It’s for Your Own Good
Dear Citizen Winston Smith:
Thank you for your inquiry about the Metropolitan Police Department's
recent pilot program, in which we tested injectible Dual-purpose Micro
Verification chips, or DMVs, in volunteers. This program has been a complete success, and
I am confident that the Mayor will propose and the newly constituted
mayorally appointed City Council will soon pass legislation making this
program universal in the District of Columbia. As you are aware, the
Surveillance Protection and Identification Elements, or SPIEs, that we
have been using for the past two decades are subject to unintended lapses.
The facial identification software is not perfect, as the recent reversal
of several unfortunately mistaken convictions based on it has shown. The
vehicle identification cameras, as we have admitted in the past, can
identify vehicles, but, even after numerous improvements, cannot always
reliably identify drivers and passengers. The DMVs combine in one small,
convenient microchip — no larger than a grain of rice and easily and
painlessly injectible — both a unique and unalterable identification
number and a global positioning unit. And since the SPIEs can be upgraded
to interface seamlessly with the DMVs, any such mistakes will be
eliminated in the future. We shall have a permanent GPS-based record of
your movements at all times, and whenever you are in a public space or
public building we shall be able to match that with our already existing
Enhanced-DVD records of your activities.
Our purpose, as always, is to serve and protect you, our valued
citizen. The more we know about you, the more easily we can locate you to
assist you in an emergency. The better and more reliably we can trace your
movements, the better we can ensure your safety. Several of the subjects
in our pilot DMV program have told us that they felt much safer and more
secure just knowing that their MPD could locate them at all times, any
time of the day. They have told us how much better it would be if every
citizen of the District of Columbia were equipped with DMVs, so that we
could also always know who was with them, and encouraged us to make the
DMV program universal and mandatory.
You have expressed some reservations about this program and said that
you worry about the possibility that the DMVs may compromise your privacy
in some way. Let me assure you that the MPD and the government of the
District of Columbia will always work in your interests. You can trust us
completely. You have my personal guarantee that we will never abuse this
program. Let me also assure you that rumors that the pilot program has led
to abuses are false. The officers who were accused of tracking or spying
on individuals have been fully cleared, and even as I write to you it is
my first priority to identify and eliminate from the MPD those who spread
these malicious and false rumors. Your privacy will not be compromised,
because we will always keep private any information that we collect about
your whereabouts and the people with whom you associate. This information
will be disclosed only to authorized government officials or to others who
have a legitimate need to know it. Besides, as the Washington Post
has recently editorialized, “Only people with something to hide worry
about their privacy.” I am sure that, after you have been fitted with
your own DMV, you will also feel an enhanced sense of safety and security,
just knowing that we are that much better able to look after and protect
you.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Lack of Contract Compliance on $500 Million Health Care Contract
Sam Jordan, sjordan@communitychange.org
Government waste of precious public resources includes the failure of
contract compliance safeguards. Beset by major community health deficits,
Washington, DC is among the leaders in the nation in the occurrence of
HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, asthma, cancer, and hypertension. The local
occurrence of infant mortality is highest in the nation. Yet the DC
Healthcare Alliance, the private, for-profit successor to the District's
public health hospital and clinic system, has developed no plan to address
these negative health indicators.
In addition, the $100 million per year contract for five years with DC
Healthcare Alliance requires the Alliance to enroll 25,000 uninsured
residents who earn 200 percent or less of the Federal Poverty Level. While
only 18,000 have been enrolled, the Alliance is reimbursed as if its
contract enrollment goals have been met. Over 20 percent of the Alliance's
payments are not in compliance with the contract. They have not met the
enrollment goals, have indicated that they will not build the
contract-required, level one trauma center and have not submitted the data
required to monitor their performance. Perhaps the story published today
[February 14, http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/lips/lips.html]
in the City Paper regarding the Mayor's receipt of $100,000 in
campaign contributions from the DC Healthcare Alliance, its affiliates,
and managers explains why this waste and lack of compliance monitoring is
allowed to continue. Health Care Now! has demanded a strict contract
compliance system and the recovery of lost health care funds.
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Stacking the Deck at the Taxicab Commission
Dorothy Brizill, dorothy@dcwatch.com
Mayor Williams has named three new nominees to the Taxicab Commission,
joining his two pending renominations, in order to stack the deck for the
hotel and tourism industry's preference to shift to a metered cab system.
The Council Committee on Public Works and the Environment will hold a
confirmation hearing on the new nominees on March 13. (Find their
nominations and resumes from the list of Council Period 14 legislation at http://www.dcwatch.com/council14.)
The three new nominees are Michael O. Smith, general manager of the Hyatt
Regency Hotel since 2001 and a member of the Hotel Association of DC and
the Washington Convention and Tourism Corporation; Horace Kreitzman,
deputy executive director of the DC Democratic State Committee; and
William Henry Carter IV, president of Carter Sedans. Ron Collins, director
of the Office of Boards and Commissions, confirms that the nominees were
all asked about their position on replacing the zoned fare system with a
metered system, and that they all agree with the Mayor's and the hotel
industry's position. The two renominated sitting Commissioners are Stanley
Tapscott, a Capital Cab Company driver; and Theresa Nelson Travis,
employed by the Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind.
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Councilmembers? Who Responds? Adrian Fenty
Dodie Butler, dodie_b@yahoo.com
I am tempted to send your question to the E-mail lists in Ward 4. If I
do so, your mailbox will probably be jammed in minutes. Adrian Fenty has
turned constituent service — and constituent service via E-mail — into
a fine art. He belongs to, scans, and responds to issues raised on the
TakomaDCList, Shepherd Park E-mail list, and undoubtedly others around the
ward. He summarizes neighbors' posts on public service issues, forwards
them to appropriate public officials, and requests a response which, when
answered, he forwards to the list for everyone to see and comment on. He
has a formidable list of E-mail addresses throughout the ward, which he
routinely uses for sending out announcements of his monthly town meetings
and posting a weekly roster of events in the ward, including times and
locations of meetings of a variety of civic groups.
Mr. Fenty also responds directly to individual E-mails sent to him,
frequently within two or three hours. Most importantly, as it becomes
clear that there is widespread concern about specific neighborhood
problems, Mr. Fenty convenes targeted meetings between government agency
representatives and the community. The turnout is always impressive.
Takoma-DC has been the focus of several meetings already. For example,
after a surge in armed carjackings and robberies on both sides of the
border, on Monday, February 11, Mr. Fenty and Takoma Park, Maryland,
Councilmember Joy Austin-Lane cosponsored a community meeting on
cross-jurisdictional crime that drew Commander Lanier and the leadership
of the 4th Police District, the Chief of Police of Takoma Park, Takoma
Park's town manager, a commander of WMATA's transit police, and WMATA's
government relations liaison. This resulted in a thorough
cross-jurisdictional and cross-agency discussion of what is going on in
the Takomas DC and MD, and what is being done about it.
Mr. Fenty is always ahead of the curve on issues affecting Ward IV
neighborhoods. The only possible explanation is that he never sleeps.
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Constituent Services
Brian L. Baker, bbaker@udc.edu
I saw themail on constituent services and felt that I needed to
respond. In short, Adrian Fenty rocks! I have lived in Ward 5, when Harry
Thomas was my Councilmember, and I now live in Ward 4 in Takoma, DC. Harry
Thomas was no slouch when it came to constituent services, but
Councilmember Fenty takes it to a new level.
When he campaigned, he promised improved constituent services, and he
certainly hasn't let Ward 4 down. He has worked tirelessly to respond to
problems posted on various community listservs, as well as those phoned
into his office. He or one of his staff regularly attends virtually every
community meeting in Ward 4. Councilmember Fenty and his whole staff have
worked tirelessly with our community (Takoma DC) on a number of important
and fractious issues, as well as on the mundane things like getting
streetlights repaired promptly. I could say more, but this seems a bit
fawning already.
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A Councilmember Who Responds
Alice Giancola, Arg2@aol.com
Councilmember Adrian Fenty is outstanding in this area. He monitors our
Takoma listserve and responds sometimes immediately with answers and
solutions to problems. One example in the last year; he has had the city
limb up the trees on our street to make it lighter and brighter after
several muggings (I have been trying for fifteen years to get this done).
He arranged for a special meeting between the community and the police and
Takoma Park, MD, and Metro police after several car jackings and muggings
of people at and walking from the Metro were mentioned on the listserve,
etc., etc.
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Councilmember Fenty, Ward 4
Fy Lewis, Falewis144@aol.com
Does a superb job of using E-mail for constituent services and
information dissemination! As does also ANC 4-whatever Jourdinia Brown as
well as Officer Long, MPD, in 4th District!
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Responsiveness of Councilmembers
Margaret Yoma Ullman, Ullman724@aol.com
I have no way to compare the various Councilmembers, but when I have
turned to the office of Councilmember Kathleen Patterson for help, I have
always encountered kindness, efficiency, and perseverance in solving
problems.
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In December I sent a holiday-greetings card to a friend in Florida. The
Post Office returned it, stamped “Return to Sender/For Reason
Shown.” There was no reason shown. The postmark indicates the card
never escaped Maryland. So I brought the card into a post office. The
agent there couldn't figure out either why the card had been returned. He
agreed the post office had screwed up and sent the card ahead. A few weeks
later, once again it came back “Return to Sender/For Reason
Shown.” Once again there was no reason shown. Have other themail
subscribers encountered this sort of DC-area Post Office handling of
routine mail? At this rate maybe my 2001 holiday card will arrive in
Florida by Christmas 2002!
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Marguerite Boudreau thinks it's OK to relax parking rules around
churches, and recommends that neighbors negotiate with churches to reach a
compromise. Sounds very lovely till you think about it. First of all, try
negotiating from a position of no power. No one is going to ticket the
illegally parked cars. The churches win, the residents lose. How do you
reach a compromise when the churches have no incentive to obey the law,
there being no punishment for breaking it?
Why should someone in wheelchair have to negotiate for the right to
cross the street at a curb cut? Why should someone who needs to go to work
on Sunday have to negotiate for the right to pull their car out of a legal
spot when it's double parked in for eight hours? Imagine yourself needing
to run an errand, or visit a friend in the hospital, or get to the
airport, or pick up a family member from the train station, and being told
you should negotiate with lawbreakers — while the city refuses to enforce
the laws, because the lawbreakers have political power? It’s an insult.
Perhaps churches with parking problems should negotiate with residents to
find a solution — knowing that they have to, because if they don’t
their members will get parking tickets.
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Double Parking and Blocking Crosswalks Are Illegal
David Pansegrouw, dpansegrouw@atpco.net
A few months ago I asked the question about double parking at churches,
not just on Sundays but all days of the week. The recent discussion of the
subject is interesting/amusing/cycnicism raising. I think basic things
tell a lot about the bigger picture — the idea that broken windows in a
neighborhood are a symptom of a bigger problem. Obvious unevenness
(favoritism) in law enforcement, even for basic things, undermines law
enforcement in general. Double parking is simply illegal in DC — 24/7/365. I live in a residential neighborhood and have had police get on
their cruiser microphone to tell me to move my double parked car when it
is clear I am unloading and there is nowhere to park (and plenty of room
to get around the car). The cop is just doing his job, but funny how it
doesn't matter when 15th Street, NW, has more than a block of
church-related double-parked cars on a weekday evening (about 7:45 p.m. on
my way home from work, around T Street). Further, it is not just double
parking but also, frequently, cars blocking crosswalks.
As I stated in my previous posting of the question, the uneven
enforcement is made particularly more glaring as the lack of enforcement
does not favor religious institutions but rather it favors Christian
churches. It is not just a Sunday problem. Double park at a church most
anytime of the week: no problem. Yet try double parking at a synagogue,
where services are not on Sunday. From my own experience, it does not
work. I am interested to know if posters to themail who have expressed the
sentiment that parking regulations should be relaxed on Sundays see any
problem when those regulations are relaxed on a weeknight. Or why
shouldn't they also be relaxed for other denominations that meet on other
days than Sunday. Perhaps there could be a religious purpose parking
permit which would exempt the holder from all parking regulations. I also
wonder what sort of compromise is satisfactory/equitable when your car is
boxed in? I fail to see why anyone should compromise to accommodate
someone else's lack of consideration for anyone but themselves and those
like them. Streets are for driving and parking on. It is reasonable to
think that one should have access to one's parked car and to safely be
able to walk across a crosswalk.
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Oscar Abeyta's [posting on] “Church and State” [themail,
February 13] is quite misleading. WIN, the Washington Interfaith Network,
did indeed invite all mayoral candidates to a packed meeting held in one
of their churches. Indeed, WIN representatives from each congregation
stood up BUT only to announce how many members of their congregation were
present. WIN raised NO money for any candidate. WIN does not support any
candidate. WIN simply questions the “hell” out of all
candidates.
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Ron Eberhardt offers some criticisms of speed cameras, some of which
are reasonable points, though some may disagree (including me). However,
when he argues that it's unconstitutional to get a ticket for going 39 mph
in a 25 zone, because he doesn’t think that’s a reasonable speed
limit. Um, sorry Ron, but thinking a law is unreasonable doesn’t make it
unconstitutional. Also, the size of the road isn’t the only factor to
take into consideration; there are also factors like typical traffic
conditions, amount of pedestrian traffic, and so on.
I have a different complaint. As I made my way east on K Street
downtown a few nights ago, watching people block intersections at every
light cycle, watching Metro buses run red lights (great example from the
professional drivers there!), watching people veer from lane to lane at
high speed (because the other lane might be going 2 mph faster and how
could anyone bear to stay in the slow lane in that situation?), I
wondered, where are the police? Where are the red light cameras? And, as I’ve
often wondered since moving to DC, what on earth do they teach people in
driver ed here? In Boston they were aggressive but drivers at least opened
their eyes, and you rarely saw the typical DC cut-em-off-and-then-stop-at-a-green-light
maneuver.
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Ron Eberhardt's experience with red light cameras highlights one of the
problems that needs to be promptly fixed if the program is to gain the
confidence of the public. However, abandoning such an effective law
enforcement tool because of its current flaws is not the answer. I suspect
that I'm not alone in noticing a better rate of compliance with traffic
laws since the cameras were first installed.
Numerous other jurisdictions in the Washington-Baltimore area have red
light cameras, as I learned at a House of Delegates hearing in Annapolis
last week, and some of them (e.g., Howard County) are considered to be
state of the art. We need to encourage our police officials to interact
more with their regional colleagues in order to develop a “best
practices” approach for utilizing this technology. At the same time,
DC needs to renegotiate the payment scheme with the contractor and also
redirect the revenue from the program into public safety activities, as is
done in most of the suburban jurisdictions, rather than using it to pad
the general fund.
Jack Evans may hate photo radar cameras, as he was quoted in the
Washington Times' daily anti-traffic safety article. But the real story
here is the fact that an elected official admits to dangerous, illegal
behavior, and rather than offer an apology, he lambastes the enforcement
system. (And he's one of the folks ready to run Charles Maddox out of town
for not meeting the residency requirement?) Evans also claims that he
hears nothing but complaints about the cameras. Probably true, since I
doubt that people who support them or don't get caught by them would call
his office to say so. Well, maybe now it's time to do so, especially for
those folks who live in his ward (many of whom probably don't even own
cars) and feel that the speed cameras enhance public safety.
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Re: Speed Cameras Must Go
Richard Layman, Northeast DC, richlaymandc@yahoo.com
As a bike rider and resident who doesn't own a car, and lives four
houses down from one of Maryland's major commuter “highways,” H
Street NE, I couldn't disagree more with Mr. Eberhardt. The fact that
streets are over-engineered to allow higher speeds than the posted limit
doesn't mean that the prevailing speeds that drivers decide to drive are
safe for people other than the driver. (Over-engineering of city streets
is discussed in the book Cities: Back from the Edge.) Since driving is a
privilege, not a right, the impact on the neighborhood should be a primary
consideration in this matter.
The posted limit is 25 mph. At night, people drive in excess of 40 mph.
People drive much faster than the speed limit even during the day. Even
though this is a major street, the fact is that it bisects a neighborhood.
It is one block away from one elementary school and two blocks away from
another. People speed because the road is engineered to allow them to do
so, but this has tremendous deleterious impact on the adjoining
neighborhood. It is unreasonable to expect police to devote their time to
ticketing for speeding when other matters are more pressing and they have
limited personnel.
Hence my overwhelming support for speed cameras and ticketing. If
people get tickets for their lawless behavior maybe they'll stop. Be glad
you don't live in Finland, where fines for speeding are based upon income
— and people have had to pay as much as $100,000 in fines for a single
offense. In looking at photos of the H Street, NE, area from the late
1940s, the posted speed limit for the side streets was actually 15 mph.
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Speed Cameras Must Stay
Judith Kahn, jmkahn@aol.com
I must disagree with Mr. Eberhardt. I think speed cameras are great.
This is probably because too many people driving in DC speed, run red
lights, and generally believe they are the best judge of what the speed
limit should be. I am not sure any street in the district should be driven
at 40 miles an hour. Regardless of the number of lanes available, M
Street, SW, still has residential housing with children and animals.
I may feel stronger about this than most because it was my car that got
creamed by a driver (on Georgia Avenue, also six lanes) who sped down the
street, ran the red light long after it was red, and took off the entire
front end of my car. Luckily, and only because I am leery of starting
right away when the light turns green, I was not hurt. If cameras can
change the habits of only a few people, they are worth it.
###############
Nicholas Cobbs seems to think people who serve as employees of our
local government should be allowed the enjoy the privileges of full and
equal US citizenship one receives under the banner of any of the ”several States,” while the poor denizens suffer continued
discrimination as mere “residents” of the District of Columbia.
We may not be a State, Mr. Cobbs, but we who call this place home for
longer than a career assignment consider ourselves a community. I, for
one, like to think that those who are paid by my local taxes to work on my
behalf, share and fully appreciate what it means to live under our roofs.
Local government should be just that, local. It is everywhere else in the
US. We need more civic pride and less justification of its absence from
apologists for the status quo. Sorry Mr. Cobbs, but I just think you don't
know how it feels to pay DC and Federal taxes year after year and then
have to compete for local government jobs against folk from “wherever.” Save the City! Or, as the late John Wilson used to
say, “Be a cheerleader for your city!” P.S. The Twenty Citizens
lawsuit (formerly Adams v. Clinton, now Adams v. Bush) is alive and still
needs support from those who favor full and equal citizenship over mere
residency.
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Residency Requirements, Voting Rights, and “Incrementalism”
David Sobelsohn, dsobelso@capacces.org
In last Wednesday's issue of themail, Mark David Richards wrote that
“George Washington [in 1796] set a residency requirement for the
second set of three commissioners appointed to oversee the laying out of
the new Federal City.” After they moved, did each of these
commissioners lose the right to vote? I've thought that we in DC have no
right to vote because of an oversight by the Framers. But clearly they
must have realized what they did pretty soon afterwards. WAS it an
oversight, or did someone back then actually argue that residents of the
“seat of the government” shouldn't have the right to vote?
Incidentally, we all realize, of course, that compelling DC city employees
to live in DC means forcing city employees to sacrifice their voting
rights in order to keep their jobs. Are there other jobs like that in
America?
Regarding the apparently now relegitimated issue of “incrementalism”
vs. an unnamed something else, Mark Richards quoted Martin Luther King,
Jr., decrying eloquently against what King called “gradualism”
(which may or may not be the same thing as “incrementalism”).
King sure gave great speeches. Actually, Thurgood Marshall (whom I cited
in my earlier posts on this issue) and Martin Luther King nicely reflect
different approaches to civil rights in the 20th century. As Juan
Williams's definitive biography of Marshall points out, Marshall in his
later years harbored a resentment towards King for having grabbed all the
glory when, in his own view, Marshall's civil-rights strategy accomplished
far more than all King's speeches. By the way, did anyone else note the
irony in King's description (which Richards quotes) of “our brothers
and sisters in Africa and Asia” whom King admired for “moving
with jet-like speed toward the goal of political independence”? The
history of human rights and economic development in Africa and Asia since
King gave that speech suggests a more profound argument for care,
patience, and timing in politics than anything any subscriber to themail
can contribute.
Whether one uses the term “incrementalism” has little to do
with whether to pursue specific political goals at specific times. “Incrementalism”
is just a slogan, a label, a buzzword. One could call the 1964 Civil
Rights Act an example of “incrementalism.” After all, it ignored
housing and voting and had a slew of limitations and qualifications.
People criticize the proposed federal Employment Nondiscrimination Act,
which would ban sexual-orientation discrimination in employment — just
employment — on the same basis. What about housing? Still, in 1964 some
called the proposed civil-rights act revolutionary. Each political goal
presents its own set of challenges and prospects. The rightness of those
working for the 1964 Act — whether you call it “incrementalism”
or “evolutionary” — is proven by their success in getting it
enacted and by the positive effect that law, and others for which it paved
the way, have had on American society.
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Re: Incrementalism or Gradualism by Mark Richards
George S. LaRoche, laroche@us.net
Mark Richards raises some excellent points about the history of “incrementalism”
or “gradualism” in the District of Columbia, but a point should
be made about the difference between what frequently passes for
incrementalism in the District and what happened in the civil rights
movement in the 50s-60s. As Richards points out, the latter proceeded with
a comprehensive strategy of law suits, marches, and other actions,
chipping away at segregation and other sins. So what's the difference
between this and the actions proposed as incremental steps toward the
ultimate goal (which varies from person to person) but is best described
as full self-determination in the context of American federalism, which
means the District is admitted as a state or united with a state, such
that the citizens stand on precisely the same footing as all other
citizens of the States (who don't need special legislation to protect
their rights to some degree of local self-government and to control how
they spend their own tax dollars, etc.)?
The difference is that not one of the “incremental” steps
taken in the civil rights movement had to be overturned or retracted in
order to reach the ultimate goal. All were unretractable steps toward the
ultimate goal. In the history of such proposals for the District, however,
many of these incremental steps will have to be erased or removed before
we reach the ultimate goal we seek. For instance, constitutional
amendments giving the District special status to elect representatives to
Congress will have to be repealed to prevent any remaining federal enclave
from being entitled to elect such representatives, while the rest of the
District goes on to become a state or part of a state. (I once disagreed
with this position, by the way, but after years of study, am now convinced
that this is an accurate requirement.) It might be possible to insert
self-repealing language in an amendment, but I've not yet seen any which
would do the trick, and I suspect that the presence of such language in
the amendment will be an added incentive for many states to not ratify it
in the first place. So Martin Luther King, Jr., was right, as he was on so
many things (where would we be today as a country if we had had him as
President?), when he said that gradualism is a distraction from the task
of reaching the real, ultimate, and right goal. If you know what that goal
is, work to achieve it, not to achieve some little step you think you can
achieve just because you think you can achieve it, but which will have to
be undone before you can reach that ultimate, right goal.
And in this regard, no one has yet presented an argument why the
nonfederal parts of the District must remain a colony throughout the
endless proposals for incremental steps, regardless how many times
Congress “indulges” the District (as the courts have called it)
in powers of home rule, budgetary autonomy, and even representation in
Congress which is constitutionally different and therefore inferior to
that enjoyed by all the citizens of the several States. It's long past
time for Congress and the courts to defend this colonial status or end it.
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Please come to my front porch at 3323 14th Street, NE, tomorrow
(Monday) on President's Day for a cup of coffee. I have great kids books
to give away and some books for adults to buy. I am a thrift store addict
but even I don't need multiple copies of The Shipping News or Bettelheim's
book on fairy tales. I hope to see you here.
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Black History Month Events
Alexander Padro, Padroanc2c@aol.com
Saturday, February 23, second annual DC Recorder of Deeds Building open
house and free guided tour. The District of Columbia Recorder of Deeds
Building, completed in 1942, features seven WPA-era Black history murals
and other artwork, in a building designed to house the only District
agency led and staffed almost exclusively by African Americans for 120
years. Come visit the ROD Building and hear about the history of past
recorders of deeds, including Frederick Douglass and Blanche K. Bruce, the
work of such prominent African American artists as William E. Scott and
Selma Bruce, and see the building's intact 1940s decor, which was almost
lost to demolition in 2001. The open house will be held on Saturday,
February 23, from 12:00 to 4:00 p.m. Tours will be held continuously. This
event is free and no reservations are required. The DC Recorder of Deeds
Building is located at 515 D Street, NW, just one block from the
Archives/Navy Memorial Green and Yellow Line METRO station. For more
information, call the DC Preservation League at 955-5616.
Tuesday, February 26 and Wednesday February 27, the Arts Club of
Washington presents two programs honoring Black History Month. On Tuesday,
February 26, 7:00 p.m., Washington historian and author Alexander M. Padro
will present “The Few and the Brave: Memorials to African Americans
in Washington, DC.” The slide-illustrated lecture will explore both
the city's tributes to notable African Americans and the creative artists
responsible for their design. Also covered will be failed efforts to erect
monuments to heroes of African descent, current proposals to honor
prominent African Americans and the sacrifices made by Black Americans in
the nation's wars, and tributes by African American sculptors honoring
individuals other than persons of color. Reception to follow. Admission:
$10.00; reservations suggested (331-7282 ext. 21). And on Wednesday,
February 27, at 12:30 p.m., the Arts Club will present a luncheon
roundtable on “The Impact of the Work of African American Architects
on the Nation's Capital,” moderated by local architect and
preservationist Charles Cassell. The panel will include Islam Baker,
Baker, Cooper & Associates PC; Stanford Britt, Sultan & Campbell
Britt Owens & Associates, PC; Charles Bryant, Bryant Associates, PC;
and Paul Devrouax, Devrouax & Purnell, Architects-Planners, PC.
Admission: $15.00, including lunch. Reservations required before February
22 (331-7282 ext. 21). The Arts Club of Washington is located at 2017 I
Street, NW, near the Farragut West Blue and Orange Line Metro station. For
more information or reservations, call 331-7282 ext. 21 or visit http://www.artsclubofwashington.com.
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DC EarthSave (DCES) and the Vegetarian Society of DC (VSDC) are proud
to announce the cosponsoring of an upcoming talk/reception by Frances
Moore and Anna Lappe promoting their new book: Hope's Edge: The Next Diet
for a Small Planet on Wednesday, February 27, from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., at
the Washington Ethical Society's Hall, in Silver Spring, MD. 7:00 p.m. to
7:30 p.m.: doors open, schmoozing, light refreshments; 7:30 p.m. to 7:35
p.m., opening comments by DCES and VSDC; 7:35 p.m. to 7:45 p.m.,
introductory remarks by Howard Lyman (Voice for a Viable Future); 7:45
p.m. to 8:30 p.m., “Globalization, the Politics & Economics of
Food, and Biotechnology” (Frances Moore and Anna Lappe); 8:30 p.m. to
9:00 p.m., Q&A and reception. Suggested donation: $5 to $15 on a
sliding scale.
Autographed copies of Hope's Edge and Mad Cowboy will also be available
for purchase. For more information and directions (a very short bus ride
from the Metro to the front door of the Hall is available), check out
http://www.ethicalsociety.org. For special requests, volunteering, or
questions, call the VSDC Veg-Line at 362-VEGY or E-mail Lappe_Reception@dcearthsave.org.
Stay tuned for more details. We look forward to seeing you at this
exciting event!
###############
CLASSIFIEDS — HOUSING
DC Office Space and Office Equipment Needed
Emily Wofford, ejwofford@hotmail.com
Four consultants forming small company seeking office space to share or
sublet in DC. Can be anywhere in DC as long as Metro accessible. Seeking
600 to 1,500 sq. ft. with conference room available for occasional client
meetings. Prefer flexible month-to-month lease. Please send E-mail to
Emily Wofford at ejwofford@hotmail.com.
Also looking for used desks,
chairs, other office equipment.
###############
Thinking of Starting a Business
Arthur H. Jackson, Jr., ccadadc@aol.com
Project 2005+, founded by entrepreneur Arthur H. Jackson, Jr., is
seeking to recruit 2,005 small, women, and minority-owned businesses to
assist with developing business plans and certifications as a DC local,
small, or disadvantaged business and to assist with networking and
marketing your business. Business owners may register for workshops and
private consultants by contacting The AHJ Group at 240-508-5926 or E-mail
ahjgroup@earthlink.net.
###############
CLASSIFIEDS — PETS
A retired woman had a stroke which required her to move to a nursing
home, leaving behind her beloved cats: two female, spayed, healthy
(up-to-date on inoculations), declawed, purebred, Siamese. They are mother
and daughter, 5 and 3 years old, and will only be adopted together. Both
have sweet dispositions; the mother cat is a bit shy and the daughter very
friendly. Their human is very worried about them and prays that they are
adopted into a permanent, loving home. Please contact Bonnie Miles
directly at the above E-mail address if you can help. [Forwarded to
themail by Kathy Smith, ksmith1804@starpower.net.]
###############
CLASSIFIEDS — RECOMMENDATIONS
I need some advice about life in DC. I am coming to the area at the end
of March and am looking for that elusive, three-bedroom furnished
apartment/home. Any ideas for neighborhoods, companies, etc., would be
most appreciated.
###############
I'm looking for someone to clean and power-wash a 6-car garage in the
Dupont Circle area. Can anyone recommend someone for this job?
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