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Taking note . . .
Observations about
public affairs in the nation’s capital
by the editor of The Common Denominator
ATTENTION AT LAST: For 14 years the Barney Circle Neighborhood Watch Patrol has held an anti-crime march on Martin Luther King Day. And for years, organizers of the march have tried in vain to obtain press coverage to bring attention to their issues.
This year, the heaviest press coverage ever arrived – with television cameras trailing Mayor Tony Williams on the eve of a rally to launch a recall effort against him. But some neighborhood folks say they now wonder if they want the mayor at the next march if it means they’ll have to listen to another long speech.
The march initially was organized by the founders of the neighborhood orange hat patrol, La Frances and Chris Bown. The community group urged all citizens concerned about drugs and crime to march with them. This year, Mayor Williams decided to march with them. To be fair, Williams attended the march one other time, in 1999 when Ward 6 resident Sandy McCall was on the mayor’s staff. Dressed in his now-famous flannel plaid shirt, hiking boots and jeans, the mayor was flanked on Jan. 19 by cameras from every television station in town.
The roughly 50 to 75 residents who marched heard three- to five-minute speeches from a number of speakers, including city council members Phil Mendelson, Harold Brazil and Sharon Ambrose. Williams, however, held the floor for 15 to 20 minutes and gave a long, rambling speech on a laundry list of items – including reform of the District’s juvenile justice system.
SPECIAL GUEST: Mayor Williams wasn’t the only local resident who got to sit in the congressional gallery with First Lady Laura Bush for the president’s State of the Union Address on Jan. 20. Sister Carol Keehan, chief executive officer of Providence Hospital, also was seen sitting in the corner of the First Lady’s box for this year’s speech.
SPRUCING UP: Lack of maintenance often is responsible when part of the District’s main library is off-limits to patrons. But this time, the temporary closure of several divisions at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library is being caused by installation of new carpeting that has been long overdue.
The art. music, history and biography divisions – all located in Rooms 207 and 209 – closed on Jan. 23 to allow the carpet-laying project to begin. The divisions are expected to re-open to the public at 9:30 a.m. on Feb. 3.
REST IN PEACE: John W. Hechinger, one of the District’s best-known civic activists who built his family’s hardware business into a multibillion-dollar empire that bore his surname, died Jan. 18 at his Northwest Washington home on his 84th birthday. A fifth generation Washingtonian, Hechinger was selected by President Lyndon Johnson in 1967 as the District’s first city council chairman and was a steadfast supporter of home rule and voting rights for the District. He remained active into the early 1990s in Democratic Party politics and served as the District’s committeeman on the Democratic National Committee from 1976 through 1992.
Copyright 2004, The Common Denominator