Author Archive
Shovel Patrol: Adrian Fenty
Washington City Paper embarked Sunday afternoon upon an SUV-assisted inspection of various notable persons' sidewalks. Did they comply with their civic duty to clear walkways for pedestrians within eight daylight hours after the snowfall ended?
Adrian M. Fenty
Position: mayor of the District of Columbia
Address: 4712 17th St. NW (Crestwood)
Shovel Patrol: Jack Evans
Washington City Paper embarked Sunday afternoon upon an SUV-assisted inspection of various notable persons' sidewalks. Did they comply with their civic duty to clear walkways for pedestrians within eight daylight hours after the snowfall ended?
Jack Evans
Position: Ward 2 councilmember
Address: 3141 P St. NW (Georgetown)
Shovel Patrol: Clark Ray
Washington City Paper embarked Sunday afternoon upon an SUV-assisted inspection of various notable persons' sidewalks. Did they comply with their civic duty to clear walkways for pedestrians within eight daylight hours after the snowfall ended?
Clark Ray
Position: at-large council candidate
Address: 1613 Webster St. NW (Crestwood)
Shovel Patrol: Rahm Emanuel Rosa DeLauro
Washington City Paper embarked yesterday afternoon upon an SUV-assisted inspection of various notable persons' sidewalks. Did they comply with their civic duty to clear walkways for pedestrians within eight daylight hours after the snowfall ended?
Rahm Emanuel/Rosa DeLauro
Position: White House chief of staff/Democratic congresswoman
Address: 816 East Capitol St. NE (Capitol Hill)
Shovel Patrol: Vincent Gray
Washington City Paper embarked yesterday afternoon upon an SUV-assisted inspection of various notable persons' sidewalks. Did they comply with their civic duty to clear walkways for pedestrians within eight daylight hours after the snowfall ended?
Vincent C. Gray
Position: D.C. Council chairman
Address: 2619 Branch Ave. SE (Hillcrest)
Snow Machismo: Loose Lips Daily
As much local politics as humanly possible. Send your tips, releases, stories, events, etc. to lips@washingtoncitypaper.com. And get LL Daily sent straight to your inbox every morning!
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT---'Shovel Patrol'---in which LL checks up on VIP sidewalk compliance; and tweets galore!
Morning all. Has Adrian Fenty snatched snow defeat from the jaws of snow victory? Hizzoner, it seems, is suffering from a self-inflicted case of inflated expectations when it comes to his storm response. Let's rewind to December's weekend blizzard, when Fenty presided over what was by all accounts a fine job clearing city streets ahead of the Monday rush. Another big weekend storm, another triumph, right? Hasn't worked that way---this snow is wetter, heavier, and there's simply more of it. But Fenty on Saturday pledged to have the city 'open for business,' writing a check he could cash only by annoying parents and city employees, who are expected at work even though roads are still a mess, public transportation is spotty at best, and virtually all other major employers are requiring only essential personnel to report. For some insight into why this is so, check Steve Hendrix's front-page WaPo piece examining what LL will call 'snow machismo.' Fueled by Barack Obama's well-worn 'flinty Chicago toughness' line, Fenty has 'seized on a massive snow-removal effort as a way to burnish his credentials as a leader who can get things done,' with 'his aides gleefully point[ing] out that the D.C. government was open Monday while Obama's federal workforce was told to stay home.' So snow removal can indeed be treated an quasi-athletic endeavor, a test of mettle---the feds lost, and D.C. won. Pardon the residents if they don't share your glee, Mr. Mayor.
AFTER THE JUMP---Fenty unaware of actual meaning of 'mens rea'; Smart Car handles well in snow when advanced by heavy plow; city emergency reserve funds are dwindling; Muriel helps fix DCRA mess; Santos to help pick new DCHA chief; DOJ honcho to D.C.'s federal bench?
Shovel Patrol: Dorothy Brizill & Gary Imhoff
Washington City Paper embarked yesterday afternoon upon an SUV-assisted inspection of various notable persons' sidewalks. Did they comply with their civic duty to clear walkways for pedestrians within eight daylight hours after the snowfall ended?
Dorothy Brizill & Gary Imhoff
Position: proprietors, DC Watch
Address: 1327 Girard St. NW (Columbia Heights)
Shovel Patrol: Robert Allbritton
Washington City Paper embarked yesterday afternoon upon an SUV-assisted inspection of various notable persons' sidewalks. Did they comply with their civic duty to clear walkways for pedestrians within eight daylight hours after the snowfall ended?
Robert L. Allbritton
Position: chairman and CEO, Allbritton Communications Inc.
Address: 3124 Q St. NW (Georgetown)
Shovel Patrol: David Catania
Washington City Paper embarked yesterday afternoon upon an SUV-assisted inspection of various notable persons' sidewalks. Did they comply with their civic duty to clear walkways for pedestrians within eight daylight hours after the snowfall ended?
David A. Catania
Position: at-large councilmember
Address: 2122 Newport Place NW (Dupont Circle)
Shovel Patrol: Eleanor Holmes Norton
Washington City Paper embarked yesterday afternoon upon an SUV-assisted inspection of various notable persons' sidewalks. Did they comply with their civic duty to clear walkways for pedestrians within eight daylight hours after the snowfall ended? Here's what we found.
Eleanor Holmes Norton
Position: delegate, U.S. Congress
Address: 10 9th St. SE (Capitol Hill)
Shovel Patrol: Sally Quinn and Ben Bradlee
Washington City Paper embarked yesterday afternoon upon an SUV-assisted inspection of various notable persons' sidewalks. Did they comply with their civic duty to clear walkways for pedestrians within eight daylight hours after the snowfall ended? Here's what we found.
Sally Quinn and Ben Bradlee
Position: Party columnist and former executive editor of the Washington Post, respectively
Address: 3014 N St. NW (Georgetown)
Snow and Politics: Loose Lips Daily
As much local politics as humanly possible. Send your tips, releases, stories, events, etc. to lips@washingtoncitypaper.com. And get LL Daily sent straight to your inbox every morning!
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT---'Kwame Brown 'Seriously Considering' Fenty Challenge'; 'Harry Thomas Jr. to Enjoy Super Bowl, Not Snow Bowl'; 'Snow Homework: Crowdsource Fenty's Campaign Finance Report!'; and tweets galore!
Greetings D.C.! What you thought was a snowstorm this weekend was in fact a political event, perhaps even a campaign event. The prospect of 20-plus inches of snow lit a spark in Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, offering him the opportunity to show city residents, suburban jurisdictions, and even Barack Obama that D.C., with 750 employees and 270 pieces of equipment working 12-hour shifts, could handle it---that the city would be 'open for business' today regardless of what Mother Nature came up with. But was that wishful thinking given a storm of this magnitude, much more crippling than the 16.4 inches we got December? There was some recognition of that fact in the decision late yesterday evening to close the D.C. Public School, hours after it was announced that they would in fact open. That early decision prompted no shortage of rage on blogs, listservs, article comments, and good old-fashioned phone calls. The reversal came hours later. But no quarter was given to the remainder of the District workforce, which was ordered on the job today (albeit an hour late)---even as neighborhood streets stayed clogged, Metro service lagged, and the federal government kept its doors closed. How's that for flint, Obama?
AFTER THE JUMP---Union takes credit for school closings, Rhee says switch was due to 'new information'; Kwame tweets about 'underdogs' and such; WaPo polling shows strong support for gay marriage, medical marijuana, elected AG; Colby King says racial divisions are deeper than Fenty; affording housing dwindles; CoStar makes its move; Doug Duncan to run Metro?
Snow Homework: Crowdsource Fenty’s Campaign Finance Report!
Just in case there's some other D.C. politics dorks looking for some indoors weekend activities, LL proffers this idea: Check out Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's doozy of a campaign finance report!
Courtesy of LL and his proprietary software capable of rendering unreadable OCF reports into easy-to-scan spreadsheets, you can take the raw data and extract all sorts of cool info---much as LL did a year ago. So download the spreadsheet [XLS format] and get a-crunchin'!
So all you data-analysis and visualization nerds, please have a look! What to crunch? Check out this old LL post for some ideas. LL will find some super City Paper swag for y'all.
LL will share the results of his crunching next week.
Harry Thomas Jr. to Enjoy Super Bowl, Not Snow Bowl
While the rest of us enjoy what the District government has deemed "Super Snow Bowl," at least one city leader will be enjoying the plain ol' Super Bowl.
That would be Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr., whom LL reached this afternoon inside a Miami Subs location. That's right---his flight just landed, having left D.C. just before the potentially historic deluge began.
"Got out by the grace of god," Thomas says.
Read More "Harry Thomas Jr. to Enjoy Super Bowl, Not Snow Bowl" »
Kwame Brown ‘Seriously Considering’ Fenty Challenge
At-Large Councilmember Kwame R. Brown appeared this afternoon on WAMU-FM's Kojo Nnamdi Show. He directly addressed a potential challenge to Mayor Adrian M. Fenty:
Read More "Kwame Brown ‘Seriously Considering’ Fenty Challenge" »
