February 28, 2011 | 5:32 PM | By admin
By Patrick Madden
By now, you’re probably well aware of all the scandals that erupted out of the Wilson Building: pricey SUVs, dubious hiring practices, and of course, Sulaimon Brown. The question going forward – what does it all mean? While the scandals themselves were relatively minor (at least no one embezzled $50 million from the city’s coffers) the reputation of city hall took a hit that may take a long time to recover. To make sense of what happened and what it all means let us draw upon the wise philosopher of the baseball diamond, Yogi Berra.
Here, in no particular order, are some of Yogi’s greatest malapropisms truths.
Continue reading →
Fredrick Kunkle’s story in yesterday’s Washington Post on the battle over school choice in Virginia underscores the emotion in the debate. In Kunkle’s telling, the battle pits civil rights heroes, still yearning for equality, against ambitious young students, questing for opportunity:
On one side are black elders who remember when school choice meant no choice at all because of state-mandated segregation. Many also remember how vouchers were given to white children to attend private academies during “massive resistance” in the late 1950s and early ’60s, when Virginia closed some public schools rather than desegregate as ordered under the Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. the Board of Education. Opponents argue that school choice might resegregate the schools, this time by class and ability.
On the other side is a younger generation of single parents and working-class black families looking for any way out of the state’s most troubled schools in places such as Norfolk, Petersburg and the capital. Even if it’s difficult to rescue all schoolchildren, an effort should be made to save some, they say.
Read to the very bottom of the story for a fascinating tidbit in the conclusion.
Continue reading →
An image of O.S.B. Wall, from Joseph Thomas Wilson's 1890 book "The Black Phalanx."
In Slate, Daniel Sharfstein recounts the history of Orindatus Simon Bolivar Wall, a freed slave and DC resident whose children decided to pass for white:
By any measure, O.S.B. Wall soon became a hero of African-American history, the kind of man Black History Month was created to celebrate. But today he is forgotten. The story of his rise to prominence and fall into obscurity reveals one of the great hidden narratives of the American experience. While O.S.B. Wall spent a lifetime fighting for civil rights, his children grew up to become white people. [...]
Wall had no family to claim and remember him. He and his wife had five children who survived to adulthood. They attended Oberlin, took government positions, and became active in black Republican circles in Washington. Within a few years of their father’s death, however, they began to cut their ties to the black community and identify as white. By 1910, no one was left who wanted to keep the memory of O.S.B. Wall alive.
While Wall’s life tracks some of the central themes of black history, his children’s lives reveal one of its great hidden stories. From the colonial era onward, African-Americans were continually crossing the color line and establishing themselves as white people. It was a mass migration aided by American traditions of mobility, a national acceptance of self-fashioning, and the flux of life on the frontier. It is easy to forget how significant this mass migration was, because it was purposely kept a secret. But it touched millions of lives, simultaneously undermining and reinforcing the meaning of black and white.
Thought this was a fitting link for the last day of Black History Month. The burial site of O.S.B. Wall can be found in Arlington National Cemetery, where his gravestone proudly notes his service as a member of the first black regiment of Civil War volunteers.
Good morning, DCentric readers. Here’s what’s hopping in the District today:
Metro weekend shutdowns to affect Blue, Orange lines: “From the rail system’s 10 p.m. Friday closing through midnight Sunday, there will be no Orange Line service between Stadium-Armory and New Carrollton. Five stations will be closed: Minnesota Avenue, Deanwood, Cheverly, Landover and New Carrollton. The Blue Line will not operate between Stadium-Armory and Benning Road. The Benning Road Station will remain open.” (Washington Post)
Alexandria has highest AIDS rate in Northern Virginia: “Most people living with HIV and AIDS in Alexandria are African-American men, a group that the commission has been trying to target by reaching out to the faith community.” (WAMU)
DC high school closures “absolutely an option”: “D.C. Public Schools Interim Chancellor Kaya Henderson says the District is looking at closing some high schools before the 2012-2013 academic year.” (WAMU)
Local restaurants for local kids fundraiser: “On Thursday March, 3rd, 2011, portions of proceeds from some of the best farm-to-table restaurants in Washington, DC will go to the D.C. Farm to School Network.” (dcfarmtoschool.org)
A Mayor-for-Life flashback: “On Feb. 26, 1986, then-Mayor Marion Barry held a special meeting of more than 100 D.C. government employees, to announce a new list of ’10 or 15 words’ that would be in every press release issued by the D.C. government.” (Washington City Paper)
Twistiti / Flickr
You’ve heard of the DREAM Act, the bill that would offer a path to legal residency to great students that arrived in the US illegally when they were children. You’ve probably heard of SB 1070, Arizona’s law making it a state crime for non-citizens to be without their registration documents. But you might not have heard about Secure Communities, even though it’s a centerpiece of the Obama administration’s immigration policy, and it’s igniting plenty of controversy here in DC. And now more details are leaking out about how DC Police Chief Cathy Lanier has tried to work with the program. Continue reading →
By Dana Farrington
A PBS graphic
As the spotlight in D.C. continues to shine on Sulaimon Brown, a recently fired auditor at the Department of Health Care Finance, we thought we’d bring you some numbers on the District’s Medicaid spending.
A recent NewsHour PBS photo essay breaks down 2012 Medicaid budgets and 2009 spending for the 50 states and D.C. The District ranked number one in two areas in 2009: Medicaid cost per capita and the percentage of the population enrolled in Medicaid.
*Cost per capita: $2,836
Percent of total population in Medicaid: 24 %
(*The NewsHour confirmed that this figure is the combined cost for the federal and city governments.)
D.C. also offers the D.C. HealthCare Alliance program, which covers people who are not eligible for Medicaid, including “non-disabled childless adults, non-qualified aliens and some individuals who are over-income for Medicaid.”
In other news, Wayne Turnage, who fired Brown last week, was expected to have been confirmed as the director of Health Care Finance.
GrayTransition2010.org
Recognize this image from Vince Gray's mayoral campaign? Prepare to see something like it on improvement projects all over DC.
DCist flags a notable executive order in this week’s DC Register:
According to Executive Order 2011-45, [...] you’ll be seeing a lot more of “One City” around these parts — like everywhere the D.C. government maintains a presence.
The branding has already begun: the city’s annual Summer Youth Employment Program is now officially called the “2011 Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s One City Summer Youth Employment Program.”
The commenters at DCist are already bringing the snark, as they do. “Aside from the race baiting connotations, and campaign use, it’s not a slogan for a city,” posts Stmove. “It’s embarassing, as if the best thing we can say about the District is that it’s one city. It sort of makes Baltimore’s ‘Charm City’ look totally non ironic in comparison.” Best comment: “Yet another example of the “Novus Ordo Secretum” as prophecied in The Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accept Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, the Book of Revelations, the Last Words of Dutch Schultz, and the Fun 4 Kidz placemat at the Expressway 83 Shoney’s near McAllen, TX.”
How about it, DCentrists? Any thoughts on the logo, soon to be on DC business cards, letterheads and signs near you?
Harriet Tregoning: Planning DC’s Future: Tregoning, Director of the DC Office of Planning, discussed the city’s need for more retail options, the imminent arrival of new big-box developments, including WalMart, and whether “conservation districts” might be an alternative to “historic district” designation. She also talked about redevelopment plans for the Walter Reed Medical Center, which could mean allocated the entire frontage along Georgia Avenue to the medical center. (thekojonnamdishow.org)
Metro anti-crime initiative could restrict student use of system: In an attempt to reduce the increase of violent incidents on the metro, the transit authority plans issue student metro cards that include ID information. The pilot program with start with students from the School Without Walls and is looking at limiting usage at night and on weekends. (Washington Post)
House Republicans prepare to evict struggling DC homeowners: A looming government shutdown on March 4 could harm people having problems keeping up with their mortgage payments. Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus (R-Ala.) announced his panel would consider legislation on March 3 that would take an axe to housing programs that have been the last hope of some facing the possibility of foreclosure.
(Examiner.com)
Sulaimon Brown, aide to D.C. mayor, is fired after allegations of criminal record: Sacrificial lamb? D.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray, perhaps responding to allegations of cronyism fired Brown, but Brown didn’t go quietly. He showed up at a news briefing where the mayor was addressing the termination and started answering questions. From what I have seen, no argument with the dismissal, but why was he hired in the first place? (Washington Post)
Crime in the Metro system hit a 5-year high in 2010, according to a WMATA report released today. That’s the banner finding among many grim facts in the report, which you can read in its PowerPoint-y entirety here. Here are some of the other surprises:
A third of the 2,012 arrests in 2010 involved youths.
I’m not sure whether I expected this figure to be higher or lower, but it was definitely interesting. Many of our discussions of Metro crime over the past several months have been about youth on the Metro, such as today’s story embedded at right from MyFoxDC. Last summer’s brawl at Gallery Place sparked several comment threads about race and crime on various sites online, such as DCist. What do you think? Did you find this figure surprising?
4 of 7 sexual offenses “allegedly involved assaults on disabled customers by MetroAccess drivers.”
This statistic, from the WaPo story about the report, paints a very disturbing picture. An account from a WaPo story last April provides some more context:
Both contract drivers [charged with sexual assaults against customers] were hired after passing a background check, said Nikki Frenney, vice president of public affairs for MV Transportation, which oversees the 1,500 drivers in the MetroAccess system for Metro. MetroAccess provides about 7,700 trips a day for people with disabilities who are unable to use regular bus and rail service.
A homicide appears to be missing from the data.
MyFoxDC noted this in their story on the report. Indeed, the WMATA report claims no homicides occurred in the Metro system in 2010, but what happened to the homicide at the Congress Heights Metro Station in May? MyFoxDC asked Councilmember Tommy Wells, who didn’t have an answer for why the homicide might be omitted. The station wasn’t able to get a comment from Metro officials.
