In the Dark

Dear Darklings:

Robin Diener writes below about the city council’s deliberately
poor communications with citizens with respect to the West End emergency
legislation. Even with the firestorm of public protest over that
double-dealing, the council is not making any better effort to inform
citizens of its upcoming actions. On Tuesday, following its long summer
recess, the council will hold an additional legislative meeting, but it
is keeping the public in the dark about what measures it will consider.
Their legislative agenda isn’t on the printed calendar, wasn’t
available at Legislative Services on Friday, and still isn’t online on
the council’s web site. Whatever legislative measures the council will
take up, you and I aren’t supposed to know about them until it’s too
late to weigh in on them.

Nevertheless, there are several interesting council committee
hearings on the schedule (http://www.dccouncil.washington.dc.us/calendar.html).
On Wednesday, there will be a confirmation hearing on Clarence Brown to
replace E. Veronica Pace as Director of the Office on Aging. On
Thursday, there will be hearings on permanent legislation to require
exploratory committees to file financial reports with the Office of
Campaign Finance; on capital projects for libraries and parks (will the
hearing focus attention on the four closed branch libraries as well as
on the West End library); on the appointment of David Gragen as Chief
Procurement Officer; on capital projects and space needs for public
safety agencies (which will focus on the controversy over the city’s
lease of 225 Virginia Avenue, SE); and on the closure of DC Village, the
only emergency shelter that houses homeless families, in order to move
WMATA’s bus garage to its site from M Street, SE, from which the
garage will be displaced because of the baseball stadium. That’s just
this week, and it’s only part of the council’s schedule.

In the last issue, I wrote about the latest move to put Dorothy and
me in our place. I’m not going to write about it again because, as I
often write, themail is not about themail or about us. I’m not running
the several very nice and encouraging messages and offers of help you
sent us, although we thank you for them. I’m not running the one piece
of hate mail we received, because it was sent pseudonymously, and I’d
only run it if the sender were willing to embarrass himself or herself
by using his or her own name. Finally, I’m not running the piece Mike
DeBonis, City Paper’s new Loose Lips, submitted, because he has
published it on the City Paper’s own web site, which is
copyrighted. You can read it there. Basically, in it Mike tries to turn
a one-time hit piece into a feud by accusing Dorothy of lying about his
interview with her, and denying that he said what he said. He makes the
rather surprising denial, considering the snide and condescending tone
of his article, that he was snide and condescending in his interview
with Dorothy. He also denies that he let Dorothy know that the impetus
for his story was a source in the Wilson Building. But it’s too late
for him to backtrack on that now, since we’ve since confirmed
independently that a Wilson Building source was shopping the story
around. In any case, enough about that; there are plenty of other, more
important things to talk about in our city. See below.

Gary Imhoff

[email protected]

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West End Development

Robin Diener, DC Library Renaissance Project, [email protected]

Since July 10, when the DC council passed an unprecedented forty-four
pieces of emergency legislation, public outrage has mounted over a
resolution to “dispose” of the West End library, firehouse, and
police station to developer Eastbanc. Civic groups have called for
rescinding Emergency Resolution 17-393 all summer. The latest resolution
against the sale was passed Saturday by Cleveland Park Citizens
Association. In response to this public concern, Chairman Gray and other
council members cited the mayor for sending down too much legislation.
But it’s the council’s role to serve as a check to the executive
branch. The Chairman might have shown Mayor Adrian Fenty the ACLU’s
letter of December 18, 2006, recommending Council “limit the use of
emergency” [http://www.dcwatch.com/issues/westend061218.htm], or
referred him to the 1999 report by the Appleseed Center for Justice and
Law calling for the same.

Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans, cosponsor of the resolution, appears
to have misled his colleagues. Councilmembers said Evans showed them him
a list of twenty-four "public meetings" about the Eastbanc
proposal. Evans surely knew, and all councilmembers should have known,
that these were marketing sessions conducted by the developer, not
hearings by the any agency responsible to the public. In the few
instances when an official public body saw the presentation — just
drawings with no written materials — commissioners were assured that
discussion was in the preliminary stage. Indeed, the Friends of the West
End Library had scheduled its quarterly membership meeting purposely to
look at Eastbanc’s presentation. It turned out to be five days after
the council’s vote to dispose of the property. Emergency legislation
has no requirement for public input, but Carol Schwartz, whose
Government Operations Committee must find the property to be surplus in
order to be “disposed,” and resolution cosponsor Kwame Brown
convened a joint roundtable on Tuesday July 3, twenty four hours before
a national holiday. The attendees consisted of Eastbanc officials and
associates. According to an audiotape transcript (there were no cameras
in the hearing room) Schwartz and Brown asked many of the right
questions, and ultimately appeared unsatisfied. Yet they soon issued
what one colleague called a “glowing report.”

The ACLU had warned: “Enacting law on an emergency basis without
public input denies the council views and information important to its
deliberations.” We now know that many representations at the
roundtable were misleading or false. The central misrepresentation was
the status of the Tiverton Apartments adjacent to the library, whose
tenants were alleged to be important beneficiaries of the deal. They
knew nothing about it, and later terminated an agreement to negotiate
with Eastbanc. Before casting the sole dissenting vote on July 10, Phil
Mendelson said, “This may be a great deal, but I don’t like the
process.” He alone anticipated the position of civic groups and
individuals across the civic spectrum — from the grassroots Empower DC
to the venerable Federation of Citizens Associations — who have
weighed in over the summer calling for the DC Council to rescind the
West End emergency declaration. Citizens have also asked the council to
follow the law by completing and publishing the citywide inventory of
property, developing a citywide Master Facilities Plan — the existing
one you’ve heard of is for schools only; and constituting a Planning
Commission, all of which are required under Title 10 of the DC Code. We
have also asked the council to fix the law by prohibiting emergency
legislation for disposition of public lands; developing guidelines for
the disposition of public property and for public inclusion in that
process, including early consultation with ANC’s instead of after the
fact, as it now stands; and amending the Library Enhancement Act of 2006
to mandate public inclusion in developing a strategic plan for
libraries.

“With 20/20 hindsight, I wouldn’t have done this,” Jack Evans
said to a seething crowd of 120 at a July 18 ANC meeting. And then he
pledged to do what the community told him. Members of the community who
would like to hold Jack to his promise are meeting outside the Wilson
Building at 9 a.m., this Tuesday September 18, the first day of the new
council session, for a rally in support of rescinding the West End
emergency resolution and calling for new protections for public
property.

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Mayor Fenty’s Car-Free Day Hypocrisy

Kate Dell, Ellicott Street, NW, [email protected]

Mayor Fenty has declared September 18 as DC Car-Free Day. His actions
speak louder than his words. Part of his press release reads: “Mayor
Fenty also announced that September 18 will be Car-Free Day in the
District. Under the leadership of Councilmember Tommy Wells (D-Ward
Six), the DC council unanimously declared Car Free Day to encourage
residents and visitors to use alternate means of transportation. Each
gallon of gasoline contributes twenty pounds of carbon dioxide, leading
the global climate change. More than a third of the city’s residents
already take public transit to work — a higher percentage than any
other city except New York. Another thirteen percent of residents bike
or walk. Anyone interested in pledging to go car-free on Car-Free Day
can register at carfreedc.info.”

If our mayor wants to discourage car use and encourage other
transportation modes, why is he promoting the Commerce Bank’s new
drive-through design at 4849 Wisconsin Avenue, NW? The Commerce Bank
will have two drive-through bays and require the use of an alley for
access. DDOT’s studies indicate an expected increase of seven hundred
to a thousand cars a day at the site. How much extra carbon dioxide will
enter the atmosphere because of the new drive-through bank? What
happened to the much touted transit-oriented-development philosophy of
our mayor? How can our mayor and council approve the car-oriented
development proposed and almost permitted at the corner of Ellicott
Street and Wisconsin Avenue, NW? Why is DDOT being told to expedite the
permitting process and to cut corners as well? Could it be that the
wooing of deep-pockets Commerce Bank is more important than the safety
and health of our citizens?

An investigation is required to determine who let this ill-conceived
design get as far as it did without informing the neighbors. Is the
Fenty administration just a replay of Williams’ pro-development focus
to the detriment of the local neighborhoods?

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Reform’s Faulty Premises, Continued

William Jordan, [email protected]

Previously [themail, September 9] I took a look at three faulty and
untested premises that unfortunately seem to describe the current school
reform priorities of the Rhee/Fenty team: the purpose and priority for
reorganized schools governance structure is school system reform, the DC
Public School System has failed all its students academically, and an
improved and reformed central administration will lead to significantly
better outcomes. An initial evaluation of these premises and resulting
actions has the Rhee/Fenty team seeming out of sync with what the data
shows are the primary needs of our student population. The primary need
being to significantly improve the academic performances of black and
brown students; a priority unfortunately Rhee/Fenty has chosen to
address tangentially via unproven methods.

Another faulty and/or untested premise that seems to be driving this
administration and its reform priorities is Premise 4: after central
administration, the focus of reform should be on attracting and securing
new highly qualified teachers into classrooms. Attracting and securing
qualified teachers is important; however, it is questions whether this
premise be a priority or focus of reform, based on the urgent needs of
our student population. Based on this premise, the Chancellor is paying
out $5.4 million to preserve teachers with less seniority, yet she has
provided no data showing that doing this will have any efficacy in
improving the academic performance of black and brown students. It seems
to me that justifying this premise based on data would be pretty
straightforward. Compare the growth in the performance of black and
brown students under teachers recruited by Rhee’s former company with
a set of more senior teachers. Do the same comparison between new
teachers who are designated as high performing, as defined by Rhee, with
more senior teachers who may bump the new and so-called high performing
group during downsizing. And ultimately factor into that comparison the
efficacy of using the $5.4 million that Rhee’s plan would cost with
using those dollars in classrooms to improve the performance of black
and brown students.

So far, at best, the reform priorities being pushed by Rhee/Fenty
team are tangential to improving the academic performance of DC’s
black and brown students. Worse, these reforms are not based on data and
clear priorities evident in the District, but on theories about reform
and on the personalities of those making the reforms. Compounding all of
this, most of the press, the city council, and residents are more
intrigued by the idea and promise of reform than they are in examining
whether the proposed measures will get results for our students most in
need of support. So far, the reform priorities of Rhee/Fenty are working
against the needs of black and brown students, and trading on the glamor
of reform. As a parent and citizen, I am very disappointed and ashamed.

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Mayor Fenty’s Poplar Point

Dennis Moore, [email protected]

The mayoralty of Adrian Fenty is a work in progress. Sad though that
may be for governance of a major world capital, there is some movement.
Mayor Fenty and his newly staffed administration still struggle to get
their hands on the wheel. However, there is a genuine sign of real
leadership. Poplar Point, one of the District’s largest properties
ripe for development, is an area where Mr. Fenty’s leadership will be
bench tested. Located in DC’s southeast, screaming for real
socioeconomic success, Poplar Point deserves better than the lame
initiative of a privately owned soccer stadium. Ward 8 council member
Marion Barry has been whipping up the false sentiment that spending
precious more taxpayer revenue on another private sports venue for
another crop of cronies is for southeast DC’s greater good. Bamboozle
us once, shame on him. Bamboozle us twice, shame on us.

Perhaps Mr. Fenty is looking at the long-term big picture when it
comes to economic development in the District of Columbia. If DC
genuinely wants to reverse the drain of families and revenue from our
city, he’s properly calculated that a soccer stadium won’t score. It
doesn’t require genius to know that there’s no major soccer mom or
fan demographic among District voters. The increasing numbers of
independently thinking, and voting, District citizens are quietly
watching the disposition of Poplar Point. Beyond the political
consciousness of Fenty, Barry and our DC council members, Poplar Point
is another litmus test on good governance. Election Day will reveal the
grades.

Mr. Barry must refocus on the benefits of exponential economics.
Focusing on economic development that retains and expands families has
the benefit of generating exponential revenue. Year-round family
oriented retail and entertainment venues will strengthen our city’s
debt-ridden coffers. It will also have the benefit of raising our shaky
Wall Street investment rating. Expanding truly affordable housing must
complement the package. Ironically, council member Barry chairs the
Committee on Housing and Urban Affairs. Families won’t stay where
families can’t live, grow, shop and be entertained within close
distances. More and more DC families are discovering the economic common
sense being legislated in nearby Maryland, and Virginia. District
leaders must wake up to the fiscal realities of real best practices.

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A Metro Story: A Man and His Pal

Larry Seftor, Ward 3, larry underscore seftor .them757 at
zoemail.net

Recently I took Metrorail downtown to meet my wife and see a movie. I
actually made three trips on Metrorail that night because we stopped at
a restaurant on the way back for dinner. Each of the three stations I
traversed had the following: 1) one or more escalators out of service,
2) no evidence of any repair work to resolve the escalator problems, and
3) two Metro employees chatting. I understand that one of the Metro
employees, at each station, was present and on call to resolve any
issues or problems that might arise. But the role of the second
employee, at each of the three stations, was apparently to supply
companionship for the first employee. The second employees were doing no
actual work. I suggest that a better use of resources would be for Metro
to eliminate the second “companion” employee and use the saved funds
to pay a few escalator repairmen overtime to solve real problems.

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Metro System

Wallace Dickson, [email protected]

I agree in the main with the comments of Larry Seftor [themail,
September 12], and particularly his suggestion that the system needs to
be analyzed by an outside consultant who would recommend policy going
forward. But I strongly disagree with his suggestion (at the end of his
remarks) that new revenue from increasing ridership revenues should
outweigh rising operational costs.

I was a member of the Virginia Legislature when the Washington Area
Metropolitan Transportation Agency was created, and cosponsor with State
Senator Charlie Fenwick of Arlington of the legislation creating the
Northern Virginia Transportation Commission. In that capacity I learned
a lot about the financing of a large transportation system such as
Metro. My conclusions, along with those of everyone else involved in
creating our Metro system, were that passenger revenues would never be
sufficient to cover operational costs. That’s why the adequate funding
by Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia is fundamental and
crucial to the survival of the system, just as adequate funding by the
federal government is crucial to the survival and efficient operation of
Amtrak up and down the East Coast.

The largest, by far, component of operational expense for any
transportation system is labor. They are all labor intensive operations.
To encourage maximum ridership and remove the maximum number of private
vehicles from our highways and streets, the passenger fares must be kept
as low as economically feasible. I would advocate keeping fares under
one dollar, so as to encourage everyone to opt for public transportation
(and rid our buses of those awful, time-consuming paper money fare
boxes!). Then, in order to adequately supply Metro with sufficient
financing, the three taxing jurisdictions should enact a transportation
tax allocated to supporting Metro to the fullest. In my opinion, based
on my early experience with the creation of the system (and nothing has
fundamentally changed from those days), this is crucial, and the only
way Metro’s crumbling infrastructure and efficiency of operation can
be sustained in the long run.

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WMATA and Costs

Richard Layman, [email protected]

Larry Seftor [themail, September 12] suggests a thorough evaluation
of WMATA, not using inside consultants. He suggests someone from Omaha.
I think that’s a bad idea. Better to get consultants who are familiar
with heavy rail transit. The McKinsey Quarterly has a good piece
on transit system evaluation (http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Transportation/Strategy_Analysis/A_streetcar_named_productivity_1442)
although you’ll have to register for access.

There are several issues. First, it does cost a lot more money to
provide service during rush periods. You have to buy more train cars,
pay them off, maintain them, and have more personnel to run the trains.
And the system is designed then for peak loads. So you can’t look at
this strictly in terms of marginal costs, because at a certain point,
additional riders trigger the need for additional cars and additional
trains. Second, the system is aging and underfunding maintenance and
investment has costs. The WMATA planning division wrote about this maybe
ten or more years ago, predicting “issues” if maintenance were not
addressed. We’re seeing these issues now. Third, while it is likely
that there are areas where costs can be reduced, it’s likely not to be
equal to hundreds of millions of dollars in savings. All extraneous
costs should be rooted out of the system. However, I would argue that
planning is not one area to excessively cut. WMATA should be responsible
for transit system expansion, not let it be led by the jurisdictions.
The debacle with the Dulles extension is a result, in part, of that
process being led by the state of Virginia, not WMATA. Fourth, we all
would like more service and fare containment. Given the rising cost of
diesel fuel for buses, constant wage increases, costs for capital
improvement and maintenance, and rising utility bills (the system uses a
lot of electricity), we probably can’t have both.

For shorter distance trips, fares are reasonable compared to other
places. And the bus-to-bus transfer policy is one of the best in North
America, if not the best. No rush hour charges for the bus in DC,
whereas other jurisdictions do charge more for such trips. Longer trips
do cost more, which is reasonable, because of the distance traveled.
However, if parking continues to be subsidized, at some point, it is
cheaper for people to drive than to use transit, given the differential
cost structures. This puts a limit on the impact of transit for trips
from farther points out, and is why “free parking” shouldn’t be
provided at offices within the region, but especially within DC. As long
as most parking, except in the core of the center city, is free, transit
faces a cost disadvantage that is difficult to counter.

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The Fire Can Be Extinguished

Samuel Jordan, [email protected]

I’ve received several responses to my posting in themail [September
9], “How Many Times Must We Say….Wake Up! Wake Up! The House Is On
Fire?” I’d like to reply directly to Mr. Peter Turner (themail,
September 12). His inquiry reflects an aspect of the issue that needs to
be treated with a great deal of sensitivity and concern. First, however,
the basis of my complaint should be clear. The marginalization of the
African American community, particularly its work force members, is
completely destructive without qualification, and has been under way for
some time. Globalization of the economy hasn’t moderated the
acceleration in this trend. Some economic historians cite the recession
of 1973-1974 and the subsequent, persistent deindustrialization as proof
of the fragility of the African American worker’s standing in the
labor force in the "new" economy. From chattel servitude to
reserve labor force to modern dispensability.

R.C. Hill and C. Negry, authors of the article,
“Deindustrialization and Racial Minorities in the Great Lakes Region,
USA” in Reshaping America: Social Consequences of the Changing
Economy (ed. Eitzen and Baca, Prentice Hall, 1989), 168-178, noted
that African American workers paid disproportionately for the economic
restructuring of the 1970s and 1980s. One study found that between 1979
and 1984, 50 percent of African American males in durable goods
manufacturing in five Great Lakes cities lost their jobs. Another survey
found that in areas where African Americans accounted for 10 to 12
percent of the work force, we also accounted for 60 to 70 percent of the
workers laid off. Unprotected by seniority and “grandfather” clauses
that sheltered white workers, African Americans were targeted by
collective bargaining provisions enacted specifically to oppose equality
of opportunity in the labor force. (See The Possessive Investment In
Whiteness, G. Lipsitz (Temple University Press, 1998, 38-46.)

Where seniority served to phase out African American workers from
manufacturing jobs thirty years ago, low wages paid to workers in and
from Latin America and Asia have the same effect today in the service
and construction sectors. Nevertheless, I want to be careful to declare
that pitting workers against each other based on ethnicity is not in the
best interest of African Americans or any other communities. It is an
employer-manipulated conflict strategy serving to maximize profits. Our
communities would do well to openly discuss the desire of all working
people to do the best they can for themselves and their families. Only
solidarity, rather than competition, based on such a desire can energize
a joint, multi-racial/ethnic effort to secure living wages with benefits
for all.

My challenge is aimed at the local, business, political and community
leadership who are yet reluctant to address this issue although signs of
rapid deterioration in inter-community relations abound. So, Mr. Turner,
I believe that responsible community dialogue based on common interests
rather than divisive, punitive investigations should be our first
resort, but who among us will step forward and defuse this pending
crisis?

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The Way Business Is Done

Richard Layman, http://urbanplacesandspaces.blogspot.com

[Re: “Changing the Way Business Is Done Around City Development,”
themail, September 12] Until you read “City as a Growth Machine” by
the urban sociologist Harvey Molotch ( http://nw-ar.com/face/molotch.html),
which discusses how local political and economic elites, though
seemingly competitive, are united around a pro-growth agenda focused on
the intensification of land use and increase in rents, you aren’t
going to understand how development is done in any quadrant of the city,
any ward, or east or west of the river. While they didn’t read Molotch,
the book Dream City by Jaffe and Sherwood is a practical
explication of the theory, especially its fourth chapter, on
development.

Clarence Stone, a political science professor at UMD, is dean of the
“urban regime” theory. I see the two theories as reciprocal, not
competitive. Molotch explains the why, and Stone’s work explicates the
process. One of his papers discusses this, from which I quote: “By
looking closely at the policy role of business leaders and how their
position in the civic structure of a community enabled that role, he
identified connections between Atlanta’s governing coalition and the
resources it brought to bear, and on to the scheme of cooperation that
made this informal system work. In his own way, Hunter had identified
the key elements in an urban regime — governing coalition, agenda,
resources, and mode of cooperation. These elements could be brought into
the next debate about analyzing local politics, a debate about
structural determinism.”

It’s all about governing coalition, agenda, resources, and mode of
cooperation. Dream City and a piece from the old Common
Denominator (http://www.thecommondenominator.com/mdp1ir99.html)
explain this without using the theory. But knowing the theory is helpful
in making sense of seemingly nonsensical events. It’s not nonsensical
at all.

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Who’s Really Leaving the Children Behind

Len Sullivan, [email protected]

While DC’s new mayor tries yet again to “fix” the problems of
the DC public school system, the Congress is debating whether to extend
their latest sloganized legislative initiative to “fix” our national
public education disgrace. Both seem to accept as gospel that the
solution lies inside the school classrooms they control, regardless of
where the problems originate and are perpetuated. The Washington Post
weighed in with the markedly differing views of nine American
educational luminaries and its own editorial position. None of the above
even mention the role of parents and missing parents (most of whom have
themselves been left behind) in establishing and nourishing their kids’
desire to learn. NARPAC’s September editorial at http://www.narpac.org/EDIT.HTM#709
deplores the experts’ failure to consider the primary source of the
problem, or the possibilities to “fix” the chickens and hence their
eggs.

In a related issue, we also rail once more against the foolishness of
DC transportation experts for trying to improve the city’s walking
experience by combining, at grade level, pedestrians, bikers, and
baseball fans with dense streams of commuters and 24/7 heavy trucking.
(See http://www.narpac.org/INTHOPHO.HTM).
How can we make sure our bureaucrats leave no common sense behind?

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September 2007 InTowner

P.L. Wolfe, [email protected]

This is to advise that the September 2007 online edition has been
uploaded and may be accessed at http://www.intowner.com. Included are
the lead stories, community news items and crime 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). Also included are all current classified ads. The complete
issue (along with prior issues back to January 2004) also is available
in PDF file format directly from our home page at no charge simply by
clicking the link in the Current and Back Issues Archive. 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 October 12 (the second Friday of the
month, as always). 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) “West End Library Site Transfer to EastBanc Controversy
Now Part of Larger Issue About District’s Embrace of Public-Private
Deals”; 2) “U Street Corridor Slated for Major Rehab — Widened
Sidewalks Among Planned Changes”; 3) “Heurich Mansion Counting on
Enactment of Property Tax Relief Bill to Survive — Prospects
Encouraging”; 4) “Adams Morgan Main Street Improves Gateway Pocket
Park.”

Readers are encouraged to print out, fill out and send back our
Reader Survey, which is conveniently available by clicking the link on
our home page and printing that page, filling it out, and then either
scanning and attaching to an E-mail addressed to [email protected]
(please do not embed into E-mail), faxing to 265-0949, or returning by
postal mail.

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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS

DC Public Library Events, September 17-18

Randi Blank, [email protected]

Monday, September 17, 6:30 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial
Library, 901 G Street, NW, Room 221. All the World’s a Stage Film
Club. We will watch Walk on Water (2004), directed by Eytan Fox. Rated
R. 727-1161.

Tuesday, September 18, 12:00 p.m., West End Neighborhood Library,
1101 24th Street, NW. West End Book Club. Please call 724-8707 to find
out which book will be discussed in September.

Tuesday, September 18, 12:00 p.m., Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial
Library, 901 G Street, NW, Room 307. “Through the Lens: Jeremy
Goldberg’s Washington,” a special curator’s lecture. Bring your
brown bag lunch and join us to learn how the synagogue architecture of
local congregations reflects local and national trends in American
Jewish architecture. Following the lecture, join a short neighborhood
walking tour and visit three sites featured in the exhibition. RSVP
suggested, to 789-0900.

Tuesday, September 18, 7:00 p.m., Mount Pleasant Neighborhood
Library, 3160 16th Street, NW. Poet Vladimir Monge will read from his
book Pasajeros en el Tiempo, Passengers in Time. The nostalgic
homeland-evoking poems in his book deal with universal themes of war,
exile, love, and are addressed to fellow Latin American immigrants
living in the US. 671-0200.

Tuesdays, September 18, 25, 7:00 p.m., Lamond-Riggs Neighborhood
Library, 5401 South Dakota Avenue, NE. The Fall African History and
Culture Lecture Series featuring local historians C.R. Gibbs, Carter
Ward, Asa Gordon, Tyrone Woods, and others will continue through
November 20. Call 541-6255 for more information. September 18,
“Supreme Redemption: Larceny, the Elections, and the US Supreme
Court,” Asa Gordon; September 25, “The History of Black Dance in
America,” Tyrone Woods.

Tuesday, September 18, 7:30 p.m., Palisades Neighborhood Library,
4901 V Street, NW. Palisades Book Club. Join us as we discuss American
Bloomsbury: Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller,
Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Henry David Thoreau: Their Lives, Their Loves,
Their Work, by Susan Cheever. 282-3139.

Tuesday, September 18, 7:30 p.m., Palisades Neighborhood Library,
4901 V Street, NW. Palisades Stamp Club. For more information, call
282-3139.

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