Breakfast links: Wet and muddled

What a storm

You probably noticed an extremely violent rainstorm yesterday, which killed two (and messed up the huge Boy Scout parade) after a day of record high temperatures (Post) … Hundreds of thousands lost power, especially in Montgomery County, and Metro couldn’t finish A/C maintenance on all railcars, slightly impacting this morning’s rush.

No IZ units yet

After one year, there have still been no inclusionary zoning units created. This reminds me of the articles perenially declaring the ballpark area a failure because it isn’t all done after a couple years. Um, the economy has been in the tank. And if Mayor Fenty hadn’t delayed for two years before implementing IZ, some would have been created years ago. (Capital Business)

Communication train wreck continues in slow motion

Metro’s muddled messaging on the “Yellow and Orange Line Service Increase” confuses Dr. Gridlock, whose explanations and map frame the proposed change as “moving Blue Line trains” and lead off with the possible need for more colors. No!

Will Latino museum be interesting?

The location isn’t the only issue for the planned National Museum of the American Latino. Can it avoid being as dead as the American Indian museum, which fragmented its programming too much so that each tribe could have its own space? Philip Kennicott worries that soon, “the Mall could have a large collection of very quiet and not terribly relevant museums.”

Living close to transit is cheaper

Montgomery residents far from transit pay more in added transportation costs than they save through cheaper housing prices, according to a report by the Montgomery County Planning Board which the Examiner doesn’t link to and which I can’t find on the board’s or planning department’s sites. (Examiner)

Photography legal despite what guards say

Annys Shin covers frequent harassment of photographers trying to take pictures in public places, which we’ve reviewed in the past. Metro is one of the few agencies that gets good marks for training its people to not harass photographers. This follows Shin’s earlier coverage of Maryland prosecuting a man for videotaping a traffic stop. (Post)

And…

Montgomery DOT would like your input to improve the county’s bike map (WashCycle) … Restaurant roof decks are as controversial as they are profitable (WBJ) … BGE facing obstacles to rolling out a “smart grid” widely. (Post)