Competition

Dear Competitors:

Here’s a tipping point in the debate over DC’s system of public charter schools. “DC School Superintendent Clifford B. Janey is calling for a moratorium on new charter schools in the District, saying the independently run, publicly funded facilities are draining students and cash from the traditional school system while failing to offer a high-quality alternative” (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/14/AR2006081401072.html). This is essentially the public schools’ cry of surrender, their admission that they can’t compete for students if the students’ parents are able to choose an alternative.

The idea of a universal, free, public school system that provides a good education for nearly every child is attractive. But any monopoly eventually becomes arrogant and contemptuous of its captive users, and the public schools have been no exception. When the public school system fails to provide a good education, expensive private schools and home schooling alone aren’t an adequate alternative. And laws and court orders can’t force the public schools to become better. The only thing that stands a chance to improve the public schools and their sclerotic management system is competition, true competition that gives them the sense that their very existence is endangered. The public charter schools, which have now attracted a quarter of the public school students in the District, may finally be scaring the public schools enough to force them to examine themselves. That’s why it’s wise to have an independent chartering board, separate from the public school system, that can oversee the quality of charter schools but that does not have an interest in protecting the public school system from competition. If we get past this point, if the public schools can’t protect themselves by closing down their competition, then over the next few years they may finally have to look inward, to discover why students and their parents are choosing the alternative, and to find ways in which they can improve and compete.

Or they may not, in which case the charter school movement will continue to grow. As long as the charter schools are free and public, and every student is guaranteed a place in some public school, what’s the down side?

Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com

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FOIA and Eminent Domain Bills Gain Additional Support and Press
Ed Johnson, mvcorderito @ yahoo dot com

Councilmembers Brown, Catania, and Patterson have joined with Cropp, Fenty, and Mendelson in agreeing to support one or both proposed bills to make the National Capital Revitalization Corporation and Anacostia Waterfront Corporation subject to the Freedom of Information Act, and to put the use of eminent domain back in the hands of the city council. On Monday, Roll Call featured an article on the bills in the Around the Hill section: “Bills Seek Openness on Revitalization”  (http://www.rollcall.com/issues/52_19/ath/14706-1.html, subscription required).

In speaking with councilmembers and candidates, the FOIA proposal has garnered the most support, with some incumbents being so enthusiastic they want to push it through as emergency legislation in September. The eminent domain proposal has had a more lukewarm reception, but in my conversations with people in the community, that topic is the one that really grabs their attention. At Monday night’s candidate forum in Southwest, the audience actually applauded my question to the candidates on who would support these bills. There is a clear disconnect between residents and our government on eminent domain and on how we manage economic development, making it vital to get a dialogue going.

In the last year, twenty-nine states have passed legislation limiting or prohibiting the use of eminent domain for economic development purposes while DC has expanded its use and “out-sourced” the power to quasi-public-private agencies, including NCRC, with its White House appointees on their board. Even Texas passed a law to limit eminent domain. Our council needs to take its cue from the residents of DC on an issue that impacts the future of our neighborhoods as drastically as this does.

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Today’s Crime Quiz
Victoria McKernan, victoriamck@mindspring.com

In case you’ve forgotten what city you live in, here’s a multiple choice quiz to help you figure it out. Security conscious and smart homeowner that you are, you of course have burglar bars on your accessible windows. But you come home one night to find out that burglars have chiseled out the bricks around the bolts, pried the bars off, broken your window and made off with a few thousand dollars worth of your stuff, not to mention the horrendous gut-punch of violation. Who would have thought? You had bars on the frigging windows! You call the police. Their response is to: A) distribute flyers or post notices in the immediate area to warn other residents, to whom this method of breaking and entering has also probably not occurred. B) Publish such warnings on the DC government web site. C) Notify ANC commissioners to issue warnings to their E-mail lists. D) Contact the Washington Post and have someone write a story about this unexpected technique. E) Post a warning on the various online newsletters like this one. F) Explain to the distraught victim that this is common in DC, that there were in fact three other similar incidents on their block in the past week, that it only takes someone a couple of minutes to chisel bolts out of brick, and then give them the name of a company that installs a different type of window bar that is more difficult to get off.

If you answered “F,” congratulations — you live in DC!

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Police Presence or Police Harassment
Nancy Smith-Crawford, southwest, freenan1@yahoo.com

By now, if you patronize any of the businesses on the U Street corridor you have noticed the exorbitant presence of the Metropolitan Police Department in the last week or so. Yes, DC’s finest abound on U Street. Well, at least they are en masse at the intersection of 12th and U Streets, the rest of it be damned. And it isn’t because of the donuts and hot dogs at the corner Seven-Eleven either, though a few of the boys in blue appear to ingest more than their share of both. I am a regular patron of at least three establishments at the intersection of 12th and U Streets. Last Saturday, August 12, while dining at The Islander Caribbean Restaurant, a number of patrons and I set in wide-eyed amazement as MPD practically barricaded the intersection. They stopping practically every car that crossed the intersection, impacting the flow of traffic, and holding the very people they are hired to protect hostage for no given reason.

While two drivers were stopped for legitimate reasons, even more were stopped, pulled over, and questioned for what appeared to be no reason at all. A male and female officer positioned themselves in the flow of traffic, commandeering unsuspecting drivers who were doing nothing more than looking for a parking space, a place to dine, or who may have, unfortunately, chosen U Street as the route to take home. Initially all of the activity was somewhat amusing, but after the two officers were joined by almost a dozen others it was no longer a laughing matter. A number of the patrons sitting on the patio at the Islander playfully assisted the officers by chiming in as drivers were pulled over. But it didn’t take long before feelings of amusement became ones of annoyance and intrusiveness. Why were there so many police officers assigned to one corner? The intersection, often busy with potential patrons and residents of the neighborhood, was avoided because the concentration of police, instead of inspiring feelings of security and protection, inspired fear and uncertainty and unjust conclusions. Onlookers would have thought it was a crime scene of some kind by the number of officers gathered at one mere intersection on the corridor. You could travel a block in either direction and not see one police officer, while at the intersection of 12th and U there were, at one point, twelve officers. Four cruisers and a police van took up several of the few legal parking spaces and crammed several others into illegal ones (but you guys don’t ticket yourselves do you?). Parking spaces, already a premium in the first place, were rendered nonexistent by the DC police. I have patronizing U Street for over twenty years; I have never seen that level of deployment, well, perhaps since the riots of the early seventies. But there were no looters, rioters, disorderly patrons, drug activity, or robberies before MPD took residence. So why were they there? Twelfth and U is not a crime hot-spot to my knowledge, despite the rumors spread by those new to the neighborhood, by those who seek to homogenize the historically African American community. Beware the messenger, I say.

There are truly areas in the city that warrant this level of police activity, but the “hot spots” are deemed so by sporadic incidents of crime that have impacted on a chosen few, while high crime areas that are affected by even more crimes go practically unnoticed. There is a lot more to be leery of in far more places than at the intersection of Twelfth and U Streets. Could Chief Ramsey spare a few of the U Street detail where crime is a reality, instead of deploying them at the doorsteps of hardworking business owners who rely on customers not police presence to earn a living? It gives rise to an important question, were they there to protect or to harass?

I haven’t read anything in the papers or heard anything on the news that would lead me to believe that such a concentration of police at 12th and U is necessary. And, trust me, if there were a reason, as one who frequents the area I would like to be one of the first to know. Is there some domestic terrorist situation afoot that I’m unaware of? I asked one of the officers to explain why so many of them were positioned at the intersection and the only explanation provided was because that was what he was directed to do by Police Chief Ramsey. So, Chief Ramsey, would you share with the business owners, passersby, and patrons of the U Street corridor exactly what is going on? If, Chief Ramsey, it is your intent to disrupt businesses, incite ill will or suspicion, or to attempt to discourage patronage to particular establishments, then your mission isn’t well received. A show of force by hoards of bored police officers simply doesn’t do it for me, nor did it do much for those who sat on the corner of 12th and U Streets last Saturday evening. The presence of so many officers was a downer to what could have been a beautiful evening on U.

I am one of many who commend our brothers and sisters who protect us and our communities and thank them for the service they sometime provide, but I am also the first to recognize an effort to disrupt the flow of legitimate commerce. The next time the police gather en masse, at 12th and U or anywhere else in DC, they need be mindful that while they watch us, we watch them. A show of force is just that . . . a show. Quite frankly, if I wanted entertainment I wouldn’t choose looking out from the patio of a restaurant at a dozen Glock-strapped police officers.

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Patterson: Toes or Police?
Frank Winstead, Frank.Winstead@gmail.com

Following a recent council chair forum, I observed the Metropolitan Police Department in action on our city’s streets. Between the police and me stood retiring councilmember Kathy Patterson. To see what I saw, go to http://flickr.com/photos/foresthillsdc/ and click on the “Patterson: Toes or Police?” photo. During this time of a crime emergency, which she actually voted for, I would have expected her to be more attentive to the MPD’s flashing lights and sirens just a few yards away.

Mere minutes before at a forum dedicated to historic preservation and planning, Patterson touted her experience as an ex-reporter for the Kansas City Star. Even at this narrowly focused forum, she sneaked in a few off-topic below-the-belt punches at the MPD. Those foul blows were no accident. Earlier this year Patterson made a stereotypical comment about MPD officers based upon her alleged personal observation. I will spare you by not repeating her vulgarity.

My open question to Kathy Patterson: can you give the public an unprejudiced report of this incident? Or, do you need to be seated on your throne high atop a 14 mpg Ford Explorer SUV to provide commentary on the MPD?

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Vincent Gray’s Management
Aeolian M. Jackson, Member, DC Child Protective Services Citizens Review Panel, ajack10970@aol.com

[Re: Tom Smith’s comments on Vincent Gray’s records of mismanagement, themail, August 13] I, too, remember the 1991-1994 period when Vince Gray wrought havoc with human services programs. Fast forward to the present: for the past six years Vince Gray has been the only chairperson of the federally required Child Protective Services Citizens Review Panel. The panel has broad authority to report its independent findings on the child welfare system’s impact on the well being of children reported to the system in which Mr. Gray’s Ward 7 children are over-represented. As a member of that panel since its 1999 inception, I can identify no substantive work by this panel. Mr. Gray called meetings intermittently, not at all during 2004. (That was the year of the city council campaign resulting in his election as the Ward 7 City Council member.) Public notification of meetings have not routinely been made, as I believe the DC Administrative Code requires. Six to eight members, mainly government employees or contractors, have usually attended the meetings.

This year’s activities are dramatically different. Suddenly, new citizen members have been appointed by current members, meetings are called monthly, even during these hot summer months. A “strategic plan,” our first, is in process. As a legislator, Mr. Gray continues to chair this executive office panel. Question: how does a failed program administrator who becomes the city council chairperson schedule hearings and pose questions to his successors about their management of the same programs?

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Negative Campaigning
Robert Evans, robertevans20024@yahoo.com

I got the same negative campaigning call that you got, Gary [themail, August 13]. After I finally hung up (and believe it or not, was called back to complete the survey before hanging up again), I got even madder. I remembered that the caller had identified herself as being from a nonpartisan organization conducting a “survey.” There should be a law against allowing this to happen. I know that legitimate surveys and political campaigning calls are OK under the Do Not Call law, but when false representation is involved it should be illegal.

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The Mayoral Race
Norman L. Blumenfeld, nlblum@aol.com

Some thoughts regarding the mayor’s race: 1) according to Superior Court records, Adrian Fenty did abandon two senior clients whose assets he was entrusted to protect. His signature appears in the files of both cases. 2) I suggest that by raising malfeasance, Ms. Cropp was not issuing a personal attack. If a candidate was a CEO of a company and allowed it to go bankrupt, it would be fair to question his management skills. If a candidate was a real estate broker who failed to file a deed, it would be fair to question her attention to her customer’s welfare. If a candidate touts his achievements, then his negligence in performing duties can be discussed. I think that Cropp could point to Fenty’s prior acts to argue her point that he would not do a good job as mayor when it comes to taking care of the needs of the citizens. 3) Someone is calling potential voters with inquiries that can be interpreted as being less than honorable. Our editor thought that Ms. Cropp’s campaign was responsible for the calls. A friend of mine received a call apparently from the same person and concluded that it was a Fenty supporter trying to pose as a worker for another campaign. The Cropp campaign has stated that it made no such calls. I suggest, therefore, that we not just assume that it was Cropp, Johns, or any other candidate doing mischief, without proof.

4) We can call the crime legislation a publicity stunt, but twelve council members, four of whom are campaign opponents, voted for the bill. Five are not running for office. Marion Barry and Carol Schwartz are not known to bow to the needs of the campaign problems of others. To think David Catania would sacrifice principle is not to know David. Sharon Ambrose is retiring from the council; she need not grandstand for the public. One can disagree with the efficacy of the legislation. But I seriously doubt that it was a publicity stunt that twelve headstrong and independent council members agreed to pass to help Ms. Cropp. (If one persists in calling the bill a publicity stunt, then one should be willing to accept the retort that Fenty’s opposition was no more than a political stunt.) 5) Which candidate has the better ideas to fight crime? Which candidate’s public safety program has the endorsement of the experts? Which candidate has presented a cohesive and detailed plan? It appears that most law enforcement officials appear to find that Ms. Cropp’s platform is more sound.

6) There is a cry to rid the city of the developers, those evildoers who conspire to destroy our city. I am not for or against developers. I do wonder, however, why I need to go to Gaithersburg to shop at Home Depot. I spend my gas money driving to the shopping malls in Virginia because we have few retail stores in the District that cater to my needs. Those who buy computers, stereos, television sets, and all those other vital appliances often cannot find bargains within our city limits. So for selfish reasons and for the desire that our dollars stay here, I suggest that these bad people may really be good for our city. And I have not even touched the tax revenue and jobs that they create with their businesses. Developing, while protecting residential areas, is in Ms. Cropp’s proposals. 7) Regarding “that stadium.” Orange and Cropp, the District’s CFO, and the current mayor (who is light years ahead of a lot of us when it comes to finances) seem to present a good case that the stadium and development in the surrounding areas will help our city. And before anyone files a retort, let me caution that even Mr. Fenty voted in favor of the city’s contract with Herb Miller. It appears that developers’ money that he eagerly sought during the campaign has opened his eyes to the benefits of revitalizing the Southeast.

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Realistic Public Safety Matters
Romes T. Calhoun, topdogromes@yahoo.com

Too frequently, we miss the point of a discussion by focusing on our preconceived notions of what should be, without hearing what the other person is saying. This appears to be the case in Mr. Aspero’s comments on public safety (themail, August 13). Although he mentioned that there were five experts who supported the position taken by the city council, it is my feeling that a great majority of our residents feel that it may be necessary to add four hundred or five hundred more policemen (women) to the force. However, the question is how they will be used. Will they be assigned to the community or only placed in strategic points on the Mall? For too long, elected officials have ignored the average voters, and maybe this is what the Washington Post poll is saying.

Our residents have always advocated “community policing,” which to me implies that anyone (not just a select few) could call our local District Office and get a more immediate response when a crime is in progress, among other benefits. It appears that more crimes were solved when police operations were decentralized than at present. Doesn’t it make sense that criminals will perpetrate crimes knowing that a policeman will not show up for at least a half hour or more after the crime is committed? Under community policing, there would be more policemen always present in our neighborhoods. It is more likely that perpetrators of crime will be caught with decentralized operations, rather than going through a extended line of communications to register a complaint. This has not been the case since operations of the Police Department were centralized.

Negative campaigning has never gone over in the District of Columbia. On two of Mr. Aspero’s points, that “young Mr. Fenty” is not a formidable candidate and the implication that Bonnie Cain is in no position to give an opinion of her beliefs, they are just inappropriate. Mr. Fenty meets every requirement as a candidate for mayor and it shows that he is listening to the community. Ms. Cain has been active in the Ward One Democrats for more than thirty years. Mr. Aspero’s Googling was incomplete. More than seventeen years ago I was chair of the Ward One Democrats, and I served on the DC Democratic Committee for ten years. During that time Ms. Cain was one of our Precinct Coordinators on whom I could depend, and she knows the District of Columbia. At some point we should step aside in order to permit younger ideas in the political process, when it seems that the older ones are no longer working. Maybe this is why Ms. Cain’s name is now seldom seen in print.

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Fenty: The More Learned, the More Concerned
Ben Aspero, benaspero@hotmail.com

I applaud [the editor’s] final remark regarding my submission last week: “has he (Fenty) succeeded in doing that?” (“that,” being showing that he has ideas of his own about how to fight crime effectively) [themail, August 13]. Hopefully my submissions have illustrated that to me he has not done so and thus provides reason for great concern. However, after finally getting around this weekend to reading the City Paper article about young Mr. Fenty’s close relationship with Sinclair Skinner, and following-up with prior Washington Post articles, my concern turned to alarm. Never mind that this seems a return to the politics of old. At this critical juncture in our city’s history, how could any politician legitimately employ an individual with the documented racist, violent, and blatantly homophobic credentials of Sinclair Skinner? He represents the antithesis of the progressive liberalism to which Fenty lays claim. Unfortunately young Mr. Fenty is clearly taken with him and the divisiveness that Skinner preaches and acts upon. Why else would Fenty attempt to broker a rapprochement with Councilman Graham at Ben’s Chili Bowl following Skinner’s racist and homophobic attack on him via the “Gramzilla” posters. (If he was not involved with it, why would two council members meet with him to discuss the issue to begin with?)

The scary thing is that Mr. Skinner is not a bit player in the Fenty campaign. In fact, he is head of Fenty’s field operations, and that will undoubtedly convert into a pivotal role in a Fenty administration. I rarely visit an anti-anything site, but there have been so many references to http://www.dumpskinner.com in the press that I took a look for myself. This guy represents the exact opposite of what rational people desire for our city by unnecessarily initiating racial tensions and threatening violence. Skinner is exactly what the town does not need, and young Mr. Fenty is trying to slip him by the voters for just one more month by not responding to questions about him.

So let me get this straight: Fenty has no public safety professionals willing to publicly endorse his public safety plan, he offers no alternative to stop the bleeding our city has faced, and now, with a documented violent racist homophobe as his field operations leader, young Mr. Fenty refuses to answer questions about this man’s role in his campaign. Instead, Skinner just ducks out the back door. The past is prologue to the future and this is indicative of a Fenty administration. The more I learn about this candidate, the bigger risk he becomes to our city. The more I desire stability in our government, the more I return to Linda Cropp as providing that.

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Standing Up to Racial Demagoguery and Its Fallout
Len Sullivan, lsnarpac@bellatlantic.net

With DC’s primary four weeks off, many basic city issues remain under the campaign rug. Racial demagoguery and its flip side, pandering, remain key elements in local urban politics, even as they become increasingly anachronistic, less successful. Of-age voters will almost surely drop below 50 percent black within the next decade. “Chocolate City” becomes “Mocha City,” and one step closer to typical American urban demographics. Fourth “blackest” of the forty biggest US cities, DC would need 200,000 fewer blacks and 200,000 more whites, Hispanics, and Asians to become "average."

New immigrants to our capital city, both Hispanic and Asian, will bring different lifestyles, family values, respect for education, and ambitions for their future. A simple numerical majority will no longer pervade political rhetoric and purport to drive municipal priorities and performance ratings. Protecting the status quo will become less important than assuring a brighter, different future. Hopefully, the newcomers will develop their own leaders to help them climb the American ladder rather than lower it. Opportunity may well then trump entitlement, and help the city thrive.

This greater constituent diversity should continue to influence the composition of DC’s elected government, both legislative and executive. Mayor William’s early stated goal of proving that a major American city could be very well run by mostly black professionals now seems increasingly ill-advised, as was the demagogic question of whether he was "black enough" to run the District. Our capital city plays to a national and international audience. It is not a suitable stage for reality contests among ethnic bureaucrats. Despite exorbitant pay scales, the mayor has not met his goal, from high-level policy-making to low-level phone-answering. DC’s performance indicators for health, education, crime and poverty, remain abysmal. Fresh leaders owe you truly competent, truly industrious urban managers of any ilk at every level, not just familiar look-a likes or act-a-likes.

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Candidate Bobb Seeks Compliance
Scott Thomas, thomasscott@dicksteinshapiro.com

Dorothy Brizill correctly notes that certain T-shirts were made available to petition circulators at the gathering Thursday night for the Bobb for School Board President campaign, and that they did not contain the “paid for by” disclaimer required on “printed matter” under the DC Code. The DC Board of Elections and Ethics regulations do not elaborate on this provision. The Campaign Finance Guide made available by the Office of Campaign Finance says “campaign literature” must contain the disclaimer. Somewhat against normal intuition, the Guide then goes on to define “campaign literature” as including “stuffed animals” and “key chains.” There is no mention of T shirts. For what it’s worth, federal regulations specifically exempt “wearing apparel” from disclaimer requirements because inclusion would be impracticable, while Maryland makes explicit in its rules that T-shirts do require a disclaimer.

Ms. Brizill brought the issue to the attention of several at the meeting, including myself. I promptly contacted the Office of Campaign Finance the next day and spoke with a representative who indicated that, on balance, the Office of Campaign Finance probably would conclude that T-shirts need a disclaimer. I then spoke with the campaign manager, and it was agreed that those at the gathering who may have taken a T-shirt would be called immediately and directed to return the shirts so that a disclaimer could be added.

The Bobb for School Board President campaign wishes to follow the law scrupulously. As I emphasized when covering the guidelines on political activity of government workers and petition circulating, the campaign wants to ensure that Mr. Bobb can focus on his campaign agenda — improving the education of District of Columbia students. While there may be occasional inadvertent mistakes by well-meaning volunteers or campaign workers, the campaign will do its best to adhere to the letter and spirit of the campaign finance restrictions and other rules.

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Candidate Bobb
Sharon Henery, writeforyouSHH@aol.com

The dismissive attitude displayed by Robert Bobb in addressing the “identification of campaign literature line” on the T-shirts is testament to the arrogance that parents and residents will face if he elected president of the Board of Education.

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Jack Evans on Escalating Stadium Costs
Shawn McCarthy, shawn_mc_carthy@yahoo.com

Jack Evans’ response to the open letter to councilmembers about the stadium’s costs escalating beyond the cap: “The council has made it clear the Ballpark Spending Cap must remain at $611 million. Potential cost overruns need to be monitored, and in some instances will need to be covered by other means, and not necessarily by returning to the City Government to increase the amount being spent on the stadium. It is my understanding that the Sports and Entertainment Commission is working as quickly as possible to identify potential funding sources to cover additional costs for the environmental cleanup at the stadium site. This includes working with the Nationals’ new owners. Thank you for sharing your concerns.”

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What DC Really Needs Is One Truly Unique “Gateway”
Len Sullivan, lsnarpac@bellatlantic.net

One of DDoT’s favorite preoccupations is its plan to dignify twenty-seven different vehicular “gateways” into the city. A few of them are apparently intended to celebrate just getting across the Anacostia. How these corny come-ons will help the already marginal urban mobility in our nation’s capital is not clear. However, they certainly should be cheaper and less controversial than building additional roads, bridges, tunnels, Metrorail track, bus lanes, or even parking facilities. But now it turns out that DDoT and its faithful consultants are about to be one-upped big time by none other than WASA, your friendly regional wastewater treatment folks.

Within the next few years, about the time Oxon Hill’s new National Harbor complex gets into full swing on the Maryland side of the new Wilson Bridge, Blue Plains will start filling eight huge jug-shaped, aluminum-clad vats with some of our national capital city’s most constant products. Inside, some truly dedicated microbes will (re-?)digest the material, converting it into truckable solids, burnable gas, and fishable water. The more interesting challenge is how to convert the outside of these bulging, one-hundred-foot tall “digesters” into the world’s most welcoming riverine capital gateway. WASA intends to illuminate the tanks at night, and they will be clearly visible from the river, the bridge, Alexandria, and the approaches to National Airport. Whether they are looking for architectural acclaim, or just leaks, we don’t know. For August, NARPAC addresses this challenge and invites you to improve on the several themes concocted and crudely illustrated at http://www.narpac.org/PWDIGEST.HTM. Eat your heart out, DDoT, or digest it, if you prefer!

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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS

DC for Democracy’s Fundraiser for DC Primary Election, August 23
Keshini Ladduwahetty, keshini@yahoo.com

On Wednesday, August 23, DC for Democracy will hold a fundraiser in support of campaign efforts for our endorsed DC primary candidate slate. Come meet and greet the candidates: city council at-large, Phil Mendelson; city council, Ward 1, Jim Graham; city council, Ward 6, Tommy Wells; Delegate to the US House of Representatives, Eleanor Holmes Norton; US Representative ("Shadow Representative"), Mike Panetta; US Senator ("Shadow Senator"), Phil Pannell.

The event will run from 7-9 p.m. at the Childe Harold Restaurant, 1610 20th Street, NW, across from the Dupont Circle Metro Q Street exit. Appetizers will be provided, plus one free drink for the first fifty attendees. Donation levels are: supporter, $35; sponsor, $75; host, $175; chair, $1000. You can also join the host committee by bringing yourself and four other people as supporters! For more information, contact Kesh Ladduwahetty at 531-0615.

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The Pact at E Street Cinema, August 24
Corey Jennings, press@urbanfilmseries.com

Next Generation Awareness Foundation, Inc., the producer of the Black History Month Film and Discussion Series and the Urban Film Series Tour, will conclude its first annual Black Docs Film Series on August 24, at Landmark’s E Street Cinema, 555 11th Street, NW, with The Pact, a New York Times best seller turned documentary, produced by Bill Duke and DC’s own Spark Media. The Bill Duke and Spark Media team will be on hand for a question and answer session, and the program will include a specially-taped welcome and introduction from Bill Duke. The screening will begin at 7:30 p.m. Ticket prices are $9.75; $8 for children and seniors. Discounted tickets are available ($9 and $7) in advance at http://www.UrbanFilmSeries.com.

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DC Citywide Energy Expo, September 16
Philip Harmon, pharmon@opc-dc.gov

Combat rising utility bills! Come to the free DC Citywide Energy Expo for a home energy tune-up featuring workshops and demonstrations from exhibitors such as Home Depot, the DC Energy Office, the US Department of Energy and local energy companies, all geared to help you lower your bills by making your home more energy efficient. Get consumer tips on high efficiency appliances, installing insulation, programmable thermostats, and much more, on Saturday, September 16, from 10:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m. at Emery Recreation Center, 5701 Georgia Avenue, NW (Georgia Avenue at Madison Street). For more information, contact the DC Office of the People’s Counsel, Consumer Services, at 727-3071.

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