September 28, 2010 | 8:49 AM | By Anna
Good morning, DCentric readers! While you were singin’ in the rain, just singin in the rain, we surfed around and found you some neat links. Enjoy!
Bike Stealing Can Bring Out Racism "The fact that we link criminality to race is pretty pathetic. In the What Would You Do? clip, note how the white thief begs for a confrontation, only to find that people are unwilling to even be rude to him. White privilege is that overpowering." (Washington City Paper)
Investigation: Debt Collectors, the N-Word and Bank of America“Two days after being confronted by ABC News, Bank of America has fired a debt collection agency after several of its operators were caught using racist and obscene phone calls to collect debts from bank customers. “What’s up, you f—ing n—r?” said one of the collection agents in a message to 32-year old Allen Jones of Dallas, who owed $81 on his Bank of America credit card.” (ABC News)
Murky waters for D.C.'s 'boat people' on Southwest waterfront "The 310-slip Gangplank was founded in 1977 and soon became a haven for suburbia-overdosed divorcees, distrustful of all things land-lubbing. Since then, it has grown into an eclectic mix of young families, Navy personnel and Capitol Hill workers enticed by the idea of drinking their morning coffee on their waterborne decks and, the illusion at least, of being able to cast off at anytime to parts unknown." (The Washington Post)
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September 27, 2010 | 6:53 PM | By Anna
_Fidelio_
Pancakes from IHOP
You may have heard that on
November 16, an
International House of Pancakes will be opening in our city’s favorite vertical strip mall, DCUSA. It will employ 100 people. Via
TBD:
More than 300 have submitted applications so far for what will be an IHOP across from Columbia Heights Metro. It is owned by the same family who opened D.C.’s first IHOP in Southeast two years ago: the Jacksons. They say federal stimulus money’s made this new opening possible.
Clarence Jackson, co-owner of the franchise, is a D.C. cop.
They want to hire in the neighborhood; people who can walk to work. Some applicants have no job.
“I’m trying to get any job right now just to have some cash…” shared Godfrey Nnadim.
September 27, 2010 | 5:18 PM | By Anna
On September 22, some bloggers participated in a “virtual protest” called “No Wedding, No Womb”– an attempt to force a conversation about out-of-wedlock births in the black community. NPR’s Michel Martin spoke with Christelyn Karazin, the founder of NWNW on “Tell Me More”; Karazin told Martin that she felt like “we need to do something.” The ever thoughtful G.D. over at PostBourgie wasn’t impressed:
There are reasons besides the push’s barely masked antifeminism to be ambivalent about this whole endeavor. The movement has the stunty feel of holding funerals for (the “n-word”) or stomping on hip-hop CDs (‘member those?) with explicit lyrics; it’s taken a tricky issue and reduced it to a bunch of folks being showily indignant…You can’t really change broad social trends by appealing to people’s feelings; you have to actually change the conditions that inform the calculus by which people make the decisions they make. It’s annoying to have to even say this, but keeping black men out of jail or bringing up high school graduation rates or whatever might actually require more complex solutions than getting enough people to wag their fingers really, really hard.
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September 27, 2010 | 1:49 PM | By Anna
Mr. T in DC
Bell Multicultural High School, part of CHEC
I just stumbled on this blog called “An Urban Teacher’s Education”, where I found an interesting (and long) post from an ex-DCPS Educator discussing issues at the Columbia Heights Educational Campus (CHEC)– and D.C. schools, in general:
All of the administrators that I worked closely with began their careers with Teach For America. This program is very clear about the beliefs it holds about education: the only purpose of a teacher is to raise student achievement (read: raise test scores). It seemed to me that very few of my administrators had much classroom experience…their aim was to identify teachers who they believed should be fired. This, and a significant lack of experience, is a trend across the district. Just this summer at School Without Walls, a twenty-six-year-old counselor was promoted to assistant principal despite the fact that she has no teaching experience. Nevertheless she will be responsible for conducting IMPACT evaluations and somehow providing teachers feedback they’re supposed to use to improve.
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September 27, 2010 | 11:55 AM | By Anna
President Obama being interviewed on TODAY.
Earlier this morning, on NBC’s TODAY show, Matt Lauer sat down with President Barack Obama to discuss education. The President took a question posed by a woman from Florida who asked if his daughters would get the same “high-quality, rigorous education” at one of our city’s public schools as they currently receive at “their very elite private academy“.
The President said:
Well thanks for the question. I’ll be blunt with you, the answer is No right now. The DC public school systems are struggling. Now, they have made some important strides over the last several years to move in the direction of reform. There are some terrific individual schools in the DC system. And that’s true by the way in every city across the country….some great public schools on par with any private school in the country. But…a lot of times you’ve got to test in or it’s a lottery pick for you to be able to get into those schools, so those options are not available for enough children.
I’ll be very honest with you. Given my position, if I wanted to find a great public school for Malia and Sasha to be in, we could probably maneuver to do it. But the broader problem is for a mom or a dad who are working hard but don’t have a bunch of connections, don’t have a lot of choice in terms of where they live, they should be getting the same quality education for their kids as anybody else. And we don’t have that yet.
September 27, 2010 | 10:10 AM | By Anna
Walking in the street because of unshoveled sidewalk, December 2009.
It almost feels dissonant to think of snow during our current, swamp-like, Summery September weather but Hyperlocal Glover Park’s post about snow removal is on point.
Whenever D.C. gets a big snow, an absurd hole in the District’s public-safety law reveals itself. Furious citizens demand that the hole be patched, and lawmakers promise to do so. Then the snow melts and people forget. The law is not fixed. Eventually, it snows again.
And when that happens, snow on unshoveled sidewalks quickly gets trodden down into hard packs, which then freeze into ice sheets that can last for weeks. The sidewalks become unsafe for small children, elderly people, and those with disabilities. People slip and break bones. People walk in the street and get hit by cars. People feel trapped at home for fear of injury.
Angry, frustrated citizens ask why there isn’t a law requiring residents to keep their sidewalks clear. But in fact, there is such a law. According to the D.C. Code (§9-601), anyone whose house fronts a public sidewalk must clear the sidewalk of snow or ice within eight daylight hours of the last flake’s falling.
The problem is, D.C. doesn’t enforce that law. Continue reading →
September 27, 2010 | 7:45 AM | By Anna
Good morning, DCentric readers! While you were watching Sam Bradford best your beloved Redskins, we were scouring the– oh, too soon? So sorry. Please, distract yourself with these winning links!
Rhee’s uncertan future puts wall between Gray and white voters “D.C. Council Chairman Vince Gray’s mayoral campaign is expected to release a schedule this week of town hall meetings designed to unify the District’s racially divided electorate…Gray will also be preparing the message he’ll have to send to both the white residents who voted for Mayor Adrian Fenty (and) his primarily black base, which wants Rhee gone.” (Washington Examiner )
Medical Marijuana Clinics a Good Fit for Lower Georgia Ave, NW? ““I knew when this law passed that Georgia Avenue would be a contender for this “experiment”, and sure enough its the first location they have chosen for consideration. I think a more stable area, like Wisconsin Avenue, would help insure success of the program and the law. There is too much addiction, criminal behavior, and mental illness on Georgia Avenue for something new and controversial.”" (Prince Of Petworth )
Keep Stinky Stink Bugs Away “…keep them out of your home this winter by making sure they don’t have any openings to use on the South facing side of your home. When the weather cools down, that’s where the bugs will congregate on sunny days looking for a way in. So now’s the time to caulk up cracks and make sure that screens, windows and portable a/c units fit nice and snug.” (wtop.com)
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September 24, 2010 | 6:17 PM | By Anna
erin m
Michelle Rhee at the Pride parade
We just posted about Michelle Rhee and now we get to do it again– today, on her show, Oprah Winfrey suggested Rhee for Superintendent of Newark, NJ schools. The current Supe, Clifford B. Janey was told this summer that his contract would not be renewed. Interestingly enough, Janey was Rhee’s predecessor. Adrian Fenty fired him to make way for the woman with a broom. But back to Oprah:
Winfrey, who has called Rhee a “warrior woman,” made the recommendation on her show airing Friday. Other New Jersey education advocates have suggested the same move.
Rhee spokeswoman Safiya Jafari Simmons says the chancellor had no comment on Winfrey’s remarks.
Simmons says she could not confirm whether Rhee has made trips to New Jersey or plans to do so. She says Rhee will be in New York for the next couple of days to participate in NBC’s education summit.
Hmmm. New York is awfully close to Newark…I’m just saying.
September 24, 2010 | 4:18 PM | By Anna
Screen capture from Washington Post video
When I told a good friend of mine about my new job blogging for WAMU, he gave me one piece of advice: read Bill Turque. Turque is an education reporter at the Washington Post and my friend is made out of integrity, honesty and puppy dog tails, so I took his endorsement very seriously. He wasn’t wrong. So now you know why there is much love for Mr. Turque on DCentric (that link in the first sentence will leave you filled with respect for him too, seriously).
Last night, Turque reported on the Meeting with a capital “M” between Mayoral primary winner Vince Gray and DCPS Chancellor Michelle Rhee, which focused on education issues vs. whether Rhee would stay or leave:
Gray said the two will likely meet again within the next couple of weeks, a message reinforced by Gray advisers, who emphasized that the meeting was never intended to resolve the issue of Rhee’s tenure. Gray won the Democratic primary Sept. 14 but still faces, at least nominally, a general election vote Nov. 2.
“This was always supposed to be just a first meeting to discuss where school reform goes from here,” said Mo Elleithee, a senior Gray campaign strategist. “But he’s been pretty clear: On his end, he’s not making any decisions until after the election.”
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September 24, 2010 | 2:58 PM | By Anna
http://www.rustikdc.com/
Folks in the Bloomingdale neighborhood are elated at tonight’s 9pm opening of Rustik, a pizza joint at 1st and T St. When I say elated, I mean it. Here’s one tweet I can’t show you because of language, but the relevant part of it is this: “Been living in #Bloomingdaledc 4 years w/ no restaurant the dark days are over!”
Four years with no restaurant? Talk about an under-served area. If you’re wondering about the menu, peep this blurb:
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