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August 6, 2006

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.

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Nuisance Property?
Raven McKlintock, mamccredz@yahoo.com

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]

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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.

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Quibbles
Bill Coe, bceedeec@aol.com

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.

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Fenty Grammar
Ben Aspero, benaspero@hotmail.com

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.

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Fact Versus Fiction
Bill Coe, bceedeec@aol.com

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.

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LOL
Star Lawrence, jkellaw@aol.com

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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