Proudly the Flood Comes In: American River Taxi broke the news this morning that Georgetown Washington Harbour was closed—due to floods: “Needless to say, with gtown wash harbour under water, the morning runs are all cancelled,” the company wrote on Twitter. Usually, flood barriers are erected in such situations to keep high water out, but according to a D.C. fire department spokesman,”there was a problem raising the flood gates along the waterfront.” More pictures of the soggy plaza—home to a bevy of restaurants, including Sequoia, Farmers and Fishers, and Tony and Joe’s, that suffered waist-deep water damage and had to be evacuated this morning—appeared this afternoon. Though the affected businesses likely have an expensive renovation process ahead, American River Taxi joked appropriately, “we could offer doorside service to washington harbour shops and eateries.” A flood warning has been extended until noon on Tuesday.  -3

Strong Words, Schwartz: Carol Schwartz is threatening to pull a Marion Barry at tax time next year if she (or, presumably, the entire District of Columbia) doesn’t receive a vote in Congress. In a letter to the editor in The Washington Post, the former councilmember wrote, “Dramatic action is needed. Taking to the streets and getting arrested is one such action, and it is fine with me. But better still would be taking “no taxation without representation” literally, the way our forefathers and foremothers did. Next year at tax time, if I am still denied my right to vote in Congress, and no real movement is afoot, I am ready to deny the federal government my taxes. I will look at setting aside my taxes in an escrow account. I hope my fellow disenfranchised D.C. residents will join me in this effort.” Mike DeBonis reports that tax resistors don’t often face charges, but escrow accounts are still subject to taxes and penalties. Nonetheless, them’s some fightin’ words. +1

Department of Historical Accuracy: The Meridian Hill Neighborhood Association has launched a new initiative to compile online the neighborhood’s history. First in the archive is a silent film of President Warren G. Harding, circa 1922, dedicating the statue of Jeanne d’Arc that lies smack in the middle of Meridian Hill Park. No word on whether the video will be accompanied with a charge to recover Joan’s sword, which has been snatched several times over the past few decades. +3

Edit Your Mania: The Wikimedia Foundation has chosen the District and Georgetown University to play host to its annual conference, the delightfully-named Wikimania, in 2012. The foundation, the non-profit that backs Wikipedia and other open-source, democratically-written wiki projects, says in a press release that attendees will include “active participants from a wide variety of online wiki projects, including Wikimedia Commons, a Web site that hosts nearly 10 million free-use multimedia files, and the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, which is among the top-ten most-visited Web sites in the world with an average of 5 million visits per day.” This puts D.C. on the level of previous host cities, including Boston, Mass., Taipei, Taiwan, Alexandria, Egypt, Buenos Aires, Argentina, Gdańsk, Poland, and Haifa, Israel. Hey, we’ll take those tourism dollars. +2

Yesterday’s Needle rating: 61 Today’s score: +3 Today’s Needle rating: 64