Thanks to my lovely girlfriend's thoughtful Valentine's Day Present
D.C.
One of my friends lamented the closing of the Capital City Diner in the District on facebook.
I haven’t been there, and from what the DCist says, it seemed like a nice place. And, for all intents and purposes, I love diners. I have since college — Courtesy Diner, Tiffany’s, Uncle Bill’s — you name the place in St. Louis, diners rule.
This goes to the heart of the “buy local” debate and “big guy vs. little guy” debate. Why do businesses close?
The owner cites rising input costs, which makes sense because of changes in commodity prices. Smaller entities have a harder time weathering those fluctuations than bigger businesses because they lack economy of scale. Often times they also have a harder time competing on price.
Apparently, a Denny’s opened up down the street, and Denny’s had an easier time dealing with rising prices.
In the end, consumers chose Denny’s. People want to blame Denny’s, and frankly, it’s not Denny’s fault — it’s the consumers’ “fault.”
Because at the end of the day, the consumers voted with their dollars and Denny’s won.
(Not to sound like a hater, I hope that they “reformat” and are successful. I don’t wish any ill will on any business because of its size or scope. But we need to be honest who is responsible for closing local favorites — sometimes they are not favorite enough.)
The fabled X2 Bus -- The most thoroughly entertaining bus in WMATA's fleet
I am not a bus person. Let’s face it — I am not a public transportation person. But last night, I took the X2 bus from a stop near work to the H Street Country Club for a co-worker’s birthday party. Never having been there before it was actually pretty nice. The only bus I take with regularity is the 9A, which goes from my house to my girlfriend’s house, but I usually drive.
Simply put, there is no easy way to get to bars on H-Street unless you are driving. If you don’t drive, you take the X2. On a side note, I think that the one good thing Amtrak has going for it, aside from never having made a profit ever, is that they have creative names for their trains. WMATA should employ this tactic. Although, I do not have a name for the X2 just yet. I will have to take it more to get a perfect name for it, but for now I’ll just call it the “Hipster Express.”
My ride to the bar was uneventful, but I got to ride shotgun — which is nice if I want to get thrown through the windshield, given some bus drivers’ track records (aren’t unions great?) Seriously though, riding shotgun this time was fun because it just felt weird.
On the way back, the bus wasn’t nearly as crowded, and it had the added benefit of taking me directly to Gallery Place/Chinatown, a conveniently located but horrible metro station. Before I forget, a woman changed her baby’s diaper next to me, and the whole front of the bus smelled like poop. That was awesome. What added to that ambiance was that the woman’s friend alerted her to the fact that the baby pooped because “boys just get that funny look on their face when they are pooping.”
True enough. Say what you want about our subsidized and inefficient public transportation system, at least fellow customers are entertaining.
I took this walking home a few nights ago.
So, I work in the NOMA district of Washington, D.C. now. The food choices are superior to that of Capitol Hill, and a change of scenery is good. However, I still have to take the metro and make the dreaded transfer at Gallery Place/Chinatown.
If DC’s civil servants standing on street corners did this, then I guess they’d be worth our tax dollars. (It’s like combining money for the arts with a jobs program.)
With my free time these days, I have been watching some education documentaries. Mary and I watched Waiting for Superman, which wasn’t as good as I had been told, but still a decent watch. An even better flick I watched was The Cartel a documentary by former Bloomberg report Bob Bowdon. If you are from New Jersey, you must watch that one.
Because of this, in recent days I have thought a lot about education policy. When flipping the channels this morning, I ended up watching “It’s Academic” on NBC 4. Three teams were competing. In alphabetical order, Anacostia, Wash. DC, Chantilly, Virginia, and Washington-Lee, Virginia.
Who do you suppose won? Who do you suppose did the worst? We’ll get back to that later.
But in the audience was Vince Gray, whom I think is a horrible mayor. Quietly campaigning against former Mayor Adrian Fenty, using the teachers’ unions and stirring up racial resentment against as lighter skinned mayor and a visionary school reformer who happens to be Asian. Everyone in the metro area knows what Vince Gray did. And there he is in the audience, stirring up a visceral reaction in me. Unfortunately, D.C. will continue to kowtow to the teachers’ unions in Rhee’s absence, slowly undoing the good she did during her time there.
Education takes time, so I am going to tell you the results now with this caveat: I don’t blame Anacostia’s third place finish on Mayor Gray. But 10 years from now, I will likely see those D.C. schools not just placing third, but placing dead last with few points, blowout style.
Final Score:
1.) Chantilly -535
2. Washington Lee — 510
3.) Anacostia –455
The real point of this is that it’s sad that this will likely happen, but we know it could have been prevented. School reform is a lot more than “just give them more money.” D.C. is ground zero of doing that. So is New Jersey. If you look at their results, you’ll see that school funding is but a very small cog in the results of performing schools. Most places get more for significantly lower spending levels, except, well, in New Jersey and D.C.
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Today I experienced some very odd traffic. There’s never usually anyone on the roads on a Friday in DC. Here might be one reason, military helicopters doing flyovers the freeway. And yes, I expect my filming it didn’t help things.
Credit to Patrick Gavin from Politico and Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD) for going into the Potomac. I may not agree with the cause, but kudos for doing it. To all you gals in Bikinis who just ran in and didn’t get your hair wet: I’m led to believe that you don’t care about our planet. Pansies.
Love the expletives. Good job, Politico.
Yeah. I watched this because I liked Ana Marie Cox’s writings on Wonkette back in the day. But seriously though? Washington, D.C. is nothing like this for most people under the age of 35. Taking out rent, utilities, taxes, student loans, basic needs like food, most people have between $300 and $1000 to play with a month.
Anyone making under $50,000 who goes to that salon and the Gibson doesn’t deserve $50,000 in salary. I’m all for freedom in your monetary decisions, but those are stupid decisions.
