Saturday, October 30, 2010

A Voice 4 U Video

The students at American University have produced a video to support the two candidates for ANC 3D.
Ever since the Greater Greater Washington endorsements of Ward 3 ANC candidates were announced, there has been a spirited discussion on the Tenleytown listserv centered around the open ANC 3E04 race between Sally Greenberg and Tom Quinn.

Ms. Greenberg and her "endorsers" (where have these endorsements been published?) seem to be for Smart Growth, but their version of it appears to be different than what Greater Greater Washington and Ward 3 Vision embrace. According to one Ward 3 Vision leader, Ms. Greenberg has not been active in any of the Smart Growth touchpoints in the Ward:

I received Sally Greenberg's literature as well, and from her one sentence on Smart Growth, I cannot discern her views on the issue at all. In her "Goals for Our Community" section, the only thing she includes about Smart Growth is a one sentence bullet -- "Smart growth, i.e., development which balances the needs of business with the concerns of the neighborhood. That sentence is so vague as to be meaningless and also does not address any of the basic elements of Smart Growth.

Since she includes Smart Growth as a goal, I would be interested in hearing more from her about how she defines Smart Growth; what her views were about some of the specific projects over the past few years in which Smart Growth has been part of the discussion -- e.g., the Akridge project, the Tenley Library / Janney School PPP, the Safeway redevelopment, etc.; and what her involvement was with any of those projects or any other Smart Growth issues in the neighborhood. (I have been reasonably active in neighborhood issues and am not aware that I have encountered her in public meetings, hearings, etc., so her views are a blank slate to me.)


Given that the stewards of the alphabet soup of community associations seem to be exuberant supporters of Ms. Greenberg, and given that Ms. Greenberg appears to not even take the trouble to join the neighborhood listserv, much less participate in any of the key community issues in the past, it makes it difficult to assess any sense of where this candidate stands on issue of importance to voters in this Single Member District.

ANC candidates should be active in their communities and at a minimum, have the time and concern for their future constituents to participate in an open digital forum (where available) to demonstrate their accessibility and knowledge and positions on important issues. Ms. Greenberg, to date, has not demonstrated any such concern, and hijacking a charged term like "smart growth" in an attempt to paint themselves as something they appear not to be is disingenuous.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

DDOT Livability Study Update

DDOT has released (PDF) the feedback collected during the second public meeting of the Rock Creek West 2 livability study.

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

GreaterGreaterWashington Ward 3 ANC Endorsements

A previous posting outlined the candidates for the different ANC races across the Ward. The Greater Greater Washington blog offers insight into some of these contested races.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Hedgepath 'likes" Sarah Palin and Christine O'Donnell

Loose Lips notes the irony that Ward 3 Republican candidate David Hedgepath is a fan of erstwhile Republican starlets, Sarah Palin and Christine "I am a Constitutional Scholar, or not" O'Donnell.

I wonder how Ward 3 Democrats would feel about bringing Ms. Palin to stump in Palisades?

Hedgepath owes Back Taxes

According to Washington Post reporter Mike DuBonis, Republican Ward 3 candidate David Hedgepath owes over $10,000 of back taxes to the Internal Revenue Service.

How is that for good Republican fiscal constraint?

Friday, October 22, 2010

The Mysterious Mr. Hedgepath

The Washington Post surprisingly has endorsed Republican Ward 3 Council candidate David Hedgepath. Given this elevation of legitimacy to the republican candidate, it is time that voters find out more about him.

Tenleytown activist Nelson Jacobson has challenged the Republican with a series of questions to help voters get to know him. It is time for Mr. Hedgepath, if he is to be taken seriously, to respond:


On the Work level:

Are you are a lawyer or Litigation Support Services staffer?
What kind of legal work do you do. Are you a lawyer working on contracts or support staff working on contracts.

Please provide a complete resume of your professional experience.

To follow up with that question, Have you ever worked on a case that involved suing the District of Columbia?


Your bio says that you are now a member of the DC Bar, however you graduated from law school sometime ago, right? Is there a reason why there was a delay?

Have you ever appeared in a DC Court and if so what kind of clients did you represent?


On the personal level:

You have been in DC for a while I am sure that you have a long voting record could you please share it. If you missed a few votes why?

Do you belong to any community groups in your neighborhood.

Do you volunteer at your kids schools on any committees, and have you been involved in any local nonprofits or serve on any boards or group that are active in DC.

Prior to your entry to the Council race, did you ever attend an ANC meeting, a Community Association meeting or other community event? If so, when. If not, why not?

On the Job:

What your best skill do you have that makes you our choice in Ward 3 for public service.

Do you have issues that you are going to tackle as the Ward 3 representative and what Ward 3 issues do you think need tackling?

On issues name then, and what groups will bring together that are already not working on them to fix it.

If we need to raise taxes to pay our city bills which ones would you favor and why?

Not sure if your aware of it but, (The campaign site says that DC schools Test
scores have risen under Rhee) only 3 schools in Ward3 are passing NCLB. How do you rectify this error? Are you aware that scores were down in the most recent cycle? How do you rectify this error?

How would you change this or did you think it's acceptable that as other Wards test scores increase ours have not and what are you going to do different? To buy your premise some other wards schools had to be much higher

You supported Adrian Fenty in the Mayoral election. Do you support his economic development, procurement and budgeting policies?

What tools do police and fireman need that they don't have your site says they need them. Could you supply some specifics?

What committees do you think your going to be able to be assigned too if elected?

You said you will leave your current job and be on the council full time; So are you taking a pay cut or getting a pay raise.

Considering Mary Cheh ran against nine people in her first election we know more about her then needed. BTW who did you vote for in that election.

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

More on the Gray "healing tour"

tim Craig of the Washington Post shares more about the Vince Gray "healing tour" articularly for voters in Ward 3.

Of note:


"I don't want to be in a situation where people routinely don't like you, so the onus is on me to reach out at this stage, and that is exactly what I am trying to do," Gray said in a recent interview.