Hey There
Dear Hay Makers:
When I was very young, my parents' best friends were our next door
neighborhors, Doc and Cece Wallace. Doc and Cece were much older than
my parents, but they were a lot of fun and they both had a great sense
of humor. Doc's idea of the best possible joke was to embarrass Cece in
public, and he was usually able to do this easily because he never
hesitated to make himself look foolish. I'll always remember one
incident when I was about five years old, and the Wallaces and our
family went to Union Station in St. Louis.
Union Station in St. Louis, like Washington's Union Station, dates
from the era when public buildings weren't just bare and utilitarian,
but were meant to be grand, to impress the public with massive,
multistory open spaces. In Washington, several churches and government
buildings have these grand atriums, most remarkably the old Pension
Building that is now the National Building Museum. Even a few businesses
boast them. I used to have a bank account at the old National Bank of
Washington branch at 14th and G Streets, NW, and I remember taking an
out-of-town friend there one time and having him say, “Now this is
what a bank should be: a temple to money.” In any case, Union Station
in St. Louis has one of these grand and impressive spaces. As my parents
and I stood in the atrium with the Wallaces, I could see Doc Wallace get
a glint in his eye. He then transformed himself into the very image of a
hayseed, a hick from the sticks. His jaw went slack in wonder; he gawked
around him in amazement and stared at the dome. And then he fixed his
gaze on Cece and mortified her by exclaiming in a rube accent and in his
loudest voice, “Sure would hold a lotta hay.”
This week, though, I'm wondering whether Doc's reaction to Union
Station isn't the right reaction to the World War II Memorial just
completed on the Mall. We live in an age in which monumental
architecture is self-consciously self-parodying, in which even monuments
aren't monumental. If the Lincoln or Jefferson Memorials were to be
built today, even if we could still get popular agreement that Lincoln
or Jefferson deserved memorializing instead of discrediting and
deflating, their statues would probably be life-sized or a little
larger, not gigantic. The most popular monument in Washington is now the
Vietnam Veterans Memorial, a plain engraved black wall that sinks
modestly below ground level. The WWII Memorial, a huge outdoors Roman
atrium built on an impressive scale, goes against the recent grain, both
of architectural modesty and historical debunking. More than one
architectural critic has slammed it as being the kind of monument that
would have been built in Berlin if Germany had won the war. Tell me,
architectural critics, what do you think? Grand and impressive, or
better just for holding a lot of hay?
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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In World War II vernacular a dud is an unexploded bomb. And that's
just what the new WW II Memorial on the Mall is. Based on what I have
seen in Rome, Mussolini would love this dud with its colonnades and
wreaths. I am a real aficionado of World War II and can find nothing
appealing or truly commemorative of the glorious efforts of those who
participated in that war. They shoulda emulated the D-Day Museum in New
Orleans. That would have given us much more to remember. Where was Tom
Hanks when we really needed him?
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Short Changed
Ed Dixon, Georgetown Reservoir, jedxn@erols.com
In DC, under the Uniform Per Student Funding Formula for public
school children, budgeted money is supposed to follow the student. The
FY 2004 foundation funding per student was supposed to be $6,550.73.
But, based on current local school allocations available at Parents
United (http://www.parentsunited4dc.org/school_budgets_03_04.htm),
close to 60 percent of the public schools in DCPS are operating on per
pupil expenditures below that amount. The balance of DCPS money is
holding together a crippled administration that watches close to 30
percent of the local allocation go directly to private special education
services.
In theory, the UPSFF is a foundation amount only and in practice
applies to students in the fourth and fifth grades. All other grades and
specialized programs increase the amount that a child should receive.
Most elementary and middle/junior high school students were supposed to
be supported by $6,747 per student. But 80 of 109 are operating below
that level. Murch Elementary in Ward 3 is surviving on $5,049.72 per
student and Shepherd Elementary in Ward 4 on $5,095.60. Of the middle
and junior high schools, only two of eighteen receive amounts at or
above the required amount of $6,747 per pupil. Deal Junior High in
Tenleytown and Hine Junior High at Eastern Market are operating at
$4,760.16 and $4,941.17 per student respectively. High schools are
supposed to receive the highest allocation at $7,664 per student but
only three of fifteen high schools are receiving allocations above that
number. Dunbar, Wilson, Coolidge, Banneker and Roosevelt (30 percent of
the high schools, with more than 4300 students) are all operating
between roughly $5,300 and $5,900 per student.
Since the vast majority of the UPSFF goes to salaries which are paid
out over a full year, a student at Deal is costing the city about $13
per day. But, if only the 180 day school year is taken into account, six
hours of instruction in a school building and all the associated perks,
costs about $4 per hour. In comparison, the federal vouchers at $7,500
per student to go to private school seem generous to these allocations.
Needless to say, what some parents and politicians are paying for
private schools puts voucher money to shame.
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Board of Elections Appeal
Dorothy Brizill, dorothy@dcwatch.com
On Wednesday, May 5, at 10:30 a.m., the DC Board of Elections and
Ethics will hold a public hearing to determine whether Mayor Williams
violated District law when he accepted a gift from Vincent Mark Policy,
a registered lobbyist. The law and the facts in the case are quite
simple. In 2003, Policy was a registered lobbyist for the Washington
Association of Realtors and the Apartment and Office Building
Association. The DC Code, Section 1-1105.06, states that "no
registrant or anyone acting on behalf of a registrant shall offer, give
or cause to be given a gift to an official in the legislative or
executive branch or a member of his or her staff, that exceeds $100 in
value in the aggregate in any calendar year."
Mayor Williams has been sued by Thomas Lindenfeld, a political
consultant, for refusing to pay bills that Lindenfeld submitted for his
services. The mayor retained Mark Policy to represent him personally in
the lawsuit. Last summer, Policy told Lindenfeld's counsel that he was
representing the mayor pro bono, at no charge, and he filed a
document with the Superior Court that confirmed that. However, Policy
represented to the Office of Campaign Finance that he and the mayor had
signed a retainer agreement on February 10, 2003, at what he says is his
normal and usual hourly rate of $265 per hour. The agreement calls for
the mayor to be billed monthly and for payments to be due upon receipt.
However, documents submitted by Policy to the OCF showed that, although
he represented Mayor Williams at depositions, filings, and mediation
sessions, and wrote briefs and other court documents over the next
several months, he did not begin billing him until October 13, 2003, and
the mayor didn't make his first partial payment of $15,000, on the
$35,154.72 bill until February 5, 2004, nearly a year later. The law
specifically forbids a lobbyist from forbearance -- the failure to
collect debts in a timely manner -- toward a government official, as a
kind of gift, but the OCF found no problem with their relationship.
The Board of Elections hearing on Wednesday, at 10:30 a.m., at 441
4th Street, NW, in Room 270N, will be on my appeal of OCF's order,
asking the Board to investigate the matter de novo, from the
beginning. If the Board finds the mayor did accept an illegal
forbearance from a lobbyist, it will be the fourth time that the Board
will have found him guilty of violating election law.
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A Coincidence?
Anne Lindenfeld, anneld@aol.com
Last week we learned from the principal of my son's school (Lafayette
Elementary) that she had been told to cut $200,000 from our school
budget before the 2004-2005 opening next September. Apparently, every
principal in DC was sent this same message. These principals were sent
this emergency message just days after the mayor's new school plan was
voted down by the Council. Either I am missing something here, have
become too suspicious, or have lived in DC too long, but doesn't this
seem too coincidental?
As I understand school governance in the District (which could
possibly be more complicated than mapping the human genome), the Council
approves the school budget, but the city Chief Financial Officer
controls fiscal operations . . . and the mayor controls the CFO. It
would seem to me that cutting budgets school-by-school might be a very
effective political tool to cause public agitation, given the climate in
the city today about our schools. The mayor needs to build public
support to sustain vetoing the council vote or advancing his new school
plan. What better way to make parents just desperate enough to support
any new plan than to yank $200,000 from every public school?
As we get closer to the July 2004 sunset of the mayor's current board
configuration, one wonders what other rabbits he might pull out of his
hat.
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Has Metro Gone Nuts?
Ed T. Barron, edtb@aoldotcom
Those generous folks who run the Metro system have decided to reduce
the subsidies provided by the local municipalities and simultaneously
shift the burden of supporting Metro by increasing fares for those who
use the Metrobus and Metrorail. These guys just don't get it. Public
transportation is a service, not a boondoggle for criminally minded
parking lot attendants. It's likely that if Metro had just opened up the
lots for first come, first park free, they would have wound up with more
money in the till than they got in the last five years.
No, folks, you won't get any more income by increasing the fares to
the riding public. You'll just force more folks into their cars (and
maybe even car pools) and wind up with the same income you currently
have. Be bold, guys, Reduce fares to a level that will make many more
folks use the system and your income might even go up. It's a public
service, not a private buffet for hogs at the trough.
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Several Palisades dwellers E-mailed me in response to my posting
about receiving a speed camera ticket for going 36 mph along MacArthur
Boulevard. The existence of schools, churches, libraries, children,
senior citizens, etc., along MacArthur Boulevard does not change my
opinion that the road is designed for speeds greater than 25 mph. Many
urban areas have all of the above on roads with higher speed limits. For
example, the default speed limit in Manhattan is 30 mph. I also agree
with Mr. Howard's comments that the default speed for DC of 25 mph is
based on antiquated traffic pattern assumptions and doesn't reflect the
reality of today's driving patterns. If the DC government were serious
about enforcing a 25 mph speed limit, officers would issue moving
violation tickets. I have lived in DC for twelve years and have only
seen one incident of an officer giving a moving violation ticket, but I
have seen thousands of moving violations committed in view of police
officers or police vehicles. I think the traffic cameras are a money
grab and not part of a real effort to change driving patterns.
###############
The previous column (Visions in themail, April 25) reminded me that
the hackneyed slogan "children first" is about as specific as
“the evil empire”; it's all a matter of perspective. Instead of
worrying about what will become of the third generation of uneducated DC
public school graduates and what we can do to stop the bleeding of our
community and its promise, we are forced to focus on what will become of
the mayor if he leaves office, and of us if he doesn't. For those
concerned with the welfare of people who actually attend the DC Public
Schools, ?children first” is generally a sincere, if ineloquent, plea
for a compassionate reordering of priorities so that the most vulnerable
aren't crushed under the weight of the most powerful. When used by the
political and business elite, the phrase is more like the first
instruction in a recipe for ridding Washington DC of its tired, poor,
hungry masses yearning to breathe free. If someone must walk the plank
to relieve the Ship of State of excess weight and clutter, make sure
it's “children first,” if only because they and their families
aren't well educated enough to defend themselves.
Back in 1996, the last time we peons were allowed to elect our own
school board representatives, at least five of the thirteen candidates
gave the promise to put “children first” as the answer to “why are
you running?” I know a little about that election, because I was one
of the thirteen. I recall a behind-the-scenes conversation just before
one of the seven or eight neighborhood forums began, while we were
hoping that the that audience would swell to numbers greater than our
own. A fellow candidate, the late public school champion Larry Gray,
asked me, “Do you think anyone would notice if one of us said
'children second?' This is about the public schools, so who else but the
children could come first?” The sad fact is that a power elite of
business and political interests put itself in first place and the
average DC resident slipped without protest into last place. As for the
nameless, faceless thousands for whom the DC public schools are the only
option: they aren't even on the list, except as a slogan that holds
first and last together like the filling in a bad sandwich. The diverse
baker's dozen who vied for two seats on the DC Board of Education eight
years ago all recognized that our schools were failing those who attend
them and the taxpayers who fund them. Each of the candidates — many of
whom were or had been themselves DC Public School pupils, parents and/or
teachers — had a genuine desire to affect improvement in the quality
of life for DC youth and their families by improving the schools. Most
of us shared a belief that accountability is best achieved and preserved
through a democratic system in which the people who set public education
policy on behalf of District residents are selected by those residents.
The DC electorate had no choice but to accept the imposition of
overseers in the form of the "Control Board," but the truth is
we didn't put up much of a fight, either. I recall a demonstration
against the takeover, in front of their Thomas Circle office. The
walking circle was small enough that we could each greet everyone
present without raising our voices, but we were outnumbered by police
and private security rented to "protect" the office, which had
earlier been abandoned by virtually everyone. We had no choice when our
democratically elected Board of Education was overthrown and a hybrid
Board installed in their place. In any other country, the installation
of a General to run the schools would have been called a junta. We
watched as the schools slip from bad to worse, as if there was nothing
we could do, and maybe we couldn't. The neighborhood meetings to address
the list of schools that were shut down (many of which have put DC on
the list of cities with great loft-living opportunities) were well
attended, but not well enough to make a difference, especially when the Washington
Post writer covering them turned out to be in cahoots with the
Control Board.
A week ago, the only thing that stood between us and a giant step in
the wrong direction were the votes of nine Council members whom we
elected to voice our needs and reflect our interests. That's what we
need in a school board: people who are elected, and therefore
accountable, period. Despite what the Congress and the Courts seem to
believe is an acceptable status, what works in the rest of the nation:
simple democracy -- citizen empowerment leading to good government as
the rule, not the exception. The real travesty is that by preventing the
implementation of democratic principles in our school system and our
schools, we are denying our children the opportunity to learn about,
value and participate in the democratic system we claim to have in
America and want for the rest of the world.
In September, we will have an opportunity to take back some of the
self-determination we complain about losing but ceded without much of a
fight. Frederick Douglass said, “Power concedes nothing without a
struggle; it never has and never will.” One of my favorite bumper
stickers says, “When the people lead, the leaders will follow.”
Every person who claims to be concerned about the welfare of our young
people and the devastating impact their miseducation has on our
community should go to the polls informed and a determined to vote for a
change. A change in City Hall, in the White House and in our own
attitudes about citizenship. We have been asleep at the wheel, and
allowed ourselves to be driven someplace we didn't plan to go. It's time
for those of us who call this city home to wake up, organize and vote
for a change. We can't afford to keep talking about freedom and acting
like slaves. “The children” deserve better, and so do we.
###############
CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
DC Public Library Events, May 4-6
Debra Truhart, debra.truhart@dc.gov
Tuesday, May 4, 12:00 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial
Library, 901 G Street, NW, Main Lobby. Lecture and book signing by Eric
Hughes, author of The Third Burden: My True Story of Defeating
Discrimination in the Workplace. The book will be for sale after the
program. Public contact: 727-1211. Tuesday, May 4, 7:00 p.m., Mount
Pleasant Neighborhood Library, 3160 16th Street, NW. Punto Vivo: Poetry
and the Political Imagination, a two-hour writing workshop for writers
of all levels. Become familiar with the history of political writing.
Course materials will be provided. Call to register. Public contact:
671-0200. Tuesday, May 4, 7:30 p.m., Takoma Park Neighborhood Library,
416 Cedar Street, NW. Readings by local poets Afrika M.A. Abney, Parris
Garnier and Kay Lindsey. Public contact: 576-7252.
Wednesday, May 5, 7:00 p.m., Juanita E. Thornton/Shepherd Park
Neighborhood Library, 7420 Georgia Avenue, NW. Lecture and discussion on
the "herb of the year," garlic, the legendary "stinking
rose." Public contact: 541-6100.
Thursday, May 6, 2:30 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial
Library, 901 G Street, NW, Room 221. The Lovely Bones by Alice
Seabold will be discussed. Public contact: 727-1295. Thursdays, May 6,
13, Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Library, 901 G Street, NW, Room
110, American sign language classes for beginners, from school aged to
adults. Public contact: 727-2145 (TTY or Voice).
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Improve your garden and your karma. The annual Mt. Pleasant Main
Street Flower Sale will be held May 8 from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. in Lamont Park
(Mt. Pleasant Street and Lamont Street, NW). You can stock up on a
variety of flowering plants for your garden or flower boxes. Flower
purchases will benefit Mt. Pleasant Main Street, a nonprofit
organization working with residents and business owners to develop the
Mt. Pleasant Street as a viable commercial corridor. Choose from
Impatiens, Marigolds, Dianthus, Coleus, Begonias, Snapdragons, Salvia,
Vinca, Dahlias, Geraniums, Bacopa, and Verbena. Orders may be placed in
advance. To receive an order form or to order via E-mail, write MtPFlowerSale@hotmail.com.
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Meet Prominent Authors at the Capital Book
Festival, May 8
Lois Kirkpatrick, LKIRKP@fairfaxcounty.gov
Please join us for the Fairfax County Public Library Foundation's
Capital Book Festival on Saturday, May 8 from 10 - 4 at the Fairfax
County Government Center. Participants include NPR's Diane Rehm;
Absolute Power author David Baldacci; Alma Powell; Alan Colmes of Fox's
Hannity & Colmes; bestselling author Alice McDermott; Ric Edelman;
Eleanor Clift; martial arts impresario Grand Master Jhoon Rhee; and more
than 25 others. Admission is free and includes a children's corner with
hands-on activities. For more information go to http://www.CapitalBookFestival.com.
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Anacostia Waterfront Boat Tour, May 8
Brie Hensold, bhenhold@nbm.org
The Anacostia River is poised for an environmental and urban
renaissance and is set to become an important, lively component of the
nation's capital. Josh Ungar, program manager of the Anacostia Watershed
Society, will lead a boat tour of a portion of this valuable but
neglected Washington resource on Saturday, May 8, from 10:00 a.m.-12:00
p.m. Sponsored by the National Building Museum. $30 museum members and
students; $35 nonmembers. Space is limited. Registration required at https://s21.2coolweb.com/nbm/signup.asp;
must be received by May 3.
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CLASSIFIEDS — FOR SALE
Grand Piano and Furniture
Nelson Smith, artcitizen@aol.com
Downsizing, and reluctantly parting with my ebony 1981 Kawaii baby
grand, in excellent condition ($8000, negotiable). Also available: sleep
sofas, Workbench teak corner desk set, wicker deck chairs, occasional
tables. Nelson Smith, 584-4448.
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CLASSIFIEDS — SERVICES
Jack of All Trades
Nyasha Katedza, jorchid@juno.com
Bookkeeper/personal assistant for you or your small/home business.
More than five years experience in office administration and in the
service and catering industries. Do you have some small task that you
don't have time for but you know needs to be done yesterday (cleaning,
shopping for a party, personal taxes, yard work)? Give me a call at
1-877-576-0890 or E-mail me at Jorchid@Juno.com.
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CLASSIFIEDS — RECOMMENDATIONS
I purchased a 1986 Buick LaSabre. It's in great shape, but I haven't
owned a car in years, so I do not know of a reputable mechanic or
establishment for maintenance (oil change, tune ups, etc.) Could anyone
recommend a good, reliable, reasonably priced mechanic for these
services? (I live near Thomas Circle, but the mechanic's location
doesn't have to be nearby if he/she is good.) Please respond to me
directly.
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