A regular summary of irregular news and notes from neighborhood blogs and email lists around the District.

Warring Factions: “Georgetown needs a master transportation plan,” declares the Georgetown Metropolitan, on the basis that “several different groups are working to bring transportation changes to Georgetown. The problem is that they’re not working together and there’s no overarching plan to organize the efforts.” “It would be nice, for sure. However, I think the flip side is that there is absolutely no way to get ‘a consensus of all the stake holders, including the BID, GBA, CAG, Georgetown University, and DDOT”—and everybody knows it. The civic and governance structure in DC, and in Georgetown especially, is heavily weighted toward the preservation of the status quo. Waiting until everyone has agreed to one giant overarching plan before doing anything is tantamount to doing nothing,” quibbles a commenter. The blog also asserts that the neighborhood will someday have a Metro stop of its very own, which a second commenter thinks isn’t really necessary. “Ultimately, is it really that hard to get around now? I can ride a bike, I can drive, I can grab a cab, I can jump on a bus and can even walk to a Metro stop. Is the search for a solution necessary if there is not a problem or if the expectations are unrealistic? I don’t play the lottery, should I expect to win the lottery? We live in a city. Yes, there will be traffic, yes there will be noise, yes there will even be rats…if you don’t like it there are some great deals on land in the distant suburbs where quite, light traffic and even rats are less. Keep on pushing that rock up the hill….” they write.Don’t Forget the Virginia Tags: On the Columbia Heights email list, a member posts a link to a Washington Examiner piece on new parking initiatives in Adams Morgan. “This article is interesting, but a little misleading,” the member writes. “Outside of a few anecdotal comments at a few public meetings and a few comments by the CM about emails and calls to his office there has been no pub[l]ic meeting or well designed survey that I know of to assess the impact of the Columbia Heights pilot on residential parking. The two Columbia Heights public meetings on performance parking that I was a part of after implementation of the pilot the reviews from residents were incomplete and mixed at best. I’m not sure at this point what ANC1A’s evaluation or votes have been on this matter.” A second member adds, “This is going to backfire with all the visitor parking permits on the streets—here come more Maryland plates. I live in Columbia Heights and have seen negative impact since this started.”

Um, No, You Didn’t: “A gentleman was at our door 45 minutes ago claiming he had shoveled our walk yesterday (our block had no snow) and wanting $$. I declined, he muttered and walked off, heading south on 10th St. SE,” writes a member of the MPD 1D email list in a thread titled, “neighborhood con artist.” “Coincidentally, a few weeks ago, a neighbor sent around a photo of the same man, suggesting he was snatching UPS/FedEx packages. He’s about 50, black, slender, 5′ 8″, salt & pepper beard, and wears a dark jacket with a ‘Central Parking’ logo,” the member continues. Though an MPD officer advises the member to call 911 to report suspicious activity, a second member says, “Had the same guy do the same thing at my house on 11th St. SE, last week. Said he shoveled snow for us last year and I said, ‘um, no you didn’t’ and he looked puzzled like he had the wrong house and walked off. He didn’t ask for money or do anything else particularly suspicious, so I just let it go.”

Cleveland Park, ISO: Members of the Cleveland Park email list are in search of the following: “best brunch in Cleveland Park?”; “heated cabin” (“We’re looking for a place that sleeps 6-10. The catch is we’d like to go for one night over President’s Weekend, and most places have a 2-3 night minimum. We don’t need anything fancy—a state park cabin or something like that would be great as long as it’s heated”); feedback on Tomato Electric (“My plumber recommended I use Tomato Electric for a small job. At first I thought he was joking, but then I Googled them and that’s really their name. Has anyone had any experience with them?”); “curd to make cheese” (Does anyone know where you can purchase curd to make your own mozzarella?); and “traveling with toddler advice?”