themail.gif (3487 bytes)

January 24, 2007

Blogging

Dear Bloggers:

If I blogged, and offered daily off-the-top-of-my-head thoughts rather than the well considered and moderate opinions I normally write, I’d have plenty of things to write about in this issue. For example:

Former Mayor Williams has taken a job heading a new real estate investment trust company, Public Properties Realty Investment Trust, Inc., which has been created by Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group, Inc. The main purpose of this company is to buy real estate from governments and quasi-governmental organizations, and then lease the properties back to the original owners. This is, of course, a lousy long-term proposition for taxpayers and citizens. Politicians will sell off land assets that their governments need and use in order to get quick cash for short-term purposes, and then lease back the land, thus saddling future generations with long-term debt. Williams spent the last few years of his administration setting up DC government to divest itself of its assets, but he’s legally forbidden to do business with the District government for two years after leaving office. No doubt, he’ll be back then.

The last time that Democrats had a majority in the House of Representatives, they inflated their majority by rewriting House rules to give Committee of the Whole voting rights to the five nonvoting delegates in the House. All five delegates were Democrats then, as they are now. They represent the District and four territories (American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands). It was a purely partisan move, and when Republican gained the majority in the House, they returned the partisan favor and quickly took the Committee of the Whole vote away from the delegates. Afterwards, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton admitted that it may have been a mistake to lump the District in with the four delegates from territories whose citizens do not pay federal taxes. Well, they never learn. Although the bill to give the DC voting status in the House along with giving Utah a new Congressional district (HR 328) had bipartisan support and would probably pass this year, today the Democratic majority again revised the House rules to give Committee of the Whole voting rights to all five nonvoting delegates. This move imperils, and may doom, bipartisan support for HR 328, and it guarantees that the next time Republicans have a majority in the House they will strip Committee of the Whole voting rights from the DC delegate along with the other four delegates.

If Fenty gets his school takeover plan approved, the next superintendent (with the new title of chancellor) may be Rudy Crew, who passed up the DC job in 2004 to go to Miami. At least, that’s what David Nakamura speculated in DC Wire (http://blog.washingtonpost.com/dcwire/2007/01/is_fenty_courting_new_schools.html). But Crew gets a salary of $350,000 in Miami, with a total compensation package approaching $550,000 a year, and DC would have to beat that deal. How do you feel about paying over $550,000 a year for a school superintendent? Of course, DC could do like Miami does, and have the salary subsidized by corporations and interest groups, like the ones who are promoting the school takeover plan in the first place. How do you feel about having the superintendent’s salary paid by interest groups, presumably the same ones that will benefit from the takeover? The other rumored superintendent candidate is James Shelton (http://www.newschools.org/portfolio/entrep_jims.html), who is supposedly being promoted by Terry Golden of the Federal City Council.

Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com

###############

Community Takes Ongoing Stand Against Violence
Kathy Henderson, khenderson027@aol.com

Residents of the Carver Terrace community, located in northeast DC, are unwilling to serve as a backdrop for violent crime. The community is standing up against the ravages of two quadruple shootings and other shootings that have resulted in four homicides within the last four months. Recently, a law-abiding and peaceful contractor working to rehabilitate a building was shot nine times after asking a group of youths to get off of his car. The community has joined forces with the Guardian Angels and police to participate in regular community patrols to restore law and order.

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, affectionately known as the District’s “warrior on the hill” recently braved the cold to march with neighbors to promote peace. WOL 1450 AM radio personalities "More Better Man" and "Mary" were also on hand to help raise community awareness and braved the cold to march with residents. Ronald Moten, founder of the Peaceaholics, an organization dedicated to ending gang violence will participate in the next neighborhood patrol on January 24 at 6:00 p.m.; the patrol will begin at the corner of 18th and L Streets, NE. All are welcome to join this effort.

Fourteen Carver Terrace youth were recruited for neighborhood patrols as a direct result of the first Carver Terrace/Guardian Angels community march on January 10. Commissioner India Henderson, the District’s youngest elected official, will continue to help lead the neighborhood patrols.

###############

Maybe New York Schools Aren’t All That Good
Pat Bitondo, pbitonda@aol.com

See this week’s Economist on Bloomberg’s takeover [“Education in New York: Mayors and Schools,” http://www.economist.com/world/na/displaystory.cfm?story_id=E1_RVSDTDN&CFID=111361102&CFTOKEN=35e2ce5-9dddae68-f522-4fff-a1fa-24855949322f  (requires subscription)]. How can we convince the council that it’s a bad idea?

###############

A Video on Everyday Mathematics
Barry Garelick, barryg99@yahoo.com

As you know, DCPS adopted Everyday Mathematics for DC schools. You may be interested in a fifteen-minute video prepared by a group in the Seattle, Washington, area, which is concerned about EM as well as a program called Investigations in Number, Data, and Space. The original message announcing the video reads: “We have just finished making our first video. One of our members, M.J. McDermott, Q-13 TV Weather Forecaster, was kind enough to put this together for us. M.J. explains the differences between teaching standard (traditional) algorithms and teaching with Investigations/TERC and Everyday Math, two common reformed math programs used in our state.”

The link to the video is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tr1qee-bTZI.

###############

How to Win Friends and Influence Enemies
Jonathan R. Rees, jrrees2006@verizon.net

With Mayor Fenty accepting Speaker Pelosi’s invite to President Bush’s “State of the Union Address” and snubbing First Lady Bush’s, I think it is safe to say that Mayor Fenty isn’t the brightest crayon in the box.

Mayor Fenty knew on the issue of a vote in Congress that Speaker Pelosi, was on his side but he showed his lack of mayoral qualities by snubbing First Lady Bush. Accepting First Lady Bush’s invite would have been a smarter move. Be it as it may, I’d rather not pay my $14,800 a year in federal taxes than to have a meaningless vote in Congress, as that vote won’t put money in my pocket nor make life any better in DC for its residents. Not having to pay federal taxes makes more sense.

###############

Standards of Consent
Timothy Cooper, worldright@aol.com

Gary Imhoff, Sam Smith, and others get it right when they note the inherent contradiction and regrettable irony of Mayor Fenty’s and DC Delegate Norton’s antidemocratic position regarding a mayor/council takeover of the DC public school system without first seeking a citywide referendum.

To insistently advocate for congressional representation, yet deny an up-or-down vote to the people of Washington on altering the Home Rule Charter runs contrary to principles of good governance and standards of consent. The twin goals of preserving the fragile integrity of DC’s very limited democracy and improving DC public schools are not mutually exclusive. Mayor Fenty should put his case directly to the people for a vote. It will only serve to enhance the legitimacy of his plan, should the referendum come to pass.

###############

DC Vote Gets $250,000 Grant
Kevin Kiger, kkiger@dcvote.org

DC Vote has been awarded a $250,000 grant from the Public Welfare Foundation, and the investment comes at a critical point in the DC voting rights movement where city leaders are united to bring congressional voting rights to the District of Columbia. DC Mayor Adrian Fenty, DC city council members, and members of Congress announced upcoming advocacy events designed to engage and activate District residents. These events include a Congress Day on February 15 and a DC Voting Rights March on April 16. Mayor Fenty also said during a press conference on January 19 that DC voting rights is the top priority for his administration.

The advocacy efforts combined with a generous infusion of financial resources create a unique opportunity to pass the DC Voting Rights Act, a piece of legislation that would give Washingtonians a vote in Congress for the first time ever. The Public Welfare Foundation has helped garner over the past few years a great deal of exposure and support from foundations and the philanthropic community for DC Vote. It has held multiple meetings to raise awareness of the issue, including a DC Voting Rights Summit in January 2005. Deborah Leff, President of PWF, believes the timing is right for DC Vote. Continue checking in at www.dcvote.org for the latest information regarding Congress Day and the Voting Rights March on Capitol Hill.

###############

Managing Street Parking
Cheryl Cort, cheryl <at> smartergrowth dot net

Selling special on-street parking permits to essential city workers, like firefighters. is not necessarily a bad idea. But certainly the cost of a monthly permit should be more than riding the Metro or bus to work. The city offers many workers, especially firefighters and teachers, free parking, but does not offer them any subsidy to ride transit, walk or bicycle to work.

The city’s de facto parking subsidies turn play areas at schools and basketball courts at firehouses into parking lots for city workers. This gives the signal that if you want to be subsidized, you better drive, not take transit to work. The very worst thing the city can do is build costly new parking garages (upwards of $20,000 per space) for its workers and then not charge them the cost or market rate for the use. Why should the city spend millions of dollars to encourage more people to drive when it hasn’t bothered to offer them free or discounted transit passes?

A far better option is to manage on-street parking more efficiently and provide some flexibility in who parks there. Market-rate charges are a reasonable and efficient option to get us what we want — parking that is available to priority users. In Ottawa, on-street residential parking permits cost $30 per month, except in the winter when they cost $100/month. Their on-street car-sharing parking is not tied to a dedicated space, but designated to a whole block because there’s always parking available due to good management. Currently we charge residents $15 a year to store each private vehicle on the street (with no limits as to how many vehicles a resident would like to store). That’s about the cost of riding the bus for a week. Charging the true value of the privilege to store a private vehicle in public space could provide new revenues to subsidize residents so riding transit or living in a walkable/bikable neighborhood is more affordable.

###############

No Free Parking
Lisa Swanson, Petworth, melatar@yahoo.com

On firefighter parking: a couple months ago, I applauded a DC parking officer writing up a double-parked car that happened to be in front of a day care center. A woman walking by said, “You must not have children.” Had we been in front of a Safeway, she might have said, “You must not require food.” The implication is that all drivers have a right to park a car in front of the property they would like to visit — their own houses, their friends’ houses, their jobs, their churches on Sunday morning, their children’s schools, their video stores, on and on, whenever they would like to visit.

We must agree that this is a false premise. The price of automobile purchase does not include these real estate parcels. Washington, DC, cannot afford to give workers -- even firefighters, elevated as they may be in some minds — free parking on the public streets. City councilmembers should not be exempt from traffic and parking rules either.

###############

Our Addiction to Illegal Immigrants
Malcolm Wiseman, Washington Free DC!, mal@wiseman.ws

Leo Alexander is 100 percent correct in writing on our addiction to illegal immigrants [themail, January 20]. His proposal for its remedy is reasonable, though I’m sure it would produce many temporary hardships. However, his ninety-day get-out-of-Dodge amnesty is more than fair.

Throughout the 1980’s I had housecleaning people to do my home, and they were all African-American women who spent about four to five hours doing a good job for which I paid them $50-$60. My deceased aunt used to do similar work in the 50’s and 60’s, spending all day and perhaps cooking the evening meal, for about $10 or $15 per day plus carfare. Since the beginning of the 90’s, all of my house cleaners have been Latinas, and they charge typically in the range of $90 to $120 for less than a half day of cleaning, including no windows, cooking, or clothes. I am just one of two or three jobs that they have on their day’s schedule, and if I want a thorough, all-day cleaning, it’ll cost me $150 or more. Ridiculous! I talk with my younger neighbors about these prices, and they don’t think it’s all that high. I think maybe they are overpaid, too.

Over the past twenty years or so the growing numbers of illegals have completely crowded out the indigenous laborers we once knew. Now that they own our business, it seems their prices have increased much faster then they would have in the previous market. I have empathy for them and the bad conditions in their native lands, but I feel more for my neighbors who have been pushed out of their low income jobs right here in their own country. I know my helpers are all in this country illegally because I talk with them and hear their stories. So I’m part of the problem. Like Leo says, I’m addicted. But, it’s gotta stop, if we want to save ourselves.

###############

Immigration
Michael Bindner, mikeybdc at yahoo dot com

Leo Alexander, with the moderator’s blessing, writes a long article about illegal immigration [themail, January 21]. He echoes the Republican approach, which is to enforce our way out of the immigration crisis. The problem with this approach is that, unless we pay big bucks on enforcement, it won’t work. What will work is the repeal, that is right, the repeal of immigration restrictions. These restrictions insulate employers from complaints from their illegal employees, making them preferable. Along with right to work laws in the south that block union organizing, this is a problem of our own making. If right to work laws and immigration restrictions were repealed, domestic workers would be preferred and illegal immigration would vanish. As to repealing automatic citizenship, no, that will not happen and it should not. Originally, this provision granted freemen citizenship and indeed humanity under the law. It would be tragic if it were repealed for what amount to, as Leo says, borderline racial intolerance.

A shout out to the moderator for suggesting that all amendments to the charter be voted on, including those passed by Congress. Such a provision (which the council might even be able to pass) would take the fun away from Congress in its relationship with the District. Statehood would not be far away if such a provision were to pass. As Gary points out, in every state, the citizens get a vote to constitutional amendments, or at least the chance to throw out the legislature who proposes a noxious amendment before it takes affect (the latter being impossible here vis-a-vis Congress).

###############

CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS

New Era for DC Rights!, January 25
Eugene Kinlow, info@dcvote.org

Join us for a seminar on DC’s relationship with Congress on Capitol Hill on Thursday, January 25, from 2:00-4:00 p.m. We will hold a lively panel discussion at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation, 212 East Capitol Street, NE. Refreshments will be served. Two members of Congress, political experts, professors, and Hill staffers will come together to discuss hot issues buzzing through the halls of Congress, with a focus on DC voting rights, structural deficit, and home rule issues.

The first panel will feature Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), Representative Albert Wynn (D-MD), and Jim Moore, a senior staffer from the office of Representative Tom Davis (R-VA). A second panel will include Dr. Michael K. Fauntroy of George Mason University and Dr. Gary Young of the George Washington University. Both panels will be moderated by Walter Smith of DC Appleseed. The event is sponsored by DC Vote, Our Nation’s Capital and League of Women Voters of the National Capital Area.

Learn more about the history of the complicated relationship between the District of Columbia and Congress. We hope to see you Thursday for an enlightening seminar and discussion!

###############

DC Public Library Events, February 1
India Young, india.young@dc.gov

Thursday, February 1, 12:00 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Library, 901 G Street, NW, Room A-5. Brown Bag Recital Series. Cellist Vassily Popov and guest artists perform the music of Boccherini and Marcello. For more information, call the Music Division at 727-1245.

Thursday, February 1, 1:30 p.m., Capitol View Neighborhood Library, 5501 Central Avenue, SE. Black history story hour and arts and crafts for children ages 2-12. For more information, call 645-0755.

Thursday, February 1, 2:30 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Library, 901 G Street, NW, Room 221. Let’s Talk About Books. The Known World by Edward P. Jones will be discussed. March’s selection is Mother Courage and Her Children, a play by Bertolt Brecht. For more information, call 727-1264.

Thursday, February 1, 6:00 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Library, 901 G Street, NW, Room A-5. John W. Franklin will discuss his book, My Life and Era: The Autobiography of Buck Colbert Franklin. Franklin co-edited this book with his father, John Hope Franklin. For more information, call the Black Studies Division at 727-1208.

Every Thursday in February, 6:30 p.m., Takoma Park Neighborhood Library, 416 Cedar Street, NW. Movie Nights. Call 576-7252 for movie titles.

###############

Green Design: The Myth and Reality, March 7
Lauren Searl, lsearl@nbm.org

Wednesday, March 7, 6:30-8:00 p.m. Lecture, Green Design: The Myth and Reality. The Viikki Community of Helsinki is the world’s largest and most ambitious green housing development project. Markku Siiskonen, SAFA, the Viikki project manager from the Helsinki City Planning Department, will present the background, planning, execution, and results of the Viikki project. Markku Komonen, SAFA, partner at Heikkinen-Komonen Architects, will discuss the application of green design principles in Viikki and in his firm’s work. Following the lecture will be a reception will be hosted by the City of Helsinki. This lecture is held in conjunction with The Green House, which will be open for viewing. $12 Museum members and students; $20 nonmembers. Prepaid registration required. Walk-in registration based on availability. At the National Building Museum, 401 F Street, NW, Judiciary Square stop, Metro Red Line. Register for events at http://www.nbm.org.

###############

themail@dcwatch is an E-mail discussion forum that is published every Wednesday and Sunday. To subscribe, to change E-mail addresses, or to switch between HTML and plain text versions of themail, use the subscription form at http://www.dcwatch.com/themail/subscribe.htm. To unsubscribe, send an E-mail message to themail@dcwatch.com with “unsubscribe” in the subject line. Archives of past messages are available at http://www.dcwatch.com/themail.

All postings should also be submitted to themail@dcwatch.com, and should be about life, government, or politics in the District of Columbia in one way or another. All postings must be signed in order to be printed, and messages should be reasonably short — one or two brief paragraphs would be ideal — so that as many messages as possible can be put into each mailing.


Send mail with questions or comments to webmaster@dcwatch.com
Web site copyright ©DCWatch (ISSN 1546-4296)