Sick
Dear Healthy People:
I apologize for missing last Wednesday’s issue of themail. It wasn’t
a technical glitch or a vacation that accounted for its absence. I just
got sick. After dinner, and just as I was returning home, I had a brief
bad spell, and then I settled into the most pleasant and comfortable
illness I’ve ever had. I’m not kidding; if you ever have to catch a
bug, hope for this one. I didn’t have any pain or even discomfort. I
was simply exhausted and tired, and I slept twenty hours a day for the
next two days, and most of the third day, too. That’s why I didn’t
answer any of your kind inquiries (for which I thank you) about the
missing issue. I was too tired even to get on the computer, and you know
that means I was very tired. I’m up and about now, so we’re back.
Please resume contributing.
Jonetta Rose Barras and Bill Myers wrote two important articles last
week: “Deputy Mayor Pushed Controversial Contractor” begins, “A
top city official has recommended a politically connected construction
firm — already being audited amid allegations of cost overrun and
shoddy work — for a share in the $2.3 billion school modernization
project, sources told The Examiner. Neil Albert, the deputy mayor
for planning and economic development, has privately said that The Jair
Lynch Companies would be a good fit for the school construction project,
sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they fear
retribution” (http://www.examiner.com/a-728451~Deputy_mayor_pushes_controversial_contractor.html).
The follow-up article, “Deputy Mayor Lobbied for Company” (http://www.examiner.com/a-730673~Deputy_mayor_lobbied_for_company.html),
gives the rest of the story. These articles are about what is just the
first of a long series of the sweetheart insider deals that the school
takeover was designed to facilitate, some of which we shall hear about,
most of which we won’t. On the other part of the deal, the dramatic
and rapid improvement in our children’s education that was the public
rationale for the takeover, Theola Labbe writes in today’s Post
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/19/AR2007051900906.html)
that Superintendent Clifford Janey remains in charge of implementing his
reform plan, and that in fact any mayoral reform plans would simply
build on Janey’s reform plan.
Maybe I should have kept sleeping.
Gary Imhoff
gary@dcwatch.com
###############
To Ward 1’s Undemocratic Boss: Public
Sessions Must Not Be Secret
David J. Mallof, Ward 2, mallof@verizon.net
The problem with reelecting anyone by a wide margin is that it may
invite an abuse of power later. I hope this is not the case with
Councilmember Jim Graham, but I am worried it may be. One telling
situation, as revealed in my several calls with DC government ethics and
DC council administrative procedure professionals recently, suggests
that Mr. Graham would rather game the system than get voters’ inputs.
One government employee called the handling of the situation
“Politburo-style.” The facts seem to agree fully with that
assessment. The ABC Board in an independent DC agency. Board members
serve four-year terms and function independently of, and do not report
directly to, the mayor, unlike the Chief of Police or even the Attorney
General. ABC Board members are responsible for ruling on some of the
biggest daily impacts residents face, such as DC’s increasing club
violence, underage drinking, requested licensee hours of operation,
noise, and use of public space late at night.
On March 26, Mr. Graham’s Committee on Public Works ramrodded a
critical mayoral nomination through in the dark of night with virtually
no public comment, unlike any of the many critical nominations handled
by our new mayor and the DC council this year. The Committee scheduled
the required public hearing with only 24-hour notice, skirting the rules
by calling it a public “roundtable” rather than a hearing, which
requires fourteen days notice. It turns out only five public comments
were received: four from invited friends of the nominee (including one
fellow ANC commissioner) and one from a dissenter (also a fellow ANC
commissioner). The one person who spoke in opposition discovered the
roundtable only by happenstance: he noticed one day that Councilmember
Mary Cheh’s parked car had its headlights on. He told me that had he
not wandered back into the Wilson Building to inform her staff and
subsequently chatted with other council staffers, he is quite sure he
would never have learned of the pseudo-hearing! After the closeted
roundtable session, the full Committee three days later voted in a
similar last-minute, effectively secret manner, and as a result no
official video transcript exists for either the “public” hearing or
the Committee vote. Thus this confirmation for the record for a new ABC
Board Member is virtually invisible. There is no official video
transcript available on the Council’s web site for either the March 26
public roundtable or the critical March 29 Committee vote. This also
likely means no cable TV broadcast of the events occurred, nor were
replays of these sessions rebroadcast for several days over cable to
inform the public of the maneuvers being taken. To my knowledge, all
other public hearings and committee votes for other mayoral nominees
have been properly archived in video format since Mayor Fenty and Mr.
Gray took the reigns of leadership.
There are four more ABC Board nominations up for public discourse
this May. Mr. Graham, do not take license with the citizens’ rights to
be heard. Mr. Graham may attempt to justify his actions as technically
within the law and within his right to provide a mere 24-hours notice
(but not less than, a point which is still in question), since
nominations are “Public Resolutions” rather than “Bills.”
However, by no stretch is this good governance by an elected official,
and it is inconsistent with the council’s settled policy of using
public hearings for mayoral nominations. In decidedly flouting due
process, he “dissed” the right of concerned citizens to comment.
(Imagine if the Public Resolutions on the nominations of Police Chief
Lanier or Attorney General Singer were advanced using
"roundtables" with twenty-four hours notice.) By the way, you
may wonder who the new ABC Board member is for whom there is no public
record. When I spoke with Council Chairman Mr. Vincent Gray by telephone
two weeks ago, he had never even heard of the fellow he had voted to
approve! Well, I guess that apparently is not for you, or for Mr. Gray,
or for me to know. (FYI, his name is Mr. Mital Gandhi, but good luck
finding anything easily in the public record!)
###############
Opposition to Nude Dancing Bars in Ward 5
Hazel Thomas, thomashazelb@aol.com
Citing quality of life issues and after a careful review of DC
Council Bill 17-109, “The One-Time Relocation of Licensees Displaced
by the Ballpark and Skyland Development Project Amendment Act of
2007,” Premier Community Development Corporation (PCDC) supports Ward
5 citizens in their opposition to the relocation of nude bars in their
community. The owners of businesses displaced by the baseball stadium
have signed leases to put nude dancing clubs in these Ward 5 locations:
1) 2046 West Virginia Avenue, NE; 2) 2155 24th Place, NE; 3) V Street
Warehouse (off of Service Street for Washington Times), and 4) 2132 West
Virginia Avenue, NE.
PCDC, in conjunction with the community, is diligently working to
revitalize and improve the quality of life in Ward 5. Ward 5 has already
cited its interest in sit-down restaurants, exercise clubs, grocery
stores, upscale retail, bakeries, cafes, bowling alleys, coffee shops,
movie theaters, affordable housing, and host of other amenities. Most
importantly, it has expressed an interest in a community that reflects
its needs and provides a safe and suitable place to raise families and
to live comfortably. Economic development must, first and foremost
address the needs of the community. PCDC, therefore, opposes the
relocation of these businesses to Ward Five based on the following: 1)
zoning issues should remain under the purview of the Zoning Commission
and not be ad hoc council legislation. 2) Sexually-oriented clubs need a
certificate of occupancy and are supposed to be limited to a C4 zone
(Downtown Business District), i.e., their previous location was illegal.
3) The businesses appear to have already been handsomely compensated for
their displacement. The District should not be bound to guarantee
illegal businesses additional space in the city. 4) The
Trinidad/Ivy-City and New York Avenue gateway area of concern is
undergoing Small Area Planning. Adult-themed entertainment is contrary
to the vision for those areas, the ward, and is in conflict with the DC
Comprehensive plan. While the area is zoned for light industrial use,
nude bars are not be considered as its highest and best use. 5) Citizens
do not want Ward 5 to become a dumping ground for businesses that other
wards do not want, simply because Ward 5 has available industrial sites.
6) There does not seem to be a fair distribution of the displaced
businesses among the various wards. Other displaced businesses without
nude dancing were not given the same attention as the nude bars,
although they are not a high priority of the close-in community.
PCDC, along with its Ward 5 residents, takes pride in our
neighborhoods and resents the imposition of
adult-entertainment/sex-industry clubs in our community, particularly
without being consulted. It is fundamentally disrespectful to assume
that we will allow others to put these clubs in our backyard. Perhaps,
Councilmember Graham and his council colleagues need to be reminded that
Ward 5 is neither politically impotent, naïve or fragmented. Joining
with Ward 5 residents and our elected leadership, we are determined that
Ward 5 will no longer be a dumping ground and there will not be a red
light district built in our community.
###############
DC Council Seems Eager to Create a Red Light
District in Ward 5
Kathryn Pearson, kap8082@aol.com
The District of Columbia seems intent on making the District of
Columbia a great American city, with its takeover of schools and now its
determination to create a red light district in the nation’s capital.
Some citizens that support the effort believe that DC can be like New
York City used to be with its “red light district” that the city was
quick to usher out, or maybe DC could compete with some sides of Las
Vegas to become Sin City on the Potomac. Those that oppose the
establishment of an adult-themed entertainment park in their
neighborhood are cautioned not to make this an issue of values or
morality, as those are not concern or purview of legislators and that
these are businesses that are entitled to relocate because they were
displaced. Never mind the displacement of other businesses or residents
or closing of businesses when it comes to fairness or entitlement when
the sex industry may be viewed as big business enjoyed by a dedicated,
obviously influential, powerful, money consumer base.
The Chair of the Committee on Public Works and Environment and his
colleagues see the relocation of the displaced businesses from the
stadium area to another area of the city as a matter of fairness, as
long as the relocation sites are not in their wards. As a result of the
quest to maintain the adult-oriented businesses within the borders of
the nation’s capital, the Committee on Public Works and the
Environment has developed Bill 17-109, “The One-Time Relocation of
Licensees Displaced by the Ballpark and Skyland Development Project
Amendment Act of 2007” that almost guarantees that Ward 5 will be the
target for these businesses unwanted by any other ward.
On top of the handsome sums paid the business owners for taking their
property in exchange for building the baseball stadium, the council
seems to feel that the businesses are entitled to relocate from the
baseball stadium area to light commercial manufacturing areas, which
tend to be buffers between residential areas and heavier industrial
zones. Therefore, with the number of commercial/light industry zones in
Ward 5, this ward has become the focus. These types of zones were
created along the railroad tracks and over the years because of the low
cost of land around the tracks, low income communities (generally
minorities) tended to develop nearby. Waste transfer stations/dumps have
also located in these areas, to the frustration of residents. Some
research has dubbed the phenomena of dumping certain types of businesses
in such localities with low income residents as environmental racism.
However, today’s council sees these locations as isolated places prime
for the displaced sex clubs or nudie bars. Downtown and other wards are
considered too expensive for them to relocate/
###############
New Job Category Pulled from Thin Air
Phil Shapiro, pshapiro@his.com
I asked my supervisor at the public library where I work whether I
can call myself the “Public Geek.” “Sure,” she said. “It’s
fine to call yourself the Public Geek.” “What does that make you?”
I asked mischievously. “I’m the Geek in Chief,” she replied,
without batting an eyelid.
Now during staff meetings I’ll be able to say, “Speaking as the
Public Geek, I’d just like to say. . . .” You think I’m making
this up? Here’s photographic proof (http://tinyurl.com/2zn2pm).
I introduce myself very matter-of-factly to people who come into my
workspace, “I work here as the Public Geek.” I fully expect someone
to walk up to me and say, “I’m so glad to meet you. I’m the
neighborhood nerd.”
###############
Rudest Drivers in the Nation
Ed T. Barron, edtb1@mac.com
Well, DC has, once again, made the top five in infamy. Right behind
Miami and ahead of LA, Boston, and New York, the Connecticut Driving
Association has labeled DC as having the worst drivers in the whole
country. That sure matches my driving experiences within DC. I have done
a lot of driving in LA and in New York and find drivers in the city here
more impolite and always in a great hurry. In contrast, in another city
where I do a lot of driving, Seattle, WA, drivers are very polite, and
it is much less stressful driving there even in high traffic hours. I
manage to do most of my traveling within DC via Metro and Metrobus. More
folks should try that.
I would have to say that those who appear to be the worst drivers in
the city, in my opinion, have Maryland plates. I’m for congestion
pricing for those who drive into the borders of DC.
###############
DC House Voting Rights Act Hearing Leads to
Pending Mark-Up
Kevin Kiger, kkiger@dcvote.org
Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) kicked off the Homeland Security and
Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on the DC House Voting Rights Act
(S. 1257) on May 15 by laying out a forceful case for the
constitutionality of the bill. A senior member of the Senate Judiciary
Committee, Senator Hatch is well-respected by Republicans and serves as
a leader on constitutional issues. Following further impassioned
testimony from elected officials, constitutional scholars and civil
rights leaders, two Senators announced their support of the bill that
would give DC its first-ever voting member of Congress. Arkansas
Democrat Mark Pryor and Missouri Democrat Claire McCaskill announced
their intentions to cosponsor the legislation after witnesses gave
testimony that stressed the importance and immediacy of this civil
rights issue.
Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman (I-CT), a sponsor of the Senate
bill, opened the hearing with the call to "mend a tear in the
fabric of our democracy" and concluded the hearing by announcing
his intentions to mark up the bill during the first two weeks of June.
###############
Plagiarism Is a Symptom of Sloppy Work
Amy Hubbard, DCPS parent, omohub2020 at yahoo dot com
Some of themail’s correspondents have been arguing that Victor
Reinoso’s plagiarism of other cities’ education plans is no big
deal. They argue that plagiarizing a school report may be unforgivable
but that cities borrow from each other all the time and failing to
credit a source is not all that bad.
This obscures the fact that students who plagiarize usually do it
when they are throwing together a sloppy piece of work at the last
minute. When I taught college, I never received a paper that was well
written, well thought out, and plagiarized. This is my chief objection
to the mayor’s plan. From what I’ve heard so far, this act of
plagiarism reflects an approach based on throwing together a lot of
information from different places without much careful thought. Those
analysts who downplay concerns about plagiarism don’t want to see that
the report itself is suspect, regardless of whether the sources were
acknowledged.
I’m less worried about Reinoso sticking to a moral code than I am
as to whether he has actually carefully thought this plan through. I see
no evidence that he has.
###############
Plagiarism and the School Takeover Scheme
Gina Arlotto, citymom@dcaccess.net
Just in case you haven’t seen it yet, take a look at this article,
“District Copied Schools Plan” by David Nakamura in Wednesday’s Post
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/08/AR2007050802047.html?hpid=topnews).
I don’t have a problem with looking for “best practices” or
reviewing other successful school district’s plans for ideas and
inspiration, but if Mayor Fenty or Victor Reinoso were students in any
DC school and turned in a paper that plagiarized 32 percent of another
student’s work, they would get an automatic F. In almost any college
or university in the country, plagiarism is such a major honor code
violation that you can be expelled. And this is who we have running the
schools in Washington, DC. I am embarrassed, outraged and appalled that
Reinoso and staff did such a shoddy job.
Now here are a few other things to note from this shameful episode:
1) Reinoso’s staff budget (twelve or so employees earn almost $1.5
million) is more than the entire music budget for DCPS, with 55,000
students. So, we just paid Reinoso over $100,000 to take word for word,
another jurisdiction’s transformation plan, timelines, catchy quotes,
and all. 2) Cherita Whiting and I testified in February and March that
Charlotte should be looked at as a better model for DC than New York or
Chicago, due to the fact that they were ranked first in the mayor’s
own study by the Parthenon Group with a fully elected school board,
smaller size, and closer demographic makeup. Little did we know how
seriously Reinoso and Company would take our admonition! 3) Reinoso and
Company took the exact timeline that Charlotte is now working under . .
. except that Charlotte started working on their reforms in November. So
now we’re already behind the ball. Couldn’t they even muster the
original thought to adjust the timelines? Guess not. 4) Reinoso and
Company must think we are all pretty stupid. He planned on passing this
off as his own work, vision, and testimony to his "expertise"
in education reform, when really he (and his staff) knows nothing.
Thanks to one eagle-eyed former DC Auditor, we all know the pathetic
truth. For all you DCPS parents out there, who work with your children
nightly to make sure that reports they turn in are their own original
thoughts and wording, this is yet another slap in the face. Reinoso
said, "I am hopeful that this oversight doesn’t diminish the
public’s perception of the administration’s intent and ability to
successfully manage and reform the District’s Public School
System." Ha. Too late. This is just another embarrassment that we
have to suffer through at the hands of a callous, immature,
inexperienced and quite possibly, incompetent, administration which is
doing an extremely poor job of instilling confidence that they have the
knowledge, the attention span and the ability to turn around our school
system.
###############
What example does it set for our children and adults who may be
tempted to steal? Further, [Deputy Mayor Reinoso] did not attribute and
he did not get permission and he did not acknowledge his theft. I cannot
trust such a person.
###############
The Post reports that maybe the Charlotte, NC, schools plan is
not so great in practice (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051401606.html?hpid=topnews).
The reporter also claims that Victor Reinoso neither visited Charlotte,
nor spoke with Charlotte district administrators, while preparing his
“plan.” By all accounts, Mr. Reinoso is a nice man with good
intentions. He also appears to adhere to the Alberto Gonzalez management
approach — don’t addle me with the facts. Seemingly, the deputy
mayor for education cannot bother to go to great lengths to analyze and
understand the schools plan he chose to palm, then foist upon, the
District. He and his staff, perhaps, cannot do the hard, mental work
needed to understand the root problems of DCPS and define solutions
specific to those problems. Solving DCPS’s decades-long malaise is
tough, unglamorous, controversial, slogging, and often unseen work.
Reinoso’s apologists, including the Post (see their editorial
on May 14, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/13/AR2007051301052.html)
say, “What’s the big deal? It’s only a plan.” This follows the
happy faced, Fenty mode: activity is accomplishment. Except that
business does nothing to ensure the kids a better future. Cut and paste
doesn’t cut it.
###############
“Reinoso said he has not visited the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school
system and did not talk to officials there while preparing the
document.” (Washington Post, “Fenty Regrets Copied
Proposal,” May 10, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/14/AR2007051401606.html?hpid=topnews)
Questions for Mr. Reinoso and Mayor Fenty: 1) How do you know that
what works for Charlotte- Mecklenburg will work for Washington, DC, when
you did not talk to them? 2) Based on your "discussions" with
Charlotte-Mecklenburg, what are the similar challenges that you will
face in implementing the plan? What challenges will be unique to DC? 3)
How can you base the reform of a 60,000 + school system on a report from
Charlotte-Mecklenburg when you haven’t had the conversation with them
on where their plan succeeded or failed? 4) How can you be so sure that
what’s good enough for Charlotte Mecklenburg school children is good
enough for DC school children?
I don’t care much about the copying — much of that language was
boiler plate good government stuff anyway. What I am concerned with
however is the fact that there was no conversation with Mecklenburg on
why their plan was successful and why or why not it would work here. DC
children deserve better.
###############
Today the Post soft peddles the issue (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/13/AR2007051301052.html).
Not surprised. They failed to even mention Vincent Gray’s dismal three
year record as Department of Human Services Director during the child
welfare system’s free fall into receivership. Nor, in endorsing Tommy
Wells as council member, did it note that the new Human Services
Committee Chair appointed by Gray headed the Child Welfare Consortium in
which five of the nine named LaShawn plaintiffs were placed when the
receivership was imposed.
Under the circumstances, how can we citizens expect rigorous
oversight of the child welfare system? Can Mr. Gray and Mr. Wells demand
better performances of their successors than they provided?
###############
I’m as appalled as you are that people whose listings I generally
respect defended the recent school plan plagiarism. I assumed people
would call for the writer’s resignation and that support would vanish
for Fenty’s decision to take over the schools. I can only conclude
that they’re so desperate for Fenty that they’ll condone anything he
does. I recall seeing the same behavior during the Williams
administration.
I’m surprised at the lack of outrage over WASA’s allowing broken
fire hydrants to remain unfixed. The Authority put all of our lies in
danger. Here I conclude that people are so accustomed to incompetence
that they no longer react to it.
###############
The Globally Embarrassing State of Adult
Literacy in Our Nation’s Capital
Len Sullivan, lsnarpac@bellatlantic.net
The May update of NARPAC’s web site is devoted to digging into the
technical reports behind the new assertions that 170,620 DC residents
are functionally illiterate, i.e., “have trouble comprehending bus
schedules, reading maps, and filling out job applications.” Ever
skeptical, we wanted to make sure that UDC’s "State Education
Agency" wasn’t using phony analyses like the CFO did to justify
DC’s mythical financial “structural imbalance” (still referred to
in the latest DC budget documents!). This time we again end up less than
satisfied with the convoluted analytical approach, but convinced that
even more DC adults have “below basic” reading skills than claimed,
and that a larger share of them are in DC’s labor force and voting
booths. You can check out our work at http://www.narpac.org/PEILLITER.HTM.
But more troubling, the State Education Agency hopes to solve this
national disgrace with a few million bucks more for community-based
organizations, service centers, and local library upgrades. The
consultants providing the analytical back-up seem to have overlooked two
very basic points. First, the fifteen-input regression equations used to
“synthesize” DC’s literacy from a national sample of 25,000 test
results in 160 counties across the US (excluding DC) do not include
parental education as a key factor. Second, the national rate of
functional illiteracy (21 percent) corresponds very closely to the
proportion of adults that dropped out of high school. But DC’s rate,
twice as high, corresponds very closely to the share of DC adults that
also completed high school, but went no further. Do any readers out
there think that DCSEA can solve this problem on their own, without
massive inputs from DCPS (whoever runs it)? And do any readers out there
think the nation’s capital needs lower taxes more than higher
functional literacy?
###############
CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
DC Public Library Events, May 21-23
Randi Blank, randi.blank@dc.gov
Monday, May 21, 6:00 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Library,
901 G Street, NW, Enhanced Business Information Center (e-BIC), A-level,
e-BIC Conference Center. How to Get an SBA 7(a) Loan. Learn how to
finance your business through the Small Business Administration (SBA)
7(a) loan guaranty program. Find out how it works, where to apply and
what lenders look for on your application. For more information, call
727-2241.
Monday, May 21, 7:00 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Library,
901 G Street, NW, Room 221. All the World’s a Stage Book Club. We will
discuss Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome’s Greatest Politician,
by Anthony Everitt. For more information, call 727-1161.
Tuesday, May 22, 12:00 p.m., West End Neighborhood Library, 1101 24th
Street, NW. West End Library Film Club. Bring your lunch and enjoy
watching a film. For more information, call 724-8707.
Tuesday, May 22, 2:30 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial
Library, 901 G Street, NW, Enhanced Business Information Center (e-BIC),
A-level, e-BIC Conference Center. Starting a Home-Based Business. This
session walks you through the tax and licensing requirements for a sole
proprietor consultant who is doing business out of their home. Please
call 727-2241 to reserve a seat.
Tuesday, May 22, 6:30 p.m., Southeast Neighborhood Library, 403 7th
Street, SE. Capitol Hill Book Club. Please call 698-3377 for the May
book title.
Tuesday, May 22, 6:00 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial
Library, 901 G Street, NW, Enhanced Business Information Center (e-BIC),
A-level, e-BIC Conference Center. How to Find and Finance Commercial
Property. This class will teach a step-by-step process to finding
commercial real estate in Washington, D.C. You will become familiar with
the D.C. real estate market and learn about the demographics of the
various business districts in the city. For more information, call
727-2241.
Tuesday, May 22, 7:00 p.m., Takoma Park Neighborhood Library, 416
Cedar Street, NW. Takoma Park Book Club. To find out what book will be
discussed, please call 576-7252.
Wednesday, May 23, 6:00 p.m., West End Neighborhood Library, 1101
24th Street, NW. Dramatic readings and Literary Friends group book
discussion, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Actress Lynn-Jane
Foreman will perform selected readings from the novel. A discussion by
educators on African-American studies will follow. For more information,
call 724-8707.
###############
Smart Growth, May 23
Lauren Searl, lsearl@nbm.org
Wednesday, May 23, 12:30-1:30 p.m. Smart Growth: Bright Lights, Small
Cities: Successful Large-Scale Revitalization in Small Communities. Bill
Niquette, project developer for the City of Winooski, Vermont’s $250
million downtown revitalization effort, will discuss how a mill town of
6,800 forged a public-private partnership to create 1.5 million square
feet of pedestrian-scaled, mixed-use development in the heart of its
downtown, and how the key elements of their success can be widely
applied in other smart growth revitalization efforts in communities of
all sizes. Free. Registration not required. At the National Building
Museum, 401 F Street, NW, Judiciary Square stop, Metro Red Line.
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