Vision

Dear Visionaries:

In this issue of themail, Erich Martel supplies two replies to Joel Klein's op-ed article in last Monday's Washington Post. Klein is the mayorally appointed chancellor of the New York City schools; the New York experience has been highly touted, and touted by Klein himself in his article, as a success that Washington should emulate. But the letters that Martel sends give a very different picture, as do two articles from opposite ends of the political spectrum that portray New York's experiment as a resounding failure: Nat Hentoff's “For the Children — Klein Should Resign,” Village Voice, September 8, 2003, http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0337/hentoff.php; and Sol Stein's, “Joel Klein's Figleaf: Chancellor Klein's Begrudging Nod to Phonics,” City Journal, January 9, 2004, http://www.city-journal.org/html/eon_01_09_04ss.html.

The picture that these letters and articles paint is of a school system that isn't accountable, answerable, or responsible to parents, students, or the public — of a system in which top-down control shuts out the people it is supposed to serve. This is the model that Washington's mayor and business organizations continue to promote, even after it was resoundingly defeated last Tuesday, when the city council voted 11-2 to return to a democratically elected school board in 2007. Mayor Williams, however, has decided to keep pushing for total personal power over the schools, heedless of and unconcerned about the damage that continued uncertainty and doubt and conflict will inflict on the search for a new superintendent of schools.

Williams and the developers and business interests who back his grab for power over the schools have clear priorities and goals, and they are determined to succeed. Williams and Terry Golden and Jim Kimsey don't have a vision for education, but they do have a vision for schools. It is that schools should be run like a business, and that business interests should run the schools. It is that the prime real estate that the Board of Education now controls is too valuable to waste on children. It is that hundreds of millions of dollars a year can be made when the public school system is carved up and privatized — when the business functions are contracted out, when the facility management contracts are written, and when “educational turnaround” contracts are given to private firms for experiments with the latest educational fads. Schools as a profit center for the politicians' allies and financial supporters — that's the vision, and that's why control over the schools has to be wrested from the people.

Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com

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Is Mayoral Control of Schools Really Working in New York?
Erich Martel, ehmartel@starpower.net

On Wednesday, April 20, the Washington Post printed an op-ed piece by NYC Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, arguing in support of Mayor Williams' attempt to take over the DC Public Schools. Two responses were sent to the Post by Elizabeth Carson, a parent and cofounder of the NYC education advocacy group (http://www.nychold.com); and by Jonathan Goodman, professor of mathematics at NYU's Courant Institute.

Carson wrote: “It is highly ironic that the cornerstone of New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein's argument in favor of the diminished authority and oversight for the DC Board of Education is the precept that accountability is central to successful school reform. For it is accountability that will be entirely lacking if DC follows NYC's lead and institutes a similar, highly centralized, dictatorial model of school governance, manifest in mayoral control. It is precisely the total, direct authority over school policy and administration granted Mayor Michael Bloomberg by the New York State legislature that has led, not to wise and informed decisions on how best to help city students achieve or to clean up the inefficiency of bureaucratic entanglements in the largest urban school district, but rather, that has led to a series of profound mistakes, reforms known by the misnomer 'Children First.'”

Goodman wrote: “New York City School Chancellor Joel Klein offers his reforms as an advertisement for Mayoral control of urban school systems. He neglects to mention that he has become deeply unpopular with New York City parents, many of whom think he is more concerned with control than education. The decision making process is even more opaque and autocratic than under the old school board system. Expensive whole language reading and fuzzy math curricula were forced on the system while they were being denounced by outside literacy and math experts.” Neither reply to Klein's editorial has yet been published by the Post, but the full text of both letters is online at http://www.dcpswatch.com/martel/040422.htm.

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West Wing Interlude and Assault on the Mall
Mark David Richards, Dupont East, mark@bisconti.com

The weather is blissful. West Wing was filming along the Potomac near the Lincoln Memorial today. I was riding my bike on the National Mall and in Potomac Park. I edged my way up to Martin Sheen with my bicycle; he was looking very Presidential near a Presidential Limo, and told him I wished he was the real President. He and his companions laughed. I asked him if he would mind putting back the “Taxation without Representation” tags on the Presidential limo. He again laughed and explained to his companions that Bush had removed all DC's “Taxation without Representation” license plates from the Presidential fleet. When I asked, “Can you imagine, we had been trying to win equal rights in this District for over two hundred years?” a young woman with him said, “You don't look that old!” We all laughed. What a lovely day in Washington.

Except for the assault on the National Mall which I forgot to mention to President Josiah Bartlet. This assault is not by outside aggressors or street muggers. Six months ago I photographed the horrible state of the Mall -- the barriers and digging and fencing, and of course the ever neglected DC World War Memorial. I don't profess to be the expert, but the barricades all around seem to me to be more an illusion of security than real security. I thought it could not get worse, and I was wrong. Today, the White House looked like it had been circled by a Berlin Wall (remember peering over the wall?). There is a black steel fence barrier about four feet high snaking across blocks and blocks, respecting no aesthetic. It has a step on the inside, apparently for armed forces. I don't know if they think there are some very radical women in town this weekend, or what, but this is over the edge. The fence stretched all around the White House, through the center of Lafayette Park, and for blocks around the World Bank and other buildings. Tourists were trying to take photos in front of the prison camp-like image, far from the White House fence. Trying to help them figure out how to get through the maze and to the Mall was a challenge. The Washington Memorial is surrounded by a wooden fence, and the hill is bare dirt. The “planters” and heavy steel barriers along so many federal buildings are ominous. I look forward to the day when the national capital will not feel like a war camp.

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Lead Update
Dorothy Brizill, dorothy@dcwatch.com

The Interagency Task Force on Lead in Drinking Water, which was established on February 11, did issue its final report last Thursday, April 22. The report contains fifteen recommendations by the co-chairs, Mayor Anthony Williams and Councilmember Carol Schwartz, for further action by the DC Water and Sewer Authority and the relevant city and federal agencies (http://www.dcwatch.com/wasa/040422.htm#III). While the Task Force of been disbanded officially, the District's Emergency Management Agency will not assume the lead role in running a Drinking Water Quality Workgroup. As the interim and final reports of the task force note, “Following a discussion at a Task Force meeting, the City Administrator partially activated emergency operations at EMA to coordinate the work of all city agencies involved in responding to the issue of high levels of lead in some of the District's drinking water. Toward that end, a Drinking Water Quality Workgroup was established to identify key issues associated with this situation and develop a plan of action to address and resolve those issue.” The report goes on to indicate that, “EMA continues to track agencies' completion of tasks identified in the work plan and provide coordination and support for ongoing efforts to abate the problem. Finally, the agency has served as a communications clearinghouse and a logistics manager.”

Both WASA and the Washington Aqueduct will hold a series of community meetings in the coming weeks. WASA will hold three more meetings on its proposed rate increases, expansion of the Customer Assistance Program to tenants, and a resolution to remove all known lead service lines from public space by September 30, 2010: April 26, 6:30 p.m., Francis A. Gregory Branch Library, 3660 Alabama Avenue, SE; May 3, 6:30 p.m., Chevy Chase Branch Library, 5625 Connecticut Avenue, NW; and May 19, 6:30 p.m., Watha T. Daniel/Shaw Branch Library, 1701 8th Street, NW. The Washington Aqueduct will convene meetings of the Lead in Water Technical Expert Working Group on April 27 and 29, with informal open sessions starting at 6:00 p.m. and formal presentations at 7:30 p.m., at Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church, Harmon Hall, 3000 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, on the 27th; and Metropolitan Avenue United Methodist Church, Great Hall, 3401 Nebraska Avenue, NW, on the 29th.

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Polling the Citizen Summit Participants
Lars Hydle, larshydle@aol.com

On Saturday I was called by a public opinion survey research organization, Pacific-something, if memory serves. They said they were calling participants in last fall's Citizens Summit III. They asked various questions in an interview lasting about ten to fifteen minutes. I should have, but did not, ask for which client the survey was conducted, but I would have to guess that it was the Williams Administration. If themail readers who were Citizens Summit III participants are called, perhaps you will be able to find out. Or Dorothy can ask about it at the Mayor's weekly press conference. I wish they would spend the money on working with and improving the Advisory Neighborhood Commissions instead.

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One Might Ask or . . . Vote!
Ed Dixon, Georgetown Reservoir, jedxn@erols.com

As DCPS prepares to cut over 10 percent of its teaching faculty, the Council continues to weigh what the per pupil spending formula should be. Last year the base for publicly financed tuition was $6,551 for DCPS. Since most of that money goes to salaries, the per diem for 365 days comes out just below $18 per day. The Council is considering the Mayor's mark at $6,904, an increase of about a dollar a day. Any armchair statistician could figure out that's about a 5 percent increase. And those outside of the schools might ask “what else could these schools possibly need?” (Parent's United has testified that a number closer to $7500 would be more appropriate considering the WTU pay raises from which the Council and Mayor benefited.)

But comparing what parents and students are being lured towards as an adequate (i.e., private) school tuition versus the DCPS tuition, we see a large gap in per diems. The Maret School charges from $17,812 to $21,140 for tuition, a per diem of about $49 to $58. The Beauvoir School charges $18,583, or $51 per day. Gonzaga College High School charges a measly $10,850, or about $30 per day. Of course, there are application and registration fees, textbooks, and before and after care costs, lunch, and a costly IQ exam that is not included in that price. Plus there are informal contracts regarding parental involvement from volunteering to fundraising. And those contracts are fulfilled all the way up to the Council of the District of Columbia. Needless to say, these schools as well as other well endowed private and parochial schools throughout the city have been receiving public financing long before the voucher/scholarship debate roiled out of control over the last year.

One who supports public education in the city might ask, “why are city leaders who use these schools trying to force parents and students away from the public schools, which in turn makes living in the city less affordable?” Or, on the other hand, if the schools that they use are a good value at the price they are paying, “why don't public school tuitions more closely mirror private schools tuitions?” Otherwise those supporters should remember the important local election in this town is on September 14, just after school starts. Parents and members of the public school community should carefully gauge when they return to school if their schools have improved, and if they haven't go immediately to the polls on September 14.

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The Zone System Is Illegal
Karl Rudder, krudder222@aol.com

Very few are aware that the DC Taxicab Zone System is actually illegal. This lack of insight on the part of the general public is only due to over seventy years of a very shallow manner of address to this issue by DC politicians as well as by the local and national news media. The DC Public Utilities Commission on November 6, 1931, listed twenty reasons on PUC order no. 956 to deny, “any version of the zone system to replace the use of meters in DC taxicabs.” The decision by the PUC is still standing, due to the fact that Judge Adkins of the DC Superior Court (PUR1932C pg1) and the DC Court of Appeals completely upheld every aspect of that initial government decision. Very few are aware that the DC City Council actually passed legislation in 1996 that would have required that meters be installed in DC taxicabs by 1998 (see the Washington Post editorial, September 7, 1996). Even fewer are aware that this legislation, passed by the City Council and signed by the Mayor, had failed to develop into an element of reality only due to a very insulting refusal on the part of Congress to appropriate the necessary funds on the socially, economically and politically oppressive DC Appropriations Act.

A Judge, a jury, or the residents and workers of the DC taxicab industry cannot be asked to express a sincere judgment on an issue until they have had ample opportunity to review and discuss all of the essential facts of that issue. I submit this brief summary of my research in trust that any supporter of the use of the DC Taxicab zone system fare structure will have enough confidence to stand up and present a government or Court decision that ever approved the DC taxicab zone system. I will expect any defender of the DC taxicab zone system to also be able to refer to specific rulings that found that the DC taxicab zone system is actually an equitable means of computing taxicab fares as well as a reliable means of recording and taxing the income of DC taxicab companies and drivers.

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Mayor Asks US to Obey OAS
Timothy Cooper, worldright@aol.com

In a letter dated April 20, DC Mayor Anthony Williams asked the Bush Administration’s top law-enforcement official, Attorney General John Ashcroft, to direct his office to work with the leadership of the US Congress to remedy the human rights violations found by the Organization of American States in a legal decision rendered by an arm of the 35-member nation organization in February. The OAS’s Inter-American Commission on Human Rights determined that under international human rights law the rights of 570,000 residents of the District of Columbia were violated because they lacked full Congressional voting rights.

The mayor’s letter urged the Attorney General to direct his office of Legal Counsel “to work with Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, Congressman Tom Davis and the leadership of the House and Senate in fashioning a constitutionally acceptable and equitable redress for this long-standing and intolerable grievance.” The mayor pointed out that the OAS had in part reached its decision because even the US courts had “specifically concluded that the historical rationale for the District clause in the US Constitution would not today require the exclusion of District residents from the Congressional franchise," and that the "denial of the franchise is not necessary for the effective functioning of the seat of government.”

The international human rights case was originally filed with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights by 23 DC residents in 1993. The full text of the OAS decision may be found at http://www.cidh.oas.org/annualrep/2003eng/USA.11204.htm.

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Speed Limits
Erik S. Gaull, esg25@columbia.edu

Grow up, Natalie [themail, April 21]. The speed limit is clearly posted on MacArthur Boulevard in multiple locations. Even if it were not, the law states that the speed limit in the District is 25 mph unless otherwise posted. You were clocked at 11 mph over the posted speed limit. Ergo the ticket.

You state that MacArthur Boulevard is a six-lane road. It is not. It is two lanes in each direction, with a parking lane. The fact that it is a two-lane road in each direction does not necessarily equate to its being suitable for higher speed limits. The sight line distances on MacArthur Boulevard can be extremely short and the road directly passes four schools and a library. Many senior citizens live in the area, which we who live in the area view as a residential neighborhood, not a six-lane (or four-lane) highway. I don't know where you live, but I'm pretty sure that you don't appreciate people bombing through your neighborhood. My suggestion is that you find another way to get where you're going and/or that you observe the posted speed limits for residential neighborhoods.

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Speed Cameras
Clyde Howard, ceohoward@hotmail.com

I can appreciate the comments of those who are for or against the speed limits in DC, but when you have a speed limit that has been the rule before most of the commentators were born, when there were Model A-Fords and when there was few or no automobiles on the streets of DC or on the highways (there were no interstates then) it then makes one realize that a solution to resolving an antiquated speed limit has become necessary, as we are now in the twenty-first century. As I said before and will say again, a study should be made of the current speed limits in DC before installing robotic cameras to nab speeders. Once the study is complete and the speed limits are adjusted, then place any type of device to catch speeders in place. What is being done is putting the cart before the horse, which shows that the speed cameras are not to slow down drivers but to make money for the DC government. Therefore, the issue isn't safety, but the greed of the government.

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Speed Traps
Mariuccia Marolo, Mariuccia@comcast.net

It would be advisable to publish where the camera are hidden so people can at least be more careful in the future.

[You can reach the lists of red-light cameras and speed cameras by following the links on http://mpdc.dc.gov/info/traffic/traffic.shtm. Has anyone been following these lists to see whether they are kept up-to-date? — Gary Imhoff]

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Tenley Firehouse
Amy McVey, amybmcvey@msn.com

Having been very involved in the Tenley Firehouse issue since the beginning, I can say that Richard Layman's article about Hysterical Antipreservationists does not quite complete the picture of the Tenley Firehouse quagmire. What has been continuously misleading about the coverage of this disaster and the concerns of the community is that the focus has been only on what happened with the firehouse and the contractor after construction started which, is a he said/she said battle, the merits of which will be settled in the appropriate legal venue. The real problems started much earlier when the fire department was forced by preservationists to reduce the size of the apparatus floor space which the chiefs, who had been firefighters in this city for years and well knew the operational requirements of the department, had requested to be enlarged in the Appendix A of their Request For Proposal.

When the DC Fire Department (DCFD) applied for and was granted a raze permit for the old Tenley Firehouse, their specified requirements for this project called for three full bays, drive through where possible, so as to provide for at least one additional ambulance. Drawings to these specifications were presented at several community meetings and plans were moving forward until a reactionary first application for historic preservation was made and a landmark hold was placed on the property. At that point, DCFD erroneously felt they had no recourse but to fully change the plans in order to get the applicant to withdraw the application. After many, many months, the application was withdrawn and the fire department was proceeding with a 2 1/4 bay, renovated firehouse that has approximately the same linear footage of floor space for emergency vehicles as did the old firehouse built more than a hundred years ago. The former Chief Few, who as it turned out was not a man of great character and who knew little to nothing about the safety requirements of our community, chose to ignore the advice of his chiefs who had advised that a larger space was needed. Mr. Layman is right in stating that this community wants a rescue squad but what he does not explain and perhaps does not know is that we want back the heavy rescue squad that was taken from us in budget cuts in the mid-90's. It is also not well understood that although Bethesda Chevy Chase Rescue Squad comes into the city for medical transport using what we/they refer to as a rescue squad, this is not interchangeable with a DC heavy rescue squad whose responsibilities are search and rescue in a fire along with other specialized rescues (cave-ins, water, high-angle, etc.). This area of town must now wait for the heavy rescue to come from another section of town when we are in need of help. The heavy rescue squad that was taken from us was not a medical transport.

The solicitation for bids was made in the late summer/early fall of 2001 when the building was free of historic status. Sally Berk, working with DC Firefighter Rich Schaeffer and the Capitol Fire Museum, having let the legally required one year pass since the last application was withdrawn, made a second application for historic preservation on the same property which was approved by Historic Preservation Review Board (HPRB) in February 2002; many months after the contract bids were made. At no time did these applicants come to any community meeting to explain their intent to us; an oversight that I am not so sure was uncalculated considering the overwhelming community rejection of the first historic preservation application on this firehouse and the need to speed the process considering the contract was about to be signed! The Capitol Fire Museum apparently really wanted the Historic Preservation Office (HPO) to have oversight of the project and they needed to hurry it along.

I think I have heard every excuse possible from those who want to blame only the contractor and refuse to look at the negative aspects of preserving the firehouse. The most recent one told to me was that HPO has said that it was not the fault of preservation that the firehouse is not being built larger but was instead a zoning problem! The fact is that the fire department already applied for and was granted a zoning variance because the renovated building had a footprint larger than was allowed under matter-of-right zoning. When the community asked during this last delay to "go back and start over and do it right," they used the excuse that a three-bay firehouse would not allow for enough living/office space for the crews. An absurdity considering either plan, the renovated or the three-bay, all new, more than doubled the office/living space over what the firefighter's had in the old building. Another example of false logic thrown at the community.

As Chief Thompson stated at the recent Ward 3 ANC Commissioners meeting, there is definitely a need for expanded services in this area and he is going to try to build us a second firehouse. Considering the fire department repeatedly refused to speak with the owner of the Tenley Mini-mart about purchasing that land, an obvious solution to both preservation and expansion, on the grounds that there was no money, I will not believe that another firehouse is even being considered until it is up and running.

I applaud Kathy Patterson in her effort to prevent this legislatively from happening to another community. Although there is a process in the DC Landmarks legislation whereby a historic building, including a firehouse, can be altered or demolished, it is unacceptable that the fire department must submit to the review of people who know little or nothing about firefighting or the daily operations of a firehouse or fire department. DC Fire was forced to submit to this process in the phase leading up to the start of construction on the Tenley Firehouse. It was a phase that lasted more than three years. Sometimes, public safety capabilities must be altered or expanded quickly, making this burdensome process unacceptable. These decisions should be left to the men and women who bravely serve us as they do.

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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS

National Building Museum Events, April 28-29
Brie Hensold, bhenhold@nbm.org

Wednesday, April 28, 12:30-1:30 p.m., Building for the 21st Century: Solar Century. Glenn Hamer, executive director of the Solar Energy Industries Association, will discuss the history of the solar energy industry and its explosive recent growth, innovative residential and commercial projects, and the policies and practices that will make the sun one of the most important energy sources of the 21st century. Free. Registration not required.

Wednesday, April 28, 6:30-8:30 p.m., The Daring Men Who Built the World's Greatest Skyline. Author Jim Rasenberger will address the dramatic history of New York's ironworkers, who risked their lives to build the city's vaulting steel bridges and skyscrapers. His talk will be followed by a reception, at which he will sign copies of his book High Steel: The Daring Men Who Built the World's Greatest Skyline (HarperCollins). This program complements the exhibition Symphony in Steel. $12 Museum members and students; $17 nonmembers. Registration required.

Thursday, April 29, 9:00 a.m.-3:00 p.m. Careers in Construction EXPO. At this event, middle and high school students can learn about the many career opportunities available in the construction industry. Professional craftspeople will demonstrate their skills and specialty trades. Free. Appropriate for 7th through 12th graders. Registration required through participating schools. For more information or to register, visit www.nbm.org/Careers_In_Construction_Expo.html; call 202.272.2448 ext. 3306; or E-mail ejacknain@nbm.org. All events at the National Building Museum, 401 F Street, NW, Judiciary Square stop, Metro Red Line.

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DC Public Library Events, April 27, 29
Debra Truhart, debra.truhart@dc.gov

Tuesday, April 27, 1:30 p.m., Cleveland Park Neighborhood Library, 3310 Connecticut Avenue, NW. Reinaldo, sculptor and professional from Restoration Inc., will present a slide lecture and discussion on the return of the lions to Taft Bridge. Public contact: 282-3080.

Thursday, April 29, 1:30 p.m., Cleveland Park Neighborhood Library, 3310 Connecticut Avenue, NW. Come see Laurence Olivier’s classic version of Shakespeare’s tragedy, Hamlet. Public contact: 282-3080.

Thursday, April 29, 4:00 p.m., Washington Highland Neighborhood Library, 115 Atlantic Street, SW. The D.C. Public Library proudly renews the Air Force Band at your library concert program to present springtime performances at Washington Highlands and Cleveland Park neighborhood libraries. (The band will perform at the Cleveland Park Neighborhood Library, 3310 Connecticut Avenue, NW, on Thursday, May 20.) Public contact: 645-5880.

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Upper Wisconsin House and Garden Tour, May 2
Mary Alice Levine, levines5@starpower.net

Please join us for the Tenleytown Historical Society 2004 house and garden tour on Sunday, May 2, 1-5 p.m. Tickets available on the day of tour, 12:30-4 p.m., in front of Tenley-Friendship Library: $15 ($12 members). Houses and gardens to be shown are in Mt. Airy (the area around the intersection of Wisconsin, River, and Brandywine Streets,) Grant Road Historic District, and American University Park. Eldbrooke Church will be open for tour 4-5 p.m. only.

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Potomac River Run Marathon and Half-Marathon, May 2
Jay Jacob Wind, jay.wind@att.net

Two hundred runners will make history at dawn on Sunday, May 2, when they run a brand-new 26.2-mile marathon -- the Primus Telecommunications Potomac River Run Marathon and Half-Marathon — at Belle Haven Park in Alexandria, Virginia, with United States Surgeon General Vice Admiral Richard H. Carmona as official starter of the 7:00 a.m. flight. Conducted by a unique coalition of local running clubs, the scenic, historic course starts at Belle Haven Park and heads down and back on the Mount Vernon Trail along the Potomac River, through the woods of George Washington Memorial Parkway is partly flat, partly hilly. At sunrise, runners see herons, cranes, geese, and perhaps deer.

Since the course is on a multi-use trail, for runners' safety, the start is split into three flights: 6:00 a.m., Early Birds; 6:30 a.m., Coffee Achievers; and 7:00 a.m., Top Flight (qualifying time: 3:30 or better). Participants may choose their preferred flight. The marathon offers water/aid stations every mile or so. All finishers receive medals and finisher certificates after the race. Cash prizes go to the top three overall in the marathon ($250 for first, $150 for second, and $100 for third). Gift certificates and merchandise awards go to the top three by five-year age-group and "first in flight," male and female. The awards ceremony begins after 10:00 a.m.

Among men, top seeds are John Piggott of North Carolina, Ray Emmerson of Alexandria; Robert Radzwich and Erik Werner, both of Pennsylvania; and Steven Dunn of Washington, DC; among women, Tracy Stewart of Colorado Springs; and Dr. Antonia Baum of Chevy Chase, MD. Two world-class Kenyan runners, Micah Rop (2:13 best) and Steve Natholi (2:14), plan to run, pending visas, so the race could yield a Virginia state record. Packet pickup is the day before the race, Saturday, May 1, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., at El Mexicano Restaurant, 3300 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington VA 22201, next door to Mario's Pizza, two blocks west of Clarendon Metro. Parking is free. The marathon's College of Running is open to public on Saturday, May 1, at El Mexicano. Attendees earn a certificate. Speakers include: 11 a.m., Coach Jim Kreutel: “How We Trained for the Marathon” (Kreutel has coached many marathon training programs, including Potomac River Run's 16-week program); 1 p.m., Dr. Antonia Baum: “Body Image for Athletes” (Dr. Baum, a 3:26 marathoner, is a registered psychotherapist specializing in eating disorders among athletes); 3 p.m.: Dr. Alfred Morris: “The Doctor is IN: Last-minute health, nutritional and other preparations for a successful race” (Dr. Morris has served as medical director for many marathons, including Potomac River Run). For more information about the event, see http://www.pvtc.org/marathon.html or call 703-218-2726.

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Washington Storytellers Defying Convention, May 11
Brad Hills, bradhills@washingtonstorytellers.org

Washington Storytellers Theater "Speak Easy Season 03/04" presents Counterculture: Stories About Defying Convention on Tuesday, May 11, 8 p.m., at HR-57, 1610 14th Street, NW (between Corcoran and Q Streets). $5 admission. Featuring Stephanie Garibaldi, Bob Gordon, and Megan Hicks. Doors open at 7:30. Show up early to get your name on the open mic list. Listen to some of the area's best storytellers and then get up on stage to tell us your story. Because no one else can.

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