| Potomac Confidential
With Marc Fisher
Post Metro Columnist
Thursday, May 22, 2003; Noon ET 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. 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. The 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.
Marc Fisher: Hello, Americans, stand by for punditry!
How do you like this beach weather, huh? (Look on the bright side: No A/C bills for May.)
The governor of Maryland, still pining for slots, is continuing his tantrum against everything else, vetoing 19 bills of various stripes.
Montgomery County presses ahead on its campaign to ban smoking from bars and restaurants--the subject of Tuesday's column and many of your comments today.
It's Orange Alert time again--can't you just feel the tension?
And quite a few of you want to talk about the FCC's impending boost for corporate consolidation in the media industries--the subject of an Outlook piece I wrote in last Sunday's editions.
Plus the usual array of carping and prescriptions for a perfect world, all starting right now on Potomac Confidential ... (Starting and ending a few minutes on the early side today.)
Silver Spring, Md.: Boy, did you miss the boat in your column on banning smoking from restaurants in Montgomery County. Your callous approach completely forgot the people that work in restaurants! They are constantly subject to the noxious odors of smokers, posing a great risk to their health. But I guess they don't matter in Marc's world. Marc Fisher: Goodness, no, I didn't forget our valued and valiant friends who tend bar and wait on tables. Rather, I know that they have a choice about where to work, and in many cases, they have specifically chosen to work in bars that permit smoking because customers who smoke tend to order more alcohol, which means better tips. I spoke to several bar and restaurant owners who give their employees a choice of working in smoking or non-smoking sections or rooms, and for the most part, workers choose the smoking areas. But you're right that some workers don't have that option, and some may have the only job they could find; they may not like the smoke. But that's the nature of that work and they certainly knew that going in.
Maryland: Kudos to you for your frank and incisive commentary Tuesday on the Montgomery County anti-smoking zealots. Their relentless crusade to rid their ecotopia of tobacco-using vermin who dare challenge their notions of political correctness makes them a puzzlement to some and a laughingstock to many. However, I must take exception to your comments about Europe's supposedly lackadaisical attitude about public smoking. Like it or not, we have a lot to learn about civility from them in this regard. Really now, what is wrong with an occasional whiff of tobacco smoke, when these same folks who complain are probably dumping tons of pollutants into the air through the exhaust pipes of their SUVs? In case you're wondering, I don't smoke. Marc Fisher: Well, much as I like the way you buttered me up there, I do have to part with you on the question of the European approach, which strikes me as way too far in the other direction: I'm all for letting everyone have their own special sections of eateries for smoking or non, but to do as Europeans do and say that all customers must sit in a sea of smoke is just way too one-sided.
In Germany before the European Union got its claws into local laws, it was considered unfair to relegate smokers to the back of airplanes, so they decided that the smoking "section" would be the left side of the plane, which of course meant that the entire plane was filled with smoke. That's taking equity to an absurd degree.
washingtonpost.com: Montgomery Still Gunning For Smokers (May 20)
Rockville, Md. (in the People's Republic of Montgomery County): Marc, Bravo on your column regarding the council's efforts to ban smoking. I believe that there are 1,500 eating/drinking establishments in Montgomery County of which half do not allow smoking at all. Therefore, if my numbers are correct, a non-smoker could eat out in Montgomery County twice a day for a year and not go to the same place twice. One thing you may want to explore in a future column is whether it is indeed true that second-hand smoke is hazardous to people who encounter it infrequently. I don't think it is. I believe the people most at risk from second-hand smoker are the owners and employees of the bars/restaurants and they are the ones most opposed to a smoking ban. Marc Fisher: The number I'd heard for establishments that voluntarily ban smoking was closer to 20 percent, but either way, it's a substantial number, and more power to those owners if they conclude that that's the public's choice. But that is their decision to make, not the county's.
The science on smoking is reasonably clear -- it's bad for you. Secondhand smoking research is more disputed, but it certainly makes sense that if you're around smoke a lot, it won't be good for you. Being around the occasional cigarette, on the other hand, can't be nearly as bad as living above a bus stop, which I did for some years, and let me tell you, there's nothing like the smell of bus exhaust in the morning.
Speaking of Robert Duvall, one of you is doing just that ...
Long Beach, Calif.: The Post METRO reports today that Robert Duvall is leaning on Congress to put in a 8,000 Sq.Ft. Vietnam Wall Visitor Center. This will "explain" the Wall to Americans. I'm sure Duvall is an expert on his craft, but do we really need the VFW, or some other veteran group taking on the task of Art analysis? These are the very same groups who attacked Maya Lin's masterpiece, and now they want to coattail on it with a stupid underground bunker, complete with a "virtual jungle fighting game". Marc, now is the time to call for an American War Museum, like the one in London. Otherwise, our National Maul will be tattooed by all the competing wars, which has already ruined the Rainbow Pool. YOUR THOUGHTS? Marc Fisher: I don't think we need actors to tell us how and where to memorialize the nation's wars and soldiers. And we certainly don't need anything more on the Mall, not new memorials, not the horrific World War II mausoleum now under construction, and not any "explanatory" materials for the dimwitted.
The Mall is and should be a finished piece of landscape architecture. There are plenty of other places in the District that can accommodate future memorials. But to destroy the Mall's unique blend of history, recreation and working urban crossroads would be a tragedy that cannot be reversed. It's already too late to stop the monstrous WWII Memorial, but we can still draw the line after that.
Welby, Md.: Thank goodness it's raining again. After two days of sunshine I thought the state of Maryland would have to impose water restrictions. Marc Fisher: Give them a year and they'll be crying Drought again.
15th & Fuller, Washington, D.C.: What's the deal with D.C.'s new policy of ticketing and towing any car without D.C. plates? On Tuesday morning, 18 cars were towed around 15th and Fuller, including my boyfriend's, who lives in Virginia (thus Virginia tags). The area isn't zoned, it was a legal spot. I was told he had no recourse. How does the city get away with this? Marc Fisher: The District, responding to many years of vociferous complaints from residents who resent seeing out of state plates taking up parking spaces on their blocks, started cracking down on those out of staters a few months ago. But the crackdown failed to discern between residents who have refused to get D.C. plates and visitors who were legitimately spending the night at a friend's house.
So now they're trying to rework the law and figure out a better way to enforce it. The motive is a good one; it's about time the city got serious about making residents pay for their cars to be registered in the District. But too many innocents are being caught up in this. Anyone have a good solution?
Arlington, Va.: I am tired of the terror alert codes. The governor has defined any plans other than to seal up your windows with plastic and buy bottled waters and canned goods. When they go to code red, what do they want us to do? My guess is run like hell. Marc Fisher: If it hits red, it's too late to run. Red means crawl into bed, go out and play ball, tell your favorite stories, whatever you'd like to be doing when the lights go out.
It's a mystery: Can someone please tell me what was going on this morning, traffic-wise, on Capitol Hill? I was going west on Independence and right before the Capitol the police were making everyone turn right. (People coming from the side street were required to turn left.) There was also a helicopter circling overhead. Thanks. Marc Fisher: Anyone?
Van Ness, Washington, D.C.: Progress or the destruction of an historic building? What's going on at the old Sears building in Tenleytown? The street level face seems to be intact but lots of work inside and, perhaps, a second floor? Marc Fisher: The Sears, later Hechinger, building on Wisconsin Avenue NW is being transformed into a Best Buy and a couple of other big box-type shops, with condos to be built above the existing building. This is a compromise that took years to hammer out, after the Tenleytown and A.U. Park neighbors went nuts over the idea that that eyesore might be torn down and replaced with what the neighborhood really needs: A high-rise mixed-use building with retail and residential. That building sits literally atop a Metro station, but you'd never know it from the 1950s single-story retail all along that section of Wisconsin.
Metro is a foolish investment for the taxpayers unless the areas around the stations are developed with enough density to provide the urban amenities and tax base that the city so desperately needs.
Yet the city is now charging ahead with a tiny two-story Tenleytown library at that same intersection, when it would be easy to find a developer to build housing or retail on that site, and the city could get a free, state of the art library to boot.
The Hill: The President was in the House. He left about 9:30 a.m. Marc Fisher: Thanks.
Radio: Excellent piece in Sunday's Outlook. Between that and Steven Pearlstein's column yesterday, The Post has done a great job in reporting on radio consolidation. I'm looking forward to your book. washingtonpost.com: Sounds Familiar for a Reason, (Post, May 18) Marc Fisher: Thanks very much. The FCC will decide on June 2 whether to loosen ownership restrictions for TV stations in some of the same ways in which regulation of radio was eased in 1996. Watch for a big new wave of media consolidation.
Lexington Park, Md.: Good for the FCC. Soon all radio will be owned by the same company, you'll all come crying to satellite radio, and my share price will skyrocket! Marc Fisher: Well, maybe. Satellite radio is a strong alternative to what terrestrial radio is offering now, but just as broadcast TV didn't die because of cable, old-fashioned free radio won't go silent because of XM or Sirius.
Washington, D.C.: Interesting article on Sunday. What are your thoughts on satellite radio? On one hand I would like XM to do well because they are in D.C. but they don't seem to provide much local programming at all. Marc Fisher: No, satellite radio is not equipped to offer local programming at all. So even though you can catch the BBC News or CNN on XM satellite, you have to switch back to your regular radio to get local news, traffic or weather from WTOP or WMAL.
The satellite folks say people don't really need local radio except for those bits of info. I don't agree -- I think many listeners do crave some local connection on the radio, but they're not getting much of that from free radio these days either, especially outside the big cities.
Arlington, Va.: Last week you chose not to address my prediction that Jayson Blair would resurface as Al Sharpton's campaign spokesman. After reading excerpts from his interview I think this kid has even bigger plans -- he wants his own show on Fox! Marc Fisher: Sharpton's way too small a figure for Blair's delusions of grandeur. The wayward hack wants to be the Sundance Kid of journalism, a movies/TV/book triple threat. But my bet is that his various projects fizzle, just as plagiarist Stephen Glass' novel seems to be dying on release.
Chino, Calif.: How does America feel about the Mexico attitude toward the Iran conflict? Marc Fisher: I have no idea -- that may be an issue in your part of the country, but here on the East Coast, it doesn't seem to be on anyone's radar that I've heard about.
Long Beach, Calif.: I was curious as to whether you watched the Hitler mini-series? It was really quite good, except for excluding Henry Ford from his earned place in history. What did you think? Marc Fisher: I only saw a few minutes of the first episode, enough to see that this was a tired ploy for ratings numbers, without enough character depth even to address any interesting questions of history. The Hitler entertainment I'm most intrigued by is the new documentary featuring an extended interview with Hitler's secretary; haven't seen it yet, but hope to.
Derwood, Md.: Marc - Do you have the odds on just how soon Schaefer will start ranting about Ehrlich? I want to go to the track and place my bets. Oh wait ... Marc Fisher: No need to speculate -- there's a biting quotation from Schaefer about the governor in today's paper, in which Schaefer says Ehrlich's proposed 7.5 percent cut in state government will put too many people out of work.
Downtown: I work at one of the big downtown bookstores and, a week after being released, Stephen Glass's book had sold exactly one copy. Marc Fisher: And that was Glass, trying to pump up his numbers.
Delightful news! Thank you.
washingtonpost.com: Ehrlich Vetoes Tax, Tuition Bills (May 22)
Ashburn, Va., formerly New York, N.Y.: Hey Marc, good rant on Tuesday but you fell apart at the end. People won't drive out of their way to find a restaurant where they can smoke. It just doesn't happen. New York has had a no-smoking-in-restaurants policy for nearly a decade and now, of course, you can't smoke inside any business in New York at all. The result of the restaurant ban was actually an INCREASE in restaurant patronage. The result of the new ban, an increase in patronage of bars as well. Bartenders and wait-staff report an increase in tips. People should certainly have the right to kill themselves slowly if they wish, but Montgomery County's resolve to get smokers to quit doing it in everyone else's space will not hurt any Montgomery County's restaurants or bars. Marc Fisher: Perhaps, but you and I are reading differing accounts of how the new ban in NYC is playing out. It's too early for any definitive numbers, but the more anecdotal accounts I've seen show bars losing business as folks either stay home to drink and smoke or head to neighboring jurisdictions (New Jersey, Long Island, Westchester) to do as they wish.
Van Ness, D.C.: Re: Montgomery County Smokers The actions of various government officials in Montgomery County remind me of 90 percent of Dr. Gridlock's letters: "Dear Dr. Gridlock,
For years I have been trying to get other people to change their driving/parking/housing behaviors. Although I am clearly in the right, my lack of success is becoming frustrating." As a non-smoker I am thankful that I encounter less smoke every year. That said, the case for further restrictions on smoking based on actual health concerns (not 'street theater' reactions to the faintest whiff) is pretty weak. I believe we are now in the realm of regulating smokers based on popular opinion and business interests which flow both ways on this matter. Marc Fisher: Well said. The anti-smoking campaign should be proud of its success in persuading Americans of the ill effects of the habit and in reducing the number of folks who start smoking in the first place. Instead of hammering the populace with laws that only generate resentment against the no-smoke forces, they should continue using education, humor and other gentler methods of suasion to keep the decline going.
Secondhand Smoke: In Tuesday's column, you state that zero-tolerance laws on drinking and driving "make sense" because such behavior hurts other people (and not just the perpetrator). Yet, you think that having "smoking" and "non-smoking" sections in restaurants and bars is ample protection from secondhand smoke. In my opinion, smoking should also fit under the "zero-tolerance" rationale. If a smoker is in a restaurant, then every person inside that restaurant is exposed to his/her smoke and could potentially develop lung cancer as a result of the smoker's actions. Doesn't medical research support my conclusion? By smoking in public, smokers expose others to potentially deadly health risks. This qualifies as "hurting others," doesn't it? I'll bet my next paycheck that secondhand smoke kills more people each year than do drunk drivers. We have zero-tolerance laws against drunk driving; thus, we should have zero-tolerance laws against smoking in public. Marc Fisher: The analogy doesn't quite hang together -- if I drive drunk and kill you, that's a pretty direct connection. No one dies from sitting across a restaurant from a smoker one evening. The impact, if any, is cumulative, and would require quite a few such evenings. In the case of the driver, you cannot do anything to stop me from killing you. In the case of the secondhand smoke, you have a wide range of choices -- go only to non-smoking restaurants, ask your favorite restaurateur to change his policy, go to smoky places only once in a while, stay home, etc.
Arlington, Va.: Marc, I pretty much agree with your column on smoking except your reference to the Mayor of Friendship Heights. It is gratuitous in light of the real issue and akin to saying "Well, Adolf Hitler was a vegetarian too, so there!" And, by the way, Carlyle Grand Cafe in Shirlington was the first place in the area to go smoke-free and none of us yuppies complained. Marc Fisher: Yes, it was gratuitous, but not entirely: When Friendship Heights banned outdoor smoking, the county council wrestled with the issue for quite a while before stomping on the mayor. My point was that the county did not see the absolute folly in Mayor Mueller's position then, and does not today see the problem with staking out an anti-smoking policy of its own, without regard to what Maryland or its neighbors are doing.
Washington, D.C.: Kudos to the Post for the new schools database. Any comments? Marc Fisher: I took a swing through the washingtonpost.com database, which provides statistics and some test scores for public schools throughout the Washington area, last night, and it's a cool tool. You can find out some good, basic facts about schools -- size, ethnic makeup, income level of students, attendance rates for teachers, that sort of thing. I wouldn't want anyone to choose or reject a school because of the handful of facts about each institution, but it's a good resource for answering first questions about them.
washingtonpost.com: School Guide
Crofton, Md.: Hi Marc Terror codes frighten me! I am an administrator in a local school system (home sick today!). The code change will probably mean curtailed or cancelled field trips to D.C. As a resident, and a parent if you are one, what do you think of this policy? Would you allow your kids to go to D.C., Boston, NYC etc on a trip? Thanks. Marc Fisher: As we speak, my daughter is on a field trip touring downtown Washington to learn about Roman architectural styles, and I would have been appalled if her school had canceled that trip out of some phony bit of terror precaution.
I wouldn't have the slightest hesitation in sending my kids off on a field trip to New York or any other city.
School systems in our area should know better than anywhere else that keeping kids cooped up is destructive and meaningless. I could toss out cliches about how if we hide, the terrorists win, but even more important than that, there is simply no percentage in cowering in the school building. The odds of a field trip going wrong are so miniscule as to not be worth discussion. There's vastly more risk in letting kids play football or wrestle, hugely more risk in letting them drive as teenagers, and so on.
Arlington, Va.: What do you think the proper media response to Stephen Glass's heinously self-serving roman a clef should have been? It seems that anyone that ever had any contact with him has felt the need to defend themself against his semi-fictional portrayal, but doesn't this just go to drum up publicity for the lad? Marc Fisher: I'd have ignored it, and I was pleasantly surprised to see that Glass did not emerge last week as the cable news channel expert on the Jayson Blair story, as I had feared he would.
Washington, D.C.: Marc, The LPGA rep punted the following question about Annika Sorenstam on an earlier chat so I'm counting on you. Here it is: Lee Elder broke the color barrier at the Masters. It's worth considering how his approach differed from Sorenstam's. Elder made it known he would refuse a special invitation to play at the Masters. Then he won the Monsanto open to qualify for Augusta directly without a special break. Why didn't Sorenstam try to get on board in qualifying rounds instead of taking the special break? It was good enough for Lee Elder, it should be good enough for her. Marc Fisher: Excellent point, and that certainly would have diffused a good deal of the complaining about her position, and would have built a much stronger foundation of public support.
Capitol Hill: Rock Creek Park -- I'm all for Alternative D, giving me and my cycling/walking friends access to the park between rush hours. I mean, come on, it's a 'park' after all, not a freeway! Marc Fisher: This is about the Park Service's impending decision on whether to close Beach Drive in Rock Creek Park to vehicle traffic during middays, or even at all times.
I don't see much point in shutting the road down only during the proposed 9:30 am to 3:30 pm weekdays in that Alternative D you speak of. If there's to be a change, it should be all the way -- get the cars out of the park, period, and give the park back to bicyclists, walkers and others who use it for its intended purposes.
Let the commuters deal with the streets or get on the train.
Solution for D.C. parking?: A friend of mine lives walking distance from the Huntington Metro. Each household is authorized one visitor tag to park on the street during the day (to discourage commuters from taking these spaces). It has to be renewed annually, and you have to have you own car legally parked. But it sure beats the D.C. hassle where you have to accompany your visitor to the police station for a three-week permit. Marc Fisher: That sounds just terribly sensible. The District would never go for it.
Annika: ... is one under through 10 holes, tied for 20th, three shots back. Marc Fisher: We're an all-purpose news service around here.
Lexington Park, Md.: I thought the District had a parking pass operation up? Whenever I visit my aunt over the weekend, she gets me a pass to display in my windshield. This allows me to park overnight without being towed. From what I hear, the passes are easy to get. Isn't this in operation all over the city? Marc Fisher: Well, if you consider having to trudge down to the police station every time you have a visitor "easy," then, yup, it's a cinch.
Smoking:: I'm tired of non-smoker "street theater," as well as these smoke-free bar laws. The cigarette and the alcoholic drink have danced so well together since the dawn of time. It should be up to proprietors as to whether or not they want their establishments to be smoke-free, and then we as consumers decide whether or not to patronize the business. Fortunately I live in Virginia, so I don't foresee any mandatory smoke free bar laws passing there in this lifetime. Marc Fisher: You should be just fine there, and you can bring your gun too!
Gaithersburg, Md.: I live in Montgomery County and I smoke. If the ban does go through, I will respect it, and I will probably spend more time downtown than I do now. I will still go to my favorite bars/restaurants in Montgomery County, but will probably step outside to smoke every once in a while and then the non-smokers will have to walk through the secondhand smoke to get in! Marc Fisher: Right -- and is it really that much more fun for non-smokers to wade through those clouds of smoke outside the building than it would be to share the inside with smokers?
But if I were a D.C. bar owner, I'd get myself right up to Rockville next month to join the lobbying for the smoking ban. It'd be the best thing to happen to District restaurants since they extended Metro's hours.
New York, N.Y.: I recently read an article saying Ireland would go smoke free? Marc Fisher: When Ireland goes drink-free, give me a shout.
Correlation is NOT Causation: Marc, Your response to the New York City example is off base. The smoking ban in NYC for restaurants has a ton of data, which directly contradicts the idea that tips go down, and restaurant business declines when smoking is restricted. The bar ban is recent, and does lack data, but your inference that because you've heard of people drinking elsewhere, therefore the bar ban is causing NYC bars to lose customers/money is faulty logic. Consider the numbers of smokers vs. non-smokers. As an ex-smoker, I skip the smoky bar scene. When a place becomes non-smoking, a much larger percentage of the population is willing to go there. And yes, even people who smoke are still willing to go have a drink. Marc Fisher: As I said earlier, we don't yet know the impact of the New York ban, so all we have to go on at this point is the anecdotal reporting, which is probably all over the map.
Arlington, Va.: Whenever I go to a restaurant and see there is a line I always tell the hostess I'd prefer smoking because you usually get seated faster. Marc Fisher: Yes, I've done that too, but only after checking to make sure the smoking area isn't overwhelmingly hazy. We could get into the whole debate about whether smokers get better service or even better tables, but we're out of time, so let's save that battle for another week.
"Historic" Landmarks: If the old Sears Building and the Giant Food store in Cleveland Park can be considered "historic landmarks", then I guess we should be preserving those potholes everywhere too, after all, wouldn't want future generations to not know how our roads were in the early 21st century ... Marc Fisher: And let's be sure to keep those old call boxes so we can ring up the fire department just like they did in the 19th century.
Tenleytown, Washington, D.C.: Marc: You're playin' Jayson on us -- that is not how the Sears project went down at all. Majority of the citizens at the meetings with the developer encouraged them to apply for a demolition permit; the developer insisted they would not, and would actually restore it into an attractive building. Hard to believe, but their computer graphical representations support them. You are right about the library. Library system adamantly opposed to public/private partnership, even though at least several developers surfaced. Marc Fisher: 'Fraid not -- while you're right that there were lots of locals who wanted that Sears building torn down, we were unfortunately outmaneuvered by the forces of "historic" preservation, who had halted earlier plans to replace the Sears building with something more suited for the site. The developers came up with this alternative only after it became clear that demolition wouldn't hack it with the conservative forces in the neighborhood.
Birdland: As a jazz fan, what's your opinion of Twins? I wind up going there pretty frequently because they get some decent people, but holy moley, could the service and what not be worse? Other than the newish spot at the Kennedy Center, which runs ~ $25 for a one-hour set, where do you go to hear good jazz? Marc Fisher: Twins -- good music, great location, not the smoothest of service. But that's often true of jazz spots. At least they're trying. The Kennedy Center club is my latest favorite. HR57 is worth a try, and I recommend the Jazz Night on Fridays at the Presbyterian Church on Eye Street SW.
Solution for legit out-of-town plates parkers: Do what we do here in Takoma Park: Issue to every legit local resident a single visitor parking permit. Check that if the person has a car, it is registered in D.C. Marc Fisher: Right. Good idea.
We're fresh out of time, folks. More next week, when it will be June and we might actually see the sun. But be careful what you wish for, because you know we're going to go directly from 60s to 90s, from rain to steam.
Have a lovely week, and write if you get work.
washingtonpost.com: That wraps up today's show. Thanks to everyone who joined the discussion.
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