv.com

By MAUREEN UMEH/ myfoxdc

WASHINGTON - The owner of a D.C.'s Capitol Hemp says the police raid of his two stores in Adams Morgan and Chinatown Wednesday night was politically motivated.

Adam Eidinger says his store is being targeted because of his opposition to a proposed luxury hotel development.

Six employees and one customer were arrested and hundreds of thousands of dollars in merchandise was confiscated.

Everyone arrested was eventually released and the charges of possession with intent to distribute, lowered.

Capitol Hemp says sells clothing and food made from hemp, as well as tobacco and accessories.

Eidinger says his business in Adam's Morgan has been open for 4 years. The Chinatown location has been open for two years. He says there have never been any problems or violations.

He says, "I've been told if I speak out against this hotel I might lose my business. I guess yesterday was an attempt top shut me down."

D.C. police haven't said why they raided Capitol Hemp.

Eidinger is one of a growing number of people in Adam's Morgan who are opposed to a proposed 10-story luxury hotel that will be located behind a historic church at Euclid and Champlain Streets.

The developer is set to get $46 million tax abatement.

Eidinger says it's unfair.

He says the community could use a library instead. He and about 10 others staged a protest outside a planning and zoning meeting Thursday night.

"People in this neighborhood feel intimated by this hotel," Eidinger says, "They are ramming it down our throats."

Ward 1 Councilmember, Jim Graham supports the hotel.

He says, "It's not that there's money that's actually being used. We're saying if you open a hotel, you won't have to pay taxes."

Graham says he doesn't believe the raid at Capitol Hemp's two locations had anything to do with the development.

He says it's far from being a done deal.

"There's a lengthy public process, and hopefully the dialogue can be uplifted a little bit".
Eidinger says he will continue to speak out.

He isn't sure what it will mean for him or his business, but he says it's important that someone stand up against what he believes is corporate greed.

Eidinger says, "Our business paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes last year to local government. We're not getting tax breaks. Why is Marriott getting a break? We're sick of this."

http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/news/local/dcs-capital-hemp-stores-raided-102711

For Those Who Have Not Been Paying Attention - Traffic In DC Metro Area Is Horrendous!

D.C. area is No. 1 nationwide in traffic congestion, study says

By Ashley Halsey III, Tuesday, September 27, 12:09 AM

Washington suffers from the worst traffic congestion in the nation, with drivers spending more than three days out of every 365 caught in traffic.

Helped along by a relatively robust economy, the Washington region forged well ahead of perennial rivals Chicago and Los Angeles, which ranked second and third in an extensive study conducted annually by a research group at Texas A&M University.

“This is one of those odd times when bad news is good news,” said Virginia Transportation Secretary Sean T. Connaughton. “The reason we have more congestion is that the Washington region has a very strong economy. I go to other parts of the state and they say they have no transportation problems.”

The 74 hours the average commuter is stuck in traffic each years burn 37 gallons of fuel; the average cost per area driver at the pump and in lost wages comes to $1,495. Local drivers travel bumper to bumper more than twice the national average of 34 hours.

“The biggest change in the commute has been all the construction,” said Darryl Colbert, who has driven into the District from Bowie for 20 years. “A good example is Central Avenue. I used to take that to avoid a backup on Route 50, but now they’ve got steel plates there for the Addison Road construction, and that causes a backup because nobody wants to tear their car up.”

There are efforts underway to create some congestion relief — the Intercounty Connector in Maryland, the Beltway high-occupancy toll lanes and the Metro extension in Virginia and several smaller projects — but officials fear that none of it is enough.

Projections by the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments suggest that without significant investment in highways and transit, congestion could stifle the region’s desire to grow. By 2030, the regional population is estimated to increase by 1.2 million, newcomers drawn by 874,000 new jobs.

Public transit, one possible source of relief, has its own issues. Washington’s deteriorating Metro system is in the midst of a $5 billion capital improvement effort just to increase safety and bring the system into good repair.

Highway advocates see another bridge across the Potomac as critical to improvement. Transit and smart-growth proponents see developing communities around rail and bus hubs that are near job centers as a better choice.

But the next great transportation project hasn’t made it off the drawing boards, given the dismal funding prospects, and nothing so grand as the $2.4 billion Wilson Bridge replacement is likely to come around again.

The annual Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) study of urban congestion shows that Washington drivers spent an average of 84 hours delayed in traffic in the three years prior to the opening of the new Wilson Bridge. The number has dropped to an average of 73 hours in the past three years.

“The problem with the commute is that it’s just so random,” said Jeff Lancaster, who says he’s never sure what to expect between his home in Annapolis and his job in downtown Washington. “I don’t think it’s changed so much. It’s just the same. ”

‘Smoke and mirrors’

Nationally, the prospects for congestion relief seem bleak as federal and state transportation revenue continue to shrivel, much of the current transportation system has outlived its life span and few bold new highway or transit projects are on the horizon.

The U.S. Chamber of Commercehas estimated that an outlay of $222 billion a year is necessary to maintain the surface transportation system. Two funding proposals under discussion in Congress would spend $35 billion or $55.4 billion a year.

“Members of Congress continue to delay action on a new multi-year bill as their constituents idle each day in mind-numbing traffic congestion,” said Pete Ruane, president of the American Road and Transportation Builders Association. “It’s inexcusable.”

Ruane said robust new investment was needed to revive the 60-year-old interstate system, but he acknowledged that the federal gas tax revenues that built it no longer provide enough money to achieve that.

“Traffic congestion is one of the nation’s very real challenges that can’t be solved by budgetary smoke and mirrors,” he said. “To address the problem, the day is coming soon when Congress will have to take the hard vote on increasing the user fee.”

The federal gas tax, set at 18.4 cents a gallon since 1993, has for generations paid the nation’s transportation bills, but the improvement of gas mileage and introduction of hybrids and electric vehicles has cut into that revenue. Now, highway tolls — as evidenced locally by the ICC, HOT lanes and preliminary approval for Virginia to collect them on Interstate 95 — are being considered as an alternative.

The TTI study said that the annual number of hours wasted in traffic would increase to 77 by 2015 and to 81 by 2020.

“The solution mix may be different for each city, but the one thing they all share in common is urgency,” said Tim Lomax, one of the TTI study’s authors. “If we want a strong economy, doing nothing is not a productive option.”

Engines burn money

The TTI report concludes that congestion cost Americans more than $100 billion in 2010, up from $24 billion in 1982 when calculated in 2011 dollars. Engines idling in traffic burned $1.9 billion gallons of gasoline. The researchers projected that the number would increase to 2.5 billion gallons and delays would cost $133 billion by 2015.

Congestion cost the average commuter $750, up from $351 in 1982. And the average time lost to congestion nationwide was 34 hours, up from 14 hours in 1982. Additional delays would drive the cost to $900 by 2015.

Until last year, TTI researchers used traffic volume data provided by the states to calculate congestion in major urban areas. Now they use data compiled by a private firm, INRIX, that places data-gathering devices on millions of trucks, taxis, fleet vehicles and delivery vans. It also offers an iPhone application that provides users with real-time travel information in return for anonymous tracking of the users’ travel.

The other cities on the top 10 most congested list, and the annual number of hours drivers spend caught in traffic are Chicago (71), Los Angeles (64), Houston (57), New York (54), Baltimore (52), San Francisco (50), Denver (49), Boston (47) and Dallas (45).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-area-is-no-1-nationwide-in-traffic-congestion-study-says/2011/09/26/gIQAtzij0K_story.html

Park Slope Brooklyn

Similarities between Park Slope, in Brooklyn, New York, and Columbia Heights, in Washington, DC, are interesting and very real....

'Degentrifying' Park Slope

Former Sloper Luc Sante Has a New Spin on Gentrification

By Lisa Amand | Email the author | May 4, 2011


No question: Park Slope is one of the most magnificent, architecturally and historically rich neighborhoods in the city.

But whether you blame it on the realtors, the residents who shelled out millions for roomy brownstones and limestones, or simply the natural ebb and flow of city life, our neighborhood has changed dramatically in the past few decades. Some people find the neighborhood's gentrification excessive and stifling; others adore the safety and quiet beauty of tree-lined streets, lush parks and turn-of-the-century houses.

So is there any hope of turning the clock back a few decades to more fertile days when artists could afford to live and create here? That question was posed to a group of livewire writers at a PEN World Voices Festival last week titled “Degentrify New York and Give Her Back to the World”.

Luc Sante, the author of "Low Life," who lived in Park Slope from 1992 to 2000, entertained the crowd with suggestions that ranged from holding 24-hour block parties and making lawyers wear clown suits to banning mirrors and giving bed bugs the vote.

Even if Sante's ideas of “pedestrians hugging each other when they pass on the street” or "keeping your door open when home" are too much to ask, everyone agreed that getting to know the folks who live around you can change the vibe of places like Park Slope.

"Talk to your neighbors while sitting on your stoop," said slam poet and professor Tracie Morris. "Hang out in front of your building for one hour a week. If a significant portion of people would do that, the dynamics would change radically."

Among more serious ideas on Sante's list of 50 ways to de-gentrify were rezoning the city so it is more favorable to manufacturing and agriculture, and outlawing plastic bags.

One strong message hard to refute; unplug those gadgets and listen to city sounds and conversation, get out of your comfort zone. Morris, who lives in Carroll Gardens, implored New Yorkers to “stop being so scared of people who look so scary.”

She sees neighborhoods losing their identities as “Park Slope slides into Prospect Heights,” and parents hide behind a shield of trying to “make it safe for our children” instead of making their kids street smart.

When Sante moved to the Slope in the '90s, Fifth Avenue was dramatically different. “It reminded me of Columbus Avenue in the ‘70s,” he said, wistfully, recalling an unpretentious, affordable mix of businesses, from pawnshops to no-frills Chinese eateries. “Now it’s lined with restaurants I can’t even afford.”

As far as empty storefronts, increasingly more common on Seventh Avenue, the audience wondered whether landlords would perhaps let them be used as performance spaces until they find tenants.

The flip side of that, of course, as Morris explained, is how realtors exploit the presence of artists in a neighborhood as a selling point, luring well-heeled customers to places because they're cool, hip and worth every inflated cent. Another tack to take might be raising the cap on rent-stabilized apartments above $2,000, so financially strapped Slopers aren't so easily replaced by those who can pay market rates.

Sloper Antonio Romani, 63, was among the vocal crowd of bloggers, interpretors and activists attending the panel. Romani, who has lived here with his wife, author Martha Cooley, for three years, revels in the safety of the Slope and has no desire to go back in time.

“They tell me that Park Slope was a mess,” he said. “Now you can walk around every hour of the day.” A former high school teacher and bookseller in Italy, Romani compares New York to Paris and sees the future as promising. Among the Brooklyn gems he enjoys, Prospect Park and Community Bookstore.

But whether or not it is possible for Park Slope to “de-gentrify,” Sante has his doubts.

“The trouble is there are awfully nice houses there," he said. "It’s a tough call.”

http://parkslope.patch.com/articles/degentrifying-park-slope

Getting And Getting - Or Fenty/Skinner - The Scam That Keeps Taking

Fenty's tax payer provided pit bull, Mr. Nickles is often more than happy to litigate. Not here though - is Scott Bolden that good of a lawyer? Bolden's comments near the end make me nauseous. Such a f@*&ing liar!

D.C. will pay Fenty friend's company to settle construction suit

By Nikita Stewart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 2, 2010; 11:06 PM

The District has agreed to pay $550,000 to settle a $2.3 million claim by Banneker Ventures, the firm whose city contract to oversee the construction of renovated and new parks and recreation centers was terminated last year in the wake of an ongoing D.C. Council probe.

Banneker, owned by a friend and fraternity brother of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's, argued that it owned the drawings and designs produced by the architects and engineers that the firm hired as subcontractors for the projects.

Although Fenty (D) has repeatedly said the recreation centers and ballfields are on track to be built, there have been delays because Banneker served its subcontractors with "cease and desist" letters in February to prevent them from working with the city agency now managing the projects.

"They had threatened to sue the architects, engineers, because they said their work was intellectual property of Banneker," Attorney General Peter Nickles said in an interview Friday. "There were lots of issues, but now we have a settlement."

The agreement took effect Thursday, when it was signed by Nickles and Adrianne Todman, interim executive director of the D.C. Housing Authority. It comes two weeks before a special council committee expects a briefing from lawyer Robert P. Trout, who is heading the council's independent investigation on a pro bono basis. Trout is reviewing how the contract was handled.

D.C. Council member Harry Thomas Jr. (D-Ward 5), chairman of the Committee on Libraries, Parks and Recreation, said Trout will present an update of the probe but that a final report is not ready. The investigation has been slowed by witnesses who remain reluctant despite subpoenas, he said.

The contracts controversy has been a campaign issue for Fenty, who is in a competitive contest against chief rival D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D) in the Sept. 14 Democratic primary.

Thomas said he is aware that releasing a final report closer to the election could be perceived as politically motivated, but he added that Trout and his staff are trying to be thorough. "What we're trying to do is have true findings as opposed to thinking this is a political witch hunt. We want to do this right," Thomas said.

Omar Karim, owner of Banneker, and Regan Associates, the Virginia-based firm that served as Banneker's consultant, have been heavy contributors to Fenty's campaign. One of Banneker's subcontractors was Liberty Engineering and Design, a firm owned by Sinclair Skinner, another Fenty friend and fraternity brother.

The firm earned about $900,000 on its subcontract, according to testimony Skinner gave before the committee after a Superior Court judge threatened him with a costly fine for failing to appear. Skinner, who is not a licensed engineer, farmed out much of the work to other firms.

He remains a visible volunteer on Fenty's campaign.

Lawyer A. Scott Bolden, who represents Karim and Skinner, called the situation "a legal mess created by others."

"Unfortunately, the unnecessary and unreasonable scrutiny of this D.C. contract is ongoing with the D.C. Council at great expense to my clients and the residents of the District of Columbia, with the real victims being D.C. residents, Banneker and its many subcontractors who worked extremely hard to simply renovate and rebuild several recreation and community centers in the most challenged part of the city," Bolden said in an e-mail Friday.

The council began its investigation in October after learning that the mayor's administration had funneled millions of dollars through the D.C. Housing Authority for the projects. The transfer circumvented a city law requiring the council to vote on contracts exceeding $1 million.

Banneker's initial contract was $4.2 million and allowed the firm to collect a 9 percent markup on some subcontractors it hired for nearly $100 million.

In December, the housing authority and the Fenty administration were criticized for giving Banneker $2.5 million on Christmas Eve for work done by the firm and 12 subcontractors from September through November.

This week's $550,000 settlement is supposed to cover unresolved payments.

Under the agreement, Banneker will get nearly $265,000 within 10 days. Banneker will receive the remaining $285,000 when it can show that it has paid money owed to nine subcontractors, including $11,863 to Liberty.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/02/AR2010070204030.html

More on EPA Stormwater Permit For DC

Action letter about the EPA stormwater permit for DC from DC Greenworks and the DC Environmental Network.

Healthy Rivers Equals Healthy Communities

When I woke up this morning I could hear the rain falling outside my window. It made me
think about the 1.6 billion gallons of polluted stormwater and raw sewage that makes its way into our rivers each year. When it rains, DC's parking lots, streets and rooftops funnel polluted runoff laden with bacteria, trash and toxics into our waters, making them unsafe for fishing and swimming. This is important to me because my work as Executive Director of DC Greenworks involves building green roofs that capture and cleanse rainwater runoff, harvesting it as a resource and creating new, green jobs for our city.

You can join me in taking positive action for clean water and greener, healthier neighborhoods in DC. Let's work together to stem the flow of polluted runoff to the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers and Rock Creek. The opportunity we have for the next month - between now and June 4, 2010 - is to help establish a clean water program with accountability for the District of Columbia.

Tell the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) you want a strong, effective clean water permit for DC - one that promotes healthy rivers and green, healthy communities.

Like other cities and urban counties nationwide, the District of Columbia is required to address polluted runoff with a clean water act permit issued roughly every five years. The EPA has just issued a new "DRAFT" polluted runoff permit to the District, in April, 2010, for the public to review. This permit can help DC to stem the flow of polluted runoff and restore our waters to full health - if it contains specific pollution reduction requirements, with accountability for meeting cleanup targets and deadlines.

Join me in telling EPA you want a strong stormwater permit that promotes healthy rivers and healthy communities. Green roofs, and other green infrastructure projects, are economic drivers that can create new jobs for residents during these hard times.

I know this because my organization is part of a growing movement that is creating new jobs each day focused on restoring our rivers and creeks. Green infrastructure can also help build a vibrant waterfront that will promote livable, walkable, healthy neighborhoods on both sides of the Anacostia River. Green infrastructure can also help the District be a leading green city and help District of Columbia Mayor Fenty reach his stated goals of 40% green roof and tree canopy coverage.

New jobs and healthy communities make this a win-win situation.

Peter Ensign, Executive Director, DC Greenworks

Federal Logic - Stormwater In DC

On one hand the EPA, a federal agency, is requiring DC to take actions about stormwater runoff - on the other hand............ sort of a take with one hand, give with another......... definetely an example of the right hand not talking with the left hand............ or maybe the one hand consciously obstructing the other.....

Feds say they won't pay D.C. for stormwater runoff fees

By: Alana Goodman
Examiner Staff Writer
April 28, 2010

Federal government agencies are refusing to pay fees for new federally mandated District environmental regulations, and D.C. officials say that the expense may be passed on to city residents.

The Environmental Protection Agency took control of stormwater regulations in D.C. last spring, in an effort to help restore the Anacostia River and in response to an executive order by President Obama. Under the new system, the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority changed its fee structure for stormwater runoff, charging landowners by square footage instead of by the number of people who utilize the property.

But several federal agencies have balked at the city's new rules, arguing that they should be exempt from the fees under a law that exempts federal buildings from paying property taxes.

"[B]ased upon our preliminary review, the [stormwater] charges adopted by the District appear to be a tax on property owners," an attorney forthe Government Accountability Office wrote in an April 13 letter to WASA. "Accordingly, we are instructing the Department of Treasury not to make a payment to the District from GAO's appropriations."

The Department of Defense also is refusing to pay up and snubbed the fees as an "impermissible tax on the federal government," a top military official wrote in an April 15 letter to WASA.

WASA denies that the new rate structure represents a property tax. "It's a fee, because it's directly related to a service that is rendered by our agency," WASA spokesman Alan Heymann said.

If the federal government doesn't pay, WASA says the approximate $2 million cost might be passed on to local residents. "The money has to come from someplace, and that someplace is our ratepayers," Heymann said.

D.C. Councilwoman Mary Cheh called the situation "extraordinarily concerning to us all."

"If [the federal agencies] don't pay it, the alternative is to spread it out over the other ratepayers of the district," she said.

WASA officials will be meeting with the GAO to attempt to negotiate on the matter. Other options may include another restructuring of the fee system or legal action.

"We don't want to go to court about it," Cheh said. "But, it may be that we might have to go to court about it."

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Feds-say-they-won_t-pay-D_C_-for-stormwater-runoff-fees-92258154.html

EPA To Require Rainwater Collection In DC

If this goes through as planned, it will mean major changes to Washington, DC, construction practices. I don't quite follow the five year part though - a developer might decide to wait it out especially for a project in the fourth or fifth year of the project.

EPA proposes rainwater-trapping rules for D.C.

By David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 22, 2010; B10

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced plans Wednesday to require "green roofs," rain barrels and other measures that trap runoff at new and redeveloped buildings in the District, making the city a test case for an ambitious effort to stop pollution from flowing into rivers along with the rain.

The EPA's plan, contained in a proposed permit for the District's storm-sewer system, would require developers to trap 90 percent of the water that falls on a plot during a storm.

Water usually hits roofs and parking lots and runs into sewers, carrying trash and chemical pollutants. Under the permit, that water would be filtered naturally, through plants and dirt, or be caught in a receptacle for use watering plants.

If developers cannot make the changes, the EPA proposed, they would be required to pay for projects elsewhere.

The EPA will seek public comment on the plan, which would last five years. If approved, it would mean a major shift in thinking for a city covered in glass, concrete and shingles. EPA officials estimated that some buildings currently might trap 30 percent of rainwater with gardens or landscaping. At sites where the buildings are surrounded only by concrete, the number could be zero.

In the EPA's plan, "you're using water on site as an asset, rather than a waste product," said Jon Capacasa, director of the water protection division of the EPA's mid-Atlantic regional office. He said the changes were part of a larger effort, begun with a presidential order last year, to improve the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. "The local water bodies need these levels of [storm water] control to be healthy," he said.

Capacasa said the plan would make the District's rules on rainwater among the strictest in the country.

In the past few months, Virginia and Maryland have proposed similar measures to trap and filter rainwater. But house builders and other developers said they would add vast new costs to their projects. Virginia shelved its plan, and Maryland made some alterations that developers demanded.

The EPA plan for the District would require developers to trap the first 1.2 inches of rain that falls during a storm (it would require federal buildings to trap the first 1.7 inches). In that way, it is more restrictive than the proposal that was shot down in Virginia, and tougher on redevelopment projects than Maryland's rules are.

A D.C. Building Industries Association official said she could not comment Wednesday because she had not seen the details of the permit. An official with the D.C. government declined to comment for the same reason.

Rainwater is an unlikely sounding, but important, source of pollution for the Chesapeake, bringing down more than 10 percent of the two pollutants that cause "dead zones" downstream. Environmental groups applauded the EPA's proposal Wednesday, saying it would also reduce the amount of mud and garbage washed down during storms.

"Less of that storm water flowing into the river is going to mean less trash," said Brent C. Bolin of the Anacostia Watershed Society. "You'll be able to see the difference."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/21/AR2010042104929.html

Takes Money To Get Money - When Welfare Is Development

D.C. gives H Street developer $5 million tax break

By: Bill Myers
Examiner Staff Writer
March 4, 2010

The D.C. Council has given a multimillion-dollar subsidy to a developer of the gentrifying H Street corridor. Without dissent, the council approved an emergency measure that grants a tax abatement to Steuart Investment Co., owner of the lot at the corner of Third and H Streets Northeast. The tax break is designed to help the Chevy Chase developer build a high-rise building with shopping, restaurants and apartments or condos. Under the law, Steuart's property taxes will be frozen at what it paid in fiscal 2010 for 10 years. The company then will pay a portion of taxes above the fiscal 2010 level through fiscal 2030. The breaks are capped at $5 million -- 7 percent of the project's expected costs.

Third & H Street project

» $67.5 million

» 42,000 square feet of retail, including a multi-story grocery store

» 210 apartments or condos

» Parking garage with up to 270 spaces

A planned grocery store gets its own 10-year tax break, but that isn't capped. In the fall, Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi warned the council against the legislation because the city -- facing nine-figure budget gaps -- can't afford it. The legislation was championed by Councilman Tommy Wells, D-Ward 6, who represents H Street. The Steuart development, he said, "is the linchpin to the revitalization of H Street." "H Street, since the riots of 40 years ago, has been a street noted by chaos, disorder, drug sales," Wells told The Examiner. "The street is really rebounding, but it takes investment and city help." Developers and city planners have been eyeing the H Street area between Third and 15th streets as a potential real estate gold mine as young professionals spill out of Capitol Hill and head north looking for nests. A series of boutiques and high-end restaurants and bars have sprouted on H Street in the past decade, and the city is planning to build a streetcar line there. In related legislation, the council also passed a bill that would allow business owners along H Street to obtain a property tax deferment this year. Wells said the deferments would help compensate owners whose businesses are being hurt by the city's reconstruction efforts on H Street. A similar law was passed last year. Two businesses inquired about the tax deferment, and one applied for it, finance office spokesman David Umansky said.

bmyers@washingtonexaminer.com

DC Property Tax Assessments

While paying taxes is a good thing - taxes can be a pain!

D.C. assessments drop, but some taxes will rise

By Nikita Stewart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, February 27, 2010; B03

District residents will continue to see a drop in their property assessments, but about 22,000 homeowners can expect their yearly tax bills to go up an average $345 because of a new law, tax officials said Friday.

Those property owners have benefited from tax-relief programs, including a homestead deduction and a senior citizen tax break. In some cases, the combination of programs resulted in homeowners paying little or no taxes, said Richie McKeithen, director of real property tax administration in the Office of Tax and Revenue.

The D.C. Council approved legislation last year that requires homeowners to pay on at least 40 percent of a property's assessed value. That will lead to the $345 average increase, McKeithen said.

His office released assessments for tax year 2011 and began mailing tax bills Friday. Property owners will have until April 1 to appeal the assessments.

Overall property assessments, both residential and commercial, declined by 6 percent. Commercial property dropped 10.6 percent, and residential property slumped by 3.7 percent.

Four neighborhoods, all east of the Anacostia River, had double-digit declines in residential assessments. Hillcrest, the Ward 7 neighborhood of council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D) and council member Kwame R. Brown (D-At Large), led the decline at 15.3 percent, followed by Ward 8's Congress Heights (13.2 percent), Ward 7's Deanwood (12.6 percent) and Ward 7's Randle Heights (10.8 percent).

"They got slammed with a lot of foreclosures," McKeithen said. "It's hard to compete . . . when so many houses in foreclosure are on the market."

Council member Yvette M. Alexander (D-Ward 7) noted that the tax office defines the neighborhoods by their core and surrounding communities, so the decline in Hillcrest includes Penn Branch and other areas. "Unemployment is going up. People are losing their jobs. There are really a lot of social factors we need to look at," she said, adding that more education is needed to inform residents that foreclosure is not their only option.

Alexander said the new assessments could provide relief for residents whose tax bills will be lower, but they hurt residents trying to sell.

The new law that sets a 40 percent threshold is a "revenue raiser" but also tries to bring parity to the current tax system, said Ed Lazere, executive director of the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute. Because of the tax breaks, "owners have seen their tax bills go up not at all or at a modest rate," Lazere said. The tax bill "will come as a shock, but it is still relatively low and significantly lower than their neighbors'."

The waning property values differed from the 2010 declines that spread in double digits to wards 1, 4 and 5. Residents of those wards saw their property values slide but at a slower pace, according to the data.

Three neighborhoods, Glover Park and Berkley in Ward 3 and Central in Ward 2, showed small increases. "These are west of the [Rock Creek] park . . . not far from Georgetown. Clearly, the market, the desire to be in these neighborhoods, was strong. As the market rectifies itself, you'll see it in those areas first," McKeithen said.

Commercially, increases and decreases were scattered throughout the city from Anacostia in Ward 8 to Brookland in Ward 5 to Palisades in Ward 2, although the declines were more dramatic than the gains.

"The good news is that we aren't seeing the large decreases of other cities around the country that are at 25 percent," McKeithen said. "Washington, D.C., is still a desirable place because of the influence of the government."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/26/AR2010022605706_pf.html

From DC Department Transportation's Gabe Klein

Transportation chief says bikes, buses are way to go in D.C.

By Lisa Rein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 25, 2010; B01

It was, according to AAA, the worst commute since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Traffic in and out of Washington backed up for hours Feb. 12 on snow-blocked roads that had lost a lane or more. The frustration continued well into last week.

It was a grueling test for the District's young new transportation chief. Furious drivers complained that the city wasn't doing its job. But it wasn't the first time that Gabe Klein had annoyed motorists who thought he should do his job differently.

Rather than promoting driving, as he did previously as an executive for Zipcar, the car-sharing pioneer, Klein has been working to get vehicles off the road.

"Transportation has always been a field held captive by experts and engineers," said Harriet Tregoning, the city's planning director. For 50 years, the goals have been to enhance the road network to allow the largest number of cars. "Now, people have choices, and Gabe is saying, 'How do I get them to buy the things I'm selling?' "

Klein is selling an urban lifestyle that depends less than ever on cars and more on trains, buses, bicycles and walking. He is following the credo of like-minded transportation planners in Portland, Seattle and New York that public transit can revive ailing cities.

Klein is expanding the city's red, dollar-a-ride Circulator bus system beyond tourist destinations and into more neighborhoods. He's promoting car sharing and, with Tregoning's office, said he hopes to build on a bike-sharing pilot program with 1,000 new bicycles and 100 stations.

The changes have rankled drivers.

"There's an overly antagonistic attitude toward motorists right now," said Lon Anderson, public relations director for AAA. Among his beefs with Klein are higher parking meter rates, extending meter enforcement to Saturdays and evenings and a new lane along a portion of 15th Street NW devoted to bicyclists.

Forbes Maner, a lawyer whose street in the Spring Valley neighborhood was not plowed for 10 days after the Feb. 5 blizzard, agrees. He and his neighbors plowed it themselves, leaving some to park where they could -- in the wrong direction on Quebec Street. Last Friday, they were ticketed by a parking enforcement officer.

"People were willing to give the city some slack," Maner said. "But to come out and see that? It was a middle finger in our faces."

A year ago, Klein, the risky choice of Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) to lead the Department of Transportation, a high-profile city agency, had never held a government job, let alone managed a workforce of 1,000.

At 39, he is 15 years younger than some of his top deputies. But that might make the high-metabolism transportation czar a good fit in a city trying to attract people like him.

He assembled a new team devoted to "policy, planning and sustainability," a nod to transit projects he hopes will reduce pollution and cars. The most ambitious is a throwback to the days when streetcars were the city's primary mode of transportation: a 37-mile light rail line powered by overhead wires that would connect H Street, Benning Road NE and Anacostia. Full service is years away, but Klein is trying to fast-track a project he said will act as a catalyst for economic growth.

"There's a lot of things that go into making a city an attractive place to live," Klein said. "You have schools, public safety and high-quality transportation. People are realizing that what we had in our old cities is actually more sustainable than what we have now."

Klein drives his own Smart Car two or three times a week, calling the silver two-seater a "lazy asset." He prefers to walk the eight blocks to the office from his condo in Columbia Heights or ride one of his five bikes, which include a Vespa scooter. He's geek and hippie rolled into one, bag over his shoulder, BlackBerry glued to his ear, wearing rumpled shirts and less-than-perfectly tailored corduroy suits.

The laid-back sartorial style and get-things-done metabolism come from a childhood on a yoga commune in Charlottesville and an entrepreneur father who owned a bike store and sold a form of electric tape he had found in Japan.

After receiving undergraduate and business degrees from Virginia Tech, Klein served as D.C. regional vice president for Zipcar from 2002 to 2006, then co-founded a boutique company that specializes in healthy on-the-go meals sold from green carts around Washington.

Under Klein, the Transportation Department's bureaucracy communicates through Facebook, e-mail and Twitter, updating constituents on snow-clearing operations and new projects.

A new, more transparent Web site was launched Wednesday, with budgets and schedules for every road, bridge and transit project, including those that veer off schedule, along with explanations why. There's a YouTube primer on how to pay the new, high-tech parking meters on U Street, featuring Klein himself.

There was Klein during the snowstorm that had begun the morning of Feb. 5, guarding a downed traffic light on Capitol Hill at 2 a.m. until police arrived. As snow pelted the city again five days later, he took a photo of a huge tree that had crushed a parked van in Columbia Heights after narrowly missing a man shoveling. The image went up on the Transportation Department's Facebook page to warn people of the dangerous conditions.

"Gabe's a consumerist," said D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), chairman of the Public Works and Transportation Committee. "In terms of responding to residents, he's remarkably talented."

Klein acknowledged that higher parking meter rates, now $2 an hour, are designed in part to send drivers a message to change their behavior. "If everybody drives a car all the time, it's not going to be very pleasant," he said.

But he noted that the department, with the help of federal stimulus money, has three-quarters of a billion dollars in road and bridge projects underway, including a rebuilt New York Avenue and a new bridge over 11th Street.

Klein defends his agency's snow-clearing effort, shared with the Department of Public Works. "I think we did a spectacular job, give the forecasts we had to deal with," he said. He acknowledged that the Feb. 12 commute "was bad everywhere. "

"But after three feet of snow, the commute is not going to be normal," he said.

There have been some missteps. The department announced last fall that a budget shortfall would force the closure of the H Street shuttle, a popular express bus downtown, only to restore the service days after a public outcry.

A Circulator route on Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown also met its demise and a quick resurrection with a mayoral news conference.

Klein said he's also learning to negotiate thorny neighborhood politics with a baptism by fire over speed bumps in Chevy Chase. He set a block-by-block standard for installing traffic-slowing devices.

The controversy had a silver lining. It led Klein to set aside up to $3 million for comprehensive studies of 24 neighborhoods to determine whether they need traffic calming, starting with Chevy Chase. He says it's part of the effort to encourage families to move back to the District. If they're worried that their children aren't safe from speeding cars, they will stay away, he said.