Perhaps the greatest thrill LL experienced during the inaugural madness wasn’t chatting up Joel Klein at the 9:30 Club, or accosting Ben Affleck at the HuffPo ball, or even sitting yards away from Barack Obama as he was sworn in.

Nope, it just might have been cruising through the Third Street Tunnel on his bike.

Now, LL is aware that said tunnel was the site of much misery on Tuesday, as a holding pen for holders of inaugural tickets denied access to the Capitol grounds (cf. “Purple Tunnel of Doom”). He means not to make light of their suffering.

It’s just that it’s not every day that you get to ride your bike through an underground interstate highway artery and take advantage of a fabulous shortcut across the Mall. LL was prepared to bike as far east as 4th Street NE to get around to the south side of the Hill, where he was supposed to gain access to the ceremony, but he decided to give the tunnel a shot when he passed the Massachusetts Avenue ramp. It cut a good 10 or 15 minutes off his commute.

At the time LL came through, around 8:15 a.m., the lines up to the purple/blue entrances were still rather orderly, and he was able to zip right through. If only he had a video camera to remember the moment…but blogger Nikolas Schiller did! Experience the thrill:

A number of our readers have voiced their displeasure with the Metro Authority’s new bag check policy. Steven Silverman of Flex Your Rights and his army of interns know how you feel, and they’ve got some words of wisdom: “We encourage people to say–clearly, calmly, repectfully–’officer, I do not consent to any searches.’”

Read More “VIDEO: Flex(ing) Your Rights: How to get out of a Metro Search” »

Watch out, area commuters–there’s a do-gooder nonprofit that wants to mess with your route.

The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) has released a list of the country’s Top 10 “Freeways Without Futures.” These are the spots, according to the CNU, where “the opportunity is greatest to stimulate valuable revitalization by replacing aging urban highways with boulevards and other cost-saving urban alternatives.”

In other words: For city dwellers, a better place to live; for drivers, gridlock.

Anyhow, the list is topped by Seattle’s Alaskan Way Viaduct and includes Route 34 in New Haven and Route 81 in Syracuse.

D.C. just barely makes the cut, with its 11th Street bridges and Southeast Freeway. Let CNU take the argument from there:

The Southeast Freeway is a 1.39-mile stretch of freeway running through Washington D.C. built in the late 1960s. It connects Interstate 395 to Interstate 295 at the 11th Street Bridges and was prevented from continuing west due to local opposition at the time. To address congestion and traffic routing problems at the interchange connecting the Southeast/Southwest Freeway and the Anacostia Freeway (I-295) over the Anacostia River, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) began investigating how to reconstruct and reconfigure the interchange at the 11th Street Bridges.

The Concerned Citizens of Eastern Washington, the Capitol Hill Restoration Society, some of whom were involved with the freeway revolt in the 1960s, began investigating the FHWA’s preferred alternative in the Final Environmental Impact Assessment. Working with the transportation engineering firm Smart Mobility, Inc., the Capitol Hill Restoration Society discovered that, while the DC Department of Transportation states that there will not be an increase in capacity, the “preferred alternative … will result in a 50% increase of freeway capacity into central DC, even though this is contrary to the DC Comprehensive Plan.” This project has renewed discussions about improving surface-street and pedestrian connections in the near southeastern section of the district by removing the Southeast Freeway — what the DC Office of Planning refers to as a “formidable psychological barrier.”

Anyone out there want to make the case that this slice of the local highway system is actually a freeway with a splendid future?

That would be Delegate and Republican senatorial candidate Bob Marshall of Prince William County. Today, on WTOP’s Politics Program With Mark Plotkin, Marshall was a guest, and Plotkin asked what he, as the junior senator from Virginia, could do to help Virginia’s notorious transportation problems.

Volunteered Marshall, I’d build I-95 through D.C.

Let’s set aside for a moment that Marshall is proposing building a potentially six-or-more lane freeway through a jurisdiction he would not have been elected to represent. And let’s ignore the billions of dollars it would cost. Maybe even we can forget that such a road would, if not destroy their homes and parkland, disrupt the lives of hundreds of District and Maryland residents for years. And we’ll even forget this would have unproven effects of Virginia traffic. How ’bout the fact the people stopped this more than three decades ago and no credible proposal for an inner-city highway has been proposed in D.C.—or virtually anywhere else in America—since.

The way portrayed it, Marshall said it would simply be a matter of dusting off plans prepared in the early 1970s, and in fact proposed doing so to former Maryland Gov. Parris Glendening and former Mayor Marion Barry some years ago. The excellent Web site Roads to the Future describes what those plans entailed:

If I-95 had been completed according to the original plans, it would have continued from the Center Leg to north of New York Avenue, and it would have junctioned the North Leg of the Inner Loop, turned east, and followed the North Leg, which would have paralleled the New York Avenue corridor, about a block to the north of it. At the B&O Railroad corridor (today’s CSX Transportation), I-95 would have turned northward as the North Central Freeway, following the railroad corridor to beyond the Brookland area, being tunneled (cut and cover) for 3/4 mile from south of Rhode Island Avenue to north of Michigan Avenue, then leaving the railroad corridor at Fort Totten Park, heading northeast into Maryland as the Northeast Freeway, passing west of Hyattsville and College Park before junctioning I-495 at the I-95/I-495 interchange that was completed in 1971. I-95 would have had 10 lanes on the North Leg and North Central Freeway, and 8 lanes on the Northeast Freeway.

Plotkin seemed as taken aback at the idea as LL, and he asked Marshall to confirm that he was in fact proposing pushing a freeway through the middle of residential Washington.

Marshall confirmed he was, “along with a corridor for light rail, correct,” he said.

Oh, light rail (along a corridor already served by Metro’s Red and Green lines)—it’s all good, then, Bob.

I think there was a seventh standing somewhere nearby.

Some smarty has started a petition to get Google Maps to add a “Bike There” feature that would allow those of us on two wheels to get there without ending up on a freeway. (Which is what happened to me when I first moved here and took my scooter on “Pennsylvania Avenue” toward Accokeek. Turns into a freaking highway! But it’s still called “avenue!”) I do ride a bike, too.

Note to so-called sanitation engineers the region over: You’ve got nothing on the City of Alexandria’s Department of Transportation & Environmental Services, Solid Waste Division. Every Thursday morning I watch these monsters of refuse collection fly up my street, leaving it cleaner than Mel Gibson’s urine.

The only guys faster than my garbagemen are the recycling dudes. Check out their speed on this completely non-weird video starring Robbie the Recycling Squirrel. The recycling guys appear to work for Bates Trucking, which must be an awesome company if the City of Alexandria’s partnered with it.

After the recycling dudes sprinted up the street, taking care to clean up bottles and cans that had blown out of our bins the night before, the city fellows arrived, and they took the bundles and bundles of construction debris—which they totally do not have to do—that my neighbors left out.

Alexandria Department of Transportation & Environmental Services, Solid Waste Division: You’re the real deal. Other solid waste departments in this area are a bunch of wusses compared to you.

This doesn’t sound good.

WASA just put out a press release about a possible rupture in a 60-inch sewer line underneath the Anacostia River. The pipe runs from the O Street pumping station on the west bank of the river (near the baseball stadium) down to the Blue Plains treatment plant in the city’s southern corner.

Press release after jump.

UPDATE, 8:12 P.M.: Latest from a WASA release:

The leaking pipeline is one of three that cross the river carrying sewage from WASA’s Main Pumping Station on O Street S.E. to the Blue Plains wastewater treatment plant. The problem was discovered around 2 p.m. Monday by workers who were drilling in the area to stabilize a 40-foot stretch of seawall along the Anacostia waterfront near the Southeast Federal Center.

Tonight, divers will determine the exact nature of the problem. Until repairs can be made, WASA is protecting the river with the installation of a bypass pipeline that will divert the sewage flow to an adjacent pipe.

Read More “More Sewage Than Usual Possibly Leaking Into the Anacostia” »

Two D.C. firefighters were injured when the roof collapsed in a raging fire at 2627 Adams Mill Road, a condo building that was almost certainly destroyed this morning. Things could have gone worse, of course, since no residents were hurt or killed, but things could have decidedly gone better. But don’t worry, folks. Jim Graham is on it.

The councilmember, who lives around the corner at the Ontario, got the call around 2:30 a.m., about an hour after D.C. Fire and EMS got it, and, per his usual, was at the scene shortly thereafter to assess things. By 10 a.m. he was ready to sum up: D.C. has crappy infrastructure. Well, to be fair, he did not say “crappy.” What he said to me this morning was “ancient,” but what he meant is crappy. To fight a four-alarm fire, you need a good amount of water pressure, something the 8- and 12-inch lines running under Adams Morgan can’t really provide. So firefighters were forced to line hose all the way from Connecticut Avenue, where hydrants are hooked into 20-inch lines, across Ellington Bridge, down the length of Calvert Street and around the corner to Adams Mill–some 2,000 feet of hose–which consequently closed all those well-traveled streets, as well as the intersection at 18th and Columbia.

While that was happening, flames powered through the red-tiled roof of the building, which has roughly 30 units, according to Graham. Residents of 2627 Adams Mill and those in the buildings on either side were evacuated; the Red Cross was called in. The two injured firefighters were hit by falling debris and possibly went though roof; at least one, says Graham, had to pass directly through the fire in order to get out. Another one had to climb down two strung-together ladders: The 45-foot one firefighters had on hand wasn’t long enough.

“A four-alarm fire is unusual,” Graham said, “but we have to be prepared for the unusual. This is a warning for us.” Next up: Graham vs. WASA.

Shaw resident and provocateur Ray Milefsky is proposing a solution for how citizens can band together to clean up accumulated trash on city streets. On the Third District community Listserv, he writes: “I am thinking a trip to deliver it to Jack Evans’ and Mayor Fenty’s homes à la Michael Moore would be effective with cameras rolling and posting it on YouTube. The Washington Post seems to like these kinds of stories nowadays.”

Don’t forget TV news, Ray. At least one local news crew seems ready to pick up the trash delivery story. On Thursday, Channel 7 reporter Kris Van Cleave (above) e-mailed Milefsky: “If you go ahead with this plan to ‘relocate’ the debris, I’m pretty sure I can get a camera there. Would you please keep me posted?”

So the city’s suing the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition over their hard-to-remove posters, which they’ve stuck to lampposts, electrical boxes, and other pieces of street furniture. Good for D.C.

A long time ago, as part of a community-service project, I was tasked with cleaning a wall full of similar posters. Lemme tell you, getting that shit off ain’t easy. Wheat paste, or whatever those folks are using, might be water-soluble, but it’s still sticky as hell—especially when you slather the poster with it, which is the only way to get it to stick when you first apply it. But after it sets up and dries, it’s there for good. Getting it off involves getting the posters as wet as possible, then taking a scraper to it an inch or two at a time. And you never get all of it; there’s always residue left over. Sorry, Shep Fairey, but this stuff sucks.

Thing is, what’s a better option? Tape is always a pain in the ass to remove. Tacky gum-like stuff I’m sure would be a disaster. Anyone out there have a better idea for securing posters to public property?

And here’s a question for the city: Why is there no provision requiring removal of signs in public space after a specific amount of time? Political candidates, for instance, are required to remove their signs shortly after any election—why not make that the policy for every sign-poster out there? If that were so, I’m guessing A.N.S.W.E.R. would be a little less liberal (no pun intended…OK, pun intended) with the wheat paste.

In its most recent issue, the InTowner fronts news stories on the deployment of police officers on foot patrols and a neighborhood dustup on P Street NW. Strong editorial decisions, those. Cop deployment and noise problems on commercial corridors are staples for loyal readers of the 38-year-old monthly.

Only the InTowner’s most dedicated readers—and I’m one!—caught the scoop buried deep inside, past the P.L. Wolff editorial, past the crime blotter, and past the community announcements. As it turns out, your quirkiest community rag has dipped into the field of accountability journalism, under the following headline:

“Mayor’s Pledge That Potholes Will be Filled Within 48 Hours Overly Ambitious; Vast Numbers & Weather Conspire to Thwart Good Intentions.”

The story describes how the InTowner set out to test Mayor Adrian Fenty’s promise that potholes registered with the mayor’s call center would be fixed within 48 hours. So the paper got to work, calling in a nasty little crater at a location unspecified in the story. The I team waited 48 hours and the pothole was untouched. DDOT blamed the weather, stating that the street was too wet to handle a pothole repair.

But like any respectable outlet, the InTowner stayed on the story. It called again after getting the excuse from DDOT. This time, the reporter learned that it would take several days more to bang out the street repair. Why? “[W]e were informed that 48 hours is simply an impossible time frame to meet given that this is now ‘pothole season’ and that there are thousands or reports for repairs pending.”

One detail that the InTowner might have noted in its coverage: A March 1 DDOT press release indicates only that the agency “works to fill reported potholes within 48 hours.” A goal, in other words—not a pledge.

What’s the deal with all the antennas and dishes and stuff up on Wisconsin Avenue in Tenleytown? You know, right there by Wilson High School and Fort Reno? And what are all those towers for, anyway? One of ‘em looks like it isn’t even finished.

And it never will be: On March 17, the District agreed to pay the American Tower Corporation $350,000 to demolish the 281-foot base of an unfinished 756-foot HDTV broadcast tower on 41st Street NW between Brandywine and Chesapeake Streets. The agreement was the result of a court battle that has waged since 2000, when the District revoked the building permit soon after construction began due to neighborhood protests.

Yet despite the victory for the Stop the Tower Coalition, the group that led the battle against the tower, the neighborhood east of Wisconsin Avenue in Tenleytown remains a near-forest of transmitters, which broadcast signals for television, AM and FM radio, police and fire radios, and cellular phones. As a result, the area is known in communications circles as “Broadcast Hill.”

Why Tenleytown? Broadcasters and other communications companies build towers at the highest elevations possible to avoid interference. That’s why many skyscrapers have antennas on their roof. And it’s the same reason that Tenleytown—located at one of the highest elevations in the city—is an ideal location for broadcast towers, according to Mike Johnson of the District’s Office of Planning.

The first tower was erected in 1947, when the Western Union Telegraph Company built a concrete tower at 41st Street and Wisconsin Avenue. The tower was part of the nation’s first commercial network of microwave-radio relay stations, which linked the District, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and New York City to relay radio, television, and telegraph signals.

Since Tenley Tower was built, numerous other towers have risen throughout Van Ness and Tenleytown. For instance, WMAL-AM broadcasts from 4400 Jenifer Street NW, and WTTG-TV broadcasts its signals from 5151 Wisconsin Avenue.

Every Monday, the ‘Huh?’ Bub takes your questions. Got one?