Saturday morning, when I get the Sunday inserts in the Post I quickly pulled out the parts I read and save the rest for my aunt who want the coupons and sales papers. Anyway I pull out the magazine section and said aloud “Why is Steve on the cover?”
Apparently whenever the Post does a feature on the Washington DC swing dance scene I know at least one person in the photo. Gad, this is a small town. But the Post did me a great service in explaining something about a most wonderful dancer that at first I was too embarrassed to ask about and later didn’t care about. Of course, I kinda miffed, Steve never dipped me.
Later I get an e-mail from an InShaw reader about a Post article regarding 9th Street and the Carter G. Woodson house. Maybe that section of the block might get better now that it is in the hands of the National Park Service. Would be interesting to see how it matches up (or pairs) with the Mary McLeod-Bethune house over on 1318 Vermont Ave, also in Shaw.
Lastly, in Friday’s paper there was an article on the income gap between DC’s upper income and lower income folks. One thing that caught my eye in the article was this:
Lazere cited the city’s statistics showing that most workers in the D.C. Convention Center are not city residents. “Most of these jobs don’t require a college degree, and they are stable, with decent wages,” he said. “We’re spending city resources to create jobs and then not even ensuring they go to D.C. residents who need them.”
Ah the beauty of the DC metro area. Work in one state or district, live in another. Also even if you have rules stating you have to hire District residents, there is no rule I know of that says they have to remain district residents throughout their career.
Speaking of living outside DC… I’m looking forward to the Commuter Tax showdown. NPR was talking about this morning and apparently DC claims to be shorted by something like $500M to $1B by workers that live out of DC but earn money in the district. Strong argument that they use the services and infrastructure as much as the next guy, yet pay no taxes.
Sounds like the Supreme Court will probably prevent the Commuter Tax from becoming a reality. However, the commentator on NPR pointed out that many are arguing for the Fed Gov’t to buck up about $800M, per Eleanor Norton’s request, to close the gap.
Fat chance of that happening, but we can dream.
I used to see Steve around when I used to swing dance (he goes to a lot of events).
I am not really sure what the point of the article was though. He seems like a nice guy and has obviously been through a lot, but the article seemed kind of patronizing to me.
And there should be a special place in hell for the a-holes described in the article who laugh and point when they see him.
The rest of the block where the Woodson house is owned by Shiloh (as you may know). It is up to them for the rest of the block to get better.
Hey Truxtonian-
I thought I was the only one looking forward to the “Commuter Tax” showdown. It’s so unfair that the District is not allowed to do what any other municipality in these United States can –levy a commuter tax if it so chooses.