Tomorrow’s DNA Meeting – Mayor Fenty, CM Evans & CM Wells

I left after an hour; it was a big “get off my lawn” meeting.

It was a very productive meeting for those who bothered to listen to all viewpoints, which you couldn’t have if you left after an hour. There was also a lot of constructive discourse for an hour after the meeting among people from all sides. But you wouldn’t know that if you walked out early with your own closed viewpoint.

I agree, the meeting was good — many opinions expressed, and afterwards — a great opportunity to speak 1-1 with police, fire and council leaders. The “teen problem” will not be solved in a day — it will take a while and a coordinated effort on the part of many city services, volunteer groups, and local businesses. But the city IS working to alleviate the problem, and I feel more confident that real work is being done than I did before I stepped into the meeting.

Not sure how you can say that Omari — the first 40 minutes were taken up by Fenty speaking about many community issues, followed by Tommy Wells. We barely got to the teen issue until well after an hour and it was productive. We learned about the goals of the teens (some of whom were there) and they got a reality check about the impacts of their behavior on a community. Clearly you are trying to minimize the concerns of this neighborhood.

I agree the meeting was productive as well. It was also good that the teens in attendance heard what the issues were and saw “the other point of view”. Of course, the teens in attendance aren’t the ones causing the problems … and it’s not all coming from the Bounce event. In talking to one of the organizers of the Bounce events, it seems that their attendence has been down in the past few weeks – ever since Avenue started thir own teen activities, the Bounce event crowds has diminished. So all the fingers can’t be pointed at Bounce.

I didn’t finish work until late last night, what is being done across the District to remedy the situation?

I hope the following readout is helpful…I’ll start with narration and end with opinion.

Fenty, Wells, Evans, Mendelson, the MPD (Groomes) and the DCFD were all there. see Elaine’s comment above for the first 40 minutes. I counted chairs and people…approx 90 chairs, most filled and at least a dozen were standing around the perimeter. there were over 100 people in attendance for the first hour.

the Mayor then fielded comments from the audience and heard about different subjects from flower boxes to Chinatown buses to issues derived from teen crowding (policing, clubs, curfews, enforcement). the teen issue garnered the most commenters from the audience including residents, business owners and the promoter and teens of Club Bounce.

after Fenty, Wells and Mendelson left at 7:30 pm, Evans fielded questions about the state of DC’s finances (good relative to other jurisdictions but a $131M shortfall), preparations for the national election season (they’re all over it) and about Franklin shelter (it’s closed but Barry still is pushing for a downtown shelter – see my BTW comment at the end).

I thought the meeting was well done and could have gone longer for those who wished to stay and hear more about Bounce. several in the audience didn’t get to speak. but, I understand keeping the meeting to an hour and a half.

what did the Mayor commit to? he committed to eradicating the safety problem, said it can’t and won’t continue and that downtown can’t be a place to cause mayhem. Groomes acknowledged that there needs to be more for teens to do and that that rec centers were one outlet. official curfew is 11 pm weekdays and midnight Friday/Saturday. another senior MPD responded to a question about zero tolerance that enforcement is still a discretionary exercise.

my opinion? the city and the Mayor are now keenly aware that they have a multifaceted issue to monitor and act on as this is not only about safety. businesses, real estate values and political accomplishment are all on the table here and as much was said by the audience, which I believe Fenty recognized and took seriously. I personally have seen MPD do a good job responding so far so I applaud them and the city. keep up the good work! what’s a challenge is that our area is a multi-use area…transportation hub, cool restaurant scene, fun residential neighborhood and so on – we get all comers. we’re not 99% rowhouses or 99% office buildings. the community needs to nail this one down long term because when the Old Convention Center gets redeveloped and it becomes the new darling (it will), the same challenges may arise again.

long winded, but I hope this helps for those who couldn’t attend.

(BTW, Evans indicated that Barry is pushing to open a 150 bed facility downtown at the next Council meeting which I assume is the Committee of the Whole on Oct 21. if you want to have a say on this one, you need to send letters to the Council with your opinion.)

(BTW 2, the DC Council’s website has been redesigned and it looks a lot better…check it out…http://www.dccouncil.us/)

Do people think the 150 bed shelter Evans alluded to is the Central Union Mission supposed move to the Gales School site or something additional to that? That is being contested right now on the basis that the plantiffs do not believe the city should be subsidizing a faith based facility.

it isn’t the Gales School. Barry tried/is trying to push through a shelter in a strictly defined area downtown that is west of the Gales School and south of the Central Union Mission. it’s a total set up.

see WaPo’s DC Wire blog here and more humorously here for the play-by-play among Fenty, Evans and Barry. the end of the second linked article is the real prize.