Big Issues
Dear Big Thinkers:
It's a big, long issue; let's get on with it.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Political Qualifications
Dorothy Brizill, dorothy@dcwatch.com
When Mayor Williams proposed replacing an elected Board of Education
with an appointed one, he argued that it would take politics out of the
school board, and allow him to name people to the Board who had an
expertise and interest in education. On Friday, he selected Marian Saez
to fill the vacancy on the board left when Bob Peck resigned last year
to head the Greater Washington Board of Trade (http://www.dcwatch.com/mayor/020111.htm).
Ms. Saez had no background, expertise, or demonstrated interest in
education, and in their remarks neither she nor the mayor mentioned any
reason related to the education or welfare of DC's children for her to
be named to the position. The appointment was about Williams's
reelection politics, pure and simple.
Ms. Saez's “qualifications” for the position were that she is an
Hispanic, a woman, and a lesbian; and that she is the president of the
Gertrude Stein Democratic Club, the city's largest and most powerful gay
and lesbian Democratic party organization. She was selected because of
her ethnicity, sex, sexual orientation, and political connections. Mayor
Williams needed to improve his record of Hispanic appointments. In his
first three years in office he had named only two Hispanics to major
positions — Rosario Guitierrez as the Director of the Office of Latino
Affairs and Angel Cartenaga as chair of the Public Service Commission.
And one of the Mayor's key constituency and contributor groups is the
gay community. What makes Saez's appointment so egregiously political is
that she does have a solid background and expertise in housing issues,
particularly in public housing, but at Friday's press conference the
mayor said he had never even considered her for any of the recent
important housing related vacancies in the administration — director
of the Department of Housing and Community Development, for example, or
positions on the Public Housing Authority Board and the Housing Finance
Agency Board of Directors.
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Redskins, Political Correctness, and Living in
DC with Stigma
Mark David Richards, Dupont East, mark@bisconti.com
Councilwoman Carol Schwartz stood “in the crossfire” on Thursday
evening at 7:30 on CNN’s Crossfire to defend the DC Council’s vote
on the “Washington National Football League Franchise Name Change
Emergency Resolution of 2001,” (November 6, 2001, PR14-0440, http://dccouncil.dc.gov/images/00001/20011113143030.pdf).
The resolution gave the sense of the Council that the Redskins' owners
should change the team’s name prior to the 2002-2003 football season.
It was supported 12-1; only Harold Brazil voted no. The Post
wrote a brief story on January 9, 2002: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A21095-2002Jan9.html.
The Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments voted 11-2 the same
day to ask the Redskins to change its name to something less offensive
to Native Americans. Schwartz belongs to both governing bodies. I agree
with the resolution — the DC Council and COG did the right thing in
supporting a name change because it is disrespectful.
In fact, Councilwoman Schwartz was less in the crossfire than up
against the firing squad with the smug Tucker Carlson holding the gun. I
often enjoy Carlson's perspective, but last night his argument had
little to do with the issue and only demonstrated to me, once again,
that DC lives with stigma. Carlson launched his attack with, “I was
glad to learn that you and other elected officials in Washington have
the free time to worry about American Indians. That’s a lot to worry
about. I just want to read you a few statistics from the Pine Ridge
Reservation, South Dakota. You’re probably familiar with it, second
biggest in the country, life expectancy of 56, suicide rate twice the
national average, infant mortality rate the same, epidemic of obesity,
of diabetes, of alcoholism, an unemployment rate of 75 percent. It’s
in tough shape. And I’m wondering when you’re sitting in a meeting
with your fellow elected officials, wouldn't they be more effective just
to take up a collection from all the rich liberals in the media and just
go ahead and send it to the Indian reservation -- they could certainly
use it — rather than passing pointless laws like this?” Schwartz
responded with, “Well, first of all, you’re talking to a Republican
here,” to which Carlson responded, “Oh, I’m fully aware.” See
full transcript of interview: http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0201/10/cf.00.html.
I suppose there is a rule of politics that when you do not have an
argument you attack below the belt, so to speak. The use of the “you’ve
got a lot of free time” argument is so old and ignorant, and caused me
to think Schwartz should have given Carlson a good smack. But she didn’t
— she was very diplomatic.
So, what should they change their name to? One Saturday on WPFW, I
heard a DJ spinning the blues suggest they change the name from Redskins
to Fedskins. This site suggests the Washington Tampons: http://wallofjokes.hypermart.net/Sport/WashingtonRedskins_Schedule.html.
And, the Wit Memo suggests the Reaganskins to honor the Gipper: http://www.geocities.com/~witmemo/reaganskins.htm.
Related items: http://www.nativeculture.com/lisamitten/mascots.html; http://www.bchle.org/23nov01fl.pdf;
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/archives/cheap/2001/cheap0427.html;
http://www.turtletrack.org/ManyVoices/Issue_13/Language!_721.htm;
http://expert.cc.purdue.edu/~varnesh/; http://umns.umc.org/00/june/294.htm;
http://www.earthrunner.com/4winds/trademarks.html;
http://www.satyacircle.com/sidhu8.html;
http://earnestman.tripod.com/1999_internet_mascot_articles.htm.
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Illegally Parked Cars
Alexander Padro, Padroanc2c@aol.com
I can report that indeed, cars parking on some streets where parking
is prohibited during rush hour are being ticketed and towed. I have
recently witnessed tow trucks removing cars parked along North Capital
Street near K Street during rush hour. Indeed, I saw the trucks making
numerous trips on that occasion.
Of course, on any given day, every car that is parking on every
street where rush-hour parking is restricted throughout the city is not
being towed. But if the culprits are chronic violators of this law,
before too long they're going to have an expensive lesson taught to
them. The ticket and towing charges need to be paid before the car can
be retrieved, for a cost of $175.00, plus cab fare to DMV. If they don't
get to DMV in time, they likely won't get their car back that night. I
doubt the average scofflaw will park on a no-rush-hour-parking street
again after that experience.
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Cuppa’ Jo Coffee House for Sale or to
Permanently Close
John Olinger, john.olinger@worldnet.att.net
I thought you would find this [January 7 press release] interesting.
“Evolve, LLC today announced plans to sell or permanently close Cuppa'
Jo Coffee House located in the Capitol Hill/Trinidad neighborhood at
1006A Florida Avenue NE, Washington, DC. The business opened in June
2001 in response to community demand and as part of Evolve's overall
mission to revitalize and improve neighborhoods where their properties
are located. The company started looking at alternative plans for the
Coffee House shortly after failing an Inspection Report by the DC
Department of Health (DOH) on Thursday 1/3/02. The Inspection Report
focused around four areas of concern. 'Three of the four concerns were
fairly minor and would have been relatively easy to address,' said
Christopher Swanson, co-owner of Evolve, LLC and manager of Cuppa' Jo.
The business needed to install a garbage disposal, fix a slow leaking
pipe under the kitchen sink and ensure that a certified food supervisor
was on duty at all times.
“The fourth concern is the demand that has resulted in the recent
decision to close the business. The DOH found that the (deli) license,
which was the type of license originally recommended by the DOH, for
Cuppa' Jo was inappropriate because the business provided seating for
guests and advised the company to purchase a new (restaurant) license.
'It seemed as though we were always trying to hit a moving target with
the city's health inspectors. Every time they came to visit we were told
we needed something new and each time it was something different,' said
Swanson. 'This wasn't our first inspection, we've had the same number of
seats in here for each of the two inspections prior to 1/3/02, including
the initial inspection that occurred before we were allowed to open for
business, but none of these concerns were listed on those Inspection
Reports. As it stands, in order to keep our existing license we would
have to remove all of the seating in the coffee house.' 'As with any new
business we struggled with the usual financial startup challenges while
the popularity of Cuppa' Jo continued to grow. Until now we were just
determined that we could make this project work,' said Jeff Printz,
co-owner of Evolve. 'After we received the latest Inspection Report we
estimated that it would take the next two to three months of profits to
pay for a new business license and there was no assurance that once we
addressed this concern that there wouldn't be different and even more
expensive concerns in the future.' While they were not specifically
listed on this report, the inspector alluded to the need to add an
additional restroom and exterior staircase from the second floor of the
business. 'Given this future uncertainty combined with the previous
track record from working with the Department of Health, we decided we
could no longer accept that risk,' said Printz.
“In the past seven months since Cuppa' Jo opened, the business has
received tremendous accolades from the community. The Coffee House was a
feature story in the District section of The Washington Post, it
was highlighted as 'a coffee house for all people' and for community
involvement in a Fox 5 News story about Gallaudet University, and
received national recognition in a story by The Silent News, a
publication for Gallaudet Alumni. Last month Cuppa' Jo hosted a visit
from Mrs. Santa Claus where over 300 toys, donated by local businesses,
were distributed to needy area children. Cuppa' Jo provided full and
part-time jobs for 9 DC residents and area students and was a proud
participant in the Clerc Internship program for deaf students. For
additional information about Cuppa' Jo Coffee House please visit http://www.Cuppa-Jo.com.”
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Cable or Satellite
Ed T. Barron, edtb@aol.com
For those folks debating on whether they should choose cable or
satellite for their TV channel provider, the satellite TV system I use
has recently added the local PBS channels (22 and 26) and also added
channels 20 and 50 to the normal four major local channels. All these
channels are at no additional cost to the basic monthly charge.
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Sadly, few will pay for the recent fundraising scandal, and the price
certainly won't be high. If we lived in a city or state where there was
a viable two party system the other party would jump on this as a chance
to ferret out corruption. However, with Republicans as the second party
(in terms of voter registration) so far behind (outnumbered 13 to 1), it
would do more harm for them to use this as a political issue. Until
voters are willing to drop our one-party system we will probably have to
live with such corruption.
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Mail Issues
Joan Eisenstodt, jeisen@aol.com
Our mail continues to baffle me. I got a bunch this week dated as
early as November 1 (Ohio, first class letter), 11/24 (DC, first class
letter, had a large footprint on it!), 11/28 (IL, first class letter),
and so on. I thought the irradiated letters were from September and
October, not November, and besides, none of this appears to have gone
through that process (not brittle and yellow, just late). Clues? What is
anyone else doing about it?
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Taxi Metering
Malcolm L. Wiseman, Jr., wiseman@us.net
I agree with Mr. Barron who says taxi zones must go. They have always
been a source of confusion and bilking of DC visitors and residents
alike. However, he's wrong or at least misguided in his complaint about
our circles and diagonals, which to my mind are extremely efficient once
you learn to drive them. The avenues allow one to traverse the city in
two directions on one vector at the same time. DCPS taught me that the
hypotenuse is always shorter than the sum of the sides. The circles
might be seen as the price you pay for the efficiency of the avenues. I
see circles not as “chaotic” or “nightmarish” but as scenic
breaks in the cityscape that also help to regulate (some would say slow
down) traffic flow. In a metered taxi system avenues and circles save
you money.
Maybe the Washington street map should be a part of the driving test
for cabbies and newcomers. I know that I've never seen a city's layout
more logical and predictable than is Washington's, including the
addressing along the avenues. Not so in Manhattan, a city whose dwellers
are fortunate that it is long and narrow and not “square-ish” as are
DC and other cities. I'll take the beauty and eye-relief of avenues and
circles over the simplicity of a straight grid any day, and twice on
Sunday
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Following is a letter I wrote to the Washington Convention and
Tourism Corporation back in December, but decided not to send when I
realized that the whole organization is stacked with suburbanites whose
ears would probably have been deaf to it. “As a resident of
Washington, DC (the city, not the marketing concept), I am offended that
your recent list of holiday restaurants includes places in Leesburg and
Alexandria (The Dandy). As far as I can tell, these places do nothing to
encourage tourists and area residents to spend their dime in the
District, while you are actively promoting these locales under the
moniker of Washington, DC. In fact, the negativity that most residents
and business owners in these places display toward the region's true
core (the city) is hardly veiled.
“This may seem like a minor infraction, but the problem is
exacerbated all the time by national advertisers that trade on the
cachet of the Washington name when, in fact, their locations are far
afield from the city itself. For instance, the new Ikea relocation has
lacquered Metro stations with ads proclaiming, in one case, 'Light up
the holidays. Light up a city' or some such nonsense. Last time I
checked, Potomac Mills has a Woodbridge address. The same goes for L.L.
Bean's pre-opening bus placards in preparation for their first retail
store outside Vermont: 'Now in Washington.' Um, no: now in Tysons
Corner. Given that residents here pay some of the highest taxes in the
land (without a vote in the national body that ironically calls the
place home), commuters who live in the suburbs don't contribute to our
tax rolls, and city residents must fight to get basic retail in some
neighborhoods, it's offensive to find the WCTC promoting suburban
locales. In case you weren't paying attention, Alexandria seems to
happily separate itself from Washington when it's beneficial: it has the
audacity to promote itself as the 'Fun Side of the Potomac.'
“Your name suggests that you are chartered to promote Washington.
It's called the 'Washington, DC Convention and Tourism Corporation,' so
it seems fair that the businesses you promote and the place you
cheerlead is actually Washington, DC. Do us all a favor and stick to the
city when doing PR for 'Washingtoon' and don't waste our tax dollars
promoting the suburbs. In my opinion, your membership shouldn't even be
open to suburban businesses/hotels/professionals until those suburban
places start shedding their pessimism, antagonism, and arrogance toward
the city that makes this entire region a desirable place to do business
in the first place.”
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Judging from the responses regarding Reagan National Airport I would
say that the promoters of the name change have largely achieved what
they intended. The name Reagan continues to irritate those it was meant
to irritate and at the same time that irritation isolates them from the
mainstream population that sees nothing controversial about honoring a
highly successful president. Let me let you in on a little secret: if
you continue to let Ronald Reagan bug you, the conservatives have won.
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Card Sharp
Mark Eckenwiler, eck@ingot.org
Annie McCormick and others have lamented and/or speculated about the
rules for transferring value from standard Metro farecards to a SmarTrip
card. The rules are that you may transfer the value of a) a used
farecard or Metrochek (worth $7 or less) or b) an unused Metrochek or
farecard (of any value). I found this information (which was also in the
printed info packet issued with my SmarTrip card) at http://wmata.com/riding/smartrip.htm
after all of 10 seconds of research. (As a friend in DC says, "the
Internet is the source for all the information you're not supposed to
have.")
As for those diddlysquat leftover farecards (with the odd .15 left),
per the above rule they are readily transferable. If the transfer won't
work, there's a problem with the card, in which case you can go to the
service kiosk at Metro Center or any other Metro sales office. (Nota
bene: It says at http://wmata.com/riding/refundpolicy.htm
that you have to have a certification from a station manager that the
card is non-working. I've traded in dysfunctional cards more than once
without any such paperwork. The one catch is that WMATA will only issue
you new cards in whole dollar amounts, e.g., if your bad cards total
$0.85, be sure you have another fifteen cents — preferably in coins
— to trade for your shiny new $1 farecard.)
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Not to belabor the point, but are people watching the same public TV
I do? First of all, the distinction between public TV and commercial TV
is getting dimmer. What is all of that material that you now see for a
good 4-5 minutes before the Jim Lehrer News Hour? Those are commercials!
Insurance companies, investment firms, and the ever-present Archer
Daniels Midland — all slickly produced with loud music, just like on
commercial TV. I'm a total news junkie, and unfortunately I've been
watching more TV because of the war. Frankly, public TV news (I'm
thinking of the News Hour) is no more hard-hitting and thought provoking
than commercial TV. Ray Suarez, Jim Lehrer, and Gwen Ifill usually throw
their guests softball questions; the only advantage to their show is
that they can spend more time on a given subject. On the war, the
coverage from Aaron Brown and a few others on the commercial side has
been as informative. And what about coverage of local, DC news in the
evenings on public TV? Nothing. Zilch. Nada. Public TV's only saving
grace is “Frontline.”
And on the entertainment side, what do we get on public TV? I've
channel-surfed over to it several times to be confronted with self-help
gurus, psychobabble, and “spontaneous healing” quacks. This is no
different from the usual downchannel infomercials. And the worst
offenses, often aired during pledge weeks, are the endlessly repeated
“Riverdance” and John Tesh concerts. As Joe Queenan has noted, all
of this is supported by taxpayer money. So think of it — your tax
dollars support the airing of John Tesh. I think we should examine why
this is the case and let public TV compete without taxpayer subsidy. The
only real public TV is CSPAN, where you can veg out with a beer and
watch the minute-by-minute proceedings of the latest event at American
Enterprise Institute or Politics and Prose, and be amused at the weird
questions on the call-in shows. Almost all of what is broadcast actually
happens here in DC. Another gem is Free Speech TV (available on Dish
TV), which I guess is run by some Chomsky cultists, but at least it is
admirable that they can put something unusual together without taxpayer
money or Archer Daniels Midland.
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It’s Not Ed T. Barron
Ken Katz, kskatz@toad.net
While I do not cast aspersion upon Ed T. Barron's intent nor
sincerity of belief, I nonetheless respectfully suggest that when anyone
claims a simplistic answer to what is clearly a somewhat complicated
problem, the claim is suspect. Ed's statement implies the following
logic: since DC has the #4 spot in student spending but ranks 49 out of
51 in SAT score (I won't go into the value or lack thereof of that
measure) , "it's not money." While I don't discount the
significance of this correlation in assessing and solving the complexity
of inner-city school system troubles, as a simple truth it lacks rigor
and assumes a strength of argument based on correlation that does not
exist. For example, say I can well afford to live in my $300,000 house
in NW DC at my current salary: I could hardly afford the same quality of
life if I bought a run down $150,000 house that required $400,000 in
repair/renovation: same salary, house costs half, why not same quality
of life? That is, same per student outlay, why not the same result?
Maybe the costs/outlays are different? While my analogy may suggest only
capitol budget issues, it is not intended to be so limited. As others
have noted, at a minimum the correct comparison would be not between DC
and 50 states, but rather between DC, NYC, Philadelphia, East St. Louis
. . . you get the idea. But even then, I believe such simplistic answers
tell us nothing more than that the analysis was equally simple and
lacking in rigor.
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DC Self-Government: Two Aspects
David Sobelsohn, dsobelso@capacces.org
George LaRoche ends his impassioned argument for the importance of
local control over local DC matters by concluding that, “The issue at
stake is self-government, not 'representation' in the national
legislature.” Well, yes, in the abstract. But let's not blur two
separate aspects of self-government. In theory, DC could get as much
local self-government as any other American city, but still not have
representation in Congress. (Does anyone know whether San Juan, Puerto
Rico, has as much local self-government as, say, Tallahassee?) Since
Congress makes laws for the whole country (including DC), local control
with non-representation in Congress is still a denial of
self-government. Nor should we ignore the power relationship between
local self-government and congressional representation. Local
self-government wouldn't help us get representation in Congress. But
representation in Congress could help us get local self-government.
Right now, we have no leverage at all. How is it in the self-interest of
members of Congress to give us local control? With voting
representatives, we'd have something other members of Congress want. Who
knows, seniority might eventually get us an important committee chair
(Mexico City's situation has uncertain relevance without knowing more
about the structure of Mexico's legislature). Finally, most American
cities don't have complete power over their own local affairs. They're
subject to state oversight (which varies from state to state and isn't
always limited by state constitutional “Home Rule” provisions). And
ultimately, even states must suffer a degree of federal regulation. Just
ask Oregon, which has tried to legalize suicide assistance, or
California, which has tried to legalize medicinal marijuana.
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Right On! It’s Self-Government!
Floyd H Agostinelli, Floyd@glowingtoad.com
As always, my dear friend George LaRoche always hits the nail on the
head. “Taxation without Representation” is a great motto and I have
a sticker to that effect on my car. But representation for DC, does not
mean self-government for DC. Our “Home Fool” government simply means
that neither our Mayor nor our City Council can be really held
accountable. And, of course, how do we poor little residents of DC hold
the mighty Congress of the United States accountable? I, first and
foremost, want true self-government. Down the road, the merits of the
various plans for representation can be further discussed. Again, for
me, self-government is the more important issue. For instance, I am one
of the original members of the DC Statehood/Compact Commission. Our
charter was to “promote, educate and advocate” statehood for the
District of Columbia. We are established in the Executive Office of the
Mayor and we use to have an annual budget of $150,000. Under the great
leadership of lovely Jo Butler (may she rest in peace) we made such
strides that Congress forbade the District to fund us anymore. With true
self-government, we, the people can do what we, the people, decide to
do.
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This is to advise that the January 2002 on-line edition has been
uploaded and may be accessed at http://www.intowner.com.
Included are the lead stories, community news items and 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 simply by clicking the link provided. The next issue will
publish on February 8. The complete PDF version will be posted by early
that Friday morning, following which the text of the lead stories,
community news, and selected features will be uploaded shortly
thereafter.
To read the lead stories, simply click the link on the home page to
the following headlines: (1) “Adams Morgan Garage on 18th Street Opens
with Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony”; (2) “Tivoli Developer Gets Nod as
Lead in Partnership for Wax Museum Site.”
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
CHIME Music Around the World Programs
Dorothy Marschak, dwmarschak@yahoo.com
Music Around the World is a series of interactive presentations for
all ages by local professional performers and educators of music from
different cultures, genres and periods placed in cultural context.
Programs include music from the Middle East, South and Central Asia,
China, Africa, Armenia, and Latin America. There are also programs
featuring histories and demonstrations of gospel music, jazz, the
saxophone, the opera, African-American drumming, and fiddle music. They
will be held on Saturday afternoons at Benning, Lamond-Riggs, and
Petworth libraries, and on Tuesday evenings at Mount Pleasant library.
The programs are partially funded by a matching grant from the
Humanities Council of Washington; CHIME is seeking donations to cover
the balance of the cost.
The first monthly programs scheduled for each library: January 12 at
Benning Library, Benning Road near Minnesota Avenue, NE, from 2-3 p.m.:
“History of Gospel Music” with singer, actress and TV producer
Angela Polite. January 22 at Mount Pleasant Library, 16th and Lamont
Streets, NW, from 7-8 p.m., “Learn Songs for Chinese New Year” with
singer Cynthia Lin. January 26 at Lamond-Riggs Library, South Dakota
Avenue at Kennedy Street, NE, from 2-3 p.m., music of South Asia (India,
Pakistan, Bangladesh), with sitar player Brian Silver. February 9 at
Petworth Library, Georgia Avenue and Upshur Streets, NW, 2-3 p.m. Duke
Ellington: his music and influence with saxophonist Fred Foss and
pianist Benito Gonzales. You can see a complete schedule and description
of these programs on CHIME’s website: http://www.chime-dc.org,
or at any of these libraries.
CHIME (Community Help In Music Education) is a volunteer nonprofit
organization whose mission is to mobilize community resources to promote
and provide music education for DC public school children in and outside
of school. Besides the library programs its activities include providing
music instruction and donated instruments to schools and after-school
programs; providing professional development workshops for teachers; a
Music Buddies program to introduce children (and parents) to different
performing organizations; and an advocacy campaign to incorporate music
education in the core elementary school curriculum. For more information
about CHIME activities or to make donations of your time, unused
instruments in good repair, or your money, see our website or contact us
at info@chime-dc.org.
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Make Your Web Site Work: The Return on
Investment (ROI) Method
Barbara Conn, bconn@cpcug.org
Are you a business owner or manager frustrated with the performance
of your web site? Dirk Johnson, successful entrepreneur, author,
trainer, and owner of ROIWebsites, is making a presentation on the
information you need to make smart decisions about your web site
strategy. Bring your questions to the Saturday, January 19, 1:00 p.m.,
meeting of the Capital PC User Group (CPCUG) Entrepreneurs and
Consultants Special Interest Group (SIG). Meetings are free and are held
the third Saturday of each month at the Cleveland Park Library (second
floor large meeting room) at 3310 Connecticut Avenue, NW, a block south
of the Cleveland Park Metrorail station, half a block south of the
Cineplex Odeon Uptown movie theater. (Note: in March 2002 we will meet
on the fourth Saturday, March 23, because the Cleveland Park Library
book sale is scheduled for the third Saturday of March.)
For more information about the presentation, the speaker, and CPCUG,
a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational organization, and to register for the
meeting, visit http://www.cpcug.org/user/entrepreneur/102meet.html.
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Community Stakeholder Meeting on Emergency
Assistance
Susie Cambria, scambria@dckids.org
Be a part of an exciting new effort to urge the District to establish
an emergency assistance program to help people with rent, mortgage,
utilities and other emergencies! The workers who were laid off after the
September 11 attacks exposed a gaping hole in the District's safety net
that many already knew about. With thousands of workers facing eviction,
it's time to act. Monday, January 14, 3:00 - 5:00 p.m., Asbury United
Methodist Church, 926 Eleventh Street, NW (nearest Metro: Metro Center).
Tentative agenda is to describe the need for emergency assistance,
introduce proposed emergency legislation, and discuss strategy and next
steps to pass emergency assistance.
This meeting is sponsored by the Emergency Assistance Working Group:
Covenant House Washington; DC Action for Children; DC Employment Justice
Center; Local 25, Hotel & Restaurant Employees Union; National Law
Center on Homelessness & Poverty Neighbors' Consejo; So Others Might
Eat; Washington Council of Agencies; and Washington Legal Clinic for the
Homeless.
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CLASSIFIEDS — HELP WANTED
Correct Phone Number for “Help Wanted”
Anne Anderson, psysrusa@cs.com
Unfortunately, I have been informed that there was a typographical
error in the phone number of the “Help Wanted: Mayor and Candidates
for other public offices” message that I sent you last time. The
correct phone number to call for instructions on how to indicate one's
interest in being a candidate is 529-0003.
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Minority and Women Owned Business for
Government Contracts
Arthur H. Jackson, ccadadc@aol.com
On the birthday of Dr. Martin L. King, Jr., January 16, the AHJ Group
will launch Project 2005+ which will assist 2,005 or more business in
becoming certified to bid on government contracts as small,
disadvantaged, minority or women owned business. More than $200 million
will be awarded to business like these in 2002. Our business consultants
are available to speak at civic, business or community meetings. Also we
are seeking business professionals to train as business development
consultants. Call 240-508-5926 or E-mail resume to ahjgroup@earthlink.net.
###############
CLASSIFIEDS — HOUSING
I am moving into my new house on Monday, January 19th. My apartment
in DC will be free by the end of next week. It is located at 3303
Cleveland Avenue, NW, behind the Cathedral. I am in the basement
apartment of a nice private home and the entrance is from the
garden/patio back yard through the alley. The neighborhood is terrific
as it is in Woodley Park and a close walk to the Metro. The
landlord/owner is a woman with kids away at college, minimal intrusion
and quiet. I rented month to month. Full kitchen, one bedroom, one bath
with shower, no tub, and a large living room. Washer/dryer privileges
next to your kitchen. It has been remodeled recently and has been a nice
place to live. The rent is $1200 per month and that includes utilities
and expanded Starpower cable. If you are interested or know of anyone,
please E-mail me and I can put you in touch with the landlord.
###############
CLASSIFIEDS — FOR SALE
Large, sturdy hand cart for sale, sort of like a flatbed wheel barrow
with no sides, $20 or best offer. Great for heavy or light hauling,
measures about 3' x 5'.
###############
CLASSIFIEDS — FREE
Free Zagat Washington DC/Baltimore Restaurant
Guide
Michael Karlan, michael@dcyoungpro.com
The DC Society of Young Professionals is making Zagat Washington
DC/Baltimore Restaurant Guides available free. To receive your free
guide, E-mail your name and address to zagatdc@hotmail.com,
and E-mail a copy of your request to events@dcyoungpro.com.
DCYoungPro will then add you to its E-mail list, and it will tell Zagat
that you are now eligible to be sent a questionnaire. Zagat will then
send you a restaurant questionnaire. If you fill out and return the
questionnaire, you will receive a free copy of the next edition of the
Zagat Washington DC/Baltimore restaurant guide. For more information
about the DC Society of Young Professionals, please visit www.dcyoungpro.com.
###############
CLASSIFIEDS — DONORS WANTED
CCADA Appeals for Corporate Donors to Help in
Crisis
Arthur H. Jackson, ccadadc@aol.com
The Concerned Citizens on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, located at 3115
Martin L. King, Jr., Avenue, SE is one of our city's oldest alcohol and
drug treatment and prevention programs and is facing a crisis in funding
due to government cuts and privatization of awarding of contracts to
large global treatment corporations ,rather than to community based
organizations like CCADA.
We are seeking to raise $300,000.00 to continue this program, which
has assisted thousands of DC residents. Your support or donation is
needed to replace the government cuts. "We must help Samuel and
Nona Foster in their crusade to save our people from drug and alcohol
abuse; we can not depend on government contracts," says Arthur
Jackson, Jr., Ward 8 Democratic State Committeeman, whose firm The AHJ
Group is providing pro bono services to the East of the River
organization. To assist CCADA in these efforts call 563-3209/3210 or
E-mail CCADADC@aol.com.
###############
CLASSIFIEDS — RECOMMENDATIONS
Response to Flexcar Classified
Claudia Marquez, muneca0466@aol.com
I have recently used Flexcar and love it. I had researched ZipCar and
found it too expensive just to sign up! ($25, $75, and $300) so when I
found out about Flexcar and looked it up on the wmata.com website, it
seemed the right thing. Took about a week to process my application,
went to a meeting and reserved a car the next day. Picked up the car,
drove it, returned it, done!
I love it, no more parking headaches (I live in Adams Morgan, ugh
hate the parking), no more towing difficulties (have had a car towed
twice, ugh hate those trucks). I have signed up for limited use during a
month period, and just the thought that I have a car to use when I
really need one is great. I highly recommend it and I hope you will have
the positive experience I had.
###############
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