RSS FeedChinatown Steering Committee Relocates To.. Chevy Chase!?
Old Headquarters
We recently performed a search on the elusive Chinatown Steering Committee only to find that its head quarters at 451 M St NW was sold (pdf) last November. Mr. Duane Wang sold the home near Chinatown for nearly $1 million. The old address is still listed on the Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs City Service page.
New Headquarters
Next, we sought out the new headquarters for the steering committee and found it on this page. The new address? It’s 3721 Jocelyn St NW, just a few blocks within the District near Chevy Chase, Maryland.
No Local Control Over Our Neighborhood
This DC.gov page describes the steering committee as: Individuals and organizations, with community interests in the Chinatown area, who advise the city government on projects to enhance life in Chinatown.
It is bad enough that our current ANC, made up of commissioners that live well north of our neighborhood, have so much control over what happens here. Now, we have a second organization located in Chevy Chase that is controlling what happens in our neighborhood.
If you enjoyed this post, please consider leaving a comment or subscribing to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
I believe the bloggers of Gallery Place Living are doing a tremendous service. I’d hardly say they are “doing nothing.” Your suggestion is an important one–to become involved in the local decision making process–but I hope this forum could be used as an opportunity to share information and not point fingers. Thank you to everyone who helps make DC a better place to live and work in whatever forum they prefer.
suelee: I must have missed the open invitation to be a part of this group. Can you resend? And do you dispute the point of this post, that many decisions about Chinatown/Penn Quarter are made by people and organizations not located here?
This steering committee sounds suspiciously like the PQNA, which has yet to show its face in the latest grocery store drama. According to property records, the executive director (and only employee?) of PQNA lived in Maryland until a couple years ago.
Anon: PQNA was involved when the Balducci’s drama started up – PQNA initiated the email campaign.
But, I do agree that the steering committee does not have the feel of an “open” organization.
Your ANC representatives are made up of people who live far north of you because the people in your neighborhood either voted for them or didn’t vote at all.
We who live north of you would love to see the people of Gallery Place more involved in the ANC. The next time the ANC commissioner positions come up, please try to get everyone involved in voting for someone from you area who will represent you.
The ANC problem isn’t that all of our representatives live to our north, but rather our neighborhood is split between two wards. Here’s a good map that includes the ANC single-member districts for our neighborhood: http://www.dcboee.org/pdf_files/Ward2_Map.pdf
Our neighborhood is split between two single-member districts (6C09 and 2C03), which might not be so bad if they were in the same ANC, but they’re in completely different wards (6C09 is, fittingly, the last of 9 SMD’s in that ANC).
Besides that, the boundaries were drawn based on population recorded before many of the apartment complexes in our neighborhood existed (Gallery Place, Clara Barton/Lafayette, Mather, Artisan, Ventana, Cosmopolitan, others?). That’s added several thousand residents to a few square blocks (where there were literally none before), which will almost certainly affect redistricting in 2010.
I think you have to draw a distinction between controlling and providing advice. Advisors and committees advise but the city is the controlling entity.
I’d be interested in learning more about the Committee. Is there a website? Can Ms. Suelee Yamamoto e-mail some information to our Gmail inbox? We’d be happy to look at anything she can send on the Committee. A new post might come of it.
I believe the meetings are held on the 2nd floor at 616 H Street NW on the first or 2nd Mondays of the month at 7:00 pm. I attended the January meeting and thought that it was very informative. I learned alot about the latest real estate happenings in our neighborhood. I hope to attend other meetings. Please join me at these meetings. I think that you will like them. Everyone was very nice and welcoming.
I have also attended two ANC meetings. These are very interesting. I encourage everyone to attend those, too. I think that you will find these meetings very eye opening into the happenings in our neighborhood.
These meetings are mostly held on the first Wednesday of the month at 6:30 pm.
blog postings for ANC 2C and 6C:
http://lifein.mountvernonsquare.org/index.cfm?mode=cat&catid=6EECF023-CF0E-DBBA-92331771A39485ED
ANC 6C09 Commissioner is Charley Doctor. http://www.anc6c.org
ANC 2C03 Commissioner is Doris Brooks. they have no website.
I’m sorry I’m getting forgetful, ANC 2C has no official website. ANC2C02 has a great site where you can access lots of resources, videos, minutes, bylaws…:
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
Why don’t you join us and becomes members of the committee instead of just talking about it and doing nothing.