It's funny that the medical marijuana will be better produced than the fruits and veggies we eat every day.
@dcist_martin
Martin Austermuhle
Author Archives: Anna
DCentric was created to examine the ways race and class interact in Washington, D.C., a city with a vibrant mix of cultures and neighborhoods. Your guides to the changing district are reporters Anna John and Elahe Izadi.
Metro: It’s not just for drunks.
Flickr: Manuel Arrington
A late-night reveler puts her feet up.
“WMATA Board ponders cutting late-night service”, the Greater Greater Washington headline reads. Cue the comment storm from people who are outraged that late-night revelers won’t have a safe way to get home, thus increasing the possibility of those people driving around drunk, killing us and each other. But, wait! There’s more!
NOW cue the knee-jerk fury of those who are outraged that the first group is pandering to drunks. “Why should we enable hard-partying? It’s in no one’s interests! Metro is for commuting to work, not bars!”, they preach. So what’s a transit agency to do? Metro needs to save money and perform maintenance on the creaking, wheezing system that we all complain about; if we want WMATA to fix things, it’s only fair that we give them enough time to address the mile-long list of issues we collectively maintain via Twitter.
All of that is true. So is this: between the sputtering and arguing online, the plight of the other people who rely on Metro is ignored.
Yesterday, when I took my puppy out to turn our street into a latrine, I noticed that Marisol was still sitting in our lobby. That was odd; she usually works the afternoon shift, from 3-11pm. It was midnight.
“Is everything okay?”, I asked.
She smiled, sweetly. “Yeah…I had to stay a little bit late and I missed the last train home.”
I was alarmed. “Are you okay? What about your baby?”
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Righteous Real Estate
Flickr: ONE DC
Lydia DePillis of the City Paper writes about a new source for affordable housing in the District– churches. DePillis visited one house of worship, the Temple of Praise, an interdenominational megachurch that Mayor-for-life Marion Barry attends; the Temple has big plans for Ward 8. The church is so popular, it has outgrown the huge building it built just eight years ago; now it wants to construct something larger and transform the current Temple into a charter school. Beyond that, the ambitious church wants to develop affordable housing on its property.
And Bishop Glen Staples isn’t stopping there. He’s working on building a medical clinic, and wants to construct senior housing and a new community center, as well as a credit union, local retail, and restaurants—which neither the market nor the government have brought to that part of Ward 8 (even the local McDonald’s is vacant).
“There’s nothing here,” says Staples, taking a break in his dark wood and leather-trimmed inner sanctum, while the noon service thunders outside. “I don’t know if politicians are able to do anything, if they want to do anything, I don’t know, but I do know nothing’s been done. So it’s incumbent on us to try to do something.”
“Re-knitting an urban fabric” might be just what this city needs:
The particularly important thing here: These are the kinds of building projects many neighborhoods either grumble about or reject altogether. A church’s willingness to put them in its own neighborhood demonstrates a confidence in its ability to be a positive and stabilizing influence, re-knitting an urban fabric shredded by drugs and crime, in places where private capital would never voluntarily go.
This Valentine’s Day, Mock Domestic Violence at a Museum! (Updated)
HollabackDC, a grassroots organization that is “invested in making the public spaces of the DC metro area safe for women and LGBTQ individuals” just tweeted something interesting:
Domestic violence ain't a crime of passion; it's a crime power and control. Let a DC museum know that here: http://bit.ly/gjoigO
@hollabackdc
Holla Back DC!
That link takes you to a Change.org petition calling out a certain Penn Quarter museum for a hurtful holiday offering, which starts tomorrow:
The National Crime and Punishment Museum mocks the seriousness of intimate partner violence by romanticising such homicides as crimes of “passion.” The Valentine’s weekend exhibit “Crimes of Passion” makes light of a crime that affects thousands of Americans of all races, socioeconomic classes, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, and abilities.
Here’s how the Museum sells it:
…this Valentine’s Day, those darker romantics among us have a new way to show their love for their significant other, courtesy of the National Museum of Crime and Punishment. Back by popular demand, couples are invited this Valentine’s Day weekend to visit the museum and experience “Crimes of Passion.”
Tasty Morning Bytes – Ben’s History at GWU, MoCo Goes Mocha and Peace at the Willard
DCentric
GWU's erstwhile unofficial mascot, the hippo.
Good morning, DCentric readers! Snow flurries last night, link flurries this morning:
First Lady wears $34.95 H&M dress on Today Show This has to be a first: “The first lady donned a navy polka dot knee-length day dress with a ruffled collar by Swedish retail chain H&M. The dress is part of their current collection…” (voices.washingtonpost.com)
Federal Investigator Talks About DC MS-13 Indictments Feds use RICO to go after violent gang for first time, ever: “We’re talking about murders, stabbings, kidnappings, and extortions.” (WUSA Washington, DC)
Ben’s Chili Bowl Historic Docs Head to GW Now if only they had a location near campus: “(Ben’s) is an institution, reflecting the changing African-American culture in Washington since it opened in 1958.” (NBC Washington)
Minorities are majority population in Montgomery County “What we’re seeing is a reinvigoration of the suburbs with Hispanics, Asians and blacks,” said William Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution. “It makes Washington more ethnic, more globalized, while the white suburban image is pushing further outward.” (The Washington Post)
DC Needle Exchange To Close Blame money and turnover: “PreventionWorks has been distributing free needles for more than 12 years. It provides about a third of the free needles in the city, distributing about 100,000 sterile syringes to 2,200 people last year.” (WUSA Washington, DC)
The Willard: Where hope collapsed as slavery raged Fascinating look at the “Peace Convention” at the Willard: “The convention hoped to offer a compromise – mainly about slavery – that would soothe the rebellious states and satisfy the militant northern abolitionists, scholars say.” (The Washington Post)
Tweet of the Day, 02.09
Black and Transgendered? Double the Suffering.
Flickr: Serena Epstein
Tyra Hunter was a popular African American hair stylist in Washington, D.C. In 1995, she was in a serious car accident at 50th and C Streets SE. The emergency personnel who arrived on scene started to rescue her, but they stopped abruptly; instead of providing Hunter with aid, they mocked her. When she finally reached a hospital, Doctors didn’t help her, either.
Sounds outrageous, right? It was. Hunter’s mother sued the city for negligence and malpractice– and won $2.8 million.
At this point, you might be wondering– “Why would EMTs and Doctors withhold care from an accident victim?”
Well, Hunter was transgendered. According to Monica Roberts of The TransGriot, when firefighters discovered that fact after cutting through her clothing, they discontinued care and insulted her.
A firefighter) began joking with the other fire department personnel at the scene as the bystanders pleaded with them to resume working to save Tyra’s life. One bystander is quoted as saying, “It don’t make any difference, he’s [sic] a person, he’s a human being.”
Indeed. I first learned about this appalling case via Colorlines, which “has been building a home for journalism in service to racial justice since 1998″. In their recent article, “Still No Freedom Rainbow for Transgender People of Color”, Hunter’s memory was invoked to demonstrate how little progress has been made:
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Kate Masur’s “Example for All the Land” at NPG
DCentric
Author Kate Masur, reading from "An Example for All the Land: Emancipation and the Struggle for Equality in Washington, DC"
Today, Kate Masur, Assistant Professor of History at Northwestern University, read from her new book, An Example for All the Land: Emancipation and the Struggle for Equality in Washington, DC at the National Portrait Gallery (hat tip to the City Paper for letting us know about this event).
After the reading, Masur took questions from the standing-room-only crowd. As she quoted from the Reconstruction-era diary entry of a racist white Washingtonian, I was startled by how over a century later, similar sentiments could be found in the comments sections of local blogs and newspapers. Masur said she wanted to “illuminate the larger picture of dynamism in Washington” via the stories in her book. She also reflected on how once slavery was “resolved”, many local white Republicans cared more about business than equality.
When Masur mentioned that An Example for All the Land –the first examination of Washington during Reconstruction in over five decades– explored why D.C. became a hub for black education and an African American middle class, the crowd buzzed with interest.
One attendee, Barbara Burger of Washington, D.C., enjoyed the presentation. Burger explained, “I’m a native Washingtonian. My family has been here since 1880. I’m very interested in any studies that explore the African American situation. I’m very happy to see she’s taken it upon herself to write a book and do research that will hopefully have an effect on the perceptions of this city.”
Next week on DCentric: an interview with Professor Masur, and more about her book.
http://uncpress.unc.edu/browse/book_detail?title_id=1770
Tasty Morning Bytes – Nurse-in at Smithsonian, WMATA in Tweets and Rhee-instating Teachers
Good morning, DCentric readers! Congrats on surviving a blustery yesterday.
Breast Feeding Mom Reprimanded At Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Moms have right to breastfeed on federal property: “Despite the Hirshhorn’s apology, mothers around the Washington region are expressing their displeasure publicly. They will hold a “nurse-in” at the museum Saturday morning.” (WUSA Washington, DC)
#WMATA #FAIL: A guide to Metro’s rough life on Twitter This was very entertaining: “Since Metro never defends itself, the result is a fascinating and relentless one-way stream of bile. The daily catalog of Metro tweets reads like an interminable and scathing report from the agency’s inspector general’s office, only with more color and less restraint.” (tbd.com)
How can 14th Street thrive between Target and Walmart? How about…”a course that steers the corridor’s commercial nodes on a route that avoids direct competition with national chains, focusing instead of developing distinct niches that can’t be served by a big box.” (Greater Greater Washington)
District dropping drunk-driving cases because of breath-test problems There she blows: “The District is continuing to drop some drunken-driving cases while certification problems remain with equipment used to test suspects’ breath, a year after such devices came under investigation…” (The Washington Post)
D.C. teachers fired by Rhee to be reinstated The surprising thing– this isn’t Rhee-ally about you know who: “Where the school system screwed up, arbitrator Charles Feigenbaum concluded, was in not providing the one-page evaluations completed by the relevant principals directly to the teachers when they were fired.” (tbd.com)
VIDEO: Mother of girl hit by red-light runner, while crossing Connecticut Avenue Wow: “The only penalty for running a red light and hitting a person is a small fine, and the DMV told Szemraj that they don’t even pursue out-of-state drivers if they don’t pay such tickets.” (Greater Greater Washington)
Childhood Accident Fuels Gray’s Support of Gun Control
Flickr: Adam Fagen
A Smith & Wesson revolver from the Smithsonian's "National Museum of the American Indian".
Remember that story from our morning roundup about guns, “Since D.C.’s handgun ban ended, well-heeled residents have become well armed”? Well, according to NBCWashington.com, Mayor Vince Gray is quite concerned about that trend:
When D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray was a boy, his father owned a gun, and one day, Gray’s brother found it in their apartment and was cleaning it. After Gray got up to go to the bathroom, he heard a loud shot. His brother had accidentally fired a shot into the sofa right where Gray had been sitting prior to going to the bathroom.
Gray told this story Tuesday at a news conference when asked about a Washington Post report that the bulk of guns registered in D.C. since 2008 were purchased by residents in D.C.’s wealthier neighborhoods, NBC Washington’s Tom Sherwood reported.
Gray remains a strong supporter of gun control laws and said he is troubled by the report. Gray wishes people wouldn’t buy guns and said he doesn’t think they need them in D.C., Sherwood reported.
By the way, if the name “Tom Sherwood” sounds familiar, it’s because he’s the resident political analyst on WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi Show.