Wood Riddance
The glorious sight of the Capitol dome from the upper reaches of North Capitol Street has gotten somewhat less obstructed as of late, thanks to the more than mile-and-a-half of dying trees now rotting in the median.
“It’s a pretty appalling sight,” says Joseph Martin, a local advisory neighborhood commissioner. Martin was excited to see the dogwoods and magnolias planted between Michigan Avenue and Allison Street in March as part of North Capitol Street’s recent rehabilitation but has watched the lush greenery wilt without water in the crushing summer heat. “Obviously a fortune went into putting the trees in,” he says.
Mike Larson of the Petworth Garden Club says that he and other local green thumbs are usually more than to happy to help water and care for trees located in public areas. But he says tending to North Capitol’s median is above and beyond the neighborhood’s duty. “Public safety-wise, it’s darn crazy to expect residents to stand in the middle of the busy road,” he says.
Erik Linden, spokesperson for the D.C. Department of Transportation, says that the 120 trees were planted with public safety in mind—other metropolitan areas have found that foliage reduces traffic accidents. However, Linden says, “in the city environment, the heat and exhaust of the median strip is too much.”
But Linden says Martin and others worried about government waste shouldn’t be concerned about the cost of replacing the dead trees—under the city’s contracts with nurseries, trees, in essence, come with warranties. “If the tree doesn’t make it in the first year, we get another tree in return,” Linden says. Labor costs are included, and the trees don’t even have to be planted in the same place. “This is an example of where we would plant elsewhere,” he says.
September 1st, 2006 at 10:05 pm
Trees dies all over DC this dry summer. Replacing those trees on the N Cap median should be a priority.
It’s understandable that residents are unable to use their own water and equipment to care for median trees, especially on such a busy street. Even if possible, this would be a dangerous task, especially considering that new trees need to be watered each week during hot summer months.
In the hard to water medians of our prominent and heavily trafficed streets and avenues, the city must be creative. DC might want to think about installing irregation or, perhaps, some sort of water concervation/consentration mechanisms, such as rain gardens.
September 2nd, 2006 at 2:33 pm
Ward 3 Candidate Cheh Wants To Raise Your Taxes & Has Begun A Smear Campaign Against All Her Rivals
George Washington University Law Professor Mary Cheh Tuesday called
for an increase in taxes at a candidates’ forum.
Cheh, a candidate for the Ward 3 seat on the city council, said she
favored raising taxes to get “new real money” in answer to questions
about how to fund programs for the homeless.
Bill Rice immediately responded: “I will not vote to raise taxes. I
will use the Council’s oversight authority to find the needed funds
from wasteful, inefficient spending, such as from the property
management office as well as from other areas of the current D.C.
budget.”
Added Rice, “We should fund these needs with current revenues.
Uncontrolled, irresponsible spending is what led us to the financial
crisis of the mid-1990s and the imposition of the Control Broad by
Congress. We spend more per capita than most big cities. Our problem
is not lack of money, it’s lack of accountability.”
Cheh’s suggestion that the recordation and transfer tax be increased
would impose an additional burden on top of a $2,500 increase set to
be implemented October 1st on the cost of a typical Ward 3 home.
Rice will be a full-time councilmember, committed to fixing our
public schools and keeping our budget balanced. He recently resigned
after six years as spokesperson for the District Department of
Transportation where he was well-known for being accessible.
The forum was sponsored by the Community Council for the Homeless at
Friendship Place and Friendship Place Partners and was held at
Metropolitan Memorial United Methodist Church at the intersection of
New Mexico and Nebraska Avenues.
Mary Cheh’s campaign manager Anne Marie Baristow and many of Cheh’s
supporters using a wide variety of names like JoyceMarie2008, Joe
Kerr DC and others have attacked Cathy Wiss, Paul Strauss, Bill Rice
and myself from their homes and also off the PN Hoffman Server where
Cheh is renting space from PN Hoffman Company and appears to be
plugging their computers into the PN Hoffman network.
Baristow and two others are using a laptop when they have posted
their attacks.
Mary Chen and her supporters are attacking her rivals on many of the
Yahoo list servers!!!!
Why?
X-Sender: bairstow@…
X-Apparently-To: tenleytown@yahoogroups.com
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0000
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September 2nd, 2006 at 2:33 pm
Ward 3 Candidate Cheh Wants To Raise Your Taxes & Has Begun A Smear Campaign Against All Her Rivals
George Washington University Law Professor Mary Cheh Tuesday called
for an increase in taxes at a candidates’ forum.
Cheh, a candidate for the Ward 3 seat on the city council, said she
favored raising taxes to get “new real money” in answer to questions
about how to fund programs for the homeless.
Bill Rice immediately responded: “I will not vote to raise taxes. I
will use the Council’s oversight authority to find the needed funds
from wasteful, inefficient spending, such as from the property
management office as well as from other areas of the current D.C.
budget.”
Added Rice, “We should fund these needs with current revenues.
Uncontrolled, irresponsible spending is what led us to the financial
crisis of the mid-1990s and the imposition of the Control Broad by
Congress. We spend more per capita than most big cities. Our problem
is not lack of money, it’s lack of accountability.”
Cheh’s suggestion that the recordation and transfer tax be increased
would impose an additional burden on top of a $2,500 increase set to
be implemented October 1st on the cost of a typical Ward 3 home.
Rice will be a full-time councilmember, committed to fixing our
public schools and keeping our budget balanced. He recently resigned
after six years as spokesperson for the District Department of
Transportation where he was well-known for being accessible.
The forum was sponsored by the Community Council for the Homeless at
Friendship Place and Friendship Place Partners and was held at
Metropolitan Memorial United Methodist Church at the intersection of
New Mexico and Nebraska Avenues.
Mary Cheh’s campaign manager Anne Marie Baristow and many of Cheh’s
supporters using a wide variety of names like JoyceMarie2008, Joe
Kerr DC and others have attacked Cathy Wiss, Paul Strauss, Bill Rice
and myself from their homes and also off the PN Hoffman Server where
Cheh is renting space from PN Hoffman Company and appears to be
plugging their computers into the PN Hoffman network.
Baristow and two others are using a laptop when they have posted
their attacks.
Mary Chen and her supporters are attacking her rivals on many of the
Yahoo list servers!!!!
Why?
X-Sender: bairstow@…
X-Apparently-To: tenleytown@yahoogroups.com
Received: (qmail 39545 invoked from network); 29 Aug 2006 17:27:05 -
0000
Received: from unknown (66.218.66.217)
by m38.grp.scd.yahoo.com with QMQP; 29 Aug 2006 17:27:05 -0000
Received: from unknown (HELO alnrmhc11.comcast.net) (206.18.177.54)
by mta2.grp.scd.yahoo.com with SMTP; 29 Aug 2006 17:27:05 -0000
Received: from amlaptop (exchange.pnhoffman.com[209.249.238.50])
X-Sender: Joe_Kerr_DC@
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0000
Received: from unknown (66.218.66.217)
by m38.grp.scd.yahoo.com with QMQP; 21 Aug 2006 09:15:07 -0000
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September 2nd, 2006 at 3:14 pm
WASHINGTON POST ENDORSES VINCENT GRAY OVER KATHY PATTERSON
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/01/AR2006090101423.html
September 2nd, 2006 at 7:03 pm
QUALIFICATIONS TO HOLD PUBLIC OFFICE IN DC
1. You must have killed or beaten your former spouse;
2. Been on or are on probation;
3. Snorted half of Peru;
4. Refer to every woman you don’t like as “bitch”;
5. After getting robbed by your drug dealer tell the cops that you don’t know who held you up; and
6. Quietly being treated for genital herpes.
Geez who does that sound like?
A. Adrian Fenty
B. Marion Barry
C. All of the Above
D. None of the Above
E. Chief Ramsey
September 2nd, 2006 at 10:01 pm
THE TRUTH ABOUT KATHY PATTERSON
Kathy Patterson is one of the few council members who does not have an outside job, but is also one of the council members who has spent more time working at home and not down at the John Wilson Building.
Also, Kathy Patterson is rarely seen in public unlike her colleagues.
I think the reason is summed up in the following story.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/hsn/20060901/hl_hsn/bipolardisordertakesheavytollonworkplace
September 2nd, 2006 at 11:12 pm
I SEE DUMB PEOPLE
http://www.partylinegaga.com/images/Humor/Forum/dumb_people.jpg
September 3rd, 2006 at 1:17 am
Y’know, I used to think the rumors about Rees’ mental health, or more properly the lack thereof, where just that - rumors spread out of malice.
The more he posts, the more the rumors begin to seem like an accurate diagnosis.
Mr. Rees, surely you’re lucid enough to realize how badly your posts reflect on you? They’re weird and filled with unsupported accusations and if I may say, just plain crazy.
September 3rd, 2006 at 11:31 am
Oh, pleeeze! Rees is like a gnat. Everyone knows about Rees and his antics. His own Yahoo Profile (Rees must have lost the password to this profile, otherwise he would have deleted it) says it all:
http://profiles.yahoo.com/jrrees_1955
But, wait! There’s more about Rees that anyone can read and evaluate for themselves. Here are two quick links:
http://www.dcist.com/archives/2006/02/13/professionalism.php
http://dceiver.blogspot.com/2005/11/ward-3-more-like-psycho-ward-jonathan.html
September 3rd, 2006 at 6:34 pm
I do not think Rees created that vulgar profile about himself but somebody else did because he surely would want to rid such and since it is still up, I am convinced somebodt else did it.
Rees is not crazy but loves making others crazy and he is succeeding!
September 3rd, 2006 at 8:30 pm
No, Rees is definitely crazy. A friend of mine was tangentially involved in his divorce/restraining order case a few years ago.
The court psychiatrist called in to evaluate him would (and did) agree. Allegedly ;-)
It’s sad, really, but I wish he wasn’t such a weird nuisance.
September 3rd, 2006 at 10:15 pm
Rees clearly created that Yahoo ID long before considering entry into politics. He clearly forgot the password.
What a slimeball.
September 4th, 2006 at 1:57 am
Someone posted this on a Ward3 group today, a partial list of OTHER people Rees has accused of online smear campaigns:
Melvin Belcher. Our own Nelson Jacobson. Fred Vinson. Shannon
Hughes. John Capozzi. Bill Alder. Suzanne Jackson. Eric Marshall.
Bob Summersgill. Martin Austermeuhle. Sam Brooks.
Here are links to just a few of the posts in which he lodges the accusations. More to come, for sure.
http://www.dcmessageboards.com/index.php?showtopic=7090
http://www.dcmessageboards.com/index.php?showtopic=7394
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tenleytown/message/3622?viscount=100
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gloverpark/message/442
http://www.dcmessageboards.com/index.php?showtopic=7760
Someone’s a little paranoid, apparently. ;-)
September 4th, 2006 at 8:50 pm
Mary Cheh…..Council Membership Is Not a Part-time Job!
Ed T. Barron, edtb@macdotcom
Mary Cheh defends her position that she can continue teaching at GWU is she is elected as the Ward 3 councilmember. That means she
considers the council seat as just another part-time job. Part-time is
not what I want from my Ward 3 councilmember. We already saw what
happened to the two empty suits who treated their council seats as a mere part-time place to show off. They got dumped in the last election and were replaced with dedicated and hard working (full time)councilmembers.
September 4th, 2006 at 8:55 pm
I LOVE REES
Why? Because it is nice to see that there are a few people out there who are not phony and not afraid to tell the phonies off!
Here is a classic insult Rees posted today!!
I want to be just like Dr. Melvin Blecher because
I want to live in the shadows of a wife who is far more successful
than I could ever be.
I want to live in the shadows of a wife who is far more liked than me.
I want to live in the shadows of a wife who makes far more money than
me.
I want to live in the shadows of a wife who has not pissed off most
everybody in her profession or in the community
Yes, I want to be a freak of the community like Dr. Melvin Blecher so
I too can stay home all day, live off my wife and spend all day
annoying people over the internet to cover up the fact that I am
Mickey Mouse in all that I ever did and have my head so far up my ass
I cannot see how unmanly I live in the shadows of a wife who is all I
could never be.
———————
As insulting as the foregoing is and if you know Doc Blecher, it is unfortunately true what Rees says about him.
Ouch Rees just kicked Doc Blecher in his nuts that’s if his wife has not already cut those off.
September 4th, 2006 at 9:31 pm
The above post is obviously from Rees.
He’s always posting as if he were someone else. And as if no one could tell.
What an assclown.
September 4th, 2006 at 9:32 pm
It’s TOTALLY from Rees!
I caught THREE of the “Eight Ways” in that post!
hee hee
September 4th, 2006 at 9:49 pm
Anyone who wants some humor will check out the spew of information coming from the esteemed candidate on the Ward3dc Yahoo Group over the last 48 hours.
September 4th, 2006 at 10:04 pm
Ohmigod. He’s a RIOT! He can’t possibly think anyone’s buying what he’s posting there, can he?
He’s either the funniest guy in the world, in an Andy Kauffman kind of way, or a total mental case.
September 5th, 2006 at 6:41 am
Best political brochure of 2006!
http://www.angelfire.com/crazy/sambrooks/Brooks.JPG
September 19th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
and oh i with my girl who i though was my worl. Liana Merete.