Downtown Neighborhood Association Meeting Tonight

Ugh…unfortunately I can’t make it tonight. Will we get a recap of the meeting?

Councilmember Schwartz’s committee oversees the Board of Elections and Ethics. I am hoping someone will bring up the issue of our neighborhood being split into 2 wards. This dillutes our political clout, and it means that many of us living closer to Pennsylvania Avenue have to march up behind Capitol to vote.

Those of us living on or near Mass Ave are also split into two wards. Mount Vernon Triangle and some of Mount Vernon Square literally form the border of 2 and 6. Can anyone explain this historical division? Also if feels like the Capitol Hill part of the Ward gets much more attention than our part. It is very difficult to get an answer or action from the Council Member’s office.

Any update on Wholefoods at the meeting last night? I couldn’t make it unfortunately.

No on the Whole Foods. Others say they might be interested (I am not holding my breath).

Big discussion on homeless problem/issue. Carol Schwartz put things into perspective: DC is a liberal and compassionate town — dont expect major changes, as it won’t happen.

Noise issues from trash pickup was also a hot topic: someone is looking into having noise ordinances enforced — good luck.

The head of the Downtown DC BID spoke — was bombarded by inappropriate requests (the BID handles businesses, not residential clients — yet) and had to defend what work they do. For the record. the Downtown BID has been instrumental in cleaning up the neighborhood — making it safer, lighter, cleaner and a little smarter (Circulator and events.)

Patricia from the Office of Planning about attracting Asian cultural programs to the area, and possible developments with the Mount Vernon Square property and surroundings.

Want to know more — attend the next meeting and get involved! I was embarrased for Carol Schwartz and the other speakers: maybe 13 people in attendance. That is SAD in a community of more than 20K — and at least 200 active kibbitzers on this board alone!

I thought C.Schwartz’s comment about DC being “compassionate” about the homeless was rather ironic. I don’t see what’s so compassionate about basically letting people rot in the streets. I know it’s a difficult issue, b/c you can’t just hold people against their will, but it seems like the government could do SOMETHING. Instead, it has abdicated all responsibility for this segment of its citizenry. (For many years, I’ve volunteered with various groups that help homeless people and I’ve found the problem so overwhelming. I think it is too much for only private groups to handle. Many, maybe most, homeless people are mentally ill and that’s a huge complicating factor.)

As for the related panhandling issue discussed last night – Schwartz and a police officer in the audience basically said there’s nothing that can be done. They said it in more words than that, but that was the message I took away. Which can’t really be true – look at what Giuliani et al. did in NYC. (I’m not looking to open a political debate here, but my observation of pre-and post-Giuliani NYC shows me it is obviously POSSIBLE to cut down on panhandling.)

I wonder when DC will start showing compassion for their tax-paying citizens. They cannot believe that it is safe for people to be constantly (and aggressively) approached for money. And lowering standards of behavior to allow public drinking, urination, drug use under the guise of compassion for the homeless? Crazy. I’ve lived in larger cities where these things would not last a week.

I wrote her a lengthy email after the meeting, because I was not happy with her stance, converting the residents’ desire to improve things into wanting to kick all homeless out of the city. I thought that was insulting. Then she used the typical response of there are murders in other neighborhoods, so this isn’t important.

In my experiences from living in the Columbia Heights/U Street & Shaw neighborhoods, where there are murders taking place, residents were begging to have quality of life issues (which cover a wide variety of smaller issues, not just homeless related issues) addressed through some consistent level of enforcement of related ordinances and laws (the most extreme strategy being referred to as Zero Tolerance, which I think may be over doing it), most of which appear to be just ignored today, even when an officer witnesses an incident. The idea is that it helps to curtail both the level of those smaller quality of life issues, as well as larger problems like drugs and violence, that can escalate in an unchecked environment. The police say they aren’t given the resources or even that level of expectation from their gov’t superiors, and the gov’t (Carol Schwartz apparently) seems to say, ‘yeah, that’s not really important’. Although I have consistently voted for her in the past, I was far from impressed.

I went to the meeting. I thought Carol Schwartz talked and talked and talked and said very little. I also thought she was patronizing with regard to the homeless issue. We know, or hope, that DC is compassionate city. We didn’t need her to tell us this is a hard issue. The bottom line on her response was “this is the way it is — accept it.” I hope that a strong candidate runs against her for her at-large seat next time around. I know that she has served the city for a long time, but she’s just not very good.