You may have read the letter published in the Post responding to Colbert King's recent column condemning funding of the H Street shuttle. The Post limits letters to 150 words, but I've got the original version. Check it out:
It was with disappointment and dismay that I read the recent column by Colbert I. King regarding the H Street Shuttle ("Earmark and entitlement on H Street", Saturday, December 19, 2009). The column was chock full of unsubstantiated and veiled allegations of racism and seemed rooted in the fear, distrust and reverse racism of the last generation. The overt race baiting in the article was shocking and demands a strong rebuttal.
Mr. King alleges that there "seems to be a perception that some of the Metrobus's X2 clientele can be... rough around the edges," yet he provides no supporting evidence that such a perception exists or that it is unfounded. Given the context, it seems a deceptive omission that no mention was made of the fatal shooting of a passenger boarding a Metrobus at 14th and H Streets earlier this fall. It would have also been helpful to provide statistics regarding crime rates along different bus routes if in fact the X2's clientele is no "rougher" than those riding other lines in the city.
Mr. King uses a quote from the Atlas Theater website to suggest that the H Street Business Cooperative seeks patrons from elsewhere in the city and not from the surrounding neighborhood. A review of the original language and context of the quote online suggests that the intent is to widen the appeal of H Street and make it easier and more attractive for dollars to flow into our community from across the entire city, not to exclude local residents from participating in the new activity on the street. Many local businesses actively seek engagement with, and participation of, the surrounding community. For example, the H Street Theater provides free tickets to its performances for anyone who lives within a 5 or 6 block radius of the theater. To suggest that the H Street business community is trying to draw customers from elsewhere to the exclusion of its neighbors is unsupported by a review of the quote in its original context and simply untrue.
Entrepreneurs on H Street do want, and in fact need, patrons from "different areas of the city and surrounding regions." They need them because the surrounding neighborhood, in and of itself, is not dense enough to support a robust local retail economy. Most businesspeople are concerned about the vitality of their operations, not where people come from. H Street, to be economically successful, needs more people, not different people.
Mr. King presents a derogatory caricature of our neighborhood by suggesting that people want to go out and have a good time on H Street "with folks of similar tastes" and without having to "deal with any unpleasantness of the surrounding territory." We have a racially, socially, economically and culturally diverse community in the blocks surrounding H Street. This is one of the few areas of the city where people from a variety of backgrounds do live side by side and do mix together in social settings, including at nightclubs and bars. If anything, it is both Southeast and Upper Northwest that are the racially segregated areas of town, not H Street, Northeast.
The city and its taxpayers have a vested interest in making H Street economically successful. There is a comprehensive strategic plan for the corridor designed to provide much needed housing, urban retail, and a culturally vibrant arts and entertainment district. The city is expending tens of millions dollars for infrastructure improvements along the H Street corridor. The $428,000 being spent on the shuttle is insignificant in comparison.
Most importantly, the City, in developing and implementing the strategic plan, is providing for the needs of its citizens and is trying to staunch the flow of retail spending leaking out of the District, as well as lost income and property tax revenue. Mr. King is correct that local entrepreneurs have taken on substantial risk by locating new businesses on an economically depressed corridor, but it is all of us who will gain, both economically, and in the ability to participate in a socially and culturally vibrant urban experience. If the shuttle helps H Street's entrepreneurs survive and prosper, we all benefit. So let's leave the race baiting of the last generation behind and enjoy the renaissance of one of Washington's great streets.
Joel Kelty
And here's a letter from Adele Robey of the H Street Playhouse.
26 comments:
Here's another: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/local-opinions/2009/12/the_wrong_view_of_the_h_street.html#more
does anyone know if Murry's has restocked their pizzas yet? does the shuttle stop nearyby?
The shuttle does stop a block away:
Initially, the east-bound shuttle stops will be:
* Gallery Place Metro (Red Line) 7th and H Street NW. Pick up in front of Zengo Restaurant, 781 7th Street NW on, 7th, just south of H Street NW.
* 5th and H Street NE
* 10th and H Street NE
* 1333 H Street NE (the Atlas Performing Arts Center)
* Starburst Intersection, 15th and H and Florida Ave NE (The Argonaut Tavern)
* Minnesota Avenue Metro (Blue and Orange Line)
And, west-bound stops at:
* Minnesota Avenue Metro (Blue and Orange Line)
* Starburst Intersection, 15th and H and Florida Ave NE (The Argonaut Tavern)
* Between 12th and 13th Streets on H Street NE
* 9th and H Street NE
* 5th and H Street NE
* Gallery Place Metro (Red Line) 7th and H Street NW. Drop off in front of Starbucks on H St NW.
(from http://www.atlasarts.org/plan_shuttle.php).
i also e mailed mr. king. i was intrigued by the way he was able to change the meaning of my isolation comment. thus far, he has not replied, nor has he responded to my invitation to the pug. that bar is probably a little too rough around the edges for him although he did show quite a bit of street cred when he dropped that sentence about them with the clout. it's always so clever to write like miss daisy's driver. to me, the bottom line is this, there's no justice, just us. he won't come down to h, not to the black nativity, and certainly not to the pug so eff him. poopydoop, i'm heading to work right now, grab a pizza, get on the bus, and we'll see if we can't cook a murry's pizza on a foreman grill.
tonyt
thepug
btw, i have TWO forman grills. i prefer the old press-down one.
rock on, tony!
I love the neighborhood's united responses to Mr. King. I ride both the X2 and the shuttle. God forbid there be more than one form of transportation to the H St. Corridor. I still have trouble getting cabs out here.
"reverse racism = instant, total fail
"reverse racism = instant, total fail
^ indeed, since "reverse racism" would be "treating someone very well due to their race", like say if someone gave you a million dollars just for being asian and at the corner of 17th and T at 5pm.
the burning question remains, why can't consumers with money to spend pay for public transportation? and are they willing to wait for a shuttle that only comes every half hour just to save a buck and change?
i have seen the circular traveling east on maryland before, presumptively heading to a bus depot (since maryland has no circulator stops). why not just have those circulators stop at different points down maryland, perhaps loop around to h at the argonaut, charge every a quarter to subsidize the service, and save us some tax dollars?
circular = circulator where typo appears above, but y'all probably already caught on to that.
i think king's underlying premise is, why should this specific retail corridor get a free service when a parallel service with a nominal charge is currently available? wouldn't the cheaper solution be to clamp down X2 drivers so they actually follow the schedule, clean the buses more regularly and perhaps have a transit officer ride during the evening hours? would all of that cost a half million/year? have these competing solutions (improving the X2, expanding circulator service) been evaluated to see which is most cost effective for the taxpayer?
soul searcher, even though we disagree, you were somehow able to state your argument without all the underlying themes of racism and classism. you didn't even have to speak like miss daisy's driver to get your point across. by the way, to me an asshole is a dude that cuts you off in traffic, or leaves a dollar tip on a $200 tab. a jungle, wild, etc. animal is one who makes the x2 "rough around the edges" or kicks out a window. an asshole is a guy who can't argue his point, without resorting to old useless cliches, or at least visiting the places he so easily criticizes.
tonyt
the pug
The $$ for this shuttle is TINY compared to the real entitlements and the completely foreseeble results of those entitlements that we hand out all the time.
How many tens of millions are spent each year in NE on public housing?
How many of those public housing residents, now freed from having to work, and encouraged by our refusal to actually police public housing adequately, end up in prison and half-way houses?
How much is it to incarcerate someone? $50,000 a year? And some of these half-way and drug treatment houses get close to $100,000 per client.
That $$ is all a result of entitlements we give out.
I'd much rather have my taxes go to a shuttle that encourages businesses, and probably pays for itself in return on taxes on businesses and new investment in the area.
So, a couple of thugs in prison per year, or a shuttle that actually encourages business and helps provide jobs for the area.
Not a tough decision.
Transit police get paid well into the $60k range after only a few years. Get 5 or 6 of them to ride the X2 and you have already went through most of the $500k it costs to run the shuttlebus.
Who funds the kennedy center shuttle?
Why was The Link ( bus 98, i think) subsidized?
also, why doesn't the shuttle stop at 8th and h?
I'm a relative newcomer to H St and the X2 and need to vent. Why does the X2 stop at almost every effing block?
The one I really like is eastbound 7th ST NW and 6th ST NW. Those two are actually on the same block. The bus doesn't cross another street.
Maybe old or disabled people need these close stops, but it seems like overkill for 99% of the population
But, that 99% of the population could walk to Union Station or other faster bus lines (D's, 90's, etc). The 1% that can't should really be served by the bus. I wonder if the bus stops used to line up with large stores that really anchored the shopping district at one point? There surely is some room for improvement, but a local bus should actually make local stops. In NYC, after 7 or 8PM, a bus will stop for you anywhere along the route as long as you ask. Other than the B61, though, bus ridership is much less than it is in DC.
I'm late to this discussion. Could someone explain to me why the shuttle is free rather than at least a nominal charge ($1 Circulator)? If the problem is really lack of cabs to/from H St. or inconsistent bus service, why is the dedicated shuttle alternative provided gratis? Couldn't at least a nominal charge apply, or perhaps the nomimal charge could be tallied by headcount and offset by the private business owners on H St who operate while the shuttle is running (ie real benefciaries). Seems like more of a compromise than having it entirely City funded, regardless of the amount.
To answer a previous commentator -- the Kennedy Center owns and operates its shuttle service.
Apparently a few people here never took economics in College. The folks riding the shuttle are paying for it! It's called taxes... Most of the people riding the shuttle are there because they are patronizing a DC establishment, which means DC sales taxes, DC property taxes, and DC payroll taxes.
Dave B:
Because people are generally lazy, overweight and don't like to even walk a few blocks. In terms of saving time it's not going to make a significant difference because it would take that much as longer to offload and load additional people as the time saved in skipping a stop. There will be a little time saving for not having to accelerate from standstill but that would not be significant.
I think the additional starting and stopping adds up. I would say it takes at least 20 seconds to start and stop. If you can cut out 3 or 4 stops on what is now a ten minute trip, you would save a least a minute. Then I think there would be additional savings because what if those stops cause you to miss a green light? What if that happens more than once.
Now you are 3+ minutes behind and you miss a metro and need to wait another 10 minutes.
It could be even more for longer rides.
You could almost cut out half the stops.
Thats half the struggling to maintain your grip on a pole to avoid mashing into someone.
I agree there is a large amount of laziness. There are some stops I'll get out if the bus stops or someone else pulls the string. Otherwise I'll just wait til the next one when more people get off.
We could have handicapped stops
Hmm... I read most of the posts and haven't heard anyone speak about the residents of the area and how they benefit. I live in the area and hate the fact that when I come home after work, I cannot find any where to park because all the patrons in the area have taken all our on street parking.
It also keeps some drunk individuals off the roads. I don't mind paying a little tax money to have safer streets. For real!
If you cut a stop, the stop left now will have all the people from the "eliminated" stop waiting to get on. That is sure to cause the duration of the stop to be longer. So you may save some time in stopping frequently however, you lose that advantage when it takes longer to start as a result of more people loading and off loading.
Anon 4:02. Parking is a double edged sword. One hand you don't want the patrons to take up your parking space on the street at the same time you want to be able to go to say Georgetown or Tenley town be able to enjoy free parking on their streets! It doesn't work that way. Imagine if the entire city started making every street resident parking only. You will not be able to take your car out at all unless you have metered parking (which is not the case) available everywhere. It's the reason even Georgetown doesn't have residential parking. It would squash all the businesses that thrive on their streets.
Also parking a few blocks away will only help your health and create foot traffic so essential in preventing crime and making neighborhoods safer.
popo, i think that only the guy who wrote freakanomics can figure out the time differential between multiple stops versus close stops. i know it makes me crazy when a bus stop is visible from the next stop. just an emotional unmeasurable reaction. all of these points can and will be argued til we're blue in the nu// face. however, getting back to the original point, we have for the most part been able to discuss this without dipping into the bs cliches and innuendos used by colby king. to me that's upsetting because first, he was able to twist my quote, and second, he was a writer i always followed because i valued his opinion. now all i can do is question his methodology and agenda.
tonyt
the pug
A lot of people aren't 'lazy' when not wanting to walk a few blocks.
They are concerned about their safety.
Like it or not, this is a legitimate concern on H Street.
As for neighborhood parking, this is a good point. In theory more people on the shuttle means more parking for residents.
But look at suburban hotspots. The residential areas around them are often resident parking ONLY, 24/7, no grace period, no nothing.
Of course, they also often have parking garages.
As for bus stop frequency, let's not forget that easy bus stop takes away, what, five street parking spaces? It seems that we have a huge number of bus stops on the Hill. Some major streets seem to be literally nothing but bus stops, block after block.
Isn't there some logical way to consolidate these?
This is Anon 4:02.
I do understand what you are saying (Be generous) and I don't have a problem with walking if need be. I was just commenting on the fact that the shuttle will "open up" more spots for the residents. I didn't really mean that no one but residents should be able to park there.
My comment did seem a little naggy though. Sorry for the confusion.
tony,
i don't understand why you keep comparing king to morgan freeman's 'driving miss daisy' character
and i didn't grow up in the same era as king. dc was literally abandoned by everyone for decades and before that it was a jim crow town...i can only imagine the heartache of growing up under jim crow, defeating it, then watching the city go under...but i imagine it would explain a lot of the racial animosity in the town...especially amongst the older folk (twice now i have overheard conversations from older folk around the hood about how "white people would never come around here (or be scared to come around here) back in the day" as if this were a point of pride.
we have a great deal of work to do.
i will say though that the people who engage their neighbors regularly in an egalitarian way do a lot of that work, unknowingly.
lastly, calling one person an animal and the other person an asshole when *all* of their behavior makes it harder to live here seems to be making a distinction without a difference.
what do you call a blackwater guard who kills a bunch of civilians overseas? the lobbyist who urges for more funding for something absurd? there are people in the world causing far more damage than any X2 rider receiving far less criticism in the public discourse, which is why i find the "animal" tag wholly unnecessary.
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