Readers who are interested in the true history of our neighborhood — as opposed to the accounts which have been constructed over the last few decades — will want to read local historian and resident Sarah Becker's latest article in the March issue of the Old Town Crier. The article includes a follow-up ("In Reply") to her widely discussed January article demonstrating that the more things change, the more they remain the same.
Ms. Becker's quotes from old Washington Post clips touch on a lot of the same issues thrashed out in this blog over the past four years, including crime, public housing, mixed income communities, and education. But the sting lies in the age and content of the stories. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose indeed.
The piece has a black worker at Hopkins House complaining about crime decades ago on Queen Street. (Will Council finally understand — or remember — that concern about crime has always cut across all income and race lines?) And her complaint was about the 1000 block of Queen, not the notorious 1100 block. Do our politicians realize that crime moves around?
There is Melvin Miller quoted on public housing in 1973. demonstrating that despite the passage of 37 years he is still an obstructionist and elitist. Combine that with the quote about education, then ask yourself if the one-time prisoner has actually turned jailor?
There's former NAACP president Ulysses Calhoun admitting years ago that there had been demographic change in the City (where he does not live) and that there were few exclusively black communities left in Alexandria with the numbers to elect a representative under a proposed ward election system.
There are the leaders who, upon the demolition of the former segregated high school, were determined to pin the moniker "Parker-Gray" on something, and when thwarted in attempting to apply it to George Washington School ended up slapping it on unhistorically on this neighborhood.
And so it goes. If you are interested in further reading, check out the Growler's Web site (http://www.parker-gray.com/) where you can find some of the Post articles Ms. Becker cited.
All of these news flashes from yesteryear merely illustrate that civic discourse in Alexandria continues to be dominated by the same players, the same stale attitudes and the same fossilized positions developed years ago.
Is it time to break this paradigm up? And is it already showing cracks?
43 comments:
Can you guys please start your comments by blaming Del Ray for how sucky your history is? You know that sooner or later it will all be blamed on the citizens of Del Ray anyhow, so just skip the interim comments and get right to the Del Ray bashing.
"T.C. Williams High School is not having a good year.
Back in October, the school received word that one out of five Hispanic students at the school drop out rather than graduate. Then in February, the high school’s basketball team had to forfeit its victories after an investigation revealed two of its members were ineligible as fifth-year students. Since then, Principal William Clendaniel announced his resignation — the third principal in the last four years to step down. Earlier this month, Vice Mayor Kerry Donley blasted the teen pregnancy rate in Alexandria as "unacceptably high."
Now the school has received yet another black eye, this time from the Virginia Department of Education.
Last week, school officials learned that T.C. Williams has been designated a "persistently low achieving school." That’s a new designation created by an Obama administration effort to funnel more money to troubled schools. Under a definition of "persistently low achieving" created by the Virginia Department of Education and approved by the feds, T.C. Williams was singled out for reform after two consecutive years of poor standardized testing results."
Hey, at least our high school is rocking. We all have that to look forward to if we plan on having a family.
"Can you guys please start your comments by blaming Del Ray for how sucky your history is"
Actually, I was hoping someone from Delray could comment on their next big idea to save the "chattel". We are due for a new social justice rant from a Delrayite.
@4:32:
I am a citizen of Del Ray and new reader of this blog. I don't understand the divide between Del Ray & Parker Gray, but I share much of the sentiment shown by the commenters on this blog.
I am tired of the city's insistence on "social justice" within its borders. Alexandria is a small city that devotes a large portion of its resources, including land (much of it in Parker Gray) to the provision of social services. This creates a perpetual trend towards mediocrity and stagnation in our city.
Our leaders exchange our tax money for votes. Plain and simple. The public housing, low income assistance, and other welfare programs create and maintain a healthy voter base but ensure that property values, and tax revenues remain depressed. More and more, the burden on the taxpayers grow to compensate for ever increasing services.
In the case of public housing, which greatly affects PG, the social justice is completely worthless. Public housing is designed to assist persons who are in temporary need of assistance - not to provide long-term care at the expense of the city's productive residents.
As a libertarian and devout fan of Ronald Coase, I see one easy fix to the city's public housing issue: grant full fee simple ownership of all public housing to the current occupants. This approach would: (1) allow current public housing residents to stay in "their" homes; (2) bring the public housing back into the city's tax base; (3) provide the new owners with the incentive to maintain their neighborhoods; and most importantly (4) allow current residents to sell their units to anyone willing to buy. This last point will ensure that the land will be put into the highest value use over time.
I am tired, as you sound like you are, of subsidizing the nuisance around me. Social safety nets serve a purpose limited in time and scope. The goal of our city leadership should be to attract the best, most productive residents and businesses, not the perpetuation of stagnation and mediocrity.
"As a libertarian and devout fan of Ronald Coase, I see one easy fix to the city's public housing issue: grant full fee simple ownership of all public housing to the current occupants."
Disperse public housing first!
Miller’s contention in 1973 that “urban renewal is CP removal” apparently is echoed by Mayor Euille’s administration in 2010. Euille’s Braddock East Plan allows income mixing to provide good models of middle class values not by dispersal but by economic integration of a new, larger public housing development, soon to be built near us. Moreover, the reasoning goes, if poor economic conditions beget unmotivated underachievers, then the Mayor’s brand new, economically integrated development will enable the next generation to move up from poverty.
But Mayor Euille doesn’t really subscribe to this notion, because his administration continues Alexandria’s shameful practice of economically short-shrifting schools in the poorest neighborhoods – Jefferson-Houston is only one of them. Our poorest families could move to better neighborhoods with better schools by using vouchers. No need to opt in or out, their children would thrive in better economic conditions at home and at school. But Melvin Miller opposes this.
So what benefits come from Parker-Gray’s overconcentration of poverty? Someone benefits, and it ain’t PG residents. Some folks speculated that Del. Englin was recently trying to curry public housing votes, and one poster wrote that Lenny Harris gets tax money from the City Budget to throw an annual bash at G.W. Middle School. I think Melvin Miller gets to be Mr. ARHA, probably for life. Any other ideas?
And who takes those Braddock East "market-rate" units off the developer's hands when no prospective buyers appear?
"But Mayor Euille doesn’t really subscribe to this notion, because his administration continues Alexandria’s shameful practice of economically short-shrifting schools in the poorest neighborhoods – Jefferson-Houston is only one of them."
The last thing Alexandria does is short shrift its schools economically. We pour more money down that black hole than virtually any other jurisdiction. Yet, as today's Post article about TC Williams demonstrates, it's not working.
The simple solution, as the libertarian poster pointed out, is to stop subsidizing (and by extension encouraging) this behavior. We need to expect more from our citizens and our students.
It is NOT acceptable to provide able bodied people free housing and child care while they sit at home and do nothing. I recently met an ARHA resident, with five children and no job. (She had quit her job). Childcare is not an issue b/c her children attend city schools and then the city provides them free aftercare at a local rec center. She was not even an Alexandria native - she had moved from DC to live in our public housing.
I think it's time we start teaching people to fish. According to Sara Becker's article, we've been giving them loaves for years and it's clearly not working.
"grant full fee simple ownership of all public housing to the current occupants."
Um the problem with your plan is that most city public housing residents wouldnt want their units.
They are complete %$^^holes....most residents have made this point clear to ARHA and the City for years. Many residents just want out of their units.
"Childcare is not an issue b/c her children attend city schools and then the city provides them free aftercare at a local rec center. She was not even an Alexandria native - she had moved from DC to live in our public housing. "
the whole problem with any public housing debate though, is that you are not allowed (by the City) to bring these stories up. Devoid of all logic and facts, they will just call you a racist or gentrifier.
Its why people dont' tend to show up at a lot of the City meetings to complain. they clearly aren't listening so what else to do but fight back in other ways, like taking your dollar to Arlington and avoiding any and all interaction with any branch of City government.
"It is NOT acceptable to provide able bodied people free housing and child care while they sit at home and do nothing."
Of course its not. But welcome to Alexandria. While we have situations like this and a clearly two-tiered school system, our delegate believes that the best way to help the poor is to put up appeals notice signs for individuals barred from public housing projects. And people walk around the housing projects in broad daylight in flip-flops to make themselves look "compassionate" and "diverse".
After observing the reality show known as the Braddock Metro planning sessions, I knew we were destined to dysfunction for the foreseeable future.
"....short-shrifting schools in the poorest neighborhoods – Jefferson-Houston is only one of them."
I agree! Euille, Miller and others have turned their notion of civil rights into noblesse oblige: keep a foot on a community's necks and then take care of them.
A generation ago the ones in power shut down Virginia schools rather than desegregate. Of course, their own kids went to private schools. Now there is a whole undereducated underclass the ones who made it up and out perpetuate the very thing that caused the problem.
Euille cannot change the future of the unassimilated by keeping them penned up together.
"I recently met an ARHA resident, with five children and no job. ...- she had moved from DC to live in our public housing."
Sounds like our public housing is kind of like a refugee camp.
Let's call it District 22314.
The news this morning made me steaming mad. In one morning, I learned Metro is literally falling apart, TC Williams is failing (although we just built a multimillion dollar building) and my taxes are going up.
The common denominator? Mr. Euille. He sits on the Metro board, and that's a disaster. The other two are obvious. It's time for him to step down so we can get someone competent before it's too late.
There are very few things the City government gets involved in that that does not wind up costing taxpayers huge sums of money with mediocre or worse results. It has been proven time and time again here in Alexandria.
Public housing and education can be added to that list, just like all the other stuff.
"Combine that with the quote about education, then ask yourself if the one-time prisoner has actually turned jailor?
"
I cant even blame Miller for that attitude. It reflects the belief of many folks who dont seem to be adjusting to changes in both society and in the Parker Gray neighborhood.
I look at many of these "activists" as clueless sheep who want to continue down this unsustainable path of something for nothing. They should be upset with themselves but denial runs so deep in this City that it will take a moving heaven and earth to get them to wake up
Its hard to blame TC or JH. The residents of PG need education, but schools are simply incapable alone to address social disintegration and unemployment.
Only the City through its policies can do so. I dont even blame ARHA or Priest or Miller. they are simply implementing policies they are told to implement.
They get no help from Council or our delegates.
Growler
I only today learned my March column is the subject of a post. In reply was written in response to readers questions and hopefully I answered the majority satisfactorily. For my column I interviewed several Alexandrians whose deeds still include restrictive covenants.
Apparently someone recently told Parker Gray residents "no work has been done on this issue [restrictive covenants].”
To your readers I reply: In February 1949 Walter White, then-secretary of the NAACP, sent a 21-page memorandum to President Harry Truman “charging the Federal Housing Administration with lending ‘its full support’ to perpetuation of ‘black ghettos’ in the United States.” The NAACP said: “The FHA has continued to ‘foster and spread restrictive covenants despite revisions made ‘following our protest’ to its ‘Underwriting Manual.’” Walter White signed the [cover] letter “asking the President’s ‘assurance that the Federal Government will cease giving its support to racial restrictions in housing under its FHA program.’”
I leave the summary conclusion to you.
Last spring the PG community and City as a whole tried to send a message to City Hall, but we clearly were not loud enough. We must continue to the restructuring of the City Council - if you haven't noticed, our property taxes are no due to increase 10% - http://bit.ly/bWT0EB. Maybe if we had a decent high school or if they city wasn't also preparing to cut policing in the community, this would be unfortunate, but perhaps understandable. Given the failures, this is utterly ridiculous. Explain again how no one managed to run against the incumbent mayor?
"I leave the summary conclusion to you."
The lady nailed it again.
"Explain again how no one managed to run against the incumbent mayor?"
Why do you let the city manager off the hook?
"Explain again how no one managed to run against the incumbent mayor?"
Because most of the City blindly votes "D" and they know it. I'm afraid I did the same thing myself before moving to PG and waking up to the City's harmful policies(including segregated public housing/and schools).
I think the Alexandria Democratic Party got a big scare in the last election, as formerly reliable Dems "plunked" out of protest (some here in PG, others in the West End) and the Dems lost two seats. Because of this, they shamefully changed the elections to November, to increase the numbers of uninformed people blindly voting a straight Dem ticket.
That's the long answer. In a nutshell, in Alexandria, it's damn near impossible for anyone but a "D" to win mayor. Being a republican is essentially like wearing a scarlet letter. You could conceivably be an independent, but you really need the backing of a political party.
So I'm afraid it's going to take internal pressure from the Alexandria Democrat Party to get the mayor to "voluntarily" step down before he does any more damage.
I don't really understand the point about Becker's article. What's this obsession about race? I'm beginning to think its generational. This is understandable since the older generation lived through that hideous era. But seriously, for those of us who are Gen Xers and younger, we just don't see the purpose. It's a social problem, not a race problem. Melvin Miller and Bill Euille can turn it into a race thing, but it's just not. We just think you old people are weird.
The point of the article's "In Reply" was to respond to people who read the first article in the Old Town Crier, which is a monthly series on local history.
We all know neighbors who have lived through Jim Crow, and their stories are poignant. However, the Growler agrees with you that for those of us who live here now (including those who have been here any length of time) race is not the issue and City policy should have moved ahead years ago. To many it seems it hasn't.
"But seriously, for those of us who are Gen Xers and younger, we just don't see the purpose. It's a social problem, not a race problem. Melvin Miller and Bill Euille can turn it into a race thing, but it's just not. We just think you old people are weird."
I am Gen Y and I get the point. If you attended the Braddock Road charrettes then you know Hamer made planning issues race issues. If you assumed the American Legion building should fall then consider Cromley's mess. Hamer stirred that pot too. Race here is a problem of long standing. Socially it's not going away. Euille feeds on it. Miller cultivates it.
"Race here is a problem of long standing. Socially it's not going away. Euille feeds on it. Miller cultivates it."
I think that's the statement behind the original point. Race isn't actually an issue, it's a political weapon.
"Why do you let the city manager off the hook?"
The City Manager should not be let off the hook. However, there is a hierarchy of accountability. If you view the City's structure as a business, the City Manager is the CEO, while the Council is our Board of Directors, with the Mayor as Chairman of the Board. It is the Council's responsibility to provide guidance to the City Manager.
The City Manager is simply being operationally expedient in presenting the budget he has. He is not being challenged by Council to make difficult decisions, and he is showing no initiative in looking for greater efficiencies than Council calls for. Clearly, he has no incentive to go above and beyond. Take a read of the insights provided in Freakonomics, (or even consider watching Office Space) and you might see why.
It is clear the only way to introduce real change is through Council's demand for change.
The Mayor often states that he and the rest of Council are not full-time legislators and do not implement tactics. That response is unacceptable because it evades the issue. By virtue of City Council policy and demands, the strategic arm of Council bears great weight on the tactics implemented by the City Manager (who is also hired or fired by Council). It's long overdue for them to use it.
"am tired, as you sound like you are, of subsidizing the nuisance around me. Social safety nets serve a pu"rpose limited in time and scope."
there is a three year waiting list to get section 8 housing. there is no saftly net. one must plan to need help.
"there is a three year waiting list to get section 8 housing."
Plus the schools.
Plus public housing.
Plus higher taxes.
Mayor Euille's vision is to continue planning for what clearly isn't working.
But when indeed IS Council going to step up? Or are they just hiding behind the Mayor's skirt until something better comes along?
"I am tired, as you sound like you are, of subsidizing the nuisance around me. Social safety nets serve a purpose limited in time and scope."
Personally, I think this is why bricks and mortar public housing still exists in Alexandria, despite its obvious failure.
The Council tells its rich, liberal electorate (all of whom have natural instincts for compassion and do goodism) that public housing is a necessary social safety net and we are a caring a community for providing it. These folks don't actually ever go to public housing so they don't know any better. They just feel good about themselves for being so caring and compassionate.
Those of us who live across from ARHA properties know this is not the case and can see, quite obviously, how toxic and destructive this policy is.
But the problem is that ending (or changing) bricks and mortar public housing incurs the wrath of dusty hateful thinkers like Melvin Miller. I really don't think Miller views public housing as a social safety net. He seems to view it as something that is owed for years of discrimination. (Although the overwhelming majority of people now in ARHA projects have suffered no instutional discrimination whatsoever, and could have benefitted from affirmative action, if they ever chose to take advantage of opportunities offered).
Anyway, under the current regime, almost everyone is happy, except for those of us who can see this isn't working, and who genuinely want to make the city better for everyone.
I don't think the likes of Melvin Miller et al view ARHA as a social sa
"Anyway, under the current regime, almost everyone is happy, except for those of us who can see this isn't working, and who genuinely want to make the city better for everyone. "
You pretty much nailed it. Its why people react the way they do to Englin, Donegan, etc...
Its not that Davids idea is so bad when looked at in isolation. Its that its bad when looked at in context of the areas it would effect and the history of governance and management in those areas.
I always ask myself: Would David Englin propose that bill if he lived in the Braddock Lofts or on North Alfred St?
...our property taxes are no due to increase 10% - http://bit.ly/bWT0EB. ... failing high school, failing elementary schools, failing housing solutions....
Even devoted Party Dems see they have fewer opportunities to be elected if Euille continues on the ticket.
Having done plenty in the City during his multiple terms, Mayor Euille should be heralded as a great man and retired forthwith, for the good of Party as a whole.
"I always ask myself: Would David Englin propose that bill if he lived in the Braddock Lofts or on North Alfred St?"
If you don't know your constituents, get a real job.
"Would David Englin propose that bill if he lived in the Braddock Lofts or on North Alfred St?"
Its the same question as:
"Would each member of City Council stand there like deaf mutes everytime public housing came up in a legislative sessiob if they lived within 1 block of Adkins, Madden Uptown, Bland, Hopkins-Tancil, etc..."
For such devout"progressives" its amazing to watch their silence.
Gaack! The city's latest press release states the Mayor's State of the City speech will be held at the city's flop House. Oops the failing but award winning Rte 1 Fire House. We're all invited to tour. Can't wait until Bland's affordable multi family units hit the market. The planning's so stupid they won't sell either.
Speaking of the projects...
Plus c change, plus c'est la memo chose indeed!
U.S. Waives Tenant Laws to Aid Virginia Battle Against Drugs in Public Housing - DOUGLAS JEHL, LA Times Staff Writer - March 30, 1989
WASHINGTON — Troubled by the growing prevalence of drug trafficking in housing projects, the Bush Administration Wednesday officially exempted the state of Virginia from federal tenant-protection laws as part of an aggressive new effort to evict drug dealers from the nation's public housing.
The unprecedented move, among the most far-reaching of the Administration's new anti-drug initiatives, faces an almost-certain legal challenge. But Administration officials defended the action, saying that it affords tenants adequate legal protections.
As Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Jack Kemp proclaimed that the eviction of drug dealers is among his "top priorities," sources close to him said that it is likely the new tactic will be extended far beyond Virginia, which was granted an informal exemption late Tuesday night.
Response to Shoot-Out
That action came in response to a shoot-out in Alexandria that left a policeman and a drug suspect dead and a neighborhood traumatized in an outbreak of drug-related violence that officials fear has become all too characteristic of the nation's housing projects.
The exemption from the federal statutes gives Virginia public housing officials the power to evict drug dealers and users without first resorting to administrative proceedings that can delay action for months. Tenants who seek to challenge eviction orders must now appeal directly to the courts.
Civil libertarians and tenants' rights advocates denounced the move, saying that it could deprive innocent people of shelter. They noted that a federal court in Washington last year overruled a Ronald Reagan Administration attempt to streamline the eviction procedures and charged that the latest move violates that court order.
But public housing administrators across the country welcomed the move and many said that they would ask Kemp for similar powers.
"As long as we've got drugs," said Chicago Housing Authority chairman Vince Evans, "life in the projects will be hell."
Authorities in Alexandria used their new power immediately to evict 41 suspected drug dealers and their families. "I just want them out of the city," said Mayor James P. Moran.
Administration officials said they would decide whether to grant further exemptions after considering proposals from cities and states as part of a review conducted by Kemp and William J. Bennett, director of national drug control policy.
They said that the government would move to speed the eviction process only in areas in which state law provides tenants with adequate protection. A spokesman for Kemp, Mary Brunette, emphasized that the federal exemption "certainly does not exempt states from going through the normal appeals procedure" to address tenant grievances.
The goal of the new crackdown, Kemp said in a statement, is to "clean the drugs out of public housing and to help reclaim these communities for law-abiding public citizens." --
source:http://articles.latimes.com/1989-03-30/news/mn-879_1_public-housing, viewed March 15 2010.
I think Bill Cosby got it right a few years ago. If the parents create a bad environment, set bad examples, and cannot succeed themselves, the vast majority of kids will follow a similar path with similar results.
We see this day after day and year after year and yet the City never wants to focus on what could be causing this consistency of bad results that Parker Gray schools produce. They cant even look in the mirror and ask themselves that.
Instead just more of the same trite solution.
"Authorities in Alexandria used their new power immediately to evict 41 suspected drug dealers and their families. "I just want them out of the city," said Mayor James P. Moran."
You realize if a Republican had said this the entire speech and thought police "activist" brigade would have descended from the hills (literally) in protest demanding resignations, apologies, etc....
Can you imagine if a Republican had said this during the David Englin bill debate? Shayna Englin's head might have exploded.
But when its a Dem all is forgotten.
For you young'uns, it's helpful to understand the context.
A few days before these remarks were made, Corporal Charles Hill was shot to death by a drug dealer in the "Berg" (today's Chatham Square). The Growler was here and cannot describe the outrage and repugnance that rippled through the community over the murder.
And in a tragic footnote, Cpl. Hill's fellow officer, also wounded that day, later committed suicide.
See this link for more information:
http://www.odmp.org/officer/6501-corporal-charles-william-hill
"We're all invited to tour."
Sales must be bad if the city is willing to advertise failure.
"Can you guys please start your comments by blaming Del Ray for how sucky your history is? You know that sooner or later it will all be blamed on the citizens of Del Ray anyhow, so just skip the interim comments and get right to the Del Ray bashing."
Hey, you are right behind those of us who send our children to JH. So many people have written rude, insensitive remarks about us ....it makes me very sad ... for them.
"By virtue of City Council policy and demands, the strategic arm of Council bears great weight on the tactics implemented by the City Manager (who is also hired or fired by Council). It's long overdue for them to use it."
let's also blame the interview team than hire him. euille, woodson and smedberg. they set the standards low.
From the Washington Post article:
"Randy Sengel, the City of Alexandria's commonwealth's attorney, said his office on Tuesday received a copy of the county's police investigation into the alleged forgery and that, after reviewing it, did not "see sufficient evidence to support criminal prosecution."
Can someone explain to me how forgery does not warrant a prosecution?? I'm totally and utterly disgusted. Next time you or your neighbors have to go before BAR or BZA, why don't we just all lie? It will be SO much easier than actually following the rules. And they apparently don't care about that.
Or maybe their political contributors are the only ones who get a pass?
We elderly have always admired Mrs. Becker. What does she think of Mr. Levy's deed Mr. Komoroske and his Braddock Action Team. Do I remember the inner city's Mr. Webster was not impressed at the time.
Post a Comment