DC is a Southern City

[vcjack]

There's a lot of debate whether DC is inherently "northern" or "southern" and there are a lot of people who believe strongly both ways. I have been wavering up until this point until today which confirmed the southern "charm"

THIS DUMB CITY CAN'T HANDLE WINTER!!!

My God how hard is it to mobilize wide scale sidewalk salt distribution after a hail storm? Did they think that the balls of ice evaporate? Did it occur to our great city that ice melts but THEN FREEZES AGAIN?!

No self respecting "northern" city would ever find itself so unprepared in winter like conditions

[nurses bruised elbows and knees]

[JimmyHoya]

Well duh. I just wonder how it took you a second DC winter to learn this.

The cop who parked at the corner of 36th and N Sts. and refused people to venture to or from 35th is a smart guy. Kinda. Instead of blocking the road with his car or putting up traffic cones, however, he simply parked at the corner and would play his sirens if you tried to go down the lane. So JimmyHoya and the rest of Nevils has heard his sirens go off about 60 times in the past 3 hours for no reason. All he has to do is move his car 6 feet so nobody even considers going down that road, which is the whole point of this exercise, no? MOVE YOUR FRIGGIN CAR AND SAVE EVERYONE A HEADACHE, METRO.

[StPetersburgHoya (Inactive)]

I bet they still try to hose off the sidewalks in Chinatown ... this city is so dumb sometimes. I bet people were driving 80 mph on 66 in an ice storm.

[vcjack]

Feb 12, 2008 19:43:44 GMT -5 JimmyHoya said:

Well duh. I just wonder how it took you a second DC winter to learn this.

The cop who parked at the corner of 36th and N Sts. and refused people to venture to or from 35th is a smart guy. Kinda. Instead of blocking the road with his car or putting up traffic cones, however, he simply parked at the corner and would play his sirens if you tried to go down the lane. So JimmyHoya and the rest of Nevils has heard his sirens go off about 60 times in the past 3 hours for no reason. All he has to do is move his car 6 feet so nobody even considers going down that road, which is the whole point of this exercise, no? MOVE YOUR FRIGGIN CAR AND SAVE EVERYONE A HEADACHE, METRO.

Oh I knew but I innocently believed that this winter was milder so they couldn't possibly have any issue dealing with it, I thought wrong

[TBird41]

I'm just sad that I missed vcjack biting it on the ice multiple times. What true midwesterner doesn't know how to walk on ice w/o falling?

[theexorcist]

Metro also can't handle excessive heat.

JFK said that D.C. is a city of southern efficiency and northern charm. There's a bizarro version of "The Best of Both Worlds" - that song is exclusively about D.C.

[Boz]

Whadya know? Learn something new every day. I've heard that aphorism before, but I didn't know it was JFK who said it.

He's right of course.

I have spent many a winter here. It is silly for DC to prepare for winter like northern cities do (and a waste of money), but this city (and Maryland and NoVa for that matter) seem to do very little preparation at all.

We don't get a lot of snow around here, but what we do get, on a consistent, annual basis, is a lot of sleet, freezing rain, ice, etc. The fact that the region continues to not be able to handle that is, quite simply, ridiculous.

It is a crisis every time it happens.

[CTHoya08]

What is so absurd is that it snows here every year. Not much, but at least a few times. Yet every year it seems like it is the first time snow has ever fallen in the region, based on the city's reaction.

[Coast2CoastHoya]

vcjack, you should have seen what this city was like a few years ago: 2 snowplows city-wide, no systematic way to lay down de-icing salts (huge piles in some places, bare in others) and if there was >2 in of anything on the ground, it was "shut down" time (which of course made for some fun times on the Hilltop). my frosh year was the first time i ever saw an ice storm and MAN was it funny watching the chaos.

it's also the only city where I've ever heard of "sunshine slowdowns" on the highways.

what a place!

[rosslynhoya]

During the great snows of Jan 00, a prof took just shy of three hours to get from Wisconsin Ave to 37th street. Part of the problem- there were three lanes of cars all heading northbound on 37th between Prospect and O St, there by the Lauinger steps. Can you say gridlock? The great humor is that one of those *storms* was measured at National as a whopping eighth of an inch.

As for the terror of last night, there were plenty of people driving 55+ on local streets. It's like they see no traffic and go, OMG I can drive really fast there's no one in front of me I go fast as I want ZOOMZOOM!!!!! *screechcrash*

Sadly, it has nothing to do with winter. A light rain in the summertime, a mild thunderstorm, and they all spazz out just as wildly. The city/region just doesn't work.

[rosslynhoya]

Also, you may get the opportunity at some point to experience a Hurricane Watch in DC. The metro area is also grotesquely underprepared for those as well. Go south of here, e.g., Richmond and Norfolk, and they can plan and prepare for them, much like you only need to go as far "north" as Baltimore to find a city that can handle the snow. DC Etc. is the only part of the eastern seaboard that doesn't bother with being prepared for one or the other.

[JimmyHoya]

Still the best city in America.

[PhillyHoya]

Feb 12, 2008 19:51:28 GMT -5 StPetersburgHoya (Inactive) said:

I bet they still try to hose off the sidewalks in Chinatown ... this city is so dumb sometimes. I bet people were driving 80 mph on 66 in an ice storm.

No, most of them are driving 10 mph. I'm the one trying to do 80 and getting Editeded off because it seems like I'm the only one on the road who has ever driven in snow and ice.

Remember, this is a town where a cloudy day causes traffic issues.

[PhillyHoya]

Don't forget the President's Day blizzard in 2003 where it took Georgetown (the neighborhood) FOUR days to get plowed out. In the meantime, half the campus was stranded elsewhere because of the holiday, the campus and Wisey's ran out of food (because the trucks couldn't get here) and we knew we were saved because we saw the Domino's moped on the 4th day.

[Coast2CoastHoya]

rosslyn, you just reminded me of the Hurricane Watch in fall of 2003. i got three days off from law school for what amounted to basically a bad thunderstorm (not even as bad as summer storms) one night and rain for a couple days.

and Jimmy, you are absolutely correct.

[theexorcist]

God bless 2003.

For the blizzard, I remember living in North Arlington and being unable to open the apartment door since the snow was packed so high and so hard.

For the hurricane, I remember at least part of Alexandria flooding. I also remember walking to celebrate my birthday with some friends Saturday night to see the remarkably underrated Underworld and seeing a lot of things on the side of the road that hadn't been there before. The wind was a little more than "a bad thunderstorm".

[Boz]

Alexandria did get hit pretty hard by Isabel. (well, relatively speaking - no disrespect to people in Florida, Mississippi or New Orleans)

There was extensive flooding and lots of people lost power for several days. Pepco took a beating for that one.

However, the most memorable event of Isabel was not some flooding in selected areas, but the panicked federal government who virtually left the city deserted for a couple of days. In DC, it did amount to little more than a hard thunderstorm.

[vcjack]

Feb 13, 2008 7:50:11 GMT -5 TBird41 said:

I'm just sad that I missed vcjack biting it on the ice multiple times. What true midwesterner doesn't know how to walk on ice w/o falling?

Like any innocent Midwesterner, I assumed I could just walk down the library stairs without falling down the stone stairs because STONE stairs are the FIRST thing that SHOULD get salted

[HometownHoya]

Feb 13, 2008 11:04:39 GMT -5 PhillyHoya said:

Remember, this is a town where a cloudy day causes traffic issues.

This is a town where a sunny day causes traffic issues

[hoyachick]

Back in olden times, there was the Blizzard of '96, just prior to returning from Christmas break. They didn't manage to get the streets plowed for a week, the Metro was totally screwed up and the federal government was supposed to come back for the first time after the shutdown the day the blizzard hit. DC allegedly had snow plows, but not the money to pay for their repairs, so we all waited and waited and waited... Some residents even banded together to hire their own snow plows.

I just remember returning to DC, coming into Union Station and taking a cab. Once we got off M Street, all of the cars drove in the same worn 2 tire track marks up the streets. it was comical. Viva Marion Barry!