Baltimore
Dear Movers:
Remember the mayor’s brief campaign last year to get one hundred
thousand additional residents to move into DC? How do you think that is
going? I thought I’d check out how a city that knows what it’s doing
attracts new home owners and renters, so last night Dorothy and I went
to Flanagan’s Irish Pub in Bethesda, where Baltimore Mayor Michael O’Malley
hosted a party to interest current Washington residents in moving to
Baltimore. It’s not fair to compare the two cities’ campaigns based
on the personalities of the mayors, so I won’t dwell on the fact that
O’Malley showed up wearing a black leather bomber jacket, hoisted a
pint of Guinness as soon as he came in the door, made a welcoming speech
that lasted less than five minutes, circulated around the room and
actually talked with people, and then sang with the Irish group that was
the evening’s entertainment — a group that he had been a member of
several years ago.
Instead, I’ll just mention that Baltimore came to the Maryland
suburbs just across the District line (but not inside DC, so as not to
insult us too directly), and it came equipped with informative
“relocation kits,” a web site (http://www.livebaltimore.com),
Realtors ready to give neighborhood tours, lenders ready to talk home
loans, and bottles of Baltimore tap water (“water that you can
drink”). And it came with the pitch that you can move to Baltimore,
keep your job in DC and have an easy commute by MARC train, and pay 70
percent less for housing, whether buying or renting.
Do I hear a counter offer?
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
###############
Mindful of the problems with the Red Line, on Friday I took the
Orange and Blue Line from Farragut West. I thought I’d beaten the
system, but I quickly learned upon boarding the train that the doors
wouldn’t close. We sat there in the station for fifteen minutes while
the train’s engineer kept trying to shut the car doors. Eventually
they did shut and we successfully drove off. Has anyone else had any
problems like this? What is wrong with Metro? I’ve been told that
there’s a shortage of money to keep the equipment up and running. Is
this true?
On election night I was talking to an ANC commissioner who was
bitterly critical of Sharon Ambrose. She said if Ambrose had run for her
seat that night, she would have lost. This particular critic was angry
at Ambrose for not supporting initiatives to limit the sale of alcohol.
Ambrose supposedly claims that she can’t speak out on this because
there’s a conflict of interest involved somehow. Is that the general
feeling? That Ambrose is not doing her job?
###############
I’m writing in for a neighbor who has a frustrating problem with
the Department of Public Works because I thought that others on the list
might have good suggestions. She owns a rowhouse in Mt. Pleasant with
three apartments in it. In addition to the city’s regular trash
removal, she has a contract with a private company to remove her tenants’
trash once a week to ensure that it doesn’t become a nuisance.
Recently, however, someone in the area who must have been doing
construction dumped a bunch of their trash behind her rowhouse. DPW sent
her a notice to have it removed. When she called the person who issued
the warning he indicated that bulk trash would not pick it up because it
appears to be construction trash and that it was just her bad luck that
someone put it by her trash cans. He also mentioned that if it were in
the alley the city would have to remove it, but since it was on private
property she would have to go to the expense of paying others to haul it
away. The private company that she uses once a week would charge her
considerably more to haul this amount and type of trash away.
The system unfortunately creates an incentive to just dump it on
public property so that she doesn’t have to worry about it. But she
obviously doesn’t want to do that. Has anyone encountered this problem
and managed to get the city’s help with it? I’ll pass along any
advice to her.
###############
Freecycle Movement Gathers Steam in the DC
Area
Phil Shapiro, pshapiro@his.com
A friend of mine was explaining to me about how the freecycle
movement is gathering steam here in the DC-area. What is freecycling? It’s
using the Internet to give away things you no longer need. Finding a
loving home for your usable -- but older -- furniture, appliances,
computers, kitchenware, garden items, etc. Usually within a few minutes
of your posting a message to an E-mail list someone responds who can put
your item to use. My friend tells me he’s found freecycling useful for
both giving away and receiving items. Apparently there are several
freecycle E-mail lists here in the DC area. You can track them down by
searching Google for dc freecycle. And you can find a list of all the DC
area freecycle E-mail lists at http://www.freecycle.org.
Keep in mind that these E-mail lists can get quite busy (about three
to four hundred messages per week.) So if you want to give away
something, you might choose to subscribe to the list, post a message,
and then after receiving a few responses, unsubscribe from the list. You
might choose to use an alternate E-mail address when posting to these
lists, to protect your privacy.
###############
Don’t believe what you hear about Council Chairman Linda Cropp’s
caving in to Mayor Williams’s ballpark proposal and abandoning her
opposition to making the public bear the full cost of the baseball
stadium. She hasn’t. The mayor, Jack Evans, and the staffs of the
Executive Office of the Mayor, the DC Sports and Entertainment
Commission, and the Office of Planning are working overtime spreading
disinformation about Cropp and disparaging her and her attempt to save
the taxpayers some money, and they have misled some members of the press
about what is really happening. They’re also spreading false rumors
about other councilmembers who oppose the mayor’s plan and about the
motivations for their opposition. The mayors’ people are also trying
desperately to discourage and disparage any private investors who might
want to finance building the stadium. They are furious that council
opposition has highlighted how bad a deal they struck with Major League
Baseball, and even more furious that they weren’t able to rush the
deal through before the overwhelming public opposition to public
financing of the stadium crystallized.
Some councilmembers have listened to the public opposition, and
others couldn’t stand the stench of the deal from the beginning.
Others, however, put their votes up for sale, and pledged to soak the
public for the full cost of the ballpark giveaway in return for various
payoffs that were detailed in the second revised version of the
financing bill that Councilmembers Evans and Brazil were going to
introduce on Tuesday. Here’s what these councilmembers got in return
for their votes: Ward 8 Councilmember Sandy Allen got $5,000,000 for a
“Learning and Sports Center” to be located adjacent to Fort Greble
Recreation Center in that Ward. Councilmembers Ambrose and Chavous didn’t
have any particular projects in mind, but each one got $5,000,000 for
future allocation to unspecified projects in Wards 6 and 7. Allen and
Chavous also got ten percent of the bond revenue authorized by the
financing act, or $45,000,000, allocated to the Department of Housing
and Community Development for commercial development in Wards 7 and 8.
Councilmember Vincent Orange sold out cheaply; he got only $2,000,000
for equipment and supplies at McKinley Technology High School in Ward 5.
And Councilmember Jim Graham didn’t even get his bribe into the
ballpark financing bill; he only got a promise that the mayor would sign
future legislation to dedicate $45,000,000 to public library
construction and reconstruction, assuming that such legislation would be
passed in the future.
###############
The mayor and the baseball brigade continue to do and say anything to
get their way on baseball: “Williams was concerned about a
last-minute, back-room financing deal, saying it’s everything his
administration is against” (http://www.wmal.com/listingsentryfeature.asp?ID=271797&PT=WMAL).
No, he would never involve DC in a deal made in a back room and not
unleashed until the last minute so that the announcement of the team
would come without anyone else from Cropp to the rest of the DC Council
would have no details of that backdoor plan — even though he is now
trying to tell us that being at a press conference celebrating MLB’s
return constitutes direct endorsement of all aspects of the unseen deal!
The mayor also said in comments heard on WMAL that he had problems with
Cropp’s latest proposal; that he didn’t like the nature of it
because, “We need to have a transparent process,” and “We need to
have accountability.” This is from the head of the Brigade that had
the least transparent process in the city’s history, with their string
of secret negotiations with a private monopoly, from a mayor who
perfected the art of dodging accountability by scheduling the vote in
between election cycles with the threat that anyone not endorsing every
aspect of the sweetheart deal would be responsible for killing Major
League Baseball in the area. From buying votes for his sweetheart deal
to saying anything regardless of the facts to get his luxury boxes for
himself and his cronies, this mayor is making the Barry administrations
look good by comparison!
###############
Baseball
Keith Jarrell, K.jarrell01@comcast.net
I sent this letter to all councilmembers this morning regarding
baseball and the various proposed stadium deals: “It appears that not
one of you have offered any thought much less open consideration about
the proposed stadium bill that would include either a winning season, or
a couple of seasons of a standard attendance of 60 percent or better.
Wouldn’t this be a means of assuring the tax payers in this city that
are also voters that if indeed a couple of seasons transpire that bring
a winning team, and a sizable number of attendees coming out to see the
games that then and only then would $400 plus million dollars is being
wisely spent. Regardless of where it is coming from or who is bearing he
burden?
“To just think for one moment that we should spend this kind of
money simply because the mayor and a few of his loyal followers on
council want it is unbelievable. There are just too many things that
this city and the residents need that vastly overshadow all the time and
energy being spent on this whole mess. Little has even been said about
the businesses that you will just close due to the mayor’s plan. So be
it that they are mostly gay businesses that many of you don’t want,
nonetheless they have been businesses in which have paid their taxes in
this city for years. There is no plan on relocating them and assuring
the community that they will be permitted to reestablish somewhere else.
“This entire stadium deal is nothing more than another fine mess
the mayor and council will get us into. Another fine mess just like the
new convention center that still doesn’t have a convention center
hotel to accommodate the numbers of people you insisted would flock to
DC for meetings. The large conventions are still not being booked here
because you can’t get the hotel built that went arm in arm with the
convention center. You know how to tax and to spend; now sit back, think
for a change, and plan this out to make good business sense. Think of
the city, the taxpayers, and yes the voters rather than big business,
and of giving away. Be conservative about agreements, and if MLB doesn’t
agree let them move on to another sucker of a city!”
###############
As I stated many time before, follow the money and it will lead you
to who is behind it all. I hope many of you who have indicated that you
want baseball in our city, regardless of cost, pay attention as to who
will gain the most out of this deal. Check out the owners of property in
the area of the proposed site of the stadium. Then I wonder who will
want the stadium, once it is found out in whose pockets the money will
end up in. And check out who is standing shoulder to shoulder with the
mayor when he makes pronouncements for his deal for the stadium. This
whole issue is not for the rank and file to attend the games.
###############
Representation for the District
William Haskett, gollum@earthlink.net
I have read Mr. Matthes’ proposal [themail, November 7], and find
it, as with other proposals with the same effect, quite inadequate to
the constitutional problem of representation for the District. The
original Constitution knows three entities only: the federal government
in its three branches; the original states.; and a federal district, to
be controlled in all cases whatsoever by Congress. The original language
of the 1787 Constitution clearly has it that representation is to be
granted to the original “states and to future states,” admitted by
way of the territorial provision to “equal status” with those
originals. But the Federal District is not a state in this sense.
Therefore, it cannot be swept in under this rubric.
And even the amendment which gave the District the opportunity to
vote in Presidential elections says that “for these purposes,” the
residents of the District of Columbia will be allowed to vote only “as
if it were a state”: this legal fig-leaf would not pass either logical
or political scrutiny under the original constitutional language.
To grant representation in one house, but not in the other, would be
discriminatory in the simplest sense, since it would deny “equal
protection” to citizen-voters in the District, and jump through the
problem of “statehood” besides.
###############
In Response to Amy Hubbard’s post in themail [November 7]: The
officer in question is a Reserve Officer. There are about two hundred
people from all walks of life who have joined the Metropolitan Police
Department as Reserve Officers. They include lawyers, PhDs, MBAs, a
mayor (yes, this mayor), union employees, federal government workers
(including some fairly senior ones), DC government employees (who can’t
get enough of DC service, so they volunteer their free time), etc.
Reserve Officers function in many capacities in the MPD. Some walk foot
beats, some work in police cars answering radio runs, others take the
initiative and direct traffic at critical intersections, while others
volunteer for assignments in the Special Operations Division, in the
Harbor Branch, or in other specialized units of the MPD. Almost all
Reserve Officers work so-called “details” (e.g., the Circus, RFK
events, parades, etc.). In fact, chances are that some of the police
officers you encountered out on the Marine Corps Marathon route in DC
were Reserve Officers.
What all these people have in common (all joking aside) is a
commitment to making DC a better place through real, “getting
fingernails dirty” service. The MPD provides training, equipment, and
uniforms. The program is excellent but it could stand a lot of
improvement. Training needs to be upgraded and offered on a much more
regular and accessible basis. Reserve Officers often complain that it is
difficult to progress towards the certification levels where they can
make the most difference by contributing their time. Recently, three
reserve officers met with City Administrator Robert Bobb and Assistant
Chief Shannon Cockett to discuss problems in the training and
utilization of Reserve Officers and to suggest solutions. Both were
extremely receptive, and the good news is that the needed improvement is
likely to occur.
If you are interested in becoming a Reserve Officer, in making a
tangible contribution to preserving the peace and maintaining order in
your community, you should contact Lt. Sharon McInnis at 645-0075 or via
E-mail at SMCINNIS-at-mpdc-dot-org.
###############
CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Zooman and the Sign at UDC, November 12-20
Michael Andrews, mandrews@udc.edu
The UDC Theater Company will open its fall season with Charles Fuller’s
Zooman and the Sign, the timely and compelling 1980 Obie-award-winning
play that explores the confrontation between a family and its neighbors
after their young daughter is killed. The play illustrates how violence
and indifference can destroy our neighborhoods and communities. This
presentation contains strong language. Zooman and the Sign will be
presented in the University of the District of Columbia Auditorium,
Building 46 on the Van Ness Campus on November 12, 13, 19, and 20 at
7:30 p.m. and at 3:00 p.m. on November 20. Student matinees, with strong
language modified, will be presented November 12 at 10:00 a.m. and
November 18 at 12:30 p.m. For group rates, contact Professor Judith
Baldinger (274-5759).
###############
Washington Canal Park Design Competition
Public Presentation, November 17
David Howard, david.howard@dc.gov
Four cutting-edge landscape architects will present their designs for
a new park in Washington’s Near Southeast Neighborhood at 5:30 p.m. on
Wednesday, November 17, at Van Ness Elementary School Auditorium, 1150
5th Street, SE, Washington. The Washington Canal Park will be the first
new public park built as part of Mayor Anthony Williams’ Anacostia
Waterfront Initiative. This park will be located at M and 2nd Streets,
SE, on a three-block site along the route of the historic Washington
Canal that once connected the Anacostia River to the US Capitol and the
Potomac River. The design brief calls for the park to reference the
history of the Washington Canal and requires that the park incorporate
state-of-the-art innovations in urban storm water management.
Through a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the
District of Columbia, Office of Planning initiated this design
competition in partnership with the Canal Park Development Association,
a private nonprofit organization established by surrounding landowners.
More than thirty-five leading designers from around the world responded
to the initial request for qualifications. Four landscape architecture
firms were selected to participate in the competition: Gustafson Guthrie
Nichol Ltd from Seattle, Washington; Hood Design from Oakland,
California; Sasaki Associates, Inc., from Watertown, Massachusetts; and
Atelier Dreiseitl from Uberlingen, Germany, working with Stephen Stimson
Associates of Falmouth, Massachusetts.
Don’t miss this exciting opportunity to learn and ask questions
about the future of this public park! The proposals will be on public
display before the meeting at the Capper Community Center at 1005 5th
Street, SE, during regular business hours starting on Saturday, November
13. This public presentation is a component of the design evaluation
process established to select a final park design concept.
###############
National Building Museum Events, November
17-18
Brie Hensold, bhenhold@nbm.org
All events at the National Building Museum, 401 F Street, NW,
Judiciary Square stop, Metro Red Line. Wednesday, November 17,
12:30-1:30 p.m. Join the US Environmental Protection Agency for a
presentation of its third annual National Awards for Smart Growth
Achievement. The program honors public agencies that have successfully
applied smart growth to enhance existing neighborhoods, leverage
existing infrastructure, and reap environmental benefits. Free; advance
registration requested to ensure availability of adequate seating. Visit
http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/awards.htm
for registration information.
Wednesday, November 17, 6:30-8:00 p.m., the residential architecture
of John Russell Pope. Although known for public projects that include
the Jefferson Memorial, John Russell Pope also designed more than one
hundred houses. Architect James Garrison will discuss his residences in
the District, and show how they relate to his work as a whole. After the
lecture, he will sign copies of his book Mastering Tradition: The
Residential Architecture of John Russell Pope (Acanthus Press). $10
museum members and students; $15 nonmembers. Registration required.
Thursday, November 18, 2:00 p.m. Liquid Stone: New Architecture in
Concrete. Enjoy a docent-led tour of this Museum exhibition that
explores the history and future of concrete, presenting nearly thirty
innovative projects that display the material’s strength, versatility,
and potential. Free. Registration not required. Participants meet
outside exhibition entrance on first floor.
Thursday, November 18, 6:30-8:00 p.m. The buildings of Mexico City’s
TEN Arquitectos exemplify the range of cosmopolitan influences in
architecture today. Principal Enrique Norten will present his firm’s
projects, including the Chopo Museum of Contemporary Art, Hotel Habita,
Harlem Park, and Brooklyn’s Library for the Visual and Performing
Arts, now under construction. After the lecture, he will sign copies of
his book, TEN Arquitectos (Monacelli). $12 museum members; $17
nonmembers; $5 students. Prepaid registration required.
###############
CLASSIFIEDS — PETS
Two beautiful kittens are ready for a permanent home! They are
four-month-old neutered males who were taken by their owner to the DC
Animal Shelter in early October, and they have been in my foster home
for three weeks. Sox is gray with white (feet, ruff, tummy, and an
offside streak down his face) and brother Smokey Joe is all gray (a
Russian Blue wannabee). They are totally bonded and need to go to a good
home together; they get along well with my cats and yappy dog. The day
goes: play play eat eat eat tussle tussle tussle sleep sleep sleep play
play play sleep sleep sleep eat eat eat. They are very active, healthy,
playful, responsive, mischievous little guys. E-mail to the address
above or call 265-2855. To see pictures of them and others at the
shelter and in foster homes, go to http://www.washhumane.org.
###############
themail@dcwatch is an E-mail discussion forum that is published every
Wednesday and Sunday. To subscribe, to change E-mail addresses, or to
switch between HTML and plain text versions of themail, use the
subscription form at http://www.dcwatch.com/themail/subscribe.htm.
To unsubscribe, send an E-mail message to themail@dcwatch.com
with “unsubscribe” in the subject line. Archives of past messages
are available at http://www.dcwatch.com/themail.
All postings should also be submitted to themail@dcwatch.com,
and should be about life, government, or politics in the District of
Columbia in one way or another. All postings must be signed in order to
be printed, and messages should be reasonably short — one or two brief
paragraphs would be ideal — so that as many messages as possible can
be put into each mailing.
