The following is a very simplified history, which hopefully will give some understanding of the present. During the Big Bear ABC license kerfuffle there were a few emailers questioning the rationale for ANCs or Advisory Neighborhood Commissions.
ANCs are a product of Home Rule. Prior to Home Rule (via the Home Rule Act of 1973) Congress (the Federal government) ran the city. It wasn’t until 1974 that DC residents were able to vote and have some real say in how the city ran. Before Home Rule the mayor and the city council were federally appointed. Neighborhood wise there were citizens (white) and civic (black) associations that appealed to Congress and city government officials for things like neighborhood improvements, traffic, crime and so forth. As far as I can tell civic and citizen association leaders were elected by the association’s membership. These groups could only beg or appeal to bodies and officials whom they could neither vote for or vote out of office.
With Home Rule, neighborhoods got something new:
… the Advisory Neighborhood Commissions (ANCs), brought the city administration closer to ordinary voters than any other elective units. The city council created 36 ANCs and 376 smaller single member districts, each representing about two thousand residents. The ANCs were intended to serve as neighborhood mini councils that advised the council on local problems.
—City of Magnificent Intentions: A history of Washington, District of Columbia 2nd edition P.584
I’m not sure why we need the ANC, though? Seems like overkill to have ANC AND Civic Associations? And, of the two, why can’t civic associations be given the power to represent neighborhoods to our elected Councilmembers? Civic association representatives are closest to the actual neighborhood citizens and businesses.
To use the Big Bear Cafe/ ANC 5C example, why should Gigi Ransom, representing the Fort Totten area, have any say to what is happening on First and R St. NW? That is nearly TWO MILES away from her district! That would be like a Bloomingdale ANC representative having a vote for what is happening in, say, Kalorama. Unfortunately for the citizens of Bloomingdale (and Truxton Circle, etc.) who would like to have a full service restaurant at First and R St., the boundaries of ANC 5C include neighborhoods that differ from our neck of the woods.
When you’re living on the edge something is going to suck. ANC 5C is big and also filled with some empty space so a system based on the last census’ population numbers and 60 year old census tracks isn’t going to reflect the psychological geography of 2010.
ANCs and Civic/Citizen associations are two different things. Civic associations can demand dues $$$ from members in order to be a voting member and some don’t discriminated based on residential address, ANC are elected by the registered voters in that SMD. Also there can be overlapping civic associations see over in Ward 2 with the ECCA and the CCCA, two competing civic associations for the same geographic area. One was started because a power mad anti-newbie FORMER ANC took over the local civic association and kept kicking the current ANC out of the meetings. Civic associations can be as large or as small, geographically, as they want to be, where as the territory of a ANC or SMD is dictated by the gerrymandering powers that be. For example, I believe BACA was just for the Bates Street houses and the adjoining blocks.It has grown and when pinned to a corner Jim will say it fits ANCs Bond’s area. But in the past I remember the borders being a bit more wider, possibly invading edges of Bloomingdale and LeDroit. There is ‘talk’ of joining with Hanover and making the Truxton Circle Civic Association. Civic associations have a greater flexibility and the government does not dictate their mission, size, or makeup.