Posts in: dmv

Promoting legislative reversal

When I last wrote about crime in D.C a man was murdered while watching a soccer game right next to my kids' elementary school. This was back in July. Since then, the murders increased even more in August and decreased to (still high!) 2022 levels in September. Then a congressman got carjacked in front of his apartment building and the news media were all over it.

I mentioned in passing how you can trace a direct line from bad decisions to even worse consequences. While there has been movement to correct some of the more egregious mistakes, I haven’t seen even a suggestion of a mea — or sua — culpa from a council member. Until now!

When the stakes are lower, such as lets say public transit fare evasion, there is more space for assigning responsibility. The press release announcing the new legislation and the history behind the reversal is as good of an example of unintended (but not unforeseen) consequences and externalities as I’ve seen. You could, of course, trace the same well-intentioned path from calls for justice to murders on the soccer field, but that would of course not be so politically palatable.

All of this has reminded me of medical reversals and the unfortunately-titled (but good!) book about ending it. This is why it is unfortunate: medical reversal is when something that is standard medical practice despite lacking evidence of benefit goes out of fashion once data, usually from a randomized controlled trial, show it doesn’t work. Now, ending reversal could mean two things: that you keep doing the thing despite the new evidence, or that you never start doing the thing to begin with. The authors meant the latter, where my common-sense interpretation is the former. People do dumb stuff. We should promote their reversal. Now, “legislative reversal” and “legal reversal” are terms already reserved for when an appeals court overturns a lower court’s decision, so what should we call “medical reversal” for written law? There are plenty of examples: from customs enshrined in old legislation than is then abolished (like traditional medicine disappearing with evidence showing it doesn’t work) to seemingly progressive legislation which is in reality a fountain of unintended consequences becoming quickly reversed.

Whatever the name, the consequences are at least more definitive than with medical reversals, which are rarely full — people still insert intra-aortic balloon pumps and perform kypholasties, I hear — and outside of a full FDA withdrawal of approval never have as clear of a demarcation line as written law. And we shoud strive to promote it, not end it.

In contrast to Boston’s, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in DC is an unqualified success.

Washington DC, October 2020.

Photo of the white granit MLK memorial in Washington DC set against the black night time sky.

Flora and fauna, locked in an embrace at Dumbarton Oaks Gardens (not to be confused with the park, library, or museum, all within a stone’s throw).

Photo of a bee pollinating a red flower.

Is a rainy day in the life of a cat really different than any other day?

Thanks, Ophelia.

Photo of an orange tabby sitting on a window sill next to a coffee cup, looking out.

Our old neighborhood on Ontario Road, this time last year. Half of these row houses are now but a shell, ready to be converted into flimsy condos. So it goes…

Ontario Rd NW, Washington DC.

Photo of a tree-lined street with parked cars on the left and old row houses on the right.

The best thing about fall is that if you do fall there are always fall leaves to soften your landing. Also, its versatility as a word.

At Kenilworth Park, October 2020.

Photo of a girl in a forest standing on a tree stump surrounded by fall leaves.

Move over, Batman. This is what true living on the edge looks like, as seen at a Library of Congress exhibit.

Margaret Bourke-White on the job, photograph by Oscar Graubner, 1930.

Photo of a black and white photograph of a woman perched on a gargoyle of the NYC Chrysler Building while holding an old-fashioned camera.

The Georgetown waterfront is great for airplane watching, although the residents may not be too happy about that. I don’t think this one would have turned out as well as it did had the glare not been so intense.

Photo of birds and an airplane flying above the Potomac, silhouetted against a cloudy sky.

There are graceful, majestic sports played almost every week at the Capital One Arena; and then there is Monster Jam. Oof!

Photo of an overturned monster truck.

From the Department of You Can’t Make This Up: the face of D.C. pedestrian safety was hurt in a hit-and-run. And not just a little bit:

Stephen Grasty was placed in a neck brace and taken to George Washington University Hospital, where doctors treated him for a long list of injuries, including a broken leg, foot and vertebra. His C6 vertebra was “hanging on a hair,” Shelly Grasty said.

D.C. could be one of the most pedestrian and bicycle-friendly cities in America (just look at these lanes!), but you just can’t get away from out-of-town drivers. (ᔥAxios)