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Random Enqtries
Washington, D.C.
How I hate thee, let me count the ways
I suppose the best place to start would be taxes. They are high, and you get no return on your dollar. The trash is picked up randomly, and I've yet to see a street sweeper since I've moved (7 months and counting). My area, Capitol Hill, is about median as far as services. The Northwest neighboorhoods get slightly better service, and the economically disadvantaged 'hoods get less services, or so I hear. In any case, our trash pickups are random, the roads are a nightmare, and some of the residents have started taking pot shots at the police. I'm from Chicago (I lived in Wicker Park from 1990-1995), so that last item really amazes me.
Speaking of crime, DC is a fine example of the old saw "when guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns." From the gunfire I hear, it's obvious that *somebody* here owns a gun or two, yet legally one can only have a long gun. And that's an ass pain to register. Another good reason to move to Virginia.
I have some particular reasons for wanting to flee to Virginia. Start with my journal on to follow the saga of our next door neighboors and their on-going visits by the DC police
Eleanor Holmes Norton is trying to do something about our taxes, and last I heard, Tom Daschle is getting on the bandwagon. The flat tax calculator is a real revelation. If they pass this, we might stay in DC. At this point, we are planning on fleeing to Virginia for the tax relief.
dc.driving is outright dangerous. I've never seen people drive as aggressively as here, and, as I said, I spent the last 10 years of my life in downtown Chicago. It's not just aggression, it's rudeness. I've stopped using turn signals to change lanes - that just warns them that you want to come over and gives them a chance to keep you from exiting the highway or turning or getting out of the way of the guy behind you that's one foot off your bumper. Driving fast is one thing - this is just plain stupid. You can't even imagine the silliness the abounds if it's (gasp!) snowing. Snow isn't really a novelty here. They get a couple of feet a year, and yet you'd think they'd never seen the stuff before.
If you don't know your geography, you might be interested to know that part of DC is below sea level. It sits in bowl, and was a swamp before it was drained for the first crack at building the governmental seat here. This means that it's humid, it's hot, it doesn't cool off at night, there's tons of mosquitos, and it's humid. Did I mention that it's humid?
Things that don't suck
The George Washington Memorial Parkway
My favorite monument is the Netherlands Carillon. There is scant information about this thing, and no pictures did I find on the Web. It's part of Arlington National Cemetary and it was a donation from the Netherlands. It looks like a really cool piece of modern sclupture, but it's actually a giant musical instrument. There's something at Carrillon, but there's no way for me to link to it. Do a search on the Netherlands Carillon, and there's a small page there and a map.
My neighboors in SE, the Marines, have a page where you can see pictures and descriptions of all their weaponry. Cool. Heh.
The weather is very nice in the spring and fall, and after 29 years of Chicago winters, I think the winter here is damn nice. I wish we got more snow and less ice, but it's the south, and that'll happen.