2011 DC Redistricting: A United Penn Quarter

This doesn’t sound like good news. So we are (mostly) all in Ward 2 now? I like being represented by Tommy Wells, who lives down here (I think in the H Street area) and actually CARES about PQ….as opposed to Jack Evans, who really cares about “his end” of town and not ours.

Plus, has anyone ever attended a meeting of ANC2C (I think that is the number – the one that covers 777 7th)? I went with a friend from 777 to a couple of those meetings and they took my breath away. I grew up in Detroit and those meetings made the notoriously dysfunctional Detroit City Council look like a model of efficiency and decorum. When residents reached out to Jack Evans’ office for help with the dysfunction, he and his staff were not very helpful. In fact, there was a video on Youtube at one point showing one of his staffers basically scolding/lecturing the residents at an ANC2C meeting about how it was their problem, not hers or Jack Evans’. Nice.

Seems to me this means we now have the privilege of being united in being neglected.

I thought the line went down 6th Street instead of 5th, specifically between H and I NW. I live in this block.

First some history. Ten years ago all Penn Quarter residential was south of E Street. To be part of an ANC that was functional and I learned recently for another reason too lengthy to go into, Charley Doctor requested that the area south of E and east of 6th north of E move to Sharon Ambrose’s Ward 6. This was done.

I assume your visits to the dysfunctional ANC 2C were prior to January 2 when newly elected members changed the organizational structure of the ANC. Alex Padro replaced Doris Brooks as Chairman, receiving a majority of the votes for that position. The meetings are professionally organized; they take place on the first Wednesday of the month at 6:30pm at the Watha Daniels library (7th and RI Ave)with agendas emailed out in advance and a website up and running.

Next, revisions to the boundaries above. At the redistricting subcommittee’s last meeting, in response to a request from the Penn Quarter Neighborhood Association to include the few Penn Quarter blocks that were omitted from Ward 2, Jack offered an amendment that brings the eastern boundary on 2nd Street north to H Street, then west on H. Jack could not include the block with the Meridian and 400 Mass, which has a residential population of over 1,200, without relinquishing residential sites elsewhere to an abutting ward or two because the Ward 2 redistricted population after this and another boundary amendment deleting an area east of 9th Street between P and U streets to Ward 6, remained near the maximum population permitted by law.

If at the June 1 public hearing a case can be made to move that last block into Ward 2 because a unified neighborhood is more important than one person one vote, dollars to doughnuts, Jack would be delighted to include in his ward the remaining Penn Quarter block that was left out of his ward.

Tommy Wells lives on Capitol Hill; I think around 4th and C,SE.

The folks at the Meridian, Mass Court, 300 Mass and Ashton are all next to the Mount Vernon Triangle (Ward 6). The fact is that the issues that impact us in this part of the downtown also impact them. The buildings on both sides of Mass Ave certainly support efforts along D, E, Archives but are not directly affected. For instance the three parks along Mass Ave have litter, prostitution and public drinking issues. And the traffic issues also impact us on both sides of the street. I don’t know how we can effectively lobby for improvements if we divide such a major street between two wards. I think it makes more sense to have those buildings be represented by the same Council Member that represents the folks on the other side of the street.

the Georgetown Patch had an article about this very topic suggesting that the PQ was Jackmandered by a single e-mail. good article in the Wash Post too.

another alternative might have been to put all of the Penn Quarter and downtown residential in Ward 6 although Shaw has a higher residential density so putting that portion of it in Ward 6 may have yielded more of a population transfer. it could be that people prefer being in Wells’ ward versus Evans’ ward at this time. not everyone is a fan of Jack Evans.

I am in favor of putting all of PQ and also Mt. Vernon and Mass Ave. in one ward. I love Tommy Wells, think he’s the best council member…but to bring the neighborhood into the same ward, I am okay if we join Ward 2. I don’t like Jack Evans, think he comes off like a privileged rich guy (Tommy has been a social worker all of his adult life). I am very disturbed that Jack Evans has pushed a redistricting plan that divides up Tommy’s Capitol Hill base by pushing “Capitol Hill East” into Ward 7. Neighborhoods should be kept in the same ward. Capitol Hill is one of the city’s best neighborhoods….and Jack Evans has succeeded in carving it up. So, good for PQ except we now have a crappy council member, and too bad for Capitol Hill.

I think the concerns about being in a dysfunctional ANC2C may not be warranted, not only because of the election related changes that took place at the beginning of the year, but also because Councilman Evans has moved Shaw into Ward 6. I think everyone currently servicing as an ANC 2C commissioner is now in Ward 6.

I agree Jack Evans has a tendency to not pay close attention to his eastern neighborhoods, and he clearly told PQ residents to go pound sand when some complained about the loud and extended union protests near residential buildings in his ward, but then stepped in to help when residents in Foggy Bottom complained about the same thing for a much shorter period of time. However, he is at least an experienced and competent councilman, and hopefully with PQ having a bigger voice in his ward, we can get him to be more responsive than he has been in the past.