Upper Palisades Update 7-18-2000

FROM: ANC Commissioner Patrick Shaughness
202-364-9657

GET INVOLVED IN BUS ROUTE CHANGES

Over the years, a number of residents have asked if the M-4 route could be expanded to cover MacArthur Boulevard.
Currently, residents on and near MacArthur have no way to get to Metro by bus unless they take the "D" buses all the way to DuPont Circle.
Metrobus rejected efforts to extend M-4 all the way down MacArthur to the V Street/Safeway area, but indicated a willingness to create a "loop" so that the route would also turn off Loughboro onto MacArthur, then turn onto Arizona.
Before the change was instituted, I asked for the ANC to review the change and get input from residents.
At our meeting on the 10th it was evident there were unanswered questions and some number of concerns having to do with the impact the buses would have.
The ANC authorized our Chair to appoint a committee of residents to report back to the ANC at our September meeting to determine if the objections to the change in the route can be satisfied, and to make recommendations as to what action the ANC should take in advising the District government and Metrobus.
Several have asked to serve already, but we are still seeking volunteers through Wednesday July 26th so that the committee can be as representative of the neighborhood as possible, especially of residents on and near MacArthur and Arizona, where the new portion of the route would run.
To volunteer please contact me.
My thanks also go to Max Alvarez of the Palisades Citizens Association Traffic Committee for getting the discussion going on this issue and moving things along to the point where more people can participate in this process.

TRACK NEIGHBORHOOD CRIME OVER THE INTERNET

A new way to monitor crime is through the Internet, and I highly recommend it.
An email service called crimereports.com is available free to anyone logging on at www.crimereports.com/states/dc.html.
You will be able to put yourself on an e-mail list for messages summarizing crime reports from our MPD 2nd District.
The reports are arranged by Police Service Area ("PSA"), ours being PSA 203.
This information is becoming more readily available.
One more reason to be alert to what is happening in your neighborhood. Homebuyers and Realtors will increasingly access this information to evaluate a community.
Washingtonpost.com is linked to these reports and makes them searchable by street name and other factors.
I've used it to motivate a nearby large property owner to secure its property at night so it won’t be reporting stolen machinery and equipment so often.
Otherwise, the reported crime shows up as being on my street, giving the impression that there's a problem, when maybe there's really just one overly casual property owner.
Nevertheless, be assured our PSA is consistently the most peaceful, suffering almost exclusively from auto theft and vandalism and nothing drug-related and almost no violent crime.

CHARITY RUNS: JUST SAY NO

The 7/12 NW Current had an excellent editorial regarding the charity runs which periodically shut down entire streets in Upper Northwest and cause so much controversy and disruption.
A recent example was on Saturday, June 17th, when over 1,600 runners tromped over Canal Road, MacArthur, Foxhall and Reservoir Road on June 17th for the Lawyers Have Heart Run.
Your commissioner was one of the unhappy residents who had to cool his heels while the D-6 bus was shut down for a half hour.
Others say they were blocked from leaving their driveways for up to 2 hours, especially along Foxhall.
Two persons independently told me about an ambulance which was blocked from entering the ER at GU Hospital and allowed to proceed only after some irate citizens intervened with police.
For more details, see my letter to the race sponsors, the American Heart Association, posted on the Foxhall Community Citizens Association website at www.foxhall.org/Letters/Shaughness.htm.
Although procedures requiring notice to ANCs and neighborhood associations would be nice, it's not essential.
The schedule for many of the races is already on the internet at http://www.runwashington.com/ index.html.
The Georgetown 10k is coming in October.
Any ANC already has the power to recommend against approval of permits. This recommendation is to be given "great weight" by District agencies (D.C. Code Sec. 1-261).
The bottom line here: Although a new set of procedures would be useful, we needn't wait.
As it stands, we have at our disposal a tool whereby race sponsors can be encouraged to respect neighborhoods.
To run such a race on public streets, a permit is needed from the District government. It will be hard to grant the permit if ANCs all along the route recommend against granting it.
To get to the Palisades, generally, it's necessary for these events to come from the south, meaning the Georgetown/ Foxhall ANC [2E] has to speak up too.

GIRLS CHOIR CONCERT IN UPPER PALISADES

The Cathedral Girls’ Choir from Norwich Cathedral in England will be visiting our neighborhood at St. Davids Episcopal Church at Klingle and Macomb for a free concert on Monday July 31st at 7:30 pm.
All are invited.
The Choir consists of 25-30 girls aged 10-18.
This is an “exchange” visit for the Choir, as several St. David’s parishioners visited and established a relationship with the Cathedral in a recent trip.
The Choir, with 25-30 girls aged 10-18, is part of what amounts to a movement at Norwich and the other great Cathedrals in that until recent years, the emphasis was on boys’ choirs.
Like the recently formed Girls Choir at National Cathedral here in Washington, it gives girls the opportunity to become part of the choral tradition.

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Upper Palisades Update is from Patrick Shaughness [202-364-9657] ANC Commissioner for District 3D-4 [roughly bounded by Arizona Avenue, Loughboro Road, Dalecarlia Parkway to the District line, and by the Potomac River on west]. All views are his own and not those of ANC 3D.