You Are Not Alone
Dear Companions:
One of the chief values of themail is letting each other know that
we're not alone, that our experiences of life in DC aren't unique. It
doesn't matter how much good publicity the Department of Motor Vehicles
gets; here's where we can share our personal experiences and find out
whether it really has improved. Below, Bob Levine writes about the MPD's
refusal to pursue a case of identity theft; it reminds me of how ten
years ago the MPD refused to do anything about a $15,000 bad check that
had been written to me, and used as an excuse the story that the US
Attorney only prosecuted cases of bad checks written to corporations,
not individuals. Dorothy wrote about her problems in prying public
information from this closed administration; below Nick Keenan writes
that he has shared her problems, that the Freedom of Information process
is used more to frustrate than to facilitate the release of public
documents. And several messages in a continuing thread remind us of our
common pursuit of the perfect bagel in DC.
Thanks to Sid Booth, sidbooth1@aol.com,
for pointing out that the link to the DC Marathon web site given in Pete
Ross's message in the last issue of themail was incomplete. The complete
address is http://www.dcmarathon.com.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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My almost blind 83-year-old mother was a victim of identity
theft/credit card fraud. Someone obtained her credit card number and
maxed out her Visa account. The FTC identity theft site tells you to do
three things: 1) notify Visa (done), 2) contact the three major credit
bureaus (done), 3) and file a police report.
We called 311 and were given the number of the fraud squad. We spoke
to a Detective Webster who told us that the District had no statute that
covered identity theft or credit card fraud, and all he could do was
advise us, not take a report. Then he hung up the phone. DC public
services at its normal nonfunctioning. Maybe I interrupted his donut
break.
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Building Safety and Security
Dorothy Brizill, dorothy@dcwatch.com
Unquestionably, DC needs to protect its public buildings from the
terrorist threat. But that protection includes not just keeping
terrorists from getting access to those buildings, but also ensuring the
safety of workers and visitors inside the buildings, not just from
terrorism but also from everyday threats such as fires. The DC
government is neglecting the second part of that task. Over the past
year, starting months before September 11, security forces have taken to
locking the majority of exit doors at government buildings, sometimes
chaining and padlocking them, during normal business hours — some
sporadically, some on a semi-permanent basis. At 1 Judiciary Square,
until this month the home of the Mayor, Council, and key District
agencies; the Municipal Center at 300 Indiana Avenue, which houses the
Metropolitan Police Department; and the Reeves Building, the
administrative home of a number of DC departments including the
Emergency Management Agency, the majority of exit doors are frequently
locked, which would make successful emergency evacuations nearly
impossible.
Doors have been locked for a number of reasons and on a variety of
occasions: because of the current fear of terrorism, when demonstrations
were held across town at the World Bank and the IMF, when a group of
ministers met with Mayor Williams about closing DC General Hospital, and
on October 23 when the Mayor simply held a press briefing on anthrax.
Locking doors, which are fire exits, is a violation of the District's
fire code (Section F-110.0) and the national BOCA (building) code. The
national code reads: “The means of egress from each part of the
structure, including exits, stairways, egress doors and any panic
hardware installed thereon, aisles, corridors, passageways and similar
elements of the means of egress, shall at all times be maintained in a
safe condition and available for immediate utilization and free of all
obstructions.” Locking the doors at 1 Judiciary Square is particularly
troublesome, since the District's Fire Marshal Office is just off the
lobby, fewer than twenty feet from the locked and blocked doors, and the
Fire Marshal has refused to do anything to enforce fire code safety
regulations there.
Heightening the concern for building safety in DC government office
buildings is the fact that some fire alarm systems — including those
at 1 Judiciary Square and the Wilson Building — operate on the
“sandwich system,” in which alarms don't go off throughout the
building, but only on the floor on which a fire is detected or an alarm
is pulled, and on the floors directly above and below that floor. In an
eleven-story building like 1 Judiciary, for example, if a fire were
detected on the first floor the alarm would only be sounded on the first
and second floors. While Federal government office buildings have
evacuation plans, regular fire drills, and designated fire drill
captains, DC government buildings have none of that. Many DC government
buildings don't have a written evacuation plan, and plans that do exist
are several years old, not updated, and not distributed to employees.
Fire evacuation drills are not regularly scheduled, and a senior
security official in the District's Office of Property Management told
me that he was not aware of any planned fire drills at DC government
buildings or facilities in the past two years.
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Pennsylvania Avenue Delays
Ron Eberhardt, rge1022@aol.com
The administration and Congress are balking at $98.5 million in
estimated costs to remedy the unacceptable closure of Pennsylvania
Avenue, along with related problems of E Street closure and improved
traffic signaling. The Avenue has been closed since 1995, and we have
just taken eight long months to study and provide a plan to remedy these
problems. When the National Capital Planning Commission unveiled their
plan this week it was summarily dismissed on the grounds of
unavailability of funds!
What an astonishing “excuse.” Almost daily, the U. S. Congress
appropriates about a billion dollars in new spending for everything
under the sun — much of which has nothing to do with the September 11
attacks upon the U. S.
This once vibrant and growing city is literally dying each day due to
the perception of would-be visitors that they are in harm's way, and
thus they have stopped coming. Investors will stop building and the
city's population growth will stop unless we move to restore some
normalcy to the lives of those of us who live and work here, and the
resulting stress that is experienced daily. $100 million dollars is not
too much to ask to rescue this city that is literally under siege. I
deplore those who say it is. The Mayor, City Council, and Delegate
Norton as well as our congressional friends from nearby Virginia and
Maryland should rise during this session to pass funding for this
measure. To do otherwise is an affront to D. C. Citizens and the
citizens of the U. S. — whose city this also is.
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Tree Trimming (And I Don’t Mean Christmas!)
Randi Rubovits-Seitz, rrs2623@aol.com
This morning (November 2) C&D Tree Cutters, telephone
703-821-1332, plowed through my neighborhood butchering the few
remaining trees on the street (Woodley Place). They did way more than
simply cut branches that were overhanging houses or were hanging low
over the street. They hacked huge limbs, leaving horrible deformities
and bare sky where there once was green. Because my husband and I were
home, and I saw them in time, I prevented them from touching the tree in
front of my house. I had to have a couple of fits to do it, and
stationed my husband, without a hard hat, in front of their truck,
giving them “power eyes” the whole time. For twenty years, we have
paid privately to have that tree properly pruned and maintained. I
already have the appointment for this year set up. No way was I gonna
let these guys have at my tree. And the guy following in the clean up
truck agreed with me, that they vastly overprune and cut
inappropriately. So if you see these people coming, and you want your
tree left alone, you can make it happen. Tell them to go on by, be there
to be sure they do, and call the company above to complain.
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While I am deeply saddened by the closing of Hogates, I am not
surprised. I think we can expect more closings, demolitions, etc., of
anything and everything that is not associated with the federal
government, i.e., the Monument, the Jefferson Memorial, etc. This is to
be expected when the elected leadership has no roots in this community
and are not connected to it except through their employment. Those
places, spaces, landmarks, etc., that have special meaning and
significance to those whose roots are here are but obstacles in the way
of development for our current leadership and those whose motivation is
clearly their deep pockets. As a lifelong resident and fifth generation
Washingtonian, I barely recognize the city of my birth. Does anybody
remember the District theaters (Langston, Atlas, Tivoli, Senator, or the
Booker T) or the tunnel that used to run under Benning Road at the
bottom of Langston Terrace, or the stage that used to float on the
Potomac River in between the Lincoln Memorial and what is now the
Watergate? (Does anybody wonder why those steps are there? They were the
seats for the river performances.) How about driving your car or your
bike through what we called the ford, on Beach Drive in Rock Creek and
sticking your feet in the water while you watched in amazement the creek
zooming under your car? Hogates had the best rum buns in the world. I
suppose it will go the way of all of the many memories that
Washingtonians hold true but must give up in the name of “improving”
this capital of the United States, a.k.a. capital revitalization.
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The Fire Department is really outsmarting itself in trying to
discourage FOIA's by charging a fee. Other DC agencies have been very
successful with a much simpler strategy -- just ignore them. I have
filed many FOIA's, and never gotten a response, and as a practical
matter there's not a whole lot you can do. By accepting your money, they
are acknowledging your request, creating a paper trail with your
canceled check, and creating an expectation that the request will
actually be honored. Ten bucks sounds like a bargain to me for all that.
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Virginia Campaign Posters in DC Public Space
Phil Carney, philnopus@erols.com
You have to admire the determination and good political sense of the
political supporters who have posted Virginia political campaign posters
in DC public space. Given the number of Virginia and Maryland drivers
who come into DC to drink and party and take up residential parking
spaces that otherwise would be wasted on no-account DC residents, it's a
great idea to post out-of-state political campaign posters in DC public
space. Anyone know what DC law says about out of state campaign posters?
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Customer Service on Half Street
Bob Levine, rilevine@cpcug.org
If our bow-tied mayor really wants to do something about customer
service he might want to take a look at the auto inspection station on
Half Street. With thanks to themail, Tom Berry's message on auto
inspections made me remember that mine was almost expired, so on
Thursday evening I went down and got in line. If they could be any more
surly and non-responsive I don’t know how. No one speaks to you; they
point and gesture. For every one person working there are three of four
standing around smoking or doing nothing. We did get a nice impromptu Do
Wop concert by two employees for an audience of four other employees.
Finally a man came up and checked my turn signals, etc., and told me
where to wait, so I go to watch out the windows and he pulls my car into
the lane and disappears for forty minutes. Finally my car makes it to
the end of the lane, and I go out retrieve my registration, and the
employee there says “You can get in your car.” “Did it pass?”
Rather fiercely: “I said get in your car.”
So I got in my car; he fiddled with a machine, opened my passenger
door, scraped off the old sticker, and slapped on the new sticker, said
“two more years,” and slammed the door. Thus ended my lovely evening
visit at the Half Street Inspection Station.
Also an interesting article in the Washington Post about the
lack of customer service at DMV: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A18203-2001Oct31.html.
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A $15 monthly penalty at the inspection station if you don't get your
car inspected before the expiration date on the sticker? It's a $50
parking ticket if DC Parking Enforcement catches you.
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A bad deal for DC taxpayers: the recent HOPE VI grant to destroy 707
units of public housing at Arthur Capper/Carrollsburg Dwellings,
adjoining the Navy Yard in Southeast Washington. The project involves a
massive diversion of public money and land to private developers with
questionable track records. The total input of public funds will be
$89.8 million, including $34.9 million in federal money and $54.8
million in city money, with an additional $98.6 million in tax-exempt
bonds.
The privatization of public land is an aspect of the proposed project
that has so far escaped public attention. Much of the land will be used
for building market-rate homes and office buildings providing over
600,000 square feet of office and retail space. In addition to the
public housing units, private homes and locally-owned small businesses
will be turned over to the developers, “if necessary by eminent
domain.”
Read all about it in this month's issue of the Washington Peace
Letter, accessible on line at http://www.washingtonpeacecenter.org/articles/hopesixhousing.html
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And wasn't it Gerald Ford who, when in Texas (or was it Mexico?),
ordered a tamale and horrified his hosts by eating the whole corn husk
along with it?
Incidentally, when I posted my message, I had wondered if responses
would arrange themselves along religious lines (with fellow Jews
outraged by the peanut butter, but Christians and others, like that
nutty goy Nixon and his mayo, defending the peanut butter). However, I'm
disturbed to see that this peanut butter heresy cuts across all beliefs.
Fie!
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Peanut butter on a cinnamon raisin? As they say in my native land,
FUHGEDDABOUDID!
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Reading about the Mayor's choice of bagels — and the general weird
bagel selections that turn up when you get too far from New York — I'm
reminded of comedian Lea Delaria's comment about cinnamon raisin and
other strange types of bagels she encountered when she moved to Los
Angeles: “That's not a bagel, that's a donut made of bread!” Bagels
join Italian cuisine in that category of food items that DC just doesn't
do very well.
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Entertaining as the bagel discussion has been, it ignores a
fundamental issue: the quality of the bagel itself. Here in Portland, it
seems that the art of bagel-making did not accompany those hearty
pioneers of the Oregon Trail. Bagels with strong crusts enclosing a
heart of comforting chewiness . . . not here, pal. When I saw my first
pesto bagel, I blanched; now nothing surprises me. Haven't checked out
the organic food stores, but perhaps one can find a seaweed bagel. (Hey,
that's an idea!) Count your blessings, pal.
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After living in NYC for several years, I was disappointed in the lack
of decent bagels here in DC. I was relieved to find the Georgetown
Bagelry on M Street. Great (real) bagels and they even have peanut
butter. Their pizza is great too.
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Concerning Club 47, I go back so far it wasn't even called that. It
was 47 Mt. Auburn. I used to hang out there, although I spent much of my
free time at the Harvard radio station. Here's something I wrote about
that time: “Then there was my note referring to a live folk music
program at the station: 'We had the usual motley collection of musicians
and would-be musicians. The best by far were Bill Woods and a beautiful
girl named Joan.' Joan was a Boston folk singer brought to the station
by her friend, Lew Walling, who is now listed on the wall of the Vietnam
memorial. He also helped launch her career, getting her a seminal
serious gig at 47 Mt. Auburn. In her first appearance on the radio,
Woods, the host, had stumbled over her name. 'Is that Byeez or Bias or.
. .?'”
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Footlights, DC's only modern drama discussion group, meets monthly to
discuss plays from the modern theater. On Wednesday, November 14, we'll
discuss Warren Leight's Tony award-winning play “Side Man” (1998).
“Powerfully moving” (Washington Post), “warm, rich,
funny” (New York Post) yet so “heartbreaking” it “may
have you in tears” (New York Times), “Side Man” dramatizes
the price a jazzman's family pays for his obsession with jazz. You can
get a copy at Olsson's, Politics & Prose, and Backstage Books. Our
discussion takes place 7:30-9:30 p.m. (dinner at 6:30) at Cafe Midi
Cuisine, 1635 Connecticut Avenue, NW, just north of Dupont Circle. It
will feature director Grover Gardner, whose production of “Side Man”
opens later this season. For reservations E-mail painews@bellatlantic.net
or call 898-4825 (24 hours/day). For general information visit http://www.footlightsdc.org.
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“Coming Attractions” Trailer Program
Ky Nguyen, dcfs_pr@yahoo.com
Monday, November 5, 7-9 p.m., Loews Cineplex, 4000 Wisconsin Avenue,
NW. $5 for Washington, DC Film Society members, $8 for nonmembers and
guests (tickets sold at the door) includes food courtesy of Chipotle and
free movie promos and posters.
Check out what Hollywood has to offer as we screen preview trailers
for the upcoming fall and holiday films. Plus this irreverent evening
will be hosted by local film critics Jie Barber and Bill Henry, who
always lead a lively discussion of what's good and what's not. Bring
your criticisms and your kudos and join in the fun. Your opinions count,
until the person next to you tells you you're wrong, that is! Come and
enjoy some food courtesy of Chipotle and pick up some free movie promo
items and posters.
Trailers will include: Beauty and the Beast, The Count of Monte
Cristo, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Ocean's Eleven,
Rollerball, The Royal Tenenbaums and many others!
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Capacity Building Grants for DC-Area
Nonprofits
Phil Shapiro, pshapiro@his.com
Do you know of a DC-area nonprofit service organization looking to
build its organizational capacity? Check out the link below for info
about new “Learning Circle” grants that are available. The deadline
for grant proposals is November 21, 2001. For those who might not be
familiar with it, TechSoup.org is an excellent web site covering
technology use in the nonprofit sector. TechSoup is operated by
CompuMentor, an organization in the San Francisco area. http://www.techsoup.org/news_article.cfm?newsid=778
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CLASSIFIEDS — RECOMMENDATIONS
I am looking for someone to regrade and repave my driveway. Has
anyone had good experiences lately?
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