October 2008 Archives

Are you feeling all right? You look sort of under the weather and a bit flushed. Do you have a fever? Was that a cough? Gee, we hope it's not THE FLU! 'Cause, if it is, it might be the beginning of the PANDEMIC, the spread of a particularly virulent strain of influenza that may be sweeping the planet this year as fast as birds (it's an avian flu), airplanes, sneezing, doorknob touching, and french-kissing can spread it. IF, that is, a nasty avian flu mutates so it can spread among humans, a possibility great enough to make federal and international health organizations extremely nervous.

But, you've known about this for ages, right, Dear Reader? And you have an emergency plan for when suddenly half the population is more occupied with being sick as a dog (or in this case a bird) instead of being at their workplace. You are totally prepared for the possibility that hospitals, police and fire stations, subway trains, power plants, grocery stores, and city hall will be crippled by reduced staff, and less able to provide protection, food, warmth, and curbside recycling, right? Right?

Well, if YOU aren't, Dear Reader, Wolfgang is! Wolfgang Mergner is the co-chair, along with Police Chief Ronald Ricucci, of the city's Emergency Preparedness Committee. In their Oct. 27th report to the Takoma Park city council they assured them that there is indeed a set of contingency plans for various emergencies such as a pandemic.

DING! Round Two of the Blower Ban Bout goes to Mayor "Battlin' Bruce" Williams. Roused out of his stunned silence in Round One last week after "Citizen Seth" Grimes socked him with a letter proposing a city ban on gas-powered leaf blowers, Williams this week jumped into action with a deft sidestep.

With moves worthy of his predecessor and coach former mayor Kathy Porter, Williams used all the passive-aggressive powers at his command, never directly challenging the proposal, even acquiescing to a hearing on the subject (in January), but noting with his best concerned-dad face that the city has never "banned things," and wondering aloud if, gee, that would be "an effective course of action." He said it could be part of a discussion of an overall 5 year environmental plan for the city already being formulated.

Perhaps, he said, the city's Committee on the Environment should have an expanded role and membership, slyly suggesting some of the 31 signers of the Blower Ban letter might like to join.

The mayor, his wet blanket oozing all over the podium, listed probable exceptions to a blower-ban: elderly people, landscapers, schools, public parks, etc.

While the city council pondered the parsing of their official priorities list, a group of citizens stepped up to the microphone with a bold call for action. The city should ban gas-powered leaf blowers, said Seth Grimes, representing a group of 31 local activists.

Blowers are a noxious source of pollutants and noise, said the group, and they called on Mayor Bruce Williams to "schedule a City Council work session as soon as practicable" to devise a plan to phase them out.

As smoke filled the Takoma Park city council chambers, it was a wonder anyone could see the slides being projected onto the screen. The presentation was by EYA, the developer of the housing project proposed for the Takoma Station Metro green space. The smoke had two sources, Takoma Parkian's burning anger, and EYA's smoldering disdain.

Pathetic is the only way to describe EYA's presentation. Their changes were minimal and they brought no experts qualified to explain most of them. They admitted that the profit to EYA on the entire project was "marginal, " that the only reason they were there was due to pressure from the Maryland governor's office, that they might not actually make the changes they were presenting, and they didn't really care what Takoma Park thought, they were going ahead with it.