What Happened This Year
What Happened This Year in themail, December 16, 2001
Dear Historians:
Since the end of the year usually calls for recollection and summing
up, I'm issuing a call for you to share with all of us what happened
this year in your lives and in the life of this city that is worth
remembering. What was good and bad on your block and in your
neighborhood? What was achieved, and what fell through? I'm particularly
interested in anything that anybody can remember from the two thirds of
the year before September 11th.
Gary Imhoff
themail@dcwatch.com
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Keith Jarrell asked why the MPD took three weeks to do a thorough
examination of Doug Small's house after Mr. Small’s disappearance. It
is the same question that immediately occurred to me, and one of the
questions that I asked of Sgt. Brett Parson, who worked on the case,
when I recently had the opportunity. There was of course the initial
delay in reporting which cost a few days and the bureaucratic delays
within the MPD to process the missing persons report. The case was
flagged as suspicious early on by an alert MPD Sergeant, and a walk
through of the house was conducted to see if Doug Small was there. The
subsequent delay was to obtain a search warrant. The warrant was not to
protect Doug Small, but, since other people lived in the house, to
satisfy legal requirements if the evidence should point to someone who
could claim that their home and their rights were violated. This strikes
me as a reasonable explanation for some delay, but not all of it.
Evidence which is not collected right away will tend to be contaminated
or destroyed. MPD needs to move faster. Although, fortunately, in this
case the evidence was intact and a suspect apprehended. The suspect was
a contractor working on the house, and not one of Doug’s housemates or
friends. The suspect did tell police where they could find Doug Small’s
body, so the evidence against him is particularly strong.
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Murders and Locked Doors
Michael Bindner, mbindnerdc@aol.com
Regarding Mr. Jarrell's comments on the delay in searching Mr.
Small's house: the police did not search his house early on because
there was not yet any evidence of foul play, he was simply missing. If
he had had a family emergency out of town and his cell phone had died,
he would have been as unreachable. We live in a country where police
just can't walk in and search your house because friends have reported
you missing. Sometimes these protections can get in the way of criminal
investigations, which is sad, but the price we pay for freedom.
As to Mr. Rosendall's comments on security in the Office of Community
Outreach, while Mayor Barry did have a few levels of security (remember,
he had been injured previously when the Hanafi Muslims took over the
Wilson Building), his Office of the Ombudsman had an open door. Most of
our walk-in clients were basically harmless, as we were in the Reeves
Center. As I understand it, they are now in One Judiciary Square, which
means they not only get the downtrodden, they also get the mentally ill
clients who want to see the Mayor, many of whom are not on medication.
When I was constituent service coordinator in the Office of the City
Administrator it was my job to see these individuals. Most were
harmless. However, for safety's sake I always saw them in a conference
room which was within line of sight of a security officer. We can owe
these concerns to those in the mental health advocacy community who
advocated that patients have a right to not be treated unless acutely
dangerous (the chronically dangerous are allowed to roam free in their
public hells). As I said, I can sympathize with the Office of Community
Outreach.
[The “Office of the Ombudsman” is the previous name of the Office
of Community Outreach. The OCO is presently located in the Wilson
Building, 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW. — Gary Imhoff]
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Enforcing Health Care Eligibility Rules
Paul Michael Brown, pmb@his.com
In his most recent opening note, Mr. Imhoff criticizes the post-D.C.
General health care delivery system on the ground that “more patients
are being disqualified from receiving free and subsidized health care,
with the result that the city is now treating fewer patients.” This is
not necessarily a bad thing. I seem to recall from the newspaper story
that the people who run the new system now insist folks who show up for
treatment prove they actually live in the District. If this means they
turn away people from Prince Georges county, that does not bother me one
bit. Moreover, I believe the new system requires District residents
covered by Medicaid to take care of the formalities necessary to ensure
reimbursement, whereas the DC General approach was to ignore those
requirements. In an era of tight budgets, the District simply cannot
afford to pay for health care that should properly by financed by
neighboring jurisdictions or (at least in part) by the federal
government. When those administering the new system enforce eligibility
rules, I applaud their sound fiscal stewardship.
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Public Opinion on White House Christmas Tours
Mark Richards, Dupont East, mark@bisconti.com
Following are results from a national telephone survey of 1,052 U.S.
adults by CBS News/New York Times, conducted Dec. 7-10, 2001. The margin
of error is plus or minus three percentage points. Question: “Do you
think it is possible to provide adequate security at the White House to
allow the public to view the Christmas decorations, or do you think it
is not possible because of September 11th and so the White House should
be closed to tourists this year?” It is possible to provide adequate
security: 51% (45% Republicans, 55% Democrats, 52% Independents); it isn’t
possible: 43% (49% Republicans, 50% Democrats, 42% Independents); not
sure: 6% (6% Republicans, 5% Democrats, 7% Independents).
Other findings that shed light on what Americans are thinking these
days related to the war on terrorism: 86% approve of the way George W.
Bush is handling his job as President (100% Republicans, 83%
Independents, 78% Democrats); 90% approve of the way he is handling the
campaign against terrorism (99% Republicans, 88% Independents, 84%
Democrats). 57% approve of the way Congress is handling its job (59%
Republicans, 55% Independents, 57% Democrats); 57% report being more in
sympathy with Israel with regard to the situation in the Middle East at
the present time; 13% Arab nations, 10% neither, 3% both, 17% don't
know. 39% favor the establishment of a Palestinian homeland in the
occupied territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, 27% oppose,
34% don't know. 69% think it is at least somewhat likely (21% very) that
the fighting in Afghanistan will spread to a larger war between Western
countries and Muslim countries.
49% said they don't know enough to say if the Bush Administration's
proposed measures that might affect the civil liberties of some people
go too far (12%), are about right (29%), or don't go far enough (9%).
78% said that, in general, they think U.S. citizens and those who are
not citizens but are here legally should be treated the same way under
the law. 19% thought non-citizens here legally should be treated
differently. After being told that the government says it has to or may
have to do things that it would not ordinarily do in order to catch
terrorists, 42% said the U.S. government should be allowed to routinely
question Middle Eastern men who have come to the U.S. in the past two
years and are here legally, even if they are not suspected of any crime
and there is no evidence against them (52% Republicans, 40%
Independents, 34% Democrats); 54% said that violates people's rights
(45% Republicans, 55% Independents, 61% Democrats). When told that the
Justice Department has said it intends to conduct interviews with as
many as 5,000 young Middle Eastern men who are legal residents of the
U.S., based on their age and the country they came from, 61% said they
think this is a good idea (72% of Republicans, 60% Independents, and 52%
Democrats), and 31% said bad idea (20% of Republicans, 32% Independents,
and 41% Democrats). 52% said this action does not violate civil rights
(63% Republicans, 48% Independents, 46% Democrats). When asked which
concerns you more right now, that the government will fail to enact
strong anti-terrorism laws, or that the government will enact new
anti-terrorist laws which excessively restrict the average person's
civil liberties, 43% said fail to enact (52% Republicans, 42%
Independents, 35% Democrats), 45% said restrict liberties (34%
Republicans, 46% Independents, 53% Democrats). 59% think legal
immigration into the U.S. should be decreased; 29% said kept at its
present level; 9% increased. 53% think that most of the people who have
moved to the U.S. in the last few years are here illegally; 29% said
legally. 51% said that most recent immigrants to the U.S. contribute to
this country, 31% said cause problems. In 1994, 53% said cause problems.
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Near Northeast Citizens Group Begins Cultural
and Social History Study
Richard Layman, richlayman@yahoo.com
Mrs. Loree Murray, president of the Near Northeast Citizens,
announced on November 30 that her organization has been awarded a
federal grant to undertake a cultural and social history study that will
document the history of the northern part of Capitol Hill, an area
roughly bounded by the railroad tracks (west), Florida Avenue (north),
Maryland Avenue (west) and F Street NE (south). This area, part of L’Enfant’s
plan for the District of Columbia, is comprised of 66 city squares and
over 3,500 buildings. The survey area includes the historic H Street
commercial corridor, which was the shopping Mecca for African-Americans
during the segregation era -- home to department stores, the first
Ourisman car dealership, sit-down restaurants, movie theaters, and a
wide variety of other retail services. The project area includes
historic schools and churches, thousands of 19th and early 20th century
houses, and the Uline Arena, which today is a trash transfer station,
but once featured professional sporting events, dances, lectures by
prominent Americans such as Malcolm X, and concerts, including the first
Beatles concert in the United States.
The survey is being funded in part to bring the City into compliance
with the provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act and the
National Historic Preservation Act, which call for the identification
and protection of historic resources in areas affected by federal
undertakings. There are currently several ongoing and anticipated
federally funded or licensed projects that are affecting historic
resources in the survey area, such as the activities of the H Street
Community Development Corporation, the construction of facilities for
two federal, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) and the
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the building of the New
York Avenue WMATA subway station. The Project Team includes an
architectural historian, an oral historian, and other researchers who
will be assisted by volunteers from the community as well as by college
and high school student interns. Personal reminiscences, photographs,
and other memorabilia will be collected and oral history interviews will
be conducted with longtime residents. The main goal of the project is to
produce a history of the neighborhood that profiles the construction and
settlement of the area, the ethnic groups that have lived here over the
decades, the schools, churches, civic groups and other community
institutions that formed and supported the area’s residents, and will
examine the pervasive influence of segregation and how it affected the
day-to-day lives of all residents.
The project is funded with the assistance of a matching grant from
the US Department of Interior, National Park Service, through the State
Historic Preservation Grant-in-Aid Program, Office of Planning, under
the provisions of the National Historic Preservation Act of 1966, as
amended. People interested in participating in the survey as volunteer
researchers should contact me, the Project Administrator, at 544-5722 or
by E-mail at richlaymandc@yahoo.com.
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Mayor’s Klingle Decision Draws Praise
Jason Broehm, Adams Morgan, jason_broehm@hotmail.com
At a press conference on Thursday, Mayor Williams announced that he
supports removing the closed section of Klingle Road in Northwest
Washington and replacing it with a recreational trail for walkers,
runners and bicylicists. The road has been closed since 1991 when a
portion of the road washed into the adjacent creek. Environmentalists
and recreational enthusiasts throughout the city praised the mayor's
position as courageous and visionary. The Sierra Club, Washington Area
Bicyclist Association, Friends of the Earth, National Parks Conservation
Association, National Audubon Society, American Lands Alliance, Save
Klingle Valley Campaign, and other citizens' organizations pledged their
strong support for the mayor's decision.
Mayor Williams stated that the proposed recreational trail makes the
most sense fiscally and environmentally. He quoted from the road
feasibility study, which determined rebuilding and reopening Klingle
Road would have a “negligible” effect on traffic congestion in the
area. Yet the cost of rebuilding the road would likely exceed $5 million
for only a half-mile stretch of road, which would divert transportation
resources from other parts of the city. Dan Tangherlini, Acting Director
of the District Division of Transportation, stated that for the same
cost of rebuilding Klingle Road the city could repair a six-lane stretch
of 16th Street from Alaska Avenue to the Maryland border, a much more
heavily used road. The mayor emphasized that rebuilding the road would
also contribute to ongoing storm water runoff pollution that would
adversely affect Rock Creek, the Potomac, and Chesapeake Bay downstream.
Adrienne Coleman of the National Park Service, who is Superintendent of
Rock Creek Park, echoed the mayor's concern, stating that Klingle Creek
is one of the most threatened tributaries of Rock Creek.
Councilmember Jack Evans (Ward 2), one of five councilmembers who
support the mayor's position, joined the mayor in supporting
transportation alternatives that will address traffic congestion
problems more directly. Councilmembers Kathleen Patterson (Ward 3),
Sharon Ambrose (Ward 6), Kevin Chavous (Ward 7), and Phil Mendelson
(At-Large) also support the mayor's position. The DC Council is likely
to debate the issue in the coming months. The Mayor stated that the city
could break ground on the project as soon as March 2002.
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What is the status of the Fillmore Arts Center? Does the School Board
plan to close it? Is there a DC citizens group working to support it?
Any info would be appreciated.
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How could the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative assure more help for
Anacostia's economic future? What's wrong with a Purple Trolley Line in
Bethesda? How did we get on the backside of the transportation power
curve, and what could DC's new DOT do about it? Is there any correlation
between absent parents and the education gap? What do an Islamic mosque,
Clifton Terrace, Hope VI, and the WWII Memorial have in common? The
answers to these fascinating conundrums can be found in the December
update of the NARPAC web site at http://www.narpac.org.
Don't just sit there. Get positively involved.
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This is to advise that the December, 2001 on-line edition has been
uploaded and may be accessed at http://www.intowner.com.
Included are the community news stories, crime reports, editorials
(including prior months' archived), restaurant reviews (prior months'
also archived), and the text from the ever-popular “Scenes from the
Past” feature. Also included are all current classified ads. The
complete issue (along with prior issues back to January 2001) also is
available in .pdf file format by direct access from our home page at no
charge, simply by clicking the link provided. The next issue will
publish on January 11, and the website will be updated shortly
thereafter.
To read the lead stories, simply click the link on the home page to
the following headlines: (1) “Advisory Neighborhood Commission
Redistricting Plan Near Complete,” (2) “East Side of Shaw to be
Surveyed for Possible Historic District Status,” (3) “Police
Deployments Worry Third District Residents,” (4) “Historical Society
to Sell Heurich Mansion.”
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CLASSIFIEDS — EVENTS
Retrospective of Films by Jorge Bernardo
Ky Nguyen, ky_n_nguyen@yahoo.com
The program will be packed with short films (most of which are of the
humorous variety!), including the world premiere of a somewhat
holiday-related short called “Popcorn Magic 2001.” Also catch the
recently-completed “House of Music” rockumentary which premiered at
Visions in October.
Visions Cinema/Bistro/Lounge, 1927 Florida Ave., NW, December 18,
7:00 p.m. Tickets are $6 and are available at Visions. For a list and
description of all of the films in the program go to http://www.visionsdc.com/dyno/specialevents/details.asp.
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“Donut King” Fundraiser for Sundance
Ky Nguyen, ky_n_nguyen@yahoo.com
See the short film that went from Georgetown to Sundance! “The
Donut King,” a film by Angela Ottinger will be shown at a fundraiser
on December 20, 8 p.m.-11 p.m., at the Georgetown Film Festival Theater
#3, Blues Alley (this is the space right next to the Blues Alley night
club in Georgetown). Admission $10. For more information, call 255-1995.
Due to the amazing costs of attending Sundance, we're working to
raise funds in order to send Angela and her cinematographer, Paul
Nadjmabadi, to Park City. Thanks for your support! hope to see you
there! See the Washington Post, Dec. 6, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2892-2001Dec6.html.
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CLASSIFIEDS — VOLUNTEERS
History Help for Australian Mystery Novelist
Graham Dodge, greyshaft@hotmail.com
I'm looking for some help. I live in Sydney, Australia, and am
writing a detective novel set in DC during the Civil War. I'm looking
for some really picky history nuts living in the DC area who would help
me by pointing out where my novel fails the reality test. The book is
about one third completed (30,000 words so far), but I'm concerned that
the information that I have researched so far is inadequate. The
Internet has plenty of resources about modern-day DC, but not much about
what life there was like 140 years ago.
Spending a six-month sabbatical in DC to complete the book is
desirable, but way out of reach (have you seen the exchange rate for the
Aussie dollar . . . yuck!). The knowledge that I need is based around
the following areas: Metropolitan Police force practices, geography of
Washington (especially waterfront and White House), and Presidential
security details. Remember that the information must pertain to January
1864 rather than the present day. Payment would be nice, but is
impractical, so the best I can offer is probably a mention in the
credits of the book. It would be a labor of love, just like writing is
for 99 percent of us authors. Any takers? I'm happy to send the first
part of the novel by return E-mail, ready to be torn apart by reviewers.
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December 25th Community Service Project
Marlene Sandhu, marlene@dcjcc.org
Want to be a part of an exciting community service event? Volunteer
with the 15th Annual DCJCC December 25th Community Service Event.
Register at http://www.dcjcc.org by
December 20th. For more information, please call 518-9400 x300 or e-mail
d25@dcjcc.org.
What is the December 25th Community Service Project? A special
occasion for everyone, including YOU! Give the gift of service to help
those who are less fortunate. This spirited event is in its 15th year of
existence! Over 1,000 volunteers from the DC Community will pitch in at
soup kitchens, visit children in hospitals, paint schools, entertain
seniors in nursing homes and much more. Volunteers visit over fifty
sites in DC to help those in need have a joyous and memorable holiday.
Who is participating? Everyone! Over 1,000 community members and
citizens just like you can lend a hand on December 25th. This includes
adults, young professionals, college students, teens, seniors, families
with children, and groups. Participants are welcome regardless of age or
religious affiliation. Register at www.dcjcc.org.
For more information, please call 518-9400 x300 or E-mail d25@dcjcc.org.
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Keep Washington Beautiful — Only Ten
Volunteers Needed
Gloria Mobley, glomo_53@yahoo.com
Keep Washington, DC, Beautiful (KWDC) is a nonprofit organization
that educates individuals about litter prevention and ways to reduce,
reuse, recycle, and properly manage waste materials. Through
partnerships and strategic alliances with citizens, businesses, and
government, KWDC works with Keep America Beautiful to encourage and
support citizens to clean up, beautify, and improve their neighborhoods,
thereby creating healthier, safer, and more livable community
environments.
Volunteers are needed for the Olympic Green Team to place bags filled
with empty plastic beverage bottles and/or aluminum cans in a designated
location for pick-up. When: Friday, December 21, from 5-7:30 p.m., at
the Lincoln Memorial at the Coca Cola video screen. See the
Environmental Coordinator, Scott Vitters. How to sign up: contact Gloria
Mobley, Executive Director of Keep Washington, DC, Beautiful, 249-8560,
or glomo_53@yahoo.com. Benefits:
a chance to catch the 2002 Olympic Winter Games spirit and excitement as
the Olympic torch makes its way to Salt Lake City, UT. Each volunteer
will receive an Olympic Torch Relay cap and a specially designed ski bib
containing the Salt Lake 2002 recycling symbol.
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CLASSIFIEDS — FOR SALE AND FREE
Two-year-old Create & Barrel "Ladder-style" desk:
48"w, 30"h, 24"d, brick veneer with metal tube sides,
lots of little shelves and cubbyholes, roll-out keyboard shelf, on
locking casters; originally about $300 but yours for $70 if you come get
it. Call John at 986-5154.
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PA Equipment, Free to Good Home
Nick Keenan, nbk@gsionline.com
I have a PA system that I would like to donate to a suitable
nonprofit or educational organization. It consists of a Yamaha EM 300,
12 channel powered mixer, 140 watts stereo, and two Gemini 30"
speakers with 15" woofers. I used it for many years for rehearsals
and gigs for a rock band. It is old and heavy, but works well.
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CLASSIFIEDS — RECOMMENDATIONS
In reply to the person seeking a yoga studio. The Willow Street Yoga
Studio is located on Carroll Avenue in Takoma Park, MD, just three
blocks from the Takoma subway station. It offers Anasura Yoga, has
wonderful, well-trained instructors and offers several levels of yoga
training seven days a week. I find the teachers to be very personable
and dedicated.
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