Dear Mr. Huisman,

We at the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) have received your message regarding the stability of the bridge along Pennsylvania Avenue.

The bridge is safe. The reason the bridge is appearing to sag is due to the support bearings having settled slightly. This condition will be addressed in a forthcoming rehabilitation project which will replace the aging bearings. In the interim a temporary asphalt transition will be placed to soften the bump by the end of June 2013, until permanent repairs are made.

Regarding the gap you mentioned. All bridges are built in this manner there is a rubber joint which separates one concrete slab from another on bridges. It’s an expansion Joint between the bridge deck and the hard street approach.

For further questions regarding this matter, please contact DDOT at 202-673-6813. Thank you for contacting DDOT.

d. Clearinghouse

stm

I love pinball. It has been a hobby of mine since I was a boy. I grew up playing Space Mission and have always sought out machines wherever I lived.

However, I was disappointed to find that once I moved to Washington, D.C. there seemed to be an absence of pinball culture. The “pinball museum” was even forced to move to Baltimore. That leaves only a sporadic gathering of games across town. With this in mind, I decided to create an unofficial database of pinball machine locations so that others like myself might be able to enjoy this game of skill. I will update locations and machines as they are brought to my attention.

Machine : Location

Big Buck Hunter Pro : Solly’s Tavern - 1942 11th St N.W. – At $1 a play, this is a pricey, but clean machine.

Medieval Madness :  Board Room – 1737 Connecticut Ave. N.W. – Machine is in excellent condition.

The Lord of the Rings : Penn Social - 801 E Street N.W.

The Getaway : Black Cat - 1811 14th Street N.W.

The Sopranos : Iron Horse Tap Room - 507 7th Street N.W. – Weak left flipper that freezes on you occasionally.

Rollercoaster Tycoon Pirates of the Caribbean: Rocket Bar - 714 7th Street N.W. – New machine, but $1 a play makes it pricey.

Family Guy : Kelly’s Irish Times - 14 F Street N.W.

The Sopranos: MIG Bar - 2226 18th St NW

I will provide updates as needed.

The earliest coincidence dates back to 2008 when I took my first full-time reporting job with The Observer Newspaper, a group of weekly papers in northeast Harris County. No more than two weeks after I start at the paper, then Houston is hammered by Hurricane Ike. The category 4 hurricane made landfall at Galveston Island where a friend of mine was studying at the University of Texas Medical Branch. He evacuated the island and headed up to my casa in suburbia to weather out the storm. At about 2 a.m. the hurricane knocked out the power and it wouldn’t be restored until 12 days later. It’s the only time I’ve ever grilled a frozen pizza barbecue style and finished a game of Risk.

In 2009, I left Texas to pursue a master’s degree at Columbia University School of Journalism. The day I landed in New York City was the hottest day of the summer. And while I balked at the New York definition of “hot” I could not deny the thunderstorm that rocked the city a week later, downing hundred-year-old trees in Central Park and sending New Yorkers scrambling for cover.

I left New York City in August 2010 on a road trip to the west coast, with layovers in Austin and Tucson. Our arrival in Tucson was coincidentally the coolest day of the summer. It even rained on us as we were hiking among the Saguaro cacti, a rarity in a city referred to as the Sunshine Factory.

The one recent exception could my brief stint with the Local News Service, a defunct operation of the Star-Ledger. Although, when I left the state in December after I was laid-off, a massive snow storm proceeded to bury New Jersey. The garden state got off light.

I landed an internship with the Dallas Morning News in early January. Naturally, Snowpocalypse v2.0 shut down the city for a day. Fastfoward to the end of June when I visited my home in Austin. The day I arrived was the only day of measurable rain during what is set to be the hottest summer on record.

Lastly – and I realize this whole post has been grasping straws – is my arrival at my latest job, which I hope to have for at least a year or two, at The National Law Journal / Legal Times. Although I started almost two months ago, the hurricane/earthquake combo will hopefully be the last phenomenon for a while. Although, since things come in threes, I wonder what will complete the trifecta of natural disaster.

Plano artists designs Ronald Reagan centennial stamp

When Bart Forbes got a call from the U.S. Postal Service asking him to design the commemorative stamp honoring President Ronald Reagan’s centennial birthday, the Plano artist couldn’t say no.

The request was simple but the task complex: show the casual side of the 40th president in just a square inch. But with about 20 such stamp designs under his belt, Forbes, 70, was prepared. Read more…

Less than three weeks after starting with the Star-Ledger’s Local News Service, I had one of my stories featured as the main story on the front page.  I was quite surprised to arrive at the office and find my story printed with such prominent play.

Thousands of supporters of a California judge's recent Propsition 8 decision gather in The Castro before marching down Market Street toward City Hall. Mickey Garza holds up a sign in San Francisco's The Castro district.(photo by Matthew Huisman)

by Matthew Huisman

SAN FRANCISCO – Gay rights supporters showed their pride and colors after a California judge overturned Proposition 8, a law that only recognized marriages between men and women. Rainbow flags flew through the streets of San Francisco as thousands marched from The Castro, San Francisco’s gay district, down Market Street toward City Hall where a rally would be held.

Leading the march was a portion of the San Francisco Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band. Jeff Bowles plays clarinet for the band. “It’s a great day for everyone,” Bowles said.

Thousands of supporters of a California judge's recent Propsition 8 decision gather in The Castro before marching down Market Street toward City Hall. (photo by Matthew Huisman)

Supporters toted signs and waved rainbow flags during the march. The ruling would overturn the controversial ballot proposition passed in the 2008 elections that stripped the rights of the gay community. In the meantime, the law will remain in effect, pending the appellate process.

Mickey Garza, a 14-year San Francisco resident, was holding up a sign with the words “Can I get a witness?!” – a phrase Garza said he used to hear often from pastors in the Midwest where he grew up.

“Hallelujah, Amen,” Garza said. “I’m happy to be celebrating equality.”

Thousands of supporters of a California judge's recent Propsition 8 decision gather in The Castro before marching down Market Street toward City Hall. (photo by Matthew Huisman)

The Environmental Protection Agency now has the legal authority to go after The City of New York and eight other polluters who for decades contributed to contamination of the Gowanus Canal. The EPA was granted the power after labeling the 1.8-mile canal that divides Red Hook and South Brooklyn from Park Slope a federal Superfund site, a list of the country’s most hazardous waste sites.

“The City of New York has owned or operated various facilities including an asphalt plant, coal plan, and incinerator,” said EPA spokesperson Elizabeth Totman. “We think that the coal runoff combined with metal and coal tar has impacted the ground water and migrated into the canal.”

The EPA also identified eight additional responsible polluting parties, but said the investigation is ongoing. Among the parties are Con-Edison, Chemtura Corporation, The U.S. Navy, National Grid, Beazer East Corporation, Rapid American Corporation, Brink’s Incorporated and Cibro Petroleum Products. The next step is negotiating an agreement with each party to investigate the extent of the contamination.

The canal was brought to the attention of the EPA after the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation sent a letter in December 2008 asking the federal agency to consider adding the Gowanus Canal to their Superfund list. The letter initiated preliminary sampling of the canal to test for contaminates.

“When we got that letter we took the proper steps to consider it and to figure out if the canal was contaminated enough,” Totman said. “We were out in the field in late January 2009 to do sampling for hazard ranking score to determine whether or not the potential pathways of exposure of a site are warranted. Gowanus canal scored above the threshold, which makes it warranted to do the Superfund site list.”

When asked about the EPA’s decision to add Gowanus to the Superfund list, the State’s Department of Environmental Conservation, which initiated the federal investigation, was mute on the issue. “For background we’re just not commenting on it right now,” said DEC spokesperson Lori Severino. “We are pleased that they are working on it and we’re not saying anything else.”

During their investigation the EPA found evidence of heavy metals, pesticides, and contaminates that occur in oil, coal and tar deposits present in the canal. In April of last year, the EPA proposed adding the canal as one of its’ 1,279 currently listed sites. After reviewing more than 1,300 comments from the community, businesses and officials, the agency decided the Superfund list was the best approach to cleaning up the contaminated canal.

The federal agency is already negotiating with National Grid, one of the responsible parties on an agreement. “They are responsible for three manufactured gas plants along the canal,” Totman said. Plants artificially produce gases like hydrogen, methane and ethylene by burning coal, wood or oil. “Those plants created contamination that is affecting the water in the canal. They have been extremely cooperative.”

Totman said the EPA hopes to have an agreement with National Grid by the end of the month. If agreed upon, it would force the company to install wells that run parallel to the canal to determine the source of the contaminated groundwater and if the contaminates are migrating from the property to the canal. “If we do find contaminated groundwater, the next determination would be how do we cut that off,” Totman said.

Marc LaVorgna, a spokesman in the mayor’s office, said the city was disappointed with the EPA’s decision. LaVorgna pointed to the history of Superfund which he said involves lengthy court battles that slow down the process of cleaning up a site.

“We had an approach that would get us to Superfund level cleanup faster by avoiding any potential major litigation,” LaVorgna said. “The stigma caused by a Superfund label can cause disinvestment and deter development. In either plan, the city is considered a potential party and responsible for paying some of the cost.”

But when I got to the bike shop, I was dismayed to find that they only sold new bikes, starting at around $400. Not wanting to drop so much money on a bike before the added cost of accessories, I opted instead to call a guy I met on Cragislist. He lived a short 15-minute bus ride away in Bensonhurst. So I hopped on the bus and met up with the Don in his garage. When I arrived, I found him and a friend drinking Coors Light in the garage.

There she was, a red road bike with greasy gears and a solid frame. The tires, however were rotted and cracked. After bartering him down from the original price, I walked the bike three blocks away to a gas station where I filled it up with air.

Not knowing how long the tires would stay inflated, I headed for the nearest bike shop to get them replaced. I made it three or four miles before the back tire went flat. Luckily,  was a few blocks from the shop by the time this happened.

I left the bike at the shop for the attendant to fix and went next door to a Mexican restaurant to eat lunch. Three chicken flautas and a side of rice and beans later, I was back on the road with two new tubes and tires. And seeing as how safety is a priority for me, I decided the best thing to do was see how fast I could ride the bike. So on my way back to Manhattan I rode through Prospect Park.

Man did it open up. I shifted the bike to the lowest gear as I weaved through other bikes and pedestrians.

The rest of the ride home was rather uneventful. I crossed the Brooklyn Bridge and made my way to the bike path along the Westside Highway where I rode all the way home.

Manhattan & Brooklyn

The Brooklyn Bridge
The Manhattan Bridge
The Williamsburg Bridge

Queens & Manhattan

Queensboro Bridge
Roosevelt Island Bridge
Ward’s Island Bridge

Brooklyn & Queens

McGuinness Boulevard Bridge
Greenpoint Avenue Bridge
Kosciuszko Bridge

Bronx & Manhattan

Triborough Bridge
Willis Avenue Bridge
Third Avenue Bridge
Madison Avenue Bridge
138th Street Bridge
145th Street Bridge
Macombs Dam Bridge
High Bridge
High Bridge Aquaduct
Washington Bridge
University Heights Bridge
Broadway Bridge
Henry Hudson Bridge

New Jersey & Manhattan

George Washington Bridge

Staten Island & Brooklyn

Verrazano Bridge (no pedestrians)