But mainly it’s the cuts that the alley has suffered. Back about 15 years ago when Pepco decided to route the electric cables to the alley lights under the “fabric” of the alley, the system was simple. The utility would make the cuts and the repair, and then the city would replace the asphalt patch with a proper repair.
Pepco literally destroyed the alley. Instead of removing and replacing the pavers, crews cut them with a mechanical saw, threw in some asphalt and left.
That was a perfect D.C. system; in addition to notorious non-communication between bureaucracies, neither the utility nor the city had the slightest incentive to finish the job. As a result, the asphalt patch remains, crumbling evidence of an old crime.
But things are better now. Under D.C. Department of Transportation (DoT) Director Dan Tangherlini, utilities have 45 days to repair such damage with a permanent repair or face a fine. Older cuts are simply ignored.
Meanwhile Gessford Court, the alley between 11th and 12th streets between Independence Avenue and C Street S.E., is a thing of beauty. Ir has been restored to its original brick surface, over a concrete base. The surface is smooth enough to rollerblade; the drainage is perfect. Says D.C. DoT public-information man Bill Rice, this is an example of how all D.C. alleys might be. But aren’t.
Rice told of a $16 million “special alley” restoration fund that has started the prodigious task of restoring D.C.’s miles of alleys. Thirteen of them (Gessford is one) have already been restored or are in process. But, adds Rice, “It’s far more expensive than we thought.” Thirteen million dollars is already gone.
Now DOT is trying to find more funding to continue the job; in the meantime, DOT is seeking ways to evaluate which alleys are most deserving. It turns out that “original fabric” is the key. Old D.C. alleys are paved either with the big gray composition pavers, or with yellow or red brick, or more rarely with “boulder round,” naturally rounded river rocks. Modern alleys are paved with concrete.
Rice says the department has cataloged most alleys with photos and is now evaluating which should get repair or restoration. Funding for the program is still a question. On the Hill, the problem is the fabric itself. There are no supplies to replace the alley pavers. And the decision about the appropriate repair is still uncertain, like the fate of my alley.
Baseball’s Fastball
Three locals’ last swing against stadium
Capitol Hill opponents of D.C.’s rush to implant a stadium on the banks of the Anacostia at a huge cost to local taxpayers are grasping at straws. By the time this column appears, a definitive vote may already have been taken.
Haste is the mantra for baseball deal-backers. Big-league baseball has demanded a decision on the Expos’ move to D.C. by Dec. 31.
Meanwhile, a trio of local notables — Ed Lazear, head of the D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute; Chris Weiss, a lobbyist for Friends of the Earth, and John Capozzi, a D.C. Democratic official and Barney Circle neighborhood leader, are doing what they can — with fortune cookies and cushions.
The ad-hoc trio presented Mayor Anthony Williams (D) with fortune cookies on his return from China last month. Inside the cookies were messages like: “Approving baseball at RFK can insure electability” or “He who counts tax money before arrival ends up holding empty purse.”
They set up a website (www.nodctaxesforbaseball.org). They reiterate that a Washington Post poll last Tuesday showed that 69 percent of respondents oppose using public funding for the baseball deal.
What makes these opponents different? They all would like to see baseball in Washington, but they simply can’t understand why the deal can’t be restructured to use the city-owned lands and parking already available at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium by rebuilding RFK, building another stadium near RFK or enlarging RFK, as suggested by former Hill (now Frederick, Md.) architect Alan Fein.
The focus for these opponents is the position of Ward 6 Councilwoman Sharon Ambrose (D). In spite of the entire furor created by Council Chairwoman Linda Cropp’s (D) demand that private financing be considered, it is the votes that count.
Three of the votes for the stadium deal are lame ducks: Kevin Chavous (D-Ward 7), Harold Brazil (D-At Large) and Sandra Allen (D-Ward 8). Jack Evans (D-Ward 2), head of the economic development committee, is a true believer, as is Vincent Orange (D-Ward 5). Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) traded his vote for a $45 million pledge for D.C. libraries.
Lose one vote and the baseball juggernauts will have to go back to the drawing board. Which would not be a bad thing.
Barney circle
Favorite shortcut may become legal
Hill East residents are alarmed by the news that the D.C. Department of Transportation (DoT) is close to making legal one of the commuter’s favorite dodges getting into town: using the “events only” road toward the Robert F. Kennedy Stadium and then taking a sharp left up to Barney Circle and the Hill.
People who have attended one or more of the four meetings that have been held on the subject by the Barney Circle Neighborhood Association are told that D.C. DOT estimates that 5,600 motorists per day now make the illegal trip between the freeway and the Hill neighborhood, using the RFK access road in spite of the risk of tickets, permit points and fines.
But what astounds those meeting habitués is that DOT believes that use of the illegal shortcut will not increase if the route becomes legal. But the lesson of open roads is brutally simple. If it is there, they will use it, and they will use it in droves. Result: more traffic on Pennsylvania Avenue S.E., morning and evening.
Thanks to a new tactic by city agencies, local groups like Barney Circle have lost some of their clout with the mayor’s office. It’s now the practice of the city to set up meetings to air public subjects, sometimes at odd times or on unhandy dates, specifically to be able to make the claim that the public has been fully informed about an issue.
The tactic does not disarm local groups, but it certainly dissolves the potency of their objections.
• Like the Berlin Wall, many of Capitol Police Chief Terrance Gainer’s hated Capitol barricades and car searches have come down. Deserving honor for fighting against this most intrusive and ineffective “security” show are Mayor Anthony Williams (D) and D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D), both of whom fought the virtual shutdown of the Capitol. Insiders say that Gainer got plenty of pressure from irate congressional staffers. ...
• Barry Watch: Former mayor and future Ward 8 Councilman Marion Barry (D) is dealing with a lot of unfavorable comment on his latest comeback to D.C. politics by comparing himself with another controversial politician: “Even Jesus Christ, even he wasn’t universally loved,” Barry said in an interview. ...
• Remember the master business license, one of those stories that flared up like a pile of autumn leaves burning and just as quickly died to nothing? It turns out that most home workers, writers, editors and home-office operations can simply ignore it, according to the latest from D.C. ...
• A deal is working to replace D.C. General with a 300-bed full-service hospital at the old D.C. General site. But don’t start clapping yet — the deal is between the D.C. government and Howard University, not to mention Congress, which must approve it ...
• A few calculations about baseball, now that the Expos are on the verge of selling tickets here, even before the deal is signed and sealed. Let’s see — a good seat will cost $50. For 80 games, that’s $4,000-plus for a single season. For a single seat. Take a date, a spouse, a kid and it becomes $8,000.
Hmmm. ...
• Capitol Hill Hospital, now nearly surrounded by million-dollar spanking-new town houses by Halladay Corp., may itself become a condo convert. Dr. Peter Shin, who owns the large central block of the building at 8th Street and Massachusetts Avenue N.E., wants to sell and says he will find a home for the long-term patients now under treatment there. Plans now include remaking the façade into something “more sympathetic to the neighborhood,” according to the Capitol Hill Restoration Society. |
