Nothing for Christmas
Dear Celebrants:
When I was a young boy, I used to feel sorry for my father. When our
family would go shopping, he never bought anything for himself. When
gift-giving occasions came up, like his birthday or Christmas, he never
asked for or even dropped hints about any substantial gifts that he
wanted, and he never got any really desirable gifts. To me, my father
seemed to be self-denying, or even deprived. But now I finally
understand my father, because I’m in much the same position that he
was then, and I realize that I never had to be sorry for him. He simply
had what he needed, and he didn’t want much that he didn’t already
have. About the only time he wanted to buy something for himself was
when something wore out and had to be replaced.
I’m not an anti-materialist, and I don’t think that buying things
at Christmas time is a desecration of the holiday. I love material
goods; I like possessions. I bought copies of Carmen Jones and The Big
Sleep and several Hopalong Cassidy movies this week, and it makes me
happy to own them. On the other hand, the comfortable materialistic life
that most of us in America have seems to lead in the end to the same
conclusion as anti-materialistic self denial. At some point in our
lives, things are no longer in the saddle, riding mankind; they’re not
really that important.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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I read that few of the Metro board members regularly use either
Metrorail or Metrobus. What amazes me, however, is that most refused to
share their Smartcard records for review by taxpayers and the media. The
report stated that the Smartcards were distributed free to Board members
for their use. So I am confused how a privacy argument can be made, when
this is a perk provided by taxpayers. Maybe I am missing something.
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A Tale of Two Cities
Phil Shapiro, pshapiro@his.com
In France, the newspaper Le Monde is read widely all over the
country. Recently Le Monde starting offering blogs to members of
the public to share information and ideas. These blogs are given equal
billing with the blogs of the paid journalists at Le Monde. A
blog is a like a personal journal on the web, with entries listed in
reverse chronological order (from the most recent to the oldest.) This
initiative by Le Monde is bold and beautiful. With a deft click
of the mouse, they’ve added a fourth word to the French Revolution: Liberte,
fraternite, egalite, bloggite (pronounced bloggitay).
There is a movement across the world for news to become more of a
conversation and less of a lecture. That movement seems to have bypassed
this fair city, though. The exciting transformations of newspapers and
other news media here in this capital city can be measured with an
electron scanning microscope. If there are any news reporters on this
list, it would be interesting to hear your own angle on this topic. Is
our fair city being left behind by — dare I say it — the French?
Will there be a day we can throw away our scanning electron microscopes
to use another tool to measure “participatory” changes in the media
in this city?
Further info and ongoing news about this topic can be found at http://wethemedia.oreilly.net
and at http://teachme.blogspot.com/2004_11_28_teachme_archive.html#110209217577193915.
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Who’s the Unfairest of Them All?
Andy Catanzaro, Andy@stampouttax.com
Last we heard, four bills were in Congress dealing with DC voting
rights. Who is the least supportive of legislation to get DC voting
rights?
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Oh woe to the residents of Ward One; DCRA has struck again. Another
house, in the 1000 block of W Street, NW, has collapsed from lack of
oversight inspections. You would think that if these so-called
inspectors of DCRA were on their job, Ward One would not be saddled with
the poorly designed houses of these peewee developers that collapse or
will have long term problems. Either Dave Clark has a cadre of
incompetent inspectors or they are in cahoots with these developers to
see that the mayor’s mandate for 100,000 new residents is fulfilled.
Building regulations are being flaunted by developers and not enforced
by the building inspectors, beam pockets are left unfilled, load bearing
walls are improperly supported, leading to damage to adjacent property.
I could go on and on about the slackers and their non-inspections of
building violations. Add to this zoning violations of creating multiple
unit developments in zones that prohibit it. Did I add HPRB to this?
They are just as bad. They become historically minded only on where the
structure is to be built, whom it is being built for, and what the
structure will cost on the open market. In other words, a rubber-stamp
organization. Third party inspections, an agreement for a contractor to
provide inspectors because DCRA is unable to visit all the construction,
is a perfect set up for graft established by DCRA. Unlicensed
contractors or contractors that have a Post Office Box for an address,
in effect carrying their office in their hat, work on these projects,
engaging illegal immigrants on the work site, yet the very authorities
that are to protect us look the other way. Perhaps the Feds should take
a hard look at DCRA, and start nosing around to see if there is fire in
them hills. DCRA needs a total overhaul and needs to employ people who
are highly qualified to be plumbing, electrical, and building
inspectors; to have an astute examining office for architectural
drawings; and to overhaul historical preservation so that they have
persons who know what is historically vital to a community.
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Where We Stand on the Stadium
Dorothy Brizill, dorothy@dcwatch.com
Like the closure of DC General Hospital, the stadium financing deal
is an issue that has cut across all areas of the city, east and west,
and engaged people at all income levels. Over the next few years, should
the city council pass the stadium financing bill on second reading,
every cost overrun, construction problem, or city need that goes unmet
will remind residents and voters who made the bad deal with Major League
Baseball, and who supported it. But it is not at all certain that the
stadium financing bill will pass on second reading, and the mayor’s
and MLB’s celebration of their victory last Tuesday may still turn out
to be premature.
Last Monday, the day before the council vote, Mayor Williams had a
private meeting with Linda Cropp because the vote count had turned
against the legislation, and a majority of councilmembers were ready to
defeat it. The three councilmembers who abstained on first reading —
Kathy Patterson, Phil Mendelson, and Cropp — all leaned against the
legislation. In order to prevent immediate defeat, Williams agreed to
Cropp’s three amendments on private financing, on a reassessment of
the cost estimates by the Chief Financial Officer, and on the community
benefits fund. Williams also agreed to go back to MLB with the goal of
renegotiating certain terms of the agreement before the second vote on
the bill on December 14, and Cropp insisted that she be at the
negotiating table. In return, Cropp agreed to allow the bill to pass on
first reading, but sent a message both to the mayor and MLB that final
passage was not guaranteed.
If MLB does not significantly alter the deal in the ways that Cropp
favors, Cropp, Patterson, and Mendelson could easily join the four who
voted against it on first reading, and form a majority of seven against.
Cropp wants the city to be protected against the huge additional costs,
both from the administration’s underestimation of the actual costs and
from the penalties to be paid to MLB when the project inevitably falls
behind schedule. Commissioner Bud Selig’s bluster and bullying seem to
indicate that MLB won’t seriously renegotiate, but Cropp hasn’t been
dealing with Selig, whom she met for the first time at the Board of
Trade luncheon last Thursday. Cropp has been dealing with Jerry
Reinsdorf, owner of the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Bulls and the
chairman of MLB’s relocation committee, who was MLB’s chief
negotiator on the deal. If Reinsdorf sees this sweet deal slipping out
of MLB’s hands and is willing to compromise to save it, Selig will
back him up.
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Selig Confirms MLB Won’t Accept Any Changes
to Financing Plan
Ed Delaney, profeddel@yahoo.com
“Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said today that the
league would not reopen negotiations with District officials about the
terms of a signed agreement to build a stadium in Southeast Washington,
even though city leaders intend to push for additional concessions.” (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28690-2004Dec2.html?sub=AR)
Uh, who signed that “agreement,” Selig? Not the full DC council,
but the mayor and [Sports Commission chairman Mark Tuohey], who have
only the power to propose a deal and forward it for consideration by the
DC council. The agreement does not represent anything binding above and
beyond that. It’s pathetic how the Post, etc., continue to let
the baseball brigade, from Selig to the mayor and Boss Jack, assert
unchallenged that there exists a binding commitment between MLB and the
city that DC "needs to live up to," as the mayor erroneously
and misleadingly has stated over and over.
"Cropp said McHale indicated the league would be ‘flexible’
about discussing the city’s ideas to find private money to help pay
for the stadium." That was unbelievable before, so Cropp needs to
wise up and stop talking like this deal will be subject to change after
it passes; it won’t. For any changes to be made, it needs to be
stopped now. MLB didn’t print up all of the Nationals merchandise with
an eye towards yanking the team from the area, so DC leaders need to
stand tough and tell MLB they won’t pass an unacceptable deal, but
that MLB will have to get to the bargaining table with the DC Council,
which has never happened, and which the secret negotiations with the
capitulative mayor’s office does not replace.
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Now that the baseball deal is almost final and we have just about
signed the public revenue streams over to the investors, let’s
anticipate getting back to the old Wilson Building pitch that DC can’t
afford to provide social services. After all, this is a city of rugged
individuals like the welfare kings Fred Malek, Stephen Porter, Paul
Wolf, and Franklin Raines. Their courtiers Jack Evans and Anthony
Williams, of course, will defend the welfare kings to the end. Equally
pathetic is that some on the council are so enamored with the smell of
these fat cats’ money (recycled government handouts, that is) that
they just sat there last week unwilling to decide if they were for the
process that has robbed this city of looking after its own or not.
"Here." "Present." That’s all we get from three
Councilmembers whose combined salaries equal more than a quarter million
dollars. So here we are back at the beginning. MCI Center, convention
center, baseball stadium, but no ability to invest in the people of this
city. Suitably, those Councilmembers who will restrict budget growth in
the following budget season will save their asinine economic doomsday
prediction (which they accused the anti-stadium crowd of making) for
after the season of giving.
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Profiles in Lack of Courage
Richard Rogers, RRrr446@aol.com
Ambrose, Allen, Mendelson, Chavous, Patterson, and Cropp. Is this the
best the local Democrat party has to offer for city leadership? And how
about the renter, Mayor Williams? How much do taxpayers pay for Harold
Brazil’s water boy performance? I had to laugh when Jack Evans took
credit for the success of 7th Street. Umm, wasn’t it was Ward 2
champion John A. Wilson who got that ball rollin’? Ambrose, Mendelson,
Patterson, and Cropp should all get bounced in the next election cycle.
Their collective schmoozing with Major League Baseball is sickening.
Voters take note.
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Take Advantage of the Bad News
Ed T. Barron, edtb@aoldotcom
The bad news that major league ball players are admitting to taking
banned substances to improve their field performance is an opportunity
for those in the Washington area, who want to buy the team, to save some
money. That news combined with the likelihood that Orioles owner,
Angelos, will be suing Major League Baseball for locating another team
so close to his kingdom in Baltimore, will enable those Nationals’
prospective owners to negotiate a lower purchase price for the old
Expos.
As for the performance enhancing drugs that have produced some
prodigious records over the last several years, I recommend that Major
League Baseball embrace a rigid and thorough drug testing process and to
roll back the baseball records, wiping out the records of those who have
taken those drugs (Bonds, McGwire, Giambi, et al.).
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
DC Public Library Events, December 7
Debra Truhart, debra.truhart@dc.gov
Tuesday, December 7, 7:30 p.m. Takoma Park Neighborhood Library, 416
Cedar Street, NW. Fall series featuring local poets. Readings by
Christina Donnelly, Ryan McAllister, and Judy Neri. Public contact:
576-7252.
Tuesday, December 7, 7:00 p.m., Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Library,
3160 16th Street, NW. Punto Vivo: A Taste of Home Visiting Our Past
Through Food and Ritual. Participants share poetry and recipes as they
explore the role of food in connection to culture. Public contact:
671-0200.
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Smokefree Happy Hour, December 9
Tac Tacelosky, tac@smokefreedc.org
Smokefree DC is have a happy hour on Thursday, December 9, at Mimi’s
(which is completely smokefree), 2120 P Street, NW, 5:30-7 p.m. Anyone
interested in supporting 100 percent smokefree workplaces in DC,
including bars and restaurants, is welcome. We’re especially
interested in meeting people who work where smoking is allowed (if so,
the first drink is on us!). It takes huge courage to speak up on this
issue when your job is at stake, even anonymously, so if you are or know
people who are risking their health just to have a job in DC, or just
interested in supporting the issue, please invite them to the happy
hour. They can also call me at home at 202-no-smoke, or call Angela
Bradbery on her cell at 669-6517. More information can be found on our
web site: http://www.smokefreedc.org.
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Sculpture Center Open House, December 11
Patricia Ghiglino, Washington Sculpture Center, info@dcsculpture.org
We would like you to see, first hand what is being done at the
Washington Sculpture Center, and the importance of its existence in DC,
as we will be displaced by the new baseball stadium in 2005. The
Sculpture Center is proposing the creation of an Arts District in SE.
The Washington Sculpture Center (WSC) would like to invite you to its
second open house showing its sculpture studios in Washington, DC on
Saturday, December 11, from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. The public is welcome to
visit the facility at 1338 Half Street SE (located between N and O
Streets, SE, two blocks south of the Navy Yard Green Line Metro Station)
and watch demonstrations in a variety of sculptural techniques.
Instructors will be on hand to answer questions about their work and
about WSC. This is a free event. Refreshments will be served. Drawing
for free class for those who come to the opening.
The Washington Sculpture Center is a registered not-for-profit
501(c)(3) organization that promotes the teaching of sculpture including
glass, metal, and stone to all levels of students so that they may
develop their creative potential; and the promotion of placement of
sculptures in public spaces in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area. To
promote cultural and artistic exchange with artists of other parts of
the country and the world. the WSC, a one-of-a-kind resource in
Washington, offers instruction in the following specialties: flamework,
mosaics, blacksmithing, stained glass, stone carving, modeling in clay,
bronze casting, and mold making.
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Friends of Tenley-Friendship Library Book
Sale, December 11
Elinor Green, greenhunter@starpower.net
Friends of Tenley-Friendship Library book sale, Saturday, December
11, from 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. at the library, 4450 Wisconsin Avenue, NW
(across from Tenleytown/AU Metro and Best Buy). Since the library is
closing for rebuilding, the sale will include not only adult and
children’s books, but also books on tape, book shelves, and wooden
card catalog structures. Don’t miss it.
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