exploring washington dc’s back alleys

 back alleys have always been one of those things that fascinated me since i moved to the US. i have started to explore them now with sunday afternoon walks. they are these places where people park their cars, put their trash, but they rarely walk there. most back alleys don’t have names (at least not here in DC). if you look at street maps (like the google maps) you will have a hard time finding them. it does feel a bit strange sometimes walking through them since you will likely be alone, with the odd car coming by or someone from a restaurant dumping some trash through a back door. but at the same time they are a great window into america. … btw google satellite maps are a great way to plan a back alley excursion. other pictures of dc back alleys can be found on my flickr site http://www.flickr.com/photos/20008/sets/72157604318995863/map/ 

what is washington dc’s police doing standing around inside stores?

i went to the new mall in columbia heights today (they have a target, a best buy, and a bed bath and beyond). when i left the best buy there was a police officer in his mpdc uniform standing inside the store, checking the receipts of customers leaving the store (a function that is usually done by store clerks or store security staff). when i left the target a couple of minutes later, there too was a mpdc police officer standing inside the store. the same can be found day-in, day-out at the giant, where a mpdc officer is sitting inside the store nearly all the time. it is not that i am against seeing more police on the streets, but this is not on the streets, this is in stores. these stores are not public space (as a lot of stories about malls and stores recently have shown — with mall visitors not being allowed to make pictures or wear the shirts they like) and therefor should be protected by private security guards if those store deem it necessary to have extra security. mpdc is payed by tax payers and the focus of the force should therefor be on protecting all citizens and not just the goods of a select few companies. if those police officers would stand outside of the stores on the streets, they would be able to provide security to the whole neighborhood as well as ensure that criminals who are targeting the stores would be deterred.  i would be quite interested to know if this is mpdc policy to have police stationed in stores or if maybe these officers are making an extra buck by allowing stores to cut on security cost?  

the district police would make george orwell proud

it is not 1984, and i guess we are not living in a policy state. but sometimes, these days, here in the united states of america it is hard to be sure neither is the case. the current administration has done anything it can to turn 1984 into non-fiction (trying to spy on any communication even between americans, sending even americans into prison camps in some case indefinitely). and for the policy state, well if you walk around nearly any large city in this country you will find police everywhere. today the police here in the nation’s capital, washington dc, has started to use 73 newly installed surveillance cameras (also known as CCTV) all over the city. 

Since August 2006, the city has installed 73 cameras across the city, mostly on utility poles, at a cost of about $4 million. But until recently, officers were using them mainly as an investigative tool — checking the recordings after crimes were committed in hopes of turning up leads and evidence. 

 here is a map of all the locations of the cameras, which according to the police are located in high crime areas. and this is not all, more cameras are planned

Police hope to add about 50 cameras in the next two years and make other upgrades, at an estimated cost of $4.5 million. Of the 73 cameras in neighborhoods, police can get live feeds from 54, officials said. Eventually, they plan to have the capability to get live images from all of the cameras.  

 and these cameras are not just any of those old surveillance cameras according to the post article they have state of the art zooming capabilities, which would be used to zoom into private apartments. some years ago i watched a bbc program about the london experience (where they have half a million cameras). and police there mentioned success stories like this one here in washington dc

Police have directed one arrest from the command center, a drug deal they spotted at a Northwest Washington gas station a few weeks ago. Officers called in vice units that surprised the suspect.  

 but what was an interesting learning from the london experience was that if at all they were able to just address petty crime, never where they able to prevent a serious crime (like murder), in those cases the camera could only be used after the murder had happened. more importantly there was little evidence of the deterrence impact of the cameras. and when they looked at what police officers where monitoring a majority was looking at women and blacks. unlike london washington though has a real crime problem.  and i doubt that these cameras will make a dent in the statistics if there is not going to be a dramatic change in the way the police operates. for example the cameras are located in high-crime areas. what happens if those crime areas move? maybe just around the corner? crime moves, what is a peaceful place today might be a drug deal area tomorrow. you might catch a criminal here and there, but just like speed cameras do not get rid of speeding they just move the crime to another area. that is why successful cities have put police on the street. and most of the police in DC sits usually in their car. just last night is saw a car parked on a side street of harvard street with a police officer sitting inside reading a paper (btw, in that area a drive by shooting happened in halloween with 41 shots being fired and a police officer sitting in a car a block away not hearing the shots). i know it is cold outside, or it might be raining, or it might be humid, but if you want to fight crime you can have police officers sit in their cars, or as they usually do, speed across town with speeds that don’t allow them to see anything going on around them. so safe the $4 million and get officers on the street. let me for once see a couple of police officers stroll down a street like you see them in london. if i can see the same officer in my neighborhood for a couple of weeks in a row, someone who gets to know people and store owners then we will make progress, not when we hang up cameras.  

senator hutchison, please keep your fucking texan hands out of DC politics

as most of us know the supreme court is going to decide on the district of columbia’s right to ban handguns. one of those that is pushing for the legalization of handguns is a senator from texas. senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (oh, yes, she is a republican). she went as far as to introduce the “District of Columbia Personal Protection Act” — at least that is how she calls it. she says she has always had a handgun in her drawer and would like to have the same right while in the District that she has down in texas. now i am fully aware of the extremely high quality of public servants that the great state of texas has provided this country, just take a look at the white house, but this is a senator. not a president. so please ms. hutchison keep your hands out of the district’s business. i don’t care what you do in texas because i couldn’t give two shits about that state, but you were not elected here in the District, and i doubt you would ever get elected here. you can go to texas and shoot and be shot as much as you like, but please care about your own stuff and let us that have to live here care about our things.

this is a decision the district and the people that live here have to make, not you, some third rate senator from the sticks. so, please, pack your stuff (make sure you take all your guns) and go back to where you come from, there you can do what you want.

fare calculator will help with the transition from zones to meters

as those of you who live in DC or visit a lot know, major fenty has finally gotten rid of the zone system that is has and is currently being used in washington dc to define the fare of a cab ride. this year all cabs will have to transition to meters (just like in any other city). obviously not everyone is happy about this change, those most upset are the cab drivers. users of cabs are on the one side happy, because fares will be more transparent, at the same time there is though a bit of uncertainty about how the meter system will impact actual fares. to find out how fares will differ, the washington post has put together a nifty fare calculator.

after testing a couple of routes i know, i have to say i understand why the cab drivers are not that happy, most routs i take are now about $1 cheaper, those that are more expensive are about $1 more expensive, so if you take the route with someone else in the cab then there is already no difference anymore (since in the new system there won’t be a surcharge for extra passengers).

how hard can it be to manage metro trains that run on an 9 minute interval?

this weekend metro (the washington subway system) is announcing delays — as if that is anything new. but the reason that they know they will have delays, unlike the surprise delays that are part of every day life in the nation’s capital, is that for quite some time now they have been planing some renovation of a platform at one of the metro stations. there is even a press release that goes with the delays “Expect Delays over Martin Luther King, Jr. and Presidents Day weekend“. in the press release metro warns customers, who just saw fares increase dramatically, that they should “build 30 minutes of extra travel time into their schedules” … this on rides that a lot of times consist of about 5 minutes of riding and 10 minutes of riding time (a 200% extra, wow). what amazes me most in the press release is the following sentence:

 - All Red Line trains will depart the Shady Grove and Glenmont Metrorail stations every nine minutes.

- All Red Line trains will share one track between the Farragut North and Judiciary Square Metrorail Stations and operate every 18 minutes

- Prior to entering the single track area, the first trains to arrive at the Dupont Circle and Judiciary Square Metrorail stations respectively will hold for at least six minutes, waiting for rail traffic to clear from the opposite direction, and to wait for the following train to be within two minutes of that first train holding. To expedite train traffic, two trains in a row will share the same track and head in the same direction, between Farragut North and Judiciary Square. Those trains will be about two minutes apart. Then two trains will be permitted to head in the opposite direction.

so trains go every 9 minutes, there is one stop where trains will have to use a single platform and they will have to use single tracks to move to and away from that station. i don’t know, but i honestly don’t see why metro is not able to crunch some numbers and create a schedule that will not require a possible 30 minute delay. the distances between judiciary square, metro station and farragut north are minimal. in rush hour trains cover that distance within less than 9 minutes (that includes getting customers on and off the trains). with all train traffic and signaling being computerized a single station being only performing at 50% should lead to no delays especially if trains are running on 9 minutes intervals. this is just one more  example of an american public transportation system that is absolutely poorly managed.

besides this i am just wondering why a metro system that closes down at night is not able to conduct major repair during those off hours — during the week most train lines close at midnight or shortly after and on sundays and public holidays they don’t start until 6.30am.

here is the Washington Post take on this  Weekend Station Repairs Will Slow Metro Service. the story  points out that:

Verizon Center is hosting four sports events Saturday and Monday, some of them likely to be sold out, that will draw tens of thousands of fans, many of whom will take Metro. Verizon Center is at the Gallery Place-Chinatown Station on the Red Line, one stop east of Metro Center.

to people who are not familiar with Washington, Verizon Center is the major indoor sports arena in Washington DC the Wizards, Capitals and Georgetown Hoyas play there. And the stop is one stop away on the red line that is expected to have 30 minute delays. Also, just to add insult to injury i guess here is what the post article quotes the spokesman of metro about these delays:

“They should bring a good book, and patience, while riding the rail system this weekend,” Metro spokesman Steven Taubenkibel said.

oh, thanks steven … very helpful. way don’t you guys get off your buts and work for a change.

in case you wonder what those washington metro fare hikes get you

yesterday evening (thursday at 9.05pm) i needed to take the metro (the red line) and when i got to the platform this is what the sign said was the wait for the next train:

so yes, 14 minute waits for quite substantial fare hikes. oh and at the same time metro has also reduced the number to cars per train making it even more crowded.

you might think that was an abnormality, well tonight (a friday evening) i tried to also take a red line at 8.45pm, which is not that late, and the wait was 15 minutes.

so thank you metro for this amazing service.  i have to say that mexico city had a way more efficient underground service that the one here in DC (the capital of the so called richest nation on the globe).

update on metro fare increase in washington dc — higher fares, even more problems

so yesterday was the first work-day with the new increased fares. and i guess metro thought that they would have to do something special, to celebrate this new ridiculous fare hike by fucking up even more than usual. red-line delays are nothing strange. in a way a day without red-line delays is a surprise. getting into an even just full red-line car during rush-hour is a miracle, but there is usually some kind of delay which makes it impossible to get in, but that is nothing new.  taking the yellow line from the airport to columbia hights (via the green line) though added an additional fuck-up. i had to wait 15 minutes at the archive stop (in the midst of rush hour) because of a train that was out of service at gallery place.  in addition to that the washington post also reported fare charging problems on the buses:

For some Metrobus riders, the new fare system brought an extra unwelcome surprise. A computer programming glitch caused bus riders paying with electronic SmarTrip cards to be overcharged when transferring to other buses and from the rail system. Bus-to-bus transfers within two hours are supposed to be free, and rail-to-bus transfers are supposed to be 35 cents. But passengers using their SmarTrip cards were being charged the full bus fare of $1.25, officials said. 

 another interesting part of that story is that riders already are thinking about switching back to using their cars because of these insane fare increases:

“I would hope that with this increase, they’re able to manage their budget better and increase service levels,” said Steve Lott, 31, a communications executive from Fairfax, who rides from Vienna to Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter on the Orange Line. Lott said he has been riding Metro for 10 years, and the last year was his worst as a rider. “I guess I’m going to give it six months, to see if service improves.” 

 and:

Dawn Morehouse, 37, who commutes from Silver Spring to Farragut North on the Red Line, said she would prefer taking the train, but she is going to try driving for the next two weeks to see “how it works out financially and mentally.” Her employer, Oracle, provides free parking. 

 exactly what we need … more people using cars. 

washington dc metro system increases fares in a move to get people back into their cars

in what can only described as an insane decision the washington dc public transport system (metro) has increased its prices. the washington post describes the fare increases as Historic Increases In Fees and Fares. the fare increases depend on distance. according to the post impact of the increase varies: 

Subway riders who park and travel longer distances during rush hour will be hardest hit, paying as much as 75 cents more per trip, or up to $2.25 more a day when the 75-cent increase for daily parking is factored in.That means someone who parks at theRockville Metrorail lot and rides to Metro Center during rush hour would have a daily commuting cost of $13.65, up from $11.40.Park-and-riders who travel longer distances during rush hour are looking at an additional $11.25 a week, or $585 a year, in commuting costs. Such trips include Vienna/Fairfax-GMU to L’Enfant Plaza on the Orange Line, Greenbelt to Pentagon City on the Green and Yellow lines, and Largo Town Center to Court House on the Blue and Orange lines.   

while i think that people who live in the city should not subsidize metro rides for suburbanites, i think that from an congestion and environmental point this fare increase (that especially hits people with long commutes) makes absolutely no sense. if at all prices of public transportation systems should be reduced. people should be moved from the road to the train, not the other way. a problem washington dc is facing here is that most of these metro users are in different states, but what should happen is that gas should be taxed higher with the profits subsidizing public transportation.