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January 8, 2003

Baring Witness

Dear Witnesses:

An antiwar group based in Marin County, California, Unreasonable Women Baring Witness, has announced that they are going to hold a nude (that's why the they spell “baring” that way) protest march in which, they promise, “One hundred thousand women and men will strip on January 18 in Washington, DC, and San Francisco.” Pardon me for being skeptical about projected attendance figures, but if you had an opportunity to travel from Marin County on the eighteenth of January to either DC or San Francisco in order to march naked outdoors, which city would you choose? After the march, we'll have a good chance to verify the count of of protesters by reviewing the tapes from the MPD's cameras set up to spy on protesters, and I'll bet those tapes will have plenty of close-ups.

I've encouraged those of you who have spam censorship programs on your work E-mail addresses to change your subscriptions to themail to your home E-mail addresses, because censorship programs are so crude and inaccurate. Brian Livingston, in the latest issue of InfoWorld, reveals how crude and inaccurate they are: “Researchers used nine different e-mail clients to request newsletters from 125 large corporations. They found that one in four of the sent messages were shunted as junk by Hotmail and Yahoo (http://www.silverpop.com/downloads/documents/SpopStudy_TheBrokenLink.pdf). Too bad if you rely on e-mail for important business communications.” Now I need to add one more request; if you decide to set up a censorship filter on your home account, please be sure to put themail on the list of acceptable addresses, because the filters on home addresses are just as bad as the ones used by businesses.

Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com

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Follow the Money
Ed T. Barron, edtb@aoldotcom

With so many of the relatives and friends of the thieving leaders of the Teacher's Union working on Mayor Williams' staff it will be interesting to see just how much money made its way from the coffers of the Teacher's Union into Mayor Williams' campaign war chest. Too bad this event occurred after the mayoral election last November. It might have had a very positive effect on the election results with Carol Schwartz as our mayor.

And what looney tunes in the Teacher's Union decided that they would borrow money to repay teachers who had been overcharged for their union dues last year? The teachers who overpaid will get a check, then they will have to give that money back, plus interest, over some period of time. Sounds like another pea and shell game to me. Are the teachers in DC so naive that they can't see what is going on?

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Residential Parking Permits
James Treworgy, jamie@trewtech.com

I've long harped against DC's RPP system, but it's gone from theory to reality. Some of my neighbors in Mount Pleasant have recently decided to zone their streets, winnowing away the number that remained unzoned. Naturally, my neighbors on the newly zoned Lamont street with out-of-state registrations have migrated their cars down to 19th Street, and, since I can't get an RPP sticker, I will be ticketed if I park anywhere but 19th. I'm sure they are also happy to advise their out-of-town guests and contractors to park on my street, since they'll be ticketed on their own. What a great system. People who live on unzoned streets get the runoff from their zoned neighbors, and can't park on their street. Is there some rationale for denying people on unzoned streets an RPP sticker? Is DMV using this as a carrot to encourage people to zone their streets so they can make more parking ticket revenue?

Of course, I could just jump on the bandwagon and petition to get my street zoned. Sure, that would accomplish the short-term goal of getting the unwanted out-of-staters off my street, but then where would we be? A couple months from now the whole neighborhood will be zoned, instead of unzoned. The status quo will be achieved, and we will have exactly the same number of cars in Mount Pleasant as we did before. The only difference is that then my guests and contractors will get parking tickets, as there will be no legal place to park during the day, whereas before they didn't. Oh, yeah, and a few people will be forced to register their cars in DC so the city will make a few bucks.

RPP is useless. It restricts parking during the day when there is no parking problem. It causes my out-of-town visitors to get parking tickets, or causes me to have to obtain a permit in person every time I have a daytime visitor. It surely doesn't do anything to reduce the number of cars that park in my neighborhood, though, since every one of them belongs to a resident, or guests thereof. We have a parking problem in this city: the people who live here have too many cars. Unfortunately, instituting this ridiculous zoning system in residential neighborhoods isn't going to solve it. At the very least, those of us who still value unzoned parking on our street should be permitted to obtain RPP stickers. Beyond that, the system needs an overhaul.

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Waterside Mall
David Sobelsohn, dsobelso@capaccess.org

Since its opening, Waterside Mall in southwest DC has stayed open at least the same hours as Metrorail. Metro riders have been able to walk through the mall on their way home. On January 2, with no input from area residents, the mall began closing at 10 p.m. As a result, Metro riders who used to walk through the mall after 10 p.m. now walk around the mall, through deserted and poorly lit parking lots near the Greenleaf Gardens housing project. Increased crime is a matter of time. As it happens, during December, the mall's new owners occasionally closed the mall early; they also closed on Christmas Day. Every time I stopped by when the mall was closed, I saw a handful of security guards sitting together on the closed mall's first floor. I'd guess they were drawing a salary. I'm not sure what else they were doing.

On December 25, I sent E-mail messages to Jim Graham and Sharon Ambrose calling their attention to this situation — Ambrose because this is her ward, Graham because he is on the WMATA board, and because Waterside Mall's early closure will discourage use of this Metrorail station, especially late at night. At first, Jim Graham replied that, “I of course have no influence over Waterside Mall and its closing time.” When I pointed out that Graham has more influence than I do, he replied that, “this mall is not in Ward One,” and that I should bring the matter to Sharon Ambrose's attention. Both times Graham offered to check into enhancing Metrorail security. I replied that the increased safety risk is not on Metrorail property but on Waterside Mall property or on public streets, neither visible from the Metro station. Nevertheless, in a later E-mail message, WMATA's Richard White promised that, “our patrol officers will increase their visibility around the street level at the Waterfront Station after the business hours for the Waterside Mall.”

Eventually, after I sent my E-mail message twice, Sharon Ambrose replied reporting her plans to meet with mall management on Friday, January 10. ANC Commissioner Andy Litsky will also attend that meeting. So if other Ward Six residents want to register an opinion on this matter, send copies to alitsky@aol.com and to sambrose@dccouncil.washington.dc.us.

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Whither the Recyclers
Ed T. Barron, edtb@aol.com

Not sure what the problem is but the folks who normally pick up the recyclables in upper NW DC on Tuesday mornings have not yet appeared as of late Wednesday evening. Since these folks are not involved with snow or leaf removal, it makes me wonder if the recycling folks are in some form of dispute with the city (late payments, perhaps).

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Inaugural Message
Mark David Richards, mark@bisconti.com

Thank you for highlighting Kathy Patterson's statement at the inaugural. Her statement was heartening and honest and reassuring, and my clap was sincere . . . good government! And that's why Kathy Patterson was reelected, even with a capable challenger. I also appreciated her focus on emergency planning in DC, which the mayor also discussed. Public safety and planning ahead, that's good government.

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Unions
Bryce A. Suderow, streetstories@juno.com

Recently there have been at least two letters to themail defending unions. Let's cut through the crap. Marion Barry hired thousands of incompetent and unqualified people after he became mayor for patronage purposes. The DC unions have protected those peoples' jobs. We the residents of DC have paid a high price for the unholy union between Barry and the DC unions. And the position of the unions is not defensible.

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Happy, Prosperous New Year for the Nation’s Capital City? Not Likely!
Len Sullivan, lsnarpac@bellatlantic.net

Do inner cities benefit from the drums of war? Is DC any exception? Who received NARPAC's fourth "Hats Off" Award and why? NARPAC's answers can be found in the abbreviated January update of its web site at http://www.narpac.org/INTHOM.HTM. Try a new approach to making DC better. Get positively involved.

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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS

CHIME Music Mentors Program, January 16
Dorothy Marschak, chime-dc@erols.com

The CHIME Music Mentors program in partnership with Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) is finally getting underway. There will be a joint orientation meeting with CHIME and BBBS on January 16 at 6 p.m. at the downtown offices of BBBS, 666 11th Street, NW, Mezzanine level (in the Metro Center Building).

The meeting will only take about an hour and will inform you about what the responsibilities are as a CHIME Big Music Mentor and how BBBS will process your application. If you decide to make the commitment at that time, the machinery will be set in motion that will result in your being matched with a same-sex Little Brother or Sister (you both have to agree to the match). The commitment on your part should be for a year to see your Little (aged 8-13) at least twice a month. At least one of those times you agree to go together to a non-pop music performance: CHIME will have a listing of suitable programs that are either free or for which we get offers of free tickets from partnering performing organizations. At other times you would be free to share your love of music in any other way you choose, including providing instruction or other kinds of mentoring, or share other kinds of enriching activities such as museum or library visits, help with schoolwork or hobbies, or just talking. You would be covered by BBBS insurance for all these activities.

Please let me know as soon as possible if you plan to attend the January 16 orientation, as BBBS needs to have a list on advance. Please also invite anyone else you think might be interested, particularly potential male mentors. There is most info about the program on our web site at http://www.chime-dc.org. You can also contact me at dmarschak@chime-dc.org or 232-2731.

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Town Hall Forum on Klingle Road, January 21
Jessica White, jwhite@dccouncil.washington.dc.us

Councilmember Phil Mendelson will hold a town hall forum to present information, discuss and gather feedback on the issue of Klingle Road, Councilmember Phil Mendelson will hold a town hall forum to present information, discuss and gather feedback on the issue of Klingle Road, at Adas Israel Congregation, 3600 block of Connecticut Avenue, NW, at Porter Streets, NW, in the Kogod Chapel (lobby level), on Tuesday, January 21, from 7:30 p.m.-9:00 p.m. “The Mayor's proposal for Klingle Road remains a controversial topic. The public deserves a chance to hear accurate information on this issue and present its views,” stated Mendelson. Dan Tangherlini, the Director of DC's Department of Transportation, will be on hand to present the Mayor's plan and traffic analyses.

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Historical Society Book Sale, January 25
Ryan Shepard, rshepard@hswdc.org

The Historical Society of Washington, DC, will be holding its 5th annual book sale on Saturday, January 25, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Heurich Mansion (1307 New Hampshire Avenue, NW, near the south exit of Dupont Circle Metro). All proceeds from the sale will go to benefit our research library, which will be reopening in May at the new City Museum. More information about the Society and City Museum can be found at http://www.hswdc.org. For additional information about the sale, please contact rshepard@hswdc.org. Thanks to themail subscribers who contributed books!

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“Seder” Invitation, January 26
Robin Larkin, rlarkin@footlightsdc.org

Footlights, the Washington area's only modern-drama discussion group, has arranged for group discount tickets to a performance of Jennifer Maisel's “The Last Seder” (2002). In this “touching” and “funny” new play (Chicago Sun-Times), four sisters return home for a final family holiday before their memory-addled father moves to a nursing home. The performance takes place at 3 p.m., Sunday, January 26, at Theater J, DC JCC, 1529 16th Street, NW (Dupont Circle metro). Tickets are $22 and include a post-show discussion. Afterwards, Footlights will gather for continued discussion over dinner at Bua, an inexpensive nearby Thai restaurant. Send your check, payable to “Footlights,” to Robin Larkin, 5403 Nibud Court, Rockville, MD 20852 (301-897-9314 and rlarkin@footlightsdc.org). For further information, go to http://www.footlightsdc.org.

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DC Act Meetings, January 28 and February 4
Susie Cambria, scambria@dckids.org

What’s in store for FY 2004? January 28 from 2:00-4:00 p.m. at 1616 P Street, NW, 7th floor conference room. Featured panelists are: Arte Blitzstein, Budget Director for the City Council; Ed Lazere, Executive Director of DC Fiscal Policy Institute; and Dallas Allen, Director of Budget Formulation for the Office of Budget and Planning. Cosponsoring organizations are DCFPI, DC ACT, WLCH, Fair Budget, WCA, SOME.

Cast Your Vote for Kids! final report release and budget advocacy panel. This meeting, sponsored by DC ACT, is being held on February 4 from 2:30-4:30 p.m. at 1616 P Street, NW, 7th floor conference room. Confirmed panelists are: Mary Levy (education), T.J. Sutcliffe (homelessness), Angela Jones (child care), and Frankeena Wright (health).

RSVP for either meeting to DC Action for Children, 234-9404 or dcaction@dckids.org. Please note, there is limited street parking and the cost for the parking garage is $12. The closest Metro stop is Dupont Circle on the Red Line; use the south exit.

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CLASSIFIEDS — FOR SALE

Exercise Equipment
E. James Lieberman, ejl@gwu.edu

Precor 9.20 Low Impact Treadmill, fine condition, $300. Rowing/skiing machine, $50. Weight/exercise bench with 3 barbells, $50.

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CLASSIFIEDS — HELP WANTED

Logan Hardware
Gina Schaefer, Gina@LoganHardware.com

New local hardware store seeking experienced personnel for full and part-time jobs. Come be a part of the dynamic commercial district along the 14th St. corridor! Employees with construction, hardware, plumbing, or electrical backgrounds are needed to round out the staff and add expertise to the business. Retirees from these fields are encouraged to apply. All applicants must be serious about customer service and eager to help the growing hardware demand in the Logan Circle Area. Please send responses to the E-mail address above.

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