Assorted Friday Ramblings

I have an assortment of things to discuss this morning. So here we go; please keep your hands and feet in the car at all times and keep the restraining harness on.

1) St. Louis Billikens Set a New Low

Last night the George Washington University Colonials helped the St. Louis University Billikens set a new record in men’s college basketball. SLU scored a new low in points during the “shot-clock” era with 20. That’s not 20 in a half, that’s 20 in the game. The final was 49-20 in favor of GW. The bulk of the story is here on ESPN, but what I want to point out is not that the Billikens couldn’t shoot or that GW’s defense was that strong (although they did record 11 blocked shots); rather that GW only scored 49 points. St. Louis had to be getting discouraged by their lack of production and I have to think that GW could have taken better advantage of that on their offensive end. Yet they only scored 49 points. Perhaps GW’s coach, Karl Hobbs, told his guys “to take it easy” on offense, but that doesn’t sound like Hobbs, who could power a small city when running up and down the sidelines. GW is having a really poor season and while they are on the good side of history here, they should have more to show then just 49 measly points.

2) The Meeting Room is Locked

Today I tried something new. I’m trying to get back to running with the group from Pacers that I’ve been with since they started a few years back. Since going on the diet I’ve been weighing in on Saturday morning and thus couldn’t join them for their runs. It’s something I’ve missed terribly and want to start again. So today I figured I go to a weigh in here in DC in the morning before work. The meeting I was supposed to go to started at 730am and should run until 830am, anytime in between I should be able to weigh in. However when I showed up today at 820am the doors were closed and locked and there was a sign on the door saying that this was “an Express Meeting” and ended promptly at 8am. I knocked when I heard voices on the other side of the door and the woman said, “Sorry we’ve locked everything up.” This sucks, I just want to get on a freaking scale and see if I had as good of a week as I think I did. I’m awaiting a call from the company’s customer service department and I want nothing less then one month free for my “mental suffering.”

3) Metro is Considering New Hi-Tech Cars for the Rail System

Of course they a) can’t get the cars for another 5 years and b) the ones they have now can’t run in any semblance of an on-time schedule. But this is not the most disturbing part of the article I read today in the Washington Post. Our friend councilman Jim Graham (see the previous rant on this bow-tie wearing, wussy-dog holding, sissy boy), actually had this to say regarding making a suggested small change to the Metro logo, "…that's weeks of discussion…" Wait a minute; you want weeks of discussion for a simple logo change? Maybe that’s why we needed such a large rate increase (that just went into effect), all the energy that is used during these meetings of Graham talking about the Logo change. Maybe (and this is only a suggestion) we could discuss how to better improve the trains and busses and to teach our employees how to properly interact with the customers they encounter daily. But then again a logo is really important too.

4) A quick note to Washington Capital Fans

Be very thankful for your owner, Ted Leonsis, and his genuine care for the team and the community. Yesterday he signed a 13-year agreement with star forward Alex Ovechkin. Ovechkin is a 22-year old Russian superstar and is even more remarkable because he negotiated the contract with the team by himself. Yes, he DIDN’T use an agent and not only saved commission but also cut out all the BS that comes along with tense negotiating talks those agents usually cause to occur. Leonsis didn’t try to screw him and Ovechkin didn’t try to screw the team. His deal is worth $9M per year for the first 6 years of the deal and $10M per year for the remaining 7 years. This means that even now he represents a smaller portion of the teams salary cap then the 20% maximum allowed for one player by the NHL. This gives the team the money to be flexible in free agency and sign strong players around Ovechkin. This is the kind of move that a savvy veteran makes to help his team win championships, not a 22-year old kid. Kudos to you Alex and you will always have a fan on this blog. PS: Can I get a loan?

An Open Letter to DC Councilman Jim Graham

Dear Councilman Graham,

First loose those stupid glasses. Nobody thinks you look any more intelligent or noble because you choose those frames over contact lenses. In fact they only serve the purpose of making you look the fool even more.

Now that the nice-ites are out of the way lets talk about the latest proposed increase for DC's Metro service in order to close the $173 million budget gap.

You seem to think that us "suburban-ites" are an endless supply of money and have no problem coughing up a few more dollars a day on parking, on and some more to ride the train into your city. All of this while your bus riding constituents don't pay a cent more. Humm....do you see anything wrong with this picture? No? Well I do. I have no problem helping to shoulder the load (even though 90% of it is caused by mismanagement and poor decisions by yourself and others on Metro's Board of Governors) but let's be fair. Look at the following areas and see if the proposed rate increases are really "fair".

1) Your so-called "poor bus riding constituents" already have a rate that is so far subsidized below the US transportation standard for large cities it's disturbing. Metro bus riders pay only $1.25 for any fare in the system (even less if you're a senior or student). By comparison, NYC bus riders pay $2 (oh yeah...their subway which is 20x as large as DC's pay the same $2 fare), Chicago and Atlanta: $1.75, Boston: $1.50. Do you get it yet? I think your constituents could cough up a few more cents?

For the 30 days leading up to October 25, 2007, bus ridership (according to Metro's numbers) was 443,000 riders. Lets say that 75% of them were seniors and students (high number but let's pretend), that means an increase of say $.25 per rider for the full fare crowd would mean an increase of income of: $84, 000 per month. Now let's draw this out for a whole year and we get $1M extra to help close the gap. (I'll keep a running total for you....$173M-$1M = $172M)

2) Instead of raising the parking fees $1.15/day and putting an lopsided burden on those of us who don't live within walking distance of the suburban stations (all of which are outside of DC...I don't think that's a coincidence), only raise it $.25/day. That would bring the parking about to $4.25/day. Metro has about 55,000 spots available. Let's be conservative and say 53,000 of them are full on a regular weekday (if you've ever tried to get to the station after 830am you'd think that they were all full). Using the extra quarter a day would yield $13,250 extra per day. This translates to: $265,000 extra per month and $2.9 million per year(we'll do it by only 220 working days to figure on some holiday and vacation time) (Thats $172M-$2.9M=$169.1M)

3) You are in favor of raising rates for subway riders up to $.30/ride, again putting more of a burden on those of us who have the longest trips in and thus the highest fares (I currently pay $3.90 each way between Shady Grove and Farragut North), yet if you look at the amount per distance it's not even close to "market rate." My trip and many others who pay the "max" breaks down to about $.14/mile (my trip is 28 miles each way). By comparison,NYC riders pay the aforementioned $2/trip between ANY 2 points in the system. That means you can ride the "A" train from 207th street in Harlem to Far Rockway in Queens for $.07/mile. Why not go to that model? While it looks like Metro would loose money on the max fare, they would in fact make quite a bit (actual numbers aren't available) on those riders who go the minimum of $1.35 rush hour fare. Let's be conservative (again) and figure Metro could stand to make $40M-$50M more per year (not even figuring in weekends and holidays. ($169.1M-$50M= $119.1M)

4) Stop holding up the sale of the property around the Takoma station. Today's papers tell about your activity in holding up the sale of property around the station to a developer that would net Metro $4.6M based on fair market value. ($119.1M-$4.6M= $114.5M)

5) Shut off the light when you're done. Unless your press office was asleep on the job you caught the article in the Washington Post on October 8th, "Metro Leaves the Light on For You" Where because of timers installed the lights go on in the building at 5:30am and off at 8:00pm running a total amount of lighting to $1,400/employee per year. Now if they shut off the lights when they came in and shut them off when they left and make the other basic energy saving recommendations in the article Metro could save $4M per year. ($114.5M - $4M = $110.5M)

6) Perhaps you can explain to me why according to Metro's 2008 projected budget numbers you're spending $38M on advertising (with a guaranteed minimum of $35M to your contractor)? Let's try this...you spend $2.5M on advertising, although I'm not sure exactly what you're advertising for...Oh lets ride Metro instead of that other mass transit system in the area (which doesn't exist!) ($110.5M-$35.5M =$75M)

While my above recommendations don't completely close the gap the system is facing it does attempt to make a dent while keeping the burden spread evenly among the various groups using the system. But in closing, I want to give you a few more numbers. My daily commute costs me $11.80 ($3.90 each way on the train round trip and $4 for parking). Your proposal will make that same commute $15.35. For comparison, I can park at a garage downtown for $11/day on and early bird special. My commute at 645am takes about an hour on the train and the same by car. Looks like if your plan goes through, I'm going to drive...just don't cross the street in my path if you catch my drift.

Sincerely,
Me