RSS FeedMetro Prize Patrol In Gallery Place Station On Friday Morning
Credit for this one goes to DCist!
According to the WMATA press release:
- Metrorail’s 30th anniversary prize patrol will greet morning commuters at the Gallery-Pl Chinatown Metrorail station (7th and H Street entrance) Friday, April 28, from 8 to 9 a.m. Prize patrol members will randomly select riders, surprising them with free Metrorail 30th anniversary commemorative items such as key chains, notepads and lapel pins.
The prize patrol is part of Metrorail’s celebration of 30 years of opening doors. Metrorail began service in March 1976.
As part of the 30th anniversary celebration, the prize patrol will visit one station each month through March 2007 during the morning or evening rush hours. They will reach riders on all five rail lines in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia.
The 9:30 Club In Gallery Place *Updated*
Confused?
We’re actually talking about the topic of homelessness. Check out this December 2004 article from the Washington Times.
One of our readers suggested providing information on how to help the homeless population that seem to be drawn to our neighborhood. In addition to the high concentration of homeless shelters in our neighborhood, GPLiving will also note that some of the homeless population from other wards are bused to our neighborhood every morning as well. Here is a list of DC shelters and contact information.
The First Congregational Church (10th and G St NW, next to MLK library) runs the Zaccheus Community Kitchen, which is known by its customers as the 9:30 club – because it serves breakfast at 9:30am. The kitchen feeds 600 people each day, according to the previously linked shelter list.
In a slightly unrelated note, why does the steam vent next to the First Congregational Church have a tall smokestack attached to it? It makes us think of tugboats every time we walk by.
Update:
Upon further browsing of the UCC website, we found this juicy nugget. It is a notice for the redevelopment of the UCC property by PN Hoffman! The UCC will sell air rights and allow condos to be built above the church and shelter. Sound off!
Cheap Internet And Cheaper Electricity In The District
Cheap Internet
$32.70 per month (including tax & fees) for high speed internet and no strings attached? It’s called Naked DSL or dry-loop DSL and you can get it from Verizon. It’s a high speed internet connection that works over your telephone land line delivering speeds of 3 Mbps/768 Kbps. But, the important note is that you don’t pay for a dial-tone or voice service on that phone line – only internet. If you live in Washington, DC, naked DSL is almost a certain possibility.
But, the fun only begins here. Verizon wants you to be a voice AND internet subscriber, so they don’t make naked DSL easy to obtain. If you move into a place and have no phone service, you can input your address only to qualify for naked DSL service. Of course, when GPLiving attempted this, it took several combinations of the web form for our building to show up (leaving off “Unit #” helps). Once the list of units came up, GPLiving’s unit was not on the list! Ok, so time to call up sales and sign-up over the phone. Calling the local DC phone number and selecting “internet” from the menu only bumps you back out to a national call center – and magically, no one knows about naked DSL. They’ll kindly refer you back to your local sales phone number.
The solution: Sign up for voice and DSL service through Verizon, get connected, get the discounts, and then . . port your land line phone number to your cell phone (or somewhere else). Once the phone number port is complete, everything is automatic. Your voice service will self-terminate and you’ll be left with DSL internet only. Here are the step-by-step instructions.
Cheaper Electricity
You may have seen the ads in the Express (page 18) or maybe on TV, but it isn’t extremely well publicized – for good reason. Why would a PEPCO funded (gov’t mandated) advertisement want to encourage people (who are already PEPCO customers) to switch electricity providers?
The list of other power companies in the District are listed on the DC Public Service Commission website. While commercial customers have a wide choice of suppliers, residents only have two choices: PEPCO and Washington Gas Energy Services.
The process looks very simple to switch from PEPCO to WGES, but which is cheaper? WGES offers a flat rate of 12.25¢ or 12.65¢ per kiloWatt hour that is fixed through June 2008.
How does your current electricity bill match up to this competing rate plan?
Quick Program Note: RSS Feed Fixed
A quick note concerning the GPLiving RSS feed. The article titles weren’t showing up correctly in RSS news readers, but that has now been fixed. Thanks to Rich for reporting and testing the fix!
For those who are curious about RSS news readers, check out www.netvibes.com, select “add a new feed,” and input this link: http://gpliving.blogspot.com/atom.xml