Potomac Confidential

Washington's Hour of Talk Power

Potomac Confidential fills the midday lull with discussion by Metro columnist Marc Fisher of the latest news and a rigorous slicing and dicing of the issues that define who we are and where we live.

Fisher was online Thursday, April 12, at Noon ET.

Today's Column: A Counteroffensive on Mt. Pleasant's 'Voluntary' Music Bans (Post, April 12)

Check out Marc's blog, Raw Fisher.

In his weekly show, Fisher veers wildly from serious probing to silly prattle, and is open to topics local, national, personal and more.

Archives: Discussion Transcripts

A transcript follows.

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Marc Fisher: Welcome aboard, folks--from shock jocks to wheelchair racers, Duke lacrosse to a dangerous game of chicken being played with Prince George's County hospitals, there's much on the plate today.

Today's column looks at the row in Mount Pleasant in the District over whether supposedly voluntary agreements between residents and restaurants are really coercing businesses into shutting down music performances.

Lots of reaction to my blog posts this week on the Don Imus affair--with MSNBC dumping his show and advertisers running for cover, it's not clear whether Imus's four decades on the radio will continue past his two-week suspension. Is this the marketplace at work or are the networks simply displaying a poisonous mix of cowardice and hypocrisy? After all, they know full well just how down and dirty much of their programming is--their reaction to Imus's ugly words conveniently ignores the torrent of filth that flows freely on broadcast radio every morning on hundreds of other shows.

On to your many comments and questions, but first, the Yay and Nay of the Day:

Yay to the tunnel rats of Capitol Hill, the 10 men who toil daily in the intensely hot and asbestos-laden steam tunnels that snake under the city's streets. After my column last week describing the Architect of the Capitol's contempt and disregard for the tunnel workers and their asbestos-related maladies, the Architect this week finally pulled the men out of the tunnels, finally acknowledging that they are facing unacceptable health risks down below the surface of the city.

Nay to the Howard County high school student, profiled by the Post's Eli Saslow today, who has sued the state of Maryland seeking to get her wheelchair racing scores included with her school team's results. The school has made more accommodations than the law requires. The question here is not about whether Tatyana McFadden should be allowed to compete for her school--the school has permitted that. The question is whether the results from someone whose wheelchair permits her to race at 20 miles an hour should be tossed into the mix of student results from kids whose legs carry them at only a fraction of that pace.

Your thoughts?

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Ashton, Md.: Hi, Marc, I have mixed emotions about posting this, but I ran track with decent success in both high school and college and can't imagine sharing the track with a wheelchair. All things being equal, a wheelchair driven by a competent racer is always going to win. And the possibility for accidents when runners and wheelchairs are sharing the same track is unnerving. I don't know what the answer is to this situation, but this isn't it.

washingtonpost.com: In Maryland, a Fight to the Finish Line ( Post, April 12)

Marc Fisher: Seems to me the school also thought long and hard about this and made accommodations for the wheelchair racer, creating several events for the handicapped students to compete in. The governing principle here should be one that lets the handicapped have a full range of student experiences, not one that requires everyone else to pretend that there aren't real differences. Bottom line: A wheelchair moves at a very different pace from legs.

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washingtonpost.com: In Maryland, a Fight to the Finish Line ( Post, April 12)

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Arlington, Va.: Marc:

I was wondering if you had a comment about the front page story of the disabled wheelchair athlete. I think one of the comments is telling:

"There are definitely times when I've considered just quitting," Tatyana McFadden said. "But that's what they want, and I kind of want to stick it back to them. Like: 'I'm going to be here. You're going to see me every day. I'm going to be at meets. And I just don't care what you think.'"

It's this selfish attitude that I don't care about anyone else that creates so many of the problems in our society. The Maryland High School Athletic Association has already met her more than halfway. They've included eight events in the state tournament for wheelchair athletes. Now she wants points awarded to her team, points that are only available to teams with disabled athletes and which will give a huge advantage to those teams. The MHSAA says that only one girl and two boys are participating this year. This whole idea that we need to make everything "equal" for everyone, regardless of the practicalilty, is insane. Care to comment?

Marc Fisher: You said it well. It's the old debate over equality of access vs. equality of result. The school has let her compete, even to the extent that other student runners believe she is endangering them on the track. What she's asking for has nothing to do with her ability to take part in competitions or to perfect her abilities--it seems to be driven more by spite than by an honest desire to take part in the activity.

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washingtonpost.com: 'Tunnel Rat' Breaks Silence on Dangers of Asbestos ( Post, March 18)

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Mount Pleasant, Washington, D.C.: Marc -- Thanks for covering this issue. A few things to add:

Wasn't Collins an ABC member when many of the Voluntary Agreements were forced on the business owners? In that case, it seems as though the threat of losing a liquor license was coming not from a neighborhood group but from the board itself.

Also -- Collins' group (Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance) is obligated to have open membership and meetings but is anything but an inclusive group. Collins' attitude about "Outsiders" makes this quite clear.

washingtonpost.com: A Counteroffensive on Mt. Pleasant's 'Voluntary' Music Bans (Post, April 12)

Marc Fisher: Yes, Collins was on the District's Alcohol Beverage Control board at the time, but she recused herself from voting on any issues connected to her neighborhood organization.

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Washington, D.C.: I'm a little confused by Ms. Collin's assertion that the live music in bars lead to people and noise until 4 or 5 in the morning.

First if people are still in bars after 3, neighbors can call the police because that's illegal. Two, I work in a bar and in my experience the streets are often deserted about 20 minutes after close.

Marc Fisher: Well, people do tend to hang out outside bars after closing time--that's a perennial source of complaint in Adams Morgan, Georgetown and wherever else clusters of bars exist. But you're right that this is really a police (and business) enforcement issue, and can easily be dealt with at that level rather than neighbors jumping in with coercive, supposedly voluntary agreements.

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Washington, D.C. (Mt. Pleasant): Ms. Collins asserts that the board would nullify alternative voluntary agreements because its policy is to enforce the most restrictive agreement on the books. Is there any legal or regulatory statement of such a policy?

Marc Fisher: I talked to a lawyer this morning who has worked on many such cases and while he agreed with Collins that the board would likely put aside any new agreements that were less restrictive than the agreements already on the books, he also noted that it's possible to amend the existing agreements, and that might be a better route for the pro-performance activists.

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Washington, D.C.: Yesterday, the N.C. Attorney General dropped all charges against the Duke lacrosse players, saying that they were innocent -- not that there was insufficient evidence to go forward, but that no crime was committed.

In light of this statement, would you like to reconsider your remarks in your Thursday, July 13, 2006 column, "Wolves in Blazers in Khakis"?

Howard Kurtz got it exactly right in his column today. Those players were railroaded and the news media are just as responsible as the Durham D.A.

washingtonpost.com: Wolves in Blazers and Khakis ( Post, July 13)

Marc Fisher: Good question--I went back and read that column and I wouldn't change a word. I thought the Duke case was transparently trumped up from the start, and I said so in that column. But sitting through the Finnerty trial in Washington's Superior Court, I heard persuasive testimony showing that Finnerty and friends were abusive drunks who went after strangers in an especially coarse and disturbing manner.

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Fairfax County, Va.: May I take a moment of your time to pay respects to Kurt Vonnegut, an extraordinary creative voice now stilled. He has made no secret of his struggles with depression and suicidal tendencies and I was so relieved (given some family background on my end) to learn that he made it through to the end without taking the easy way out. I think of his life as heroic given his internal struggles and pain. And it is not everyone who would adopt and cherish three children upon his sister's death -- so many these days would "really wish they could" but dodge the responsibility. Truly a man to remember and try to live up.

washingtonpost.com: Writer Kurt Vonnegut, Voice of U.S. Counterculture, Dies ( AP, April 12)

Marc Fisher: However tragic or difficult his own story may have been, I find it largely irrelevant to his real legacy, an extraordinary and powerful set of books that changed the way Americans think about authority and even reality. There are those who believe Vonnegut will pass on in history as a writer very much of a single moment, of the countercultural winds of the 1960s and 70s, but I don't think so: Slaughterhouse Five and even some of the lesser works have a staying power that comes from Vonnegut's ability to combine a deeply rigorous exploration of the subconscious with a piercing, ironic, minimalist humor and a need to take on the traditionally accepted sources of authority in society. His stuff will last.

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Annapolis, Md.: How on earth are D.C. and the adjoining Maryland counties going to handle the 180,000 patients who will no longer be served by PG Co. hospital in the coming year? I'm an unattached retiree who moved to Annapolis in part because of the excellent care I received at AAMC following a traffic accident in 2005. But they're already bursting at the gills!

washingtonpost.com: Hospital Shutdown Scenario Stirs Fears ( Post, April 12)

Marc Fisher: Not clear at all how the remaining hospital system could possibly handle the traffic if the Prince George's Hospital Center and its other facilities indeed shut down in June. I have a sense that what we're watching here is a very dangerous game of chicken in which no one really expects the hospitals to close. But close they might, and the impact, very much in opposition to what happened when DC General closed, could be devastating. The District is very much over-bedded with hospital rooms, whereas Prince George's, a much more sprawling piece of geography, is not.

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Woodbridge, Va.: What do you make of this hospital mess in Prince George's and what is mostly to blame -- the uninsured? Drug costs? It just defies description.

Marc Fisher: The uninsured are at the heart of many of the hospital problems in the country, and the overall crazy structure of health care financing is at the root of all this. But in the case of the Prince George's hospital, there's also a power struggle between the county and the state, and the usual battle over who will care for the un- and under-insured.

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Arlington, Va.: I have never listened to Imus or Stern or any of the other shock jocks, but it does strike me that the corporations who produce his shows are complicit in accepting his behavior until their backs are to the wall. These enablers could have easily given him a list of don'ts to go by. On another chat, a poster (not me)noted some of the stuff that Rush Limbaugh says is pretty offensive and I presume he is safe because the only people who listen to him believe in the things he says.

Marc Fisher: Well, that's largely true of any of the radio hosts who make their money spewing raunch or ethnic slurs or political bile. The whole talk radio phenomenon is a highly polarized world in which like-minded people tend to listen to what they already believe in. So it's kind of a clubhouse, which leads to the locker room atmosphere that in turn encourages a Can You Top This effort to see who can push the envelope the most.

The executives who run the media companies that make the big money off this generally don't agree with the views or like the kind of programming they supply. It's just business, they say--until the next big embarrassing event comes along, and then they rent some morals for a week or two.

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Seattle, Wash.: Your comment about the torrents of filth on radio could be extended in connection with the Imus debacle. Check out any issue of City Paper. Basically our society gave up on insisting on basic standards of decency in public communication decades ago. Imus may have crossed a line, but it's one of those lines you only see after you've crossed it. I don't have any solution to this but it comes from both the left and the right: how many times do we hear all possible reasonable discussion of an issue short circuited by cries of racism, sexism, homophobia, greed, etc.?

Marc Fisher: Right, and actually, Imus's show is relatively benign compared to a great many others that skate by because radio is ephemeral. If Imus were just doing a radio show, even this ugly incident would never have happened. It's just that he's also simulcast on TV, so the offending moment was captured and put on YouTube, and the rest is history. When Limbaugh, Stern or name your most loathed radio host say something way over the top, it's generally lost to the ether and while some folks might complain, there's no smoking gun and therefore no big controversy.

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Washington, D.C.: Can we please have people get a bit of a grip on this Imus thing.

To use the word "unconscionable" like I heard a few people do is ridiculous.

Folks, 9/11 was "unconscionable."

Imus is wrong, an idiot, a bigot and a host of other things, but please, get a grip.

Marc Fisher: There's that too.

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Washington, D.C.: Quick Imus question:

I know that Howard Kurtz and Tony Korneheiser have been on Imus's show in the past. (He once called Kurtz a "boner-nosed, beanie-wearing Jew-boy.")

Have you been on his show? Have any other WP reporters that you know of?

Marc Fisher: I've never been on the show. Imus is in my book on radio, "Something in the Air," but I didn't talk to him in my reporting. I preferred to focus on radio voices with whom I could spend extended time--the shock jock who is most extensively profiled in the book, Tom Leykis, says things that are vastly more offensive than anything Imus ever does, and I wanted to get inside Leykis's head and let readers figure out who he really is--I couldn't have done that in the very limited amount of time I might have gotten from somebody like Imus.

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Imus: So the man's been on for 40 years, talking 2-3 hours a day, every day. I'm being facetious here, but maybe he's just run out of things to say! I'd go insane having to perform at that pace for such a long time.

Marc Fisher: Any of the folks who do this year in and year out have no trouble coming up with material. The world continues to spin and with each turn, it coughs up acts of stupidity and greed enough to keep talk show hosts in business til kingdom come. What's changed in the past decade is that as the general culture has coarsened, the pressure on talk hosts to get even raunchier and more offensive has grown.

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Adams Morgan, Washington, D.C.: Congratulations on writing about a local issue. End of compliments!

You advocate higher density in the city: big tall buildings with lots of single-person (or max - couple) condos. You are against "noisy" neighborhood activists campaigning on single issues.

Safe to assume you are not a family man living in a one-bedroom condo above a noisy store or bar?

Marc Fisher: Good point--I happen to be ridiculously noise-averse, so I choose to live on a street with no loud bars or bus traffic. But when I've lived in downtown neighborhoods, I've lived on top of busy, late-night bars and I've had a great many nights of being awakened at 4:30 by barkeeps dumping the night's collection of empty beer bottles.

That's a fact of life in a busy entertainment district, and the folks who, for example, buy condos in the heart of Adams Morgan have to know going in that noise is part of the deal. That said, in a residential neighborhood like Mount Pleasant, some reasonable balance is needed, because this is not M Street or 18th Street, it's a primarily residential area. And there are noise laws to protect those residents--that's where the focus should be, not on side deals that coerce business owners.

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What is the Issue with Bars and Nightlife: Marc,

Perhaps I am not getting the issue. Why do people move or choose to live in corridors of the city with vibrant nightlife and then start a crusade to put the establishments on warning?

It is ridiculous. Don't move into Adams Morgan, Georgetown, Gallery Place, U Street, or any other neighborhood and get upset because of large crowds or noise.

Makes no sense at all.

Marc Fisher: Right--but Mount Pleasant is different from those areas. It is not mainly an entertainment district. So it's right for neighbors to want to work out some accommodation with the eateries and bars, and most business owners I spoke to are in agreement with that. The real questions are who will enforce the existing laws, and how can the neighbors and businesses coexist while allowing economic development, including a thriving music scene?

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20011: Great column on the Mt. Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance today! While I can certainly sympathize with Laurie's position that she'll fight anything that lowers her property value, I think this points to bigger issues in the neighborhood. Thanks to the real estate boom, people in Mt. Pleasant now have property values over $800,000. This sort of value is simply not supportable outside of extremely wealthy neighborhoods. As a former renter in Mt. Pleasant, it's weird to go over there now and see how much the neighborhood feels like Cleveland Park.

Now the MPNA is trapped in a vicious cycle where they have to take an extremely risk-averse strategy on any neighborhood issue because their property values are too high.

Of course, I would argue that live music (especially jazz brunches and roving mariachi bands) would only help property values. The things that are really holding back property values there are the wretched smelling grocery stores, overflowing trash cans, random gunshots in the face, and gunfights running down the street in broad daylight. (To be fair, I think Laurie's concerned about those things, too.)

Marc Fisher: Yes, she is, and in many ways, the interests of the residents on both sides of the music issue are really quite similar. You're right to focus on the dramatic increase in property values, because that is determining the reshaping of Mount Pleasant just as it is so many other city neighborhoods. But I think comparing Mt P to Cleveland Park is a bit of a stretch--the retail mix is and will remain quite different, as is the population mix. City neighborhoods change, and sometimes dramatically, but not so swiftly as you might think. Yes, prices are way up, but look at the population stats for the area and you'll be surprised how many longtime residents are still there.

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Mt. Pleasant, Washington, D.C.: Did you find any businesses who DIDN'T feel that the VAs were forced on them?

Marc Fisher: No, but I didn't do a complete survey by any means.

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Washington, D.C.: Marc, I agree with a statement in today's column, "It's time for the city to step in and restore some balance. If the District enforced noise ordinances, there'd be no reason for anyone to be banning the bands."

Currently out of balance is a 2004 loophole -- drafted without all voices at the table -- in the city noise statute.

The law exempts "noncommercial amplified speech" from any decibel limits anywhere in the city from 7 a.m. and 9 p.m. Councilmembers Wells, Cheh, Brown and Catania have sponsored legislation to provide balance so residents and businesses can have relief from hours of amplified noise at decibel levels equal to a rock concert (95-105 decibels). The EPA says exposure to 85 decibels for more than eight hours can cause permanent hearing loss.

A confusing patchwork of D.C. noise laws, regulations and enforcement actions confront city residents and businesses. The city must look at the health and safety issue of noise as defined by decibels -- and not focus on content.

Marc Fisher: Ok, but as you said, the exemption is only til 9 p.m., so what's the problem? (I'd argue that 7 a.m. is absurdly early for such an exemption to begin--it should be more like 9 am to 9 pm.)

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Nay of the day: To the road-rage driver who basically killed that young couple on I-270.

Marc Fisher: Absolutely. Makes you think twice about tossing off that gesture of frustration the next time some jerk cuts you off and then slams on his brakes for his own amusement.

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Washington, D.C.: A lot of people have died in car accidents recently because they weren't wearing their seat belts. A principal in PG County died this way a few months ago while driving during inclemet weather, and two people in that road rage incident were tossed from their car because neither had seats belts on. Surprised?

washingtonpost.com: 2 Die in Road-Rage Crash on I-270 ( Post, April 12)

Marc Fisher: Not at all surprised--check out the federal stats on seat belt compliance. They're shockingly low, and even more appallingly, they're quite low for kids too.

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Washington, D.C.: You get a lot of readers on this chat, is there someone reading who has lived in the neighborhood? Maybe someone who can give us some perspective -- as in they lived there before the voluntary deal. Was the noise really bad? Is your lifestyle much better since? And so on.

Marc Fisher: Sure, come ahead. The longtime residents I've spoken to make it clear that there indeed was a noise problem. I don't think anyone denies that. The issue is how best to have dealt with that, and my point is that the voluntary agreement system puts too much power in the hands of the neighbors who seek the most restrictive regimen--if the city did its job, you'd be likely to get a more balanced result.

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Dunn Loring, Va.: Why is it that you, Eugene Robinson and other Post columnists feel no shame about writing columns disparaging the falsely accused Duke players, but feel no obligation to revisit the situation once it's shown that the original accusations were false? Can we expect a column from you about how the stripper's lies can be expected based on her upbringing?

Marc Fisher: That's what I've said from the start--I could never figure out how anyone could put much credence in her allegations, which seemed flimsy from the beginning. But that doesn't negate the fact that these kids had a party featuring a stripper, and that, as the Georgetown case showed, there are problems with drinking and abusive behavior here.

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Re: Duke boys: If it were possible to be indicted for Prolific Stupidity, then they should be (but at 20 years old, so would I have been.) But face it, they were tried and convicted in the media and while you (collectively) are to blame, so are we, the consumers. For every five-cent yellow tabloid, there is a buyer. Nobody comes out smelling like a rose, nobody.

Marc Fisher: People believe what they want to believe. It's awfully hard for facts to burst through existing beliefs. It happens, and when it does, it's a beautiful thing, which is why those of us who do this for a living keep at it, but we shouldn't fool ourselves--much of what all of us choose to read is selected because it affirms our existing beliefs, no matter how valid or ludicrous those beliefs may be.

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Washington, D.C.: Where is the outrage for those poor innocent Duke lacrosse players, who had no public standing to fight back against charges from those in the media who called them horrible things, much like the Rutgers girls. Where is Sharpton's (and many others) press conference apologizing to the Duke players? Where is Sharpton going on some "representative" of the white community, maybe Sean Hannity's show? to apologize? I'm glad the Duke ruling and the Imus controversy has come out at the same time, because it shows the absolute hypocrisy and double standards that are set with the black community that is represented by Sharpton and "Mr. Hymie town" Jackson.

Marc Fisher: The notion that Al Sharpton has somehow put himself front and center as the prosecutor protecting the innocent against race-based slurs is one of the most extraordinary con jobs of our age, which is saying a lot.

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Laurel, Md.: I don't think it's coincidence that the Durham county prosecutor dropped the charges the week of the Imus affair... great cover to keep it off the front page of the college sports and diversity pages.

But do you think we'll see a lot of "well I jumped the gun" from the punditocracy? They sure used the filing of the charges to bring out their sexist attitudes about white men.

Marc Fisher: Seems way too conspiratorial to me. It was in the interests of both the new prosecutor and the families of the lacrosse players to get maximum publicity for the exoneration announcement, and they are getting a huge ride, as they should.

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Bethesda, Md.: Marc,

Think the Nats will win another game this season? Will Manny Acta still be the manager next WEEK?

Marc Fisher: There's no reason for the Nats to sack Acta. He's a refreshing change from Robinson--the team is finally making changes during the course of a game that Robinson would never have made. The problem here is that you are watching a AA or AAA team play against major league teams. No change of manager would accomplish anything given the arms and the bats the Nats are fielding now.

There is potential here and there on the roster, and of course there are a few excellent players who just haven't started to hit this season.

But there will be precious few wins this year. Could be a truly amazing ride at RFK this summer.

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D.C.: Marc,

I thought the Orioles Eyesore, er, Store, was supposed to be shuttered at the end of 2006. But i just walked by Farragut Square, and there it is, just as empty as ever, but very much open. Did I miss something?

Marc Fisher: Peter Angelos seems not only not to be ceding any ground to the Nationals, he seems eager to grab whatever he can from their fan base. The Nats' awful season this year might be grounds for some fans to turn their eyes longingly toward Baltimore except that the O's are looking very weak too.

Angelos is turning his supposedly regional sports network into a virtually all-Baltimore affair. He seems to relish every dig he can get in against the Nats, even putting the O's colors front and center in the MASN promotions and productions.

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Front Royal, Va.:"Slaughterhouse Five" changed my life, and the other Vonnegut books I read changed it further. To the better. But the one thing that has stayed with me from "Five" is the throwaway line that someone driving through New Hampshire sees a "Reagan for President" bumper sticker. Anyone reading that today would think nothing of it, but back then it was intended to be funny, pathetic, or both. Too bad that didn't turn out to be the case.

Marc Fisher: Yes! Thanks for recalling that detail. (Ok, some of his stuff will feel dated in a Woody Allen sort of way, but some of it has infused itself into the culture. So it goes.)

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Washington, D.C.: I was scared for Marion Barry seeing him ride horseback during the MLK parade. He didn't look too steady.

Marc Fisher: I was thrilled that he pulled it off. A great photo op and a nice taste of the old Barry.

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Columbia, S.C.:

Middle Initials: Some of these postings really make you shake your head. I don't think many people would agrue that we need entertainment value in a news story about a murder. Follow the AP Stylebook, and keep these discussions internal so only your colleagues will know how your thought process works.

You did a disservice to bring up what may be a legitimate newsroom issue in such a silly, flippant, and disrespectful context. The story of this young woman's murder didn't need to be trivialized by your posting.

Marc Fisher: This is about today's blog item on Raw Fisher.

Sorry you feel that way--I think the more discussion we have about how news decisions are made, the better it is for all of us.

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Wheelchair Racing: Why not a separate set of events for wheelchair athletes to include able-bodied competitors who also race in wheelchairs? Sounds fair to everyone, doesn't it?

Marc Fisher: Great idea. That would be both fun and inclusive.

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This whole idea that we need to make everything "equal" for everyone, regardless of the practicalilty, is insane. Care to comment?: I don't think she wants is EQUAL, but simply INCLUSIVE.

Marc Fisher: No, she already got herself included--the story chronicles quite a long list of efforts by the school to include her. What she seeks now goes well beyond inclusiveness.

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Duke :"had a party featuring a stripper"... which is perfectly legal. Stop trying to be the moral judge of everyone like Rev. Sharpton. No, everyone who wrote bad about these kids deserves to give them an apology. Maybe every journalist who wrote bad things about the Duke kids should be fired too, because as we have seen with Imus's case, just saying sorry is not enough when the media has a history of overblowing cases over and over for years and years.

Marc Fisher: Check out the Georgetown case against Finnerty--that's not a question of taste or overly moralistic judgments. It was a pure and simple case of bullies abusing strangers on a public street.

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Duke case: Okay, they didn't rape her. That is excellent and exemplary and they didn't deserve the treatment they got from the prosecutor and media. But your column is still right -- they're still creeps.

Marc Fisher: Seems right to me.

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Washington, D.C.: I've been a Mt. Pleasant resident and homeowner for 30 years and have never been inconvenienced by the noise. I live about a block and a half from the commercial strip, but there are numerous group houses and even live musicians in houses nearby.

Marc Fisher: There are lots of residents of the neighborhood who feel as you do, and who crave a more open and accepting attitude toward not only the roving mariachi bands but the jazz combos of neighbors who used to play on their front porches and invite neighbors to come listen and hang out.

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Rockville, M.: Property value?

Of course, today it trumps all other concerns.

What a pity. That we can excuse any position, no matter how vile, by saying we want to protect our property value.

Marc Fisher: But as the musicians and their supporters argue, a lively and attractive music scene can enhance property values. Look at Georgetown, Adams Morgan and similar places--yes, some residents fight the entertainment establishments tooth and nail, but others relish the scene and believe it boosts their property values.

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Capitol Hilll, Washington, D.C.:"If the District enforced noise ordinances, there'd be no reason for anyone to be banning the bands." And if pigs could fly ...

The noise ordinances are unenforceable and useless. Noise ordinances can't calm down the rowdy drunks who hit the residential neighborhoods at 3 a.m. after a night of partying. For the drunks, it is one night, for the neighbors it is night after night after night. Nor can the noise ordinances deal with an issue we had -- where the neighbor's bed literally bounced until 3 a.m. because of the bass vibrations. Completely within the noise limits, but unacceptable. The only way to deal with that problem was through the cooperative agreement process of the liquor license laws. Let's face it, night clubs and residential areas (and local commercial areas that back on residential areas) don't mix. I applaud Laurie Collins for all she has done!

Ken Jarboe

ANC 6B05

Marc Fisher: If the law allows a level of noise that makes bedsprings vibrate at 3 a.m., that's a reason to adjust the law, not to eliminate all performance from local eateries.

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Falls Church, Va.: If you're right (and you mostly are) that people gravitate to info/media outlets that cater to their preexisting views, then what kind of reader gravitates to your columns and blog?

Marc Fisher: Hey, if you can figure that out, you win this week's booty from the Vast Vault of Values. It's too late in the hour for this week, but come ahead next show with your descriptions and I'll pick a winner and send out some prizes.

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Jazz combos on front porches?: How do I get that in my neighborhood? All I get is loud rap/rock from cars with windows rolled down in the parking lot of my townhouse complex, as their owners wash them. (Apparently you cannot wash a car without earsplitting music. And all cars must be washed at least once a week.)

The suburbs aren't paradise, either.

Marc Fisher: This is reason #463 why you should never wash your car. I can tell you as a veteran of 27 years of car ownership that never washing the car does no harm whatsoever.

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Southwest D.C.: Could the Imus flack be the beginning of the end of the racially-oriented shock jock? Wouldn't this have been laughed away 20 years ago? Note also the difficulty the Greaseman has had getting back on the airwaves.

This leads to a different question. Can a radio station make a lot of money without having a morning talk program? I think that the thing that killed WHFS was when they put on the Sports Junkies show, something that didn't really work with the station's traditional audience.

Marc Fisher: Radio stations make the majority of their money during the morning commute. Nothing is more important to a station than its morning show.

That's why the Imus flap will have zero impact on the kind of programming you hear on the radio in the morning. The raunch shows and the morning zoos will go about their business. Some hosts who trade in racial humor may tone things down for a while, but as I said earlier, it's not likely that anyone else would be hit with a controversy like this one, because it was really TV and YouTube that got Imus in trouble for this particular slur.

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Silver Spring, Md.: Marc,

Is free speech dead in America?

Marc Fisher: Ha! There's so much freedom of speech and so many wildly disparate streams of speech that it will remain both a hugely profitable business and a fabulous political tool and the central defining aspect of this society. That said, "Get off my air!"

First to identify that quote, by the way, gets a prize. Email me at marcfisher@washpost.com

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Defending yourself on the Durham case: You've repeatedly stated your opposition to our society's tolerance of under-aged drinking and the gross boorishness that follows, haven't you? I disagree with you on many issues, but this is one area where you've maintained consistency.

Marc Fisher: Consistent is good? Or boring? Or both?

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Washington, D.C.: Can we please, for the next two seasons, ignore anyone who is ignorant enough to ask about Acta being fired? Clearly these people do not follow baseball or the Nats, or they simply wouldn't ask this. Folks, baseball is in its third season here, start learning it, paying attention to it, and up this town's baseball IQ a little bit. We are way too smart in this region for the learning curve to be this steep. Thanks for the rant.

Marc Fisher: And thank you.

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Marc Fisher: That kicks things in the head for today--thanks for coming along. Back in the paper on Sunday with both a Metro column and a Listener column in Sunday Arts.

And check out Raw Fisher for new stuff daily.

Happy spring, if you can find it.

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Marc Fisher: Good morning, folks, and welcome to the second 100 days of the Fenty administration.

So, what do you make of Mayor Blackberry's opening gambits? He often seems to be everywhere, with a public schedule each day of which looks like the list of public appearances that Tony Williams used to make in a week. Fenty routinely shows up to neighborhood meetings that draw as few as a dozen people--and those groups seem immensely grateful to win some minutes of the mayor's attention.

Does that or will that translate into policies and actions that those residents desire? Is the emphasis on public appearances stealing time away from the grittier work of budgets and personnel decisions and massaging the council?

So far, the primary test of the mayor's political prowess has been the battle over shifting control of the public schools to the mayor's office, and Fenty appears to have won that one handily. The next test will be the special elections next month in Wards 4 and 7, where, again, Fenty's hand-picked favorites appear to be very much in contention, if not in the lead in close races that are likely to swing on the poor turnout that happens in such special elections.

What is the mayor doing right and how has he disappointed or messed up? What indicators do you see that should steer our thinking on his performance thus far?

Comments, criticisms, commendations, all welcome here for the next hour as we examine the first 100 days of Adrian Fenty's mayoralty....

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