Day: April 30, 2007

Call before you dig event

You can find more information on CGA and its “Call Before you Dig” campaign here: http://www.call811.com/

What: Launch of 811. The 811 “Call Before You Dig” event on the National Mall will formally “launch” the 811 number, mandated by Congress and established by the FCC.

When: Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Where: The National Mall, 3rd Street, NW (between Madison and Jefferson Drives)

Time: 10:00 a.m.

As you may be aware, before beginning any digging project, local DIYers or professional landscapers are required to call Miss Utility to have a crew come out and mark their underground lines. Now, diggers can use a single three-digit number to reach Miss Utility and all other One Call Centers across the country—that number is 811.
Homeowners often make risky assumptions about whether or not they should get their utility lines marked, but every digging job requires a call—even small projects like planting trees and shrubs. Research shows that while 46% of Americans are active diggers who have done or plan to do a digging project at home, only 33% of DIY’ers plan on calling before they dig, which means they are taking a huge risk each time their shovel disturbs the dirt. And failure to call before digging results in more than one unintentional hit per minute, according to CGA research. Hitting an underground line can also lead to injury, penalties, repair costs and expensive and inconvenient service outages.

See PSAs:
60 second TV PSA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHAfC02NEC4
30 second TV PSA: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5G9rhpJLyPM

Stuff catching on fire

What’s going on?
In the wee hours Eastern Market catches fire.
Then this afternoon the Georgetown library catches on fire.
See more at DCFD, and scroll down to the working incidents stories. Also the April 18th shows the fire at the sign shop on New York Ave, and the apartment fire on 6th St.
Eastern Market people, don’t let the city sit on this for years on end. Start planning the rebuild….now! Lest ye have an O Market situation, lotsa planning and pretty architectural drawings, building in stasis.

North Capitol Main Streets event @ the Big Bear

The North Capitol Main Street had a Volunteer Recruitment Happy Hour, but face it, many of us was there cause we wanted into the Bear. Some were there for the free food. Anyway there was a huge crowd packed inside the Big Bear. Big enough that sometimes the easiest way to get from one end to the other was to go out the door, walk outside and make your way to the other.
The crowd was also diverse. Whites, blacks, gays, straights, people with dogs (dogs stayed outside), seniors, babies, and all in between. There were little black girls and little white girls (ages 4-6ish) running around outside, trying to lift each other, while adults warned them about spots where they needed to watch it. There was the trio of middle school aged boys who walked in from somewhere, checking out the scene, scarfing down food and displaying a deep interest in the coffee making machines. There were a couple of babies, they really didn’t do anything ‘cept look cute.
But the main reason for the Bear opening its doors was the North Capitol Main Street org. There were a few speakers who spoke briefly. First was Vicky Leonard Chambers the chair of the volunteer organization. She (I think, I wasn’t taking notes) mentioned that unlike some other Main Street organization, North Cap gets no money from the city and it is completely a volunteer effort (thus the happy hour recruitment). They would like to get funding from the city, but even then the problem is the city hasn’t budgeted a lot to the Main Streets program. Then Elizabeth Price of the NoMa BID spoke, she is new on the job and has no phone, yet. After her a few other NCMS persons spoke and there was a raffle. I left.
Can’t wait till the Bear is open for business.