Good morning, DCentric readers! Here are your breakfast links:
Beyond Bread: We Need City Council to Take Action, Make the Better Choice “Mayor Fenty has proposed another round of cuts as part of this year’s city budget. Utility assistance, child care, TANF, job training, disability assistance, affordable housing, legal services, and more are on the chopping block. I’ve been through my share of hard times: an abusive relationship, losing my home, getting harassed by landlords, and health issues…My daughter hasn’t had a new coat for three years, and right now we’re wearing our coats in the house because I can’t turn the heat on. I don’t want to run the bills up and then have my utilities cut off. That’s grounds to lose my housing voucher, and I can’t take that chance.” (breadforthecity.blogspot.com)
Advocates Urge Gray To Vote Against Homeless Bill “Remember that homeless bill that the New York Times editorial board slammed as inhumane? The one that every nonprofit in the District condemned? The residency-requirement bill that the city’s CFO stated would produce zero cost savings? Tomorrow, Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells is going to put it up for a vote. Just in time for hypothermia season. Today, Mayor-Elect Vincent Gray got a letter urging that he vote against the bill…Wells may want to reach out to these folks if he wants to keep his progressive membership card.” (Washington City Paper)
Breaking: Gray DOES NOT cut streetcars “Gray’s proposal does make a few changes from the Fenty proposal, including a 4-day furlough for “nonessential” DC government personnel, and restores funding to the Healthy Schools Act, low-income energy assistance, and the Main Streets programs, including the funds to pick up trash in neighborhood commercial corridors. A bit over 6 months ago, we shut down the phones in Gray’s office to ask him to pull back the streetcar cuts. Let’s thank him now.” (Greater Greater Washington)
This is disappointing, short-sighted and a few other words I’m not allowed to type; Councilmember Muriel Bowser (Ward 4) is thinking about emergency legislation to prohibit new food trucks while taxing the existing mobile nom-purveyors who got in while the getting was good. But, wait! There’s more (via WCP)!
Indeed, D.C. Chamber of Commerce spokeswoman Janene Jackson confirms that she’s teamed up with the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington and the Apartment and Office Building Association to ask for the cap, as well as a 10 percent sales tax, since proposed regulations that would govern food trucks are unsatisfactory.
“It’s not that we don’t want mobile food vendors,” Jackson said. “We’re in a deficit, and if bricks and mortars have to pay up, then we all have to pay up.”
My colleague Alan Suderman is also hearing that the issue could come up as soon as tomorrow’s Council legislative meeting, where members will be voting on a plan to close the budget shortfall.
I’m reminded of Love Bites, the truck I profiled here which is run by a local, African-American, mother-daughter team, who are using family recipes to create something delightful. It’s unfortunate that the City Council would bow to pressure from the Chamber of Commerce and the Restaurant Association to bully entrepreneurs. Yes, we need to address the budget– but if that’s all this were about, then they’d be talking about just taxes (which is understandable), not taxes AND a moratorium (which is not).
The purpose of the teachers’ union is to protect the privileges, priorities, and pay of their members. And they’re doing a great job of that.
What that means is that the reform community has to exert influence as well. That’s why I’ve decided to start StudentsFirst, a national movement to transform public education in our country. We need a new voice to change the balance of power in public education. Our mission is to defend and promote the interests of children so that America has the best education system in the world.
From the moment I resigned, I began hearing from citizens from across this country. I got e-mails, calls, and letters from parents, students, and teachers who said, “Don’t give up. We need you to keep fighting!”…
Good morning, DCentric readers! While you were watching the season finale of “Boardwalk Empire“…uh…we were, too! Don’t dwell on how Sundays are going to be boring without it– distract yourself with these links.
The Power of a Story "I felt pain, not because of the sadness of his story, but because of how common that narrative is here in DC. Our dropout rate is atrocious, with only 48.8% of students graduating from high school within four years of beginning 9th grade. Mardez is one of the success stories – he was able to re-enter school and is on target to graduate this year, with a plan to go to college and a dream of becoming a graphic designer. But the problems still swirl around him…. in 9th grade, one of his teachers embarrassed him by pointing out Mardez’s wrinkled clothes, ignoring all the issues Mardez was going through at home." (Racialicious)
All Opinions Are Local – Welcoming Wal-Mart — on our terms "I believe that we all have a responsibility to ensure that Wal-Mart establishes itself in the District with a clear and unequivocal commitment to the working class. We can accomplish this by negotiating a “community benefits agreement” setting forth certain conditions ensuring that Wal-Mart will be a good neighbor and employer in our city. Long before any store ever opens, for instance, Wal-Mart could put in writing that it will provide its 800 or so D.C. workers with a living wage." (voices.washingtonpost.com)
Capital Bikeshare distribution van "Capital Bikeshare has quickly become ubiquitous in the District’s central neighborhoods. Bikeshare riders are all over, pretty much all the time. But one thing that hasn’t yet become a common sight is the redistribution van. Since some stations are naturally used more than others, the system requires a crew to redistribute bikes on a periodic basis. They drive around in a van, picking up bikes from congested stations and carting them to empty ones." (Beyond DC)
That’s the name of the teen-aged girl whose body was found stuffed in a Columbia Heights trash receptacle earlier this week. I just found out that there is going to be a vigil for her later this evening, at 11th and Fairmont Streets, at 6:30 pm.
Franklin had been a student at Cardozo high school before moving to Maryland, with her Mother. Her Father still lives in Northwest:
Ebony Franklin was reported missing Saturday by her mother, with whom she lived in Capitol Heights, police said. They said the girl was fatally stabbed and stuffed in the barrel in a back alley off 11th and Fairmont streets NW in Columbia Heights.
An acquaintance said Ebony, who had lived in Columbia Heights before moving to Maryland, was a student at Cardozo High School, two blocks south of where her body was found. Police said she often visited her father in Northwest Washington.
Homicide detectives investigating the slaying Tuesday night were attempting to piece together the girl’s movements over the weekend, police said.
As a university in the heart of the nation’s capital, working to understand the impacts of globalization and the responsibilities we have in a new global context, it is our job, as educators, to support all of our students, including those who were born abroad, and to encourage passage of this legislation…
At Georgetown, students who meet the DREAM Act criteria are campus leaders and role models for their generation. They are pursuing challenging majors, are actively engaged in campus organization, and regularly participate in community service.
As these students work toward completing their degrees, their drive to give back to this country — using the knowledge gained through an American education — is unparalleled. They have done their part to make America, and our increasingly interconnected world, a better place. We must do ours to support a future for them that is free of fear, constraints and limitations on their success.
Passing the DREAM Act is an essential step toward that end. It will not only help these future leaders, it will enrich our campuses and make our country stronger.
Congratulations to Chuck Brown, who was nominated for an Emmy! TBD has some words from the Go-go legend, himself:
“It’s the most wonderful thing ever,” Brown says. “I never dreamed of this, I didn’t even dream of this. This has been a great, great year—the greatest year of my career.
“After some 40 years in the business, running around and singing in different parts of the world, I never thought it would be like this,” he continues. “I give all credit to God, my manager, and my family. My wife and children have been such an inspiration, so encouraging.”
Although the Grammy ceremony isn’t until February, Brown, known for his amazing sartorial choices, already has an idea of what he’ll wear on the big night.
“I’m going to wear a tux,” he says. “I have a bunch of suits, but I know I can’t go wrong with a tux.”
Hello, DCentric readers! Here are your morning links:
Another death, another reason to remove stigma of mental-health care “She was nearing a nervous breakdown,” one said. It’s a threat frequently ignored in a country where mental health care is stigmatized and too often discounted. That’s especially true in the region’s growing immigrant population. Dela Rosa is from the Philippines, and a family member told The Post that she was recently upset because she couldn’t go there for funeral services after her brother died.” (The Washington Post)
Southwest Waterfront: A Neighborhood Where A Change Is Gonna Come “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.” (dc.urbanturf.com)
ColorofChange’s James Rucker Explains Why We Need Net Neutrality “With so much at stake for black communities, you would expect black leaders and civic organizations to line up in support of an open Internet. Think again. Many of our nation’s leading civil rights groups — like the NAACP, the National Urban League and LULAC — and influential members of the Congressional Black Caucus have signed on to letters and made statements that have had the effect of supporting AT&T, Verizon and Comcast in their efforts to kill net neutrality. In some cases, the leaders and groups don’t seem to understand the actual issues in play or don’t know how they are being used. In others it seems to be a matter of long-standing relationships or the need to maintain the flow of corporate dollars.” (The Root)
Rushern Baker, the incoming county executive for neighboring Prince George’s county, thinks that his jurisdiction and the District of Columbia should forge a stronger bond– because it’s mutually beneficial and because both areas have much in common (via The Washington Informer):
“We need to work together for regional cooperation between our county and the city and that can be done whether it is in public safety or economic development.”
Baker said that border municipalities such as Fairmount Heights, Seat Pleasant, Capitol Heights and Forest Heights look just like the city’s Wards 7 and 8.
People often compare D.C. to NYC, but maybe that’s the wrong city to look at…
While Fenty went to New York City to consult with its mayor Michael Bloomberg and other officials there, Baker went to the Atlanta area to look for similarities and best practices.
“The cities and regions in the Atlanta area are similar to Prince George’s County,” Baker, a native of Valdosta, Ga., said.
“A lot of the same firms do business in both the D.C. and Atlanta areas and DeKalb County, which is located outside of Atlanta, is the second wealthiest majority Black jurisdiction in the country, next to Prince George’s County.”
