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July 2, 1997

The Story on the Story

Dear Neighbors:

Good news on the economic front. The District has backed down from its threat to charge news organizations rent and utilities for press space. Several news organizations, including WTOP and Associated Press, refused to pay. dc.story also refused to pay but no one cared.

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A couple of readers critique "Our Glorious Leader." Your ‘OGL" takes the bait a few bytes below. I invite you to join the debate. If I can’t stand the heat, I’ll get out from in front of the computer.

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Also free! dc.movie: Free movie passes, short movie reviews, and movie discussion. Send an email message to story@intr.net to subscribe.

Cheers,
Jeffrey Itell

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From the Desk of Carl Bergman
Contracts Go Better When You’ve Got a Friend

The council’s held up a contract to restore the health of the city’s parking meters. Would you like to bid on this and other lucrative contracts. Would you just like to know who won and how much it’s worth? If it’s the federal government, as many of you know, you go to CBD. CBD? Commerce Business Daily. For generations, CBD has served as the feds one place to list all bids over $10,000. Even Metro uses its. If you want to find similar information for DC, forget it. You have to either hope it’s put in the Post, you’re on of many agency mailing lists, or best of all you have a friend. A DC version of CBD could probably be a web natural and self-supporting. It would also make its council sponsor a whole new set of friends: folks who want a fair shot at city business.

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Why The Hill Doesn’t Pick On DC Anymore
Carl Bergman cbergman@radix.net

Beating up on the District, its government or its people has been one perk Congress has held onto tighter than most. It was so easy even a freshman could score one sure to make hometown news not to mention a mug shot in the Post. Northern Virginia Republicans Joel Broyhill and Stan Parris vied with Texas Democrat Charlie Wilson for master of the cheap shot. Their days are practically gone.

It’s almost disappointing how responsible our betters have become. The House side votes out a bill that doesn’t decimate the city, but also lacks any of the usual penny pinching, self serving, or cynical claptrap. The city finally gets relief from its Congressionally imposed pension millstone. DC’s Medicaid match drops from 50 to 30 percent. Tax plans are focused and rationale, not ideological and irresponsible. Nary a word about school vouchers, abortions or even taxicab meters.

Remarkably, they even agreed to pay for the courts, without taking them over. How workable this will be is another matter. If anything smacks of the old days, its Tom Davis’ Lorton grab. It’s hard to debate that Lorton should stay under city control given DC’s permeable administration. That this prime federal land should go to Virginia’s real estate combines is.

We still get it from right field, once in awhile. Texas Republican Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchenson hasn’t given up on old style hit and run tactics, but most have. The reason is simple. DC is so down, its administration so hopeless and pathetic, there is no percentage in kicking it. We have a mayor who makes the President camera shy, and is fodder for Jay Leno and David Letterman. How can you kick a government that’s already been run over by half the federal courts in town for mucking its kids, public housing, sick, poor, and mentally ill.

So say thanks to folks up there. There is an advantage to being on the bottom of the stack.

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Our Glorious Leader, Part II
Ralph Blessing la3@ciesnet.cies

How ironic that Ed Barron’s latest listing is prompting me to write. My last submission to dc.story was a brief tongue-in-cheek spoof of Ed’s posting about DC residents not realizing that Congress is calling all the shots. Alas, my missive never saw the light of day. The Glorious Leader, I assume, axed it, the same GL who not that long before was asking readers to comment on the limited number of contributors to the list. That occurrence, combined with other earlier axings, has nudged me to the sidelines. From now on, I’ll just read what other folks have to say and watch the parade as it marches fuzzily by.

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Coax Back Ed Barron
Lawrence Skrivseth lskrivseth@aol.com

A little pedantry is not a dangerous thing. Many of your readers prefer sharply expressed opinions to pablum, and I, for one, have been known to scan dc.story just to see whether anyone’s driveway is blocked. I certainly hope Mr. Barron can be convinced to return to the fold, and see no reason why he ought to do so in a warm and fuzzy, user-friendly manner.

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Moderators, Editors or Censors?
Tom Berry tom@berrybest.com

Aha, Ed T. Barron seems to have been told by Jeff Itell to stop being preachy. Gadzuks, I never read anything of his that was preachy, nor did I interpret any of his writings as preachy. And so what if he wants to preach? This is, according to the blurb at the end of dcstory, a discussion group where the opinions expressed are solely those of the author. And let it be known that Mr. Barron is not alone, although he, at least, has been "requested" how to say what he says. This contributor has recently found some of his postings edited and, in fact, an entire paragraph deleted, even though he strictly adheres to the "two paragraph" policy. As one example of editing, I recently referred to another writer by name as a courtesy to the reader. The writer’s name was expunged from my epistle by our weekday moderator. However, it appears to be perfectly safe if not, in fact, mandatory to name another party if one wants to bash the hell out of their thoughts or opinions. What’s going on here, dear moderators? Is there a global policy shift that has left your contributors in the dark? Why doest thou edit content and ignore typos?

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Throw-22
Ed T. Barron edtb@aol.com

In a variation of Catch-22 our next door neighbors have been trying, in vain for several weeks, to throw away two totally unserviceable Supercans. The weekly trash collection folks pass them by each week because they cannot be emptied via the truck’s mechanism and they ignore the signs posted to "please take me away" on the damaged cans. The neighbors have bought two new replacement Supercans (at a cost of $85 each) and those are emptied. It’s sort of like trying to throw away a boomerang. It can’t be done.

Try the bulk trash collection number, you say. Hah! That, too, is the most frustrating venture of the week. You will wind up with an automated phone system that never permits you to schedule a bulk trash pickup. It just keeps on recycling like the EverReady bunny. In desperation our neighbors have called in a private hauler to remove the old Supercans. Ah, the pleasures of living in the 19th Century in D.C.

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"Our Glorious Leader" Responds
Jeffrey Itell Story@intr.net

How I moderate this list is probably an issue we should have joined long ago. Such a discussion is healthy and I encourage it. After all, there isn’t a lot of history here. How many moderated ezines do you receive? There’s no textbook on the subject so I’m making up the guidelines as I go along. I’m learning from you what works and what doesn’t...and equally important, what I can realistically expect from myself as a volunteer.

Let me address a few issues that folks have raised. There is no censorship. Ralph Blessing may be upset that some of his postings did not make it into an issue but that’s not unusual. Some postings don’t make it in for a variety of reasons. The primary reason is space. To meet America On-Line’s limited capacity, I’m required to keep the postings under a certain size. Otherwise, the missives are placed in a download file and may never be seen. That might not seem like such a big deal to many of you, but about 250 subscribers receive dc.story via AOL. Also, dc.story is already long enough. More length would not make it a more enjoyable read.

I also do a substantial amount of message editing — even more than I used to — to save space, eliminate redundancy, improve flow, eliminate personal attacks, the settling of scores, and potential lawsuits, and fix grammatical and spelling errors. The easiest way to assure posting is to write no more than two paragraphs, stay on topic, use standard grammar and punctuation, add a title (otherwise, I have to write one), and sign it with both your name and signature. I receive very few messages that meet all of these criteria.

(Usually, I will ax a paragraph if it’s unrelated to the other material. And sometimes I split the message into two different messages so I can link topics. I hope you can begin to see some of the complexity involved in assembling dc.story.)

I also have a clear bias for certain types of postings. My favorites provide reliable information, provoke a solid discussion that encourages people with expert knowledge to come forth (e.g., the trash issue), or are especially well written. And, yes, Carl Bergman and I often take more than the allotted two paragraphs because we are discussion leaders, gently nudging dc.story in uncharted directions. Let’s discuss this matter too.

I will address the Ed Barron "warm and fuzzy" issue directly because he chose to make our private conversation public. I didn’t ask Ed to stop posting or change his message. I suggested privately that his postings would be more persuasive if he didn’t use the normative form as often. The word "should" is authoritative legal language. dc.story is a conversation within a community. Go tell a friend that they "should" do x, y, and z see how they react. I wrote Ed privately because he’s a frequent poster. I didn’t want to spend so much time editing his material. (Remember, you only see the final product.) I also wanted to explain why I posted only a small portion of what he sent me...but I don’t think our private conversation ever got that far.

Finally, please keep in mind that I will occasionally err. Slimfasting a posting last week, I cut a three-letter word and changed the entire meaning. I hope that will be the last time that happens but I know it won’t .I hope you’ll both forgive me, but also send me messages (private and for publication) that keep me on my toes — and help make dc.story a better experience for the 1100 members of our community.

I’m anxious to hear your thoughts. I need your help to make dc.story a better read and source of information.

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Libraries
Francine Krasowska madrobin@ix.netcom.com

David Sobelsohn’s description of the arcane "routine" for processing returned books in the DC library system may explain why I can no longer get books out of the DC library. They claim I still have some out & way overdue. I know I returned these to the Takoma Branch in the spring of 1996. It’s easy to see how they might have gotten misplaced. I’ve complained at the Takoma Branch & at the main branch. At the former they shrugged; at the latter they wrote me a kind of excuse note that permitted me to take out some books _that day,_ but my alleged overdues are still on their records.

Any suggestions how I might straighten this out? My husband suggests I just go downtown, pluck the books off the shelves at MLK, and show them that they’ve been there all along. My feeling is they’ll just claim I finally brought them in. (I don’t think I have the arrogance to try to drag an employee along with me in this stack crawl. And what if they weren’t there?)

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Libraries
Jill Bogard President, Friends of Cleveland Park Library jill_bogard@ace.nche.edu

Someone recently complained about the problem he had trying to renew a book at his local branch library. This is exactly the type of issue that he could have brought up at any one of the four Library Town Meetings held by the D.C. Public Library in June. The meeting for Northwest was held at the Cleveland Park Branch last Wednesday, June 25th. Members of the Friends of Cleveland Park Library and the Friends of Tenley Library received notices of these meetings in the mail. I personally posted the schedule of Library Town Meetings to dc.story. The Library administration knows it has a lot of problems and is now actually trying to be accountable to its constituency. If you have a problem with the Library, let them know about it. Write or call in your concern to Molly Raphael, Acting Director, D.C. Public Library, 901 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20001, 202/727-1101. Complaining to dc.story won’t solve the problem; a little citizen participation just might.

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Road Warriors
Pat Prb@clark.net

Our editor commented on how happy he was that DC is finally getting it’s act in gear on road repair and that’s a sign that DC government is starting to function again. Before we cheer too loudly, I would suggest a note of caution to the vital public. I recall seeing some commentary in the newspapers a year or two back that the USDOT is taking over "primary" routes into DC. 14th St. Conn. Ave. Wis. Ave. If we are not seeing repairs on side streets, such as where our beloved founder lives, then I would suspect the results are the product of federal authority not DC authority. I don’t cheer the demise of the District, but I suspect the rot to be so deep, as to not see results for another year or two.

[The federales have not taken over repair of the 60 percent of District roads that are eligible for federal funding. Uncle Sugar merely waived the 20 percent matching requirement for highway trust funds — an amount the District couldn’t muster. My alma mater, the General Accounting Office, has taken the District to task for not spending the money fast enough. According to Tuesday’s Washington Post, "Slow public works contracting procedures kept the District from reaping the full benefit of emergency highway relief that Congress passed two years ago when the city was incapable of funding critical road repairs." Check out Washingtonpost.com for details if you missed the story. Jeff]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-07/01/071L-070197-idx.html

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Don’t Tax You, Don’t Tax Me, Tax That Fella Behind The Tree!
Art Spitzer artspitzer@aol.com

Regarding the foreign service officer being "harassed" by DC Tax Office for claiming a homestead exemption on a house she has rented out...Perhaps she should read the instructions in the DC tax booklet. They say pretty clearly that "to qualify for the property tax credit … you must have been a District resident the entire year and lived in the propert[y] you owned or rented." So maybe your friend is not being "harassed"; maybe the DC tax people are actually enforcing the law against someone who improperly claimed a credit.

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Who’s Fault?
Tom Berry tom@berrybest.com

Yep, Congress is at fault for all that ails DC. Simply put, that body is legally responsible for the District’s affairs, that gathering of elected officials approves the District’s budget and those same folks have idly watched from their lofty perches as corruption, laziness, ineptness, and any other sleazy description of District politics you can conjure have all brought this city to its fiscal and moral knees. As noted here long ago Harry Truman had a wee sign on his desk that said something big: "The Buck Stops Here." Unfortunately, today "passing the buck" seems to be the order of the day...at least until the District’s condition improves to the point that the folks on the Hill can start patting each other on the back and praising one another for a job well done.

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One If By Land…John Capozzi c1assoc@aol.com

In the 1770’s, our poster would have joined with the Tories blaming the Americans for their troubles. Quote "isn’t the king responsible for the squalid conditions in the colonies? Can’t the colonialists focus on trash pick-up and paying their taxes (for tea, I presume) and not waste time on the outrageous idea of "liberty and self determination" .Remember, one third of all Americans sided with the British, during the Revolutionary war. Fortunately, the radicals, and dreamers prevailed. Imposing taxes without representation is at the heart of the American Revolution. After 200 years we still need to resolve it here in the Nations Capitol.

The quartering of troops without compensation in peoples homes was also a hot topic. Commuters, congressmen, diplomats, Fannie Mae, universities and others fail to adequately compensate the city in which they reside. Joseph might argue, "the British troops buy lunch in town, so that should be compensation enough to the colonialists. Also, the troops helped out by keeping ‘Law and Order’ on the streets." The question remains why is it we expect so much from D.C. residents—without us having the same rights and privileges as others.

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WDCU
Zinnia Zinnia@CompuServe.Com

WCDU was self supporting. I don’t have enough confidence in the administration of UDC to think that money will actually go to educating people. Since that is my bias I would rather have the radio station.

Five years ago WPFW was a viable alternative to WDCU but its drive time and evening programing has degenerated into Reggae, salsa, world beat, African music, etc. none of which is jazz. The only day that has any jazz at all is Sunday until about 7 pm. . So between the talk shows and the other stuff there is no jazz station is DC. The only way we will be able to put any pressure on WPFW to play JAZZ is if we organize a fund raising drive to support jazz slots. They imply during fund raisers that money talks.

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dc.market

I am a development consultant who would like to share office space downtown with a nonprofit organization or association. If you know of anyone who would like a friendly office mate with fundraising expertise, please call or email.

Suzanne Callahan 202-319-9161 suzannec@erols.com

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Wanted

House in Glover Park or Cleveland Park to rent. Financially secure professional seeks 2-3 bedroom house or apartment in McLean Gardens, Glover Park, or Cleveland Park beginning August 1st or sooner. Rental preferred, but might consider buying if the right thing comes along.

Suzanne Callahan 202-319-9161 suzannec@erols.com

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Computers

Buying one shouldn’t be so scary. Setting one up shouldn’t be so scary. Getting on the Internet shouldn’t be so scary.

Jeffrey Itell Story@intr.net 202.244.4163

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