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.
This week's columns:
Marc Fisher
(The Washington Post)
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Only 7th Street Stalwart Is Left To See New D.C. (Post, March 25)
In Lead Crisis, Aqueduct Adjusts Chemical Cocktail (Post, March 23)
At Sursum Corda, Hope Battles A City's Apathy (Post, March 18)
In his weekly show, Washington Post Metro columnist Marc Fisher veers wildly from serious probing to silly prattle, and is open to topics local, national, personal and more.
A transcript follows.
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, folks. Today is a day of contrasts -- while Virginia struggles to find common ground in its budget battle, Maryland decides quickly and clearly to jack up its taxes (or at least the House so votes; Gov. Ehrlich's threatened veto still lurks out there.) In Loudoun County, a big fat gift from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute puts a biotech high school on the fast track, while the District has been waiting for more than six years to see its high tech high school get off the ground.
Today's column looks at the dramatic contrast between the new downtown Washington and its 3,000 spanking new residential units, and the old downtown, lost to the riots and white flight. Tuesday's column focused on the lead in the water crisis in our area.
The Yay and Nay of the Day:
Yay to St. Alban's and other D.C. private schools that are now refusing to play along with the cynical voucher system that Congress has imposed on the city. The feds are requiring schools that take voucher kids to impose the same sort of mindless testing regimen that has sucked time and creativity out of the public schools, and it looks like many private schools will simply say no, they have no intention of letting the feds subvert their freedom by requiring similar testing in the private schools.
Nay to National Public Radio for its firing of Morning Edition host Bob Edwards, the calm basso profundo of morning news radio. NPR has every right to sack whomever it wishes, but the reasons for this move are sad and contrary to the purpose of public radio. In its desperate desire to lower the average age of its listeners, NPR seeks to jazz up its news shows and so the quiet, gentle Edwards sound must be silenced. Ratings and donations are what drive NPR these days and sadly, noncommercial radio ends up acting very much like the commercial companies to which it is supposed to be the alternative.
Your turn starts right now....
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Silver Spring, Md.:
Given all of the recent news stories about obesity as an increasing health threat in the U.S., plus the fact that a large intake of sugar can cause behavior problems in some younger children, why on earth would Montgomery Public Schools give glazed sweet rolls as the main breakfast item to students receiving free breakfasts (at least in some schools)? Apart from the obvious health and dental problems, it would seem to teach children that sweets can comprise a meal.
Marc Fisher: I don't see any evidence in the schools I visit of any attempt to give kids healthful choices of food. Some of the worst (both in taste and nutrition) food I've ever encountered has been in the lunchrooms of schools, both in the District and the suburbs. Food service folks seem driven by two forces -- keep costs down and keep the kids happy with lots of junk. Nutrition doesn't seem to enter their thinking.
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Silver Spring, Md.:
Marc,
Greetings. I am a new resident of Silver Spring, part of the reason I moved there a couple of years ago was its rustic, urban charm. Now I see that the Historic Gramix Bldg. at the intersection of East-West Hwy. and Georgia Ave. is being "renovated" by greedy developers to squeeze more people into vertical living cubicles. The Historic Canada Dry distribution bldg. on East-West Hwy has been knocked down by money grabbing developers in an effort to shoe-horn yet more people into high density housing that the area cannot support with parking or shopping facilities. I see lots of construction around the vacant but historic Giant Bakery on Georgia Ave., could it be more apartments to the sky? How can a concerned citizen stop the destruction of historic bldgs. that are the very rustic/urban flavor of Silver Spring? When I was living in D.C. I fought to save the historic Sears Bldg. on Wisconsin Ave. from the developers ... I bought my first Craftsman screwdriver there man! Would you want to give an inspirational speech at the next Concerned Citizens Against Silver Spring Development meeting next week? The three of us are meeting at the historic Ruby Tuesday in the City Place Mall (Happy Hour) for half-priced beers and cajun fries.
Marc Fisher: Though I suspect your tongue is firmly in cheek, I should note that the old Silver Spring was as ripe a target for redevelopment (read: destruction) as any place I've ever seen. What that area needs is a huge dose of density, and it's starting to happen, with some exciting results. The AFI Silver is for my money the best movie house in town, and all it needs now are some nifty spots to hang out in after seeing a flick.
So I'm happy to talk to your gang, but my message would be Build, build, build.
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Washington, D.C.:
Marc, Interesting column today on 7th St. Have you heard of the Shaw Main Streets program? It's working to revitalize 7th and 9th from Mount Vernon Square to Florida Ave. It looks like this time the area could really take off?
Marc Fisher: Haven't heard of them. The area could sure use some help, if only to catch the public amenities up to the gentrification already well underway on most of those residential streets. Read my colleague Frank Ahrens' fascinating piece in last week's Post Magazine for a splendid inside look at how Shaw has changed and what's in its future.
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Washington, D.C.:
Marc --
Your column on the aqueduct Tuesday was a puff piece, very different from the hard-hitting pieces you've been doing on the lead scare.
Does someone at WASA have pictures of you, and what are you doing in those pictures?
Marc Fisher: Sorry you felt that way. The Aqueduct certainly bears its share of responsibility for the lead mess; after all, they're the ones who changed the recipe of our drinking water, adding the corrosive chemicals that appear to be leaching the lead from pipes around the area. But it's also true that, as Av Goldstein's story indicates today, the far greater threat to health comes from lead paint and lead in the soil. The test numbers increasingly show that the problem is not in the water -- certainly not in the water that leaves the Aqueduct's facilities. Should the Aqueduct have acted sooner to change its water formula? Yes. Should they have pushed to get word out to the public about the risks? Yes. But I think WASA is considerably more to blame here for any coverup.
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Washington, D.C.:
Marc,
Last Thursday evening I read your Sursum Corda column and I cried. I was dining at a nice local restaurant, and as I read about the wretched lives, and the possibility of hope, I just cried. (No, I didn't get kicked out of the restaurant.)
Anyway, my question is: what can I, a private citizen, do to help the Sursum Corda situation? Can I donate money to or volunteer at the Perry Center? (I live in Falls Church but have worked in D.C. for 12 years.)
Thanks.
Marc Fisher: Well, thanks --sorry to provoke a scene at your dinner, but I am pleased that you were touched. There is indeed hope even in a place like Sursum Corda. I suggest that you go over to the Perry Center and ask Tom Howarth or Alveta Munlyn or anyone else for a tour of the various programs there. I know you'll find at least one that appeals to you and perhaps you might want to volunteer. They need the help, and they need any donations that others might want to make.
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Rockville, Md.:
Hi Marc--
What's your take, at least so far, on the impending Giant/Safeway worker strike? I'm a longtime Giant employee who's been blessed and/or cursed to be able to see both sides in a rudimentary way. Must union workers make do with less just because Food Lion and Wal-Mart have entered our suburbs and undercut us? (Not to mention underpay their own?) Tell me we won't see you crossing a picket line!
Marc Fisher: I've only just started to look into that--I hope to get a column working on it soon (though of course I'd rather that the two sides find common ground before I get a chance to opine.) My first, uninformed impression is that, as usual in these cases, both sides are being unrealistic and selfish. The supermarkets, as Tuesday's piece in the Business section described, are in a very tough spot--like the department stores, they are being outsmarted by new specialty and discount operations. Think about all the stuff you buy at Price Club, Wal-Mart, etc. That's money out of Giant and Safeway's bottom line. The unions should see that there's a real chance that supermarkets will have to cut back massively in the years to come.
On the other hand, it's ludicrous for the supermarkets to think they can get back to even by cutting worker benefits and wages. They need to look at the revenue side as well--Fresh Fields and its like charge vastly more and they are stealing market share quite easily. Many consumers will pay more if they get better service and goods.
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Re: Bob Edwards:
Man, I don't get this one at all. And for the record, I'm in what I think is the target demographic NPR is shooting for (between 30-40), and I've listened to Edwards for years and am not tired of him. What's really driving this decision?
Marc Fisher: You're actually on the low end of NPR's demographic, and the executives are eager to halt the aging of their audience. They want to maximize the return from listener donations, and they think jazzing up the news shows will help do that. In addition, Edwards has a reputation for being somewhat difficult (I've always found him to be the consummate gentleman, a total pro.) But isn't it interesting that it's the supposedly laid-back and public-minded NPR that jettisons its longtime anchorman, not the greedy, uncaring corporations that employ Jennings, Rather, and Brokaw?
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Arlington, Va.:
I find NPR and PBS completely unfathomable these days. I am told Morning Edition brings in more money at beg time than any other show, but here they are axing Bob Edwards. Who are they trying to get to listen? Ironically these changes are being driven by the Kroc legacy, and Joan Kroc especially mentioned that Morning Edition was a great program.
Meanwhile at PBS they show very odd programming at beg time and get tons of money. Who is donating? Do they naively expect that Deepak programming will be the norm?
Marc Fisher: PBS lost any connection to its illustrious past long ago. It's become little more than a platform for hucksters and the kind of performers who sell their wares on infomercials.
I don't think NPR is in any danger of going down that road, but the sad truth is that public radio is far more driven by ratings and the quest for donations than it has been at any previous time -- and that has happened despite winning more support from listeners than ever before. It's largely a matter of greed and the role played by consultants and the outside contractors who run the fundraising efforts.
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NPR:
It finally happened. The last bastion of sanity on the radio has collapsed. I'm in the targeted 18-34 age group and I listen to NPR because it isn't like other morning shows, especially Bob Edwards. Changing the voice isn't going to make younger people tune in, it's changing the content. If that's what they have in mind I'm outta there.
Marc Fisher: Ah, but where are you gonna go? They know you have no place else to turn to, so they are free to reach down and dumb down the product, because you are a captive audience. Even satellite radio has made little effort to pull public radio listeners away from their beloved product (XM Radio offers the BBC, but that's really their only feint in your direction.)
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Washington, D.C.:
Hi Marc,
I read your column this morning re 7th Street and the furniture store. I'm a native Washingtonian and I remember the 7th Street of the past. I have mixed feelings about the development that is taking place downtown because of gentrification.
Do you know if affordable housing has been included in the development that is taking place downtown?
Marc Fisher: Yes, the city does require developers to set aside units for affordable housing, but the city's program is not nearly aggressive enough. You are correct that gentrification makes life tougher for the poor, but it's also true that gentrification gives the city the wherewithal to care far better for those who have less. The only prayer this city has of finding a more rational and workable future is for the mayor's plan to attract 100,000 new residents to come to fruition. The boost to the tax base that new neighborhoods brings is exactly what Washington needs to be able to afford to help those who need help.
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Washington, D.C.:
Marc --
I lived a few blocks up 7th st. from Alpersteins for many years. I have a different take on that strip.
The people who own those shuttered buildings are sociopaths. By sociopath, I mean someone who is absolutely devoid of social conscience. They care not in the least that they endanger and inconvenience their neighbors, and feel absolutely no obligation to address health and safety issues around those buildings. Most of that block is owned by a Washington family that is prominent in the real estate business, which is pretty typical of vacant property in the area. It's not poor people who own the shells -- it's rich developers, rich churches, and the city.
They are not just sociopaths, they are greedy sociopaths. The real estate market is now as high as it has ever been. If now is not the time to develop the property, or sell it to someone who will, it makes you wonder if they will ever think it's time to do something. Or will they continue to sit on the properties like a dragon guarding a pile of gold?
I think a more fitting column would be focused on the prominent people and institutions who own those dilapidated buildings, and the burden they place on their neighbors.
Marc Fisher: I agree entirely. You may have overdrawn the situation a little bit -- there are quite a few properties right around there that are indeed owned by folks who don't have much money, and they are either waiting for the big offer, or their properties are tied up in family disputes (you wouldn't believe how many properties fall into that category.)
But yes, all too many of those boarded up spaces are owned by fancy developer families and speculators, and the city ought to be pushing them to move ahead.
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Clifton, Va.:
Silver Spring -- Why would you want to save the historic Sears building? It has no historic or architectural value. The neighborhood would have been better off if the building had been taken down. You and your alleged preservation friends need to get off the psychoactive substances and get real. Historic Giant Bakery? The Canada Dry building deserves preservation! Why? So your housing values go up? Or do you have some other sinister motive! You need to save buildings with some real historic value.
Marc Fisher: I'm with Clifton -- yes, save buildings with real historic value, but let's stop using historic preservation laws to paralyze cities and suburbs. That horrific Sears building in Tenleytown should have been razed in the middle of the night; any daring developer with any cojones would have hired a renegade bulldozer operator to get that done on some quiet midnight. Similarly, the preservation nuts have condemned all of upper Northwest Washington to lives without fire protection, as the supposedly historic firehouse on Wisconsin Avenue sits waiting for settlement of legal disputes that will likely drag on for decades.
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Historic Silver Spring, Md.:
Just because a building is old doesn't make it historic. I too favor development in SS. Although I do not want another Bethesda or Rosslyn, I think we still a LONG way from that.
Marc Fisher: Right -- there is still plenty of charm in the old Silver Spring downtown, and plenty of opportunity for developers and business types who want to make better use of those neat old strip shopping centers.
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Silver Spring, Md.:
I'm writing from the corner of Georgia and Colesville, where I can see all the good new stuff.
Thank GOD they are doing something about some of the eyesores.
But I still miss the Armory, home to plenty of low-rent interesting events. The parking lot and Fresh Fields are no compensation for that loss.
If you want the cool old grunge, just walk up Fenton. Plenty still there.
Marc Fisher: Exactly -- and one of the better concentrations of ethnic eateries in the region, too.
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Ashburn, Va.:
Mark,
I wanted to weigh-in on the supermarket strike. We have seen the future of the supermarket out in Loudoun county and it is Wegmans. I was a super loyal Giant customer but they have raised prices to the point that we can't afford to shop there. I know this will be unpopular to say but they should ditch the unions. The customers can't afford the unions!
Marc Fisher: That describes me too -- the old Giant was really quite an operation, and customers didn't know how good we had it til we started to lose the home-baked goodies, the wide selection of ethnic products, the personal service at the butcher counter, and so on. Now Giant really offers no reason to shop there other than location.
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Falls Church, Va.:
Bob Edwards has a great voice. I loved the Red Barber chats he had. But he's not and surely the new liberal radio network will want him. He won't have to change much and a lot of the people who like him now will still get to hear him.
Marc Fisher: Hmm, interesting idea, but Edwards is a real newsman, not a pundit. I severely doubt that he'd have any interest in peddling his politics (which, to his credit, I have no clue of).
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Bob Edwards2:
I'm within NPR's demographic, worked for 15 years in public broadcasting, and find him to be prissy, self-important (too "busy" to appear personally to accept awards given him by his public b'casting peers), and possessing a singularly snooze-worthy demeanor. I'm not advocating that NPR replace him with a screamer, but someone a bit less avuncular would be a day brightener.
Marc Fisher: Another view heard from -- and not one to be lightly dismissed: I've heard quite a few folks in the radio biz tee off on Edwards.
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Washington, D.C.:
I'm sad to see Bob Edwards go, but mostly because I have fond memories of his talks with Red Barber. (I'm 35, but have been listening to NPR since college). I have to say, however, that he often strikes me as a bit rote in his interviewing, almost like he has all of his questions written on a little steno pad, and as he finishes asking each one, he makes a robust checkoff motion with his pencil ... one down, 6 to go kind of thing, without listening to the answer or following up.
I just hope they replace him with someone who doesn't intentionally mispronounce his/her name, ala Mee-chelle Norris on All Things Considered. Everything she says that, it makes me scowl.
Marc Fisher: He's never been much of an interviewer, but his style harkens back to the original idea behind NPR--that its own voices would be soft and very much in the background, that they would exist largely to let the American people have their own turn on the air. And Edwards' interview style is very much along those lines -- just get the subject of the interview talking and let him ride.
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Maryland:
Why is anyone surprised at NPR dumping Bob Edwards? The corporatization of public radio has been underway for years. Just listen to any of the announcers read the "sponsors" for any given show. These days, the "sponsor" gets several seconds for a PR message. We've been getting glib announcements from evil companies like ADM and Lockheed for quite a while.
And, on the local front, this message came across loud and clear when WAMU dumped weekday bluegrass to simulcast the news with WETA. If NPR is supposed to be an alternative to Clear Channel, why have they been resorting to Clear Channel's tactic of making every single station sound exactly the same?
Marc Fisher: I'll be taking up the curious issue of our two big public radio stations and their insistence on simulcasting in a future installment of a new column I am writing for the Sunday Arts section. It debuts this Sunday and will alternate with Lisa DeMoraes' What You Don't Know About Television. Mine will be the radio version of same, and the first piece this weekend looks at that new liberal talk radio network and why we won't be hearing it in Washington.
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Baltimore, Md.:
Re: Bob Edwards and NPR: For us, I reckon this is a local story --especially since you mentioned it at the top today. Anyhow, a friend of mine at NPR says that staff is devastated by the move. Not just Morning Ed staff, but everyone. And the Post editorial page and Richard Cohen both weighed in on the stupidity of this in today's edition.
Editorial: Losing a Voice (Post, March 25)
Richard Cohen: Empty Talk at NPR (Post, March 25)
Most disappointing to me (and to Cohen) was the corporate sounding blather NPR put out about "the changing needs of our listeners." Like Cohen, I have no idea what the hell that's supposed to mean.
Oh, well, Bob E. is National VP of AFTRA, the broadcasting union, so I expect the next round of labor negotiations for NPR will be quite ...l lively.
Marc Fisher: That was a very odd editorial in today's paper, making the argument that public radio is somehow free of ratings pressure. I've paid pretty close attention to radio for many years, and I've yet to find radio executives who pay more attention to ratings than the pubradio types.
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Bethesda, Md.:
Re: NPR. When WAMU stopped playing bluegrass in the afternoon, I stopped listening to radio. Thank you, Steve Jobs, for my iPod.
Marc Fisher: Indeed, overall listening to radio -- public or commercial -- is dropping sharply, and MP3s are taking up much of that listening time for many people.
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Arlington, Va.:
Where am I going to go now that Bob Edwards has been dumped? I'll go to Amy Goodman's "Democracy Now!" on Pacifica Radio!
Marc Fisher: They do some very good work, but it's a completely different approach, and not the full-service news program that NPR is uniquely equipped to produce. Most public radio listeners will sit put.
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Re: NPR:
Where will I go? It's called a buzzer, it makes the same noise as typical morning radio without all the moronic content.
Marc Fisher: Not quite as soothing, though.
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Takoma Park, Md.:
Grocery stuff:
The ONLY reason to shop at Giant is their good specials on frozen commodity stuff.
Otherwise, Shoppers has 'em beat on the low end, a zillion ethnic markets have them beat on produce quality and price, and Whole Foods has 'em beat on the high end.
My local Giant won't even do a special order for me of stuff their distributor carries, not even if I want to buy a whole case.
Geesh.
Marc Fisher: Exactly -- the supes are getting eaten alive from both ends, high and low. So, if you're the union or a Giant/Safeway worker, how can you expect your employer to remain as generous as in the salad days?
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New column?:
I hope the new column is in addition to your existing one. I'd love to read more from you.
Marc Fisher: Yes, I hasten to add this is an extra, not displacing any of the Metro columns or our weekly gatherings here.
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Mee-chelle Norris :
Finally -- someone mentions that pronunciation! Hearing her say her name that way makes me crazy. What is up with that?
Marc Fisher: Oh come, come, folks -- unusual pronunciations are half the fun of public radio. And I find Norris a fine addition to All Things Considered. I think she has a ways to go before she's comfortable expressing her news sense in the way that Linda Wertheim used to, or putting herself into the stories as Susan Stamberg has, but she's a strong, pleasant voice, and in the interviews I've heard, a sharp, strong questioner.
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Ex-DCer in Philadelphia:
Marc,
I know it's almost baseball season, so I figured I'd let you know that I'll be rooting for that team up I-95 again this year. You know, the one with the neat throwback ballpark and the big hitters down the middle of the lineup, that had been out of the playoff race for years but is now making a serious effort at it?
Yes, that's right -- I'll be rooting for the Phillies! Stick to your principles, and don't let Peter Angelos have your money!
Marc Fisher: Indeed -- The Phils are the closest major league team on which a good Washingtonian can ethically spend money, and I am eager to visit their new ballpark, even if it does have some ludicrous corporate name.
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Mt. Pleasant, Washington, D.C.:
While you're promoting density in Silver Spring, it looks like Mt. Pleasant is being de-densified. I got a flyer from EYA Urban advertising 154 units for sale, 75 of them vacant, in 3 buildings in Mt. Pl. They're using that 95 percent sale loophole to get around any tenant rights.
There goes, literally, the neighborhood, and here comes another, I suppose.
Marc Fisher: Yes, that's very much the pattern in Mt. Pleasant -- developers are trying to empty out buildings that have housed large numbers of immigrant families, and frequently the strategy is to enlarge the apartments and sell them for megabucks. That's gentrification and it is happening at quite the pace there.
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Washington, D.C.:
Lead in the water, incompetent public officials, the plight of the poor in the city's housing projects, gentrification.
You're covering a lot of ground Marc. But let's get to the important stuff: How did the Kentucky and Stanford losses affect your chances in the office pool?
Marc Fisher: I make it a practice never to bet on Stanford, so I was ok there. Kentucky, however, did hurt. I was in miserable shape after the first round, tho, so it hardly matters now. Go St. Joe's.
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Arlington, Va.:
Marc, supermarkets like Fresh Fields (Whole Foods), Harris Teeter, and Trader Joe's are nonunion. You should take a good look at what happened in Madison, Wisc. when the employees tried to unionize at the Whole Foods market there. Fact is, Whole Foods presents an organic, "progressive" image that doesn't hold water for the "little people" they employ.
Marc Fisher: Yes, Fresh Fields (like many businesses that purport to be cool and groovy) is nonunion and adamant about staying that way. On the other hand, my impression from talking to workers there is that they are relatively happy with their benefits and pay, and they don't seem to have much of the tense bitterness that infects workers at Safeway and Giant.
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Generous as in the salad days:
That's not the point. The point is that the "low end" is pulling it off by socializing their labor costs to all of us. Wal-Mart hands out local food stamps info, etc. ... to their employees.
Now I don't shop there. So why should I have to pay up so some soulless suburbanite can lard up on cheapos?
Marc Fisher: Right -- but again, the answers lie on the revenue side. If the same people who claim to be so sympathetic to Giant and Safeway workers also refused to buy cheap goods at Wal-Mart, we wouldn't have this race to the bottom in which only firms that cut costs to the bone and treat workers like serfs can succeed.
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Bethesda, Md.:
I totally agree with you on the Giant/Safeway mess. What I don't understand, though, is why neither chain sees customer service as being a way to win and keep customers. The workers at my local Giant store are downright surly -- and as a result, I only go there when I really have to. We do as much shopping as possible these days at Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. They have more interesting products, and the employees act like they are actually happy to be there. Attitude makes a big difference in retail.
Marc Fisher: I agree entirely -- I actually have interesting conversations with the clerks at Price Club and Fresh Fields. Whereas at Giant, I now almost exclusively use the self-checkout machine to avoid the surly and bitter attitudes of the checkout folks.
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Southwest D.C.:
After you suggested a compromise position a couple of weeks ago on the impasse between the mayor and the D.C. City Council on the filling of the D.C. Library Board of Trustees, do you have any comments on the problem between Councilman Orange and the mayor on appointing Richard Levy to the Board? Also, since the Post got an advance copy of the new D.C. budget, do you know how the libraries will fare next year?
Marc Fisher: I haven't heard Orange's objections, but I know a deal is in the works to get Levy on the library board. He has put an enormous amount of time and energy into planning for the future of the city's branchy libraries, and he'd bring to the board a professionalism and smarts that it desperately needs. I haven't seen the budget numbers, sorry.
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Washington, D.C.:
Any suggestions on to whom to write to complain about Bob Edwards' firing? I'm in NPR's under-30 target age group, and along with several of my friends, am very disappointed by NPR's decision, so I'd like to let them know that their plan may backfire.
Marc Fisher: You can write to NPR at its HQ on Massachusetts Ave NW -- the president is Kevin Klose and the ombudsman is Jeffrey Dvornik (I may have mangled the spelling there). But better yet, let your local NPR station know of your unhappiness -- they pay most of the freight for NPR programming and they are much more sensitive to listener comments.
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Silver Spring, Md.:
You want a good grocery? Try Sniders in Silver Spring, just off the Beltway.
Small, stock targeted to its customers, only six brands of canned soup instead of 3243.
But good service, and the only market that has Bread Line bread.
Go early in the morning, and you'll never wait more than 1 minute for a cashier.
Paradise.
Marc Fisher: Yes, one of the rare independents still making it, and well worth the trip. As are the big new Korean supermarkets in Wheaton, Falls Church and various other suburbs.
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Wheaton, Md.:
Marc,
I'm incredibly sympathetic to WMATA's attempts to secure Metro against terrorist attacks -- after all, it's an incredibly open system and it's a tough thankless task. But what on earth does closing down the bathrooms have to do with fighting terror?
Marc Fisher: Just makes it easier and cheaper to manage the system -- using the terrorism thing is purely a rhetorical, political device.
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Shaw, Washington, D.C.:
Marc,
I live a little further north on 7th St NW than the block you wrote about today. Any idea whether the development will make it up to the O Street Market and on 7th and 9th Sts. north of P?
I'm hopeful, but doubt we'll ever see the development we've seen on 14th and U in the last few years. The city talks a lot about improving 7th and 9th north of the convention center. But it seems to me that there are just too many churches and massive public housing complexes along those streets for real business to ever get a foothold. And I don't mean to be an evil gentrifier -- I'm all for mixing public housing in with other incomes. It's just that when the complexes are so large, combined with the churches that no one in the neighborhood attends anymore, there's not much land left to develop for the benefit of the people who do live and work there. What to do?
Marc Fisher: Oh, yes, very much -- I think the area around O Street Market will be every bit as upscale as the area around Eastern Market within three to five years, perhaps sooner. Yes, there are some problematic housing projects there that will prevent total gentrification, but that may end up making for a more diverse neighborhood.
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Tysons Corner, Va.:
Hey, Marc. I'll lay off my usual posts about Virginia politics and taxes to talk about a different subject entirely: literature.
Specifically, I remember your negative review a few years ago of Ron Hansen's "Hitler's Niece." I like Hansen's other work, so I've long wanted to read it, but I've settled on the audiobook and am enjoying it. I'm only halfway through.
Do you have any more recent recommended reading?
Marc Fisher: I'll plug a couple of my colleagues' books, if you'll allow me: David Von Drehle's "Triangle" is a riveting account of the fire that changed New York a century ago, and Linda Perlstein's "Not Much Just Chillin'" takes you inside the hearts and minds of middle schoolers, quite an achievement.
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Montgomery County, Md.:
For the first time, someone is more of a nanny than my good old MoCo.
Link to a city thinking of requiring seat belts for dogs:
Law May Force Some N.M. Dogs To Wear Seat Belts (nbc4 Web Site, March 25)
Marc Fisher: What a way to say farewell for today.
Thanks for coming along -- back in the paper Sunday (both the regular column in Metro and the debut of the new radio feature in Arts.) And back here next week, same web time, same web channel.
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