DCPS Community Forum at the New HD Cooke Elementary School

There couldn’t be a better place to hold a forum about how a physical learning environment impacts student learning. H.D. Cooke Elementary School opened in August this year as a 100 years old, brand new state of the art elementary and preschool learning facility. The school was closed for five years awaiting renovation completion. It was once labeled DC’s worst school facility by the Army Corps of Engineers, the entity then responsible for maintaining DC Public Schools.

What a difference five years makes. The fits and starts HD Cooke went through to get where it is today would fill a book, much of it about the incompetence and lack of accountability of DCPS. Construction finally began in 2007, just as the Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization was beginning the long-neglected job of managing DCPS facilities.




Today, HD Cooke Elementary School is an amazing facility. What used to be Precinct 35 voting place in the basement of Cooke is now a media center/library with a skylight beaming from the high ceiling, surrounded by restored columns that stretch the full three stories from floor to ceiling.



This could never have happened this well under the old system of running the schools. This is certainly why some may think the new chancellor is working miracles in the DCPS.

Celebration in Mt. Pleasant, Saturday October 31st

How nice, members of MPD intermingling with members of the community. This is community policing at its best.

Community policing is what we need now, more than ever. In my single member district, gang violence continues; illegal paper sales continue; people on stay-away orders from the court are not staying away. If the police came to dinner in the community more often, they may get some insight on how to dislodge the semi-hidden crime.

To their credit, MPD is listening. I was informed that before I arrived, the Mt. Pleasant community requested two officers be removed from their streets because of misconduct, and MPD responded to their request

It appears MPD also responded to the Adams Morgan request. The officer in question has been posted elsewhere lately. Seems live attestations of a dozen residents hold more weight than a petition with 35 alleged signatures, some obviously fraudulent, collected by the businesses. The commander of 3rd District did the right thing. We continue watching the locations of the officer(s) in question.

God Bless Our First Responders and vigilant volunteers who keep us safe

The Pumpkins of Ontario and Lanier . . .always fun

What's the deal with Officer Kurtz?

Back in July several members of the Latino community paid a visit to Councilmember Graham's office to explain what Officer Kurtz had been doing that made them feel unsafe and discriminated against by an MPD officer they considered abusive and intentionally aggressive.

Councilmember Graham got Chief Groomes on the speaker phone in his office, and members of the delegation took turns telling her of their first hand knowledge of incidents of abuse Officer Kurtz had committed. They spoke of his carrying a video camera into Unity Park where many Hispanics go and alleged he purposefully shot video of people he thought were illegal. Councilmember Graham's visitors believed that their relatives had been deported because Officer Kurtz was working with ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). Chief Groomes was very receptive to the people's complaints, but asked for proof. The people in the councilmember's office agreed to write up statements to describe the incidents they were talking about; but, when it came to signing those statements, people backed off because of fear of exposure to immigration authorities.

However, Chief Groomes took the people's testimony seriously, and the same day they were in the councilmember's office, Officer Kurtz was reassigned to another PSA away from Columbia Road and a large Hispanic population.

Since that time, the Business Improvement District circulated a petition to have Officer Kurtz returned to Columbia Road. Members of the BID never reached out to the Hispanic Community or the people who made the original complaints about the officer. Nor did the BID reach out to ANC commissioners who represent the blocks the officer patroled to learn more about the bases of the allegations. The BID simply dismissed their complaints and circulated a petition among the businesses in the 1700 and 1800 blocks of Columbia Road NW. They allege to have the signatures of 35 businesses. The truth of the petition is that the BID's daytime ambassador got a few signatures. The rest were were printed in the same handwriting, not signed.

Officer Kurtz was returned to Columbia Road, but he's also been working in other PSAs . Officer Kurtz is under greater scrutiny these days. There have not been any reports of abuse of his power since his return, but unless he's had sensitivity training or classes in diversity when he was away, it's only a matter of time before he uses his power to violate the Constitution, the Supreme Law of the Land.

Clearly the First Amendment to the Constitution is second in Adams Morgan to the BID's unfettered right to commerce.

Freedom is a constant struggle. Vigilance is its price.

Seniors Protest Plans for Extended Handicap Ramp at the Renovated Mt. Pleasant Library

Seniors and disabled residents gathered in the front of the Mt. Pleasant Library today to protest the new plans to increased the proposed new ramp from a 40 foot long ramp with a less than three foot decline to a 120 foot long ramp with a seven foot incline.

Speakers included Commissioner Chris Otten of the Adams Morgan Advisory Neighborhood Commission, Commissioner Greg Edwards of the Mount Pleasant Advisory Neighborhood Commission and several members of the senior communities around the library. One handicapped woman spoke of a nightmare scenario if someone were to lose control of a wheel chair going up or down the ramp, the long incline would be a recipe for disaster.

For more information, please call 202-536-4065 or go to www.districtdynamos.org

The Deauville Apartment Building in Mt Pleasant

Latest on the Deauville is that the city is going to buy it from the negligent landlord for four million dollars. What is wrong with that picture? Then what? Not sure.

Also latest on the church that burned behind the Deauville: Looks like a lot of interest in turning it into a place for community artists. Wouldn't that be nice?

The photo was taken at the Latino Festival on Mt. Pleasant Street. The festivities in front of the Deauville belie the struggle it represents. Hopefully the people and street life depict the Deauville's future.

Planting a vegetable garden in a violent neighborhood .

neighborhood where gang violence often turns deadly, planting a vegetable garden next to a basketball court right outside the local recreation center could be considered an exercise in futility. The naysayers abounded when the seedlings were put in the ground.

"That's the wrong place, they'll get trampled by the kids playing basketball." "The rats are going to eat all the vegetables, if anything grows." "In two weeks, this recreation center will have 500 kids coming in and out. The kids won't pay any mind to it and run all over it."

I have to admit I had my own doubts,

but they came after I'd committed to growing a garden with the seniors in the wellness class at the Columbia Heights Recreation Center. When the coordinator of Senior Activities of DPR asked us if we'd participate in DPR's Beautification Day, some of us agreed to plant and cultivate a vegetable garden. DPR provided the seedlings and some tools. We provided the grunt work of digging out a garden bed in an area we knew nothing about. We found a lot of rocks and roots, but we kept digging and created two garden beds.

The garden was planted in early June. It had a two-week head start before the kids showed up for summer camp. The garden also had a lot of rain early on. After the initial planting, there was no set schedule of who would water it. Some commitments made were not kept. We had the wellness class Tuesday and Thursday morning, so we used watering the garden as weight training exercise. Some seniors came more than twice a week and took it on themselves to water when they came.

The garden grew and grew, and grew a little wild because no-one staked the tomatoes until late in July, but they still grew, producing cherry tomatoes for almost two months and counting. Eggplants grew and are still growing. They didn't grow as big as they could have but they were picked before full growth. They're still trying to grow with pretty purple flowers harking the new one "coming out".

Growing gardens gives you lessons for the next time you grow one. Two lessons from this year's garden: The first: Don't it always seem to show that you don't know what you got til it grows. The second: Always stake up the tomatoes to keep them off the ground.