Ward 8 City Council Special Election

Still not sure who to vote for tomorrow’s Ward 8 City Council Special  Election?  Here’s a voter guide provided by WUSA-9.  I have rearranged them so that they are in alphabetical order.

Stuart Anderson (Democratic)
He is a native Washingtonian and founding director of Family and Friends of Incarcerated People. He is also self employed in the property managment and home repair field.
Website: http://www.ffoip.org/

Sheila Bunn (Democratic)
A native Washingtonian, she was Deputy Chief of Staff to former Mayor Vincent Gay and Chief of Staff to DC Congressional Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton.
Website: http://www.bunnforward8.com/about

Marion C. Barry (Democratic)
Known to most Washingtonians by his middle name, Christopher, he is the son of former council member and mayor, Marion Barry. This is his first run for political office and says he wants to carry on his father’s work. In a tweet about his run he wrote, “The legacy continues.” He told WUSA9’s Bruce Johnson hsi father encouraged him to run for the seat. Barry runs a small construction business.
Website: http://marioncbarry.com/

Greta Fuller (Democratic)
She has been an ANC Commissioner (8Ao6) for eight years. She was appointed member of the 11th Street Bridge Project Community Communications Committee; Member of the Historic Anacostia Preservation Society, Historic Anacostia Block Association, and Fairlawn Civic Association.
Website: http://www.greta4ward8.com

Eugene D. Kinlow (Democratic)
He is a native Washingtonian who lives in the Bellevue section of Ward 8. He is a senior Strategist at Dragon/Unicorn Strategies and Solution where he works on community engagement strategies for businesses and non-profits. Previously he was the Public Affaird Director for DC Vote. He is also the producer and host of the DC Politics Show on WPFW. He is past President of Ward 8 Democrats.
Website: http://www.kinlowward8strong.com/

LaRuby May (Democratic)
She has lived in DC for the past 17 years and has worked and lived in Ward 8 for 13 years. She currently serves as the Executive Directof of Vision of Victory Community Development Corporation, “an organization that focuses on real estate development and human capital development.” In 2005 and 2006, LaRuby served in Marion Barry’s Ward 8 council office as a Legislative Intern and Director of Constituent Services. In 2008, LaRuby was appointed to lead the DC Housing Authority Board of Commissioners.
Website: http://may4ward8.com/meet-laruby/

“S.S.” Sandra Seegars (Democratic)
She has lived in the ward since 1969 and calls Congress Heights home. She has been an accountant with the federal and District governments as well as a paralegal and ANC Commissioner. She also served on the DC Taxicab Commission.
Website: https://sssandraseegars.wordpress.com/about-s-s-sandra-seegars/

Keita Vanterpool (Independent)
She has lived and worked in Ward 8 for the past 10 years. She is a chiropractor and Chair of the DC Board of Chiropractic.
Website: http://www.drkfcward8.com/tags/city_council_dc

Leonard Watson, Sr. (Democratic)
As a councilmember he says “I will ensure improved relationships between the Ward 8 community and the police officers who work in the area. The installation of better street lights, more police walking or bike riding therough the Ward 8 neighborhoods.”
Website: http://www.leonardwatsonsr.com/

Natalie Williams (Democratic)
She is an ANC Commissioner (8A) which covers the Hillsdale, Fairlawn and Historic Anacostia communities. She was Vice President of United Medical Center, formerly Greater Southeast Hospital and was once communications/press director and advisor for then Councilmember Marion Barry. She also owns her own public relations firm, BlitzAssociates Inc. She is also a former WUSA9 news producer.
Website: http://www.nataliewilliamsonline.com/home.html

Take a spin through candidate forums still available online.

The Anacostia Coordinating Council, in collaboration with Ballou High School PTSA, Advisory Neighborhood Commission 8C, and other local sponsoring organizations, hosted a Ward 8 City Council Collaborative Candidates Forum on Wednesday, April 1, 2015, from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at Ballou High School in Washington, DC. It featured all 13 candidates who planned to be on the ballot for the April 28 special election for the Ward 8 DC Council seat.

 

Ward 8 City Council Candidate Forum held at We Act Radio on March 20, 2015. Live streaming was provided by NMG Live.

Ferguson Forum: Where Do We Go From Here?

Posted on behalf of Jahlani Clarke

This program will look at Ferguson, MO as a case study.  Our goal is to learn from the mistakes made and empower the community by holding elected officials and police accountable.  For example, if elections have consequences, did the community fail to exercise real power by not registering or voting in local elections.  The forum will also deal with societal views of men of color (especially African-American men) Community Policing, Mass Incarceration and Opportunities for Youth.  We hope to see you there.

Ferguson Forum:  Where Do We Go From Here?
A Case Study for Empowering Our Communities
Thursday, March 12th 2015
Doors Open at 6:45 PM
Event Begins at 7:06 PM
UDC Main Campus
4200 Connecticut Avenue NW
Building 41, Room A-03
Metro Stop Van Ness/UDC (red line)

Light refreshments served in lobby outside of event.
Contact David Gaston at dgaston@udc.edu or Jahlani Clarke at jahlani.clarke@yahoo.com

Presented by the Brothers of the Omicron Omicron Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.

OSSE & SBE Oversight Hearings

In Kaya Henderson’s State of the Schools Address in September 2014, she declared that DC Public Schools “will become the best school system in the country, where everyone in this room would be proud to send their child to any school in this city.  We’re aiming for great schools, with a variety of engaging academic offerings, and nurturing cultures and climates. But most of all, we’re 100% committed to ensuring the EVERY child attending a DCPS school is held to the same high standards,  has the same rich experiences, and has equal access to the
same level of learning resources- whether they live west of the park, east of the RIVER, or anywhere  in the middle.

High ideals but DC-CAS scores show that we’re very far from those goals, with our students being only slightly more than 50% proficient in reading and math.

This Thursday, the DC City Council has scheduled Performance Oversight Hearings for both the Office of the State Superintendent of Education and the State Board of Education (a misnomer since DC isn’t a state)  should give us some clue as to how well DCPS is moving towards Henderson’s loft goals.

DC City Council Committee on Education
Performance Oversight Hearings
Office of State Superintendent of Education &
State Board of Education
March 5th, 2015 @ 10:00 AM
Wilson Building, Room 412
1350 Pennsylvania Ave
Washington, DC 20005

To testify at the hearings in front of committee Chairperson David Grosso please contact: Christina Henderson, chenderson@dccouncil.us or by calling 202-724-8061.
Watch the hearing online at: http://dccouncil.us/videos

Mayor Bowser’s Budget Engagement Hearings Set For This Week and Next

Curious about how the city will be spending their budget next year?  Mayor Bowser’s budget is not yet put together, but according to D.C. Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey S. DeWitt she’s got a shortfall in the amount of $256.3 million to worry about.  How did that happen?  According to Colbert King of the Washington Post, this is what happened.

Excerpt from Mayor Bowser’s Budget Test
by Colbert King

Warning: I’m about to get into the weeds with numbers, but there’s no way around it. The digits are what got us here in the first place. And we can’t get out without dealing with the numbers, in all their boring forms.

Shortly after the November election, DeWitt, operating under the notion that fair warning is fair play, notified Mayor Vincent Gray (D), Mayor-elect Bowser and all members of the D.C. Council that the city faced a budget gap of $163.1 million. A good chunk of the deficit resulted from spending for homeless services. In addition, the city had to cough up an estimated $15.7 million as a result of a court order.

Subsequent to the November report, DeWitt identified an additional $53.7 million of increased costs related to city-provided services.

The news wasn’t very bright on the revenue side, either. In fact, DeWitt notified city officials in December that anticipated fiscal 2016 revenue had fallen short by $39.5 million.

Hence, the total $256.3 million budget gap that Bowser and the council must close as they formulate and produce a balanced budget for the coming fiscal year.

What to do? What to do? After all those campaign promises to spend more on affordable housing, programs to end homelessness and incentives and subsidies for economic development comes now the hard part: fulfilling those champagne dreams with a soda-water pocketbook.

However Bowser and the council decide to balance the budget, they will have to find ways to reduce spending and increase revenue.

And it’s not going to be painless.

These numbers may be used as an excuse not to fund programs that are important (if not crucial) to DC’s under-served communities.  On the other hand, maybe I’m just being cynical.  The best way to hedge our bets here is to show up at the new mayor’s Budget Engagement Forums.   Anyone willing to step up to the microphone will have the opportunity to provide input to help shape the District’s budget priorities.   The forums are scheduled for the following dates and times:

Budget Engagement Forums

Thursday, 19 February 2015
7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Woodrow Wilson High School
3950 Chesapeake Street, NW

Saturday, 21 February 2015
1:00 pm – 2:30 pm
Anacostia High School
1601 16th Street, SE

Monday, 23 February 2015
7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
Dunbar High School
101 N Street, NW

The Wealth Gap Between White and Black Households in the US Surpasses the One in Apartheid-Era South Africa

Cross-Posted from The Stranger
Written by Charles Mudede on Tue, Sept 2, 2014

Nicholas Kristof:

The net worth of the average black household in the United States is $6,314, compared with $110,500 for the average white household, according to 2011 census data. The gap has worsened in the last decade, and the United States now has a greater wealth gap by race than South Africa did during apartheid. (Whites in America on average own almost 18 times as much as blacks; in South Africa in 1970, the ratio was about 15 times.)

This inequality was almost nowhere mentioned during the Occupy moment. Indeed, the “black-white income gap” today is wider than it was in 1967. That bad check the March on Washington was all about worth even less in 2014. The Golden Age of Capitalism missed excluded black Americans. The Golden Age of Capitalism missed a large part of black America. Thomas Piketty:

Inequality reached its lowest ebb in the United States between 1950 and 1980: the top decile of the income hierarchy claimed 30 to 35 percent of US national income, or roughly the same level as in France today. This is what Paul Krugman nostalgically refers to as “the America we love”—the America of his childhood. In the 1960s, the period of the TV series Mad Men and General deGaulle, the United States was in fact a more egalitarian society than France (where the upper decile’s share had increased dramatically to well above 35 percent), at least for those US citizens whose skin was white.

During this Golden Age, white Americans relocated to the suburbs and abandoned black Americans in the inner city. The government also ended its pre-World War Two commitments to urban public housing and redirected its resources to the suburbs: roads, generous tax breaks, and long-term home loans (the 30-year mortgage was not devised by the market but by the government). Some turn to the 90s (the Clinton-era) as evidence of economic progress (low unemployment) for black Americans—but this was all an illusion. The prison population in 1970 was below 300,000; in the 1990s it approached 2 million (the population of the US in 1970 was 200 million; by 1990, it was 300 million). Black males make up half of the prison population (1 million), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics does not include those who are sitting in cells doing nothing in its unemployment figures (Read Punishment and Inequality by the Harvard sociologist Bruce Western). But the story is not over yet.

Things are only going to get worse because since the 90s, black Americans have, in greater and greater numbers, been forced out to suburbs like Ferguson at the very moment the market and white Americans are returning to the core of the city, and the core is where the jobs are…

Nicholas Kristof points out that white Americans do not want to hear about this problem. They think the story of inequality and race is getting more attention than it deserves…

MANY white Americans say they are fed up with the coverage of the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo.  A plurality of whites in a recent Pew survey said that the issue of race is getting more attention than it deserves.