Wow, What a Great themail
Dear Neighbors:
Great issue this time — things we can do something about (does
anybody know a good scholarship counselor?), and things we can't — and the proposed
state mottos are still clever, funny, and true. Keep them coming.
New correspondent Angela Cox wonders why we complain so much. On a day
like this, so do I. Forgive my unaccustomed good humor, but this was a perfect Indian
summer autumn day. We started the morning with the old fashioned decadent pleasure of a
champagne-jazz-seafood brunch at the Market Inn. Has everyone had their she-crab soup?
It's one of the three best soups of the world, along with the wild mushroom soup at Joe's
Restaurant in Reading, Pennsylvania, and my mother's chicken leg broth. (Cooking hint:
chicken legs make the richest, most flavorful chicken soup, with a velvety texture.) Then
we dropped by the Italian festival, and went on to see Grace Jones perform at Taste of DC.
(Dorothy asked me, “Does Grace Jones have an act that she can do in public? In the
daylight? On a city street?” Well, now we know that she doesn't — but she did it
anyway. That's something you won't see at Taste of Bethesda.) Even reading the Washington
Post was a pleasure — especially Dave Barry's article on denying aging when
turning fifty, at least what I read of it before I fell asleep in the La-Z-Boy. And now I
get to read your messages. Life in Washington can be good.
But don't worry about me. Before the next issue I will have dealt with two
or three city agencies and gone to my Advisory Neighborhood Commission meeting, and I'll
be back to normal, as grumpy as ever. Probably even grumpier.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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All those who were not part of the cure were part
of the problem
Larry Seftor, Larry_Seftor@csi.com
I have read with a mixture of amusement and concern comments that are
critical of Tony Williams because of his relatively recent arrival on the DC scene. We are
told that, in contrast, Carol Schwartz is a much better candidate because she has had a
long term participation in DC government. Such a view seems to gloss over that fact that
this very same DC government has been terrible. And everyone who has taken a part in the
fiasco of home rule has to take a portion of the blame. While DC has problems, such as
continual intervention by Congress, that other jurisdictions do not have to suffer, the
primary problem has been the quality of the people in DC government. At the top we have
been cursed by those of limited integrity, vision, and ability. And at the bottom we have
seen the result of using local government as a job program, rather than as a provider of
services to citizens. While long-time residents have learned to accept this as status quo,
those of us who have a memory of living elsewhere know that it just doesn't have to be
this way.
I don't believe that Tony Williams is perfect. But his credentials are
excellent. He has produced for the DC taxpayer. And most importantly to me, he is not part
of the establishment that got us into this mess.
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Rosenschwartz and Gildenhorn Are Dead
Phil Greene, pgreene@doc.gov
This is in response to the inquiry of Jeff Gildenhorn gadfly non pareil E.
James Lieberman, M.D. Last evening, while driving up Connecticut Avenue in Chevy Chase,
D.C., I noticed that the "gargantuan" campaign poster of Jeffy the Vice Squad
Slayer has been replaced by another gargantuan campaign poster, this time of a bowtie-clad
Anthony Williams. The Fairness Doctrine being what it is, I'm now expecting the Marilyn
Monroe mural at Calvert and Connecticut to be replaced by one of Carol Schwartz.
P.S. The oak tree out front, like Generalissimo Francisco Franco, is still
dead.
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Negligent Hiring & Training of Police
David F. Power, pp002945@mindspring.com
Last year, dc story readers may recall a flurry of posts regarding police
violations of civil rights. One of the key legal claims rising in civil rights court cases
against police is that the city is responsible because of a "municipal policy"
which could include negligent hiring and training of police. (Recent cases have narrowed
the available claims in this area.)
How nice that Cheryl W. Thompson in the Oct. 7 Washington Post
has reported on the severe defects in hiring and training discovered within MPD. Just a
few key excerpts, if length permits (I especially like the proposal to finally get
uniformed guns out of bars): “Specialized training programs are a 'shambles' because
of budget cuts and lack of attention by Soulsby and his predecessors. The department has
only half of the training instructors it needs to properly train recruits. The department
cut its training budget by 67 percent and provides for no in-service training for
officers, making it the only law enforcement agency in the country without mandatory
in-service training programs. Officers lack driver-skills training, and they abuse and
neglect police cruisers. The department has a disciplinary system that is too complex to
administer discipline fairly and promptly. The department loses 73 percent of its
arbitration cases, costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees, back
pay and other costs. Officers and administrators under investigation for misconduct are
allowed to retire 'unscathed' with full pension and other benefits. Unlike other police
departments, the District requires no minimum amount of investigatory experience to work
in the internal affairs office, which investigates police misconduct and corruption. The
department lacks specialized training for detectives in homicide, the youth division and
the sex-crimes squad.
To ensure that the findings aren't ignored, the council is drafting
legislation, to be submitted to the D.C. financial control board, that recommends changes
for the police department, including requiring 32 hours a year of in-house training for
officers and creating a provisional retirement status that would not allow officers under
disciplinary investigation to 'escape entirely the consequences of their misconduct.' The
legislation also would prohibit officers from working off-duty at businesses that serve
alcohol; two D.C. officers have been killed in incidents connected to off-duty employment
by officers at nightclubs in the last two years.”
[The Council's Special Committee report, which includes the proposed
legislation as Chapter 6, is available at http://www.dcwatch.com
]
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College Bound Student in Search of Scholarship
Funds
Renee D. Jennings, cps99@juno.com
My name is Renee D. Jennings and I am a 18 year old senior at Calvin
Coolidge Senior High School. Currently I have maintained a 3.0 grade point average and I
am involved in several activities. My problem is that my family has already told me that
they are unable to afford to send me to college. I want to attend a four year college or
university after I graduate in June 1999. I plan to major in journalism or mass
communications. My career goal is to become the Editor-in-Chief of my own publications.
If anyone knows of some great scholarship resources and can help me in any
way in my search to finance a college education please contact me. I have applied for some
scholarships but I am in search of some more. Every little bit counts. You can e-mail me
at CPS99@Juno.com . Thank you and God Bless
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Dig, we must?
Ed T. Barron, edtb@aol.com
Over the last few weeks in AU Park and, in particular, over the last three
days on Mass. Ave. between Ward and Westmoreland Circles, an outstandingly efficient team
of road workers have been tearing up large sections of concrete pavement and in one
continuous motion replacing it with a new batch of poured reinforced concrete. With modern
equipment and a team that is as synchronized as a well run ballet, the team: Punches holes
in the old concrete with a special tool on the back hoe arm, tears up this concrete in
large chunks and loads it into awaiting trucks with another back hoe as a third back hoe
levels the bottom of the ten inch crater. Then the foot soldiers put a plastic barrier in
the bottom as the awaiting concrete mixer rolls alongside to fill the gaping trench. More
foot soldiers armed with concrete moving rakes and boots pull the concrete to the empty
spots and more men appear to scree the surface level for the floater man to smooth it out.
In all about 700 feet of one lane of concrete pavement was replaced yesterday in about
eight hours. The back hoe operator could, given the right tool at the end of the back hoe,
successfully perform brain surgery. He moved that bib arm and bucket as if it was his own
arm, wrist and hand.
This is an incredibly efficient process but to what end, I'm not sure. The
concrete pavement being replaced had a few dings and dents but nothing large enough to
cause impediments to heavy, fast traffic, or safety. The replacement seems a bit radical
and costly for some minor cosmetic improvement. There are long sections of pavement that
have not been replaced yet in between the replaced sections. 'Tis a puzzlement.
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What Good is Camille Barnett really?
Nick Keenan, nbk@gsionline.com
On Labor Day the house four doors down from me burned. Four weeks later,
one across the street burned. What did these fires have in common? In both, neighboring
houses were seriously damaged. Both fires were caused by careless crack addicts. And both
houses were nuisances that my neighbors and I have been trying without success to get the
city to do something about, anything, for a long time. On Saturday I got together with a
couple of neighbors to secure the site of last week's fire. The fire and the firemen had
left the building completely open, and experience has taught us that if we don't do
something ourselves it's just not going to get done. As we cut the plywood and nailed it
up, we kept asking each other: “What do we pay taxes for?” What indeed? This was
the fourth time that I had helped secure this particular building. Yet that effort was
nothing compared to the amount of time that I had wasted trying to get the city to address
the problem.
To say that DCRA has been uphelpful is unfair — to people who are
unhelpful. In addition to doing nothing themselves, they have actively opposed us at every
opportunity when we tried to address the problem. I can only conclude that DCRA has a
secret agenda of trying to create as many nuisances as they can. In April I spoke with
Barnett, and gave her office a list of problem properties. The only thing that has
happened with any of those properties since then is that two of them have burned.
Meanwhile, it's business as usual over at DCRA. I have been trying to talk with Teresa
Lewis, who heads up Housing Regulation, because these fires have me scared and angry. She
will not take my calls, and she will not return my messages. I have taken to calling
Barnett's office once a day to try to get them to get Lewis to call me, to no avail.
Lately I have taken to mentioning off-handedly that at my company, employees who don't
answer the phone and don't return phone calls get fired. I guess I'm too subtle. Maybe the
next fire will drive my point home.
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NARPAC, Inc. Web Site, October Edition Updates
Issues
Len Sullivan, lsnarpac@bellatlantic.net
The National Association to Restore Pride in America's Capital has revised
its web site for October (See “what's new?” at http//www.narpac.org ) with new
headline summaries, and several issue updates: 1) revisions to the safety and justice
section, with emphasis on Chief Ramsey's new plan; 2) revisions to the health and human
services section, with emphasis on the apparent turnaround in welfare, medicaid, and food
stamp costs; and 3) revisions to the education section with new regional SATS scores, and
Brimmer's views on UDC's future.
NARPAC, Inc.'s latest editorial view summarizes its opinion that DC's
primary elections were exceptionally successful, and that the forthcoming elections will
set DC's future course for years. We hope that the candidates will not box themselves in
— or the electorate out — by their expedient campaign oratory. Rather, the
ground work needs to be laid for important new strategies to change the DC Government's
relations a) with the Congress; b) with its neighboring metro area jurisdictions, and c)
internally between its own splintered organizations and authorities. C'mon in and lurk
around.
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A friend of mine, who is generally my source for the history or
Washington, asked me about the origin of Columbia, as in "District of," as in
"Guardian of Arts and Industries" in the Arts and Industries museum, as in
Columbia Road. We also presume that the figure in the seal of Washington is that same
Columbia. Does anyone know where she comes from?
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Rats Re-visited
Ed T. Barron, edtb@aol.com
Before we left on a New England vacation trip we put some rat poison in
our yard where we have seen these critters in the evenings as darkness falls. We built a
labyrinth out of bricks so that stray dogs or cats (not seen very often in our fenced in
yard) could not get to the poison, but rats would find their way through the covered maze.
When we returned all the poison had been eaten. That means two things: 1 - There are some
very sick rats around now; and 2 - There are plenty of rats in the 'hood here near the
Spring Valley Shopping Center.
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Speaking of Rats
Jeffrey Itell, story@intr.net
I found this on the net. Smell a Rat: The Department of Health and Human
Services is calling for a huge cleanup of US cities, saying there are twice as many rats
as people living in Washington DC. “That's because America sends all its garbage
there.”
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How to Spend a Billion
Sarah Woodhead, woodhead@erols.com
I have a very specific recommendation for spending one billion dollars.
The 21st Century School Fund completed a study last year (I was co-author along with Mary
Filardo) that showed at $1 billion ($948,839,228 to be exact) was enough to modernize 142
DC Public School buildings (that's a couple less than we have now, and all we'd need if we
have fleet of well-redesigned buildings). Imagine the impact on the city if schools were
safe and inviting places, with amenities appropriate to current (let alone future)
educational practice: Real science labs, early childhood classrooms, sinks for elementary
school classrooms, decent library/media centers, a reasonable dose of technology, fire
sprinkler systems... I could go on and on (but its all in the report). That would be money
well spent.
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Wearily I reply to Nick Keenan's suggestion for how to better spend the
billion dollars (actually 650 million but what's a few hundred million here and there)
that will go to erect the new Convention Center — we wouldn't have the money. The
restaurants and hotels asked the Council to pass a new tax on themselves to pay for this
building. Those taxes will finance the project. Do you think these businesses would have
asked for a new tax to let Nick decide how to spend the proceeds? Plainly not. Now, since
I have had to send SO many correction messages on this subject, will the editor please
stop running postings that continue to promote these plainly false statements about the
Center?
[As long as Leslie Miles wants false statements corrected, let's start
here. Restaurants and hotels are not paying a penny of corporate taxes to finance the
convention center. The new tax is a consumer tax on you and me, and on all the patrons of
restaurants and hotels in town. Restaurants and hotels are simply passing on the taxes
consumers pay, just as stores pass on sales taxes and don't pay them themselves. The $650
million “guaranteed maximum price” for building the convention center doesn't
include a heating system, an air-conditioning system, a kitchen, a telecommunications
system, and other “finishing touches” that are going to be charged to operating
expenses or “privatized.” It also doesn't include any of the money that has been
spent to date for acquiring the land, architectural expenses, and legal expenses. It
doesn't include “unexpected expenditures,” the METRO station upgrade cost, the
cost of selling the bonds, or the interest on the bonds, and so on. The $1 billion
estimate includes some, but not all, of these things. Which is true? — Gary Imhoff]
###############
The Microsoft Word Spell Checker once suggested to me that we live in the
Sadistic of Columbia. Maybe it's Bill Gates' response to the anti-trust suit.
###############
First, my contribution to the motto contest (I don't think someone's done
this but I may be wrong): “6,000 Potholes in Search of a City.”
Second, with regard to Mr. Keck's inquiry: I used to live at 16th and U,
near the fire/police station. The fire station in particular is extremely busy. People who
live in that area (i.e., from 18th to 16th/U, Seaton, FL.) should have a HIGH tolerance
for sirens.
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On those rare days when The City can't seem to do anything correctly, or
legally ...
DC — Diminished Capacity
DC — Capital City ... Capital Shame
DC — Capital City ... Capital Crime
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DC, District of Columbia — or — District Circus?
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Slogan Contest
Jeffrey Itell, Story@intr.net
At risk of plagiarizing myself:
Washington, D.C. — For people who live inside the Beltway but outside
the loop.
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After catching the 5:00 news today (10/8), I thought up a slogan I would
like to submit to the contest:
“D.C.: a nice place if you could just get rid of the Congress.”
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Any Positive Mottos?
Angela W. Cox, liberall@aol.com
I am relatively new to this forum, so excuse me if I offend any regulars,
but it sounds as if some of you are ready to retreat to the suburbs. Yes, yes, we have our
share of problems in the District, but come on things are looking up (or at least from my
vantage point on the Hill). Ok, so our services are lacking, but there are a lot of great
people, restaurants, neighborhoods and so on in this City that make it such a great place
to live. I suppose it's a half empty/half full issue... I just wanted to provide some
balance. Are there any positive mottos out there?
###############
A Positive Motto
Jonetta Rose Barras, jrbarras@aol.com
My vote for the motto goes to “Murphy's Law at work for YOU!”
Fabulous and true. But maybe one day we'll be able to change that to “A Great City; A
Great Nation.” But, how long must we wait?
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Putt Putt Golf, Bingo, Sand Bears, Moon Bounce, Spin Art, Face Painting
and a lot more will be part of the John Eaton Elementary School Block Party. For the
hungry, there will be plenty of food. Come and join your friends and neighbors for a day
of fun on October 17, 1998. John Eaton is located at 34th and Lowell Streets, NW. The
party begins at 11:00 a.m.
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The Logan Circle Community Association Announces
Its Program for November
Stephen Snell, StephSnell@aol.com
What is the Community Prosecution Project and should it be extended to the
Metropolitan Police Department's Third District? Clifford T. Keenan, Chief of the
Community Prosecution Section, Office of the United States Attorney for the District of
Columbia, will speak about the Community Prosecution Pilot Project being conducted in the
Metropolitan Police Department's Fifth District.
Once the police arrest someone for criminal activity, then what happens?
Most people in the community lose the thread of what happens next in the labyrinth of the
criminal justice system. The Community Prosecution Project is an innovative initiative
that brings one of the most important building blocks of the justice system, the
prosecutors, directly into the community. The public prosecutors who handle the
investigation and prosecution of crime before the courts come right into the community to
work with the residents, community organizations, and the police. Through this process of
establishing a presence in the community, the prosecution element of the criminal justice
system becomes as familiar to the people as the role and function of the police. This
program is designed to give you a better understanding of the criminal justice system and
how it works. We invite you to come hear about this important project, how it could
benefit the Third District, and why we need it. Please join us. Everyone is invited to
attend, members and non- members alike. 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, November 10, 1998, at Mt.
Olivet Lutheran Church at 1308 Vermont Avenue, NW (near the corner of Vermont Avenue and N
Street, NW). (Note that because of the holiday on November 11, the November LCCA Meeting
will be held a day earlier than usual.) The program will be followed by a social hour with
refreshments.
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See a dreamy house to help kids with BIG DREAMS
David E. Dreyer, ddreyer@steitz.com
In partnership with the Ronald McDonald House of Northern Virginia, Yeonas
& Ellis, well known home builders in this area, are celebrating their 50th Anniversary
by holding a show home in McLean, with decorations by The Design Foundry and the renowned
Walter Lynch. Visitors can see the home and purchase furnishings in it from October 17th
to November 15th. The $10 entry fee, plus a portion of proceeds from the sale of the home
and furnishings, will go to the Ronald McDonald House. Ronald McDonald House is a
home-away-from-home for families with seriously ill children. Families from the Northern
Virginia and surrounding areas have kept the house full since its opening in January 1998.
By visiting the house, residents from DC can see a beautiful Yeonas & Ellis home, get
design ideas for their own home, purchase a fabulous furnishing from the Design Foundry,
and do something wonderful for the seriously ill children served by Ronald McDonald House.
For directions or more information, please contact: Janie Mann at Yeonas
& Ellis (703)-883-0202.
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CLASSIFIEDS — HELP WANTED
PT Work for Exercise Enthusiast
Rachel Posell, Workitdc@aol.com
Fun, responsible individual needed for front desk position, 3 shifts per
week (5:30p - 9:00p) at fabulous, much acclaimed Woodley Park exercise studio. (We have
been featured in Vogue, Allure, The Washington Post and more.) We are looking for
someone to start immed. for $7.00/hr. PLUS FREE CLASSES!!!!! Email Rachel Posell at:
employment@workitdc.com or mail resume to Work it! 2639 Connecticut Ave NW, WDC 20008
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CLASSIFIEDS — FOR SALE
Computer Speakers for Sale
Jeffrey Itell, Story@intr.net
A pair of Acoustic Research AR55bx speakers can be brightening the quiet
corners of you habitat. Best price. Call 202.244.4163 or send me an email message.
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CLASSIFIEDS — SERVICES WANTED
Watch Repair Needed
Marcus Rosenbaum, mrosenbaum@usa.net
Does anyone know of a good, reasonably priced watch repair place? If so,
could you pls write me directly? Tks.
[As always, please post any good suggestions to the list, too. — Gary
Imhoff]
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Printer Repair Needed
Evan Roth, emroth@his.com
Can anyone recommend a shop where I can get an ailing Apple LaserWriter
repaired?
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CLASSIFIEDS — E-MAIL LISTS
Mount Pleasant
Robert Frazier, rf@juno.com
Residents of Mt. Pleasant may join the Mount Pleasant Forum, a twice
weekly electronic newsletter for and about Mt. Pleasant by sending their name, address,
and telephone to: rf@juno.com .
[I've received several other E-mail list addresses. Keep sending them to
me, and I'll publish a directory in two or three weeks. — Gary Imhoff]
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