Patronage
Dear Patrons :
Councilmember Kathy Patterson failed on December 5 to get a majority
of the city council to support Mayor Williams’s bill to dispose of the
Martin Luther King, Jr., Central Library and replace it with a smaller
facility. But she has given notice of her intention to introduce the
legislation again this Tuesday as an emergency bill, which would require
nine votes. This is a very questionable move, since there is obviously
no emergency. There are no architectural plans for the new library;
there are not even any schematics, but the mayor and his supporters want
the city council to make the decision now, in the absence of any firm
plans and with several key question left unanswered. They seem to
believe, correctly, that the longer that councilmembers consider this
bill, the less sense it makes and the less support it will have. To
gather the nine votes, Williams and the Federal City Council have been
pulling out all the stops, personally lobbying and cajoling
councilmembers and offering them whatever they want to get their votes.
One of the bribes being offered is adding an unfunded $170 million to
the capital budget for branch libraries, on top of the unfunded $275
million that the new central library would cost.
In the meantime, to strengthen their case that MLK Library is too far
gone to be renovated, the District government and the library
administrators have continued in their policy of demolition by neglect.
The building has broken elevators, leaking pipes, security breaches, and
overheated reading rooms (the Black Studies Reading Room had to be
closed last week when the heat reached 98 degrees). Now head librarian
Ginnie Cooper seems determined to discourage use of the library further
by reducing services. On December 8, she closed the periodical reading
room, without any prior notice to the rank-and-file staff at MLK or to
the librarians who head the other reading rooms at MLK, and she
reassigned the periodical librarians to other duties. The excuse for
getting rid of the periodical reading room is that the space is needed
for a computer laboratory, even though MLK already has plenty of empty
space in the basement and on the fourth floor, and even though every
reading room is already jammed with computers. The plan is never to have
another periodical reading room, but what to do with the periodical
collection is currently an open question. MLK chief librarian Pamela
Stovall said that it has not yet been determined, but some library
staffers have said privately that some valuable items that are not
available on microfiche or electronic databases have already been thrown
away or destroyed, and that the periodicals that were destroyed were not
offered to branch libraries or other institutions before they were
tossed.
The question remains: why should we trust the administration, the
library Board of Trustees, or the top officials of the library system to
treat a new central library any better than they treat MLK, or to treat
the public any better in a new library than they treat us now at MLK?
Gary Imhoff and Dorothy Brizill
themail@dcwatch.com and dorothy@dcwatch.com
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Pathetic Personnel Office
P. Walters, kontidy@gmail.com
If there is any question why District government employees are often
cynical and unmotivated, one need only go as far as the Office of
Personnel to find the reason. Take their management of this season’s
so-called “open enrollment” period, the annual opportunity to review
benefit elections, change medical insurance carriers, and sign up for
new benefit plans. DCPS employees received this week on December 15, or
later, a letter dated December 8, but postmarked December 14, announcing
that the open enrollment period, which was supposed to end on December
11, had been extended to December 14 — and, oh, by the way, medical
insurance premiums were increasing 25 percent. Of course, at that late
date nothing could be done about it. It was too late to move to a
lower-cost plan or opt out.
This open enrollment was marked a long series of such foul-ups.
Employees were told they could enroll using computer systems that didn’t
work or didn’t exist. After weeks of trying to gain access, we were
told that the PeopleSoft system that DCPS brochures informed us we could
use to manage our personnel information “won’t be rolled out to DCPS
until next year.” Mailings were sent referencing manual forms to use
for open enrollment, but containing no such forms. Workshops to explain
benefit options were announced the day they occurred, and were scheduled
immediately after work hours, making it impossible to attend. Could it
be that the whole inept process was engineered to prevent employees from
exercising their basic rights to information and the opportunity to make
informed decisions?
Mr. Fenty, are you listening?
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Metro Fares
Wallace Gordon Dickson, wdickson@wdn.com
I want to express my total agreement with Ed Barron [themail,
December 13] on the matter of Metro’s fares policy and Metro
operational funding in general. Mr. Barron criticizes Metro’s
announced policy of increasing fares, and I agree with him. Although I
have been a resident of the District of Columbia for about 25 years, I
am a former resident of Arlington, Virginia, and a former member of the
Virginia General Assembly. I served four years on the House of Delegates’
Transportation Committee in the late 1960’s. In that capacity, I was a
cosponsor, with Arlington State Senator Charles Fenwick, of the
legislation that established the Northern Virginia Transportation
Commission, the Virginia component of the Metropolitan Area
Transportation Compact and a participant in the creation of the
MetroRail program. I remember our early considerations regarding fare
policy for the Metro system. The underlying Metro policy and public
transportation philosophy agreed to at that time by all those who
participated in the creation of the Metrosystem was the fundamental
concept that the fare structure should always incorporate the lowest
fares possible, and, importantly, that the fares should never be
considered as an element of the necessary funding for the rail system.
The three jurisdictions forming the Compact -- DC, Maryland, and
Virginia -- agreed on a policy of sharing the cost of the system through
federal and state funding, not fares. It was the general understanding
of all those parties involved in the establishment of the regional
transportation system at that time that fares should be kept as low as
possible, or even free, to encourage the greatest ridership and create a
Metro system that would provide affordably available transportation for
the populations of all three jurisdictions, DC Maryland, and Virginia,
particularly those who, economically, needed it the most as a viable way
to get to work and around the region. The most expensive component of
the entire system was and always would be the cost of labor, and there
was no economical way that fares could ever come close to paying for
that expense. To be viable, the system would need the full and
enthusiastic financial support of the three jurisdictions that made up
the Compact, along with the generous commitment of support from the
federal government.
Today, it appears that the current Metro leadership, and the several
states and the federal government, have discarded that rational
established policy and decided to use fares to pay for operations, as
though that makes good economic sense, something I’m sure would have
Senator Charlie Fenwick, (known, in Virginia at least, as the “Father
of Metro”) rolling over in his grave. Today, the political leadership
in DC, Virginia, and Maryland have abdicated their financial obligations
established under the Compact. The three jurisdictions need to step up
to the plate and start funding the Metro system adequately so that fares
could be kept in line with the reality of affordable transportation for
the region. It is their responsibility to properly fund the system, and
they have not done that. Now the system has been allowed to fall into
disrepair and neglect. Increased fares will never be sufficient to bring
the system up to the standard envisioned by those of us who helped to
create it. Seems that all our government leaders are more intent on
raising their own salaries and cutting taxes, rather than honoring their
obligations to provide the public with needed services. That’s a sad
state of affairs. Seems the legislators can always find the money for
their own salary increases, but never enough to properly fund this
essential transportation system at a standard of modern efficiency we as
Metropolitan Area residents could and should all be very proud. They
will end up making Metro far too expensive for those riders who need to
use it most. The more they squeeze the riders, the fewer riders they’ll
have, and the less support they can expect from the general public. I
think the Metro board needs to go back to the boards and draft a new and
more realistic budget for the future which would include adequate
funding from the members of the transportation compact and the federal
government, and keep the fares affordable for all.
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God Rest Ye
Robin Diener, DC Library Renaissance Project, rdiener@savedclibraries.org
In spite of having had every advantage over the citizen advocates of
the public library movement in DC, Mayor Williams and the board of
Library Trustees have failed spectacularly in their scheme to engineer
the giveaway of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Library. Their
euphemistically titled “library transformation” bill has been
defeated twice. In an attempt to muster votes for the last scheduled
session of the city council on Tuesday, they are desperately circulating
emergency legislation. It calls for a sense of the council declaration
that a new library be built on the old convention center site. This
cynical move fools no one, certainly not the six council members who
opposed earlier versions (Barry, Brown, Catania, Graham, Gray, and
Schwartz). It is time for the mayor to stand down.
Then the closed processes and manipulative mindset that banned
discussion of MLK at the library listening sessions will be laid to
rest. In this season of renewal we can prepare to do the work of library
transformation that the Library Trustees and the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon
Task Force on Libraries woefully botched. This might involve some
turning the other cheek, but in the spirit of the season, we even invite
the architects of the failed scheme to join us in moving forward.
To be part of the free public library movement and participate in
real library transformation, contact the DC Library Renaissance Project,
387-8030, or Robin Diener at the E-mail above.
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Superintendent Asks Board
to Bypass Union & Wilson HS LSRT to Negotiate Autonomy
Erich Martel, ehmartel at starpower dot net
On December 20, the DC Board of Education will consider a special
resolution to authorize the Superintendent to negotiate terms of
autonomy for Wilson High School with representatives chosen by the
Wilson High School principal and to set aside $250,000 for the
transition. Although the Superintendent requested the current audit by
the Office of the Inspector General of the class of 2006’s completion
of graduation requirements, he is not waiting for the results. Neither
is he requiring the principal to produce the public budget and
management documents that all stakeholders should see prior to an
informed vote to give the current school administration greater local
discretion over school funds.
On Monday, December 18, my attorney will file a motion in Superior
Court in response to DCPS’s failure to respond to a Freedom of
Information Act request sent on July 17. The request for documents is on
behalf of the public’s right to know how its tax money is being spent
and how the public public’s trust is being met. My article in the
current American Educator, “Protecting Academic Standards: How
My Union Makes It Possible,” has just been posted online (http://www.aft.org/pubs-reports/american_educator/issues/winter06-07/includes/martel.htm).
The article details the history of altered records and certification of
ineligible students for the Wilson High School diploma, subsequent
retaliation by the principal, and the failure of the superintendent or
Board of Education to hold him accountable.
On December 15, Woodrow Wilson High School Local School Restructuring
Team chairman Chuck Samuels sent an E-mail to members of the Wilson H.S.
LSRT containing notes made by Wilson H.S. parent Mary Froning on a
meeting between Wilson principal Stephen Tarason and Superintendent
Clifford Janey (http://www.dcpswatch.com/wlson/061215.htm).
Note the bold and undisguised plan to bypass the newly signed teachers
contracts, empower the principal to choose who will represent Wilson
High School, and redefine “consensus.”
Instead of responding to my requests for transparency and
accountability, the superintendent is planning to cancel basic
contractual rights and impose a local autonomy plan that will preserve
the existing status quo along with privileged exemption from compliance
with municipal regulations, statutes, and contract provisions. Instead
of fostering a model of cooperation among stakeholders, the response is
imposition from above, so as to bypass my insistence that there be prior
guarantees of accountability, including full transparency into the
current operation and management of Wilson High School.
My vote against the autonomy proposal, last May, which was widely
supported by Wilson H.S. teachers — and requested in advance by over
twenty teachers — was based on the refusal of the principal to release
public documents. My concern was soon confirmed by the large numbers of
seniors who were certified for graduation despite missing graduation
requirements. As few as 221 of the 420 seniors (the number on the
graduation day program), a bare 53 percent, legitimately met all
graduation requirements (see http://www.dcpswatch.com/martel/061126.htm).
Beginning in August of 2005 (and previously through the SCAC), I
requested: public documents and authorizations from the past three to
five years, including complete budget documents showing all revenues and
itemized disbursements; extra-duty pay guidelines and awards (which were
not shared with the staff for several years); copies of all reports,
including audits and investigations since August 1998; copies of
authorizations that allowed favored staff to attend graduate courses
during paid duty hours, to “upgrade” favored staff into higher pay
plans without advertising them as new positions, and to list staff with
locally created job titles under standard budget lines; new audits of
the current budget, the integrity of student academic records and
compliance with graduation requirements with their findings released
PRIOR to any autonomy vote; specific language describing reports and
procedures for ensuring their delivery to a future governing body; and
establishment of an elected teacher committee to review student academic
records to ensure compliance with promotion and graduation requirements.
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A Most Convoluted Fare System
Ed T. Barron, edtb1@macdotcom
I have never seen a more convoluted fare system than the one proposed
by the folks at Metro. The only thing they left out is that you get to
ride free on your 95th birthday. Who dreamed up this awful system of
fare increases? Compare this mess with the neat, simple system used by
the much more extensive subway system of New York City. There is one
fare for anywhere you want to travel in the entire NY City subway system
-- two bucks. The only special fare is the "Train to the
Plane," which takes airline passengers from midtown Manhattan
directly to Kennedy Airport. If you fly out of LaGuardia, however, it’s
the good old two buck, Chuck.
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The Real Transgression in the New Town
Redevelopment Proposal
Richard Layman, rlaymandc@yahoo.com
In my blog, http://urbanplacesandspaces.blogspot.com,
I have written quite a bit about the New Town redevelopment proposal for
the Florida Market area in the Northeast quadrant of DC, located in Ward
5, just across the street from Ward 6, north of Florida Avenue. There
are many reasons why this proposal is problematic. Mostly it has to do
with a special kind of sole agreement, where the proposal has been
written by the developers for the developers, and the executive branch
of the DC government has deliberately muzzled the Office of Planning
from weighing in, has ignored previous OP reports considering the area,
and has prevented the OP from being able to evaluate or analyze the
project in substantive ways, and in a manner which attempts to protect
and extend the public interest.
But the reality is even worse because: If this were a contract signed
by an agency of the DC government, it would be illegal because of its
failure to conduct a competitive bidding process, because it is a sole
source contract over $1 million that does not comply with other DC
government contracting regulations, and because of many provisions
counter to other DC laws and regulations. With DC government agency
contracts, there is an administrative law review system where the
contracting process can be challenged. The question is: why isn’t it
illegal when the DC city council passes the same kind of contract as a
law? DC government instrumentalities such as the National Capital
Revitalization Corporation and the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation also
have detailed and specific contracting guidelines ensuring fairness and
openness. The Florida Market Bill, which was inserted as an amendment
(Title II) to Bill 16-812, a completely different bill concerning the
provision of workforce housing, would violate those provisions if it
were it a contract entered into by either of those organizations or by
the DC government. (For the text of the bill, see http://urbanplacesandspaces.blogspot.com/2006/12/florida-market-bill-before-city.html.)
There is something terribly wrong about entering this bill as an end
around and loophole to evade DC government contracting procedures, laws,
and regulations. The DC council should be ashamed that it continues to
consider this matter. And clearly, DC laws need to be changed to prevent
this kind of corrupt behavior, which does a disservice to government and
citizen interests.
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Some time ago when the German Marshall Fund renovated their building
at R Street and New Hampshire Avenue, NW, they built a very attractive
planter in the sidewalk in front of their building facing R Street, NW.
Every time I went by there, I would think about neighbor Nancy Balsdel
and wonder how she could negotiate the sidewalk hazard in her motorized
wheelchair. I don’t remember the first attempts to correct this
problem, but it has been well over a year. Today I was waiting for a red
light and saw that the planter obstruction was gone. The sidewalk isn’t
as attractive as it was with the planter, but it is now a lot more
practical. Just then, Nancy came rolling unhindered down the
sidewalk-without any obstruction to negotiate. Great timing and a great
little Christmas present!
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The new District of Columbia HIV Prevention Plan for 2006-2007 has
been posted on the web. It can be found at this address: http://doh.dc.gov/doh/frames.asp?doc=/doh/lib/doh/services/administration_offices/hiv_aids/pdf/prevention_plan_2006-2007.pdf.
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It was December 1989 when I signed a lease for a large, older, two
bedroom apartment with a large living room and spacious kitchen on Mt.
Pleasant Street, NW, across the street from the 7-Eleven. My rent was
$389.00 a month. In December 2006, that very same apartment is renting
for $2,200.00 a month. In less than twenty years, rents in DC have
jumped 500 percent on average. In December 1989, my income was just
$32,000; in the same time period, my income has only jumped 179 percent.
For most Washingtonians, rent increases vs. wage increases have been
about the same as I have experienced.
I blame this gap on the DC city council, which allowed it to happen
and acted to stop these steep rent increases only when people started
screaming. As long as developers, real estate holding companies, and
others fuel the political campaigns of our mayoral and city council
candidates, they will in the next twenty years do the same. The National
Low Income Housing Coalition examined all fifty states plus the District
of Columbia and Puerto Rico in its report. Virginia ranked 41st;
Maryland ranked 45th, and DC was last in affording an apartment.
Recently, Danilo Pelletiere at the Low Income Housing Coalition wrote:
“Do you earn $21 an hour on the job? That’s what you need to afford
a two bedroom apartment in our area, making it the tenth most expensive
place to live in the nation, according to a new study. . . . At $1,286
that means you have to earn $21.37 an hour to afford a two bedroom
unit.”
The problem is the average family earns only $17 per hour. It is a
gap between income and rent that is widening, hurting many with lower
incomes. Experts say no more than 30 percent of family income should go
to housing. It is time for a rent freeze and/or a windfall profit tax on
greedy landlords, especially for those whose properties were paid off
back in the 1970’s and have no justification other than greed to
charge these outrageous rates. The only way Mayor-elect Fenty can
deliver on his promise to the voters of affordable housing is through a
rent freeze or by using taxpayer dollars to build 18,000 apartment units
in the next five years. I doubt either will happen, so we will not be
seeing any affordable housing coming down the pipes.
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Unconscionable
Ed T Barron, edtb1@macdotcom
The Mayor’s proposal to spend $275 million on a new library is
unconscionable. Just take a look at our neighbors in Montgomery County.
They have opened a state-of-the-art new library, which took two years to
build, and they spent a measly $26 million. Who in their right minds
thinks that we should spend $275 million on a new DC library?
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Right Turns Around Busses
Russell Cramer, ruslcramer@yahoo.com
In reference to “Right Turns Around Busses” [themail, December
6]: how about the more sensible solution of not having bus stops at
intersections, but at least fifty yards before them?
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Preserve Architecture or Lives?
Laura Elkins, laura@3plystudios.com
Does Michael K. Wilkinson [themail, December 13] know the elderly
couple in Mount Pleasant? Obviously, they want to stay in their home of
46 years, and the Historic Preservation Office/Historic Preservation
Review Board should help find a creative solution, rather than coldly
dismissing their request. HPO and HPRB bend and ignore regulations
whenever it suits their political purposes, why shouldn’t they do it
out of compassion? The older people I know want to stay at home as long
as possible -- elder care is often the death knell that they avoid as
long as possible.
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Grading the Mayor
Michael Bindner, mikeybdc at yahoo dot com
I would say bringing baseball back to DC is a major accomplishment
and getting punked by baseball in the stadium deal is a major flub. (In
exchange for building the stadium he should have insisted on part
ownership of the team as a nonnegotiable.)
Holding the line on the Jack Evans and company’s proposed tax cuts
in 1999 is a major accomplishment. That, more than anything else,
safeguarded DC’s finances. On the downside, letting Natwar Gandhi get
tougher with property taxpayer than was necessary, especially in the
appraisal process, was a major failure (both as mayor and chief
financial officer). Not fixing or abolishing DCRA and making sure its
activities are adequately funded and supervised (including a graft
investigation) is a major omission. Not negotiating a support agreement
with the United States for services provided to the National Capital
Service Area, in exchange for compensation, is a major failure.
I would otherwise agree with the Mayor’s list.
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George Bernard Shaw once wrote, "The single biggest problem in
communication is the illusion that it has taken place."
Accomplishment: eight years of abysmal stewardship of the District’s
resources. Failure: the District’s web site and call center; they
close tickets and the problem still exists.
Unfortunately, there are those that see and cannot see, expect a
paycheck with no accountability for the work they were supposed to do!
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Mayor Williams’s Accomplishments
Clifton Allen Roberson, Department of Health, clifhouse@yahoo.com
Mayor Williams has one accomplishment that will make a long-term
impact on every person living in Washington. Our city has one of the
best health care packages for the under served in the nation. For the
first time, the emergency rooms will no longer be the only source of
basic health care for the poor, uninsured, under insured, children and
the homeless.
If you stand at the corner of North Capitol Street and Florida
Avenue, you can hear homeless men and women discuss which clinics they
are now assigned to for primary medical health care services. This is an
extraordinary accomplishment for any municipality and saves us tens of
millions of dollars by providing a vehicle for primary care and not just
the use of more expensive emergency room visits.
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As the former chair of the board at DC General when it was closed, I
think it was one of Mayor Williams’s greatest failures. I’m not
disappointed in Williams because I never voted for him. Customer service
is also a problem. I mailed in my tag renewal form with my check. The
check was cashed — they’re good at that — but my registration
never showed up. I had to go to the Georgetown Park Department of Public
Works office, where I was told this is a regular problem. So much for
service!
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Grading the Efforts of Mayor Williams and
Council Chair Cropp
Len Sullivan, lsnarpac@bellatlantic.net
From NARPAC’s vantage point in “Ward 10,” outer space to many
themail readers, Williams and Cropp deserve top grades for repairing the
pathetic image of our nation’s capital to outsiders. The city’s
official decorum is no longer global laughing stock, or embarrassing
Americans nationwide. Major economic developments, from the Anacostia
Waterfront Project to the Hope VI housing renewal east of the river, are
permanently changing the exterior face of our nation’s capital. The
temporary lurch towards fiscal irresponsibility has been fully, if not
overcorrected. DC’s future success as a world-class city now depends
primarily on re-balancing its polar socioeconomic demography. The
“dumbbell effect” of too many poor needing to be offset by too many
rich, leaves too little room for key middle class families and their
ethics.
Not surprisingly, we give failing grades to city efforts to break the
cycle of poverty among DC’s most seriously disadvantaged.
Undereducated, often missing, parents leave on the city’s doorstep the
next generation of essentially lost, heavily counter-cultural, kids.
Growing winning chicks from losing chickens is a Herculean urban task.
Trying to move the University of the District of Columbia to east of the
river, changing the school board composition, and closing down a
dysfunctional hospital were all brave if insufficient steps. We also
flunk the mayor for pretending DC’s future can be dictated by 150-odd
“neighborhoods” unrestricted by city-/region-wide compromises, or by
the unique demands of a global capital.
In between, we give DC’s leaders barely passing marks in local,
regional, and federal government relations. By most statistical
measures, every local agency, including the school system, has too many
employees and too few modern facilities for the services it delivers. We
also see insufficient top leadership influence on the city’s
long-range infrastructure planning. Area-wide, DC failed to inspire
cooperation from the metro area’s leaders or strengthen its weak
regional organizations. At the federal level, executive and legislative,
DC influence seems to have been minimal (perhaps inevitable under the
circumstances). Nevertheless, Williams and Cropp have set the stage for
further capital city progress. We can only hope the Fenty/Gray team will
build on this legacy.
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CLASSIFIEDS — FOR SALE
Adams Morgan: Then and Now
Josh Gibson, joshgibson@alumni.ksg.harvard.edu
Give the gift of Adams Morgan this holiday season. My co-author,
Celestino Zapata, and I have published a book entitled Adams Morgan:
Then and Now. The fantastic photos in the book were taken by Earl
Fenwick, Jr. and Nancy Shia. It’s a short book, about one hundred
pages, with historical and current photos of different scenes in Adams
Morgan. It’s by no means a definitive history, but I think most
residents will find it interesting.
If you live in Adams Morgan, you can buy it at Potter’s House (1658
Columbia Road) and Idle Time (2467 18th Street). If you live elsewhere
in the DC area, it’s at Candida’s, Lambda Rising, Busboys and Poets,
Books-a-Million, Kramerbooks, and maybe a couple of others, (Let me know
if you see it anywhere else). If you live outside of the area, you can
get it directly from the publisher ($16.99, postage included), http://www.arcadiapublishing.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=arcadia&Product_Code=0738542830&Product_Count=&Category_Code=.
Or you can get it from Amazon ($17.58, postage included): http://www.amazon.com/Adams-Morgan-Then-Now/dp/0738542830/sr=8-1/qid=1164263779/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-3480099-2064162?ie=UTF8&s=books.
I hope you enjoy it.
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CLASSIFIEDS — HOUSING
Charming and comfortable furnished apartment available for a six to
twelve month rental in 2007 (available January 10-December 31, 2007).
Large living room, master bedroom, second bedroom currently used as a
home office (can serve either purpose), table-space kitchen with all new
appliances, bathroom with vintage claw-foot tub. Apartment to be
featured on The History Channel!
Entire corner-unit apartment is filled with extensive sunlight
through large and plentiful windows. Vintage hardwood floors, moldings,
period details throughout. Just steps to dozens of unique ethnic
restaurants, shops, and services. But, as the best of both worlds, the
apartment itself is located on a quiet and peaceful one-way street.
Great community feeling to the building and the neighborhood. Steps from
multiple bus lines, easy walking distance to three Metro (subway)
stations.
Tastefully and comfortably furnished with unique pieces from around
the country and the world. Owners would prefer to leave some belongings
(books, wall hangings, etc.) in place in apartment above and beyond the
basics (furniture, linens, kitchenware), but can be flexible on this
point if it is a deal breaker. E-mail for information on cost or with
other questions: joshgibson@alumni.ksg.harvard.edu.
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CLASSIFIEDS — VOLUNTEERS
DC Earned Income Tax Credit Campaign
Ed Lazare, lazere@dcfpi.org
The DC Earned Income Tax Credit Campaign needs volunteers starting in
January 2007 to help low-income DC residents complete their tax returns
and get valuable benefits like the Earned Income Tax Credit. The
Campaign supports free tax preparation clinics throughout the city.
Volunteers can serve as tax preparers, greeters, translators, and
financial counselors. No prior experience is necessary and training is
provided.
Join the Campaign by signing up at http://www.dceitc.org today.
Volunteering just a few hours a week from mid-January through tax
season, can equal over $5 million dollars returned to DC’s neediest
residents! The Campaign needs to recruit over six hundred volunteers in
order to provide our services citywide. Please help spread the word!
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CLASSIFIEDS — PETS
Adopt Kittens: The Dude and the Duchess
Pat Yates, PatEdCats@aol.com
These darlings are five-month-old kittens from the same litter, and
they have been together all their short lives. Dude, the boy, has
medium-length, fluffy hair and is mostly black with white markings;
Duchess, the girl, is has sleek, short hair and is mostly gray with
white markings. Dude is a bit bigger and definitely the leader, always
wanting to bounce off the walls and then curl up in someone’s lap and
purr; Duchess is a sweet, endearing creature who loves to be petted and
cooed to. The previous owner gave them to the DC Animal Shelter because
she didn’t want them any longer, and they have been in my foster home
since December 6. Both have been altered, tested, and inoculated, and
both appear to be in good health. They get along fine with humans,
canines and other felines.
You may see their picture on http://www.washhumane.org
(link to cats in foster homes), and if these aren’t exactly what you
are looking for, you might stumble across others who tickle your fancy.
There is never a shortage of our city’s wonderful cats and kittens at
the DC Animal Shelter. (The same is true of dogs and puppies.) To see
Dude and Duchess, or to get more information, please contact Pat at
265-2855 or PatEdCats@aol.com.
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CLASSIFIEDS -- RECOMMENDATIONS
What are people doing for cable, phone, and Internet these days? I
have had negative experiences with, in turn, Verizon, Comcast, and RCN
(nee Starpower), although I am tempted to take Comcast’s latest offer
for a bundled package. On the other hand, perhaps I could split the $100
reward with any of you to start with RCN.
###############
While there are quite a few organizations that put on a series of
concerts by visiting artists or groups, there aren’t to my knowledge
many locally constituted music groups that put on their own series. That’s
why I want to let you know about the Fessenden Ensemble that presents a
series of chamber music concerts at St. Columba’s Episcopal Church in
Tenleytown on a Tuesday evening nearly every month during the concert
year. The group consists of a dozen or so fine musicians who are also
part of other major local performing arts groups. Over the year, you’ll
hear them in configurations ranging from solo to nonets. They are
especially strong in the winds, which happens to be a favorite section
of mine.
You can find out more about the group at its web site, http://www.fessendenensemble.org,
where you’ll also read blurbs of praise from local reviewers such as
the Post’s Cecilia Porter, who called it "one of the
finest chamber music groups in the Washington area."
Treat yourself or others to a special value with the holiday special
that’s being offered: a five-concert series at a discounted price of
$110, plus two tickets for guests.
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