Renewal
Dear New Year’s Revelers:
We’ve come to the end of the year and the beginning of the new one.
New Year’s, along with Easter and the vernal equinox, are three annual
days that celebrate renewal and new life. But Easter and the vernal
equinox signal the rebirth of spring, while New Year’s comes in the
dead of winter. It is renewal in the dead season, when trees are barren
and the hardiest grass is dormant and the gardens are desolate. At New
Year’s, the old year exits as an old, long-bearded man carrying the
scythe of time; in fact, he’s often called “Old Man Time” or
“Father Time.” Meanwhile, the new year enters as a newborn baby,
“Baby New Year.” On this day, we slough off the detritus of the dead
old year and express our hope that — no matter how good or bad the
past year has been — the new year will be better.
In democracies, we do the same thing at regular intervals with
politicians. Every two, four, six, or eight years we kick out the
worn-out husks of the politicians we prematurely aged in office, and
replace them with brand-new, fresh faces, thereby renewing our hope for
better things in the future. Well, New Year’s Eve is no time for
cynicism or for blasting hope. So for tonight, let’s go with that —
as Bobby Burns himself might have said, if he wrote English rather than
Scots, “For days of long ago, my dear, for days of long ago, we’ll
take a cup of kindness yet, for days of long ago.”
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Not All Bad
Liz Karch, wizzyliz at Comcast dot net
I visited the Department of Motor Vehicles at C Street this morning
to replace my lost drivers license. I brought only one form of ID -- a
US passport — and no proof of my Social Security Number (the reason
for which still confounds me). The representative at the window
reiterated the requirement of a SSN. Knowing the situation was hopeless,
I tried the line, “It was lost with my wallet. What can I do?” While
preparing myself for the inevitable return visit, much to my delight she
replied, “Seven dollars.” Although I thanked her, she may not have
realized that her service sustained my belief that DC government
employees are not all bad.
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As part of the Fenty Human Services E-Transition Team work, we (the
homelessness working group) held a public meeting at 441 4th Street, NW,
for folks who are currently homeless or who have been homeless. The
purpose of the meeting was to get their suggestions for making the
system work better. Many homeless individuals do not have ID, and this
is problematic when they want to enter a District government building
now that they are 100 percent ID check. The Protective Services Division
of the Office of Property Management was amazingly helpful when asked to
waive the ID check requirement for the meeting. Not only did they
immediately agree with the request, but they followed up immediately
after my first call and gave me numerous phone numbers for the officer
in charge in case there were problems. I have never had such a good
experience with the division and the office, and they deserve public
recognition for their common sense and humane approach!
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Who Gets Hurt?
Ed T Barron, edtb1@macdotcom
Metro’s proposals for fare increases on Metrorail will be extremely
hurtful to those who can least afford a fare increase. Those low income
service workers who travel from outside DC to their jobs in the city
each day and single moms in DC taking their kids to school via Metrorail
will be hit real hard by the proposed increases. It’s a very
regressive fare increase proposal. As for those who can afford the
proposed fare increases, I still maintain that the shortfall in the
Metro system budgets should be made up by increasing the assessments to
DC, Maryland, and Virginia. If any of these three participants refuse to
add to their assessments, then there should be a curtailment of services
to that participant’s area. In other words, if Maryland refuses to up
its contributions to Metro, then there should be a significant cutback
in service to Maryland until it pays its fair share.
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Winter Holiday Trash and Recycling Collection
Schedule
Mary Myers, mary.myers@dc.gov
In observance of New Year’s Day, Monday, January 1, 2007, and the
national day of mourning declared for President Gerald R. Ford’s
funeral on Tuesday, January 2, there will be some changes to Department
of Public Words services this week. On New Year’s Day, the District
government will be observing normal holiday operations. Offices will be
closed and most services suspended. There will be no DPW trash and
recyclables collection and no parking enforcement on that day.
Residential trash and recyclables collection will slide one day for the
remainder of the week citywide, beginning Tuesday.
On Tuesday, January 2, 2007, a national day of mourning, the District
government will again be closed. There will be no DPW parking
enforcement, except as necessary to support security and other
requirements for the former president’s state funeral. However,
residential trash and recyclables will be collected and bulk trash
appointments will be honored on Tuesday. In other words, Monday’s
trash and recyclables should be set out on Tuesday. Additionally, the
Fort Totten Trash Transfer Station will be open for resident drop-offs
from 1 - 5 p.m.
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The changes in DC’s government and Congress’s majority both
present important opportunities for our nation’s capital city to grow
in local and global stature. Here are five New Year’s resolutions for
DC’s movers and shakers, official and self-appointed. Promise to act
as if: 1) DC is our capital city, and the core of a key metro area.
Recognize its unique responsibilities to present the best of what
America can offer in urban living, not just to showcase quirks; 2) DC is
much more than the sum of its residential neighborhoods. Make major
decisions regarding the city’s long-range future with its full range
of functions and features in mind; 3) DC’s physical infrastructure
(including all transportation aspects) is inseparable from regional and
federal objectives. Develop regional and federal perspective,
cooperation, and support; 4) DC’s image is hurt by its bipolar
demographics. Reduce the ranks of the poor who squeeze out the middle
class and small business in favor of the rich, and big,
commuter-staffed, business; 5) Droves of teachers, police, case workers,
and ER doctors cannot offset missing, uneducated, or dysfunctional
parents in raising successful kids. Fix DC’s chickens, better chicks
will follow.
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I just sent this to the DC Green Building Act Task Force, but I
wanted to share it with themail’s readers too, as it is quite relevant
to DC issues. As some readers may know (if they read AP wire stories or
neighborhood newspapers), on December 5 the DC council passed a Green
Building Act that will cover a portion of private sector building by
2012. Here’s what I sent. “For those of you who will be continuing
on the Green Building Advisory Council, I want to make you aware of some
recent developments with both government mandates and rating systems. On
December 13, England mandated a Code for Sustainable Homes for new
homes. It will kick in at the sale of existing homes too. And Beijing
has ordered that all new buildings use just half as much energy as older
buildings. There are some interesting rating systems being developed
that go beyond LEED too. For those of you who missed GreenBuild, or who
went and just couldn’t absorb it all, I’ve included some links to
them as well. Finally, I included a link to Ed Mazria’s Architecture
2030 challenge. It may see us move up some of our own timelines. May you
have an exciting new year full of positive change!”
The Code for Sustainable Homes, launched by the Department for
Communities and Local Government (CLG) on December 13, 2006, set
mandatory performance levels in key areas. From April 2007 the Code for
Sustainable Homes will replace EcoHomes for the assessment of new
housing in England: http://www.breeam.org/code.html.
Beijing has ordered that all new buildings use just half as much energy
as older buildings: http://www.theworld.org/?q=node/4079
- 39k - July 2006. You can open the whole rating system as well as a
two-page summary from this site. Some aspects are still in the works: http://www.cascadiagbc.org/resources/living-buildings/living-building-challenge.
The Natural Step’s LEED Infinity, a construction industry task force
organized by the Oregon Natural Step Network, has been studying how to
apply the Natural Step system conditions in the design, construction and
operation of commercial buildings: http://www.ortns.org/documents/TNSLEEDInfinityAugust06.xls.
I attended the Green Globes for Continual Improvement of Existing
Buildings workshop at Ecobuild here in December and was very impressed
with the results it is already getting in Canada. Getting into the Pilot
Program for the US could enable DC to start achieving significant
savings right away in the places that most of us will continue to live
and work: http://www.greenglobes.com/existing/homeus.asp.
Finally, slowing the growth rate of greenhouse gas emissions and then
reversing it over the next ten years will require immediate action and a
concerted global effort. As Architecture 2030 has shown, buildings are
the major source of demand for energy and materials that produce
byproduct greenhouse gases. Stabilizing emissions in this sector and
then reversing them to acceptable levels is key to keeping global
warming to approximately a degree centigrade (°C) above today’s
level. Read “The 2030 Challenge,” by Ed Mazria, http://www.architecture2030.org/open_letter/index.html.
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Add me to the list, apparently growing, of those who want to turn off
the lights. I cannot think of a more useless and distracting action by
those helping us reduce and address crime and safety issues. How many of
us will be needed to make it a movement. Then we’ll need a song, a
long one, maybe about those of us, like myself, who travel a lot in
other places and keep on pulling over when we see a cruiser with lights
blinking, as we must in all those other places.
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
L’Enfant’s Legacy, January 9
Lauren Searl, lsearl@nbm.org
Tuesday, January 9, 6:30-8:00 p.m., L’Enfant’s Legacy: Public
Open Spaces in Washington, DC, lecture and book signing. Washington is a
dual city composed of the federal core’s monuments and grandeur and
the everyday city’s downtown and neighborhoods - both supported by and
connected with a system of avenues and open spaces. Michael Bednar,
senior professor of architecture at the University of Virginia, will
discuss the parts of Washington tourists may not visit, and how the
system of democratic, public open spaces has served residents during the
two centuries since its inception. After the lecture and during a
reception hosted by the UVA School of Architecture Foundation, he will
sign copies of his book L’Enfant’s Legacy: Public Open Spaces in
Washington, DC (John Hopkins University Press). This lecture is held
in conjunction with the exhibition Washington: Symbol & City, which
will be open for viewing. $12 Museum members and students; $20
nonmembers. At the National Building Museum, 401 F Street, NW, Judiciary
Square stop, Metro Red Line. Prepaid registration required. Register for
events at http://www.nbm.org. Walk-in
registration based on availability.
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DC Public Library Events, January 9
India Young, india.young@dc.gov
Tuesday, January 9 6:30 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial
Library, 901 G Street, NW, Room 307. Photo Archivist Donna Wells will
conduct a workshop on preserving photographs of African American
ancestors. For more information, call 727-1213.
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