Oversight
Dear Overseers:
For one issue of themail, I’ll retreat from life-and-death topics
back to the everyday problems of dealing with a predatory city
government. In the August 28 issue of themail, Pete Ross wrote about
receiving his second parking ticket in two years from the Department of
Motor Vehicles for cars that he didn’t own. This week I received a
phony ticket myself, a $100 parking fine issued to a car of a make that
I’ve never owned with a long-expired license plate number that I’ve
haven’t had for several years. I’ve heard many stories about these
phony tickets, and the DMV’s practice of making it so difficult to
contest them that most people will pay just to avoid the bother. Since
the cars and license plate numbers don’t match the records of the
people to whom they are sent, what records does DMV consult to decide
whom to send these tickets to? It seems to me obvious that somebody is
running a scam. There are two possibilities. Either some DMV employees
are running a freelance scam and pocketing the fines they receive, and
DMV doesn’t care enough about the widespread stories of fake tickets
to investigate them; or DMV itself deliberately sends out fake tickets
to raise money. Which is it?
In the August 17 issue of themail, Ed Johnson raised serious
questions about the National Capital Revitalization Corporation’s
management of the Gangplank Marina, and its unresponsiveness at best,
and hostility at worst, to its residents. In the September 4 issue, W.
Ronald Evans, the Chairman of the NCRC, attempted to answer those
charges; and Charlotte Drummond, the president of the Gangplank
Slipholders Association (the tenants’ association), substantiated and
expanded on them. In this issue of themail, both Charlotte Drummond and
Susan Carpenter, a past president of the tenants’ association, give
even further evidence of the NCRC’s mismanagement of the Marina.
Frankly, their charges are a lot more credible than Mr. Evans’
denials. As I’ve written before, the NCRC, like the Anacostia
Waterfront Corporation, was set up to do dirty deals for favored private
interests that the city government couldn’t do directly, in order to
escape public scrutiny. But that works only as long as the NCRC keeps
its business secret. When its deals become public knowledge, and the
administration and the city council can’t pretend ignorance any
longer, don’t they have to step in to clean up the situation?
Apparently, they don’t think so. Where is their oversight?
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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The recent surge in gasoline prices raises some questions. Obviously,
closing some refineries or pipelines has not raised the cost of
producing or even transporting gasoline although it has reduced supply
in the storage facilities. I have never understood the argument that
rising gasoline prices were simply due to the laws of supply and demand.
The theory is that there is a natural price for gasoline for a given
availability and demand. Thus, prices will rise as availability
decreases and fall if availability increases. Under that model, if the
government increased gas taxes by $2.00 a gallon, the total price would
remain the same and the price of the raw gas would fall so that the
natural final price continued to balance supply and demand.
What we see, instead, is that gasoline companies segment their market
by what they think consumers will pay and set their wholesale price
accordingly. Thus, gas is usually at least twenty cents cheaper in
Laurel than in Potomac. We are talking here about the wholesale price of
the gas and not the cost of the real estate or the labor of collecting
the payments. By some remarkable coincidence, every major gas company
has hundreds of geographically identical wholesale pricing zones in each
state and independently computes identical prices for the identical
zones.
###############
Circumnavigating the Beltway Using a Gallon of
Gas
Phil Shapiro, pshapiro@his.com
In 1500, one of the great challenges of the day was to circumnavigate
the globe. In 2005, one of the great challenges of the day is to
circumnavigate the Beltway using less than one gallon of gas. Smart
friends tell me it’s impossible to travel these 64 miles using a
gallon of gas. That’s all the more reason to do it. Any landlubbers
out there with the gumption to give this a try with me? A
mini-documentary can be shot about the attempt. This is surely feasible
and may be worth pursuing for the educational value of the journey.
###############
How is it that the residents of DC are paying more for gas then our
state neighbors? Our beloved bow-tie-wearing mayor stated, "the
prosecutors will investigate to determined if any gouging is going
on." This shows the amount of concern he has for the residents of
this city and how disconnected he is. The same holds true for the rest
of the government in this city. The gas stations in this city are
largely unregulated by our government. They are subject only to the
regulations of Weights and Measures, who ensure that a gallon of gas is
accurately measured when it passes through the hose into your tank. What
you don’t know is that the DC Government cannot tell you if you are
getting the right octane of gas from the pump. Shortages in certain
grades can lead to unscrupulous station managers to sell low octane gas
at high octane prices. There is no way that you would know the
difference. A car with computer controlled ignition would easily
compensate for the difference in the octane content of the gas that you
are burning.
Any mayor worth his salt would immediately direct the resources of
his city to find out why the residents of this city are paying more for
gas then our state neighbors. But it is the same old story, no action,
just talk. So, let us teach the gas stations a lesson in this city by
buying gas where it is cheaper. Only use the in-town stations to top off
later in the week or to get you out of town to seek cheaper gas. Happy
hunting.
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Last week, we celebrated Labor Day and the end of summer, and we also
marked the start of what will be an interesting and contentious
political year in DC. Political campaigns began that will culminate in
the fall of 2006 in elections for mayor, council chairman, two at-large
councilmembers, council representatives for Wards 1, 3, 5, and 6, and
school board representatives for district 3 (Wards 5 and 6) and district
4 (Wards 7 and 8).
Last week, two candidates for mayor, Linda Cropp and Adrian Fenty,
formally kicked off their campaigns at separate events at the
African-American Civil War Memorial, at U Street and Vermont Avenue, NW.
On Wednesday, Cropp rallied her supporters at the Memorial and walked
the U Street corridor to the Reeves Municipal Center, occasionally
stopping to speak with merchants. At the Reeves Center, she formally
filed her statement of candidacy and registered her campaign committee
with the Office of Campaign Finance. Her campaign will be headed by two
septuagenarians, Elijah Rogers (former city administrator in an early
Barry administration) will serve as campaign chairman and Marilyn Brown
(the District’s national Democratic committeewoman) will serve as
treasurer. Former Ward 7 councilmember Kevin Chavous will be the
campaign’s general counsel, and counsel secretary Phyllis Jones is
currently serving as the interim campaign manager. Throughout the rally,
the key word used repeatedly by Cropp was "experience," with
the implication that she has proven experience.
On Saturday, Adrian Fenty gathered his supporters at the Memorial to
mark 365 days until the September 6, 2006, primary. Former at-large
councilmember and personal injury attorney Bill Lightfoot chairs the
Fenty campaign, and attorney Benjamin Soto serves as treasurer. Fenty
told me that he will serve as both the campaign manager and press
secretary for his campaign. He has, however, hired John Falcicchio, Sam
Brooks, Alex Evans, and Tom Lindenfeld to work in his campaign
headquarters at 809 Florida Avenue, NW. On Saturday, the key word that
Fenty used more than twenty times in his brief remarks was
"future," with the clear inference that he represented the
District’s future.
Other announced candidates for mayor are Ward 5 councilmember Vincent
Orange and former Verizon DC executive Marie Johns. Attorney Michael
Brown has indicated that he will announce his decision on whether to run
for mayor in the coming week.
###############
Staffing the DC-Area Out-of-Town Shelters
Phil Shapiro, pshapiro@his.com
The big lesson learned last week is that major American cities need
to have existing, large out-of-town shelters available for any
eventuality. Here in the DC area we probably need about five shelters,
each capable of temporarily housing 80,000 persons. Who might be the
right persons to staff those shelters year round? Our current family
members at the DC Armory. Yes, it’s possible to use those shelters for
other purposes (as conference centers) when not needed in an emergency.
###############
Regarding the letter by National Capital Revitalization Corporation’s
Chairman Ron Evans (themail, September 4), I just must speak to several
statements he made. “Throughout the [Gangplank] Marina, upgrades have
been made to electrical systems, security, and facility appearance.” I
would challenge Mr. Evans to come and inspect any dock to point out a
complete electrical or dock surface upgrade anywhere, except possibly
the one on which the Marina manager lives. “The Corporation has
responded to all written requests for services or information. . . .”
This spring, I met with the President of NCRC, Tony Freeman, who
promised quick response on a laundry list of issues he wrote down during
our conversation. I was unable to get a reply by voice or E-mail to any
subsequent follow-up attempt I made and never received action on a
single issue. I have also requested information or response from NCRC
Asset Manager Sandra Fowler only to be completely ignored on a number of
occasions.
NCRC has consistently denied FOIA requests from citizens and ignored
requests from the city council for contract and budget information all
the while pleading poverty at council oversight hearings. They began
four years ago with a $25 million cash grant, were given hundreds of
thousands of dollars worth of city property, and were pledged another
$50 million in Fannie Mae grants. Where has it all gone? Apparently,
approximately $6 million went to purchase the Gangplank Marina, a
stunning amount for a property that had been in bankruptcy only a few
years before. Now it appears that NCRC is making $500,000 a year off the
property but putting little back in for much-needed improvements. They
recently announced a $2 million plan to repair the crumbling docks, but
that work won’t start until after the property is handed over to the
Anacostia Waterfront Corporation (AWC). A case of one quasi
public-private corporation sticking another with the bill.
Since NCRC gained control of the marina, they have pursued an
aggressive policy of reducing the number of people allowed to live here.
They put a moratorium in place based on vague statements about how the
facility couldn’t support more than one hundred residential boaters.
Even by their own accounting (which appears to include the deceased) the
actual residential population is now well below even that. Since NCRC is
supposed to be creating housing, not eliminating it, why haven’t they
spent some of that $500,000 a year on fixing the infrastructure to allow
the population to grow back to the 120-130 live-aboard vessels
previously on the docks? A few years ago, Lloyd Smith, NCRC’s former
CEO, may have answered that question at a Committee on Economic
Development oversight hearing. When questioned about the $5.5 million
purchase of the old Hogates restaurant, he stated that income from the
marina was used to make payments on the loan they took out to buy back
the lease, which they have now opened as the infamous H20. NCRC keeps
the terms of that contract a secret, so we may never know how profitable
H20 is to them. Profit is fine, but not when they’re pleading poverty
to avoid making necessary upgrades and repairs to this facility.
In his recent letter, Mr. Evans stated he was proud of NCRC’s
accomplishments in Southwest. Is he proud of getting rid of more than
forty of his tenants, presumably to pave the way for a development
project now yanked out of their hands? Proud of the good reviews H20
gets at clubzone.com? How about sticking the AWC with a deferred
maintenance bill? Is he especially proud that his marina management
company tried to evict certain marina residents because they presented
testimony criticizing NCRC before city council? It’s way past time to
rein in NCRC. The public needs an accounting of what they’ve spent our
tax dollars on and if they have done it to enrich themselves at the
expense of the neighborhoods they are supposed to be serving.
###############
Response to Ron Evans’ Letter on Behalf of
Marie Johns
Susan Carpenter, susancarpenter@verizon.net
Mr. Evans, your organization has allowed a Maryland-based corporation
to employ escalating abusive tactics against DC citizens at the
Gangplank Marina for almost four years. Tactics that would be against
the law if we were covered by the same landlord-tenant protections as
other residents of the District. As a DC citizen and Gangplank resident,
I am appalled and ashamed that you would sanction such actions, and I
hold you personally responsible for what has occurred. I’m sure that
others can and will speak of their own abuses at the hands of your
people, and the current president of out tenants association has already
spoken eloquently on numerous issues. I would like the readers of
themail to hear my story, one that is all too sadly representative of
what other tenants have had to endure.
My husband and I are among about eighty live-aboard boaters at the
Gangplank, meaning we live year-round aboard our boat. This winter we
were given an eviction notice with a demand that we leave our home at
the marina in 45 days, but were not informed, at least in writing, for
what cause. Only after we questioned the marina manager were we told
that our eviction was because of my unfriendly attitude (I am the past
president of the tenants association), my past activism (both my husband
and I have testified about NCRC before city council), and an outrageous
and false allegation of stalking of an employee because I was a racist.
The charge of being a racially motivated stalker stemmed from my
reporting to management what I thought was suspicious activity on the
part of an employee. That employee was dismissed for what Ms. Fowler of
NCRC was to later call “an unfortunate incident” but not until after
she repeated accusations against me of breaking and entering and
entrapment at a city council hearing! Ms. Fowler repeated those
accusations in a public forum without ever once contacting me to hear if
I had another side to the story. When your organization targets
individuals with costly and devastating public accusations, you might
consider that some due diligence be used to ferret out the truth first.
Since that incident, I have received anonymous hate mail, and I’m
sure I have been ridiculed behind my back. As a woman who has spent a
great deal of her life as a community activist, including a term as the
president of a local chapter of the League of Women Voters, I can’t
begin to tell you how this feels. If you don’t like the criticisms
written about NCRC in themail, just image what it would be like to be
labeled a racist. With costly legal representation and assistance from
Councilmember Ambrose and her staff, we were able to beat back the
capricious eviction and remain in our home. Some of my neighbors were
not so fortunate and now have left the marina because of eviction or
because of just being harassed until it was no longer worth the fight.
Others are still seething about ludicrous “apology” letters they had
to write in order to stay, or having been put on “secret probation”
because they were accused of testifying before the city council. Your
staff has been made aware of all these incidents and has done nothing to
act on them.
Mr. Evans, you wrote, “With our partners at [marina management], we
look forward to building a healthy relationship with Marina users.” I
can’t imagine a more ludicrous statement given everything that has
happened during your watch. Do you really not know what is happening to
your tenants, or are you willing to back your staff at any cost, even
when that means people may lose their homes? If you want to truly be
proud of your organization, you need to make immediate and dramatic
changes beginning with terminating your management company’s contract.
###############
A DC disaster would not be water, but a chemical, biological, or
nuclear attack. We wouldn’t have water lapping at our rooftops, and so
many people may not feel compelled to evacuate. For the likely threats
we face, many basic services would probably remain — power, water,
sewage — further compelling many to chose to stay. (Not to mention
fear of gridlock while fleeing, memories of the bad outcome for many
evacuees from Katrina, and genetic distrust of authorities.) Thus, a
higher percentage of the populace than in New Orleans could suffer here,
because they simply did not see a reason to go. Absolutely clear,
widespread, and available communication before and during a situation in
DC is critical to ensuring the highest number of survivors of mass
disaster. Are we up to it? I suspect that the existing DC plan, like
most, is a pro forma exercise required to meet some federal requirement
rather than a well-tested plan that has been proven to work, albeit on a
small scale. (After all, 99 percent of disaster planning is a tabletop
exercise performed in sunny weather.) Our leadership would do well to
regroup, drawing on people who know their neighborhoods, the psyche of
their local communities, and the behavior they are likely to show when
under stress, and build a realistic plan from the bottom up. Then test,
test, test. Katrina showed that the possible is the inevitable.
###############
You can’t possibly talk about preparedness (there, then, or here
and now) without talking about what you call “political” blame.
First off, everything is political in one way or the other: check the
dictionary definition of the word. Second, the whole point of themail’s
very timely introduction [September 7] deals specifically with political
questions. How much money is diverted from other (probably urgent)
public needs to truly adequately prepare for an absolutely catastrophic
occurrence such as Katrina (or Isabel or 9-11, for that matter)? Take it
from a thirty-year transportation planner: you cannot take these kinds
of precautions and be as prepared as you should be without shortchanging
other critical budgetary needs.
What priorities do you have for evacuation? Who goes first? Who do
you sacrifice (and any truly realistic evacuation plan must answer this
nasty question, just as airlines admit that after a crash landing
passengers in wheelchairs are sacrificed to get able-bodied survivors
off the plane as fast as possible.) In the case of DC, where would the
evacuees go? Maryland? If so, what arrangements do we have with that
state to accommodate the evacuees? Virginia? Okay: then the plan has to
make allowances for getting a couple hundred thousand people across four
or five bridges at a time when that may not be possible, or the bridges
may not even be there any longer. (The hijacked airliner that hit the
Pentagon on September 11th could have taken out any one of three bridges
across the Potomac had it diverted off course by as little as two
degrees. And those of us over forty certainly remember Flight 90 in
1982.)
How much do you depend on WMATA? (Please note that I said WMATA and
not Metro, because, as in New Orleans, DC has a large number of
bus-transit-dependent residents who not only don’t own (or can’t
afford) a car, but also live so far from the nearest Metrorail station
that the only practical way to evacuate them anywhere, including to
somewhere else inside the city itself, would be by bus. Or by something
like a taxicab caravan like the one that shuttled troops to the front
and saved Paris from the Germans in 1914. Also, the Metrorail system is
infinitely more vulnerable to disruption than, say, a bus caravan
operating on the city’s primary arterials. What if the catastrophe
provoking the evacuation in the first place is, in fact, some sort of
crippling event that has hit Metrorail?
What role does the federal government play in all this? Clearly we
have seen in New Orleans that not answering that question ahead of time
can be tantamount to committing an institutional form of manslaughter.
Given the city’s orphan relationship to both neighboring states, never
mind an indifferent, almost institutionally hostile, congress, should
the city depend on the federal government at all in the event of a truly
massive catastrophic event that necessitates large-scale evacuation? All
those questions trace right back to what went wrong, and why, in and
around The Gulf. You can’t possibly know if you will be ready to
handle something like Katrina (or 9-11) tomorrow without having some
rather cold-blooded assessments of what made Katrina and 9-11 such
lethal snafus yesterday. We need to have a conversation about a
realistic, practical evacuation, rescue and recovery plan for this city
in the event of a major catastrophic occurrence. But we can’t have it
in a time warp that doesn’t assess what might have been done in New
Orleans and the rest of the Gulf to have lessened the staggering human
and financial cost this entire country will have to pay.
###############
More on “Think Cropp”
Amy Hubbard, ahubbarddc at yahoo dot com
I swear I have not yet made up my mind about who I will vote for in
the mayoral election (I’ll be looking at both Cropp and Fenty) but
every time I see one of those “Think Cropp” posters, I want to write
“But vote Fenty” on it in black magic marker.
###############
In case Cropp’s office doesn’t answer Sally MacDonald [“Think
Cropp,” themail, September 7] in time: registered campaigns and PACs
may put campaign signs in public space using staples (stapling two or
more signs together around a metal post or utility pole). It is illegal
to tape signs to public property. There is a limit of three identical
signs (or pairs of signs back-to-back) on one side of one block. Signs
may be posted anytime once the authorizing political committee is
registered with the Office of Campaign Finance and must be removed
within thirty days after the election, which is the campaign’s
responsibility. Nobody else has any right to remove campaign signs;
violations of the signage rules should be reported to the OCF. The
offending campaign can be fined for each occurrence times each day until
the violation is corrected.
That said, all campaigns would do well to recognize that there are a
lot of Sally MacDonalds in town, and that excessive signage alienates
more voters than it impresses. A few carefully placed signs can generate
as much name recognition as a thousand signs blocking out the sky, and
do so for less money and wasting fewer natural resources. Candidates
should also remember that the inks used in these weather-resistant print
jobs are toxic (you would not want your children to live near an
industrial print shop) and even smell bad. If you tell me too many
times, in too many places, to “Think Cropp,” I might start to Think
Cropp is not a good steward of money and resources.
###############
A Tangential Point About Signs
Mark Eckenwiler, themale at ingot dot org
In the last issue [themail, September 7], Gary asserted that
installing “Think Cropp” signs “in the tree boxes in public space
. . . is legal.” I disagree. Under the Construction Codes Supplement
(12 DCMR 3107.7.8), “No . . . sign . . . of any sort shall be . . .
placed . . . in or upon any street, avenue, alley, highway, footway,
sidewalk, parking or other public space in the District of Columbia,
unless specifically approved by the code official . . . in accordance
with provisions of this Section.” (Note: the ellipses aren’t there
to mislead or deceive; I’ve merely trimmed the copious strings of
synonyms in the regulation. See for yourself at http://www.amlegal.com/nxt/gateway.dll/Title%2012/code%20title00001/chapter00016.htm?f=templates$fn=main-nf.htm$3.0#JD_Chapter31A
if you want the full legal monty.)
While there are exceptions elsewhere in DC law for campaign signs
sponsored by officially declared candidates for public office, I’m
unaware of any exemption for signs installed by PACs (such as the
“Think Cropp” crop).
[Mark believes that political campaign signs that are sponsored by
PACs, rather than by candidates’ official campaign organizations,
should be governed by the law that forbids commercial advertising signs
in public space. I think otherwise, and I believe any court would find
it unconstitutional to allow only official campaign organizations to
post political signs in public spaces, and to forbid PACs from posting
signs supporting their preferred candidates. PACs have posted political
ads in past years. I am not aware that there have been any complaints
about those signs, so I do not believe that the Office of Campaign
Finance has issued an opinion on their legality. That is why I wrote,
“It will be interesting to see whether the regulations are interpreted
as also applying to PACs.” But I think their opinion can go only one
way. — Gary Imhoff]
###############
I got an E-mail from JD who says that he’s Hispanic and that he
lives on 10th Street. I meant to say in my E-mail (“Piensen Cropp,”
themail, September 7) that there weren’t any Hispanics on 10th Street
between F and G. In fact there aren’t that many residents. On one side
of 10th Street, there are no houses at all; there is a school and
Sherwood Recreation Center. On the other side there is the House of
Ruth, which takes up a substantial part of the block, and then there are
houses mostly owned by Blacks. Yet there were eight or ten signs in that
one block, half in English and half in Spanish. Even if there were one
or two Hispanics, I don’t understand why that merits three or four
signs in Spanish on a hundred-yard stretch of the street. They’re all
crowded together. Nor do I understand why there are so many signs in
English.
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Where Are the Jobs for DC Residents?
Andrew Lightman, andrew@hillrag.com
The city is exploding with government-subsidized development
projects, and with each bite of the gold-plated shovel Mayor Anthony
Williams boasts of the new jobs that these projects create.
Unfortunately, according to data acquired by Capital Community News from
the District’s Department of Employment Services (DOES), in 2004 only
30 percent of the over 6,000 jobs created through local government
moneys went to District residents. Most of the District’s high-profile
development projects, including the new Washington Convention Center,
Gallery Place, and Mandarin Oriental Hotel missed the fifty-one-percent
local hiring goal by a significant margin. This is especially troubling
given that unemployment for District residents continues to be higher
than in most cities, even though tens of thousands of new jobs have been
created here.
Beginning this year, the mayor has moved to remedy the situation by
proposing legislation that would put some teeth into the local hiring
laws. The private sector has complained bitterly, however, saying that
the laws "would not result in one more DC resident being
hired." As the council moves to take up the issue this fall, the
question becomes, how do we close the jobs gap? Read the full article by
Gabriel Pacyniak at http://www.capitalcommunitynews.com.
It includes a chart listing recent high-profile subsidized projects and
the percentage of DC residents they hired.
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This is to advise that the September 2005 online edition has been
uploaded and may be accessed at http://www.intowner.com.
Included are the lead stories, community news items and crime reports,
editorials (including prior months’ archived), restaurant reviews
(prior months’ also archived), and the text from the ever-popular
"Scenes from the Past" feature. Also included are all current
classified ads. The complete issue (along with prior issues back to May
2002) also is available in PDF file format directly from our home page
at no charge simply by clicking the link provided. Here you will be able
to view the entire issue as it appears in print, including all photos
and advertisements. The next issue will publish on October 14 (the
second Friday of the month, as always). The complete PDF version will be
posted by the preceding night or early that Friday morning at the
latest, following which the text of the lead stories, community news,
and selected features will be uploaded shortly thereafter.
To read this month’s lead stories, simply click the link on the
home page to the following headlines: 1) “Parks Department Joins Mayor’s
Office in Plan to Commandeer Scarce Recreation Area for Housing”; 2)
“Dupont Circle Groups Unveil Redone Call Boxes to Exhibit Area
History”; 3) “Adams Morgan Essay: Part 2 — Four O’clock in the
A.M. Friday, June 10, 2005.”
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
The National Daughter-Daddy
Reunion Tour, September 11-October 2
Jonetta Rose Barras, ddreunion@aol.com
The National Daughter-Daddy Reunion Tour, an unprecedented movement
to restore the sacred relationship between daughters and dads, arrest
pronounced community problems and create healthy families, is being
launched on September 11. A new socioeconomic model developed by Esther
Productions, Inc., in association with national experts, civic leaders,
and other nonprofit organizations, The National Daughter-Daddy Reunion
Tour is a series of speakouts, training institutes, and celebrations
that will occur in several venues throughout the city from September 11
through October 2. Without Our Fathers: Daughters Only SpeakOut will
take place on September 13 in southeast; Daughters Only Training
Institute runs from September 16 through September 18; I Am Father:
Daddies Talk About Absent Daughters will take place on September 20; In
Their Absence: A Roundtable Discussion about the Effects of Father
Absence in Washington, DC, will occur on September 28; the Daughters and
Daddies Training Institute runs from September 30 through October 2
Washington is the first stop for this newly created Tour. The Tour is
expected to reach eighteen cities over the next five years. It promises
to elevate the public discussion around the impact of father absence on
daughters; provide tools and resources to help daughters recognize and
decrease the negative effects of father absence in their lives; teach
daughters how to develop a plan to diminish or alleviate those effects;
help fathers and daughters design a workable plan for reconciling;
develop a network of experts and community leaders who can provide a
continuum of care, advice, and nurturing to fathers and daughters
through the creation of support groups and faith-based reconciliation
centers; and provide a venue to celebrate successful father-daughter
relationships.
The National Daughter-Daddy Reunion Tour is sponsored by CIGNA
Healthcare, Verizon Washington, the Downtown Cluster of Congregations
and the National City Christian Church. Additional support has been
provided by a variety of foundations, corporations and individuals. For
further information, contact Jonetta Rose Barras or Misty Brown,
722-4639 or Ddreunion@aol.com.
###############
Democracy for DC Rally, September 15
Shawn Rolland, srolland@dcvote.org
The ACLU of the National Capital Area is organizing a Democracy for
DC Rally on Thursday, September 15, from 5:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., on the
west lawn of the US Capitol, 1st Street, NW, between Constitution Avenue
and Independence Avenue, to protest DC’s status. Congress has over the
years imposed its will on DC by attaching riders to the DC
Appropriations Bill, which, in effect, limits the DC government from
determining how its own budget should be allocated. Once again through
the appropriations process, Congress is limiting the DC budget and
stripping DC residents of their right to spend their local tax dollars
their own way, this time with regard to gun control laws. Such action in
the past has resulted in limitations on HIV/AIDS prevention measures,
domestic partnerships and reproductive rights, to name a few.
The schedule for the event is as follows: 5:30 p.m., music and
entertainment will begin; 7:30 p.m., the candlelight march around the
Capitol begins. For more information on the rally, go to http://www.aclu-nca.org
or contact beverly@aclu-nca.org.
###############
Skills and Secrets of the Building Arts,
September 17
Brie Hensold, bhenhold@nbm.org
Saturday, September 17, 10:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Build a brick wall;
participate in a nail driving contest; try stone carving and
woodworking; learn the techniques involved in surveying; help construct
a log cabin; build a city out of boxes; create a photo holder using
quick-drying concrete; climb aboard construction equipment; collect home
improvement tips from expert plumbers, roofers, contractors; and more!
Visitors of all ages can work side-by-side with as many as 25 master
craftspeople in a variety of hands-on activities to discover the skills
and secrets employed in the building arts. Free. Donation of $5 is
suggested. Registration not required. Appropriate for all ages. At the
National Building Museum, 401 F Street, NW, Judiciary Square stop, Metro
Red Line.
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DC Public Library Events, September 17
Debra Truhart, debra.truhart@dc.gov
Saturday, September 17, 11:00 a.m., West End Neighborhood Library,
1101 24th Street, NW. Amy Joyce, business reporter for The Washington
Post, will discuss workplace dilemmas and answer questions. Public
contact 724-8707.
Saturday, September 17, 3:00 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial
Library, 901 G Street, NW, Room A-5. Soprano Ann Elizabeth Jones,
violinist Cecilie Jones, and the Lennox String Quartet perform music by
Vaughn Williams, Hindemith, Holst, Sametz, and Villa-Lobos. Public
contact 727-1285.
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Tibetan Red Tara Sand Mandala Ceremony,
September 20-21
Tenzin Jigme, tenzinj@savetibet.org
In honor of the Dalai Lama’s November visit to Washington DC,
Tibetan Buddhist monks from the Mindroling Monastery are creating a
traditional Tibetan Red Tara Sand Mandala at the office of the
International Campaign for Tibet, 1825 Jefferson Place, NW, on September
20-21, from 10.30 a.m.-5.30 p.m. You are invited to come at any time
during the day to watch the creation of the sand mandala.
Mandala is a Sanskrit word meaning circle, and Tibetan monks create
these beautiful archetypal templates with grains of colored sand to
remind us of the cycle of life and death. The mandala will be
ceremonially destroyed at ICT from 5-7 p.m. on Thursday, September 21.
Following the ceremony, please join the Mindroling monks and staff of
ICT for some traditional Tibetan refreshments. For more information,
please visit http://www.savetibet.org.
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Resource Exchange II, September 22
Marc Ouellette, mouellette@cyitc.org
The DC Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation announces
Resource Exchange II. This is an opportunity for organizations serving
children and youth in the District of Columbia to find out about local
and national resources (curricular, programming, training and more) for
potential partnerships. Thursday, September 22, from 10:00 a.m.-12 p.m.,
at the ARC, Boys and Girls Club of Greater Washington gymnasium,
1901 Mississippi Avenue, SE.The event is free!
Who will be showcasing their programs at the resource exchange? The
Arena Stage, Community Engagement Division; Boys and Girls Club of
Greater Washington; Center for Inspired Teaching; Children’s National
Medical Center, Teen Life Clubs and T.A.S.A. (Teens Against the Spread
of AIDS); Covenant House Washington, Artisans’ Program; Dance
Institute of Washington; DC Public Libraries; Freer Gallery of Art and
the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery; Friends of the National Zoo; Getting
Connected DC; Library of Congress; National Aquarium of Washington and
the National Aquarium of Baltimore; National Building Museum; National
Geographic Education Foundation; National Museum of the American Indian;
National Organization of Concerned Black Men; Northeast Performing Arts
Group; Opportunities Industrialization Center, Washington, DC; The
Parent-Child Home Program; Philips Collection; Smithsonian Center for
Education and Museum Studies; Washington Performing Arts Society; and
WETA, Between the Lions. For more information, please contact Peter
Guttmacher of the Children and Youth Investment Trust Corporation at pguttmacher@cyitc.org
or 347-4441.
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Ward 6 Democrats Meeting, September 27
Jan Eichhorn, ward6dems@aol.com
The Ward 6 Democrats will meet on Tuesday, September 27, at 7:00
p.m., at the Eastern Branch Boys and Girls Club, 261 17th Street, SE.
The issue forum will be what’s needed and what will be done to repair,
renovate, and rebuild DCPS facilities. Moderator, Tom Sherwood, WRC-TV;
panelists, Councilmember Kathy Patterson, Chair of the Council Committee
on Education; Tommy Wells, District III (Wards 5 & 6) school board
member; Jason Spooner, Deputy Director, 21st Century School Fund; Mark
Dixon, Parent Coordinator at Terrell Junior High School and Chair of
ANC6D; Marc Boberly, Fix-Our-Schools coordinator. ANC6A Commissioner.
Also invited: Cornell Brown, Facilities Manager, DCPS. For further
information: Ward6Dems@aol.com,
547-8855.
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CLASSIFIEDS — FOR SALE
2006 Children’s Black History Calendars
Ingrid Drake, ingridnatasha@yahoo.com
Please consider purchasing advance copies of the 2006 Children’s
Gallery of Black History Calendar to distribute to your members,
customers, friends, families, and other supporters. Not only will you be
increasing the awareness of great African American innovators, but you
will also be investing in a high-quality community-based educational
organization, Mentors of Minorities in Education Total Learning Cis-Tem
(M.O.M.I.E.’s T.L.C.).
The full-color wall calendar features twelve original children’s
drawings of their favorite African American change-makers, such as Mary
McLeod Bethune and Ben Carson, and significant dates, such as January
25, 1966, when Constance Baker Motley became the first African American
federal judge.
The calendars will be delivered to you by October 10, so that you can
mail them out to your supporters before the holiday season and New Year.
Please call 577-3437, visit http://www.momiestlc.com
or write Ingridnatasha@yahoo.com.
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CLASSIFIEDS — HELP WANTED
My computer keeps shutting itself down. I think there’s a problem
with my Windows XP software. If you can help, please phone me at
546-3358 or E-mail me at streetstories@juno.com.
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CLASSIFIEDS — WANTED
For my garden, I am looking for red bricks which are in pretty good
shape — new, used, whatever — as long as they don’t have too much
residual cement on them. You call and I’ll haul! Contact Ashley at ainselman@yahoo.com.
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CLASSIFIEDS — RECOMMENDATIONS
Best High Speed Internet for Foxhall Village
Jason Maloni, jasonmdx@hotmail.com
What has been folks’ experience with high speed Internet services
in the Foxhall Village area of DC? I’m sick of Verizon (my speeds vary
from 80 kbps to 760 kbps). My friends in Virginia say Comcast gets 6,000
kbps, but then I read about all the poor Comcast technical assistance.
My father has Comcast in Bethesda, and his speeds range from 2000 to
3000 kbps, but he is sick of Comcast and on Monday is switching to
Verizon. He is ignoring my advice that Verizon is even worse.
I realize many factors control service, but I’ve been knocking on
neighbors’ doors to ask them. So far I’ve heard good things about
RCN, but want to know what works in a neighborhood with old phone lines.
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