Who thought that the prospect of providing only one bathroom per 6,849 Metro customers, as local radio station WTOP-FM has reported, would be the biggest challenge facing an estimated 4 million visitors expected in the nation’s capital Jan. 20?
Think again.
There were two murders and a stabbing within hours last week in the eclectic Adams Morgan and Columbia Heights areas in the Tale of Two Cities. And members of the D.C. Council, with straight faces, actually want us to believe that edgy police can maintain order during a four-day D.C. Drunkfest that city leaders are promoting for the historic inaugural of the 44th president.
Think again.
This is not New Year’s Eve or even Halloween in Georgetown, when a couple of hundred boozy crowds of college coeds take to the D.C. streets. Didn’t D.C. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty already predict that the city would be like “the Fourth of July on steroids for the week?” That there will be only 3 square feet per person along the parade route and on the Mall alone?
Instead of extending the hours patrons can drink ’til they drop, a more responsible council should be switching the lights on and off earlier to signal “last call” for alcohol for the unprecedented number of revelers expected to descend on the city.
But this council is not exhibiting responsibility or restraint. It is begging for trouble as it lets the bar-and-restaurant constituency grab for easy money.
These legislators need to think again. On Tuesday, when they meet, council members need to remember their most important charge is to act in the public good, which means to maintain public safety first; fill public coffers second.
In their haste to capitalize on the unprecedented excitement that is predicted to bring so many people here from all over the globe, some grubby Washingtonians, including D.C. Council members, have made no secret about their desire to make a fast bailout buck with the slickest hustle.
Some of the rents listed for lodging on Craigslist.com, for example, are downright deceitful.
Hey, not to be a party pooper; I don’t begrudge anybody trying to earn a little extra cash in these hard economic times, but gouging is not welcome and sucker-punches the inaugural theme of “Renewing America’s Promise” dead in D.C. faces.
Note that the D.C. government is charging 500 vendors, who can certify that they have no criminal record, a special one-day fee to peddle their inaugural goods along the parade route. Does it not realize that vending is the only legitimate form of employment that many former offenders are able to secure? How might some of them be tempted to welcome our guests?
Making more money (to spend unwisely, as usual) is the only reason the D.C. Council, at the behest of the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington, rushed through emergency legislation to allow bars, clubs and restaurants to stay open, like a CVS dispensing emergency care, 24 hours throughout the inaugural weekend.
As the law now stands, drinks can be served until 5 a.m., from Jan. 17 to 20.
Showing its usual disdain and dismissal of D.C. community activists, the council authorized the extended-hours bill Dec. 2 without hearings. It was introduced by none other than Jim Graham, the Ward 1 Democrat who represents Adams Morgan and Columbia Heights. He was seen at crime scenes last week expressing his outrage for television cameras about criminals who are “out of control.”
No surprise that church, civil and congressional leaders are rightfully crying in beers yet to be poured.
Inaugural committee chairmen, Sens. Dianne Feinstein, California Democrat, and Robert F. Bennett, Utah Republican, wrote letters to the council asking it to rescind the measure.
“Only the council members who realized the impacts upon their respective neighborhoods and the possibility of an increase in stickups and muggings voted against it,” wrote Clyde Howard in the popular city blog, www.themail.com.
“No amount of increased revenue justifies the breach to our public safety this legislation is sure to generate. We pay taxes and deserve maximum consideration,” wrote Kathy Henderson, who spends countless volunteer hours trying to keep her community near Trinidad safe. She called on D.C. residents to petition the council for a recall of the late last call.
Nia Shia, Ward 1 advisory neighborhood commissioner in the nightlife district of Adams Morgan, told The Washington Times earlier this week, “I don’t see why [the D.C. Council] need to let bars keep serving alcohol. There’s been such an increase in robberies and assaults, especially in Adams Morgan, I just don’t see how it’s going to help.”
But community activist Lawrence Guyot, also of Ward 1, supports the revenue-generating measure. As a practical measure, he said, police will know where to find late-night boozers, who will at least “have a place to stay.”
Double the fine? How fast will it take revelers to be arrested and fined for either disorderly conduct or, worse, drunk driving?
Mr. Fenty, a Democrat, has shown little backbone about this controversy, either. He’s hiding behind the “I’m going along with the legislature” mantra when residents’ safety should be his biggest concern.
Why now? Acquiescing is not Gen. Greenhorn’s normal posture. He barely consults the council on major measures, and his agency heads frequently snub summons to council hearings.
Usually cautious D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray, a Democrat, defended the nonstop inaugural party hopping because it will provide residents and visitors with “entertainment options in organized settings” and venues from which to celebrate.
We pray those venues do not include the city morgue.
Phil Mendelson, chairman of the Public Safety Committee, voted against the initial legislation because of safety concerns that outweigh the financial gain.
Council member Tommy Wells, of the ward representing Capitol Hill, filed notice that he plans to introduce revisions to the law Tuesday. He reportedly will be seeking an earlier hour for the drinking cut-off, at 4 a.m. - as if that will make a big difference. He is also expected to ask that Sunday be excluded from the D.C. drunkfest.
To placate outraged community groups, bar-and-restaurant owners will not be allowed to override existing agreements; to continue lining city pockets, bar-and-restaurant owners will have to sign up and pay a fee before they will be allowed to extend their inaugural hours.
Should this historic inaugural be remembered for greed and avarice?
Think again. If you can’t “get your drink on” in the nation’s capital by the usual 2 a.m. public “last call” in D.C., then you should stay home. The D.C. Council will not provide enough potties or protection.
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