Month: November 2006

Dear Residents of House,
Your back gate is open. Every time I have passed by it over the past 2 or so weeks, it has appeared unsecured. I’m sure this has not escaped the notice of the neighborhood children, teenagers, homeless and drug dealers who travel through the alleys ever day.
Back before you moved in, the neighborhood teens used your back porch for G’d knows what. They loved to congregate in the alcove and I really couldn’t see what they were up to, and I think that might have been the point. When I poked my head into the alcove I did not smell urine so it seems no one has started reusing it as a bathroom. Also I vaguely remember there was a fire. Small fire, no biggie, but enough to get the guy who was fixing your place up to put a security gate on the back. The same security gate you have elected to leave wide open.
Now you might be having some contracting work done and that’s why it has been open, and you might actually lock it a night. It really isn’t any my business of what happens to your property but I figure you should be aware of the risk you are incurring by leaving your gate unlocked and wide open.
Sincerely,
Mari

The reason why I’m eh about actually giving this letter to the occupants is because I think the house is a group house. As a former occupant of a group house, unless someone in it has a security and safety bug, residents can get lax about locking things. I had two roommates for whom remembering to lock the front door in our working class neighborhood on a busy street was just too hard. And I lived in another shared situation where over the summer someone walked in and stole all the brand new bikes (leaving my salvation army bike), not once, but twice.

Now since seeing the Loose Lips City Paper article about Mr. Leroy Thorpe’s reaction to the election results I feel okay about announcing the winner….. Angela. I want to thank all who participated in the contest and may you be happy with the ANC you got.
I was surprised by the article that Thorpe spoke with a reporter. I was a tad bit worried with the closeness of the race he might put up a stink, but no. According to the article Thorpe kept repeating, “Allah giveth and he taketh away, and I accept whatever Allah does.”

Neighbors,

The DC Department of Public Works will collect leaves from November 6, 2006 through January 6, 2007. Here are your three options for collection:

1. Rake loose leaves into piles in your curbside treebox space. They will be collected with a vacuum truck;

2. Place bagged leaves in your curbside treebox space and they will be collected by a packer truck; or

3. Because we have alley trash collection, you may place bagged leaves where we put our trash and those leaves will be collected with the trash.

For our area of Ward Five (i.e., Area B), we are to rake leaves into the treeboxes by Sunday, November 12, 2006 and they will be collected by the either by the vacuum truck or, for bagged leaves, the trash truck, between November 13 and November 25, 2006.

We will have a second opportunity to rake our leaves in the treeboxes by Sunday, December 10, 2006, in which case the leaves will be vacuumed or picked up in bags between December 11 and December 23, 2006.

The option of placing bagged leaves in the alley on trash collection day is always available as an alternative to the above two.

Tips from the DPW:

1. The DPW strongly encourages us to take advantage of the vacuuming option, as it is easiest for their trucks and it allows the leaves to be composted for reuse.

2. Rake leaves into a pile in the treebox in front of your property, not into the street. Leaves in the street create parking problems and fire hazards.

3. Rake leaves into treebox spaces by the Sunday prior to your areas scheduled collection.

4. Please — leaves only. No tree limbs, bricks, dirt, rocks, etc. They will damage the equipment and slow down collection.

5. Leaves from the rear of your property may be bagged and placed in the front tree box area or wherever your trash is normally collected.

6. DPW will vacuum leaves at least twice from each street during leaf season.

7. On the first pass, crews will focus on vacuuming treebox spaces and clearing potentially hazardous situations. A more thorough cleaning will occur on subsequent passes.

8. Keep catch basins clear of loose leaves and debris.

9. Neighborhood schedules have been developed based on past leaf falls but no two seasons are exactly the same. Please be patient.

10. If DC gets an early snowfall, scheduled service will be delayed. Leaf collection crews and trucks are also used to clear streets of snow.

Hope this information helps!

Best,

Jim Berry
ANC 5C

Neighbors,

A memorial is being built in Washington, DC to honor the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy of democracy, justice, hope and love on the National Mall. In this regard, a ceremonial groundbreaking is taking place this coming Monday, November 13, 2006, between 9:00 a.m. and Noon, on the National Mall (i.e., Independence Avenue and West Basin Drive — adjacent to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial). For more information about the groundbreaking and/or the memorial project, you may contact Kim Bassett at 202-723-3474, Washington, D>C> Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation, Inc., 401 F Street, N.W., Suite 334, Washington, DC 20001.

Maybe I’ll see you there!

Best,

Jim Berry
ANC 5C

IT’s foyer is in the Post. It has been featured before in Metro Weekly and possibly some cable home show (I don’t have cable so I’m unsure). One thing the picture in the paper doesn’t really bring out is that there are squares of film over the glass panels, which provide some level of privacy, and they look pretty neat as well.
And besides being our new 5C01 rep., Anita Bonds has also been elected chairwoman of the DC Democratic State Committee. Yay Anita!
Creativity and leadership, all in one hood. Whoot!

Over in Ward 5 things just weren’t as exciting as Ward 2. But that’s fine, as elections bring a certain level of nastiness and ill feeling towards one’s fellow human being. Not to say it was all flowers and sunshine over here. Nope. The Eckington listserv got difficult to read with the Cleopatra Jones vs Kris Hammond fight.
There has been an upset a flurry of new people. Going in order, Anita Bonds replaces 5C01’s Jim Berry, who didn’t run this year so Anita went unopposed but I am curious of what the 35 write-ins were for. The contentious fight with accusations and possible sign defacement in 5C02 was won by newbie Kris Hammond. Hammond beat incumbent Cleopatra Jones* 197 votes to her 154. In 5C03 entrepreneur and owner of the hopefully soon to open (please for the love of G’d open) Big Bear Cafe , Stu Davenport won over Andrew C. Pollard 53.63% to Pollard’s 23.52%. There was a write in campaign, and the name of the write-inee escapes me, but Write-In got 22.86%. I’m a little fuzzy on any particulars of the 5C04 race with John T. Salatti beating incumbent Robert “Bob” Brannum, 357 votes to Brannum’s 144. If I remember correctly, wasn’t Brannum the guy who threw a wrench at the EC-12 project? Mary Farmer-Allen kept her 5C07. Yes, I skipped over 5C06 with 100% of the vote, all 37 of ’em, going to write ins. Anyway, there were 3 names on the ballot for 5C06 and Farmer-Allen got 48% of the vote over Michael Henderson’s 36%. A third person, stepped down from the race (I think) but her name still appeared and she got 61 or 15% of the vote. In the rest of 5C Barrie Daneker (5C07), Marshall R. Phillips, Sr (5C08) and Silas H. Grant, Jr. (5C09) ran unopposed.

*As far as I know, not related to 70s fictional crime fighter Cleopatra Jones.
**Small change, url for Big Bear was wrong, it has been changed.

Oh good, that’s now over with.
Well the main show for our little corner of DC was the 2C02 race between incumbent Leroy Thorpe and his challenger Kevin Chapple. According the the preliminary election results (unofficial count) put out by the DC Board of Elections Kevin won by 18 votes. 18 people made the difference, which is why I’m going to hold any enthusiasm for when the official results are in. In 2002, according to the Board’s election data, Thorpe was challenged by Randy Wells and it was also a close race. Wells got 211 votes (45.87%) of the vote, 31 votes short of Thorpe’s 242 (52.61%). So the neighborhood was divided, and it wasn’t like 1998 when Thorpe had 75% of the vote over Steve Donkin’s 22%. The neighborhood is changing, and if the Chapple victory is real, then that change has been reflected in the vote. The real fun will be when the 2010 census is done so we can see the actual change.
Alex Padro kept his 2C01 seat with 70.08% of the vote, or 253 votes over Mary Sutherland’s 102. It seems people are happy with Alex, and with a large majority of the vote I feel safe in saying that.
Also holding a majority was incumbent Doris Brooks with 291 votes over John Tinpe’s 126. I guess the people of 2C03 are happy with their leadership or very unwilling to try the unknown.
Babs Curtis had 138 votes over challenger Rich Rodgers’ 103. Thirty five people made a difference there.
So in 2C there are many of the same faces, except one (provided there aren’t a lot of absentee votes out there to change it). The Single Member District races tend not to get a lot of press because they are so small. The Washington Post has the Fenty results (big surprise) smack dab in the middle, and nothing, nothing about the SMD races anywhere in the paper, maybe it will appear in the Thursday District section. It was great that the Washington City Paper gave some ink, and I think that made a difference.
Over on the other side of New Jersey Ave NW, there was a huge upset. Newcomers all over the place. But I’ll give it its own post later.

Please leave your ignorant state and come to DC. Specifically, come join the diverse and (largely) welcoming community of Shaw. It’s a great location in DC, has good public transportation options, lots of opportunities to fix up a nice rowhouse and absolutely no rednecks.

Think about it.

I’m feeling icky and going to bed but before I do:
2c01 Alex Padro w 70%
2C02 kevin Chapple w 51% (still maybe a little too close)
2C03 Doris Brooks w 68%
2C04 Barbra Curtis w 55%
5C01 Anita Barnes w 90%
5C02 Kris Hammond w 54% (close)
5C03 Stu Big Bear Davenport w ‘open the g-dmn coffee shop 53%
5C04 John sallati w 69%
5C06 Mary Allen w 47%

Night night.

She wants your vote and is willing to brave the rain and damp. Mighty swell of a woman running unopposed. So TC get your butt to the polls ’cause if Anita bothered coming out, you could wander a few blocks over to vote.