DC / NC Govt Offices Open

The District of Columbia and North Carolina state government office were both open today and while DC was under two (2) feet of snow and the federal government saw fit to close it's doors the mayor of the District of Columbia chose not to follow suit. North Carolina did not suffer under a snow storm. The city is third drunkest state in the United States and the drunkest city in our area (according to USA Today) but the city's mayor Fenty must have thought "put those people in the street behind the wheel of their vehicle." Public transportation below ground was available but above ground was limited.

“We continue to treat and plow the roadways but residents should be aware the slush and snow will refreeze and icy conditions will occur due to sub-freezing temperatures,” said Mayor Adrian M. Fenty. “Not only is more snow fallen than originally forecasted, but the cold temperatures hinder the melting efforts of the salt and brine treatments.” (DC Gov)

The number three (3) cause of death in the city is accidents according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for 2006 the most recent data. Not so for any of the other areas. For North Carolina and Virginia accidents are in fourth place as a cause of death for Maryland it's fifth place. Both snow bound Maryland and Virginia local governments closed due to inclement weather. We're not certain that this was an attempt to "thin the herd" or not.

As temperatures are forecasted to remain below freezing and are forecasted to drop further into the evening hours freezing of accumulation on sidewalks and untreated areas is a concern. “A lot of what has been plowed will refreeze,” said DPW Director Howland. “People need to be very careful when they are driving, tread carefully on sidewalks and stay indoors if possible.” Residents are again reminded to help by clearing out catch basins, assisting elderly or disabled neighbors. District snow teams do not clear alleys as part of their snow deployment plan. (DC Gov)

We're concerned that putting an accident drunk driver in a hazardous weather on the road or even on the street after Superbowl Sunday when the federal government saw fit to close was a good or even prudent decision. That'll be about as political as we'll get but we had to ask. We will admit that some of are disgruntled former employees but part of the disgrunt comes from the knowledge of crazy that of which we're aware. Mayor Fenty declared a "snow emergency" when snow levels were predicted to be ten (10) inches and under back in December 2009. When those amounts were actually doubled neither the Mayor office nor the city's website makes no announcement  of any "snow emergency." That seems crazy to us as well especially since the local government has closed with less snow and less emergency following the lead set by the federal government.

“The District is extremely proud of the men and women who have been working tirelessly throughout this unusual winter and they are ready to put it on the line again,” said Mayor Fenty. “We want to do all we can to clear city streets as soon as possible and as such are declaring a snow emergency for the city. This allows our crews to get curb-to-curb on the major corridors, which is paramount to ultimately getting the city back to regular business on Monday.” We did find this hidden on the Department of Transportation (DOT) website under the title: District Ready for Super Snow Bowl.

Maybe that's an official notice. See what we mean by crazy? That didn't come from the Mayor's office or directly from "his honor" it came from the agency responsible for cleaning up the mess. What the heck is a "snow emergency" other than an excuse to ticket hapless motorists? We hope you enjoyed your Snow Day!

DC and Drunk

We just might be seeing double but there are two (2) count them two (2) stories about the "drunkest" places in the United States and in our area - no where is as drunk as Washington DC. Actually the two articles aren't exactly the same. The first which uses data from 2007 comes from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) which rated Washington DC as the third (3rd) "drunkest" state in the nation. North Carolina ranked seventh (7th) in the state rating. None of the other local jurisdictions ranked in the NIAAA top ten (10) highlighted states. The second story or the one on the left (depending on if were seeing double or not) is a city ranking being published by Men's Health magazine but previewed by USA Today. The most recent listing includes both a number and a grade.

According to the USA Today article, here is the listing that shows how our area fared when compared to the rest of the nation:

NUMBER UNITED STATES CITY RANK 37.) 43.) 60.) 63.) 70.) 78.) 94.) Washington, DC Greensboro, NC Baltimore, MD Raleigh, NC Virginia Beach, VA Richmond, VA Durham, NC D+ C- C C C+ B- A

For our area the District of Columbia is the "drunkest" city in our jurisdiction. Thank you USA Today though we like to think of the District of Columbia as a political powerhouse, the seat of government, the home of the "three martini" lunch where our national representatives historically drank heavily and sought the favors of "painted women." Men's Health shows that while we're not the country's "drunkest" we're the "drunkest" with power and alcohol in the region. Add cigarettes and salted meat to the area mix - and you're talking all kinds of bad news. The next political movement should be, now that we've got a smokefree DC, is drink free DC.

Abstinence now but, of course, most of us don't drink and that slogan hasn't been applied to alcohol. While adults promote sexual abstinence for their teenage children we certainly wouldn't want any one to promote anything curtailing our current lifestyle decisions bad as they might be for us. At the very least we suggest taking the advice of Michael VanRooyen, an emergency medicine specialist at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital and an associate professor at both Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health:

“Don’t drink and drive is the first 10 things I would remind people of,” VanRooyen said. “While everybody is worried about eating poinsettia leaves [over the holidays], the way to stay out of the Emergency Department is to not drink too much, and certainly don’t drink and drive.”

It's also a way to get all of our jurisdictions to the bottom of the top one hundred (100) "drunkest" cities in America list. That title is certainly not something that the governors, mayors or the "chambers of commerce" hope to promote to the tourists and visitors to our fair cities. They generally are the ones to suffer as a result of that title either. That's something that largely occurs to we the citizens.