In August of 06, I was sitting with friends in a group house in Adams Morgan. One of the friends was running for mayor for the Statehood Green Party. I ruminated on running for ANC but didn't relish the responsibilities that go along with winning. It's an unpaid position, a neighborhood commissioner. You have the possibility of 2000 constituents calling and asking for help with a myriad of problems, mostly with the city and its government.
I decided to run because the woman running was a recent import to the neighborhood and couldn't possibly understand the single member district in all its complexity of problems. The biggest, or at least most visible problem in my single member district was the H.D. Cooke Elementary School at 2525 17th Street, NW. The children of the school were getting bussed from in front of the school to a swing space near Howard University. Bussing cost the city a million a year. H.D. Cooke was supposed to have been under renovation, but the project stood still for the 3 years the children had been bussed.
My friend the mayoral candidate suggested I organize a rally in front of the school demanding DCPS start renovating. After the DC Primary in September, I gathered outdated political lawn signs and covered them with campaign posters to start the renovation and fix the school. There was a colorful array of posters, many done by the HD Cooke students, asking for renovation to begin, and more. As the children gathered in front of their school each morning, they saw the buildup of posters announcing the rally.
