Raspberries
Dear Raspberry Readers:
Washington Post columnist William Raspberry rarely writes about
local District affairs anymore, but when he does he reminds us of what a
perceptive commentator he can be about our city. Monday’s column,
“No Quick Fixes for DC Schools,” http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3916-2004Aug15.html,
cautions against raising expectations too high about what a new school
superintendent can do: “The point is that a newspaper career spanning
nearly a dozen superintendents, and as many more acting superintendents,
has taught me not to expect very much from the next school chief,
however credentialed or well-meaning. Aside from [Vincent] Reed and
Floretta McKenzie, I have trouble thinking of any in the long succession
of short-term administrators who made much of a difference in the local
schools.”
The final five sentences of that column pack into a few words a lot
of good advice both for the local politicians who engaged in the
prolonged search for a new school superintendent and for our new
superintendent himself: “A little unsolicited advice: Lose those
national search companies that, like owners of professional sports
franchises in need of new coaches, keep coming up with the same list of
marginally successful applicants. Better to spend the effort on making
sure that each school has a savvy, committed and accountable principal.
An outstanding principal will make more of a difference, and make it
more quickly, than an outstanding superintendent, who will take a year
or more to figure out what's wrong and which people can be counted on to
help fix it. Good luck, Cliff Janey, but no huge expectations from me.
I'm too old to believe in school fairies.”
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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When we bought our Mount Pleasant house (thirty-two years ago, long
before gentrification drove up housing prices here), we were advised
that we didn't really own our front yard, but could treat it as our own,
short of building anything on it. A distance of eighteen feet from the
sidewalk is unused street right-of-way, and is legally “public
space.” This is a very common situation in the District, and the
landscaping guidelines from the Historic Preservation Review Board
explain this legal anomaly, a bit:
“By the 1860s however, it became clear that the extreme width of
L'Enfant's rights-of-way were excessive for the scale of the buildings
that lined the streets, as well as for the amount of traffic on the
avenues. In response to this reality, Congress passed the Parking Act in
1870, and in 1871 the Projection Act. Both Acts allowed for the private
use, with certain restrictions, of public space in front of buildings on
exceptionally wide streets.” (It's called the “Parking Act”
because we're supposed to maintain this space in the manner of parkland,
that is, lawns and gardens.)
I mention this because certain high-level District bureaucrats are
talking of “reclaiming public space for public purposes,” including
this “public space” that is unused street right-of-way. Does anyone
know what legal defenses we have against such an action? Where can the
text of this 1870 law be found?
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I think you are underestimating Kwame Brown’s challenge to Harold
Brazil.
[Please, Mr. Schwinn or others, expand and expound. Convince us. —
Gary Imhoff]
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Kwame Brown a No-Show at the Voting Booth
Brad Doyle, doyle_brad@yahoo.com
I heard from someone I consider pretty reliable that Kwame Brown —
who is running for the DC Council At-Large — has never voted in a DC
Council election! Has anyone else heard this? If it's true, I couldn't
vote for him. The guy didn't even exercise his responsibility to vote,
he shows that little interest in our government, and now he wants to run
the city for me. No thanks.
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On a “DC Politics Hour with Kojo and Jonetta” program about two
months ago, I heard an extremely unsatisfactory answer (three answers
actually) from Brown about his voting record. Jonetta Rose Barras asked
Brown if it was true that he had not, in fact, voted in any District
elections since something like 1988 (I may not be accurate about the
date, so don't quote me on that). Brown first said that he had had
“major family issues” that preoccupied him “during that period”
and that prevented him from voting, among other things. (I believe he
actually used the phrase, “. . . among other things.”) When Rose
Barras pressed him on this, asking how any domestic problem could be so
overwhelming that he couldn't take an hour or ninety minutes every two
years to go to a local school or church and vote, he then changed his
story. He said, second, that he, in fact, “. . . wasn't even living in
[the] District . . . during that period” and, presumably therefore,
was ineligible to vote in District elections. Jonetta pressed him
further to reconcile his first answer with his second and, unfortunately
for all of us, Kojo interrupted her with another question about his
candidacy, which let Brown off the hook with a partial answer I don't
fully recall. It was along the lines of “more than anything else it
was [his] marriage [being] at stake at the time that was preoccupying
him.” I suppose anyone who really wants to research this can go to
WAMU-FM's website and download that particular show. Or just E-mail Kojo
or his program manager for a transcript of that part of the program. I,
for one, heard enough during that exchange to raise serious questions in
my mind about just why Brown is running for office in the first place.
Although I am thoroughly disgusted with Harold Brazil (not the least
because he is dishonoring a good first name), I am concerned about this,
as I was concerned when it got out that Marble-Man Williams also didn't
think enough of the city he wanted to run to vote in our elections here
while he was a federal government employee and even after Barry named
him District CFO. We can and should still ask Brown to explain this.
And, the next time, we should demand that he answer in a couple of
simple declarative sentences in English.
We should all remember that we can vote on September 14th (the 80-odd
percent who are Democrats anyway) and again on November 2d and we need
not vote for anyone for councilmember-at-large, although I fear that
doing that is a de facto vote to return Brazil to office.
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DC and the 2004 Presidential Election
Joan Eisenstodt, jeisen@aol.com
I read an article in The Economist that speculated that the
electoral college vote may tie this time around. If that happens, and
the vote goes to Congress to decide who is President, am I correct in
thinking that DC will be knocked out entirely of the process? Without a
vote in Congress, it would seem we'd all be disenfranchised.
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Sunshine, Lollipops, and the WBC
Ed Delaney, profeddel@yahoo.com
It was quite interesting to read a feature piece on the Washington
Baseball Club on the front page of the Post's Metro section (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A6550-2004Aug16.html)
in which the latest troublesome developments concerning the head of the
group — Fred Malek — were not mentioned at all. In fact, Malek's
name is only mentioned three times, and in passing to boot. The article
is written as if the WBC has accumulated no history worth commenting
upon in their five-year existence, least of all anything that could be
considered a negative. Granted, this piece of puffery was probably in
the works before last week's announcement of the hefty fines levied
against Malek and his company stemming from the SEC investigation, but
to have the group’s principal owners barely mentioned was odd to say
the least.
It should be noted that the article breaks the news that Jeffery
Zients, a newcomer to the WBC initially added to the WBC in December
2003 for “intellectual capital,” according to Malek in the Times,
has been vaulted into position as the WBC's new president and chief
executive. As the WBC's “newly designated front man,” he replaces
Fred Malek, a man picked for that role because of political connections
and baseball ownership experience, none of which the 37-year-old Zients
has. But this development is not treated as a major part of the story.
Rather, it is passed along as almost an afterthought and with no
sufficient exploration given why it occurred, though the recent
troublesome additions to Malek's resume as potential head of DC's team
appear to be the obvious reason for the change.
I did think it was appropriate that Zients was interviewed for the
piece "in his sleek offices at the Watergate Hotel," since
that image immediately brings to mind the Nixon White House, which of
course is one of the mounting reasons that Malek needed to be removed
from the spotlight and from the top of the WBC's letterhead. Of course,
there was no news of any change in the actual ownership structure in
which Malek, Kimsey, and Joe Robert would have 85 percent ownership of
the team, or in fact of Zients assuming control of any portion of that
partnership. So this WBC changeover appears to only be skin-deep, and
thus, Malek, et al., will still be pulling the group's strings,
if only from a less visible place.
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
TechTalk: Creating and Managing a Virtual
Office, August 21
Barbara Conn, bconn@cpcug.org
At this TechTalk for owners and managers of consulting and
microbusinesses, and for those planning or considering business startup,
Naseem Saab, the founder and owner of Results Software, a nearly
two-decade-old consulting and software company, will share his
experiences on the advantages and disadvantages of the virtual office
model and on leveraging technology for business growth. Naseem will
explain why a virtual office has been the right model for his company:
why he chose the virtual office model, why it has been better for staff
and clients, and how it has helped his company stay competitive and be
successful. Attendees will also get tips on communicating with
contractors, clients, and prospects remotely and face to face.
Gather your questions, friends, colleagues, and family members and
bring them to this Saturday, August 21, 1:00 p.m. (check-in: 12:45
p.m.), TechTalk of the Capital PC User Group (CPCUG) Entrepreneurs and
Consultants Special Interest Group (E&C SIG). This free TechTalk
will be at the Cleveland Park Library (First Floor Large Meeting Room)
at 3310 Connecticut Avenue, NW, just over a block from the Cleveland
Park Metrorail Station on the Red Line. For more information about this
TechTalk, the speaker, CPCUG, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational
organization, and to register for the event, visit http://www.cpcug.org/user/entrepreneur/804meet.html.
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Washington Storytellers Theater presents the SpeakEasy Open Mic
Season 04-05. We’ll once again take to the mic and uncover the great
smoldering talent of DC’s underground storytelling world. Each
SpeakEasy features a theme and all are welcome to sign up to share a
story and astound the audience.
Shows will be at the HR-57 Center for the Preservation of Jazz and
Blues, 1610 14th Street, NW (between Corcoran and Q Streets) on the
second Tuesday of every month starting September 14, at 8:00 p.m. Price:
$5 (corkage: $3 per person) at the door (doors open at 7:30 p.m.).
Street parking, Metro Red Line (Dupont) or Green Line (U Street/Cardoza).
On the first of each month, we will begin taking sign-ups for that
month’s Open Mic. Call the WST office to reserve a space,
301-891-1129.
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CLASSIFIEDS — HOUSING
Seeking Environmentally Conscious Housing
Mary Vogel, MaryVogel@yahoo.com
I am seeking an environmentally conscious housing situation by
October (Capitol Hill or Rock Creek adjacent neighborhood) for $650 or
less in shared housing. I am a land use/environmental planner and
community activist, NS vegan woman over forty, into yoga, massage,
natural history, and gardening/landscaping. Active in the new urbanism
and green building movements professionally and outdoor activities and
contradancing recreationally. Passionate about native plants and
ecological restoration. I’m also active in Sierra Club, Native Plant
Society, and The Potomac Conservancy. I'm involved in this election
cycle through Environment 2004 and Move On.
My ideal in a housemate would be: shared interests, values,
lifestyle, mutual support, helpfulness; prefer vegetarian diet. Strong
resource conservation ethic and resourcefulness about conserving.
Willingness to set aside time for household tasks. Sense of
consideration, responsibility, fairness. Commitment to stay in touch and
communicate. Community-mindedness, e.g., participating in neighborhood
association or electoral activities.
My ideal in a place to live would be close to Metro. I prefer Capitol
Hill but will consider other areas, especially neighborhoods close to
Rock Creek or close to bike trails. Energy and water-efficiency: Energy
Star appliances, insulated windows, insulated ceilings and floors, solar
would be a big plus, so would native plant landscaping, rain garden,
green roof — hence low utilities. Water filters and house plants (I
have some). Please call or E-mail Mary at 547-7820 if you have such a
place or would like to look together for a place.
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CLASSIFIEDS — FOR SALE
Volkswagen Golf GL
Heather McDonald, hmcdonald@nas.edu
For sale: 2003 Volkswagen Golf GL (Silver), Automatic Transmission.
Engine Type: 4 Cyl., 2.0L L4 SMFI SOHC 8V. Two-door hatchback, features
AM/FM Radio, Cassette, CD, climate control, front/side airbags, power
locks, power windows, daytime running lights, ABS and more! Mileage:
13,800. In excellent condition! Driven primarily as a commuter car from
Alexandria to DC. All maintenance records included. If you would like to
obtain a CARFAX report, VIN: 9BWBK61J334037950. $14,500, or best offer.
Contact Heather at heather.mcdonald@gmail.com
or at 368-6031 and leave a message with your name and contact
information.
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CLASSIFIEDS — FREE
I am delighted to announced that the National Geographic
magazines (seventy years’ worth) were handed over this weekend to the
library at Stoddert Elementary School (DCPS). A fair amount of sweat
equity from the librarian’s family was involved.
Now I have three bikes -- a man’s 10-speed, a woman’s (3-speed?),
and a child’s. None is currently ride-able; I believe any could be
refurbished. Happy to donate, but you’ll have to come over to my house
in Columbia Heights to fetch. Any interest ?
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