Sorry that this happened.

For those that do not know:

Metro Center, all of the major hubs, but especially Metro Center has multiple workers and police — walk up to them, and ask for help if you find yourself in a situation such as this.

1940s, post the Depression/ New Deal growth wasn’t the beginning of Cleveland Park now was it?

The data I’m using is from the late 1800s when the Rock Creek Railway line via the Chevy Chase Land Company built the infrastructure for Connecticut Ave, as well as the failure of the Cleveland Park Company, and the eventual success of the Miller brothers - ultimately, none of these entities were trying to compete with the longtime established villages of Georgetown and Tenallytown (Tenleytown) when they finalized the designs & built out Lower Cleveland Park.

The movie theater, the park & shop, and the automobile literally drove people to the area, and helped redefine the streetcar suburb in the 1940s (and post war 50s) — places to eat/ buy groceries, and be entertained, as well as the ability to get one’s car serviced were the primary draws for that neighborhood, relegating retail shopping to being secondary ~ which it still is to this day.

In the 90s they had three, and by the 00s they had 1 1/2.

The dynamics of the neighborhood shifted noticeably around the time Klingle Rd closed - of the residents catching the metro, who would be more prone to drinking coffee, they could not take a beverage with them on the train and would wait until they were at work.

There hasn’t been a thriving lunch community in CP in .. well .. practically never: most all of the restaurants were geared towards dinner. As a result the people behind Tryst/ The Diner, Big Bear, etc.. were frosty on CP because of the hours of its foot traffic - with rent being as high as it was, having a storefront empty for 60-70% of the day didn’t make sense.

Lastly, online ordering of coffee, as well as K-cups, killed the impetus of going to a coffee shop in that neighborhood - hence why it took Starbuck’s a while to close down.

Retail dies in CP because of the overall history of CP: it was originally planned as a streetcar suburb, hence the strip mall & Piggly Wiggly, and not patterned to become anything remotely close to 1900s Georgetown or Tenleytown, as a result the repeated/ ingrained mindset of the residents (decade in decade out) has been to shop elsewhere.

And cars with or without historical preservation didn’t kill CP: if you look at how the neighborhood thrived in the late 80s through to the mid 00s, you’d understand that cars were a major factor in uplifting the area to turn it into a destination for diners & nightlife ~ whether they were going to the movie or not.

That’s because of the ANC pushing to limit restaurant licenses post the closure of Klingle Rd - some of the neighbors want a neighborhood that isn’t retail.

I’d bet that the the reason as to why the driving percentage is low is because there’s no parking.

Or she’s just lying, and this never happened.

Mmm, this entire post, per OP, is dealing with I82… You do understand that, yes?

Dealing with I82 from a consumer or a supplier standpoint, both entities should feel as if they are being treated fairly - true or not?

My asking if you understood the tip credit was to understand how well you understood it pre and post I82 having been passed. Now that we both know your depth: which pay structure [both with healthcare] would you care to be under – $114 (via wage increase) or $200 (via tip credit)

>What I'm arguing is very simple - it's not the customer's responsibility to ensure servers are paid as much as they can get anymore than it's the customer's responsibility to ensure owners profit as much as they can.

-This tells me that you aren’t sincere in what you’re saying … you aren’t grasping your personal role in how this specific economic system works: you cannot argue for the server to go elsewhere for work without understanding your purpose in why sed establishment encouraged you to come in - and yes, that does place you in a position of providing profit for the establishment as you also pay the server’s salary ~ it’s no different than buying a car, or groceries, or getting a haircut .. your choice in doing business at sed establishment keeps the doors open, and people employed.

>My personal tolerance is a 20% obligatory add on fee on the bill. I don't care if it's in the form of a mandatory service charge or a cultural obligation of a tip, because the premise of the tip has long been disconnected from actual service quality.

-Your personal tolerance matters little in this discussion, and cultural norms are just that, cultural norms: when in Rome, do as the Romans do — admit it or not, the tip credit allows for people to help gauge worth/ value based on a rating systems of a food critic (or several), and the premise of a tip has been lost on customers that didn’t have a better grasp on what their meal truly should have been charged ~ without the tip credit, people are clutching their pearls based on a new understanding of the capitalist culture of restaurants and how they, the diner, actually figure in.

>Restaurants that do a 20% fee and guilt you into tipping on top of that are not places I will patronize.

-Most all businesses want to run on the cheapest possible labor that maximizes their earnings without sacrificing service.. if you feel guilty by knowing the truth, what else needs to be hidden from you?

Would you feel better if it was a 35% service fee and no line for a tip?

Would you be happier dining in a prix fixe environment ~ with or without the option of doing prorated ala carte menu items?

Fact is, your disdain by learning the reality of the economics of keeping a restaurant open is exactly what scares restauranteurs — the restaurant industry is difficult, and the ability to constantly trim costs is dwindling precipitously .. the last thing you or I want is for restaurants to take an approach of you being a one time customer, but if that scheme works because it shields you from being better aware of how your dining choice on the evening is keeping its doors open, then more shall follow.

The $114 or $200 are both with healthcare ~ that was why I asked if you understood the tip credit: healthcare in conjunction with the tip credit was already a thing before the pandemic/ I-82.

Different establishments have different protocols on where the service fee goes, and based on the experience of the server determines whether they can move to a different job or not - it really isn’t as if they are saying ‘I’m not making what I’m worth, so I’ll leave’ and is closer to saying ‘no one will hire me because I’m not experienced enough’ ~ which doesn’t even scratch the surface as to whether they are good or bad at the job.

The reality is management was always on the hook to pay whatever the minimum wage was if sales were low - they grumbled about healthcare, and ironed out what food cost to raise to meet the new labor demands.

Without the cushion of the tip credit, and the rest of the financial responsibilities that they have to contend with, they aren’t going to trim their profit margins — truth be told: the customer has always been responsible for keeping the doors open, and the cost of doing business was somewhat hidden; however, now that certain people demanded that the tax credit be removed in favor of using a standard wage, restaurants are going to pass that responsibility onto you.

The elephant in the room is that the gratuity industry that many detest generates about $48bil annually (yes, just tips..) and that the argument to increase wages/ remove the tip credit was a means to tax food service workers more.

It isn’t that ingrained, and people will adjust; however, the financial compensation isn’t there at present.

Too many people thought of/ wanted to treat this job like any other 9-5 where you get paid X/hr with a chance to make extra — the problem is that they didn’t want to put in their apprentice time and expected to make Four Seasons type of money while working at a Cracker Barrel.

Yeah.. no.

The other problem is that you’ve people that were earning $30-$50+/hr on the old system — very few places can honestly charge enough to actually make that type of financial compensation.

I do understand the frustration of feeling cheated here in the US- it sucks for you and the server. I also understand the fear that restaurants have over profit margins being thin.

Ultimately it’ll be a hybrid system similar to San Francisco (although DC doesn’t have that type of expendable cash..) where QR codes & fast casual fills most of the void, and going out to eat at a regular restaurant becomes a special treat vs a normal experience.

Ok.

Would you rather make $114 or $200 on a given 7 hour shift?

And, do you understand how the tip credit worked?

Healthcare as a bonus is wonderful - the thing is it could have been incorporated while keeping the tip credit in play.

Edit* it also depends on what the owner wants to do with the service fee: in many cases it is used for healthcare/ inflation, in some cases it is used to pay the kitchen higher wages, etc.. there isn’t any law stating what that money has to go towards.

I did say it was optional in Scandinavia.. and in Germany they bake in and bang you for both a service fee and a VAT, so yeah your leaving a few Euros if you care to is really at your discretion.

My prior comment wasn’t clear: in most EU countries a service fee is included, and leaving extra isn’t necessary; however, if a service fee isn’t included a 5-15% is expected ~ Switzerland on the other hand wants 10% on top of their service fee.

Restaurants have a smaller margin than convenience stores, and are more than happy to send employees home if service is slow - grocers, not so much based on how labor is spread out due to products arriving ~ you can’t be guaranteed 30+ hrs a week in a restaurant, but you can be at Trader Joe’s.

And they do have an incentive: with I•82 on the horizon there isn’t a smart restaurant that doesn’t want to get ahead of the curve now vs five years down the road.

Service fees for DC are mostly pandemic related; however, California/ Wash St/ Nevada.. have been utilizing this practice for quite a while, thus I don’t see too many DC establishments getting rid of it - especially if this is how they are making their ends meet.

Ultimately, yes, DC voters put this into motion, because they didn’t understand the tip-credit.

Explain compensation, please..

Before the pandemic/ I82 a person would work a 7hr shift and could earn between $200-$400 based on the evening & establishment.

As is now, with the service fee being added to compensate for healthcare and higher hourly wages, many people are fortunate to make anything above $114 for their 7hrs (and when you include taxes, that’s about $100.)

I do understand workers going somewhere where they are valued; however, the compensation of working in one place over another was built off of tips because very very few places can afford to pay $30-$50/ hr to their bar & waitstaff.

Sorry, I’m not tracking you — most of Europe incorporates a service fee into their meals, and outside of Iceland & Scandinavia *where tips are not expected (5-15% based on where you are) are expected ~ which is pretty much the same as what is happening here in DC currently. leaving extra isn’t necessary but is nicely appreciated; however, if a service fee isn’t included a 5-15% is expected based on where one is ~ Switzerland on the other hand wants 10% on top of their service fee. Currently in DC we are watching all of these models play out to see which works best going forward.

*edited, because brain thinks faster than typing correctly

The only servers that are just now realizing that they have eaten into their earnings are the ones that voted for I•82.

There’s no incentive for anyone to work in many restaurants vs a grocery store or a 7/11, just none - for that matter, there will be a dearth of talent at lower end establishments because they are now working for a paycheck which is less that what they would’ve earned otherwise.

The lack of using the tip-credit, in conjunction with restaurants paying for healthcare and increasing wages (with or without inflation adding to the issue) is going to clamp down on the mom & pop places, and give way for corporate backed companies to fill the vacancies.

Somehow I think Reuters is using the wrong data source for this piece, because Netflix just added 7.66mil new subscribers in Q4 (besting its own prediction of 4.5mil.)

https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/netflix-subscribers-earnings-q4-2022-1235493532/

You might wanna check that anger issue —Genevieve met Jared on the Supernatural set after Katie left ~ no nepotism to speak of.

Let’s circle back to this post grand jury testimony, shall we..

AFAIK: the purpose in using a training gun, that is using simunition, during a baton training is to help them learn how quickly a gun can be produced, and understand how to react “if” they have been shot — the situation at hand is that the training officer made a horrible horrible mistake on the day.

I don’t understand if some members of the family haven’t seen the video, but there isn’t any reason to release this incident to the public at all.

The family is asking for it to be made public not for them to see it… read better, please.

I’m not sure as to what they hope to discover in this sad sad case by watching the video..

A horrible mistake (re:fuck up) was made by Porter bringing his actual pistol vs a training pistol to the event, and as a result we’ve lost a wonderful human.

There’s nothing to cover up. There’s nothing to hide.

The only thing that the family is going to do is traumatize themselves by watching this.