Death Journal (Crime Statistics)

I don't know what I was thinking about when I came up with this idea, but:

Someone should go into the most dangerous neighborhoods in the city (in any city) and take pictures of all the kids under 18. Then they should keep track of all the people that die in those neighborhoods and if any of those kids dies, they should send his picture to the mayor. At the end of the year, there could be a collage or retrospective of all the kids who have died in that area to bring attention to the danger and crime.

(Problems: Maybe I'm overestimating the number of deaths. Maybe it's usually kids 18-26 that get killed. Maybe not a lot of kids get killed but rather it's a matter of overall numbers.)

Downtown Art Display

There's going to be an Armenian Holocaust Museum around the corner from my office. I looked it up; it's supposed to open at 14th and G Streets, NW. But for right now, the space is empty and the bottom floor, which used to be a shoe store, looks awful.

There used to be an art display there. Some program in the Washington area had made a deal with whomever owned the property to display art from local artists in what were the shoe display windows. It was a really great idea, even if the art was never very good. (Admittedly I didn't see a lot of it but I wasn't real impressed. )

If the space is going to be a museum anyway, and/or they're not doing a lot with the outside (or bottom floor) (right now), why don't they start up that program again? It makes a real difference on a city street, especially downtown, and it could provide some serious exposure for local artists. There are two major hotels on that street and even if people don't walk up 14th from them, there are lots of people from local businesses that cross at that corner every day while going to lunch or on some other errand.

Hey! - maybe you can even get a tax break! Come on! Do something with the space while you're waiting to fix it up. Don't leave it as an eyesore.