Potomac Confidential fills the midday lull with discussion of the latest news and a rigorous slicing and dicing of the issues that define who we are and where we live.
A transcript follows.
Marc Fisher
(The Washington Post)
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Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.
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Marc Fisher: Welcome aboard, Americans. Lots to talk about today, but first a few quick items:
The Yay and Nay of the Day starts with a Yay to the nine homosexual couples who yesterday sued the state of Maryland, aiming to overturn the state's ban on same-sex marriages. Suits like this across the country could well create enough of a legal and political mess to accomplish the goal of getting government to butt out of the marriage business, leaving that important job to the people and to religious faiths.
This week's Nay goes to the sleazoids of the D.C. slots campaign, a bunch of greedy out-of-towners who appear to have skirted the city's election laws at every turn in their effort to get on this fall's ballot. My favorite story is of the petition circulator who sat outside the Safeway on Connecticut Avenue in Chevy Chase DC, asking folks to sign the petitions as a way of STOPPING slots from coming here. In fact, of course, the petition drive would put the question of approving slots on the ballot.
Breathtaking!
This week's columns looked at the D.C. school system through the eyes of the man who will not be superintendent, Carl Cohn, and at the ordeal of John Styer, who runs the shaved ice pushcart in downtown Bethesda and who is being run out of business by Montgomery County and some of the tony shops in Bethesda.
Your turn starts now....
A couple of
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Bethesda, Md.:
Thank you for your column on the shaved ice guy in Bethesda. I think it's outrageous that the local businesses want him out of there. He adds to the charm/ambience of Bethesda. Do they think he's taking business away from them? I was saddened to learn that Second Story Books will be leaving. To me, it's an oasis among the flashy stores along Bethesda row, and one of the few places there I actually patronize. I don't suppose there's much we citizens can do to intervene in the corporatization of our town, but if there is, I'd love to know about it.
Marc Fisher: Well, sure, there's plenty you can do. You can talk to your county council members, one of whom, Howard Denis, called me after the column appeared and said he will fight to save the Ice Man's place in downtown Bethesda. And you can talk to the folks at Gifford's Ice Cream, Federal Realty and other Bethesda businesses and ask them to support people like Styer, who add vibrancy and life to the streets of that increasingly bustling, but still antiseptic downtown.
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Atlanta, Ga.:
Marc,
This is an answer to Washington, D.C.'s question last week about why Metro has to operate their cars in even numbers (2, 4 and 6 car trains).
Metro's cars are permanently connected together in pairs of two. This pairing was necessary since each car has controls at only one end; pairing them together means that there are controls at both ends of the two-car train. This is crucial since, when a Metro train changes direction, the cars don't get turned around; instead, the operator just switches to the other set of controls and the other end of the train.
Baltimore's light-rail trains don't have this problem because they have controls at both ends of each car.
Last week's chat:
Potomac Confidential, July 1
Marc Fisher: Many thanks for the info--several of you passed along these details after last week's show, and I'm glad we could clear that up.
Speaking of leftover business from last week (or maybe it was the previous week),our discussion of state flags included the fabulous word used to describe Ohio's oddly shaped flag--"burgee." A D.C. reader, Ellin Ramsey, writes to tell us that the large blue triangle represents Ohio's hills and valleys and the stripes represent roads and waterways. The white circle in the center is there to be an "O" for Ohio, but also to suggest the state nickname, the Buckeye state.
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Georgetown, D.C.:
Do you know if the Fourth of July fireworks were cut short on Monday? They lasted 20 minutes. If memory serves, they usually last longer than that, plus, from my vantage point, there was no "big finale."
Marc Fisher: Nope, you got what they planned. I thought they were especially sweet and inventive this year, particularly those--to my eyes, anyway--new white splotches that came rat-a-tat-tat into the sky in fascinating patterns. But you're right, there wasn't the usual shoot everything into the sky finale. I kind of liked the more subtle ending.
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Arlington, Va.:
So snakehead owners are upset. Before it was pitbull owners. The solution is simple: all snakehead owners should be forced to buy a pitbull.
Marc Fisher: Excellent idea! And then we could pay to watch the snakeheads and the pit bulls go at each other. That could be a new network TV show before the end of the year.
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Springfield, Va.:
Hi Marc,
If D.C. approves slot machines downtown, would that have any affect on the D.C. baseball bid?
Marc Fisher: Hard to imagine that it would. There are plenty of places that have both slots and professional sports teams, and Pennsylvania just launched itself into the slots world in a very big way.
But of course the proposed site for a slots palace in the District is not downtown; it's out on Bladensburg Road, which makes it clear that this is an effort to get those who can least afford it to plunk their money into the machines. The organizers' assumption is that middle and upper class folks wouldn't go near the slots, so no need to put it downtown. (Similarly, the petition organizers barely bothered to collect signatures in wards 1, 2, or 3--downtown, west of the park and upper Northwest.)
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Anacostia, D.C.:
Hi Marc -- I don't plan on voting in favor of slots if it gets on the ballot, but I've got to say that Dorothy Brizill and company are REALLY annoying in their efforts to stop the issue from even getting on the ballot. Who appointed her judge and jury? The voters of D.C. are perfectly capable of deciding the issue, and if they think the signature collection was done improperly, they'll vote against it. This is the worst kind of NIMBYism because it's an issue that affects the entire city. Do you agree that she and her group are way out of line?
Marc Fisher: I don't see how Dorothy Brizill's work is in any way NIMBYism. She's saying that slots don't belong anywhere in the city. And she and her group are going about this in exactly the right way--they are advocating against slots, but more important, they are seeking to enforce the city's election laws by outing the slots organizers' efforts to subvert the process. What's wrong with that?
But you can ask her yourself--she'll be here Live Online immediately after this show, at 1 p.m. She's got a wealth of knowledge about how this city works, so pepper her with your questions.
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Falls Church, Va.:
Great column on DC schools today. This is actually a problem across the land, in urban and rural areas -- school districts have become patronage factories. Top-to-bottom reform is demanded, but sometimes it appears the "community" most in need of the reform resists it. I'd love to move into the city, and my daughter attends public schools. I can't see sending her to the D.C. public schools, so we stay in Virginia. I think that's sad.
Marc Fisher: That is sad indeed, and not a day goes by when I don't hear from suburbanites who share your view and really want to come live in town, but just can't get past the schools issue.
Of course, the only way the city will ever achieve its goal of adding 100,000 new taxpayers is to get middle class families to put their kids into the public schools. And that won't happen until the city puts the resources into creating a handful of marquee schools that parents can trust to give their kids a quality education. Carl Cohn understands that; I've yet to meet anyone in the D.C. system who does.
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washingtonpost.com: Dorothy Brizill on Live Online, Thursday, July 8
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Washington, D.C.:
I think Mayor WIlliams should offer the superintendent's job for the D.C. schools to William Crosby. He has a real Ph.D. in education. Let's see if he is all talk. He would at least command the respect of the different factions. My other recommendation would be Jack Welch former head of GE.
Marc Fisher: Cosby is a fabulous comedian, one of my all time favorites. And you're right, he has a doctorate in education. But he has zero experience running schools, let alone a school system. Same for Welch or any of the corporate saviors proposed by those who would judge schools by business standards. No, it doesn't take an entertainer or a corporate chief to make progress in public education. All it takes is politicians who know that the schools are the key to attracting taxpayers to the city, and educators who are willing to stand up to politicians, unions and poor teachers and raise the expectations for children.
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Woodley Park, Washington, D.C.:
"The solution is simple: all snakehead owners should be forced to buy a pit bull." Unless, of course, they start cross-breeding, creating a vicious super-race of land- and sea-capable fish dogs, eating and mauling everything in their path.
Marc Fisher: I thought that's what pit bulls were.
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washingtonpost.com: What D.C. Got From the Wizard Of Long Beach (Potomac Confidential, July 8)
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Arlington, Va.:
You should do a column on the First Baptist Church mixed-use proposal in Clarendon. Since the County Board just passed the aggressive affordable housing guidelines, you'd think they'd jump all over a proposal where a church develops affordable and market-rate housing on part of its property. This keeps the church around and maintains its child care facility, while meeting the board's supposed goal of affordable housing. You'd think the County Board would pass this with flying colors. Of course, when wealthy neighbors and a school board member live nearby and are concerned about "those people" living near them, I guess things are far more complicated.
Marc Fisher: I haven't followed that controversy, but I will now. Thanks.
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Bethesda, Md.:
Many thanks for the shaved ice column, which left out one important fact -- how amazing the shaved ice is!!
Federal Realty has a stranglehold on the area in terms of retail and it is beginning to show cracks -- I'm a five-year Bethesda resident, car-less, and in the 24-35 demographic. While it's nice to know that I can get a $10,000 stereo systems in walking distance of my apartment, I'd rather have a place to buy socks and underwear.
Marc Fisher: Ah, but it's unlikely that your socks and underwear place could come close to affording Federal's rents--and Federal wouldn't want such a place because it's not the right atmosphere for their upscale development. And, truth be told, such a store probably wouldn't do well in that environment, because people come to Bethesda Row to eat, drink, stroll, and buy luxury and nonessential items. It's a different kind of destination than a strip center where you'd find essentials.
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Rosslyn, Va.:
Hey Marc!
I've noticed the Orange and Blue lines heading into D.C. from Va. have been extremely crowded the past few weeks. Any news on if they will increase trains on these lines or when the 8-car trains will actually get here?
Marc Fisher: The Post's Lyndsey Layton has been reporting that Metro is exploring ways to add capacity, but I haven't seen any timetable that promises immediate relief.
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Silver Spring, Md.:
Sure, the D.C. school system has been largely abandoned by the middle and upper classes. Giving vouchers so that tax funds can support private schools, including religious schools, won't help. Same thing applies in outlying areas. The public schools have to accept virtually all students, while private schools can refuse entry. Those private schools can teach what public schools cannot, such as religion (that's okay if it's my religion but not okay if it's someone else's, of course), and they aren't as accountable to standards set by the public as are the public schools. The trend seems to be to support so-called school choice, though the poor will still not be able to attend the best private schools, whether due to money, location (Georgetown Day School and Sibley do not have branches in Anacostia, does it?) rather than supporting public schools. We seem to be accepting the British system as superior to our own.
Marc Fisher: You're right about the false promise of vouchers, and the underwhelming response of Washington parents to the offer of vouchers shows that many people realize what a phony idea vouchers are. But you're leaving out the real choice that D.C. parents have--the charter schools, which must accept all comers, which get public funding, and which have the freedom to run their schools as they wish. They are growing rapidly, and the list of valedictorians in today's District Extra shows that the charters are already seen by top colleges as a quality education, while the regular D.C. public schools, sadly, continue to be places that colleges cannot trust to prepare kids for higher education.
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Arlington, Va.:
What all school board members and local officials need to remember when it comes to schools is education and the kids come first and their egos are so far down the list that it shouldn't matter. Doesn't matter if it's the D.C., PG or Fairfax County schools; the only thing that matters is the kids. No if, ands or buts, the children's education comes first and who cares about your political aspirations.
Marc Fisher: Quite true, yet the politics of school systems is every bit as tangled and treacherous as that of zoning, policing or transportation. And that's because these are issues that hit us closest, and therefore people are passionate about them, and that's what makes for an involved community. So it's not all bad that there's a lot of politics involved in schools--but good school boards know when to cede authority to educators so they can do what's right for kids.
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Washington, D.C.:
Any update about the Loudoun Cnty bid for a baseball stadium at the Rock Quarry out in Herndon/Loudoun?
Marc Fisher: We had a fun moment yesterday when we learned that major league baseball had registered the domain name vaexpos.com, but then it turned out that they'd also registered montereyexpos in case the team goes to Mexico. It's a purely defensive move on the part of baseball. So no--no progress, only more rumblings that the decision will come a few weeks after next week's All-Star Game.
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Herndon, Va.:
Mr. F: As usual, you're only partially right -- sic the snakeheads AND pit bulls on all producers of "reality" TV shows. Now there's something that appeals to everyone!
Marc Fisher: Call it Reality Death Match 2005 and put it on Fox.
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Annapolis, Md.:
I am wondering, even if D.C. gets to vote on the slots issues and they vote for it, will the federal government allow it? It won't be the first time that the feds have stopped a bill from being enacted in D.C.
Marc Fisher: You got it. I'll bet a nice lunch that if the District's voters approve slots, Congress will slam that baby down faster than you can say Taxation without Representation.
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Capitol Hill:
To the slots campaigners: You can blame the parents of some of my students back in Houston for me not signing your petition. I had my fill of exhausted teens in my class whose folks had left them home alone caring for younger siblings in the evenings while the parents spent their time and money at the dog track.
Most parents were not like this, but that small minority was enough to cause problems for lots of other people.
Marc Fisher: Dog tracks! Now there's an idea. (I've never been able to get the yelping little doggie sounds I heard at Florida dog tracks out of my mind. And I love that foam bunny they chase around the track. "Heeeeeeeeeeeeere comes Hollywood!" the track announcer used to say at Hollywood Greyhound Track in south Florida.)
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Pitbu, ll:
OK, Enough. Pit bulls. Not evil. Just like kids raised by horrible parents who grow up to commit crimes are not evil. They are dogs who became unfortunately trendy among thugs and dealers. Just like dobermans, rottweilers and German shepherds. I'm not a nut -- I just get sick of people blaming these dogs for what their owners have raised them to do. My brother was horribly mauled, as a child, by a chihuahua (or however you spell it). Mom was attacked by a German shepherd. I've been badly bitten by a black lab. All of these dogs had one thing in common -- crappy owners. Do a little research on the breed before you issue blanket statements that per'pet'uate the stereotype. You'll find that pit bulls were once the most popular dog in America -- and were chosen to represent the U.S. on posters for WWI.
Thanks.
Marc Fisher: They're ugly, vicious and dangerous. I don't care whether they've been trained to be that way or if they're born that way. In either event, they're a menace and should be banned.
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Bethesda, Md.:
You can still get socks at the Giant, but they've ditched the underwear they used to carry.
Marc Fisher: Supermarket socks--gotta love 'em. Remember when supermarkets also sold sneakers--99-cent Japanese Gold Ball brand sneakers, essentially Converse knockoffs. You could get a month's wear out of them, and you'd be made merciless fun of on the playground.
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Ex-Bethesda:
We still own a house in Bethesda that I fully intend to return to and I am certain that I can find underwear and shirts within walking distance: Joe Banks is one block away. Pharmacies, grocery stores, the bike trail, good restaurants, fresh baked goods -- it's all right there. Perhaps the writer would be more comfortable in some god-forsaken tract development in Virginia!
Marc Fisher: As I said, it's the fresh baked bread that people come for. You can always drive over to Price Club for the clothing.
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Lexington Park, Md.:
Marc, can I throw out a nay for you?
Nay to those in the FAA and Congress who want to expand the D.C. no-fly zone. Most people don't understand that D.C. already has a vast regulated fly zone around it (called an ADIZ, air defense identification zone). This zone has caused major problems for pilots and controllers alike. Now they want to make the D.C. area even more complex which will cause even more problems, cause even more needs for military or customs aircraft to force unknowing pilots to land, and may even cause a shootdown of an innocent plane.
Costs of this ADIZ and the no fly zone are skyrocketing because of all the forcedowns (real numbers are not available because the military won't publish them). The ADIZ hasn't made you or your family safer, but instead made flying in general aviation aircraft more dangerous.
Thanks for the opportunity to vent.
Marc Fisher: Today's Page One story by Spencer Hsu is must reading--a chilling tale of how the governor of Kentucky's plane was almost shot down on the day of Reagan's funeral. It's clear that we have to live with a certain amount of risk that other cities do not face, but it's also clear that some extra precautions make sense. And I don't see why we should have general aviation airports this close to the District if it makes the job of policing the air any harder.
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Arlington, Va.:
Considering the incredibly unlucky experience his family seems to have had with dogs, I would think "Pitbu,LL" would want all canines banned.
Marc Fisher: Excellent idea!
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Washington, D.C.:
Great column today! I see why they wanted Cohn.
Can you make it your personal campaign to get middle-class folks to start using D.C. public schools? That is really the key to ending the crap that are D.C. public schools.
Marc Fisher: Ah, yes, that's a great idea, except that it's hard to justify telling people to put their children into substandard schools. It's a chicken-egg question, of course, since so many studies show that the best indicator of how good schools are is the number of middle-class students in the system. That's why it's essential that the D.C. schools create a few highly attractive and successful schools to pull in enough middle class families that the flow of such folks back into the system takes on a life of its own.
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Washington, D.C.:
Do you know anyone who actually went to sign up to circulate the petitions? There was a very deceptively worded contract, which I declined to sign. No onder folks are complaining about not getting paid what they were promised ...
Marc Fisher: They don't seem to have made much of an effort to recruit local circulators, preferring to hire these companies that bused in circulators from Florida and elsewhere.
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Washington, D.C.:
Who in D.C., besides those who directly benefit, would object to Cohn's suggestion to bring in a management firm that specializes in school district reforms? Who is protecting the corrupt, and why? And what can we do within our current system to effect change?
Marc Fisher: There's pretty solid opposition inside the system to any outside examination of the D.C. schools. The administrators are among the most defensive and resistant I've ever seen, and the teachers union, or what's left of it, has been quite active in objecting to outside managers. And for many years the school board has assisted those inside the system in this defensive crouch, using the system as a patronage parlor.
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Washington, D.C.:
Now you've got me riled up about pit bulls. What difference does it make if they are ugly? Lots of dogs and other animals are not necessarily attractive as judged by human standards, but so what?
Marc Fisher: Beats me, since I don't get the attraction of dogs in the first place, but I would imagine that one reason people own dogs is because they make their lives more pleasant. In that case, wouldn't ugliness matter?
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Silver Spring, Md.:
Pit bulls are genetically predisposed to be aggressive, regardless of the disposition of their owners -- they have been bred that way, to be weapons. Thugs took advantage of that predisposition, they did not create it.
Pit bulls have no more place in urban society than wolves.
Marc Fisher: And for the other view....
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Arlington, Va.:
"Marc Fisher: They're ugly, vicious and dangerous. I don't care whether they've been trained to be that way or if they're born that way. In either event, they're a menace and should be banned."
Marc, they may be ugly, but you're dead wrong about the other two. They have to be trained to be vicious and dangerous. Would you ban German shepherds too, or are they just cute enough for you to let slide their capacity for trained violence?
Marc Fisher: And one more on pit bulls before we turn to something else....
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Re: Ugly dogs:
Now Marc, we can't discriminate against certain dogs because they are ugly. Pugs are ugly, and typically quite dense (yes, I have owned pugs and am still a huge fan). If this continues we'll have to restrict the less attractive tourists to certain parts of the city.
Am I onto something here?
Marc Fisher: Well, we've got all these security checkpoints all over town, we might as well make more interesting use of them.
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Dupont Circle, Washington, D.C.:
Very Important Question: Who is responsible for the sidewalk stencils in Dupont Circle? There's one with a picture of Buh saying "Don't let me kill again," one saying something like "Where are you?," and most recently a picture of a cobra. Who could it be? Aliens? Renegade radicals? Disaffected artists left out of the panda gig?
Marc Fisher: I'll go with the last option. I had great fun one night a few years back going out with a bunch of artists who paper the city's light poles with political posters in the wee hours. I'll try to dig around for a link to that piece.
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Washington, D.C.:
I certainly hope Major League Baseball isn't planning on keeping the name Expos, no matter where they move to. I liked your idea of the Washington Pork Barrels better, although Washington Grays is still my favorite.
Marc Fisher: No way the name Expos stays with the team wherever it goes. Whomever the new owner may be, I beg of them: Don't do a fan contest. That's what got us "Wizards." Pick a name that's rich in history and stick with it.
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Run For Your Life:
It's nice that you have fond memories of the dog tracks and foam bunnies. I work for the state agency which regulates greyhound dog racing in Florida. These poor little guys are treated abominably. The females deliver litter after litter with no concern for the mother's welfare. Hundreds of puppies who aren't deemed "racers" are killed. Racers who don't win their quota are killed. The dogs are routinely drugged, kept in cages so small they can't stand up. And, although illegal, trainers commonly use LIVE rabbits to train the dogs.
Marc Fisher: Makes sense. Those creatures looked miserable and pathetic. I far prefer the diving donkeys in those low-rent summer carnivals.
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Takoma Park, Md.:
How to fix the schools:
Bring back Julius Becton, and put Judge Kaye Christian as his second in command.
Marc Fisher: We kid because we love.
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Takoma Park, Md.:
There are some good private schools deliberately setting up in Southeast. Check out the Washington Middle school for Girls -- doesn't have the name of GtPrep, but it has been accomplishing its mission of giving topnotch education with individual attention to residents of Southeast.
Marc Fisher: Yes, there are several such highly impressive schools, including Washington Jesuit Academy, San Miguel school in Columbia Heights, and the SEED school.
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Washington, D.C.:
Since you opened the door, how can downtown Bethesda become less "antiseptic"?
Marc Fisher: A lot of it has to do with relaxing the insistence on upscale chi-chi retail, but allowing street life of the sort that the Ice Man brings is also essential. Here are a couple of other ideas from readers:
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Bethesda?:
I grew up in Gaithersburg in the 60s -- early 70s. We COULD buy socks and underwear at Drug Fair (now Rite-Aid) or Peoples (now CVS). But we usually drove to Rockville to get it at WT Grant or ordered it from the Sears catalogue (sort of a primitive version of Amazon.com).
Marc Fisher: Shops like that may not fit Federal's retail concept, but people do need them.
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Silver Spring, Md.:
At least Bethesda doesn't have piped music coming out of speakers all over the place, like our new shiny downtown Silver Spring plaza does.
I used to like it, until they started making me listen to pathetic rock and smooth jazz while walking around.
Marc Fisher: There's something refreshingly 1961 about those tinny outdoor speakers. They just scream "original suburban strip mall."
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Washington, D.C.:
If the dogs are treated so shabbily in Florida, maybe whoever sent in that question should get back to work regulating and stop wasting time in this chat?
Marc Fisher: Good God! Wasting time? We are exploring solutions and saving the world here, man. And I have been granted authority to appoint each and every one of you a Contributing Editorship at Wasting Time Magazine, my favorite publication.
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Arlington, Va.:
For a baseball team name, I prefer the Washington Irvings.
Marc Fisher: But then they'd have to spend a few years here, fall into a stupor, and wake having relocated to Tarrytown, N.Y.
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Call the Team ...:
The Washington Posts!
Marc Fisher: Yeah, except the ink rub-off would make the pitched balls hard for batters to see.
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15th and L, Washington, D.C.:
What about the Washington Bullets? I don't think anyone is using that name at the present time.
Marc Fisher: Sold. See Bud Selig for your commission.
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Bethesda, Md.:
It seems that Bethesda is in the middle of a long-term identity crisis. We want our upscale eating and shopping destinations, but we want our quaint small (non-Rosslyn) feel as well. Unfortunately, the success of FRIT's projects will ensure that the quaint character of parts of Bethesda will continue to shrink. The only countermeasure to this is for those of us who live and shop in Bethesda to loudly insist on the the things that matter to us. Go Howard Denis!
Marc Fisher: Well, so far, the quainter parts of the downtown are hanging on. But you're right, the development pressure is such that it will eventually alter the character of the place. Yet a total takeover need not happen--look at Georgetown, which has managed to hold on to some of its character--think of the stretch of Wisconsin above Thomas Sweet.
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Washington, D.C.:
It happened to me!
Someone asked me to sign the petition outside of Avalon saying if I didn't, the issue wouldn't go on the ballot and the D.C. Council would sign it into legislation. The nerve!
When pressed, she wouldn't answer the question "who exactly on the D.C. council was in favor of slots?"; she just kept insinuating that they would get tons of kickbacks. Isn't that enough to invalidate this crazy idea?
Marc Fisher: You'd have to prove it, which I imagine Dorothy Brizill will explain in her chat coming up momentarily.
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Washington, D.C.:
Hitler and Stalin were vicious and dangerous. There are millions of vicious and dangerous humans out there. Ban humans. Why should we care that most humans are basically good? You don't accept that logic with respect to pit bulls, so why with humans?
Thanks for bigoted generalization, Marc.
Marc Fisher: Because people are in charge and dogs are dogs.
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Washington, D.C.:
You can also get socks by mail. No joke!;
Marc Fisher: Is there anything you can't buy by mail? A house, I guess. I'd like to buy a house by mail, but only if they deliver it. To my house.
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Marc Fisher: That kicks it in the head for today. Til next week, thanks for coming along and write if you get work.
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