Exclusive Rights
Dear themailers:
What an issue: the NCMC, the baseball stadium, and Marion Barry as a
race hero. Come on, people, lighten up. Do as I say, not as I do.
Please, somebody write about what’s making your life in DC a joy. What
museum exhibit do fellow themailers just have to see? What new
restaurant are you discovering in this week’s Restaurant Week? What
has improved in your neighborhood? Make us all happy, I’m begging you.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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The National Capital Medical Center Exclusive
Rights Agreement
Dorothy Brizill, dorothy@dcwatch.com
On Thursday, January 5, Mayor Williams held a public ceremony to sign
an exclusive rights agreement (ERA) with Howard University for the
development of the National Capital Medical Center (NCMC) on Reservation
13, the former site of DC General Hospital, near RFK Stadium (http://www.dcwatch.com/issues/health060105b.htm).
Just as it does with the proposed new baseball stadium, the Williams
administration makes questionable economic claims about the project. The
ERA claims that the NCMC project “will serve as an economic engine to
enhance the transformation of US Reservation 13 into the planned
mixed-use Hill east neighborhood.” The ERA also states that Howard
University would transfer 230 of the 482 licensed hospital beds at its
existing hospital on Georgia Avenue to the new facility; that both the
NCMC and Howard’s current hospital would be operated by a new,
private, not-for-profit 501(c)(3) healthcare corporation that will be
established; that project costs are estimated to be $382 million; and
that the District government and the University “will fund the
construction of the hospital on a 50-50 basis.”
Before the ERA was revealed to the public on Thursday, many members
of the public and city councilmembers had raised several questions about
the NCMC project. Few of those questions were answered by the ERA; in
fact, the ERA raised several new questions, some of which are detailed
by Eric Rosenthal, below. The chief question may be the one raised in
Colbert King’s column in The Washington Post yesterday: “What
Is Tony Williams’s Word Worth?” (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/06/AR2006010601494.html).
As King wrote: “The District’s landscape is littered with examples
of the fleeting nature of a Tony Williams commitment. . . . And when
Williams is not changing course of his own volition or under the
not-so-gentle remonstrances of business interests, he’s getting his
head handed to him by the council.” If the administration tries to
rush the NCMC project through the city council without the required
Certificate of Need process or without thorough public and council
review, the council should prepare another platter to serve the mayor
his head again.
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“Trust Me” from the Mayor Is Not Good
Enough
Eric Rosenthal, eric.rosenthal@mac.com
After nearly three years of effort, the Mayor’s proposal for the
National Capital Medical Center comes down to just two words: “trust
me.”
The agreement he signed Thursday makes so many changes to previous
versions of his plan that less is known than before he signed it. It
explicitly states that details concerning the proposed hospital’s
medical services, governance, budget, deficit financing and community
participation will be drafted 120 days after the Council approves the
project, too late for meaningful input from the public or the Council.
The Mayor also wants the Council to permit him to circumvent the
Certificate of Need review that would require him to demonstrate the
National Capital Medical Center would provide a "public good."
We should insist the Council not allow that.
Regardless of the Mayor’s desire to push through his proposal
before he leaves office, the National Capital Medical Center should not
go forward unless fundamental questions are answered: would it improve
health or would an alternative do more? How much medical care would poor
residents without health insurance receive in exchange for the hundreds
of millions of public dollars the National Capital Medical Center would
cost? What effect would it have on Howard University Hospital, Greater
Southeast Community Hospital and health care throughout the city? The
Mayor apparently feels he can duck these questions as he counts the days
until he starts his next job. Concerned Washingtonians who will be left
to deal with the consequences of this poorly conceived project should
not allow him to get away with “trust me.”
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Get the Major League Baseball Goons Out of the
Way
Ed T. Barron, edtb@aol.com
If MLB butt heads want a resolution to the impasse about the new
baseball stadium, they should quickly name the ownership group that will
buy the Nationals and step out of the way. Then, discussions between the
mayor and the city council (working together for a change) could resolve
a bunch of open issues and concerns. It is likely that the city would
have to cede a lot of control of the building of the new stadium to the
new owners in exchange for the owners picking up any cost overruns. That
would work a lot better than having an intransigent third party of MLB
heavies in the negotiation where they don’t belong.
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The Post’s Steven Pearlstein, writing in his business column
on Friday (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/05/AR2006010502181.html),
aims to educate the public on the true value of the stadium. He calls it
a “reasonable investment” from the “hard-nosed” business
perspective. We shouldn’t worry about cost overruns, according to Mr.
Pearlstein, because they mean that costs everywhere have risen and, with
them, tax revenues. I’m not sure the inflation-is-good-for-you fuzzy
logic of that argument would sit well with Alan Greenspan, and I am
definitely sure it doesn’t sit well with this DC taxpayer’s pocket.
Another Pearlstein-of-wisdom howler: “What really galls [councilmembers
who oppose the stadium deal], it seems, is the symbolism of a project
that would line the pockets of rich team owners and players and be used
disproportionately by middle- and upper-class white residents of
Northwest Washington and the suburbs. But at this point, we need to get
beyond the symbolism.” Yeah, right. “Damn the social justice! Full
speed ahead. Open your pockets, MLB!”
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To those who are having trouble understanding the
"betrayal" [themail, January 4]: I remember when I first came
to the District to work for WRC-TV4 as a news reporter in 1995. I wanted
to know how did this community reelect a man after that famous bust at
the Vista Hotel. I knew, because of my experience as a black man in this
country and a child of the movement, that when the government is
investigating you and the majority of the white community doesn’t like
you, then you must be doing something right. I couldn’t wait to get
here to witness it myself -- what is it about this one brother? After
attending my first Mayor Barry press conference I knew the deal.
Regardless of his personal weaknesses; i.e., drug addiction, women,
taxes, etc., to me, his proud legacy will remain that he tried to create
a level playing field for his community. In spite of everything, black
folks simply know Marion Barry will never sell them out. Unfortunately,
many whites like Gary Imhoff will never understand or fully appreciate
this and that’s because they believe everyone has a price. Not Mr.
Barry. That is why the former mayor felt betrayed by that robbery and
also why we as a community have to do a better job educating our young
about our history and its many colorful heroes.
As flawed as he may be, Marion Barry is one of my heroes, and I, for
one, don’t care if Imhoff and his ilk do not understand. They never
will.
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I really didn’t get the joke in Councilmember Barry’s response to
being robbed at gunpoint [themail, January 4]. What if Mother Theresa
were robbed at gunpoint by an orphan she picked off a Calcutta dung
heap? Or Nelson Mandela, by a black South African kid? What if you gave
a job to a poor kid who then robbed you at gunpoint? If you spent your
entire adult life trying to help downtrodden, underprivileged people you
chose to live among, where’s the punch line in being hurt, in feeling
betrayed? If you can imagine yourself in those shoes, how would you
feel?
Most of us don’t stick our necks out. We look out for ourselves and
reward people who are already comfortable, privileged, educated,
well-fed, and relatively prepared for a relatively bright future,
largely as a result of the luck of the draw. I am not an apologist for
Marion Barry but, as a citizen, I believe that on balance he was the
best Mayor this city has had. I am not blinded by hero worship, but I
admire his record of public service, from his days in the civil rights
movement to the present. He took a city that was fiercely divided
between black and white, the very rich and the very poor, and built a
diverse middle class community.
Barry’s flaws speak for themselves and, unlike most of ours, are
fair game. But the fact is, his is a record I couldn’t match, and I
doubt that many of us would dare to try. He stays his course while
carrying some very heavy baggage. We could learn from that, if we spent
less time pointing fingers and more examining our own lives and the
common ground we could be cultivating. We all fall down, and some get
more help rising than others. Marion Barry gets up every day to face
internal and external struggles that would have taken a less courageous
man out of the fight. I believe he is motivated by a genuine commitment
to help people emerge from miseries he has experienced, and to be a role
model for people who in many cases have never had one. Of course the man
feels betrayed. He was betrayed. He doesn’t need more of us to prove
that Judas had the easier job. Let’s examine all the public days of
Marion Barry before we start focusing on one to sit in sarcastic
judgment about. There are enough myopic jokers in this town already, and
most of them are laughing all the way to the bank with our taxes. We can’t
afford to participate in a smalltime comedy of errors when the big jokes
are really on us.
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Ballparks, Eminent Domain, and the Need for a
District Planning Commission, January 12
Ann Hargrove, ahhjlhdc@worldnet.att.net
The Committee of 100 announces free public symposium on planning for
the District’s future. Billions of dollars are being spent on local
projects without benefit of one of the tools other communities view as
essential to intelligent planning: an independent planning commission.
This forum will explore how such a commission could give greater voice
to affected communities, could tie capital expenditures to approved
development plans, and could protect the goals of the District’s
Comprehensive Plan, the fundamental policy directives for citizens of
the District.
On Thursday, January 12, the Committee of 100 and the National
Building Museum will cosponsor a symposium that will examine other
cities’ experiences with a planning commission and suggest how such an
independent body could help the District align the expenditure of public
funds with planning visions and economic development objectives.
Symposium moderator Gary Hack, dean of the Graduate School of Fine Arts
at the University of Pennsylvania, will discuss the utility of planning
commissions, with a focus on Philadelphia, where he chaired such a
group. Christopher Ronayne, chief of staff to the Mayor of Cleveland and
former planning director in that city, will analyze the Cleveland
experience. Council Chair Linda Cropp and Planning Director Ellen
McCarthy will serve as panelists. Committee members Dorn McGrath and
Kent Cooper have led the planning and coordination work that is bringing
this special event to reality.
The event will be held at the National Building Museum, Fourth and F
Streets, NW, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. A press briefing will be held at 5:30.
The Committee has identified a source of funding that will allow us to
offer free admission to the symposium, so that all interested persons
will be able to attend. Registration is required, however: Call 272-2448
or go online to http://www.nbm.org.
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Bokamoso Youth Group, January 20
Ann Loikow, aloikow@verizon.net
The Bokamoso Youth Group from Wintereveldt, South Africa, will be
performing at St. Columba’s Episcopal Church, at 42nd and Albemarle
Streets, NW (one block west of Tenleytown Metro stop), at 8 p.m. on
Friday, January 20. Bokamoso is a group of very talented young people,
between 18 and 23 years old, from Wintervekdt, a very poor township
forty kilometers north of Pretoria, South Africa. They will be
performing a dramatic piece called “Won’t Happen to Me.” Their
performance will include singing and dancing and is an outcry of
warning, hope, and compassion from the youth at the epicenter of the
AIDS crisis in Africa. The performance is appropriate for ages twelve
and up, and is especially designed for teens. Discussion with the group
will follow their performance. Dessert and coffee will be served at that
time. Admission is $10/adult and $5 for students/seniors.
The Bokamoso Center was created to counter the crime and despair
destroying their community where schools are overcrowded and inadequate
and there is a 60 percent unemployment rate and a 25 percent HIV
infection rate. Young people in the program receive counseling, job
training, educational tutoring, art and recreation opportunities, family
intervention services, AIDS education, and free health care. This will
be Bokamoso’s fourth visit to the United States. The group will be in
the Washington area from January 13 through February 4, and will be
staying with families of students at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School.
Roy Barber, a teacher at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, Potomac,
Maryland, is coordinating their visit.
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Rhythms and Harmonies, January 26
Barbara Ruesqa Pedayo, bruesqa@sre.gob.mx
The Cultural Institute of Mexico cordially invites you to our music
concert, Rhythms and Harmonies by Gil, Cartas, and Tuey. Performing a
blend of flamenco, Cuban son, bossa-nova, bluegrass, Mexican folk,
gypsy-jazz, Middle Eastern, American Songbook, blues and classical
music, within a predominantly original repertoire. The members of the
ensemble Gil, Cartas, and Tuey are Gil Gutierrez from Mexico (nylon
string guitar and tres), Pedro Cartas from Cuba (violin), Tuey Connell
from the United States (banjo, guitar and vocals) and Stefen Schatz from
the United States (Peruvian box and percussion).
Thursday, January 26, at 7:30 p.m., at the Cultural Institute of
Mexico, 2829 16th Street, NW. Free admission; reservations recommended.
Call 728-1675 or E-mail institutomexicodc@sre.gob.mx.
Seating: first-come first-served.
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CLASSIFIEDS — HELP WANTED
Receptionist, Junior Secretary
Jon Katz, jon at markskatz dot com
A bilingual (Spanish-English) receptionist/junior secretary is wanted
at a highly rated Silver Spring law firm. Requires full Spanish-English
fluency and prior clerical experience. Great pay, benefits, and
workplace. Fax resume to 301-495-8815. For more information about Marks
& Katz, LLC, see http://www.markskatz.com.
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