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January 21, 2007

Voting Rights

Dear Voters:

On Thursday, Mayor Fenty, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, and DCVote held a joint press conference to promote “DC Voting Rights Now,” by which they mean a floor vote for Delegate Norton in the House of Representatives. There was some confusion at the press conference between Delegate Norton and Mayor Fenty about the date on which they wanted DC residents to demonstrate on Capitol Hill. Mayor Fenty was promoting an Emancipation Day march on April 16, but Delegate Norton said that the key period for Congressional action would be February and March, so that the April 16 march would be too late to influence Congress. So now there will be more emphasis on the Capitol Hill lobby day scheduled for February 15, during which “volunteers will be invited” to lobby members of Congress to give a floor vote to Delegate Norton.

It is ironic that Fenty should make an issue of DC voting rights, since he wants to deny District citizens the right to vote on his school takeover plan. The takeover of the schools requires amending the Home Rule Charter, the District’s equivalent of a state constitution. In every state, amending the state’s constitution requires the consent of the citizens and, because of the importance of the constitution, amending it usually requires a supermajority vote. But Mayor Fenty wants to avoid taking his Home Rule Charter amendment to the citizens for approval. Instead, he wants Congress to impose his plan on the District. Delegate Norton, although she wants DC citizens to rally to give her a floor vote in Congress, won’t reciprocate by rallying behind our right to a vote. Instead, she supports having Congress impose the school takeover on DC. And Ilir Zherka, executive director of DCVote, said to Dorothy after Thursday’s press conference that Fenty’s plan to bypass the citizens’ right to vote on our own basic governing document wasn’t an issue for DCVote, and he refused to criticize it.

So here’s my proposal. If you’re a real supporter of voting rights for DC citizens — not just of Delegate Norton’s vote in the House, but of our right as District citizens to govern ourselves — volunteer to lobby Congress on February 15. Go to members of the House of Representatives and their staffs, and tell them that they shouldn’t meddle in our local government and that they shouldn’t usurp our right to decide whether or not to amend the Home Rule Act, our own basic constitution. Go to the Hill and demand that they support the right of citizens of DC to vote on any amendment to the Home Rule Act. DCVote will be organizing the February 15 lobbying day; to sign up for their E-mail list, go to http://www.dcvote.org/email.cfm.

Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com

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Doublespeak
Dorothy Brizill, dorothy@dcwatch.com

When Mayor Fenty held his press conference on January 4 to announce his plan to assume control over DC public schools, he also released the text of a bill to effectuate the change (http://www.dcwatch.com/council17/17-001.htm). Because many of the bill’s provisions would require a charter amendment, the legislation provided in Section 1002 that, “Title II, VII, and VIII of this act shall take effect as provided in section 303 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act. . . .” As I wrote in themail on January 7, Section 303 states that the District’s Charter may be “amended by an act passed by the Council and ratified by a majority of the registered qualified electors of the District voting in the referendum held for such ratification.” In the version of the bill submitted to the council, in order to bypass the citizens’ right to vote on any amendment of their Home Rule Act, Mayor Fenty changed the Section 1002 to read, “Title II, VII, and VII of this act shall take effect upon the enactment into law by the United States Congress.”

This change in the wording of the legislation confirms Fenty’s intention to bypass the residents of the District of Columbia and the requirements of our Home Rule Act, and to have Congress impose the charter amendment on the citizens through its ultimate Constitutional authority over the District. This confirms that Fenty’s rhetoric about home rule, self-determination, voting rights, and budget autonomy for the District is merely a cynical pose. Instead, he not only supports but even invites and requests Congress to rule over the city and determine both the form of our government and the officials whom we may be permitted to elect.

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It’s All Politics
Jonetta Rose Barras, jrbarras.com

Before the DC Council’s Committee on Economic Development could hold its first public hearing on legislation co-introduced by Ward 2’s Jack Evans and At-Large member David Catania, which seeks to repeal the law creating the Anacostia Waterfront Corporation (AWC) and the National Capital Revitalization Corporation (NCRC); and before Mayor Adrian Fenty could appoint a task force to review the two groups, members of the boards of both entities appear to be revolting.

Some members of AWC’s board have endorsed the Evans-Catania repeal law, arguing that the current director, Adrian Washington, is “in over his head.” Over at the NCRC, Anthony Freeman, the organization’s chief executive officer, is being pushed out. The board wants to replace him with Therman A. Baker Jr., chief operating officer and general counsel. The push to dump Freeman is being orchestrated by Jim Hudson, vice president of the NCRC board. Hudson also was chairman of Fenty’s mayoral campaign and co-chair of his transition team. Read more at jrbarras.com.

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New York City 911 to Accept Images
Gabe Goldberg, gabe at gabegold dot com

New York City is planning to upgrade its 911 and 311 emergency and non-emergency city services numbers to accept images sent from cell phone cameras and the like (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/18/nyregion/18cameras.html). It will be an interesting experiment.

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Another DC Scam
Ed T Barron, edtb1@macdotcom

After four and a half months I received the energy rebate for my Energy Star appliance from the Department of . If you purchase a very energy efficient furnace, air conditioner, refrigerator, etc., you can get a rebate from the DC Energy Office if you fill out a lot of paperwork and wait about four months [http://dceo.dc.gov/dceo/cwp/view,a,11,q,604012,dceoNav_GID,1897.asp]. My rebate came yesterday in the form of a Chase Bank cash card. Info that comes with the card says take it to the nearest Chase Bank to get the cash. The letter also says you can make a withdrawal from any ATM machine. There is no Chase bank within thirty miles of Washington DC. And I tried the card in three ATM machines in Spring Valley. None would accept any transaction. Since it is a cash card, you can probably use it to buy something at CVS, but I don’t spend $102 in a whole year at CVS and I never spend $102 at any one time in any retail store these days.

Why can’t DC send a check for the rebate? They must have a checking account. Do they give tax refunds the same way? This is really a scam, since they hope that you’ll never use the card before it expires and they then keep the rebate.

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Disenfranchisement of Wards 4 and 7
Ralph J. Chittams, Sr., Ward 7, chittams@sewkis.com

It is very interesting that Fenty is pushing for a march advocating voting rights for the District of Columbia in Congress during the same month that residents of Ward 4 and Ward 7 will not have voting representation on the DC city council. If the city council under Chairman Gray has its way, the council will vote on Fenty’s school takeover plan in April, prior to the special election for Wards 4 and 7. As a consequence, one of the most important pieces of legislation in recent history is going to be voted upon and residents of Wards 4 and 7 will not be properly represented. But our mayor is going to pound the drums for District voting rights in Congress when one fourth of DC citizens will be disenfranchised during the school takeover vote. Can you say incongruous! I know Gray and Kwame Brown both reside in Ward 7. However, as chairman and an at-large member, respectively, they represent the entire city, not Ward 7. When this legislation hits the table, Wards 4 and 7 will have no one there to speak on our behalf. Isn’t democracy in DC wonderful?

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Reform and Where You Send Your Kids to School
Susan Punnett, cpunnett@aol.com

I assume that Katie Hodge [themail, January 17] does not have children of her own or, if she does, she has simply written off the public schools without taking the time to visit and learn about them. To say that sending one’s child to a DC public school is putting them “in harm’s way” or “sacrificing [their] needs” is insulting to all of us who have chosen to send out children to public schools and especially those who have and are working to make them better. It is equally insulting to those students who are working hard and achieving. Yes, there are lots of problems in the school system. But there are also incredible teachers, excellent programs, and plenty of children who are learning and thriving.

I am the mother of two DCPS students (K to 12 and pre-K to 12) and School Without Walls graduates; one is now a senior at Wesleyan University and the other a freshman at Loyola University, New Orleans. I am troubled by politicians (especially those who run for the Board of Education) who choose not to send their children to public school. One result — a lack of understanding of what the real problems are and what it will take to make all schools better — is all too apparent in the lack of real substance in Mayor Fenty’s proposal.

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Firefighter Parking
Richard Layman, rlaymandc@yahoo.com

Most firefighters live in the suburbs and commute to work in Washington. They work a 24-hour shift every four days. I have no problem necessarily in providing accommodations to firefighters, but there needs to be a focus on what the problem is: 1) their driving 2) to work 3) in the city 4) mostly from the suburbs, 5) then needing a place to park 6) for twenty-four hours. Why should their living far out of the city being subsidized by providing special parking privileges? (And for many firefighters this isn’t an issue of living out of the city because of the cost of housing inside the city. People choose to live farther out because their work schedule accommodates it. I know of firefighters who live way out in Maryland and even West Virginia.)

This is an example of how DC government agencies should be required to perform transportation demand management planning first and as a matter of course. Perhaps the accommodation offered by Councilmembers Brown and Cheh, as discussed in the Washington Times article, makes sense. But how can we know when no other options are presented? But you know the saying “shoot first, ask questions later”? Too often that’s how we do legislation in the city! Write the legislation, don’t ask any questions. By the time hearings come around, it’s usually too late to change much. Maybe ask questions then.

With this legislation, transit advocates will be gun shy about testifying against it, because it’s a matter of assisting "first responders." Note that I had the same reaction when it was proposed in Columbia Heights that teachers have a similar kind of parking privilege. (Why should driving always be subsidized?) First discourage driving and provide other options. Then consider special accommodations, but make them pay for it. I’m willing to testify on this one. At best sixty feet will accommodate four cars or 3.5 SUVs. Of course, this is a losing argument. The firefighters union is a big supporter of winning council candidates. Among the ways in which they supporting candidates (in addition to donations), they provide bagged lunches to campaign workers of various (anointed) campaigns on election days.

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Residential Parking Permits
Ruth Holder, rutheholder at yahoo dot com

As Jack McKay’s message [themail, January 17] indicates, those who live on a block zoned for Residential Permit Parking have yet another advantage over those of us who live on a block that provides a service to our neighborhood by allowing shoppers, contractors, babysitters, and other visitors to park there. If you have an RPP, you can park anywhere in your ward, unlike those of us who are ineligible for RPPs because we happen to live on the one block in the area that is not RPP zoned. And now we learn that if you live on a block zoned for RPPs you can also park fifteen feet closer to the curb than the rest of us. If you live on a block that is not zoned RPP, then your neighborhood is defined as one block long instead of one large ward. That, to me, is the real discrimination of our RPP system.

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Council Ponders Reserved Parking for Firefighters
Clyde E. Howard, Jr., clydeejr@yahoo.com

It would seem that if our city council weren’t so caught up in trying to bring money into the city via condos and other economic ventures, such as baseball, they could make life easier for the residents and workers of this city by building public parking garages. Then they would not be so eager to take valuable curb space from the residents to give freely to nonresidents, ZipCar, and others. If Montgomery County can build public parking garages in Bethesda and disguise them so that they are not so intrusive and place parking meters in them to pay for the space, why can’t our officials do the same thing? Or are they so caught up by the parking conglomerates who will scream bloody murder and the need to change the tax base that they think the residents who have stayed in this city rather than moving to the burbs are insignificant and a needless blob of humanity upon the landscape of this city?

The thought process has not changed with the installation of new members on the council. They are still of the opinion that the residents of this city do not require any consideration in their wild and crazy schemes that defy logic and intelligence. Residents who pay taxes in this city are entitled to certain rights and privileges. Having our curb spaces taken away from us only puts each resident in the position of having to avoid tickets, simply because an inconsiderate city council has no respect for residents of this city.

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If Not a Limo, How About a Taxi?
Bill Coe, bceedeec@aol.com

Mary C. Williams (“Let Them Take a Limo,” themail, January 17) offers an absurd reading of a perfectly sensible measure in order to generate opposition. Her argument against a parking consideration for firefighters rests on the supposition that all duties in all public jobs are equally important, which is simply not true and never has been. When weather emergencies or other crises arise, for example, most public employees are advised to stay home, while "critical" workers are required to report. These include, at a minimum, firefighters and police officers. The reason for this should go without saying, but Councilmember Cheh does explain (for those who can’t see the obvious) that cops and firemen do indeed protect us!

No one is saying public workers don’t all perform important functions. However, I’m not going to lose any sleep if a housing inspector or a sanitation collector or a clerk at DMV skips a day or shows up late for work because of a transit breakdown. Their absence now and then is inconvenient but not crucial to my safety and well-being. By contrast, I will tolerate special considerations or outlays on behalf of commuting firefighters and police officers who have to be on time ready to go every single day. When I need one of those guys, I need them right now, and nothing else will do! (Parents might reasonably make the same argument for teachers, to whose custody they entrust their children on schooldays.)

What I would propose, no doubt to Ms. Williams’s dismay, is that certain public employees deemed critical by virtue of their missions be allowed to park at or near their workplaces. They could also be encouraged to use public transit by giving them free Metro fare cards and bus passes. They could even submit taxi vouchers for reimbursement, if all else fails on their way to work. I believe this practice is used in various forms by other cities around the country. The point is that somehow those particular workers have to get there every day, good times or bad, and we should help them do it.

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Right Turns from Bike Lanes
Jack McKay, jack.mckay@verizon.net

It’s nice that DC drivers respect bicycle lanes, but some overdo it, apparently thinking that they are absolutely prohibited from ever entering a bike lane. On Tilden approaching Connecticut Avenue, for example, one sees many drivers unable to reach the intersection for a right-on-red. They have space to get by the cars stopped for the red light, but are afraid to trespass on that bike lane. If you use the bike lane to slip by these waiting cars and do the ROR, drivers honk angrily at your supposed violation.

Here’s a fact: cars in DC are allowed to use a bike lane to make a right turn. DC Municipal Regulations Title 18, 2220.2: “During restricted hours, any vehicle may enter a restricted right curb lane solely for the purposes of taking on or discharging passengers, or to make a right turn where a right turn is not otherwise prohibited by any official traffic control device.” This is allowed “only within the same block as the right turn" (2220.3), and vehicles are prohibited from "continuing through an intersection in a Restricted Lane” (2220.4).

The painted lines denoting bike lanes are supposed to be broken lines for fifty feet approaching the intersection, to indicate that cars may cross them and enter the lane to make turns, but they’re not. Jim Sebastian, the DDOT bicycling authority, agrees that this is so, and has said that he would “check on Tilden to see what went wrong” (E-mail, September 25, 2006). What happens if you’re in that bike lane, waiting for a chance to make the right turn, and a bike comes up behind you? Well, he’s supposed to stop and wait for the light too. Fat chance on that, of course.

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Our Addiction to Illegal Immigrants
Leo Alexander, leo_alexander1@yahoo.com

If I had it my way, those in this country illegally would be given ninety days to attend to their affairs and leave voluntarily and still retain the right to apply through the proper channels for reentry. Anyone found in this country illegally after the ninety-day grace period would be arrested, deported, and lose the opportunity to return. For me, this isn’t an issue of race — illegal immigration is a threat to our national security and economy.

Let’s use the District of Columbia as an example. Who do you think did the landscaping, the housekeeping, cooking and dish washing in the hotels and restaurants, manned the parking garages, drove the cabs, worked the street crews, and were the maids, nannies, and chauffeurs for the rich twenty years ago? Black folks. What happened to that sector of the labor force? They have been priced out. Whether we want to admit it or not, this society has become addicted to cheap illegal labor. Take a look around now at who’s managing our parking garages, driving our taxicabs, operating local take-out joints and dry cleaners, as well as all of the lower-level labor and service industry jobs. Don’t even attempt to tell me that all these good people applied for and received visas to come to our city to join the unskilled labor pool; it simply would never happen. So what does this influx of foreign labor leave for the native-born, unskilled Washingtonian? Let’s see, there is record-level, double-digit unemployment figures in most of our urban areas, which directly contributes to broken families, depression, alcohol abuse and drug addiction, increased crime, and recidivism which all feeds one of the nation’s fastest growing industries . . . prisons.

This cycle of addiction began in our economy with the enslavement of Africans; so this is just the twenty-first century’s version of government-sanctioned exploitation. How else do you explain these day-laborer centers popping up all over? Illegal immigrants cannot go to the unemployment office like a legal citizen, so instead of our government arresting them for breaking our immigration laws and deporting them back to their respective countries of origin, they build day-laborer centers for them to organize and to price out the local labor force. I don’t think many of us would have a problem with the seasonal provisionally documented migrant farm worker coming to our country to work in the agricultural industry. But that’s not what’s happening here in the District. These illegal immigrants are taking jobs our citizens not only will do, and want to do, but also have done for generations. You cannot tell me in this information/terrorism age that our government doesn’t know that fake documents are being used to procure labor and which companies are willfully breaking the law. This means that there has to be collusion from the top down.

That brings me to an errand I ran recently to my Brightwood neighborhood Post Office on Georgia Avenue, NW, where I just happened to notice that a couple of things had changed in the last year or so since I’d been there. They now have a special desk by the door to process US passport applications. I’d seen these special counters before, but never this far uptown. Then I noticed something else -- the number of Latinos standing in line with documents to get a US passport. This in and of itself didn’t seem that unusual, given the recent Department of State passport requirement for travelers, except for the fact that they could barely speak English. When it was my turn to be served, I asked the customer service agent, “Are all of these folks here for US passports?” and she sheepishly replied while nodding her head, “It’s like this all the time.” Then I asked, “Do they have to show something to prove that they’re US citizens?” and she said, “Yeah, they have documents.” Then I asked, “How do you know they’re not showing you fake docs?” She stopped what she was doing, looked up at me, turned her gaze to the line of folks we were discussing, and spoke under her breath, “We don’t know. We just take what they give us.” I left there thinking shouldn’t lacking the ability to communicate in our language alone set off a couple of alarms? It’s especially scary when you think about the recent incident at the Marine Corps military base in Quantico, VA, where a concrete contractor brought illegal immigrants using fraudulent documents onto the installation. Since when did Americans turn their noses up at concrete work?

This is how our addiction manifests itself: illegal immigrants armed with fraudulent documents get not only US passports, but also the skilled and unskilled labor jobs for less money. Business owners are happy because not only do they avoid dealing with unionized employees, but they also reap increased profits. Lobbyists who curry political favor further taint this convoluted profit-driven relationship by influencing politicians to ignore legislating stricter immigration laws as it pertains to citizenship, and providing oversight to those federal agencies tasked with enforcing current laws that enable them to protect our ports and borders. Meanwhile, politicians continue to turn a blind eye and businesses enjoy record profits . . . a literal win-win. However, in the long term, while these fat cats are smoking stogies and bragging about net windfalls, the old Trojan horse full of illegal immigrants is left unchecked. They have children and start to seek the same local government social services provided to our citizens, i.e., health care, housing, and education. Then this second generation, not wanting the same life that their parents had, begin to demand their inalienable rights as Americans. They can do this because those same well-financed politicians failed to address that convenient loophole that grants anchor babies citizenship by merely being born in our country, regardless of their parents’ immigration status. This glaring weakness has allowed them to grow and become positioned as the next powerful voting block. This may border on xenophobia, but as long as Washingtonians are being negatively impacted, we cannot allow this to continue. Charity must begin at home. Besides, do you think for one moment that we could go into any of their native countries and make the same demands for rights and liberties that this illegal immigrant population make here daily? Our unskilled immigration policy should read: One adult allowed per seasonal permit to work in the agricultural industry.

I’ve often thought that the District of Columbia needed other industries to provide jobs for the local unskilled labor force; but then I started to think, what if all the illegal immigrants who brazenly congregate at these day-laborer centers, area convenience stores, and Ward 5’s Home Depot parking lots, who work in our downtown hotels, restaurants, and construction sites were removed from the equation. How would that affect our local job market and quality of life? The answer is simple; there would be a significant reduction in the unemployment rate in the District. Citizens who wanted a job would have one. Employers would be incentivized to hire the District’s unskilled residents and to pay a living wage. Supporters of this illegal work force will argue all the benefits and dire warnings of economic collapse if they were to be removed; but I say, where are the studies on our citizens who have dropped off the unemployment rolls and have somehow fallen through the cracks? How do they factor into this debate? I firmly believe that most drug addicts get strung out because they lack hope. Imagine what would happen if help wanted signs flew up all over the city, and the only qualification you needed for unskilled labor jobs was the sincere desire to work. Just imagine how many social problems that would cure overnight. The time has come for a new breed of politician who understands the value of and the requirement to invest in our human capital. It’s time to enact laws that severely penalize employers and landlords who knowingly utilize this illegal labor pool and rent to them. This action would send a resounding message that the citizens of the District demand their jobs, affordable housing, healthcare centers and their schools back. It’s time to remove our blinders and recognize the hunger and homelessness in our communities, and the negative effects this addiction to illegal labor has had on every American institution. We can no longer posture ourselves as the world’s keeper by providing unchecked services to an illegal immigrant population while we ignore the growing third-world condition of our own citizens. This message must be sent from the local level: if Congress won’t put the interests of Washingtonians first, our local leaders must.

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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS

UDC Hosts Future City Competition, January 19
Michael Andrews, mandrews@udc.edu

Students design Future Cities first on computers, create large, 3-D tabletop models, and present and defend their cities to judges at the competition. The models are dazzling and colorful, constructed from recycled materials and built for less than $100. This year’s essay theme -- how to use fuel cell systems to power a modern metropolis — is a challenge to develop new ways to create efficient, pollution-free cities of the future. Students are taking a hard look at the future and the result is a determination to make it better. One of the most successful nationwide education programs: 30,000 students from 1,100 schools. The first place team wins all-expense paid trip to Washington, DC, to compete against middle schools from thirty-four other regions at Future City National Finals, February 19-21, during Engineers Week.

The local competition will take place on Saturday, January 20. Preliminary judging, 9:00-11:30 a.m.; finals judging, 1:00-2:30 p.m.; winner announced approximately 2:45 p.m. At the University of the District of Columbia, Van Ness Campus, UDC Firebird Inn, Building 38, B-Level, 4200 Connecticut Avenue, NW.

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Home Healthcare Seminar, January 27
India Young, india.young@dc.gov

Saturday, January 27, 1:30 p.m., Francis A. Gregory Neighborhood Library, 3660 Alabama Avenue, SE. Vicki Stewart Callaghan, RN, will present a seminar on home healthcare. For more information, call 645-4426.

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Fashion Show and Book Talk, February 3
Beth Meyer, Cleveland Park Branch Library, lmeyer8090@aol.com

You are invited to a free informal fashion show and book talk presented by Rosemary E. Reed Miller, owner of Toast and Strawberries and author of The Threads of Time: The Fabric of History — Profiles of African American Dressmakers and Designers 1850 to the Present from 2 - 4 p.m. on Saturday, February 3, in the first floor auditorium of the Cleveland Park Neighborhood Library, 3310 Connecticut Avenue, NW. A book sale and signing will follow the program. Refreshments will be served. Free, no reservations required. Call 282-3080 for more information.

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