Gymnastic Feats

Dear Gymnasts:

I don’t care much, if at all, about sports. But nothing else in the past week has been as impressive as Gabrielle Douglas’ performance in the Olympic women’s gymnastics competition. And there is a Washington connection, even if it’s a bit of a stretch, since Douglas is from Virginia Beach, which is just a couple hundred miles down the road. For a closer connection to our home town, even though it’s a bit more of a stretch, Douglas cites her inspiration as being Dominique Dawes, and Dawes is from Silver Spring (http://www.gabrielledouglas.com and http://www.dominiquedawes.com). Don’t be distracted by the manufactured controversies surrounding Douglas’ incredible feat; just enjoy it, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mqj4kGXTQW8.

Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com

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Dial 211
Susie Cambria, susie.cambria@gmail.com

211 is the District’s social services referral system available by phone and Internet. Anyone can call any time to find out about health services, government programs, help for families, and much more.

Have you called 211 from your cell phone? If you have used a cell phone to call 211 (also known as Answers, Please) to get information about a service you or someone else needs, the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services wants to hear about your experience. The responses will help the District improve its system.

Please take — and if you’re a service provider, have your clients take — this brief and confidential survey. It’s available in English, Spanish, French, Amharic, Vietnamese, and Chinese. All surveys are available here: http://dmhhs.dc.gov/event/take-211-cell-phone-survey . Note that English and Spanish are available online and in PDF (scroll down), but DMHHS encourages you to use the online version! The survey closes September 14.

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DC Budget Crisis
Susie Cambria, susie.cambria@gmail.com

What do you want to know about the DC budget process? Over the years, individuals, nonprofits, and the government have explained the DC budget process. Two of my explanations are the DC Budget Process (PDF), http://tinyurl.com/chwewmg, and DC Budget Quarterly Timelines (PDF), http://tinyurl.com/c5gotrx. Both attempt to link the government process and advocacy opportunities.

Fan favorite DCFPI’s explanation is Overview and Timeline of the DC Budget Process (PDF), http://tinyurl.com/bq5z73b, part of the organization’s budget toolkit, http://www.dcfpi.org/fy13-budget-toolkit. The government’s explanation from the FY 2009 budget proposal, http://tinyurl.com/bmjo7cz, is similar to DCFPI’s in that it is all narrative.

I’ve recently had conversations with budget and issue experts across the city as part of my contracting gig with the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services and Deputy Mayor for Education and one of the issues that keeps coming up is the need for an explanation of the District’s budget process. My question is this: What do you want to see in a description of the DC budget process? Please submit suggestions in the What do you need in an explanation of the District’s budget process? survey, http://tinyurl.com/cc8d3ej.

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Underground Electric Service in the District
Ann Loikow, aloikow@verizon.net

[An open letter to Mayor Gray and Councilmembers]: Citizens have been urging the District Government to comprehensively plan for undergrounding aerial wiring for over a decade. ANCs and citizen and civic associations from all over town have urged the District government to actually do some real planning on where, whether for reliability, safety, historic preservation, tree preservation or other reasons, undergrounding of aerial wiring should be required and then to implement such plans as part of major street reconstruction. Some of these resolutions are printed below. However, nothing has happened, other than that service reliability has plummeted, our street trees are hacked and dying, and many residential areas look like railroad yards.

Given the extensive outages that occurred in the District during the recent derecho storm, the District government needs to finally develop a comprehensive undergrounding plan and require Pepco and other companies stringing aerial wiring, such as Verizon and Comcast, to implement it. It is important that citizens be closely involved in this process.

It is also important that we have strong, knowledgeable and experienced people on the DC Public Service Commission. Although a much higher percentage of DC residents rely on Pepco for their electrical power than in Maryland, the Maryland Public Service Commission, as well as Maryland’s Governor and other elected officials, has been much more aggressive in protecting the public’s interest in safe, affordable and reliable power in their regulation and oversight of Pepco than the DC Public Service Commission has. In fact, the silence on the DC side about the significantly unreliable service District rate payers have received from Pepco has been deafening. This must change.

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Elegant Density
Diane Schulz, Harbour Square, dihi.cobra@verizon.net

Thank you so much for writing the elegant density article [themail, July 29]. Too bad you couldn’t have testified at one of the zoning hearings for 11-03a, the PN Hoffman, et al., development being foisted upon the people of the SW Waterfront. The traffic alone will bring our neighborhood to a standstill. I still fail to understand how putting a phalanx of twelve and thirteen story buildings is going to tie the city to the waterfront.

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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS

Books and Bites at the Library, August 8 and following Wednesdays
George Williams, George.Williams2@dc.gov

Every Wednesday at 11:00 a.m., starting August 8, for a limited time, food trucks will be parked outside of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Library, 901 G Street, NW, as part of the Books & Bites @ the Library initiative. People can grab lunch at the food trucks, relax at special seating just outside of the library, and enjoy the library’s free WiFi and other services. Each week will feature different DC Food Truck Association food trucks.

Participating food trucks include the BBQ Bus, Pepe, Borinquen Lunch Box, Popped! Republic, Cajunators, Rolling Ficelle, Carnivore, Tapas Truck, Curbside Cupcakes, Tasty Kabob, DC Slices, That Cheesecake Truck, and Goodies Frozen Custard and Treats. The trucks that will be parked at the library will be announced on Wednesday mornings using social media. In addition, the Downtown DC Business Improvement District’s (BID) Safety/Hospitality and Maintenance employees (SAMs) will tell passers by about the food truck location.

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DC Public Library Hosts Cirque du Soleil Free Day, August 10
George Williams, George.Williams2@dc.gov

Members of the Cirque du Soleil street promotion team host an afternoon of face painting, juggling workshops, and other activities on Friday, August 10, at 1:00 p.m.., at Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Library, 901 G Street, NW. The DC Public Library is partnering with Cirque du Soleil to provide an afternoon of special activities in anticipation of the upcoming Big Top touring production TOTEM, performing from August 15 to September 30 at the Plateau at National Harbor.

TOTEM traces the fascinating journey of the human species from its original amphibian state to its ultimate desire to fly. Through a visual and acrobatic language, TOTEM explores the ties that bind Man to other species, his dreams and his infinite potential. For more information, go to cirquedusoleil.com/totem. From a group of twenty street performers at its beginnings in 1984, Cirque du Soleil is a major Quebec-based organization providing high-quality artistic entertainment. The company has five thousand employees, including more than 1,300 artists from more than fifty different countries. Cirque du Soleil has brought wonder and delight to more than one hundred million spectators in more than three hundred cities in over forty countries on six continents. Cirque du Soleil International Headquarters are in Montreal, Canada. For more information about Cirque du Soleil, visit cirquedusoleil.com.