Weekending
Dear Weekenders:
It’s a good time of the year to be in Washington; we’re
overwhelmed with special events and street festivals, and most of them
are free and open to everyone. Downtown, this weekend, we had our choice
of the Digital Edge Expo at the Convention Center (http://www.nbc4.com/digitaledgeexpo);
the Festival of the Building Arts at the National Building Museum, which
was great for kids (http://www.nbm.org/Events/Calendar/foba_2004.htm);
the multi-location Arts on Foot festival in the Pennsylvania Quarter,
which ran a restaurant tasting on F Street the way it should be run, and
the way Taste of DC was run many years ago — small, cheap portions, so
you can try a little something from many different restaurants (http://www.artsonfoot.org/);
the Turkish Festival on Freedom Plaza (http://www.turkishfestival.org/);
and the Chinese Cultural Festival on H Street (http://www.ccf2004.org/).
Throughout this week, there will be numerous events associated with the
opening of the National Museum of the American Indian (http://www.nmai.si.edu/opening/events/).
And those are just a few of the larger events, and there are many
more neighborhood and local fall festivals. Sts. Constantine and Helen
Greek Orthodox Church, on 16th Street, held its annual Greek festival
this weekend (http://www.stsconstantine-helen.com/NewFiles/Festival.html);
and in a couple weeks there’ll be a Russian festival at a nearby
Russian Orthodox Church.
The embarrassment of riches reminds me of a story that John Maxtone-Graham,
the wonderful historian of cruise liners, tells. For several years he
had encouraged a couple who were his friends to cruise as a good way to
relax. They finally did take a cruise, and when they returned he asked
them whether they enjoyed it. The wife said that they did have fun.
“But John,” she said, “it was exhausting.” Maxtone-Graham didn’t
understand why they didn’t find cruising relaxing, until the wife
explained that every morning the ship delivered a schedule of shipboard
events to their cabin, and that getting through that list of activities
kept them busy from dawn to late at night. It seems that they just didn’t
quite understand that simply because the events were available didn’t
mean that they were mandatory. Well, our Washington festivals, fairs,
and street events may not be mandatory, but they can be a lot of fun.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Evans’ Lack of Popular Support
Ed Dixon, jedxn@erols.com
Last week’s Council primary featured a couple uncontested seats:
Jack Evans in Ward 2 and Adrian Fenty in Ward 4. Both incumbents made an
effort to get out the vote in support of their elected seat on the
Council. Only 6 percent of Ward 2’s residents turned out to vote for
Evans. In contrast, Fenty pulled in 20 percent of Ward 4’s population
over 18. If looked at in terms of their perspective party, Fenty almost
pulled in three times as many Democrats to support his reelection. Evans
4,003 votes were only 15 percent of the registered Democrats in Ward 2,
while Fenty’s 11,465 votes were nearly 30 percent of the registered
Democrats in Ward 4. Evans also commands 5,000 more adults in his ward
than Fenty does, but that fact does not increase numbers at the polls
for Evans.
Many commentators have pointed out the economic boom in Ward 2, most
noticeably in construction activities and the increase in luxury condos.
However, these supposed accomplishments of the Council Pro Tempore and
the Chair of the Committee on Finance and Revenue (i.e., Evans) have not
translated into unconditional political support at the polls . . . or
maybe it’s that the benefits of these accomplishments have been felt
by folks who can’t vote in DC and instead give to the Evans political
coffers.
Some of that money went to the local newspapers (i.e., not the Post)
to promote Jack Evans. One ad in the Current told voters to cast
a vote for Evans and leave the rest to him. Now with a political shift
in the Council scheduled for January 1, the old regime plans to tackle
some unfinished business. As Jack Evans prepares to ram a stadium deal
through the Council without the support of many city residents,
activists should not leave the rest to Evans but raise their voices
accordingly.
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Life in this town is a trip of faith in human endurance with
occasional sparks of delight. Here is a reminiscence of mine in answer
to someone who found an archival research reference to Brookland
vis-a-vis the long time ago “freeway fight.” The year might be 1969:
"It is so funny to see one’s living history in research form.
The Three Sisters Bridge part of the freeway system fight caught the
attention of the TV folks, and it is easy to see why: very dramatic and
photographable it was. So be it now and forever in our culture. The TV
people got so interested in the GU students occupying the Three Sisters
Islands out there in the Potomac that for a while it was fun: us
anti-freeway protesters would get into hired rowboats from Thompson’s
Boat place in Georgetown and row out to be with the kids from Georgetown
U who were "occupying" the islands and declaring them not
under US jurisdiction. The TV crews came along to record it all live and
I can still see those guys with their heavy cameras trying to cope with
small rowboats as they stood teetering to get their good shots of the
kids camping out on the liberated islands. Some of us packed picnic
lunches and went out to celebrate with the students, and the TV cameras
caught us, and we were the TV break image for a few days, sitting on one
of the tiny islands and singing I have forgotten what great song. What
we were all doing was trying to prevent I-66 from being connected into
DC via a bridge into Georgetown."
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On Tuesday, three senior incumbent councilmembers, Allen, Brazil, and
Chavous, were defeated by DC voters. Post-election analysts have
generally agreed that voters were seeking councilmembers with a
full-time commitment to the job and councilmembers who pledged, first
and foremost, to be engaged and to address voters’ concerns. Many have
also commented that Tuesday’s election should have sent a clear
message about voter discontent to Mayor Williams and Council Chairman
Linda Crop, who face reelection in 2006.
Despite how others have interpreted Tuesday’s election, Mayor
Williams has not curtailed his penchant for out-of-town travel. On
Thursday, he left Washington to attend an urban design conference in
Charleston, South Carolina, and left from there to go to his high school
reunion in Los Angeles. As a result, he was out of town when the
tornadoes spawned by Hurricane Ivan hit the Washington region, luckily
missing the center city. He was out of town and unable to participate in
labor negotiations aimed at averting a strike by hotel workers that
would adversely affect tourism, the District’s largest business
sector. He was out of town and unable to attend Saturday’s funeral for
two children, Tavi and Christopher Suydan, who were killed by a drug
suspect’s speeding car when crossing Florida Avenue. He was out of
town and unable to participate in the city’s negotiations with Major
League Baseball regarding the relocation of the Montreal Expos and the
financing of a new ballpark in the District.
Though neither trip has been officially announced, Mayor Williams
will travel to Paris in the next week or so, and he will make an
extended visit to China in mid-October. So much for his commitment to
campaign actively as a "good Democrat" to help elect John
Kerry president and to capture the White House for the Democrats.
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Now is the time to start talking about real electoral reform here in
DC. My personal drum is instant run-off balloting, but there are (still)
a host of things that should or must be done to truly democratize the
electoral process. I am one of those Indochina (note: I did not just say
Vietnam) Era oldsters who always reminded others that the constitution
only guarantees a republican form of government. Form, mind you, not
substance. That part is up to us.
My personal electoral laundry list partially includes: 1) instant
run-off ballots; or institute run-off elections when a candidate gets a
plurality (instead of a majority) of the votes cast; 2) an elected
District attorney general; 3) limiting signature canvassing to District
residents only; 4) increasing the length of time would-be candidates
must live in a ward before running to represent it on the Council; 5)
banning outside compensation for all councilmembers, not just the
Council chair; 6) restoring campaign contribution limits; 7) requiring
officeholders to resign from any office they hold before they can run
for another; 8) reconstituting the Board of Education with an
all-elected board and as an Independent District of Columbia School
District, with a prescribed share of District revenues to fund it; 9)
having proportional representation for the at-large Council seats.
This is probably the most radical remedy on Dr. Foster’s
Prescription Chart here. The idea is to make it highly probable — if
not to ensure — that at least one non-Republican/non-Democrat
candidate makes it onto the Council. (Three candidates did it: Hobson
and Mason (Statehood) and Lightfoot (Independent).) And, let’s
remember that Congress has already imposed a form of electoral
proportionality in the present home rule charter, by limiting the
at-large elections every two years to one candidate for each major
party. Anyway, ideally, I’d like to expand the number of at-large
seats to six and reduce the number of single-member districts to either
seven or six. Or, alternatively, have, say, five multi-member
councilmanic wards, with at least two west of the Park and at least
three east of the river.
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Addressing Youth Obesity in New Ways
Phil Shapiro, pshapiro@his.com
When you work as an educator you spend a lot of time thinking about
the well-being of your students. Recently I’ve been thinking about the
youth obesity epidemic here in DC and elsewhere. In what bold new ways
can this issue be addressed? I’ve shared some thoughts in text and
rich media form at http://mytvstation.blogspot.com.
These thoughts cover just the physical activity part of the issue.
Surely we must also look to improving diet via new regulations of fast
food content. If we regulate car manufacturers to produce leaner more
efficient cars, doesn’t it make sense that we regulate fast food
merchants to offer healthier alternatives? For too long these companies
have gotten all the profits while saddling society with the costs. That’s
got to stop now.
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Publicly Oppose Public Financing of MLB
Susie Cambria, scambria@dckids.org
The NO DC Taxes for Baseball Campaign has signs available. Put them
in your window or yard or even in your car window (be sure to remove the
sign while you are driving, though)! While many residents have already
displayed signs with this sentiment, more public display is needed. For
signs (and yard stakes), E-mail Pierre@dcfpi.org
or scambria@dckids.org.
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OK! I am not a NRA member, and definitely do not support automatic
gun weapons of any sort. I am no gun zealot. Yet, this issue really
sticks in my craw. I am a homeowner in a drug infested neighborhood. (It
was all I could afford in DC.) It bothers me that in the District of
Columbia if a burglar breaks into my home with a hand gun I cannot
protect my house or my life. If I lived in Maryland or Virginia, I could
easily own a hand gun and would be within my rights to shoot an intruder
in my home. To make matters worse, owning a stun gun is also illegal in
the District of Columbia. Now, every kid knows you can buy a illegal
hand gun from several of the pseudo ice cream trucks/vendors in this
city. Yet law abiding citizens cannot own a gun.
Regarding the 263 sponsors of the DC gun repeal law: there will be a
ceremonial vote on the passage. The Senate does not have the votes to
pass the bill. Yet this DC resident wants the same rights that Maryland
and Virginia have!
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How Brazil Self-Destructed
Bryce A. Suderow, streetstories@juno.com
In a previous issue of themail [September 8], Jonetta Barras wondered
what transformed Harold Brazil from a reformer to a stumbling
incompetent who kept flip flopping on every issue that came his way.
Brazil was always ambitious. He relished power so much that he mortgaged
his house to raise money for his first campaign for the Council against
Nadine Winter. However, there was a deep laziness and cynicism that was
always part of his character.
Brazil’s flaws were hidden at first by his excellent staff. People
like Tony Mizzer realized that the arrival of middle class whites on the
Hill meant that Brazil could defeat Winter if he did two things
smiled a lot and supported anti crime laws. After a time most of Brazil’s
staff drifted away. One day Brazil met with Bill Lightfoot and bared his
soul to his colleague: “My constituents won’t leave me alone. They
always want something from me. What can I do?” Lightfoot replied,
“Run for the at-large seat. You represent everyone which means you
represent no one.” Brazil won the race and from then on he indulged in
his natural inclination to be lazy.
In the end he was brought low by his worst flaws.
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Predictions or hopeful prayers? Don’t count us out -- leaders on
the unsuccessful Victory 2004 slate for the DC Democratic State
Committee will be triumphant elsewhere, just like the defeated Howard
Dean supporters who are now resurrected through the DCDSC. As one of the
members on the Victory 2004 slate, I clearly disagree with your [Gary
Imhoff, themail, September 15] assessment of the defeat of our at large
slate members. I doubt that the voters of the District of Columbia, my
native hometown, are so shortsighted that they would vote out a slate of
candidates because the leader is predicted to be one that might run for
mayor or because he constantly challenged the membership to do more and
work hard like he did. Let’s be real. We did not do our job
campaigning and getting our message out. We did not campaign effectively
and were not visible like we should have been. We waited until the
eleventh hour to get busy and recognize the activities of our
opposition. We did not get our message out, and that is our fault. The
defeat of the Victory slate cannot and should not be attributed to any
ambitions that some may feel A. Scott Bolden, our chair, may have. It is
his prerogative to have ambitions, and there is nothing wrong with
rewarding people that produce with a chance at the brass ring. But
instead some people seem to be threatened by the possible competition
and want to slay the dreamers before they have a chance to get going
strong. We tend to live in a society whereby we try to kill off anybody
that threatens the status quo or sets standards of excellence and moves
forward on that. Voters in Washington, DC, want options in the 2006
mayoral race, and A. Scott Bolden is as good as any to compete in the
race if or when he decides to.
Most of us aren’t even focused on a race in 2006, but some may be
disillusioned with the current leadership and have certain expectations
for the leader of the nation’s capital. But for the most part voters
are focusing on getting the president of the United States elected, and
the Running Against Bush slate capitalized on that anti-Bush sentiment.
That was a brilliant campaign strategy and, coupled with the best ballot
positioning possible, was perfect timing. Clearly RAB didn’t campaign
any more than anyone else and to hear people at the polls, a lot of
people did not know us one way or another as incumbents or not. Let’s
be truthful. Though DC Democratic State Committee members are elected by
the public, they are not well known. We tend to go to political meetings
and not civic association and ANC meetings because they are nonpartisan.
We are better known within the more political establishment, obviously.
The DCDSC concentrated on the Democratic National Convention in July and
then moved to the somewhat controversial first-time endorsement forum in
August. (The jury is still out as to whether it was good or bad to
endorse, but the DCDSC did get one endorsement right or at least that
candidate won.) Shortly after that we had to move into full campaign
mode.
The DCDSC election was not really about A. Scott Bolden to most
people. If the election had really been about him, we all would have won
overwhelmingly because he did an extraordinary job if you take time to
check the record, and not focus on imperfections of the human
personality. Yes, the man has his share of detractors, as we all do and
he is not perfect, nor are we. Some consider his confidence and demand
for excellence as arrogance, instead of the self assurance and high self
esteem that strong ambitious people are raised to have. We need to
recognize that are confident men like that that honor family, work hard,
are successful, have high standards of excellence, and get involved with
the city in political and civic affairs. Maybe he can tone down some of
the brashness and boyish charm, but he should never change his high
standards and should continue to demand it of others that are expected
to deliver service. It is refreshing to see no-nonsense leaders.
How many voters, political analysts, the media, and others took the
time to find out what the State Committee has done over this past year?
Did they go beyond looking for controversy? How many people looked
beyond personalities, gossip, and nay-sayers to see what was
accomplished in just a year of Bolden being the chair? Very few, I’m
sure. Some people picked up on the rumblings from some malcontents and
ran with it to dampen his reputation and enthusiasm as a successful
leader. No, this election was not a repudiation of Bolden’s leadership
or his possible wannabe status as a future leader in this town he loves,
calls home, and helps raise his young twin daughters in. I don’t know
what his plans are, but am sure that whatever they are he would be good
at.
The truth of the matter is that Victory 2004 failed to get a strong,
unified message out and did not expound on the accomplishments of the
DCDSC. We didn’t get to participate in a lot of forums and weren’t
invited to meetings to talk about the State Committee. Frankly, people
were concentrating on the Council races and getting a Democratic
president elected in November. Normally we have the DCDSC elections in
May with the presidential primary. We were not aggressive in delivering
our message, but only in letting people know the names of the people on
our slate. Voters instantly connected with a Running Against Bush
message because we in this city are united in that effort. They knew few
people on either slate and some just picked the top six names to be
candid. There wasn’t anything scientific about the choice.
I am not ashamed of supporting the chair of the DCDSC, A. Scott
Bolden, and it was my pleasure and privilege to do so. If that is the
reason the rest of the slate is perceived to have lost, then so be it. I
accept my defeat honorably. We have a long list of accomplishments and
we can match our record with anyone’s. When we are ready to talk about
record and service and not personalities, then we can examine the
reasons why we lost. But for me, it was the inability to effectively
communicate our message and sloppy campaigning by some. It was the right
slate name in an excellent position on the ballot and probably a lot use
of E-mails and other technology that made the day for RAB. We made a few
mistakes on the State Committee and created some controversies, but if
you profess that Bolden is the reason the slate did not win and the vote
was to punish him and his supporters, then this city has a long way to
go. That is a totally unfair indictment and obviously someone that does
not know the chair well. Call it what it was, ineffective campaigning up
against excellent branding and imaging. Kudos to the Running Against
Bush team for a race well run. The rest of us will find other places
where we can serve the good people in the nation’s capital. We all are
ready to go to new heights with other organizations and projects. We’ll
be back, just not on the DCDSC. All of us are committed to the District
of Columbia and the Democratic Party. We want to serve in some capacity
and make a positive difference in this place we call home. A. Scott
Bolden deserves credit for uplifting the party political apparatus and
any attacks on him are just unfair and mean-spirited.
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In your comments [themail, September 15] you noted that every
incumbent with an opponent lost in the Democratic Primary. Actually US
Shadow Representative Ray Browne had an opponent and won handily,
gaining more than 71 percent of the vote. Ray has worked hard for DC
voting rights in Congress and that was reflected in the vote.
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I was saddened to see Richard Urban’s tirade of anti-gay hate,
"Kangaroo ANC," appear in the latest issue of themail
[September 15]. Rather than take a constructive course to deal with his
failure to collect public funds to promote his religious agenda, Urban
assaults gays as having an agenda that "...seeks to legitimize
unhealthy behavior," without supplying a shred of factual evidence
to support this nonsensical claim.
Perhaps Mr. Urban should apply his critical thinking skills and
consider the possibility that abstinence education has a multimillenia
history of failing all over the world, which is why intelligent people
moved on to better ways of dealing with teen sex. Beyond that, tax
dollars are not provided for religious fundamentalists to spread their
views in this country; we leave tactics like that to places like Saudi
Arabia and Iran.
On a related note, it would be nice to see the editors of themail
start screening out a little more of the hate that it is regularly
publishing. Between anti-gay nonsense like this and the racism that
shows up in the words of Caucasian-hating activists who claim to be
fighting gentrification while they really just fight against the right
of whites to live and work where we choose to, themail is starting to
seem like the doctrine needed to establish DC as a place for straight
black conservative Christians and no one else.
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Abstain from Anti-Gay Pseudoscience
Rick Rosendall, rrosendall@starpower.net
Richard Urban writes, “HIV/AIDS and teen pregnancy prevention
programs like ULTRA Teen Choice, which emphasize abstinence until
marriage, are discriminated against by those who promote the homosexual
agenda.” As usual, the anti-gay right tries to portray itself as the
victim, when it is gay youth who face discrimination by being excluded
from HIV prevention programs. Mr. Urban trots out the usual
radical-right line that homosexuality is a learned behavior to justify
denying gay people equal protection of the law. Those who prefer
responsible scholarship to baseless assertions might start with the
Institute for Gay and Lesbian Strategic Studies, whose web site is at http://www.iglss.org.
In any case, Mr. Urban’s theories on the origins of homosexuality are
no more relevant to public policy than my theories on the origins of
heterosexuality. All of us are entitled to equal protection of the law.
Responsible gay advocates for equal rights and public health, such as
the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance, of which I am a vice president,
support inclusion of abstinence as part of a comprehensive sex education
and HIV prevention strategy. On the other hand, those who push
abstinence only until marriage are seeking to use the power and purse of
the state to impose their religious views on the rest of the population.
As I testified in 2003 for GLAA, “Over the years, one of the greatest
obstacles to confronting the threat of HIV and AIDS in our city has been
created by so-called Christian ministers because of their denial on the
subject of youth sexuality, coupled with virulent homophobia that
extends even to insulting gay AIDS victims at their funerals. We do not
for a moment believe that such bigots are representative of Christians
or the faith community generally; but the extent to which this very real
denial and intolerance has hampered our public health efforts should be
a reminder of the hazards of mixing church and state.” The full
testimony is at http://www.glaa.org/archive/2003/glaaonabstinence0217.shtml.
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Agenda Discrimination
Mark Eckenwiler, themale at ingot dot org
Perhaps ANC 6A’s rejection of the ULTRA Teen Choice grant request (themail,
September 15) had something to do with the fact that the group’s
co-director throws around such intellectually flatulent phrases as
"the homosexual agenda." Since my copy of the agenda has been
mislaid (so to speak), perhaps Mr. Urban could post it on his web site.
I’m sure I’m not the only married DC resident in need of details
about this creeping menace.
Disclaimer: I didn’t attend the meeting at issue. However, I know
some of the ANC commissioners in question, and will vouch for their
intelligence and open-mindedness. In certain circles, that’s surely
two strikes against them.
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Response to Kangaroo ANC Statement
Heather Scott, rochescott@comcast.net
Richard Urban’s comments about the so called "homosexual
agenda" [themail, August 19] clearly show him for what he is — a
bigot! His diatribe about the psychology of same sex attraction only
further spotlights his lack of knowledge on the issues. But the comment
that I take most exception with is the statement that ANC6A
commissioners do not represent their community. That is just hogwash!
It is the duty of our ANC commissioners to represent all constituents
and to deny support to programs and projects that are not inclusive of
all citizens in our ANC. If you look around our community, there are
many lesbian and gay men, couples and yes, families living right here on
Capitol Hill. As a citizen who attends the ANC 6A meetings and works
with all of my neighbors toward improving our community, I applaud
Commissioners Fengler, Rice, and Ward for standing their ground against
bigotry and hate mongering.
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Abstinence Education
Amy Hardt, ahardt@umd.edu
Responding to Mr. Urban’s comments [themail, September 15], it is
clear that Mr. Urban is concerned about the welfare of some youth, but
not all youth. Perhaps Mr. Urban is unaware of the high incidence of
verbal, physical, and sexual attacks experienced by lesbian, gay,
bisexual, and transgender youth. Many of these attacks occur in the
school environment, and it is not uncommon for school teachers and
administrators to contribute to a climate of hostility and
discrimination against LGBT youth, either by setting a poor example or
by looking the other way. The tragic, but unsurprising result: LGBT
youth account for one third of all teen suicides and have
disproportionately high rates of depression, STIs and pregnancy.
Most parents agree that schools should play a role in teaching our
children about their sexual and reproductive health. Mr. Urban and his
wife appropriately focus their energies on this important topic with
their program. Unfortunately, their abstinence-only approach is a model
that does not apply to all youth or to all families. No one has studied
this topic, but there likely are LGBT youth out there who would choose
to remain abstinent until they mature emotionally and physically — if
only information about this choice were presented without a large
helping of moral judgment.
Furthermore, many people now wait to marry until their 30s and 40s
— will Mr. Urban’s abstinence-only message serve them well into
adulthood? Also, studies show that youth who receive abstinence-only
education are more likely to not use condoms when they have sex than are
youth who receive comprehensive sexual health education — another
reality Mr. Urban doesn’t want to think about. I’m sorry you didn’t
get the hearing you requested in the commission, Mr. Urban, but
attacking LGBT youth and those looking out for their welfare is not the
way to get your programs funded. Proposing evidence-based programs that
are appropriate for all our youth and represent a wise use of our
taxpayer dollars is.
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Preparation of DC’s new long-range Comprehensive Plan is moving (or
stumbling) right along. DC’s new "vision" document, blessed
(with changes) by a Sense of the Council Resolution in July, will now
guide creation of the more definitive Plan that provides the legal basis
(zoning, et al.) for realizing the vision. The vision is backed up by
some very dubious background papers. The theme of the DC vision is to
“grow an inclusive city,” whatever that means, by creating
successful neighborhoods; improving education and employment
opportunities; and "connecting the whole city" with parks,
bike trails, "signature" trolleys, and water taxis (see NARPAC’s
summary and comments at http://www.narpac.org/REXDCVIZ#vizdoc).
There is no vision of DC as a national capital city, or as the hub city
of a growing metropolitan area. In this island kingdom view, DC is
simply the sum of its 144 connected communities of more literate working
residents. The transportation strategies paper (http://www.narpac.org/REXDCVIZ#transtrat)
concludes DC’s transportation systems cannot begin to absorb the
expected regional growth in households and commuters, and suggests
doubling DC population to over one million instead.
The social equity paper (http://www.narpac.org/REXDCVIZ#soceq)
gives lip service to attracting 100,000 new residents, but wonders who
will buy new homes in still-depressed neighborhoods, and why 25,000
current residents shouldn’t be lifted out of poverty to get "net
revenue-producing neighborhoods." The housing strategies report (http://www.narpac.org/REXDCVIZ#houstrat)
wants to convert 72,000 of those scattered new home sites into
non-revenue-producing affordable housing units by 2025. The economic
development paper (http://www.narpac.org/REXDCVIZ#ecdevpol)
pushes more retail businesses, but its “rules of thumb” indicate DC
already has too many.
The Council (http://www.narpac.org/REXDCVIZ#councilcom)
endorses the notion of an "inclusive city" but urges better
regional and intracity relations. It notes that 100,000 new residents is
a goal but not a "statutory target," that their added costs
should be weighed, and that no resident should be displaced thereby. It
asserts that only certain Metro stations are intended to attract
economic development! NARPAC offers a different outline (http://www.narpac.org/REXDCVIZ#naraltout),
predicated on avoiding being the region’s poorhouse. Its theme would
be to "grow a world-class capital city" by: assuring financial
independence, providing quality living for quality residents, leading in
smart regional growth, and basing its projections on credible myth-free
quantitative planning factors. Check out our views on this very basic
issue in the September 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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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
DC Public Library Events, September 20-22
Debra Truhart, debra.truhart@dc.gov
Monday, September 20, 12:00 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial
Library, 901 G Street, NW, Auditorium A-5. Beethoven and Me: Music and
Musings. Composer Jay Alan Zimmerman will perform Beethoven’s works at
various stages of his hearing loss. He will also perform works composed
at stages of own hearing loss. Public contact: 727-2142 (TTY and voice).
Monday, September 20, 7:00 p.m., Georgetown Neighborhood Library,
3260 R Street, NW. Doron Peterson, a registered dietitian, will provide
nifty ways to follow a vegetarian diet. Public contact: 282-0220.
Tuesday, September 21, 6:30 p.m., Southeast Neighborhood Library, 403
7th Street, SE. Capitol Hill Book Club. Lively book discussions with
local authors and writers. Book club members select the book. Public
contact: 698-3377.
Tuesday, September 21, call for time, Tenley-Friendship Neighborhood
Library, 4450 Wisconsin Avenue, NW. Local author series featuring
Rebecca York. Adults. Public contact: 282-3090.
Wednesday, September 22, 7:00 p.m., Watha T. Daniel/Shaw Neighborhood
Library, 1701 8th Street, NW. Author Jonetta Rose Barras will discus and
sign copies of her book, Whatever Happened to Daddy’s Little Girl?
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McMillan Sand Filtration Site RFP Process Discussion, September 23
Bonnie Gantt, bgantt@wamu.org
(forwarded from pohlhaus@pressroom.com)
The District of Columbia Government invites you to come and hear the
process for issuance of a Request for Proposals for the 25-acre McMillan
Sand Filtration Site at North Capitol Street and Michigan Avenue. The
RFP will focus upon creation of publicly accessible open space,
preservation of key site elements, housing (including affordable
housing), and retail services. The RPF will solicit the interest of
creative, private sector investors to partner with the District in
restoring this public site to active use. The meeting will be held on
Thursday, September 23, 6:30-8:00 p.m., at the Trinity College O’Connor
Auditorium, 125 Michigan Avenue, NE. For more information, contact
Derrick Lenardo Woody, Revitalization Planning Project Manager, Office
of Planning, derrick.woody@dc.gov
or 442-7614.
To be added to the McMillan community database, contact Kevin Brady,
Staff Assistant, Office of Planning, kevin.brady@dc.gov or 442-8964.
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Mt. Pleasant Candidates Forum, October 12
Laurie Collins, lauriec@lcsystems.com
All Ways Mount Pleasant and the Mt. Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance
invite you to a candidates forum for Advisory Neighborhood Commission
1D. Tuesday, October 12, 6:30-8:45 p.m., The Mt. Pleasant Library
(basement), 3160 16th Street, NW.
East Advisory Commission may advise the Council of the District of
Columbia, the Mayor, and each executive agency, and all independent
agencies, boards, and commissions of the government of the District of
Columbia with respect to all proposed matters of District government
policy including, but not limited to, decisions regarding planning,
streets, recreation, social services programs, education, health,
safety, budget, and sanitation that might affect that Commission area.
###############
Cleveland Park Candidates Forum, October 12
Ann Loikow, aloikow@verizon.net
The Cleveland Park Citizens Association will hold a school board and
ANC candidate forum on October 12 at 6:30 p.m. at the Cleveland Park
Library (upstairs auditorium), Connecticut Avenue and Macomb Street, NW.
Whether or not you have children in the school system, the issue that
rises to the top for most Washingtonians is the condition of our
schools. Free, quality public education is the key to affordable living
in DC and quality neighborhoods throughout the city. Good local schools
contribute to strong, vital communities and provide the educated
workforce necessary for the city’s future. Cleveland Parkers are
passionate about good schools, and so I urge you to mark your calendars
for the next regular meeting of the Cleveland Park Citizens Association
on October 12, and come hear the candidates for the School Board seat
for District 2 (Wards 3 and 4). This is also your opportunity to hear
the candidates for Cleveland Park’s Advisory Neighborhood Commissions,
the citizens’ voice in their local government.
Our meetings are open to the public. Please come to the Cleveland
Park Library at 6:30 p.m. on October 12 to learn more about the
candidates for these important positions.
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