The sales tax exemption starts the morning of Friday, November 28 and expires Sunday, December 7, 2008 at midnight.  

The Sales Tax holiday grants shoppers a tax exemption on shoes, clothing and clothing accessories priced less than $100.00 per item.

So check out two of Washington, DC’s favorite shopping malls, Mazza Gallerie Mall and the Shops At Georgetown Park in Georgetown.

For more details on the exemption, check out the DC Office of Tax page.

Image – Flickr – burning money ________________________________________________

Post from: The DC Traveler

The roving party will be held at four different bars and restaurants in the heart of Washington’s political scene – Capital Hill. 

At each stop, you’ll have the opportunity to enjoy a highlighted drink and food specials, many with the red/blue theme, plus non-stop to-wall election coverage. Plus, there’ll be election-themed polls, games and raffles for great prizes.

Participating bars and restaurants include:

• Tortilla Coast – 400 1st Street, SE
• Bullfeathers – 410 1st Street, SE # 1
• Tune Inn Restaurant and Bar – 331 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE
• Thai Roma Restaurant - 313 Pennsylvania Ave SE

Ballot 4 Beer
Capitol Hill near 1st Street, SE and Pennsylvania Ave., SE
Washington, DC  (map it)

Dates and Times – Tuesday, November 4, 2008. 5:00 – 10:00 p.m.

Tickets – $5.00 and available at any of the bars.

Nearest Metro Subway Station – Capitol South – Blue and Orange lines, then a 1-block walk .

Parking – Limited street parking is available, area lots are also within walking distance.

Images – Flickr – Vote Blue, Vote Red _________________________________________________

Post from: The DC Traveler

But you might just be approached by a scam artist offering you anything from tickets to “designer” products. 

So when visiting Washington, DC, you know you are getting ripped off if…

1. Anyone offers you discounted tickets to the National Zoo (it’s free).
2. You get approached to buy a Smithsonian Museum Pass, good at all of the Smithsonian museums, (entrance to all of the Smithsonian museums are also free).
3. The “designer” purse that normally retails for $300 at the mall, you happen to find on sale from a tabletop vendor at a festival or from a street vendor in Georgetown.  Yes, it’s a knock-off and worth about 10% of the retail price. But if you really want a $600 Louis Vuitton bag, but can’t justify the price, spending $45 on a knock-off might make you feel better.
4. A cab driver mentions that from downtown to National Airport, he’ll be taking the Beltway…because it’s the fastest route this time of day (talk about the long and expen$ive route). Best to ask at your hotel for the approximate fair before grabbing a cab.
5. You are paying full price for speciality tours.  Sure, it’s common to pay full price when the tour is in high demand. But often, you can negotiate a discount (sometimes a big one), but only if you ask.  I was talking to one speciality tour operator last week about prices and he made it clear that “he would work with me” on a tour, within just a couple minutes, he ended up offering me a 70% discount.
6. Someone offers to sell you White House tour tickets (also free, but limited).
7. You see a Georgetown street vendor selling Rolexs, Gucci and Tag-Heuer watches or designer sunglasses by Oakley or D&G for under $25. Yes, they are fake.  And if you must, always try to bargain them down. Start your offer at nothing higher than 50% of the initial price.*
8. Tickets to events (plays, The Kennedy Center, theaters) are so inexpensive that it seems too good to be true. Don’t fall for a seller on the street that simply used a good scanner and color printer to part you from your vacation cash. Buy from the theater’s box office or let your hotel’s Concierge arrange for tickets.
9. Someone offers you Metro fare cards at a discount. They might be fakes or expired, so go ahead and pay full price for a real Metro card a the station.  The Metro is not that expensive.
10. Vendors, dealers or shops offer “real and authentic” Revolutionary War era, Civil War era,  George Washington slept here artifacts, or other "historical” treasures.  Best to buy from reputable dealers only, ones with a return policy.

* About ten years ago, I did buy a $15 fake “Tag” watch from a Georgetown street vendor. It kept perfect time for over four years. So yes, you might get lucky with a cheap, but well functioning watch.  But my buddy who was visiting DC also bought a diamond “Rolex” (or was it a “Rollex”?). The logo on the face fell off during his flight home and the watch stopped a week later. So buyer beware!

Images – Rolex, purses, Metro SmarTrip card,

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Post from: The DC Traveler

With over 5,200 surveillance cameras operational in the District, not including the ones in and around private and public schools, cameras run by news organizations, hotels, tourist attractions and even the public, you can assume you will at some point, be under someone’s watchful eye.

There’s even a live National Park Service Cherry Blossom cam and a dozen or so at the National Zoo, spying on the pandas and tigers, 24 hours-a-day.

But the most notable cameras are the 5,200 controlled by various Federal and District government departments, that were recently tried together to be centrally monitored by the DC Police, to improve crime monitoring in the city.

Last year, District police cameras captured three homicides on video and saw a 19% reduction in violent crime in areas covered by surveillance cameras.  And while some groups, including the ACLU, criticize cameras as a violation of civil rights and privacy, they seem to forget that every time you walk in to just about any retail establishment, restaurant, hotel, mall, or commercial or government building, you are probably being caught on video.

Only one city in the world has more surveillance camera – London, with over 10,000 cameras deployed.  And the two next closest U.S. cities, New York (3,000 cameras) and Chicago (2,000), lag way behind DC’s 5,200.

You can also watch some of the area’s 100 DC traffic cameras, and others observing area traffic around Maryland and Virginia. 

The District Police has also been deploying deployed a network of ShotSpotter gunfire sensors, that by this Fall, will cover almost 25% of the District’s area, especially in high-crime area.  The coffee can sized sensors can quickly pinpoint the location of gunfire and notify police.  To date, police have been able to quickly locate 13 homicide victims and close to 50 victims of assault where firearms were used.

Images – 7th and Jefferson, large camera – from personal collection – ©2008, Jon Rochetti 

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Post from: The DC Traveler

The tallest radio/TV tower (also the tallest structure) in the District is located at 6001 Georgia Ave., at 9th and Peabody Streets, NW. At 761 feet (232 meters) tall, the tower is a couple hundred feet taller than the Washington Monument, but it doesn’t carry commercial radio signals, only television (The CW – Channel 50), and DC Police radio signals. 

Since no broadcast towers in DC even come close to the towers that hit as high as 1,500 feet (500 meters) on top of 100-story skyscrapers in many large cities, radio reception tends to fades in and out as you move around the city and suburbs.  Even in hotels, some within a few miles of downtown, solid reception can be impossible.

But if you do want to find a specific station or radio format without searching the dial, check out Radio-Locator, a web site that finds all the local radio stations in a specific geographical area.

For a link to Washington, DC radio stations, click here. 

But don’t get too attached to the station.  In the last year, my favorite classical station changed to Gospel, my jazz station went oldies, my rock station went all shock-idiot talk.

Luckily, many of the station have live feeds, so even if you don’t live within the reception area, you can still get a piece of local flavor over the net.  

Images – radio tower, vintage radio

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Post from: The DC Traveler

After the march, which ended at the Lincoln Memorial, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his historic 11-minute “I Have a Dream” speech from the steps. 

This march was initiated by the vice president of the AFL-CIO, A. Philip Randolph.  Other groups supported the march, including the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the NAACP, the National Urban League and other civil rights organizations. Yet the march was not totally supported by all black civil rights groups.  Civil rights leader and minister of the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X, reportedly called it the “farce on Washington”.

At the time, black unemployment rates were double that of whites and no major civil rights reform had been achieved to date.

Hundreds of television news correspondents reported on the event. Liquor sales were banned in the city and 6,000 police were assigned to the event. Yet the event was one of the most peaceful in Washington’s history.

A group called “sandwich volunteers” made up lunches for attendees to be sold for 50¢.  Besides civic leaders, several of the Hollywood crowd were also in attendance or spoke, including Charlton Heston, Sammy Davis, Jr., Lena Horns and Marlin Brando. It’s also often forgotten that Bob Dylan and Joan Baez also sang at the rally.

The schedule of events for the day is available here, but does not mention all of the speakers. 

Today, the speech is considered King’s most memorable and one of most powerful speeches on civil rights in the nation’s history.  It helped led to the passage of new civil rights legislation introduced by the Kennedy administration, just two months later by Congress.

You can stand at the exact location where Dr. King delivered his famous speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, as the granite step has been chiseled with the details.

It’s located on the  second landing from the top of the memorial, at the center of the landing.

A new Martin Luther King national monument on the Mall is in the works, but has already received criticism. It is planned to be competed by the end of 2009 near the FDR Memorial.  

Lincoln Memorial
Lincoln Memorial Circle Southwest
23rd St. NW, between Constitution and Independence Avenues
Washington, DC (map it)

Dates and Times – open daily, 24-hours. National Park Rangers are on duty to answer questions from 9:30 a.m. until 11:30 p.m. daily.

Free 45-minute Ranger led talks about the qualities made Lincoln great occur every Tuesday afternoon at 4:00 p.m., through the end of November.

Tours – Cell phone tours with recorded Ranger talks are available by calling 202-747-3420 (cell phone airtime charges may apply).

Tickets – Admission is free.

Nearest Metro Subway Station – Foggy Bottom – Blue or Yellow line, then a ¾-mile walk.

Parking – Metered street parking is available within a couple block of the memorial, but is at time limited, especially on weekends.

Images – Dr. King delivering his speech – National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the U.S. Information Agency; Record Group 306; National Archives – Still Picture Branch, College Park, MD (Local Identifier: NWDNS-306-SSM-4D(107)8), View of the reflecting pool – National Archives – Warren Leffler, photographer, Lincoln memorial steps – personal collection – © 2008 – Jon Rochetti   

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Post from: The DC Traveler

It’s a perfect intro for first-time drivers to the Washington, DC area.

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  For those who plan to visit our area…

1. All directions start with "The Beltway"…which has no beginning and no end, just one continuous loop that locals believe is somehow clarified by an "inner" and "outer loop" designation, which makes no sense to ANYONE outside the area.
2. The morning rush hour is from 5:00 to 11:00 a.m. The evening rush hour is from 1:00 to 8:00 p.m.  During the summer, Friday’s rush hour starts Thursday morning as residents head to the beach. Construction, lane closures and emergency preparedness drills occur during all other hours.
3. If you actually stop at a yellow light, you will be either rear-ended or shot at.  If you not to stop for a red light, smile for the $100 red light photo ticket you will receive courtesy of the District’s DMV.
4. Rain causes an immediate 95 point drop of IQ in drivers. Snow causes a 145 point drop… plus a rush to the grocery store for massive amounts of toilet paper, bread and milk.
5. If someone actually has their turn signal on, they are by definition, a tourist.
6. If your map of suburban Maryland is more than a few weeks old, throw it out and buy a new one. It’s obsolete.  If it’s a suburban Northern Virginia map and it’s one day old, it’s already at least two weeks out of code.
7. Many roads in Virginia change their names as you cross intersections.  Every 3 miles, the name “Lee’” must be used, as in Lee Highway, Robert E. Lee Memorial Road, General Lee Street, etc. 
8. There is nothing more normal to local drivers than seven lanes of Beltway traffic cruising bumper-to-bumper at 85 mph. Anything less is considered down right sissy.
9. The far left lane on all area roads are the official cell phone "chat" and “texting” lanes, where drivers are required to drive 15 mph slower than all other traffic.
10. A single driver using the car pool lanes (known as HOV or High Occupancy Vehicle lanes) is not wrong…. unless you get caught.

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Post from: The DC Traveler

The original Tiber Creek was widened during the initial construction of the Capital City between 1810 and 1815, when it was converted into part of the the Washington City Canal. The canal ran almost the length of Constitution Avenue, coming within a coupe blocks of the Capitol Building. (See map for original path.)

Since Washington had no public sewer system at the time, the Washington City Canal was used by many residents as a place to dump their garbage. It quickly became a notoriously smelly open sewer, especially at low tides.

In 1871, after railroads had replaced canals and barges as a method of transporting goods around the region, the head of the DC Board of Public Works, Alexander “Boss” Shepherd (later the Governor of DC) started many large-scale public improvement projects to upgrade Washington’s infrastructure. One of the major projects was to pave many of often muddy streets.  Another was to install sewers.  By combining both, one project built a huge underground tunnel from the Potomac River to the Capitol Building.  The tunnel, reportedly large enough for a modern bay bus to  drive in, carried sewage and rain run off.  The project also filled, buried and paved the existing canal.  Thus “B” Street (now Constitution Avenue) came into existence.

There is little evidence remaining of the original Washington City Canal that ran were Constitution Avenue now runs, except for the occasional basement flooding of government buildings (IRS and National Archives buildings  in June, 2006) and the Lock Keeper’s house, located at Constitution Ave. at 17th Avenue.

The small home, built with Potomac Bluestone was erected around 1835 and housed the lock keeper and his family (all 13 children).

The house is located kiddie-corner to the Second Division Memorial.

Lock Keepers House
Constitution Ave. at 17th Ave., NW
Washington, DC (map it)

Visiting – You can visit the house daily, 24 hours-a-day, but the house is not open for tours.

Nearest Metro Subway Station – Federal Triangle – Blue and Orange lines, then a 5-block walk or use the DC Circulator.

Parking – Limited metered street parking is available.

Images – Map – Wikimedia, house photos – personal collection – © 2008 – Jon Rochetti 

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Post from: The DC Traveler

Last year, the District of Columbia Association of Land Surveyors formally surveyed Washington, DC’s highpoint, located at Fort Reno, and discovered the marker was not positioned at the correct location. In April, a rededication ceremony placed the marker at the exact high point in Washington, DC, at an elevation of 411 feet, not 409 feet as is listed on the marker. 

You can find the high point from Fessenden Street in the Tenleytown neighborhood of DC.  Don’t be confused by the highest looking peak near the reservoir area, as it’s not the official high point. To be considered a true high point, the spot must be the highest natural elevation in the state, not a man-made location.

The official high point in Virginia is Mount Rogers at 5,729 ft / 1,746 meters.  

Backbone Mountain (3,360 ft. / 1,024 meters) is just a short walk from the West Virginia border and is Maryland’s highest elevation. 

Think you know your high points?  Try this High Point Trivia Quiz (answers below).

1. Name the state with the lowest high point?
2. Which state has the highest high point”
3. Which state has the higher high point – Colorado or California?
4. Between Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, and Nebraska, which state has the highest high point?
5. After Florida, which state has the second lowest high point in the nation – Delaware, Louisiana or Minnesota?
6. The high points in Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah are (higher or lower) than the highest peak in Hawaii?

Click here for a list of the high points in all 50 states.

Fort Reno is the only location within the city limits of Washington, DC directly involved in a Civil War battle.  In July of 1864, The Battle of Fort Stevens took place when General Robert E. Lee sent 22,000 of his Confederates soldiers of the Army of Northern Virginia, against Ulysses S. Grant’s 9,000 Union troops which were deployed to defend Washington.  Lookouts from Fort Reno were the first to notice Confederate troop movements near Rockville Maryland.

After the war, Fort Stevens became a “Freetown” for freed slaves and later a reservoir for Washington, DC’s drinking water.

Fort Reno Park had been the location of a free annual summer music concert series, featuring area bands, but the National Park Service recently closed the park to the public due to high levels of arsenic in the soil in the Spring. The park was recently reopened and the first of 16 free summer concerts is tonight.

Washington, DC’s High Point Marker
Fort Reno Park
Slightly southwest of the corner of Fessenden and 39th St., NW.
Washington, DC (map it)

Dates and Times – The park is closed until further notice. Normally open daily, 9:00 a.m. until 5: go to 00 p.m.

Nearest Metro Subway Station – Tenleytown Metro – Red line, then a 2/3 mile walk.

Parking – Free street parking is available in the area.

Answers:

1. Florida, just 345 feet above sea level.
2. Alaska’s Mount McKinley at 20,320 feet.
3. California’s Mount Whitney is 57 feet higher than Colorado’s   Mount Elbert. 
4. Nebraska’s Panorama Point is over 3,700 feet higher than the highest point in any of the other three states.
5. Delaware is the second lowest, at just 448 feet.
6. At 13,796 ft / 4205 m, Hawaii’s Mauna Kea is more than 250 feet taller than the highest points in Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.

Images – High Point Marker, High Point hill,

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Post from: The DC Traveler

The checkpoints established over the weekend in Washington DC’s Trinidad neighborhood 5th Police District, near the National Arboretum, accomplished their goal.  DC Police stated no violent crimes or murders were committed in the area being targeted. 

Six shooting murders in just 7 hours, and eight shooting deaths, plus three others wounded in 8 unrelated incidents, all within a two-mile radius, during the previous weekend, caused DC police to react.  Police roadblocks were set up starting Saturday night, limiting access to the neighborhood and will operate at random hours for the 5 to 10 days. The check points  are designed to screen drivers and allow only people that can can show a legitimate reason to enter the neighborhood in, such as being a resident, visiting church, or having other legitimate business in the neighborhood.

Residents are split on the controversial action; some, including a couple civil rights groups, (and the ACLU), believe the roadblocks may violate civil rights. Others are applauding police for taking much needed action to curb random gun violence in the area.  There was talk of legal action against the plan, but none has been reported to date.

Considering that the Trinidad police district has already had 22 murders this year, one more killing than in all of last year; one has to wonder why a little inconvenience is considered so controversial.  

First, since 9/11, there have been roadblocks all over the District, on Capitol Hill and around the Mall, as well as regular sobriety and traffic-safety checkpoints around the city, so DC residents should be used to these types of security “inconvenience”.  Police have also been specially trained to ensure they don’t use racial profiling, so checks are being applied equally to all drivers.

Second, and most importantly, the checkpoints appear to be working. 

So let’s applaud DC’s Mayor Adrian Fenty and the DC Police for their efforts to try to improve law enforcement and reduce violence. 

All I know, is that if there were a slew of murders in my neighborhood, I’d want roadblocks, video surveillance, helicopter patrols, swat teams and a cop on every corner.

Check out J-Michael’s view at Starked DC and ADD YOUR OPINION OR COMMENT to this DC “controversy”.

Images – crime scene, police car,

Post from: The DC Traveler