The Phony Crisis
Dear Crisis Managers:
We hear it again and again from Mayor Fenty, Council Chairman Gray,
and other members of the city council. DC public schools are in crisis.
This is a crisis situation. We face a crisis. This is, of course,
nonsense. A crisis is a sudden, abrupt emergency that demands an
immediate response. Public education in this city is in bad shape, but
it isn’t any worse than it was last year, or the year before that, or
the decade before that. The public schools may, in fact, already be
moving in the right direction, and may be in better shape than they have
been for years. So why are Fenty, Gray, and most other councilmembers
manufacturing this phony crisis? Because if public education is simply a
nagging and long-standing problem, even if it is a serious one, then
solutions to that problem can be carefully and deliberately considered,
and there is no need for a rush. If it is a crisis, there can be no
hesitation, and the mayor’s bad and ill-considered plan can be pushed
though rapidly.
Opponents of home rule and self-government, like Fenty and Gray, want
the US Congress to impose the mayor’s school takeover on the District,
rather than to allow the citizens their right to approve of amendments
to the Home Rule Charter, our city’s constitution, as is required by
the Charter. The only way they can justify this contemptuous insult to
the citizens is to invent a false crisis, and to claim that the crisis
doesn’t permit them to wait the few months it would take to hold a
voters’ referendum. They want to rush the city council vote to late
March or early April, rather than to wait the one additional month it
would take to seat new council representatives for a quarter of the
city, Wards 4 and 7. Only a crisis justifies that.
That contempt for the voters doesn’t end with the mayor’s and
councilmembers’ preference that Congress act as this city’s state
legislature. Representatives of the business community, who are
financing and staging the mayor’s takeover plan (the mayor still
refuses to disclose who commissioned and paid for the Parthenon Group
report and his other education consultants, even to Councilmember
Mendelson, to whom the mayor, on January 19, said he would give the
information that day — but you can bet the money didn’t come from an
elementary school PTA), testified in favor of that plan before the city
yesterday. The business representatives stand to be the primary
beneficiaries of the plan, too, but the council showed no skepticism
about their testimony. Instead, they were given a prime time slot early
during the business day, were allowed to speak for as long as they
wanted, and were showered with fulsome praise (and I’m using
"fulsome" in its primary sense of obsequious and fawning, not
in its secondary sense of abundant). When ordinary, unfavored citizens
testified, Chairman Gray strictly enforced short time limits on them,
and he kept some witnesses waiting until as late as 3:00 a.m. for their
turn to testify. The disparity in treatment was obvious, as was the
disparity in the value that the politicians place on their important
financial contributors and their mere constituents.
There is no school crisis. There is simply the same education problem
that the District has had for decades. That education problem will not
be solved in weeks or months, but in years and decades. If the council
ever recognizes that, it can devote the time it should give to fixing
the schools and to building a good working relationship with the Board
of Education, the people whom the citizens elect to devote their full
attention to education. And then the council and mayor can return to
their primary duty and highest priority — giving the city’s land and
tax money away to wealthy sports promoters.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Abe Pollin thinks he deserves a fifty million dollar rebate from DC
taxpayers to improve his Verizon Center because he helped revitalize the
Gallery Place/Chinatown area. What a nice idea! But why limit the
distribution of government largesse only to one billionaire developer
whose private investment has benefited our city (while providing him a
handsome profit)? Why not rebates to everyone who has invested in
neglected neighborhoods over the past twenty years and helped drag them
out of decline?
Dupont Circle after all, was rescued, developed, preserved and made
into a dynamic and profitable neighborhood largely through the effort
and investment of gay men. How much do we now rebate the gays? The
transformation of Adams Morgan started with a couple of Ethiopian
restaurants and some die-hard dive bars. What about a share for them?
(At least quit hassling Madam’s Organ over their license!) Ben’s
Chili Bowl kept U Street alive through the post-riot dark ages, and the
hundreds of crafters who have kept Eastern Market thriving over the
years certainly deserve something. I invested in Columbia Heights
through twenty years of drugs and slums and did my small part in
revitalizing there — will DC taxpayers now buy me a new roof?
Is this the most ridiculous proposition ever put before the city
council? If Mr. Pollin neglected to foresee the money he would need ten
years down the road to keep up with repairs and improvements to his
arena, then he has no business being in business! This vast sum will
allegedly be paid for by increasing sales tax on tickets and merchandise
sold at the center; so why doesn’t Mr. Pollin simply raise his ticket
prices and charge more for T-shirts himself? Isn’t that how business
works? Regardless of how one feels about the “revitalized” (or
homogenized, suburbanized, de-Chinafied) Chinatown area, it is
definitely now a booming commercial center that brings in welcome tax
dollars, and the Verizon Center certainly has something to do with it.
For that we should give Abe Pollin our gratitude, maybe even a gold star
to stick on his profit ledger. But a fifty-million-dollar rebate is
wrong and absurd. And I can’t even begin to address the suggestion
that the city will benefit by ultimately being "awarded" a
fifty-year-old sports arena in 2047! Are Evans, Gray, and Barry insane?
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Twenty-Four Skybox Seats for Councilmembers,
Only Fifty Million Dollars for Taxpayers
Dorothy Brizill, dorothy@dcwatch.com
At Tuesday’s meeting of the city council’s Committee of the
Whole, Jack Evans, Vincent Gray, and Marion Barry introduced the
“Verizon Center Sales Tax Revenue Bond Approval Act of 2007.”
Despite the legislation’s rather benign title, the true purpose of the
bill is to provide $50 million in public funding for the Center’s
owner, Abe Pollin and the Washington Sports and Entertainment L.L.P.
According to the bill, the District would issue and sell $50 million in
revenue bonds "to assist in the financing, refinancing, or
reimbursing of costs associated with improvements to the Verizon
Center."
According to the Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/20/AR2007022000873.html),
Pollin would use the bond proceeds to fund “a new $5 million
scoreboard, a $3 million renovation of luxury suites, $400,000 worth of
flat-screen TVs in suites, $1 million for a new marquee, and many
improvements to the arena’s satellite and cable systems” as well as
“expenditures for building maintenance, such as the replacement of a
$750,000 emergency generator, $3 million to repair the roof and $500,000
for interior painting.”
According to sources in the Wilson Building, important elements of
the deal with Pollin are not contained or referenced in the legislation,
although they may be in a private side agreement that has not been made
public. When the legislation is approved by the council and the mayor,
Pollin will provide government officials with a rent-free 24-seat luxury
suite at the Center for their private use. To secure Vincent Gray’s
support, Pollin will host the citywide basketball championship game at
the Center on March 5. And ownership of the Verizon Center will transfer
to the District government in 2047, when the building will be fifty
years old, well beyond the lifespan of most sports arenas.
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Following up on a letter in Monday’s Washington Post
regarding the seemingly routine reckless driving habits of some (many?)
Metrobus drivers and the apparent unwillingness of the Metropolitan
Police Department to enforce traffic laws against them, I would like to
urge that citizens take a proactive role in curbing this behavior. When
you see a Metrobus exhibiting any kind of unsafe driving behavior, make
a note of the four-digit bus number as well as the time and place of the
incident and report it on the WMATA web page for comments: http://www.wmata.com/riding/ridercomment.cfm.
I am told that every such comment is reviewed by the driver’s
supervisor, who in turn speaks to the driver about it.
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Coincidentally, my wife and I were out socializing each of the two
nights following the deaths of the two pedestrians at 7th and
Pennsylvania after being run down by a Metrobus. What we saw, maybe
because we were paying attention more, was frightening: three buses
(possibly the only three we saw given the route we took) blowing through
red lights. One of them did so from a dead start at 14th and M Streets,
NW, after apparently getting frustrated at the length of traffic signal.
The other two, as has often been pointed out, appeared to accelerate
once the light turned yellow even though they were far enough from the
intersection to stop. What we’re talking about, in my opinion, is not
a question of insufficient technical training where drivers skills at
maneuvering a large vehicle can be improved, but rather an attitude
about traffic regulations, entitlement, etc. Metro needs to put
plain-clothed agents on its buses to monitor the driving habits of its
employees — and come down hard on those who can’t be bothered with
obeying traffic regulations.
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I don’t take buses often, but the one time I was on a bus where
there was an accident, it was because the bus was cut off by a car,
which of course kept going. DC is one of the most difficult cities in
the US to maneuver through, for many of the reasons that Brendan Conway
pointed out in his E-mail [themail, February 19]. But included in with
mindless and clueless drivers are the scores of mindless and clueless
pedestrians. Cell phones aren’t just a problem for drivers, they’re
a problem for pedestrians as well. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve
seen pedestrians step out into the street without looking either way
because they were talking on the phone. If it’s not distraction by
cell phones, it’s just being in their own fog or downright stupidity.
I saw a woman once cross: against the light, in the rain, while on
crutches, while four cars were coming at full speed. As she crossed, she
had the nerve to mutter, “You don’t want to hit me.”
I had a jogger run in front of my car, against the light, as I was
driving at regular speed. She was wearing dark clothes at night, and she
had on headphones. I had to break hard to keep from hitting her. She,
meanwhile, seemed oblivious to the fact that her life almost ended.
These clueless pedestrians seem to think that they are always visible,
that the rules of the road don’t apply to them, and that cars can just
stop on a dime if they should decide to suddenly appear in front of
them.
DC’s pedestrians are a danger to themselves and to others. With all
of the things that drivers have to pay attention to in this city, it’s
a bit much to ask that we also think for the hundreds of pedestrians who
don’t appear to be thinking for themselves. I was glad to see that a
public information campaign had finally been launched to educate
pedestrians to pay attention. Drivers have a lot of responsibility, and
particularly those who drive our public transportation vehicles. But you
can’t put all the blame on drivers. Pedestrians have to be held
accountable as well if we want these horrible accidents and deaths to be
reduced.
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Participatory Media and Citizen Journalism
Phil Shapiro, pshapiro@his.com
On television you have a choice of panel discussions that are either
shoutfests or snoozefests. YouTube gives you a third choice — neither
shoutfest nor snoozefest. (See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GHVbxsbECCM)
It’s always interesting considering the same subject from different
points of view.
Within this video is a reference to the popular book, The Long
Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More, by Chris
Anderson, editor at Wired magazine. Recommended reading if you’d
like to understand where we are headed.
National Public Radio, the voice of intelligence for so many years,
is now exploring citizen journalism. Last week a brainstorming session
was held between NPR staff and some leading citizen journalism thinkers
and practitioners. Appropriately enough, you can see video clips as
these people think out loud (see http://www.andycarvin.com).
Transparency in media. Refreshing. A breath of fresh air. “The future
has already arrived. It’s just not evenly distributed yet.” (William
Gibson)
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Fixing the DC Schools
Ed T. Barron, edtb1@macdotcom
Show me the Plan. Let me see the plans that the pro-takeover and
school board supporters have for the DC schools. The plan that gives
power to school principals, eliminates the top heavy bureaucracy, and
eliminates tenure for teachers is the plan that would get my vote.
School principals need the authority to hire and fire teachers and
administer their budgets without interference from a bureaucracy or a
teachers’ union. There is absolutely no need or justification for
having tenure in public school systems. Start running the schools like
you would small businesses with accountability, metrics, and operating
as teams, and you will see measurable improvements in the educational
processes in DC.
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Small, Safe, Disciplined Classrooms, and Good
Teachers Are Prescription for Success
K. Pearson-West, wkpw3@aol.com
Too bad all the elected officials trying to take over the school
system did not run for the DC Board of Education instead of for their
elective positions. Running the schools seems to be their passion at
this moment. Anyway, at some point in the discussion on schools, leaders
must begin to talk more about getting smaller classes. In many cases,
children could learn so much better if the teacher had just a little
more time to devote to a particular student. Students might be able to
do better in English and math if teachers could spend more time with
them. In more challenged communities where sometimes young people’s
attention is focused more on survival and peace of mind, then smaller
classroom size might be particularly advantageous to improve academic
achievement.
Additionally, young people should feel safe in the classroom and to
and from the classroom and school. They should be able to return to a
community that does not have to worry about the sale of drugs on the
corner or in the apartment stairwell or worry about the occasional
gunshot piercing the air and causing people to run and duck for cover.
Gangs and crews need a different social call instead of terrorizing
neighborhoods and citizens. Safe neighborhoods can make a day at school
much more stimulating and rewarding. Do good schools come first or do
good neighborhoods? Does the chicken or the egg come first? How do we
proceed when parenting needs, being able to pay for high mortgages or
rent often on one paycheck, and looking for steady employment are just
as critical to some on a daily basis as is the challenge of learning in
school? Young people must feel safe so that they can concentrate on
getting a good education and eventually be able to live independently
without a government subsidy or life of crime. Sometimes children are
not even safe in their homes as they return to dysfunctional homes or
are surrounded by dysfunctional neighbors that need lessons in conflict
resolution and gun control. Also, peer pressure is alive and well and
goes from the neighborhood to the schools. Kids sometimes succumb to
peer-pressure and deviate from the values they were taught. They in turn
become the bad guys in school and disrupt the classroom.
Finally, not every qualified teacher can teach. A teacher may be
bright and look good on paper; however, some teachers do not know how to
impart their knowledge to the students. Some don’t know how to
transfer their knowledge to young people. Some don’t know how to
relate and some can’t handle these restless young folks and their
style of learning. Some kids are quickly labeled learning disabled
because some really didn’t know how to handle the youngster or deal
with his/her issues. There may be too much tossing up one’s hands and
labeling kids as special ed. And there might be a parent or two eager to
get that label for their children for some unique reason. Then there are
actually some teachers that took the job as a teacher because they
couldn’t get into their career interest. Teaching is more than a
career or profession; it is a calling. There is so much more information
available to young people that there certainly must be much more to
teach than when I attended the DC public schools. Fair or average
teachers are plentiful, but good to great teachers might not be there in
quantifies that the schools need. It’s sad to see a brilliant math
teacher unable to break down the mathematical techniques and logic in a
way that a young person could better understand. It’s disappointing to
an English teacher see that cannot convey the love for the English
language and create a thirst for reading and spelling grammatically
well.
However we end up with this divisive DC school takeover ploy,
hopefully those that really care and do not need the political applause
and approval will demand safe neighborhoods and safe schools with
smaller classrooms. Those in power will also see that good teachers are
properly and fairly rewarded. It’s time we begin to pay teachers what
they are worth so that more young men and women will go into the
teaching field and stay there for the long haul. Our children deserve
the best, and in the nation’s capital, with our intellect and business
sense, the best should be the norm. Let’s reach a comprise on the
reform plans without dealing with governance and home rule charter
leaders and let the new school board move forward with it’s plan while
DC leaders debate other issues of the day.
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Although she finally did a prison term for her folly, Leona Helmsley
once said: “Only the little people pay taxes,” and she was right to
a great extent. A careful examination of our federal and District of
Columbia tax codes show that in order to lower your tax liability to as
near zero as possible, you have to have a sizable enough income to do
what it takes to escape taxes offered up through pages of loopholes. In
DC, the rich who earn more than $150,000 a year pay less proportionately
that those who earn only $45,000. If we would look at the IRS and DC
income tax returns of Mayor Fenty and members of the DC city council, I
would bet all of you that they paid in 2006 far less taxes,
percentage-wise, than did most of the readers of themail.
One of the reasons people over at DC Vote and their supporters oppose
the no taxation approach versus a Congressional vote is because only
those who work in the private sector are exempt from federal taxation.
If you work for the federal, state, or municipal governments, you still
have to pay. Also, employees of any concern that lobbies, services, or
provides products to any governmental body are not exempt. This means
that Mayor Fenty, the city council, and anybody who works with DC Vote
would lose out and not have those federal tax loopholes to lower their
tax liabilities to the US government.
I would bet that my detractors know little if anything about the
structure of the no taxation standing our territories get, who is
exempt, who is not, and the favorable impact it has had upon the
territories — like a major move by the pharmaceutical and technology
industries to Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. DC Vote will never
meet me toe to toe here in themail or elsewhere to argue the pros and
cons of no taxation versus representation, as they know their argument
is not designed to benefit all, just a select few. DC Vote cannot show
any benefits that a Congressional vote would bring that we would not get
anyway without that vote, and that we have been getting just like any
state has for over fifty years. DC Vote is just like Mayor Fenty;
namely, an agenda that would hurt the middle class and poor but benefit
the rich and those seeking more power.
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Waiting ’Til the Midnight Hour,
February 23
India Young, india.young@dc.gov
Friday, February 23, 12:00 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial
Library, 901 G Street, NW, Second Floor East Lobby. Peniel E. Joseph,
Ph.D. will discuss his latest book, Waiting ’Til the Midnight Hour:
A Narrative History of Black Power in America. For more information,
call the Black Studies Division at 727-1208.
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Recorder of Deeds Open House and Tours,
February 24, 27
Alexander M. Padro, PadroANC2C@aol.com
On Saturday, February 24, and Tuesday, February 27, the DC Recorder
of Deeds Building will hole an open houses and conduct tours to
celebrate the building’s sixty-fifth anniversary. The District of
Columbia Recorder of Deeds Building, completed in 1942, features seven
recently restored WPA-era Black history murals (depicting African
American heroes including Benjamin Banneker, Frederick Douglass, Crispus
Attucks, Matthew Henson, and the Massachusetts 54th Regiment) and other
artwork, in a building designed to house the only District agency led
and staffed almost exclusively by African Americans for 125 years. Come
visit the ROD Building and hear about the history of past recorders of
deeds, including Frederick Douglass (the first Black recorder of deeds,
appointed by President James A. Garfield in 1881) and Blanche K. Bruce,
the work of such prominent African American artists as William E. Scott
and Selma Burke, and see the building’s intact 1940s décor, which was
almost lost to demolition in 2001.
The 2007 open houses will be held on Saturday, February 24, from
12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., with tours at 12:00 and 1:00 p.m.., and on
Tuesday, February 27, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., with tours at 6:00
and 7:00 p.m. The tours are free and no reservations are required. The
DC Recorder of Deeds Building is located at 515 D Street, NW, just one
block from the Archives/Navy Memorial Green and Yellow Line Metro
station and Judiciary Square Red Line Metro station. For more
information, call the DC Recorder of Deeds at 727-0419. Sponsored by the
DC Office of Tax and Revenue/Recorder of Deeds.
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Oscar Night Party with American Red Cross,
February 25
Dorinda White, dorinda@rindimedia.com
Women in Film and Video of Washington, DC, invite you to an Oscar
night party sponsored by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
and the American Red Cross of the National Capital Area. Sunday,
February 25, 6 p.m.-midnight at The Lincoln Theater, 1215 U Street, NW.
This is Washington’s only official, Academy-sanctioned Oscar night
party, with all the glitz and glamour of a red carpet arrival.
Paparrazzi and screaming fans will line the carpet as you interview with
Joan Rivers, vogue with Madonna and mingle with Angelina Jolie
(celebrity impersonators). Watch the Academy Awards on the big screen
and during breaks enjoy contests, raffles, and much more. Cocktail
reception and open bar. Cocktail attire; must be 21 or older to attend
(IDs will be checked). Tickets at $75 each. Please go to http://www.redcrossdc.org/Events/event_details.php3?code=102118
to order your tickets.
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Public Forum on School Governance and School
Achievement, February 27
Thomas M. Smith, tmfsmith@starpower.net
The Ward Three Democratic Committee will hold a special panel
discussion and public forum on public school governance and student
achievement. Entitled “Cutting Through The Rhetoric of School
Governance: What’s Really At Stake?,” the panel discussion and
public forum will be held Tuesday, February 27 at 7:30 p.m., at St.
Columba’s Episcopal Church, 4201 Albemarle Street, NW. The public is
invited and welcome to attend and participate.
A distinguished panel of experts will participate on the panel.
Panelists are Robert Bobb, President of the DC Board of Education; Kathy
Patterson, Former Ward Three DC councilmember; Victor Reinoso, Deputy
Mayor For Education; Darlene T. Allen, president, DC Congress of PTAs
and member, PTA National Board of Directors; Mary Levy, director, Public
Education Reform Project, Washington Lawyer’s Committee for Civil
Rights and Urban Affairs; and Mary Filardo, founder and executive
director, The 21st Century School Fund. The panel discussion will be
moderated by Hugh Allen, a longtime and highly respected education
activist in the city and a member of the Ward Three Democratic
Committee. Additionally, Mayor Adrian Fenty is expected to offer brief
remarks preceding the panel discussion and public forum. If you have any
questions, please feel free to contact Thomas M. Smith, chair of the
Ward Three Democratic Committee, at tmfsmith@starpower.net.
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Woodson House Update Closes Out Black History
Month, February 28
Alexander M. Padro, PadroANC2C@aol.com
Now that the National Park Service controls 1538-1542 9th Street, NW,
and the first brown, black, and white NPS sign has gone up in front of
the Carter G. Woodson Home, what comes next? Come hear about the
remaining steps in the process for the development of the National
Historic Site dedicated to the father of Black History on Wednesday,
February 28, at 6:30 p.m.. at the Kennedy Recreation Center, 1401 7th
Street, NW.
Representatives from the National Park Service will be on hand to
discuss the work that has been done to date and upcoming activities; the
Association for the Study of African American Life and History will
discuss their role in the project; and a talented Shaw resident will
present a personal tribute to Dr. Woodson. This event, sponsored by Shaw
Main Streets, is free and open to the public, and no reservations are
required.
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CLASSIFIEDS — FOR SALE
Jenn-Air downdraft oven, used but in great condition, $600 or best
offer. Model SEG196-C. White, two burners on right side, grill on left .
Natural gas or LP grill and burners on top, range is electric
convection, self cleaning, downdraft design so no overhead exhaust fan
is needed. Dimensions: width 29 15/16", depth 26 3/8", height
35 1/2". Perfect working order and very clean. Original manual
included. Must arrange for pick up. Owner lives in Northeast DC.
This grill/oven is great for those who like grilled meats all year
long. It’s about twelve years old but it’s always been in perfect
working condition. It looks great, except the area where the knobs are
has a few scratches in the white paint. Still, considering how great
Jenn-Air products are and the price, it’s a great deal. The only
reason why I’m selling is because I’m having my kitchen remodeled
and I’m changing all appliances to stainless steel.
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