D.C. DC metro area

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let in Snow!

The Washington D.C. metro area  (Northern VA and MD) is just getting walluped with snow this winter!

Unbelievable the amounts of accumulation!

Almost a white Christmas, on Dec 19, ‘09, 16 inches fell on Reagan Airport in VA.

February 6, 2010 snow storm – now dubbed “Snowmageddon” by President Obama  - gave Dulles International in VA a record breaking 32.4 inches.

Tomorrow, Feb 9, 2010 going into Feb 10th,  the D.C. area is expecting 10-20 more inches! This is almost comical!

I have lived on the east coast all my life up until 1994 when I headed west, and when I returned east in 2001 the most it snowed was 10 inches – record breaking in Virginia Beach actually. And when I moved north to the DC/VA area a few years later, the most that fell at one time was 8 or 9 inches.

Now that I am back in southern CA (just moved in May 09) it’s weird how I am sort of envious of all this snow. For all the cold you endure, you figure if it’s going to be cold, it should just snow and snow a lot, to give you the time off to enjoy it with others:)

But also I am envious because it’s a neat experience when the DC/VA area ’shuts down’ as it is normally extremely hectic &  fast paced – so there is some pleasure in the quietness of it all and the beauty of the snow falling.

You get a taste of this during the holidays, when in Arlington VA, you can literally walk down the middle of normally one of the busiest streets on Thanksgiving eve, Christmas and Christmas eve, because there isn’t a car on it.

But the snow – well that makes it more remarkable – because the air is crisp and it’s even more silent  - as the snow absorbs sounds. So to me, this is a rare time and a time that should be cherished.

The unexpected days off, the time to enjoy being outside and making a snowman or something. I absolutely loved watching the video on how DC celebrated the recent snow storm – about 1000 people gathered for a snowball fight – that’s the kind of things I am talking about.

Time to let go and have some fun. Something often overlooked by many because everyone is so busy there, and it’s not normally scheduled in their packed 6 day a week, 16 hours work days  in the DC/VA area.

What I didn’t like reading was that cab fares have gone to ’snow rate’ where they jack up the price of a ride that is normally $20-$30 bucks to the airport to $100.

That’s just not right. What they should be doing is the reverse, if they were really savvy.

They should be supporting the community/cities this is happening in and either offer the same rate or lowering their rate to show their support in trying to help people get to the airports, or to the store to get essentials. That’s what all other businesses & communities do in unusual circumstances – they support one another and bend over backwards to alter their ‘usuals’ to make life easier as people go through the not-so-usual time period.

But leave it to DC/VA – where everyone tries to always take advantage of everyone else with the ‘what’s in it for me attitude’.

This is the part of DC/VA that just gives the region a very poor image in the global community. This just reinforces how this area tries to gauge and haggle people.

But the cab companies will loose business in the end. People will remember which cab companies jacked up their rates and took advantage of them during this time. And those cab companies will probably want to know why their cabs are empty during the rest of the year.  They are so dumb.

I, for one wouldn’t give them more money  - and I would make sure even if I absolutely had to – to never use them again because  they took such ridiculous advantage of people when they absolutely didn’t need to.

Poor business decisons like this bite you in the butt much harder later. So they might think they are gaining more money now, but they are loosing a lot more business/money later.

I am surprised the Mayors of DC/VA/MD didn’t declare as part of the city emergency – that no rates could be risen due to this natural occurance. That would keep things calmer in all the cities, where transportation systems aren’t running at all, or running very sparsely.

So let it snow even more!  And let this be a enjoyable time for many who usually don’t get this time, but also a learning lesson for a select few companies.