The Parker-Gray Growl

Weekend Update

2012-02-03T08:03:00.000-05:00

Jefferson-Houston Meeting Monday (February 6)

ACPS will hold another meeting to discuss design of the new Jefferson-Houston school on Monday, February 6 from 7:00 to 9:00 PM in the school's multipurpose room.

The burning question for the neighborhood is whether ACPS really believes that a scanty 15 minute at the last meeting and perhaps two hours at the upcoming meeting are sufficient to reach consensus on the design of a new and much bigger school in an established neighborhood.

Second Arrest in Lenny Harris Case

The discovery of Lenny Harris's body in a Ft. Washington, Maryland well over the past weekend, months after his disappearance, has triggered a tide of arrests in the last few days. Earlier this week, Linwood Johnson of Prince George's County was arrested on murder charges, and today we learn that a 20-year old, Ivan Newman of Waldorf, Maryland, has also been charged.

Living the Small Life

The Growler recommends a new exhibition of African-American dollhouses at the Alexandria Black History Museum. Longtime Parker-Gray resident Sharon Frazier and Linwood Smith constructed more than a dozen buildings and rooms – most inspired by real places in Alexandria – in miniature. This exhibition runs from February 9 through May 1.

The two artists, both lifetime residents of Alexandria, began working together on their collection in 1994, combining their talents and drawing on their memories of places and people in Alexandria. Mrs. Frazier, a retired registered nurse, developed skills in miniaturization while Mr. Smith, a retired automotive mechanic, used his skills as a craftsman to construct dollhouses to scale. They first exhibited at the Alexandria Black History Museum in 2008 and the Growler found the dollhouses utterly charming.

New models include include the Carver Nursery School (the former American Legion building), the Robert Robinson Library, and the Hayden Photography Studio. Several of the buildings from the earlier and very popular exhibition also return, including a barbershop and hair dressing salon, a medical building, an attorney’s office, and a florist, all patterned after actual businesses in the Parker-Gray community.

An opening reception will be held on Thursday, February 9, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., and guests will have the opportunity to meet Mrs. Frazier and Mr. Smith. The reception is free and open to all. Those wishing to attend are asked to RSVP by calling 703.746.4356. The Alexandria Black History Museum is located at 902 Wythe Street.

Friday News Bombs

2012-01-27T09:06:00.003-05:00

We live in interesting times, readers. Take a look at some of the breaking news from the last few days ...

Reorganization

On January 23, the board of the Alexandria Redevelopment and Housing Authority (ARHA) elected a new chairman and vice chairman. Derek Hyra will serve as the new chairman, replacing Melvin Miller who has served since 2000, while Merrick Malone will fill the vice chairman's spot.

Recovery

Alexandria police were called yesterday to an abandoned home in Ft. Washington, Maryland as Prince George's County law enforcement officials investigated a tip about a body found in a well.

According broadcast news reports, it will take some time for local police to shore up the well, which is sited in a remote location, so the body can be retrieved and identified.

News reports and the presence of the Alexandria police suggest that these might be the remains of missing activist Lenny Harris, whose car was found last year in PG County after his disappearance.

Revolving Door

Alexandria City Public Schools announced yesterday that Jefferson-Houston Chief Executive Officer Stephen Wilkins will be leaving soon to take another job.

Mr. Wilkins, who wore multiples hats at ACPS -- including Transformation Officer for T.C. Williams High School and Project Director for the Total Compensation Review -- will serve as Chief Operating Officer at the DeKalb County, Georgia school district.

Curious how ACPS officials blamed constantly reshuffling leadership at Jefferson-Houston for the school's academic woes under former Superintendent Rebecca Perry but have the same turnover problem on their hands now. Readers will remember that former J-H principal Kimberly Graves also departed last year, taking a post in the ACPS central office.

Recriminations

ACPS Chief Financial Officer Jean Sina announced his resignation at Tuesday's School Board meeting, telling them he had accepted a position with the City of Alexandria to help implement an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.

However, Mr. Sina then sent ACPS staffers a letter informing them of his departure due to health issues which he blamed on an allegedly hostile work environment and issues with his supervisor, Deputy Superintendent Margaret Byess.

The Growler has no idea what to make of this. Could Mr. Sina's departure have anything to do with recent reports about lax controls over ACPS capital expenditure processes which have already cost two unnamed ACPS employees their positions? And is it ever a good idea to blast your former boss publicly as you are walking out the door?

The Alexandrianews.org article reports that the City is now reconsidering its job offer.

The Other 2012 Race

2012-01-23T09:05:00.003-05:00

For the first time in decades, Alexandrians will go to the polls in November — rather than May — to vote for the Mayor and City Council. Many suspect that the Council changed the election date to coincide with the Presidential race to ensure better (or perhaps more partisan) voter turnout.

This fall's local elections promise to be rather more interesting than usual. In 2009, the big news was the Republican Party's promotion of a "plunking" strategy. This technique, which involved casting votes only for the alternative candidates, successfully broke up the complete Democratic hegemony on Council by bringing in Republican Frank Fannon and independent candidate Alicia Hughes. (As a then-federal employee Ms. Hughes could not affiliate with a party due to the provisions of the Hatch Act.)

Last year Democratic Councilman Rob Krupicka announced this was his last term, regardless of whether he won the State Senate race or not. (He didn't, and lost to Adam Ebbin.)

Not surprisingly, former Democratic Council members Tim Lovain and Justin Wilson, who were ousted by the newcomers in 2009, announced they were tossing their hats in the ring for 2012. Originally they seemed to be hoping they could fill Mr. Krupicka's chair and perhaps knock off Ms. Hughes if not Mr. Fannon, whose popularity and long-time family ties to old Alexandria give him an advantage.

However, just last week the challengers were handed another opportunity when Democratic Vice Mayor (and former Mayor) Kerry Donley announced he will not seek another term.

Will it be a shoe-in for Mr. Lovain and Mr. Wilson? Some around town are questioning Mr. Lovain's increasingly vocal calls for streetcars and the high-density development that they will bring in their wake. Is this the key to winning hearts and minds in 2012? As the Growler pointed out after the 2009 election, former Del Ray Citizens Association president Mr. Wilson rather surprisingly did not do as well in his home precincts as either Mr. Donley or Mr. Krupicka. With those contenders removed, will he sweep his own neighborhood and others as well?

Other rumored Democratic candidates include Boyd Walker and Planning Commissioner Donna Fossum, who would undoubtedly hope to capitalize on the West End's dissatisfaction with BRAC, the handling of the Norfolk Southern ethanol issue and underinvestment in general. Newcomers Sean Holihan and Charles Sumpter are also weighing in from the West End. Both are 30 years of age or younger.

No word yet on one intriguing possibility, which is that former Police Chief David Baker will put his name into contention. Mr. Baker attended the Democratic candidate school, but has not confirmed that he will run. Former School Board chairman Arthur Peabody is also rumored to be considering putting himself into the race.

Longtime Council member Del Pepper is seeking election to yet another term, as is Paul Smedberg. After 27 years on Council, many — including some in Democratic circles — privately question whether the 75-year old Ms. Pepper should retire. But only Republican contender Gordon has suggested in print that it was advisable.

In another departure from the past, the Democrats will determine their candidates at a June primary, rather than a caucus.

On the Republican side, former Del Ray Citizens Association board member Scott Gordon has declared he is running. No word on whether former GOP candidate Phil Cefaratti will run again. Can we also expect that Alicia Hughes will formally align with the GOP, now that she has left the federal U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and is no longer subject to the Hatch Act?It seems unlikely whether anyone will challenge incumbent Mayor William D. Euille. However, it's been rumored that former Democratic Vice Mayor Andrew Macdonald may run against Mr. Euille, probably as an independent. In the last year, Mr. Macdonald has focused almost exclusively on fighting the City's controversial waterfront plan; is this enough to give him broad support across Alexandria and lead him to success? Now that the Council on Saturday approved the waterfront plan, will this give Mr. Macdonald the impetus to finally announce?

So readers, what are your thoughts about the upcoming primary and elections?

Monday, Monday

2011-12-05T14:21:00.001-05:00

The Sounds of Silence

Readers who want to learn more about the troubled history of our perennially underperforming Jefferson-Houston School will want to read a new Old Town Crier column by local historian and resident Sarah Becker. It sheds new light on Alexandria's segregationist past -- a subject frequently covered up and dismissed in fashionable circles but which informs every decision within the City, especially those relating to the schools.

More Sounds of Silence

Alexandria City Public Schools will be holding a "community meeting" tonight from 7:00 to 9:00 PM in Jefferson-Houston's multi-purpose room to discuss the latest developments with the new K-8 building.

However, it's now 4.5 hours before the meeting and neither the Growler nor the other West Old Town Citizens Association representative who sit on the "communications" committee for the new school have received an E-mail with links to key documents just posted to the ACPS Web site.

But others have. Word has come to the Growler that through non-official means School Board Vice Chair and new school advocate Helen Morris sent the Upper King Street Neighborhood Association a reminder over the weekend and an update again this morning.

Given this fact, just what is ACPS's definition of "community"?

The Rest is Silence

As readers may know, ACPS is "investigating" unnamed employees who made transfers of funds between capital improvement accounts without notifying the School Board or City Council, which must authorize these transfers. No word yet on who was involved or how many highers-ups had knowledge.

Linkage

2011-11-22T07:04:00.001-05:00

Commonwealth Attorney Randy Sengel recently provided the Growler with a copy of a Washington Post article that discusses the growth in suburban crime and offers some surprising insights into the relationship between crime and density.

It may pique readers' interest as well.

For Sale: One "Shrine"

2011-11-14T07:45:00.003-05:00

While browsing the City's Web site last week, the Growler almost fell out of the big comfy bear chair.

On the Planning & Zoning historic preservation site is a photograph of the old American Legion Building at 224 N. Fayette Street and an announcement that it is for sale for a mere $675,000. The property does not belong to the City; instead, it was purchased more than two years ago by local developer William Cromley, who proposed razing it.

Though Mr. Cromley gained the Council's support for tearing down the American Legion building -- whose dwindling band of brothers let the place earn a notorious reputation as a violence-prone booze hall before they lost it in a foreclosure -- a lawsuit filed in Alexandria Circuit Court by Boyd Walker has brought his plans to a temporary halt. Instead, Mr. Cromley must wait two years (starting from March 2011) to see if a buyer will emerge who is willing to purchase the building at the stipulated price and preserve it.

City staff has gone overboard and the arrogance shows. Readers should click on this link and read the City's flyer regarding the property's allowable uses. Among the alternative uses: (1) a convenience store; or (2) a grocery store.

We all know what the latter means: an unregulated market, a by-right use, authorized by staff under the pretense that it is an okay contrivance. Within a few weeks, the grocery or market's display of the five food groups, especially fresh fruits and vegetables, will disappear. Meanwhile, the boozery begins operation in earnest.

P&Z staff will bat their not so delicate eyelashes and claim the City has no other choice. After all, the building is historic and any use that saves it is justified.

Finger in the Wind

2011-11-07T07:14:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow is Election Day in Alexandria. Given Virginia's key position as a blue state in 2008, national political observers will be watching Commonwealth elections closely as a preview of things to come in 2012. Of immediate interest is whether the Virginia Senate, will go Republican and give the GOP complete control of the General Assembly.

Some of the state-level races for offices in our area are foregone conclusions and hence are complete yawners (i.e., David Englin in the House of Delegates and Adam Ebbin in the State Senate).

However, the local race to watch will be the one for Alexandria Circuit Court Clerk. Incumbent Democrat Ed Semonian — who is 77 years old — is facing his first challenge in 32 years from Chris Marston, former chairman of the Alexandria Republican City Committee.

City Democrats have been rallying fiercely around Mr. Semonian, perhaps sensing that the race for this position — not one that typically impacts most Alexandrians directly — will demonstrate whether general dissatisfaction among Alexandrians with BRAC, the waterfront and many other issues will translate into "throw the rascals out" momentum for the Council race in 2012.

The polls will be open from 6 am to 7 pm tomorrow.

Trick or Treat!

2011-10-30T06:39:00.010-05:00

No Left Turns

Students of FBI history may remember No Left Turns, a book written years ago by former agent Joseph L. Schott. Mr. Schott disclosed (among other things) that the late J. Edgar Hoover apparently ordered his drivers never to make left turns. Was this directive a common sense one to prevent delays -- the same reason UPS drivers are supposedly told to avoid left-turns -- or an unconsciously partisan mandate? Readers could only guess and chuckle.

No laughs here in Alexandria, however. The City is currently proposing a similar restriction regarding Washington Street during rush hour traffic. There are already many intersections on Washington Street where left turns are forbidden during peak morning and afternoon rush hours. But because of complaints about accidents involving left-turning vehicles, T&ES is proposing that the remaining unregulated intersections -- including a number in our neighborhood -- be closed off as well.

This means that south-bound vehicles needing to turn left to enter Old Town against north-bound traffic in the morning will be forced instead to take a series of right and left turns through our neighborhood (utilizing N. Columbus Street) to cross Washington Street. The reverse situation will prevail at evening rush hour, when north-bound motorisst seeking to turn left into our neighborhood will have to make a series of right and left turns through Old Town to cross Washington and enter our community.

At the last community meeting on this proposal, Old Town and Parker-Gray leaders reacted strongly against this proposal, which will have a potential negative impact on residential streets paralleling Washington Street not to mention Alexandria businesses, which have plenty to contend with already.

T&ES officials admitted that although accidents at these intersections were significantly more frequent than at similar intersections locations around town, the accident rate has not been increasing nor have there been fatalities. So what's the rush?

A final community meeting to discuss the proposal will be held on Thursday, November 10, 2011, at 7:00 p.m., City Hall Sister Cities Room 1101. There will be a short presentation by staff summarizing the safety study and proposed staff recommendations, followed by a comment and question and answer period. The staff presentation will be similar in nature to the presentation given at each of the two previous stakeholder meetings.

Based on input from the community meeting, T&ES staff say they anticipate bringing proposed recommendations forward to the Traffic and Parking Board for a vote at the November 28, 2011, board meeting.

Saved ... by the Bhel Puri

One of the Growler's favorite local eateries has long been Bombay Curry Company, located on upper Mt. Vernon Avenue in Del Ray. The tandoori-craving Cranky One has been anxious lately because earlier this year the popular Del Ray restaurant revealed plans to close in December due to the upcoming redevelopment of the Calvert complex where it is located.

Fortunately, the owners have just announced they have acquired a new home, located a little further down the Avenue at 2607 Mt Vernon.

This address has a particularly interesting tie to Parker-Gray: it was owned until recently by real estate speculator Nathan Carter, whose rental properties here in this community were the source of ongoing police and code enforcement activity, not to mention homeowner angst. It was a Carter family member along with investor James Turner who acquired the American Legion building at 224 N. Fayette and then flipped it to developer William Cromley.

Most of Mr. Carter's properties in Parker-Gray, where he once housed a pipeline of ex-inmates supplied by the City's corrections department, have been foreclosed in the last few years.

A for sale sign hung on the Mt. Vernon Avenue building briefly this fall, but the City's real estate assessment database code for the sale of this property -- MB -- indicates it may have been a deed in lieu of foreclosure to NVR Real Estate Management, which in turn sold the property to Bombay Curry. A list of 2011 delinquent property tax payments shows Mr. Carter owed back some $3,600 in back taxes as well.

When the American Legion post was moved, the remaining members shifted to 2607 Mt. Vernon Avenue, where the wooden sign from the old Fayette Street property indicated they were now housed. The word on the street was that City officials studiously ignored the fact that the building was not zoned or approved for public assemblies.

No word on where the last of the Legionnaires will relocate again.

Sign of the Times?

The Monarch project on N. Henry and Oronoco Streets, which mistimed the market and ending up going rental when the real estate bubble crashed a few years ago, has now been redubbed "The Henry" and is once again offering condo units for sale. A "grand opening" was held yesterday, with prices listed "from the low 300's."

Given the continued depression in the condo market which has been predicted to last for years, is this change in direction an isolated event? Or does it hold out hope for the Erkiletian and Madison projects, both of which were condominiums in the conceptual stages but broke ground in the last two years as apartment complexes?

More Signs of the Times?

The Growler was walking the dogs the other day and noticed signs indicating that a neighborhood institution, the venerable black-owned Lewis Funeral Home on N. Patrick Street, has shut its doors, apparently forever.

Monday Morning Roundup

2011-10-24T07:22:00.002-05:00

Hail and Farewell

The Growler notes with regret the passing last month of long-time resident Lee Roy Steele. Mr. Steele, who had just celebrated his 93rd birthday, was a deeply respected leader of the community and was renowned for his integrity, thoughtfulness and fairness. Mayor William D. Euille spoke at the funeral, held at the Community Praise Center Seventh Day Adventist Church on Braddock Road. Congressman James P. Moran -- a former Alexandria mayor -- was also in attendance. Mr. Steele will be greatly missed.

And a tip of the Growler's fuzzy ears to Dennis Whitestone, owner of Olde Towne Auto Body and Paint located at 500 N. Fayette Street. He is celebrating his 50th anniversary as an automotive specialist, and 25 years in the neighborhood. Interestingly, Mr. Whitestone's career started at Bradham Automative, another neighborhood institution.

Big Wheels Turning

On October 11, the Alexandria City Council voted unanimously to join the one-year old Capital Bikeshare network. Capital Bikeshare makes its distinctive red bicycles available to members for short-term rentals. Bikes can be picked up at any one of 110 current locations and dropped off at at any another site.

Six pilot Capital Bikeshare sites are planned for Alexandria, including one at the Braddock Road Metro station. City officials hope to have the sites up and running by the spring or summer of 2012.

Drive-By Paint Job

For those who thought the old James Bland housing project was scary enough already ...

The Growler's head swiveled yesterday while driving down Madison Street. Apparently ARHA has painted a number of empty public housing units black and orange, presumably in honor of the upcoming Halloween festivities.

Next!

2011-07-11T06:36:00.006-05:00

Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) Superintendent Morton Sherman has announced that Rosalyn Rice-Harris, associate principal of George Washington Middle School, has been selected as the top finalist to become the next principal of Jefferson-Houston School. ACPS has invited the community to meet Ms. Rice-Harris on Tuesday, July 12, from 1-3 p.m. in the school library at 1501 Cameron St., Alexandria.

A second of two planned community meetings about the school's new governance scheme will be held at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, July 12, also in the school library.

Churning?

2011-06-29T10:27:00.008-05:00

On the heels of the recent departure of Jefferson-Houston principal Kim Graves, ACPS has announced changes in the governance of the school, which will be discussed in two upcoming community meetings regarding the selection of a new principal.

Alexandria City Public Schools Superintendent Morton Sherman has announced that Jefferson-Houston School will be operated by a principal for instruction, assisted by a chief executive officer, with oversight by an alternate governance committee comprised of school leadership, PTA representatives and central office staff. This committee will provide support and guidance needed to assist the principal in his or her quest to improve student achievement. The principal for instruction position is being advertised now with a goal of selecting a new principal by late July.

Two community meetings will be held to answer questions about the search for a new principal and about the new governance structure. The first meeting will be held from 7 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, June 30, in the school library, 1501 Cameron St., Alexandria. A second meeting will be held at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, July 12, also in the school library. Read more at http://www.acps.k12.va.us/news2011/nr2011062701.php

It also appears that assistant principal Melissa Deak has left and a new assistant principal, Helena Payne, has been brought in from Hammond Middle School (http://www.acps.k12.va.us/news2011/nr2011062103.php).

The question for skeptical parents and community residents is whether these changes reflect a genuine intent to bootstrap the school into better performance or are simply churning exercises. Given that test scores are typically released in September, do school officials know something we don't about the spring's test results?

The $40 Million Windfall

2011-05-31T05:23:00.009-05:00

Tomorrow (Wednesday, June 1) at 7:00 PM Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) will hold a community meeting at Jefferson-Houston regarding plans for a new school.

Nearly a year ago, Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) proposed a public-private partnership to pay for a new Jefferson-Houston building financed by megadevelopment on the existing site. That was roundly decried by the neighborhood, and the School Board was forced to pull back and consider other options.

During the FY 2012 budget discussions earlier this year, the City Council and Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS) came to the negotiating table over the school district's ginormous capital requests. The result of the back room negotiations was that money was allocated in the multi-year Capital Improvement Program (CIP) budget to fund new school buildings at Jefferson-Houston and Patrick Henry Elementary Schools.

Now, the Growler continues to think that it is most curious that ACPS claims that enrollment pressures and capacity are the drivers behind the huge CIP request while simultaneously pushing a new school for Jefferson-Houston. Until Jefferson-Houston meets federal standards under No Child Left Behind parents will still have the option to send their children elsewhere. A recent presentation from ACPS to the Council (fast forward to slide 20) reveals that the two elementary schools with the greatest capacity are those with the greatest academic challenges: Jefferson-Houston and Cora Kelly.

According to an E-mail from ACPS Superintendent Morton Sherman, "The meeting on June 1 is to discuss process and timetable for developing proposals for a new school." However, residents need to know that earlier this year ACPS proposed aggressively pushing through the site plan and approval processes by the end of the year in order to start and complete the school by the fall of 2014 (FY 2015). The Planning & Zoning Department even gave Council an accelerated review process schedule.

If this schedule is still intact, it appears that whatever community outreach will be done in connection with the new school will take place in a very brief period over the summer.

Besides schedule, another question which remains open is whether ACPS still proposes moving several hundred staff from their administrative offices on N. Beauregard Street to the Jefferson-Houston site, which would require a larger facility in our neighborhood with underground parking.

Out Like a Lion

2011-04-01T05:58:00.032-05:00

Here are a few news items that may be of interest to readers as we start a new month.

Recognize This Snapshot?

The neighborhood's anger over the City's support for ARHA's acquisition of Pendleton Park has not receded by any means and perhaps it will move up a notch if readers know how our neighborhood has been characterized by the City Manager. In ARHA's application for VHDA Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, the City Manager provided on p. 52 a certification about our neighborhood that is a doozy.

I certify that the above-referenced development is located in a Revitalization Area in my jurisdiction. A "revitalization area" is any area that is (1) either (1) blighted, deteriorated, deteriorating or, if not rehabilitated, likely to deteriorate by reason that the buildings, improvements or other facilities in such area are subject to one or more of the following conditions - dilapidation, obsolescence, overcrowding, inadequate ventilation, light or sanitation, excessive land coverage, deleterious land use, or faulty otherwise [sic] inadequate design, quality or condition, or (2) the industrial, commercial or other economic development of such area will benefit the city or county but such area lacks the housing needed to induce development, industrial, commercial, governmental, educational, entertainment, community development, healthcare or nonprofit enterprises or undertakings to locate or remain in such area, and (ii) private enterprise and investment are not reasonably expected, without assistance, to produce the construction or rehabilitation of decent, safe and sanitary housing, and supporting facilities that will meet the needs of low and moderate income persons and families in such area and will induce other persons and families to live within such area and thereby create a desirable economic mix of residents in such area.

I understand that this Certification will be used by the Virginia Housing Development Authority to determine whether the development qualifies for points available under VHDA's Qualified Allocation Plan.

Yours truly,
James K. Hartmann
City Manager

The Growler doesn't even know where to begin when analyzing this description of our neighborhood, but if readers find this characterization unbelievable they may want to E-mail Council with their objections (see the link on the right column). Perhaps with this document in hand, all of us need to appeal our real estate tax assessments.

Crime Beat

The Alexandria Police Department has announced -- with justifiable pride -- that in 2010 the City experienced the lowest number of total annual crimes since 1966. Homicide, robbery, burglary and auto theft all experienced decreases in 2010. Rape and aggravated assault were up, but overall crime decreased 0.9% from 2009. Kudos to Police Chief Earl Cook and his force, especially the community police officers and their captains who play a key role in making our neighborhood a safer place to live.

BIAG Critique

For those interested in the recent Braddock Implementation Advisory Group (BIAG) meeting, Collin Lee's letter to the editor in the current edition of the Alexandria Times is required meeting. He succinctly dissects the problems with the implementation of the controversial Braddock Metro Small Area Plan and notes the City's inconsistency in observing its own principles. Frankly, given the Council's recent actions, is this plan worth the paper it's written on?

Dissecting the Decision

2011-03-11T07:48:00.011-05:00

The more the Growler ponders the results of Tuesday's work session between ARHA and Council, the more focused the picture becomes.

First, readers are surely right to raise questions about Councilman Rob Krupicka's comments and why he voted the way he did. He is running in the Democratic primary for state Senate against Del. Adam Ebbin and Libby Garvey of Arlington. Those neighbors who remember the 2009 Council election will not soon forgive Mr. Krupicka for the way he cozied up to the Departmental Progressive Club at the expense of our neighborhood. Now that Mr. Krupicka has clinched endorsements from Mayor Euille and former City Manager Vola Lawson, is the Councilman tailoring his votes to obtain a coveted gold seal from ARHA Chairman Melvin Miller?

Second, it's time to cast sentiment aside and think about the cold hard implications of Third Baptist Church's sale of Pendleton Park.

The Growler checked the real estate assessment records for Pendleton Park and it appears that this is a valuable property that is assessed at over $3 million. (The assessment is informational only, as non-profits generally do not pay property tax.)

The Church stands to make a substantial sum of money on this transaction whether ARHA buys it or a for-profit developer. However, if the Church was truly committed to affordable housing, it could keep the building after the HUD Section 236 support expires next year, accept Section 8 Housing Choice vouchers and subsidize the operating costs. It could even give $100,000 to each of the 24 current tenants, which is enough to house them in non-subsidized buildings for more than five years at a typical rent of $1,450 per month. This would still permit the Church to take home $1 million for its missions.

No, the Church appears to be behaving like any other capitalist institution, which is to maximize profit and minimize expense. Third Baptist was one of the first churches here to lease its space during the week to American Day Care, and it appears to be guided by leaders with some enterpreneurial bent. There may also be missions other than affordable housing that members would like to fund with the proceeds, if most parishioners now live outside Alexandria and have no close link to the neighborhood any more.

But how is it that ARHA ended up with an exclusive contract to buy a valuable property one block from Metro for $3.5 million? At the work session there was some argument about whether there were other offers on the table, including those from private developers. In addition, we are now learning that the Alexandria Housing Development Corporation -- a non-profit created by the City to develop affordable housing -- made an offer for Pendleton Park that was rejected, supposedly on the grounds that their offer was contingent on obtaining City loans to buy the building.

Yet it was also noted at the work session that ARHA's offer has contigencies as well, namely the ability to snag VHDA Low-Income Housing Tax Credits.

Then there was the peculiar debate about Housing Choice vouchers at the work session and whether they would be available or not to the 24 residents if they were displaced. Mr. Miller ended the discussion by flatly saying there was no guarantee they would be available from HUD.

This Cranky Observer is most skeptical about that statement. If there's one thing we've seen repeatedly over the last few years, it's that ARHA can pull vouchers out of thin air in a crisis, despite its routine protests that they are scarce as hen's teeth. Just look at all the vouchers ARHA managed to find for Glebe Park residents when clouds of mold started infiltrating their units.

All this leads the Growler to wonder if ARHA and possibly City staff used scare tactics with the Church, implying that the 24 residents would be out on the street without vouchers unless the property was sold to ARHA.

And finally, this interesting tidbit from the Council work session may really explain it all. ARHA Vice Chair Hyra stated at one point that Pendleton Park residents might leave the City if given vouchers.

That, folks, may be the issue in a nutshell and in fact may also explain why there has been a general retreat from the principal of offsiting and deconcentration in the last few years.

ARHA may be trying to expand its housing stock in our neighborhood through the Pendleton Street Park acquisition in an attempt to keep a geographically concentrated group of residents in place to serve as a political base for Mr. Miller, who has never had success in attaining any elected Citywide office himself. If residents are more generally scattered, they will be harder to marshal as a voting bloc (if indeed they really act that way any more).

Otherwise, nothing about this work session makes sense. One week the Council reaffirms the commitment to offsite 16 units away from this neighborhood (at a cost to taxpayers of $3 million), then the following week express its support for moving 24 low-income units in the same neighborhood into the hands of the same landlord.

More of the Same

2011-03-09T07:08:00.005-05:00

Yesterday the Growler attended the Council-ARHA work session with this article from the Gazette in hand, curious to see to what extent Council is true to its words.

The 2003 story is about the City's loan to ARHA to redevelop Chatham Square. Del Pepper (then Vice Mayor) was quoted stating “I want to make sure that everyone understands that this is a loan. In the past, we have loaned ARHA money and have ended up forgiving the loans. That is not the case here.”

But what took place at the work session belies that uncharacteristic display of firmness seven years ago.

First, ARHA staff softened up Council by bearing some good news. Council was told that ARHA is now preparing to start paying back the Quaker Hill redevelopment loan and will be reducing principal faster than anticipated to save on interest. The housing authority is even offering to subordinate its own developer fee to the City's lien, moving Alexandria's position as creditor up to second place immediately after the commercial SunTrust mortgage.

That news -- which is nothing more than appropriate debt management -- had the Council nearly swooning, which set the stage for the next docket item: Pendleton Park.

Council isn't concerned about ARHA buying another property one block from the Braddock Road Metro, where we've been told via the small area plan process that every scrap of land close to the Metro must be exploited to the max. In fact, the Council couldn't be more pleased that ARHA was moving to preserve affordable housing at no cost to the City. They were persuaded by ARHA Chairman Melvin Miller that there was no guarantee HUD would provide housing vouchers for the 24 current residents at Pendleton Park and that they risked being left out on the street. This, despite the fact that ARHA never seems to have problems rustling up spare vouchers in all sorts of challenging situations (like the mold outbreak at Glebe Park), and ARHA CEO Roy Priest also threw out that there were Bland-related vouchers that might be available.

So eager was Council to support the Pendleton Park acquisition that they scuffled among themselves about how they could quickly vote then and there or at the Council hearing that very night to support ARHA's low-income tax credit application to the Virginia Housing Development Authority. The tax credits are needed to buy the property and the application is due Friday, March 11. (The Growler will confirm with City staff later today that a vote was actually taken.)

Free market advocate Councilman Frank Fannon questioned why it was necessary for the City to endorse ARHA's purchase of Pendleton Park with VHDA given residents' concerns, while Councilman Paul Smedberg questioned how this acquisition was consistent with the promises made to the neighborhood and the vision of the community embodied in the Braddock Road plan. Mr. Smedberg also protested strongly at ARHA's continuing habit of withholding key information from Council before these work sessions, only providing the spreadsheets without summary or analysis just as Council are taking their seats.

To which ARHA's new vice chair Derek Hyra responded that in the past ARHA didn't give Council the information ahead of time and then asked for millions but now they are providing information at the last minute but not pleading for money. Many on Council and the ARHA board thought this was funny, but it was a jejeune comment, and just one more illustration of how Alexandria elected officials are so weak they cannot hold their overweening vassals to professional practices or standards of behavior.

Nonetheless, Council was presented a fait accompli and were more than happy to be pushed along by ARHA once again, with an external deadline serving as the proverbial gun to the head.

Finally, the issue of ARHA's delinquent 1990s loans from the City were discussed. Forgiveness will have to be docketed for an April Council hearing and voted upon, but the Council was clearly swayed by ARHA's arguments that these weren't City operating funds loaned to ARHA but federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) monies which are usually provided to constituent groups as grants rather than loans. Housing Director Mildrilyn Davis stated that the City passed-through the CDBG money as loans because they expected to be paid back from future ARHA redevelopments like Chatham Square, only to find out later from ARHA that HUD would not allow Hope VI grant money to be used for pay back.

Apparently a loan is never really a loan in ARHA's world, and Council is once again prepared to be indulgent about definitions and promises.

So readers, the Growler's conclusion is that the plunking strategy deployed in the 2009 Council election apparently didn't send a sufficiently strong message to our entrenched political establishment, like Councilman Rob Krupicka who is running for the state Senate but whose contribution to the work session yesterday was only a sudden eruption of gush about the wonderful "new ARHA."

Shell Game

2011-02-21T07:08:00.008-05:00

Reader alert: on Tuesday, February 22 the City Council will discuss an agreement with ARHA to provide funding for 16 of the 60 off-sited public housing units from the James Bland project for which no location has been identified. The City is preparing to enter into a Memorandum of Understanding with ARHA giving ARHA $3 million to buy 16 condo units, with the City picking up to another $3 million in condo fees.

The only geographic restriction placed on this grant is that the 16 replacement units cannot be located within a quarter mile of either Bland or Glebe Park.

Sound good? Not really. This microscopic distance restriction — which is only now being revealed in public and has apparently been negotiated behind closed doors — means ARHA could still use City funds to redeposit the 16 off-sited units back into the neighborhood, flaunting an important provision Council negotiated with the community in the Braddock East Small Area Plan: that up to 50% of public housing units undergoing redevelopment would be scattered elsewhere in Alexandria.

This isn't the end of it.

As readers know by now, according to alexandranews.org, ARHA has declared its intention to acquire Pendleton Park Apartments, located at 608 N. Payne Street. Chairman A. Melvin Miller has said no City money is needed for the acquisition. Instead, ARHA would use a combination of its own invested funds and Low-Income Housing Tax Credits.

Is it appropriate for ARHA to buy new neighborhood properties when it still owes the City millions of dollars? Here is a spreadsheet provided by City staff which demonstrates that as of December 31, 2010 ARHA still owes the City $11 million, including monies still outstanding from before the Chatham Square development five years ago, which ARHA informs the City cannot be repaid from HUD HOPE VI grant money.

These two revelations represent a lot more than simple housing or debt repayment issues.

For years residents have clamored for better retail in our neighborhood, and a Harris-Teeter grocery store was proposed for the Madison site on N. Henry Street, then abruptly abandoned. Now a Harris-Teeter is negotiating with a developer to build a store east of Washington Street in an area that at present has no greater density than the Braddock neighborhood and which already has two operating and competing grocery stores. This seems to demolish the City’s contradictory defenses that retail is difficult to attract here due to competition from King Street and Potomac Yard or that that only ever high-density development can bring enough residents to support retail.

This occurs just as Council has approved letting the Madison developers reduce the amount of retail space in their project. The Monarch retail remains mostly unoccupied after four years, and all but a small patch of the retail space at the Braddock Place complex has been occupied by office workers.

In approving the Braddock Road small area plan, Council promised to bring amenities such as retail to this neighborhood, yet by their actions they appear to be continuing to encourage policies that ensure this community remains less desirable for retailers than any neighborhood east of Washington Street or west of Mount Vernon Avenue.

So if you are fed up with the City's rationalization of this mess, click on the link in the upper right column of this blog and send Council a message before tomorrow night's hearing.

The Count

2011-02-07T08:35:00.012-05:00

The results from the 2010 U.S. Census are starting to trickle in. Data for Virginia was released last week, and here's a Washington Post write-up describing the early results for the City of Alexandria.

For comparison, here are the statistics for Arlington and Fairfax Counties, and for Virginia as a whole.

Monday Morning Roundup

2011-01-31T07:07:00.006-05:00

Backlash

Mayor Euille's recent statement in the Alexandria Gazette that "Some parents are just not ready to have their kids in an integrated environment" is earning him a long-term trip to the time-out corner in the eyes of many neighborhood residents.

The Gazette published several blistering letters to the editor this week decrying his remarks, and Mayor Euille himself had to backtrack by clarifying his statements at a Council meeting.

According to Gazette reporter Michael Lee Pope, Hizzoner now says that “Parents are concerned about the lack of quality education at certain schools, so they choose to opt out of the school in their neighborhood — not to mention the fact that we’re fortunate to have choices, and you have a choice to put you child in a public school or a private school or a religious institution,” he said.

“Our schools have made and continue to make progress, and we’ll begin to see improved demographics in the near future.”

Let's see if parents continue to shun Jefferson-Houston if and when the elementary school is finally brought up to the same levels of academic performance as Lyles-Crouch and George Mason. Until then, all such gratuitous gibes are beside the point.

Board-Building Exercise

Readers may not have noticed, but there's a lot of change happening with ARHA's board due to recent Council actions.

Earlier this month the Council did not reappoint long-time commissioner Leslie Hagan, who like Carlyle "Connie" Ring and Melvin Miller also had a stint on the School Board in the past and was seeking her final term under the City's recently enacted term limits for boards and commissions.

Instead, Council tapped a newcomer, Stan Vosper, who has many years experience as a HUD spokesman.

Over the last two years the Council has been quietly moving away from appointing civic activists and in favor of candidates with operational experience at HUD and other public housing authorities, in public housing policy, and in real estate development and financing.

Time to give our politicos a pat on the back.

End of the Line

Speaking of appointments, the Growler notes with interest that John Komoroske and Eric Wagner have been reappointed to the Planning Commission, but like Ms. Hagan are in their final terms. Mr. Komoroske and Mr. Wagner have been seen by some in our neighborhood as men with an entrenched and outdated view of our community during their decades-long stints on the City's single most powerful appointed commission.

Let's hear it again for Council, which quietly but courageously enacted term limits a while back to force more turnover and bring fresh ideas and views to advisory boards and commissions.

Vroom Vroom Vroom

It seems the battle over the City's proposed transportation add-on tax is gathering steam.

Vice Mayor Kerry Donley has been advocating for some time now that the City take advantage of recent legislation passed by the General Assembly, which allows jurisdictions in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads to tax commercial properties at a different level than residential properties in order to fund transportation projects.

The argument is that this additional tax revenue can be leveraged to obtain federal matching funds for transit projects, and that Arlington and Fairfax County are well ahead of Alexandria in that respect.

However, there are some activists, like gadfly Bud Miller, who are skeptical about the need for such a tax and are concerned about the burden it will place on businesses. Other citizens have been wary about supporting the tax before the City's specific plans about how to spend the money are laid on the table.

The question for our neighborhood is whether the proposed measure is being promoted to solve the West End transportation crisis precipitated by BRAC or whether it is the preliminary measure needed to build up a war chest of revenue that will bring bus rapid transit down N. Henry and N. Patrick Streets in our residential neighborhood.

School Daze

It seems like the School Board and ACPS Superintendent Morton Sherman are once again in retreat in the face of strong public opinion.

The latest cause celebre? A proposal to start school before Labor Day and to extend school hours.

Apparently the idea wasn't well-vetted with parents — the Old Town mom's listserve was buzzing — and a Board vote on the early school year start was "abruptly" postponed, according to Washington Post reporter Christy Goodman.

Given experience with the recent Jefferson-Houston dust-up, one must ask why the Superintendent continues to fail to consult key constituencies before coming out with his sweeping proposals, and why the increasingly ineffective-looking School Board lets him get away with it.

The Long Goodbye ... to Retail

2011-01-24T08:16:00.009-05:00

After a long dry period — mostly attributable to the beleaguered economy — there's suddenly a lot of development activity going on in our neighborhood that will bring permanent change to our community.

EYA and ARHA say that nearly 20 townhouse units in the first stage of the Bland redevelopment project are under contract or sold, and they are now proposing to change the sequencing of the project so that all of the blocks closest to our neighborhood are done first.

In addition, ARHA and EYA are proposing a significant change in the troublesome layout of the multi-family buildings on N. Patrick Street. Instead of configuring these buildings with two lower floors of public housing and two upper floors of market-rate units with separate entrances, EYA has found that for financing reasons it would be better to break up the two groups and keep the market rate units and subsidized units in separate buildings. The Growler's philosophy? Whatever it takes to ensure those market rate units sell is acceptable.

A few blocks away, the walls of Jericho are going down at the Payne Street warehouse, and we can soon expect the jolt of pile driving. The Madison project, too, is back with a new financing partner and is going to Planning Commission and Council next month to propose some revisions in its previously approved site plan. Hopefully that project will get started in 2011 as well.

However, there's some news related to the Madison that may sadden those who still cherish forlorn hopes for quality retail in our neighborhood.

While strolling through the new model homes at the Bland redevelopment project, the Growler heard that a new Harris Teeter would be coming soon ... but east of N. Washington Street, not here.

The Cranky One later confirmed with Planning & Zoning staff that they have indeed received a concept for a new project on the block surrounded by St. Asaph, Pitt, and Madison in Old Town North that would include a Harris Teeter grocery store that would be approximately 54,000 square feet in size, with 166 residential units on four floors above the grocery store and underground parking below.

Readers may remember that five years ago when the Madison project was first under discussion, it was slated to include a Harris Teeter. This would have been the first full-fledged grocery store in our neighborhood in many years.

Debate still rages in the neighborhood about whether Harris Teeter was sincere in its interest in the site or just fishing, and whether P&Z staff under a previous regime scared off the chain during micromanagement of the site plan details.

Nevertheless, to the Growler it seeems that if a Harris Teeter goes in on St. Asaph Street it will be unlikely we will have our own grocery. (It will probably also sound the death knell for the small Giant store a few blocks away.)

Other sad but not unanticipated news: the revised Madison site plan will include less retail space, dropping from 23,620 sf in the original site plan to 9,672 sf. The project consists of two buildings, and the retail space in the northernmost building will be repurposed for a leasing office, a gym, and more residential units.

The Growler is not surprised at the reduction in retail, given that there are still huge unleased gaps at the Monarch just a few blocks away. Two years ago when the Madison developers obtained their approvals from Planning Commission and Council, they mentioned that CVS was interested in the space. But apparently the drug chain bowed out during the recession. (It surely didn't help either that the day before a CVS vice president's visit to the site a pair of murdered bodies were dumped in the middle of N. Patrick Street a block away.)

There's no doubt that mixed-use as a concept has been grossly oversold in Alexandria. But what is most embittering is that the second team of consultants who developed the final and most notorious Braddock Road Neighborhood Plan three years ago clearly spun fantasy tales about what was achievable in terms of retail in our community. The first retail consultant had always seemed quite sensible to the Growler in the way she discussed the chilling effect of competition from nearby establishments on King Street and in Potomac Yard and how this made it potentially difficult to recruit retail businesses for our neck of the woods.

What will happen is that many of the residents closer to N. Washington Street will walk to the new Harris Teeter as they do now to Trader Joe's, and those of us closer to the King Street Metro will continue to walk to Whole Foods. And of course many of us will continue to drive to the huge Duke Street Giant or the Shoppers Food Warehouse at Potomac Yard.

Revisionism

2011-01-13T16:42:00.006-05:00

Readers interested in the history of our neighborhood will want to check out Sarah Becker's latest article in the Old Town Crier on Colross, the mansion which once graced the square block where the Monarch building stands today.

It seems that over the course of 130 years a succession of prominent Alexandrians — one of them a Mayor and grandson of George Mason — resided at Colross before the elegant stately home was dismantled and reconstructed in Princeton, New Jersey, where it still stands today.

We have been repeatedly told that our neighborhood has always been a poor and decrepit community. Now we are confronted by the ghost of Colross. How does this square with the image the City has been attempting to paint for years?

Were these notable and wealthy citizens of yesteryear somehow slumming it? Or is the story of this stately home, its occupants and distinguished visitors just another inconvenient example of a richer and more diverse past that politically-motivated City historians and archaeologists are reluctant to acknowledge?

Wishing You a Soft Christmas

2010-12-21T08:08:00.003-05:00

Here's some good end-of-year news for neighborhood parents:

The Charles Houston Recreation Center will be adding a "soft playroom" sometime in late January or early February.

The Parks & Recreation Department created a soft playroom at Chinquapin Recreation Center a few years ago in response to parental demand and it has been very popular.

Designed for preschool age children five and younger, a soft playroom offers a clean play environment to burn off energy. Parents, guardians and their kids can share play zones loaded with soft toys and activities, while meeting with existing playgroups and making new friends.

Legion Update

2010-12-09T08:53:00.005-05:00

The Washington Post this morning reported that a settlement has been reached regarding the American Legion Building at 224 N. Fayette Street.

Readers will remember that real estate investor Boyd Walker had challenged the Council's decision to let developer William Cromley tear the old building down to make way for new development. Now it appears that Mr. Cromley will have to wait another two years to see if a buyer can be found to take the building off his hands (as is) before he is finally allowed to demolish the structure.

It remains to be seen whether or not anyone will come forward with the money to buy and renovate this eyesore by using it for day care or some similar commercial activity.

Affluenza?

2010-12-06T15:54:00.002-05:00

The Growler has been preoccupied with other activities lately, but just can't let some recent news pass without calling it to readers' attention.

A few weeks ago Dr. Stephen Fuller of George Mason University's Center for Regional Analysis presented an astounding recommendation to City leaders at a gathering hosted by the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce, ACT for Alexandria and the Alexandria Economic Development Partnership.

Dr. Fuller advised Alexandria's leaders that to grow economically the City needs to build more housing for middle- and upper-income residents. The Alexandria Gazette reported that Dr. Fuller believes building such higher-end housing would boost housing and retail markets while creating a labor pool that will be available to fill jobs that will be created after the recession ends.

The Growler can't imagine a prescription for success that is further from the predilections of our local politicians. Affordable housing and public housing are such sacred cows in Alexandria that Dr. Fuller's words may very well have sent a ripple of quiet indignation through his listeners.

But curiously, at about the same time the Washington Post ran an article on suburban poverty that cited Scott W. Allard, a University of Chicago professor and author of a recent Brookings Institution study on suburban poverty. Dr. Allard has apparently found that more poor people now live in the Washington suburbs than in the District.

What appears to be happening is a broad and massive reversal of sociological and economic trends at work since the 1950s. Instead of being a phenomenon of blighted and abandoned inner cities, poverty is now being pushed to the outer edges of metropolitan areas while historic downtown areas and older inner suburbs are enjoying a renaissance and attracting new waves of affluent residents.

With such factors at work, the Growler muses aloud and wonders if Alexandria is politically and historically afraid of becoming too affluent and too successful. Are our leaders still deluded that this is the region's oldest and most prestigious city and are therefore bent on maintaining a microcosm of all classes (lower, middle, and upper) with a diversified industrial and retail economy, instead of letting the place lapse into its real identity as a bedroom suburb nearly indistinguishable from Arlington and Fairfax County?

Priorities

2010-11-23T07:42:00.007-05:00

Last night's final public meeting on the proposed new school for Jefferson-Houston was sparsely attended compared to previous meetings. Undoubtedly everyone is worn out or fed up.

If you didn't attend, the Growler can tell you that you didn't miss much. Lee Quill flashed through a lengthy PowerPoint slide show illustrating a variety of design options for a new school. His presentation included photographs of other institutional buildings and their grounds, many of which were drawn from the Cunningham Quill project portfolio.

The most interesting statements of the night came from Superintendent Dr. Morton Sherman. First, he told us that "if he was a betting man" he'd wager against the ACPS administrative offices moving to the Jefferson-Houston site because it would necessitate underground parking and that might create problems for the neighborhood.

Second, while it was no surprise to hear that Dr. Sherman intends to ask the School Board to include a new Jefferson-Houston school in their proposed capital budget for next year, the Growler's fuzzy ears perked up to hear him add that JH would be his #1 capital priority to present to the School Board on December 9.

Just the previous month Dr. Sherman had stated that a new Patrick Henry Elementary School would be the next ACPS facility to be built. However, last night he switched courses, telling the audience that a new Patrick Henry could be pushed out into the future. He envisions temporary modular units being able to handle enrollment growth at Patrick Henry in the near-term.

This new strategy is undoubtedly intended to squeeze Jefferson-Houston into the existing capital budget by reordering School Board priorities rather than asking for additional money. To pay for an unbudgeted new school, the Council would have to appropriate more funds to ACPS when it is already concerned about potentially unpopular tax increases and worried about its debt ceiling.

The wild card in all of this is the City's West End. Will communities on the other side of Quaker Lane, which are already seething about BRAC as well as the $14 million sunk into the Charles Houston Center, meekly accept another $30 to $35 million taxpayer funds being bestowed upon this neighborhood while their educational and recreational needs appear to go unmet?

Prove It

2010-11-19T06:32:00.012-05:00

On Monday, November 22 Alexandria City Public Schools will hold its final meeting on the proposed redevelopment of Jefferson-Houston Elementary School -- purportedly to talk about moving ACPS bureaucrats from N. Beauregard Street.

The session will be held at the school, but the Growler can't confirm the time yet ... because the announcement still hasn't gone out, even though the session is only four days away. That speaks volumes, doesn't it?

The timing of the final meeting is not coincidental. On the following day (Tuesday, November 23), the City Council will give the School Board guidance on how much it can budget for FY 2011. News reports suggest that the big infusion of additional cash which the increasingly out-of-touch board members seem to expect as divine right probably won't happen.

So where does this leave the Jefferson-Houston project?

Setting aside the issue of a possible ACPS headquarters move, we have been presented with sketches for a three-story building set back from Cameron and N. West Streets toward the rear of the property. The private megadevelopment originally called for by ACPS seems to have melted away and we're told the price tag for the new building will be $30 to $35 milion.

The neighborhood recently learned that ACPS proposes the new school be built to accommodate 650 students. Given the current low enrollment, is this cockeyed optimism or is the proposal really a hat-trick to make enrollment appear to grow when it is only growing by extending the school grades to 6, 7 and 8 and capturing low-income students for three more years?

The Growler recently heard a suggestion that the whole Jefferson-Houston proposal is nothing more than a sneaky way to get ACPS a new third middle school that City officials wouldn't otherwise authorize. This to the Growler seems an eminently plausible explanation of the drive to make a new school happen regardless of the fallout for the neighborhood.

But is the City Council willing to gamble $30 to $35 million on this school? Should neighbors support the new school project if it is whittled down to something reasonable in size with no loss of open space?

The Growler needs not just be persuaded, but convinced that the new school is necessary. And that isn't going to happen overnight. The Growler believes Alexandria's elected Council would be acting prudently to postpone appropriating additional capital funds to construct a new school. They need to demand certain milestones be reached before granting more of our tax dollars. In fact, readers, think of it as our own local "Race to the Top."

Here's what to ask for:

1. As the Growler has demonstrated on this blog in recent months, students at Jefferson-Houston achieved a decade ago with the same physical layout the building has now, and JH principal Kim Graves confirmed this when she told a community meeting this fall that quality education didn't depend on the building but could be delivered even in a garage.

Dr. Sherman and his board need to prove that the curriculum switch to IB-PYP, which they touted as the solution for Jefferson-Houston, will actually attract neighborhood parents into the school by turning around test scores and academic performance. It will take at least three to five years to implement IB-PYP and determine if it is successful. The ultimate proof will be a signficant rise in white enrollment across all grades accompanied by a substantial decline in the percentage of children enrolled at Jefferson-Houston who receive free or subsidized lunches, which is currently one of the highest in the City.

2. There must be solid evidence that transforming Jefferson-Houston into a K-8 school is part of a strategy of academic improvement rather than just another snarky way to enforce resegregation. Let Dr. Sherman and the School Board show us their redistricting or "boundary adjustment" plan (if they have one) so we can see how they plan to bestow on Alexandrians across the City the blessings of mingling six year olds with pre-teens, which Dr. Sherman spoke of so warmly in a meeting with West Old Town Citizens Association in the fall of 2008.

3. Over the past three weeks, the Alexandria Gazette has published a series of articles by Old Dominion Watchdog reporter Paige Winfield-Cunningham about Dr. Sherman's controversial management style, his lavish spending on consultants brought in from past gigs in other districts, and the turmoil that he has created among ACPS teachers and administrators.

Dr. Sherman and the School Board need to prove to us that this uproar is a necessary corollary to school system turnaround and not just personality-driven chaos. They must demonstrate that the lush consultant budget is not cronyism or an attempt to apply mindless cookie-cutter solutions to a different and more challenging school district like Alexandria, but is essential to making our school system one to admire rather than avoid.

The proof will be found in rising test scores across all schools and greater buy-in by local parents and their children for public middle and high school education in Alexandria, which they have historically tended to shun once elementary school is over.

The Growler's challenge: let all Alexandria schools achieve SOL by 2012 and all schools achieve AYP by 2014. Former superintendent Rebecca Perry made the breakthrough several years ago by sharply increasing the number of Alexandria schools achieve AYP. Finish the jobs she started and demonstrate to us that you have the right stuff.

Only then, when ACPS has proven its good stewardship by giving citizens something tangible to show for their taxes, should Council give the School Board another $35 million to build a new Jefferson-Houston.

Transportation Alert!

2010-11-10T13:56:00.004-05:00

Some hot news for Patrick and Henry Street residents (or anyone interested in the BRT issue):

Sandra Marks, Division Chief of the Transportation Planning Division of the City's Department of Transportation & Environmental Services will be making a presentation at the West Old Town Citizens Association meeting at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, November 11 at the Durant Center.

The topic will be "City Transportation Priorities and Funding Options" and presumably will focus on the proposed commercial add-on tax. You can read more about the proposal here. One of the priorities is to finish the Crystal City-Potomac Yard-Braddock Road transit connection, and the proposal is for streetcars. (See p. 16 of the presentation.)

Braddock Road Metro small area plan veterans will also note that the route into the station is still shown coming down Madison Street rather than along the Metro retaining wall.

Tsk tsk tsk.

A $35 Million Gamble?

2010-10-28T05:56:00.011-05:00

The Growler has been giving some additional thought to Monday's community meeting about a new Jefferson-Houston School. And there's lots to continue to question.

Readers may recall the 2007 ACPS white paper on what to do with the Jefferson-Houston facility. This official document discussed different supplemental uses (such as a City-wide pre-kindergarten program) and weighed new construction against remodeling. The cost estimates associated with these options ranged from $9 million to $21 million.

Now we are being told that the remodeling option is just about as expensive as new construction, and projected costs for either choice have skyrocketed to the mid-$30 million range.

There's just one factor that can account for this: ACPS's drive to turn Jefferson-Houston into a combo elementary-middle school.

And guess what readers: apparently no other school district is bent on doing something like this. Note carefully architect Lee Quill's quote in yesterday's alexandrianews.org article: "In Virginia, there are no pre-K-8 models for ACPS to look at, although I am certain that there are schools of this type somewhere in the country.”

Whoa! Is this an anomaly or is Alexandria's school system shooting some Vegas craps?

More and more it appears that the School Board wants the Mayor and Council to gamble with taxpayers' money on a gigantic scale.

"Commit to $35 million immediately in the joint City-ACPS capital budget," school leaders seem to be saying, "because there's an enrollment crisis in Alexandria." Of course, a new Jefferson-Houston won't help alleviate enrollment pressures across the City as long as academic performance lags. Only when it makes AYP two years in a row will neighborhood parents be pushed out of George Mason and other successful schools. But hey, we'll make AYP at Jefferson-Houston. Someday. Maybe.

"We want this new model of a school that merges elementary grades with middle school," they cry. No one else in the state apparently has pre-K through 8, but the City should go ahead and make the cash commitment. It's incredibly hip for ACPS to be perceived as a leader of some sort, even if schools like Jefferson-Houston are near the bottom of the Commonwealth of Virginia's ratings. As long as Arne Duncan is listening, we're cool.

"Redistricting is on the table; we just don't know what it will look like," said School Superintendent Morton Sherman on Monday night. Of course we don't have any plans we can show anyone even though we've done the demographic projections for Alexandria's school for the next decade. Just trust us. Give us the school now and we'll make boundary adjustments happen ... later.

"We did our share," ACPS seems to be saying, "so now do your part. We authorized a new curriculum for Jefferson-Houston, so we deserve a new building." Well, yes, IB-PYP is not yet fully implemented at Jefferson-Houston. It hasn't been proven to be a sure-fire means of turning around around a troubled urban school (which JH essentially is). But it's something Mort knows from Jersey, and dang it, we've got to put some bricks and mortar down fast and anchor the school "for the next 40 years" so these pesky neighbors will stop demanding a Potomac Yard school.

And so it goes.

Since the pressure to quickly renovate or rebuild Jefferson-Houston seems to have now dwindled, the Growler asks why the City Council can't wait and see if Morton Sherman and the School Board can deliver on their promises to turn Jefferson-Houston around academically and make pre-K through 8 work.

It's a $35 million gamble and the answer depends on whether the Mayor and Council like the odds.

A Bang, A Whimper .. and Some Snarks

2010-10-27T06:36:00.034-05:00

It started with a bang, and ended with a whimper (of sorts).

At Monday night's community meeting on Jefferson-Houston Elementary School, the neighborhood was finally given some idea of what a new school might look like, absent the massive private development that was first proposed when a public-private partnership was on the table.

It appears that the notion of mega-density and private funding is mostly moribund, which is certainly unlamented by the majority of nearby residents. Instead, the meeting, which was again conducted by architect Lee Quill, was a straightforward session focusing on the school. (The presentation has not yet been posted to the ACPS Web site as of this morning.)

At Monday's meeting it was confirmed that Mr. Quill was conducting the meeting as a contractor of ACPS. Upon questioning, he stated that his participation in the first community meeting was pro bono but acknowledged that he has an architecture firm, there's a recession going on, and he's glad for the business.

It's good to finally have this confirmation of a financial relationship, though the Growler would still like to know what ACPS is paying Cunningham Quill. But why must every significant and material fact like this have to be prised out of school district officials?

At any rate, Mr. Quill presented comparisons of what it would cost to build a new school versus renovating it, either by adding a second floor or expanding it laterally as a single story structure. He also discussed the additional space and configuration that would be required to house the middle school grades which have been added to Jefferson-Houston. The cost estimates Mr. Quill presented indicate either approach — new construction or remodeling — would cost between $30 and $35 million.

Mr. Quill demonstrated that a new school, built vertically as a two or three story structure and pushed toward the center of the property, could potentially free up even more open space than what is currently on the site. It's an interesting concept and one that could minimize the impact on the neighbors who live on Cameron, West, Boyle and Buchanan Streets.

Somewhere in the middle of these preliminary sketches is the nucleus of a solution that the community could probably live with, although it remains to be seen whether the School Board and Council will be able or willing to fund a third new school in the 10-year joint capital improvement plan (CIP).

The remaining wild card will be whether or not ACPS headquarters staff are moved to Jefferson-Houston and housed in a possible fourth story. Superintendent Morton Sherman indicated he is now looking at other existing school sites where HQ could be relocated, including Patrick Henry Elementary School in the West End, so even the relocation is not as preordained as it appeared before.

The proposal to move ACPS headquarters to Jefferson-Houston will be discussed at the final community meeting November 22. The Growler predicts underground parking and traffic will be key issues for the community, as Mr. Quill indicated a new or remodeled school by itself could mostly be served by the current surface parking, but not with the addition of headquarters staff.

(Note from Growler to ACPS: give the community accurate numbers about how many staff are proposed to be moved to Jefferson-Houston. What we heard at the last meeting didn't jibe with what one JH parent was told by school representatives.)

Readers and those who attended the meeting in person may ask why ACPS didn't start off with hard data and avoid all the heartburn. But that would be to misunderstand how this process has evolved over the past year.

It started with ACPS leaders' infatuation with the sexiness of a public-private partnership and the notion that by finding their own construction funding they could avoid political or community scrutiny about how an enrollment crisis would be solved by rebuilding a half-empty failing school mostly shunned by the neighborhood. The glamor of the deal would also serve as a screen to sidestep hard questions about whether a new building would solve deep-seated academic problems at Jefferson-Houston.

ACPS's intent was to push the Council into a memorandum of understanding in June before the community knew what was happening. When City leaders refused to be jostled into submission and demanded breathing room until October, it gave the neighborhood time to rally. Only then did the school district pull back its grandiose plans and at last put something more workable on the table.

Remember how we were told how quickly this deal needed to be wrapped up and how the school was on the brink of tumbling down due to deferred maintenance? One affable gentleman at the meeting Monday asked a series of pointed questions about timeframes, and in the Growler's opinion he skillfully underscored the fact that the timeliness which ACPS once insisted was of the essence has now evaporated. The headquarters lease on N. Beauregard runs for three years with two one-year options to extend, so there's no rush there. School leaders also stated that Patrick Henry will be the first site for new construction, and acknowledged that even if the Council and ACPS agree on including Jefferson-Houston in the 10-year capital improvement plan it will be several years before RFPs are issued and construction commences.

Meh.

However, the Growler cannot conclude this posting without addressing several statements made by school officials at Monday's meeting.

First, School Board District A Representative Helen Morris talked once again about how parents are coming back to Jefferson-Houston and how enrollment is climbing.

It's all a matter of perspective. Once again, the Growler points to ACPS's own numbers. According to historical data printed in a 2006 demographics projection study, the school went from 669 pupils in pre-kindergarten, kindergarten and grades one through five in 1999-2000 to 486 in 2000-01 and 297 in 2005-06.

Jefferson-Houston's Web site states that as of September 2009, there were 229 students enrolled. The Virginia Department of Education's annual September enrollment census (not yet out for 2010-11 school year) states there were 304 pupils enrolled in Jefferson-Houston in September 2009 and this included pre-kindergarten and kindergarten numbers. When these numbers were excluded, VDOE's total was 221 students for grades one through five. Overall, the school is nowhere close to the totals of 1999 or even 2005-2006.

In the end, the claim that enrollment is climbing should be weighed with caution. It is important to take into account the fact that the school has added grades six through seven, with 8 on the way next year. The school is crawling out of an enrollment hole, and that shouldn't be mistaken for a surge due to neighborhood confidence.

More seriously, Dr. Sherman once again trotted out the smug statement (heard several times before) that Lyles-Crouch and George Mason Elementary Schools turned themselves around, and that Jefferson-Houston could do the same.

Well, let's put the facts on the table once more. Look at the Growler's data on school performance (and the Cranky One will keep publishing this link until everyone knows the numbers by heart). George Mason and Lyles-Crouch SOL test scores before 1999 were by no means sterling and in fact, Jefferson-Houston outperformed them. But Mason and Lyles-Crouch scores rose steeply, directly and immediately after the 1999 redistricting which removed nearly all of the disadvantaged children from their rolls. The proponents of redictricting knew exactly what they were doing in 1999.

The Growler also needs to point out that one of the under-appreciated heroes of the Lyles-Crouch transformation was charismatic principal Lucretia Jackson, who is now at Maury School and was responsible for another turnaround there. (Maury's setbacks this year may be attributable to Ms. Jackson's temporary leave of absence.)

So Dr. Sherman, let's have a properly controlled scientific test of your rhetoric. Give us a redistricting equivalent to what Old Town and Northridge got, and transfer Ms. Jackson to Jefferson-Houston. Then we'll see if the success story can be replicated.

Finally, the Growler was both amused and aghast when Dr. Sherman discussed the future of No Child Left Behind legislation. If it is not reauthorized and "just fades away," Dr. Sherman said, then the schools here would be free to educate every child to their potential and "people would fold this school [Jefferson-Houston] to their hearts."

Huh?

Earlier in the meeting Lee Quill paused to observe that "you people really like the details." You betcha. The Braddock Road study found that this is one of the most highly educated neighborhoods in all of the City. It includes senior policy analysts, financial managers, scientists, IT gurus and telecommunications experts, economists, statisticians, senior military officers, engineers and lawyers galore.

But Dr. Sherman thinks we're gullible enough to assume that if national standards go away we'll all be lulled into embracing Jefferson-Houston while overlooking Virginia's standards of learning (lame as they are)?

That rumbling sound you hear is the Growler shaking the massive old grizzly head. Grrrrrrrr!!!!

Round Three with ACPS

2010-10-25T07:10:00.016-05:00

Tonight at 7:00 p.m. at Jefferson-Houston School, the community is invited to the third in a series of community meetings about the potential redevelopment of the school. Tours of the school will be offered before the meeting, starting at 6:30 p.m.

According to ACPS's Web site, the agenda will focus on "discussion of Jefferson-Houston space needs; renovation and new building options, with a costs comparison analysis; and site analysis and studies regarding the options of renovations, a new building or open space. The meeting will conclude with a community dialogue and questions and answer session."

An article by Derrick Perkins in the October 7, 2010 Alexandria Times about the school says it all succinctly in its lede: "School officials say paying for a new Jefferson-Houston school through a public-private partnership is off the table — for now."

So no one attending the meeting should imagine that the notion of the public-private partnership or using development to pay for the renovations is dead. ACPS officials are simply going to try to seduce everyone into accepting density by flashing what they probably believe are irresistible designs.

The Growler notes with interest that the detailed agenda reveals architect Lee Quill will be returning. In fact, he will be running the meeting and presenting the case for new construction. The neighborhood grapevine reports (accurately or inaccurately) that ACPS and/or superintendent Morton Sherman have retained Mr. Quill to sell the new school concept to the neighborhood, and there is talk of a contract with a price tag of $100,000 being tossed around.

Let's hope that ACPS officials will open the meeting with a complete disclosure of Mr. Quill's current or potential financial relationship with the school district and by correcting any misimpressions ensure that the neighborhood can properly weigh the information being presented.

Readers may be interested in an article that appeared in last week's Alexandria Times revealing federal Department of Education officials are keeping an eye on reforms at perennially underperforming T.C. Williams High School. It's good to know that DOE Secretary Arne Duncan is taking an interest in Alexandria's only high school, where a new principal was recently appointed. But until there are measurable results showing improvements in test scores and a decline in the drop-out rate, many here in Parker-Gray will want to withhold judgment that Alexandria schools' problems are solved.

Here are some salient facts about Jefferson-Houston that are measured and tangible.

According to the Virginia Department of Education, 98% of the Commonwealth's schools achieved full accreditation and met current state standards for English, mathematics, history and science based on 2009-2010 assessment results.

However, out of 1,159 elementary schools across the Commonwealth — many of which are located in less affluent rural or urban communities than ours — Jefferson-Houston was one of only 10 primary schools across the state (or 1% of the total) that were accredited with warning.

Here also are the free and reduced lunch statistics for Alexandria's schools for the past 15 years, which several readers have inquired about. Note that Jefferson-Houston's proportion of students receiving subsidized lunches climbed rapidly following the controversial 1999 school redistricting. Today the percentage is 65% higher than it was before the boundaries for school attendance were gerrymandered by the School Board. Note also how George Mason's numbers fell by 40% and Lyles-Crouch's by 37.5%.

And let's not forget the Jefferson-Houston SOL results previously published by the Growler for the school both pre- and post-redistricting, which demonstrate that in the past the school achieved SOL with the same classroom layout it currently has.

Armed with this information, readers who attend tonight's meeting should ask themselves once again if a new building or a covered swimming pool for the community is really going to make a difference.

BRT Betrayal

2010-10-13T06:56:00.012-05:00

Tonight there is an important joint meeting between West Old Town Citizens Association and the Old Town Civic Association at 7:30 p.m. at the Lyceum (201 S. Washington Street). This landmark meeting is being arranged because the issue of bus rapid transit (BRT) on Patrick and Henry Streets through our two neighborhoods is back on the table. Vice Mayor Kerry Donley will be present, because he is promoting the idea of taxing commercial businesses along the routes to defray the cost.

If you live on either Patrick or Henry streets, you need to be at that meeting.

Last month the City unveiled plans for a new "Transitway Corridor Feasibility Study." Our neighborhood (naturally) is not represented on the study group membership roster.

Readers may remember that during the drafting of the City's Master Transportation Plan there was neighborhood uproar about the prospect of bus shelters in front of living room windows and the potential loss of parking that might happen if dedicated lanes were created. In response, the group writing the plan changed the description of the three proposed transit corridors from "Route 1" to "North-South," identifying a broad swathe of streets that could alternatives.

However, the Growler has always questioned the sincerity of the move. Ponder this description, included in the announcement about the new feasibility study:

North-South—This corridor follows US 1 and connects to future transit corridors in Fairfax and Arlington Counties. The North-South corridor would serve commuters, residents, and employees with origins and destinations along the corridor; would function as an alternative to Metrorail services (Blue and Yellow lines); and would improve access to key destinations within the city and in Fairfax and Arlington Counties such as Old Town, Potomac Yard, Crystal City, the Pentagon, and Ft. Belvoir.

So was the City's adoption of the "North-South" moniker sincere? Was it really their intention to review and evaluate all the alternatives? Or was the verbiage change designed to mask the intention to ultimately run over our community by forcing BRT or streetcars down Patrick and Henry Streets?

Judge for yourselves readers. The minutes from the July 2010 Transportation Commission meeting indicates "City Council approved a master plan to adopt three high capacity transit ways in the City on Route 1, Duke Street and the Van Dorn/Beauregard Corridor." Route 1 was specifically named, not a "North-South" corridor. Freudian slip?

And when Planning Commission's representative Jesse Jennings requested clarification about the Route 1 designation at the September Transportation Commission, stating he was was under the impression a specific route had not been established, former City Council member Justin Wilson admitted Council had "fuzzied it up" and laughed.

Not a smart thing to do in the presence of neighbors like Route 1 resident Charlotte Landis.

All in all, this latest group smells of a "done deal" with regard to mass transit. Why didn't Transportation & Environmental Services Director Rich Baier tell residents about this study group when he attended the September WOTCA meeting? Why does there need to be an alternative to the Blue and Yellow line on Metro when heavy rail offers the fastest service through Alexandria into Fairfax County?

Could this latest manipulation be one more indication that City leaders don't have the will or integrity to stand up to Fairfax County or Arlington (or DoD) in defense of its neighborhoods?

Dangerous Liaisons

2010-10-09T09:30:00.015-05:00

Thursday's Alexandria Gazette contained a blurb noting that school superintendent Morton Sherman, who abolished ACPS spokesman Amy Carlini's job earlier this year, has now retained consultant Alan Hilburg for a few months to help draft a communications plan and a new job description for the post of director.

Alan Hilburg?

The high-powered PR flack, who specializes in crisis mitigation, reputation management and "personal brand issues", has popped up over the years serving such clients as Leona Helmsley, Al Sharpton, Don Imus, Oliver North, and a Las Vegas casino owner who was fined by the Nevada Gaming Commission for throwing lavish birthday parties honoring ... Adolf Hitler. Mr. Hilburg also lent his counsel to William Aramony, the former head of the United Way of America (located on Alexandria's waterfront), who was ousted after using the charity as a personal bank account to keep his floozies in style.

He was profiled in the Chicago Tribune as a leading spin doctor who "has made defending difficult clients a career."

A former president and CEO of Porter Novelli Consulting, Mr. Hilburg's environmental clients have included Chlorine Council, Occidental Petroleum and Occidental Chemical (he represented them in connection with the Love Canal toxic waste controversy) Shell, Exxon, Mobil, Philips, Chevron, ARCO, BP, Dow Chemical, Lyondell Chemical, Lockheed-Martin, Merck, Aerojet, Raytheon, Johnson Wax, Gillette, Nokia, HP and more than 36 other Fortune 500 clients.

Mr. Hilburg has also worked in the tobacco industry, and while serving as a spokesman for the Council on Smokeless Tobacco was quoted in the New York Times stating: "It has not been scientifically established that smokeless tobacco causes adverse medical effects."

So why has someone with this profile been engaged by a small school district like ACPS to create a trivial communications plan and write a job description? Mr. Hilburg owns a home in our neighborhood but is listed as a parent donor at the private Madeira School. Is he "volunteering" his time like architect Lee Quill or has he been recruited?

And more ominously, does this mean that ACPS is preparing to fall back on spin rather than focus on making solid academic progress?

Still No Answers

2010-10-06T05:23:00.033-05:00

The Growler went to Monday's community meeting on the proposed redevelopment of Jefferson-Houston expecting at last to hear some solid economic and technical evidence about why it was necessary to build a new school rather than remodel the old one, and to be presented data to bolster ACPS's argument that new construction would improve pupil achievement.

Instead, the Growler and other attendees spent two hours listening to recruitment pitches from Principal Kim Graves, emotional testimonials from a handful of parents who have opted in, and a lecture on the IB-PYP curriculum that was more hectoring than informational — all of which the School Board seems to think were adequate substitutes for hard data to clinch the financial and structural case for a new building.

At no time did ACPS explain why the building couldn't be renovated rather than rebuilt from scratch, despite being told over the weekend in an E-mail from school board member Helen Morris that a "solid answer" to this question would be forthcoming.

In fact, there was no formal presentation at all (does no one on Beauregard Street know PowerPoint or Excel?) and it took questions from the Growler and others in the audience to elicit the only nuggets of hard information that attendees could take away, such as Deputy Superintendent Margaret Byess's revelation that the new school would be built to accommodate 650 students. As far as the Growler knows, that's the first time the potential capacity of a new Jefferson-Houston School has been disclosed. It was not offered up but dragged out.

Ridiculous.

When asked about test results, Ms. Graves said she is no fan of No Child Left Behind but that she expects Jefferson-Houston to make AYP next year. When asked to explain why JH students used to do well in open plan classrooms in the late 1990s and then experienced a steep falling off in scores over the past 10 years, Ms. Graves (who has now been on board five years) attributed it to principal turnover rather than the 1999 redistricting. She also conceded that students could learn well "in a garage" and that facilities weren't the only factor in student achievement.

The meeting reached its nadir when Ms. Graves asked everyone to reflect on their own happy childhood memories of elementary school and share them with the audience. The silence that followed was deafening. She is a lovely, warm person who obviously cares about her pupils, but gush and education-speak are not substitutes for facts.

Neighbors clearly remain skeptical. Questions asked by young parents or prospective parents indicate there is uneasiness about the K-8 plan for Jefferson-Houston, and few except Ms. Graves are convinced that having the school headquarters co-located on the site will be an enhancement. One of the most pointed questions of the evening was posed by an attendee who asked Ms. Graves for her definition of success, saying that if millions were going to be spent on a new school he wanted to know what kind of return he was getting on his investment.

A lot of people just listened, but asked demanded answers later on the sidewalk. One was a North Old Town parent, who was disturbed by the meeting and wanted to know the real story of the school and its lackluster performance. Two lifelong African-American residents revealed to the Growler that they remain completely suspicious of school officials, particularly since they remember ACPS headquarters abandoning City-owned property and relocating several times over the years. Why move it again, and why relocate it to this neighborhood?

The more the ACPS zig and zags, avoiding simple answers or abruptly floating new arguments to bolster the case for a new school, the greater the community's suspicions. Let's review ACPS officials' track records.

School officials have pleaded repeatedly that they had no plans, but they went to the Council work session June 22 to request the immediate drafting of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in preparation for the public-private partnership. That certainly constitutes a plan.

After that debacle, ACPS leaders began insinuating the building is falling apart, so a new building is urgently needed. However, we now have the EMG study which revealed the school is not tumbling down but needs routine maintenance and some systems replacements over the next twenty years.

On Monday we're told that a new building is essential to creating a better learning environment for children, but in the next breath leaders admit that a new facility will not automatically guarantee improved test scores.

And this just in: it turns out Jefferson-Houston does have a small science lab (albeit without a sink) while George Mason students are taught science from a cart. Enjoy that irony readers.

Given the past behavior of school officials and the latest evasions, can we even be sure of their sincerity when saying that the high density private development is off the table or that the public-private partnership is dead? Were the Growler's eyes playing tricks or was that Stewart Schwartz of the Coalition for Smarter Growth at the back of the room, and was he there as a neighbor or prophet of density? Is it a coincidence that six years ago while still in New Jersey, ACPS Superintendent Morton Sherman was an invited speaker at a smart growth conference?

The Growler definitely spotted ARHA board members Connie Ring and Leslie Hagan at the meeting. The neighborhood was advised again on Monday that Jefferson Village was off the table. Were Mr. Ring and Ms. Hagan there to keep an eye on ACPS (as former school board members themselves) or is the Village really still in the mix somewhere?

And what about architect Lee Quill, who was present but only answered a few questions near the end of the meeting?

Stay tuned for the next community meeting will be held on Monday, October 25. Maybe we'll learn that a new school will halt childhood obesity, stimulate job creation and hold the Taliban in check.

Flunking Full Disclosure

2010-09-28T06:22:00.059-05:00

On Monday, October 4 the Alexandria City Public School system (ACPS) will host another public meeting on the proposed redevelopment of Jefferson-Houston School. The meeting will be held in the multi-purpose room at JH from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Tours of the school will be offered from 6:30 to 7:00 p.m. before the meeting.

The Growler was on vacation out West in early September and so missed the initial September 13 community meeting. However, from all accounts, it is clear that School Board and Superintendent Dr. Morton Sherman were administered an atomic wedgie by the community and in front of City Council to boot.

But at the last meeting did school district leaders provide all the information required to convince the community that a new school is even necessary?

And will the next meeting simply be the next step in manipulating the neighborhood the same way that City leaders did with the Braddock Metro Neighborhood Plan (BMNP)?

Readers will remember that the Braddock plan involved public meetings that were nothing more than cynical squeeze plays to give the appearance that residents arrived independently at outcomes that were actually decided months or years earlier in the backrooms of power.

From information gleaned by the Growler after returning to town and from information provided by those in attendance on September 13 (including copious written notes), it appears that important information was still not forthcoming and it is likely we may still be on an equally slippery slope at Monday's meeting.

Here's just a few of the questions school leaders need to answer to satisfy the Growler and probably many others as well.

1. What is ACPS's (and the City's) relationship with architect Lee Quill and what business relationships does he have with advocates of a new school?

One of the key features of the Braddock Road plan was the use of volunteers recruited by City officials as shills to give the semblance of community consensus. Readers may perhaps remember historic preservation consultant and BMNP supporter Mary Means, who publicly stated she was "a neighbor" and was loaning her voice at no cost to Planning & Zoning. (In fact, she lived south of King Street, outside the Parker-Gray district.) After it was all over, she scored a vice presidency with the City's paid BMNP consultant David Dixon's firm, Goody Clancy. And let's not forget affordable housing advocate Herb Cooper-Levy, who argued for high density while quietly scoring loans for property acquisitions from a City program funded by developer contributions.

So how and why did Mr. Quill become involved in this process? Is he the Jefferson-Houston shill?

Here's a photograph that may help explain: it's his firm's sign on the front lawn of the president of the Upper King Street Neighborhood Association, Trey Hanbury. Mr. Hanbury is known as a long-time advocate for a new Jefferson-Houston building.

There's more however. Until two years ago, Mr. Quill and his wife (another architect, who serves on the Old & Historic Board of Architectural Review) owned a home on E. Spring Street in the south Del Ray "wedge" that is districted for Jefferson-Houston. However, the Alexandria Gazette noted in 2004 that the Quill children attended Lyles-Crouch Traditional Academy, and that Mr. Quill was strongly opposed to former Superintendent Rebecca Perry's decision to move charismatic principal Lucretia Jackson to Maury School in Rosemont.

Mr. Quill lived in the Jefferson-Houston district for 13 years and never to the Growler's knowledge advocated publicly for a new building. Would he have enrolled his children if the structure was new? And why didn't ACPS let its own facilities staff lead the discussion rather than Mr. Quill, since they would have the most detailed knowledge of the facility? Were they muzzled?

2. Why is ACPS saying today that Jefferson-Houston must be replaced when community meetings in 2007 and a subsequent ACPS white paper included options for remodeling?

Surprisingly, at the School Board's September 23 public hearing members seemed to believe that with the September 13 meeting behind them they had made the case that the school needed to be replaced and were ready to move on to creating the picture of the ideal new school. (The discussion of Jefferson-Houston begins at 3:18.)

Board member Arthur Peabody stated "We have apologized enough," and when he asked chairman Yvonne Folkerts what was on the agenda for October 4, she replied that it would be meeting to determine what a new school would look like.

However, the principal question about why a new school is needed was not answered at the public meeting last month, according to those attendees with whom the Growler has spoken. ACPS staff simply repeated again that if necessary upgrades will cost $17 million, and at that price tag a new facility costing $30 million is an easy choice.

That might be true if the asset was nearing the end of its useful life. But as the Growler has noted before, Alexandria has a number of schools that are 60, 70, 80 and 100 years old which are still in use. Sometimes in a time of great financial constraint it simply a matter of necessity to retain and refurbish a capital asset rather than spending more on a replacement.

Is Jefferson-Houston at the end of its useful life? The EMG facility study of January 2009, which was posted to the ACPS Web site after the September 13 meeting, states on page 3 of its facilities condition assessment that "Generally, the property seemes to have been constructed within industry standards in force at the time of construction. The property appears to have been well maintained in recent years and is in good overall condition." (Emphasis added.)

Leaf through pages 20 through 48 of the study and according to EMG's categorization terminology outlined on page 6 of the report, you will find that the vast majority of the building components are described in good condition, with only a few listed as "fair" or "poor."

How does any of this gibe with statements from ACPS board member Helen Morris to community residents over the summer that the school is on the verge of tumbling down?

And what about the 2007 white paper? Three of the five options which the School Board voted to explore further involved remodeling, while two involved new construction. If replacement is such an obvious imperative, did ACPS have an incompent facilities staff guiding the Board in 2007?

Furthermore, how can ACPS reconcile the numbers in the 2007 white paper with the $30 million figure Dr. Sherman is now stating the new school will cost? Bring out the number crunchers and the Excel spreadsheets and give us the hard numbers. In detail. We can take it.

And speaking of $30 million ...

3. How much of this figure is the cost to house the relocated ACPS headquarters rather than to build a new elementary school?

The Growler understands that the headquarters issue was barely discussed at the September meeting. It lends credence to the notion that ACPS would like us to ignore the 500-pound gorilla in the room. That's something which the City also attempted in the BMNP process. In April 2006 — hours before what was billed as the final community meeting on the plan — the City posted a draft of the plan omitting the chapter on public housing. When participants arrived they found they were expected to submit meekly to one final charrette exploring what to do with streetscaping.

Fortunately the disruption from disaffected residents was so great that the BMNP meeting was abandoned before it even started. But there are some disturbing parallels with the Jefferson-Houston redevelopment discussions, if the agenda for Monday is to start drawing pictures of the ideal school before the explanations and numbers are convincingly made that a new facility is even needed.

At tomorrow's meeting ACPS may argue that relocating the school system headquarters to Jefferson-Houston will turn it around. (Funny how ACPS staff denies the school is failing but talk constantly of "turn-arounds.") If that argument surfaces, ACPS had better be prepared to show empirical evidence that siting a public school system headquarters at an elementary school has actually succeeded in achieving measurable change.

4. The Growler anticipates that those in favor of a new school may change tactics and declare that the only way to turn around the troubled elementary school is to tear it down because the the open space classroom layout (all the rage in the 1970s) is responsible for Jefferson-Houston's woes.

This might be compelling, if it were true. However, the Growler would point to historic Standards of Learning (SOL) statistics from the Virginia Department of Education. Documents for 1998-2002 and for 2003-2005 (which the Cranky One has published before) show that pupil performance at Jefferson-Houston were good in the years before the redistricting and often exceeded schools like Lyles-Crouch, then at its nadir.

If the facility layout is to blame for the school's poor test scores in recent years, how is it that Jefferson-Houston pupils performed well in the past with the same open-space configuration?

It's also worth mentioning that Mr. Quill talked on September 13 about the need for science labs at Jefferson-Houston. However, the Growler was fascinated to hear board member Mimi Carter (on the September 23 School Board hearing video at 2:03:03) state "we have lost our science labs in elementary school" and describe how science is now taught from rolling carts at the primary level. If Jefferson-Houston lacked labs that other schools had, the Growler would be the first to demand equitable treatment. But that isn't the case.

So ACPS, here's your homework. And don't forget most of your answers are predicated on the numbers of Jefferson-Houston students you eventually expect to serve.

In Memoriam

2010-09-21T10:51:00.002-05:00

Some sad news for neighborhood residents: Patricia Schubert, past president of the Inner City Civic Association (now West Old Town Citizens Association) passed away at her home on Oronoco Street early yesterday morning after a long and courageous struggle with a rare lung disease.

Patricia served as an officer of ICCA from 2003 to 2006 and led the organization as president from 2006 to 2007. She was passionately committed to our neighborhood and worked hard to secure amenities from the City that enhanced quality of life for everyone who lived here.

Visitation will be 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, September 22 at Everly-Wheatley Funeral Home, at 1500 Braddock Road, and a Requiem Mass will be conducted at 10 AM on Thursday, September 23 at St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church, located at 310 S. Royal Street.

Back to School

2010-09-12T09:32:00.031-05:00

On Monday, September 13 at 7 p.m. the Alexandria School Board will hold a community meeting at Jefferson-Houston School on the proposed redevelopment of the school and the surrounding City-owned properties.

Readers, this is your chance to hold the three School Board officials in our district (District A) accountable. Snooze and you lose ... literally, with important community resources like open space on the auction block.

While the Growler's focus in the last few weeks has been on ACPS Superintendent Dr. Morton Sherman, it is time to take a look at the School Board. They are publicly elected officials who have been the other major force behind this controversial redevelopment project, although we also can't count out CB Richard Ellis, the commercial real estate giant which is freely — pun intended — advising ACPS behind the scenes. (CBRE is not a developer per se, but as maestros who will orchestrate private development on the site they stand to profit handsomely from packaging the project. Anything their representatives say at Monday's meeting should be evaluated carefully in this light.)

As a primer for tomorrow's meeting, the Growler offers an excerpt from the School Board work session last January 12:

Chairman Yvonne Folkerts: Ms. Morris, can I actually ask you question, knowing you live very close to Jefferson-Houston? What is your opinion or gauge of how the community would react to issues of density or how big this is or what might happen to the property or … what is your early gauge of community concerns?

Helen Morris: Thank you for that question. I think that largely the community would support a new school on the site. I think that it’s clear if you walk around the site that the site needs to be upgraded, that it has not – I mean, its uses are limited right now and that the community would love upgrades. (School Board Work Session, January 12, 2010 at 00:57:22)

Let's define upgrades. A soccer field on the roof, accessible by elevator on top of a building bigger than the Monarch, with a floor area ratio (FAR) of 2.5? Reasonable or unreasonable?

Don't be fooled tomorrow night by words like "collaborate." Think carefully about how this proposal has been handled so far by the School Board (particularly District A representatives), read past postings on this blog including the links to public documents and the chronology, and then make your feelings known tomorrow night.

Class dismissed!

A Question of Style

2010-09-06T07:23:00.098-05:00

In the August 19 edition of the Alexandria Gazette, the Growler was struck by the lead of yet another story on Jefferson-Houston's performance problems: "The way [ACPS] Superintendent Morton Sherman looks at it, there's not much more he can throw at Jefferson-Houston School."

But in fact the school briefly achieved AYP two years ago under a previous superintendent. And there are other options for Jefferson-Houston that have not yet been deployed: redistricting, a change in principal if necessary (nothing should be off the table in the long-term), reorganization as a charter school, a complete closure with the remaining student body transferred to other schools or the future school planned for Potomac Yard.

The notion that there is nothing left in the superintendent's bag of tricks is all the more curious because two major initiatives are actually underway at Jefferson-Houston: the switch from an arts focus to the IB-PYP program (which ACPS was considering well before Dr. Sherman's arrival) and the plan to transform Jefferson-Houston into a K-8 school.

So why is Dr. Sherman throwing up his hands in public so quickly? Is his statement in the Gazette a tacit admission that these measures will not address the school's performance issues, a preemptive strike if you will, to lower public expectations? Or is it just a cry of irritation?

Any way you look at it, the Growler is surprised Dr. Sherman made such an unguarded remark to a reporter. Certainly he must have known there were many problems in the Alexandria system when he accepted the post and that progress might not be achieved overnight.

However, in light of this article and the controversy over the proposed Jefferson-Houston redevelopment project, perhaps it's time to look closer at Dr. Sherman's record. What lessons has he learned elsewhere and what has been his style? And what experiences may have shaped his expectations here?

In a previous posting, the Growler presented data about the New Jersey school districts where Dr. Sherman had served in the past, and discovered these districts were historically more successful and less diverse, with greater community participation than those in Alexandria, particularly at the middle and high school levels.

But consider this as well:

1. At his last two postings in New Jersey, Dr. Sherman reaped the benefit of having capital spending measures approved by voters to finance ambitious school renovation and construction projects. In Tenafly, NJ — where he served immediately before coming to Alexandria — voters approved a $33.4 million plan to renovate the local middle and high school in November 2005, shortly before Dr. Sherman's arrival there. And at his previous posting in Cherry Hill township NJ, in March 1999 voters approved a $52.6 million bond issue for school repairs and improvements — the first in 30 years — while Dr. Sherman was superintendent there. Dr. Sherman pushed hard for the bond and endorsed a $50 million total, boosting it over the $46 million bond requested by two school board committees.

However, the Philadelphia Inquirer later described how citizens who had fought for the successful bond measure, hoping to put an end to piecemeal school maintenance efforts, felt betrayed when the day after the vote the school board proceeded to make cuts in the annual maintenance budget.

The Inquirer detailed accusations that Dr. Sherman had hidden budget numbers from the community until the day after the bond was approved, and that the administration deliberately fudged details about which renovations the bond would pay for and which were included in the capital outlay budget. The newspaper quoted a leading bond supporter stating: "There is a perception in the community that the school board and the administration have have not been honest."

In May 1999, the Inquirer revealed that the Cherry Hill school board had ignored recommendations from the Township Council to trim $300,000 in administrative costs and $100,000 in pupil-management software expenses for the next school year and instead made deeper maintenance cuts. Dr. Sherman "advised the board to cut the full amount from maintenance, saying money for facilities could be increased in later budgets. 'I would rather have a piece of ceiling tile fall from the classroom than cut one child's program,' he said." According to the Cherry Hill Courier-Post, the majority of the proposed maintenance cuts were subsequently restored after voters rejected the budget.

2. A February 2002 article in the Philadelphia Inquirer noted that while Dr. Sherman had his supporters in the Cherry Hill school district since his arrival in 1997, "His critics say he is a smooth-talking, egotistical leader looking to build a national reputation for himself by pushing through the latest programs at a breakneck pace with little support for teachers or interest in dissenting opinions."

3. The same Inquirer article also uncovered the fact that "the district has experienced a huge employee turnover under his watch, with 40 percent of the district's current teachers and 75 percent of its principals hired during his administration." Since Dr. Sherman was quoted saying "I inherited a district that was sitting on its laurels" when he arrived, it isn't clear that the turnover was entirely due to a clearing of incompetents.

4. A June 2005 article in the Inquirer discussed Dr. Sherman's resignation from Cherry Hill, which was to be effective the following June. The Inquirer described him as "controversial" and "hard-charging," observing that while he had supporters who were attracted by his focus on innovation and standards, "he also acquired detractors who said he had an egotistical style, alienated teachers, and pushed through unpopular programs without the support of the community."

Reporter Kristen Graham wrote that the notice he was leaving was submitted a few hours before a critical school board meeting that "would likely have decided not to renew his contract" but that "the manner of his resignation was typical of Sherman: delivered at the eleventh hour, which allowed him, and not the school board, to control the message."

The Cherry Hill Courier Post likewise reported that Carrie Roldan-Rosenthal, a parent of two children who attend district schools, said she thought Dr. Sherman was divisive. "'I don't think you have been positive for the school district. I came from the district you came from (in Rockland County, N.Y.) and I know that you were very divisive there,' she said."

5. In August 2005, Dr. Sherman announced he was leaving six months earlier than planned, in the middle of the school year, to take up a new position with the Tenafly, NJ school system. The Inquirer wrote:

Sherman, who has led Cherry Hill schools for eight years, is known for his focus on innovation and standards. But detractors say he leads without building consensus and has pushed through unpopular programs. The Cherry Hill board does not support all of Sherman's initiatives and his contract might not have been renewed had he not submitted his resignation.

6. Dr. Sherman was quoted in June 2005 saying "I imagine, at this point in my career, there's probably one more superintendency left in me." A few months later when he secured the position at the Tenafly, NJ school system he stated "It's a rapidly evolving community, which I find exciting. I'll be taking over this wonderful little district that pretty much sets the standards for New Jersey. This Board of Education has been very impressive to me, and I look at this as a great match as where I am personally and professionally."

But Dr. Sherman left Tenafly less than three years later, interviewing for a post in Easton, Pennsylvania (where he was a finalist) before settling on Alexandria.

Now that Dr. Sherman been on board in Alexandria for two years, do we see any signs of the same traits the press highlighted in his prior assignments: egotism, failure to build consensus, a desire for a national profile, a lack of sensitivity, or a fuzziness with numbers?

There's the run-in last year with local civil rights leaders over school signage that tactlessly rubbed black and Hispanic children raw about their lagging test scores. (And readers should know that when JH made AYP two years ago, just as Dr. Sherman arrived, the usual celebratory banner, which would have been hung on the school's exterior to celebrate this brief blip of hope in our neighborhood, was banned on his orders.)

Now complaints have been filed by ACPS minority teachers claiming discrimination. Word is out that a number of senior ACPS staffers have departed or clearing out their desks. And recent analysis by the Commonwealth's Auditor of Public Accounts reveals that Alexandria continues to have the highest per capital spending per pupil in Northern Virginia, spending less per capita on instruction and spending more for administration than every other regional division except for Falls Church.

Probably little of this would make a difference if we could see the beginning of an upward trajectory in performance. But recent NCLB results were mixed, with little significant improvement overall for minority children who make up the bulk of enrollment in Alexandria, particularly from middle school onward.

Instead of keeping his focus on results, much of the Superintendent's energy seems to be expended nowadays on the controversial Jefferson-Houston redevelopment proposal, which is primarily a real estate deal. Many residents question whether it is really going to have any impact on test scores.

And that brings us to the ever-morphing price tag for rebuilding Jefferson-Houston School. The 2007 ACPS white paper (published while Rebecca Perry still served as Superintendent) estimated it would cost $6 million for a new elementary school. The FY 2011 ACPS budget submission under Dr. Sherman early in 2010 stated the cost of the public-private partnership to the City would be $21.5 million. But now we have Dr. Sherman telling Michael Lee Pope in the September 6, 2010 Alexandria Gazette that the cost will be $30 million.

Can anyone explain how a superintendent can diverge nearly 30% from his own budget submission in less than one year? Is looseness with numbers a habit or just a failure to do his homework?

It's also telling to hear Dr. Sherman's remarks at a January 12, 2010 school board work session on Jefferson-Houston redevelopment:

These are tough times in public education, and in those tough times the tough need to get going, and need to do things differently. And I think the challenge before a public board of education, a public school superintendent is to figure out how to do things differently. The needs don’t go away. We have increasing enrollment. We have, Mrs. Gorsuch [School Board member Cheryl Gorsuch], some very unique needs and that goes back to conversations I’ve had with some of you in terms of our student body, our achievement needs, and I think if we can demonstrate to this City and maybe to the country that there is a different way of doing business in American public education, I would hope you would support that. I think this proposal, from the work we’ve done over the past year is responsible, it is responsive, and it is different enough to chart a course to hold down costs for the American taxpayers. And so I believe, because of its responsiveness, its responsibility, its responsibleness, and its differentness, for all those reasons I would hope that at some point the City would join us. I do believe it’s is the right thing to do, and maybe if at some point the City says hold on, WE don’t want to do that, at least give the green light to the School Board to go ahead even without the City. (School Board Work Session, January 12, 2010, video at 1:19:47)

Not surprisingly, School Board Chairman Yvonne Folkert's response to this monologue was a simple “Gulp!”

Knowing that Washington, D.C.'s Oyster School has become a model for public-private partnerships, do Dr. Sherman's remarks about American taxpayers and the country indicate a drive to be a player on the national stage, which was noted as far back as his tenure at Cherry Hill?

So the Growler leaves you with a lot of questions, including this one: will Dr. Sherman drag the Alexandria school system into excellence or bitterly divide the community and then take his departure?

Chronology

2010-07-26T11:57:00.077-05:00

In trying to sort out how the Jefferson-Houston redevelopment plan suddenly loomed up before us, it's necessary to step back and look at a chronology. All of these dates are drawn from public records, news accounts or messages distributed through listserves with members of the community.

A couple of things to note: constantly shifting pricing for renovating or rebuilding Jefferson-Houston and the extent to which this is driving land use issues; the changing cast of characters and the question of transparency; and past commitments to capital improvements for the school.

So what do readers think?

May 7, 2007: The City Council approves the FY 2008 budget, including a five-year Capital Improvements Project (CIP) budget with $4.2 million in capital improvements for Jefferson-Houston slated for FY 2013 (see Table 2). Nothing is allocated for a new ACPS headquarters building.

December 2007: ACPS issues a white paper outlining five different options for the Jefferson-Houston facility involving either remodeling or reconstruction. Besides the elementary school and Head Start, other uses that are envisioned include a "special needs" center for 40 students and a city-wide preschool.

Pricing for the options ranges from $6 million for a single new elementary school for 400 students (Option #4) to $21 million to build a new school and remodel the existing building for the special needs center and Head Start (Option #9). Upcoming roof, HVAC and other major renovations needed around 2013 are estimated at approximately $3 million.

December 12, 2007: In a memo to Council, City Manager James Hartmann discusses a proposal from the Tauber Foundation to donate West End land parcels to the City in exchange for a $5 million reimbursement and demolition costs. The gift would leave the City with a net donation of land worth $10 to $25 million. The City Manager proposes using the parcels to build a new ACPS headquarters, noting "The Schools have found that their currently leased Beauregard office site works well as a location for School administrative services." The memo also states it will be "several years" before the planning process even begins, much less construction.

January 2008: Helen Morris and a small group of interested parents launch the Jefferson-Houston listserve to discuss how to turn the school around.

April 10, 2008: At a School Board meeting chairman Claire Eberwein notes that "the City/Schools Committee met and determined that they are not ready to take proposals for locations for a future Alexandria preschool. The proposal to convert Jefferson-Houston into a
dedicated preschool will therefore be removed from the slate."

May 2008: Council approves the FY 2009 budget, which increases the CIP budget line item for Jefferson-Houston to $6.1 million for FY 2013. This sum is almost identical to the amount listed in the 2007 white paper as the cost to build a new school.

June 2008: Dr. Morton Sherman is selected as the new ACPS superintendent. He reports for duty August 15 and begins making the round of schools and PTAs in the fall.

September 29, 2008: The U.S. Department of the Army announces that it has selected the Mark Center, near ACPS headquarters on N. Beauregard Street, as the site for 6,400 relocated defense jobs, prompting ongoing outrage in Alexandria's West End about the traffic impact on local neighborhoods and commuters.

Date unknown (circa late 2008): With the dramatic drop in stock values due to the burgeoning crisis in financial markets, the Tauber deal with the City is off because the tax write-off advantages behind the donation have evaporated. No announcements are ever made that the land offer has been withdrawn.

January 2009: Dr. Sherman begins discussions with City Manager Jim Hartmann about a possible public-private partnership. (According to statements made by Dr. Sherman at the June 22, 2010 ACPS-Council work session, talks with Mr. Hartmann had been ongoing for "18 months," which therefore dates the initial dialog to early 2009.)

February 2009: Ms. Morris announces her candidacy for the School Board.

April 27, 2009: Council approves the FY 2010 budget, which again includes $6.1 million for Jefferson-Houston for Jefferson-Houston in the CIP for FY 2013. There is still no funding in the budget for a new ACPS headquarters building.

May 5, 2009: Ms. Morris is elected to the School Board as a representative of District A (eastern Alexandria).

June 15, 2009: Mayor Euille attends a UKSNA monthly meeting and according to the minutes he "assured UKSNA members that physical improvements to the [sic] Jefferson Houston were a major priority and, now that the curriculum and other stabilization measures have been implemented by the school board, the city is now poised to implement and fund a capital improvement program at Jefferson Houston even in these difficult economic times." The minutes are written by UKSNA Secretary Helen Morris.

July 17-18, 2009: The newly elected School Board, according to Michael Lee Pope's recent article in the Gazette, are briefed about the possible public-private partnership. There is no recording or minutes for the briefing, which apparently took place at a closed School Board retreat.

October 28, 2009: At an ACPS Budget and Audit Committee meeting, Ms. Morris agrees to research the issues surrounding the establishment of educational foundations, which is a component of a future public-private partnership.

November 7, 2009: ACPS presents its capital budget needs at a City Council budget retreat. Jefferson-Houston is listed as needing replacement at a cost of $13 million in FY 2012.

December 3, 2009: At a School Board meeting (02:15:30), Ms. Morris reports on the Budget Committee's work since the July retreat in researching public-private partnerships and the feasibility of setting up an educational foundation. Committee chair Arthur Peabody states that Ms. Morris is doing the committee's "yeoman work" on these topics.

January 12, 2010: ACPS conducts a work session on the proposed Jefferson-Houston public-private partnership and for the first time word gets out in the press that a redevelopment plan is under consideration, some six months after it is first discussed by the School Board.

February 9, 2010: ACPS presents its proposed CIP budget for FY 2011 to the City. In FY 2010, ACPS asked for $86 million and received $64 million. With the FY 2011 budget, the first full budget cycle under Dr. Sherman, the request is now $139 million for a "Needs-Based" CIP budget or $127 million for a "Constrained Resources" CIP budget. Rising enrollment is being blamed as one of the principal drivers behind the increases.

Funding to replace Jefferson-Houston is no longer present. Instead, around $70,000 is allocated each year until FY 2013 to "replace failed components of the building’s façade, including mortar joints, precast panel repairs, and failed caulk joints. This work is necessary to maintain the existing facility until the new building is constructed."

The document states "This facility is proposed to be replaced in FY 2014 with a new mixed use complex" that "to be constructed under a Public Private Partnership Agreement with an alternative source of funds" and would include new ACPS headquarters offices.

"The school portion of this building would cost approximately $21.5 million in FY 2013-2014" and if replacement plans fall through ACPS would need to pay $8.85 million for "roof replacement, HVAC Systems replacement, fire alarm system replacement, ADA and plumbing upgrades, replacement of the carpeting throughout the building, and repainting of the entire facility... Based on this cost for renovations and systems replacement versus the cost of a new facility, construction of a new facility is more economically feasible."

April 7, 2010 : ACPS representatives, including Dr. Sherman and Ms. Morris, are invited to make a presentation to West Old Town Citizens Association to explain the proposed redevelopment. The initiative for the meeting comes from the civic association not from ACPS, and ACPS provides no specifics on how much density the project will require.

May 3, 2010: City Council approves the FY 2011 budget, including a capital budget for ACPS of $106.2 million over six years and $158.1 million over 10 years.

June 22, 2010: ACPS-Council work session on the proposed Jefferson-Houston redevelopment and public-private partnership. The introductory remarks are made by Dr. Sherman and Ms. Morris. ACPS's Margaret Byess and Planning and Zoning's Gwen Wright staff make a joint presentation, with slide #25 showing that it will require nearly 1.2 million sf of development and an FAR of 2.5 to hit the sweet spot where the project (which now includes ACPS HQ) is financially feasible.

July 19, 2010: Record attendance at the July 2010 Upper King Street Neighborhood Association meeting, where residents strongly express their objections to the proposed redevelopment and its impact on the neighborhood.

Support Local Talent!

2010-07-24T10:03:00.003-05:00

If you would like to hear and savor hot local talent this weekend in a cool setting, get yourself down to Alexandria's Metro Stage to hear singer Gary E. Vincent (fresh from appearances at New York's Triad Theater) in a terrific one-man show. His accompanist is our neighbor William Hubbard, a brilliant pianist, composer, musician, actor, vocalist and arranger.

Mr. Hubbard is a past winner of D.C.'s prestigious Helen Hayes award for Arena Stage's production of Crowns. He is internationally known for his gospel hymn "I Love You Lord Today" and doubles as music director at Ebenezer Baptist Church when he's not performing in New York, Atlanta, Paris or Milan. Mr. Hubbard's grandmother Lucille is fondly remembered as a long-time resident of N. Fayette Street, where her grandson now lives when he isn't on the road.

The Growler caught the Friday opening; and there will be repeats both Saturday and Sunday night.

From Out of the Past

2010-07-22T07:29:00.008-05:00

Those following the discussion on this blog about the proposed Jefferson-Houston megadevelopment will want to check out the unsigned editorial that appeared today in alexandrianews.org.

Most readers may not realize that this Web site was founded by former school board member Rodger Digilio and that the editorial was undoubtedly written by him.

A commenter on this site noted recently, "Claire Eberwien, Roger Digilio and cronies played dirty, dirty politics to make elementary schools whiter in more affluent neighborhoods." The Growler understands that this statement is essentially true and that Mr. Digilio was closely identified with the controversial redistricting of 1999.

The appearance of this piece — which raises many questions about the proposed development — comes a whole month after the June 22 Council work session which blew the lid off the ACPS plan.

The timing is interesting.

An HQ PDQ?

2010-07-18T08:09:00.029-05:00

In analyzing the proposed Jefferson-Houston redevelopment project, two things nag at the Growler.

If there is a solid business case to be made for a new elementary school based on maintenance vs. replacement cost, why not simply include it in the ACPS capital budget request as a priority project? Just fund it through the usual process, as ACPS is planning to do with Cora Kelly and Patrick Henry, and call it a day.

And if there are compelling grounds for building a new ACPS headquarters rather than continue renting on N. Beauregard Street, why not put it on the capital budget list as well? In fact, could an inoffensive low-rise office building be squeezed in somewhere on the Jefferson-Houston site, say on the unused open space in front of the pool?

In both cases the projects, if justifiable, could be accomplished without the private hyper-development.

What the Growler suspects, though, is that Dr. Sherman's plan to build a new ACPS headquarters building is the real driver behind the public-private partnership proposal. In fact, could Dr. Sherman be advocating the partnership because he has been unsuccessful convincing City officials that a new headquarters building is an urgent need right now, given other pressing capital priorities and a debt ceiling Alexandria is now bumping up against?

In this scenario, a Dr. Sherman thwarted by the City bean counters (but determined to have a new headquarters building) would be motivated to find an alternative way to generate cash flow independent of City appropriations to move ACPS headquarters. In essence, he would try to get what he wanted by offering to pay his own way.

Have your doubts about this scenario? Then explain why Dr. Sherman and the School Board were so anxious that Council agree to enter into an MOU right at the June work session, and why the CB Richard Ellis representative spoke about the need to move quickly to market. Is it because the renegotiated leases on N. Beauregard Street are scheduled to expire in 2013?

It may never be known who first brought it up as a template for Alexandria, but the 2001 Oyster School redevelopment in northwest Washington D.C. is widely known as the textbook example of a successful public-private partnership option in the educational realm. But its back story is not similar to that of Jefferson-Houston. In fact it is much more like Mount Vernon Community School.

According to Rebecca Diane Freeman's book Bilingual Education and Social Change, in 1991 shortly before the community began its crusade for a new school, "third-grade students performed between 1.6 and 1.8 grade levels above the national norm, and Oyster sixth grade students performed between 4.4 and 6.2 grade levels above the national norm." (p. 23)

While the school population had morphed over the years from white to primarily lower-income Hispanic immigrants, since the early 1980s Oyster had been thriving once it became a bilingual school. The greatest challenge was overcrowding; by the 1990s the school was at 130% of capacity and kids were being housed in closets and temporary metal buildings. There were also long waiting lists for enrollment.

So if the academic example of Oyster isn't quite relevant, Dr. Sherman and ACPS appear to be embracing its financing structure. Which of the Alexandria school district's properties would yield the maximum return in an Oyster-like deal?

Enter Jefferson-Houston, sitting on a valuable chunk of land with close proximity to Metro. As a prime property, it could be used to leverage private development to build offices for bureaucrats. Throwing in a new school would be necessary politically because there would have to be some shred of justification for leveraging the property and selling the sudden massive arrival of development in a residential neighborhood.

From Dr. Sherman's perspective, there would be a lot of advantages to leveraging Jefferson-Houston to get a new ACPS headquarters facility. He would get his administrative building off N. Beauregard Street just as the BRAC traffic snarl at Mark Center was being felt in all its intensity. He could position himself as a hero to the politicians for finding an off-the books method to finance the school and HQ while also generating tax revenue for City coffers from the private development. And he could throw a bone to JH parents who have been lobbying for a new school.

But there are just a few problems with this plan.

The Oyster School project was much simpler. The community's only goal was to build a new school, not an additional office building for administrative staff. Adding another structure at Jefferson-Houston means the density granted to the private partner must shoot up in order to foot the bill. (Remember, readers, that the James Bland public housing development ended up very dense because the project required a lot of market rate units to spin off the cash to pay for the Glebe Park replacement.)

In addition, Oyster School was a single property owned by the D.C. school district. To make this unwieldy project work ACPS is urging the City to throw its properties like the Buchanan playground, pool and Durant Center into the mix and is also angling for ARHA to offer up Jefferson Village.

But neighborhood outcry about the potential loss of amenities like the Durant Center and open space which is already bubbling up (despite Dr. Sherman's personal comfort level with rooftop soccer) makes it likely that the City will require the private development at Jefferson-Houston to be sufficient to pay for replacement facilities. As everyone who participated in the Braddock Road Metro charrettes knows, asking for additional amenities from development means pushing up the density. It is also not clear that ARHA is ready to participate (more on that later).

And oh, let's also talk about parking. You want underground parking in a historic district? Expect to pay $35,000 to $50,000 per space to build it. At the Council work session there was talk about underground parking for as many as 1,000 cars. Readers can do the math.

As a result, the neighborhood is now looking at a worst-case scenario of 1.2 million square feet and a floor area ratio (FAR) of 2.5. And many residents are appalled.

So readers, does this explain why there has been so little consultation with the neighborhood on what we want or don't want? Is it the Braddock Road plan and Bland all over again, with everything dumped in our neighborhood to suit the financial convenience of City agencies?

Some residents — but by no means all — might be sympathetic to a deal that results in a new elementary school. But how many neighbors will eagerly accept this sort of density just to build a new home for school bureaucrats so they can avoid the BRAC mess?

Heritage

2010-07-12T13:59:00.066-05:00

For the past two weeks the Growler has been rummaging around, looking for information on the genesis of the Jefferson-Houston megadevelopment proposal.

The Growler increasingly suspects this project is not really about turning around the troubled school by redressing the stark segregation at Jefferson-Houston that resulted from the 1999 redistricting. It's about something else.

To confirm that theory, let's start by looking at some of the key players and their records, beginning with ACPS Superintendent Morton Sherman. Is there any sign he is willing to buck the system by a bold redistricting or closing Jefferson-Houston in favor of a fresh start at a Potomac Yard school, an idea which has gained traction in the neighborhood recently?

Judge for yourselves, readers.

1. Before arriving in Alexandria, Dr. Sherman's recent experience has been in school districts like Cherry Hill and Tenafly, New Jersey which are less diverse than Alexandria and more reflective of their general population's demographics.

Dr. Sherman was quoted in a May 29, 2000 Philadelphia Inquirer story stating that 6% of Cherry Hill's 11,000 students were black, between 15 and 18% Asian and about 4% Latino. Cherry Hill's racial makeup in the 2000 Census was 84.7% white, 8.9% Asian, 4.5% African American, and 2.5% Hispanic or Latino of any race. According to the American Community 2006-2008 estimates, median family income is $102,554 in 2008 dollars. For the 2001-2002 school year, Cherry Hill High School East received the Blue Ribbon Award from the U.S. Department of Education, the highest honor that an American school can achieve.

New Jersey Department of Education statistics from 2007-2008 indicate Tenafly schools are 66% white, 30% Asian, 1.3% African American and 3.6% Hispanic. In the 2000 Census Tenafly was 76.8% white, 19.1% Asian, 1.0% African American, and 4.7% Hispanic or Latino of any race. Median family income was $111,029 in 1999 dollars. The borough's public high school -- also a Blue Ribbon Award winner -- has gained national recognition repeatedly as one of the best in the U.S.

Contrast this with Alexandria. According to the latest ACPS demographics our local schools are 24.7% white, 6.2% Asian Pacific, 36.5% black, and 27% Hispanic. But the Census Bureau's 2006-2008 American Community Survey reveals the population of Alexandria as a whole is 65.9% white, 20.6% black, 4.4% Asian and 13.1% Hispanic or Latino of any race. Median family income is $106,985 in 2008 dollars, slightly ahead of Cherry Hill. (Income numbers for Tenafly for 2006-2008 were not available but are likely even higher.)

Clearly although Alexandria is comparable in income there is a much greater skew between school demographics and the general population here that results from Alexandria's legacy of segregation and white flight. And T.C. Williams, the City's only high school, has recently been tagged as a "persistently lowest-achieving" school, despite a shiny and costly new building.

2. During Dr. Sherman's tenure, the Cherry Hill school system was ordered by state officials to redress its racial imbalances. The school system had significant disparities in test scores and graduation rates between minority students and whites as well as a long-standing dispute (predating Dr. Sherman) between its two high schools, one on the affluent east side and one on the west side, which included the majority of the district's Title I schools.

In May 2000 according to the Philadelphia Inquirer Dr. Sherman set up a committee of students, parents and teachers to look at how the achievement gap could be bridged. Cherry Hill pledged to come up with a plan to balance its 12 elementary schools and Dr. Sherman announced the focus would be on boosting minority achievement. Redistricting, magnet schools and open elementary school enrollment were all on the table.

Cherry Hill submitted a multi-year equity plan — a three-year survey mapping the district's educational equity measures — and assured officials that the district was meeting equity laws, even as racial imbalances persisted. The state rejected that plan and ordered the district back to the drawing board. The Inquirer reported in May 2001 there was widespread grumbling that Cherry Hill, with its small minority population, was being unfairly targeted (which the state denied). The article quoted Dr. Sherman saying "It's not as if we have schools that are segregated. I don't see one kid off here, two kids off there, creating a segregated school."

By December 2001, Dr. Sherman announced that he was halting desegregation plans. Proposals like pairing schools had brought both white and black parents' wrath down upon him. Calling the state's balance formula "flawed," Dr. Sherman stated "I have come to the firm grasp of the obvious: The formula is not working in its application to us. We have not been spending enough time on our primary mission as a school district: focusing on the achievement of all students. Racial imbalance by itself does not control the conversation any longer."

3. Dr. Sherman left Cherry Hill in late 2006 and spent two years with the Tenafly school system before he was hired in May 2008 by the Alexandria School Board, at that time chaired by Claire Eberwein. Ms. Eberwein, a former Council member, served previously on the School Board and is widely credited as the architect (with former superintendent Dr. Herbert Berg) of the 1999 redistricting plan.

The tacit goal of the redistricting, in the opinion of the many black leaders who testified against it at the time, was to encourage greater white participation in Alexandria schools by removing minority children from affluent neighborhood schools like George Mason Elementary in Beverly Hills and concentrating them in one or two sites, such as Jefferson-Houston. Our neighborhood school's problems date from then.

Ms. Eberwein stepped down soon after Dr. Sherman's arrival when her husband's job transfer took her family overseas, but does anyone doubt that she would have vetted Dr. Sherman carefully to ensure her work was not undone? Did his demonstrated ability to stand up to state authorities over race issues and his mostly suburban experience make him the standout candidate for someone with Ms. Eberwein's agenda?

4. During an Alexandria School Board work session on the public-private partnership back on January 12, board member Marc Williams asked if selling the Jefferson-Houston site altogether was still a possibility. Dr. Sherman responded:

When I first came here a mere 16 months ago, one of the conversations that was bubbling around was to sell the Jefferson-Houston property in total and moving that school somewhere else, and as your Superintendent I must tell you that I am taking the position that there is a school and community responsibility to the Parker-Gray community to maintain that heritage, to maintain that school on that site, and to give up any of the public property surrounding that, I think would be going in the wrong direction. (January 12, 2010 School Board Work Session 0:51:45)

"Heritage" is a curious choice of words, given that Jefferson-Houston was built on the site of a formerly all-white high school. In fact, is the term a euphemism for segregation?

5. As recently as January 2010, Dr. Sherman told the Alexandria Times that "The idea of redistricting is something we've looked at real closely and it just doesn't work ... the darn kids move in where we have no space rather than where we have the space."

However, Dr. Sherman didn't note that the exception is this neighborhood, which is having a baby boom. Nor did he disclose that Parker-Gray families are regularly fleeing our community for Rosemont, North Del Ray and especially Arlington.

6. Even while school officials predicted skyrocketing enrollment and crowding at a number of Alexandria elementary schools, Jefferson-Houston remains half-empty. As noted in an earlier comment on this side, when it first opened in the early 1970s the Washington Post noted that Jefferson-Houston accommodated more than 900 children. As late as 1999, before redistricting, the school served 669 students. A decade later in September 2009, the school had only 229 students.

Dr. Sherman's approach was to announce that Jefferson-Houston would become a K-8 school, offering classes beyond the 5th grade — a move seen by some Alexandrians as an attempt to raise performance levels at George Washington Middle School by keeping Jefferson-Houston pupils out.

It is worth noting that this year ACPS announced a Modified Open Enrollment policy that outlines plans to send children in overcrowded schools to nearby facilities. Jefferson-Houston is not eligible now or next year for such transfers in because it has not met standards under No Child Left Behind, even though it has plenty of capacity. So any notion that overcrowding in other schools might work to Jefferson-Houston's benefit is out the window for at least two years.

In the end, one might truly ask who Dr. Sherman is marketing this school to? Certainly not the parents in this neighborhood, who still have the ability to opt-out.

7. According to an October 2009 article by T.C. Williams teacher and long-time Washington Post contributor Patrick Walsh, Dr. Sherman ordered principals throughout Alexandria "to post huge charts in their hallways so everyone — including 10-year-old kids — could see differences in test scores between white, black and Hispanic students. One mother told me that a black fifth-grader at Cora Kelly Magnet School said that 'whoever sees that sign will think I am stupid.' A fourth-grade African American girl there looked at the sign and said to a friend: 'That's not me.' When black and white parents protested that impressionable young children don't need such information, administrators accused them of not facing up to the problem. Only when the local NAACP complained did Sherman have the charts removed." Do we have a sensitivity problem here?
***********

So readers, it appears from this evidence that Dr. Sherman will continue to avoid dealing frankly with racial issues and will keep Jefferson-Houston open with cosmetic changes like a new building (plus the new International Baccalaureate curriculum, a hallmark of his years at Cherry Hill).

But what explains Dr. Sherman's strong advocacy for the public-private partnership and the gargantuan redevelopment proposed for the Jefferson-Houston site? It's a risky plan if a new school is built and then, like T.C. Williams, continues to perform poorly. One would think that a cautious approach would be prudent.

Instead, Dr. Sherman is clearly passionate about this proposal. So what will he get out of this proposal, and is that the "something else" that is really driving the project?

Stay tuned for the Growler's next installment ...

Misery

2010-07-10T18:45:00.005-05:00

This morning's Washington Post reports that a Fairfax County audit of RPJ Housing, the low income housing group formerly headed by Herb Cooper-Levy, has been found to be in dire financial straits.

The audit did not uncover other irregularities such as the forged zoning document which led to Mr. Cooper-Levy's ouster earlier this year. But the audit "uncovered unusual credit swaps performed by the nonprofit and found that RPJ had over-leveraged itself by buying more than a dozen houses and apartment buildings in the mid-2000s, according to a summary of findings provided to county officials."

Potentially as many as 100 families who live in RPJ housing in Fairfax County may soon lose their homes as a consequence of RPJ's financial difficulties. Also in jeopardy according to the Post are the volunteer home renovation programs Rebuilding Together and Hearts and Hammers, which RPJ operated in Arlington, Fairfax County and Falls Church.

So besides the accusation by Fairfax County officials that he forged a key zoning document, it appears Mr. Cooper-Levy also failed in one of the primary duties of the leader of any charitable organization: to prudently manage its finances.

So did Alexandria Planning Commission Chairman John Komoroske read the article this morning? Did he reflect on his long, closely intertwined relationship with Mr. Cooper-Levy on the Braddock Action Team and how promoting big development in our neighborhood in exchange for City bucks fed the hubris of his colleague, leading not only to his downfall but to a cascade of misfortune for people who need RPJ's help?

We in this neighborhood have principles, but once again those in power in Alexandria who dictate to us have demonstrated they have none.

Socking It In

2010-06-23T11:54:00.006-05:00

Readers can click here to view the PowerPoint presentation featured at last night's work session between the School Board and ACPS about the redevelopment of Jefferson-Houston.

ACPS is looking at 1.2 million sf of development and a FAR (floor area ratio) of 2.5 to make this project feasible. And that's without ARHA redevelopment of Jefferson Village factored in; if included, the total develpment potential would be 1.4 million sf.

City Council sent the group off to do more research and asked that they report back in October.

BTW, in discussing the future of the ground level playing fields Dr. Morton Sherman, ACPS Superintendent, actually alluded to rooftop soccer at JH.

The JH Proposal: More Questions Than Answers?

2010-06-21T05:40:00.026-05:00

Tonight (Tuesday, June 22) at 5:30 p.m. the City Council will hold a joint work session with the Alexandria City Public School Board to discuss ACPS's proposed public/private partnership which would replace Jefferson-Houston Elementary School, the Durant Center and corner Head-Start facility with a new school and mixed-use development on-site. There’s even talk of 2.5 FAR and the relocation of ACPS administrative offices.

The Growler has been looking at every angle of this proposal – or at least the meager scraps of information available to the public – and concludes there are many red flags for our neighborhood.

The way this juggernaut is being fast-tracked — with a potential to be finished in five years – reminds the Cranky One of the Bland redevelopment and the fact that the financial imperatives of ARHA (and a City government that didn't want to be left holding the bag on Glebe Park) drove the plans to completion with only token community input. Is history repeating itself, a la ACPS?

Do neighbors want to see more buildings like The Monarch looming large from the sidewalk? (Yep, that’s the level of density some scenarios suggest. The pot is sweet!) In a neighborhood with scant open space, would residents be content with a risible rooftop substitute or keeping the large field that is much-used by organized weekend sports activities, impromptu soccer matches and offers neighbors an inspiring Memorial view?

Is ACPS abandoning rented digs to save on rent or relocating to make life easier for ACPS staff because BRAC threatens to make their (and with this proposal our) commute difficult?

The neighborhood would likely lose its outdoor pool and the Durant Center, which had an extensive buildout and renovation less than a decade ago, would be in limbo. In fact, with $14+ million recently sunk into the Charles Houston Center, why build Durant again, especially when the West End is pleading for recreational resources?

Here are just a few questions the Growler suggests Council ask regarding the Jefferson-Houston project.

A Sudden Priority?

In 2007 ACPS issued a white paper developed by ACPS in collaboration with the community outlining the long-term options for Jefferson-Houston. The school has maintenance issues but was not at the top of the list for reconstruction. (In fact, Jefferson-Houston opened in 1971 and is the second newest school in a system that includes many school buildings between 70 and 100 years old.)

As late as FY 2009, all that was contemplated for Jefferson-Houston was a roof replacement and a new sprinkler system tentatively scheduled for FY 2013. In January 2010, with new superintendent Dr. Morton Sherman on board, the total redevelopment of Jefferson-Houston suddenly became a priority, emerging as a budget item in ACPS’s FY 2011 capital budget submission. The FY2011 budget goes into effect July 1, 2010.

Question 1: Why is Jefferson-Houston, which serves half the number of students it did in the early 1970s, now a priority to be rebuilt?

In its heyday, there were between 600 and 700 students at Jefferson-Houston. That number has sunk to the low 200s (excluding special education students) in the last few years. Even with the expansion of the school to encompass grades K-8, there’s plenty of capacity already there.

ACPS admits as much on p. 9 of the capital budget Executive Summary, stating “Cora Kelly and Jefferson-Houston have substantial capacity, but they are not available to absorb additional students as they are in NCLB school choice. They must meet the NCLB requirements for two years to be removed from school choice, so these sites are not available to solve capacity issues at least through the end of FY 2011.”

Questions 2 & 3: Is the enrollment crisis being driven by the City’s social policies and its 2007 immigration resolution rather than a newfound middle class enthusiasm for Alexandria public schools? What if Jefferson-Houston never meets NCLB requirements? In fact, is the idea to move the administrative offices to the site a political strategy for ensuring that this failing school never closes?

Bootstrapping

ACPS proposes building two new schools in addition to the Jefferson-Houston reconstruction. The other schools would be in the West End (probably at the site of the current Patrick Henry school) and on the eastern side of Alexandria at or on top of Cora Kelly School.

But of the three proposed new schools, Jefferson-Houston is the only one of the three expected to pay for itself. Although ACPS would retain long term ownership of the land private developers are being encouraged to participate to the tune of as much as 2.5 FAR density.

What is ACPS’s real objective? The choice of Jefferson-Houston, Cora Kelly and Patrick Henry should give readers a clue. Is it possible ACPS is fortifying rather than breaking up and restructuring troubled, predominantly low-income schools in order to maintain the segregation that has protected favored schools such as George Mason and Douglas McArthur?

Question 4: Why must this community use private developers to bootstrap its own school building when other neighborhoods are not required to do so?

Question 5: ACPS states that the combined cost of maintaining Jefferson-Houston and Cora Kelly would be $11 million. By contrast, the cost of rebuilding both as proposed (one a private-public partnership, the other via taxes) is over $40 million. Is reconstruction and hyperdevelopment really such an obvious choice?

A Real Savings … or Not?

According to ACPS's FY 2011 capital budget submission, it will cost $20 to $21.5 million per newly constructed school, Cora Kelly and Patrick Henry included. But page 3 of the same document states, "The school portion of this building [Jefferson-Houston] would cost approximately $21.5 million in FY 2013-2014." ACPS's budget for its share of the public-private partnership doesn't appear to be any different than the cost for building a new school without the partnership.

Question 6: With no discernable difference in the price tag, why discriminate?

Potomac Yard

With land set aside for a new public school at Potomac Yard, why is Jefferson-Houston the focus of an expensive, on-site reconstruction? Prominent residents have proposed closing the school altogether and assigning pupils to a fresh location untainted by past failures.

Question 7: Is the current plan to keep disadvantaged children isolated, away from Potomac Yard? Is there a plan afoot to peel off the children at Potomac Greens, in the Del Ray “wedge” and at Potomac Yard from Jefferson-Houston (where the first two are now assigned) and put them in a new Potomac Yard school in order to further segregate Jefferson-Houston?

Metro Madness

ACPS will, of course, argue that land located nearest Metro is the most valuable for redevelopment. But in Alexandria the Metro imperative is inconsistent at best.

Question 8: If proximity to Metro is the most important factor in any redevelopment scenario, why hasn’t the City arm-wrestled ARHA into redeveloping Adkins immediately instead of twenty years hence? Why is Hopkins-Tancil – a mile from Metro in the heart of Old Town – being touted privately by politicians as the next ARHA redevelopment project when Samuel Madden is mouldering only a few blocks from the Braddock Station? And let's not forget the City's projections (in the North Potomac Yard plan) that there would be only 900 additional riders at Braddock Road Station over the next 20 years.

Just call us skeptical about the Metro argument. If the City thought it compelling, it would be more consistent in its approach to redevelopment.

The Enrollment “Crisis”

ACPS has recently declared that school system capacity must be expanded immediately to handle a flood of new students over the next few years. That’s in stark contrast to a 2006 study which anticipated enrollments remaining flat over time although there was uncertainty about the impact of future development at Potomac Yard.

According to ACPS's capital budget document for FY 2011, “Students who are English language learners (ELL) increased from FY 2008 to FY 2010 by 189 students, an increase of 7.9%. ELL student enrollment is anticipated to increase approximately 15% in FY 2010. The number of students eligible for free-and-reduced price lunches increased to 54% in FY 2010 [from 49% in FY 2007] and is projected to increase to 55% in FY 2011” (Executive Summary of ASCP Proposed FY 2011 Budget, p. I-24). Currently some 81% of Jefferson-Houston pupils are eligible for free and reduced lunch.

Crying Wolf?

Remarkably, the ACPS capital budget document admits that the specter of unending enrollment increases might not happen. In discussing a new school which may be built adjacent to Patrick Henry Elementary, the capital budget request states “If the enrollment growth does not materialize, the building will replace the current Patrick Henry facility” (p. 2).

Is Oyster School Relevant?

School officials have alluded to the successful Oyster School redevelopment project in Northwest Washington, D.C. when discussing the proposed public-private redevelopment of Jefferson Houston.

But that project involved a grassroots campaign by neighbors who wanted to find alternatives to asking the strapped D.C. school system for money to rebuild an aging school. Make no mistake, the Jefferson-Houston proposal is (like most things in this neighborhood) a top-down initiative.

And speaking of community involvement …

In contrast to ACPS’s 2007 study of Jefferson-Houston facility options, at present outreach to the community about the new proposal has essentially been non-existent. There were no public meetings and the West Old Town Citizens Association had to formally invite ACPS representatives to its April 2010 meeting to find out more about the proposal; the initiative did not come from ACPS.

The Growler has also learned that the Jefferson-Houston PTA was only briefed about the proposal last night, after having had no discussion of the issue since last fall. That lends credence to some of the questions being raised in this neighborhood about whether School Board District A member Helen Morris – who lives directly across the street from the school – is representing the community and soliciting input or using the post as a resume builder.

The Jefferson Village Tease

Coy references have been made to possibly including Jefferson Village in the redevelopment of Jefferson-Houston. But ARHA has never talked about placing Jefferson Village at the top of its redevelopment list. And how many public housing units would be off-sited? Some, a few … or none? The danger is that our neighborhood is being tantalized by the prospect of public housing redevelopment and off-siting when in fact what we might gain is absolutely nothing. Let Bland be our warning cry.

Question 9: Is ARHA committed or not, and if so what is the plan to off-site 50% or more of the units? That number needs to be on the table from day one. Otherwise, it’s just a ruse.

Foundation or Fly Trap?

There is talk about structuring this deal so that it is managed through a private community-based foundation capable of issuing bonds at lower cost than the City could.

But who would be on this foundation? Typically it would be City staff and elected officials. However, there is talk about selecting community “representatives” for the board. Political wanna-bes or the elders of yore?

If you know the disgraceful story of Charles Houston Center’s “advisory board” be afraid – be very afraid. We will see narrowly considered political appointments and long-time non-resident emigrants hauled back to once again dictate how the school for the neighborhood they abandoned or never lived in should be managed.

Vote Early and Often

2010-06-18T06:43:00.003-05:00

Hey readers, here's a chance to help out a local business and good neighbor.

Shanghai Peking, located at 506 N. Henry Street in the Monarch building, is in a competition to identify the 100 best Chinese restaurants. The contest is being sponsored by Chinese Restaurant News.

Click here to vote for Shanghai Peking.

Mmmmmmm, Orange Shrimp ..... !

Going Postal ... in a Good Way

2010-06-10T10:38:00.005-05:00

Some more good news for the neighborhood: the Growler bumped into Deputy City Manager Mark Jinks last week and he advised the Cranky One that the City has now finalized its purchase of the office building and parking lot owned by Ken Moll at N. Henry and Pendleton Streets.

The acquisition of this land is the first step in assembling the parcels needed to create a future public park behind the Wythe Street Post Office. The park was one of the neighborhood amenities that was promised to residents in the Braddock Road Metro small area plan.

Mr. Jinks said the tenants in the office building will have another 18 months or so before being required to relocate. He also seemed optimistic that the US Postal Service will move relatively quickly to develop a plan to relocate its distribution center elsewhere.

Now who says things aren't changing for the better around here!

COPS on the Chopping Block

2010-06-07T11:20:00.035-05:00

Alexandria Police Chief Earl Cook is currently mulling over a critical decision involving police resources in our neighborhood.

Before July 1 — the start of the City's new fiscal year — he must cut one of the community oriented policing (COPS) positions in the City. And that cut might involve the second officer at the Bland housing project.

Currently there are 12 community police officers in Alexandria, including 8 COPS officers and 4 resident police officers (RPOs). In Sector I of the City, there are five COPS positions: two at Bland (one an RPO), one at Samuel Madden, one in the Inner City (West Old Town) and an RPO at Andrew Adkins.

It's a popular program and many neighborhoods with crime and quality of life issues would like to have a COPS position.

However, the threat of community police cuts loomed last fall. Early this year in the FY 2011 budget process, the Police Department proposed cutting three of the COPS positions or one in each area where two officers were assigned. That meant losing the officer at Bland (while retaining the residential officer), one officer in Arlandria and one in the Lynhaven/Hume Springs neighborhood. The Police Department anticipated saving $280,000 in direct and indirect costs by chopping the positions.

City Council restored much but not all of the funding this spring. Now only one position is in jeopardy and the Growler fears the decision where to cut will be swayed as much by politics as by statistics.

Why should the position at Bland be retained? When running the statistics from the Police Department Web site for Bland vs. Lynhaven and Hume Springs the past year (June 1, 2009 to May 31, 2010) the Growler found we had twice as many drug offenses as the two other areas combined (49 versus 26) and 30% more assaults (57 versus 40).

One offense in particular stands out: there were six times as many trespassing offenses at Bland as there were in Lynhaven/Hume Springs (65 compared to 11). As readers know, this difference can be attributed to the ARHA barment policy which is effective in keeping visitors with criminal convictions off the housing authority's properties.

This is significant because one trespassing arrest may prevent a host of crimes. If the capability to make these arrests is eroded because there are fewer police on hand, we are in for a potentially long, hot summer because the bad guys will find it easier to slip in. Watch the crime rate spiral then, particularly drug offenses.

One rationale the Growler suspects will probably surface for cutting the Bland officer is that redevelopment is now truly launched. However, only Phase I is underway at this time, and it covers less than a full city block, since most of the 700 block of N. Columbus Street consists of private homes. Only the tip of the iceberg will be affected this year.

So are there other alternatives?

The Growler was intrigued to notice earlier this year when the budget memos on COPS were issued that there are positions assigned to three apartment complexes elsewhere in the City: Crestview, Cameron Commons, and Hampton Court. None of these three positions was even mentioned in terms of cuts yet the crime numbers and the seriousness of offenses in those complexes pales in comparison to what happens in our neighborhood.

It is only common sense to assign police resources where they are most needed. The Bland COPS officer needs to stay.

If you want to make yourself heard on this issue, click here to send an E-mail to the Chief with a copy to the Mayor and Council.

Endangered?

2010-05-27T16:02:00.008-05:00

It's not up on the Washington Post Web site yet, but this morning's Arlington-Alexandria Extra section featured an article on the American Legion building.

The piece focused on preservation, and the news hook was the fact that the structure had been named "one of the most endangered historic buildings" in the Commonwealth by Preservation Virginia.

The reporting by Christy Goodman was straightforward and balanced, but it surprised the Growler to read the following quote from Black History Museum Director Louis Hicks:

There are not many standing African-American institutions left in the city. Not many, if any. African-American schools are demolished [nationwide] and not really considered worthy of saving. It is not a pretty building, but it does carry a legacy of educating African-American children."

Readers will recall that just one year ago at the Board of Architectural Review hearing, Mr. Hicks -- with rather endearing honesty -- professed knowing nothing about the Legion or the early, more appealing history of the building as a school until Mr. Cromley came along and ferreted out the history.

What puzzles the Growler now is Mr. Hicks' statement to the Washington Post reporter that "there are not many standing African-American institutions left in the city."

Mr. Hicks' own museum Web site outlines a self-guided walking tour of the City that includes the Robinson Library (adjacent to the Black History Museum), a number of landmark houses of worship such as Alfred Street Baptist church, People's Florist in our neighborhood (the first African-American florists in Alexandria), Dr. Albert Johnson's house, civil rights leader Samuel Tucker's house on Princess Street, Odd Fellows Hall, and more.

Weekend Roundup

2010-05-20T10:13:00.011-05:00

Baby Boom

The Growler has learned that Meade Memorial Church is going to be offering day care soon.

Their SUP request was submitted to the City in late March and is still being reviewed, so the Growler can't tell readers yet if the church will accommodate infants as well as toddlers.

However, the historic church (located at 322 N. Alfred Street) will be holding an ice cream social from 12 noon to 3 p.m. next Sunday, May 23 in their parking lot at Princess and Alfred to publicize their plans. Church leaders will be handing out flyers about the proposed day care center and how to get further information.

Good news for the neighborhood, given all the baby bumps and strollers the Growler has spotted recently. Is there something in the water here?

Coffee on Queen

Neighbors who miss the late lamented Firehook Bakery on N. Fayette Street are rejoicing at the opening of Cafe Nicole last Friday at 1125 Queen Street.

Youthful entrepreneur Nicole Burlimann, previously on the staff at St. Elmo's Coffee House in Del Ray, has set up shop in the former Sargent's Restaurant, which has been empty since a fire in 2007. The new restaurant is open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily and serves coffee, espresso, juices, pastries from Bread and Chocolate, and light lunch items like wraps.

Welcome Nicole!

Sweet Home Alabama

Alabama Avenue LLC -- which has been doing the work of the angels by buying, rehabbing and selling derelict homes in the neighborhood -- has purchased attorney Bobby Stafford's property at the southeast corner of Queen and N. Henry Streets.

The building at 1026 Queen Street once housed a hair salon but has been empty in recent years. Late last month Alabama Avenue LLC received the last green light from the Board of Architectural Review to remodel the structure and build an addition.

The same group finished rehabbing the home at 1105 Queen Street earlier this year and quickly sold it.

So the question is this: is Queen Street finally on the upward swing?

Milestones

2010-05-17T11:43:00.005-05:00

We've had a lot of grousing on this blog in the last few days about public housing and Council, a lot of it utterly pessimistic about change.

But the Growler's got some good news for ya. Hope lives and the politicians are apparently listening.

On Saturday, the City Council approved an amendment offered by Vice Mayor Kerry Donley to strengthen the language in the North Potomac Yard Plan regarding off-siting of public housing units there.

The amendment also includes some provisions to incentivize developers to accept public housing units by offering a density bonus.

The Growler plans to listen to the tape of the hearing when it becomes available on the City Web site, so there may be more information to add or clarify.

BTW, readers who are not in the know should be reminded that two years ago Council decreed half of all affordable housing contributions from development projects around Braddock Metro will be earmarked for the acquisition of property for off-site units. This money would otherwise have gone into a general affordable housing fund and would most likely have been used elsewhere in the City for other projects.

None of this would have happened without vigorous action by the West Old Town Citizens Association and residents of the neighborhood, but it has happened. We hope to see more of this progressive thinking on the part of Council in the future.

Same Old Same Old

2010-05-14T07:09:00.006-05:00

The Alexandria Police Department is reporting that there was a shooting this morning in the 1200 block of Wythe Street.

The Alexandria Police Department is investigating a shooting that occurred early this morning in the 1200 block of Wythe Street. Friday, around 4:15 A.M. police were called for the report of shots fired in the area of Wythe Street. Officers arrived on the scene and were unable to locate a victim or witnesses. Minutes later a victim was dropped off at a local hospital suffering from a non life-threatening gunshot wound. Further investigation determined the crime scene to be the 1200 block of Wythe Street.

Detectives are on scene and the investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call the Criminal Investigations Section of the Alexandria Police Department at (703) 838-4444 or the Crime Solvers tip line at (703) 838-4858. Detectives would like to remind witnesses that they can remain anonymous

The shooting took place two blocks from the Braddock Metro Station. Given that we are closing in on the first anniversary of the daylight murder of Michael Horton behind the 600 block of Payne Street -- only a block from Metro -- is it time to start asking why Alexandria leaders continue to tolerate a level of violence that is absent from other Northern Virginia Metro stations?

And if in the City has found funds for next fiscal year to restore two of the three community policing positions that were going to be cut, shouldn't one of those reinstated be the resident officer for James Bland?

Eco Disconnect?

2010-05-10T07:21:00.005-05:00

This missive from a regular reader hit the Growler's mail bag last week:

I'm sure you've heard of this by now:

I emailed our mayor and city council this morning asking if the chips in the bin would be attached directly to an address or the neighborhood in general. Transportation & Environmental Services Director Richard Baier responded to my email with, and I quote, "Thanks for the email. The bin identifying chips will be tied to the address to which the bin is assigned."

It seems that our city council was unanimous in its decision to support tracking of Alexandria residents use of the bins (Fannon's reason for not agreeing had to do with costs, not the invasion of privacy). Regardless of political beliefs I think that we should all be concerned about the tracking of private citizens by our government (local, state or federal). This is not a voluntary program. It is being forced upon all residents by our city leaders.

It might be time we all pick up and re-read Orson Welles' 1984.

Hmmmmm. While the Growler likes the idea of larger recycling bins, is this the time to be sticking more fees to the taxpayers on top of the recent real estate tax hike?

And why is the City on the one hand pushing all sorts of trendy measures to appear eco-friendly when — through flabby leadership and official incompetence — it has let the BRAC project spin out of control and opened up the amazing Winkler Nature Preserve to potential destruction?

The Great Lie

2010-05-06T07:01:00.016-05:00

No, we're not talking about the Warner Brothers sudser from 1941, which played the other evening on cable's Turner Classic Movies.

The Growler's talking about the Braddock Road Metro Neighborhood Plan.

On Tuesday evening the Planning Commission greenlighted the new North Potomac Yard plan, which goes to Council on May 15. The staff report for Potomac Yard makes interesting reading for those who felt they were walking over hot coals during the endless Braddock Road Metro charrettes a few years ago.

On page 10 of the Potomac Yard Plan, staff outlined 2009 weekday passenger boarding numbers at selected Metro stops and as well as estimated levels at those stations in 2030, some two decades from now.

Staff's numbers show that significantly more passengers will be using Alexandria's Eisenhower and King Street Metro stations twenty years hence. The growth rate is projected to be more than double at Eisenhower (from 2,359 to 6,000) and King Street will increase by nearly 50% (from 8,976 to 13,000). Undoubtedly these numbers were calculated because the City anticipates a lot of intense development near both locations.

Potential board numbers for the proposed Metro stop at Potomac Yard are also anticipated to be robust. In 2030, daily boardings are projected to be 12,600 if the station is located at site Alternative A or 15,900 if located at one of the B alternatives.

What does the City anticipate for Braddock Road Metro? In the Potomac Yard staff report, it is stated that in 2009 there were an average of 4,481 daily boardings at our nearest station. But at Braddock Road the City is only projecting a daily boarding increase of just a little under 900 passengers, a measly growth rate of 18%.

What does this mean?

It means the City isn't expecting a huge number of new riders, and that translates into little or no significant redevelopment.

It also means the Braddock Metro plan was a complete fakery. It was a smokescreen. The air clears only when the City has no incentive to lie about this neighborhood, as in the case of the Potomac Yard plan.

For those readers who participated in the charrettes, think back and remember the consultant-led hoopla about the need to make better use of Alexandria Metro stations, and particularly Braddock Metro which was (falsely) claimed to be the least used site in town?

It was all bushwa.

The talk about office buildings on the Metro lot with thousands of daytime workers flooding the area?

Nonsense.

A hotel opposite the station?

Guess again.

Redevelopment of Andrew Adkins?

Not on anyone's agenda by 2030 ... which again underscores the Growler's contention that the Braddock East plan was also a hoax.

Note also that the current Eisenhower numbers are half as large as those at Braddock. However, ridership there is expect to blast past Braddock in the next 20 years. What is the difference between the two sites?

So who's responsible for this chicanery? There were lots of players, including both the City and ARHA, but the Growler thinks a special spot in this dubious hall of fame needs to be reserved for the City's grossly-overpaid consultants, Goody Clancy.

However, in the last analysis the Braddock Road charade needs to be laid at the feet of the City's elected leaders, who are now proving they can easily ignore the Economic Sustainability Task Force recommendations as well.

And that's a bitchfest that rivals celluloid immortals Bette Davis and Mary Astor every day of the week.

Pro Bono or Cui Bono?

2010-04-30T07:00:00.005-05:00

The Growler was doing a little research yesterday on pro bono representation, and stumbled across some information that seems to indicate attorneys in civil rights cases have the right to recover their fees if successful.

So does this explain why Williams & Connolly has morphed the appeal of the American Legion demolition from a preservation case into a civil rights matter?

Hmmmmmmmmmm ......

Undisclosed

2010-04-27T06:36:00.011-05:00

The Growler was pulled up short while perusing the affidavits filed in the American Legion preservation court case. One of the names seemed awfully familiar.

Sure enough, the Growler can confirm that one of the individuals who is claiming racism in the lawsuit played a key role in the sale of the property.

Joseph Jennings is the same person who along with Woodbridge resident Cardell Banks acquired the Virginia Commerce mortgage on the American Legion in 2003.

And it was their decision to foreclose on the Legion two years ago that precipitated the sale of the building at 224 N. Fayette Street to Nathan Carter's relative Christopher, with financing provided by developer James Turner to pay off the noteholders. After drawing cash from the property several times after acquisition, Mr. Carter flipped it to William Cromley.

Mr. Jennings, who resides not in this neigborhood but in the West End, makes no mention of these key facts in his affidavit. He does disclose however, that he formerly served as financial secretary of the American Legion's William Thomas Post 129, which has since relocated to a building owned by Nathan Carter on Mt. Vernon Avenue.

Mr. Jennings also stated that he opposed the sale of the Legion property.

Happy Anniversary!

2010-04-19T06:35:00.002-05:00

A tip of the Growler's fuzzy ears to Lee Roy Steele and his wife Shirley Ann Sanders who are celebrating their 10th anniversary this month. Their photo was featured in yesterday's Washington Post anniversaries section.

Mr. Steele, a pillar of the Parker-Gray community, will be 92 in September and Mrs. Steele will be 70 in July.

Further proof that love is ageless ...

Churn

2010-04-18T09:24:00.115-05:00

Recently the Growler ran across some fascinating statistics on the Washington Post Web site. Does this explain a lot about our city?

Alexandria:

Annual Residential Turnover: 30%
Owner-Occupied Homes: 43%
Renter-Occupied Homes: 42%

Arlington County:

Annual Residential Turnover: 27%
Owner-Occupied Homes: 50%
Renter-Occupied Homes: 39%

Loudoun County:

Annual Residential Turnover: 25%
Owner-Occupied Homes: 69%
Renter-Occupied Homes: 12%

Fairfax County:

Annual Residential Turnover: 23%
Owner-Occupied Homes: 69%
Renter-Occupied Homes: 22%

Prince William County:

Annual Residential Turnover: 22%
Owner-Occupied Homes: 68%
Renter-Occupied Homes: 24%

Prince George's County:

Annual Residential Turnover: 18%
Owner-Occupied Homes: 62%
Renter-Occupied Homes: 32%

Montgomery County:

Annual Residential Turnover: 17%
Owner-Occupied Homes: 67%
Renter-Occupied Homes: 27%

District of Columbia:

Annual Residential Turnover: 15%
Owner-Occupied Homes: 42%
Renter-Occupied Homes: 46%

Charles County:

Annual Residential Turnover: 14%
Owner-Occupied Homes: 75%
Renter-Occupied Homes: 19%

It would appear that Alexandria has the highest residential turnover in the metropolitan area and is only exceeded by the District in the percentage of homes that are renter-occupied. Alexandria also has the second-lowest proportion of homes that are occupied by owners.

Is Alexandria therefore a community of transients? If so, why? And are our politicians happy to keep it that way?

Out

2010-04-08T07:47:00.002-05:00

This morning the Washington Post confirmed that Herb Cooper-Levy has stepped down as executive director of RPJ Housing following accusations by Fairfax County officials that he had forged key zoning documents.

Yesterday the Alexandria City Council docket for the April 13 meeting was released and revealed that Mr. Cooper-Levy had resigned from the Affordable Housing Advisory Committee.

Fire Sale at the Fire House

2010-04-04T14:23:00.009-05:00

On Friday the Growler received the following press release from Alexandria eNews:

The Station at Potomac Yard, located at 650 Maskell Street and immediately south of the Potomac Yard Shopping Center, has announced new rent levels and one month free rent for new renters. Income restrictions apply.

The new rents are:

· 1 BR - $1,175
· 2 BR - $1,550
· 3 BR - $1,877

Located on a bus route and situated between two Metro stations, this pet-friendly community was constructed with energy efficiency in mind. Utility costs here are far lower than in other residential communities due to amenities such as energy saving appliances and green construction technologies. Every apartment comes with one underground parking space, with extra spaces available for a fee. One 2 BR unit is fully accessible.

Any one interested in visiting the property or applying for a unit should contact Equity Management: Joseph K. Pyle, Jr., Property Manager, The Station at Potomac Yard, 650 Maskell Street, Alexandria, VA 22301

Equity is also on site every Wednesday and Saturday. For more information, visit thestation@equitymgmt.com.

What's significant about this?

We have been told repeatedly by the politicians and housing advocates that there is a massive demand for affordable/work force housing in Alexandria which local government can't build fast enough or in sufficient quantities to even begin satisfying.

Yet the news release indicates some cracks in the facade. The Fire House is a brand new pet-friendly building featuring low cost utilities, parking and a location in the heart of Potomac Yard with all its shops and amenities. It fronts on Jefferson Davis Highway and offers quick access to Old Town, Crystal City, the Pentagon, and D.C.

Yet the property manager is forced to lower prices and throw in a free month as an incentive to bring in tenants.

So the Growler asks again if the City's affordable/work force housing initiatives (which have never been subject to a genuine referendum of voters) are intended to meet a genuine need or instead are programs in search of a political justification.

And what does this portend for the high rise multi-family buildings proposed in the Bland public housing redevelopment project? These buildings, sited on N. Patrick Street, are to include market rate units, units which City staff and politicians have talked about using taxpayer money to buy down so they can be offered as affordable/work force housing.

Readers may remember that the old demolished Glebe Park complex had so-called market rate units too ... and by the time it was torn down the market rate dwellings were entirely Section 8 units because no one who was not reliant on vouchers had any interest in living there.

Vacancies

2010-03-22T07:27:00.005-05:00

On Tuesday, March 23 Council will be filling another ARHA board vacancy and there are currently two competing candidates for the slot.

The first is Christopher Ballard, who if the Growler is not mistaken is a Realtor and founder of McWilliams/Ballard, the group specializing in multi-family housing which successfully sold the Prescott condo project at N. Henry and Cameron Streets. Given ARHA's major redevelopment activities in recent years, the Council has talked about appointing board members who could add value with their knowledge of real estate development and sales. Mr. Ballard would also understand the nuances involved in selling properties in this neighborhood.

The second candidate is Dipti Pidikiti-Smith, an attorney with Legal Services of Northern Virginia. Given the recent kerfuffle about ARHA's barment policy, the application for the board vacancy is worth noting. Is this merely the reflection of a personal interest or is the Englin network regrouping?

Those who followed the controversy a few months ago may want to contact Council and give them their opinion on the potential appointment. The link to E-mail the Mayor and Council is on the right side of this page.

Update

On Tuesday night Christopher Ballard was appointed to the ARHA vacancy with six supporting votes of Council. Dipti Pidikiti-Smith received one vote from Council Member Hughes.

Smoked Out!

2010-03-16T06:30:00.011-05:00

Readers, the Growler has once again been vindicated.

In this morning's Washington Post, the lead story in the Metro section is about Fairfax County's investigation into housing executive Herb Cooper-Levy for allegedly forging a zoning document to secure more than $700,000 in public loans, including not only County funds but also money from the Virginia Housing Development Authority.

Post reporter Derek Kravitz's article reveals Mr. Cooper-Levy's agency, Robert Pierre Johnson Housing Development Corp. (RPJ), is threatened with a three-year ban on receiving Fairfax County contracts unless he is removed from his post.

As long-time followers of this blog may remember, several years ago the Growler outed Mr. Cooper-Levy for his apparent pay-for-play arrangement with the City of Alexandria. While many other residents expressed serious concern about the Braddock Metro Small Area Plan, he testified and wrote passionate letters to the Alexandria Gazette defending the plan while receiving some $10 million in City loans for RPJ acquisitions.

At the time, the Growler didn't think he passed the smell test and it appears that the Cranky One's suspicions were correct.

The bigger question raised by this incident, however, is to what degree Alexandria's leadership is a tiny and incestuous oligarchy in which the anointed players pat each other on the back in return for City favors and big bucks.

Mr. Cooper-Levy was a long-time ally with Planning Commissioner John Komoroske on the informal "Braddock Action Team" that promoted high density development here to take the pressure off Potomac Yard — a move born of Mr. Komoroske's joined-at-the-hip bond with Eric Wagner, the man who led the charge to dumb down the Yard and was rewarded with the Chairmanship of the Planning Commission.

The "BRAT" team also championed keeping public housing concentrated here — no surprise since Mr. Cooper-Levy is a former ARHA employee who shocked observers when he opposed redevelopment of the "Berg" with profane language in public forums.

If this case is now in the hands of Alexandria prosecutors (as the Post article states) will they cut Mr. Cooper-Levy a break? And will he keep his spot on Alexandria's Affordable Housing Committee, which is about to start work on the the City's Master Housing Plan next month? And if he loses his position at RPJ will the City — which is becoming notorious for recycling retired or fired officials — bail him out with a job?

If the answer to any question above is affirmative, chalk it to business as usual in Alexandria.

The Rest of the Story

2010-03-11T08:02:00.006-05:00

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?

Route 1 Redux

2010-02-22T06:57:00.008-05:00

Though neighbors were in an uproar last month when Del. David Englin introduced his housing authority barment bill in the Virginia House, they could at least take some consolation in the fact that the measure was not supported by Alexandria officials, who were quick to publicly state their opposition.

Fortunately, Del. Englin's bill was voted down in subcommittee and is now DOA.

However, on the sly another bill with major implications for our community has been introduced by Del. Englin, this time in partnership with Sen. Patsy Ticer.

In contrast to the barment bill, Alexandria officials support this proposed legislation, despite the fact that it, too, was introduced without any community notice or consultation on the part of the state legislators or City leaders.

The bill in question is HJ 119 and its purpose is to create a joint legislative subcommittee to study a proposal to create a U.S. Route 1 corridor.

Sound ho-hum? Not if you live on N. Patrick and N. Henry Streets. The lengthy preamble in the bill text includes the declarative statement that "portions of U.S. Route 1 would substantially benefit by further investment in mass transit facilities such as heavy and light rail and dedicated bus lanes in addition to the highway itself."

Parker-Gray residents can kiss more than 200 parking spaces goodbye if this happens. Homeowners on Patrick and Henry can expect to see bus shelters four feet from their windows and feel heavy vehicles shaking their historic foundations.

But the potential effects of the bill don't end there. The legislative committee would also be empowered to "study the desirability and feasibility of creating a special transportation district for the U.S. Route 1 Corridor to fund multi-modal transportation improvements in the corridor including road, rail, transit, pedestrian, and bicycle improvements, to be funded by state highway and/or nonhighway revenues, in order to improve transportation infrastructure."

We're talking taxes here folks.

This bill fortunately died in committee, but what is the likelihood that it may be resurrected in another form next year or if the General Assembly holds a special session later this year to deal with transportation?

Readers may remember that the City's Master Transportation Plan called for several transportation corridors in Alexandria including Route 1, but community uproar about BRT on N. Patrick and N. Henry Streets led them to cosmetically fudge the location of the eastern corridor in the final draft.

But it's clear that the hidden agenda is to protect Washington Street, though as a commercial avenue it would make more sense as a transit corridor than Patrick and Henry, which are mostly lined with single family homes in our community.

The sponsorship of the bill gives us a key about what is going on. The Growler sees an alliance between Del Ray (Mr. Englin) and Old Town (former Alexandria Mayor Ticer) to once again shove everything into this neighborhood and to keep it out of theirs.

With the recent grant awards to the City to begin constructing a Potomac Yard transitway on Jefferson Davis Highway from Glebe Road to Monroe Avenue, it's clear the Route 1 issue is heating up again.

So is it time to reactive the BRT pack to look after the interests of our neighborhood?

What Does It All Mean?

2010-02-18T08:26:00.004-05:00

The Growler is doing some head scratching trying to figure out what was really going on at Tuesday's Council meeting as they made their latest appointment to the ARHA board.

The vacancy was created by the recent resignation of Kerry-Ann Powell.

From the discussion among Council at the hearing, it appears ARHA CEO Roy Priest wrote to the Council asking that they postpone their vote so that candidates with needed legal skills or real estate development knowledge could be recruited. Council member Alicia Hughes then introduced a motion to readvertise the position because there was only a period of 72 hours between the Council formally accepting Ms. Powell's resignation at a previous hearing and the closing date set for nominations.

In preliminary balloting before Tuesday's Council meeting neither candidate achieved the necessary majority of four votes. After rejecting Ms. Hughes' motion, the Council revoted and selected Brett Libresco, a World Bank economist and Del Ray resident who previously worked as a project manager in New York City's public housing authority. Ms. Hughes declined to vote and Councilman Frank Fannon abstained.

So what does it all mean?

Was the attempted postponement really an attempt to secure the best possible candidate or was it a Republican-led move prompted by players behind the scenes? The request clearly made Councilman Paul Smedberg angry.

Is it significant that Mr. Libresco lives on the same block in Del Ray as Lenny Harris? Now that Del. David Englin has been scorched by association, will the new ARHA board member be Mr. Harris's entree to influence?

Or is Mr. Libresco just the latest youthful Del Ray resident (think Justin Wilson) being given his boost up the political ladder by Mayor Euille and the Democrats with a significant board appointment?

One Yard Down?

2010-02-16T07:46:00.004-05:00

It's budget time for the City of Alexandria, and anyone who hasn't been living under a rock (or a mountain of snow) knows that with residential property values still in the tank it's going to be another year of tough decisions for the politicos.

But is the City tripping itself up when it comes to raising revenue?

Next month the City Council will consider approving a revised development plan for North Potomac Yard, and there is a possibility that elected officials will once again waste a golden opportunity, just as they did nearly 11 years ago. That's when they drastically scaled back the original landowner's visionary plans for the former railroad property, which would have created a major transit hub with 18 million s.f. of development and two developer-funded Metro stations.

At the center of the 2010 plan revision is Landbay F, where the big box stores and theaters are currently located. (New residents may not know it, but the popular mall as it is presently configured was always meant to be a temporary use.)

Readers may remember that politicians proclaimed from the rooftops during the 2009 election campaign that they were committed to reversing the City's over-reliance on residential property tax collections, which now account for nearly 60% of revenue. Conversely, commercial property tax receipts have shrunk from more than half in years past to only 40% today.

Landbay F could, with redevelopment, become an even more massive commercial tax revenue juggernaut than it is today, with a 900,000 square foot mall surrounded by 1 million square feet of big box discount retail, 250,000 square feet of theaters and restaurants, another quarter million square feet of new hotels and 4 million square feet of office space. A Metro station within walking distance (judged to be a ¼ mile) would help fuel this mighty engine.

To this 6.5 million square feet the City could throw in an additional 1 million square feet in multi-family housing, but the parcel would still generate for City coffers an admirable 87% commercial/13% residential revenue split which would do much to restore the City’s goal of tax-base parity.

However, the draft plan the Council will be reviewing in March is designed to achieve just the opposite effect. It envisions the same 7.5 million square of development in Landbay F, but with just 1.5 million square feet of office space, only 1 million square feet of discount retail … and a whopping 5 million square feet of residential.

In other words, the proposal for Landbay F locks Alexandria into a 70:30 ratio of residential to commercial development.

Has Planning & Zoning been cruising down the wrong track while the politicians raced each other to pontificate about income diversification?

It gets worse. The Potomac Yard Plan Advisory Group (PYPAG) concluded that the Metro station should be optimally located adjacent to the mall and its construction largely financed by the mall owner and big box retail, based on factual evidence that retailers like Nordstrom at Pentagon City derive more than 40% of their customers from the subway. Retailers and the mall owner stand to benefit from a Metro station, and should share the cost.

The advisory group, however, was designed from the get-go to be toothless. Behind-the-scenes pressure from Landbay F’s current owner resulted in City staff (with former Planning Commission chairman Eric Wagner cynically red penciling what was supposed to be the group’s consensus report) now touting a location further from the mall – and in fact, a location that will require more money to build because it will be more disruptive to build than an elevated station near the mall.

Dumbing down the commercial potential of Landbay F will force the City to bear most of the cost of the future Metro station while letting the landowner off the hook. And paradoxically City staff are now proposing a Metro site that not only requires the City to obligate $240 million in municipal bonds but in a location closer to the Potomac Greens townhomes that ensures low ridership because it lacks significant density and commercial activity.

In essence, Alexandria would be repeating the same mistakes it made 30 or 40 years ago when Metro was first laid out by siting Metro stops at locations like Van Dorn or Eisenhower Avenue (some of the lowest utilized stations in the system). Compare and contrast this with Arlington County’s long-term planning for its Orange Line stops, which was an integral factor in the carefully orchestrated economic revival of the Clarendon-Ballston corridor.

In the scenario now proposed for the Yard, the cost of a new station would be a crushing debt burden that would be shared by Alexandria taxpayers and purchasers of properties within the Yard. Off-line objections by the current owner of Landbay F forced staff to settle on a marginal location, whose predictable poor-performance means that no sensible developer is willing to fund it.

So what should the Council do?

Simple: drop the plan for now. The current owner of Landbay F has an acknowledged interest in selling the property. Why give them a City-funded Metro stop that will help them flip their property at an enormous profit while escaping any major financial obligation to help pay for the station?

Council would be smart to table the draft plan, allow a sale of Landbay F to proceed, and then work with the new owners on a better mix of land uses, a more sensible Metro Station location and more creative funding strategies.

The Growler for one will be watching to see if Mayor Euille, Vice Mayor Kerry Donley, and Council Member Del Pepper redeem themselves for the hash they made of the Yard in the 1999 plan — when they killed the goose that could have laid golden eggs — or if the failure of leadership persists into the new millenium.

Meanwhile, the next time you cruise Jefferson Davis Highway take note of the difference between the landscape on the Alexandria side of the Yard and what Arlington has done north of Four Mile Run.

Hot Flashes

2010-02-01T07:04:00.008-05:00

It may have been a cold and snowy weekend, but the local news is heating up. Here's the Growler's Monday morning roundup.

Festival Follies

In the current economic climate, the City Council has been taking a look at the cost of special events and festivals and is making moves to tighten up the requirements for sponsored events which it is asked to subsidize.

One of those worried about the changes is Lenny Harris, who runs the annual One Love festival at Braddock Field. He told the Alexandria Times he was concerned with the new guidelines, specifically the co-sponsorship and non-sponsorship aspects.

"The largest African American festival in the city, according to Harris, is in its ninth year of existence and had previously received financial support from the city, though it was decreased last year. It now falls under a 'non-city sponsored special event.' 'I hope we can work with the city and special events [committees] on continuing to have this festival,' he said."

In a budget memo issued last March, staff classified the One Love festival as a small sponsored event, serving under 1,000 participants. Other events with a similar number of attendees include the Taste of Old Town, the Potomac West tree lighting, and the Spring for Alexandria celebration at Market Square.

However, their cost to the City in FY 2008 was only a few hundred dollars each. One Love was subsidized to the tune of more than $8,500 and although classified as a sponsored event only about 15% of the total cost of the event was offset by Mr. Harris's Organization HOPE.

The One Love event cost the City more in terms of dollars than all other medium-size sponsored events with participation of 1,000 to 5,000 people. In fact, One Love required a heftier City subsidy than either the First Night Out event or the Alexandria Festival of the Arts, both of which are classified as large events with more than 5,000 participants. Both of those events cover between 80% and 90% of their costs through other means than the City subsidy.

In the future, special event organizers will have to come up with a deposit worth half of the event’s total cost before moving ahead with the event, according to the new guidelines, which encourage organizers to find other sources like private sponsors. There is an appeals process in place if organizers cannot come up with funds, but organizers unable to come up with other funding sources could see their event cancelled.

Money Money Money

Critics of City spending will not want to miss Michael Lee Pope's recent article in the Alexandria Gazette in which he spills the beans on staffers earning more than $100,000 per year. (To see the entire list, click here to download the complete January 27 edition of the Gazette and scroll down to pages 24 and 25).

Are readers as shocked as the Growler about the school system salaries? And just how much competition for experienced workers is coming from other jurisdictions? Nearly all local and state agencies are slashing budgets to the bone.

Parker-Gray Goofs?

After nearly four years of City foot dragging, our neighborhood has finally been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

But residents who have looked up their homes in the list of contributing structures have been complaining (on this blog and to each other) about its inaccuracies.

The Growler checked out the den address and found everything was in order, but the nomination form goes on to state that the Cranky One's next-door neighbor has a house clad in German siding.

Ummmm, no ....

Other goofs the Growler is hearing about: a historic home that has twice had wood siding applied in the last 25 years is listed as vinyl-clad, and there are references in the narrative to "North Princess Street."

Here's a link to the nomination form. Readers with historic homes should scroll down the document to find the description of their property. Is your house's description accurate?

Bus Boys

Hoping to score funds for a bus transit-way at Potomac Yard, City staff are currently going after $8.5 million in grants under a new U.S. Department of Transportation program aimed at improving community livability with more transit options.

But according to the Alexandria Times, Councilman Paul Smedberg has expressed frustration with City staff for pursuing bus funding without consulting citizens about what mode of transit should be deployed at Potomac Yard.

“The community never had a real debate, in my opinion, of what kind of transit people wanted to see in that community,” Smedberg said. “Just because it’s less expensive doesn’t mean it’s going to be right in the long term.” Metrorail and light rail solutions have been discussed in the past in addition to rapid transit buses. “This [decision] in my view locks us into buses,” Smedberg said.
"Personally, I think this is a big enough policy debate that it shouldn’t be made with staff alone in a vacuum.”

The Times reported that the system could be operational as soon as 2012 should the city receive the grant, but Vice Mayor Kerry Donley speculated that the prospect of winning the funds is “probably not very likely."

More Sinning Than Sinned Against?

2010-01-25T07:48:00.011-05:00

Reviewing the events of the last two weeks, it's hard to determine what is more curious about Del. David Englin's public housing legislation: his apparent failure to vet HB264 with police and local officials or his neglect in performing even a perfunctory background check on those whose complaints led to the controversial bill's introduction.

According to an article by Michael Lee Pope in the Alexandria Gazette, Del. Englin stated "I think the current policy treats people like chattel. It denies poor people the basic dignity and respect that any human being would demand from their fellow human beings."

Most importantly, Del. Englin was quoted as saying "Under the current policy, a police officer who doesn’t like the cut of your jib can bar you from ARHA property essentially indefinitely."

By contrast, Mr. Pope quoted ARHA Commissioner Carlyle Ring, an attorney, as saying "People get barred because they have engaged in the drug trade or domestic violence against a spouse or child. No one gets on the list without factual information that they’ve been convicted or arrested."

The Growler has no access to ARHA's list of individuals who are barred from its properties. But the Gazette story prominently featured the name of one individual who felt that her family was unfairly treated.

Knowing from the past that those who make the loudest complaint often have the most to hide, the Cranky One loped down to the Alexandria courthouse intending to find out more about this Adkins resident who was singled out as an apparent examplar of civil injustice.

Is Mr. Englin right or is Mr. Ring correct? Are police stopping trespassers on a whim or is there overwhelming evidence that those who are barred are just the sort of people that shouldn't be on ARHA property?

Suffice it to say, the Growler could have spent a week at the court house, parsing through this resident's family history and their entanglements with law enforcement.

But for simplicity's sake let's focus on one member whose records clog the computer databases at the court house: a son who was cited repeatedly for trespassing misdemeanors in past years, most recently in April 2009 when he was found guilty.

The trespassing citation he was issued was for violation of City Code 13-1-33, which is entitled "Trespass after having been forbidden to do so." So although ARHA is not specifically cited, it is reasonable to assume that this gentleman is on the barred list.

It is no exaggeration to say that he has a lengthy criminal record going back more than a quarter of a century. In his 2002 Circuit Court trial for assault on a police officer, the Commonwealth Attorney's office introduced a list of his convictions in both Alexandria and Arlington County dating from 1983, including misdemeanor and felony assaults, possession of PCP, possession of cocaine, distribution of cocaine, burglary, and assault and battery on a police officer. The sentencing report noted his lengthy record, his relapse into drug use two days after completing "an intensive drug treatment program," and his antipathy to law enforcement.

This was far from the end of his activities. In 2007, he was charged with beating a woman and pleaded guilty in Alexandria Circuit Court to unlawful wounding, impeding a police officer, and brandishing a machete.

Lest some persons think the Alexandria police simply have it in for this man, be aware that he pleaded guilty to 2nd degree assault in Prince George's County last October.

And most startling of all, in the past few years his own family has turned him in to law enforcement. His mother and sister reported him for taking his sister's car (which she had loaned to her mother) and not returning it. That led to a police chase on Route 1 near Potomac Yard, and yet more charges which underscore for the Growler just why PBA came out so strongly against the bill.

The son is not the only problem in this family. There are others, such as a sister who lived in Adkins with her mother. She was found guilty of a misdemeanor drug charge in 2006, briefly jeopardizing her parent's public housing accommodations.

The Growler could go on and on, but readers have probably grasped the point by now. Is this resident the best example that public housing advocates or reporter Michael Lee Pope could bring forward to back Mr. Englin's case that their families are being unjustly barred -- and on a whim?

The Police Benevolent Association Weighs In

2010-01-14T07:57:00.007-05:00

Late last night the Growler received the following comment from the head of Alexandria's Police Benevolent Association.

To the members of the Parker Gray community, I want you all to know that I along with the state president of the PBA met with Delegate Englin this morning in Richmond about this issue. We had a very constructive meeting where we expressed our concerns and made it clear that the bill as written was not acceptable to the Alexandria Police Benevolent Association.

As a PBA endorsed candidate, Delegate Englin has always stood side by side with the over 350 members of the Alexandria PBA in keeping our community safe. We made it clear that we do not support this bill as written. Delegate Englin was very receptive
to our ideas on possible changes to the propsed legislation. We will be in close contact with Delegate Englin throughout this process and continue to work with him in keeping Alexandria a safe place to live and work.

The Alexandria PBA stands with the Parker Gray community in opposition to this bill as written and will continue to work with Delegate Englin to come to an acceptable solution.

Michael Kochis
President Alexandria PBA

Update

2010-01-13T09:21:00.005-05:00

The Growler has learned that the legislation proposed by Del. Englin has its origins not in a formal public meeting dedicated to that purpose, but to an NAACP meeting at which Lenny Harris (yes, Lenny Harris) stood up and complained once again about police harassment of ARHA residents. The police and ARHA CEO Roy Priest were present, but apparently they were not consulted further before Del. Englin drafted the legislation.

Even more startling the Growler hears that neither the ARHA board, nor the Council, nor the City's legislative director Bernie Caton was consulted. In fact, the Growler is advised that elected officials did not receive a copy of the proposed bill until last Friday -- after Del. Englin had been speaking to the press about his plans.

The Growler has also heard that a press conference to be held by Lenny Harris yesterday (presumably to bring out public housing residents who have suffered harrassment) was abruptly canceled.

This morning the Cranky One went through every appointment in Del. Englin's Google calendar, posted on his Web site, and could find no evidence of any engagement that would seem to constitute a public meeting with police, the Mayor and ARHA officials.

Finally, after reading the print version of the WAMU radio piece (which revealed the name of the Adkins resident who complained about the barment policy), the Growler checked the General District Court records for persons of the same last name. The findings were very telling, even before the Curmudgeon could even get down to Circuit Court where the records are not yet on the Web.

Would a scrutiny of the background of those on the barment list reveal that the current ARHA policy is precisely serving the purpose it was designed for: keeping troubled people off its properties?

A Question for Del. Englin

2010-01-13T07:44:00.003-05:00

In yesterday's exchange of comments and messages, Del. David Englin has twice evaded answering a key question posed by readers.

So the Growler will now ask it publicly.

At which meeting of the full ARHA board of commissioners -- which readers may recall now includes Alexandria Police Chief Earl Cook -- did you, Del. Englin, present your proposed legislation for discussion and endorsement?

The Englin Initiative

2010-01-11T18:04:00.009-05:00

An alert reader yesterday notified us that in a radio interview with Michael Lee Pope Delegate David Englin announced was planning to introduce legislation in the General Assembly to change how public housing authorities like ARHA handle their trespassing policies, making it much more onerous for them to ban criminals from their properties. You can listen to the brief broadcast by visiting this link for Windows Media Player (or this link for Real Player).

Note that ARHA Commissioner Carlyle Ring stated in the interview that many of those banned from public housing have been arrested or convicted of crimes including drug dealing and domestic violence.

Today we now have the text of Del. Englin's proposed bill.

Some readers have asked about the Del Ray legislator's concern about public housing. Apparently he has been cultivating this constituency for some time. His donor report for January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2009 states that one of the activities his campaign paid for were public housing cookouts and voter registration drives.

A 2005 press release from "Arlington/Alexandria for Democracy" which endorsed Mr. Englin states that "Many members were also genuinely moved by hearing how Englin and his wife Shayna had talked to many residents of local public housing projects who had never been approached by political campaigns."

Nothing wrong with that, but it could be that this bill is a formal payback for public housing votes. Whether it is viable in the General Assembly remains to be seen.

FWTW, Del. Englin posted a comment this morning (on the previous posting) stating that "The Housing Authority Barment Due Process Act would not prevent ARHA or the police from barring criminals from ARHA property. However, it would ensure due process before a person who has not committed a crime can be barred from visiting their children and parents who live in ARHA housing."

But in looking over the text of the bill, the Growler fails to see where any distinction is made about those who are barred for bad behavior and those who are barred owing to an arrest or conviction. It would appear that the latter are equally protected by this bureaucratic process and can buy time by initiating an appeal.

In the meantime, if readers wish to express their concern about this measure they should E-mail Del. Englin directly at DelDEnglin@house.virginia.gov.

A little later ...

The more the Growler gives this legislation thought, the more alarming it appears. Not the requirement for written policies that are prominently posted and distributed. But the provision that allows appeal to the housing authority chairman. It would appear this bill is designed to weaken the power of a reforming housing authority chief executive officer (in ARHA's case Roy Priest) and give the chairman ultimate veto power on barment, as the appeal is to the chairman or his/her designate -- not the full housing authority commission.

As a reader commented, this may have its origins in the recent scuffle between Roy Priest and Melvin Miller over someone who was barred from ARHA property. And it doesn't look encouraging.

A Census Story That Counts

2010-01-07T09:49:00.003-05:00

Readers will want to check out the latest Old Town Crier article by local historian and civic leader Sarah Becker. It's about the upcoming decennial Census: what the numbers really say about our neighborhood and the curious persistence of Jim Crow in the 21 century.

A New Decade

2010-01-04T08:00:00.005-05:00

Happy New Year to all of the Growler's faithful readers!

Our neighborhood is entering a new decade, and fresh opportunities for renewal and improvement now present themselves.

There are those who in the past have posted comments here that reflect their concern and frustration about what is happening in our community. Occasionally these comments descend into something close to despair.

The Growler wants to remind readers that while change doesn't happen over night, in fact our neighborhood is increasingly becoming more effective and powerful in communicating our positions and needs to City officials. The Cranky One has been told privately by several Council members that our persistent pressure on issues like public housing has been effective and helped bring about the first cracks in the City's glacial housing policies in decades. And the results of the General Election last May show that this neighborhood can make itself heard at the ballot box.

We need to keep up the momentum to make this neighborhood one of the most desirable places in the City to live. The assets are already there -- such as as access to Metro -- but quality of life issues will continue to linger unless residents are prepared to grapple with them.

What can you do?

First, plunk down your $10 and join the civic association. The group has a new identity -- as the West Old Town Citizens Association -- as well as record membership and a capable new President, Heidi Ford, who has been actively engaged in the discussions on all of the critical issues that have confronted the community in the last three years.

Few neighborhoods in Alexandria have been effective with City leadership and elected officials without a strong and active civic association.

Even if you can't attend every meeting, membership gets you on the mailing list and you can be apprised about breaking news and important issues.

But make no mistake that attending meetings is also important, especially when City officials are on hand to make presentations. The monthly meetings are held from 7:30 to 9:00 p.m. on the second Thursday of each month at the Durant Center and attendees have a great opportunity to raise issues with police and other officials and to get answers.

Second, watch, observe, report and contact. If you see suspicious activity, call the police. As the Growler has pointed out many times in the past, even if law enforcement can't arrive in time to stop a drug transaction in progress, the citizen contact is recorded as a "call for service" and is a critical element in determining police resources.

And if there are issues and City policies that strike you as wrong or ineffective, contact the Mayor, City Council, and the City Manager. Links to do so are provided on the right side of this blog page.

Third, get to know your neighbors. Our best protection against crime as well as poorly considered City policies lies in looking out for each other. Sometimes its hard to do this with family obligations and career demands. But community solidarity and group action are the most powerful vehicles to make this a great place to live.

So with that the Growler wishes everyone a prosperous 2010, and as always stay tuned for further developments!

Refuge or Prison?

2009-11-30T08:38:00.009-05:00

In a recent posting, the Growler explored the notion of Parker-Gray as a walled city, a political and economic construct that seems utterly irrelevant with the death of Jim Crow and the arrival of the new millenium.

Undoubtedly there are political leaders in Alexandria who feel that they are protecting the old community by pursuing policies that encourage and nurture separatism, regardless of how peculiar or outmoded that notion might be.

But are these officials really looking after the best interests of those they seek to shield?

The Growler would argue that in fact these same leaders have recreated the lost world of segregation and are in effect protecting a second-class kingdom in which the residents they claim to protect are actually the losers.

Take education, for example. Today Jefferson-Houston Elementary School is fundamentally a segregated school, in which the poorest minority children in Alexandria are confined with the implicit or tacit approval of City leaders.

If education is the single most effective ladder to climb out of the depths of poverty, are these children's best interests being served by keeping them isolated in a chronically underperforming environment? The school is nothing less than a reincarnation of the old Parker-Gray Elementary School of the 1930s. Is that something to be proud of as 2010 approaches?

Then there's the issue of public housing and crime. This past summer the Growler used the Alexandria Police Department's own statistics to demonstrate beyond a doubt that crime in the 16th census tract (Parker-Gray) and its sub-tracts increases the closer one moves toward Andrew Adkins, James Bland or Samuel Madden Uptown. As of July, nearly 40% of the homicides in Alexandria in the last few years were committed in our small community,

While many neighbors of the projects have bewailed the impact of crime, it's sometimes forgotten that residents of the projects also feel besieged. In fact, they often feel its impact more directly and are more likely to be its victims.

As the Growler has pointed out before, ARHA Chairman Melvin Miller stated in a public board meeting a few years ago that many individuals on the waiting list for public housing prefer to drop back on the list and wait longer rather than go into Bland or Adkins due to the level of crime. ARHA board members also told the Growler on the Mayor's walk a few years ago that residents were equally concerned about drug dealers from the District and elsewhere flocking around their homes and making life difficult. We also know that Bland residents concerned about crime tried (without success) to make their worries known to City officials at the Braddock Road Metro planning charrettes.

Who would think that this situation represents ideal living conditions in Parker-Gray?

Finally, there is the issue of quality of housing. Some City leaders are so intent on "preserving the community" and advocating the retention of crumbling buildings here for another few decades that they forget that public housing residents in our area live in units without amenities such as central air conditioning, dryers, dishwashers, and garbage disposals. At HOPE VI meetings nearly two years ago, Bland residents also talked about a mold problem there which was affecting their health and that of their children.

We also know that residents of ARHA properties have complained bitterly about deferred maintenance and how they wait not days but months or even years for repairs. So substandard is the maintenance that religious groups have had to step in recently to force ARHA to become more responsive when such issues are reported. Is it not telling that the initiative is not coming from elected or appointed City officials who purport to protect this neighborhood and its inhabitants, but from faith-based organizations not based in this area?

In the last analysis, it's clear that those who have used their political muscle to sanctify the notion of a separate realm called Parker-Gray have done little or nothing to improve education, eradicate crime or improve living conditions for those who live within its walls.

The remaining question is what motivation lies behind these leaders' drive to wall off Parker-Gray. Is it to create a separate but equal Utopia or to confine and control?

Is it at bottom a power issue?

The Walled City

2009-11-20T07:16:00.010-05:00

There is another city within the boundaries of the independent Virginia city known as Alexandria.

You won't find it on Mapquest. You won't find it on Zillow. And you won't find it on Alexandria's Web page.

That other community is known as Parker-Gray.

It is not a legal entity and to a surprising degree it is not a physical entity. People don't need to reside within its geographic bounds to consider themselves its citizens. In fact, they feel entitled to dictate how it evolves even if they don't live in the City of Alexandria proper.

Parker-Gray is a political construct based on race and income. It is not logical or rational. It is costly and inefficient. It exists less in the realm of the tangible than in the minds of certain prominent Alexandrians, including Mayor William D. Euille and others, many of whom left the place decades ago.

If you currently live in the local historic district called Parker-Gray, the odds are that you are not a citizen in good standing in this peculiar world. You are an alien, and even those who moved here 10, 20 or 30 years ago are seen as foreigners.

The fantasy construct of Parker-Gray is based on an unthinking commitment to separatism. It is an insular world in which nostalgia for long-lost loved ones and vanishing landmarks has degenerated into a stubborn refusal to face the future. It is a community whose dwindling ranks of citizens are often marked by an inability to integrate into the larger world and accept change.

If you want to understand the phenomenon known as Queen and Fayette, this is what lies at its heart.

A casual observer might surmise that this second city was born and shaped by a long history of racial segregation. But in fact, as the Growler and others have labored to demonstrate with demographic facts and statistics, this community was for more than a century a neighborhood where blacks and whites lived and worked side-by-side, though Jim Crow dictated a separate and unequal approach to their children's education.

No, this city within a city is a development of surprisingly recent origin. Listen carefully to its spokesmen and you will discover that the point of reference for many of its champions is some golden age between 1970 and 1980. Not 1880, or 1930 or even 1960.

A few key Alexandria players of a certain age have used their political power and the City of Alexandria's resources to help freeze this community in 1980, a date when the nation's cruelest and most restrictive laws that denied opportunities for better housing and education had already been revoked.

We shall never known all of the motivations that drive key leaders to insist on locking this neighborhood in amber. Undoubtedly some feel their motivations are of the best -- that their actions and advocacy constitutes leadership, and that they are taking on a solemn and important duty to protect those who simply cannot move on. But it sounds suspiciously like traditional paternalism to the Growler.

The question that really needs to be asked is whether those who promote this city within a city are actually nurturing or harming its citizens. Are the invisible walls around this city really meant to protect or to keep its citizens confined?

Hot Flashes

2009-11-05T02:22:00.005-05:00

True Blue

Detailed election results from Tuesday's races are now available, and not surprisingly voters in the Durant precinct leaned heavily Democratic. Some two-thirds of Durant voters supported gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds while only a third voted for the successful Republican candidate Bob McDonnell. The split was similar for other statewide races. As the Growler and others have observed repeatedly, this is a neighborhood that typically leans left.

So while Tuesday's results are no surprise, we are still left with the question of why Republicans Frank Fannon and Alicia Hughes swept the precinct in Council elections earlier this year.

Was that a fluke? Or was it a protest vote, signaling discontent with City policies in our neighborhood?

Say What?

The Growler was puttering around the cave last night half-listening to NBC News 4 at 11, when the furry ears perked up at a story on the City's proposed ban on more sex shops in Old Town.

The Cranky One was dumbfounded to hear Planning & Zoning Director Faroll Hamer telling the reporter that “There is no intention to shut down either one of the existing shops."

But wait a tick. That's not what's in the staff report on the proposed text amendment, which states "The recently opened store at 1017 King Street is different and should not be allowed to remain permanently... and would be required to close after 18 months."

A Streetcar Named ADAM

Neighbors have been reporting receiving E-mails about a kick-off meeting of the "Northern Virginia Streetcar Coalition," which will be held on Wednesday, November 18 from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. in Room 158 of Bisdorf Building at the Alexandria campus of Northern Virginia Community College.

The meeting will include information about the latest trends in streetcar projects and is advertised as part of a new initiative to create a regional streetcar network to connect Alexandria, Arlington and Fairfax Counties.

Who is behind this new group? Our old friend ADAM (Alexandrians Delivering Smart Growth Around Metro Stations).

Tricks 'n' Treats

2009-10-30T07:16:00.008-05:00

What's In A Name? (I)

Besides dealing with sex businesses next Thursday, Planning Commission will also be hearing a staff proposal to name new private streets to be created by the James Bland redevelopment project.

Normally when new streets are being planned, City staff will research historic land ownership records to determine who originally owned the property. In the case of Bland, one of the most prominent property owners were the Alexanders, for whom the City was named.

In the case of Bland, the City has apparently rejected the notion of naming streets after any whites in favor of honoring the African-American community.

No problem with that. A few years ago when the Berg was redeveloped as Chatham Square, the City made fitting choices for street names by honoring the City's first African-American mayor William D. Euile and Earl Cook (today Alexandria's new police chief). Both were raised in the Berg and their lives have demonstrated how hard work, education and perseverance can lift individuals from the shackles of poverty.

If the City were to again follow this practice, the new streets at Bland might include one named for James Henson, whose family moved to Bland soon after it was opened in the 1950s. Mr. Henson, a great-nephew of famed Polar explorer Matthew Henson, later became the first African-American Assistant County Solicitor in the Howard County Office of Law. Such a street naming would continue the practice of honoring individuals once sheltered by public housing who found a way out through achievement.

If a direct tie with Bland wasn't necessary, other living individuals who could be honored might include people like Earl Lloyd, the Parker-Gray High School graduate who broke the color barrier in the National Basketball Association. Or Jube Shiver, the former Parker-Gray teacher turned enterpreneur who became a prominent developer in southern Fairfax County. Or Ira A. Robinson, the first black elected to City Council since Reconstruction and served from 1970-1973.

What about Lionel Hope, a member of Council and the City's first black Vice Mayor? Hope Street has a great ring to it, don't readers agree?

Then there's Major General Leo A. Brooks, Sr. (USA-Ret.), a graduate of Parker-Gray High School. According to New England's largest African-American newspaper this gentleman not only attained the military rank of General but has two sons who have also achieved the same rank.

Perhaps the City is reticent about naming streets for living individuals. There is still a wealth of names to choose from, including George Soloman, a free black man recently identified to have lived on property in the 1830s that ultimately became the Bland project. Leon Day, an Alexandria native, was a star baseball player in the legendary Negro League and was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1995.

What about John A. Seaton, the first black after the Civil War to serve on Alexandria's Board of Aldermen from 1871-1873? Or his brother George L. Seaton? And let's not forget T.B. Pinn, who served on the Common Council as a member of the 4th ward from 1871-1873.

Samuel Tucker, the young man behind the 1939 library sit-down strike, has been honored by a school naming. But what about the others who participated in the landmark civil rights action?

So with this banquet of choices available, City staff are recommending naming an Alexandria City street for an individual who was born, raised and died as a resident of public housing and many of whose children are (or were) long-term public housing residents. And it's the same individual who as head of the ARHA Resident Council helped stall the redevelopment of the Berg for nearly eight years with a flurry of lawsuits against ARHA.

One more illustration that even as City staff think they are being most sensitive they are actually at their most condescending, sacrificing an opportunity to do justice to some of the most important and illustrious African-Americans who lived in this community.

What's In A Name? (II)

The Growler is intrigued by the suggestion that something at Bland be named for ARHA Chairman A. Melvin Miller.

Which of his names should rightly be used? The one he is known by in Alexandria or the one he used throughout his career at the Department of Housing and Urban Development — Albert M. Miller?

What's In A Name (III)

Many readers have noted with amusement that developer EYA has dubbed the James Bland redevelopment site as "Old Town Commons" in its sales materials. (Click on the "Coming Soon" tab on EYA's Web site to read the description.)

Let that be a lesson for those who raised eyebrows when the Inner City Civic Association recently voted to rename itself the "West Old Town Citizens Association."

Younger readers may not know that in the early 1980s the City of Alexandria proposed adding our community to Old Town by placing it in the Old & Historic District and subjecting it to a single board of architectural review. Outcry among the ardent separatists in the community (most of whom are now dead) resulted in the City setting up a distinct Parker-Gray Historic District with its own BAR.

But the original intent was to fold us into Old Town.

Low Blow

2009-10-29T07:31:00.006-05:00

A long-delayed zoning text amendment to regulate sex shops in Alexandria is now docketed for the Planning Commission's November 5 meeting, and one of the staff recommendations included with the text amendment is outrageous.

Le Tache on lower King Street is to be exempt as a grandfathered use, since it has been open for more than a year. However, Lotus Blooms, the swanky store which just opened at 1017 King Street will be forced to close. It is "different," according to the staff report, "and should not be allowed to remain permanently. It violates the pending prohibition on additional stores in the historic district and, under the proposed, would be required to close after 18 months, a reasonable period within which to recoup its limited investment in the retail space."

So let's try to understand this. For a year after Le Tache's opening, Planning & Zoning lallygagged on developing an adult uses amendment.

Yesterday at a Federation of Civic Associations meeting the Growler heard a past president of Old Town Civic Association state that former City Attorney Ignacio Pessoa already had the amendment drafted before he quit, nearly a year ago.

And the Cranky One was even more surprised to learn from West End civic activists at the same meeting that the City promised similar regulations several years ago after the adult theater in Foxchase was finally closed.

Some in our community have also questioned why P&Z's staff didn't check out Lotus Blooms more closely before it opened. Anyone who Googled the business could have found their Web site and a description of the business.

Instead, having let the horse take a leisurely walk through the open barn gate, P&Z is now promoting not only shutting the gate but sending the poor nag to the slaughterhouse to cover up its own inefficiency.

Despite all of the Growler's recent ribbing, the Cranky One doesn't think Lotus Blooms deserves this. It is a high-end shop that was previously located in Georgetown, and in fact many people think it is a much classier act than Le Tache.

Let's hope that common sense and fairness will guide the Planning Commission and City Council when they ultimately make a decision on the text amendment and staff recommendations. Killing off fledgling businesses to cover up staff screw-ups just isn't right.

Mid-Week Mash-Up

2009-10-21T06:46:00.010-05:00

Tarting Wars

Following up on an earlier posting about another sex shop opening on King Street, the Growler notes with a chuckle that the docket for the Planning Commission's November meeting includes this item:

TEXT AMENDMENT #2009-0006
ADULT USES

A) Planning Commission initiation of a text amendment; B) Public hearing and consideration of an amendment to Section 7-2400 of the City's Zoning Ordinance to define and regulate the location of sexually oriented businesses within the City. [Emphasis added]

Now there's one staff report the Growler can't wait to read!

In a supposedly unrelated development at last Saturday's marathon Council hearing, elected officials have deferred consideration of a measure that would raise massage parlor permit fees.

Slurpee Madness

At last Saturday's public hearing there was even more fascinating discussion about retail. The topic came up during the discussions about the proposed 7-11 at 504 John Carlyle Drive.

Quote du jour: Council member Del Pepper wishfully describing the 7-11 as a potential "anchor" store which will attract more businesses to the retail-starved Carlyle community. (Residents there recently lost a bagel shop.)

The Growler admires Ms. Pepper's ability to put a happy face on any issue, but thought the term "anchor" usually applied to behemoth department stores like Nordstrom's.

Coming soon, we are told: a 7-11 on Upper King Street.

Flattened

The six-month battle over the fate of the old American Legion building at 224 N. Fayette Street has concluded with the Council sensibly upholding (by a 6-1 vote) the earlier Board of Architectural Review decision to approve demolition.

Developer and property owner Bill Cromley will be permitted to tear the structure down in six months if no buyer with a financially solid and binding offer appears to take it off his hands and move it elsewhere.

From the podium, Council members noted that the Old Town preservationists who spoke up for the building presented no viable plan for saving the structure.

It also didn't escape notice that only two of the 25 Parker-Gray property owners who signed Boyd Walker's appeal petition (including himself) bothered to show up to testify in favor of overturning the BAR ruling.

Footnote

Lest readers think our community doesn't care about history ...

A historic plaque based on the Growler's research four years ago has now been installed on the wall of the new Lorien Hotel at 1600 King Street. The plaque notes the property was once owned by the influential Peyton family and that the site later included a slave jail owned by Edward Home.

From the Archives of Justice

2009-10-15T07:11:00.019-05:00

There's some good news lately for those of us living near public housing.

The Growler has learned that serious crime at ARHA projects such as James Bland and Andrew Adkins is trending down.

Nuisance crimes such as drunkenness and disorderly conduct are also taking a dive.

While drug offenses are up sharply, it appears this is due to Alexandria cops more aggressively detecting offenses and charging suspects.

All in all, our police force is to be congratulated for taking the community's concerns seriously.

While we applaud the police force for their effectiveness, the neighborhood also deserves a big pat on the back for its vigilant watch over crime and and for courage in speaking up to demand that City officials do more to curb disorder in Parker-Gray.

But it hasn't been easy to speak out publicly. A small group of citizens, self-anointed public housing advocates, have been sharply vocal about those of us who stand up and tell elected officials and the police about the crime we witness with our own eyes in the neighborhood. This group leverages shrillness and the race card to intimidate City Council and to intimidate us as a community.

So effective has the technique been in the past, it has now been honed to a fine point. While Councils in the past may have resisted some of this pressure, the controversy over the apologetic public remarks a few elected officials made last spring before the election illustrates that some of the current members find that hard to do.

However, it's about time to give Council some facts that may give them more strength to resist the screech crowd. Some of the information below is well-known to natives and old-timers in Alexandria, but may come as a shock to our current officials, who are mostly transplanted from elsewhere.

Sarah Becker's Old Town Crier article last month raised eyebrows with the sentence about the "questionable" supporters of ARHA Chairman A. Melvin Miller. There was good reason: it turns out many in the screech crowd have had significant brushes with the law themselves.

Like the aged woman who was charged back in 1977 with assault and battery on an Alexandria Gazette reporter. She was found guilty of the misdemeanor in District Court, but then acquitted on appeal to the Circuit Court (with helpful testimony from another member of the screech crowd).

What prompted this attack? In 1977 fierce discussions were underway about a City takeover of the perennially-dysfunctional ARHA. In that era, the Gazette provided deeper and harder-hitting local reportage than it does now, and its employee was covering ARHA and working on a story about residents who earned too much income to remain eligible for subsidized housing.

In a footnote, years later this individual was evicted by ARHA. She has not lived in the neighborhood for nearly 20 years.

The Growler has learned that another prominent figure in the screech crowd was charged by a grand jury with grand larceny and embezzlement. The charge involved stealing from an elderly man, and the case required Social Services staff to be subpoenaed to testify. So frail was this victim that a transcript of his testimony was necessary, and the Commonwealth's Attorney ultimately dropped the charges when the principal witness died.

The screecher in question does not live in our neighborhood.

Then we have a well-known figure and current resident who has stood up at community meetings and verbally abused police officers like Sgt. Gerald Ford, the respected former resident officer at James Bland. Incredibly, this man was given an impromptu forum by City consultants Kramer & Associates to stand up at one of the Braddock Road plan charrettes in 2007 and lecture the audience on local history (of which he seemed to know little beyond polemics).

There was considerable chuckling back in the neighborhood among the old-timers when they learned about the incident. Not only had this man been gone from the neighborhood for decades (living at times in D.C., Maryland and Fairfax County), he also had accumulated a criminal record. D.C. court records indicate two previous drug charges — one in 1986 and another in 1991.

What is inexpressibly sad is that at the same day-long Braddock Road charrette two older African-American women plucked up their courage to attend to try to tell someone in charge about crime at Bland. None of the staff bothered to make reassurances or even point them to the police officer present at the meeting. What kind of message were they receiving when City staff propped up a criminal to pontificate about the neighborhood?

It must be asked why the City continues to favor people like this at the expense of law-abiding citizens who have never seen the inside of a jail or courtroom. Why are those who live outside our neighborhood (and in some cases outside the City of Alexandria) allowed to dictate and lecture about any aspect of a community where they no longer live or left for decades while others dealt with the consequences? In fact, are some of these players really advocates for residents or are they self-interested individuals who have family members in public housing or are themselves dependent on ARHA and can be mobilized at will to thwart further reforms? Are others attempting to wheedle money or position from the City government in their self-appointed leadership roles?

The most important question of all is why City staff — especially leaders in Planning & Zoning — are indulging this crowd and giving them forums from which they can harass and intimidate elected officials?

Pimp My Retail

2009-10-07T06:53:00.025-05:00

Ooooh baby, more, more!

With little fanfare, another sex shop has opened on King Street. This time Upper King Street is feeling the heat.

Lotus Blooms, which replaced Nina's Closet (a children's clothing store) at 1017 King Street is just two doors down from the Catholic Pauline sisters' store which sells religious books, cards and rosaries.

The stimulating new business (formerly known as Dascha Boudoir Boutique) had its grand opening over the weekend. The shop has erected a prominent display of purple marital aids (as they used to be called when the Growler was young) near the front window, along with feather boas and other exotic apparel.

Give Lotus Blooms credit for fulfilling the City's eternal quest for a vibrant community.

If readers remember, the City's leaders found themselves in quite a firestorm when property owner Mike Zarlenga obtained sweet revenge for an unfavorable Old & Historic District BAR ruling by leasing his building to Le Tache on lower King Street nine months ago.

The first sex shop to hit venerable Old Town, Le Tache garnered publicity you just can't buy over the controversy, including a New York Times article which noted "The city is now considering restrictions on new adult businesses in Old Town."

Now, however, with Lotus Blooms slipping through the cracks, should we be concerned that City leaders' resolve to take action wasn't stiffened sufficiently by the earlier kerfuffle?

What does it take to curb and discipline such unruly commerce? Is the bondage of revenue shortfalls holding the City in such a tight grip that only dildo sales will turn the tide?

Hard-pressed King Street retailers are quietly fuming, remembering that the City has lavished hundreds of thousands of dollars on not just one but two retail studies in the last five or six years to help whip the drooping corridor, studded with empty storefronts, into shape as a soignee destination for shoppers.

But with some Council members talking about bringing national retailers to King Street, are we to expect Frederick's of Hollywood and split-crotch panties will be close behind?

In the meantime, let the Growler ask the question that may be dominating some readers' minds at this point:

Can you get a Jack Rabbit there?

Not Our Burden

2009-09-28T06:44:00.007-05:00

While the Growler has been on vacation, there's been an stimulating discussion among commenters about Jefferson-Houston School. Here are some salient points that are emerging, which readers may want to grasp.

First and foremost, readers need to understand that Jefferson-Houston School is not our fault nor is it our issue to solve. Any attempts to guilt young parents in Parker-Gray is contemptible. and misplaced.

Second, residents here shouldn't waste time agonizing about Jefferson-Houston if they have pre-school children. The ongoing failure of Jefferson-Houston has given them an out and there are alternative and reasonably-priced choices outside Alexandria City Public Schools, as one commenter noted. We already have many parents in Parker-Gray who take their children elsewhere, and in fact this flexibility seems to give them the ability to stay longer in the neighborhood than expected.

Third, the issue of the school's failure is not independent of the public housing issue: it is directly related and is a byproduct of the City's reluctance to deconcentrate the mass of low-income housing in this neighborhood. In fact, it may be the school issue that is driving decisions regarding public housing.

First, elected and unelected leaders in the City of Alexandria created the mess we know today when in 1999 they redistricted the school system to leave JH a predominantly minority, predominantly poor school.

The current plight of JH is no accident. The 1999 redistricting was the key element of a strategy — not one unique to Alexandria either — to bring white families back into public school systems by ending cross-town busing and creating "safe," predominantly white schools in predominantly white neighborhoods to lure reluctant parents back in.

The clique that pushed hardest for the redistricting centered on protecting George Mason School (a group led by Claire Eberwein) wanted the "rougher" students from our neighborhood out of their school. They were quite candid at the time about the fact that they wanted pupils from our neighborhood — who were perceived as problems — out of George Mason.

In 1999, many black leaders like Ferdinand Day and Glenn Hopkins spoke out strongly against this segregationist measure. Their voices were drowned out.

In decade that has passed since the 1999 redistricting, not a single black Alexandria leader has protested the worsening situation at Jefferson-Houston although the majority of students there are black and impoverished. The silence from the NAACP and the Northern Virginia Urban League is deafening.

The Parker-Gray Alumni Association is also mute. Its members experienced the anguish of educational discrimination before the 1970s and might have been expected to protest the new forces of segregation, which essentially resurrected the ghost of the old, segregated Parker-Gray elementary school. Nevertheless, they remain silent as well.

So if these groups apparently don't speak out and fail to take action, why should any reader spend a moment agonizing except to deplore the ethical and moral failure of Alexandria's leaders?

And may the Growler ask if the new ACPS superintendent's plan to establish middle school classes at elementary schools like Jefferson-Houston may be less progressive than it appears on the surface? If the motivation in 1999 was to keep Parker-Gray kids out of George Mason and other elementary schools, it may well be that the new strategy is designed to keep them permanently out of George Washington Middle School as well. Chew over that one, folks.

Second, the failure of Jefferson-Houston to achieve Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) under the No Child Left Behind Act means Parker-Gray parents have other choices. Some parents may opt to send their children to Jefferson-Houston, but others will now see the path open to several different ACPS schools as well as private institutions. It's sad that some parents may not feel comfortable entering their children in the neighborhood school, so tantalizingly close by. But they are under no obligation to sacrifice their children to a perverse and discriminatory policy created by others years before.

Third, it's time we confront head on the relationship of Alexandria's public housing issues to the plight of Jefferson-Houston. The Growler has not dwelled on this before, but it's time for readers to wake up to the nexus of players active on both the public housing and educational issues. ARHA's current chairman A. Melvin Miller formerly served as chairman of the Alexandria School Board. Current ARHA board members Carlyle "Connie" Ring and Leslie Hagan are veterans of the School Board, with Ms. Hagan having served as vice chair. And one of ARHA's biggest apologists is former school board member Rodger Digilio of alexandrianews.org.

With these relationships in mind, it's time to pose a key question not previously posed on this blog.

With other public housing redevelopment projects like Quaker Hill and Chatham Square, ARHA demonstrated it could disperse and deconcentrate public housing units. Is ARHA's entrenched opposition to doing the same in our community because its leaders are protecting segregated schools?

In short, is Alexandria's public school segregation driving public housing segregation rather than the other way around?

And do our politicians truly recognize what they have wrought?

Summer's End

2009-09-06T09:57:00.009-05:00

The Growler hopes readers are enjoying this beautiful Labor Day holiday weekend.

All in all, it's been a great summer for the neighborhood. As the Cranky One observed earlier, houses are selling briskly, battered properties are being foreclosed and restored to respectable life, and the corner of Queen and Fayette has never been this peaceful in years. Hunter-Miller Park now truly belong to families and children.

For that, we owe a debt of thanks to the Alexandria Police Department, and to former Chief David Baker who listened to our concerns and took effective action. We hope that the new Chief, Earl Cook, will do the same.

It would be comforting to think that the City is finally on our side. However, the battle for autonomy and respect will have to continue. There are still power players in Alexandria who wish to impose their stale vision on our community.

For those browsing the Web over the weekend, check out a new article in the latest edition of the Old Town Crier, written by Parker-Gray resident and local historian Sarah Becker. Her column this month is about the 100th anniversary of the nation's first planning conference, but has a few pointed observations about planning in our community.

News for the High 90s

2009-08-28T06:40:00.016-05:00

Siddiqi Murder Convictions

In breaking news, two of the suspects in the January 2009 murder of cab driver Khalil Siddiqi have received stiff sentences for the homicide.

Sadly, the piece notes that in the wake of his death, Mr. Siddiqi's family was foreclosed and have had to move in with relatives in Texas.

The evil that men do apparently lives on and on ...

Built on Our Neighborhood's Back

This announcement from the City crossed the Growler's desk this week. Alexandria Crossing is part of the Glebe Park public housing redevelopment.

In just a few weeks, EYA will begin sales of workforce homes at Alexandria Crossing, an exciting new community minutes from Del Ray, Potomac Yards, Old Town Alexandria, and walking distance to countless restaurants and shops. These exciting new homes will be priced from $300,000 to $365,000, and may include up to a $20,000 purchase assistance subsidy from the City of Alexandria's Moderate Income Homeownership Program (MIHP).

To be eligible to participate in the first release of workforce homes at Alexandria Crossing, you must meet the following criteria:

-You must either live in the City of Alexandria or work in the City of Alexandria.

-You must be a first time homebuyer (or not owned a home in the last 3 years).

-Your household income must be less than $71,900 for a household of 1, less than $82,200 for a household of 2, less than $92,400 for a household of 3, and less than $102,700 for a household of 4.

If you meet all 3 of these criteria, and would like to learn more about the program, please contact Tom David or Vicente Espinoza at the City's Office of Housing at 703.746.4990. Once it has been determined that you are eligible for the program, you will then be contacted as details on the date and time of release of the homes for sale become available.

To view the floorplans and prices of the workforce homes at Alexandria Crossing, click here: www.eya.com/Alexandria_Crossing.

The "I Hate to Cook" Recipe

Ever wish you could avoid cooking entirely, but were dismayed at the prospect of FF4 (fast food forever)?

If so, you'll want to read this recent feature story, which highlights our Parker-Gray neighbor and personal chef Keith Calhoun.

Have a cool weekend!

Succession

2009-08-25T17:05:00.001-05:00

Good news for Parker-Gray residents. We have a new Chief of Police, one who knows this community well and is highly-respected here in the neighborhood.

Yesterday, Alexandria City Manager James K. Hartmann announced the appointment of Acting Chief of Police Earl L. Cook as the new Chief of Police. He is a 30-year veteran of the Alexandria Police Department and the first African-American in the City’s 260-year history to serve as the Chief of Police. Chief Cook, who is also a native Alexandrian, will be responsible for the administration of a 400-member police department. He replaces former Chief of Police David P. Baker, who resigned on July 28.

Chief Cook has spent his entire career as a member of the Alexandria Police Department. He began as a police academy recruit in January 1979. Upon graduation from the academy, he worked in patrol and criminal investigations until 1989. Over the next six years, he was promoted several times, advancing to sergeant, lieutenant, captain, and assistant chief. As assistant chief, he managed the criminal investigations bureau, and was named deputy chief in that role three years later. In 2006, he rose to the position of Deputy Executive Chief, serving as second in command; acting for the Police Chief in his absence; and providing significant direction on the police department’s policy and budget.

Chief Cook was born and raised in the City of Alexandria. He grew up on Princess Street and attended Lyles-Crouch Elementary School, Parker-Gray Middle School and George Washington High School through 10th grade. He transferred to T.C. Williams High School, after the school was integrated, and became a member of the historic Titans football team. After graduating from T. C. Williams in 1973, he attended Duke University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in history and education. He currently resides in Alexandria and has three children and two grandchildren.

Children Left Behind

2009-08-14T09:32:00.004-05:00

This just in from an alert reader ...

Local schools targeted for sanctions

By: William C. Flook
Examiner Staff Writer
August 13, 2009

Four Northern Virginia schools have fallen short of federal education standards long enough to be eligible for some of the harshest sanctions under the No Child Left Behind Act, according to the Virginia Department of Education.

Jefferson-Houston Elementary in Alexandria, Randolph Elementary in Arlington County and Dogwood Elementary in Fairfax County all entered or remained in the fourth year of “school improvement status,” a designation that requires a school system to let students transfer to better performing schools, develop alternative governance plans and offer free tutoring.

Arlington’s Hoffman-Boston Elementary didn’t meet federal standards for a sixth year, requiring one of a series of harsh options that could include reopening as a charter school, replacing most — if not all — of the school staff linked to the failure to meet federal standards, or turning the management over to a private entity, according to the Department of Education.

Based on the 2008-2009 results, Arlington schools have formed a committee on restructuring Hoffman-Boston and brought in retired principal Marie Shiels-Djouadi as a consultant, according to spokeswoman Linda Erdos.

Failing to meet No Child Left Behind standards, which grow tougher each year, can be as simple as missing one of 29 objectives for annual progress. At Dogwood, for example, the school fell short in one category — reading achievement of black students — by three students, said Fairfax County Public Schools spokesman Paul Regnier.

The school “made a lot of progress overall,” Regnier said. The four schools’ status as federally funded Title I schools, which have a large number of low-income students, opens them up for greater scrutiny under No Child Left Behind. They were among the 103 such schools that qualified for some form of sanctions in Virginia.

Find this article at:

www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Local-schools-targeted-for-sanctions-53182947.html

Update

2009-08-10T18:52:00.007-05:00

The Growler has corrected an error in the last posting about the location of the house where registered sex offenders formerly lived. The house is on N. Payne Street. Sincere apologies for a slip of the furry fingers.

Dog Day Digest

2009-08-06T09:15:00.015-05:00

Gleaming

Who'd have thought that a wave of foreclosures would have a positive impact on a neighborhood?

Strangely enough, that's the case in Parker-Gray. Despite the limping economy, some of the most derelict homes in our neighborhood have been foreclosed and are now being renovated and spruced up for resale.

Neighbors are relieved that 317 N. West Street is nearly finished. This was one of the premier eyesores in the neighborhood, even before it fell into investor Nathan Carter's hands. With fresh siding, new windows and a cute porch added just this week following BAR review in late July, the property is now up to the level of the homes that surround it and is helping make the 300 block of N. West one of the prettiest and most distinctive blocks in our neighborhood.

There's more good news up the street. The home at 427 N. West Street was also foreclosed this summer and the new owner wasted no time in seeking (and obtaining) BAR approval to rehabilitate the existing home and add another on the double-wide lot. The rented dumpster was hauled in earlier this week and this morning workmen were busy gutting the place.

Another long-empty and badly-neglected home is being brought back to life in the 300 block of N. Payne Street. After a slow start, the owner's contractor has been working hard to get the property into shape. Amazing what a facelift new siding provides to a structure.

That's especially true for 1124 Princess Street, which was completed earlier this summer and is now on the market. Before renovation the front of the home had a reasonably acceptable layout but the rear first floor included a very cramped kitchen and bizarrely configured furnace room, which people were required to pass through to get to the back yard. Those problems are now nicely solved.

The Growler wishes all of these urban pioneers well and will keep the bear toes crossed in the hopes of quick resales this fall. It will be good for all of us.

Gone

The City's Code Enforcement officers recently condemned a home in the 500 block of N. Payne Street and it's now on the market for $319,900.

Readers may remember that two registered sex offenders were living there until recently. With their departure, there is only a single sex offender currently residing in the neighborhood.

Although that may sound a little strange, it's a huge improvement from the last few years when we had multiple sex offenders scattered around Parker-Gray.

Nabbed

The Growler has received an update on a recent story about the registered child sex offender from Arkansas who was apparently living in the Adkins housing project.

Police officers at Tuesday's National Night Out celebration at Hunter-Miller Park advised the Cranky One that the address given by the ex-offender was bogus -- someone else lives there. The ex-con is now apparently in jail for giving false registration information to the State Police.

So the Growler is happy to report that ARHA is off the hook on this one ... and we're relieved, because giving shelter to child sex offenders in a development full of young children is otherwise incomprehensible.

Reborn

A tip of the Growler's furry ears to T&ES, which recently helped neighbors in the 1200 block of Queen Street by excavating and replanting the lumpy public strip between the sidewalk and the street. Green growing things are always welcome in our neighborhood, especially grass!

Have a great weekend!

History and the Legion

2009-07-26T15:46:00.018-05:00

Last week, after an unusually lengthy but interesting hearing, local developer Bill Cromley received approval from the Parker-Gray Board of Architectural Review to demolish the building at 224 N. Fayette Street which was formerly the home of a black-only American Legion post.

Readers may remember that the building was sold at foreclosure in the spring of 2008 to real estate investor Nathan Carter's nephew Christopher. In turn, the younger Mr. Carter sold the structure to Mr. Cromley earlier this year.

The Board, which voted 5-2 to approve the demolition, felt it was a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" decision since both sides suggested they might ultimately appeal the resulting decision to City Council.

But the Board did the right thing. After hearing testimony about whether there was historic or architectural significance to the building, as well as information about its troubled association with alcohol-fueled crimes (including murder) in the 1980s and 1990s, the Board concluded that any attempt to adaptively reuse and rehabilitate the poorly-maintained building would mostly destroy any remaining historic fabric.

The Board also accepted Mr. Cromley's reasoning that the structure, which was a temporary building thrown up hastily as an African-American day care facility during World War II, was too small and uneconomical to repurpose and that another example of a World War II child care kit building from the same period is still in place elsewhere in the City.

The Board also took careful note that the City — which sold the building to the Legion in the 1950s — repeatedly declined to exercise its first right of refusal to buy back the building. Just a few months ago the City again bowed out, rejecting Mr. Cromley's offer to pay to move the structure to the Hunter-Miller basketball court.

A couple of observations about the hearing.

First, some who testified against demolition complained that this process was moving too fast and that funding should be sought to save the building.

But these speakers, which included older individuals long absent from the neighborhood, may not have realized that it was an open neighborhood secret for many years that William Thomas Post 129 was in dire financial straits, the result of poor management and declining membership in what was essentially a segregated club. Everyone knew that sooner or later it would come to this.

A group of black investors, including Legion members, had hoped to rescue the building several years ago and had bought up the mortgage note. But even their charitable forebearance was strained when no payments were forthcoming. They presumably didn't have the resources for a complete rehabilitation of the building, and were forced into a reluctant foreclosure in 2008. That's when the Carters stepped in. But they too no longer had the necessary deep pockets for renovation and eventually sold out to Mr. Cromley. The Legion itself moved to Nathan Carter's building on Mt. Vernon Avenue.

The possibility of any other Alexandria group now coming up with $1.1 million — the current assessed value of the property — to buy out Mr. Cromley seems remote. Certainly the City is no shape to find capital, renovation and operating funds to add another building to its roster of historic properties, which themselves are suffering from deferred maintenance.

Speaking of assessments, it's interesting that the City tax assessors dropped the value of the building to only $1,000 in 2008 once the property was sold to Mr. Carter. Nearly all of the $1.1 million assessed value is derived from the value of the land. So at least some City bureaucrats judged it was a tear-down, even as Planning & Zoning staff were furiously trying to rally the community to save it.

The testimony that made the Growler's furry ears perk up was the admission of Black History Museum director Louis Hicks that he and his staff knew nothing about the history of the building until Mr. Cromley conducted his research.

That's remarkable. Mr. Hicks stated at the BAR hearing that "Our museum exists here in the city as a means of preserving black history for the city." Yet the museum has no research or information about the American Legion, which a few speakers argued was an important African-American institution? Mr. Hicks says the museum is "playing catch-up," but over the last twenty years the City has poured millions of dollars into the Black History Museum.

Is it time to ask if this Museum is really functioning professionally as it should? Or is it nothing more than a home for the mostly departed Parker-Gray alumni association and a stopping place for other institutions' traveling exhibits?

We might also ask why the Museum director is defending a building for which many current residents have bad memories, instead of working to honor the most distinguished members of the community — people like Samuel Tucker, who organized the 1939 Barrett Library sit-down strike. His house on Princess Street has never been singled out for recognition.

Clearly, some elderly members of the African-American community who testified last Wednesday feel a yearning for the past and pain that the neighborhood has changed so dramatically. But claims that there are no traces that they ever lived here are overstated. Institutions and churches like Ebenezer Baptist remain as monuments to the indomitable faith of the historic community.

Remarkably, much of the pain expressed at the hearing referred less to the Legion (which many respectable people shunned in later years) and more to the City's demolition of the old Parker-Gray schools years ago, which came up repeatedly.

Yet it is the Madison developer, Trammell Crow, not the City and the Black History Museum, who offered to pay for a Virginia Highway Marker to designate the site of the former high school and who hired local historian Sarah Becker to research and process the state application.

And it is Ms. Becker who — using the same local resources available to Mr. Hicks and his staff — finally dated (1933) the connection between Charles Houston and the Parker-Gray Schools. Without that connection to the eminent civil rights attorney in Brown v. Board of Education, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources would not otherwise approve a Highway Marker for a vanished school, no matter how great the nostalgia.

Much can still be done to honor the past in our neighborhood. But it's time to take a hard look at the outputs of the Black History Museum. And it's time to let go of the Legion. Preserving it doesn't make economic or historic sense.

The Diversity Dodge

2009-07-17T10:23:00.016-05:00

"Diversity" is a word that is frequently thrown into the collective face of the Inner City neighborhood, most recently in the Mayor's opening remarks at the July 9 ICCA meeting.

With Census data in hand, it's time to ask some measured questions regarding neighborhood diversity.

Here is a breakdown of race and ethnicity from 1970 through 2000 for our neighborhood, Parker-Gray, as well as the adjacent Del Ray and Rosemont neighborhoods. Del Ray is represented by two census tracts, 13 and 14, which are separated by Mt. Vernon Avenue, while Rosemont is tract 15 and Parker-Gray is a historic district largely centered in tract 16. (Click here to view the 2000 Census tract map for the City.) Totals for the City of Alexandria are also included.

Three important facts stand out.

First, although the white population of census tract 16 rose dramatically since 1990, our neighborhood remains highly diverse. Not surprisingly, the 2000 Census reveals that the community has twice the percentage of black residents (45%) as the City of Alexandria has overall (22%). Even if the 2010 Census shows the African-American population dropping again to 30% or even 25% of census tract 16, which is likely given changes in the neighborhood, we would still be ahead of the City average which has been stable at around 22% for the last three decades.

Second, there was a surge in the black population in East Del Ray from 1970 to 1980, and in West Del Ray from 1970 to 1990. Yet by 2000, the African-American populations in those neighborhoods had once again shrunk. The black population in West Del Ray fell by half, in East Del Ray by a third.

Mayor Euille lives in West Del Ray and black activist Lenny Harris resides in East Del Ray. Where is their indignation regarding the ethnic changes occuring in their own back yards? Why do they come here and repeatedly hector us?

Third, other than death the reason that Parker-Gray has lost black population is that African-Americans (as well as Hispanics) live less segregated lives today than they did 40 years ago immediately after the passage of the Fair Housing Act of 1968. Nothing illustrates this more succinctly than this graphic from the City's Consolidated Plan for Housing and Community Development FY 2006-2010, which notes there are now more census tracts in Alexandria with African-American and Hispanic populations than ever before (p. 13).

So the Growler once again asks the question: why are we in Parker-Gray being bludgeoned with diversity when Del Ray or Rosemont are not?

And who benefits from a return to segregation? Low-income housing advocates maybe? But not public housing residents. The 2008 Braddock East Advisory Group was presented with ARHA statistics indicating nearly all of the tenants of public housing in the Braddock area are black.

"Cui bono?"

Frozen in Time?

2009-07-11T05:46:00.009-05:00

Is the past truly prologue in our neighborhood?

The Growler was recently browsing through a mountain of files and press clippings and was stunned to come across some old articles that illustrate how this community continues to be stifled by philosophies that have not changed even a molecule over the years, despite the passage of time and evolving public policy.

For example, read this Washington Post account of a public meeting of a citizen panel called the Alexandria Forum. A. Melvin Miller, a senior HUD official who had served on the Alexandria Redevelopment Housing Authority Board from 1970 to 1977, “criticized some [C]ouncil members for advocating public housing alternatives such as dispersing low-income families in apartments throughout the City and issuing housing vouchers, much like food stamps, to subsidize rents for the poor.”

What's so remarkable about these comments? Mr. Miller made them in 1983, some 17 years after the landmark Gautreaux vs. Chicago Housing Authority case launched in 1966. The Gautreaux lawsuit charged that by concentrating more than 10,000 public housing units in isolated African-American neighborhoods, the Chicago Housing Authority and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development had violated both the U.S. Constitution, which guarantees all citizens equal protection of the laws, and the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which outlaws racial discrimination in programs that receive federal funding.

Decisions at the district, appellate and ultimately the U.S. Supreme Court levels affirmed the Gautreaux plaintiffs' position, finding both CHA and HUD guilty of discriminatory housing practices. In 1969, a federal judge issued a judgment order prohibiting CHA from constructing any new public housing in areas of the city that were predominantly African-American unless CHA also built public housing elsewhere.

By contrast, ARHA in 1967 unveiled yet another project in the Braddock area (Andrew W. Adkins) that added further to the already critical and segregated mass of concentrated public housing in this community. A later Alexandria public housing task force commentary that the Growler dug up notes that HUD – obviously feeling the pressure from Gautreaux – demanded scattered site housing from ARHA and the City as part of the mid-1980s John Roberts-Colecroft redevelopment project.

In the years since the 1983 Alexandria Forum, much has changed regarding housing policy. Always it was moving ahead, not backwards. In a case launched in 1992, Hollman vs. Cisneros, which included the NAACP among its plaintiffs, the courts found that the Minneapolis Public Housing Authority had essentially perpetuated segregation in public housing, denying a range of housing choices (including vouchers) to residents. Consequently MPHA has spent years re-mediating its past policies including siting and housing mobility.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), also in 1992, unveiled the landmark HOPE VI grant program, which includes among its major goals "lessening concentrations of poverty by placing public housing in nonpoverty neighborhoods."

According to his biography, Mr. Miller retired from HUD in 1997, was reappointed to the ARHA board in 2000 and elevated to chairman in 2001. Surely he was familiar with these landmark legal cases and the philosophy behind the HOPE VI program? HOPE VI was employed to transform the "Berg" project into Chatham Square and to successfully develop scattered site housing for half the previous residents.

But does an examination of the timeline reveal something significant? The impetus for Chatham Square appears to date from the early to mid-1990s, when progressive players like Shawn McLaughlin were guiding ARHA into the future.

Why then are Alexandria politicians today continuing to empower a viewpoint that has grown stale with time? It’s time for the Growler’s familiar question, “Cui bono?” Who benefits?

But Mr. Miller is not alone in his Janus-faced commitment to the past. An undated article in the old Alexandria Journal describes the creation of the Samuel Madden Redevelopment Task Force in 1994 and the controversial appointment of housing advocate Herb Levy. The Journal’s correspondent Roberta Holland described the former ARHA employee and commissioner as an opponent of public housing redevelopment, reporting that he believed it needed to remain “cohesive.”

As regular readers of the Growler know, Herb Cooper-Levy later joined a private non-profit housing organization and in the last few years has secured more than $10 million in affordable housing loans on its behalf from the City of Alexandria. Cui bono? Does it pay to be a naysayer?

The question for our newly elected City Council is whether they will be content to be held hostage by those steadily gazing backward (like Mr. Miller or Mr. Cooper-Levy), or will be independent and strong enough to break free and allow themselves to march resolutely toward the future once again.

Data

2009-07-07T06:56:00.005-05:00

"Concentrated poverty created by concentrated public housing is a key factor in the crime that persists in Parker Gray. " So wrote Gerri Madrid-Davis in her recent letter to the Alexandria Gazette.

She was reacting to a quote by ARHA Chairman Melvin Miller in the previous week's issue of the Gazette: "When I look at the police reports, I don’t see any indication crime is higher around public housing than anywhere else in the city."

Let readers be the judge of the data. The Growler has assembled crime statistics from the Alexandria Police Department's online crime database from January 1, 2009 to the present for Census Tract 16, which comprises Parker-Gray as well as the area around the Braddock Metro.

For reporting purposes, the census tract is broken down into sub-tracts, and crimes reported for each sub-tract. Subtracts A, B, and C are the northernmost; J, K and L are the closest to King Street. Click here to see a police map of the Census tracts.

What relationships do YOU see?

An addendum to Michael Lee Pope's original story in the Gazette on homicide in our neighborhood. Here is a document compiled by the Growler -- again from the Police Department statistics -- demonstrating that nearly 40% of the homicides in Alexandria since January 1, 2005 have taken place in this neighborhood, which is only a small section of the total geographic area of the City.

Mr. Pope pointed out that several of the crimes, such as the double murder on N. Patrick Street, were committed on public housing property or by residents of public housing.

After checking court records, the Growler can confirm that one of the suspects in the Siddiqi murder case lived in public housing on Yale Drive, and that Sebastian Carter who murdered Lawrence Sims in December 2005 was a former resident of Andrew Adkins.

Siddiqi Murder Trial Update

2009-06-30T05:43:00.003-05:00

An interesting development yesterday in the trial of the three men charged with robbing and killing Yellow Cab driver Khalil Siddiqi on Buchanan Street on January 18.

According to alexandrianews.org, two of the three have pleaded guilty, while the third is being assessed for his competency to stand trial.

Data You Can Use

2009-06-29T19:22:00.004-05:00

Someone has asked that the Growler publish links to the City's crime statistics sites.

Your wish is my command: on the far right column, you will find two new links. The first is to the Alexandria Police Department's online crime database, which includes a simple search function by location, date or type of crime. Unfortunately there is little detail although it does indicate if the case has been closed or is still open.

The second link is crimereports.com. This site receives data from the Alexandria Police Department and displays reports graphically on a map, which is very meaningful to residents here.

Make sure you go to the button labeled "Crime Types" and select "Show All" if you want to see the entire crime picture for the neighborhood. There is also an option to filter by date ranges.