January 13, 2011 | 10:30 AM | By Anna
DCentric
Yesterday, I published a slideshow from Bread for the City’s January 7 grand opening. I also posted the first part of an interview with the non-profit’s Executive Director, George A. Jones. More of my conversation with Jones is below; in it, he discusses how the expansion of the group’s Shaw location will facilitate an expansion in their services–as well as how you can help.
What if people want to get involved?
There are two major ways: volunteer or give. We accept cash contributions and in-kind contributions of donated food and clothing. When it comes to people’s cash donations 90% of every dollar goes to our five core services.
A lot of people like to have tangible connections to our programs so we encourage them to do food drives. We have 5-10 volunteers on a given day; there are scores of people looking to do community service, including kids or teens for school. They can develop food drives right at their schools or boys club, girl scouts…I encourage parents to have their children do these food drives remotely and bring the food to us. We give kids a menu to try and generate certain foods, including items that are low in sodium, vegetables or non-perishable stuff, because we provide supplemental groceries designed to last three days to families whose incomes are very low–less than $7,000. They may not be on food stamps, even if they run a great risk of running out of food.
These are families who are food insecure, who are at the risk of running out before the end of the month. Our food pantry was designed to support such people.
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January 13, 2011 | 8:33 AM | By Anna
Good morning, DCentric readers! Enjoy some breakfast links:
Outrage Over Safety Issues at Hardy Middle School “The school’s popular principal, Patrick Pope, was replaced by former Chancellor Michelle Rhee. Parents say the school has never recovered and say three assistant principals and a new principal that juggles between two schools hasn’t worked. “Students are all in the hall, they’re not in class, they’re late. There are four administrators here,” said Gails Johnson. “At what point do you say, ‘It’s not working.’…The meeting was very contentious and principal Dana Nerenberg, at times, looked close to tears and had few answers.” (myfoxdc.com)
Local Haitian Priest Survived Quake A Year Ago “Father Aesene Jasmin, a Catholic priest in D.C., was in Haiti a year ago when the devastating earthquake struck killing at least 230,000 people and leaving at least a million survivors homeless, many of them now amputees. Father Jasim was visiting his native land and standing in a home just outside the capitol city of Port-au-Prince when the quake hit. A room in front of the priest and the kitchen behind him and others collapsed; but the group was left standing, uninjured and able to race out of the ruins screaming “Jesus help us,” said Father Jasmin.” (WUSA Washington, DC)
D.C. charter school laws earn ‘A’ “The new study reviewed 40 states and the District of Columbia on their charter-school laws, and graded them on the number of authorizers, schools allowed, fiscal equity and operations, including autonomy, teacher freedom and union influence. D.C. charter laws ranked No. 1 on all criteria, with two other jurisdictions — second-place Minnesota and third-place California — also earning an A. Minnesota was the first state to establish charter schools, doing so in 1991.” (Washington Times)
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January 12, 2011 | 7:30 PM | By Anna
DCentric
Earlier, I posted a slideshow filled with pictures taken on Friday, when local nonprofit Bread for the City celebrated the grand opening of their new building in Shaw. The expansion doesn’t just mean more room– it means more services for the city’s most vulnerable citizens. Last week, I spoke to Bread for the City’s Executive Director, George A. Jones about the expansion, the work his agency does and more. Part of the interview is below; look for the rest, tomorrow morning.
First, some history for those of you who may not be familiar with this group:
Started in 1974, Bread for the City is a front line agency serving Washington’s poor. The agency began as two organizations; Zacchaeus Free Clinic began in 1974 as a volunteer-run free medical clinic, and Bread for the City was created in 1976 by a coalition of downtown churches to feed and clothe the poor. The two entities merged in 1995. Today, we operate two Centers in the District of Columbia and provide direct services to low-income residents of Washington, DC. All of our services are free. Our mission is to provide comprehensive services, including food, clothing, medical care, legal and social services to low-income Washington, DC residents in an atmosphere of dignity and respect.
I asked Jones about the expansion:
We’ve been around for 36 years; this expansion represents our commitment to providing even more services to folks living in poverty in D.C. It’s the culmination of a dream.
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January 12, 2011 | 4:57 PM | By Anna
Flickr: zach kowalczyk
Metro riders waiting for their train. Wholly unrelated to this story, but it's a neat picture.
In case you haven’t already heard this story, I want to put it on your radar. Yesterday, TBD writer Dave Jamieson witnessed something extraordinary at the Foggy Bottom metro station; a kid grabbed a woman’s purse, a concerned citizen ran after the boy and caught him, and then, a metro employee yelled at the immobilized culprit!
Once we made it out on the platform, a dozen or so passengers had formed a circle near the base of the escalator steps. (This is where the video above begins.) At the center of the circle was the boy who’d grabbed the purse, wrapped up by a good samaritan who’d run him down. The man, who was middle-aged and broad-shouldered, clearly wasn’t trying to hurt the kid, as the video makes clear. He just wanted to hold him until the authorities showed up…Meanwhile, the boy, who looked to be about 15, pleaded to be let go. “I’m sorry, ma’am. I’m sorry. I apologize,” he said. The victim stood nearby with the purse that had been grabbed, looking mortified. “I said I’m sorry,” the kid went on.
…another Metro employee arrived on the scene. He ordered the boy to sit on the ground and wait until transit police arrived. Then, as the video shows around the 1:25 mark, he gave the kid a public scolding.
“There ain’t no apologizing, son,” he said. “It’s too late to apologize. You can apologize to transit [police] when they get here.” He shamed the kid for robbing a woman. “You’ve got a mother at home. You don’t take money from a lady,” he went on. “You’re gonna learn something tonight.”
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January 12, 2011 | 1:39 PM | By Anna
Later today– an interview with George A. Jones, Executive Director of this non-profit which serves the city’s poor.
January 12, 2011 | 11:16 AM | By Anna
Flickr: Streets of Washington
A Circulator bus near NPR headquarters.
Now reading about the future of D.C. transit, via “The Case for Streetcars“:
Almost 50 years ago, streetcars in Washington, D.C. stopped running and most of their tracks were removed. Now they’re back and ready for a revival, with parts of the first two lines slated to open next spring. In this post, we talk to Dan Tangherlini, the former DDOT director under Mayor Anthony Williams, who committed to building one of the first two lines, about why streetcars matter for the nation’s capital.
LONG-TERM VISION
The streetcars were conceived in 1997, when Mayor Marion Barry’s Department of Public Works published “A Transportation Vision, Strategy, and Action Plan for the Nation’s Capital.” The plan called for circulator buses and streetcars to connect existing Metrobus and Metrorail lines and activity centers close to the city’s core. Planners think these additional connections are important since current rail lines connect neighborhoods to the city center but not necessarily to each other; this sometimes makes travel between neighborhoods and activity centers on different transit lines difficult, despite the 106 miles of Metrorail track and 319 Metrobus routes that exist today. Plus, as one presentation of the city’s transportation department puts it, overcrowding on Metrorail will be “unmanageable by 2013” and several Metrobus lines are already over capacity.
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January 12, 2011 | 8:25 AM | By Anna
Good morning, DCentric readers! Ready for some links?
In 48 hours, Mayor Gray’s office suite is revamped on a budget of zero “We wanted to bring this office back to life and bring people up here again,” says Gray, 68. “It really feels like me.”…A change of leadership usually brings a change in style. And in Gray’s case, he decided to relocate the mayor’s office to the traditional suite on the sixth floor. Former mayor Adrian M. Fenty had moved his command center to a more open-plan, third-floor bullpen. Williams’s modern suite – reception area, long hallway, wood-paneled library, conference room and private office, all decorated with lots of wood, glass and beige – had been virtually unused during the Fenty years.” (The Washington Post)
Wal-Mart Bumps Up the Lobbying “Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which is seeking to build bulk quantities of stores in D.C., has quadrupled the retainer it pays to well-connected lobbyist David Wilmot. The beloved group home leader took in $60k from Wal-Mart during the last six months of 2010, lobbying disclosure forms show. That’s up from $15k during the first half of last year.” (Washington City Paper)
Facebook Burglary Suspect Identified? “D.C. police sources tell 9News Now they have identified the man who is posted on a burglary victim’s Facebook Page, wearing his father’s stolen coat and brandishing cash that may be part of the loot taken from their Capitol Hill Home last month. Washington Post columnist Marc Fisher wrote about the burglary and apparent brashness of the intruder. Police sources say the man on Facebook is 19-year-old Rodney Knight of Southeast D.C., who is already in jail on an unrelated gun charge. Court records show Knight has a criminal record for burglaries and thefts.” (WUSA Washington, DC)
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January 11, 2011 | 12:30 PM | By Anna
Flickr: Ron Dauphin
Check out this story, “Walmart’s Fifth D.C. Location: Skyland?” from Lydia DePillis at the City Paper:
Speaking on his home turf Saturday, as Veronica Davis reports, Mayor Vince Gray dropped some not-terribly-surprising news: It appears that Target has bailed as a prospective anchor tenant at the still-unbuilt Skyland Town Center, and Walmart has sent the developers a letter of interest in locating there instead. Even if Gray is able to nudge forward the litigation that has kept Skyland in a deep freeze for years, the Rappaport Companies need a big box to take the 129,000-square-foot space–and if Target’s not interested, that doesn’t bode well for other retailers (there’s already a Safeway across the street).
A Rappaport spokeswoman confirms that they are in “preliminary discussions” with Walmart.
If the deal goes through, what would that mean for Walmart’s intentions to locate at its first proposed Ward 7 location, at Capitol Gateway on East Capitol and Southern Avenue? Almost certainly nothing–they’re far enough away that both could survive. Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander hadn’t heard about the company’s intentions for Skyland, but does understand that their ambitions aren’t limited.
