Marriage Counseling
Dear Counselees:
You’ve been going to marriage counseling with your spouse for
months, and all along your spouse has been saying, “Of course I make
all the decisions unilaterally, but that’s only because I always know
best, and if I had to discuss my decisions with you I couldn’t be as
quick and decisive as I want to be. You should stop asking me about how
I conduct our family business; you should know that I’m the authority,
and you don’t need to know anything about my private information. And,
by the way, I’m going to continue running and hanging with my old
friends, no matter what you think about them, and I’m going to keep
giving our money to them whenever they ask. I don’t care whether you
think they’re a bad influence on me or not.” After months of
counseling, your spouse belatedly learns that you have gone to a divorce
attorney, so after speaking with some image consultants about what to
say, at the next counseling session says, attempting to make a
breakthrough concession: “I’m going to change; I really am. In the
future, I’m going to do my best to pretend that I actually listen to
your stupid ideas before I ignore them. Now will you stop whining?”
Can this marriage be saved? Should it? (http://www.tbd.com/articles/2010/08/fenty-gray-get-into-actual-issues-on-tbd-newstalk-1424.html,
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/debonis/2010/08/fenty_pledges_to_change_some_t.html,
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/looselips/2010/08/12/loose-lips-daily-ill-change-edition)
#####
In the last issue, I asked what you saw in and what you thought was
missing from Fenty’s and Gray’s latest campaign finance reports.
Nobody sent any tips, so I’ll recommend Martin Austermuhle’s quick
analysis of Fenty’s campaign expenses, http://dcist.com/2010/08/mayor_adrian_fentys_vaunted_green.php.
There are a few points that I would add to Martin’s piece. First,
Fenty’s report has a long list of people, paid in increments of fifty
dollars, who do street canvassing and attend straw polls. Many of them
don’t report a street address or zip code in Washington, though the
finance report claims they are in Washington. Dorothy has talked with a
random sampling of canvassers; all of them claim to live in Washington,
but they don’t seem to know the city or be able to name the
neighborhood they live in. How many of the reported addresses that are
in Washington are accurate? Second, the large companies that are behind
campaign strategy, the ones that get the big payments, are LSG
Strategies Services Corp., http://www.lsgstrategies.com,
led by longtime Washington campaign strategist Tom Lindenfeld; Greenberg
Quinlan Rosner Research, http://www.greenbergresearch.com,
which was paid $30,000 on June 14, probably to do a poll whose results I’d
love to see; and North Woods Advertising, Inc., http://www.northwoodadvertising.com,
and Chase Creek Media, http://www.ccmdc.com,
who are both producing ads and buying ad time. What I didn’t find is
any payment for the fleet of rental cars that the canvassers use or any
payment for campaign office rent, and payments for office supplies seems
to be low-balled. Come on, insiders, tell us about what you know about
the campaign operations.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
###############
Fenty Condones Corrupt Election Practices
Dorothy Brizill, dorothy@dcwatch.com
At the urging of Ron Moten, Mayor Fenty has vetoed the Corrupt
Election Practices Amendment Act of 2010, Bill 18-956, which the council
had overwhelmingly approved at its last legislative session prior to its
summer recess on July 13 (ten councilmembers voted in favor; two
abstained and one was absent). The act amended the District’s Election
Code to prohibit corrupt election practices, making it an offense to “(A)
Pay, offer to pay, or accept payment of any consideration, compensation,
gratuity, reward, or thing of value either for registration to vote or
for voting; (B) Give false information as to his name, address, or
period of residence for the purpose of establishing his eligibility to
register or vote, that is known by the person to be false; (C) Procure
or submit voter registration applications that are known by the person
to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent; (D) Procure, cast, or
tabulate ballots that are known by the person to be materially false,
fictitious, or fraudulent; or (E) Conspire with another individual to do
any of the above.”
###############
Voter Registration Application
Willie Schatz, profwriter24@gmail.com
Opening the envelope (without a return address; did the sender wish
to remain anonymous?), I was shocked to see the “Voter Registration
Application” form. “Use this form to register to vote in the
District of Columbia, to let us know that your name or address has
changed, to register with a political party, or to change your party
registration.” I have been in the first category since 1980. The other
categories do not apply to me. I admit to having been being nonplused
enough to check my status on http://www.dcboee.org.,
which confirmed that I had not been purged from the rolls. Now aware of
my precarious status, I printed the status report and will bring it with
me to my polling place to confirm that I have not departed the planet.
So why did I receive this form? You tell me, because I certainly don’t
know. Aren’t you glad that such a competent watchdog is protecting
your right to vote?
But that ain’t all, folks. Tucked inside the application was a
promotion for Fenty. Herewith the final paragraph: “To vote for Adrian
Fenty in the September 14th primary, you must be a registered Democrat
by August 16th. You can use the voter registration form included with
this letter to update your registration. Please mail it
back today (note double emphasis) and vote Fenty on September 14th to
keep our city moving forward.” I quote the bottom of the
Fentyreelect.com card (in the smallest readable font): “Paid for Fenty
2010, PO Box12110, Washington, DC 20005. Ben Soto, Treasurer. A copy of
our report is filed with the Director of Campaign Finance.”
If our mayor wants to encourage voter registration, more power to
him. But do so ethically and legally. I will bet my kids and my pets
that Fenty ran this by Nickles and Pete said, sure, no problem, as he
always does. But even if this tactic is legal, that does not mean it is
ethical. If you want do discuss my registration, call me. Do not mail me
a BOEE registration form implying that I have not registered. A campaign
poster accompanying a official Voter Registration Form? That strikes me
as surely unethical (not that that matters in this city) and probably
illegal. But the BOEE and our mayor’s campaign office obviously don’t
think so. I guess it was just another day at the offices.
###############
MPD and Coolidge High School Miss an
Opportunity
Barbara Patterson, thewritecharacter@yahoo.com
Last Spring, a Coolidge student “clowned” in the path of oncoming
traffic on Missouri Avenue. I stopped my car, called the youngster over,
and proceeded to chide him. He felt emboldened (in the presence of his
buddies) to open my car door (as a threatening gesture?), and concluded
his “act” by rolling over the hood of my car. I later saw him in the
halls at school (I’m a substitute teacher). After several attempts for
a face-to-face with the student, his guardian, and either or both a
Coolidge Administrator and the Metropolitan Police Department, the
latter said that no crime was committed so MPD had no jurisdiction; the
school reached the same conclusion, since the incident happened at 8th
and Missouri Avenue.
Both authorities missed an opportunity for true community engagement
to reinforce expectations for the student: 1) reminding him that adults
in the community care about him, notice his behavior, and will report
it; and 2) characterizing good citizenship (i.e., what
characterizes self-respect). I’m disappointed but not surprised in
both authorities. One has given us lip service for decades about their
desire to work with the community. Throughout this process, MPD failed
to follow its own procedures (and MPD admitted that); yet, it gave me no
assurances that it would address the breaches. Coolidge says that it
will focus more closely on character-building this year; last year, as
first-year DCPS administrators, Coolidge/Bedford concentrated on
righting the academic neglect that has accrued over the past ten years,
a result of academic neglect under its past four administrations.
It’s election year — I hope upstarts beat incumbents and the
voice of the people matter for a change.
###############
Seven Keys to Mayoral Success
Alvin C. Frost, Alvin frost@msn.com
It is the responsibility of DC voters to determine what the most
important issues are, and who appears to be better qualified to deal
with those issues, problems and concerns. To be successful, our next
mayor will have to: 1) improve the way that every agency and department
performs its responsibilities; 2) wring every ounce of fat out of every
operation; 3) provide improved services to every sector of the city,
especially for citizens and neighborhoods that are in greatest need,
and; 4) protect and preserve the District‘s budget and fund balance
from unreasonable spending decisions, especially in the current economy.
Good schools, affordable housing, accessible jobs with salaries that
support stable families and communities, and community based-policing
allow people to live their lives relatively free of the fear of
violence. If citizens aren’t safe and economically secure, then they
won’t be able to benefit from city improvements, whether in the
schools, parks and playgrounds, or from office, commercial and
residential building.
I am suggesting seven keys to mayoral success that should help the
next mayor to accomplish all of the important things that the people of
Washington, DC, need done. The seven keys are: 1) planning and managing
operations are both full-time jobs. Your most critical decision will be
how you use your time and control access to yourself. The state of the
District, and many of its citizens, is extremely fragile. You can
provide the vision, the leadership, the guidance and the comfort that is
needed by many. You have the task of having to be both extremely stingy
with your time, and freely available, where needed. How you balance
these opposing pressures will go far in calming a restive electorate. 2)
You’ll have to institutionalize the idea and the management of change.
You must quickly create an organization that improves services that the
citizens desperately need and increasingly demand. I suggest that you
create a cabinet level position that’s responsible for: a)
establishing performance measures for every agency and department; b)
researching best practices of organizations; c) developing methods to
tie performance operating statistics with financial results to determine
the true cost of providing services; d) creating tools and techniques,
tailored to each agency and department to plan, implement and execute
change; and e) identifying, calculating and assessing all of the risks
associated with making necessary changes.
4) It’s time to intelligently and aggressively campaign to gain
complete control of the District’s budget and operations, full voting
representation, and a fairer share of the resources generated within
Washington, DC, The District has the responsibilities of a state and
local government, without a state to fund statewide responsibilities.
The citizens of Washington, DC, are forced to bear an enormous tax
burden to support the presence of the federal government, and the many
non-residents who earn their livings within Washington, DC. I recommend
that you aggressively lobby each of the fifty state congressional
delegations. 4) I urge you to pledge to District Government employees
that you will do everything in your power to protect good employees and
to severely punish wrongdoing by any employee that results in fraud,
waste, and abuse. If you are going to be successful in doing your job,
you are going to have to make sure that good employees are allowed to do
their jobs, free from fear or favor, threats, intimidation, or
retaliation, so that they can support your efforts. 5) The District has
three primary sources of funds to pay for its ongoing operations and
investments for the future: a) annual revenues, taxes, user fees,
grants, etc.; b) debt that is borrowed to pay for capital projects; and
c) use of the District’s fund balance. As the District reaches the
limits of what we can achieve by using debt or fund balance, increasing
revenues is the District’s only alternative to continuing the District’s
recent growth. The most realistic way to achieve this will be to address
the structural imbalance that has been created by the US Constitution
and the US Congress, which allows approximately 53 percent of land
within the city to be nontaxable and 66 percent of the income earned
within the city to escape taxation. The District is approaching the
point where even best management practices and operations will not be
capable of overcoming this final barrier to success. This is why you
will have to educate every member of the Congress, just to give the
District the opportunity to achieve lasting success.
6) The District government remains broken. Greater resources have
allowed the District to undertake an aggressive development plan for
retail, commercial, office and residential. The people now want you to:
a) fix learning in the classrooms; b) fix the family and the
neighborhoods; c) fix government performance and reduce the cost of
government; and d) fix the budget by increasing the revenue base and
more effectively collecting monies owed to the District. This will
likely take at least ten years. 7) Can the people, in critical need of
services now, wait that long? Will you have enough time to do all that
you have promised? Will you be able to explain why things are still
broken, and, that you are doing the best job possible, and then have
District residents remain both hopeful and patient?
Of course there are more detailed issues that need to be dealt with,
in addition to these seven keys, but I believe that they would be a very
good start toward organizing your approach toward resolving critical
issues and problems, as opposed to leaving them for the next
administration to deal with. It will take a strong mayor to know when to
use tough love, and to also have the ability and willingness to listen
and work well with others, especially when they do not necessarily agree
with you. The community is fractured, racially, economically, and
politically, and success requires a mayor who is a healer, in addition
to being both an experienced manager and a leader.
###############
Discrimination Against Minority Customers
Katrina M. Taylor Hankins, recoveringtrina@gmail.com
[An open letter to Mayor Fenty] I have noticed a pattern of
discriminatory practices at the CHA Corporation’s Lobby Mart
Convenience Store, located at 3rd and E Streets, NW. On numerous
occasions, the store has left customers (mostly black) on the street
side waiting fifteen to twenty minutes for entry and service. During
this long wait time, other customers (mostly white) are entering the
store from the commercial office door and making purchases. Those of us
left outside are watching others receive entry and service while we have
no access.
I have attempted to rationalize these actions as not being racially
based, but as a lack of management skills in a small “Mom and Pop”
run business. But what I (and others) are experiencing is beyond small
business problems. It is an outright neglect — denial of the same
service to others, during posted business hours. If you can, please
confer with the DC Office of Regulatory Affairs and DC Small Business
Administration to follow up with the management of this business, named
CHA Corporation.
###############
Youth Violence at Gallery Place
Bryce A. Suderow, streetstories@juno.com
I want to comment on a letter that appeared a couple of issues ago in
themail. This letter briefly discussed a brawl involving seventy kids
that occurred at a Metro stop last week. For the past two years, scores
of teenagers from the ghetto have congregated around the Gallery Place
Metro stops near Chinatown and have threatened tourists and other
pedestrians and gotten into fights with each other on a regular basis.
Because of the violence, the bus stop at 7th and H Streets, NE, is known
as 7th and Hell.
The effects of the teen gatherings is purely negative. Tourists are
afraid to enter the area. Businesses are hurt because they have fewer
customers, and all the PSAs in District 1 have been stripped of their
officers to deal with the teen violence, leaving neighborhoods
vulnerable to criminals.
The mayor and city council need to deal with this problem before
someone gets murdered.
###############
Disappearing Republicans
Paul D. Craney, paul@dcgop.com
themail’s last two articles that mention the DC Republican
Committee are very embellished and do not represent the truth. themail
accused the DCGOP of working in coordination with the mayor’s office
to support the nomination of Mital Gandhi to the DCBOEE; that is
completely false. The last issue of themail is nothing more than a hit
job on Republicans. The reality that is that there are four Republican
candidates running for each Ward seat (1, 3, 5, and 6). These candidates
have web sites and are door knocking. They are in their communities
talking to voters. The DCGOP took a very deliberate approach to this
election cycle. We are only running candidates that have a chance at
winning.
It’s unfortunate themail is going out of its way to embellish and
exaggerate stories. themail wants you to believe there is a massive
cover up with the DCGOP and the mayor’s office. If you remember, the
DCGOP has a long history trying to keep the mayor (and the council)
accountable. Examples would be the mayor’s Fleet First ad campaign,
the mayor’s lack of funding for charter schools and MPD, the mayor’s
taxpayer funded trips to campaign for President Obama, and the mayor’s
raising taxes while refusing to take a pay cut. The DCGOP challenged the
mayor on the Kojo show to “lead by example” and take a pay cut when
he was proposing tax increases. The DCGOP found that Mayor Fenty makes
more money than 49 governors. The DCGOP has recently targeted Vince
Gray, but it’s for no other reason than to keep our elected officials
accountable. If Vince Gray feels confident there is nothing wrong with
using his council office to raise campaign contributions for the DC
Democratic Party or have campaign ads and invites that do not state who
paid for them, then let him defend his actions.
You don’t get the full story from themail. What you hear are
exaggerations and half truths that do not tell the full story, and that’s
sad.
###############
I would like to suggest two other reasons for this [themail, August
11] the closed primary system and our lack of statehood. The first, the
closed primary system, means that in many cases if a voter wants to have
a choice on who will win important local offices, such as the mayor or
council positions, he or she must be able to vote in the Democratic
primary. This is because the District’s overwhelming Democratic
registration means the Democratic nominee is likely to win. To vote in
the Democratic primary, one must be registered as a Democrat, regardless
of whether on a more general basis one would rather register as an
independent, or member of the Republican, Statehood Green, or some other
party.
Secondly, since we are not a state and are basically disenfranchised
nationally, and also as regards to control over many state and local
functions, many DC residents, and I think in particular a good number of
Republicans, register somewhere else. This may be where they have a
second home or where they grew up or whatever. A good example of this is
Ralph Nader, who has lived in DC for decades but votes in Connecticut
where he grew up, because, as he once told me, “I don’t want to be
disenfranchised.” The bottom line is that for a vigorous two or
multiparty system, we need statehood. Nothing else gives us our full
democratic rights and vigorous political system.
One must remember that colonial political systems are not necessarily
reflective of what a truly free and democratic political system would
be. Although as a diverse urban area, DC will probably always be
relatively progressive; if we were a state, we probably would not be so
overwhelming Democratic. There would also be many incentives for
would-be politicians to live here, rather than leave here, as it is now.
Just remember Alaska and Hawaii. When they became states, Alaska was
very Democratic and Hawaii was very Republican.
###############
For the past three months, I have been writing daily commentary items
and news features for a local web site (http://tinyurl.com/PJONBC).
I am always looking for stories and information, and I welcome readers
of themail to reach me via http://www.facebook.com/PeterOrvetti
or http://twitter.com/PJOinDC.
###############
InTowner
August
Issue Now Available Online
P.L. Wolff, intowner@intowner.com
This is to advise that the August 2010 online content, along with the
complete issue PDF, has been uploaded and may be accessed at http://www.intowner.com.
Included are the lead stories, community news and ABC Board rulings,
editorials (including prior months’ archived), restaurant and food
columns (prior months’ also archived), and the text from the
ever-popular “Scenes from the Past” feature (the accompanying images
can be seen in the issue PDF).
To read the current lead stories (“Opening of State of the Art New
Branch Library in Shaw Acclaimed for its Design and Collections,” “Annual
Adams Morgan Day Festival Plans Complete; Set for September 12,” “U
Street’s Revitalization Finally Extending East to 9th Street as Area
Grows”) in this month’s PDF, simply click the following link: http://tinyurl.com/29estjl.
The next issue PDF will be uploaded on September 10 (the second Friday
of the month, as is customary).
###############
Suburban Solutions for
Fundamentally Urban Questions
Richard Layman, rclaymandc@yahoo.com
While I agree with Len Sullivan [themail, August 11] that DC needs to
exhibit more regional leadership, especially in terms of transportation
policy, and maybe this is an issue more on the part of elected officials
rather than appointed officials, his prescriptions for inner city
success are seriously at odds with those center city revitalization
strategies that have proven to be successful and sustainable over the
long term.
First, Sullivan repeats a canard that is absolutely untrue. He writes
“[DC] touts local gimmicks like empty bike lanes and street-clogging
trolleys, but offers no robust programs to mitigate the traffic
congestion that leads to inner city stagnation and blight.”
Apparently, he understands neither transportation policy nor urban
revitalization. The reality is that DC streets, except for I Street, New
York Avenue, and certain additional roads and choke points at certain
times of the day and week (i.e., Columbia Heights on the weekend,
K Street at 5 p.m.) Are primarily used by commuters, delivery vehicles,
and through travelers, and don’t have traffic congestion, even during
rush hours. The fact is that except for a couple locations, all of the
major indicated problem areas for congestion in the region such as the
Capital Beltway are not in DC.
Second, stagnation and blight can be the result of “traffic
congestion,” but not in the way that Sullivan thinks. Places
overflowing with vehicles, even without congestion, tend to be
uncomfortable blighted places, even if they have investment. For
example, would you rather walk on Rockville Pike, US 1 in Fairfax
County, or Connecticut Avenue? I only go to Rockville Pike when I need
to go to Microcenter; otherwise I stay away. DC’s disinvestment was
not the result of traffic congestion, but of national financial and
political policies that favored suburban development over urban
investment, white flight, and the concomitant decline in the quality of
the provision of municipal services, especially schools.
Third and most important, the reality is that DC’s competitive
advantage vis-a-vis the region centers upon a mobility paradigm that is
based on sustainable transportation modes — walking, biking, and
transit — rather than the automobile and single occupancy vehicle
trips. This means a shift in focus on the throughput of people rather
than the movement of motor vehicles because the amount of space
necessary to move people on foot, by bicycle, on the street in buses and
streetcars, or underground by subway, is significantly less than the
space required for the movement of the equivalent number of people by
motor vehicles — e.g., it takes thirty cars (which would take
up at least six hundred linear feet — at least two blocks) to move
forty people, while a forty-foot-long bus can move fifty-five people.
Regardless of how much effort is focused on parking management (and I do
think DC could do a better job with parking planning, way finding, and
displaying information on available spaces), the focus of transportation
policy on motor vehicles (other than doing a better job of managing
freight transportation and deliveries) as the primary means of mobility
would be a strategy designed to serve the suburbs at the expense of DC.
Remember that DC doesn’t do all the great planning that Arlington
does, and we don’t have a well developed transportation demand
management policy and operations like they do. But even so, DC’s mode
split — the number of people getting to and from work on foot, by
bike, and on transit — is 50 percent higher than Arlington’s and 100
percent higher than Portland’s, and both of those communities are
touted (justifiably) as best practice examples of urban transportation
policy. For this, we can thank L’Enfant and his design of the city,
which provided us with a resilient and robust urban morphology that with
the right type of transit (and historic residential building stock), is
pretty resilient even during times of bad management.
Fourth, maintaining DC’s competitive advantages require that the
city continue to invest in and extend the infrastructure for walking,
biking, and transit. Focusing on sustainable transportation modes has a
number of positive results: 1) car ownership is less per capita and as a
result DC residents have much higher disposable incomes; 2) people spend
much less time and money to get places — commute times for DC
residents is at about the national average, and with the exception of
Arlington, this is not true for other jurisdictions in the region —
and don’t forget that it costs $7,000 minimum per year to maintain a
car; 3) properties with access to high quality transit are worth more
and maintain their value better even in difficult financial times (e.g.,
the relative stability, although off their peak, housing and commercial
property prices — provided the owners have stable financing).
Fifth, DC needs to continue to focus its transportation, land use,
and municipal management and operations policies around extending place
qualities that support inward migration and the retention of high income
residents (after all, we have to get the money to pay for schools, human
services, health care, etc. from somewhere — municipal revenues don’t
just fall out of the sky) and on the extension and improvement of the
transit system — on the surface and underground. This means recreating
a streetcar system. Here Sullivan makes the common mistake of focusing
on “the age of the technology” of the streetcar — not recognizing
that both cars and streetcars are in fact 19th century technologies and
that the real difference between the two is not when they were first
introduced but is about mass mobility versus personal mobility.
Streetcar investments also have the advantage of maintaining and
extending investment in urban communities and increasing property
values, which is another spillover benefit of this strategy.
Sullivan lives in Montgomery County. How is DC’s investing in
streetcars any different than Montgomery County’s choices to reinvest
in Bethesda or Silver Spring or Wheaton? We just focus on different
things. But the county’s investment in Silver Spring revitalization is
far, far greater than what DC will spend on streetcars, and in contrast,
investment in streetcars in DC will stoke investment and improvement
throughout the city, not just in one small part of it. And Montgomery
County, while having to deal with poverty issues, does not have the
fraction of the high need deeply impoverished households that DC
possesses. (This is a kind of subsidy that DC provides to the suburbs,
since poverty programs are addressed regionally.)
This means improving the bus system. The region is focusing on bus
rapid transit improvements. At the same time, DC needs to develop a
system of high frequency bus priority corridors downtown — this will
have more impact on surface street throughput and mobility efficiency
(a.k.a. congestion) than just about any strategy Sullivan suggests —
and the bus network needs to be repositioned between high frequency
service and local less frequent service. This will make it more legible
and comparable to how people perceive fixed rail transit (at least in
the days before the crash and serious decline in the quality of WMATA
service).
And this means extending the subway system. DC’s number one
economic development priority (other than the continued focused on
improvement the quality and efficiency of municipal services) needs to
be adding capacity and redundancy to the subway system by adding more
lines. The proposed separated blue line (scuttled by WMATA budget cuts
in 2003), which would add a crossing from Arlington County, serving
Georgetown and H Street, NE, and points in between, should be put back
on the table and is far more important than DC’s seeming number one
WMATA priority of moving their headquarters to Anacostia. Other line
ideas (offered by local bloggers such as myself) should also be
considered.
This also means extending the regional passenger railroad system.
Ideally, MARC and VRE would merge into one regional authority and extend
service throughout the region on a 24/7/365 basis. On this matter, I
have been significantly influenced by the ideas of http://www.beyonddc.com,
which also suggests (comparable to London, Paris, and Montreal) that DC
and Arlington add additional railroad stations in order to better move
passengers closer to their final destinations, improving railroad
operations and reducing stress on the subway system at Union Station.
Cities like DC were designed to optimize walking, biking, and
transit, not movement of either individually owned carriages drawn by
horses or powered by gasoline engines. Transportation, land use, and
municipal policy in DC that recognizes this will be resilient and robust
and successful for the decades, not just during a particular term of
political office.
###############
CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Department of Parks and Recreation Events,
August 17, 20
John Stokes, john.astokes@dc.gov
August 17 -19, 7:00 p.m.-11:00 p.m., Guy Mason and Randall Field, DPR
Men’s City Wide Slow Pitch Softball Tournament for ages eighteen and
up. End of season tournament matching the top four teams from Guy Mason
and Randall Men’s Slow Pitch Leagues for the City title bragging
rights. For more information, call Luna Harrison at 316-4249.
August 20, 9:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m., Six Flags Amusement Park, Largo, MD.
Camp Adventure Trip to Six Flags for ages six through sixteen. Campers
will celebrate the last day of camp with a fun-filled day at Six Flags
Amusement Park. For more information, call Priscilla Jones at 698-1794.
August 20, 12:00 p.m.-6:00 p.m., Fort Lincoln Recreation Center, 3100
Fort Lincoln Drive, NE. Camp Spirit Camp Finally for ages six through
thirteen. Campers will put on a performance for parents and friends on
the last day of camp. For more information, call Rickey Davenport, site
manager, at 576-6818 .
###############
Children’s Law Center Helping Children Soar
Benefit, September 21
Jeanne Ellinport, jeanne@ellinportconsulting.com
Each year, Children’s Law Center hosts its Helping Children Soar
Benefit to honor members of the community who have demonstrated their
commitment to children and to raise funds that allow the organization to
continue serving 1,200 low-income and at-risk children in DC each year.
This year, CLC will honor Dr. Sanjay Gupta, chief medical correspondent
at CNN, and the law firm Covington and Burling LLP for their dedication
to improving the health and well being of children. This September, CLC
will spotlight the work of one of its programs, a medical-legal
partnership between lawyers at CLC and doctors at Children’s National
Medical Center. Together, they address the health needs of hundreds of
DC children each year by improving housing conditions, gaining access to
health care and ensuring proper education for children with special
needs.
The annual benefit is cochaired by May Liang, CLC board member, and
Diana Goldberg, Children’s National Medical Center board member and
longtime CLC supporter. Those attending the benefit will learn more
about our medical-legal partnership while enjoying cocktails, hors d’oeuvres,
and a silent auction featuring one-of-a-kind gifts.
The tenth annual Helping Children Soar Benefit will be held at the
Kennedy Center Roof Terrace Restaurant, 2700 F Street, NW, on Tuesday,
September 21, 6:00 p.m.-9:00 p.m. Business/cocktail attire.
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