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August 15, 2004

Candidates

Dear Electors:

My apologies to Jay H. Marx, the Statehood-Green primary candidate for Ward 2 councilmember, whom I inexplicably missed listing as a candidate both in the last issue of themail and on the DCWatch web page. Thanks to several readers who pointed out the lapse. In 2002, Marx was a candidate in the Statehood-Green primary for Shadow Senator. As John Vaught LaBeaume also pointed out in his message alerting me to my oversight, Statehood-Green and Republican party members can and will vote for write-in candidates in races where they currently have no announced candidates, and this can result in some party competition in the general election in November. However, it’s highly unlikely that a candidate who doesn’t take the trouble to enter the primary race will run a very energetic and enthusiastic race in the following two months.

So, again, I ask you to turn your thoughts to the announced candidates in these races (see http://www.dcwatch.com/election2004 for the list), including the unjustly neglected Mr. Marx, and to send your words of praise or disparagement of them to themail.

Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com

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At Large
Ed T. Barron, edtb@aoldotcom

The description At-Large is applied to those persons whose whereabouts are unknown and cannot be found. That's an appropriate description of Council person Harold Brazil. When it comes to critical votes or meetings, Mr. Brazil is often at large, or more appropriately, out to lunch. It's time for a big change, and I hope that Harold Brazil's opponents knock him off in the September election. He's just one of the empty suits on the Council.

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SimCity for City Council Candidates
Ben Slade, PublicMailbox@benslade.com (append 030516 to the subject to bypass my spam filters)

Does anyone like the idea of a SimCity computer game competition for candidates for the DC City Council? Winning scores could be announced to give voters a sense of which candidates really know how to run a city.

For those who don't know about SimCity, here’s a description from an online FAQ: “SimCity is a city manager [computer] game where you control where to build things like commercial, residential, industrial, police and fire stations, roads, power lines and power supply, airports, and harbors. Plus, depending on what you do, you can also control the crime, population, frequent fires, and more. This is a game which is basically teaching you what it's like to be a mayor of a city.”

I guess maybe Mayor Williams should play too!

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SEC Fines Against Thayer Capital and Fred Malek
Ed Delaney, profeddel@yahoo.com

This is huge: fines on an SEC fraud investigation case have come down on Thayer Capital Partners and on its chairman, Fred Malek, personally; see http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61538-2004Aug12.html and http://www.washingtontimes.com/sports/20040813-125632-4440r.htm. After already being a less-than-desirable ownership entity due to his list-making activities for the Nixon White House, Fred Malek has chalked up another reason he should not head a team playing in a stadium paid for with public funds and not his (since he worked out a sweetheart deal earlier this year that eliminated his group's long-promised major contribution to stadium financing).

Post: “Thayer and Malek did not admit or deny wrongdoing as part of the settlement.” Or to be blunt: Thayer and Malek did not deny wrongdoing as part of the settlement. That can’t be good for the Washington Baseball Club’s dossier that they hope Major League Baseball would view favorably enough in their strict vetting of their potential business partners to award them the team, at least not in the post-Marge Schott era of MLB ownership. Post: “(Privately-held) Thayer Capital’s board of advisers includes former AOL chairman James Kimsey.” Won’t MLB be sad to learn that this blight alights on the WBC’s main money man as well as the head of the group whose head already has a checkered past? Post: “Barry E. Johnson, Thayer's chief financial officer, said he could not speak for the government, but he said that the firm was unaware of any ongoing criminal investigation into Thayer or Malek stemming from the Connecticut allegations.” That doesn’t mean that couldn’t become an issue in the future, which should give pause to anyone wanting Malek to head the team that will be receiving so much revenue from a stadium project built with public funds.

Times: “Malek received a $100,000 fine and Thayer a $150,000 fine.” A $100K fine to Malek personally? I don’t think they usually hand out personal fines for clerical errors or typos. Times: “The state of Connecticut still has $53.5 million invested in Thayer funds.” And with this track record with a government’s money, Malek, Kimsey, et al., want MLB and DC to be a party to a bonding plan that the WBC helped put together working with DC officials behind closed doors? OK. . . .

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DC Parking Story Covered by ABC 7
Gabe Goldberg, gabe@gabegold.com

Http://www.wjla.com/news/stories/0804/164852.html.

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What’s the Law?
Ed T. Barron, edtb@aoldotcom

Just noticed yesterday, for the first time I looked on my bus ride back form Georgetown, that the bus driver was not wearing her seat belt. I'm sure that the policy by the transit authority is for all drivers to wear their seat belts. But is it against D.C. law for bus drivers not to wear their seat belts? I'll pay more attention on my next trips aboard D.C. buses.

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Reporting on Revitalization
Anne Lindenfeld, annekl@aol.com

In his post entitled "Norton Comments About Our Neighborhood" [themail, August 11] Mr. Layman laments that our hometown newspaper does not report on neighborhood and area events and issues, especially the more positive ones like revitalization efforts. He compares Post reporting to the Philadelphia Inquirer's many articles about neighborhood development and revitalization. In part, I agree. For as long as I can remember (in my twenty-plus years as a DC resident), most of us would prefer more column space in this laudable daily to be devoted to things local. However, I think there's more at work here than reporting styles. There's a good reason Philadelphians read more in their newspapers about efforts there to revitalize neighborhoods, clean up streets, replace blighted buildings with safe affordable housing, and give youth something better to do than run in gangs and sell drugs, and it's not due to better reporting. Philadelphians read about these positive things because they are happening there.

Since being elected — and then reelected, despite Ashcroft’s shamelessly bugging his office — Philadelphia Mayor John Street has focussed his energy and city resources on making its poorest neighborhoods cleaner, safer, and more economically vibrant. We're not talking gentrification here; we are talking real neighborhood development. Literally thousands of abandoned cars have been removed from North Philadelphia streets; acres of blighted, burned out houses have been torn down and are being replaced with affordable housing. This is what Philadelphians get to read about -- and experience.

What we get to read about is the legacy of a K Street mayor, who is out-of-touch with anyone who does not make six figures. In his two terms, he's made corporate downtown look terrific; however neighborhood developments like H Street NE, 8th Street SE, Columbia Heights, and others languish, largely holding on because community development corps scramble to keep them alive. Gangs are on the rise here, yet less and less city money is put into youth summer programs and the school system has largely dismantled its vocational-technical programs. (They don't help standardized test scores, after all.) We still don't have adequate hospital coverage in the southeastern areas of the city, because our mayor closed DC General and negotiated a contract with a hospital that he knew was going into bankruptcy at the time. And in this Friday's Post, I read that since 2001 over one hundred retarded adults died while living in DC-run group homes without anyone in DC government thinking their deaths warranted any investigation. I guess if disabled people dependent on our city's care don't warrant special treatment, why should any of the rest of us? The real reason that Philadelphia and DC reporting is different is not so much a matter of editorial control, it's a matter of content -- and the political will of these two mayors.

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Bike Messengers in Farragut Park
Jim Holm, james_holm at msn dot com

[Response to “Busting People for Beer in Farragut Square,” by Amy Hubbard, themail, August 11]: I, for one, am actually glad to hear that the DC police are doing something about the bike messengers who turn Farragut Square into their personal bar, stunt ground, trash can on an nightly basis. I work about one block from the park, and pass though both on my way to and from work. While the bike messengers are not the only ones who abuse the park grounds, they are probably the most destructive.

In the mornings, the place is usually trashed. There are empty beer cans and bottles scattered throughout the grounds, and several times I have seen bike parts (chains, tires) and even an entire bike frame hanging from tree branches. The grass, until it was recently replaced, was always more dirt than plant because of its constant use as a test course for bike messenger riding tricks. In the evenings, the bike messengers are obviously not trying to make any friends. I have been insulted and cursed at, all for having the apparent audacity to ask bike messengers to move their rides out of the walking paths.

The US Park Service just spent a good amount of money improving Farragut Square — it would be nice if folks who use the park would respect the rules so that it stays presentable. If it takes the cops (probably US Park Police, by the way, since Farragut Square is a federal park) to keep the park nice, I think that's more of a sad commentary on the bike messengers' ability to act like responsible adults than on heavy-handed law enforcement.

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Nunc Est Bibendum, or Apprehend ’em?
Mark Eckenwiler, themale at ingot dot org

In the last issue [themail, August 11], Amy Hubbard complained about the arrest of a group of bike messengers for drinking beer in Farragut Square. Having now retrieved my jaw from the floor, let me say, “Thank you, officers.” We're not talking here about a candy bar in the entryway to the Metro; what Ms. Hubbard describes is drinking alcohol in public, which is illegal for all sorts of reasons readily apparent to any sentient being in the time-space continuum my fellow DC residents and I inhabit.

As for the argument that there's much worse crime they should be worrying about: Feh. I don't quite grasp why lower-end scofflaws — your public drinkers and urinators, say — deserve a free pass just because there are worse offenders out there. (Note: I do want the police to put a higher priority on solving or deterring murder, rape, and robbery, just not at the cost of ignoring quality-of-life violations altogether.) And as for the absurd suggestion that this is a diabolical “way of keeping black working class bike messengers from congregating downtown,” I hold the truly naïve view that the BWCBMs among us — and white frat boys, and everyone else — are capable of congregating downtown and elsewhere in DC without resort to boozing it up in a public park.

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Some Points on Candy Bars
Craig McLane, New Carrollton, cmclane@comcast.net

a) Police work is boring and extremely dangerous. That makes it very high stress, which roils the emotions, which sometimes can impede judgment a bit. When you have a case of poor judgment, if it is recurrent, it's probably a problem with the officer; if it's isolated, it's probably an indicator that stress is higher than acceptable. It is just possible that being a Transit cop in DC is somewhat more stressful of late. Perhaps that is the root of the candy bar incident — rather than most police officers and their supervisors having an inner Nazi that yearns to breathe free. b) Most jurisdictions try to buy police services on the cheap. Highly educated, skilled people with very keen judgment are extremely expensive to hire and are not usually effective at breaking up a bar room brawl or subduing someone on PCP. They're also markedly reluctant to take boring and extremely dangerous jobs, so most police forces tend to hire directly off the high school football team. Not to say that's the case with Metro or with this particular officer, but just to point out that you get what you pay for, and you can't be too critical of exactly how your system works when you buy an 80 percent solution.

c) Policing is an art form. It is a minute-by-minute re-asking of the question of when to let something pass and when to use the letter of the law. Think about it. Nearly every one of us violates some trivial law or other every single day of our lives. How many of us get stopped, much less arrested? Each cop sees dozens of clear violations an hour, and balances the law against the real-life needs and habits of the people who enacted that law. Police officers know on a gut level that their power and authority actually come from the people they're policing; that as a society, we know we need to be policed in order to live together peacefully and safely; and that that (a peaceful, safe society) is the cops' goal, not a perfect, no-tolerance enforcement of the law. That's why we're not all in jail today. And that's why being a cop requires so much judgment (see a and b, above). d) It's true that some officers are ignorant bullies (or sometimes worse), but it's also true that some citizens are abusive assholes (or sometimes worse). While nearly every police force in the country has a program in place to identify and remove their bad apples, on the other side of the fence we citizens don't worry about it at all. After all, that's what we have police for, right? We don't discipline and guide our children, we glorify violence, and we pretend our poor, uneducated, and oppressed brethren do not exist.

And then, when we've let things get so wild that we are actually afraid of telling fellow citizens that they shouldn't park in a handicap spot or litter or steal sandwiches from the 7-11 — then we send in the police. Once we've been so irresponsible and incompetent as neighbors, parents and voters that we can hardly live with the results, then we send in the police. Would you like it if the police were so unassertive, irresponsible, laissez-faire and timid about their social responsibilities that you had to wear Kevlar and a gun every time you went to work? I wouldn't. So I think it would be wise that the next time we see a situation in which a police officer may have gone overboard, that we hold off shouting "police state!" and ponder for a bit just who it is that's screwing up.

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Letting the Goose That Lays the Golden Eggs Strangle Itself
Len Sullivan, lsnarpac@bellatlantic.net

Most people would agree that our Metrorail system is one asset that adds considerable luster to DC's image as a world-class national capital city. Why then would local, regional, and national leaders and power brokers allow the system to choke on its own success within the next few years? WMATA is having little success raising enough funds to keep its current public transit equipment operating, and even less success in adding to its capacity to handle rush hour crowds within its current self-clogging network of tracks and stations. Metro officials project downtown stations will reach ultimate saturation within ten years at most. There are no accepted plans or cost estimates for expanding Metrorail trackage or stations within DC, though regional planners anticipate robust growth in population, commuters, and city jobs. Meanwhile, city planners are busy devising means to reduce traffic flow on the city's major streets as well. Current long-range plans and visions talk about adding traffic-blocking trolleys, bicycle and pedestrian paths to major routes that are also envisioned to become stately "boulevards" by the dreamers, but 24/7 heavy truck routes by the realists. There are no plans for major off-street and curbside parking innovations to improve flow-rates on current streets.

In a wan effort to stimulate focus on Metrorail's long-range urban future, NARPAC has generated a notional 25-year redesign of the current layout in an effort to a) avoid underground urban gridlock during normal or emergency rush hours, b) encourage economic development away from downtown, and c) increase local and regional access to the system. (see http://www.narpac.org/METROVIZ.HTM). The added 38 miles of underground and elevated track, 28 new stations, four new river crossings, and "Inner Circle" Line would cost some $20B in today's dollars spread over 25 years. That amounts to a 3 percent annual growth in capital assets over its current $24 billion value. It is also over and above the 2 percent-plus needed to keep the current system working. Where should such funding come from? The same federal government that provided the funds to build the system in the first place, but then left it unable to generate its own revenues, or keep up with national capital region growth. If there is any one permanent role for Congress in our national capital city's affairs, it must be to assure its global stature by appropriate planning for and underwriting of its highly visible infrastructure. Check out this contentious addition to the August update of NARPAC's web site at http://www.narpac.org/INTHOM.HTM. You too should think about the special long-term demands of being part of our national capital city.

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August 2004 InTowner
Peter Wolff, intowner@intowner.com

This is to advise that the August 2004 on-line edition has been uploaded and may be accessed at http://www.intowner.com. Included are the lead stories, community news items and crime reports, editorials (including prior months' archived), restaurant reviews (prior months' also archived), and the text from the ever-popular "Scenes from the Past" feature. Also included are all current classified ads. The complete issue (along with prior issues back to March 2002) also is available in PDF file format directly from our home page at no charge simply by clicking the link provided. Here you will be able to view the entire issue as it appears in print, including all photos and advertisements. The next issue will publish on September 10. The complete PDF version will be posted by the preceding night or early that Friday morning at the latest, following which the text of the lead stories, community news, and selected features will be uploaded shortly thereafter.

To read this month's lead stories, simply click the link on the home page to the following headlines: 1) “Stead Park 198-Year Lease Plan For Private Group Galvanizes Opponents Objecting to Public Land Disposal,” 2) “‘Gentrification’ in Shaw: Many Fear It, Others See Benefits but Still Worry.” 3) “Adams Morgan Day Festival Being Revamped by Area’s by ‘Main Street’ Organization,” 4) “Michael K. Ross: Mt. Pleasant Artist Stars With His Call Box Sculptures.”

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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS

Historic Theaters and Movie Houses Bus Tour, August 21
Rebecca A. Miller, rebecca@dcpreservation.org

The DC Preservation League presents an historic theaters and movie houses bus tour on Saturday, August 21, at 10:00 a.m. Throughout the mid-1900s, Washington, DC, boasted numerous theaters, ranging in style from the highly ornate Tivoli to the Art-Deco Uptown. Join DCPL for a bus tour to explore the remains of this golden age of entertainment. Our tour leader, author and local theater aficionado Robert Headly, will share intriguing stories and describe the curiosities of well-known and not-so-well known DC theaters. Participants will see first hand preservation successes and visit the interiors of a few theaters that have stood the test of time. The tour begins at 10 a.m. and is estimated to take about three hours. Light refreshments will be provided. Cost: members: $25; non-members $35. For reservations: call 202.783.5144 or E-mail info@dcpreservation.org.

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The Street Stage: Performance Event by Homeless and Housed Artists, August 21
T.J. Sutcliffe, tjsutcliffe@some.org

The Street Stage is a free community arts performance event providing a creative outlet for those experiencing homelessness. Each event not only serves as a stage, but also as a way to break down barriers by bringing together artists and art enthusiasts regardless of their socio-economic background. On Saturday, August 21, 1:00-3:30 p.m., The Street Stage will welcome artists from around the city, whether homeless or housed, in Malcolm X/Meridian Hill Park at 15th and Euclid Streets, NW. in Columbia Heights. The event will include stage performances (e.g., music, poetry, drama, etc.) as well as displays of visual arts. For more information visit The Street Stage web site at http://www.streetstagedc.com, E-mail info@streetstagedc.com, or call Michelle A. Maslov at 301-233-2911.

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Farce and Justice of the Magistrate, August 21
Debra Truhart, debra.truhart@dc.gov

The play Farce and Justice of the Magistrate by Alejandro Casona will be performed in Spanish only on Saturday, August 21, at Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Library, 3160 16th Street, NW. The play is directed by Mario Marcel of Teatro de la Luna. This farcical comedy, that, in the midst of all the laughter, reveals to us the corruption of biased justice. Public contact: 671-0200.

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At-Large Candidates’ Forum on Development in Our Neighborhoods, August 23
Susie Cambria, s.e.cambria@dckids.org

An at-large candidates’ forum on development will be held on Monday, August 23, from 7-9:30 p.m., at St. Columba's Church, 4201 Albemarle Street, NW. Please come and bring your neighbors! A good turnout is important. This is our chance to let the At-Large candidates know how we feel about overdevelopment in our community and to ask for their views on what they will do to bring sensible development if they are elected to the City Council. You will have plenty of opportunity to ask questions. This event is sponsored by a coalition of community groups who believe a public discussion of development is essential to our making informed choices in the City Council races. Among these groups are the Friendship Neighborhood Association (FNA), the Coalition to Stop Tenleytown Overdevelopment (CSTO), The Tenleytown Neighborhood Association (TNA), the Georgia Avenue Steering Committee, the Friendship-Tenleytown Citizens Association, and representatives from Capitol Hill and Burleith.

Harold Brazil, Kwame Brown, and Sam Brooks will take part. Overdevelopment and loss of our small businesses and affordable housing are crucial issues for our neighborhoods. We often feel we are under assault, and unfortunately with good reason. Marc Fisher and Roger Lewis present one side of a complex issue. The other side, the side with the 2,000 signatures gathered in a few weekends standing at Safeway, deserves to be heard as well. (DC ACT is not associated with this. I’m sharing it for informational purposes; it was originally posted by Dave Jannarone on the North Petworth Yahoo Group list.)

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