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Morning Notes

by ARLnow.com | April 20, 2012 at 9:04 am | 3,229 views | 68 Comments

Defibrillator’s Batteries Weren’t Charged — Metro General Manager Richard Sarles has ordered a review of the agency’s automated external defibrillator (AED) program after it was revealed that the AED used to try to revive a man suffering a heart attack at the Pentagon Metro station on Monday had “insufficient battery charge.” The man later died. [Dr. Gridlock]

Favola Gets Top Business Rating — State Sen. Barbara Favola was the most “business-friendly” member of the Arlington legislative delegation in 2012, according to the Virginia Chamber of Commerce. During her recent campaign Favola was criticizing for taking big donations from real estate developers. [Sun Gazette]

Clock Ticking for River Place Owners — It may be 40 years away, but owners of the 1,720 co-ops and apartments at River Place in Rosslyn may no longer have a home after 2052. That’s because the sprawling residential complex sits on land that the River Place Owner’s Association doesn’t own, but rather leases from an estate. [UrbanTurf]

Man Chases iPad Thief at Airport Metro Station — An alleged 18-year-old thief was eventually apprehended after he reportedly stole an iPad from an auxiliary police officer on a Metro train at Reagan National Airport. The auxiliary cop, whose day job is at the Pentagon, chased the thief and was able to get his iPad back. [Washington Post]

Teen Job Fair This Weekend — The 16th annual Arlington Teen Summer Expo is being held from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on Saturday. The event brings Arlington teens, businesses and non-profits together to help teens find ”the perfect summer job or volunteer experience.” [Arlington Teen Summer Expo]

MC 703

One internets cupcake to the first person to ID the car correctly.
- Arlingtoon
  
  I believe it’s a MG-TC. I’m pretty sure that on the TD model that followed the front grill was at more of an angle.
  - courthound
    
    I was thinking it was a pre-war MG but couldn’t tell which T-class. Those are fun cars.
    - Arlingtoon
      
      Always wanted one of these.
- drax
  
  It’s Car #13.
  
  Do I win?
- nom de guerre
  
  MG-Morris Garages-Featuring their famously unreliable positive ground electrical systems.
CrystalMikey

Not condoning the act of stealing, but I would never have/use my iPad on the Metro. Too big of a target for thieves.
- G Clifford Prout (now moderated for extra purity)
  
  Yes. I saw that. I was quite interesting. I give the guy credit.
  - South Awwwlington
    
    I hope he thumped the crap out of the punk.
- KalashniKEV
  
  That’s actually really sad.
Steamboat Willie

Raise your hand if you are shocked, not pun intended, that the Metro defibrillator contained uncharged batteries.

I used to think that Metro unfairly got a bad rap, but the whole operation needs a serious overhaul.
- drax
  
  What about raising your hand if you didn’t know they had defibrillators?
  - CW
    
    *Hand goes up*
- electrocardiology
  
  I wonder how many defibs in general are undercharged? I guess it would be up to the owners/occupiers of the buildings they’re in to check on them what, monthly? quarterly?
  - JohnB
    
    Wonder no longer:
    
    http://www.lifesavingresources.org/aedmaintenance
  - CW
    
    You know, I guess I am just a stupidface, but as someone who knows nothing about AEDs but is an engineer by trade, I’d always just sort of assumed that those fancy looking cases that hold them also had some sort of charging station functionality. Kind of like a cordless phone, ya know? Not exactly rocket science, I’d figure.
    - Arlington, Northside
      
      They usually do. The ones that I have ordered, the installation of a new outlet turned out to be almost half the cost of the project.
    - 22205
      
      Yes, but do you think Metro knows how to read the instructions on stuff like that?
  - Josh S
    
    I wonder about the far larger number of fire extinguishers that hang on walls in various buildings.
    - Blue Loom
      
      I don’t know about Arlington, but in Alexandria, the fire marshal’s office does periodic surprise inspections of business premises. If the tag on your fire extinguisher isn’t up to date, they can close you down. A small coop gallery that I belong to in the Torpedo Factory got a warning once and had something like 24 or 48 hrs to get the fire extinguisher recharged. (NOTE: this is unrelated to the Torpedo Factory itself. We’re just one small gallery within the TF.)
      - Zoning Victim
        
        Up-to-date? I thought they just had a charge indicator on them.
    - Arlington, Northside
      
      Yes, the fire extinguishers in public/commercial buildings are checked, as you can see by the hang tags attached to them.
novasteve

Come on, do you expect metro to do ANYTHING competently?
- St Paul
  
  Yes. They are getting paid competence-worth money.
  - St Paul
    
    worthy
  - ArlAll
    
    apparently, the iPad thief doesn’t know about the find my iPad app?
- drax
  
  Well, yes, most of the time Metro gets you safely from point A to point B.
  - Josh S
    
    Come on, drax – you know that isn’t important. It’s all about that one escalator in that one station that everyone complains about so therefore I know that Metro sucks!
    - Zoning Victim
      
      How quickly we forget:
      
      http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/archive/Metro-Trains-Collide-Between-Takoma-Fort-Totten.html
      
      http://washingtonexaminer.com/local/dc/2011/10/metro-seeing-increase-metrobus-crashes/119583
      
      http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/23-people-injured-in-Metro-bus-accident-104078089.html
      
      http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/justice-at-last-in-metrobus-accident/2012/04/06/gIQAj5uY0S_story.html
      
      I could go on, but I think you get the point.
      - Josh S
        
        Not really.
        
        It looks to me that your references go back about three years. How many automobile accidents have there been in the same time frame? Will you condemn the road network?
      - Zoning Victim
        
        No, just the bad drivers, but if anybody has the feeling that Metro isn’t operated very well, it’s not just because of a few broken escalators.
        
        Metro has definitely had their challenges, including deadly accidents, and it’s going to take a while to erase that from people’s minds. They did just change the GM in 2010, though, so hopefully things will continue to improve.
  - novasteve
    
    While I’ve never been killed on the metro. I haven’t always gotten from point A to point B, at least the point B I intended on given how often they offload trains due to mechanical problems. This happens more frequently than you’d want to believe.
Cakes

I definitely saw this guy near my hood Wednesday in Arlington Village. Cool car.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8PuUU6IWps&feature=youtube_gdata_player awh hells bells

Kudos to the fellow who collared the iPad thief. I’d like to imagine he dispatched the bandit in Crocodile Dundee fashion with a soup can to the head, but it was probably as rewarding for the guy getting his property back.
John Fontain

It will be interesting to watch the maintenance of River Place go down the toilet as it approaches the end date. I can’t imagine the condo association is going to want to shell out much cash to keep up a building and property that they’ll be handing over.
- CW
  
  I think River Place has been allowed to deteriorate linearly since its creation.
Jacob

River Place should be torn down much sooner than 2050 – the apartments are horrible and the whole complex is a tremendous waste of incredibly valuable land.
- nunya
  
  not to the roaches that infest the place it ain’t
  
  can imagine where they’ll go after this is torn down. poor things.
  - drax
    
    NIMBY! Roaches have to live somewhere.
    - Josh S
      
      So if roaches have been around for millions of years – what *is* their “natural” habitat? Like, where did they live before there were apartment buildings?
      - drax
        
        They lived in caves with dinosaurs and stuff.
- Southeast Jerome
  
  isnt a parcel of land nearby River Place slated to be re-developed as well? Its amazing the crap that sits on such good land there along the river…..
- soarlslacker
  
  We rented there for less than a year 20 years ago and it was a crap hole. Unminded kids running up and down the halls all day. Any where your parking was, you cars were covered in bird poop. Your paper stolen each and every day even in you lived at the very end of hall. This place was so bad, we bought a house before our lease expired.
  - CW
    
    So in a roundabout sort of way, River Place probably made you a couple hundred thousand bucks, considering how that house most have appreciated, eh?
D’oh

A couple years ago, a 17-year-old kid snatched my iPhone at Metro Center as I was standing on the train near the door (I don’t do this anymore). I barely made it out the doors and chased him up the stairs to the gates, yelling the entire time. We both hopped the gate as he made for the exit.

As I was closing on him, a police officer came out of nowhere and tackled him hard. Suddenly there were about 6 officers there. Got my phone back and the kid got arrested. Later I agreed to press charges after the DC prosecutor encouraged I do so. She said no one does, which makes enforcement difficult. The case never went to court, which is fine with me.

The lesson: make lots of noise when you’re victimized. The cops said they heard me from far away. Those guys were hard core.
- Southeast Jerome
  
  I kinda hope some kid tries that with me so I can teach him a lesson on my own, he’d be lucky if the cops got him before me.
  - Zoning Victim
    
    Actually, you’d be lucky. There is no law that allows you to beat the stuffing out of people because they stole from you.
    - Josh S
      
      Talk about a cold shower, Vic. He was almost there……
      - Zoning Victim
        
        Haha, that’s too funny.
    - South Awwwlington
      
      law or not to protect the owner, teach the punk a lesson.
    - D’oh
      
      I had actually thought of this while running after him, and was relieved the cop did what he did. No potential charges against me or risk of getting myself hurt. Kid could have been armed. Not worth it over a phone.
    - Aaron
      
      Actually, there’s a new legal principle that’s swept the nation over the last two months that says if someone’s doing so much as following you, you’re allowed to pin them to the ground and smash their head against the curb repeatedly.
- CW
  
  As I was reading the story I thought it was going to be that the cops tackled you and the perp got away. I guess I am too much of a cynic after all.
  - D’oh
    
    The fact that I was in a suit and tie chasing a guy in sweats probably helped.
  - Clarendoom
    
    me too.
nunya

apple should come out with an iTase app so stolen ipads can be put to good use remotely.
- dk
  
  +1
- Louise
  
  +1
Rebecca

What’s the incentive/point of buying a condo at River Place if you are on leased land? It it for positive cash flow on the rentals?
- WeiQiang
  
  It’s a co-op, not a condo in the legal sense. Very common in NYC. When it was built, a co-op apparently made sense … and has apparently made sense to someone since then.
  
  That brings up a question: if the owners of the co-op[s] own a share of the complex (but presumably not a share of the land, since it leased), do they or don’t they retain any value in their shares if the complex is razed and re-developed?
  - GC2
    
    When the lease is up, they own nothing – all the condos and property revert back to lease holder. If it is designated as a historic landmark (I certainly hope not – it is an eyesore) then the lease holder would have an incentive to re-lease it to the current owners (or sell) – but that would be determined by how much they wanted, and how much the condo owners wanted to pay. I personally think we should convert it to a homeless shelter for all DC metro homeless and pay for it through Arlington taxes on cupcakes and burgers.
Yuck

I looked at tons of condos when I was in the market to buy. River Place was by far the most disgusting property I visited. I can’t see how any of those units are sold.
- LNE
  
  Three words: Location, location, location
  - Josh S
    
    And don’t forget cheap, cheap, cheap. (Relatively speaking, of course….)
    - Zoning Victim
      
      I never would have guessed that. I hit their website after reading all the posts on this, and the place looks great, haha. “You said it was the Egg McMuffin of apartments, the EGG McMUFFIN!!”
      
      No wonder it’s so inexpensive compared to other rentals if it’s as bad as it sounds.
Arlingtonian

That car is hot! I want it!
XVA

The car is a replica of 1952 MG-TD.
Built by MIGI of Daytona. Made in the 70′s
VW Power.
http://www.adagioballet.com/ Jen

Not the best idea to take and iPad from a policeman. Hope he learned his lesson well.

Very cool car, too!

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