Voting
Dear Voters:
I’m begging for some positive arguments about why any of the
candidates, incumbents or challengers, in any of the primary races this
year is clearly a better choice than his or her opponents. In the
at-large, Ward 7, or Ward 8 races, what’s the issue, what’s the
position, what’s the promise, accomplishment, or special skill that
makes you want to vote for your favorite? Come on, let’s create some
excitement in the last weeks of this lackluster race.
AOL has been blocking delivery of themail to many of its customers
for the past few months, although some AOL subscribers have been
receiving it regularly and some sporadically. With this issue, I’m
trying an alternate method of sending themail to AOL addresses. I hope
that it will be successful in reaching more AOL customers. However, if
you subscribe to themail and use AOL as your Internet service provider,
I still suggest that you get a free E-mail account from Yahoo, Juno,
Excite, Hotmail, Google (when it’s freely available), or one of the
other companies that provides such services (though not from Netscape,
which is owned by AOL and uses some of the same blocking rules and
methods), and change your subscription address to that account. To
change your subscription address, please use the form at http://www.dcwatch.com/themail/subscribe.htm.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Sam Brooks, At Large Council Candidate
Gloria White, gmareiw@aol.com
Why is everyone acting as if Brown and Brazil are the only options in
the At-Large Council race? Sam Brooks is also a candidate. He is young
and inexperienced, true, but given what DC residents have gotten from
older, experienced people, maybe a little youth and inexperience isn’t
an entirely bad thing.
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For those turned off by Kwame Brown’s constantly changing
explanations (you should hear him try to justify listing Dartmouth as
his alma mater on his campaign literature), check out Sam Brooks at one
of the debates. Articulate, energetic, and loaded with specific ideas.
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There is no need to speculate about whether or not a candidate has
voted in past elections -- this is public information available from the
Board of Elections and Ethics data base, which also includes the date a
voter first registered.
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Voting Records
Paul Dionne, news at paul dionne dot com
According to the copy of the voter file I have, Kwame Brown voted in
the January 2004 primary. The November 2002 general election is marked
as N (I do not know what this means though) and the September 2002
primary is marked E (I assume this to mean "eligible, but no vote
cast" based on other records). No other votes are recorded for
Kwame. Now, in all fairness to Kwame Brown, I also looked up the person
who asked the question, Brad Doyle, and I could not find a DC registered
voter registered by that name. The second person who raised the
objection, Harold Foster, votes quite frequently.
Lastly, I don’t know Kwame nor do I consider myself a supporter of
his (I am not registered as a Democrat so can’t vote in that race).
However, I would not let his lack of a record at the polls be a deciding
factor in whether to vote for him or not. Councilmember Brazil has
pulled a lot of stunts that should make anyone question his ability as a
leader. These stunts include his inappropriate use of Council staff at
his law firm, getting a mistress a job on the government payroll, and
use of his cell phone while someone was testifying before a committee
meeting he was chairing.
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I was unaware that Mr. Brown was an executive of Wal-Mart before
announcing his candidacy for at-large councilmember. This, to me, raises
additional concerns about just what his real agenda would be were he to
be reelected. I do agree with the cryptic E-mail [themail, August 18]
that Mr. Brown is clearly a major threat to Harold Brazil. I do wonder,
however, how much us mere mortals in this town benefit from replacing
one ex-corporate flack with another one. Like most true progressives, I
always (almost automatically) have a range of concerns about Wal-Mart’s
so-called corporate model. It bothers me that someone who was a top
executive for a socially reprobate gunslinger’s club like Wal-Mart
would presume to represent a city made up, in many respects, of the very
kinds of people who are victims of corporations such as Wal-Mart, as
employees, as residents and even as consumers.
Now back to Mr. Brown’s multiple (and all unsatisfactory) answers
to why he hasn’t voted in recent District elections, but now wants us
to vote for him. On Kojo Namdi’s August 20th DC Politics Hour program,
Tom Sherwood indicated that his research shows that Mr. Brown has not,
in fact, been living in the city throughout his adult life, as he claims
in speeches and implies on his web site. Sherwood said his information
is that Mr. Brown voted in several Virginia elections during the period
when he told Jonetta Rose Barras (at first anyway) that he hadn’t
voted in several District elections because he was trying to save his
marriage. His marriage is his business, of course, unless and until he
chooses to stand for public office and ask us, as electors, to invest
our votes in him rather than in some other candidate. So, we are still
entitled to a straight answer in plain English as to 1) where he lived
during this period, and 2) if he lived here, why he didn’t bother to
vote.
As a Ward Four resident (since eleven years before there was a Ward
Four, in fact) I was glad that the Ward Four Democrats did not -- or
were unable to — formally endorse Mr. Brown. With each passing week
there is another major unanswered, perhaps unanswerable, question about
exactly who he is and what he would do were he sitting on the Council.
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Voting and Not Voting
Malcolm L Wiseman, Jr., mal at ourdesk dot org
I can think of many real life scenarios that might keep an otherwise
civic, dutiful, taxpaying person like Kwame Brown from voting,
especially in the District. Perhaps he was fighting other battles. If
they were personal, I don’t want to know about them. Not interested.
The point of the election is to select the best candidate for the job
based on the level of their current qualifications, priorities,
dedication, and desire. I see no reason for doubting Mr. Brown in these
areas.
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Kwame Brown: If You’re Curious, Just Ask
Charles Allen, cwallen@gmail.com
It was interesting to read Mr. Foster’s well researched entry last
week on At-Large contender Kwame Brown’s voting record. I’ve heard
similar questions raised in the past few weeks (distracting us I think
from the real issues and differences between the candidates), so I
decided to ask Mr. Brown for myself. He explained quite clearly that as
a born and raised Washingtonian, he takes his voting in the District
very seriously. The simple answer is that after they graduated college,
he and his wife lived in Virginia while they looked for a home in the
District. During that time, he was a registered voter and voted in
Virginia. Once they were able to afford the move back into the District,
he changed his registration and became a District voter. A pretty
straight forward explanation for me. Now I’d like to hear if Mr.
Brazil can explain his more than two hundred missed roll call votes as
easily.
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In Defense of Nonvoting Candidates for Office
Sue Hemberger, Friendship Heights, smithhemb@aol.com
I’m a frequent nonvoter. I vote only when there is a candidate
running whom I’d actually like to see hold the office (or a referendum
on an issue I feel strongly about). My nonvoting isn’t a sign of
apathy. I’m politically active in a variety of other ways —
protesting, teaching, writing, researching — that involve a greater
amount/level of commitment than voting does for most people. For me,
nonvoting is based on a realistic assessment that voting often doesn’t
have much to offer me politically.
People who don’t vote for this reason should be encouraged to run
for office. Rather than decry the lack of appealing choices, they should
try to broaden the range of political perspectives being represented. It
strikes me as really counterproductive to keep reelecting the same
irresponsible and unresponsive City Council members simply because they
are being challenged by people who chose not to vote in the past rather
than to endorse such mediocrity. Politics in this city is really
alienating and it won’t get any better until people who have been
disgusted by the system jump back in and try to take it over.
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Kwame Brown’s (Non)Voting Record
Mark Eckenwiler, themale at ingot dot org
Several folks posed questions in the August 18 issue about Kwame
Brown’s record of voting in DC elections. I checked the 2003 voter
rolls at MLK, Jr., Library and confirmed Brown’s registration date
(7/28/94), but unfortunately the 2003 rolls -- unlike the older ones --
do not show a voter’s participation record. Also, the 2001 rolls do
not list Brown at all, which is somewhat anomalous in light of his 1994
registration. One possible explanation is that Brown’s registration
was made inactive in or before 2001 for failure to vote in two
successive federal elections. I did speak with Violetta Graham at DCBOEE,
who told me over the phone that the only record of Brown casting a vote
was in the January 2004 presidential primary. I specifically asked
whether the records covered the entire period since 7/28/94, which she
confirmed. On the basis of this information, I conclude that Kwame Brown
hasn’t voted in a DC local election in at least ten years.
For the record, I’m not shilling for Harold Brazil. After watching
the candidates speak at the Ward 6 Dems’ July 17 event, I felt that
Brown wasn’t likely to improve on Harold Brazil’s record, and will
be casting my vote for Sam Brooks. (For the record, Brazil voted
regularly from 1994 to 2000. Brooks first registered in 1998; he voted
in the 1998 primary and in the 1998 and 2000 general elections. This
info comes from the 2001 rolls, so I don’t know the 2001-04 record for
either.)
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GLAA Ratings for DC Primary Candidates
Rick Rosendall, rick.rosendall@glaa.org
The Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance has released our ratings of
candidates in the September 14 Primary. Four candidates were
predominant, based on their questionnaire responses and records on gay
issues: Jack Evans, Carol Schwartz, Adrian Fenty, and At-Large
Democratic challenger Sam Brooks. The worst ratings were earned by Kevin
Chavous and Sandy Allen. Visit our web site for the details, including
the full text of the candidates’ responses: http://www.glaa.org/archive/2004/primaryratings.shtml.
GLAA 2004 Elections Project main page: http://www.glaa.org/archive/2004/election2004.shtml.
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Human Needs First Voter Guide
Julia Gordon, julia@juliagordon.net
The Human Needs 1st 2004 Primary Election Voter Guide consists of
answers to a questionnaire that was distributed to all candidates who
had filed petitions with the Board of Elections and Ethics by the July 7
deadline. Candidates were given approximately one month to respond to
the questionnaire. Responses are printed verbatim with one exception: we
asked candidates to limit each answer to one hundred words, and to
respect those candidates who adhered to that limit, we have cut off
longer answers at the point where they reach one hundred words. If a
candidate’s responses do not appear in the Guide, that candidate did
not send a response.
The Voter Guide also includes an overview of human needs issues in
the District of Columbia, as well as a short guide to voter
registration, absentee balloting, and locating your polling place. We
encourage everyone to reproduce and distribute the Voter Guide. Printed
copies will be distributed at candidate forums and other public events.
An electronic version of the Guide is available at http://www.legalclinic.org/voteguide.pdf.
Hard copies are available from the Washington Legal Clinic for the
Homeless at 328-5500. For a copy of this Guide in Spanish, visit http://www.carecendc.org,
or call Ivette Iraheta at 328-9799, extension 26. If you have any
questions, please contact me at 669-0424.
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Extinct
Larry Seftor, larry underscore seftor .the757 at
zoemail.net
At the bird house of the National Zoo there is a board that list
species that have become extinct. To walk around the outside exhibits of
the National Zoo, one would come to the conclusion that many other
species have also disappeared. While I am sure that they continue to
exist elsewhere, visitors to the National Zoo no longer have a chance to
see the following animals in this partial list of those which used to be
in outside exhibits at the Zoo: tapirs, deer, bongos, Reeve muntjacs,
snowy owls, brown fish owls, brown pelicans, brown bears, Kodiak bears,
sloth bears, prairie dogs, leopards, servals, bobcats, river otters,
beavers, Australian dogs, condors, rabbits, and nutrias. One might ask
what is left. The answer is very little. It is an embarrassment.
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Jack McKay brings up a good point and a long standing urban myth with
regard to everyone’s front lawn ownership. Most, but far from all,
front lawns fit into this category. In my experience, about half the
homes are subject to this building line restriction, while the other
half is a combination of no restriction, or only a portion, just as a
front bay window, for example, extending over the building line (I’ve
researched and pulled over 3,000 building permits, which were required
beginning in 1877). Such appurtenances required a projection permit
separate from a building permit; with the projection permit almost
always applied for days or months in advance of the building permit; I
don’t know why, although I have a few ideas. Curiously, this statement
on permits also has had me puzzled for years: “After March 3, 1891,
such projections had to have the approval of the ‘Secretary of War of
such occupation of the streets and avenues of said city.’” Again, I
have a few ideas why, but nothing solid.
Remember when the InTowner reported the police arresting the
“chardonnay lady” for public drinking on her own front porch? They
incorrectly assumed that everyone’s front yard or porch was actually
public property, when that is not the case. The only way to determine or
prove if yours is, or is not, was to have your original building permit
handy when the police came knocking. If it was on such public land,
technically, then, your seating area (or bed!) that is situated inside
the bay window itself is actually on public land . . . yikes!
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Tell the Whole Story
Ed T. Barron, edtb@aoldotcom
The Washington Post editorial on “Baseball in Washington”
(Wednesday, August 18, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9798-2004Aug17.html)
conveniently omits one major fact about the new, and centrally located
new Baseball stadium for the San Francisco Giants. This magnificent
stadium was built with not one penny of public funding. And that’s the
way it should be here in DC. It would be criminally irresponsible for
the mayor of DC to spend upwards of $400 million of public monies to
build a new stadium that will never pay back that amount over the next
fifty years.
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Encroachment, Commercialization?
Ed T. Barron, edtb@aoldotcom
It remains to be seen just what use American University will put to
the private home that they have purchased at the corner of 48th Street,
NW, and Massachusetts Avenue. Since I live next door to this property I
will be very watchful to see just how this home, zoned for single family
residential, is really used. If I see offices, a conference center, or a
huge number of folks who are obviously not from a single family, going
and coming, AU and the DC Zoning Board will hear from my attorney. There
has been no public hearing about any zoning change for that property.
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Front Yard “Parking”
Mark Eckenwiler, themale at ingot dot org
In the August 18 issue of themail, Jack McKay inquired about the
local statutes relevant to the "public parking" (i.e., green
space) between the typical home’s property line and the sidewalk. So
far as I am aware, the most important statutes are DC Code Secs. 6-404
and 6-405 (readily available via http://dccode.westgroup.com/home/dccodes/default.wl).
Sec. 6-404, first enacted in 1891 and repeatedly amended since then, has
two main provisions: a) it ratifies the pre-1891 practice of permitting
building projections past the property line (such as bay fronts on
townhouses), and b) requires current builders to apply for a permit
before building such projections. Sec. 6-405, enacted in 1906, declares
that the parking remains under the Mayor’s authority and control.
Note that DCMR (the DC Municipal Regulations) nevertheless states
that responsibility for upkeep of the parking lies with the owner of the
adjacent property. (Alas, the full DCMR is not online, and I don’t
have a citation in hand at the moment.)
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In the August 15th edition of themail, Anne Lindenfield writes,
“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.”
It’s always been my impression that the Post is merely
following the money for the most part, as more and more of its
readership resides in the suburbs. The city of Philadelphia, even in its
postindustrial decline, is still home to 1.5 million people. DC, at
about 600,000 in population, is much smaller than three suburban
counties and will probably be eclipsed by several more counties before
the decade is out. When viewed from a regional perspective, the DC
government is just another local government, like Fairfax County or
Montgomery County, and the media increasingly covers it as such. Many
who live and work in the suburbs see the city of Washington as
peripheral, at best, to their existence. In typical navel-gazing
fashion, these media consumers are not interested in the slightest in
stories about the nitty-gritty of urban revitalization. They want to
hear about their county boards, their land use issues, their cops and
their schools. If they have contact with the city at all, they are
commuters, which explains the why the preponderance of Post
stories involving DC are transportation-related.
Philadelphia is also the largest city in Pennsylvania, and that’s
no small matter. Philadelphia politicians carry a lot of weight in
Harrisburg, just as Baltimore’s do in Annapolis. Many Philadelphia
mayors have been governors, as is Ed Rendell, the current governor.
Philadelphians and their suburban neighbors are intimately connected,
whether they like it or not. DC is more easily written of as an oddball
ward of the federal government that’s someone else’s problem. DC’s
problems are never going to end up in the Maryland General Assembly’s
lap; therefore, DC is easy to ignore if you’re a suburb dweller. I
would also point out that the Post is regularly scooped on DC
stories by that “other paper,” the Washington Times, a daily
that few Washingtonians have landing on their stoops every morning. It’s
a pity, because the DC coverage there is actually quite good.
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Cops and Taxes in themail
Michael Bindner, mikeybdc at yahoo dot com
Further on the topic of the Transit Police, when I was five the local
Officer Friendly came to visit our class room. I was taught that when a
policeman tells you to do something, you do it. This is just basic
citizenship and commonsense. Anyone who is silly enough to sass someone
with a gun deserves the privilege of wearing the complementary wrist
jewelry. Metro Transit Police are not security guards, they are police
officers. They are not in the customer service business, they are there
to enforce the law — sometimes at the cost of their own lives, as
happened recently at the Cardozo station.
On the topic of whether Wards 2 and 3 overpay taxes — taxes are
related to income and property values, not location. If the Wards want
less tax burden, build affordable housing in the Wards to attract
individuals with lower incomes (and different accents) -- large
non-luxury apartment and condo developments should do it. The other
options are to move East of the river and pay lower property taxes or to
quit your job and watch your tax burden and income decline.
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DC and the 2004 Presidential Election
Paul Wilson, dchondarider at earthlink dot net
In the August 19th edition of themail, Joan Eisenstodt wrote: “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.”
Should no one candidate achieve a majority of 270 electoral votes, or
in the event of a 269-269 tie, the election is decided by the House of
Representatives. But there is an additional twist. In the House vote,
each state delegation votes en bloc, with each state getting one
vote. So DC voters would still be cut out of the process, absent a
Constitutional amendment, even if our Delegate got full voting powers on
the floor, as contemplated in various plans being floated by Rep. Tom
Davis and others.
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DC and the 2004 Election
Kevin Kiger, kkiger at dcvote.org
I want to response to the posting by Joan Eisenstodt regarding a
possible tie in the Electoral College, and the vote for the President
and Vice President going to the Congress. Her fear is, unfortunately,
the truth of the matter — District residents would have no vote for
the President and Vice President of the United States if the Electoral
College were tied and the deciding vote moved to the Congress. This kind
of scenario is a further example of the numerous, often overlooked ways
that the residents of the District of Columbia are disenfranchised from
our country’s democratic process.
Another often overlooked way that the District is disenfranchised is
in the process by which the US Constitution is amended (Article V of the
US Constitution). As the District is not a state and does not have a
state legislature, the residents of Washington would be denied the
opportunity to participate in any ratification process for proposed
amendments to the US Constitution that may pass through the Congress.
In 1960-61, Washington, DC, was even denied a vote in the
ratification process for the 23rd amendment, which for the first time in
over 150 years, gave District residents limited voting rights in
presidential elections. The 23rd amendment gave Washington, DC, a number
of votes in the Electoral College not to exceed that of the least
populous state. At the time of its passage, the District had a
population that would have afforded Washington, DC, five votes in the
Electoral College.
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In response to [Joan Eisenstodt’s] question, yes, if the electoral
college is tied, and the vote goes to Congress, we would be out of luck.
We would revert back, therefore, to the way it was until 1964, when DC
citizens could not vote for president — total disenfranchisement. It
shows how precarious a position we are still in, and how second-class
citizenship does not work. Furthermore, in spite of all the various
schemes recently put forward to try to “fix” this problem, I
continue to feel that becoming part of the several states is the only
fully-enfranchising way to fix our situation. I am still promoting
statehood for New Columbia, especially since DC citizens voted to apply
for statehood, and that has never been rescinded.
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
National Building Museum Events, August 23-24,
29
Brie Hensold, bhenhold@nbm.org
Monday, August 23, 6:30-8:00 p.m. Downtown Revitalization and
Historic Preservation: Creating More Livable Cities for the 21st
Century. Downtown development based on a respect for history, culture,
and place is proving to be not only popular, but also economically
sustainable, and may be just what cities need to prosper and thrive in
the 21st century. Rodney L. Swink, FASLA, director of the Office of
Urban Development in the North Carolina Division of Community
Assistance, considers these types of livable downtowns and how they may
guide the growth of other urban areas. $12, museum and ASLA members, and
students; $17 nonmembers. Registration required.
Tuesday, August 24, 6:30-8:00 p.m. The Minneapolis-based firm Vincent
James Associates Architects produces innovative buildings through the
synthesis of research and design. Working closely with highly qualified
specialists to develop technologically advanced designs, the firm
believes that architecture can play an important role in addressing
social, cultural, and environmental issues. Principal Vincent James will
present the firm’s work, which includes the student center at the
American University of Beirut in Lebanon. The firm is internationally
acclaimed and the recipient of four consecutive Progressive Architecture
awards for the Minneapolis Rowing Club Boathouse, the Tulane University
Center in New Orleans, the Cable Natural History Museum in Wisconsin,
and the Longitudinal House(s), which is featured in the exhibition
Liquid Stone. $12 museum members; $17 nonmembers; $10 students. Prepaid
registration required.
Sunday, August 29, 2:00-4:00 p.m. Construction Watch Tour of Cityline.
The Cityline condominium rising in Washington, DC’s Tenleytown
neighborhood juxtaposes contemporary design with the historic former
Sears and Roebuck department store that forms its base. Design principal
Robert Sponseller and project architect Ari Blumenthal, both of Shalom
Baranes and Associates, will lead a tour of this project, scheduled for
completion in late 2004. Open only to Museum members, $15. Appropriate
clothing required. Prepaid registration required and must be received by
August 23.
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SOLAR PAC House Party, August 26
Deborah Lapidus, dlapidus@foeaction.org
SOLAR PAC, an initiative of Friends of the Earth Action, is hosting a
house party on Thursday, August 26, to promote the advancement of clean,
renewable energy in the region and beyond. The event, which features
food, drink, and a fire-dancer, will present the opportunity for guests
to learn how to get involved in cultivating leaders that are supportive
of safe, clean sources of energy. The party will be held from 6-8 p.m.
at 3203 38th Street, NW. RSVP is appreciated at solarpac@foeaction.org
or 222-0723. Donations are encouraged.
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CLASSIFIEDS — FOR SALE
Four Tickets to The King and I at Wolf Trap
Peggy Robin, probin@adlerbooks.com
We have four tickets to see The King and I at Wolf Trap (Orchestra,
section F, seats 48, 49, 50, and 51) on Wednesday, September 1 at 8 p.m.
This is a great show starring Sandy Duncan, perfect for whole family.
The tickets cost $48 each plus a $5 service charge per ticket, but I
would sell all four for $120 or best offer. Just sorry we won’t be
able to use the tickets ourselves!
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CLASSIFIEDS — WANTED
I’m looking for a used VCR that I can get for free or for a small
price.
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CLASSIFIEDS — SPACE
Adams Morgan Office Space for Rent
Saul Levin, slevin@accesshq.com
Ideal rental space for community organization just off 18th Street
and Columbia Road. Rental space between 3,265-4,000 square feet on the
first floor. Easily subdivided, depending on need. Five, eleven, or
sixteen offices; large conference room, two restrooms (one with shower),
full kitchen. Lease term negotiable, prefer three to ten years.
Available immediately. Cost $24/square foot, net of electric and
cleaners. Two indoor parking spaces available.
Amenities: 0.6 miles from Woodley Park/Zoo (Red line) or Columbia
Heights (Green line) Metros, on Metro shuttle bus routes, fully wired
for telephone and Internet, newly renovated, very clean and efficient
build out. Call Sheila at 222-0200 or E-mail questions to abheron@aol.com.
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Nonsmoking land use/environmental planner seeks house share/new
friends near Metro. Prefer Capitol Hill or other DC Red Line and/or Rock
Creek adjacent neighborhood. Desire housemates with recycling ethic and
conservation consciousness. Need unfurnished bedroom plus some storage,
less than $650 per month. Contact 547-7820, maryvogel at yahoo.com,
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