Herb Leonard
Dear Public Transportation Riders:
Herb Leonard passed away last Tuesday, All DC residents, especially
those who use Metro and Metrobuses, should remember, recognize, and
acknowledge the contributions he made to our city. For decades, since
virtually the inception of Metro, Herbert Leonard was the DC government
relations officer at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.
But that title doesn’t begin to describe the range of his
responsibilities and influence. For many, both at the Wilson building
and in the community, Leonard was Metro. Whether it was a council debate
over Metro’s budget or a community planning meeting regarding the
route the rail system would take in DC, Leonard was the thoughtful,
patient, even-tempered, honest Metro official who always managed to calm
the discussion and bridge the divide.
Leonard’s skills were most dramatically tested with the
construction of the Green Line. Although the line was supposed to have
been the first built in DC, prior to the Red, Blue, Orange, and Yellow
Lines, neighborhood squabbles regarding the route through the inner city
and the terminus of the line delayed its construction for nearly two
decades. When construction began on the first section of the Green Line,
from Gallery Place through Shaw to U Street, the WMATA Board approved
construction plans that resulted in a deep trench being dug the width
and length of 7th Street from F to U Street, and along U Street from
Georgia Avenue to 14th Street. For most of the years of construction,
7th and U Streets were closed to traffic, and wooden boards served as
sidewalks. Throughout those years, Herbert Leonard forced WMATA
officials and Board members to attend meetings in church basements with
area residents and businessmen to listen to and address their concerns.
In the second phase of Green Line construction, from U Street to Fort
Totten, Metro indicated that in order to bring the Green Line through
Columbia Heights and Petworth, some two hundred homes would have to be
demolished. After months of community meetings, the WMATA Board reversed
itself, listened to the community’s outrage, and agreed to use special
underground tunneling equipment to avoid the construction disruption and
debacle that had occurred in Shaw. Not only did Leonard facilitate the
change in plans at WMATA; in the following years of construction, he was
always available to resolve any dispute involving the community and
WMATA’s myriad of contractors. When the Columbia Heights and Petworth
stations opened on September 18, 1999, members of those communities knew
that Herb Leonard deserved more credit for the success of that project
than did the myriad of elected officials who spoke at the opening
ceremonies. Leonard’s memorial services will be held Tuesday, August
8, at 10:00 a.m., at the Church of Ministry, 4207 Norcross Street,
Temple Hills, Maryland.
Gary Imhoff and Dorothy Brizill
themail@dcwatch.com and dorothy@dcwatch.com
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DCSEC’s Outrageous Eighteen Million for
Three Hundred Parking Spaces
Ed Delaney, profeddel@yahoo.com
From http://www.washingtontimes.com/sports/20060804-120832-4885r.htm:
“The DCSEC said this week it will spend $18 million to construct an
underground parking garage for about 300 cars at the south side of the
Washington Nationals’ new Anacostia Waterfront ballpark, leaving only
$3 million to contribute toward a much larger parking development to the
north.” So with parking monies already as tight as can be, forcing
city officials to violate existing legislation against selling city
assets to pay for ballpark parking overruns (not to mention breaching
the existing overall cap), it slips out that the three hundred spaces
set to be developed south of the stadium are to be of the super-luxury
variety, underground and costing an astounding $18,000,000. In the midst
of all of the value-engineering to the point where not even limestone
(let alone brick) could be afforded and the ballpark was turned into a
wall-less cut-rate greenhouse with vistas of yuppies and Yugos instead
of rivers and monuments, the DCSEC is going to waste $18 million on
under-grounding three hundred spaces while the spaces that needed to be
underground in order to salvage vistas and development opportunities for
the city are going to be forked over the private concern who will reap
all of the profit and leave the city with the ugly result looming right
up against most of the outfield wall.
Remember when the potential owners were talking about putting
hundreds of millions of their own money towards the baseball stadium
project? The pendulum has swung so far the other way thanks to cozy
relationships among public officials, the local media, and a host of
private concerns. The most exclusive handful of parking spaces at the
stadium is going to be built with public money for a private concern,
developed at $60,000 a space for the team owner. This further shows why
those on the council who took what they thought was the easy way out by
supposedly fixing the astoundingly high cost to the city for a ballpark
at $611 million were clueless or just indifferent as to the implications
of staying at a site where the costs were completely unstable and due to
rise much further. I also like the crocodile tears the DCSEC cries as it
announces that there is only $3 million left to contribute towards the
remaining 925 spaces, leaving the city even more at the mercy of the
Miller boondoggle, as it’s the only overrun solution even glanced at
by the city, despite its many flaws and uncertainties.
"Under the tentative financial arrangement with Miller, the
developer would pay about $39 million for the land, and the commission
would pay for the garages. But with only $3 million left to spend, the
commission could ask Miller to pay for the garages in exchange for a
lower purchase price on the land, or work out some other financial
arrangement that will not require more city money." On July 12,
Lemke wrote that "under the plan, the city would sell the land
needed for the project to Western for $61 million." When did $61
million become $39 million? So now the money’s shrinking, but the city’s
commitment to build the garages has not. And $39 million might not end
up being $39 million paid in full in this lifetime given the
“creative” way that Tammany, I mean City, Hall is allowing their
cozy associate Herb Miller to operate. The Nats’ Stan Kasten asserted
that the Miller boondoggle “does not even guarantee the city cash
payment of the full value of the development rights.” And now the
DCSEC, which showed throughout the MLB lease debacle that it can’t
negotiate its way out of a paper bag due to its leadership, which has
never overseen the construction of a ballpark before or even done
anything significant in the development or sports field before, is
poised to start lowering its take on the immensely valuable ballpark
land — land that was swiped from existing landowners via eminent
domain only to have its purported public use dropped a few months later
in order to sell (at an apparently ever-dwindling sales price) it to a
private developer outside of any competitive bid process. DC is making
it easier and easier for the legal teams associated with the previous
landowners to make the land cost and damage figures the court awards
them dwarf whatever potential penalties MLB could levy with each missed
deadline over the next few years.
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Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners and
Politics
Tom Smith, tmfsmith@starpower.net
The Office of Special Counsel has indicated that ANC Commissioners
are covered under the Hatch Act and not permitted to engage in partisan
political activity. Earlier this week, a local newspaper quoted Special
Council Scott Bloch as saying his office will not prosecute such cases
but that, “it doesn’t change the fact that campaigning by ANC
Commissioners is still unlawful.”
This year, several ANC commissioners are running for council without
resigning their positions. Some ANC commissioners are joining together
to endorse council candidates, and yet others are submitting
questionnaires to candidates to be completed as part of the campaign
season. The ANCs were not created to serve as a political power base or
stepping stone into higher elective office. There is a reason that ANC
commissioners’ elections are held in November, and that commissioner
candidates do not run under a partisan political party affiliation. If
commissioners are engaging in partisan political activity, including
seeking another elective office, they should resign from the ANC.
Maybe this is why so many of the ANCs are experiencing and/or
generating so many conflicts throughout the city, especially with
elected office holders and city agencies. It seems to me it is time for
some serious oversight by the council and a discussion of new limits on
the activities and role of ANC commissioners.
###############
Pray tell, what is the building/property in northwest on 14th Street
between K and I on the west side of Franklin Park? It’s in the middle
of the block. There are two different banks at each end of the block --
one on K one on I, and a FedEx next door to it. It has been at least
five years that I know of that it has been undeveloped and the plywood
has been over and under that area. Walking through that plywood
“structure” was bad enough for over five years, and then the other
morning a huge rat ran over my foot when I was heading to the subway at
McPherson Square.
I have seen many, many, many rats under, around and harboring near
that property. It is a rat breeding ground. It has been at least five
years and there has been nothing done with it. Anyone know what is going
on there?
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Standing Up to Modernizing DC’s
Transportation Infrastructure
Len Sullivan, lsnarpac@bellatlantic.net
In five weeks, DC’s primary voters will decide if they want to
assure our capital’s future growth and prosperity, or cripple it with
outdated, outmoded transportation infrastructure. In this key area, DC
leadership seems in way over its head. By rejecting US life- and
work-styles, it loses the chance to shape future trends in urban
mobility, or raise revenues by selectively adopting them. DDoT seems to
be assuming a dubious role in social engineering outside DC’s formal
planning efforts, while ignoring regional and urban mobility, as well as
possible funding sources.
Why would the core city of this dynamic metro area proclaim its
overarching transportation goal is limited only to "creating a
safe, sustainable system founded on choice, and contributing to an
improved neighborhood quality of life"? Why plan to add 58,000 new
households, and 125,000 new jobs but not a single mile of roadway or
trackage (elevated or underground) in the next twenty years? Why opt to
turn DC’s "principal (vehicular) arterials" back into 1800‘s
boulevards merging strollers, joggers, shoppers, bikers, drinkers,
diners, pet-walkers and tree-huggers in the same surface plane with
commuters, cars, buses, light pick-up and heavy 24/7 trucks, and
trolleys too? Wouldn’t differentiating decorative promenades from
utilitarian arteries better fill the 2100’s bill?
Why are there no plans to: decongest Metrorail stations and tunnels,
provide redundancy by connecting the system’s spokes outside the
vulnerable hub (viz., an “Inner Circle Line”), or enhance Metrorail
emergency flexibility? Why focus on low-density, transit buses, and
streetcars while the high-density system is strangling itself? Why push
bus expressways, but avoid vehicular or pedestrian expressways? Why no
plans to increase off-street parking, automate parking and selective fee
collection, or enforce city traffic disciplines with high-tech devices?
Do your candidates want DC to play second fiddle in regional and urban
transportation activities? Are you for the same small-town,
on-the-cheap, entertainment-driven, transportation policies at WMATA?
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Be an Active Listener and Resident
Sylvia C. Brown, Ward 7, sylviabrown1@verizon.net
As a relatively new resident of DC, I am astounded by the lack of
political involvement of District residents and some “community
leaders.” It seems that politics has to be spoon fed to some. While
out campaigning for my mayoral candidate choice, Marie Johns, I am
struck by a few statements that are generally the same. “Ya know, I’ve
heard about Marie, but I haven’t seen her.” “I like what she says
but can she win?” “I saw Marie at a debate and she was great, but I’m
just not sure.” To be frank with you, these statements sadden and
anger me.
I’m saddened that voters choose to settle and not seek out an
opportunity to talk to Marie and/or her supporters. I’m angered by the
mentality because individuals choose to listen to polls instead of their
convictions. My requests: 1) voters, make the care of your city a
priority. 2) Community leaders, your role is more than just direct
services. Instead, your role is to be a resource on all things that
impact your clients, parishioners, and neighbors. Be involved.
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Council Chair Matters
Chuck Thies, chuckthies [at] aol [dot] com
The coded language and innuendo being tossed about in the contest for
council chair is petty. However, crime and violence in DC is meaningful.
Crime may come and go from the headlines, but it is ever-present in the
lives of many, many District residents. Kathy Patterson has been a DC
councilmember for nearly twelve years. Her signature issue is education.
She has also chaired the Judiciary Committee. During her tenure our
schools have remained an abomination and "crime emergencies"
have returned for repeat performances.
In 2004, Vince Gray was elected to the council, in part because of
his success in helping to save lives. For ten years as executive
director of DC’s Covenant House he provided youth and families
shelter, health care, mother/child programs, education, vocational
preparation, drug abuse treatment, recreation, transitional living
programs, street outreach, and aftercare. Mr. Gray is professionally
and morally qualified to address the vexing problems of our most
troubled neighborhoods.
After the elections, when we’re washing the blood of another lost
life from the streets, contributors to themail and its editor will
probably have forgotten the innuendo and coded finger-pointing issued
herein. Families who suffer violence never forget their losses. Your
words have consequences. Think again.
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Counting Those Who Count
Ed T Barron, edtb1@macdotcom
Some folks have greatly misinterpreted my comment on those who count
in the race for chairman of the city council. Believe me, there’s no
racism in any of my comments in this election. I do, however, count
those who are contributors to both Kathy Patterson’s and Vincent Gray’s
campaign funds. A few interesting facts emerge from the analysis of
these counts. Kathy’s campaign has many more individual contributors,
mostly small amounts (count ‘em). Mr. Gray has a lot of $1000
contributors. Who are these big donors? Well, most of them are
businesses. Some are from the hotels and parking lot owners.
Now, why would businesses be contributing in abundance to Mr. Gray?
There’s clearly one answer. Kathy Patterson was the sponsor and the
driving force behind the school modernization legislation that commits
the District to spending $200 million in each of the next fifteen years
to make our schools fit for the District’s students. Kathy also made
sure that funding will be available for that purpose, through taxes,
many of which fall on businesses. That’s why the businesses are
supporting Mr. Gray. They hope that the school modernization program
will be repealed if he is elected as chairman.
That’s a good reason alone to cast your vote for Kathy Patterson.
There’s another even better reason. Mr. Gray has promised the
chairmanship of the Education Committee to Marion Barry. You remember
him. I’m counting on that.
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Those Who Count in DC Are Distinguishable
Gabriel Fineman, gfineman@advsol.com
There recently has been some discussion about a post that mentioned
“those who really count in the District,” with one person commenting
that the problem plaguing the city was “the idea that there are some
DC residents who are more valuable than other DC residents.” Of course
there are some residents that are more informed and more influential
than the others — the readers of themail.
(Note that I used the commonsense practice of only including within
the quotation what was in the original text being quoted and not adding
extraneous stuff such as the period.)
[Note also that I put the period back within the quotation mark. In
American usage, neither descriptivists nor prescriptivists would support
putting the period outside of the quotation mark. — Gary Imhoff]
###############
DC Elections
Ann Loikow, a loikow at verizon dot net
I’d like to take issue with some of the comments in the August 2
issue of themail about race and the DC electorate. I’ve lived in the
District for thirty-six years and have been constantly impressed with
how sensible and progressive the electorate here is. Voters go to the
polls and choose whomever they think will best help resolve the problems
they face. Although the city is a majority black city with an
increasingly diverse population and has long faced racial frictions,
voters across the city have long shown an independent streak and pick
the candidates that they think will best help the city, regardless of
their race. To put it bluntly, it is the candidates the rest of the
country picks and sends here to run the country that are the real
problem.
###############
In his interesting discourse on the phrase, “beg the question,”
Mr. McKay describes it as “a perfectly clear, if idiomatic,
expression . . . overrun by what appears to be a misunderstanding of its
original meaning.” This argument, if you’ll excuse my saying so,
begs the question. “Begging the question,” as Mr. McKay states,
refers to a fallacy used in formal debate by which the proponent,
instead of arguing his point, assumes it and talks about its
consequences or other (presumably appealing and persuasive) things. The
term was borrowed into English from the Latin, petitio principii,
and is highly technical. According to Webster’s Dictionary of
English Usage, the translated phrase “offers no clue to the
logical fault it is supposed to represent.”
As a result of this obscurity, the term’s vernacular meaning has
changed more than once. What started as trade-talk jargon among academic
debaters evolved into a phrase taken for many years to mean simply
“avoid the question” — where the verb, “to beg,” was defined
as “to evade or sidestep.” By 1990, this corruption was, according
to Webster’s, “fully established as standard.” The
evolutionary process continues, however. Nowadays, we take the words
literally and, in my view, more sensibly. Mr. McKay’s complaint
notwithstanding, ours is a misunderstanding of a misunderstanding, which
lends clarity to the language we speak today. When a statement begs the
question, we mean that it raises a question more important that the
original point being made — a question so much more important or
difficult to answer that the original point loses much of its relevance.
###############
Though perhaps more appropriate to the NY Times Magazine I
appreciate themail’s postings of Mr. McKay’s comments on my writing
and assure you that I take responsibility for my writing’s grammatical
variations and political commentary. (There were some minor character
and paragraph reformats, not detracting from the commentary, which are
at editorial discretion.) I should also tell you I much prefer
discussing an impractical “quibble” over an evening scotch and cigar
to a rushed lunchtime E-mail. While offering intellectual amusement,
pursuing such “quibbles” tends to cast one as a wonk-like author who
may connect intellectually with other nuance-focused wonks but is unable
to or uninterested in effectively communicating with other diverse
audiences. Of course nothing is wrong with this. Washington is full of
places like this. I think we call them think tanks and, while I could be
wrong, wonks don’t quote Wikipedia . . . but I digress.
Not withstanding the camp to which one subscribes, I am sure Mr.
McKay would agree that in order to communicate well vocabulary, usage,
and presentation should be appropriate to the audience to whom one is
speaking and by doing so lessen the threat that one’s point is lost,
ignored, or — worse — misinterpreted. As with other close questions,
I submit the so-called right answer is the pragmatic one. Grammar, as
with many other things, should be appropriate to the situation. In this
case, the audience is less the Bill Safire-reading crowd and more the
educated though not hung up with nuanced quibbles but still votes crowd
(I left out the hyphens on purpose). That said, even as a prescriptivist,
given said situation, should not the descriptivist theory, seemingly
more grounded in pragmatism, carry the day?
In closing, I am pleased that Mr. McKay choose a relatively obscure
grammatical "quibble" on which to focus his comments, most
importantly implying agreement with my overarching political commentary
that young and inexperienced Mr. Fenty is intellectually incapable of
grasping emergencies require a short term tourniquet and then a long
term solution. (When there is another city problem, will he run to
Martin O’Malley or others asking how to fix it?) By voting against the
crime bill without offering any competing solution of his own, he
actually displays a lack of leadership that is simply not in our city’s
best interest to allow into our executive office of the mayor. Clearly,
from his past comments, Mr. McKay agrees. It’s just too soon.
[In the July 30 issue of themail, Bonnie Cain wrote that Fenty has
published a crime plan that is “reasonable, solid, and substantial”
at http://www.fenty06.com/pdf/PUBLICSAFETY.pdf.
Does anyone have comments on it, or reasons to prefer the mayor’s
“anti-crime” plan to it? — Gary Imhoff]
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We Need to Know Who Is Committing Crimes
Bryce A. Suderow, streetstories@juno.com
Leo Alexander and a number of other subscribers are angry at the
manner in which Inspector Solberg’s warned citizens in Georgetown to
be on their guard against the increasing number of young black criminals
who that are committing crimes in affluent mostly white neighborhoods.
Solberg’s comments were made after two incidents occurred, one in
Georgetown and another on the Mall. In the latter incident, a group of
black teenagers raped a woman in front of her boyfriend. When he tried
to intervene, one of the teens cut his throat and killed him. The young
man had boasted earlier to his friends that he wanted to cut someone
that night. In the aftermath of these two violent attacks, in addressing
an audience in Georgetown, Solberg said, “If somebody is walking along
in Georgetown or any part of this community and sees a man hiding in the
bushes and sees three guys, one of whom is a 15 year old kid at 2 o’clock
in the morning standing out on the corner — folks, you gotta call 911
on that. You gotta say, ‘Hey, look, something ain’t right with this
picture.’”
While I can understand the need to be on guard about and critical of
racist remarks by whites, I don’t think the anger is merited in this
case. Solberg was telling whites that they were in danger from assaults
by youthful black criminals. He was doing his job. It’s a public duty
for the police to warn citizens about criminals, whatever their skin
color. To get a much needed perspective on what Solberg said, let’s
turn this around. If white teenagers were prowling the Gold Coast and
raping and robbing black citizens, would black people object if a police
officer informed them that all the victims were black and the perps were
whites? I think not. Quite naturally they’d feel they were entitled to
all the information that they need for their public safety.
As a white, all I want is to be treated with the same courtesy by the
police that Mr. Alexander and all of your subscribers probably want,
regardless of my skin color. I need to be informed by the police of who
is committing crimes in my neighborhood and who the victims are.
Sometimes that requires mentioning skin color.
###############
Having defended Mr. Imhoff’s prerogative to edit contributors’
submissions to themail, I do wish he had exercised it and done something
about Leo Alexander’s post in the edition of July 30. It is one thing
for Mr. Alexander to recount actual events in our community and use them
to advance his extremely defensive, pessimistic social views. It is
quite another, however, when he makes up events in order to describe an
imagined double standard imposed at the expense of black folks.
The fantasy he posted on July 30 draws our city’s Jews into
conflict with African Americans; it’s a lurid appeal to atavistic fear
and corrupt thinking. The picture he paints betrays downright scurrilous
motives and marks Mr. Alexander as an old-fashioned hate monger. Please,
Mr. Imhoff, if you’re going to publish this fellow’s claptrap, at
least require that he stick to real people doing real things in the here
and now.
###############
On August 2, themail wrote, “Have you had a conversation with
anyone over the past few days that was any deeper than, ‘Hot enough
for you?’”
You have described Arizona to a T, conversationwise.
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Rebates on Air Conditioners
Candace McCrae, candace.mccrae@dc.gov
The District Department of the Environment (DDOE) is offering DC
electric customers $50 rebates on Energy Star rated window air
conditioners. It’s all about promoting energy efficiency. But, with
this week’s scorching temperatures, it’s also about encouraging
consumers who are planning to buy window air conditioners to take
advantage of the $50 rebate. Maximum two rebates per household. Only DC
electric customers can receive the rebates. However, the air
conditioners can be purchased anywhere. They must be Energy Star rated.
The rebates will be given towards purchases made between June 1, 2006,
and May 30, 2007, so there is still time.
DDOE is also offering rebates on clothes washers ($150) and
refrigerators ($100). Energy Star is the symbol for energy efficiency
that is placed on all types of appliances and equipment. Energy savings
on Energy Star products can be as much as 40 percent. Products with the
Energy Star symbol are backed by both the US Department of Energy and
the US Environmental Protection Agency to be energy efficient. To get a
rebate, the buyer must mail-in a dated sales receipt with the official
rebate form, available at http://www.dceo.dc.gov/dceo/frames.asp?doc=/dceo/lib/dceo/E-Star_Rebate_Brochure_Lite.pdf,
to the DDOE, 2000 14th Street NW, Suite 300 East, Washington, DC 20009.
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CLASSIFIEDS — RECOMMENDATIONS
Theater Recommendation
Joan Eisenstodt, jeisen@aol.com
Go see and hear “3 Mo’ Divas” at Arena Stage! What a fabulous
performance! The energy, humor, and music make it a wonderful night —
and for young folks a good way to get a bit of music history, too.
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