September 24, 2010 | 12:14 PM | By Anna
How you voted, via Mike DeBonis at WaPo:
Black turnout went up. It wasn’t just gentrifying areas where turnout rose. In Ward 8, with the highest proportion of African Americans, the number of ballots cast rose 27 percent, and 82 percent of them were for Gray. In Precinct 107, in Ward 7′s Greenway neighborhood, 148 more voters showed up this year than in 2006 – a 46 percent jump. In the wards Fenty won (1, 2, 3 and 6), there were about 9,400 more votes than in 2006. But in the wards Gray won (4, 5, 7 and 8), turnout rose by more than 6,800. Fenty-friendly areas might be growing fast but not nearly fast enough to help him: There were 7,800 more votes in Gray’s wards than in Fenty’s. The city might be changing, but one still cannot win by the white vote alone.
Where Fenty lost. The story of this election can be found in the city’s largest precinct: Precinct 66, voting at Bertie Backus Middle School in Ward 5, next to the Fort Totten Metro station. It’s in the heart of middle-class black Washington; according to 2000 Census figures, the precinct is 96 percent black and the homeownership rate is 75 percent, well above the city average. It’s also the only precinct in the city that saw more than 2,000 votes, and 79 percent of them went to Gray. Gray emerged from 66 with a 1,287 vote lead – more than one-tenth of his total victory margin. Backus, incidentally, was among the 23 public schools Fenty closed in 2008.
I’ll admit, my eyes tend to glaze over when I see that many numbers encased in a paragraph, but I couldn’t stop reading– and learning and confirming.
September 24, 2010 | 10:27 AM | By Anna
BBC World Service
Pit bull puppy
DCentric is based at WAMU 88.5 FM, the NPR affiliate for D.C. We’ve mentioned Kojo Nnamdi on this blog before, but the other WAMU “star” I get asked about when people find out where I work is Diane Rehm. I’m never surprised by such inquiries; her show has over 2 million listeners and this year, she won a Peabody award. The Diane Rehm show always covers interesting topics, but I wanted to draw your attention to the second hour (11 am) of her show on Monday, when she’s going to discuss dog fighting.
I am an animal lover with a Humane Society pup of my own, so two weeks ago, when a rescued pit bull-mix named “Parrot” briefly fought with a bichon-poodle and was shot and killed by a D.C. police officer at the Adams Morgan day festival, I was especially concerned and saddened. On local blogs and news sites, the unfortunate story attracted hundreds of comments about how such dogs were dangerous, menacing beasts who had been bred to kill in dog fights. I’m looking forward to Monday’s Diane Rehm Show, because she’ll be discussing the “culture” of dog fighting, canine forensic science and how to rehabilitate these dogs. If you don’t think the “culture of dog fighting” isn’t loaded with racial or class issues, you should definitely tune in.
September 24, 2010 | 7:55 AM | By Anna
Good morning, DCentric readers. While you were enjoying a hot, late Summer September night, we were scurrying around the web, searching for delicious links! Happy Friday, everyone.
Arrest made in Sherman Circle murder case “A Northeast Washington teenager police said is a gang member has been charged as an adult with murder in the Northwest D.C. shooting of a Catholic University student in August. Police said Eric D. Foreman, who turned 17 on Sept. 18, allegedly shot and killed 31-year-old Neil M. Godleski as the victim was riding his bicycle in Sherman Circle, in the Petworth neighborhood just north of the university campus.” (voices.washingtonpost.com)
Ew, Stink Bugs! Close your doors and windows! “…despite what we might think, stink bugs don’t bite. “They have little clasping feet, so some people feel like they’re being bitten and some people will actually have a skin reaction to them,” she says. The stink bug emits a pungent odor when threatened and they’ve kept exterminators extremely busy this year.” (wamu.org)
Starbucks is rasing prices– try 7-11 coffee with steamed milk. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announced Thursday that “a highly speculative green coffee market and dramatically increased commodity costs” are forcing the chain to raise its prices on its most “labor-intensive” (and therefore expensive!) drinks. That’s going to put the price of a grande (or, in English, medium) drink over $5 in some places. (slatest.slate.com)
Continue reading →
September 23, 2010 | 6:15 PM | By Anna
This is so cute, and such a fun way to delight customers. Go Ben’s! Via WeLoveDC:
During lunch today at Ben’s, I saw Nizam Ali with an iPad, a picture frame, and a whole lot of velcro. He was building a picture frame so that just about anyone can end up on the wall at Ben’s. Mo, the manager, showed me how it works. Grab the app (iTunes, Free) for your iPhone, and snap a photo of yourself. After it uploads to the service, after a few minutes’ time, your smiling face ends up in the picture frame on their wall!
September 23, 2010 | 3:35 PM | By Anna
Soulfull
Today, we’re full of love for the City Paper. Right now we’re reading the “Loose Lips” column, where we found the following regarding Marion Barry:
“To the victor go the spoils,” Barry tells LL. “We demand more than our fair share because we’ve been neglected for so long, it’s as simple as that.”
Sigh. That’s the sound Almost Mayor Vincent Gray just made when he read that line—because if Gray is going to be successful as leader of his “One City,” he’ll have to convince white residents (especially in neighborhoods west of Rock Creek Park that voted for Adrian Fenty last week) that he’s not a rampaging Visigoth who wants to take their new breadmakers and Subarus and give them away to families living east of the Anacostia River.
Why not an Ostrogoth? Did they not rampage? I kid. Continue reading →
September 23, 2010 | 2:31 PM | By Anna
Vince Gray has repeatedly answered questions about his intentions regarding Michelle Rhee with a measured response; if elected, he would meet with her and discuss things. Well, he just met with her. And there are still questions. Via WTOP:
Gray says the two city leaders did not discuss Rhee’s tenure, and instead focused on education reform, Gray’s education platform and higher education.
I think it’s telling that Michelle Rhee didn’t stick around while he talked to the press.
September 23, 2010 | 12:11 PM | By Anna
Sauca, one of many mobile purveyors of food in DC
Just in time for lunch– the City Paper’s Tim Carman has written a great feature about Food Trucks in D.C. and the challenges they face from those who feel threatened by their surging, Twitter- powered popularity:
If they so desired, locals would never have to eat another fake half-smoke again.
If only supply-and-demand economics were so easy. The sudden appearance of gourmet food trucks that delighted so many lunch-hour consumers simultaneously horrified the established restaurant community—a deep-pocketed, politically wired bunch.
Now, like in Brooklyn and Los Angeles and every other city where mobile vendors represent new competition, the District’s inline businesses are turning to the legislative process to ease their pain. Thus when it comes to the street-food options, you may not have the ultimate say. Lawyers, lobbyists, social-media activists, councilmembers, and business owners are all working the levers of power to determine what rolls your way for lunch.
It’s powerful stuff. I know I’ll never look at Amsterdam Falafel the same way again– and I’ve been a loyal customer since they opened. I am sympathetic to the concerns of small business owners and thankful for what they give to our communities, but after reading Carman’s piece, some of them just sound…petty.
September 23, 2010 | 10:16 AM | By Anna
Yesterday, Prince of Petworth (a blog I respect greatly, run by Dan Silverman) published a guest post called “B.J. on the White People Moving in”, by Danny Harris of People’s District– another blog we’ll look at, later today. For now, I want to focus on PoP and the charged discussion this post generated; it got so hostile that at one point, commenters were attacking Silverman for even hosting it. What angered everyone so much? This:
“You can think what you want about what I am saying, but I see everyday how my neighborhood has changed, and how blacks and whites are treated differently. My neighbors, these white kids, threw a party with music until four in the morning with a hundred bikes locked up on the street that blocked people’s driveways and made a big mess. Didn’t no cops show up. I had a cook out with my friends in our backyard and the cops stormed through the alleyway and broke it up because we were being loud. How am I supposed to understand that? Tell me that I shouldn’t be angry about what I see. I’ve been living in this place my whole live and now some new comers tell me how to do what I do.
Continue reading →
September 23, 2010 | 8:28 AM | By Anna
Good morning, DCentric readers! Are you enjoying this 90-degree autumn weather? Look at the bright side! You can put off packing away your summer wardrobe for a few days weeks months um…for a while.
Gray will consider rehiring fired D.C. teachers “”I’m open to them being able to be considered for a job,” Gray said in the interview set to air this Friday. “I don’t know why anybody would say they shouldn’t be considered when in fact they were let go supposedly for budgetary reasons.” In fact, Rhee testified before the Council that many of those fired teachers were high performers.” (WTOP News)
What would “sanity” in parking look like? “It’s not ideal for the DC Council to be setting parking rates. Even now, the Budget Support Act each year contains detailed lists of which blocks are in the “premium demand zone” and other rate issues. Parking rates should be set through some sort of administrative process, not legislation.” (Greater Greater Washington)
At crowded public events, a doggy divide “Some area residents say the tension over dogs in public places is a particularly American phenomenon. Suzanne Nagy, an Alexandria resident who has been posted in Austria with the International Atomic Energy Agency, said dogs are more likely to be seen in public settings in Europe, but with much less friction. The difference, she said, is near-universal obedience training and an onus on owners to make their dogs behave.” (The Washington Post) Continue reading →
September 22, 2010 | 4:30 PM | By Anna
Andrew Bossi
A meter on U Street NW
How apposite, to discuss parking on Car Free Day. Here’s TBD on Jack Evans’ quest for parking meter “sanity”, or, lower meter rates:
Evans, the influential chairman of the Council’s Finance & Revenue Committee, tells TBD, “People are angry about the meters. … I’m going to introduce legislation at our next meeting that brings us all back to sanity.”
Currently, motorists pay two dollars an hour to park in “premium demand zones” such as Adams Morgan, Georgetown, the U Street corridor, along Wisconsin Avenue, and in the downtown commercial core.
There’s a lot of discussion about Evans’ proposal on Twitter; TBD rounded up a collection of opinions stated in 140-character-or-less. The reactions are predictable: phrases like “supply and demand”, “discourage driving” and “cheaper than garages”. A few others mention that it would be easier to pay $0.25 for 7.5 minutes of parking if there were other ways to pay that fee. Continue reading →
