Voter Registration Approaching: Why Should We Care?

The last day for voter registration to be able to vote in the September 9th primary is August 11; for the November 4 general election, the last day is October 11. Anyone who has moved into the downtown neighborhood who has not registered or has not updated their registration can do so by going to the Board of Elections and Ethics web site at www.dcboee.org. The overall percentage of downtown residents who are registered is less than 30 percent, according to recent records provided by the Board of Elections and Ethics.

There are many reasons given by those who have not registered, including indifference, the lack of congressional representation, the preference of voting in one’s home state or of being a Republican in a Democratic-dominated city. Many are here for only a few years and choose not to be involved in local community issues.

In the District of Columbia, the importance of voting has a very local impact. Each Ward is split into Advisory Neighborhood Commissions (ANC), which are further split into Single Member Districts (SMD). After the U.S. Census and Districts are recast, each SMD has about 2,000 residents that will elect a commissioner to represent them before the ANC. The commissioner has “great weight” within the SMD served and the ANC is given “great weight” status when District agencies issue permits, with their Ward councilmember, and with the Mayor’s office. So, if a citizen has an issue with an agency or needs help with a neighborhood issue, this elected commissioner is where to start. As I have learned, it always helps when conducting DNA business if I have one of the neighborhood’s seven commissioner’s active support.

The commissioner is the most local of non-partisan elected officials. They serve two-year terms. A strong commissioner (like ANC6C09 Commissioner Charlie Docter) can do a lot to improve the SMD served. Accordingly, a weak commissioner can do a lot to impede improvements in the SMD served. While the downtown neighborhood has seven commissioners, each of us only can elect the one representing our own SMD.

So, in order to improve the quality of life within our neighborhood, it is critical to have commissioners who can help deliver the services and improvements we need. And, in order to do that, we need strong voter registration and participation so that we can elect commissioner who will serve our downtown residential interests. This requires a vote.

Tough Week for Downtown Residents: Noise Amendment Failure

This was a disappointing week for downtown residents as we watched the non-commercial amplified speech bill amended into a bill that provides little relief for our more residential neighbors and nothing for those of us living in mixed commercial/residential parts of this city. The council chose to discriminate against those who live downtown. The unions were willing to allow some level of protection for residential zones, but they wanted the right to deploy street-level negotiations with no volume limit in our downtown neighborhood. The humorous part of the council meeting were those pretending the bill was about speech and not noise. The honest path would have been to acknowledge that it was about the right of unions to protest downtown with no volume limit.

Somehow, those choosing to live downtown “should have known” about noise and therefore bound to accept health risks from growing ambient noise. And, it seems, we are to accept that amplified non-commercial speech is not a material contributor to that noise. The reality is different; no one recognizes this aspect until they arrive. The downtown neighborhood is changing and any efforts to get protection from drummers, hate preachers, trash-can musicians, early morning noise from nightclubs and trash trucks are frustrated by the failure to enforce exiting laws.

It is easy to be critical of unions. The larger problem is an insular council failing to recognize that current zoning rules do not account for the growing residential component of downtown neighborhoods. Instead, district laws address those living in a mixed commercial/retail/entertainment/residential neighborhood as if it were commercial/light industry. By only seeing our thriving neighborhood as commercial, we loose many of the protections that our neighbors a few blocks away enjoy. Many regulations enforced by district agencies treat our mixed-use blocks differently. Whether it is trash delivery, parking, noise levels, construction, or a host of other actions the protections we receive are different.

Admittedly the original bill would not have addressed this and treated downtown residents differently. The final bill excludes any protection for those living downtown. One councilmember noted that no one downtown had complained about loud amplified protestors or speech though there were many complaints about noise. Several noted that this was not a problem in their wards, but the current noise bill needed a total overhaul. Still, others argued that our current set of noise regulations is on par with those of New York City. If this is true, the difference between DC and NYC is enforcement where, under the leadership of Mayor Bloomberg, action has been taken to lower ambient noise levels as a public health issue.

No one addressed the lack of enforcement of our current noise regulations. Most noted noise complaints as an indication that the problem was not speech but a host of other kinds of noise disturbing their constituents. The problem is more about the enforcement of existing noise laws – a failure that hurts those living downtown and in the purely residential parts of this city.

– Miles E. Groves

Downtown DC Residents Deserve Better

The basic political building blocks for D.C. citizens are the Area Neighborhood Commissions (ANC) and their Single Member District (SMD) commissioners. It is the local elected commissioner who serves as a neighborhood’s first advocate for a range of issues involving District agencies, private and public needs, safety, and quality of life. An effective commissioner coupled with a strong ANC can represent democracy at its best. Conversely, an ineffective commissioner coupled with a dysfunctional ANC is democracy at its worst. Sadly, the story for the Ward 2 side of our downtown neighborhood is the latter rather than the former.

The failure of the ANC 2C to represent the emerging downtown neighborhood continues to cast a shadow cast across the great story of our thriving neighborhood. Prior to the redistricting after the 2000 U.S. Census, the entire downtown neighborhood was in Ward 2 and served by ANC 2C. Even then, it was a dysfunctional model for the downtown citizens. When downtown was split, the residential buildings (with the exception of Wah Luk house in Chinatown) were put in Ward 6 and the remaining non-residential areas were in Ward 2. So, for a few years those living downtown were not directly impacted and did not notice the lack of any ANC advocate.

Over the past five years, six residential buildings opened in the downtown section of the ANC 2C03 single member district. With the formation of the Downtown Neighborhood Association, attending their monthly meetings became important since many of our members are represented by this commission. I was shocked by the theatre, the waste of attendee time and the endemic infighting that transpired at these meetings. After attending three ANC 2C meetings, it was clear that this ANC served little purpose, and was an embarrassing example of the potential failure of the ANC model; incapable of serving our emerging neighborhood.

The failure of this ANC to serve its downtown constituency hurts over 2,000 residents. We have issues along 7th, F, and H Street’s NW that need the attention of our Ward 2 ANC commissioner. We need help with pedestrian safety, transportation studies, street maintenance, zoning issues, public safety and many other concerns that most ANC’s consider across their SMDs. Sadly, this failure leaves Ward 2 downtown residents without critical representation. We have been told that we must wait until the next U.S. Census and the ensuing redistricting for any relief. What that means is that downtown Ward 2 residents will not be served for another four years.

In short, we are subject to a system that ensures the political disenfranchisement of over 2,000 residents. The most unsettling reality is that despite the concern with national D.C. voter rights, the same does not exist for local voter rights. We hope that our concerns of resident disenfranchisement by the perpetuation of ANC 2C’s failures are heard by this committee. DC residents deserve better.

Downtown Residents Deserve Reduced Voting Barriers

We have experienced dramatic change in the area served by the DNA over the past few years. During the last housing recession, I took advantage of a developer sale and bought a unit in The Pennsylvania, a building that had recently converted into a condominium. Then, there were only four residential buildings and we all felt like upscale urban pioneers.

Five years later, in 2000, we had less than 2,000 downtown residents and a group of residential pioneers led by ANC 6C Commissioner Charlie Docter working hard to convince city leaders to support increased downtown housing. By 2003 the area was taking off with a growing number of residential building projects. Last year, we had an estimated three-fold increase to 6,530 residents; given what we know about current and planned residential inventory, by 2010 we will have over 10,000 residents. This does not include the residential component of development at the old convention center site.

For the District, this is efficient growth. Few services are provided for residential buildings with more than three units or for commercial buildings that provide their own services and are served by the Downtown Business Improvement District (BID). The net benefit is an estimated fiscal impact of over $624 million a year according to a recent analysis from the BID.

Downtown residents provide over 50 percent of funding for our schools while less than two percent of our neighbors have any children living downtown. We have had at least three pedestrians hit on 7th Street between Pennsylvania Avenue and Chinatown yet have had no neighborhood specific traffic study. We have parks that are not cared for, poorly lit, and dangerous. Yet we have a growing need for green space, safe parks, and dog parks.

We have issues with crime along the northern quadrant of our neighborhood but the First District MPD is not adequately staffed and poorly equipped. We have a permanent population of homeless residents, many of whom have jobs, and no affordable housing. We have a strong demand for a neighborhood grocery store and more local retail, yet there is ample empty rental space waiting for national retailers seeking destination markets. In short, the Downtown Neighborhood is a rich resource for the District, but many residents feel the potential has not been fulfilled.

Some feel the city would be more responsive if the neighborhood was politically active. This is challenged by political fragmentation sustained by seven Single Member Districts, three Area Neighborhood Commissions, and division between Ward 2 and Ward 6. Most who now live downtown cannot vote downtown. This dampens political involvement.

This concern has been raised with both city council members Mendelson and Wells who, in turn, contacted the Board of Elections and Ethics seeking alternatives that would provide easier voting access. This need has been raised with ANC6C Commissioner Charley Docter who had been working to find a place for his single member district residents to vote and working to convince the Board of Elections to support the effort.

While no panacea, increased voter registration and greater participation would give us a stronger voice in the issues that impact the quality of life in our great downtown neighborhood. And, given the tremendous positive financial impact we have on the District, we deserve a place to vote in our own neighborhood.

Chinatown Bus Providers

A familiar sight to downtown residents is lines of people with
luggage waiting at various locations for buses. These buses
transport people between Chinatown and New York, Philadelphia
and various other cities for very low fares.

Unfortunately, the city does not regulate these companies and they regularly violate District laws by parking illegally; idling their engines for long periods of time and polluting our air; creating traffic congestion when picking people up on public streets; and interfering with commerce of businesses located near their pick-up/drop-off points.

The Metropolitan Police Department has made some efforts to cite these companies for their violations, but this provides no relief to citizens and businesses downtown. These companies apparently consider this a cost of doing business.

The city lacks a strategy to actually address this problem. The DNA is pressing the city to give this a high priority to eliminate these abuses which affect the public welfare and safety of our downtown citizens and businesses.

The DNA has contacted the city council, MPD and the mayor's office about this problem. Several council members responded as well as the MPD, which inspected 17 buses on July 28th. Three of these were taken out of commission for safety reasons. There has been no direct response from the Mayor's office.

Click here to see the July 24, 2007, letter from the DNA to Mayor Fenty.