Overheard

Inauguration Rental Shenanigans

Among the phenomena related to last week's Presidential election is this: Washington area condo and home owners are now somehow convinced that the world is ready to shell out tens of thousands to be in DC for the Inauguration. Yes, I know, I know--its historic, there are limited hotel rooms and money is no object to some people. However, will even a small percentage of these people really get the thousands of dollars of which they are asking?

I wanted to see what was being offered and how ridiculous people could get in the name of providing a room for a fee. Here are some of the most interesting inauguration rental offers I have found. I based my listing on how loudly and long I laughed after first reading the posts.:...

$40000 / 1br - Loft Style Luxury Condo for Rent during Inauguration week (Jan. 17-22) (DuPont Circle): This inauguration rental requires a $10,000 deposit. Its in the DeSoto, a newish building across from Whole Foods on P Street, near Dupont. One bedrooms here normally rent for about $2,500 a month. At $10,000 per night this a 12,000% increase over the normal rent. Ouch.

$75000 / 2br - Inauguration Special - Entire Week - First Come (Bethesda): This entry amused me for a few reasons. 1.) So little information is offered: I'd like to know a lot more before I called about a $75,000 one week investment. 2.) Apparently its in a "building primarily used for low-income housing." Gives new meaning to the term buy low sell high. And 3.) Like many other entries the author takes liberties with lines like "a stone's throw away from all the DC action," when this place is adjacent to NIH-Medical Center.

$250 1 Bedroom plus Den for Inauguration Week (Mt. Pleasant): This one was is one of several offers out of Mt Pleasant. Its really not that remarkable. Some listings for Mt Pleasant were vastly overpriced and stretched some of the facts, but this one actually seems reasonable, relative to the rest. Still more than I would normally pay for a night at a decent hotel.

$2200 / 3br - Luxury condo during Inauguration week -- walk to balls, dining, Metro (Dupont/Kalorama): I'm sorry, but there is no house or apartment which is both "a block from the Washington Hilton" and "a 10-minute walk from the Omni Shoreham Hotel." Equally questionable is the statement that this house is "a 5-minute walk to both the Dupont Circle Metro and the Woodley Park/Adams-Morgan Metro;" maybe one, but not the other. Many of the posts have little white lies similar to this one. On the face, not that egregious of an exaggeration, but the little things matter at such high prices. This place is $2200 per night.

$5000 / 4br -Inauguration Rental Just 2 Stoplights to DC! (McLean): Again, this is one of the misleading entries. I mapped the route out, and its true! One could get to DC, stopping at only two traffic lights, both on Glebe Road. The author forgets to mention that you'd then have to travel an additional 7+ miles from Chain Bridge to downtown DC. That includes the countless traffic lights in Kent, the Palisades, Burleith, Georgetown, Foggy Bottom, West End, GWU, the National Mall and SW/Federal Center on the way to the Capitol Building.

$10000 Upscale Apartment for Inaugural Week (Wash DC (5 mins from)): This is one of the many entries which promises accommodations that are "5 minutes from..." everything. This apartment is even 5 minutes from "Regan" Airport and the Convention Center, which I learned is "on both blue and yellow metro lines..."

$188000 / 3br - Quaint, Luxurious Inauguration House - Early Bird Special -Furnished (Damascus, MD): OK, I wasn't sure if this price was for buying the house outright, or for renting it during the inauguration. It features amenities such as "dial-up internet service" (hello, 1992? dial up!?), a "quaint" gravel driveway, but no refrigerator (its "down"). And its 25 miles outside the beltway! Perhaps there was a typo and the owner meant to offer it at $188 for the week.

Oh goodness, I could go on and on and on. This is fascinating! Its like a dam broke and all these want-to-be capitalist entrepreneurs spilled out. Don't believe the hype people! No one is paying ten grand to rent your worn out townhouse in Bowie! A $3,000 security deposit on a five night rental is absurd! I don't even smoke, but for $2,000 a night you bet I want to light up in your house and do whatever else makes me happy.

I love it, all these fools saw some news story and thought they could get a piece of the action. Fantastic. More comedy for me I guess. Keep it coming DC home owners, keep it coming.

The $99,000 Inauguration Package and Some Predictions

Feeling like an entrepreneur? Want to make something for (almost) nothing? Don't mind feeling like an opportunist? Try selling your apartment floor for the Presidential Inauguration.

My parents and many, many of my friends want to come up to DC, but none of them can find a room, surprise. I have friends who would never visit DC because of traffic, crime, "its boring," too far, New York's cooler, too close, traffic (again), too conservative/liberal or whatever reason they could come up with. Now these same people now want to join the rest of the Western world in trying to secure tickets and lodging to the 2009 Presidential Inauguration. My parents live within driving distance, but they would like to stay in a hotel. Most hotels are sold out from here to Manassas and Baltimore (that is not a joke). But there is one package they might be interested in: The Ritz-Carleton Red, White, Blue and Green Inauguration Package. Its for the location in Georgetown, on South Street.

It costs $99,000.00. Yes, ninety nine thousand United States dollars, zero cents. What might you get for the nearly tenth of a million dollars? Well

• Four-night stay in a Presidential Suite
• First Class Round trip airline tickets
• 24-hour on-call chauffeur in luxury hybrid vehicle
• Gucci luggage set to last a lifetime
• Seating for two at the Inaugural parade
• Two tickets to one of the official Inaugural balls
• Private dinner in the Chimney Stack dining room, featuring all-organic menu and organic wine pairing (up to 8 people)
• In-room Eco-Friendly Bath and Body Works Spa Gift Basket
• Eco Lux in room amenities including organic slippers and monogrammed bath robes
• Four night stay at The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman including round trip first class airline transfers from Washington, D. C. to Grand Cayman

Basically , the R-C put together a package centered around sustainable travel and living coupled with the fact that, oh, a certain someone will be starting a certain jobbie job that day. Other pieces of the puzzle include TerraPasses to offset the carbon omissions incurred during your airplane flights, a post-inauguration vacation on Grand Cayman Island, and a "sustainable" custom set of luggage by Gucci. I have no idea what sustainable luggage looks like, but I hope they aren't made of leather! Maybe they are made of recycled old luggage or something. You also get chauffeured around town in a hybrid vehicle all week and two tickets to an inaugural ball and the inaugural parade. I'm guessing the parent company to R-C has made a few political donations, at least enough to have guaranteed tickets to the parade and a ball.

It has been virtually impossible for the normal people to get a hold of tickets. I've tried calling our Delegate Eleanor Holmes-Norton and my parents tried their Representative, neither with any luck. There are 250,000 official tickets available, each and everyone to be distributed through the Inaugural Committee and members if the United States Congress. My best guess is that they'll provide another venue--the Mall, Verizon Center, Nationals Park, etc-- in order to accommodate the masses with live feed video screens. I predict more than 1.5 million visitors for the inauguration. I also predict a new Metro rail daily ridership record, surpassing the 854,638 riders set on July 11, 2008.

DC will be packed and buzzing more than usual during Inauguration week. Its also likely to be in a deep freeze. I attended events at the 2005 Inauguration and most of the week was spent in sub freezing, icy conditions. Outside events were nearly unbearable, leaving participants numb from head to toe between the low temperatures and the listless presenters playing mostly to tele cameras and not to the crowds.

My floor may have a few bodies on it that January week. I am open to hosting my friends, fly by night DC fans or no. We will have a good time and I can try to show them that we in DC are indeed always cool, new President or not. Obviously, I'd never charge anyone! Are you hosting anyone? Are you renting your place out? Are you getting out of town to avoid the crowds? Just curious.

A New Day

A New President

Finally, Voters Take Center Stage

A new President will be moving onto the 42 bus line in January. Help choose him.

Just to review:

+++DC polls are open from 7:00AM until 8:00PM
+++Those in line by 8:00PM will get to cast a vote
+++Voters can take notes or sample ballots into the booth
+++Voters can take a friend or other helper into the booth
+++A paper ballot is always available, in every polling place
+++IDs not always required, but bring one anyway
+++No campaign paraphernalia can be displayed in the polling place
+++Precinct 39 voting (formerly Mt Pleasant Library) now located at Bell Multicultural High School

DC, Vote III: Electoral College

When in the voting booth tomorrow voting for President, you'll actually be voting for a group of people, none of which are running for President. Casting your vote for Obama, McCain, or any of the other candidates is actually casting your vote for a group of people who represent the candidate's party. They are called electors. Look closely at the ballot tomorrow. It states that you are voting for "Electors of President of the United States," not just for the President of the United States. These electors (538 total in the U.S., including 3 from DC) are the actual people who vote to determine the President of the United States. Each party chooses it's electors in a different manner, which also varies by state.

You may remember that in the 2004 election, the final electoral count was 286 for Bush, 251 for Kerry, and 1 for Edwards. John Edwards actually got an electoral vote for President of the United States from an elector in Minnesota. That incident got me interested in the whole electoral process again.

A candidate needs a plurality of electors, at least 270, to vote for him or her to claim the Presidency. The real vote for President in 2008 happens on December 15, 2008. That day the electors in each state and the District of Columbia will gather in their respective state capitals and officially cast their votes. The vote counts will be sealed and sent to the United States Congress. They will be unsealed and read allowed on the floor of a joint session of Congress next January 6, 2009. There will be a new Congress in session at that point, including newly elected members from the November 4 elections. Only after that reading will the President elect be officially declared the next President of the United States, inaugurated two weeks later on January 20th 2009.

Interesting system. The reasons behind its creation go all the way back to the nation's founding and are fairly complicated. There are federal and state laws that govern every aspect from whether or not an elector can vote for a candidate which didn't win their respective state (some states outlaw it, others don't) to setting up a possibility of having a candidate win the popular vote, but lose the election (has happened three times in U.S. history). If you'd like to read more, there's a great concise and easy to read book called After the People Vote.

DC, Vote II: Don't Wear Your Buttons and Other Rules

With less than a week to go until the 2008 Presidential election, I'm left wanting this thing to be over already. Too many ads, accusations, whining, boasting, muckraking and deceit. That's the fun part right? I'm kind of done with the American electorate, too. The internet and camcorders have made it that much easier to self publish both brilliantly inventive and utterly useless material. Spoken like a true blogger I guess. If you haven't decided on President yet, 1.) I don't believe you, and 2.) good luck, you're only days away from having to make a decision

That being said, here are some important notes regarding the election in DC. We all have quite a bit to vote on besides the office of President.

Regarding the Presidential vote, there are officially four parties with an eligible Presidential candidate in DC; Democrat (Obama), Republican (McCain), Statehood Green (C. McKinney), and Independent (R. Nader). Neither the Constitution, Reform or Libertarian parties made it on the ballot this time. Also on the citywide ballot are Delegate to the House of Representatives (interesting article on quest for a true representation came out yesterday), at-large city council member, U.S. Senator (shadow), U.S. Representative (shadow), and at-large state board of education member. The Ward One specific ballot also includes elections for Ward One member of the state board of education and the Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner.

Other important notes on voting:

* The polls open on November 4 at 7:00AM and close at 8:00PM the same day.
* If you are in line when the polls close, you will get to vote.
* Be safe and take an ID. Its generally not required, but better safe than not.
* No electioneering at the polls! This means no candidate t-shirts, hats, buttons or signs can be on your person when you vote. You will be asked to cover up or remove the offending article.
* Feel free to bring a sample ballot or written notes into the voting booth; its allowed.
* Feel free to bring a friend or helper into the booth; also allowed.
* You can vote touch screen (electronic) or on a paper ballot, your choice.
* You can write in candidates, but make sure they are eligible for the office!
* No need to vote on every contest on the ballot, there is no obligation.

DC, Vote: Notes and Change of Polling Place

DC absentee voting is happening now. You are allowed to vote absentee if you can not make it to the polls on election day because of illness, disability, or travel. As of October 20th, DC residents can vote absentee, in person at the DC Board of Elections and Ethics Office, address 441 4th Street, NW Suite 205-North. Registered voters can vote absentee in-person at the office every day Monday-Saturday (yes, Saturday) from now until November 3rd. The hours are 8:30AM-4:45PM. Citizens can no longer register to vote in the November 4 elections.

If you are mailing in a ballot, its due Tuesday October 28th, soon. Mail-in absentee ballots are not like taxes, they have to be received into the office by October 28th, not just postmarked by October 28th.

For Mount Pleasant residents, the voting place of precinct 39 has changed. If you used to vote at the Mount Pleasant Branch Library, your new polling place is Bell Multicultural High School at 3101 16th St NW. Voting will take place in the auditorium.

If you previously voted at Bancroft Elementary (precinct 40), nothing has changed for you. Refer to your voter registration card or use the DCBOEE website to double check your registration status and voting location.