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August 25, 2004

Urban Removal

Dear Squatters:

With the city council’s approval of the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative, it looks like the District will be in for another few decades of an ambitious, centrally planned, governmentally led urban removal project in which the homes and the businesses of the poor, the middle class, and especially the politically uninfluential will be demolished in order make way for large-scale projects for the profit of politically well connected developers. The stumbling, heavy-handed “planning” done by the Office of Planning and the administration’s economic development cluster in the cases of Columbia Heights, the Skyline Shopping Center, the K-Mart development, Tenleytown and Friendship Heights, the ballpark project, and throughout the city has demonstrated that our city’s government has learned nothing from the failure of the clearance of southwest and the Waterside Mall debacle. It certainly has not become even a marginally better engine of economic development in the ensuing decades. Only the arrogance of the effort — and the enormous subsidies the government gives to its favored developers to augment the free land that it gives them -- have grown in the intervening years.

The one defense that citizens may have against the wrecking ball is to challenge the overbroad exercise of eminent domain laws that allow the government — and now the semipublic, semiprivate Anacostia Waterfront Initiative — to take their land to give it to private developers whom it prefers. This is a cause on which the right, which opposes intrusive government, and the left, which opposes greedy corporations, can agree. And the use of eminent domain can be successfully challenged. On the Volokh Conspiracy web site, http://www.volokh.com, George Mason law professor Ilya Somin has been writing about the decision on July 30 by the Supreme Court of Michigan in the case of County of Wayne v. Edward Hathcock (http://courts.michigan.gov/supremecourt/Clerk/Opinions-03-04-Term/124070.pdf). In that case, the court found that Michigan’s constitution forbids the use of eminent domain laws in order to seize property from one person in order to give to another person simply because the government believes that it may encourage economic development. Eminent domain, the court found, can only be used to take property for a public use — a road, a park, a government building, for example -- and not to take property because it wants to transfer it to a larger, more powerful, or better connected corporation. If your neighbor wants your house, he can buy it from you; he can’t get the government to take it from you to give to him. Sounds like a good rule to me. Is there any hope that we could get a similar interpretation of the law in the District of Columbia?

Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com

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At-Large Council Race
Lee Wilson, lwilson77@hotmail.com

As a twenty-year resident of Ward 7 with a stellar voting record, I don’t recall seeing Sam Brooks or Harold Brazil east of the Anacostia unless it at an election forum. If you want to run for an at-large city council seat remember that you are running to represent the entire city, not just a ward or, in the case of the aforementioned candidates, wards 2, 3, and 6.

Kwame Brown is the only one I see pounding the pavement across the city. His enthusiasm and concern citywide registers his commitment for all the citizens of this city. Councilmember Brazil has been a no-show east of the river for years. As for Sam Brooks, he knew he wanted to make this run for the council seat. However, he must have confused wards 7 and 8 as part of Prince Georges County when he announced his bid. These omissions are just as bad as, if not worse, as the hype over Kwame Brown’s voting record.

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DC Candidates and Smoking
Sharlene Kranz, skranz_99@yahoo.com

Gary asks [themail, August 18] “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.” So here’s one.

The Smokefree Workplaces Act, currently pending in the DC City Council, would protect all city workers from the toxic effects of secondhand tobacco smoke. Harold Brazil was the first councilmember to declare his opposition to the bill. Kwame Brown, on the other hand, testified in favor of the bill at a December 2003 Council hearing, has endorsed the bill on his web site and all his campaign literature, and talks about its importance at public forums. For this reason I’ll be voting for Kwame Brown, to replace a no vote on this bill with a yes vote.

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What Does Wal-Mart Have to Do With the At-Large Race?
Jamaine Taylor, jamainet1@yahoo.com

Kwame Brown has not worked for this organization [Wal-Mart] in almost ten years! Kwame Brown was born at the Columbia Hospital for Women, graduated from Wilson High School, and now lives in Ward 7. He’s a native Washingtonian. If elected, he will be the first at-large councilmember that lives East of the River. I live in Ward 8 and we need all the champions on the Council that we can get. Kwame Brown will fight to bring economic development to the District that benefits all neighborhoods, not just downtown. That’s why I’m supporting him.

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Time for a Checkup
Ed Dixon, Georgetown Reservoir, jedxn@erols.com

Sue Hemberger is right [themail, August 18] that turning out at a polling booth is not the beginning and end of civic responsibility. Much like protecting your health, going to the polls should be thought of as a doctor’s appointment (i.e., schedule one) and then follow up on taking care of yourself (i.e., engage the populace and candidates). Unfortunately for many, religion and politics have taken a back seat to shopping and sports. And so when we whine about how corrupt our government is the best we can do is think of throwing money at someone. Vote and take a friend.

In that light, Ed Baron’s quip that Brazil is an empty suit on the dais was appropriate to a point. The fact that he has taken in nearly half a million dollars in campaign contributions suggests he is not an empty suit but an agenda driven one. Ted Trabue of PEPCO and the Board of Trade’s political action committee said to the Post they never considered abandoning Brazil. Mayor Williams followed suit. With that, most people should be pretty clear on Brazil’s politics of serving corporate DC. The agenda includes lax revenue standards and collection, more police downtown, subsidized development deals to those who already have great wealth. These mouths are the minority in DC’s political trough but always the best fed. Trickle down economists can hail Brazil’s performance. There are not the only reasons to dismiss Brazil as an unworthy candidate for the Council. His “at-large” performance has been felt in most corners of the city.

The question is not whether or not to go to the polls and vote against Brazil. The question is how to beat Brazil. Look to the last multi-candidate primaries of Chavous and Evans for guidance. A split ballot usually is to the advantage of the incumbent. By being in office, incumbents have certain strategic advantages, such as raising money and access to organization. Brazil has a third advantage: the monied elite favor him. If you want Brazil out of office, join the candidate who has the organization and backing to beat him. It will take the new office holder a while to learn the ways of Brazil’s backers in DC’s corrupt government, especially if they didn’t back the new Councilmember. And during that time citizen’s can work on their political health waiting for the next doctor’s appointment. Maybe while citizens get their political health in order, over time corporate DC will realize that their money does not equal votes.

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The At-Large Race
Harold Foster, Petworth, harold.foster@ppd.mncppc.org

First I want to thank Mr. Dionne for observing [themail, August 22] that I vote quite frequently. I should mention here that I am an electoral convert, who used to subscribe to the Vietnam-era adage: "Don’t vote: it only encourages them." (Well, I did say used to, didn’t I?) Second, I suppose I rather grudgingly agree that whether or not a candidate votes, or votes regularly, should be only one of the factors we should consider before voting for or against him or her. I do think there is some currency, though, in the question: why should I invest my vote in someone who doesn’t think enough of the process he (or she) is now entering to participate in it him or herself? I mean, if I never bothered to play on the basketball court on Monday, why would or should others make me the head coach on Tuesday?

And I need to be clear on one other point: there are two somewhat different issues here. Those who, as some here have said they do, vote only when a candidate or issue worth supporting is on the ballot, on the one hand, and those who actually want other to vote for them, on the other, strike me as electorally different categories. And I, for one, have had my share of major, major distractions in my personal and professional life while never, as Jonetta Rose Barras asked Mr. Brown, finding it impossible to take a half hour or 45 minutes to go two or three blocks to a school to vote once every two years. Do we say we "were distracted by trying to save our marriage" as a reason for missing our motor vehicle safety inspection every two years?

Third, I am, or have been, almost as dissatisfied with what I have heard from Sam Brooks as I am with what I have heard from Kwame Brown. As an African-American I tend to get irritated by candidates who claim that race isn’t a factor in an electoral campaign, although we can probably all agree that it shouldn’t be. Particularly in this town, race is always a factor, but recognizing that hasn’t kept large numbers of African-Americans from supporting candidates such as the late (and, for me, very lamented) Dave Clark, or non-African-Americans from supporting candidates such as Sharon Pratt Dixon and Tony Williams (or, come to that, even Marion Barry, at least in 1978). But it insults my intelligence to tell me either that race isn’t a factor -- sometimes a major one -- or, even worse, that it shouldn’t influence my vote. Hey, if what was the apartheid-era National Party in Azania (south Africa) can merge with the ex-anti-apartheid guerrillas of the African National Congress, I can take race into account in local elections here. Like a candidate’s past voting record, it is one of the factors, that’s all.

Anyway. I frankly find it hard to pay much attention to what is coming out of the Brazil campaign, since he already has an established record in office that should speak for itself, so I can’t honestly say I am being that systematic about listening to what he has had to say, pretty much in defense of what is a lackluster record while in office. Fourth. All that said, fourth, since others here are recommending Brooks, I will go back and give him a second, and probably a third or fourth, hearing before deciding who to vote for. Fifth, I agree with others here and elsewhere who contend that not voting at all for that particular office in the primary is tantamount to a vote for Brazil. And, sixth, frankly I fully agree with others here who say that, Brown or Brooks, Brazil has to go.

[To show my age, I remember, “I don't vote; it only encourages them,” as the punchline to a Jack Paar joke; he credited it to an old lady in his neighborhood. Can anyone trump me with an even older attribution? — Gary Imhoff]

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Democratic State Committee Candidate
Jeffrey Norman, jeffrey.norman@att.net

Many of you may never even have heard of the State Committee. It's no wonder because it does not get the kind of press that the mayor, city council or school board gets, and the current leaders do very little to tell the general public who they are or what they're doing. The State Committee is in essence the board of directors of the DC Democratic Party. There are two men and two women elected from each of the eight wards, plus six men and six women elected at-large; and all registered Democrats can vote for the twelve at-large seats and the four ward seats in their respective wards in the same September 14 Democratic Primary where they can vote for the City Council candidates.

I, Jeffrey Norman, am a candidate for one of the six male at-large seats. I previously served for fifteen years on the Chevy Chase (DC) Advisory Neighborhood Commission and two years as President of the Chevy Chase Citizens Association. I'm running because I am very concerned that the current leaders of our local Democratic Party are not doing enough public outreach to the rank and file members of our Party. If I am elected, I will start a series of discussions and debates sponsored by the DC Democratic Party on important issues facing our citizens. I ask for your vote on September 14.

I am also a member of the Running Against Bush slate, which is committed to: 1) making DC America's first binding primary, 2) sending the Bush White House packing, 3) increased voter awareness and turnout, and 4) fresh ideas and a new vision. You are all invited to an MTV Video Music Awards Viewing Party to help raise funds for the slate on Sunday, August 29, at The Exchange restaurant at 1719 G Street, NW, from 6 p.m. to midnight, which will include delicious buffet and from 8-11 p.m., a viewing of the Video Music Awards. The charge is $25 for students, artists and musicians; $50 for sponsors and $30 for the general public.

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Public Space and Front Yards
Michael Harrison, mrhson@hotmail.com

On the subject of DC permits for projections beyond the building line, Paul Williams comments [themail, August 18], “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.” This isn’t too much of a mystery.

In the Organic Act of 1874, which swept away the District’s territorial government and established Commission government, Congress vested “control and charge of the work of repair and improvement of all streets, avenues, alleys, sewers, roads, and bridges of the District of Columbia” in the engineer commissioner. As specified by law, the engineer commissioner was an officer of the Army Corps of Engineers and as such fell under the authority of the secretary of war. Consequently, when Congress enacted legislation to regulate construction on the city’s parking in March 1891 (see Statutes at Large 26 (1891): 868), it required that all projections beyond the building line be approved by the secretary of war, the appropriate executive-branch official superior to the engineer commissioner.

The secretary of war’s approval of projection permits was, naturally, predicated on the recommendation of the board of commissioners. Projection permits I’ve seen carry the signatures of the three commissioners as well as that of the secretary of war. Mr.. Williams would know if this is a common occurrence.

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The “Parking Space”
Matthew Gilmore, dc-edit@mail-h.net.msu.edu

[Jack McKay, themail, August 18, wrote:] “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?” It’d be interesting to know what Mr.. McKay has been hearing.

I think rather than Mr. McKay’s front yard, DC officials are referring to the whole variety of paper (undeveloped) streets created in 1900-1908 by the Permanent System of Highways. See Washington History, Spring/Summer 2002, 14(1), "The ‘Evil of the Misfit Subdivisions’: Creating the Permanent System of Highways of the District of Columbia," 26-55. It’s tougher now, but look at any official DC map published into the 1980s — if you see the 1968 base map, you can see the built and unbuilt portions of the permanent system of highways. For the origins of “parking,” check William M. Maury, Alexander “Boss” Shepherd and the Board of Public Works. George Washington University, 1975, GW Washington Studies, no. 3; and Alan Lessoff, The Nation and Its City: Politics, “Corruption,” and Progress in Washington, D.C., 1861-1902. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994.

Of course it would be debatable if the city could actually do anything with land dedicated to “highways” other than built a road on it, unless they officially abandon it (an action taken by DC Council).

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Is This Democracy?
Sarah Pokempner, azepo@aol.com

I recently responded to a request that I work at the polls this election year. When I went to my initial training, I was told there is a DC regulation that prohibits poll workers from engaging in political campaigning. I found this requirement confusing and irrational and asked several officials about it. I got several different answers. In the end, it appears that a poll worker cannot campaign, prior to or on election day, for a candidate whose name appears on the ballot. For some reason, this applies only to partisan campaigns and not to Board of Education or ANC seats. Can anybody explain the logic of this regulation and whether this is unique to DC?

I am willing to work at the polls. However, I do not wish to give up my right to campaign for Senator Kerry inside or outside of Washington, DC.

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Bogus Fiscal Policy Institute Analysis of Property Tax Relief
Warren Gorlick, wgorlick@yahoo.com

I am quite grateful to Matt Forman for his concise, accurate rebuttal, published in the August 11 edition of themail, of the latest so-called study by the DC Fiscal Policy Institute. In addition to all the inaccuracies and facts taken out of context that Matt already pointed out about the DCFPI report, I would also note that it was quite inappropriate for the DCFPI to assert in its study that “the gap between high-income and low-income households in the District of Columbia is wider than in any other major US city.” What rubbish. When you read the fine print of DCFPI’s own report, you see that the top fifth income quintile in other cities (such as San Francisco) is actually much higher than in Washington. What is different in areas such as San Francisco is that very few poor persons live there, as the city has already gentrified to a much greater extent then Washington. As a result, the DCFPI slams Washington for income “inequality,” whereas Washington should be praised because there are still, notwithstanding the gentrification that has occurred in Washington, many areas of the city where persons of relatively modest means can still buy a whole house for under $200,000. Just try buying any house in San Francisco for less than $600,000! Ironically, if Washington were to gentrify all its areas of modest priced housing, the poor would be driven out, and income “inequality” would be less — but only because the poor and middle class would have to commute into Washington for jobs in the city, as they already do in such places as San Francisco.

As a matter of fundamental policy, DCFPI favors regressive taxes. In practice, what this means is that DCFPI consistently advocates the imposition of high property taxes rather than more progressive types of taxation, such as income taxes or a tax on total wealth, as the state of Florida uses. Instead of a progressive tax policy, DCFPI advocates high property taxes, which by definition are not based on one’s ability to pay. Moreover, property taxes are imposed solely on the one asset that most middle income persons are likely to have, allowing upper income persons to pay a much lower effective rate of tax. For example, DCFPI was the largest institutional critic of the recent move to cap the District’s annual property tax increases at 10 percent (ultimately, a compromise cap of 12 percent cap was agreed to, over the vehement objections of the DCFPI). Even with the 12 percent cap, the increase in DC’s property taxes is rising at four times the rate of inflation, which will inevitably force persons of modest means to leave DC for the suburbs, which is apparently just want the DCFPI wants. At least, once high property taxes have driven out the lower and middle class, DCFPI will be able to celebrate the fact that income inequality in DC has lessened, just as it already has in other cities such as San Francisco.

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The Stadium
Harold Foster, Petworth, harold.foster@ppd.mncppc.org

I don’t make a habit of agreeing with Ed Barron; I suspect it would be hazardous to my ideological health. But we do fully agree on one thing: the city is about to waste far too much money on yet another public entertainment Taj Mahal, namely a publicly financed baseball stadium for the ex-Montreal Expos. And let me add that I write this as a third-generation Washingtonian, as the grandson of a diehard baseball, old Senators (and Homestead Grays) fan, and as a pretty diehard Dodger fan myself. (I am just old enough to barely remember being excited by the last two or three years of the Jackie Robinson era of the Brooklyn Dodgers.) So, yeah: I would love to go to a game here in DC (especially whenever LA was in town). But (always the magic word in this town, right?), Marble-Man Tony and his crew are about to pour far too much money down this particular gilt-edged rat hole, all for the dubious benefits of bringing yet another public entertainment to a town that would do better to invest in Jack Evans’ three “publics”: public safety, public education, and public works.

And, in the interests of full disclosure, Lord knows I don’t make a habit of agreeing all that frequently with Five-Aces Jack either. For one thing, there are actually five “publics”: Jack always neglects to mention public health and public finance. But, as the British say, there you are. And, as Mr. Barron rightly suggests, all five of the "publics" are betrayed by putting anything like the $400 million-odd Marble-Man has laid on the altar before Bud Selig and Major League Baseball. I mean, these multimillionaires need all the help we taxpaying working stiffs can give them, right? We should propose a properly renovated RFK Stadium for the "EX-pos," include a reasonable package of financial incentives for The Washington Baseball Group to take to Boss Bud and tell them to take it or leave it. And, anyway, wouldn’t a rehabbed RFK be consistent with Marble-Man’s other, most recent exercise in Pharoahnic planning, namely the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative? (I should mention here that I am also writing this as a card-carrying certified urban planner with thirty years in the profession (twenty in DC government service.)

This city has survived reasonably well for more than three decades without a major league baseball team, and something tells me it will continue to do quite well, thank you, if we never get one. The point Mr. Barron makes is, to me, dispositive here: that nice shiny new playground the owners of the Giants have by the Bay has turned the team’s fortunes around almost as much as Barry Bonds’ hitting. The public doesn’t pay Barry’s salary (well, not directly anyway) and they didn’t pay for the venue where he plays. Why should it be any different here by this Bay (apologies to Mr. Angelos). Whatever happened to letting capitalists, well, be capitalists? They invest their own and other private venture capitalists’ money in an idea and, if it works out, fine. They reap the benefits of the risks they ran. If not, tough: that is the way Adam Smith tells me this system of yours is supposed to work. The Invisible Hand isn’t mine. Nor is it supposed to be. Hey, if Collins and that crowd over in Loudon County want to mortgage that jurisdiction’s financial public welfare to attract the EX-pos, let them. I won’t go out there to see a game, but I suspect those living inside DC who think it is a wise expenditure of public money (or financial good faith, whatever) to invest in a baseball stadium rather than a state-of-the-art, full service, public hospital, will go. And power to them.

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Where Have All the Bongos Gone?
L.E. Adams, workinprogress247@mac.com

I know there were important political events, activists, and circumstances discussed in the most recent issue of themail, but I can’t get over the posting about all those animals missing from the Zoo. Is there any way the public can help to replace them? Tapirs and leopards and bears -- oh my! And the prairie dogs — they popped out of their tunnels to salute thousands of Zoo visitors for decades, and for goodness sake, they breed like, well, prairie dogs. How hard is it to go find a conjugally active couple and replenish the supply that we lost? I am truly saddened and the Smithsonian should be shamed by Larry Seftor’s news. As Peter Paul and Mary asked, “When will they ever learn?”

And one more burning question: is it safe to have a fire-dancer at a house party? Sounds to me like a “hazardous to your health” activity they ought to try to stop before it catches on with the kids.

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AOL Blocks
Winston Bull, bulwin@aol.com

Regarding your posting about AOL subscribers not always getting your E-mails, that is most easily solved simply by writing an E-mail to themail. That gets it into the address book and western civilization as we know it is again saved.

AOL is so concerned about my safety that it would be touching if it weren’t so incredible annoying at times.

[This has appeared to work for some people, though it’s not a perfect solution. It’s worth trying. — Gary Imhoff]

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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS

Adams Morgan Day 2004, September 12
Sam King, sking@witeckcombs.com

Adams Morgan, one of Washington, DC’s most diverse and energetic neighborhoods, will host its twenty-sixth Annual Adams Morgan Day Festival on Sunday, September 12 from noon until 6 p.m. This yearly event celebrates international and cultural diversity, evidenced by the neighborhood’s ethnic and eclectic retail, entertainment, and restaurant locales. With additions sure to please locals and tourists alike, this year’s festival will have both cultural and music stages, along with youth activities on the Marie Reed school grounds. On 18th Street, NW, between Florida Avenue and Columbia Road.

Much of Adams Morgan Day 2004 will be similar to years past. Vendor booths line the center of the street, selling international foods, arts and crafts, clothes, and gifts. Two large music stages will be at opposite ends of pedestrian-only 18th Street, where performances will begin at noon. The Columbia Road stage, organized by Madam’s Organ, will feature R&B, funk, bluegrass and blues, plus the famous "Sauce Boss!" The Florida Avenue stage, presented by Clear Channel’s Jerry Phillips, will feature jazz and international music groups. Featured acts include Chopteenth, Cairo Steel Band, Cubano Groove, and America-Bossa Jazz. Bank of America is sponsoring the new Cultural Stage where acts beginning at 11:00 a.m. include the Higher Praise Gospel Chorale, El Barrio Street Theater, and Sitar Center students. A favorite with returning festival goers, “Arts on Belmont” showcases original art of various media. Photography, ceramics, jewelry, paintings and glassware will all be available for viewing and sale beginning at 10:00 a.m. D.C. Chartered Health sponsors this years Kids’ Fair on the Marie Reed School grounds, which will include a basketball tournament, science activities and games. For more information on the 26th Annual Adams Morgan Day, visit http://www.AMMainStreet.org, where festival information can be found, as well as both volunteer information and vendor applications.

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CLASSIFIEDS — SPACE

Two Adams Morgan Parking Spaces for Rent
Josh Gibson, Adams Morgan, joshgibson@alumni.ksg.harvard.edu

Two parking spaces for rent, available immediately: 9th and T Streets: fenced lot, $150/month; and 12th and U Streets: narrow parking space, $150/month. Interested? Contact Josh at josh.gibson@flexcar.com.

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