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D.C. Government/D.C. Council media clips: Friday, December 10, 2010.
Twitter: DCGovClips
Transition / Vincent Gray
Gray announces more appointments - D.C. Wire (Washington Post blog)
D.C.'s Gray defends pace of transition - Washington Times
Gray: No DCPS chancellor appointment imminent - D.C. Wire (Washington Post blog)
Pretty Sure That’s a Yes, Vince - Loose Lips (Washington City Paper)
Good cop-bad cop could shape up D.C. bureaucracy - Examiner
Gray, Cheh get down at Post awards party - D.C. Wire (Washington Post blog)
D.C. Council
Will D.C.'s parking tax remain sacred? - Washington Post
Cutting D.C.'s child-care subsidy isn't the way to fix the city's budget gap - Washington Post
Video: Marion Barry “Reality” Show - Loose Lips (Washington City Paper)
D.C. Government
Cardin proposes moving New Beginnings facility to Walter Reed campus - D.C. Wire (Washington Post blog)
Sen. Ben Cardin: Move D.C. juvenile detention center to Walter Reed campus - Washington Business Journal
Politics / DCPS / Metro / Other
At McMillan, Developers Need a Little Help From the Neighbors - Housing Complex (Washington City Paper)
Metro legal fees hit $1.3m in union fight - Washington Examiner
Dow Jones: Brookfield to sell 1225 Connecticut Ave. NW at historic price - Washington Business Journal
Of Interest (links only)
The Politics Hour
WAMU
The new Prince George's County executive cleans house. D.C.'s mayor-elect makes his first round of key hires. And a veteran Northern Virginia Democrat wins a new statewide job. Join us for our weekly review of the politics, policies, and personalities of the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia.
Guests
· Tom Sherwood: Resident Analyst; NBC 4 reporter; and Columnist for the Current Newspapers
· Mike DeBonis: Reporter, The Washington Post
· Nathan Saunders: President, Washington Teachers' Union
· William Campos: Member, Prince George's County Council, D-District 2
Hotel Association of Washington names Solomon Keene president
Washington Business Journal
Date: Wednesday, December 8, 2010, 1:28pm EST
Metro to run fewer trains, buses over holidays
Transition / Vincent Gray
Gray announces more appointments
By Nikita Stewart
D.C. Wire (Washington Post blog)
December 9, 2010; 9:00 AM ET
Most of Gray's announcements Thursday will follow a logical pattern: Cynthia Brock-Smith, currently secretary of the council, will move to secretary of the District of Columbia; council budget director Eric Goulet and general counsel Brian K. Flowers will assume the equivalent positions in the Gray administration.
Stephen Glaude, currently Gray's director of constituent services, will become director of the office of community affairs. Roxana Olivas, who also works in Gray's council office, will become director of the Office on Latino Affairs.
Janene Jackson, currently senior vice president of government relations and public policy at the D.C. Chamber of Commerce, will be named Gray's liaison between the mayoral and council offices, the sources said.
Two other sources within the transition said Crystal Palmer, former director of the Office of Motion Picture and Television Development, will return to that job once Gray is sworn in. Palmer, wife of former D.C. Council member Harold Brazil, led the office for two decades before she was fired by Mayor Adrian M. Fenty in 2008. Fenty replaced Palmer with Kathy Hollinger, one of several current members of the administration to receive letters of termination from Gray's transition office this week.
D.C.'s Gray defends pace of transition
New aides named, but not top cop, schools chief
The Washington Times
8:25 p.m., Thursday, December 9, 2010
Defending the pace of his efforts to staff his incoming administration, D.C. Mayor-elect
Vincent C. Gray on Thursday announced a second round of appointments, but revealed no picks for key posts for city schools, the police department or other major agencies.
Saying he would not be rushed,
Mr. Gray told reporters he is being a deliberate chief executive who wants to have the "best possible people" to help him lead the city.
"I don't think anybody is hanging in the wind," said
Mr. Gray, who added that he had spoken with many of outgoing Mayor
Adrian M. Fenty's top aides and encouraged them to continue serving the city.
So far,
Mr. Gray's nominees over the past two days are a group of familiar City Hall faces, including five of the seven appointments announced Thursday and two made on Wednesday.
Part of the portfolio for
Ms. Jackson, who has worked as a government liaison for the
D.C. Chamber of Commerce, will be to handle relations between the executive and the
City Council and help the new mayor deal with a
U.S. Congress, in which conservative Republicans will hold a much stronger hand next year.
"Fortunately, we have several congressmen who have served as mayors,"
Ms. Jackson said. "They understand how cities work."
Mr. Glaude, who currently serves as
Mr. Gray's constituent-services director, will manage gay, ex-offender and ethnic-based affairs.
Mr. Gray, currently the
D.C. Council chairman, has drawn on council staff in many of his early appointments. The new nominees include:
· Eric Goulet, the
D.C. Council's budget chief, who will direct the mayor's budget and finance office.
Mr. Gray said he will again be leaning on Mr. Goulet as he constructs a balanced fiscal 2012 budget.
· Brain Flowers, the
council's general counsel, who will become general counsel to the mayor. The post has been a political hot button after
Mr. Fenty elevated family friend Peter Nickles from general counsel to city attorney general.
Mr. Gray said the legal lines of distinction for both positions are clear.
The general counsel "should deliver impartial opinions in the best interest of the government," he said in announcing Mr. Flowers' appointment.
As for the attorney general, a mayoral appointment that will become an elected position in 2014,
Mr. Gray said: "I don't want an attorney general who doesn't think the client is the people of the District of Columbia."
· Cynthia Brock-Smith, manager and keeper of operations and records for the
Council, will head the D.C. Office of the Secretary, where she will have the same duties for the entire city government.
· Roxana Olivas, who advised
Mr. Gray on Hispanic affairs as
Councilchairman, will head the Office of Latino Affairs.
· Crystal Palmer, who for more than 20 years ran the Office of Motion Picture and TV Development, will resume that role in 2011. Ms. Palmer, wife of former Council member Harold Brazil, replaces Kathy Hollinger, who was brought in by
Mr. Fenty in 2008.
Gray: No DCPS chancellor appointment imminent
D.C. Wire (Washington Post blog)
December 9, 2010; 8:53 AM E
Mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray (D) told us Wednesday night that he is impressed by interim D.C. schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson but that he is not on the verge of naming her or anyone else to the position permanently.
Gray, who was at The Post for an event honoring some of its employees, said that there is a "process" for an appointment under the system of mayoral control of schools and that he would follow it.
"I won't lie to you," he said. "I really like Kaya."
Henderson served as the top deputy under Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee, then moved up to the interim leadership post after Rhee resigned in October.
Among other positions Gray will fill in his incoming administration are a deputy mayor for education and a state superintendent of education.
Pretty Sure That’s a Yes, Vince
Loose Lips (Washington City Paper)
Another day, another Almost Mayor Vince Gray news conference at the Reeves Center. At today's affair, VG introduced the staffers who have worked for him as council chairman and and will be—surprise!—working for him as mayor in nearly identical roles.
Of much more interest was Gray's answer to LL's question of whether he thought Still Attorney General Peter Nickles' pursuit of financial records from Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr.'s sports non-profit, Team Thomas, was part of a politically motivated investigation.
Gray's full response, given with a pretty decent level of gusto:
"I happen to have been in one involving a fence, I've never seen an attorney general involve himself in a fence, Alan, so one can speculate that perhaps it's politically motivated. And you may recall too that there was an investigation done that I was the only in four years to whom this law had been applied. So it's speculation of course, but it's informed speculation."
Don't know about you, but sounds like a yes to LL. (Gray didn't mention that he eventually settled with the city, agreeing to pay $300 for breaking whatever useless rule the city has about putting fences around one's home.)
Why this matters: After a couple months of wrangling, Thomas has been ordered by a judge to hand over financial records to Nickles' office that show, in detail this time, who contributed to Team Thomas while he was a sitting councilmember and how that money was spent.
The catch is that Thomas doesn't have to hand over the records until Jan. 8, by which time Gray will be mayor and a new A.G. will be installed. Will said next A.G. take Thomas' records, put them in a drawer, and never speak of them again? No one asked Gray that specifically, but Gray did say he wants an A.G. who's "responsive to the people" and conducts fair, objective and speedy investigations.
Reached by phone, Nickles wasn't amused, saying Gray's comment's about the fence and Team Thomas investigation "demean the office" he's about to take. Nickles also pointed out that the argument that his investigation of Team Thomas is politically motivated has fallen flat in court, twice.
"This is a serious matter ... [Thomas] solicited in excess of $200,000 illegally," says Nickles.
Gray, Cheh get down at Post awards party
By Nikita Stewart
D.C. Wire (Washington Post blog)
December 9, 2010; 1:48 PM ET
(Note: includes video link)
Mayor-elect Vincent C. Gray made an appearance at The Washington Post's after party for the Eugene Meyer Awards Wednesday night. The annual celebration honors Post employees for their contributions to the company.
Gray (D) was already speaking to the
D.C. Tenants' Advocacy Councilat the nearby Charles Sumner School Museum and Archives. D.C. Wire offered an impromptu invitation to The Post's event, and Gray unexpectedly accepted.
He showed up with his security detail and Council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3). Gray and Cheh shook hands with employees and then hit the dance floor.
Good cop-bad cop could shape up D.C. bureaucracy
For all of Mayor Adrian Fenty's shortcomings, he was on target when it came to putting together a strong staff. You might recall his tour to meet "big city mayors" before he took office four years ago. He reported they all agreed on one ingredient for success: "Hire good people."
And he did, in my book, from Michelle Rhee to run the schools to Gabe Klein to modernize transportation to Linda Argo who tried to fix the dysfunctional permitting system in the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs.
But his most successful maneuver was luring Allen Lew from building the Nationals baseball stadium to managing the city's $2 billion school modernization agency. He has been an unqualified success.
Every student and parent of school kids owes Lew. When my kids attended D.C. schools from the 1990s until last year, the buildings ranged from disgusting to dangerous. Roofs leaked, bathrooms overflowed, floors buckled, mold ruled the basements, windows rattled, furnaces failed and fields were wastelands. Lew and his team cleared work orders, built brand new schools and refurbished others. They fixed in three years what the school system had allowed to fester for 30.
So when incoming Mayor Vincent Gray named Lew as his city administrator, I thought: "inspired move." Brave, too. There are those in Gray's camp who would rather not keep any Fenty folks. Gray was smart to give the day-to-day running of his government over to Lew.
Allen Lew is a tough guy. Ask any contractors who have sat across the table from him. His message was: Do the work or get off the job. Period. No backing and filling, unless you're working a back hoe. Do the work, do it well, or get off the job. He's fearless. He's been able to work in relative obscurity. He never sought media attention. He never hungered for a bigger, better job.
In political terms, he was Switzerland, between the warring states of Fentyland and the D.C. Council. He worked for Fenty yet reported regularly to the council. In that war zone he was able to build a relationship with the council, especially Chairman Gray, continue to satisfy Fenty's need for speed and many ribbons to cut.
Keep in mind that when Fenty's contracts to rebuild parks and recreation centers blew up amid charges of corruption and cronyism, it was Allen Lew who took over and finished the jobs.
But the stakes are higher now, and the spotlight will be shining on the relatively reclusive Mr. Lew. He will not be able to fire city workers the way he dismissed contractors. He's firmly in the public sector, ruled by unions.
The best way for this Chinese American raised in Brooklyn to succeed in making the city function better would be to work closely with Mayor Gray, in the old-fashioned good cop-bad cop tag team. Lew plays the tough guy, Gray makes nice. People would sense Lew's stick but feel better after Gray's "atta-boy."
Could be a winning team.
D.C. Council
DeBonis: Will D.C.'s parking tax remain sacred?
Thursday, December 9, 2010; 11:33 PM
What could another $7.8 million get the D.C. government right now?
In a city presently faced with a nearly $200 million budget shortfall, it might not seem like much, but consider: That cash could entirely eliminate the $4.6 million slash to family welfare benefits, with cash left over to perhaps restore $2.6 million in benefits to grandparents raising small children or to restore $2.5 million in grants to nonprofit groups serving children.
The
D.C. Council voted Tuesday to strip much of that money, and while social service advocates rallied with futility around a hike on the income tax for the highest-earning Washingtonians, there existed a more painless option: Raise the parking tax.
It wouldn't have gone quite so far as an income tax hike, but it could have eased the burden on the neediest Washingtonians while putting the screws on commuters and tourists - that is, folks who don't live here and don't vote.
The District's tax on commercial parking has been set at 12 percent since 1976, and the city's finance office estimates that raising the rate to 16 percent would have generated $7.8 million in the remainder of fiscal 2011, which runs through Sept. 30. In subsequent years, it could raise $11 million or more.
And 16 percent isn't quite highway robbery - not when you compare D.C. with other big cities: Baltimore charges 16 percent. New York City charges more than 18 percent. Philadelphia and Miami are at 20 percent. In San Francisco, you're looking at 25 percent. Park in Chicago, and you'll pay a full one-third in taxes to the city and county. And Pittsburgh charges a whopping 38 percent - it used to be as high as 50 percent.
But even a modest hike has been anathema to perhaps the city's most potent lobbying force. What the National Rifle Association and the AARP is to federal Washington, the parking lobby has been to city hall.
The sanctity of the commercial parking tax is the work of the late Leonard B. "Bud" Doggett, who during his 60-plus years in Washington business built a reputation as a tough businessman and generous philanthropist. Through his willingness to gather and judiciously wield the political clout of the parking lot operators, he created a third-rail issue every bit as nettlesome as Social Security reform.
It's through a carrot-and-stick approach. The carrot: Since 1998, according to campaign finance records, the Doggetts and their companies have donated about $85,000 to city political candidates. That doesn't account for the tens of thousands more from other companies that have bundled contributions to many members of the council. The stick: In 2008, parking operators were among the prime financiers of a successful challenge to longtime council member Carol Schwartz (R-At Large).
"They've been very effective in convincing members of the council and others to not increase that tax," said D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), who has been one of the few to advocate for a hike in recent years.
But it's hard to overstate the influence of "Bud's Boys" - even after Doggett's 2008 death, at age 87.
Last year, with tensions between Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and D.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray at their highest, it was a memorial service for Doggett that brought them together - if only for a brief awkward moment on a ceremonial dais.
Doggett might be gone, but his widow, Cherie Wanner Doggett, continues to run the company and embraces the political role that he played; in the John A. Wilson Building, lobbyist David Julyan wields the parking sector's influence.
When the gap-closing plan passed Tuesday, the parking tax remained sacrosanct.
"I don't get it," said one political operative. "I thought Bud Doggett was dead." (Julyan declined to comment on the state of the parking tax; Cherie Doggett did not return a call for comment.)
But with hundreds of millions of dollars set to be cut from the District's 2012 budget - a process that will start as soon as Gray takes office early next month - it might not be safe for long.
Graham said he's had some " very brief" discussions with parking folks recently about negotiating a hike. "I haven't been told to buzz off or anything, but they haven't said yes," he said.
Though Graham raised the possibility of a parking tax hike on the council dais, few of his colleagues have joined him. Yet.
"Not a lot of people have signed on at the moment," said Graham. "But once we start confronting a $400 million or $500 million gap, there are going to be a lot of discussions we're not having at the present."
Cutting D.C.'s child-care subsidy isn't the way to fix the city's budget gap
Friday, December 10, 2010; 1:00 AM
The routine can be especially tough this time of year. The kids are sleepy, and it's barely dawn outside when they get to day care on these cold mornings.
And when Mom returns to pick them up, after a long day of balancing the books for a supermarket or running a doctor's office, it's dark again.
It's a grind, but it works.
And don't you mess with it, council people.
For the District's single working moms, good child care is what makes their world possible. They can work, bills get paid, life proceeds.
Take affordable day care away, and it all collapses like a cheap gingerbread house.
Yet this is exactly what the D.C. Council is thinking of
doing to help close a $188 million budget gap, whittling away at an already shrunken program that subsidizes care for about 12,000 children of working parents.
The people who would suffer are those doing everything right. They are the last ones who should be targeted in a frenetic budget-cutting spree.
In the past three years, the city's child-care subsidies have been cut by $20 million. This week, officials proposed taking away $1.7 million more, said Ed Lazere of the
D.C. Fiscal Policy Institute.
It's a completely mixed message the city is sending, asking folks to stay employed or get a job in this horrendous market, while taking away the crucial tool that allows that to happen: affordable child care.
Take a moment to meet some of the women who rely on this subsidy to keep their jobs and keep the wheels turning. Their toddlers spend the day at the Kids Are Us Learning Center Too in Southeast Washington while they're at work.
These are not teen moms or high school dropouts. Most are in their late 20s or early 30s; many have held the same jobs for years.
You see them every day, working at the bank or a museum. They may be the ones in heels racing to work through a marble lobby downtown or checking you in for your colonoscopy.
Just after 5 p.m. comes Erica Hicks, 27, dressed smartly in a peacoat and severe black-framed eyeglasses. Poised and witty, she looks the part of someone who works at the Smithsonian Institution, where she does office administration for architects and planners.
She makes just enough to pay rent, groceries and living expenses, but if she had to pay market rates for child care for her 1-year-old son, she wouldn't make it.
It's a story that cuts across the socioeconomic spectrum. I paid more in child care than I earned during my first year back at work after having my second child, as have women all over the area. But the lucky ones had some financial backup to get through that time.
In fatter times, a mom like Hicks who didn't have the financial resources to make it through the child-care crunch could rely on Grandma for child care. But in this recession, most grandmas can't afford to retire.
"My mom's working," she said. "So all I have is this place."
The importance of this subsidy is made clear when you hear the numbers. One of the women told me she pays only $27 a week for her child to be at the center, thanks to the subsidy. If the subsidy disappeared, she'd have to pay $400 a week, and that's more than her take-home pay.
The city has been whacking away at affordable child care for years. Plus, the rate it pays day-care centers hasn't risen since 2005. So already, the centers that provide these spots are barely making ends meet, said HyeSook Chung, executive director of
DC Action for Children.
Soon, they'll be able to afford only those families who can pay market rates. And that number is shrinking, with the unemployment rate stubbornly high in Southeast and other parts of the District.
A little later in the evening comes Nakia Wright, 32, to pick up her 2-year-old girl. Wright works at a day care across town, and she doesn't deny the sting of paying someone to take care of her child while she takes care of others. But it's a job, and jobs are what she's always had.
"We are used to working," Wright tells me and the other women trying to get tiny hands into mittens during the evening pickup. "It would be a hardship. It would be devastating to take this subsidy away from us."
These women see others around them stuck in a cycle of unemployment, food stamps, housing subsidies and welfare checks. They're desperate to stay out of that territory, yet they're about to be punished for doing so.
"Do any of these people [making the budget cuts] have children?" asked Shamelli Toran, who does personnel work and bookkeeping at a Safeway. "The chain reaction that's going to happen if they undercut working moms? Whew. People will be falling into the system."
And the costs of that will be a whole lot higher than the cost of the child-care subsidy.
Video: Marion Barry “Reality” Show
Loose Lips (Washington City Paper)
Major hat tip to Mike DeBonis, who alerts us all to the fact that the first episode of the Marion Barry reality show is available on YouTube. Is it just LL, or does most all of this look staged? BTW, the star of this episode,Andre Johnson, is now Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander's director of communications.
D.C. Government
Cardin proposes moving New Beginnings facility to Walter Reed campus
By Ben Pershing and Henri Cauvin
D.C. Wire (Washington Post blog)
December 9, 2010; 5:22 PM ET
Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin (D) sent a legislative message to District officials this week, proposing to move the
New Beginnings youth detention center from Laurel to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center campus.
Cardin quietly offered an amendment to the defense authorization bill, which sets the Pentagon budget for the next year, requiring the D.C. government to plan for "the complete transfer" of the New Beginnings facility to Walter Reed. The defense bill stalled in the Senate on Thursday afternoon, failing to get the 60 votes necessary to proceed because of a separate fight
over the military's "don't ask don't tell" policy. But Cardin still wanted to signal that this issue is a priority for him.
"I don't know if we're going to have a defense bill or not, and I think the likelihood that this amendment will be considered is not very great," Cardin said in a brief interview Thursday. "But I just want people to understand that this is a continued concern that we have to resolve."
New Beginnings opened in May 2009 in Anne Arundel County, on land that for decades has housed social service institutions of the District, among them the Oak Hill Youth Center. New Beginnings replaced Oak Hill, which was notorious for crowding and violence and had become an emblem for all that was wrong with the District's juvenile justice system. Built at a cost of $46 million, New Beginnings was set up to house up to 60 youths, far fewer than had been held at Oak Hill, and it marked a shift toward a more rehabilitative approach toward young offenders.
Soon after New Beginnings opened, two escapes occurred, leading the District to strengthen security at the facility, which is in Laurel, and then earlier this year, a disturbance among some of the youths prompted a massive response by law enforcement agencies from the county, the state and the District. No major incidents have been reported since then, but the facility has been well over capacity in recent weeks, with more youths detained there than at any time since it opened. And that has led to increased tension inside the facility, according to juvenile justice advocates.
Walter Reed, meanwhile, is slated for closure next year, and D.C. officials are
working on ambitious plans to develop the 62 acres of the campus that will come under the District's control. The city is considering a mix of residential and retail shops, plus a health clinic and two charter schools. The federal government will also control a portion of the Walter Reed land, and could put federal offices there.
Would all of those new elements mix well with a juvenile detention facility? Cardin made clear that he was tired of hearing from D.C. officials that there was no suitable location available for New Beginnings in the District.
"A juvenile detention center is an important responsibility of local government," Cardin said. "It should be a high priority. It shouldn't be a stepchild, and the district of Columbia should give it the priority it deserves."
But Cardin also said he was "absolutely not" wedded to the idea that Walter Reed was the best or only option for the facility. As for New Beginnings' current location, Cardin said he feels "very strongly that this land needs to be put to better use," calling it important for both environmental and national security reasons (its neighbor is the National Security Agency).
D.C. Council Member Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6), whose Human Services Committee oversees the city's juvenile justice system, chuckled when told of Cardin's proposed amendment.
"New Beginnings just got built and it's state of the art," Wells said. "It sounds like politics. It doesn't sound practical. That said, I like Ben Cardin."
Sen. Ben Cardin: Move D.C. juvenile detention center to Walter Reed campus
Washington Business Journal - by Michael Neibauer
Date: Thursday, December 9, 2010, 2:19pm EST - Last Modified: Thursday, December 9, 2010, 3:18pm
U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., has one more use he'd like to add: juvenile detention.
Cardin wants the District to move the New Beginnings Youth Development Center, currently located in Laurel, to the Walter Reed campus. An amendment Cardin hopes to offer to a pending defense appropriations bill bars the secretary of the Army from accepting or approving a redevelopment plan for Walter Reed that does not provide for the transfer.
It is probably not what the District, or Walter Reed's neighbors, had in mind when they pondered the transformational project on upper Georgia Avenue.
New Beginnings is the District's kinder, gentler version of the now shuttered Oak Hill juvenile jail, another Laurel facility. Numerous youth have absconded from the overcrowded center, which features a nine- to 12-month behavior modification program for delinquents, since it opened in 2009.
Of Walter Reed's 113 acres, the District is expected to get 62.5, the General Services Administration 32.5 and the State Department 18. It'll be interesting to hear what GSA and State have to say about possibly housing federal offices and foreign embassies within a few acres of a youth detention center.
Cardin submitted the amendment Tuesday, but it is unclear whether it will be considered by his senate colleagues. It isn't known yet whether amendments will be accepted to the Fiscal Year 2011 National Defense Authorization Act, a Cardin spokeswoman said, or even when the bill will come up for a vote. But it is absolutely the senator's intention to push the amendment, she said, if given the opportunity.
Politics / DCPS / Metro / Other
At McMillan, Developers Need a Little Help From the Neighbors
Housing Complex (Washington City Paper)
With a budget gap yawning into the next few years, Mayor-elect Vince Gray has put developers on notice that not all of their big projects—Hill East, Walter Reed, the Southwest Waterfront, to name a few—will get the public funding they were expecting.
That puts them all in competition with each other to move to the front of the line. Community backing is one factor that could push them ahead, and developers on one of those projects—the McMillan sand filtration site—are working overtime to get neighbors on board.
On Saturday morning, the master planner and landscape architect on the 25-acre project will present a concept plan, after several meetings to gather community feedback. And this week, developers Jair Lynch, Aakash Thakkar of EYA, and Adam Weers of Trammell Crow have been meeting in small groups with interested residents to explain what they want to do, and ask for “advocacy” to make it happen.
In Monday’s evening session at the Big Bear Café, the developers made the case for their plan: It’ll be a world-class medical center to rival Johns Hopkins, complemented by a variety of types of housing, and neighborhood-serving retail—just the kind of project that should appeal to a Mayor who just ran on a platform of getting people back to work.
“We have the ability to be the superstar in the portfolio the District has,” said Weers, who will be developing the three medical office buildings (two will be occupied by Medstar and the Childrens National Medical Center, with one left over for smaller offices). “When you really get into the job creation of this project, it’s very, very unique.”
Though other projects are further along in the planning stages, the McMillan team is banking on winning over the long-skeptical community ahead of time, to make the multiple layers of development review go more smoothly.
“They might be two months ahead of us in the regulatory process,” said Lynch, of the Southwest Waterfront. “But if they have a protracted community process in the middle of it, they might be a 2014 groundbreaking.”
In addition to convincing city regulators that the funding is needed, the developers need the community’s help to land the kind of retail that will make the project work. Numbers-wise, McMillan isn’t a shoo-in: A survey done by North Capitol Main Streets found that there are 12,000 people within a half mile radius of the site, with a median income of $39,000, who collectively spend about $16 million a year in groceries, or $25 per person per week. In Georgetown, while there are fewer residents, that number is closer to $100.
McMillan isn’t just competing with District sites for that kind of retail—it’s also competing with locations in Virginia and Maryland that have caught on to the urbanist ethos (Lynch just recently started branching out himself).
Getting a grocery store to come under those conditions, Lynch warned the group, might take an effort on the level of the community mobilization to woo Whole Foods on P Street.
“It’s going to take advocacy,” he said. “Not just us going to Las Vegas.”
It quickly clicked in some peoples’ heads why Lynch, Thakkar, and Weers were spending so much time up front to interface with residents, making the case for density, creating a park that fit their expectations. They can’t make it happen without substantial community support.
“The value of you being here is getting us on your team,” one woman observed.
“That’s right,” Lynch answered.
Hey, I'm finally writing about this for the print issue! If you've got particular knowledge or insight into how the developers have functioned through this whole process, drop me a line: ldepillis@washingtoncitypaper.com
Metro legal fees hit $1.3m in union fight
By: Kytja Weir 12/09/10 8:05 PM
Washington Examiner
Jackie Jeter, president of Metro's largest union, said she sees no reason the union won't win a long legal battle with the transit agency over wage increases.-Andrew Harnik/Examiner file
The legal bills are piling up for Metro in the transit agency's fight with its largest union over wage increases.
Metro has spent $300,000 so far appealing an arbitrator's decision -- made more than a year ago -- that granted the wage increases, said Metro spokeswoman Lisa Farbstein. That comes on top of $1 million already spent on the arbitration fight itself.
The fight has cost Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689 less than $300,000, estimated President Jackie Jeter.
Now Metro and ATU Local 689 are waiting for a federal court decision to resolve the impasse, which dates to May 2008, on whether Metro must pay 3 percent raises to bus and train operators over three years.
The lack of resolution has frustrated those on both sides, including Metro Board members.
"Make a decision," Metro board member Christopher Zimmerman said. "Win or lose, we'd all be better off."
Differences over Metro contract disputes must be resolved through binding arbitration, each choosing one mediator, who then pick a third neutral arbitrator. In this case, the arbitrators ordered the transit agency to pay the wage increases in November 2009, but Metro appealed the decision to court because it said the arbitrators did not consider the agency's financial situation or the economic climate. The court kicked the case back to the neutral arbitrator, who clarified his reasoning, and now it rests with the U.S. District Court in Maryland for a judge to resolve.
Jeter said she sees no reason why the union won't prevail, arguing that the union won the process the two sides had agreed to years earlier. She said Metro contested it "like a whiny baby."
The transit agency has been waging an all-out fight, hiring the big-name firm Venable LLP in its battle. The firm did not return a call for comment.
But the transit agency has argued that fighting the case is worth the $1.3 million in legal fees because the wage increase itself represents more money.
Dow Jones: Brookfield to sell 1225 Connecticut Ave. NW at historic price
Washington Business Journal - by Sarah Krouse
Date: Thursday, December 9, 2010, 4:24pm EST - Last Modified: Thursday, December 9, 2010, 5:33pm EST
Brookfield Properties Corp. is finalizing a deal to sell 1225 Connecticut Ave. NW to The World Bank for $216 million, or $897 per square foot, according to Dow Jones.
The sale would represent the highest price per square foot ever paid for an office building D.C.
The World Bank, which provides aid to developing countries, currently leases the entire 240,811-square-foot building under a 10-year lease it signed in 2008.
After buying the eight-story building in 2006, Brookfield, a publicly traded real estate investment trust, spent $32 million on a renovation. It put the building on the market in July.
Other historic sales in D.C. include the $867 per square foot Vico Capital paid for 2099 Pennsylvania Ave. NW in April 2008 and Vornado Realty Trust’s 2009 sale of 1999 K St. NW for $207.8 million, or $830 per square foot.
Brookfield declined to comment but said it could have an announcement in the coming days.
Jones Lang LaSalle was marketing the project and Cassidy Turley is representing the World Bank. Both firms declined to comment.
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