September 15, 2010 | 10:16 AM | By Anna
Mr. T in DC
A district taxicab.
The Washington Post has an interesting article about one group of Gray supporters and how they pitched in yesterday: cabdrivers.
The city’s roughly 6,000 taxi cabdrivers, a group made up largely of African-born immigrants, have long been upset with Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) over his 2007 change from the city’s zone fare system to meters. On Tuesday, they waged what one union leader called “the fight for our very lives.”
I take cabs frequently and I can vouch for this; by this summer, drivers were inquiring about for whom I’d vote and asking if I’d like more information about their take on the race. When I discovered that many of them didn’t live in the district and thus, couldn’t vote themselves, they’d only get more vocal about their inability to do so– and my need to be educated before I cast my ballot.
While the article examines the dynamic of African immigrants focusing their ire on an African American mayor, I met several African-American cabbies who had been born and raised in D.C., who had lived in this city for six or seven decades, and they were passionately disappointed with Fenty, too. Continue reading →
September 15, 2010 | 7:45 AM | By Anna
Good morning, DCentric readers! While you were biting your nails at Election results last night, we were hunting and gathering– links, that is. Enjoy!
A picture of the dog killed by police at that street fest on Sunday “Calla with Parrot, the pitbull-terrier shot an hour later by DC police at today’s Adams Morgan street fair.” Parrot was at the fair with Lucky Dog Rescue when he fought with a poodle. The police arrived, an officer pinned the dog to the ground, decided he was dangerous, threw him down a stairwell and shot him, point-blank in front of a crowd including children. Controversy has swirled since.(twitpic.com)
Why we’re teaching ‘The Wire’ at Harvard “Impressed by (The Wire’s) treatment of complex issues, we developed a course at Harvard drawing on the show’s portrayal of fundamental sociological principles connected to urban inequality. Our seminar was designed for 30 students; four times that many showed up for the first class last week. Of course, our undergraduate students will read rigorous academic studies of the urban job market, education and the drug war. But the HBO series does what these texts can’t.” (The Washington Post)
D.C. GOP quietly backs Adrian Fenty as Republican write-in candidate for mayor “…a very active group of Republicans worked quietly to get fellow party members to go to the polls Tuesday, even though the GOP did not run a candidate for mayor. The Republicans were encouraged to write in Fenty — a Democrat — as the GOP’s mayoral nominee.” (tbd.com)
Continue reading →
September 15, 2010 | 2:02 AM | By Anna
The Associated Press just “called” the D.C. Democratic Primary for Vincent Gray. Via NBC4:
With 90 percent of precincts reporting, Gray held about a 53-46 percent lead (59,285 votes to 50,850 votes) over incumbent Mayor Adrian Fenty.
“Tonight the people of the District sent a message loud and clear that they want to bring character, integrity and leadership back to the mayor’s office,” Gray told his supporters just before 2 a.m. Wednesday. ”It’s time that we come together as one city.”
September 14, 2010 | 3:00 PM | By Anna
I know, this is southwestern food, not regional Mexican. But it was delicious.
Columbia Heights is getting a new, and hopefully delicious neighbor: a Mexican restaurant. Via Tim Carman’s “Young and Hungry” column in the City Paper:
The tiny, 800-square-foot operation will be located at 3313 11th St., in a former liquor store, and will not only sell regional Mexican foods but also snacks inspired by the L.A. street food scene.
They’re going to be open for breakfast, lunch, dinner and possibly late night. I hope they’re slightly more Vegetarian-friendly than Taqueria Distrito Federal. The proprietor, Jackie Greenbaum, had her reasons for picking the 11th Street location: Continue reading →
September 14, 2010 | 12:29 PM | By Anna
Over in Ward 8, when the The Advoc8te, who blogs at Congress Heights on the Rise tried to vote today, she encountered this drama, involving an ANC Commissioner, two police cars and allegations of electioneering:
On my way into the elementary school I did see Commissioner Mary Cuthbert (8C03) (she of the n-word infamy) sitting alongside the fence directly in front of her the school in support of her candidate (Gray) and clutching some “Gray for Mayor” t-shirts… It seems Mary was clearly (and I mean clearly) within the “campaigning free zone” which had been indicated by very direct signage advising there would be no campaigning beyond that point.
…The polling station manager asked Ms. Cuthbert to please move farther down the fence beyond the posted signs – she refused. He asked again and she refused again stating that the law is she can’t be within 50 feet of the door so she didn’t care where he put the signs she wasn’t moving (please note: all the other campaigners stayed outside of the campaign free zone). At some point William Lockridge got involved and he started yelling at the polling manager and getting up in his face and someone called the police.
Continue reading →
September 14, 2010 | 10:02 AM | By Anna
GLAA
GLAA Ratings
It’s finally election day in Washington, D.C. (and Maryland).
With all the attempts– and by this I mostly mean television ads– to frame Mayoral challenger Vincent Gray as regressive and old skool, I found it interesting that GLAA, The Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington, D.C., gave Gray a score that was twice as high as Adrian Fenty’s on their primary ratings, a screen shot of which is to the right.
Fenty disagrees with GLAA on a number of issues, and his record is mixed. While his administration led the exceptional legal fight to keep and defend our marriage rights; they also spent nearly two years obstructing the Domestic Partnership Judicial Determination of Parentage Act, which is now a model law protecting the rights and responsibilities of LGBT parents. We were struck by the numerous promises made four years ago that were promptly broken.
September 14, 2010 | 8:15 AM | By Anna
Good morning, DCentric readers! How is your coffee or tea? I’ll bet it would be improved with some delicious news links. Go ahead, try it. You’ll like it.
Fenty, Kwame Brown win big in blogger straw poll The privileged decide: “The ugly and unpleasant reality is that a huge portion of Gray’s supporters really do want a return to the Barry years. The pressure on Gray to deliver lots and lots and lots of pork will be unbearable — and I predict he will cave.” and “[Fenty] and Chancellor Rhee are moving the school system in the right direction and has even gotten national attention on the matter.” and “Yes, Fenty is a jerk. But, so what. DC needs to grow up and start acting like a big city instead of an overgrown small town.” (tbd.com)
Scope, cost of planned NW arts district questioned “I don’t understand how they think they can get people to walk 17 blocks up, 17 blocks over and 17 blocks down. . . . It is just a strange idea,” said Siobhan Gavagan, an art consultant for Longview Gallery on Ninth Street. “There needs to be an overall plan. . . . There needs to be a unified vibe to make one unified arts district. (The Washington Post)
Shaw Dog Park Gets $75,000 City Grant for Improvements “”We applied for the grant in May and got tentative approval a few weeks later, but I didn’t want to announce it until we received the official notice. We basically have Mayor Fenty, a big supporter of dogs parks and other recreational facilities, to thank for this grant,” Kassouf said.” (Borderstan) Continue reading →
September 13, 2010 | 5:58 PM | By Anna
UPDATE: According to UnsuckDCmetro, the Wheaton station is now closed.
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If the tweet I’ve posted to the right is true, then I hope that no one disabled is stuck in that mess. I feel for everyone who commutes through that station right now.
September 13, 2010 | 3:54 PM | By Anna
In a feature titled “The Chocolate City’s Two Faces”, The Root kicks off a three-part series examining D.C.’s local political scene:
…(Harry) Thomas said there are pockets of the city and residents who are not benefiting from its new status, with a population that is steadily increasing as urban centers become more attractive. “The issue becomes not just about race but about economics, salaries and opportunities,” he said…
Some members of Congress “ran this city like a plantation until Marion Barry came into office,” said Bernard Demczuk, assistant vice president of District of Columbia relations at George Washington University. “Blacks made up 70 percent of the city and did not have those jobs.”
Continue reading →
September 13, 2010 | 2:26 PM | By Anna
B.Romain
Well, that's one way to keep your iPod safe.
WTOP reports that Metro Transit Police are concerned about the rise in robberies of phones and mp3 players:
From Jan. 1 to June 30, 2010, there were 540 robberies on trains and buses, according to Metro statistics. (See Slide 14) That’s about 160 more compared to the same point last year, and almost double compared to 2008.
Many robberies involve smartphones or iPods that are simply snatched right off riders.
Much like real estate, location is everything: Continue reading →
