Told You So
Dear Penpals:
From the Washington Post editorial, “DC Health Care: Then
and Now” (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7022-2001Aug13.html),
yesterday: “Less than two months after D.C. General Hospital sent off
its last inpatient and shut down operations ending 195 years of service
to the city's impoverished sick and wounded, Greater Southeast Community
Hospital has revealed that it doesn't want to add a trauma center to
care for the most seriously injured. What's more, Greater Southeast is
now proposing to build a 110-bed hospital on the very D.C. General site
where the city closed inpatient services in June. . . . [I]t was Mr.
Williams who, in response to a Post editorial questioning the provision
of trauma care at Greater Southeast, wrote: 'Let me be clear — Greater
Southeast will be held to its commitment to provide the same level of
trauma services now offered at D.C. General within three months. Only
then will trauma services move from D.C. General to Greater Southeast.'
Guess what? D.C. General no longer offers full-scale trauma services --
and Greater Southeast doesn't, either. Uninsured or low-income residents
in need of trauma services are now being farmed out by Greater Southeast
to other hospitals. And inpatient care? The city was emphatic: It would
be transferred to Greater Southeast and other District hospitals.”
The Post remains gullible. Its editorial says, “. . . the
Greater Southeast proposals to opt out of 24-hour trauma care and to
build a 110-bed hospital have caught the D.C. health department and the
mayor by surprise.” Nonsense. The so-called health reform “plan”
put forward by the administration never made any sense, and it was never
believable that it would be put into effect. If the mayor and Ivan
Walks, director of the DC Department of Health, weren't in on this
bait-and-switch from the very beginning, then they're as easily fooled
as the public they thought they were deceiving.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Keep Those Calls and E-Mails Coming
Jonetta Rose Barras, Rosebook1@aol.com
This week's City Paper says that I have resigned as the Loose
Lips columnist to pursue other interests. It's true I have resigned. But
District politics remains my prime interest. You can expect my
hard-hitting reports and analyses to appear very soon in a publication
near you. Until then, your tips and concerns are welcomed at 882-2838 or
by E-mail at Rosebook1@aol.com. I
look forward to talking with you.
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Public Space, Trashing Our City
Phil Carney, philnopus@erols.com
As DC prepares to spend tens of millions to prevent protesters from
causing any “inconvenience” to World Bank Pooh-Bahs for two days in
late September, DC is doing absolutely nothing to prevent the same
protesters from trashing our city. Since July, two months before the
World Bank event, protesters have been pasting their oversized protest
notices in DC public space. Three separate times, these protesters have
vandalized our Dupont Circle neighborhood and I see their notices
throughout the city.
Posting notices in DC public space carries a fine of $35 to
$1,000-for each notice. Pasting notices carries the same fine, but
requires extensive labor to remove and clean. If not removed, a pasted
notice remains a visible blight in our city — for years. So long after
the Pooh-Bahs and protesters are gone, the protest vandalism will
continue to blight our city. Three weeks after the vandals started and
with six more weeks of vandalism till the protest, any suggestions on
what can be done to stop the trashing of our city?
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Department of Education DCPS Assessment Letter
— Title I
Erich Martel, ehmartel@starpower.net
This letter to Dr. Paul Vance [from Thomas Corwin, Acting Deputy
Assistant Secretary of the Department of Education], dated June 20,
2001, lists all the areas where DC Public Schools is not in compliance
with Title I requirements for assessments aligned with standards, etc.: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OESE/saa/dc_1.html.
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Several years ago, Ray Keating wrote the invaluable book DC by the
Numbers, giving a statistical portrait of the District. Now he is
the chief economist for the Small Business Survival Committee, a
nonprofit organization that advocates the interests of small businesses,
such as lower and fewer business taxes, improved and streamlined
regulatory processes, and so on. In July, the Committee released
Keating's Small Business Survival Index 2001, a study in which DC landed
dead last, below all fifty states, in providing a favorable climate for
running small businesses http://www.sbsc.org/Media/pdf/SBSI2001.pdf).
DC's score, in fact, is three times worse than the score of the top five
states.
Of course, the interests of residents and small businesses are not
always the same. But we all want healthy and vibrant small businesses to
thrive in our city. After all, it is small businesses that make our
neighborhoods lively and convenient places to live; and it is small
businesses, not the large business interests that are catered to by the
city government, that are more likely to employ local residents. So the
reaction of the administration to this report should interest all of us.
Mayoral spokesman Tony Bullock dismissed the concerns of small
businesses, and said he didn't take the report seriously. “I think it’s
somewhat of a joke in many respects,” he said to Washington Times
reporter Kate Royce (http://www.washtimes.com/businesstimes/default-200181312451.htm).
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Boards and Commissions
Rick Rosendall, Dupont Circle, rick@glaa.org
If that story [Dorothy Brizill, themail, August 12] is true, then it
is Jackie Randolph who ought to go. Ronald King is an honorable, decent,
and capable man who works far longer than a 40-hour week and deserves
respect rather than insubordination. He is a man whose word can be
trusted about ten times sooner than Max Brown's. If the Mayor doesn't
start getting better advice, and doesn't find a way to keep his talented
employees rather than having them undermined and frustrated, he won't be
able to govern even if he does get re-elected.
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Statehood for the District of Columbia requires only a simple
majority in both the House and the Senate and signature by the
President. No Constitutional amendment is necessary. The now inactive DC
Statehood/Compact Commission, with the approval of the National Capitol
Planning Commission, has already drawn the boundaries for the State of
New Columbia and hence redefined the new boundaries of the District of
Columbia. Congress would continue its "exclusive jurisdiction"
over the radically reduced size of the redefined District of Columbia.
The residents of New Columbia would elects their own Mayor, two senators
and one real congressperson.
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Ed T. Barron wrote, “It's a whole different culture up here and
much like the environment in Ireland's cities, where we have traveled
several times (and met the Mayor of Limerick the same way).”
Oh Ed, poor Ed, they made you go
To Ireland just to say hello,
Now Canada to meet another
Mayor who says, “Welcome, brother.”
In D.C., it's still “No, no, NO.”
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Mr. Barron rhapsodizes about cooler climes and warmer cultures. I,
too, have pleasant memories of a visit to Canada — Toronto, where the
pedestrian needed only hold out his arm to stop traffic on the busiest
street. That was in 1968. Last year, returning to that city, it was a
vast megalopolis — at least as large as DC and the surrounding
counties — and woe be the foolish jaywalker. I just returned from a
week in Montreal (pop. 3 million), where motorists seemed to accelerate
if I lingered a moment too long in a crosswalk, and who were not loath
to beep accordingly. The point is, urban good nature, measured thus,
seems to be a function of density.
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Willie Schatz may not have lived in DC long enough to remember WDCU,
which was owned by the University of the District of Columbia. It had an
all jazz format with a very limited amount of talk shows. The Mayor in
his infinite wisdom sold the radio station to C-SPAN, which broadcasts
the same thing they have on the television. We really needed a radio
station dedicated to jazz.
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This is to advise that the August, 2001 on-line edition has been
up-loaded and may be accessed at http://www.intowner.com.
Included are the community news stories, crime reports, editorials
(including prior months' archived), restaurant reviews (prior months'
also archived), and the text from the ever-popular “Scenes from the
Past” feature. Also included are all current classified ads. The
complete issue (along with prior issues back to January 2001) also is
available in .pdf file format by direct access from our home page at no
charge by clicking the link provided. The next issue will publish on
September 14, and the website will be updated shortly thereafter.
To read the lead stories, simply click the link on the home page to
the following headlines: (1) “Newly Installed Posts and Chains in
Dupont Circle Have Neighbors Unhappy,” (2) “The Phillips Gets Final
Approval by BZA for 21st Street Expansion,” (3) “Studio Theatre to
Buy Ace Electric Building,” (4) “Adams Morgan Festival Set for Sept.
8 & 9 - Art, Music, Sports, Food, Crafts on Tap.”
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Last Chance to See Great Art This Weekend,
Jacob Lawrence at Phillips Gallery
Starr Bowie, eponyma@hotmail.com
I want to urge everyone to see a show of wonderful art by Jacob
Lawrence, who died last year at 82. Since the show, “Over the Line:
the Art and Life of Jacob Lawrence,” will be ending at the Phillips
Gallery this Sunday, the weekend may be crowded. You may want to plan
for that. For those who are not familiar with him and have not heard of
the show, Jacob Lawrence was the first African-American artist to have a
solo show in a New York gallery back in the early 1940s. Being shown in
a New York Gallery in itself is not necessarily a commendation, when one
considers what is sometimes shown in such galleries and who the audience
is, but it does speak to Mr. Lawrence's genius that he was the first to
surmount the very high barriers under segregation to such conventional
forms of recognition. Mr. Lawrence, who was trained from early
adolescence onward in WPA-funded workshops conducted by Black artists in
Harlem, devoted his life work to exploring and celebrating the human
struggle, particularly but by no means exclusively to the struggle for
life and dignity of Black people in this land.
The Phillips Gallery is at 1600 21st Street, N.W. (at the corner of
21st and Q Streets, N.W., one block north of Massachusetts Avenue, N.W.,
and three blocks west of the Dupont Circle Metro, Q Street exit).
Museum hours are: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m., Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday,
Saturday; 10 a.m. - 8:30 p.m., Thursday; noon - 5 p.m., Sunday; closed Monday. Tickets
are $12.00 adult, $9.00 adult senior, free to children 18
and under. (These prices are high, especially for the show of an artists
who devoted his life to the oppressed, but I really don't think you'll
regret spending the money, and you'll very likely feel more inspired to
create a world where art is free!) Tickets can be purchased same day at
the gallery or in advance through Ticketmaster at Hechts and other
outlets (www.ticketmaster.com),
1-800-551-SEAT.
I am told that if one arrives to see the exhibit at 4:00 p.m., one is
let in free for the last hour each day. However, the show features over
200 pieces, and the works really command one's attention, so to speak,
so allow a couple of hours at the very least or you may feel you have
cheated yourself.
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Run for Recovery
Jay Jacob Wind, jay.wind@att.net
I want to invite you to participate in Vanguard Foundation's 6th
annual Run for Recovery, Sunday, September 16, at 9:00 a.m., in Pentagon
City, the year's biggest 5 kilometer (3.1 mile) race in Arlington,
Virginia. The course is flat and fast, and anyone, regardless of ability
or age, is welcome to join us. To attract lots of participants, we offer
$4,800 in cash prizes to the top three finishers overall and in each
5-year age category. We also offer dozens of random prizes, a goodie bag
with coupons and gift certificates, a nice T-shirt, and a sumptuous
post-race picnic courtesy of Fresh Fields and local vendors. If you
prefer a more leisurely pace, a 5K walk starts at 9:05, five minutes
after the run.
To sign up, please visit our web site (http://www.vanguardservices.org)
and print out the entry form, or contact Vanguard Foundation at
703-841-0703 x 97, racedirector@vanguardservices.org,
or 2924 Columbia Pike, Arlington VA 22204.
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Congressional Black Caucus to Network with DC
Small, Minority, and Women Owned Businesses
Arthur Jackson, jacksonahjgroup@aol.com
The U.S. Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference is
always held here in Washington, and awards more than $250,000 in
contracts for numerous services and products. Few of these contracts are
awarded to DC local, small, minority, women, disadvantaged, or
resident-owned business. AHJGroup.com is an African-American and
District-resident-owned business that has organized more than fifty
DC-based businesses to appeal to the Black Caucus Foundation and the U.S. Black
Caucus membership to address this critical concern. Therefore
we are planning a two-day open house during the conference, at which
District-based businesses can network with members of the Black Caucus
and Federal contracting officials. If you know of a District of Columbia
small, minority, or women-owned business interested in participating,
call 508-1059 or emailahjgroup@earthlink.net.
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CLASSIFIEDS — CAUSES
DC Citizens Plan Independent Rally to Rate
Mayor Tony Williams
Arthur H. Jackson, jacksonahjgroup@aol.com
During the past six months, I've attended meetings in all eight wards
to hear the views of DC residents on the present state of our city and
the direction we're going. And to prepare for the next release of a poll
showing, Mayor Anthony Williams losing to any number of potential
opponents, including Councilmembers Kevin Chavous, David Catania, Harold
Brazil, and Jack Evans. This poll shows the incumbent Mayor running a
close race with School Board President Peggy Cooper Cafrrtz, activist
Arturo Griffin, and former Mayor Marion Barry, Jr.
Tony Williams campaigned on a record of reform and budget balancing,
designed to appeal to the Federal City Council, Board of Trade, and DC
Control Board, therefore attracting conservative voters into writing
campaign checks and organizing reform-minded voter into his camp. Today
voters across this city are dissatisfied and disappointed in Mayor
Williams's actual performance as the leader of the District of Columbia,
citing health services delivery and accessibility, affordable housing,
and environmental safety, and transportation issues.
The Citywide Citizens Rally on the Williams Administration will grade
the Mayor and his cabinet on their performance on behalf of the people
of the District of Columbia. A date and location will be announced on
September 10, one year before the next Election. To volunteer to help on
the project call 562-2137 or E-mail: jacksonahjgroup@aol.com.
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CLASSIFIEDS — SERVICES
Putting Audio and Video Clips on the Web
Phil Shapiro, pshapiro@his.com
Do you need to put audio or video clips on the web? The process is
fairly simple and costs less than you might expect. Fast turnaround and
reasonable rates. I can place up to an hour (or more) of audio or video
on the web. Further info at: pshapiro@his.com
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CLASSIFIEDS — HOUSING
Studio/one-bedroom apartment wanted. Reasonably near Metro station if
possible. Son Peyton, 23, just returned from one-year volunteer work
with Americorps. Employed. Nonsmoker. Responsible. Help get him out of
MY house.
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Large room in spacious, furnished, newly renovated historic house.
High ceilings, great light, central air conditioning, washer/dryer, new
kitchen w/gas stove, 1.5 baths, deck. 3 blocks from Columbia Heights
Metro and along several major bus lines. Close to grocery, drug store,
hardware, dry cleaning, library, friendly cat. Vegetarian/kosher
kitchen. $700/month includes utilities and light maid service.
Short/long term. Available immediately. 588-5031 or irisamdur@yahoo.com
(between 8/20 and 9/1 contact Lynne.Mersfelder@noaa.gov
or 257-1730)
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CLASSIFIEDS — PETS
Free Black Lab
Alejandra Maudet, amaudet@rcis.org
Free. Wonderful five-year-old male black lab needs a home. Owner is
leaving the country and hates to take “Jack” to the SPCA. Looking
for someone to love this sweet-natured, well-behaved (loves kids),
playful dog. Please contact me at aamaudet@rcis.org.
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