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July 15, 2007

Calling Names

Dear Namers:

Below, Phil Shapiro notes a Washington Post article about renaming schools. Just as good is the story that last week Pittsburgh decided to improve the image of its public schools by dropping the word “public” from all the schools’ names. They are adding the word “Pittsburgh” instead, which would seem to undermine any image improvement that would come from pretending the schools aren’t public (http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/education/13660113/detail.html). I’m looking forward to DC’s copying this great advance soon, and if the Deputy Mayor for Education wants to hire me as a consultant to give them the advice to do it, I’ll take the job. I’ll charge just a couple hundred thousand dollars, which will be a better value for the money than DC gets from most of its consultants, and I’ll throw in a new school motto for free.

Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com

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Access Denied
Dorothy Brizill, dorothy@dcwatch.com

In the July 8 issue of themail, in “A Week at the Beach for Mayor Fenty,” I wrote about how difficult it was to get the mayor’s office to confirm that he was out of town and at the beach. This weekend, the mayor’s press office made another attempt to keep the mayor’s schedule and out-of-town trips secret. On Friday, I received an E-mail from someone indicating that Fenty had been seen at Baltimore-Washington Airport boarding a Southwest Airlines flight to Manchester, New Hampshire. After noting that Fenty had no public appearances over the weekend — and wouldn’t even be attending the funeral for firefighter James McRae — I E-mailed the mayor’s press secretary to ask where he was and what he was doing. I didn’t receive any response, so I forwarded the E-mail again, and still have not received a reply.

During the initial six months of the Fenty administration, it has become clear that Fenty and the executive office of the mayor are obsessed with controlling his image and limiting the information that they release. City Hall reporters share stories about how his staff has warned them not to write negative stories about the mayor and his administration, and punished them after they have. Conversely, “good” reporters who refrain from criticizing the mayor are rewarded with exclusives and scoops. The most blatant example of press favoritism to date was when the mayor told the Washington Post about his selection of Michelle Rhee as school chancellor, and gave the Post’s Metro section and editorial board two days of exclusive access for interviews and photo opportunities, before Fenty made an 11:45 p.m. telephone call to Council Chairman Vincent Gray to tell him the name of his selection on the night prior to the public announcement. Reporters, at least reporters who are not in favor, are being told by the chancellor’s office, by the sizable press office of DC public schools, and by the office of the Deputy Mayor for Education that they have to get all of their information about the schools from the mayor’s press office, which tightly controls, limits, and denies access to information. When I asked Rhee questions regarding the hires she had made in her immediate staff, and told her that her office and the DCPS press office said they couldn’t provide any information about them, Rhee herself told me that she was being “handled” by the mayor’s office, and that all inquiries had to be made to the mayor’s press office, and all information would be released by them.

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Adults Get Paid; the Youth Don’t
Cherita Whiting, cherita_whiting@yahoo.com

Last Thursday was to be the first payday for the DC Summer Jobs Program. You would think that since the director (her name is Summer Spencer) is new, she would have made sure that what has happened to the youth of DC for the last two years didn’t end up happening for the third year, but it did. The D of Employment has over thirteen thousand youths in the summer job program; they only paid a little more than nine thousand youths, which means that nearly four thousand did not get paid. Had this been adults working for DOE, there would have been a riot on H Street.

Why is it that for the last three years DC Summer Jobs cannot figure out how to get these kids paid on time? I reminded the mayor about one month ago that when he was campaigning for office both he and I were interviewed by Channel 5 about the youth not receiving their pay under the Williams administration. Now Fenty’s administration has done the same. I must admit that Dan Tangherlini’s executive assistant, Tanya, assisted every parent who called their office on Thursday and Friday, but the fact remains that this problem is now three years old. Meeting the payroll should have been tested and fixed before the payments were due. Stay tuned — July 26 is the next payday for the youth. Let’s see if the youth can get paid.

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Despite a $50 Million Public Subsidy, Pollin Isn’t Loosening the Purse Strings
Tom Monroe, tmonroe@yahoo.com

See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/14/AR2007071401137.html.  In this article, it is revealed that Abe Pollin is resolutely against exceeding the league’s self-set salary threshold, though that’s likely the only way the Wizards team can hope to keep up with the other division and conference rivals. The total amount that the team would go over that threshold is probably $1 million currently and possibly $5 million more in future if a superstar warranted it. Meanwhile, the city is doing its utmost to steer much larger sums of public money ($50 million to be exact) into renovating the club and luxury suite sections of Verizon Center, despite Pollin’s obvious ability to pay for renovations himself. In other words, Pollin practices fiscal restraint on the payout side to an absurd degree and to the likely detriment of the team he’s mismanaged for years along with the Capitals (although to be fair, the Caps’ mismanagement is now being spearheaded by the equally payroll-shy Ted Leonsis), while he demands public largesse be shown towards fixing up his private enterprise in the wake of the mega-giveaway of public dollars to the baseball project.

All this leads up to the obvious question: Why the heck couldn’t the mayor and DC council have shown some fiscal spine to Abe Pollin in the wake of the latter’s refusal to spend adequate money on his own product? I guess after the stadium debacle, all evidence of standing strong against sports moguls went away, as the lure of access to more luxury suites as part of the Verizon Center proved irresistible to these fat cats thinly disguised as public servants. Either way, Pollin’s two-faced handling of the city and its citizens in this situation certainly tarnishes his self-promoted humanitarian awards and such that are pointed to after each debacle his teams experience because of underfunding or simply horrific management (see his mishandling of the Jordan situation). Now that Pollin has taken his antics to the public trough to the tune of tens of millions of dollars, his defenders in the media shouldn’t be so quick to brush his incompetence under the rug.

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On the Front Page of the Washington Post
Phil Shapiro, pshapiro@his.com

I was so pleased the Washington Post published a front page story about changing trends in the naming of public schools (see http://tinyurl.com/3cz9gx). There is perhaps no other issue more vital to the future of our children than the name of the public school they attend. My friends and I talk constantly about this topic, often wringing our hands in the process. Often I lie awake at night worrying about the names of public schools. (WTF?)

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Car Window Tint
Sean Bean, sean.bean@wizard.net

Does anyone know why there are regulations regarding car window tinting? Cars get hot in the summer; I wanted to keep mine cooler this year. I’ve had melanoma in the past; I’d prefer to minimize my exposure. So I fail to comprehend why DC feels its a crime to tint my car windows. Then there’s the complete inability to find out what the laws are until you get the ticket from the police officer.

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DC Madam’s Phone Bills Online
Frank Winstead, frank.winstead@gmail.com

Recently, Deborah Jeane Palfrey made her telephone bills, including many calls to 202, available to the public via the Internet, but she did not make them easy to access. Her bills are in TIFF format stored in ZIP files. When I first tried to view one of these files, my default Windows configuration would only show me the first page of each, with no indication of subsequent pages in the file. I fixed this by converting these phone records into PDF format. I have uploaded the bills for the years 2000 to 2006, split into files of five megabytes or less for easier access, to the Forest Hills Yahoo Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Forest_Hills_DC/files/Deborah%20Jeane%20Palfrey/. You may have to setup a free Yahoo ID to access the files, but otherwise they should be as accessible as any other PDF file. If you find any interesting numbers, please let me know.

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A Splendid City
Ed T Barron, edtb1@macdotcom

Roomie and I spent three touring days in Chicago, which could better be known as “Bus City” with all the bus routes they have. Buses run everywhere and with a remarkable frequency. The city is clean, vibrant, and with very polite denizens. The Chicago version of DC’s Metrorail is the “L” and subway system. Many of the train cars are old and many stations much older. Quite a few stations are not handicapped accessible. The escalators all seem to be working. Fares are two bucks on the rail and very well integrated buses. Visitors to this nice city, with its dynamite skyline, can get cheap multi-day transit passes ($12 for a 72-hour pass) and do a lot of sightseeing right from the elevated lines and buses. This is a city I could live in.

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When Do You Stop the Presses?
Phil Shapiro, pshapiro@his.com

Last month I invited readers of themail to consider whether the Washington Post could summon the courage to be the first large city newspaper to publish exclusively online. While that question might have sounded outlandish, Business Week columnist Jon Fine probes similar water in his latest column, “When Do You Stop the Presses?” (See http://tinyurl.com/2c6t36.)

The transition between newspaper’s print and online publishing life looks for all purposes like a deer crossing a road. If you hesitate too long, you run the risk of getting run over. To my mind, the time for tentative steps is rapidly coming to a close. I wonder if this city has any leaders that were not elected to office. Maybe it does. If it doesn’t, get ready for plenty of venison.

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Emergencies
Wendy Kahn, wlkahn@zwerdling.com

Re: “Thieves in themail,” July 11. With regard to the city council’s July 10 legislative session, most of the legislation, resolutions, etc., that were acted upon are not yet available either online or in the Legislative Services office. I was told it “could be quite some time until the public will be able to get the legislation.”

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Rubber Stamping the Green Machine
Jonathan R. Rees, jrrees2006@verizon.net

The current DC city council may be the most spineless council the District of Columbia has experienced. This council seems to be rubber stamping everything that is thrown its way from Mayor Adrian Fenty without really questioning a thing, although they will give us the impression they do.

Either this council is fearful of Fenty, thinks it will get some reward for going along, or is acting out of sheer ignorance of the issues. No matter how you slice it, this council is not acting responsibly, and if Fenty’s grand scheme does not pan out, not only may Fenty be out the door in 2010, but some members of the council may go with him.

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Getting Off on the Wrong Education Foot?
Len Sullivan, lsnarpac@bellatlantic.net

Unlike many Washingtonians more intimately involved, NARPAC was encouraged by Mayor Fenty’s plan to take over the school system, and to establish a Deputy Mayor’s office through which to integrate the full range of city and regional players. Chairman Gray’s decision to exercise council oversight through the Committee of the Whole reinforced the concept that fixing DC’s typically urban educational deficit required a coordinated citywide effort. We therefore set about writing a new web site chapter summarizing our dozens of analyses and editorials on this subject over the past decade. We include our own ambitious suggestions for how to disrupt the cycle of poverty perpetuated by educational opportunities missed.

From our standpoint, the main issue for national disdain is not how few of DC’s kids make it to the top of the national class, but how many leak out the bottom of the class to perpetuate a lifetime of urban blight. The national disgrace is not too much mediocrity, it is too much utter failure. From this perspective, we seriously doubt that the new Fenty team has the vision to adopt the necessary scope of action. We summarize our own “articles of faith,” answer our own key questions, make our own recommendations. We conclude that despite wildly excessive salaries and dubious endorsements, this innocent, if not naive, new team will end up kicking the same old can down the same old street. Check out our views at http://www.narpac.org/PEPRIMER.HTM,  and see why we (begrudgingly) think the Capitol Hill neighborhood folks have a more practical local approach to the problem than the city at http://www.narpac.org/INTHOPHO.HTM.

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July 2007 InTowner
Peter Wolff, intowner@intowner.com

This is to advise that the July 2007 on-line edition has been uploaded and may be accessed at http://www.intowner.com. Included are the lead stories, community news items and crime reports, editorials (including prior months’ archived), restaurant reviews (prior months’ also archived), and the text from the ever-popular “Scenes from the Past” feature (the accompanying images can be seen in the archived PDF version). Also included are all current classified ads. The complete issue (along with prior issues back to January 2004) also is available in PDF file format directly from our home page at no charge simply by clicking the link in the Current & Back Issues Archive. Here you will be able to view the entire issue as it appears in print, including all photos and advertisements. The next issue will publish on August 10 (the 2nd Friday of the month, as always). The complete PDF version will be posted by the preceding night or early that Friday morning at the latest, following which the text of the lead stories, community news, and selected features will be uploaded shortly thereafter.

To read this month’s lead stories, simply click the link on the home page to the following headlines: 1) “DC’s Main Library Building Given Landmark Protection — Improvements Already Evident”; 2) “17th Street Business Soon to Get Boost — Empty Spaces Not to be Empty for Long”; 3) “Dupont Circle Metro Q Street Entrance Now Graced by Whitman Poem Excerpts — Official Dedication Set for Saturday, July 14.”

Special note: readers are encouraged to print out, fill out and send back our reader survey, which is conveniently available by clicking the link on our home page and printing that page, filling it out, and then either scanning and attaching to an E-mail addressed to admin@intowner.com (please do not embed into E-mail), faxing to 265-0949, or returning by postal mail.

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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS

DC Public Library Events, July 17, 19
Randi Blank, randi.blank@dc.gov

Tuesday, July 17, 12:00 p.m., West End Neighborhood Library, 1101 24th Street, NW. West End Book Club. We will discuss House of Mirth by Edith Wharton. For more information, call 724-8707.

Tuesday, July 17, 6:30 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Library, 901 G Street, NW, Room A-5. Author Roger Rapoport will talk about his new biography of filmmaker Michael Moore, Citizen Moore: The Life and Times of an American Iconoclast, and show clips from Moore’s new movie, Sicko. For more information, call 727-2079.

Tuesday, July 17, 7:30 p.m., Palisades Neighborhood Library, 4901 V Street, NW. Palisades Stamp Club. For more information, call 282-3139.

Thursday, July 19, 1:00 p.m., Chevy Chase Branch Library, 5625 Connecticut Avenue, NW. Summer foreign film series. The first award-winning film in the series is The King of Masks (1999), a Chinese film directed by Tian-Ming Wu based on a true story about an aging street performer known as the King of Masks for his mastery of Sichuan Change Art. In Mandarin Chinese with English subtitles. Not rated. The series will continue through August and September. For more information, call 282-0021.

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Historical Society of Washington, DC, Events, July 18, 28
Bell Clement, clement@historydc.org

An evening of DC fashion with Rosemary E. Reed Miller, Wednesday, July 18, 5:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m. In its third printing, Ms. Miller’s book, The Threads of Time: The Fabric of History, honors an often-overlooked talent pool of black women dressmakers and designers and recognizes how they touched history. Examples of the women highlighted in the book include Elizabeth Keckley, designer of First Lady Mary Lincoln’s inauguration dress, which is a part of the Smithsonian Institution’s First Ladies Exhibit, and Ann Lowe who designed the wedding dress for First Lady Jackie Kennedy, the most photographed wedding dress in American history. Join the Historical Society of Washington, DC, and Ms. Miller, the owner of Dupont Circle’s Toast and Strawberries boutique, for a delightfully educational and entertaining evening! Reservations are requested by E-mail with "Fashion" in the subject line to rsvp@history.dc.org  or by calling 383-1837. The program will take place at the Carnegie Library on Mount Vernon Square, 801 K Street, NW. Visit the Society’s web site at http://www.historydc.org.

Wages of War: Bonus Army to Baghdad. In a remarkable show of military force on Saturday, July 28, 1932, the US military under orders from President Herbert Hoover drove peacefully demonstrating World War I veterans from the city. The Historical Society of Washington is recognizing the 75th anniversary of this monumental event in the fight for veterans’ benefits and honoring District veterans. The Society will open its exhibit Wages of War: Bonus Army to Baghdad on Saturday, July 28, at 1:00 p.m. Saturday’s program is open to the general public, free of charge, and will feature a viewing of the PBS video, The March of the Bonus Army, discussion about the 2004 critically-acclaimed book The Bonus Army: An American Epic, and an opportunity to honor District veterans. Reservations are requested by E-mail with "Bonus Army" in the subject line to rsvp@history.dc.org or by calling 383-1837. The Wages of War: Bonus Army to Baghdad will run through November 12, 2007, in the Small/Alper Gallery at The Carnegie on Mount Vernon Square, 801 K Street, NW. Visit the Society’s web site at http://www.historydc.org.

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Spotlight on Design Lecture, July 19
Sara Kabakoff, skabakoff@nbm.org

Architect Joshua Prince-Ramus rejects conventional responses to the constraints, conditions, and challenges of a given project. His highly conceptual approach to design developed during his partnership with Rem Koolhaas. As lead partner of the New York branch of Koolhaas’s Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), he served as project manager for the acclaimed Seattle Public Library. Now a principal of REX (Ramus-Ella Architects), he will discuss his young firm’s design methodology in other high-profile projects, which include the Museum Plaza tower in Louisville, Kentucky; the Dee & Charles Wyly Theater in Dallas, Texas; and the new Deichmanske Library in Oslo, Norway. At the National Building Museum, 401 F Street, NW (Judiciary Square Metro, Red Line), Thursday, July 19, 7:00-8:30 p.m. $12 Museum members and students. $20 nonmembers. Prepaid registration required. Walk-in registration based on availability.

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