Misbegotten Enthusiasms
Dear Enthusiasts:
Whenever I think of the misbegotten enthusiasms of the food police, I
think of Jack LaLanne, the exercise and diet guru. LaLanne has a
standard rule for choosing which foods to eat: “If it tastes good,
spit it out.” In a capsule, that is the hair shirt nutritionalism that
is behind efforts to retrain children to avoid the foods they actually
like. That is why the two top targets of the food police today are sugar
and salt, ingredients that pose no real dietary or health dangers to the
average person, but that make food taste good. An article in the current
issue of Time Magazine (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1987591,00.html#ixzz0oA1zd8iX)
extolls the anti-salt movement, but includes Anthony Bourdain’s
commonsense refutation of it: “Traditional, intelligent and skilled
used of salt has become confused in the minds of nanny-state nitwits
with the sneaking of salt into processed convenience foods. Nothing else
encapsulates the mission of the food ideologues better than this latest
intrusion: they desire a world without flavor.” (Of course, all foods
have been proven to kill you, not just sugar and salt, and there are “scientific
studies” that prove nearly all foods should be avoided. Over the last
several decades, eggs, milk, coffee, chocolate, meats of all kinds,
bread, pasta, coffee again, grains, butter, yogurt, soy, and coffee
again have been targeted by nutritionists and “food scientists” as
health dangers.)
A photograph taken at an event at Alice Deal Middle School on
Thursday (http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dc/2010/05/gray_vilsack_serve_up_healthy.html)
epitomizes the excesses of the anti-pleasure cult. It shows Council
Chairman Vincent Gray and US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack
celebrating the passage of Councilmember Mary Cheh’s Healthy Schools
initiative by serving the students large portions of steamed kale and
roasted garlic cauliflower, both undoubtedly prepared without any salt.
Imagine how grateful the students must have been to have been served a
lunch of kale and cauliflower. And imagine how much the expenses of this
program have been underestimated, since the estimates don’t include
the cost of composting and recycling all the wasted food that students
will discard, the foods that students really will spit out because they
don’t taste good to them.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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On Saturday, the Ward 8 Democrats held a candidates forum and straw
poll at Matthews Memorial Baptist Church for mayoral candidates in the
September Democratic primary. Leo Alexander, Sulaimon Brown, Adrian
Fenty, Vincent Gray, Ernest Jackson, Dennis Sobin, and Patrick Tayman
participated in the forum and responded to questions from Washington
Post reporter Mike DeBonis (formerly Loose Lips with the Washington
City Paper). The initial tabulation of the votes cast in the straw
poll was Alexander, 8; Fenty, 49; and Gray 59. However, although voting
was supposed to be restricted to registered Democrats who lived in Ward
8, 23 individuals who were not registered voters prior to Saturday cast
challenged ballots. When the challenged ballots were added to the other
votes cast, Fenty received 69 votes, Gray 61, and Alexander 10.
The Ward 8 forum, unfortunately, provided an early indication of
things to come in the mayoral campaign. Fenty allies Ron Moten and
Juahar Abraham, cofounders of Peaceoholics, brought a large number of
young people to the forum who wore green Fenty stickers on their
Peaceoholics and HICKSDC (Helping Innter City Kids Succeed) T-shirts.
Although most of these young people were not registered voters prior to
the forum, the insisted on being allowed to register at the forum and to
cast challenged ballots. Outside the church, the young people bragged
about how they had been paid $100 to attend the forum.
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No Support Here for the Soda Tax
Anne C. Sullivan, sullyterp@gmail.com
I object strongly to Councilmember Cheh’s proposed soda tax. Saying
it’s a penny per ounce minimizes the absurdly large tax rate. If I buy
a twelve-pack of twelve-ounce cans for full price (around $6), the tax
would be $1.44, or around 24 percent. If that twelve-pack is on sale for
$3, the tax rate would be nearly 50 percent. A two-liter bottle on sale
for 99 cents results in a nearly 65 percent tax rate! If I have reason
to be in Maryland or Virginia if this proposal is approved, you can bet
I will be buying my soda there. Claiming that this tax is designed to
improve the health of citizens is disingenuous, at best. It’s clearly
a money grab. What’s next? A 50 percent tax on butter? A 25 percent
tax on products with cholesterol? A chocolate fee?
And how, exactly, will this money be used? Money grabbed from DC
shoppers via this tax is supposed to make school lunches more healthful.
One provision is to use locally grown produce. How is a green bean from
Maryland more healthful than one from New Jersey? What happens to
shopping for dollar value? It goes out the window when DCPS food vendors
are limited to locally grown produce. What assessments of the current
food vendor have been done to show that the goals of the healthful
breakfasts/lunches cannot be met with the current level of funding or
our tax base? Is it true that this soda tax money grab is also supposed
to fund increased requirements for PE classes in DCPS? Really? Will it
cover the costs for the additional PE teachers that will be needed? Will
daily PE classes replace some of the academic classes, or will the
school day be extended? Will this mean a new round of contract
negotiations for the WTU and the Chancellor? Wouldn’t that be fun!
And I’ve heard that Councilmember Cheh wants faculty/staff in
schools to grow produce on school land and/or have compost heaps. Well,
I guess that’s an improvement over her previous attempt to sell off
the Janney Elementary School soccer field to a developer to build condos
on school property (a failed attempt — so far, that is. Stay tuned.) I
think the school personnel have enough on their hands without adding an
agricultural curriculum on top of the academics. Then there is the
matter of trusting the government to use this proposed tax the way they
say they will. It would be nice to have that trust. I’m sorry, but my
trust disappeared (or should I say, my cynicism was reinforced) when I
learned the “bag tax” (fee) would be used to fund street sweeping
instead of cleaning the Anacostia. Fans of the bag tax point proudly to
reduced bag usage in the District. Would someone please provide the data
that shows this bag tax has resulted in fewer bags in the Anacostia? A
cleaner river? Anyone?
The proposed soda tax is another in the list of “feel good”
legislation that Councilmember Cheh has carelessly proposed. There was
the “reunite the rodent family act” or the “leave the bats in your
belfry act,” the “close Klingle Road because I say so” move, and
the bag tax (although in retrospect, at least it’s not as ludicrous as
the proposed beverage tax rate). I wish that our city council was
comprised of members who were interested in their oversight roles and
were focussed on good, sound, fiscal management. Clearly, the passage of
this proposed soda tax, along with other proposed increased taxes and
fees, would indicate that is not the case in the District of Columbia.
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Is This Bill Nutty or Not?
Gabe Goldberg, gabe at gabegold dot com
Bryce A. Suderow (themail, May 12) opposes taxing soda because . . .
well, I’m not sure. Because it’s a tax, I guess. Though the District
budget is in trouble, soda is fattening and bad for one’s health, and
childhood obesity is rampant and increasing. Anyway, I respect —
though don’t fully understand — opposing taxes when presumably
useful public services (schools, police, fire departments, social
services, roads, transit) are threatened. But I can’t parse the logic
of “The money is supposed to go towards a lunch program for school
kids. Cheh is proposing this at a time when the city is awash in red ink
and has just laid off a hundred child care workers.”
But yes. Isn’t that when a new tax would be proposed to support a
lunch program, when the city is awash in red ink and has just laid off a
hundred child care workers? When else? When the city is faced with
alarming budget surpluses?
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The Gandhi Nomination to the Board of
Elections and Ethics
Dick Wolf, richwolf1@verizon.net
Ironically, this person seems to have violated the Hatch Act by
serving as a member of the ABC board while fundraising for Fenty. And he
is supposed to judge these issues at the Board of Elections and Ethics?
Give me a break.
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Gary, you so don’t know much about transportation planning, and why
streetcars were overtaken by the automobile, that I wouldn’t know
where to begin. I could write a response that easily would take up an
entire issue, but I won’t. The issue is how should the city plan for
the future. Should it focus on optimizing automobility, when a majority
of work trips are by transit, walking, and bicycling, when the city’s
residents own fewer cars than the national and regional average, and
when a significant number of nonwork trips are by transit, walking, and
bicycling, or should the city focus on strengthening and extending the
transit infrastructure to further the city’s economic and competitive
advantages around transit, reducing dependence on automobility and on
oil.
It’s great that you focus on streetcars from fifty or sixty years
ago. But I don’t understand why you and all the other people who make
similar arguments refuse to acknowledge how surface rail transit, either
streetcars or light rail, function successfully today, in North America
as well as Europe. You’re making a straw man argument that is almost
completely irrelevant to today’s mobility needs, not to mention the
reality that in a situation where oil supplies are declining and demand
is increasing, planning for automobile-centric mobility is dangerous.
Basically, the issue is how the real estate industry wanted to maximize
profit from land development and how the automobile industry wanted to
sell its product meant that the land use and transportation paradigm had
to change. And it did, towards a deconcentrated and spread-out
development pattern.
But it is for this reason that streetcars and similar transit
technologies ceased to be economic, rather than because they were “obsolete.”
Automobiles were and are subsidized by massive public road building.
Taxes and fees by motor vehicle operators pay about 50 percent of the
cost of roads. Without subsidies, and with a regulatory apparatus that
made it difficult to raise rates, privately owned transit systems were
unable to compete against the triple whammy of road subsidies to the
automobile user, housing policies that favored spread-out suburban
locations, and the inability to raise rates. This problem was
accentuated as workplaces spread out from the central business district
or major manufacturing locations.
I will grant you that many people preferred to have individual
transportation rather than mass transportation. But transportation that
is efficient for the individual isn’t necessarily efficient for the
mass. A mass transportation system optimizes the mobility of public
transit vehicles (and walking). A personalized transportation system
optimizes the mobility of the automobile. The problem is that it is not
possible to build an efficient road (transportation) system where every
adult conducts five to eight trips a day by automobile. Furthermore,
center cities in general and Washington in particular were designed to
optimize walking and transit (bicycling works well in the same urban
form). So optimal mobility in the city in particular is best achieved by
focusing on transit.
DC’s economic competitive advantage within the Washington
metropolitan region is specifically tied to transit, successful and
robust transit. In fact, in DC generally, and in the core of the city
specifically, more trips are conducted by walking, bicycling, and
transit per capita than any other city in the US, except for NYC. DC
resident commuter times are at about the national average, and are
second in the region only to Arlington (which is about one third the
size of DC so it is more compact), but are much better than every other
county in the region. Furthermore, DC households own fewer cars than the
national average, and more DC households do not own cars, compared to
other jurisdictions in the region (http://www.narpac.org/RCI.HTM#metcar20).
So, if you ask me, it makes sense to focus on the next generation mass
mobility technologies of today — streetcars, light rail, and subways
— rather than the obsolete individualized mobility technologies of
last century — the automobile.
###############
Richard Layman was right on this one. This was my first time reading
themail@dcwatch. It will probably also be the last. Mainly because your
post was so completely clueless about the actual history of
transportation, land-use patterns, technology, energy, and especially,
as Layman pointed out, the difference between group benefit versus
individual benefit — i.e., game theory, as it relates to maximum
working-group efficiency.
For a better understanding of this read about Ivan Illich, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Illich:
“The main notion of Ivan Illich is the concept of counterproductivity
which describes an inconvenient phenomenon: when they reach a critical
point (and form a monopoly), big institutions of modern industrial
societies become, without knowing it, impediments to their own
performance. For example, Ivan Illich calculated that, in America in the
70’s, if you add the time spent to work to earn the money to buy a
car, the time spent in the car (including traffic jam), the time spent
in the health care industry because of a car crash, the time spent in
the oil industry to fuel cars . . . etc., and you divide that by the
number of kilometres traveled per year, you obtain the following
calculation: 1600 hours per year per American divided by 10000 km per
year per person equals 6 km per hour. So the real speed of a car would
be about 3.7 miles per hour.”
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Clang, Clang, Clang Goes the Trolley
Gabe Goldberg, gabe at gabegold dot com
Gary’s editorial (themail, May 12) disparaged trolleys. Here’s a
friend’s response — a native San Franciscan, married to a native San
Franciscan, both lifelong SF residents. Gary: “Cities that have
preserved a few streetcar lines, like San Francisco, keep them as
novelties, as tourist attractions, and it is the tourists rather than
the locals who use them.” San Franciscan: “This is BS. There are
five ‘non-tourist’ streetcar lines (J, K, L, M, N) and one tourist
one (F) that operates historic cars. These are all ‘regular’ fare
lines, and can be ridden with a monthly pass at no extra charge. These
cars are relatively new from Breda, a major Italian streetcar maker.
Streetcars are widely used in Europe too. I believe New Orleans has
operating streetcars, Seattle just opened a new light rail vehicle line
that runs north to south (light rail vehicle is the modern name for
streetcars). I dunno about other cities. There are three remaining cable
car lines, Powell, Hyde, and California. They charge a premium fare to
all riders, except seniors before 7:00 a.m. and after 9:00 p.m. (who
knew we needed this?).
Gary: “Streetcars, of course, are a failed urban transportation
alternative from the past.” SF residents: “There is a movie about
the propaganda and economic war waged by SO and GM to drive out
streetcars, principally in LA. It is a ‘Michael Moore-type’ expose,
don’t remember the title. Might be at the foot of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_American_streetcar_scandal.
There are also references to this incident in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. I
believe that most unbiased observers (including the US Supremes)
concluded that the cabal acted unlawfully.”
###############
I think I have learned something in the past week about something
that has continually troubled me about what is termed “public debate”
in American communities and groups. This is that it is taken for granted
that the “public” interest in some development or other is always
embodied in an objectionable rule or regulation taken by the “old
Satan government, to the disadvantage or discomfort of some worthy
object of “private” interest. This is more truly a “theology”
than anything that might be taken to be a reasonable interest in the
collective interest of everyone involved.
Thus, we are told by Gary Imhoff that, “Streetcars, of course, are
a failed urban transportation system,” only favored by unnamed “transportation
and urban planners” who “hate automobiles which allow people to
choose their own routes” as an expression of personal freedom. This,
of course, applies to all American Cities, and their surroundings -- as
with the “freedom” enjoyed by commuters from Frederick and Baltimore
on 270 and 95, morning and evenings, not to mention the open road of the
Beltway (495), at almost any hour of any workday; or, as with the
obvious daily workday congestion of the Washington downtown, where the
pedestrian population each day doubles, to the doubtful benefit of their
freedom, and the obvious obstruction of the buses. We increase the 80
percent of the population that now live in urban and metropolitan areas,
give each of them (and their teen-age children) a car, and our freedom
to move (very, very slowly) is perfected and more complete.
Generals generally fight the last war in the present one, and Gary
seems intent on arguing the case against any form of public
transportation with the problematic solution of the automobile for most
purposes -- perhaps in all -- for the dubious outcome that we are all
compelled to adopt the prime source of today’s congestion,
overcrowding, and the daily absolute discipline of the private commute
to work. I count myself one of the lucky ones, since the D-6 bus takes
me to the center of Gary’s car-based congestion on an old-fashioned
means, my own legs and a willingness to walk.
###############
Streetcars and Trolleys
Lisa Swanson, Petworth, Melatar@yahoo.com
Take another look at streetcars and trolleys. Yes, the rails are
fixed, actually dug into the streets. That’s actually one of the
plusses, because riders know where they’re going to end up, and when
trolleys take a corner, it’ll be into the near lane, not the second or
third as for many cars.
The streetcars enjoying a resurgence in Portland — and the lines
that never went away in European cities and San Francisco — are used
by tourists and commuting residents alike. I wonder about your dreamy
idea about the ability for car drivers to “choose their own routes and
timetables for travel.” Not in DC. Route, variable; timetable, running
late.
As for their 19th century origin, you must not have been happy to
hear about the Potomac River ferry idea. Boats were mentioned in
Genesis, for Pete’s sake. How retro is that? Http://streetcars4dc.org/
has lots of information.
###############
Imhoff versus Layman on H Street
Trolley
Dino Drudi, dino.drudi@bls.gov
I guess I would add a different view, viz, cars get in the way of
trolleys and slow them down, which is why “light rail,” except in
limited places in the Central Business District (Salt Lake City is a
good example) needs to be on a separate right-of-way. This may mean
depaving streets and rededicating traffic lanes to exclusive,
grade-separated “light-rail” rights-of-way. At intersections, when
the trolley is waiting, traffic signals in all four directions would
turn red until the trolley clears the intersection.
###############
I’m resigned to the likelihood that DC will spend millions, tens of
millions, and eventually hundreds of millions of dollars on streetcars,
because transportation planners and enthusiastic and politicians will be
able to pose for dozens of photo opportunities for the massive, costly
public works projects. Like the baseball stadium, it’s a matter of big
toys for big boys. But if government is spending like a drunken sailor
on things like sports stadiums and streetcars, don’t tell me it’s
too broke to pay for basic public services. I’m certain, however, that
streetcars will remain a niche mode of transportation, limited in the
number and lengths of lines, limited in ridership, and maintained only
by massive subsidies. Let’s get together in a few decades to determine
who’s right.
Richard Layman and Lee Watkins argue that too many people, if left to
their own preferences, will stubbornly make the wrong choices —
suburban, spread-out living and private transportation. They believe
that it is not government’s job to enable people to make their own
choices and to help them live the lives they prefer. Instead, it is the
role of government to force people to make the choices that experts
determine are best for them. People should live in centralized cities,
forego their cars, rely on public transportation, and reduce their
travel to the minimum. If they don’t like that, government should make
it too expensive and inconvenient for them to live any other way.
The San Franciscans are right that San Francisco runs a few modern
streetcar lines as a modest part of its public transportation system, in
addition to the cable car lines; it’s the only US city to have even a
small network of streetcar lines. The New Orleans streetcar lines are
the St. Charles line, which runs from the French Quarter to the Garden
District; the Canal Street Line, which runs from the Mississippi River
in the central business district to the fairgrounds; and the Riverfront
Line, which runs for about two miles along the riverfront starting from
the French Quarter. All three lines serve tourist districts, though
obviously some locals who live along them also use them. Seattle has a
single, 1.3 mile streetcar line, just as it has a single one-mile
monorail that runs from the downtown business district to the old
Seattle World’s Fair grounds. The movie mentioned by the San
Franciscans is Taken for a Ride, which is available on YouTube, http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2486235784907931000#.
As they note, it is about as balanced as a typical Michael Moore film;
it is hardly an objective or accurate account.
There was a court case alleging a conspiracy to drive streetcar lines
out of business (US v. National City Lines, Inc.), but the result
was not what the San Franciscans believe. First, the Supreme Court’s
only role in the case was to permit a change in venue from southern
California to northern Illinois. Second, the defendants were found not
guilty of the charge of conspiring to monopolize transportation
services. They were found guilty of the charge of conspiring to
monopolize the provision of parts and supplies to their subsidiary
services. The seriousness with which the court held this charge is
suggested by the punishment: the company was fined five thousand
dollars, and the directors of the company were fined a dollar each. What
the conspiracy theory neglects was that there were two sides in the
competition for urban transit business. On one side were the gasoline
companies and the bus and automobile manufacturing companies; on the
other side were the electricity and streetcar companies. Streetcars were
losing customers to buses and cars; they lost money for years before
they were bought out by competing bus companies, and that is why bus
companies were able to afford to buy them. Cars and buses won because of
consumer preferences.
###############
As a native Clevelander, I take offense when it’s unnecessarily
pilloried in the media. The link about the streetcars clearly states the
project is in that “other” city in Ohio — Cincinnati. I’m sure
you’ll receive a lot of pierogis rightly hurled in your general
direction for this offense. Otherwise, keep up the good work!
[You mean that Cleveland and Cincinnati aren’t the same city? Does
that get me more pierogis? — Gary Imhoff]
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Urban Barn Dance
Gabe Goldberg, gabe at gabegold dot com
Clyde Howard (themail, May 12) mocked the idea of traffic signal
sequencing periodically stopping all traffic flow to allow flexible
pedestrian crossing, chastising “young, dumb persons [who] lead our
agencies [with] no sense of history.”
Well, yes, history (and facts) matter. In fact, this traffic
technique isn’t a “barn dance,” it’s the Barnes Dance, named for
Henry Barnes. Though he didn’t invent the pedestrian scramble, he was
first to use it on a large scale. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedestrian_scramble
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Barnes_%28traffic_engineer%29.
Rather than having been “eliminated . . . as being too dangerous,”
as Howard claims, Wikipedia notes that, “In Hartford, Connecticut,
every crossing outside of the city center requires all traffic to stop.
Many crossings in the city center do the same, such as the city’s
busiest intersection at Main and Gold Streets. In Japan, where over
three hundred such intersections exist, it is known as a scramble
crossing. In Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the intersection of Yonge Street
and Dundas Street, adjacent to Yonge-Dundas Square, is a scramble
intersection as is Yonge Street and Bloor Street. More intersections in
Toronto are expected to follow this method of pedestrian crossing.
“In Auckland, New Zealand, the Barnes Dance was introduced in 1958,
and became a feature of the city’s main street, Queen Street, as well
as being adopted in other New Zealand cities. In recent years it has
been criticized by some traffic planners, but is still widely used on
the street. It is also still used on several intersections on Colombo
Street in Christchurch, but the only application in Dunedin at Cargill’s
Corner was abandoned during the 1980s. In London, UK, diagonal crossings
have been constructed at Thatto Heath in St. Helens in 1994, Balham in
2005, and Oxford Circus in 2009. In Washington, DC. USA, diagonal
crossing existed at several downtown intersections until the mid-1980’s.
It is being tried again on an experimental basis in May 2010.”
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[Re: Barn Dance, themail, May 12] Actually, it was punningly called
the “Barnes Dance,” after the traffic engineer Henry Barnes, who
introduced it in New York City when I was growing up. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedestrian_scramble.
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It’s Not a Barn Dance
Harold Goldstein, mdbiker@goldray.com
It is the Barnes Dance, named for the man who first instituted its
use on a large scale. It hasn’t been abandoned for safety reasons, or
any reasons for that matter. It is still widely used worldwide in “appropriate”
situations. Tying these intersections with the rest of the system in
terms of light timing, etc., is a big hurdle. It is very pedestrian
friendly but it needs to be clear that it does not negatively effect
traffic.
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InTowner
May
Issue Now Online
P.L. Wolff, intowner@intowner.com
This is to advise that the April 2010 online edition has been
uploaded and may be accessed at http://www.intowner.com.
Included are the lead stories, community news items, ABC Board action
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). The Selected Street Crimes
feature, which presently covers the period through April 5, will be
updated later on, at which time we will send an advisory to our new
content upload notification list recipients.
The complete issue (along with prior issues back to January 2002)
also is available in PDF file format directly from our home page at no
charge simply by clicking the front page image graphic. 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 June 11 (the
second Friday of the month as usual). 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) “City Council Hearing
Spotlights New Libraries in Shaw and Elsewhere — Mt. Pleasant
Controversy Aired”; 2) “Connecticut Avenue Restaurants to Host May
18 Spring Tastings Event”; 3) “Dogs Dance in Adams Morgan.”
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Building on its popular fall Taste of Dupont, Historic Dupont Circle
Main Streets will focus on Connecticut Avenue for its spring fundraiser.
HDCMS oversees projects like the Clean Team and the Connecticut Avenue
Median Landscaping. Create your own progressive dinner with individual
tasting tickets redeemed at any of the participating dining
establishments, many of which will have specially priced cocktails or
wines paired with your tasting. Tickets for individual tastings are $5
each, or purchase a tasting ticket package of five tickets for $20. Get
details, reserve tickets, and check out menu offerings at http://www.dupontcircle.biz.
Tuesday, May 18, 6:00-9:00 p.m.
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National Building Museum Events, May 19
Johanna Weber, jweber@nbm.org
May 19, 9:30 a.m.-12:15 p.m.; 2:15-5:00 p.m., Power, Architecture,
and Politics: The Design of Washington and the US Commission of Fine
Arts Symposium. One hundred years ago, Congress established the US
Commission of Fine Arts to guide the development of the nation’s
capital. In this day-long symposium, noted historians discuss the design
and planning of Washington, DC, from 1910 to today. Free; registration
required. Walk-in registration based on availability.
May 19, 12:30-1:30 p.m., Charles Atherton Memorial Lecture: Daniel
Libeskind. Noted architect Daniel Libeskind discusses the symbolism and
architectural expression of commemoration as the 2010 Charles H.
Atherton Memorial lecturer. $12 members, free students, $20 nonmembers.
Prepaid registration required. Walk in registration based on
availability. Both events at the National Building Museum, 401 F Street,
NW, Judiciary Square Metro station. Register for events at http://www.nbm.org.
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The Dupont Circle community is invited to learn about the design for
the “new” St. Thomas Parish Church at a reception with the
architect. Since the destruction of the original gothic stone building
by arson in 1970, St. Thomas’ has graciously lent its
sanctuary-without-walls to the community in the form of a garden. Now
the congregation plans a rebuilding to shelter its growing membership.
Join neighbors for a presentation of the design plans. For more
information, see http://growth.stthomasdc.org.
Thursday, May 20, 1772 Church Street, NW, 6:30-8:30 p.m.
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Send a Kid to Theater Camp Benefit, May 21
Robin Diener, president@dupont-circle.org
Great fun for a great cause. Special guests include former
Councilmember Carol Schwartz and political reporter Tom Sherwood.
Featured will be highlights from The Theatre Lab’s Life Stores
Projects for incarcerated and at-risk youth, and the return of the
Bard-a-Thon, an honored tradition in which local celebrities perform
Shakespeare in their pajamas to raise funds for scholarships. RSVP
824-0449. At the Theatre Lab School of the Dramatic Arts, 733 8th
Street, NW (Gallery Place Metro), Friday May 21, 7:00-10:00 p.m.
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Scratch Day 2010, May 22
Phil Shapiro, pshapiro@his.com
Scratch is a free computer programming resource that makes it easy to
create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art
— and share your creations on the web at http://scratch.mit.edu.
All interested students, parents and teachers are invited to learn
more about Scratch and robotics, featuring Junior FIRST LEGO League,
FIRST LEGO League, FIRST Tech Challenge, VEX Robotics and Sea Perch
underwater robotics on Saturday, May 22, 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m., at
Archbishop Carroll High School, 4300 Harewood Road NE. Price: free.
It’s been my experience that Scratch can be enjoyed by children as
young as second grade (maybe younger, too) right up through eighth
grade. Scratch has been called, “The best educational software on the
planet.”
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DC Youth Orchestra Program Turns Fifty, August
21
Susan Ousley, slousley@aol.com
In 1960, some remarkable revolutionaries brought children and adults
together to share their love of music in the DC Youth Orchestra Program.
Since then, tens of thousands of musicians have shared that experience.
Were you one of them? We’re trying to connect with all our alumni. If
you’re a DCYOP alum, E-mail 50years@dcyop.org
with your name, instrument, and years you played at DCYOP. You can find
other alumni and keep up with the program by joining DCYOP on Facebook.
Please help us celebrate our inspiring and living legacy on August
21: 1:30-3:00 p.m., Alumni Lunch, 600 Restaurant, Watergate Hotel, catch
up with friends and current members. 6:00-7:00 p.m., Alumni Orchestra
Concert at the Kennedy Center’s Concert Hall. Marvin Hamlisch, host
and guest conductor, with Maestro Jesus Manuel Berard, DCYO Conductor
and Music Director and DCYOP founder Maestro Lyn McLain as guest
conductor. Free, no tickets required. 7:30-9:30 p.m., reception and
fundraiser, 600 Restaurant.
For tickets and if you’d like to be considered for the alumni
orchestra, go to dcyop50th.eventbrite.com/. To help with celebration
preparations (especially finding your orchestra-mates), please E-mail 50years@dcyop.org.
To reach our Executive Director, Ava Spece, call 723-1612 or E-mail ava@dcyop.org,
or visit http://www.dcyop.org
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