DC area stimulus projects – Updated!

I’ve updated my map of DC-area stimulus projects to reflect some that were missing last time and added stimulus projects in Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties. I’ll add projects in Arlington, Alexandria, and Fairfax when they are publicly approved.


View DC Area Stimulus Projects in a larger map

nm0000001? Never heard of him.

But you’d be under quite a rock to have never heard of Fred Astaire, whose unique identifier at IMDb is the lowest number for a performer. Similarly, the lowest ID number for film names is an Edison Kinetoscope of a “Spanish Dancer” called Carmencita. The fictional holder of #000000001 is notable outlaw Jesse James.

Curio facts though these may be, it does make some interesting insights into the origins of IMDb on usenet.

DC’s Shovel-Ready Projects

This monday, Mayor Fenty signed and submitted the section 1511 certification to request funds for the first round of highway under the stimulus bill or the ARRA, as the hepcats in the GAO call it. Despite it being for “highway funding” the $57,650,000 will go to eight items that are actually quite urban. Almost every project includes some benefit for pedestrians or the city, and at least two are primarily for them: the Great Streets Initiative project on Pennsylvania Avenue and sidewalk enhancements across the city. Take a look at the projects in the map below, or follow after the break to see a list of projects as well as well as a few proposed ones that didn’t make it. 


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Colorado gets transparency better

After Delaware’s hilarious failure at conveying information, this actually useful Google map from Colorado is refreshing. Since it contains costs, descriptions, ARRA funding, award dates, and completion estimates in a handy visual shell, this has to be the best stimulus site I’ve seen. 

colorado's stimulus funding interfaceIt’s still a lot of semi-imaginary cash thrown at highway construction, which isn’t a good long term allocation for several reasons, but at least they tell us where it’s going with maps…

This may be the worst graph ever…

From the Delaware Recovery Site. There’s neither a scale nor any quanta, it’s made of shapes that distort the sizes, it has a dull gray background, the labels are unexplained and uncomfortably juxtaposed, and it sure takes a lot of space to say absolutely nothing here… Edward Tufte is probably having a conniption. This kind of graphical blather is no way to further government transparency and demonstrates plain incompetence on the part of the PR department.

Undestructable (transit edition)

Constant source of amusement and possible conceptual art project English Russia has posted some pictures of ancient trolleys from what appears to be Abkhazia and Georgia. The trolleys are model Skoda-9Tr, produced between 1961 and 1982, but apparently they’re still running. They’re not luxurious at all, but they get you where you need to go. In Vladimir, I noticed a clear class difference between the people who rode the trolleys (the poor, pensioners, kids) and those who rode the private bus lines, since they did cost an extra 5 rubles for the luxury of a secondhand German bus. This had a lot to do with the fact that the elderly and students get free passes, but those who could did try to get away from the constant breakdowns. 

Classic post-soviet grunge
Classic post-soviet grunge.

Skoda continues to make trolleys, in addition to DC’s new streetcars. Perhaps Fenty could get a few vintage 9TRs for a trial line in Anacostia. They’re low cost, durable, and disposable. There’s no way this can go wrong; if they get anyone to ride them, they’ll be a smashing success.

Preparing for winter: Adjika

Adjika is a traditional Georgian sauce made out of peppers and fresh herbs, like most sauces. But, unlike most spices, this sauce is amazingly delicious, mixing just about every taste (mostly dill) into a dense sauce that can be jarred and kept for long times. It really is meant to be made in the summer, before the beautiful mountain passes of Khvetsuri are covered with their first frost, or something poetic like that. Essentially, like canning, it is meant to get you through the winter with some semblance fresh flavor. But in modern DC, winter isn’t so crushing, but I would like to not have to buy so many fresh greens in the winter, for cost as well as localist reasons. 

Not pictured: many more peppers.
Not pictured: many more peppers, a blender, khmeli-suneli, and saffron.

Don’t see the celery and think this is some pablum. The punch packed is straight to the mouth. It’s definitely as hot as a vindaloo and as robust as a goulash. But it also has some delicate, herby flavors that makes it a lot like pesto. Indeed, it is great on pasta and mixed in with vegetables in a stir fry. I have already tried both. Plus, since it is so potent, you really don’t need to use much at all to really kick a simple meal into something fierce. Since I did not use tomatoes, the texture is very rough, which makes it good with a little oil. It does, however, look sort of funny. 

This will easily last three months.

Now, the recipe calls for a few things that I did not add that cost $7 per ounce, because I felt that if I screwed this up it would be a very pricy mistake. Luckily it came out well, and I hope to share it with a lot of people.