I don’t know who edits these things, but I’m looking at the graphic for the article about the new influx of registered voters in the District. Precinct 143 looks an awfully like Penn Quarter/ Gallery Place/ Chinablock, not Mt. Vernon Square nor Mt. Vernon Triangle. It’s labeled as Mt. Vernon Square, which isn’t right as the Square is the actual square between 9th & 7th and Mass and NY Aves and points north til N & O Streets. Mt. Vernon Triangle… It’s a new neighborhood name, I have no clue where it’s borders are, southeast of the square. South is Chinatown. You will know Chinatown is Chinatown, not because of it’s Asian populace masquerading as young black fashionistas, but due to the fun Chinese characters on signs as mandated by the city.
Category: Old Blog Posts Reposted
I guess I endorse Fenty
It’s still early, but if the reports from the MVSA meeting reports are anything to go by people are more supportive of Fenty than Gray, or more accurately, people are less enthused by Gray. Apparently Vincent Gray failed to make an appearance at the meeting, which folks were fine with, but the staff member sent was a disaster. The staffer was unfamiliar with MVSq/Shaw and was from Tenlytown. There is no shame in being from Tenlytown. However, know your hoods. Congress Heights is not Anacostia. Brookland is not Brightwood. And Mt. Vernon Square is not some other random part of NW.
Anyway, the staffer was more familiar with Wards 3 and 7. Not so great for a meeting with residents in Ward 2. And it seems there was a fair amount of Fenty bashing from the staffer which was a turn off. One commenter mentioned that the candidate was only as good as the people he has working under him. Considering Rhee comes with Fenty, I guess I endorse Fenty.
Seriously, it doesn’t matter what I think because I’m not a registered Democrat, so I can’t vote for him the in the election that matters. Add to it that I’m even less enthused about the mayoral candidates. It’s like a contest between shyte and crap. For all the things I dislike from the Fenty camp, with the J.F. Cook school for one, I do appreciate the turn around with the school system and the making government a little bit more open and web friendly. But this is not a ringing endorsement or love-fest, Fenty is no longer a bald hot cup of cocoa. He’s just bald. And really campaigning on the fact that one is not Fenty isn’t that great. I’m not Fenty and that wouldn’t qualify me as a candidate. If you can’t stand either write in Jack Evans, just to torture the poor man. Heck write in his name for both mayor and council chair, because if the mayoral contest is bad the one for chair is a choice between unripe fruit and something too rotten to compost.
Dead body on RI Ave median
I don’t know if anyone from the city still reads my blog, but there is a dead cat on the median of the 600 block of Rhode Island Avenue and today is day 2 of its residence.
Yesterday I called the city 311 number to report the beige beastie, as I noticed it before I went to work and saw it unmoved as I was heading home. As of this morning it is still there. Now once again it was one of those slightly frustrating calls, because kitty had the audacity to die on a median, which the operator seemed very unfamiliar with. I found myself defining what was a median. A median, is sometimes a green patch in the middle of a 4+ lane road. It does not have an address. Because the city sometimes bothers mowing said grass, I take it the city owns the land. No it is not in front of a house. The best address I can give is the closest property that bothered to have address numbers that I can make out.
No it is not on the road it is on the median.
Once again the median does not have an address. It is in the middle of Rhode Island Avenue, which I’m not going to define as a ‘freeway’ as you have as I really don’t want to get into defining different kinds of roadways.
Gaaaah!
Well that explains why kids can’t work in DC
My first regular paid job was as a cashier at the Winn-Dixie when I was 16. I had begun searching after reps from Bob Evans presented several openings at a rally at my high school, looking for dishwashers, bussers, and waiters. Several of us, including me, applied, but I wasn’t chosen. That got me dropping applications at the mall, fast food joints, the dollar store, and the grocery store. During the school year I worked 11-20 hours, mostly weekends when the store was busy. Sometimes at night, cleaning the registers.
Anyway, I have always wondered why I don’t see more teenagers working in DC. Well I got a link from DC Lawyers for Youth (DCLY), and their handbook (PDF). Looking at page 12 it says a kid must be at least 14 years old and can’t work more than 8 hours a day. Fine and good. However the work hours are limited for 16-17 year olds in that they can’t work after 10pm, so they can’t close up at a place that closes at 10PM, and those hours appear to be year round. Also, they would need a permit from DCPS to work. When I was growing up we didn’t need no stinkin’ work permit.
So now I see why teenage employment seems to be limited to DC government sponsored summer programs. That and the flood of immigrant and college student labor.
The job I held in high school was good for me. It taught me how to balance work and school, a very useful skill when doing the same thing in college when you really need the money. It also allowed me to work towards a savings goal of a senior European trip, because heaven knows I wasn’t going to get that money from my parents… and college. Lastly, believe it or not I was able to use my 5 years of cashiering experience on resumes for jobs involving customer service. It has appeared in KSAs when showing that I can communicate verbally with a variety of people.