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Good morning, A Grammy nomination for Chuck Brown – finally. Also – Don't miss Dreamgirls at Duke Ellington. Have a great weekend.
Best, Karyn-Siobhan Robinson a/k/a DC Government Clips
D.C. Government/D.C. Council media clips: Friday, December 3, 2010.
Missed yesterday? http://bit.ly/fC1yjJ
Twitter: DCGovClips
Transition
Gray holding private, one-on-one budget talks with council members - Examiner
Lanier: Wants to remain under Gray, one of D.C.'s highest paid - WTOP.com
D.C. Council
Adams Morgan Hotel tax break tabled - Washington Business Journal
Nickles wants court to enforce subpoena for Team Thomas records - D.C. Wire (Washington Post blog)
Nickles to Thomas: Pay Up! - Loose Lips (Washington City Paper)
The future of DC voting rights; Councilman Thomas accuses AG of vendetta - TBD.com
Jack Evans: Just Kidding About That Whole Redskins Field Idea - Housing Complex (Washington City Paper)
D.C. Government
Should D.C. Ditch Its Sales Tax? - WRC – NBC4
Officials try to ease alarm about lead in D.C. water - Washington Post
The Scene nightclub shutdown after failing to pay taxes - Examiner
Buried Height Act Economic Analysis Revealed! - Housing Complex (Washington City Paper)
D.C. in the (taboo) market for bodies - Washington Business Journal
Drivers say it's time for D.C. 295 work zone speed cameras to go - Washington Post
DC9 case: Don't count on an autopsy report by Jan. 19 - TBD.com
DCPS / Politics / Metro / Other
New WTU Pres. Nathan Saunders: 'It's been all teacher blood' on the floor - D.C. Schools Insider (Washington Post)
New WTU chief: Top job 'is to protect members' - The Washington Times
On the record with DCPS Chancellor Kaya Henderson - Georgetown Voice
D.C. judicial nominees stuck in Senate logjam - D.C. Wire (Washington Post blog)
Can job training work? - Greater Greater Washington
Southwest Waterfront: A Neighborhood Where A Change Is Gonna Come - Urban Turf
Missed
The Education of Michelle Rhee - Washingtonian
The DC schools reformer talks about firing teachers, the progress she made, and where she failed. And she reminds the politicians: It’s all about the kids.
Of Interest (links only)
A City Divided
Takes an in-depth look at community tensions throughout D.C.
Stories in this Issue:
Rhee to aid incoming Fla. governor on education
Washington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/02/AR2010120206213.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/02/AR2010120206213.html
Friday, December 3, 2010
The Politics Hour
WAMU
Friday, Dec 3, 2010 At 12:06 P.M.
D.C.'s "mayor in waiting" lunches in the White House. Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell considers more than hundred proposals to put his government on a diet. And Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley takes a seat at the head of the table of the Democratic Governors Association. 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
· Thomas Graham: President, Pepco
· Mary Margaret Whipple: Member, Virginia Senate (District 31, Arlington)
Transition
Gray holding private, one-on-one budget talks with council members
By: Freeman Klopott 12/02/10 5:21 PM
http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/capital-land/2010/12/gray-holding-private-one-one-budget-talks-council-members
http://washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/capital-land/2010/12/gray-holding-private-one-one-budget-talks-council-members
Examiner Staff Writer
Mayor-elect Vince Gray is discussing plans to close a $188 million budget gap in private, one-on-one meeting with council members.
The Washington Examiner has confirmed that at least six council members met with Gray on Thursday and the others are scheduled to meet with him Friday.
In the meetings, Gray has said very little about his specific plans for fixing the budget shortfall, council sources told The Examiner. Instead, he spends the majority of the meetings, which last less than an hour, hearing about programs the council members want to save, where they want to cut and if they support raising taxes. At the center of the conversation are the proposed cuts Mayor Adrian Fenty sent to the council last week.
The council is scheduled to vote on the budget fix Tuesday. It's expected that members will spend Monday afternoon publically hashing out the budget and details to an increasingly-likely tax hike.
But in the end, it will be Gray who provides the final plan — and council members don't expect to have it in their hands until early Tuesday morning.
Council members with confirmed Gray meetings on Thursday: David Catania and Phil Mendelson (both at-large), Tommy Wells (Ward 6), Councilman Jack Evans (Ward 2), Mary Cheh (Ward 3) and Marion Barry (Ward 8).
Lanier: Wants to remain under Gray, one of D.C.'s highest paid
Mark Segraves, WTOP.com
Paul D. Shinkman, WTOP.com
Paul D. Shinkman, WTOP.com
December 2, 2010 - 2:32pm
Cathy Lanier want to keep her job after the new mayor is sworn in next month, the D.C. police chief told WTOP Thursday.
She also revealed that through recent city legislation, her salary exceeds the mayor's as one of the highest in D.C.
While speaking on WTOP's "Ask the Chief" program with Mark Segraves, Lanier said "of course" she has told Mayor-elect Vincent Gray that she would like to retain her current billet.
"I'm a career employee here, I love the city and I love what I do," she said, adding that she is committed to fulfilling her agreement for 25 years of service.
Lanier first joined the police department in 1990.
Documents obtained by WTOP and information from Lanier's Thursday interview confirm she makes significantly more than most other D.C. employees, including her boss.
In 2007, Lanier should have made $175,000, according to 2008 D.C. legislation. With an annual 3 percent raise, and a standard 10 percent "longevity" bonus in 2010 to reflect her 20th year of service, her salary would be brought up to $210,349.95 this year.
However, the legislation the D.C. council passed in 2008 recognized the city had been deducting retirement benefits from Lanier's salary -- a fund for which D.C. should have been paying.
Instead of correcting the deduction mechanism, the city retroactively reimbursed the police chief for the deducted benefit money, and raised her 2008 salary to compensate for the continued deductions.
This brings the chief's annual salary to $225,813.87 in 2010, according to a D.C. Police Department document. Were she to retire this year, her pension would be more than $11,000 more per year than if the city had adjusted her pay scale in 2008.
This is more than the annual pay for the mayor of $200,000, all members of the council and the D.C. chief financial officer.
Michelle Rhee, the former schools chancellor, received a $275,000 salary through her contract.
"All I asked for with my contract is that I would not give up exactly what I would have gotten had I remained in the career service ranks," Lanier told WTOP Thursday.
"The percentage (of my retirement) will be exactly what it would have been had I not taken the chief's position," she added.
But her salary has drawn criticism from some experts on police compensation.
"After Chief Lanier proposed seven years of no raises for working police officers, we now find out that she has quietly arranged for a 30 percent increase in her compensation along with unheard of retirement provisions," says Kristopher Baumann, chief of the D.C. Police Union.
"That should tell the public everything they need to know about Chief Lanier and this administration - it is, unfortunately, what the rank and file have already learned about this chief."
Baumann adds that Lanier did not protest the mayor and council's decision to eliminate 250 police officers this past summer, dropping that total staff to 4,000 -- a number she confirmed at WTOP Thursday.
Lanier failed to speak about the losses or advise the council on the effects of the layoffs, he says.
D.C. Council
Adams Morgan Hotel tax break tabled
Washington Business Journal - by Michael Neibauer
Date: Thursday, December 2, 2010, 4:26pm EST - Last Modified: Thursday, December 2, 2010, 5:14pm EST
A D.C. Council committee may have driven a stake through the heart of the planned Adams Morgan Hotel.
The finance and revenue panel, with a $188 million budget gap hanging over its head, tabled on Thursday a costly tax abatement for the hotel, killing it for now — if not for good. The abatement was not slated to take effect until fiscal 2015, roughly when the hotel was scheduled to open, but developer Brian Friedman asked for it now "to aid in the initial financing" of the development, according to the chief financial officer's fiscal impact statement.
"That's terrible," Friedman said Thursday of the committee's 3-2 vote to table the issue. "That's catastrophic. The project does not work without the tax abatement."
But the price was too high for the council, especially now. Council members Michael Brown, David Catania and Harry Thomas voted to table, while Kwame Brown and committee Chairman Jack Evans voted to keep the measure alive.
The abatement, according to the fiscal impact statement, would "result in over $61 million in foregone revenue to the General Fund" between 2015 and 2029. The FIS does not account for tax revenue the hotel project would create.
The planned 150-room Edition hotel, incorporating the First Church of Christ, Scientist building at Euclid and Champlain streets, would be part of the Ian Schrager/Marriott partnership of boutique hotels. The 180,000-square-foot project also would consume the office building behind the church that now houses the Washington City Paper and WPFW-FM.
In August, Friedman said his project was ready to go, minus some kind of city subsidy to jump-start it. The hotel, he said Thursday, would have generated $7 million a year in tax revenue, offsetting the cost of the abatement.
Hotel proponents argued the project would boost daytime commerce in Adams Morgan. Ward 1 Councilman Jim Graham, who introduced the legislation, called it "the turning point project for Adams Morgan," but one "a lot of people aren't in touch with" yet.
Nickles wants court to enforce subpoena for Team Thomas records
By Nikita R Stewart
D.C. Wire (Washington Post blog)
December 2, 2010; 4:11 PM ET
Attorney General Peter Nickles is asking the Superior Court to expeditiously enforce a subpoena he issued last week for the records of Team Thomas, the nonprofit of D.C. Council member Harry Thomas Jr. now under scrutiny.
Nickles, who will leave his post when Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) leaves office in January, said he wants to finish what he started in looking at the finances of the group that has collected $200,000 in contributions since 2008.
Though Thomas turned over some records in response to an earlier subpoena, Nickles now wants more detailed information of the fundraising. "It's important that his be completed under my tenure," Nickles said. "This is a serious issue of public trust."
Thomas, who has accused Nickles of retaliating after Thomas has led council probes into city contracts with ties to Fenty, said he was not surprised by Nickles's latest move. "I knew he was going to try to go to court," he said. "We're in compliance. We've given him everything he's asked for."
Nickles to Thomas: Pay Up!
Loose Lips (Washington City Paper)
LL just got off the horn with Attorney General Peter Nickles, who says the next court date in the Team Thomas saga is set for Dec. 8.
Below is a copy of the petition for enforcement Nickles' office filed today, asking a judge to enforce a subpoena for more detailed financial records of Ward 5 Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr.'s youth sports non-profit. Thomas, you'll recall, blew off yesterday's deadline to answer Nickles' subpoena and said this morning on Newstalk with Bruce DePuyt that Nickles is using his last months in office to try and extract some payback for, among other things, Thomas not voting to approve him as A.G.
Nickles also tacked on a request that Thomas cover court costs and attorney fees in addition to answering the subpoena. Asked how much that might be, Nickles said that a reasonable rate for this time would be about $450 to $500 an hour. Asked how many hours he and Bennett Rushkoff, the chief of the public advocacy section of the A.G.'s office, have spent working on the Team Thomas case, Nickles says: "quite a few."
The future of DC voting rights; Councilman Thomas accuses AG of vendetta
By Bruce DePuyt
TBD.com
December 2, 2010 - 03:36 PM
There’s no getting around it. The next couple years are going to be a difficult time to get a DC voting rights bill through Congress. Most advocates readily concede the Republican takeover of the House of Representatives brings to a close a period once thought to be pretty close to perfect. Now the city may be forced to play defense, out of concern the new GOP majority will seek to reverse the progress the city has made on controversial issues such as needle exchange, medical marijuana and marriage equality.
Today on NewsTalk, voting rights advocates Mike Panetta and Pat Mara talked about the future of the voting rights movement. As you’ll hear in this clip, Mara, a Republican community activist from Ward 1, thinks the city needs to get serious in its efforts to woo GOP lawmakers, while Panetta, one of the city’s unpaid “shadow” representatives, believes DC leaders must find a way to get members of Congress off the Hill and into DC’s neighborhoods.
In addition, Mara disclosed that he’s had conversations with representatives of DC Vote about potentially joining the organization’s Board of Directors early next year.
We also talked today with DC Councilman Harry “Tommy” Thomas, Jr. (D-Ward 5), about the panel’s efforts to curb bullying. As you’ll hear when NewsTalk re-airs today at 4pm & 6pm, Thomas believes there is much we can do to reduce bullying, and to punish it when it does occur. He said efforts must extend beyond the schoolyard, to rec centers, pools and other places where youth gather.
We also talked about the painful budget cuts the Council is considering to close a projected $188 million shortfall, and whether an increase in the income and/or parking tax may be necessary.
In addition, I asked about Attorney General Peter Nickles pursuit of information about “Team Thomas”, a non-profit that teaches swing sports – baseball, softball, golf and tennis – to inner-city youth. In a letter to Thomas’s attorney, Fred Cooke, Nickles says “Team Thomas has unlawfully solicited charitable donations without a license and has never been qualified by the IRS as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization.” Thomas vigorously defended his non-profit, saying he’s provided all the information the attorney general has requested, and accusing Nickles of abusing of post and carrying out a vendetta against him.
Part two of that conversation is here: (Note from DCGC: Follow link above for clip)
Friday at 10am: DC Attorney General Peter Nickles and former Ambassador Jim Rosapepe
Jack Evans: Just Kidding About That Whole Redskins Field Idea
Posted by Lydia DePillis on Dec. 2, 2010 at 5:27 pm
Housing Complex (Washington City Paper)
On Tuesday, WTOP reported some vague comments from Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans about the prospect of building a $2 to $3 billion, 110,000-seat stadium with a retractable roof to bring the Redskins back to the District–which, considering he'd just finished a 15-hour hearinghe a $188 million budget gap would require making painful cuts to social services, seemed like a particularly ill-timed remark, not to mention a dumb idea (I'm sorry, I'm just still bitter about Qwest and Safeco).
Bisnow called back, undoubtedly asking about how Evans proposed to pay to lure the team back from Landover.
"Turns out that was more of a football fan talking than a politician with a strategy," Bisnow reports. "So we talked CRE instead."
It didn't even get as far as D.C.'s World Cup bid.
D.C. Government
Should D.C. Ditch Its Sales Tax?
Proposal could bring in shoppers
WRC – NBC4
Updated 7:00 AM EST, Thu, Dec 2, 2010
If you exceed your household budget, you can’t just walk into your employer’s office and demand that the boss raise your salary. But governments aren’t like the rest of us.
The District of Columbia government is $188 million in the red, a number that could climb to a half-billion dollars next year. The exiting and incoming mayor, and members of the D.C. Council, are making a sincere effort to find workable budget cuts. But they’re also going to demand more money from their bosses, the taxpayers.
Right now, D.C. taxes income at 4 percent from those earning less than $10,000 per year, 6 percent for those earning $10,000 to $40,000, and 8.5 percent for those earning more than $40,000. The main proposal discussed at Tuesday’s 13-hour budget hearing was the addition of a fourth tier, taxing those earning more than $200,000 per year at 9.5 percent, which Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhisays would raise $45.1 million this fiscal year and more than $330 million through 2015.
Maryland’s top income tax rate, imposed only on those earning more than $1 million per year, is 6.25 percent, while Virginia’s top rate, imposed on most earners, is 5.75 percent.
D.C. Councilmember David Catania concedes that tax increases are necessary, but dislikes the tiered structure. “Why isn't it a better idea that everyone contribute a little than a few everything?” he asked at the hearing. He said the plan merely supports a philosophy “that we can have what we want as long as someone else pays for it.”
But could a tax cut actually help more?
At Greater Greater Washington earlier this week, writer David C. called for an elimination of the lowest tier of D.C.’s sales tax, the 5.75 added onto the cost of most tangible purchases. He would leave other sales taxes -- “on liquor, restaurant meals, parking, hotels, rental vehicles and sports tickets, represent luxury items or taxes on visitors” -- intact.
He argues that this would keep $341 million dollars in the hands of residents, which would be a boon to business, bringing in consumers from Maryland and Virginia. New Hampshire has no sales tax, and its economy benefits from Boston shoppers at Christmastime and throughout the year. Ditto Delaware, which draws in those who don’t want to pay Maryland’s 6 percent or New Jersey’s 7 percent. (Alaska, Montana, and Oregon also have no state sales tax.)
D.C. is adjacent to two states, and within an hour and a half of three more -- so a lot of shoppers could come on in to beat their taxes at home.
David C. admits that cutting the sales tax would make a bigger increase in the D.C. income tax necessary, but says that would be to the advantage of District residents. A federal income tax deduction for state-level sales taxes has yet to be extended this year, and is rarely used by D.C. residents since taxpayers are permitted to take a deduction only for either sales or income taxes, not both.
If income taxes were increased to cover the sales tax loss, he says District residents “could reduce their combined federal tax burden by up to 35 percent.”
Critics of income taxes, who call for the elimination of the federal income tax and the imposition of a national sales tax, say that would be more fair because it would tax only what we choose to spend, not the product of our labors. On a national level, that’s a fair argument.
But on a local level, it could make sense to take advantage of the District’s geographic benefits and reduce or eliminate the sales tax.
Officials try to ease alarm about lead in D.C. water
By Tim Craig and Ann E. Marimow
Washington Post Staff Writers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/02/AR2010120206492.html?wprss=rss_metro/special/8
Washington Post Staff Writers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/02/AR2010120206492.html?wprss=rss_metro/special/8
Thursday, December 2, 2010; 9:38 PM
The risk of lead exposure in the District's water supply is "fairly minimal," according to the co-author of a report on previous contamination in the city. And the head of the city's water authority said Thursday that "the vast majority" of homes are safe.
Thomas Sinks, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said he thinks there has been "proper corrosion control" by D.C.Water officials over the past four years.
George S. Hawkins, general manager of the water authority, said recent monitoring shows lead levels in city water meet standards set by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. "The system is getting better. Things are improving," he said. "There is no crisis."
Hawkins stopped short of giving blanket assurances that the water in every home is lead-free, and he reiterated that households with pregnant women and children should have their water tested if they doubt its safety.
After a Washington Post story on the CDC report on Wednesday, D.C. Water and CDC officials sought to reassure city residents that the drinking water is safe.
On Wednesday, the CDC published results of an nine-year study of the city's water supply confirming that children living in the District were exposed to high levels of lead after an ill-founded attempt to prevent the water from being contaminated.
From 2004 to 2008, the District replaced lead pipes in public right of ways, but it was homeowners' responsibility to authorize and pay for the work on private property. According to city records, there have been about 15,000 so-called partial pipe replacements. But in late 2008, on advice from CDC and EPA officials, D.C. Water suspended the program.
Hawkins said city officials discovered that partial pipe replacements caused "short-term" spikes in the lead levels at the homes but that the problem subsided "within a few months."
"What we discovered is partials just did not work," Hawkins said. "But is there a risk from a project done a year ago? The most likely answer to the question is no."
CDC officials said in an interview Thursday that partial pipe replacements may not have effectively reduced lead levels and that they do not know whether partial replacements made the problem worse.
On Thursday, residents jammed phone lines at D.C. Water seeking information about their pipes and asking the agency to test their tap water. There was also an increase in calls to bottle water delivery service.
Elisabeth Kvernen, a Web designer who is seven months pregnant, said that she was uncertain about the status of the pipes in the Capitol Hill apartment building where she lives and that she planned to follow up with her landlord.
She quickly contacted D.C. Water and learned that she could not test the tap in her unit because it requires shutting off the water in the building. Until she gets more answers, Kvernen said she plans to be more diligent about using her pitcher-filter system.
"It's a matter of not knowing. I'd just like to know," she said.
Hawkins said residents can call D.C. Water at 202-354-3600 for information on how to obtain test kits or find out whether lead pipes at their homes had been completely or partially replaced.
Pierre Erville, head of the Lead and Healthy Housing Division, said residents with lead service lines, whether partially replaced or intact, are at an increased risk of lead exposure. He advises residents with lead lines to have their water tested, use water filters and take any children younger than 6 who live in the house to a doctor for a blood level test.
CDC officials stressed that the District appears to be addressing their concerns.
"We believe the risk is fairly minimal today," Sinks said.
According to data supplied by D.C. Water, more than 90 percent of District houses have fewer than 7 parts per billion of lead, far below the 15 parts per billion that the EPA deems unacceptable.
To comply with federal guidelines, D.C. Water tests at least 100 "high-risk" properties every six months for lead levels, according to Rich Giani, the supervisor for water quality at D.C. Water.
Between the start of 2009 and June of this year, 307 properties were tested. About 30 percent of the tests were done at residences that had partial pipe replacements, Giani said. Only 7 tests found unacceptable levels of lead. In all but one of those cases, the high levels can be attributed to galvanized-steel plumbing, D.C. Water officials said.
In another sign that the problem is receding, the number and proportion of children younger than 6 with high blood lead levels has been steadily decreasing.
According to statistics provided by the city's Department of the Environment, 236 of more than 20,000 children screened in 2004 had elevated blood lead levels. Last year, more than 16,000 children were screened, and 80 were found to have high blood lead levels.
A Capitol Hill father is pressing ahead with a lawsuit on behalf of his twin sons, contending that their health problems could be connected to high levels of lead in the city's water from 2001 to 2004.
Katherine Leong, one of the attorneys for the father, John Parkhurst, said: "We still remain concerned about the health of the children in D.C."
She questioned Hawkins's assertion that ongoing monitoring by the agency suggests there is not a crisis. "They issued the same statement when the lead was elevated in D.C.," Leong said. "I'm a little skeptical."
Staff writers Carol Morello and Mike DeBonis contributed to this report.
The Scene nightclub shutdown after failing to pay taxes
Examiner
12/02/10 6:33 PM
The D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue says it has shut down The Scene, a night club in a Northeast Washington, after its owner failed to pay more than $92,000 in sales and other taxes.
The club at 2221 Adams Place also had its liquor license seized.
"This action is part of OTR's broader compliance efforts, following the recent tax amnesty, to investigate businesses that are collecting but not remitting sales taxes collected," an OTR spokeswoman said in a statement.
The city collected more than $20 million during a tax amnesty program that lasted from August through September. City officials, including D.C. Council Chairman-elect Kwame Brown, have been focusing heavily on collecting taxes in an effort to fix the District's financial woes.
Buried Height Act Economic Analysis Revealed!
Posted by Lydia DePillis on Dec. 2, 2010 at 10:08 pm
Housing Complex (Washington City Paper)
In this whole circular, somewhat academic debate over building heights, people keep referringto a 2007 Washington Post article about a city-sponsored 2003 study on the economic impacts of the Height Act. Paul Schwartzman reported:
City officials have broached the subject, although carefully. In 2003, the administration of then-Mayor Anthony A. Williams(D) commissioned a study that concluded that the District could generate an additional $10 billion in tax revenue over 20 years if it raised the height limit to 160 feet.
But Williams's advisers, already pushing an ambitious development agenda that included a new baseball stadium, did not publicize the results. "It's a hot-button issue in the District, and you have to choose your battles," said Eric Price, then the deputy mayor for economic development.
This kind of made me want to see the study, and Office of Planning Director Harriet Tregoning was kind enough to send over a grainy scan. She cautioned that the numbers would now be out of date, however, and also that the authors failed to take into account what development might be lost if height restrictions were lifted in the most desirable parts of the city.
“There’s not an unlimited quantity of people who want to be here,” Tregoning said. “So if you were to satiate that demand with a tower, you wouldn't get development that you were expecting in another location…We need that demand to begin to revitalize and catalyze development in a much larger geography, and I think that would be greatly impacted by changing the height limit in a few different places.”
The study, by Jair Lynch Companies and Einhorn Yaffe Prescott, looked at scenarios with heights in high-density commercially-zoned areas raised to 90 feet, 110 feet, and 160 feet, using maximum possible lot occupancy. The highest scenario, assuming all commercial office space, would:
· Allow for 93 million more square feet of gross floor area
· Cost $18.7 billion to bring to market
· Create 209,000 construction jobs
· Draw $2.4 billion per year in rents
· Support 662,000 office workers
· Generate $2.4 billion per year in retail goods and services
· And $888.9 million in annual tax revenue
It’s all a big math problem, with even bigger assumptions. And I can see, from the city’s perspective, how publicizing it might not have been worth the headache.
But a fun thought experiment nonetheless.
D.C. in the (taboo) market for bodies
Washington Business Journal - by Michael Neibauer
Date: Thursday, December 2, 2010, 1:10pm EST - Last Modified: Thursday, December 2, 2010, 5:04pm EST
It's a business opportunity to die for: The D.C. government is in the market for cadavers.
It makes for easy jokes, sure (please post them in the comments section). But this was a serious proposal for serious bidders, though there appears to be only one viable option.
The city's Board of Funeral Directors needs cadavers for its licensing exam, held twice a year in April and November. In addition to passing a national test administered by the Conference of Funeral Service Examining Boards, funeral director applicants must also pass the D.C. Funeral Law oral and written exam, and "a practical demonstration administered by the District of Columbia Board."
The solicitation for cadavers closed at 12:02 p.m. Thursday. The scope of work issued by the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs' Occupational and Professional Licensing Division sought three un-embalmed cadavers at $1,500 a piece. It specifically requested a Virginia cadaver provider, likely the Virginia Department of Health's State Anatomical Program, as no one in D.C. or Maryland could meet the District's needs.
But, like most procurements, D.C. was required to bid this one out competitively, icky and taboo as the cadaver trade may be. It's not a topic people in the business like to discuss, but the market is hot.
"In essence, many would argue that blood, organs, and cadavers should not be considered goods," Michel Anteby, a Harvard Business School professor, wrote in a November 2009 essay. "That said, the demand for cadavers remains strong, and numerous ideas have been voiced to augment the supply."
A licensed D.C. funeral director, of which there are nearly 400, must be a high school graduate and a graduate of an accredited college of mortuary science, with at least a year of work in the field depending on education and apprenticeship experience. In some cases, applicants must show they have embalmed at least 25 human remains and conducted or directed at least 25 funerals.
Drivers say it's time for D.C. 295 work zone speed cameras to go
By Derek Kravitz
Washington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/02/AR2010120205675.html
Washington Post Staff Writer
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/02/AR2010120205675.html
Friday, December 3, 2010; 12:27 AM
Work zone speed cameras stationed on D.C. 295 near the new Eastern Avenue bridge are snapping away weeks after much of the construction ended, angering drivers but still generating revenue for the District.
Nearly 15,000 speeding tickets were generated by cameras in the work zone, near the Maryland border, between mid-August and the end of October, according to D.C. police statistics. The income from those tickets: at least $3.73 million. That assumes the tickers were all for speeding at least 10 mph over the posted limit, a routine threshold for city police departments. D.C. officials confirm that the amount is in the ballpark.
But there has not been much construction at the site since mid-October, and drivers who regularly use the highway say now that the workers are largely gone, it's time for the speed cameras to go, too.
"If I had a saw, I'd cut the sign down myself," said Jay Friedman, a retail store consultant who lives in College Park and travels the road several times a week. "The construction workers are gone. They've been gone."
The cameras were placed in the work zone in July to guard workers from speeding vehicles after a "number of accidents in the vicinity," said John Lisle, a spokesman for the D.C. Department of Transportation. "A lot of vehicles were not heeding the speed limits and were flying through the area," he said.
The posted speed limit on signs along the stretch of highway is 35 mph, 10 mph less than other areas of the road. Those who are caught speeding between 11 and 15 mph over the limit can get slapped with a $250 fine because speeding fines in work zones are doubled. Yellow and orange signs warn drivers of "PHOTO ENFORCEMENT" and "DOUBLE FINES."
Some minor construction work and closures continue at the site, Lisle said, so the controversial speed cameras - the first deployed by the city in a work zone - have stayed put. Police and city officials say automated enforcement has reduced the number of crashes.
"We're hoping to use these speed cameras more often," said Assistant Police Chief Patrick Burke, citing accidents such as the June death of a highway worker in a work zone in nearby Anne Arundel County. "This is to keep people safe."
The Eastern Avenue bridge over D.C. 295 reopened in late October, less than 10 months after it closed for a complete reconstruction. The project proceeded quickly because large sections of the bridge were precast and trucked to the site. The $10.4 million project, which provides higher clearances on the road and is designed to improve traffic flow at Eastern Avenue, was funded by federal stimulus money.
After dealing with the construction delays, drivers are eager to put the work behind them. John Townsend, a spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic, said the cameras could undermine support for the city's speed camera program. In poll after poll, he said, drivers express opposition to them.
"We would agree that no one should speed through a work zone, but it has to be a legitimate work zone," Townsend said. "You have to balance the need for safety with being fair."
Nick Lewis, a UPS worker from Arlington, said he was returning from Baltimore-Washington International Marshall Airport on Saturday morning when he saw the camera flash in his rearview mirror.
"Everyone slams on their brakes when they see the signs, and the camera goes off like a machine gun," Lewis said. "Within 200 yards, it goes back to 45 miles per hour. That's larceny."
From mid-August - when a month-long grace period ended and real enforcement began - to the end of October, 14,929 tickets were generated by the cameras at the D.C. 295 work zone, police said. Results for November are not available.
Drivers going a few miles over the 35 mph speed limit are generally not ticketed, but Burke declined to say what the threshold is. In Maryland, where a law on the use of speed cameras in work zones and school zones passed last year, camera images can only be used for those caught going 12 mph over the speed limit. Virginia does not allow speed cameras.
"We're not picking people off for going a few miles over," Burke said. "It's common practice to give people some leeway and not to ticket for going 5, 6, 7 miles per hour over the limit."
D.C. work zone fines are $300 for going 16 to 20 mph over the speed limit; $400 for 21 to 25 mph over; and $500 for 26 mph or more.
But there is some relief for drivers traveling the stretch in question: The cameras only issue tickets from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., when workers are present, Burke said. At other times, the cameras are deactivated, he said. So afternoon rush-hour racers are usually off the hook.
DC9 case: Don't count on an autopsy report by Jan. 19
TBD.com
December 2, 2010 - 11:37 AM
There is absolutely no guarantee that D.C.'s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will issue a ruling on the cause and manner of 27-year-old Ali Ahmed Mohammed's death in the DC9 case by Jan. 19.
The city's Alcoholic Beverage Control Board ruled Wednesday that the nightclub can legally re-open anytime after Dec. 15. But they also placed a number of conditions on the club — including that they cannot re-hire any of the five men involved in the Oct. 15 incident before then — that would expire on Jan. 19, the date set for the club's next status hearing before the board. Assistant Attorney General Louise Phillips told the board Wednesday that she expected to have an autopsy report by that date at the latest, which would theoretically help the board put this case to rest.
But the medical examiner won't necessarily complete its investigation into Mohammed's death within a 90-day window, according to OCME chief of staff Beverly Fields. The National Association of Medical Examiners does say that medical examiner’s offices should have about 90 percent of their autopsy reports completed within 60 to 90 days. But that's "a guideline," says Fields. "You should attempt to try to get them done within 60 to 90 days." In other words, there's always a chance the Mohammed autopsy could fall into the 10 percent of cases that aren't completed within the usual timeframe.
Fields did say she doesn't have any reason to think that a ruling in this case will definitely take more than 90 days, "but with any case it's just so hard to say, which is why we don't. We're very, very careful. I really can't say. It could be tomorrow. It could be 20 days from now," she says.
With tensions running so high among the Ethiopian community activists who have been protesting DC9 every step of the way, the wait for this OCME ruling may seem excruciatingly long, but it's actually not at all unusual. And while we continue to wait, there's another prospect to keep in mind: it's always possible that the cause and manner of Mohammed's death could ultimately be ruled "undetermined."
DCPS / Politics / Metro / Other
New WTU Pres. Nathan Saunders: 'It's been all teacher blood' on the floor
By Bill Turque
D.C. Schools Insider (Washington Post)
December 2, 2010; 3:41 PM ET
Space and time limitations kept me--as they often do--from including as much as I wanted in today's story about new WTU president Nathan Saunders. So here's a bit more.
Saunders, 45, is the son of a bricklayer, born in the Washington Highlands neighborhood of Southeast D.C. His name first surfaced in The Washington Post in the summer of 1981 as a 16-year-old intern for D.C. Council member Wilhelmina Rolark (D-Ward 8). According to the story, Saunders was trying to organize support for an extension of the Voting Rights Act. Standing near the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. and Portland Street S.E., he told a group of voting-age adults: "If you don't vote, it's just like you're a slave standing in a cotton field. You don't have any say in what happens."
Saunders attended Catholic elementary and secondary schools before graduating from Morehouse College with a business degree. He worked as an accountant and in real estate and economic development before beginning his education career--first as a volunteer teaching chess at the old Phelps Vocational High School and then as a government teacher at Anacostia High School in the late 1990s. Saunders said his union activism began when a colleague's grievance was ignored by the WTU. Looking at the union financial reports with an accountant's eye, he said it became apparent that the numbers under president Barbara Bullock didn't add up.
Bullock eventually pled guilty to conspiracy and other charges in the theft of $4.6 million in union funds from 1995 to 2002 and served five years in federal prison. Saunders filed a civil suit charging that WTU and the American Federation of Teachers failed to oversee union finances and spending. He was elected general vice president in 2005, part of a reform ticket that included George Parker, the union presidenthe unseated this week.
He holds a masters degree from the National Labor College and completed Harvard Law School's six-week Trade Union Program for labor leaders. His wife, Chandrai Jackson-Saunders, is a school psychologist for DCPS and the daughter of former WTU president Jimmie Jackson. They have a son who is a senior at Roosevelt High School.
Here are more excerpts from our conversation Wednesday afternoon, edited for clarity and length:
BT: When I talked to George Parker last week I asked what he expected if you won. He said gridlock and confrontation.
NS: I've got more skills to solve problems than practically any president that's ever run WTU. I also have formalized training in problem resolution. My masters is in negotiation and management....Part of the Harvard Trade Union Program is conflict management. And so I think I have some unique skills to solve problems.
BT: There is a segment of the DCPS community that sees your election as a setback.
NS: No, absolutely not. My election indicates that WTU will be up and running and fully functioning and contributing to real public school dialogue and success. The fact of the matter is that public school reform to a large extent under the former mayor and the former chancellor did not involve the community and teachers very successfully. I can say to you that I will not sit by idly while policies and practices are instituted that do not involve the teachers and the community. I'm going to be very proactive, not reactive, in involving the community and teachers in public school reform. So in that regard it's positive. Now if you don't want any community input and you don't want any teacher input, then [my election] could be viewed as a negative.
BT: You framed your victory as one for job security and union democracy. What was absent was any mention of the interests of students.
NS: What's good for teachers is often times good, very good, for students. Empowering teachers is also a method of empowering students. I argue that the best teachers are empowered teachers. That's what I tried to do as a classroom teacher. I saw in my students a sense of pride and a sense of personal growth and development when I was dealing with the Bullock scandal and dealing with my union. When they saw me in the newspaper and they saw me speaking publicly about issues of education, they were proud....I taught social justice. Rev. Al Sharpton co-taught my government class with me during [his] presidential campaign. So students are important. But I'm not afraid to talk about teacher empowerment. The union serves three primary functions: compensation, negotiation and working conditions. Members pay to be in the union. Under the law you are required to represent those interests and that's what I do and I'm proud of that. It doesn't mean that I don't represent student interests, though. I believe that often times the best way to get an excellent finished product is to represent the worker who has to complete the finished product.
BT: So it would be a mistake to assume there will be a new period of confrontation and conflict?
NS: Absolutely. Listen, today I begin to build my legacy as president of the WTU. I get nowhere with confrontation. Nowhere at all. But whenever confrontation will lead me to progress for the people I represent, I will engage in confrontation. But confrontation is not the first order business. Getting the job done is the first order of business. At the same time, when your opponent understands that you're not afraid to go to the mat, you don't have to go to the mat quite as often. But what we've experienced in the last three years is a lot of blood on the floor, and it's been all teacher blood.
BT: Tell me as succinctly as you can your biggest issues with IMPACT.
NS: My biggest issue with IMPACT is that it causes teachers to be unnecessarily stressed about a job which requires a tremendous amount of creativity. I think my problem with IMPACT is that it requires teachers' careers to be jeopardized for factors that they have absolutely no control over, which include poverty, health care and dysfunctional homes.
BT: So if you had Harry Potter's wand what would you do to IMPACT? How would you change it to make it fair?
NS: I don't feel responsible to change it to make it fair. What I feel responsible for is to help create a system that yields fair results for the people that it judges....that is not punitive and cannot be easily manipulated by individuals with nefarious intent.
BT: You think the whole thing needs to be re-thought?
NS: It should be in its entirety, absolutely.
BT: In an evaluation instrument [that you consider] fair to teachers, is there any place for value-added methodology? Taking students' previous year's test scores, developing a predictive model for how they should do the next year and then measuring that against how they ultimately perform?
NS: Teachers do that every day. I did in the classroom. It's called pre-test and post-test....I love testing in the European model, which is that they test for determining a baseline, not for purposes of punishing.
BT: So you don't believe that value-added should be used, if it's used at all, for high-stakes decisions like hiring and firing?
NS: Absolutely. Now that's a fact. But I believe it can and should be used, but it is only as one of many evaluation tools.
BT: There's a legal barrier you face in that IMPACT cannot be collectively bargained.
NS: Ever seen a law you couldn't change? All you have to do is have the will. All you have to do is build a movement around an issue and change public opinion. You show merit in your ideas. That to me is very exciting.
BT: Before IMPACT, before Michelle Rhee, the vast majority of teachers got "meets expectations" or "exceeds expectations" on their evaluations. Yet the school district had a really abysmal record of academic achievement. There's a disconnect there that people find hard to justify.
NS: I find it hard to justify that in one of the most educated cities, probably the most educated city in America, and one of the most affluent cities, one third of our children live in poverty. I find that more appalling.
BT: Basically the Rhee reality is, "We know there's poverty, that there's family dysfunction and health issues. We can't do anything about that. All we can control is what is in the classroom. And we can't use that as an excuse any more. But you're in a different place.
NS: Absolutely. And let's understand why I'm in a different place. I believe that the Rhee reality you just described helps allow those conditions to exist. Because they take the pressure off society to focus on them...We do a disservice to children whenever we allow the government or others to discount the fact that crime exists in these communities and we say it doesn't matter...It does matter. That's the social justice aspect of education.
New WTU chief: Top job 'is to protect members'
D.C. teachers union looks to guard perks
The Washington Times
6:18 p.m., Thursday, December 2, 2010
The new president of the Washington Teachers' Union promised a "progressive" administration rather than a "reactionary" one, and said his No. 1 priority is to protect members' job security.
Nathan Saunders said that while he is on the same page as D.C. leaders on some budget issues, the new leadership at both city hall and D.C. Public Schools gives him guardianship over the contract signed this spring that guarantees teachers raises for the next three years but reduces the role of teacher tenure.
"The new contract is guarded by new dynamics," said Mr. Saunders, who assumed his office on Wednesday.
The agreement was signed by then-WTU President George Parker, then-schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, none of whom will be involved in its implementation. But even with the changing of the guard, the issues of job security and compensation remain on the table.
But Ms. Rhee, brought in by Mr. Fenty and acting with his support, fired hundreds of teachers and other school workers during her 3 1/2-year tenure. These actions, among others, led the teachers union to supportD.C. Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray's successful bid to oust Mr. Fenty.
"During the Michelle Rhee and Adrian Fenty administrations, WTU was not a real partner, but treated like a red-headed stepchild," Mr. Saunders said. "It's not always in the best interests of our membership to do something that is politically expedient. The trend in the U.S. is less job security. I'm moving in the opposite direction.
"My job is to protect members," he added.
In addition to 11 percent raises for this school year and last and a much-touted voluntary merit-pay package, the agreement calls for additional professional development resources for special-education and classroom-discipline programs. It also expands mentoring programs for new teachers.
As for tenure, the contract says that when declining enrollment and program changes displace teacher slots, performance will count for more than seniority. The contract also says displaced teachers are no longer guaranteed a job within the school system.
Mr. Saunders' comments come as the D.C. Council prepares to cast its first vote next week on a legislative plan to close a $188 million budget gap. It's a proposal that treads into an area of city spending that traditionally is left untouched: the D.C. payroll.
Job cuts, wage freezes and citywide furloughs are being considered by the mayor and lawmakers, who hope to finalize a plan by Christmas recess.
City officials also plan to delay spending on capital projects, including school modernizations and renovations - a move Mr. Saunders called understandable in the current economic circumstances.
"I worked on the school-modernization plan, but in this market, you have to make trade-offs for different priorities," said Mr. Saunders, who taught social studies in one high school currently under renovation and at another that had to be relocated because it was demolished.
Still, he said, his job is to relay and protect union priorities, which may not always be in sync with the city's.
On the record with DCPS Chancellor Kaya Henderson
On Nov. 26, the Voice’s Gavin Bade sat down with Kaya Henderson (SFS ‘92), interim chancellor of District of Columbia Public Schools, to talk education reform in D.C.
The policies of your predecessor, Michelle Rhee, were relatively controversial nationwide. Do you intend to change any of them?
I’ve been Michelle [Rhee’s] deputy for the past three-and-a-half years, so they are not her policies. They are our policies. I ran our human capital shop and everything that had to do with people, including hiring, firing, professionally developing, retaining, evaluating, compensating. The [Washington Teachers Union] contract that we negotiated, I was the lead negotiator on. … I don’t see us turning around anything.
How do you answer critics of your merit pay system who say too many teachers are being fired?
What people really need to understand is our theory of action … to ensure that every single classroom has the most highly effective teacher possible. … It means we have to reward and retain our highest performers, to support and develop our middle performers, and it means we have to move out our lowest performers. … Part of the issue was whether or not we even knew who our highest and lowest performers were, and we didn’t when we got here. So, we created a teacher evaluation tool [called IMPACT].
Instead of relying on a single observation by a principal or assistant principal on a laundry list of random competencies, which is how a lot of evaluation systems work, [IMPACT] allows for five observations against a teaching and learning framework which capture the practices of great teachers. … We believe very strongly that you can’t say that someone is a highly effective teacher unless their student achievement results support that. … That means test scores, that means end of term exams. That means all kinds of measures of growth.
How do you answer critics who say that measuring a student’s test scores doesn’t always accurately reflect a teacher’s impact in the classroom?
We don’t believe in basing a teacher’s pay only on test scores, but we do believe it is an important component when we measure a teacher’s effectiveness. … Nobody in the country has an evaluation system that is as sophisticated, that is as fair … and provides teachers multiple opportunities to show their stuff. When you change from a very simple system to a very complex system, there’s bound to be a lot of rumblings. … Our teachers are saying that they’ve never gotten this kind of specific feedback on their classroom instruction as they have with IMPACT.
The second thing is that IMPACT is allowing us to make decisions in completely different ways. … It has identified who our highest performing teachers are … it helps us spend our money differently. So, we spend millions of dollars on professional development. Previously it’s been random, with no idea as to what return on investment looks like. Now we can be proscriptive on what kind of professional development [the teacher needs].
How do you see your relationship with the unions at this point?
I’ve been our main labor negotiator … and enjoy a really good relationship with all of our unions. Up until I got this job, [I] was meeting with them monthly. … Union-district fights sell newspapers. What nobody wants to talk about is that at my 40th birthday party in July, my union friends were there because I spend just as much time with them as I do with my co-workers.
I think the unions are in a particularly difficult place right now. They are trying to move from being organizations that were only concerned about wages and job protection and job security to a changing environment, where as professional organizations, they are called upon to be partners and leaders in school reform. … I think they are trying to figure out how to go from where they were to where they need to be.
What’s the biggest current challenge to the school system?
We are engaged in a massive culture change … and culture change is like rerouting the Titanic. You can’t just turn a corner. The teacher is the lynchpin in that, but it’s [also] professional development, it’s curriculum … it’s change that has to happen in the classroom. … So keeping the culture change going and really pushing down to the point where the unit of change is the classroom is the biggest challenge.
D.C. judicial nominees stuck in Senate logjam
By Ben Pershing
D.C. Wire (Washington Post blog)
December 2, 2010; 3:24 PM ET
The Senate Judiciary Committee cleared two of President Obama's nominees to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Wednesday, but they and two other picks for the court appear stuck for now amid an end-of-session Senate logjam.
The judiciary panel agreed by voice vote to advance the nominations to the District Court of current D.C. Superior Court Judge James E. Boasberg and Amy Berman Jackson, a lawyer at the firm Trout Cacheris. They join Beryl Howell, a commissioner on the U.S. Sentencing Commission, and Robert L. Wilkins, a partner at the firm Venable, as nominees to the court who have been approved by the committee but have yet to receive a vote on the Senate floor.
Obama nominated Boasberg and Wilkins at least partly based on the recommendation of Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D- D.C.), and a news release from her office lauding their approval by the Judiciary Committee said Norton "is confident that all four nominees will be confirmed by the full Senate."
But when?
There are a total of 34 judicial nominees now awaiting confirmation by the full Senate, including 26 who -- like all four D.C. nominees -- were unopposed within the Judiciary Committee. No judicial picks have been confirmed since Sept. 13, and with the Senate expected to remain in session two more weeks before adjournment, it's unclear how many, if any, of those nominees will clear the chamber.
Often at the end of a Senate session, the leaders of the two parties will negotiate a large package of nominees to move together, as Democrats need the consent of Republicans to move any nominations to the floor. But the Senate is currently deadlocked over partisan debates on taxes and spending as well as the START treaty, the Pentagon's "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy and a handful of other issues. As a result, moving nominees does not appear to be on anyone's front burner at the moment.
"We hope that we will have Republican cooperation to confirm all of the President's nominees in the coming weeks," said Regan Lachapelle, a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). "The number of judicial vacancies in our federal courts is reaching a crisis point, and we hope that Republicans will work with us to ensure that justice for Americans seeking redress in our overwhelmed court system is no longer denied or delayed."
Republicans hav e rejected the suggestion that they are being obstructionist, and say that the current pileup in the Senate could be alleviated if Democrats would move the most important bills on taxes and spending now.
In a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday, Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) complained that "nominees are being stalled who, if allowed to be considered, would receive unanimous or near-unanimous support, be confirmed, and be serving in the administration of justice throughout the country. This is counterproductive."
Of the four vacancies on the U.S. District Court for D.C., one has existed since January 2007, two since 2008 and one since December 2009.
Can job training work?
Greater Greater Washington
December 2, 2010 1:46 pm
One of Mayor-elect Gray's top priorities is improving job training to reduce unemployment that has reached crisis levels in Wards 7 and 8. Gray will hold a Jobs Summit on Dec 13 to gather ideas on training.
Momentum appears to be building for greater investments in training. Councilmember Marion Barry's proposal to cut off TANF benefits after 5 years presumes such a boost in training.
And massive job training is often viewed as the only possible hedge against displacement of long-term working-class residents as gentrification continues across the city.
But does training work? Or could training simply end up costing DC far more than the money it would save by cutting 17,000 families off of welfare?
There is a real debate about the effectiveness of public investment in job training. The debate generally proceeds as follows.
Training Doesn't Work: The millions that have been spent on training in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, as was shown by the Labor Department and the NY Times, have demonstrated zero results. It makes us feel better, but the data shows that recipients of publicly subsidized training end up pretty much like they did before the training.
Training Works: This criticism is true in general. Many, perhaps most, training programs have been poorly executed. But studies, such as a recent study from Public/Private Ventures, have shown that training programs that target high-demand jobs in a city's growth sectors do work.
Training Doesn't Work: Not if the jobs simply aren't there. Training doesn't create jobs.
Training Works: No, but training does close the mismatch between the skills required by high-demand jobs and the skills of the unemployed. And employers in high-growth fields report that they are having trouble filling lots of positions due to precisely this mismatch.
Furthermore, if we can create a workforce whose skills do match the needs of high-growth fields, employers will be attracted to DC and will create more jobs. So, training can create jobs in the long term if it targets high-demand jobs that employers have difficultly filling.
Training Doesn't Work: This sounds great. But the mismatch between the skills of most unemployed and the needs of the labor market, particularly in DC, is sadly too great for training to bridge.
More than 40% of jobs in DC require a college degree, while nationally only 20-22% of jobs require a college degree. Yet 36% of DC residents are functionally illiterate.
Approximately 18,000 TANF recipients have less than a high school credential and almost 50% are reading below 7th grade. What training does Councilmember Barry expect will match these 18,000 TANF recipients with the jobs that exist in DC?
What do you think? Can job training work? Is the skills mismatch sadly too great to bridge? What implications do these considerations have for Gray's job training plans?
Gray's Jobs Summit, which will be chaired by Barbara Lang, president of the D.C. Chamber of Commerce, and Josyln Williams, head of the Metropolitan Council of the AFL-CIO, should address these difficult questions head on.
Southwest Waterfront: A Neighborhood Where A Change Is Gonna Come
Urban Turf
December 2, 2010
The history of DC’s Southwest Waterfront reads like a primer on city planning trends. Though it teemed with activity in the early part of the last century, the neighborhood fell prey to 1960s-era urban planning philosophies that resulted in monolithic blocks virtually devoid of human activity.
These days, the concept of small-scale urban vitality is back in fashion, and developers have big ideas for the area. A number of plans are already underway for the neighborhood, which is set squarely in the middle of the city’s smallest quadrant. And while not all of the area’s residents welcome the changes that are on the way, many newer arrivals are embracing the plans that promise to drastically remake the urban landscape in the next few years.
DC’s Example of Urban Renewal
The Southwest Waterfront feels isolated from the rest of the city: to the north, the Southwest Freeway blocks it from the Mall and affiliated federal buildings, to the east is the Washington Channel, and to the south is Fort McNair and the quasi-industrial Buzzard Point area. Only South Capitol Street to the east connects the neighborhood to the rest of the city. That said, it is within walking distance of the Air & Space Museum and other museums on the Mall.
It wasn’t always that way. A hundred years ago, the area was a crowded enclave, the first stop for immigrants from Europe as well as for freed slaves and other African Americans who’d made their way to DC. Though poor, it was a scene of row houses with busy stoops, small bodegas scattered about, and bustling street activity, all centered around what is now 4th Street SW (back then it was called 4 1/2 Street).
But the area started to decline in the 1920s, and by the late 1950s, concerns about the existence of a squalid neighborhood in the shadow of the Capitol led to the city’s first big experiment in what’s now referred to as “urban renewal.” Human-scale homes and shops were replaced by massive office blocks and high-rise apartment buildings, many of which stood on stilts to allow for ground-floor parking. The result was an area built on a large scale, with human activity removed from sight.
Even at the marina on the neighborhood’s western fringe, the construction of a narrow pebblestone boardwalk and restaurants that blocked views of the water seemed designed to minimize the area’s best feature. Only the Maine Avenue Fish Market, at the marina’s northern end, retained a sense of vitality.
The Neighborhood’s Upside
Except for some very recent changes, Southwest Waterfront appears today much like it did decades ago. That said, its separation from the rest of the city gives it a relatively peaceful feeling, and the area is greener and more spacious than many other neighborhoods in DC.
“The open spaces in Southwest make it a place where you can get out and interact with nature,” said Will Rich, an eight-year resident who writes the “Southwest…The Little Quadrant that Could” blog. “It’s nice to go out and party in the other sections of DC, and then come back to somewhere quiet.”
It’s also one of the cheapest places to buy a condo or co-op in the city. Many of the big apartment buildings built in the late 1950s and ‘60s have been converted into condos and some have been seriously renovated. Waterfront Tower, for example, has been fully modernized as a luxury “green” condo project.The northern end of the neighborhood also includes a number of town homes that cost roughly the same as condos and co-ops in other parts of the city.
Prices for a studio start as low as $116,000, and average around $144,877, according to David Bediz of Dwight and David Real Estate Group. One-bedroom units are averaging $216,920, and two-bedrooms are selling for around $345,330.
As for renting, a studio apartment runs somewhere between $1,200 and $1,700 per month, and a one-bedroom apartment $1,500 to $2,000.
Residents Who You’d Imagine—And a Few You Might Not
Southwest Waterfront is home to a surprisingly diverse population.
“A lot of federal employees moved to the area [after the area was redeveloped] and some have been here for 30, 40 years,” explained Rich. “But now there are quite a few younger people, some with families, but a lot of singles.”
Southwest Waterfront is also home to a number of public housing projects that lie to the east and to top off the mix, several hundred folks live on boats in the Washington Marina, one of the largest “live-aboard” communities in the country.
Hello, Shopping and Dining Options!
Commerce has long been the neighborhood’s Achilles heel. Residents who wanted to duck out for a quick bite or a gallon of milk have long had few options: other than a basic Safeway and a few overpriced restaurants in the marina, there was very little commercial activity in the area for years.
All that’s changing, though. An increase in dining, retail, and entertainment options is at the heart of the new development planned for the area.
Garnering headlines across the country was the two-year renovation of Arena Stage, a theater venue that’s been in the area for decades. In October, the new space—a curvilinear glass and wood confection that houses three separate stages and a café run by celebrity chef Jose Andres—opened to much fanfare.
Another development, Waterfront Station, recently concluded its first phase of construction. A $750 million project clustered around the Waterfront-SEU Metro Station, this first phase included a sparkling new Safeway that includes a Starbucks, a dry cleaning business, a CVSPharmacy and recently a Subway moved in. In January, Station 4, the area’s first sit-down restaurant in years is scheduled to open.
They’re Promising It Won’t Be National Harbor
The biggest news for the area is the projected renovation of the Waterfront, slated to begin in 2012. Occurring in three phases that won’t be completed until 2018, the $1.5 billion, 26-acre project will result in a radically changed area, one with 60 percent open space in the form of public piers, parks, plazas, pedestrian streets, and a farmers market to complement the fish market.
The plans call for transforming the current drab structure into a dynamic, people-friendly commercial zone — a neighborhood first and foremost, and a tourist destination (catching overflow from the Mall) second. Despite the addition of more than 300,000 square feet of retail space (only 20 percent of which is guaranteed to be local) and double that in office space, developer PN Hoffman says it will have a quirky feel to match the existing neighborhood.
The new development will include over 500 residential units, 30 percent of which will be set aside for low-income residents. With other new developments also adding housing, the neighborhood population should swell considerably beyond its current 23,000 residents.
Mixed Emotions
Whether all the impending changes are a good thing depends on who you ask.
“I’m from Baltimore, and I’m thinking the development will be like Harborplace [Mall] there—just for tourists,” worried Katherine Martin, 79, who’s lived in a townhouse in the neighborhood since 1987. Martin reminisced about the old days, when she could walk to various services in the 4th Street mall. “The sad thing is now we have this rejuvenation. The streets are torn up and the mall’s been emptied out.”
But Maria (she declined to give her last name), disagreed with that perspective. “I’m glad they’re doing things to bring more commercial businesses, glad we have a nice grocery store finally,” she said. “It’s nice to have a few more places to go—and nice that it increases our property values somewhat.”
According to Will Rich, this divide in opinions is typical for the area.
“There’s a split between residents,” he said. “Seeing a huge redevelopment occurring takes some getting used to. But newcomers haven’t experienced it for all that long, and seeing this makes them excited because there’s more things to do, and their property values will go up.”
The Bottom Line
Current and planned changes to the Southwest Waterfront promise to bring some much-needed vitality to the community, as well as a lot more retail and dining options. But the question of whether the neighborhood’s best qualities, like its sense of peace and distance from the rest of the city, will be preserved is impossible to answer at this point. One thing is fairly clear, though — the neighborhood will likely look very different in ten years.
Amanda Abrams is a Washington, DC-based journalist who has written feature stories for The Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, and Washington City Paper.
More Info on Southwest Waterfront
· Zip code: 20024
· Public transit: Southwest Waterfront is served by the Waterfront-SEU Metro station on the Green Line, and is within walking distance of the L’Enfant Plaza station on the Blue and Orange Lines. The area is also served by the 70, 71, A9, A42, P1, P2, V8, V9 bus lines and the Circulator.
· Driving: The neighborhood is easy to get in and out of; the Southwest Freeway gives easy access to I-295, I-395, and the George Washington Parkway.
· Schools: Amidon-Bowen Elementary School, Jefferson Middle School, and Woodrow Wilson Senior High School
From yesterday:
· Mike DeBonis: http://wapo.st/dGc8BO
· Loose Lips (daily column): http://bit.ly/efXwcr
· DMV Daily (P.J. Orvetti): http://bit.ly/dJqwvv
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