Shawington

A new park is quickly taking shape for the Mount Vernon, Penn Quarter, and downtown area.

Located at 2nd Street and Massachusetts Avenue NW, this park was all but abandoned by the District government for years until residents of the Sonata and the Mount Vernon Square Neighborhood Association, made it their mission to transform it from an unsafe eyesore into an asset for the community. We began our efforts last month when I organized a meeting with Council Member Tommy Wells, Department of Parks and Recreation officials, and interested residents. We all agreed that it was time to fix this sad park, one of many forgotten around the city, which is located at the gateway to downtown, D.C.

Last night, thanks to the Mount Vernon Triangle Community Improvement District (CID), we had another meeting to move the process forward. In the long term, the District is seeking funding to undertake a major renovation to the park through funding from a developer who is negotiating to obtain air rights over I-395. Short term, however, the District is submitting today a grant proposal to the federal Department of Transportation for a transportation enhancement grant that will be used to fix the crumbling retain walls around the center point, repave the sidewalks, and install benches, lighting, trees, and irrigation. In addition, they plan to move plantings and furnishings from the Old Convention Center’s artwalk to the park. In addition, the city will attempt to make the intersections leading to the park more pedestrian friendly by restriping, lengthening the walk signal time, installing way finding signs, and possibly narrowing the width of the street. Since this park is at a major intersection, it qualifies for transportation funding. If U.S. DOT awards us the grant, funding will be available as soon as FY 2009, which begins this October! That’s exciting.

This is all great news and kudos goes to the Department of Parks and Recreation and Office of Planning for helping make this happen. They need your support. Please send a letter of support for the USDOT grant via e-mail to Sarah Moulton by Friday, August 8. Please also e-mail me if you are interested in joining a friends of [park] (to be named) group. This group will begin community discussions on long-term plans for the park, advocate for it, and plan beautification and clean up days.

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This morning, I participated in a candidates forum hosted by the Penn Quarter Neighborhood Association. While my opponent focused his remarks almost solely on past development (which resulted from a combination of the Abe Pollin’s risky and visionary decision to invest $200 million of his own money in what was then the MCI Center and a housing boom), I discussed my vision for making Penn Quarter a true neighborhood, not just a commercial area that now happens to have more people living in it. Penn Quarter residents will have the opportunity to make that same choice on September 9.

Specific actions I would take to make Penn Quarter a stronger, more livable, and vibrant neighborhood include:
Strengthening community policing. Penn Quarter is currently in a police service area (PSA 101) that stretches officers from the White House to Capital Hill. I’ll make certain that Penn Quarter and Chinatown has its own PSA, so that closer relationships develop between officers and the community they serve.

Penn Quarter deserves political representation. Penn Quarter is currently represented by two Advisory Neighborhood Commissions - one whose Commissioners all live in Shaw. The other primarily represents Capital Hill. ANCs make very important decisions for neighborhoods on zoning, licensing, permits, and quality of life issues. As councilmember, I’ll create a single ANC that will represent residents in the area between North Capital and 15th Streets between the mall and New York Avenue. I’ll also place Penn Quarter in a single ward, rather than minimize its voice and the ability to get things done by dividing it down the middle between Wards 2 and 6.

I take noise seriously. I would not have voted, as my opponent did, to severely weaken noise legislation’s application to Penn Quarter. If noise impacts the ability for you to enjoy your own home, I’ll take action. As Council Member Mary Cheh said during the hearing at which my opponent gutted the noise bill, “Penn Quarter, I hope you are listening, you are being written off.”

Penn Quarter is not the “Times Square of the Metropolitan Region.” That’s my opponent’s view. I don’t want to see the noise, traffic congestion, billboards, and trash that is Times Square brought to DC. Times Square may be fun to visit, but would you want to live there? My vision is a Penn Quarter that is a vibrant, diverse neighborhood, where small businesses can flourish. I’ll also support efforts to draw international businesses to Penn Quarter, a project on which I am working with the Chinatown Revitalization Council.

I’ll focus on the neighborhood issues important to you, not just big development projects around the city. Pedestrian safety, the ability to unload your car in front of your condo, revitalizing parks, enforcing idling laws applicable to buses, and no-nonsense quality of life enforcement of the law.

Let’s work together for a better Penn Quarter!

(1 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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On June 30, I joined the Chinatown Revitalization Council as they discussed several issues of importance to the community. Participants discussed the impending sale of the Wah Luck House. I am closely monitoring the situation and has alerted the DC Tenants’ Advocacy Coalition (TENAC) to ensure that the elderly tenants’ rights are fully protected. Residents are in the process of forming a tenants association, a necessary step to exercising their rights to purchase the building. The CRC also announced that they will be having a walk through of Chinatown’s Friendship Arch, at 7th and H Streets NW, with government officials on Wednesday, July 2, at 3:30pm. The walk through stems from a meeting with Mayor Fenty in May at which the city pledged to make needed repairs to the arch. Finally, the group discussed the International Lantern Festival, for which I serve as co-chair, a new event planned for DC tentatively for May 2009.

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On June 24, I joined the Penn Quarter Neighborhood Association, whose membership includes both area businesses and residents, for their monthly breakfast meeting with MPD Assistant Chief Diane Groomes and Jaleo owner José Andrés.

Issues raised with Chief Grooomes focused on the need to address quality-of-life offenses, such as tour buses idling in front of condos, drummers playing well into the night, and aggressive pan handling. Chief Groomes also noted the challenge of community policing in Police Service Area 101, which runs from 17th Street to Union Station.

I believe in a “broken windows” approach to policing and agrees with residents that rigorous enforcement is key to safer and more liveable, vibrant communities. I supported the original noise bill before it was stripped and passed as an empty shell by the DC Council. As Council Member, I pledge to provide the Penn Quarter community with its own Police Service Area and political representation, recognizing that it has evolved into a distinct neighborhood.

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Today was an interesting start for many Ward 2 residents. For me, the day began by getting a late start after waking up to find my alarm clock did not go off, a result of the electricity outage in my Mount Vernon Square neighborhood. By that time, I already had an e-mail from an irate Ward 2 resident who observed that although so many of the traffic lights were not functioning at busy intersections, during rush hour no less, he did not see any police or traffic officers directing traffic. I later learned reading the news today, that several pedestrians were in fact hit by cars as a result.

Halfway to work on the metro, I found myself stranded at Chinatown due to the (first) fire at Metro Center. The display screens in the metro station, which seem to always be up to date with the elevator outages around the city, today provided no information other than the expected arrival of the next train. Passengers struggled to make out the muffled announcements in the train and on the platform. Is Dupont Circle open or closed? Is service restored to Metro Center? When is service expected to resume?

As I exited and began my walk to work, fire trucks and other emergency response vehicles began arriving for what was a second fire at the metro. Outside the metro station, I overheard this conversation, “No one knows what is going on. They are not telling us anything…”

In DC’s defense, the emergency/e-mail-cell phone alert system did work today, and I recommend signing up for it. In each case today, however, it confirmed the obvious. It told me there was a power outage when I had no electricity. It told me that there was a fire at Metro Center when I found myself stuck at Chinatown.

So what can the city do differently? Well, first, the city needs to have a plan for a quick response for this situation. If there is a power outage and traffic signals become nonoperational, the city needs to have people directing traffic at all significant intersections. In addition, the electronic signs in the metro stations need to provide useful information. Metro might also consider some way of improving the sound of its audio system, which is extremely difficult to understand. Finally, how do we avoid this happening again? Were these fires and power outages a result of crumbling infrastructure? Let’s invest our money the right way.

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I’ve found time and time again that those who fight hardest for Ward 2 residents are often members of the Council from other parts of the city or elected at-large. Today, was another perfect example.

First, the Council gutted the noise bill. The original bill would have placed reasonable restrictions on the volume of daytime noncommercial speech (i.e. people shouting into loud speakers) that goes on for prolonged periods, intruding into people’s homes and places of work. DC has absolutely no limit, unlike any other major city, and what was originally proposed was still more lenient than places like New York City. An amendment proposed by Council Member Harry Thomas (D-Ward 5), which was essentially a rewrite of that proposed by Council Member Evans and defeated last month, passed 9-4 this time, after some unions ran radio ads threatening two members up for reelection, Kwame Brown (D-At Large) and Yvette Alexander (D-Ward 7). It raises the decibel level limit from 70 to 80 dB, restricts the limit to R-1 through R-4 zones (i.e. there is no limit for areas in which there are large apartment buildings or downtown), and changes the place of measurement to inside the home rather than 50 feet from the noise.

Those fighting for Ward 2 on the noise bill included Council Members Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3), Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), David Catania (I-At-Large), and Carol Schwartz (R-At Large). While Ward 2 Council Member Jack Evans represented that he has never received a noise complaint from residents of his Ward that would be protected by the legislation, Catania and Cheh discussed a different reality. Catania, himself a Ward 2 resident, expressed outrage that the children of Stevens Elementary School (located in West End/Foggy Bottom) lost an entire semester of school because of a prolonged protest across the street by hired hands. Cheh suggested that Penn Quarter residents ask why they are being treated differently — why they get no protection in their community and in their homes, noting that, “just because [you] live in a mixed [residential / commercial] area, Penn Quarter residents will have to suffer from noise assaults.” Cheh noted that under the Evans’ supported amendment, the noise can go 7am-9pm every day, all day, no matter how long, how loud, how amplified — “you get no protection whatsoever, none.”
“Penn Quarter, I hope you are listening, you are being written off.”

–Council Member Mary Cheh (Ward 3), quoted in the Washington Post

Council Member Wells, who shares a portion of Penn Quarter with Ward 2, attempted to amend the Thomas amendment to restore some protection for downtown, but failed. In the end, Cheh and Wells, the primary sponsors of the bill, voted against the do-nothing legislation.

Lost in all the noise over the noise bill were two very other important quality of life proposals on the Council’s Tuesday agenda: single sales of alcoholic beverages and vacant property.

The Council passed a ban on the sale of single alcoholic beverages for Wards 4, 7, and 8, with Council Member Wells pledging to add the entirety of Ward 6, which already has a partial ban, at the next meeting. Council Member Evans, spurred by the action of his colleagues, has after 17 years of complaints from neighborhoods residents, committed to proposing a similar ban for Ward 2. But his proposed ban, yet to be introduced, will cover only two Advisory Neighborhood Commission areas, Logan Circle (ANC 2F) and Shaw/Mt. Vernon/Penn/Chinatown Quarter (ANC 2C). Residents of Dupont Circle, Foggy Bottom/West End, Georgetown, and downtown should prepare to see more public intoxication, public urination, aggressive panhandling and trash, as those who cannot get a cheap drink in more than half of the rest of the city (Ward 1 already has a partial ban) find your corner and liquor stores.

Finally, the Council took on long-delayed legislation designed to move owners of vacant property to put their property to productive use. The legislation increases the vacant property tax rate from about 5x the regular occupied rate for residential property to 10x, while eliminating many of the loopholes that allowed derelict owners and speculators to avoid the higher rate for decades. It was Council Member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) who sought to fight off a series of 11th hour amendments that would have placed some of those exemptions back in the law and created a few new ones. That included a complete exemption on properties within the central business district proposed by Council Member Evans. It was withdrawn when it came under fire from Graham and Council Member Barry (D-Ward 8). Council Member Evans also proposed an amendment to increase the period of time before the higher rate sets in from 1 year (existing law) to 2 years and for residential property to 1 year (same as existing law, but the bill would have reduce dit to 8 months). That proposal passed. Another Evans proposal, to restore a loophole providing a 24-month exemption for properties under a deed of trust, was removed after Graham objected.

Graham also attempted to fight off, with some success, amendments proposed to allow the Mayor to single handedly exempt properties (passed subject to renewal by Mayor every 24 months), to exempt newly constructed buildings (passed limited to 4 years), and to require government inspectors evaluating whether a property is indeed vacant to consider the owner’s alleged “intent” to return.

It’s time we had a Ward 2 Council Member who places his constituents before developers, unions, and other special interests. By the way, what happened to the idea of creating a livable downtown? With the carving out of downtown from the noise bill and an attempt to take the central business district out of the vacant property protections, residents should be very concerned.

What people are saying about the noise bill’s silencing (no one is happy):
Quest for Quiet blog
PQ Living blog
Greater Greater Washington blog
DCist
DC Wire blog
The Express
Washington Post

(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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Does it bother you too?

The DC Council is now apparently developing legislation to allocate $150 million of public funds to building a soccer stadium. Don’t get me wrong, I’d like to see a new soccer stadium in the District. In fact, this year, I got together a group of friends to go to a DC United game on my birthday.

But $150 million in public money for construction costs?

This is on top of the $800 million spent on the baseball stadium and reports that my opponent is now pushing for a new football stadium for the Redskins.

Sure, let’s support owners who will make an investment in DC by locating here by improving the infrastructure to make it happen — expanding metro capacity and upgrading stations, repaving streets and reorganizing traffic flow, installing new sidewalks and street lighting, developing new bus routes — everything that is needed to make it safe, easy, and enjoyable to go to a game. But paying for construction for a private business, that’s where I would draw the line. I’d like to open a nice deli, but I’m not asking the DC government to build me a store.

Just last night, I organized a meeting with government officials and about two dozen downtown residents to develop a plan for improving a long neglected and forgotten neighborhood park, one of many in the District. The circle center of the park was filled with cardboard boxes of those who had made the park a semi-permanent home. The park reminds me of ancient ruins I explored on a recent visit to Israel — stones around the perimeter have crumbled and are in disarray, the sidewalks are grown over with weeds and grass, remnants of light fixtures of a time past line the park. Residents avoid the area, which is between Union Station and the Convention Center, the gateway to downtown, because they do not feel safe. Of course, the question of the night was where will the city find the money for renovating the park when they can’t even seem to maintain it? Well, when it comes to a few hundred million here and there for stadiums, finding money seems to be no problem. Where there is a will, there is a way.

Professional sports teams get money for stadium construction and luxury boxes. Residents scramble to organize clean ups to make the filth of neighborhood parks bareable. Kids are left on the streets.

It’s time to tell the DC Council that we expect a change in priorities. Before the city spends $150 million on construction costs for another stadium, let’s see it adequately maintain and renovate every single one of our neighborhood parks so that they can be used by residents and their children. Before the city provides another multimillion dollar giveaway for a ballpark, let’s see the city provide enough funding to keep its recreation centers open on weekends. Before the city writes that next big check to a wealthy sports team, let’s see it find the money to give significant tax relief to struggling small businesses.

(2 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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“Oh, be fair.” That is the response I received from DDOT Director Emeka C. Moneme in a public meeting of the Downtown Neighborhood Association last week. A Penn Quarter resident had informed Director Moneme that he had noticed walk signs swinging to face the wrong direction around town. Just call 311 was the response and we’ll send someone out to fix it. Then I thought of the Ward 2 resident I met at Whole Foods, and ran into again in Foggy Bottom, who told me how he had three times called in the same problem at a very busy intersection in Georgetown where he lives and works. Each time, the DDOT contractor came out and it was broken again within days. I told Director Moneme that he should be aware that some of his contractors are doing a “shoddy job.” Ward 2 Transportation Planner Christopher Ziemann then chimed in with some helpful advice: residents can fix the crosswalk signs themselves. Perhaps with a broomstick, you may be able to swing the pedestrian walk signs back into place.

Brick sidewalks. They look nice, but why can’t DDOT maintain them? A few weeks ago, a Foggy Bottom resident suggested that residents with wheel chairs use the streets rather than the sidewalks, because of the hazardous missing bricks. Well folks, here’s your answer. According to Mr. Zeimann, DDOT only has a single brick masonry crew for the entire city. That means that you are lucky to get asphalt to cover those holes until the crew gets around to you.

Light timing. You can literally walk across some areas of the city faster than attempting to drive or take a cab. From red light to red light you go, for miles at a time. Why? Wasted gas, wasted money, wasted time, unnecessary congestion. Fix it.

Fixing What Isn’t Broken. There’s so many dangerous intersections to fix, sidewalks to mend, walk lights facing the wrong way, and crosswalks to paint that you might think DDOT has its hands full. There’s also unfulfilled plans that might actually do some good if implemented, such as the New York Avenue Corridor Study and the Mount Vernon Triangle Transportation and Public Realm Project. Those sit on a shelf or in a file cabinet. Instead, the agency seems to repeatedly undertake efforts that leave residents fighting to ensure that the District’s congestion and pedestrian safety don’t get worse. A few recent or ongoing cases in point:
This week, after vigorous discussion and opposition on the Georgetown Forum, DDOT decided against plans to reverse the traffic flow on 33rd Street NW. As a former resident of 33rd Street, I know this was an obvious bad idea.
About two months ago, DDOT proposed eliminating a portion of The Circulator route that serves those who live and work along Wisconsin Avenue. After strong opposition from the Georgetown Advisory Neighborhood Commission and Citizens Association of Georgetown, DDOT abandoned that plan.
In Logan Circle, residents are very concerned about a DDOT proposal to make 15th Street (which currently is one-way heading northbound) into a two-way street.
DDOT, with the support of my opponent, has repeatedly studied the feasibility of removing the Whitehurst Freeway, an expense The Georgetown Current called “ridiculous”, and has garnered strong opposition.

To be fair to DDOT, there are some positive initiatives underway. Finally, we are beginning to see less closed sidewalks as DDOT is beginning to require developers to use covered walkways and maintain pedestrian access during construction. It is about time. I’m also glad to see the smart bike program come online - it is a good environmentally-friendly and convenient idea.

Can we please get back to basics? As your Council Member, I will push DDOT to fulfill its core mission — that includes:
Doing whatever it takes to address the most dangerous intersections in the city;Ensuring that crosswalks are always highly visible and signage is immediately and properly fixed when broken;Moving forward with needed infrastructure improvements to address congestion and safety hazards;Installing traffic calming devices where needed and effective;Sidewalk and street repair; andEnhancing public transportation options.

In short, I want to see shovels and paint brushes, not paper, presentations, and unnecessary proposals.

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About 2 weeks ago, I noted that the Council Members for Wards 4, 7, and 8 had introduced legislation to ban the sale of single containers of alcoholic beverages, which Ward 1 Council Member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) has consolidated into a single bill, B17-532. Notably absent from coverage of the bill, despite its high concentration of liquor licenses - Ward 2. I pledged support for a citywide ban, or, if not politically feasible, a Ward 2 ban, when elected to the DC Council.

“The problem here is blighted neighborhoods, litter, vagrancy, public urination, public intoxication, and other anti-social behavior, and, of course, crime.”
-Ward 1 Council Member Jim Graham

Well, someone got the message. At the May 6 Council meeting, Mr. Evans raised the possibility of including a part of Ward 2 or a hypothetical “Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2G” within the bill, if so desired by the residents, when the bill again comes before the Council on second reading.

Folks, this is getting a bit ridiculous. First, it’s odd to begin with that the Council is legislating on a ward-by-ward basis. (Mayor Fenty did it for Ward 4 as a Ward Council Member only after he tried for a citywide ban and could not obtain sufficient support-now we are talking about roughly half the city.) Now, Mr. Evans suggests legislating on a neighborhood-by-neighborhood basis. Would the Council ban single sales in Logan Circle sending the alcoholism, public drunkenness, trash, panhandlers, and public urination to Dupont Circle and Shaw? What kind of way is that to govern? In addition, a neighborhood ban places stores in that area at a competitive disadvantage with those that may be a block or two away.

True, residents and Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners can seek bans on single sales applicable to an individual store by either protesting its license and seeking a voluntary agreement, or it can request a moratorium for a particular area from the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board. If you’ve been through those processes, you know neither is ideal. The first pits residents against businesses, requiring both to go through lengthy hearings, and possibly lawyers. Historically, the ABC Board has not been receptive. The second option requires a rulemaking proceeding, which then must be approved by the Council.

The best option is a citywide ban on the practice. If that is not politically feasible for some reason, then a full Ward 2-wide ban is the next best thing.

You can view the DC Council’s debate here at minute 3:53.

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Legislation that would finally place a reasonable limit on noise in DC passed its first reading before the DC Council, after being amended to raise the permissible decibel limit to 80 in commercial areas, while keeping the original 70 decibels for residential neighborhoods on an 8-5 vote. My opponent voted against the bill, which will close a loophole that has allowed DC to be the only major city in the country with no restriction on daytime noise - outrageous!

I commend to you the pre-vote coverage of the Washington Post and Washington CityPaper, both of which document how Mr. Evans stormed out of a breakfast meeting to negotiate the bill with his colleagues on the Council in order to attend an event for the Washington Capitals. Clearly a model consensus builder. Oh, how those backward priorities resurface again and again.

The secret is also out of the bag as to how Council Member Evans plans to gut the bill: (1) raise the decibel limit to 80 in residential areas; (2) measure the noise from inside the residence; and (3) place the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs rather than the police in charge of enforcing the law. We all know how effective DCRA is at enforcing the law! So if you wake up in the morning and your house reminds you of Cafe Milano on a busy night, that should be ok, says Evans. Yes, he really said that.

The bill comes back before the Council on second reading next week. Watch for more mischief that undermines the right of residents to enjoy peace and quiet in their own homes.

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