Humility
Dear Humble Readers:
You may not know it, but Councilmember Kevin Chavous is a master of
time management. In addition to having a full-time law practice, being
an adjunct professor at American University's law school, and spending
an hour a two a week on his City Council duties, Chavous has found time
to become an author. He has written a book, Serving Our Children:
Charter Schools and the Reform of American Public Education, which
will be published this June by Capital Books. Here is how Chavous is
described in the book's publicity (http://www.internationalpubmarket.com/clients/cap/Books/BookDetail.aspx?productID=85732):
“Kevin P. Chavous is the Ward Seven representative on the Washington,
D.C. City Council where he is a forceful advocate for public education
and public school reform. He serves as the chair of the city council’s
Committee for Education, Libraries and Recreation. As the leading
national advocate for school choice, Mr. Chavous has helped shepherd the
charter school movement into the Nation’s Capital. His efforts won him
the prestigious MAC award in 2000. Mr. Chavous has led the drive to make
the University of D.C. a world class public institution of higher
learning for residents who would otherwise be unable to attend college.
In addition to his work on the City Council, Mr. Chavous is a partner in
the law firm of Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal, where he founded and
is currently developing the firm’s Education Law practice. He also
teaches education law as an adjunct Professor of Law at American
University’s Washington College of Law. He lives with his family in
Southeast Washington D.C.”
As the leading international spokesman for the most prestigious
world-class web site on the Internet, I congratulate Kevin on his
humility.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Dept. of Health Naivety, Cont.
Ted Knutson, dcreporter@yahoo.com
The following is from a full-page ad the DC Department of Health
placed in the April issue of The Hill Rag listing activities for
“Public Health Month:”
April 9
Staff Encouragement Day
“Remember to Drink Plenty of Water Today”
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Flushing, Free Chlorine, and Water Tests
Lars Hydle, larshydle@aol.com
Recently DC WASA customers have received a letter from WASA
announcing the annual water flushing program and the switch of the
distribution system disinfectant from chloramine to free chlorine from
April 2 to May 7. The letter says this switch is not connected with
ongoing studies that address water chemistry changes to reduce lead
leaching from service lines. But press reports suggest that the recent
high lead readings may be caused by chloramine. If so, water tests taken
during the free chlorine period may show a low lead reading which, when
WASA returns to its normal chloramine disinfectant, may rise again.
It would seem that either WASA customers should wait until after May
7 to test their water, to get a realistic reading of lead in their water
under normal conditions, or do one test before May 7 and another
afterwards, which may help to verify whether the customer has lead
service lines or lead household lines. The instructions for the water
test kit require that both of the samples be drawn from cold water,
which leaches less lead than warm water. But drawing samples from warm
water would be a more effective way to find out whether there is lead in
the service line or the household line.
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Pyramid Bookstore
Stephen Hosmer, sh34g@nih.gov
Does anyone know if the Pyramid Bookstore at 2849 Georgia Avenue, NW,
is closed or has reopened? Do you know if a story relating to its status
was ever done in any newspaper? If it did close, do you know when? I
would appreciate any help that anyone could give me?
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Editor Imhoff's analysis of stadium negotiations [themail, April 4]
is excellent, but one thing need be added: Commissioner Bud Selig has no
intention of putting a baseball team in Washington (or Northern
Virginia) as long as the Baltimore Orioles are in business. The proof of
this is that the bankrupt Montreal Expos have been run by the major
league owners for three years now, losing money all the way, instead of
selling the team to DC area owners, where the team almost certainly
would make a profit. Ironically, and hypocritically, Selig has argued
that a franchise move has to be made carefully and slowly. But Selig's
own Milwaukee Brewers came into existence only days before the start of
the 1970 season when the American League owners allowed the Seattle
Pilots to be declared bankrupt in court and transferred to new
ownership, a cynical move that prompted the antitrust lawsuit by the
City of Seattle that was resolved when the expansion Mariners were
created half a decade later. Nevertheless, Bud Selig, owner of a
franchise thrown together within days, won't let the Expos move to
Washington over three years.
The only hope for a baseball team in DC, or the DC region, is a
wholesale boycott of the Orioles, but there is no sign that DC's leaders
are prepared for that. As years go by, other major league teams in
Tampa, Miami, or Oakland may relocate, but Selig has other replacement
cities lined up for Portland, Oregon, Charlotte, North Carolina, and
even Norfolk, Virginia).
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In his April 4 reply to me via themail, Danilo Pelletiere is not sure
how correct I was “that [the stadium being considered by Anschutz
Entertainment (the team‘s owner-operator, by the way) to house DC
United and host other events] has been going on in secret or that it is
a 'scheme.’” Well, I was going by the comments of DC United’s
Kevin Payne, senior VP of Anschutz Entertainment Group: “The city and
a private developer are doing a lot of homework behind the scenes and we
expect to reconvene with them sometime in the next couple weeks, and
then the process will probably become more public.” That statement and
the striking similarity of this project with the city’s baseball
process; which also consists of DC officials, private ownership
concerns, and private developers meeting behind closed doors on all the
elements that matter and keeping vital information about the project
secret; further my concern that the DC United process is falling right
in line with the seriously flawed Major League Baseball scheme.
Pelletiere follows this with the assertion that “the news [about a
soccer specific stadium] has been in the Post and elsewhere
often,” and even makes the comment that “the club and the city have
both published their plans.” Unfortunately, there have only been the
broadest of generalities actually revealed with a decided dearth of
specifics such as firm cost estimates and breakdowns including the
public portion, financing structure, stadium ownership, management and
revenue distribution plan for the facility, and firm site location
revealed to the public, all of which goes for the baseball stadium
project as well.
In fact, the planning both has been going on behind closed doors for
a while and continues that way, as the comments from Kevin Payne showed.
On the MLB side, the proof is found in that a site twice rejected by
both the 1999 and 2002 DCSEC MLB site evaluation studies was
resurrected, according to Jack Evans in the Post when Herb Miller
of Miller Construction called Evans about said site and a new funding
package, and site plans have been worked on and are set to be submitted
to MLB, according to published reports in the Post and the Times.
In my book, all this backdoor planning, when the city had pledged that
public process would be followed for stadium projects, constitutes
secrecy, and going against the recommendation of two site evaluation
studies that cost a reported half a million dollars and then planning to
meet directly with MLB with details on their site and financing proposal
without consulting with the public whatsoever looks an awful lot like
scheming to me! On the DC United side, it was also reported that the
city and a private developer are doing a lot of homework behind the
scenes, away from public scrutiny and therefore in secret. As far as
location, “along the Anacostia River” as the Post puts it is
quite nebulous, as that description covers quite a lot of ground and
neighborhoods; I‘m sure the affected citizens appropriate ANC would
like a little more site specificity long before DC officials and the
private business concerns announce they’ve struck a deal! And the full
scope of each project has yet to be revealed, and the “combo
stadium/amphitheater” aspect was only announced in recent days and has
potentially tremendous ramifications from noise to congestion in
waterfront locations from Maine Avenue onward (and a concert venue with
seats on the field could raise the capacity for concerts to well above
25,000), which is all the more reason for the affected public to be
involved on the front end of these things.
It was interesting that Pelletiere brought up the Anacostia
Waterfront Initiative in this manner: “The AWI and city plans,
including those of NCPC, have long seen the redevelopment of the site
along these lines for sport or a similar use such as an Aquarium.” I’m
not sure what “the site” is, since the AWI covers a whole host of
potential sites and since DC United and the city have not seen fit to
reveal it, but as for the AWI, I don’t recall its long being seen as
an integral part of any stadium deal, not by the consultants to the DC
MLB site evaluation project nor to talk surrounding the DC United
stadium project, which at least publicly had confined itself to land
near RFK Stadium. However, both the baseball and the soccer projects
have apparently centered a good deal of focus on the AWI, likely as a
funding source via the DCSEC-like Anacostia Waterfront Corp. that many
DC officials are seeking to create and which could provide planners with
the same amount of latitude the DCSEC used (and abused according to
auditors) to plan stadium projects! In that case, seeking redress for
significant flaws to the stadium plans might be all but impossible. As
Dorothy Brizill pointed out in her piece published in the April 4th Post,
the AWI (and Mount Vernon Triangle Action Agenda) are projects that
"will displace thousands of residents and hundreds of businesses
and give hundreds of millions of tax dollars to favored developers.
Details of both plans were developed largely in secret, with residents
allowed only last-minute comments about what color to paint the
trim." Citizens can’t afford that, and therefore need to act now
to be included in the stadium process!
Pelletiere also accurately suggests that “the project should be
heavily scrutinized, or — if it ever advances beyond plans — even
scrapped if there are significant flaws in the plan, costs to the city
and the environment, or citizen opposition to its placement,” but
within the after-the-fact nature of that lies the crux of my complaint
against the current situation. DC citizens need to be in on things from
the planning stage, especially if private concerns from DC United to the
Washington Baseball Club to Herb Miller are allowed to not only be in
the process but seeking to steer it, at least if DC government is
planning to actually work to have the best projects for all concerned
and not simply aiming to ramrod a plan through and are counting on
political clout and narrowing the time frame and opportunities for the
public to impact the project by opposing the project or simply seeking
to change elements of it.
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CLASSIFIEDS — HELP WANTED
Bilingual, Full-Time Legal Secretary,
Immediate Opening
Jon Katz, jon@markskatz.com
Marks & Katz, LLC, is a growing Silver Spring law firm fighting
for justice, individual rights, and the underdog . We encourage
applications for our immediately available position of bilingual
(Spanish-English) legal secretary with a minimum one year of legal
experience to assist in our immigration and personal injury practice
areas. Top pay and benefits. This position requires demonstrated common
sense and intellect; a caring and empathetic disposition; good
organization; and readiness to work successfully under tight deadlines
and new daily challenges. Please send, only via E-mail, a text version
of your resume, a persuasive cover letter (designating “Legal
Secretary - Bilingual”), salary history, and relevant references, to justice@markskatz.com,
Marks & Katz, LLC. Please refrain from E-mail attachments and phone
calls. For more information, visit http://www.markskatz.com.
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CLASSIFIEDS — RECOMMENDATIONS
I am in the market for a new vet for my cats. Recommendations would
be greatly appreciated.
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Wonderful Night for a Moonbounce
Phil Greene, pgreene@doc.gov
Does anyone have any recommendations for renting a moonbounce for a
kiddie party?
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