Distractions
Dear Undistracted:
I was going to continue the argument over DC’s planning process,
but I’m in too good a mood to argue. I watched Two-Gun Man from
Harlem, a 1940’s Western B-movie starring bandleader Louis Jordan with
an all-black cast, this afternoon, and then listened to the new Norah
Jones album. I realized that we Washingtonians were taking the Ricin
attack on the Senate office building in stride and not panicking when it
became evident that we were much more interested in talking about Janet
Jackson’s exposure of her Weapons of Mass Distraction at the Superbowl
than about the weapons of mass destruction in our city. All in all, not
a bad day; I’ll argue later. Which doesn’t mean that you can’t
argue among yourselves.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Tasty WASA Recipes
Ken Nellis, nellisks<at>aol.com
Now we know the secret to those tasty recipes published in the WASA
newsletter that comes with our monthly bills. It's the lead!
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State of the District
Dorothy Brizill, Dorothy@dcwatch.com
Nearly four years ago, Mayor Anthony A. Williams gave a State of the
District address at Ballou High School (http://www.dcwatch.com/mayor/000306.htm).
Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Congressmembers Eleanor Holmes Norton and
Tom Davis, Chairman Alice Rivlin and members of the Control Board, and
Ethel Kennedy were honored guests. Mayor Williams explained why he came
to Ballou to make that speech: “When we thought about where we might
hold the State of the District Address, we had many generous offers. But
I wanted to come to an institution representing the vital center of our
city, the vital future of our city, Ballou High School. Because the
young people we need to educate are right here. The teachers and parents
we need to rally around are right here. A neighborhood we need to
energize is right here. This school, these kids, and this community,
symbolize the State of our District. Ballou embodies our hopes and our
most profound challenges; our deepest passions, our pains and our
potential. Most of all, I am here because I believe educating our young
people is no more and no less than the central driving force for any
community that aspires to greatness.” He said that his first priority
was fixing the schools, adding, “And we can do even more as a
community. Over the years, reform has come in stops and starts. But I'm
digging in, committing my leadership and the full weight of my office to
pull us through a reform agenda.”
There was a different atmosphere at Ballou Tuesday night, when Mayor
Williams returned to the school. Williams had to postpone his annual
State of the District address, scheduled for the same night, to meet
with parents and students who were grieving yet another Ballou student
who had been murdered. Throughout the meeting, he became increasingly
visibly angry at the parents and students who booed him when he entered
and who accused him of not caring about their school and their part of
town. But he did not respond; he did not list the ways that he had shown
he cared about Ballou High School, its students, and their parents. He
did not remind the audience of his promises four years ago and show them
how he had kept his promises. The promises had not been kept, and there
had been no demonstration of caring over the past four years. One of the
students asked why it took the murder of the student for city officials
to come back to Ballou. She didn’t get an answer.
On Saturday, the funeral of seventeen-year-old Ballou student James
Richardson will be held at Paramount Baptist Church, 3924 4th Street,
SE; the viewing will be from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.; the service from
12:00-2:00 p.m. At the same time on Saturday, the funeral of
fourteen-year-old Princess Hansen will be held at Holy Christian Baptist
Church for All People, 5110 Nannie Helen Burroughs Avenue, NE; the
viewing will be from 10:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.; the service from 12:00-2:00
p.m.
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Newborn Home Visit Initiative Ads
Alverda Muhammad, alverdaa@msn.com
On February 1, NBC 4 television aired a promotion for the Mayor’s
Newborn Home Visit Initiative. The ad portrayed parents expressing their
pleasure with the service and skill of the nurse and how helpful she
was. The problem with the ad is that the nurse in the ad was Asian. The
fact is that there has been only one African American nurse providing
this service since the inception of the program, with the exception of a
four-month period when there were two nurses, both African American.
The ad stated that if parents called for a newborn visit, one would
be provided within 48 hours. Since there is only one nurse currently
assigned to the program, and she does both administrative work and the
actual visits, this does not seem reasonable. The nurse that assisted in
the program for four months did so because the Maternal Family Services
pulled the money from the Birth to Eight Project that serviced high risk
infants who are at risk for developmental disabilities. This was a home
visit service where the referrals came from the hospitals in the city.
These were not overlapping services. The Newborn Home Visits are only
for up to four weeks and provides only one visit. The Birth to Eight
Project could initiate services for up to eight years. The one full-time
and one part-time nurses were transferred from the Birth to Eight
Project to the Newborn Home Visit Initiative. Both of the nurses were
African American. The Program, to this date, has no known nurse of any
other ethnicity, certainly none known at the time of the airing of this
Mayor's promotion.
These African American nurses served clients in all areas of the
city. Sometimes they went into areas where even the police entered with
trepidation. The ad, however, implied that the services were good,
because persons other than the dedicated, skilled, experienced and
caring African American women, who had actually provided the services,
made the visits. Now, this is not an issue because of race. It is an
issue because it is not true. The Birth to Eight Project is currently in
limbo because of contractual problems.
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Isn't it interesting how an individual who lives in less than
middle-class conditions can invoke the wrath of so-called intelligent
officials of the DC government, who feel no sympathy for the demise of
that individual when she is targeted by the MPD as a witness to a
murder? Will they invoke their wrath upon the person that was murdered
in Ballou High School while classes were in session, or will they
perform their official duties and deliver better security, not only for
Ballou, but for all schools? Officials of the DC Government see to it
that their children attend schools that offer not only security but
discipline, and that they are not exposed to the horrors of gang wars
and drugs. Yet, they come to the same people that they hold loathsome
and ask for their votes to continue their denigration of them for the
next few years of so-called public service to the masses. When will we
learn that today's politicians offer the population of DC no good
representation and are not in our corner to right the wrongs fostered
upon us by eager developers and money grabbing entrepreneurs. HOPE VII
has been the lever to root out the less than fortunate and turn their
former living spaces into a horn of plenty for those that can afford to
purchase. Then they select a few of the unfortunate to live in a few
subsidized living spaces to show that they are not totally against poor
people. An avenue for the Bow Tie's friends to make money off of houses
that are poorly rehabbed and poorly designed. Crime in this city will
continue to rise as long as we allow Chicago Slick (Ramsey) to be police
chief of MPD and Bow Tie to remain as Mayor. The people of DC must rise
up and vote their consciences and rid us disgusting politicos, and put
in office persons that truly represent the people.
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Denial? Hell, I Deal with This Every Day
Richard Layman, rlaymandc@yahoo.com
Re: Good Old American Denial (themail, February 1). People get
murdered within one block of where I live. People I know have been
mugged, with the perpetrators using guns, within a couple blocks of
where I live. It happens that perpetrators use guns because they have
them, or because guns ensure that the act is more likely to be
successfully carried out. It doesn't have much to do with "these
people" or "those people." This is why I favor using
data-based policing methods to get at crime at the source, or in
investigating crimes and catching perpetrators (and there have been some
decent successes along these lines recently in the Capitol Hill area for
which the police department should be proud). Focusing on the etiology
of crime is why my particular neighborhood and the H Street Main Street
program had been pretty vocal about how the MPD intended to redesign the
PSA structure for our neighborhood. Previously, the H Street commercial
district was in three PSAs. In the new structure, it will be located in
one PSA. Having one set of police officers (not three sets, from two
different MPD districts) focused on the entire neighborhood should make
a big difference.
This is why I also favor a serious focus on "disorder"
ranging from focusing on alcoholic beverage licensing (there is a clear
link demonstrated by research and analysis between sales and littering,
loitering, drunkenness, and petty crime), drug sales hot spots, habitual
public drunkenness, dirty environments (graffiti, vacant and nuisance
properties, etc.). (See http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A5325-2003Aug30¬Found=true)
New York City's success in crime reduction is attributed to four
major policy changes: 1) data based focus and analysis; 2)
accountability — officials not successful in addressing evident
problems and issues lost their jobs; 3) “zero tolerance” or at least
a recognition that the average perpetrator of more serious crimes also
perpetrated less serious crimes, and that catching people committing
“minor” crimes (turnstile jumping, etc.) would reduce overall crime,
and help close cases — it also helps in capturing guns, etc.; 4) a
focus on disorder in the broader environment, i.e., eliminating graffiti
on subway cars, in public spaces, etc., leads to a greater sense of
safety but also communicates that the community is less willing to
tolerate antisocial and/or criminal acts. (The British call all of this
antisocial behavior, and it is a major focus of their national
government, see http://www.crimereduction.gov.uk.)
In any event, it appears to me that DC hasn't adopted policing policies
and strategies with “zero tolerance” or disorder reduction at the
foundation. I think it shows.
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Thanks for mentioning my article on the mayor in the February issue
of Washingtonian. We're always interested in reaching new
readers, and I'm sure your notice will bring curious minds to us.
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Pogo and Pollution
David Sobelsohn, dsobelso-at-capaccess-dot-org
In the February 1 issue of themail, Len Sullivan refers to the famous
line from Walt Kelly's comic strip “Pogo”: “We have met the enemy
and he is us.” Sullivan writes that this is what Pogo said “when the
denizens of the Okefenokee Swamp felt threatened by imaginary
intruders.” Not exactly. In the actual cartoon, published on Earth Day
1971, Porkypine and Pogo are walking through the “forest primeval.”
Porkypine says the beauty of the forest “gets me in the heart.” Pogo
replies, “It gets me in the feet.” The next panel reveals a forest
overwhelmed by garbage. Porkypine agrees ?It IS hard walkin' on this
stuff.” Pogo then observes “Yep, son, we have met the enemy and he
is us.”
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What is going to happen to the people who applied for the second
appeal and are still waiting to get an appointment even if they spent
the last months E-mailing and phoning to the office competent with the
matter?
Will the new property tax (12 percent) for 2004 be over the 2003
assessment, regardless of the first appeal assessment that we did not
like?
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[Comments on two items in themail, February 1:] Erica Nash/Gary
Imhoff: the problem with the “cap” program is that it makes an
arbitrary separation between assessment and actual tax. As Gary Imhoff
correctly points out, the assessment does not go away, it remains on the
District's books, and could (just like the proposed caps) be re-invoked
at any time as a lien on the property. All that happens, it would seem,
is that the work of the assessors' office would be temporarily detached
from the level of taxes. If it were ever to be reattached, there would,
I assume, be an unholy row, as property-owners would be asked to make up
the shortfall in their actual taxes. Is this fanciful?
Peter Lugar is describing, I think, the original California system of
Proposition 13: the only “real” assessment of properties is their
actual price when bought/sold. This might be actual at 100 percent.
After the willing buyer has accepted this valuation, he/she cannot be
taxed more than a number related to inflation, presently close to 2
percent per year. This has the advantage of keeping actual tax closer to
changes in actual income, but the disadvantage that attention shifts to
what happens at the point of sale, in later years: a great increase in
the then-assessment (such as would happen in Washington's overheated
market for properties, might deter buyers, and offer incentives to
disguise (so far as this can be done) actual sales as “loans” or
“leases” so that the original intent would be frustrated.
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
DC Public Library Events, February 5 and
following
Debra Truhart, debra.truhart@dc.gov
Fifteenth Black History Month Film Festival, Thursdays, February 5,
12, 19, and 26, 6:00 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial
Library, 901 G Street, NW, Room A-5. Annual festival that includes a
weekly showing of African American films with a guest presenter.
February 5, A Journey to Africa: Tracing Roots from America to
Nigeria with guest presenters Sam Ford, ABC-WJLA-TV news reporter
and Fatima M. Zein, interpreter. February 12, film adaptations of Ralph
Ellison’s King of the Bingo Game and Richard Wright’s Almos’
A Man with guest presenter Turner Freeman, DCPL film librarian.
February 19, Noble Desire: A Time for Healing with guest
presenter Ambassador Cyrille S. Oguin of Benin. February 26, Malcolm
X: Make It Plain with guest presenter A. Peter Bailey, editor,
journalist and activist. Public contact: 727-1265.
Climbing Your Family Tree: Genealogy for All Ages, Monday, February
9, 10:00 a.m., Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library, 901 G Street,
NW, Room A-5. Constance Potter and Reginald Washington of the National
Archives will discuss ways of researching your family tree. Public
contact: 727-5535.
Henry “Dis-com-bob-u-lating” Jones, Friday, February 13, 12:00
p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library, 901 G Street, NW.
Professional boxing ring announcer Henry “Dis-com-bob-u-lating”
Jones will read and discuss his book It’s More Than A Notion.
Public contact: 727-1211. Music and the Civil Rights Movement: A Tribute
to Coretta Scott King Musician and Activist. Friday, February 13, 1:30
p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library, 901 G Street, NW,
Auditorium, Room A-5. Sopranos Lee-Folia Brunt and Valerie
Harris-Gregory present a recital and lecture program in honor of Cora
Scott King’s contributions, both as an activist and musician, to the
Civil Rights Movement. Public contact: 727-1285.
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Open Mike at Jenney Elementary School,
February 10
Mary Alice Levine, levines5@starpower.net
Come to the Janney PTA Meeting on February 10. You can weigh in on
such topics as: 1) the efforts of a small group in the Janney School
community to sell valuable DCPS property to benefit only themselves
during a financial emergency for Public Schools throughout the city. 2)
The idea of trading away a land treasure that would benefit students and
neighbors for many, many years to come in order to get renovation funds,
which could be available elsewhere within the next five to ten years.
The school will have to be renovated again; the land will be gone
forever. 3) The pursuit of a public-private-partnership between Janney
School and a developer who would renovate the school and build
apartments and/or townhouses on a precious area of green space in
Tenleytown. This type of deal would significantly reduce the buffer area
around the Janney and St. Ann's Schools and relinquish school and
neighborhood fields and playground space. It would also commit the
school to fighting for a change in the underlying zoning of school
property that could place apartments in the residential neighborhood on
42d Street. 4) Janney's deals for cash from the Wisconsin Avenue
developer hopefuls. (No other area school has accepted money from the
Babe's developer, but Janney has a commitment letter for $75,000 if the
Babes development is approved.)
Come to the Janney PTA open mike, Tuesday, January 10, 7:15 p.m.,
Janney School Auditorium. For developer proposals sketched in the Janney
PPP Committee Report, go to http://www.janneyschool.org.
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CLASSIFIEDS — SPACE
Office space to share in Cleveland Park. Counselors/body therapists.
Good for writers seeking solitude. Reasonable rates. Contact Julia
Burger, artswithjulia@aol.com,
997-1920.
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CLASSIFIEDS — RECOMMENDATIONS
A DC parenting support group is looking for a place to meet. Parents
and their small children would come to the meetings to use the space.
Capacity of the room needs to be at least thirty (counting adults and
kids), to be used once a month during the daytime for a couple of hours.
Library meeting rooms are obviously an option that already has been
looked at, but would appreciate other suggestions.
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Firewood
Elizabeth Wulkan, ewul@loc.gov
In need of firewood. The man we used to buy from no longer comes
knocking on our door. Can anyone suggest a good alternative?
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