The Middle Man Is Not Thy Neighbor's Keeper: Members of the affected condo associations—including 555 Mass Ave., City Vista, The Sonata, and Madrigal Lofts—accuse OTR of lazy government, saying collecting taxes is not a condo association's job. "It will force us to be the middle man, the bad guys," says Thais Austin, president of the 555 Mass Ave. association. "If someone doesn't pay their taxes we are going to have to foreclose and be held liable for any additional costs," says Austin. The $120 in extra fees might not seem like much, but associations feel this arrangement could shift the burden "of unpaid [Business Improvement District] taxes by certain individuals to the building’s residents rather than the CID."

Office of Tax and Revenue Simplified: OTR spokesperson Natalie Wilson told City Desk that the goal is to simplify the payment process—for everyone. "The idea was proposed to streamline our processes and minimize administrative costs, where one bill would be generated and one payment accounted for. All parties would have benefited from this streamlined and simplified process," says Wilson. The administrative costs of billing condo owners twice a year reportedly consume some 9 percent of OTR's annual budget.

What's Next?: Condo associations remain the good guy—for now—meaning the change hasn't taken place. The shift would require new legislation. Members of the condo associations have appealed to Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells.

Penn Quarter Living debuts a new column called High Rise Life. The first one is on elevator etiquette. It's not so much a column as bad comment bait of which I am sometimes guilty of. Here's a sampling from PQL's rookie effort on sharing an elevator: "Fob in and offer to push buttons or don’t offer and make sure others belong in the building? Remind neighbors that bicycles and their owners usually ride the freight elevator or zip it? Heel your dog or let him/her sniff around and be friendly? What is good neighborly elevator etiquette?" Fascinating.

Frozen Tropics reports on the breaking news last night concerning the pedestrian hit by a Metrobus in Trinidad. The Post is reporting that the woman has suffered life threatening injuries:

"In Monday's incident, the woman had just gotten off the D-8 Metrobus on Mount Olivet Avenue NE, between Trinidad and Montello avenues. She apparently crossed in front of that bus and then was struck about 6:30 p.m. by another Metrobus traveling in the same direction, Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel said.

Two men who said they witnessed the incident told television stations that the woman was thrown a distance down the street, and appeared to be unconscious after being struck. One of the men said that after the woman was hit, the driver of one of the buses 'got down' and prayed."

The Georgetown Metropolitan answers the question: Just what are Georgetown's boundaries?

Do you want to see pictures of people buying records? Someone posted a bunch of pictures from the DC Record Fair held this past Sunday. We wish we could have been there. Meanwhile....Fair sponsor The Vinyl District is giving away tickets to this week's Gossip show at the 9:30 Club.

The New Teacher On the Block offers their take on the hundreds of teachers laid off last week. In the Rhee vs. Gray fight, the blogger sides with Gray:

"Now, of course, this has resulted in finger-pointing, name calling, and a complete lack of transparency on many people's parts (Standard Operating Procedure for DCPS, really). Rhee blames the City Council for not providing the money required to allow all of these teachers to keep their jobs. City Council member Vincent Gray the DC City Council fired back with a press release accusing Rhee of using the council as a scapegoat in executing her master plan of getting rid of large numbers of DCPS teachers.

In this case, I'm in Gray's corner. The numbers just don't lie. It's just another example of the lack of transparency Rhee feels she is entitled to. When I came here, I thought I liked her: I am among the legions of teachers she's supposedly replacing the entire DC teaching force with and I support a lot of the ideas she proposes. But both her behavior and her attitude are counterproductive and arrogant; since I have been here, she has done nothing but alienate, obfuscate, and out and out lie."