‘wheat pennies bw’
courtesy of ‘christaki’
Are you ready for some frothing? Get set, but put your thinking caps on before you consume the media insanity that’s going to surround this.
Specifically, today’s story from WTOP about how much money the District’s parking enforcement group brings in: 25 times what is collected in Fairfax County, and a per-resident rate that’s ten times what Los Angeles brings in. Other breakdowns in the article include fine revenue by parking space and comparison of the number of spaces in D.C. vs Montomery County.
Omitted is any mention of the fact that the number of people in the District doubles during the workday, a fact that makes the comparison to L.A. or Fairfax a little questionable. It also calls into question how you can talk about the number of meters in D.C. versus MoCo without mentioning the fact that MoCo has 6.5 times the total land area as the District.
An article with not enough math is just as bad as an article with incorrect math. Be a skeptical news consumer.
Well I used to say something in my profile about not quite being a “tinker, tailor, soldier, or spy” but Tom stole that for our about us page, so I guess I’ll have to find another way to express that I am a man of many interests.
Hmm, guess I just did.
My tastes run the gamut from sophomoric to Shakespeare and in my “professional” life I’ve sold things, served beer, written software, and carried heavy objects… sometimes at the same place. It’s that range of loves and activities that makes it so easy for me to love DC – we’ve got it all.
That’s a pretty bad article. They even admit that Fairfax County has no parking meters. And I can’t even remember seeing any time-limited (like free 2 hour parking zone) in Fairfax County.
Heck, I’m surprised Fairfax County is even that close to DC.
Seriously, getting worked up about ANY of the news stories on WTOP is just pointless; WTOP’s news just plain sucks, has always sucked, will always suck. It’s like news McNuggets, tiny bits of news that lack any real information at all. But yep, people will panic.
the comparisons to montgomery and fairfax are clearly bogus, but the LA comparison seems to carry some water… I don’t know if LA’s population doubles during a workday or if it increases by a similar raw number to DC’s… but they’re both large urban centers, no? seems like they could reasonably be compared to me… if you disagree, what *would* be an appropriate comparison city for DC?