This might be my final installment into the saga that is the life of Captain Melvin Gresham—a D.C. Police Department official who appears to always be in the center of intrigue and controversy. According to his civil-suit complaint filed in June, Gresham is a hero/whistle blower/all-around standup cop. To cop sources, he's a supervisor who [...]
OK, I give up. What's with the bike fixed to the fence at Euclid and Champlain Streets NW? Is it a protest against Christian Science? A demonstration of the little-heralded cantilevering abilities of U-locks? A prank played on a drunk friend? Telllllll meeeeeeeeee.
Last Thursday, Eastern Senior High School's marching band paraded through the streets of Capitol Hill, west to Lincoln Park and then back on East Capitol Street. There was no actual event going on. The band was just practicing.
"Honestly, we do it a lot," says staff band leader James Perry. "A lot of the times, [...]
We've gotten several reports of D.C. police issuing tickets to bicyclists going the wrong way down one-way portions of New Hampshire Avenue NW near the intersection of 16th and U Streets yesterday and this morning.
A bystander took a picture of about 10 cyclists being ticketed north of the intersection at about 9 a.m. this morning:
We've [...]
LL is going to take the departure of D.C. Department of Transportation Director Emeka Moneme as an opportunity to mention a problem that he knows is being solved by Moneme's old agency in a thoughtful and thorough manner but has been such a longstanding menace to LL's quality of life that he feel compelled to [...]
The Washington Post has a nice story today by Paul Schwartzman about the dangers of riding on top of the double-decker buses operated by Open Top Sightseeing—low-hanging tree branches, power lines, etc.
I liked the story even better, though, when I watched it on the WUSA-TV 11 p.m. newscast last Monday:
I'm probably the last person to see this, but I still think it's worth posting. This video provides enough reason for people to use better bike locks (and use them correctly).
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Metro accidentally releases workers' Social Security numbers
Transit agency offers identity theft monitoring services to affected employees
Metro has advised nearly 4,700 past and present employees that their social security numbers were published accidentally on the transit agency’s Web site last month.
The information was posted between June 9 and 25 as part of a solicitation from Metro [...]
In the sad aftermath of Alice Swanson's death, blogs left and right have been awash in comments about the great urban biking vs. urban driving debate, which inevitably drills down to versions of the following claim (from Megan McArdle's Atlantic blog): "if bicyclists want to be respected like other vehicles, they have to obey the [...]
This is a bike-friendly workplace. A lot of CP employees bike to work, or at least keep their bikes in the office. And I think it's safe to say we're all pretty freaked out about Alice Swanson's death.
That tragedy has been discussed, with predictable results, on a lot of blogs. The comments tend to break [...]
The Post reports that a cyclist was killed just north of Dupont Circle this morning. A garbage truck "just ran completely over her," according to D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services spokesperson Alan Etter.
I just got hit by a car. I was biking across Euclid at 16th Street NW, and everything seemed to be in order: I was in the crosswalk, Euclid had a red light, I had a walk signal. Prime crossing time, I thought, dutifully looking both ways. Nevertheless, a bouncy old Cadillac, [...]
Via TheWashCycle, the news (to me; the story's been out for over a month, ouch) that D.C. has for the first time in many years slipped off the list that the lock company Kryptonite keeps of the Top 10 cities with the most bike thefts.
I've got no idea how rigorously the data are parsed over [...]
A local Girl Scouts troop is speaking out against major Nationals advertiser ExxonMobil. According to a press release from The Coalition to Strike Out Exxon:
The Washington Nationals ballpark is the first stadium to be LEED Silver Certified by the U.S. Green Building Council ... Yet the Nationals continue to accept millions of advertising dollars from [...]
Former ANC 5B-10 commissioner Kathy Henderson tends to draw strong reactions from the people she encounters. She's a scrapper, known for throwing all her energy into filing complaints, writing letters and putting politicians on the spot. When she relinquished her seat last year to run for city council, she had her teenage daughter, India, [...]
