Posted by Jon Renaut
Tue, 13 Feb 2007 13:29:00 GMT
Okay, snow I can deal with. That doesn't scare me. You have to drive more slowly, and leave more distance between you and the guy in front of you. It can be nerve-wracking, but it's not that big a deal.
But now they're calling for half an inch of ice by tomorrow, and that's where I have to draw the line. Ice is NOT COOL. Half an inch of ice on the ground means you should be curled up on the couch with a nice blanket and your significant other, and not out on the road. After all, it will be Valentine's Day.
I have to talk to my team lead and see if there's anything constructive I can do from home tomorrow.
Posted in Weather | no comments
Posted by Jon Renaut
Sat, 10 Feb 2007 14:41:00 GMT
Columbia Heights rezoning approved
"I drive down my block and others in neighborhood and I just smile because I know these houses and the families that live in them are going to be protected for a lot more years," said Anne Theisen, an ANC commissioner who led the effort.
So, it's a done deal. This doesn't affect the street I'm about to live on, though. It's up closer to the DC USA project. Frankly, it's a pretty small area that's been rezoned. Only from Monroe to Spring between 14th and 16th. I don't know the area well enough yet to know what makes that little rectangle significant.
Posted in Community | no comments
Posted by Jon Renaut
Thu, 08 Feb 2007 23:24:00 GMT
Rezoning targets rowhouses in Columbia Heights
Looks like the Advisory Neighborhood Commission for where I'm going to be living is trying to block the condo-fication of row houses, which of course is exactly what we just bought. The claim is that taking one single-family row house and turning it into multiple condos will increase traffic, limit parking, and diminish "the architectural integrity of the rowhouse blocks".
They probably have a point, but trying to revitalize the neighborhood, and then insisting that everything stay the same, is kind of counterproductive. I'd like the neighborhood to keep some of its history, its personality, etc. If we wanted cookie-cutter suburbs, there are plenty of places in Fairfax County.
There's going to be more traffic. It's just a fact. As the area becomes a bigger draw, more people will come there. Parking will get worse. Traffic will get worse. Re-zoning will perhaps slow the tide, but it won't turn it back.
And if your goal really is to keep the architechture, then make sure the outside of the houses stays more or less the same. Personally, I love the look of the old row houses. I wish our developer hadn't made our building look like an office building. But these are separate issues.
I don't really know what the solution here is. I agree with the intent of the ANC, but I'm not sure I agree with the execution. I guess I'm going to have to start going to these meetings when I move down there.
Posted in Community | no comments
Posted by Jon Renaut
Wed, 07 Feb 2007 13:08:00 GMT
It's so disappointing when you find out at 10pm that you somehow missed the announcement that it was going to snow, and didn't notice the snow until there was almost an inch on the ground, but wake up the next morning to find that the streets are already clear.
So now you're just stuck with the occasional icy spot, a few dumb drivers, and no excuse to stay home from work. I hear lots of people say, "Oh, it's not the roads you have to worry about, it's the other drivers." I think that's a pretty pathetic excuse. There are ALWAYS stupid drivers trying to kill you. One woman did it to me this morning. Somehow, her red light and my green turn arrow meant she could go right into the lane I was turning into.
I'm really looking forward to getting into the city, where people do the sensible thing when it snows and don't drive for a week.
Posted in Weather | no comments
Posted by Jon Renaut
Tue, 06 Feb 2007 22:28:00 GMT
According to the Columbia Heights News Forum, it's not looking good for a new grocery store in the DC USA site. That's too bad. I was pulling for Whole Foods. Certainly we can make do with the one on P Street. But I hear on the forum that the new Giant and the local grocers are having a hard time keeping up with demand, and I do love Whole Foods' organic vegetables.
It looks like it's 1.6 miles from our house to Whole Foods. That's doable.
Posted in Community, Shopping | no comments
Posted by Jon Renaut
Tue, 06 Feb 2007 00:06:00 GMT
As Push for Longer Hours Forms, Intriguing Models Arise in D.C. via DCIst
Kids in school 12 hours a day? It seems to be working in some schools, but I'm not totally convinced. Of course, if I were totally convinced by a one page newspaper article, that's probably not saying much.
Anyway, it seems that some schools have had a lot of success with extended days and shorter vacations. It makes sense that, without a long summer off, kids have less time to forget what they learned in previous years. And it makes sense that spending more hours in class will make you learn more than spending fewer hours in class. But I'm not sure there has been enough research into how much might be too much. After a certain point, the kids aren't going to learn anything. They're going to be bored and inattentive and start causing trouble. It's not reasonable to expect them to be in school all the time.
One school that has been successful so far has 12 hour days, broken up into a more or less normal school day, then a break in the afternoon for a few hours, and then dinner, followed by two hours of study hall. Students get home late, but all their work is done for the day. As an aside, during my last two years of high school, I did most of my homework each day either in study hall, the library, or the cafeteria. By the time I got home, I was usually completely done with school until the next morning. It was fantastic - my grades were good because I wasn't blowing off work, and I had plenty of time to enjoy being a kid.
I'd be curious to see what happens when a couple of regular public schools try this. It will take some time, as the teachers and the curriculum will have to adjust as well as the students.
I worry, though, that some kids are really going to suffer if they spend this much time in school. For example, for me, middle school (grades 6-8 if you don't/didn't have middle school in your area) was an almost entirely social learning experience. I certainly learned some school stuff, but the real bulk of what I learned was about dealing with other people. Up to then, I had been in private school. Sixth grade was really my first experience having classes with kids who weren't upper-middle-class and white. I've long advocated sending thirteen-year-olds in groups to work on farms and things instead of trying to teach them how to pass high school entrance proficiency tests. Get a big diverse group of kids, have them spend six weeks getting up at 5AM, shoveling manure and plucking chickens. I know, it's prohibitively expensive. Whatever.
It's funny to finally be really thinking about schools and techniques for teaching kids in a much less abstract way than before. The wife's not pregnant, and we're not trying at the moment, but having children is finally something that will probably happen sooner rather than later. I think my perspective on schools will change a lot more once I get closer to having school-age children.
Posted in Life, Education | 1 comment
Posted by Jon Renaut
Fri, 02 Feb 2007 12:38:00 GMT
There was a "winter weather advisory" for the entire DC Metro area last night. Schools canceled evening activities, and probably opened late this morning. And for what?
Nothing. There was a little ice on my car this morning. The kind of ice that melts when you turn on the defrost.
Areas that get real snow make fun of us because this area hoards milk and toilet paper when there's a prediction of an inch of snow. Less than three inches and people in Wyoming don't even slow down when they drive. And when I first moved to the area, I was working in NW DC, and parking in a residential neighborhood. We had a bad winter, and there was snow on the ground for a few weeks. Half the cars in that neighborhood were never cleared of snow. They just sat. Obviously that's not something most people can do in the suburbs, but, since I had never lived in the city, it was a completely foreign concept. Not drive for three weeks? I hadn't done that since I got my license.
Anyway, they're calling for more "wintry mix" this morning. I'm hoping to use it as an excuse to leave work early.
Posted in Weather | no comments
Posted by Jon Renaut
Wed, 31 Jan 2007 23:30:00 GMT
So here's the view from the hallway looking forward. The place is beautiful. There were some minor problems that came up during the inspection - the showers don't drain that well, the water shut-off is kind of hidden behind the washing machine . . .
But nothing they can't fix. And parking wasn't too bad. I don't know what I'm going to do before I get my car registered in DC, though. It's 2 hour parking unless you have a sticker. I guess I'll have to do that sooner rather than later.
The drive wasn't bad, either. I came from work, although I left work at 2:30, so traffic shouldn't be bad. But it wasn't bad coming home at 4:30, either. People say traffic in the city is bad, but it's really not the city. It's the suburbs where the traffic will kill you.
You have no idea how excited I am to move.
Posted in Moving | no comments
Posted by Jon Renaut
Tue, 30 Jan 2007 13:07:00 GMT
We're doing the home inspection tomorrow. That gives me a chance to get in and take some pictures of the inside of the house. I'm looking forward to it, and I think friends and family are, too.
It's going to be my first opportunity to experience the drive from work to the house, although I'll be leaving work around 2:30, so I won't get the full effect of rush hour. Still, it should give me an idea. Which reminds me - I need to figure out the best way to go. I still have time.
I've been doing a little reading about the neighborhood. Our councilmember Jim Graham says that Ward 1, which includes Columbia Heights, contains DC's most diverse neighborhoods. That's pretty cool. Maybe it will give me a chance to brush up on my Spanish. I'm really looking forward to the neighborhood. Yes, it can be a little sketchy. Yes, there's more crime than there is in Falls Church. But we can walk places. There are people outside doing things all the time. I can't wait.
Posted in Moving | no comments
Posted by Jon Renaut
Mon, 29 Jan 2007 02:46:00 GMT
Just over twenty-four hours ago, my wife and I had our contract accepted on a shiny new condo on Harvard Street, right in the middle of the Columbia Heights neighborhood of Washington, DC. We should be moved in by the end of next month. We are, obviously, very excited.
So, this blog is a few things. First, it's a test of Typo, blogging software written in Ruby on Rails. I've been meaning to try it, mostly because Ruby is more fun than PHP, which is what Wordpress is written in. This is a trial run for switching all of Complaint Hub over to Ruby.
Second, it's preliminary motivation to get more involved in the community. I'm moving into the city, into a real community, and I don't want to sit around and watch. I want to be a part of my new community, and this is to start the ball rolling.
So, we'll see what happens. I plan to update the layout here and play around and do all sorts of geek stuff. With all of the house-related stuff, I don't know how quickly that will happen, but it will happen.
Anyway, keep watching this space. My next post will be more substantive.
Posted in About | no comments
