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January 16, 2011

Contributions

Dear Contributors:

Sorry for running on so long in the introduction to the last issue of themail. I promise I won’t be so wordy in the future if you’ll pick up the slack. Keep us all informed about what’s going on in your neighborhoods and on your blocks, please, and don’t fall into my trap and obsess about politics all the time. Just write anything about living in Washington that will interest your neighbors throughout the city. Let us hear from you.

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I usually don’t publish notices that aren’t sent directly to themail, but the following notice about a book event, which was sent to the H-Net Network on History of the District of Columbia, should interest many people who receive themail. “Washington at Home authors discuss DC migrations, a panel discussion and book signing, on January 25, 6:30 p.m., at Busboys and Poets, 14th and V Street, NW. Join Washington at Home: An Illustrated History of Neighborhoods in the Nation’s Capital authors Jim Byers (Hillcrest/East Washington Heights), Kia Chatmon (Deanwood), Alison K. Hoagland (downtown), and Brian Kraft (Columbia Heights) as they describe their neighborhoods’ development and consider how people have moved into, out of, and around DC. Consulting editor and Cultural Tourism DC historian Jane Freundel Levey will moderate. Learn new facts about your neighborhood and explore new neighborhoods as this group takes you through the streets, avenues, and alleys of Washington, DC. For information, visit http://www.CulturalTourismDC.org. Can’t come to this event? You can still order your copy of Washington at Home at http://www.culturaltourismdc.org/store/catalog/product/book-washington-home-kathy-smith

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The funeral service for William Lockridge will be held on Thursday, January 20, at Temple of Praise Church, 700 Southern Avenue, SE. Viewing at 10:00 a.m., memorial service at 11:00 a.m., homegoing service at 12:00 p.m. The repast will be at 3:00 p.m. at the Panorama Room, 1600 Morris Road, SE. Guest speakers will include Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, Mayor Vincent Gray, Councilmembers Kwame Brown and Marion Barry, and State Board of Education President Ted Trabue. The eulogy will be given by Pastor Michael Bell of Allen Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church. In lieu of flowers, the Lockridge family requests that contributions be made to The William Lockridge Educational and Scholarship Fund, PO Box 54012, Washington, DC 20032.

Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com

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Enforcing Our Election Laws
Dorothy Brizill, Dorothy@dcwatch.com

On Friday, Tim Craig of the Washington Post informed me that the DC Office of Campaign Finance had issued an order that day fining the “Write-In Fenty Campaign” $18,500. As you may recall, after the September primary the write-in campaign appropriated and used campaign materials (posters, yard signs, literature, and stickers) that had been purchased by the Fenty 2010 campaign committee. When they would not stop using these materials after both Vincent Gray campaign workers and I brought it to their attention that it was a violation of campaign law to use them, I filed a complaint with the Office of Campaign Finance, which then held a hearing and issued a cease and desist order to the “Write-In Fenty” campaign just a few days prior to the general election. When the campaign continued to use the materials on election day, and indeed erected additional yard signs around voting precincts, I went to OCF and reported some specific sites where this was going on. I continued to report more sites during election day, and I also encouraged attorneys with the Gray campaign to investigate and report sites to the OCF themselves. The OCF dispatched its own employees around the city; they photographed some sites and confiscated signs at others. (As far as I know, this was the first incident in which OCF ordered its own employees to conduct such an investigation themselves.)

To my recollection, $18,500 is the largest fine that the OCF has imposed on a campaign or candidate in its thirty years of existence. The Board of Elections has imposed higher fines — on the Anthony Williams reelection campaign ($277,700) and on the slots gambling promoters ($100,000 and $622,800, the second of which was reduced in a settlement to approximately $30,000).

The OCF cease and desist order is at http://www.dcwatch.com/govern/ocf101101.htm; my complaint with OCF is at http://www.dcwatch.com/govern/ocf101022.htm; the separate complaint by Gray campaign attorney Brian Lederer is at http://www.dcwatch.com/govern/ocf101022b.htm; the OCF order is not yet posted on its site, and I haven’t received a copy of it yet. Tim Craig’s article is at http://voices.washingtonpost.com/dc/2011/01/young_fenty_write-in_supporter.html

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Election Hearing
Dorothy Brizill, dorothy@dcwatch.com

On Wednesday, January 19, the DC Board of Elections will hold its monthly meeting at 10:30 a.m. in Room 280 North at 441 4th Street, NW. The meeting agenda has not been posted on the Board’s web site; however, the BOEE at that meeting will certify vacancies in the offices of the Ward 4 and Ward 8 members of the State Board of Education and schedule a special election to fill those vacancies (most likely on April 26, the day already scheduled for the special election to fill Kwame Brown’s at-large city council seat). Any concerns or issues regarding the conduct of those elections may be raised by the public at that meeting.

At 2:00 p.m. on January 19, Mary Cheh’s Committee on Government Operations will hold a hearing in Room 412 of the Wilson Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, on “DC BOEE Readiness for 2011 Special Election” and to consider a proposal (http://www.dcboee.org/popup.asp?url=/pdf_files/nr_673.pdf) by the BOEE’s Executive Director to conduct the April 26 special election at only two voting sites in each Ward and to conduct the election over three days — April 23, 25, and 26.

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Silencing a Local Journalist: My Suspension by WPFW
Peter Tucker, pete10506@yahoo.com

For the past two years, I have worked as a local journalist in the District of Columbia to bring more time and attention to social activists who routinely are ignored and silenced by the corporate media. Most of my stories, reports, and long-form interviews have aired on WPFW 89.3 FM, Pacifica Radio (and are archived at TheFightBack.org). But now, my work no longer appears on this important station. I want to offer a brief summary of this situation in the hopes that it can be resolved. Beginning in mid-April, my reporting became a nightly fixture on Spectrum Today, WPFW’s evening news program hosted by WPFW News Director Askia Muhammad. Over a six-month period, Mr. Muhammad aired more than one hundred of my reports and introduced me as “journalist Peter Tucker.” These interviews were cited in the Washington Post, City Paper, and FAIR’s Extra!, among other outlets.

My reports exposed DC councilmembers’ second-six figure salaries (Jack Evans, David Catania), as well as their possible conflicts of interest (Jack Evans, Harry Thomas). I’ve covered former DC Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s “school reform.” But rather than only interviewing her (which I did until she stormed away), I spoke with parents, students, teachers, activists, and journalists, who have a very different take. I also examined the Washington Post’s possible conflict of interest when it comes to reporting on education issues due to its ownership of the testing company Kaplan.

Additionally, I’ve reported on DC’s twin epidemics of HIV/AIDS and poverty; the closing of homeless shelters and the children within homeless shelters; the Black farmers’ struggle for justice, as well as a farmers’ market in the Ward 8 food desert; antiwar activists and antislavery activists; net neutrality, as well as the dangers of online voting; the fight for youth space in Silver Spring and the fight against a youth detention facility in Baltimore; public housing issues, as well as private housing issues, not to mention WPFW’s housing issues; former Mayor Adrian Fenty’s election maneuverings and then-mayoral challenger Vincent Gray’s candidacy. Continued online at http://tinyurl.com/4p2w8z7

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Why We Can’t Wait
Eric Woods, ewbushdoctor@gmail.com

Since this is Dr. Martin Luther King’s Birthday holiday, let me share a few reflections about the times we are living in that were stimulated by his writings. In his 1964 book Why We Can’t Wait, Dr. King writes: “In the past decade, still another technique had begun to replace the old methods for thwarting the Negroes’ dreams and aspirations. This is the method known as “tokenism.” The dictionary interprets the word “token” in the following manner: ‘A symbol. Indication, evidence . . . a piece of metal used in place of a coin. . . .’ When the Supreme Court modified its decision on school desegregation by approving the Pupil Placement Law, it permitted tokenism to corrupt its intent. It meant that Negroes could be handed the glitter of metal symbolizing the true coin, and authorizing a short-term trip toward democracy. But he who sells you the token instead of the coin always retains the power to revoke its worth, and to command you to get off the bus before you have reached your destination. Tokenism is a promise to pay. Democracy, in its finest sense, is payment.”

I think about how the Fenty/Rhee regime handed out tokens to so many parents that promised to close or consolidate public schools and replace them with newly constructed ones. The value of that token was later replaced by a commitment that the students would be stuck indefinitely in their subpar, poor-performance-inducing learning environment with a promise that a new school would be built one day. I am living through the Hardy Middle School fiasco in which DCPS officials, especially Rhee-protege Interim Chancellor Henderson, continue to toss out token after token towards parents, teachers, and students in an attempt to fix the operational dysfunction they created when they installed a group of ill-equipped or poorly trained managers to run the school. Yet, to the displeasure of Fenty and Rhee, the Hardy stakeholders refused to be placated and joined the democratic movement that ousted Fenty and Rhee from office. These parents, teachers, and students are now counting on Mayor Gray to be the strong leader we need to take necessary action to immediately restore the positive, stimulating learning environment at Hardy and salvage this school year.

As both of these examples indicate, doling out tokens must end at every level of the school system we have in the District if the DCPS expects to continue to produce the well-spoken, smart students that testified before Mayor Gray last year in the Council. As Dr. King writes: “The tokenism Negroes condemn is recognizable because it is an end in itself. Its purpose is not to begin a process, but instead to end the process of protest and pressure. It is a hypocritical gesture, not a constructive first step.” Affected District families can empathize with this statement 48 years later.

In his Letter from a Birmingham Jail, Dr. King writes: “I had hoped that the white moderate would see this need. Perhaps I was too optimistic; perhaps I expected too much. I suppose I should have realized that few members of the oppressor race can understand the deep groans and passionate yearnings of the oppressed race, and still fewer have the vision to see that injustice must be rooted out by strong, persistent and determined action.” After I read this, I substituted the references to race with economic wealth for this city (white or oppressor race equals high net worth, oppressed race equals low or negative net worth) and reread the quote. The parallels to the fight over Hardy became quite evident to me. I would have expected the high net worth families to understand how critical it is for low or negative net worth families to have at least one option for securing a quality education for their children in the public schools. After all, their high net worth gives them plenty of alternatives. Yet, they remain predominantly on the sidelines (or tacitly supportive) as Hardy is being destroyed by poor leadership seemingly with the intent to send the students elsewhere. This is Hardy — one of DC’s top performing schools, in one of the worst performing public school districts in the nation — that happens to be the sole quality choice available to hundreds of low or negative net worth students. Perhaps, I too was too optimistic and expected too much. But I can’t wait. The fight continues.

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Streetcar Planning
Clyde Howard, ceohoward@hotmail.com

The Directors of Planning and Zoning, in concert with DDoT, are planning the cultural and social direction of the District of Columbia, using the streetcar as a facilitator of their designs. What is on the table is the plan to move the residents of DC out of their cars to become pedestrians, walking to commercial centers envisioned for a city being developed with less home ownership and more apartment/condo living. These so-called planners can only proceed toward their goal when they have eliminated curb space for parking in support of public transportation, i.e., streetcars, subways, buses, bicycles, and walking. They are now filling the residents of southeast with grandiose plans of building right-of-ways for streetcars on residential streets that never had streetcars traveling on them in the past, when streetcars were king. What we as residents must be aware of is the effort to uproot home owners to make way for these commercial centers, apartments, and condos. Be mindful of the Supreme Court’s decision on eminent domain when there isn’t any more space to construct these projects. In effect these plans will involve the haves and have nots in a conflict that will not benefit anyone except the developers. These planners are working to give these developers the best of the neighborhoods by making the residents move and make way for them.

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InTowner January Issue Now Online
P.L. Wolfe, intowner@intowner.com

This is to advise that the January 2011 issue PDF is available at http://www.intowner.com and may be opened by clicking the front page graphic on the home page. There will be found 100 percent of all content, including the popular Scenes from the Past feature (this month titled “When Dupont West Was the Center of Equestrian Pursuits”) — plus all photos and other images.

This month’s lead stories include the following: 1) “Historic Toutorsky Mansion Zoning Change Sought for Diplomatic Use”; 2) “ New State-of-the-Art Library in Tenleytown to Open Late January”; 3) “Trio Restaurant Misses One of its Giant Nutcrackers.” The Selected Street Crimes feature, which is separately posted on the web site, will be updated later on, at which time we will provide notification.

The next issue PDF will publish early in the morning of February 14 (the second Friday of the month, as usual). For more information, either send an E-mail to newsroom@intowner.com or call 234-1717.

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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS

Woman’s National Democratic Club Luncheon, January 20
Tonya Butler-Truesdale, gotonyago@gmail.com

Toni Michelle Travis, Democratic Destiny and the District of Columbia: Federal Politics and Public Policy, a luncheon at the Woman’s National Democratic Club, 1526 New Hampshire Avenue, NW, at 11:30 a.m., Thursday, January 20. WNDC member, Associate Professor of Government, author and political analyst Toni Michelle C. Travis, will focus on the unique nature of DC’s executive branch. With her perspective as a policy analyst and expert on local political history, Toni will offer her assessment of the challenges facing DC’s Mayor-elect. Vincent Gray will step in to a job with the title of mayor, but his responsibilities will be that of a city chief, county executive and even governor. The challenges are daunting. How will Gray fare? Her latest book, Democratic Destiny and the District of Columbia, which Toni edited and co-authored with the late Ronald Walters, assesses District mayors from a historical perspective and analyzes public policy issues that faced each new mayor. Members $25, nonmembers $30, lecture only (no lunch) $10. Register at https://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/5880/p/salsa/event/common/public/?event_KEY=21010

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National Building Museum Events, January 22
Tara Miller, tmiller@nbm.org

January 22, 10:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m., Girl Scout Day. Join the National Building Museum for this activity day designed especially for Girl Scouts. Girls will be able to explore ideas — like innovation and designing for the future — that were also explored at the world’s fairs featured in the exhibition Designing Tomorrow: America’s World’s Fairs of the 1930s. For a full description of activities, visit our web site at http://go.nbm.org/scouts. $15 per scout; adults free. Prepaid registration required. 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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