Odds and Ends
Dear Odd Enders:
On Friday, DC Public Schools issued a press release announcing the
closing of three schools: Birney Elementary, Webb Elementary, and Draper
Elementary. The press release is a masterpiece of double-talk,
celebrating what good news the school closings are for students in
Birney, Webb, and Draper: Birney’s students will be moved into a
renovated Savoy school, “renovated to the US Green Building Council’s
standards for green buildings creating a healthier environment for
children to learn in.” Webb’s students will be moved to Wheatley,
and “Wheatley will have a DPR [Department of Parks and Recreation]
gymnasium and be certified by the US Green Building Council.” Draper’s
students will be moved to Ferebee-Hope, which will give them “access
to a comprehensive school program that cannot be maintained at a smaller
school.” The happy talk in the release is capped only by its first
sentence, “District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) announced a
proposal today to put additional students into modernized buildings and
comprehensive school programs.” Listen, it’s an announcement about
closing three neighborhood schools. DCPS administrators may confuse
closing schools with improving education, but parents and students in
the neighborhoods served by those schools aren’t likely to make the
same mistake.
Also on Friday, Attorney General Peter Nickles appeared in court to
answer for his defiance of the court order requiring the city to clear
any reform plan for the Child and Family Services Agency with its
court-appointed monitor, and his breaking the city’s agreement to
include the monitor in the process of appointing a new director for the
agency. Nickles displayed his usual arrogance, bullying, and bluster,
doing his cause no good with Judge Thomas Hogan, who told him, “I don’t
understand your approach today, coming in and throwing down the gauntlet”
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/06/AR2009020603872.html).
Basically, Nickles argued that he was simply tired of having to deal
with the monitor, and that he and the mayor don’t want to be bound by
any court orders or agreements that the District has signed. Nickles and
Fenty want to mishandle CFSA in their own way, without having anyone
interested in the welfare of children and families looking over their
shoulders.
Also on Friday, Nickles appeared at a city council hearing chaired by
Councilmember Phil Mendelson over the power that the mayor claims to
issue subpoenas without review by a judge or a grand jury. As Laura
Hankins, special counsel to the director of the public defender service,
explained, “the law gives the mayor’s office the power to issue
subpoenas for records and testimony only in internal city government
cases involving personnel matters. . . ” (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/06/AR2009020603871.html).
But there’s the law as it’s written, and there’s the law as
interpreted by Nickles, and Nickles’ distortions of the law always
give the mayor unlimited power. The matter probably won’t be resolved
until the city council rewrites the law to restate what it already says,
but in a new way that Nickles and the mayor can’t evade, or until the
council simply revokes the mayor’s limited subpoena power entirely.
Below, Ralph Chittams nominates Yvette Alexander’s Single Sale of
Cigar Products Prohibition Amendment Act of 2009 as a contender in the
dumb proposed legislation contest, and he makes a good case for it. As I
read the bill, it makes it illegal to sell any cigars, since any cigar
larger than a cigarillo could possibly be hollowed out and refilled with
marijuana. Alexander’s purpose may be to ban the sale of cheap cigars
that young people could buy to refill. But as her bill is written it
covers all cigars, since the fifty-dollar stick at the expensive end of
the cigar counter can be repurposed just like a Philly Blunt. Even if
Alexander rewrote her bill to cover just cheap cigars, what excuse would
the city council have to pass it? After all, it was a vice president of
the United States, Thomas Riley Marshall, who said, "What this
country needs is a really good five-cent cigar." As Chittams points
out, some people smoke cheap cigars because they like them, and some
people smoke blunts because they prefer their smaller shape and size.
How is a cigar manufacturer or seller supposed to know whether the
customer is going to smoke the cigar straight, refill it with leaves
from an alien plant, or soak it in bourbon?
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Whatever happened to the retrocession movement that was active —
albeit going nowhere fast — just a few years ago? It seems so
reasonable for the bulk of DC to join the state of Maryland and
constitute one more congressional district in that state. I guess the
political realities make it a nonstarter, but I’ve never heard a
proposal that makes more sense.
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Filing a FOIA with DCPS
Paul Walters, pwalpal@mac.com
I have no experience with filing a Freedom of Information Act
request, and I would appreciate advice from others who have. This would
be a FOIA request to DC Public Schools, looking for specific information
on proposals and offers between DCPS and the Washington Teachers Union
in the current contract matter, and seeking disclosure from DCPS on
which foundations have been approached to fund teacher wage increases,
what commitments those foundations have made, and what the terms are.
The public needs to know what is going on. Any suggestions on how to do
this and make the request successful?
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[A response to David Brooks “Ward Three Morality,” http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/opinion/l06brooks.html]
David Brooks observed, “On any given Saturday, half the people in Ward
Three are arranging panel discussions for the other half to participate
in.” On those same Saturdays half the people in Washington’s Ward
Eight are working a second or third job, and the other half are looking
for one. While residents of Ward Three — the most affluent section of
Washington — spend some of their six-figure incomes to send their
children to private schools, the residents of my neighborhood, Ward One,
volunteer time and make sacrifices to improve public schools.”
Mr. Brooks made a genuine effort to distinguish between the morality
of the mega-rich and that of the affluent who are taking charge of our
government’s efforts to steady the economy, but in doing so he
neglected the morality to which President Obama referred in his
inaugural address, demonstrated by those who “toiled in sweatshops and
settled the West; endured the lash of the whip and plowed the hard
earth.”
Perhaps unwittingly, Mr. Brooks brought attention to one of the great
challenges before us: those who are making the policies that may (or may
not) rescue our economy are far removed from working families, just like
billionaires are to the denizens of places like Ward Three.
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Your Technology Columnist: Our Nation’s New
Chief Technology Officer
Phil Shapiro, pshapiro@his.com
It looks like the Chief Technology Officer for the DC government,
Vivek Kundra, is going to be the newly appointed Chief Technology
Officer for our nation. (See http://tinyurl.com/cckbxt)
This is excellent news in many different ways. Kundra is a strong
believer in “cloud computing,” which many technology commentators
believes is where all computing is heading — where your data lives on
the web — in a cloud — rather than on your local computer. I’m
hoping that Vivek Kundra will bring the free OpenOffice suite to the
federal government. That would certainly make sense in these fiscally
challenging times. OpenOffice can be freely downloaded by anyone and
comes with many of the low-cost netbooks (mini laptops) being sold
today. Netbooks are selling for as low as $249 new these days. (See http://tinyurl.com/c2mpnw)
I own a netbook and have been pleasantly surprised at how well it works.
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Strike Four for Apple
Ed T. Barron, edtb1@macdotcom
Apple’s latest design proposal for a store on Wisconsin Avenue in
Georgetown, their fourth attempt at getting approval from the Old
Georgetown Board, will surely fail. Georgetown is the last place I’d
put that store, with the lack of parking and no Metrorail stop nearby. A
much wiser choice would be on 7th Street, NW, where the old Borders Book
Store was located. There’s a much better crowd of potential customers
at that location than in Georgetown, and the location is very easy to
reach via Metrorail.
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Dumb Legislation Nominee
Ralph Chittams, rjchittamssr@aol.com
As a proud Ward 7 resident, I nominate Yvette Alexander and her
billed styled the “Single Sale of Cigar Products Prohibition Amendment
Act of 2009.” The purpose of this bill is, “To amend the Drug
Paraphernalia Act of 1982 to ban the sale of individual cigars or cigar
products intended or designed for use in ingesting, inhaling, or
otherwise introducing marijuana in to the human body.” However, a new
paragraph (1) is being added that will read as follows “(1) ‘Single
cigar product’ means an individual cigar, cigar leaf wrapper, flavored
or non-flavored cigar that is referred to as a blunt, blunt wrap, or any
other tobacco product that may be used in the ingesting, inhaling, or
introduction of marijuana to the human body” (emphasis added).
I agree that smoking marijuana is bad. However, banning the sale of
otherwise legal products, “cigar[s] . . . or any other tobacco product”
makes no sense. The products targeted by Ms. Alexander are legal. Their
primary purpose is not the “ingesting, inhaling or . . . introduction
[of] marijuana in to the human body.” I know gentlemen who smoke these
inexpensive cigars because they are just that, inexpensive. I will
concede, however, that some people use them for illegal purposes. That
alone is no reason to outlaw all tobacco products “that may be used”
to smoke marijuana. Using Ms. Alexander’s logic, we should ban the
sale baking soda because it is used in the manufacture of crack cocaine;
we should prohibit the sale of cough syrup; the sale of Oxycontin should
be banned because some people abuse it.
The underlying premise of this bill is honorable — reducing
marijuana smoking in the District of Columbia. However, the proposed
method of execution starts us down a slippery slope to some very
unconstitutional prohibitions.
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This Month’s “Silver Spring: Then and
Again”
Jerry A. McCoy, sshisstory@yahoo.com
The new entry “Abe Lincoln in Silver Spring” is now available on
my blog, Silver Spring: Then and Again, http://www.takoma.com/ssthenagain/.
I welcome comments.
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I was not aware of Ms Cheh’s proposed legislation and have not read
the specifics of it. However I am aware that the Los Angeles County
pioneered this concept and that all restaurants are required to post
large cards in their windows with their grade. I recall reading an
article about this program several years ago that talked about how “responsible”
restaurant owners worked overtime to ensure that their rating remains at
an A, as anything lower can destroy their business. Having visited a
number of restaurants in LA over the past few years, I will say that
there is a sense of assurance as you are entering that the restaurant
meets basic food health safety requirements. Is the system perfect? Of
course not. Does it offer an alternative that provides an easy way for
the public to know how the city has rated a restaurant? Yes. More
information about the LA County system is at: http://www.lapublichealth.org/rating/.
Also, according to the New York Times on January 30, New York is
about to implement this system as well, http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/31/nyregion/31health.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink.
I applaud Ms Cheh for presenting tested ideas to the council for serious
and thoughtful discussion.
As for Mr. Craney’s silly statement linking this proposal to the
embezzlement scandal perpetuated by Ms Walters, it speaks for itself in
how the GOP will obfuscate any serious proposal by trying to change the
subject.
[Actually, I'm familiar with municipal letter-grade placards on
restaurants, since I grew up in St. Louis, which has had this system for
decades. As a result, there are only two classes of restaurants in St.
Louis: those that get an “A” grade, and those that are put out of
business. The trouble with Cheh’s bill, as the Republican Party
properly pointed out, is that under it a restaurant’s letter grade is
based solely on the results of one inspection, and the restaurant isn't
given a chance to remedy any problems before being assigned its grade.
For example, one of the worst violations of health standards is rodent
infestation. But DC is widely infested with mice and rats, and every
home, office, and restaurant will inevitably get rodents from time to
time. Under Cheh’s bill, if a restaurant is inspected on a day when it
hasn’t yet been able to exterminate all its rodents, it will get a
“B,” “C,” or “D” placard, and it may as well turn out its
lights and lock its doors. There’s nothing inherently wrong with
letter-grade door placards, but if a city is going to assign grades, it
should do so on a fairer basis, including a series of inspections. —
Gary Imhoff]
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Three Fifths
Paul Wilson, Dcmcrider-at-gmail-dot-com
Gary Imhoff overstates the case [themail, February 1] that the
three-fifths provision in the Constitution was an antislavery provision.
I see it more as part of a web of accommodations and artful dodges
intended to keep a fragile federation together. Indeed, the Three-Fifths
compromise was not altogether a bad deal for the South. States had to
pay an annual levy to the federal government based on their populations.
While the three-fifths provision limited their numbers in the House and
the Electoral College, it also drastically lowered the federal tax
burden on the slave states, since internal federal taxes were not levied
directly on individuals until the Sixteenth Amendment came along (Art.
1, Sec. 2). And since the southern states were net exporters, they also
paid less in import tariffs, unlike the northern ports and merchant
cities.
And of course three-fifths did absolutely nothing to limit southern
influence in the Senate. The rough parity in Senate numbers was the
backdrop for admitting new states and things like the Missouri
Compromise and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. In 1787 the Confederation
Congress got the ball rolling by banning slavery in the Northwest
Territory, yet in the next decade Kentucky and Tennessee were admitted
as slave states. The Louisiana Purchase once again opened up the
question of whether the vast tracts of the West would be slave or free.
Overall, the early republic was a mixed bag. To many, while it was
regrettable, slavery was on the wane, and already gone or in the process
of being abolished in the north. It was felt that some breathing room
could be afforded in the name of domestic tranquility, and eventually
slavery would wither away in the south as well. One of the breathing
room provisions in the Constitution itself was the twenty-year
continuation of the importation of slaves (Art. I, Sec. 9). To its
credit, Congress did in fact promptly ban the slave trade upon the
expiration of that provision in 1808. Irrespective of the human toll,
the withering of slavery of course turned out to be wishful thinking of
the first order. So it was accommodated, and the three-fifths provisions
was one of those accommodations.
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Spring Break and Sports Camps Registration,
February 9
John Stokes, john.astokes@dc.gov
Over the DC Public Schools’ spring break holiday, March 23 - 27,
the DC Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) will introduce Spring
Break and Spring Break Sports Camps for children and youth ages six to
thirteen years old at twenty-two DPR centers. All Spring Break Camps
will operate from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. each day. Participants will
need to provide their own bag lunch. Beginning at 10:00 a.m. on February
9, registration can be completed on DPR’s web site, dpr.dc.gov, or in
person at any of the Spring Break camp sites listed below. There is a
$25 registration fee per participant for DC residents and $35 fee for
nonresidents. Fees are payable only by Visa, MasterCard, Discover, or
money order made payable to “DC Treasurer.”
DPR Spring Break camp locations: Bald Eagle Recreation Center, 100
Joliet Street, SW; Banneker Recreation Center, 2500 Georgia Avenue, NW;
Chevy Chase Community Center, 5601 Connecticut Avenue, NW; Emery
Recreation Center, 5801 Georgia Avenue, NW; Fort Davis Community Center,
1400 41st Street, SE; Fort Stevens Recreation Center, 1327 Van Buren
Street, NW; Hillcrest Recreation Center, 3100 Denver Street, SE;
Kenilworth Recreation Center, 4300 Anacostia Avenue, NE; Kennedy
Recreation Center, 1401 7th Street, NW; King Greenleaf Recreation
Center, 201 N Street, SW; Lamond Community Center, 20 Tuckerman Street,
NW; North Michigan Park Recreation Center, 1333 Emerson Street, NE;
Riggs-LaSalle Recreation Center, 501 Riggs Road, NE; Sherwood Recreation
Center, 640 10th Street, NE; Trinidad Recreation Center, 1310 Childress
Street, NE; Turkey Thicket Recreation Center, 1100 Michigan Avenue NE;
Watkins Recreation Center, 420 12th Street, SE.
DPR Spring Break sports camps and locations: Baseball Camp, Ridge
Road Community Center, 800 Ridge Road, SE; Football Camp, Fort Stanton
Recreation Center, 1812 Erie Street, SE; Football Camp, Takoma Community
Center, 300 Van Buren Street, NW; Soccer Camp, Volta Park Recreation
Center, 1555 34th Street, NW; Sport Camp, Hardy Recreation Center, 4500
Q Street, NW. For more information, contact DPR Camp Central at 671-0295
or E-mail DPRcamps@dc.gov.
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Department of Parks and Recreation Events,
February 10-12
John Stokes, john.astokes@dc.gov
Tuesday, February 10, 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m., King Greenleaf
Recreation Center, 201 N Street, SW. Keeping Your Heart and Arteries
Young Nutrition Workshop. Seniors will learn about nutritional foods
that help to keep their heart and arteries young and gain valuable
insight from the nutritionist. Ages 55 and up. For more information
contact Kim Campbell, 645-7454.
Wednesday, February 11, 4:00 p.m.-5:00 p.m., DAR Museum, 1776 D
Street, NW. Antique toy exhibition: youngsters will have the opportunity
to participate in a hands on experience, viewing toys from the early
19th to the late 20th century periods. The clients will see toys such as
stuffed animals, military items and locomotive trains. Ages 6-10. For
more information, contact CM Anderson, 282-0380.
Wednesday, February 11, 4:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m., Recreation Center, 2500
Georgia Avenue, NW. Banneker Supreme Teens will host the Taste of
Strawberry participants will enjoy everything containing strawberries.
Ages 12-19. For more information, contact Joyce Carey, 673-6861.
Wednesday, February 11, 5:00 p.m.-6:30 p.m., Riggs LaSalle Community
Center, 501 Riggs Road, NE. In celebration of “Healthy Heart Month”
join in learning to team promote a healthy heart with team building
activities and awareness! Ages 5-18. For more information contact
576-5224.
Thursday, February 12, 3:00 p.m.-4:30 p.m., Kalorama Recreation
Center, 1875 Columbia Road, NW. Valentine’s day card making. Children
will create special Valentine’s Day cards for friends and family.
Light refreshments will be served. Ages 13 and under. For more
information, contact Mona Scott, 673-7606.
Thursday, February 12, 5:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m. Sherwood Recreation
Center, 640 10th Street, NE. Best Friends Bingo Frenzy: youth will
participate in strategic and competitive bingo games to win holiday
crafts, games, toys and special gifts. Ages 5-12. Registration Required.
For more information, contact 698-3075.
Thursday, February 12, 6:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m. Congress Heights
Recreation Center, 100 Randle Place, SE. Cupid Celebration: participants
will make and exchange valentine cards, listen and dance to their
favorite tunes while enjoying light refreshments. All ages. For more
information, contact Thomas Bolden, 645-3981.
Monday, February 12, 6:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m., Watts Branch Recreation
Center, 6201 Banks Place, NE. Teen Club dines out: the Teen club of
Watts will take a trip to the Boulevard Cap Center to enjoy dinner at
one of the fine restaurants in that area. Ages 13-19. For more
information, contact Libby Morris, 727-5432.
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Senate Markup of DC Voting Rights Act,
February 11
Jaline Quinto, jquinto@dcvote.org
The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee will
hold a markup hearing on the DC House Voting Rights Act (S.160) on
Wednesday, February 11, at 10:00 a.m., in Room 342 of the Dirksen Senate
Office Building.
“We are greatly encouraged by the Senate’s swift action on the DC
Voting Rights Act,” said Ilir Zherka, DC Vote Executive Director. “As
Congress makes critical decisions affecting the lives of every American,
there are more than half a million people — residents of our nation’s
capital — who are left without a voting member who can represent and
protect their interests during these tough economic times.”
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National Building Museum Events, February 11
Jazmine Zick, jzick@nbm.org
February 11, 12:30-1:30 p.m., Building for the 21st Century: Building
Recombinant Ecologies. Stephen Luoni of the University of Arkansas’s
Community Design Center discusses holistic planning that brings social
and environmental considerations to urban economic development. Free. No
registration required.
February 11, 6:30-9:00 p.m., Detour: The Landscape of Travel on Film.
Loop and early Norwegian travel films. Directed by Sjur Paulsen, 2005,
NR, color, 78 minutes, Norwegian with English subtitles. This
award-winning documentary offers spectacular views of Norway as it
follows individuals who go to extreme lengths to escape the everyday.
Includes screening of 1920s and ’30s Norwegian travel films. $5
member; $5 student; $10 nonmember. Prepaid registration required.
Walk-in registration based on availability. Both events at the National
Building Museum, 401 F Street, NW, Judiciary Square stop, Metro Red
Line. Register for events at http://www.nbm.org.
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Historical Society of Washington, DC, February
14-15
Ed Bruske, euclidarms@yahoo.com
Saturday, February 14, 2:00-3:00 p.m., 801 K Street, NW, at Mt.
Vernon Square. Learn to research DC history using the Kiplinger Research
Library. Have you ever wanted to know the history of your neighborhood,
your local school, or your family? Well, the answers to your queries may
very well be in our Kiplinger Research Library. Join us to learn how to
use our library to research topics related to the history of the
District of Columbia and its residents. When you register for this
workshop, you will be asked to become a registered library user. Space
is limited to 20 participants. Please reserve your place by Wednesday,
February 11, by E-mailing info@historydc.org
or calling 383-1850. Location: Kiplinger Research Library, second floor,
Historical Society of Washington, DC. (Ages eighteen to adults) Free
admission.
Sunday, February 15, 2:00-4:00 p.m., 801 K Street, NW, at Mt. Vernon
Square. Adult Writing Workshop, Georgia Douglas Johnson Salon Series,
Playwriting Workshop One: Introduction to the One-Act Play. For this
workshop, bring your sweetheart and create a love story. This workshop
is designed to introduce participants to the art and craft of writing a
one-act play. The afternoon will begin with readings of one-act plays by
the Black Women’s Playwright’s Group. We will also read a brief
excerpt from a Georgia Douglas Johnson play. Then we will commence work
on our own ten minute one-act play working with character, plot,
language, and setting. Suggested reading: 1) Creating Your Own
Monologue by Glenn Altermann. Allworth Press, 2) The Plays of
Georgia Douglas Johnson: From the New Negro Renaissance to the Civil
Rights Movement (Paperback) : University of Illinois Press, 3) The
Playwright’s Process: Learning the Craft from Today’s Leading
Dramatists by Barry
McLaughlin, There are no prerequisites for this workshop. Books can
be purchased in the HSW Bookstore if you reserve them. Limited to
fifteen adults. Registration required. RSVP@historydc.org
or 383-1828. Free admission.
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Join Us for Poetry Out Loud, February 23
Masresha Tadesse, masresha.tadesse@dc.gov
Please join us for an evening of poetry as the DC Commission on the
Arts and Humanities presents the NEA’s Poetry Out Loud, a national
recitation contest. Come encourage DC Public School students as they
compete to become finalists on the national stage!
Monday, February 23, 5:30 p.m., at the Woolly Mammoth Theater, 641 D
Street, NW. RSVP by February 18. For more information, contact shyree.mezick@dc.gov
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