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April 11, 2007

Responsible

Dear Responsible Citizens:

I must admit that I am perplexed by Bill Coe’s objection, below, to my advice to hold councilmembers to their word, and to hold them — in their own words — accountable and responsible for improving students’ education. The whole point of the power play, if you believe the mayor and the councilmembers who supported his plan, was to give the mayor (and later, as the plan evolved, also the council) power over the schools, and by doing that to make them responsible and accountable for the performance of the schools. But Coe objects that parents and citizens shouldn’t bother councilmembers with complaints about and problems with the schools, because to do so would sabotage the new governance structure and be “improper and unethical.”

Bosh and piffle. They certainly don’t act like it, but the mayor and councilmembers are nothing but public servants, which means we hire them to serve us. If they don’t serve us, we should fire them. They’ve taken over the schools so they can direct the money in the massive school budget and school construction budget to their favorites, and so they will have control over making sure that their favorites get cheap deals buying school land that they declare excess. Ann Hargrove writes, below, about how unwise the upcoming school “deaccesionings” and “private-public partnerships” (the private interests profit, the public pays) will be. The least we can expect, as the mayor and council squander our tax money and lay waste to our city’s land assets, is that they keep their word and improve education immediately, and continue to have rapid and massive improvements in what the educational establishment calls “educational outcomes.”

The mayor and councilmembers hope that citizens and parents either just shut up about school failures or get sidetracked into directing their complaints to powerless figureheads in the Ombudsman office and the neutered school board. Coe buys into that plan, giving the mayor and councilmembers a free pass. We can’t allow that to happen. The mayor and councilmembers have been the bulls in the schools’ china shop. They broke it; they bought it. The schools are theirs now, and it’s their responsibility to run them, down to the very last burned-out light bulb. When you address your complaints and problems with the schools to the councilmembers, they’ll do their very best to discourage you from coming to them. So, how is that different from any other problem you have with DC government?

Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com

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Beware the Ides of July
Ed T Barron, edtb1@macdotcom

Just happened to read the senior citizen’s ID card I use to ride the DC Metrobus. It has an expiration date of July 2009. Do the folks in the Metro Transit office know something that I don’t (but should)?

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New Postings on DCWatch and the Web
Dorothy Brizill, dorothy@dcwatch.com

There are several new postings on DCWatch. The DC government has filed a request for the US Court of Appeals to hold an en banc (that is, a full court panel) rehearing of Parker v. DC, the Second Amendment case: http://www.dcwatch.com/issues/gun070409.htm. The original Court of Appeals decision is at http://www.dcwatch.com/issues/gun070309.htm. The mayor’s proposed fiscal year 2008 budget is available online at http://dc.gov/mayor/budget_2008/budget_fy2008.shtm, and DCWatch has the mayor’s press release (http://www.dcwatch.com/mayor/070323.htm), explanatory presentation (http://www.dcwatch.com/mayor/070323b.htm), and city council testimony on the budget (http://www.dcwatch.com/mayor/070326c.htm). It also has Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi’s city council testimony on the budget (http://www.dcwatch.com/govern/cfo070326b.htm), as well as an interesting exchange of letters between Council Chairman Gray and Gandhi on whether the budget is balanced (http://www.dcwatch.com/govern/cfo070326.htm).  Finally, CFO Gandhi’s fiscal impact statement on the mayor’s proposed takeover of the city schools is at http://www.dcwatch.com/govern/cfo/070326c.htm.

On May 1, a special election will be held in the District to fill two vacant council seats in Ward 4 and 7. Two web sites are provided in-depth coverage of the candidates, issues, and campaign events in those wards: http://www.ward4specialelection.org and http://www.ward7specialelection.org.

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End of Taxation Without Representation
Diane Lee Schulz, dihi.cobra@verizon.net

I think we are being optimistic about the passage of the House bill to end taxation without representation. The Senate is unlikely to pass it. The President has said he will veto it. Besides, the whole thing has a negative ring. I propose we go a new direction: "Rep Free-Tax Free-DC." It has a nice ring, rolls easily off the tongue, and puts us constitutionally where we should be. A separate District, with no representation in Congress and paying no federal taxes. Kind of like Puerto Rico and Guam on steroids.

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Videos Worth Watching
Phil Shapiro, pshapiro@his.com

Washingtonpost.com is now distributing high-definition video podcasts from some of their documentary producers. In the past few years I’ve developed an appreciation for the storytelling craft of Travis Fox. I was happy to see him represented now in high-def. You can find these video podcasts (available for free) in Apple’s iTunes Music store. Search for washingtonpost.com in the search field at the top right corner of the iTunes Music Store window.

The video I downloaded and viewed this evening was a six-minute piece about the crisis in Darfur. I knew ahead of time that Travis Fox would portray this story professionally and sensitively. He has earned my trust. The download was rather large (75 megabytes), but worth watching. I’m obligated to learn more about the crisis in Darfur to better understand the world I live in. For six minutes, Travis Fox transported me there. I sat with him and saw the world through his eyes.

It’s useful to note that this “high-def” is the lowest-quality of high-definition — something called 720p. It looks very clear if you watch it at 720 pixels across in size. If you expand it to full screen on your monitor, it’s going to look blurred. Travis Fox and the other documentary producers at Washingtonpost.com have many stories to tell us. These stories are worth watching and learning from. You’ll discover soon enough that Washingtonpost.com has hired some of the best video storytellers around. And the times, they are a-changin’.

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Mayor Fenty a Modern-Day Adam in the Garden of Eden
Pat Taylor, ptaylor.dc@verizon.net

Tom Toles has it just right in his cartoon in Sunday’s Washington Post (April 8). Mayor Fenty is the innocent in the Garden of Eden, about to pick the apple (named “Schools”) from the Tree of Knowledge. The little cartoonist in the lower corner says: “Lots to Learn.”

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Such a Deal Not Such a Deal
Ann Hargrove, ahhjlh@verizon.net

Regarding Ed Barron’s suggestion [themail, April 8] that the deal that might be struck for the Tenleytown Library and Janney school — a public/private partnership — is a good deal, some may well have reservations. Oyster School gave up its playing field for an apartment building in order to get its special new bilingual school, and the popular school is small, so small that the upper grades will have to expand into an old school some blocks away (Adams School) that has no recreation area adequate for older children. In Janney’s case, an outdoor soccer field, very much needed for kids these days, would go. A gym would be great for the school, but would not be a substitute for the playing field. What a shame. That’s no bargain. It would seem that having the apartments constructed on top of a first-rate library would be the better option, leaving the school ground alone. But that option should be weighed carefully as well. Doing so might well limit what can be done with the library property in the future if it were deemed desirable to modify it in some way to better serve a public facility interest.

Should we consider DC-owned school grounds as fodder for private development? These public/private partnerships need to be looked at from a broader perspective, weighing the options carefully and skeptically: on the one hand, trying to meet the present public facility need, but on the other, preserving scarce public land assets for the future some twenty or thirty years down the pike, when District-owned land may be needed for expanded public facilities. But by then the land will be so precious and the city so built up that the city will have a much harder time providing the resources needed for this purpose. Also, the fact that in the future we will likely find it desirable to consolidate public facilities — such as healthcare facilities and schools — makes it even more important to preserve larger public tracts as reservations for future expansions. And in the process it is imperative that we retain high standards for our schools. It is simply unacceptable to shortchange our kids for any other desirable purpose.

On a further note, with all this private development going on, land parcels are getting scarce even now for such simple needs as city storage — sand, trucks, and other city vehicles, etc., and we still have not provided a much needed adequate storage facility for archiving all the city’s own records and artifacts. We need to be very careful to assure that an adequate supply of city-owned land is available for all our present purposes, as well as to provide for unforeseen future needs.

It is too easy to be seduced by the lure of apparently cheap, but ultimately very expensive, quick fixes. Perhaps less focus on huge projects such as baseball stadiums would prevent related worries on how best to use our bonding capacity, rather than relying heavily on public/private partnerships or tax revenue schemes that can be changed in an instant by the council and that can result in taking away future DC land and development rights for public facilities. Care should be exercised here, plus a good dose of planning for future public facilities reservations. I wonder how our new mayor and council, under the emerging new arrangements for education, will deal with this issue.

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Sizzling Express Victory
Samuel Jordan, samunomas@msn.com

On Tuesday, April 10, when Sam Jordan and members of the Committee for Respect for Our Community arrived for the weekly picket and protest of the hiring policy at Sizzling Express restaurant at 600 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, management had thrown in the towel. The protest, fueled by Sizzling Express’ refusal to hire African Americans, who constitute 30 to 70 percent of the restaurant’s patrons at various hours during the work week, had been led by Jordan for two weeks. On Tuesday, an African American woman was posted in the highly visible cashier’s position.

The larger problem remains unsolved. There is an untold number of enterprises in Washington, DC, that as a matter of policy do not hire African Americans, who are experiencing increasing unemployment pressures. The victory at the Sizzling Express location on Capitol Hill has not meant victory at the other four locations: 4th and M Streets, SE (Navy Yard); 1445 K Street, NW (Downtown); 1150 Connecticut Avenue, NW; and 534 Virginia Avenue, NW (Foggy Bottom). Committee-trained Witnesses continue to report no change in the pattern in these locations of substantial African American patronage and an absence of African American employees.

The city’s business, political and community leadership is fiddling while a firestorm is brewing. African Americans are increasingly marginalized in Washington, DC, ethnic tensions are compounded on a daily basis and the employers grow bolder in their manipulation of working people desperate for meaningful employment and decent wages. We aren’t hopeful, yet. While patrons of all ethnicities thanked Jordan and the Committee for a job well done, the group keeps open its invitation to train Witnesses who gathered the facts leading to Sizzling Express’ capitulation. More are needed as the issue remains on the agenda for job-seekers in Wards 7 and 8 who must cross the Anacostia like the Rio Grande to find work in "mainland" DC and the metro region, unaware that “No African Americans Need Apply.”

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Ancestors
Ed Kane, ermk@aol.com

Gary’s comment on “ancestors” in Sunday’s issue [themail, April 8] calls to a mind a recent article in the Washington Post. An obituary summary on page B1 of the April 2 issue described Jacques Courtin-Clarins as “starting (life) as a masseuse.” This statement is correct only if, later in life, M. Courtin-Clarins had a sex-change operation.

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Miscellaneous Points
Bill Coe, bceedeec@aol.com

I wish to comment on three items appearing recently in themail. First, I express my dismay over Mr. Imhoff’s suggestion as to how we respond to the impending takeover of our public schools — i.e., by flooding the District council with inquiries about this or that perceived problem [themail, April 4]. He is, facetiously perhaps, urging us to sabotage the new governing structure by misusing it. Such action would be improper and unethical. Like it or not, Mayor Fenty’s proposal for the schools is almost certainly going to be instated, and it is incumbent on all of us to make it work. Notwithstanding any larger or more fundamental issues at stake here, our primary concern ought to be the educational outcomes of DC’s children. By gumming up the new system as it gets started and thus wrecking it, we would doom whole classes of middle-school students to a chaotic experience in high school — with even worse results than what our existing school system produces. I, for one, couldn’t live with this. I believe the reconstituted school board will manage to find positive creative ways to play its role in the new governance structure, and Washingtonians will take proper advantage. We are extremely resourceful in working through organizations to make ourselves heard, and I have no doubt we will do so in this case.

Second, as to Mr. Imhoff’s scorn for “the scolding negativity of health nannies who seek to lengthen life by prohibiting everything that gives pleasure,” this point of view is not uncommon, but it’s existentially wrong and dangerous. Things do not give pleasure to us. We take pleasure from things. Thus, we have the unique (if not sacred) ability to choose where our pleasure lies. If, as Mr. Imhoff imagines, the elderly patrons of the Cherry Blossom Festival were to advise avoiding “cigars, brandy, and fried foods” in order to live longer, they would simply be suggesting that we not be slaves to our palates — that we instead define our own pleasure and make choices which enhance (if not extend) our lives. In the words of the ancient poet: “Plesure is a privy prik.” We have the power to run our lives well. Let’s use it.

Finally, I express the hope that Mr. Jonathan R. Rees will post his thoughts in themail more frequently. His fevered paranoia produces the most remarkably florid scenarios of base motive and evil intent among our elected leaders — worthy, really, of Poe or even Lyndon LaRouche. It’s a hoot — highly entertaining. Thanks!

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E-Filing Is Free!
Matt Forman, Matthew.Forman2@verizon.net

Filing your tax return online with the District Government is free on the cfo.dc.gov web site for both the D40 and D40EZ forms. You have to enter data in a few screens, as it doesn’t take your Turbo Tax input, although you’d think they’d figure out some way to do that by now. In any event, I believe it’s Turbo Tax that’s ripping you off with the filing fee, not the DC government.

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DC Tax Online Filing Options
Natalie Wilson, natalie.wilson@dc.gov

This E-mail is in response to your concerns posted in themail [July 2] on the District’s online filing and payment options. Electronic filing fees for using products such as Turbo Tax are not levied by the Office of Tax and Revenue (OTR). They are levied by the software companies who sell the use of their software. In fact OTR was the first jurisdiction in the country to offer free E-filing via our own Internet site. You can access that service from our electronic Taxpayer Service Center at http://www.taxpayerservicecenter.com.

Third-party software programs such as Turbo Tax and Tax Cut will not allow you to pay your taxes to the IRS electronically. However, they will automatically print a D40 P Voucher for the District. Taxpayers can take advantage of OTR’s online payment options, which allow the use of electronic checks and credit cards. These options are available when paying declarations of estimated tax for individuals, current individual income taxes owed to the District, or past due income taxes. Paying with eChecks is free, but when using a credit card the processing company imposes a transaction fee of 2.5 percent.

For additional information on OTR’s payment options, please click on http://otr.cfo.dc.gov/otr/cwp/view,A,1330,Q,636891.asp.

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Predictable Bashing
Ruel Lanier, easternmarketeer@hotmail.com

After over forty years in DC, some things and mindsets never seem to change. Now and again the usual self-absorbed political parasites that burden our city are quick to crawl out to bash or sabotage anything or anyone different from DC’s status quo. As a lifelong Democrat who’s seen the best and worst in my hometown, I’ve learned to keep an open mind to what’s different and unconventional. It’s no secret, DC is not ground zero for outside the box thinking or action when it comes to resolving our many social and economic ills.

It was shameful and ignorant, regarding the two responses presented in themail’s April 4 and 8 editions, to falsely and arrogantly bash the new political party District of Columbia Independents for Citizen Control. I have been to their web site (DCIndependents.org) after reading news stories in The Examiner and elsewhere. Reading from top to bottom, what is clear about this fledgling local party is that it is serious and certified, and will have challenges and successes. I wish them well. If there is anything the District needs more now is fresher political insights and approaches.

Ironically, this new party that refers to itself as the DCICC seems to spout a lot of ideas and principles that are rooted in the US Constitution and Bill of Rights. This may be scary for those who are comfortable with DC politics and bureaucracy as usual. As to whether they can successfully communicate and relate this to present-day DC issues and voters remains to be seen. But I found it very difficult to find fault or disagreement with what was presented on their web site. Their emphasis on citizen control strikes a comfortable chord as a living witness to all the crap that we endure here in DC from our dysfunctional bureaucrats and bureaucracy. But, forty-seven years of crap hasn’t forced me to flee for the Maryland or Virginia border yet. I’ll try to keep faith.

If someone or some new political party wants to take a crack at doing something to make our town better, then I wish them success. Anyone familiar with American history and parties knows this is not unusual or un-American. Surely, the DCICC’s approach is much better than the talking so many others seem to do. As an educator and parent, this is what I teach my students and my own children who may stay to inherit our city.

As we slowly lose our citizen rights and control through the efforts of our own elected DC officials, this new political party may prove to be a timely antidote. If the DCICC proves to have a real and better plan to demolish the political plantation that some are comfortable maintaining, then count me among slaves who want real freedom. Going along to get along never really got DC residents to a better place.

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Build It and They Will Shop
Dennis Moore, dennis@dcindependents.org

Okay, we get it. The District’s new baseball stadium is a very done deal. As to what long-term fiscal problems will be generated from the average one-third of paid stadium seats that sell is another issue. I may still buy a Nats hat if they can win at least five home games in a row. However, thanks to incompetent fiscal projections that continue to change, DC’s latest white elephant can be expected to drop pungent loads of debt on District taxpayers beyond 2010. Economics 101: current and future costs must never exceed actual economic benefits.

On that account, my idea of building Ellington Center on the RFK Stadium site is designed to produce exponential economic and social benefits. Imagine thousands of DC residents, suburbanites, and visitors flocking to a dynamic 365-day entertainment, arts, and retail shopping megaplex containing over one hundred national and District-based retail stores, an indoor multimedia family amusement park, four live performance auditoriums, twenty video/film theaters, restaurants, hotels, office space, The Capital Life & History Museum, Riverbank Environmental Museum, a twenty-first century public library, an on-site medical facility, childcare services, MPD Public Safety Center, customer service training center, business management public high school, upgraded bus and train access to Stadium-Armory Metro station, as well as ample multilevel underground parking. [Finished online at http://www.dcwatch.com/themail/2007/07-04-11.htm#moore]

Oh my! Imagine even more the creation of at least two thousand full-time sales, administrative, service and professional support jobs for District residents, and a minimum of $250 million dollars in annual revenue. The major retail, entertainment and amusement companies that will jump at the opportunity to have a high profile easy access presence in "The Nation’s Capital" -- our valuable untapped brand -- can fund most of the projected $350 million for Ellington Center’s construction. Build it and they will shop. The multiple sources of steady year-round revenue generated out of sales, property, business and employment taxes from Ellington Center will become an immediate and long-term economic asset for reliable funding of genuine public priorities -- family oriented priorities like schools, truly affordable housing, healthcare services, public safety, and a significant reduction in resident and business taxation pressures.

This exponential economic benefit is increased when you include the millions more in annual tourist dollars, as Ellington Center becomes a priority attraction for millions of year-round visitors to our brand, the Nation’s Capital. Again, I’m talking about year-round long-term socioeconomic benefit, not the seasonal debt-ridden gamble of the new stadium. Thanks, Councilmember Jack Evans, for sheepishly affirming to Councilmember Tommy Wells recently that the new stadium is actually long-term debt for DC taxpayers.

Ellington Center, named in honor of the District’s favorite son, and America’s cultural treasure Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington, will have the desired economic benefit that diverse District of Columbia residents know is needed for our many people-oriented priorities, as well as enhancing our cultural, educational and retail profile. Then again, my idea is merely a dream amid the reality of fiscal incompetence and consistent shortsightedness that infects too much of District government leadership. But, my outside-the-box dream may be the one realistic proposal left that remedies the financial nightmares to come. Build it, and it will pay.

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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS

DC Public Library Events, April 14, 15, 17
Randi Blank, randi.blank@dc.gov

Saturday, April 14, 11:00 a.m., Takoma Park Neighborhood Library, 416 Cedar Street, NW. Puppets and Safety at the Library. This interactive puppet show will empower children by educating them on the difference between good and bad touches. Children from pre-kindergarten to second grade will learn how to help protect themselves. This event is cosponsored by the DC Rape Crisis Center as part of Sexual Assault Awareness Month. For more information, call 576-7486.

Monday, April 15, 2:00 p.m., and Friday, April 19, 7:00 p.m., Southeast Neighborhood Library, 403 7th Street, SE. Reading Together at Your Library. Training will be provided to parents and caregivers on how to encourage children ages 6-12 to read. For more information, call 698-3377.

Tuesday, April 17, 12:00 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Library, 901 G Street, NW, Room A-5. Violinist Michelle Kim, a member of the Washington National Opera Orchestra, and prize-winning pianist Jessica Choe perform works by Sergey Prokofiev. For more information, call 727-1285.

Tuesday, April 17, 12:00 p.m., West End Neighborhood Library, 1101 24th Street, NW. West End Library Book Club. We will discuss Mornings on Horseback: The Story of an Extraordinary Family, a Vanished Way of Life and the Unique Child Who Became Theodore Roosevelt by David McCullough. For more information, call 724-8707.

Tuesday, April 17, 7:00 p.m., Takoma Park Neighborhood Library, 416 Cedar Street, NW. Takoma Park Mystery Book Club. To find out what book will be discussed, please call 576-7252.

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Cultural Institute of Mexico Events, April 15, 19
Alfonso Nieto, icm@instituteofmexicodc.org

Sunday, April 15, 7:00 p.m. Live the great experience of Zarzuela. Talented young singers performing excerpts from tuneful Spanish light opera, accompanied by dancers Lourdes Elias and Heidi Kershaw, members of Spanish Dance Theater. Andrea Dorf, stage director; Claudia Huckle, mezzo-soprano; Benjamin Makino, conductor; Aundi Marie Moore, soprano; Matthew Ottenlips, coach/accompanist; Thomas Rimes, coach/accompanist; Elizabeth Andrews Roberts, soprano; Trevor Scheunemann, baritone; Obed Ureña, baritone; Greg Warren, tenor; Magdalena Wór, mezzo-soprano; Yingxi Zhang, tenor. presented by the Washington National Opera Domingo-Cafritz young artist program. At the Cultural Institute of Mexico, 2829 16th Street NW. Free admission; limited space available. RSVP 728-1675.

Thursday, April 19, 7:00 p.m., Washington International Piano Arts Council and the Cultural Institute of Mexico present the 6th Annual Winners’ Grand Prix Concert. Four first winners of international piano competitions: Christopher Shih, 2006 Washington International Piano Artists Competition; Henri Delbeau, 2006 Berlin International Piano Amateur Competition; Ye Feng Sebastian, 2005 Paris Concours de Grands Amateurs de Piano; Thomas Yu, 2006 Paris Concours de Grands Amateurs de Piano. Playing music by Manuel M. Ponce, Enrique Granados, Fryderyk Chopin, Ludwig van Beethoven, Amadeus Mozart, Franz Liszt and others. At the Cultural Institute of Mexico, 2829 16th Street NW. Free admission; limited space available. RSVP 728-1675.

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Boss Shepherd Talk at Historical Society, April 18
Bell Clement, Clement at historydc dot org

On Wednesday, April 18, 6:30-8:00 p.m. the Historical Society of Washington presents a talk by John Richardson on the District’s own Alexander Robey ("Boss") Shepherd. Entitled "The Builder: Shepherd and the District," the talk is based on Richardson’s ongoing research in preparation for his biography of the legendary Shepherd, who was briefly governor of the District’s Reconstruction-era territorial government. The talk will explore what price the city paid for Governor Shepherd’s public improvements, and what the value and impact of those improvements was. Richardson will also touch on the question of Shepherd’s handling of race relations and ask what can be learned about The Boss from a study of his twenty-two years managing silver mines in Mexico. All are welcome but RSVPs, are requested to: RSVP@historydc.org.

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