The Washington Examiner reported here yesterday evening — a bit smugly, this city dweller will admit — that Fairfax and Loudoun County executives showed up late for a meeting with Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood because those suburbanites drove to Northwest instead of Southeast.
We report this morning — and with a letter in hand to prove it — that the mistake was not their own, but that of U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood.
In a letter signed by LaHood himself, the suburbanites were invited to “the 9th Floor of the West Building, 1200 New Jersey Ave. NW.”
Not doubting directions from the nation’s secretary of transportation, the executives showed up in plenty of time had the meeting been at Dunbar High School, the Bible Way Temple, or even the downtown convention center — all of which are within shouting distance of 1200 New Jersey Ave. NW. But LaHood’s Department of Transportation? That’s nearly 3 miles in a southeasterly direction.
We expect the secretary of education to read pretty well, and the secretary of treasury to be handy with a calculator. Is it too much to ask the secretary of transportation to know the street address of his own office?
Spokespeople for LaHood have not replied to a request for a comment.
ORIGINAL POST BELOW:
Journalists hear over and over to “show, don’t tell,” when it comes to their writing. Apparently, county executives get the same message.
So instead of just telling U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood on Wednesday that they needed rail on-the-double and on-the-frugal out to the exurban reaches of Northern Virginia, Loudoun Chairman Scott York and Fairfax Chairman Sharon Bulova showed him – by showing up to the meeting 20 minutes late because of a traffic mishap.
Granted, this wasn’t on purpose. The powerful suburbanites carpooled into the city together for the meeting (how responsible!) with address in hand: M St. and New Jersey Ave. Easy! Or so they thought. See, out in the ‘burbs, “quadrants” prove no quandary. But as any District denizen knows, you don’t drive anywhere without the requisite NE, NW, SE or SW plugged into your GPS.
Sure enough, the duo showed up at M and New Jersey NW, blocks from Dunbar High School and the lovely downtown convention center, but nearly 3 miles from their DOT destination. Oops.
Though slightly flustered upon their eventual arrival, at least they could say this wouldn’t have happened had they been able to take the train.
UPDATE: 6:20 p.m.: A source has it that Bulova and York actually were directed to Northwest D.C. via their invitation — from the U.S. Department of Transportation, no less. We’ll clarify as soon as we can confirm…
