East of the River Magazine – December 2023 by Capital Community News

DECEMBER 2023

E AST OF THE R IVER M AGAZINE D ECEMBER 2023

Holiday ial Spec

N E X T I S S U E : J A N U A RY 13

Changing Hands compiled by Don Denton

Henderson On Health and Safety – ANC 7D Report

3 ! 2 0 2

What’s on Washington

by Sarah Payne

Councilmembers Talk Public Safety and Transportation – ANC 8F Report by Andrew Lightman

Bulletin Board by Kathleen Donner

by Kathleen Donner

16 Theater Night: A Curated Review of Theater in the DMV by Matthew McClure

EAST WASHINGTON LIFE 38

Meet Patrick Saah: Political Asylee and Survivor by Anthony D. Diallo

NEIGHBORHOOD NEWS

Carjacking is “No Big Deal” – No Deterrent to Youth Criminal Behavior by Elizabeth O’Gorek

Unlocked: Failing Security at DCPS – Unsecured Doors Put Students At Risk by Rachel Royster

Opinion/Preserving History and Building Futures – Investing in John Philip Sousa Middle School by Eboni-Rose Thompson

Our River: The Anacostia Coming Up Fast in 2024 – Projects From the Stadium to New York Avenue by Bill Matuszeski

Capital Community News, Inc. Publisher of: Capital Community News, Inc. PO Box 15477, Washington, DC 20003 202.543.8300 www.capitalcommunitynews.com www.hillrag.com

KIDS & FAMILY 40

Notebook by Kathleen Donner

IN EVERY ISSUE 46 47

The Crossword The Classifieds

ON THE COVER: The Anacostia Community

Museum’s Kwanzaa Program at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church’s Panorama Room in SE Washington. Photo: Susana Raab.

MIDCITY

F A G O N GUIDE TO CAPITOL HILL

FAGON

EDUCATION

YOUR COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER

EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Melissa Ashabranner • melissa.ashabranner@gmail.com MANAGING EDITOR: Andrew Lightman • andrew@hillrag.com PUBLISHER: Jean-Keith Fagon • fagon@hillrag.com Copyright © 2023 by Capital Community News. All Rights Reserved.

We welcome suggestions for stories. Send queries to andrew@hillrag.com. We are also interested in your views on community issues which are published in the Last Word. Please limit your comments to 250 words. Letters may be edited for space. Please include your name, address and phone number. Send Last Word submissions to lastword@hillrag.com. For employment opportunities email jobs@hillrag.com.

E ast of the R iver M agazine

D ecember 2023

E a s t o f t h e R i v er D C N e w s . c o m

y a d i l Ho l a i c e Sp 3 ! 2 0 2

photo: Jason Yen

E ast of the R iver M agazine

D ecember 2023

WHAT’S ON WASHINGTON

Christmas Day Organ Recital at National Cathedral

On Monday, Christmas Day, 1:30 p.m., all are invited to the Washington National Cathedral, 3101 Wisconsin Ave. NW, for a program of festive music performed by organists Thomas Sheehan and Rebecca Ehren. No tickets are necessary to attend in-person. Livestream is available. cathedral.org. The West Rose Window of the Washington National Cathedral

Zoolights

ZooLights will take thousands of visitors into a winter wonderland lit by more than half a million environmentally friendly LED lights and illuminations. Visitors can stroll through immersive lantern displays showing rainforest, grassland, desert, ocean and polar habitats and the animals that call them home. Live musical performances, delicious treat offerings and plenty of opportunities for holiday shopping make this special event a dazzling and immersive experience for families and nature aficionados. This year’s Zoolights are 5 to 9 p.m. (Sundays, 5 to 8 p.m.); with remaining dates of Dec. 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 21, 22, 23, 26, 27, 28, 29 and 30. Admission is $6 per person; free for age two and under. $30 for parking. National Zoo, 3001 Connecticut Ave. NW. nationalzoo.si.edu/events/zoolights.

The Hip Hop Nutcracker at Strathmore

Photo: Tim Norris

E a s t o f t h e R i v er D C N e w s . c o m

This holiday mash-up is back by popular demand. Follow Maria-Clara and the Nutcracker Prince on a magical adventure set in modernday New York City. The Hip Hop Nutcracker features a combination of Tchaikovsky’s classic score and all-star contemporary and hiphop dancers, a DJ, a violinist, and Kurtis Blow, one of hip-hop’s founding fathers, who opens the show with a short set. Using innovative visual effects, the production transforms the traditional 19th century German landscape of E.T.A. Hoffmann’s beloved story into a vibrant and diverse representation of modern urban life. This remixed and reimagined version of the classic holiday tale takes audiences on an unforgettable journey celebrating love and community. $28 to $68. The Music Center at Strathmore, 5301 Tuckerman Lane, North Bethesda, from Dec. 19 to 22. strathmore.org.

E ast of the R iver M agazine

D ecember 2023

WHAT’S ON W A S H I N G T O N

Adam Bradley, “Furies”, 2023, wood, steel, and ceramic. Photo: Courtesy of Anne Kim

“Still Something Singing” Outdoor Sculpture Exhibition at Kreeger Museum

Wordplay Wednesdays at Planet Word

The Kreeger Museum and the Washington Sculptors Group present Still Something Singing, on view through Saturday Jan. 27, 2024. Sited throughout the grounds of the museum, this exhibition of outdoor sculpture and temporary installations reflects the role of art in our contemporary moment. The exhibition was juried and curated by Betsy Johnson, Assistant Curator, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, presenting the work of eight DC-area artists: Adam Bradley, Donna Cameron, Roger Cutler, Hyunsuk Erickson, Barbara Liotta, Donna McCullough, Maryanne Pollock, and Steve Wanna. Admission is $10 for adults; 18 and under, free. The Kreeger Museum is at 2401 Foxhall Rd. NW. kreegermuseum.org.

Visit Planet Word on the first Wednesday of each month for after-hours wordplay from 5 to 7 p.m. All three floors of the museum stay open late, including the “Unlock the Music” karaoke gallery and the “Joking Around” humor gallery. Guests can explore the museum, play word-based puzzles and games, and indulge in retail therapy at the Present Perfect gift shop. Free admission. Planet Word is at 925 13th St. NW, entrance on K Street. planetwordmuseum.org.

Photo: Aaron Fenster

“How to be a Korean Woman” at Theater J

Holiday Markets

Downtown Holiday Market which runs daily through Dec. 23, noon to 8 p.m., on F Street NW, from Seventh to Ninth, allows for wide aisles for shopping, browsing and enjoying food and live entertainment. downtownholidaymarket.com. The Flea Market at Eastern Market, Seventh and C streets, SE, operates Saturday and Sunday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. BZB Holiday Art & Gift Show, Shiloh Baptist Church, 1510 Ninth St. NW, is open on Dec. 2, 8, 16,22 and 23; 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. bzbinternational.com. Unique Markets in DC, Dec. 16 and 17, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., operates inside Union Market, 1309 Fifth St. NE. Admission is $10 to $15. uniquemarkets.com/washingtondc. At Season’s Greenings at the Botanic Garden, a gift store run by the Friends of the US Botanic Garden offers a variety of botanically themed gifts for purchase. usbg.gov/holiday. 08

E a s t o f t h e R i v er D C N e w s . c o m

How to Be a Korean Woman is a hilarious, heartfelt, and personal telling of Korean-American adoptee Sun Mee Chomet‘s search for her birth family in Seoul, South Korea. This poignant one-woman show—told from the perspective of an adult Jewish adoptee—uses text, music, and movement to explore themes of family, love, adulthood, and the universal longing to know one’s past. Chomet’s award-winning play has been presented to sold-out audiences in the United States and Seoul, South Korea. $49.99 to $90.99. Theater J’s production, from Jan. 4 to 14, marks the regional premiere of the piece. 1529 16th St. NW. theaterj.org.

E ast of the R iver M agazine

D ecember 2023

WHAT’S ON W A S H I N G T O N

Madonna at Capitol One Arena

Madonna has been widely recognized for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, and visual presentation. With sales of over 300 million records worldwide, Madonna is the best-selling female recording artist of all time. Madonna’s Four Decades Celebration Tour is at Capital One Arena, 601 F St. NW, on Monday, Dec. 18 and Tuesday, Dec. 19, at 8:30 p.m. Tickets start at $94. capitalonearena.com.

Step Afrika’s Magical Musical Holiday Show at Arena

The world’s first holiday show incorporating the African American tradition of stepping, Step Afrika!'s Magical Musical Holiday Step Show is a feast for the eyes and ears. You’ll laugh, you’ll sing, and you’ll dance—yes, dance, along with Step Afrika!’s award-winning dancers on Arena’s Fichandler Stage as “DJ Nutcracker” sets the tone for a joy-filled, toe-tapping evening that’s a family-friendly holiday “stepstravaganza” like no other. $56 to $95. For ticket discounts, visit arenastage.org/ tickets/savings-programs. Step Afrika’s Magical Musical Holiday Show is at Arena Stage, 1101 Sixth St. SW, from Dec. 8 to 16. arenastage.org.

Gospel Christmas: The Light Has Come at the National Cathedral

On Friday, Dec. 22, 6 p.m., we gather to hear the good news as it comes to life in the Washington National Cathedral’s annual service of Gospel Christmas, told through music, poetry, and readings from Holy Scripture. ASL interpretation is offered for this service. Due to capacity concerns, passes are required and are available now Livestream is also available at cathedral.org/calendar/gospel-christmas-service.

LEFT: Step Afrika!’s Magical Musical Holiday Step Show at Arena Stage. Photo: Margot Schulman. Photo: Courtesy of DC Murals Archive

To the East: The Rise of Murals East of the River

To the East: The Rise of Murals East of the River is a retrospective exhibition curated by Cory Lee Stowers, Executive Director of DC Murals, that dives into the roots and purpose of the movement. The exhibition presents 40 photographs that feature the work of the artists who created the earliest documented murals on the east side of Washington, DC. The show draws from the extensive archive of DC Murals, as well as recently uncovered materials from the Anacostia Community Museum and DC Public Library archives. The exhibition is on view on Wednesdays and Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., at Phillips@THEARC, 1801 Mississippi Ave. SE. No reservations required. phillipscollection.org.

EASTOFTHERIVERDCNEWS.COM

SIGN UP FOR YOUR FREE SMALL BUSINESS WORKSHOP TODAY Are you an aspiring or existing business in the District? The Small Business Resource Center (SBRC) is here for you!

WEBINAR: LEARN HOW TO BECOME A CERTIFIED BUSINESS ENTERPRISE (CBE) Wednesday, December 6, 2023 • 10:00 am Register: dlcpsbrc.ecenterdirect.com/events/63694

SHORT-TERM RENTAL (AIRBNB) ORDINANCE WEBINAR Wednesday, December 6, 2023 • 10:00 am Register: dlcpsbrc.ecenterdirect.com/events/63757

WEBINAR: INTRODUCTION TO GOVERNMENT CONTRACTING Wednesday, December 6, 2023 • 2:00 pm Register: dlcpsbrc.ecenterdirect.com/events/60451

WEBINAR: MHCDO PARTNERSHIP: STEPS TO OBTAINING A BUSINESS LICENSE

FLAT ROOF SPECIALISTS OVER 50+ years of experience FAMILY OWNED AND OPERATED

Wednesday, December 13, 2023 • 6:00 pm Register: dlcpsbrc.ecenterdirect.com/events/63324

WEBINAR: ALL THINGS NON-PROFIT Thursday, December 14, 2023 •10:00 am Register: dlcpsbrc.ecenterdirect.com/events/63705

WEBINAR: BUSINESS FOUNDATION SERIES: THE BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS Thursday, December 14, 2023 • 2:00 pm Register: dlcpsbrc.ecenterdirect.com/events/64125

WEBINAR: BUSINESS FOUNDATION SERIES: THE LEAN BUSINESS PLAN

Thursday, December 28, 2023 • 2:00 pm Register: dlcpsbrc.ecenterdirect.com/events/64126

SBRC ONE-ON-ONE CALL SESSION: STEPS TO OBTAINING A BUSINESS LICENSE

OFF

SERVICE *New Clients only. Exp. 12/31/2023

FREE ESTIMATES Check us out on Thumbtack and HomeAdvisor

ROOFING & GUTTERS FLAT ROOF SPECIALISTS NEW ROOFS EXPERTS IN PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE ROOF COATINGS AND REPAIR ALL TYPES OF ROOFING GUTTERS/DOWNSPOUTS CHIMNEY REPAIRS BRICK AND MASONRY WATERPROOFING BRICK TUCKPOINTING BLOWN-IN INSULATION

202-262-4168 I hstewartroofing.com LICENSED BONDED INSURED

Monday – Friday By appointment between 10:00 am – 4:00 pm Register: dlcpsbrc.ecenterdirect.com/events

SBRC ONE-ON-ONE CALL SESSION: “TALK BUSINESS AFTER HOURS” Wednesdays by appointment between 4:00 pm – 6:00 pm Register: dlcpsbrc.ecenterdirect.com/events

MEET IN PERSON MONDAY - 1.1 BUSINESS SESSION Mondays by appointment between 10:00 am – 2:00 pm Register: dlcpsbrc.ecenterdirect.com/events Small Business Resource Center (202) 442-4538 | dlcp@dc.gov

E AST OF THE R IVER M AGAZINE

D ECEMBER 2023

Celebrate Kwanzaa at Anacostia Community Museum

WHAT’S ON W A S H I N G T O N

From Tuesday, Dec. 26 to Monday, Jan. 1, at 1 p.m., join the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum, 1901 Fort Pl. SE, as they celebrate Kwanzaa. Each day visitors will learn about the principles of Kwanzaa and have the chance to participate in a hands-on activity including storytelling, Unity Cup design, and family card making. Check out the full schedule by visiting: anacostia.si.edu/kwanzaa. Registration is requested. anacostia.si.edu.

Cécile McLorin Salvant Quintet at the LOC

Cécile the deal with a memorable night out with the incomparable vocal stylings of Cécile McLorin Salvant and her quintet, who will take you on an otherworldly journey with their “Ghost Song” program. Cécile McLorin Salvant is “one of the most daring and resourceful vocalists in jazz—or any other genre, for that matter” (Uncut). A MacArthur Fellow and recipient of the Doris Duke Award, Salvant is a visionary performer and composer, a master storyteller inspired by visual art, whose first three recordings each earned a Grammy Award for jazz vocals. The Cécile McLorin Salvant Quintet is at the Library of Congress Coolidge Auditorium, 10 First St. SE, on Friday, Dec. 15, 8 p.m. Tickets are free but registration is required. loc.gov/item/event-410070/cecile-mclorin-salvant-quintet/2023-12-15/.

Courtesy Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum

The Kennedy Center Messiah Sing-Along

On Saturday, Dec. 23, at 6 p.m., be part of Washington’s most popular free holiday event, the Kennedy Center’s Messiah Sing-Along. Back by popular demand, the evening concert features conductor Nancia DAlimonte as she leads members of the Washington National Opera Orchestra, guest soloists, a chorus of 150, and a very enthusiastic audience in Handel’s masterpiece—a family and community tradition since 1971. Patrons who make advance reservations can pick up their tickets at the Hall of Nations Box Office starting two hours before their performance time. There is a four-ticket limit for your order. Read more at kennedycenter.org/whats-on/millennium-stage/2023/december/messiah-sing-along.

Chamber Dance Project’s “ON THE EDGE (new year, new works)”

On Saturday, Jan. 6, at 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., get ready to kick off the new year with a spectacular blend of artistic innovation and breathtaking performances as Chamber Dance Project presents “ON THE EDGE: New Year, New Works” at Arena Stage, 1101 Sixth St. SW. Audiences will get a preview of the new ballets in the works for their 2024 June Season and a new perspective on their most iconic repertoire works, Journey, Dwellings, and Sur. The 2 p.m. matinee comes with a 20-minute onstage workshop for people of all ages. The 7:30 performance comes with a pre-show talk with choreographer Christian Denice about his new work followed by a post-show reception. Tickets are $40 to $100. chamberdance.org. Dwellings. Francesca Duguarte, Patric Palkens and Julia Erikson. Photo: Eduardo Patino

In the Spirit of Kwanzaa: Every Girl Has a Story

In the Spirit of Kwanzaa: Every Girl Has a Story is a compilation and celebration of the Black experience through the eyes of the young women of Coyaba Dance Theater. Along with Coyaba’s signature live drumming and dance, various stories will be told that honor and highlight the Seven Principles of the Nquzo Saba: Umoja, Kujichagulia, Ujima, Ujamaa, Nia, Kuumba, and Imani. In the Spirit of Kwanzaa is a holiday festival of heritage and Black culture filled with love, excitement, and tradition. Tickets are $10 to $30. Dance Place, 3225 Eighth St. NE, on Saturday, Dec. 16 at 2 and 7:30 p.m.; and Sunday, Dec. 17 at 4 p.m. danceplace.org.

EASTOFTHERIVERDCNEWS.COM

Houseplants all 25% off Garden Tools (over 10.00) 25% off Wind Chimes & Various Gifts 30% off Trees 40% off Shrubs 25% off

Perennials 40% off Garden Furniture 40% off Pottery over 10.00 25% off Pottery over 50.00 30% off

E ast of the R iver M agazine

D ecember 2023

WHAT’S ON W A S H I N G T O N

Kwanzaa & Watch Night: Visions of Freedom Community Day

African AmeriOn Saturday, Dec. 30, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., at the National Museum of Kwanbetween link a can History and Culture, discover how Afrofuturism creates ns to America African ge encoura that zaa and Watch Night, two cultural holidays a provide to 1966 in created ion celebrat a is a Kwanza envision their own freedom. the During culture. n America African of ation reaffirm a and in ng cultural groundi principles of museum’s event, participate in activities that honor the last three Night marks Watch e). (purpos Nia and Kwanzaa—Kuumba (creativity), Imani (faith) for the waited and watched country the across ns the time when African America also will museum The 1863. 1, January on effect take to ation Proclam Emancipation the of role the and War have special activities that focus on the history of the Civil .si.edu. nmaahc . required tion registra Black Colored Troops in the Civil War. Free but

Folger Consort’s A Baroque Christmas Story

Folger Consort, the early music ensemble-in-residence at the Folger Shakespeare Library, features, as part of its 46th season, four concert programs of Baroque, Renaissance, and Medieval music ranging from the 13th through the 18th centuries. On Dec. 15 to 22, celebrate the season with Folger Consort performing Heinrich Schütz’s grand retelling of the Christmas story along with German holiday favorites by Michael Praetorius and others. Tickets are $60, with discounts available for Folger members and subscribers, seniors, students, educators, military and their families, and groups. This concert will be performed at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, 301 A St. SE. folger.edu.

Image: Ambrotype of Frederick Douglass, 18551865, Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture

Handel’s Messiah at the KC

Washington, DC’s favorite holiday tradition returns to the Kennedy Center Concert Hall on Thursday, Dec. 14, at7 p.m.; Friday, Dec. 15 and Saturday, Dec. 16 at 8 p.m.; and Sunday, Dec. 17 at 1 p.m. Laurence Equilbey makes her debut conducting the NSO, the University of Maryland Concert Choir, and an all-star lineup of soloists in Handel’s greatest oratorio celebration. Composed in 1741, Messiah is as potent today as it was more than 280 years ago, inspiring joy and wonder from both first-time listeners and those who return every year. $19 to $99. kennedy-center.org.

First Night Alexandria

First Night Alexandria (FNA) is the largest family-friendly, budgetfriendly and alcohol-free New Year’s Eve event in the region. FNA began in 1994 as a celebration of the New Year through the performing arts. Coffee shops, retail stores, hotels, museums and public buildings are turned into performance venues to showcase a variety of talent. First Night celebrations take place around the world, having been founded in 1976 by a group of civic-minded artists in Boston as a meaningful alternative to traditional New Year’s Eve revelry. This year’s First Night Alexandria includes more daytime events with kids, families and seniors in mind. There is also an early evening block party at Market Square and fireworks are now at 6 p.m., not midnight. Pricing has been rolled back to pre-pandemic levels. firstnightalexandria.org.

EASTOFTHERIVERDCNEWS.COM

E AST OF THE R IVER M AGAZINE

D ECEMBER 2023

Theater Night

A curated review of theater in the DMV by Matthew McClure

t’s here. Bright lights and glittering tinsel adorn our streets and living rooms. Plans are in place for Christmas dinner and New Year’s Eve celebrations. Congratulations! You’ve made it to the end of the year! This month’s column reviews theater that encourages us to think about fate, family and what it means to be human as we close out the calendar, reflect on our choices and look ahead to 2024. Read on for our curated selection.

Bobby Smith (Tateh) and Emerson Holt Lacayo (The Little Girl). Photo: Daniel Rader

On Right Now

The Seafarer, Round House Theatre Showing Dec. 6 – 31 / www.roundhousetheatre.org Family reunions aren’t always the joyous occasions we see in TV and film. The Seafarer, a play written by Irish playwright, director and screenwriter Conor McPherson in 2006 and now being reinterpreted for DC audiences by Round House’s Artistic Director Ryan Rilette, brings this hard truth home in a visceral way. McPherson’s play tells the tale of Sharky who, after the catastrophic collapse of his personal and professional life, returns to Dublin on Christmas Eve to care for his ill-tempered and hard-drinking brother Richard. Enter a few characters from Sharky’s past—and a mysterious stranger with a fondness for poke—and you have the recipe for an intoxicating mix of human drama with a touch of McPherson’s penchant for the supernatural thrown in.

Nurney, Ariel Friendly, Keenan McCarter, Nkrumah Gatling, Jordyn Taylor, Theodore Sapp, and Kara-Tameika Watkins. Photo: Daniel Rader

“What I love about Conor’s writing is that he has a beautiful way of capturing people that are lost, sad or lonely, and doing it in a way that is still extraordinarily funny and human.” says Rilette, who’s directed a few of McPherson’s works during his career. The Seafarer has been re-interpreted many times on various stages since it garnered a 2007 Olivier Award nomination for Best Play, but at the core it’s a story of second chances and the triumphs and tribulations of being human, according to Rilette. “What the play does is help us recognize that the small things, the things we often overlook, a sense of community; that is heaven in earth. If there’s a perfect holiday message, it’s to cherish the people in your life and enjoy the time you have together.” If you’ve come to love Round House’s reputation for staging classic stories with riveting storylines, then The Seafarer should be on your diary for December.

In The Spotlight

Ragtime, Signature Theatre Showing 24 Oct – 7 Jan / www.sigtheatre.org There’s nothing quite as energizing and uplifting as a musical, and you’ll get showtunes galore in Signature Theatre’s rendition 16

E a s t o f t h e R i v er D C N e w s . c o m

WIDE SHOE OUTLET Men’s and Women’s sizes up to 15 EE Savings in store and online

of the Broadway smash hit Ragtime. Signature’s Artistic Director Matthew Gardiner and his team bring to the stage this toe-tapping Broadway hit based on the novel of the same name by E.L. Doctorow. Published in 1975, Doctorow’s work serves as a warning to not repeat the mistakes of the past by forgetting our history, and his story is as relevant today as it was written. The action sweeps across the first few years of the early 20th Century— the so-called “Gilded Age”—before the outbreak of WWI and at the height of the Industrial era; a time of men, machines and money. A stellar lineup including Nkrumah Gatling, Awa Sal Secka and Bobby Smith along with a powerful ensemble cast don corsets, waistcoats and top hats to tell the stories of legendary historical figures from this period, and the fictional ways their lives intersect. All this is set to a lyrical Ragtime repertoire. There’s a strong theme of social justice that loops through the action, stitching the various narratives together and making the production easily relatable to contemporary audiences. In the grimy faces of European immigrants Tather and his waiflike daughter, it’s easy to see the plight of Palestinian refugees or migrants from Africa. Gatling’s Coalhouse Walker Jr., in his battle to be treated as equal, sets the tone for what will become the Civil Rights Movement, and Dani Stoller’s Emma Goldman and her fiery denouncements of capitalism evokes our current economic and social disparities. Sal Secka and Teal Wicks’ performances (as Sarah and Mother respectively) administer a strong dose of fresh, female energy to a musical based on a traditionally masculine period in history. Sal Secka’s rendition of Your Daddy’s Son in Act One is particularly breathtaking as she showcases her impressive vocal range with pathos and passion in equal measure.

Catch Before Closing

A Christmas Carol, Ford’s Theatre Showing 17 Nov– 31 Dec / www.fords.org It wouldn’t be Christmas without Charles Dickens’ classic tale of miserly Ebenezer Scrooge and the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future. This holiday staple has been a constant, in various iterations, at Ford’s Theatre for 40 years, and this year sees Kimberly Gilbert take to the stage as the Ghost of Christmas Present in the Michael Wilson adaptation of Dickens’ work. I sat down with this Helen Hayes award-winning actor to chat to her about being grateful, living in the moment and creating positive change. It’s been a tough year in terms of world news. How does A Christmas Carol uplift our spirits? Kimberly: We live in a present where data is king. We’re being sucked into this data hurricane where

simplywide.com Brands:

• Naturalizer • Soft Spots • Ros Hommerson • Propet Walking • Cradles • Easy Street

10off

All Sales

Limited Time simplywide.com

Lots & Lots

Wide Width Shoes

All Day Comfort

Kimberly Gilbert, Ghost of Christmas Present in Ford Theatre’s A Christmas Carol. Photo: Carolina Dulcey

it feels insurmountable. I do find parallels right now about how we’re fearful and curious about AI and data. It’s very similar to the Industrial Revolution (when A Christmas Carol was originally written). But what this play can show is that when we’re in a time of crisis, we can really appreciate the small things, and you can do that all the time. Work the practice of being mindful. How is A Christmas Carol still relevant to audiences today? Kimberly: It’s the idea of being present, literally. That this moment on earth is all we have. We are only here for a short while. Making someone else feel good makes you feel good. It has a ripple effect. Has it been fun working with a team who’ve been part of A Christmas Carol for 40 years? Kimberly: Craig Wallace has been playing Scrooge for eight years. Tom Story has been slowly moving through the character ranks. The producers have been with it forever. Ford’s has allowed me to embrace the traditional side and they’ve been so patient with me. They know the topography of the entire production, but they acknowledge that I’m doing this in a way that hasn’t been done before and adding new layers. I’m being blown away by a traditional script that has the ability to be adaptable and changeable. I’m also having the time of my life with the kids. What’s the message you’d like to leave audiences with? Kimberly: I think we are in a furrowed brow, head down, in our phone phase. The act of looking up and giving someone a smile can create a moment of generosity. Take a moment and be generous in whatever capacity you have. ◆

4279 Branch Avenue Marlow Heights, MD 20748

301-702 1401

E AST OF THE R IVER M AGAZINE

D ECEMBER 2023

neighborhood news

Carjacking is

“No Big Deal” No Deterrent to Youth Criminal Behavior by Elizabeth O’Gorek

earing a commotion one evening in 2021, Kevin McGilly opened the back door of his Bloomingdale home to discover police arresting his 15-year-old foster son, who this article will refer to as “Shawn” The teen and his accomplices had pulled an Uber driver out of his vehicle and driven away in it. Shawn “was trying to scramble back into the house,” McGilly recalled. Police arrested the teenager and carted him away. Overnight, McGilly researched restorative justice. He was torn. On one hand, he was upset over his foster child’s arrest. On the other, Shawn might finally suffer the consequences of his illegal actions. It could be a new beginning, McGilly hoped. The next morning, McGilly got a phone call from the public defender. The teen was being released; all charges dropped, the lawyer said. Shawn told his friends how nothing happened after his arrest, McGilly said. Worse, he introduced other kids living in the house, one as young as 13, to the world of carjacking, which his contemporaries refer to as “free cars.” “Kids were showing it to each other and so it exploded,” McGilly said. “We have three times the carjackings in [20]23 than we had last year and it’s just because more and more kids were being introduced to it.” “We weren’t doing anything about it,” McGilly said. Those working with DC juvenile say the goal of the system is to address the factors motivating youth criminality and preserve public safety, rather than deterring the behavior itself. Moreover, the odds of getting caught committing a carjacking are one in six. Then, even if the perpetrator is arrested, prosecutors face significant evidentiary challenges making their case. And, even if convicted, the juvenile justice system’s sanctions are lenient, designed to reform rather than deter. 18

E a s t o f t h e R i v er D C N e w s . c o m

Hard to Catch

In 2023, a plague of carjackings exploded across the District: 873 were reported as of Nov. 15, an average of nearly three a day. However, police have made only 173 arrests. At a Nov. 13 press conference, Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) declared juvenile crime a public emergency. Kids under 18 have consistently accounted for roughly two-thirds of those arrested for carjacking. So it’s not surprising that the public attributes the crime to youth. However, the tsample size only accounts for about 17 percent of cases, hardly sufficient to definitively term carjacking a juvenile plague. It could be that given their poor driving skills and general judgement, kids are more likely to get caught. Apprehension does not always result in criminal charges. To be charged with carjacking requires prosecutors prove that the accused made a physical threat and as a result took a car. Linking individuals to specific incidents is difficult when they dress alike–black hoodies and skinny jeans–and are masked. Even when multiple youth are found in a carjacked vehicle, police sometimes only find sufficient probable cause to arrest at most one of them for that offense. Often, the remainder will be charged with the lesser crime of “Unauthorized Use of A Vehicle (UAW)” say attorneys from the DC Office of the Attorney General (DC OAG), responsible for juvenile prosecution. The inability to link crime to perpetrator is exacerbated by the practice of passing stolen cars from one juvenile to another as “free cars.” The low probability of apprehension is not lost on carjackers. Deterrence “is much more about the likelihood of getting caught, which implicates policing, rather than punishment or response in the juvenile legal system as its set up,” said Edward Ferrer, policy director of the Georgetown University’s Juvenile Justice Initiative, citing national research. The District cannot arrest its way out of the crisis,

said Mayor Bowser (D) at her Nov. 13 press conference. However, she added, youth do need stronger boundaries and increased interventions. Truancy is a primary warning indicator of incipient juvenile criminal behavior, national research says. So one of the strongest interventions we can make to keep down juvenile criminal behavior is to keep kids in school. However the system to do so is woefully lacking here in the District.

Support System Down

Kids who have an average number of 13.6 unexcused absences were more than three times as likely to become justice involved, according to a study by The Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CCJC). Under DC Law, schools must refer chronically truant youth to Child Support Services (CSS), an arm of the DC OAG. CSS is supposed to evaluate each case, submitting an action plan. After judicial approval, the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services (DYRS) is responsible for its implementation.

Unfortunately, there is a problem.

In the absence of a direct court order, CSS remains unable to directly access student records to verify attendance due to juvenile privacy protections, the DC OAG recently testified to the DC Council. Inability to access this basic metric puts the agency at tremendous disadvantage when supervising its young charges. Yet, this is only one factor standing in the way of supporting truant youth. The public thinks about the juvenile criminal justice as a “system.” We think about it as judges, prosecutors and the prisons,” said Ferrer. However, in fact, multiple agencies and bureaucratic processes play huge roles in the adjudication and treatment of youth offenders. One percent of justice-involved youth were homeless, a Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (CJCC) report found. 64 percent were enrolled in Medicaid. 50

E ast of the R iver M agazine

D ecember 2023

neighborhood news

SECTION 1: JUVENILE ARREST THROUGH INITIAL HEARING

juvenile behavior. “This is the very definition of systemic failure,” he added. So, what happens after the youth responsible for a carjacking who is placed in DYRS custody?

The Consequences

percent had prior contact with child welfare agencies before arrest, according to the study. These unfulfilled needs are often part of the reason kids end up involved with the justice system in the first place, Ferrer said. As a kid journeys through the legal bureaucracy, CSS and later DYRS connects them with necessary city services at other agencies. These could be behavioral health professionals, housing, educational or family supports. Sometimes, judges predicate release from DYRS commitment on successfully reaching goals with these agencies. “So, it’s the whole ecosystem around young people and their families that is supposed to exist to support them,” Ferrer points out. A judge might require a juvenile offender to attend school, counseling or abide by a curfew. However, often the agencies fail to deliver. For example, 33.5 percent of justice-involved youth are subject to Individualized Educational Programs (IEPs). If a school is too under-resourced to implement them, however, a kid might end up roaming the halls. If DYRS discovers the infraction, it may punish the child by imposing more restrictive custody, when it is the system that has failed the child. Similarly, the Access Help Line is provided by the District to connect children and adults to services. However, intake normally takes three to four weeks, Ferrer said. Provisioning services usually requires another six. If the goal of the juvenile system is to prevent recidivism, Ferrer said, perhaps the focus should be on the places where the system fails kids as much as changing

E a s t o f t h e R i v er D C N e w s . c o m

If it is the yuth’s first interaction with the justice system and the offense was unarmed, DYRS may release them to their families or other in-community guardians, police say. However, most carjackers remain under DYRS supervision; many are committed to its custody. More kids should be held securely, the administration believes. “If they’ve been arrested for robbery after robbery, they shouldn’t be in a group home,” Bowser said. “They should be in a secure detained space.” But one problem is DYRS’s custodial facilities remain overcrowded with beds in short supply. In December of 2022, a DC Superior Court Judge ordered DYRS to provide more shelter space for girls. This has not yet happened. On the morning of Nov. 13, 2023 according to WUSA, the same court threatened DYRS with contempt for not adding more beds. Space was not an issue until recently, DYRS Director Sam Abed assured reporters at a press conference later day. But judge’s orders tell a different story. In October, a surge in the arrests of adolescent girls generated a waitlist for pretrial accommodation. That month, citing DYRS’s lack of secure housing, DC Superior Court released a 15-yearold girl charged with robbery to the custody of her parents with GPS monitoring. Having allowed the batteries to die on her ankle monitor, the young teen was later involved in an accident involv-

SECTION 2: INITIAL HEARING THROUGH TRIAL OR PLEA

ing two carjacked vehicles which killed a 16-year-old. The mayor’s Nov. 13 emergency order specifies additional beds for youth at secure facilities and shelter homes. DYRS is adding a 10-bed unit at its Youth Services Center (YSC). It also provides financial incentives for private providers to open additional placements. The mayor’s approach may be intuitively obvious, but confining kids to DYRS’s secure facilities is not a recipe for success, according the agency’s own statistics. DYRS is currently under scrutiny for conditions at both the YSC facility, where youth are held pre-trial, and at New Beginnings, which houses kids who are sentenced to secure confinement. Both are currently short-staffed and frequently over-capacity. That’s resulted in conditions that are problematic. This summer, parents of detained youth told DCist that their children were being confined to their cells for 23 hours of the day. DC law says that kids should only be confined to cells for safety reasons and not for a period longer than six hours. Frustrated youth do act out violently. In October 2023, two detainees at YSC attacked a guard, stealing her ID badge and using it to release other detainees. Five security guards were injured in the incident and about 20 youth were involved in what City Administrator Donahue called a “melee.” Kids committed to secure facilities are more likely to reoffend compared to those diverted out of the system, according to DC OAG statistics. Diversion is a pathway out of the justice system. DC’s Department of Human Services runs the OAG diversion program, alternatives to the court experi-

ence (ACE). DHS evaluates the youth and develops a program of services to help address their needs and hopefully avoid recidivism. The DC OAG charged 981 “matters” in FY 2022 and early 2023. Of those, 226 cases were diverted. 17.9 percent of these youth committed another crime within six months compared to 33.6 percent of those prosecuted. Historical data indicates that nearly 75 percent of participants who complete the ACE program avoid re-arrest and 62 percent improve school attendance. Not all of the youth who are prosecuted are confined. But this data does indicate that either prosecution and its consequences are a less effective strategy than diversion or those selected for prosecution are inherently more dangerous. So, while a frustrated public calls for confinement of young carjackers, it is not clear such a policy would increase public safety. Nor does confinement serve as a much a deterrent.

Ineffective Deterrence

Kids do not consider consequences before committing crimes, said Ferrer. So, a juvenile justice system built around using confinement as a deterrent “is not going to be effective.” A recent viral Instagram video posted by @ dc.artists.tv and evidently filmed by an older male is a case in point. The video shows two adolescent boys roughly 12 years of age chatting while they case cars to steal. “He’s saying rather commit murder than commit armed robbery… You are the dumbest f--k.

SECTION 3: POST-TRIAL OR PLEA

Armed robbery is what we’re doing!” “No, it’s not!” responds the other. “It’s armed robbery and armed carjacking, dummy.” “It’s the same thing. That’s lower than murder!” “It’s both of them combined…that’s higher than murder.” “You’re taking a human life!” says the first child [walking away in exasperation]. [An older voice, filming, says that murder can involve up to eight charges.] “Well, whoever’s the driver, if I know that they know how to get away from 12 [police], then I’m bending [shooting] with them. If I figure that the [expletive] not gonna get away, then I’m not hopping in with them. No doubt. He calling me dumb!” “You did say you’d rather take a human’s life and get life than rob someone and get 10 to 12 years.” Clearly, the two adolescents were aware that there are steep consequences to getting caught carjacking, if not the specifics. At least one youth appears to believe the solution is to leave no witnesses regardless of the risk of additional imprisonment —because that reduces the probability of being identified. If the threat of imprisonment is not a viable solution, what can the District do to deter carjacking?

Changes Needed to Ensure Public Safety

Legislative changes are needed to address crime overall in the District, said Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice Lindsay Appiah, who previously served as DYRS general counsel for nine years. “Having worked with young people, maybe that’s all the more true for [them],” said Appiah. “Because young people need clear boundaries and clear messages about what is right and wrong and what’s acceptable.” Foster dad McGilly agrees. Most kids don’t consider consequences the way adults do, he believes. Getting caught was “no big deal,” his foster son told his friends. “If we say that because kids aren’t great at thinking about consequences and deterrents, we’re just going to pretend that is no longer a consideration. What happens is 900 carjackings,” McGlly said. “I would like something more than nothing; I think that’s a starting point.” A year after the carjacking, police charged Shawn with assault. He spent about two months in a group home. While McGilly appreciated the services Shawn had access to, the environment was not perfect. Shawn spent his “time” with other troubled kids, receiving a different kind of education. “So, it kind of goes both ways,” McGilly said. Today, Shawn is back living with relatives. McGilly is still in touch. The teen is on track to graduate from high school and plans to join the armed forces. He’s an impressively bright kid, McGilly said. If he’d grown up in Cleveland Heights, Ivy League schools would be after him. “That’s the thing, he’s (Shawn) trying to get on track. This is a potentially good news story at the end of the day,” McGilly said. u

E ast of the R iver M agazine

D ecember 2023

neighborhood news

Unlocked:

Failing Security at DCPS Unsecured Doors Put Students At Risk

by Rachel Royster

he DCPS second grade teacher knows the work order for the computerized lock on her classroom door was marked “completed.” But she doesn’t trust it. It was complete on the first day of school last year, when it malfunctioned again and locked out her entire class. She had to turn to her fellow teachers for materials. Eventually, she was forced to teach 22 students in a hastily found empty spot in an otherwise crowded school. Over a year and many work orders later, this teacher now resorts to holding the lock open with duct tape to ensure she won’t have to spend yet another day of school locked out of her own classroom. What will she do if she needs to lock it in an emergency? “Rip it off,” she said. That precarious possibility is what a single teacher faces at this one DCPS elementary school. But the issue of malfunctioning locks is far more widespread, extending from computerized locks to traditional mechanical locks in multiple school buildings. And malfunctioning locks are more than a nuisance. Lockdowns are common in schools in DC, usually because of some dangerous or criminal activity happening nearby. However, a “lockdown” in a school with broken door locks can hardly be effective. But while DCPS runs the schools,

Some DCPS teachers have gotten to such a point of distrust with their door locks that they keep tape over the door latch so that the lock cannot engage. Photo: Liz O’Gorek

E a s t o f t h e R i v er D C N e w s . c o m

E ast of the R iver M agazine

D ecember 2023

neighborhood news

they do not manage or repair the school buildings. That is the responsibility of the Department of General Services (DGS) which maintains District real estate, including DCPS schools. School staff issue a work order for broken locks and submit it to DGS to be addressed. These work orders are being met with “band-aid” fixes, say parents and teachers. Many parents wonder if their children will be safe when they are dropped off in the morning. The first installment of this two-part Capital Community News investigation of door security at DCPS elementary schools, funded by a grant from Spotlight DC: Capital City Fund for Investigative Journalism, examines both the extent of the issue and efforts underway to address it.

Unlockable

The issue is three-fold. Some doors do not have keys. Some mechanical locks do not function. In addition, computerized locks installed during modernization have proven unreliable. In some cases, door locks do not engage, whereas other locks do not unlock. As of Sept. 21, lock and door issues made up 14 percent of all open DCPS work orders, the highest portion of all work order types. In the same data set provided to DC Council for an October 12 hearing regarding work order integrity, DGS reported there were 758 open lock and door work orders and only 30 of those were “high priority.” The highest number of outstanding work orders for locks were in Ward 6, where 173 door issues were outstanding, followed by Wards 8 and 4, with 97 each; and Ward 7 with 95 incomplete door and lock work orders. To be high priority, the issue must be an interior door impacting daily operations or programming. These also include doors that should be secured for safety reasons, such as an electrical or technology closet not securing properly, according to DGS. The remaining 728 open work orders are “routine,” meaning DGS defines these as interior doors with “minimal risk for intrusion.” Those include teachers lounges and interior closets. Classroom doors do not appear in any of the three definitions. As of Sept. 30, DGS reported 1,708 resolved lock and door work orders. Though these work orders say “completed,” school communities say the issue is ongoing. Scott Goldstein, executive director of the DC education advocacy organization EmpowerEd (www.weareempowered.org), hears about the door and lock issue routinely from teachers. “It just seems like a major vulnerability,” Goldstein said. “...[teachers] are concerned that if there was an emergency, like an active gunman situation or something and they weren’t able to actually close off their room, how terrifying that would be.” 24

E a s t o f t h e R i v er D C N e w s . c o m

Computerized Locks

When DCPS schools undergo modernization, the DGS, as the facility operator, replaces old mechanical locks with computerized ones under a contract with Vision Security Solutions. These devices are opened and closed using a FOB. At the end of each day though, all of the locks are engaged through a centralized system. Even those with a FOB associated with the lock cannot disengage it. The Vision-installed locks have posed an array of problems. They run on batteries, but there is no display for when the power is running low. The locks simply stop working. Generally, this results in a work order being placed into the DGS system, but DCPS handles computerized locks through contracted out work with Vision. The company sends a tech to change the battery or to diagnose any additional issues hindering the mechanism. After the second grade teacher had spent her school day coming up with a lesson plan with no access to her materials, Vision arrived to change the batteries in her computerized lock. They marked the work order “complete,” but it was still not functioning correctly. “I come in the second day, and it’s locked again because somebody closed the door when I said to leave it open, but they closed the door and it locked so I was locked out again,” the teacher said. “And then we had to wait another three hours for somebody to come out and fix the door.” When the lock to her classroom remained engaged despite efforts to unlock it with the correct FOB, she taped over the lock in a way that it wouldn’t engage. Unmodernized schools do not face these issues since their locks are mechanical. However, there are similar unresolved problems with the traditional lock and key.

Mechanical Locks

For the DCPS schools still waiting for their turn in the modernization line, mechanical locks are used in each classroom door. These doors use a traditional lock and key. In her walk-throughs of schools, Eboni-Rose Thompson, DC School Board of Education president and Ward 7 representative, discovered cases where door handles were not working properly. In these cases, Thompson said the onsite foremen did not have the appropriate tools to repair them. It is discouraging, Thompson said, to witness the custodial foremen lacking the proper training or necessary equipment to solve these situations. “I’ve heard that DGS is looking into creating some type of loaner program for schools to be able to access some of the tools they need for frequent types of requests like this,” Thompson said. This is a step in the right direction, Thompson said, along with providing training so the custodial staff can

quickly address these security issues. “I would be encouraged to see DGS think about how do we empower and support people in the schools to address some of the immediate concerns and not relying on external contractors for those things, which also seems to be something they’re interested in.” In some cases, teachers simply do not have keys to their classroom doors. Thompson discovered replacing the keys can take weeks due to the bureaucratic DCPS approval process. “Because you want to make sure that the people who are approved to have keys have keys, like you can’t just have anyone and everyone with that access,” Thompson said. “And so that often takes much longer than anyone would anticipate.” The current work order system does not give schools a time estimate for when they can expect issues to be resolved. Thompson said the response times she has heard from schools varies greatly. She would like to see DGS give schools a time estimate to keep everyone accountable.

School Safety

On the topic of accountability, former Ward 6 Representative to the State Board of Education (SBOE) Joe Weedon finds a problem with the lack of public data surrounding this issue. In 2022, DC Council passed an amendment to Law 24-270, called the Protecting Security-Sensitive Dashboard Data Temporary Amendment Act of 2022, which pulled work orders relating to security off of the public work order dashboard. Work orders that relate to campus locks and doors or broken windows which have “the potential to impair lockdown of a campus space” are now exempt from having to be public. A spokesperson from the office of Ward 4 Councilmember Janeese Lewis George (D), who chairs the council committee that oversees DGS, said there’s a concern that putting an explicit list of where the District’s public school security vulnerabilities are would bring unintentional harm to teachers and students. But studies have shown that most school shootings are perpetuated by insiders of the targeted school, including employees and students. A study by the Government Accountability Offices (GAO) of school shootings from 2009-2019 found that 65 percent of shootings were committed by students or people within the school community — only 12 percent were perpetuated from outside the community, although 19 percent were unknown. That means that those most likely to endanger students are likely to be aware of deficiencies in security. The spokesperson from George’s office said research like this is helpful, adding that the DC Council “does not want to undercut that.” George has raised the issue of responding to work orders with urgency to DGS and DCPS internally and in response, DGS has raised their output,

the staffer added. The public doesn’t need to know the exact locations of broken locks, but they do need to know that there is an issue with classroom security in the District’s schools, said Weedon. “I get the safety concerns, but I think that’s a red herring to keep people from knowing,” Weedon said. Legislative efforts are underway at the DC Council to address the situation.

Key to the Problem?

In March, Councilmember George, chair of the DC Council Committee on Facilities and Family Services, introduced Bill 25-218, the “Work Order Integrity Amendment Act of 2023.” The bill “requires the Department of General Services Facilities Management division receive affirmative approval from a school-level staff member before marking maintenance or repair requests as complete in the Department’s internal work order system.” The aim of the bill is to mitigate the amount of work orders that are currently being marked as “complete” from being band-aid fixes or not being fixed at all. Director of DGS Delano Hunter said he supports “the spirit” of the proposed legislation at an Oct. 12 DC Council hearing on the legislation. But he is concerned the legislation would burden school personnel, corrupt the data DGS examines and harm the businesses contracted by DCPS and DGS, who are paid upon completion of the work order. Hunter prefers more time be given to the strategies recently put into place. At the hearing, he provided details of the FIRST and LAST teams, which will remedy the problem the legislation addresses. “The Facility Intake Response Service Team (FIRST) monitors the ‘Completed and Not Closed’ work order stage through reports,” Hunter testified. “This monitoring assists work team support groups such as the newly created Liaison for Accountability, Service, and Trust (LAST Team) that are laser-focused on closing the work order lifecycle by supporting work team supervisors and craftspersons with data input.” The legislation is set to be approved (Continued on pg. 27) E ast of the R iver M agazine

D ecember 2023

neighborhood news

/Opinion/

Preserving History and Building Futures

Investing in John Philip Sousa Middle School by Eboni-Rose Thompson

n the heart of Ward 7, John Philip Sousa Middle School is more than just my neighborhood middle school—it is a living testament to our history and commitment to justice. As the anchor in the historic Bolling v. Sharpe case, Sousa holds a unique place in our nation’s journey toward educational equity. Just last year, Sousa was declared a national historic site. It serves as a reminder that education is not just a pathway to success but a fundamental right that should be accessible to all. Preserving Sousa is not an option; it is our duty to honor the struggles of the past and ensure our future. Today, Sousa is the middle school for half of Ward 7, which has over 30,000 residents. Yet its current enrollment hovers at just over 200 students. Because its student body is so small, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education is hosting an upcoming meeting to discuss Sousa’s future. This meeting is one step in a larger process: the Boundary and Student Assignment Study 2023, which reviews the boundaries and feeder patterns of DC Public Schools and the student assignment policies for public schools across the District. This process is ongoing, with final recommendations submitted to the mayor in March 2024. The boundary process puts everything on the table, from what programs are in schools to which neighborhoods go to what school. Right now, we have the opportunity to demand more for Sousa. Despite its historical significance to our community, city, and nation, the school has not received consistent and significant investments. The community has been promised a fully modernized facility and 21st-century STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) programming to prepare our students to be future doctors, engineers, artists, and more. Strategic investment is paramount to ensure the fu-

EASTOFTHERIVERDCNEWS.COM

ture of Sousa Middle School and our children. This investment must include high-quality academic programs, wrap-around services, school and community safety, and modernized facilities. The school has the potential to be a community hub with a world-class STEAM program with integrated education, health, and family support services. Middle school is a critical transition in a student’s academic journey, and by adopting a true community school model, we can address the holistic needs of our children and families. This approach recognizes that a child’s success in the classroom is intricately linked to their overall well-being. Sousa’s large size gives us the opportunity to bring more resources into our community. We should integrate health services and job support by demanding Sousa have a school-based health center that could provide physical and mental health resources to students and families, creating an environment where they can thrive academically. Additionally, family support services create a bridge between home and school, fostering collaboration between educators and parents to better understand and address the unique challenges students may face. We should explore offerings like classes from the University of the District of Columbia or vocational tech opportunities like the newly opened Advanced Technical Center, which offers two-year, four-course dual credit pathways in cybersecurity, health information technology, and general nursing to high school students. By fully realizing an investment in Sousa as a community school with strong academic programming, there will be dividends that pay beyond the classroom, creating a stronger, more connected community and laying the foundation for a city where every child can reach their full potential. None of this will matter unless we address the under-

lying safety issues surrounding the school community. Ensuring school and community safety requires a multifaceted approach that combines proactive measures and community engagement. One solution currently in place is the Safe Passage program. At the beginning and end of the school day, trained community members are present to provide a secure journey for students traveling to and from school. By establishing a visible and supportive presence, Safe Passage programs deter potential threats and foster a sense of security. However, this is only one part of the solution. Enhancing school safety can only come with enhancing overall community safety. We must demand a holistic prevention approach for not only the beginning and end of the school day, but all day, every day for the entire community. Investing in community solutions that tackle the root causes of crime, such as poverty, mental health, and addiction, can significantly reduce the occurrence of criminal activities. Preserving and investing in John Philip Sousa Middle School is not just a matter of maintaining a historic site or supporting a local school. It is a commitment to equality, education, and community values. With improvements in academic programs and facilities, we can ensure that Sousa continues to serve as a beacon of hope, providing future generations with the tools they need to succeed. By investing in Sousa, we invest not just in a school but in a community, ensuring every child can reach their full potential. In doing so, we honor the past and pave the way for a brighter and more inclusive future. Eboni-Rose Thompson is the Ward 7 Representative and President of the DC State Board of Education. She is running as a democratic candidate for the Ward 7 Council seat in 2024. ◆

(Continued from pg. 25) by the Council this month. Councilmember George is confident the council and DGS can work together to solve the current issue with work orders in DCPS, she stated at the hearing. Ely Ross, DCPS’s chief operating officer, and Shilpa Khatri, DCPS deputy chief of Schools Facilities and Planning, declined to comment for this story. For elementary school parent Adam Kron, security is a point of anxiety when he drops his daughter off at school. He wonders what would happen if the lock in her classroom door broke when the school was in a state of emergency. Kron, who testified at the Oct. 12. hearing, remains concerned that DGS is not taking seriously the full efforts that the issues deserve. There’s a certain amount of trust that comes with parents dropping their kids off at school, he said. “It’s vastly important. DGS has this trust, and they are responsible for taking care of our facilities,” Kron said. “If they are unable to do that in a reliable and transparent way, that’s just a violation of that trust.” Parents are not informed about security issues, but when they do express concerns, they are often dismissed. Weedon said when he was in conversation with DCPS and DGS about one modernization, he brought up the need for school security best practices. One option that comes with computerized locks is the ability to “lockdown” classrooms with the press of a single button in the administrative office. He was told that “was too expensive” and it is “not a high enough priority to incorporate in the modernizations going forward.” Weedon worries the builders and architects are not considering security as much as they need to be when thinking through school modernizations. “That should be thought of in the plan from the architects, and it’s not.” Weedon says much of this is about the budget. Cheap and easy fixes result in repeat work orders, because there is not enough money to make needed replacements. He cites the example of an exterior door in a District high school that can be opened with the right “jig-

gle.” It often is, setting off an alarm that has been subsequently disabled, doubling security issues. The door, he said, has been repaired eight times in seven years. These failures say a lot about the city’s priorities over all, Weedon said. The responsibility falls on DCPS and DGS. “But where does the buck stop? It stops with the Mayor.” The issue of locks and doors in DCPS is definitely one on the mind of Mayor Muriel Bowser as well as the council, the spokesperson for Councilmember George said. This is reflected in their $1.1 million proposed and sustained budget allotment to repair efforts in FY24. In addition, the council passed Act 25-172, Fiscal Year 2024 Budget Support Emergency Act of 2023, which outlined in subtitle D “School Security and Transparency” a new comprehensive assessment of certain security objectives, including locks and doors, on all campuses at least once per year. Parents and teachers won’t sleep well until the issues are resolved, said EmpowerEd’s Goldstein. “When DGS doesn’t get around to fixing a broken lock on a door, it may be another item on their long to-do list,” he told DC Council, “but it gives that classroom teacher nightmares every night thinking about what might happen if an intruder were to enter the school.” The grade two teacher who opened our story agrees. One day, she worries, there might be an incident. Then she will have to rip that duct tape band aid off, locking her door permanently. On that day, the teacher can only hope whatever trouble comes into her school is on the other side.

SAVE! SAVE! SAVE!

es SEU Ava ilab

bat

10% OFF

LIST PRICE ON ANY EQUIPMENT INSTALLATIONS *Exp. 12/31/2023

$25 OFF Any Service Call *Exp. 12/31/2023

18 Month, 0% Interest Financing

FAST SERVICE FAST INSTALLATION

Serving Washington DC Since 2001 • Residential & Light Commercial • Roof Top Package Units • Highly Experienced Technicians • Low Prices • Free Estimates On Replacements • Convenient Financing • Licensed, Bonded & Insured

This article was supported by a grant from the Spotlight DC: Capitol City Fund for Investigative Journalism. Spotlight DC encourages the submission for proposals by independent journalists. For more information, visit www.spotlightdc.org. ◆

Specializing in:

Equipment: Change outs & Complete Ductwork Systems + High Velocity Systems WE SERVICE & INSTALL ALL MAKES & MODELS

202-333-1310

www.polarbearairconditioning.com All Credit Cards Accepted

E AST OF THE R IVER M AGAZINE

D ECEMBER 2023

neighborhood news

Our River: The Anacostia Coming Up Fast in 2024 – Projects From the Stadium to New York Avenue by Bill Matuszeski

here is a lot planned for the Anacostia and its watershed in 2024. It is important that we be aware of these proposals and their effects on other projects, as well as ongoing management efforts throughout the River to make it fishable and swimmable. There is some evidence that the earlier project advocates are not always taking those effects into account. Also, there is a concentration of projects between the RFK stadium and New York Avenue; the area above Benning Road is the most natural in the DC watershed with a special feel of wilderness; and some of these projects threaten to upset that rural feeling. The project perhaps most advanced

is the one that appears to be taking the least interest in its surroundings. This is the proposed bridge over the river connecting Kenilworth Park to the National Arboretum. It is crossing the river at a point where the landscape is remarkably natural and the bridge will be the only visible intrusion. However, in addition to the bridge itself, the Park Service appears to want the bridge to carry park vehicles, which would require roads up to the bridge and supports in the river. These would make the bridge more prominent in the landscape and more dangerous for people learning to control canoes and other vessels coming downstream. There is also no clear plan for extensions north and south of the bridge on

RFK Stadium – to be replaced by a new stadium or a new neighborhood.

the west side which would have a range of effects on the natural areas north to New York Avenue and south to the golf course and Benning Road. Perhaps a commitment now to avoid vehicle capacity on the bridge would make the project compatible with a wider range of future options on both sides of the River.

The Fields at Kenilworth Park

Proposed Bridge Site, connecting two natural shore areas – the Kenilworth Park and the National Arboretum.

E a s t o f t h e R i v er D C N e w s . c o m

That leads to another set of issues related to the future of the fields in Kenilworth Park. There are differing opinions about where to go with these open acres with remnants of the old soccer fields built over a city dump. The National Park Service is holding onto the Aquatic Gar-

dens, but preparing to turn over the fields and adjacent lands to the City. The NPS will also keep the overgrown areas to the south with plans for trails along the water. The DC Department of Transportation is working with them on the trails and is planning to connect them up with the new bridge. If the DC Department of Energy and Environment gets the current Park lands under the contract, they may have different ideas of what to do with them. Right now it is difficult to see how this will turn out, but citizens may have a role in deciding the ultimate use of the land. Meanwhile the parklands coming to the City are in need of soil and field upgrades. It could become a place in Anacostia for folks to gather outdoors or play games or sports.

And it should be the folks in Anacostia who decide what they want. Moving downstream a bit, the area between the RFK Stadium and Benning Road from the river to the streets of Capitol Hill is about to become an area of considerable conflict. Some of the nearby areas on both sides of the River are doing well, but the area around the stadium is in a struggle between the Mayor, who wants to bring professional football back to the city with a new stadium, and the neighborhood who want more housing and commercial properties. It would also be nice to celebrate the recovery of the Anacostia with a small museum that shows what has been done to rehabilitate the river and what more is possible; that could be part of whichever group gets their way with football or housing. The best move would be to start now with the Smithsonian to plan a way to make our museum on Our River part of whichever group eventually gets their way on the stadium. And we should pursue ways that a museum could join up with those carrying out the variety of recovery programs underway just a short walk down to the islands in the River. So those are some actions underway or about to start in the areas above. Of course, there are other activities under way or planned along other parts of the river, such as the 11th Street Bridge Project, which can also use volunteers. But the overlaps and challenges of doing a lot at the same time are most evident up north, where nature is still in control most of the time and we have to set the projects in order to make them work together. Bill Matuszeski is a member of the Mayor’s Leadership Council for a Cleaner Anacostia River, and the retired Director of the Chesapeake Bay Program. He also serves on the board of Friends of the National Arboretum and on Citizen Advisory Committees for the Chesapeake and the Anacostia. ◆

Changing Hands Changing Hands is a list of residential sales in Capitol Hill and contiguous neighborhoods from the previous month. A feature of every issue, this list, based on the MRIS, is provided courtesy of Don Denton, Associate Broker at Coldwell Banker Realty on Capitol Hill. The list includes address, sales price and number of bedrooms.

NEIGHBORHOOD

PRICE

$400,000 $440,000 $515,000 $595,000

3 3 3 3

$405,000 $420,000 $599,000

3 4 3

$380,000

$629,000 $525,000 $325,000 $211,500

3 4 5 3

$400,000 $450,000 $434,000 $399,500 $322,000 $300,000 $280,000 $455,000

3 3 4 3 3 3 3 3

$334,000 $255,000 $610,000 $320,000

3 3 4 3

FEE SIMPLE ANACOSTIA

1123 Chicago St SE 1344 Valley Pl SE 1955 S S St SE 2213 Retta Gilliam Ct SE

BARRY FARMS 1523 Morris Rd SE 1525 Morris Rd SE 2527 Elvans Rd SE

CARVER LANGSTON 811 20th St NE

CONGRESS HEIGHTS 1021 Sycamore Dr SE 1040 Southern Ave SE 3338 Brothers Pl SE 98 Elmira St SW

DEANWOOD

310 57th St NE 3828 Blaine St NE 4214 Edson Pl NE 4541 Eads Pl NE 4609 Grant St NE 4713 Eads St NE 4840 Hayes St NE 6136 Banks Pl NE

FORT DUPONT PARK 1559 Fort Dupont St SE 4224 Southern Ave SE 4448 Alabama Ave SE 704 Ridge Rd SE

H STREET CORRIDOR 900 8th St NE

HILL CREST

1811 29th St SE 2545 36th St SE 3214 W W St SE 1520 28th St SE 719 31st St SE

KINGMAN PARK 1727 D St NE 412 21st St NE 519 23rd Pl NE 545 23rd Pl NE 549 24th St NE

LILY PONDS

315 Anacostia Ave NE 3378 Alden Pl NE 3424 Dix St NE

MARSHALL HEIGHTS 4906 Capitol NE

601 51st St SE 95 54th St SE

RANDLE HEIGHTS

1419-1421 Minnesota Ave SE 1423 Alabama Ave SE 1921 R St SE 2208 R St SE 2505 Naylor Rd SE 2706 Knox St SE

$1,515,000

$410,000 $450,000 $515,000 $452,000 $300,000

3 4 4 3 3

$740,000 $849,000 $440,000 $760,000 $630,000

4 4 2 3 3

1123 Owen Pl NE 1212 18th St NE 1285 Owen Pl NE 1330 Queen St NE 916 19th St NE

$365,000 $310,000 $309,000

2 2 3

CONDO

$522,000

ROSEDALE

426 20th St NE

TRINIDAD

$475,000 $470,000

4 3

$575,000 $330,000 $340,000 $340,000 $300,000 $451,000

5 2 3 2 3 3

$640,000

$460,000 $485,000 $610,000 $510,000 $1,100,000

3 3 3 3 4

CARVER LANGSTON 2001 I St NE #4

CONGRESS HEIGHTS 717 Brandywine St SE #T-1

H STREET CORRIDOR 1205 Morse St NE #2 1300 I St NE #3 1300 I St NE #4

HILLCREST

2118 Suitland Ter SE

PENN BRANCH

2916 P St SE #VILLA-2

RANDLE HEIGHTS

1310 Congress St SE #201 1907 Good Hope Rd SE #111 2850 Hartford St SE #303

TRINIDAD

ANACOSTIA

2123 Young St SE #201

$265,000

1016 17th Pl NE #102 1124 Morse St NE #1 1220 Holbrook Ter NE #204 ◆

E AST OF THE R IVER M AGAZINE

$450,000

$153,000

$710,000 $688,000 $685,000

3 2 2

$162,000

$560,000

$175,000 $126,500 $150,000

2 1 2

$227,000 $825,000 $259,900

2 3 1

D ECEMBER 2023

neighborhood news

Henderson Talks Health and Safety ANC 7D Report by Sarah Payne

Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 7D met Oct. 10 via Zoom. Commissioners Siraaj Hasan (7D01), Wendell Felder (7D03, chair), Commissioner Mike Davis (7D04), Ebony Payne (7D05), Marc Friend (7D06), Brett Astmann (7D07, treasurer), Brian Alcorn (7D08, vice chair), Ashley Schapitl (7D09), secretary) and Brianne Eby (7D10) were in attendance. Commissioner Siraaj Hasan (7D01) was absent. Single Member District 7D02 remains vacant.

C Councilmember Christina Henderson (I-At Large), the chair of the DC Council Committee on Health, briefed commissioners on key legislative issues focused on public health and safety. She expressed gratitude for DC Mayor Muriel Bowser’s (D) declaration of an opioid public health emergency. The District is “certainly at a crisis point” and emphasized the need for all of the District government agencies to collaborate on a solution. One part of the solution, said Henderson, is vending machines containing Narcan and fentanyl strips which test for the presence of fentanyl. Some machines are located on the St. Elizabeth’s East Campus and fire stations. The city is still searching for other businesses and organizations willing to host these machines outside of their properties, she reported. Crime, Henderson said, is connected to the issue of drug use and sales as well. “If you attack one, you can definitely impact the numbers of what you’re seeing with the other,” she said, noting that public safety and health campaigns work in tandem. While she is “not looking to criminalize substance use disorder,” Henderson noted a need for accountability for criminals selling and distributing these lethal drugs in the District’s communities. Commissioner Schapitl pointed out the relationship between crime and chronic absenteeism in the DC Public Schools (DCPS). Henderson acknowledged the problem, which she attributed to multiple causes. Medical and targeted social outreach are needed to “reconnect” with students to combat truancy, she stated. There is a need for an individualized approach to addressing the root causes of truancy with someone the students trust as opposed to a law enforcement approach alone, Henderson stated. Alternative schools may better meet the needs of some students, she stated.

Other Matters

Michael Halvin, president of Friends of the DC Streetcar (www.friend30

E a s t o f t h e R i v er D C N e w s . c o m

sofdcstreetcar.wixsite.com), briefed the commission on the delayed extension of the streetcar project. The organization serves as an advocate for transportation equity and environmental justice. It lobbies to reconnect underserved communities through extensions of the streetcar framework. Streetcars possess unique advantages over other modes of public transportation including providing a smoother ride, higher capacity and level boarding which makes transit more accessible for individuals with disabilities. It is importance to fund the eastward extension of the existing H Street line, Halvin said. Kelly Jeong-Olson, community engagement manager for the District Department of Transportation (DDOT) explained the agency’s new Traffic Safety Input (TSI) dashboard to commissioners. The dashboard, located at ddot.dc.gov, can be used to submit a new TSI, track progress on pending requests and learn more about DDOT initiatives in the neighborhood. There is a submission and tracking process for community feedback, she said. The commission voted to: • approve several community members to serve on the commission’s Transportation and Public Space and Public Safety Committees; • request Verizon Wireless address the issues of trespassing, trash, alcohol and drug use, fighting and loitering on their property located at 580 23rd Place NE; • write to the Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration (ABCA) in support of the renewal of the alcohol license for Economy Market, 1804 D St. NE; • support DDOT’s Notice of Intent (NOI) to reduce the posted speed limit from 25 to 20 miles per hour on East Capitol Street NE between Eighth and 19th Streets NE; and on 19th Street NE between Benning Road and East Capitol Street NE with an additional request to have posted speed limits in the school zone, which are under 20 miles per hour, remain in place. ANC 7D will meet next on Dec. 11 at 6:30 p.m. via Zoom. You can learn more about the commission and register to attend at 7d0761.wixsite.com/anc7d-1. Sarah Payne is a reporter for Capital Community News. She can be reached at sarahp@hillrag.com. u

Councilmembers Talk Public Safety and Transportation ANC 8F Report by Andrew Lightman

Present: Advisory Neighborhood Commission 8F (ANC 8F) met on Nov. 28. Commissioners Nic Wilson (8F01), Brian Strege (secretary, 8F03) and Edward Daniels (chair, 8F04), Clayton Rosenberg (vice chair, 8F05). Rick Murphree (treasurer, 8F02) was absent.

ard 6 Councilmember Charles Allen (D) and At-Large Councilmember Robert White (D) visited the commission to hear community concerns regarding public safety and transportation. The commission had solicited questions in advance by email. What was the origin of the current crime wave? queried Chair Daniels starting the discussion. The roots of the current crime wave lie in the pandemic, responded Councilmember Allen. COVID shuttered rec centers and schools, limiting resources available to at-risk youth. These young people both engage in criminal activity and are traumatized by it, he continued. Having said that, when the violence occurs, there has to be “accountability,” he stated.

Building on Allen’s remarks, Councilmember White pointed out the very real “structural inequities” in the District in regards to housing, healthcare and education. These spawn criminality, he stated. The overarching goal is to make the city safer, he said. Whenever a juvenile commits a crime, we have to hold them accountable, he continued. Detaining youth does not necessarily have the desired outcome because they often emerge more violent, he pointed out. OAG prosecutes a higher percentage of crimes than the US Attorney’s Office, Allen said. However, the youth detention centers are also over capacity often, he added, by as much as 110 percent. The public perspective believes apprehended juveniles are given a slap on the wrist, Chair Daniels stated. If a young person commits violence, there has to be certain and swift accountability, Allen responded. Prosecuting consistently and fairly is the key, said White. Neither is now true. How can the city create interventions before a juvenile commits a violent act? Allen asked rhetorically. For example, rec centers are not currently open on weekends. Yet, this is precisely when youth need their services. Council has passed legislation to address this, he said; and the Dept. of Parks and Recreation (DPR) has now moved to add Saturday hours. Turning to particulars of policing, White called out the District’s Office of United Communications (OUC), which administers the 911 system. Its operators are not effective in directing police, he said. There are also defects in evidence processing, he continued. “If the foundation is broken, it’s not going to work,” he said. There must be an expectation that if you commit a crime, you should be prosecuted, he stated. Chair Daniels and Councilmember Allen echoed these criticisms, relating personal experiences with 911 failures. Allen witnessed a fire in Southwest. He called 911 only to be put on hold for five minutes. He then watched a bystander enter the building to check on residents at great personal risk. “OUC is broken,” Allen stated. It is short staffed and poorly run, he continued. The Council has not sat idly by, he said. It forced out the last OUC director and awarded the agency more resources. Unfortunately, the extra funds were not spent quickly or effectively, he said. What about the competing public safety proposals offered by councilmembers and the mayor? Strege asked. No one can afford to be an ideologue on these issues, White responded, outlining generally his own proposals on the subject. Effective legislation will require discussion and compromise, he added. Allen suggested using a couple of metrics to evaluate the competing legislative proposals, offered by councilmembers and the mayor. Will they be effective and equitable? Do they address the faults in the public safety structure? For example, if the US Attorney’s Office is “not papering cases,” how will changing the sentences resolve that? Allen asked. The key, he said, is to create a feedback loop between MPD and the prosecutors that allows consistent arrest defects to be resolved over time.

Allen remains skeptical about the mayor’s proposal for drug free zones. Neighbors have requesting agencies blanket problem areas for years, he pointed out. Chair Daniels raised the issue of the L Street Courtyard, which has seen groups of up to 100 persons partying on the sidewalk. Anti-loitering laws are not constitutional, Allen said. But, the intent behind the drug-free zones is to address these issues, he added. What is the status of the crime lab run by the Dept. of Forensic Science (DFS)? asked a resident. The destructive impact of DFS’s loss of accreditation “cannot be understated,” Allen responded. Evidentiary defects are one of the primary reasons cases are not prosecuted by the USAO. The council’s job is to prwovide funding and oversight over DFS, he continued. Its administration, however, is duty of the mayor, he pointed out. Are guardians being held accountable for the actions of their charges? asked one resident. We have to hold parents accountable, I just have not figured out what that looks like, White responded.

Transportation

Protected Bike Lanes (PBLs) are creating more issues than they are solving, particularly when used as a “road diet” to slow vehicular traffic, stated Chair Daniels. Allen, who chairs the council’s Committee on Transportation and the Environment, pushed back. The city has to do a better job of civic engagement, he said, but the objective is to get people where they need to go safely, no matter what mode of transportation they use. To be multi-modal, we need connected networks across the city, White concurred. The key is engaging the public, but no constituency can have a veto, he continued. White cited the example of an elderly resident, who could not get to Metro Access due to a protected bike lane in Ivy City. In that instance, a tiny Pickup-Dropoff (PUDO) was provisioned in front of her apartment, after his office intervened. Some of what we see from DDOT are not commonsense solutions, stated Chair Daniels. When such arrangements are queried, DDOT ignores the residents, since the agency believes it is expert and needs no advice. Both White and Allen agree more community engagement is warranted in transportation planning. In response to Commissioner Strege, Councilmember Allen defended his bill creating pedestrian corridors. The legislation directs DDOT to find three locations by 2026. Half Street SW is a good example, he said.

M Corridor Safety Project Update

Chair Daniels began by pointing out the project has not been completed. The right turns across the M Street protected bike lanes (PBL) have not yet been signalized, he continued. Moreover, the project has been extended without community engagement to South Capitol, which was not originally in the plan, he said. “We are solving one issue and creating a host of oth-

ers,” said Daniels, pointing out the congestion on 11th and M Street SE. The project, not yet done, includes dedicated lanes for right, left turns as well as highway and 11th Street straight ahead access, DDOT representatives stated. DDOT Bicycle Specialist Will Handsfield responded to the chair’s concerns. First, DDOT is closing a lot of the intersections where signals are not planned to eliminate lefthand turns, he stated. It is also working to improve sightlines using signals, flex posts and setbacks. Safety for all types of transportation is the main agency mandate, Handsfield said. Arterials require protected bike lanes. “Our delivery time table is still too slow,” he said. Protected bike lanes encourage more types of riders. I Street will be completed once the utility work is done, he added. “This is the first night I understand why you are doing this,” stated Wilson in appreciation. The agency must closely track safety metrics in these projects, he emphasized. Crash rates are the primary agency metric. They are significantly down on New Jersey Avenue SE, Handsfield responded. Add five times more barrels and cones during the remaining construction, suggested Secretary Strege. At South Capitol and M Streets SE, there is a tapered intersection, which separates turning from straight through traffic, Handsfield said. It is a normal part of reconfiguring intersections to increase safety, not a part of the project. The bike corridor, he continued, will be extended to The Wharf. It serves as an important bypass for the Anacostia Trail, which is plagued by uneven pavement due to riding on 100-year-old piers.

Other Matters

A representative from the DC Housing Authority (DCHA) listened to the commission’s concerns about the agency’s vacant parcels 739, 767, 768 and 8829, which primarily serve as Nats parking lots. DCHA is open to ideas for temporary uses, he stated. Lots 67 and 68 should be used as residential parking lots and employee parking, Daniels suggested. The commission voted to protest an entertainment endorsement for Tom’s Watch Bar at 1250 Half St SE, pending the successful negotiation of a cooperative agreement to accommodate its exterior garage doors. The commission took no action on a license renewal for the Courtyard Marriot Hotel at 140 L St. SE. Metropolitan Police Dept. (MPD) Lieutenant Kenneth Taylor and Captain Kevin Harding briefed the commission on public safety. They reported a sharp increase in carjacking and thefts from autos. Most stolen autos are recovered by the police, said Taylor. Both Harding and Taylor encouraged residents to put electronic trackers in their cars such as AirTags. ANC 8F generally meets on the fourth Tuesday of the month. The next meeting is scheduled for Dec. 19 at DDOT Headquarters at 250 M St. SE. For more information, visit anc8f.org. u E ast of the R iver M agazine

D ecember 2023

neighborhood news / bulletin board

One Mo’ Time at the Anacostia Playhouse

One Mo’ Time features a group of performers at a New Orleans Club in 1926, as they put on an evening of vaudeville, ragtime and blues! This long-running Off-Broadway hit, revived to acclaim in the 2002 Broadway season, has audiences rockin’ the rafters and dancin’ in the aisles, thrilling to this artful recreation of old time, 1920’s Black

Canal Park Ice Rink Opens for Season

Canal Park, 200 M St. SE, has everythin g you need for the perfect afternoon and evening out with your friends and family. Exp erience one of their daily public skating sessions and join in the fun. Hours of oper ation are Mondays to Thursdays, 2 to 10 p.m.; Fridays, 2 to 11 p.m.; Saturdays, noon to 11 p.m.; and Sundays, noon to 10 p.m. A limited num ber of rental skates are available (from toddler size 8 to adult size 15) on a first come, first served basis. Skat ing sessions are 90 minutes long, with a break at the halfway point to resurface the ice. Online pre-registration rates are $13 for adults; $10 for kids; $6 for skate renta l. Walk-up rates are a bit higher. skatecanalpark.com.

vaudeville. $35 to $50. Anacostia Playhouse, 2020 Shannon Pl. SE, through Dec. 31. On New Year’s Eve, celebrate in true New Orleans style at their performance and party. Get ready to dance the night away as they invite you to join them in bidding farewell to the past year and welcome the new one. Highlights of the evening include a live DJ, delicious cuisine, and open bar. anacostiaplayhouse.com.

Random Acts of Kindness at the ACM

DC’s 10th Annual FITDC 5k Fresh Start

On Monday, Jan. 1, come to Freedom Plaza, 1455 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, for the 10th annual Fresh Start 5k. People of all ages are welcome at this fun and free fitness initiative. Whether you want to run, walk, or just cheer folks on, there’s no better way to ring in the New Year. Registration opens at 10 a.m.; race warm-up at 10:45 a.m.; and the race begins at 11 a.m. Registering for the Fresh Start 5K is free and easy. Parking is very limited, so use public transportation and rideshare if possible. Bib and shirt pick up will be available on Thursday, Dec. 28 and Friday, Dec. 29, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Columbia Heights Community Center, 1480 Girard St. NW; Edgewood Recreation Center, 300 Evarts St. NE; Deanwood Community Center, 1350 49th St. NE; and Takoma Aquatic Center, 300 Van Buren St. NW. Shirts and Bibs will be distributed on a first come first serve basis. Can’t make it to the live event? You can still sign up and run on your own on New Years Day! fitdcfreshstart5k.com. 32

EASTOFTHERIVERDCNEWS.COM

Tis the season to be jolly! Whether you celebrate the holidays or not, this is a good time of year to give back. On Thursday, Dec. 14, 2:30 to 3:15 p.m., join Take Time Thursday host Jenelle Cooper as she discusses the power of giving and challenges you to identify ways to show random acts of kindness. Jenelle Cooper is the community services and program coordinator at the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum. She has been at the museum for 27 years. The Anacostia Community Museum is at 1901 Fort Pl. SE. anacostia.si.edu.

Douglas St. Pedestrian Bridge Meeting Dec. 18

DDOT has announced that the third public meeting for the Douglas Street Pedestrian Bridge is scheduled for Dec. 18 at

DCHFA, Your Homeownership Resource in the District.

DCHFA, Resourceininthe theDistrict. District. DCHFA,Your YourHomeownership Homeownership Resource

DCHFA, Your Homeownership Resource in the District. DC Open Doors

DC DC Open Doors Open Doors is your key to homeownership in the DCDC Open Doors is your key to homeownership in the rates and Open Doors city. This program offers competitive interest city. This program offers competitive interest rates and lower mortgage insurance costs on first DCmortgage Open insurance Doors is your keytrust to trust lower costs on first

homeownership inresident the city. This homebuyer or aresident D.C. homebuyer or a D.C. , be purchasing a home , be purchasing a home in the in the DC Open Doors program offers competitive interest of Columbia. District of Columbia. DCDistrict Open Doors is your key to homeownership in the rates lower mortgage city. Thisand program offers competitiveinsurance interest rates and lower mortgage insurance costs on first trust costs on first trust mortgages.You

HPAP provides interest free deferred loans forloans downfor down HPAP deferred homebuyer or a D.C.interest resident are not provides required to befree a first-time , be purchasing a home in the as a co-administrator of homebuyer orserves a D.C. resident serves as a co-administrator of District of Columbia. this DC Department of Housing and Community this DC Department of Housing and Community Development’s (DHCD) first-time home buyer toDevelopment’s qualify for DCOD. You must, (DHCD) first-time home buyer program.

program. be purchasing a home in however, HPAP provides interest free deferred loans for down

the District of Columbia.

serves as a co-administrator of this DC Department of Housing and Community Development’s (DHCD) first-time buyer years or older who have fallen behindhome on insurance program. DC4ME and tax payments as a result of their reverse years or older who have fallen behindmortgage. on insurance Qualified District homeowners can receive up to and tax payments a result of their reverse mortgage. DC4ME providesasmortgage assistance Qualified District homeowners can receive up to

with optional down payment assistance to D.C. government employees. DC4ME mortgage assistance optional years or provides older who have fallen behindwith on insurance down paymentisassistance totoD.C. government DC4ME offered current full- mortgage. and tax payments as a result of their reverse employees. DC4ME is offered to current full-time DC4ME provides mortgage assistance with Qualified District homeowners can receive up to optional time District employees, District government employees, employees down paymentgovernment assistance including to D.C. government of District government-based instrumentalities, employees. DC4ME is offered to current full-time including employees of District independent agencies, D.C. Public Charter Schools,employees District government employees, including and organizations, provided the applicant/borrower's government-based instrumentalities, of District government-based instrumentalities, employer falls under the oversight of the Council of independent agencies, Publicwith Charter Schools, DC4ME provides mortgageD.C. assistance optional the District of Columbia. independent agencies, D.C. Public andpayment organizations, provided applicant/borrower's down assistance to D.C. the government employer falls under theorganizations, oversight the Council of employees. DC4ME is offered to currentoffull-time Charter Schools, and the District of Columbia. District government employees, including employees the applicant/borrower’s COVID-19 ofprovided District government-based instrumentalities, independent agencies, D.C. Public Charter Schools, DC MAP COVID-19 provides financial assistance employer falls impacts underofthe oversight ofto and organizations, the those affected by the provided theapplicant/borrower's COVID-19 employer falls under the oversight of pandemic. Qualified can receive aCouncil loan of of COVID-19 the Council ofborrowers the District ofthe Columbia. thetoDC District ofCOVID-19 Columbia. up $5,000 per month to put toward their mortgage MAP provides financial assistance to for up to six months.

those affected by the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Qualified borrowers can receive a loan of up to $5,000 per month to put toward their mortgage COVID-19 for up to six months. DC MAP COVID-19 provides financial assistance to those affected by the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Qualified borrowers can receive a loan of Visit www.DCHFA.org up to $5,000 per month to put toward their mortgage tomonths. apply to any of DCHFA’s homeownership programs. forhow up to six

Homebuyers Info Sessions are Back at DCHFA Register at bit.ly/dcopendoors VisitAVENUE, www.DCHFA.org 815 FLORIDA NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20001 • 202.777.1600 • WWW.DCHFA.ORG

how to apply to any of DCHFA’s homeownership programs. Visit www.DCHFA.org E R M D 2023 33 815 FLORIDA AVENUE, NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20001 • 202.777.1600 • WWW.DCHFA.ORG how to apply to any of DCHFA’s homeownership programs. AST OF THE

IVER

AGAZINE

ECEMBER

815 FLORIDA AVENUE, NW, WASHINGTON, DC 20001 • 202.777.1600 • WWW.DCHFA.ORG

neighborhood news / bulletin board

Free Walk-in Legal Clinic

On Wednesdays, 10 a.m. to noon, meet with a lawyer from Neighborhood Legal Services Program. No appointment necessary. First-come, first-served. Benning Library, 3935 Benning Rd. NE. dclibrary.org.

Chess Club at Francis A. Gregory Library

The Chess Club for teens and adults meets weekly on Wednesdays, 6 to 7:30 p.m. All levels, including beginners, are welcome to join them for an evening of chess with US National Chess Master David Bennett. The Francis A. Gregory Library is at 3660 Alabama Ave. SE. dclibrary.org.

New Year’s Eve Forest Bathing at the Arboretum

Hike and Vigil Third Annual Winter Solstice War ortd 8 Woods staff, board members and supp

On Thursday, Dec. 21, 4 to 6 p.m., join the year. ing the shortest day and longest night of ers in their twice-annual tradition of mark ting at (star Park ton Stan along the heights of Fort They’ll take a slow contemplative walk nt Blou OT of lives the rate celeb h’s rhythms, and 1755 Galen St. SE), tune into the Eart will you ly; warm s Dres . 2023 in away ed who pass and Chuck Jenkins, Ward 8 Woods staff woods and ght; it will be light when you enter the ashli fl a g Brin . time e entir the be outside Shep at tice tradition began in 2020 dark when you come out. This Winter Sols fort-stanton-park. For more infororg/ ods. 8wo ward herd Parkway. Register at 8woods.org. mation contact Nathan at nathan@ward

6:30 p.m. The public will meet to discuss upcoming temporary, off-peak closures of DC-295 to install the new pedestrian bridge. Information on how to attend this meeting will be published closer to the meeting date at ddot. dc.gov.

Habitat Restoration Workday at Bladensburg Park

On Dec. 16, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., join the Anacostia Watershed Society for a Habitat Restoration Workday along the riverside area of the Anacostia River in Bladensburg. They will focus on tree maintenance, which could include repairing tree shelters and fencing, and removing weeds/invasive plant species to allow the native trees to continue to flourish. anacostiaws.org.

EASTOFTHERIVERDCNEWS.COM

On Sunday, Dec. 31 at 9 a.m., noon, and 2:30 p.m., join a nature and forest therapy guide in this two-hour program that encourages you to slow down and take in the National Arboretum through all your senses. Forest bathing, or shinrin yoku, is the simple practice of taking in the woods through the senses for health benefits. The benefits are immense: boosted immunity, lowered blood pressure and heart rate, improved attention and mood, and hitting the reset button on life. The Japanese have enjoyed shinrin yoku for decades as a regular public health initiative. No pets or children. Once purchased, you will receive more information on how to prepare. Their suggested ticket price is $35 (or $28 for FONA members), but please pay what you can to attend. fona.org/events_programs.

Invasive Species Removal at RFK Meadows

On each second Saturday, through Feb. 24, 10 a.m. to noon, the NPS Invasive Plant Management Team is hosting non-native invasive plant removal events at RFK Meadows/the entrance of Kingman and Heritage Islands Park along the Anacostia Riverwalk Trail. This is a volunteer effort to help rescue green spaces from non-native invasive species through the hands-on removal of especially harmful trees, vines, and flowering plants. During the events, participants will learn how to identify and control several non-native invasive plants threatening our native species. Wear sturdy shoes, pants, and a longsleeve shirt. All supplies will be provided. Volunteers must be 16 years of age or older to participate. Please register at nps.gov/anac.

Join DC Artists East

DC Artists East is a site for all artists who live or have studios east of the Anacostia River in Washington, DC. This website hopes to increase these artist’s visibility and further connect artists to each other and the larger arts scene. If you are a ward 7 or 8 visual artist, join in this new effort. Email arts@archdc.org to learn how to participate. dcartistseast.org.

Advisory Neighborhood Commission 7D “Uniting Communities East and West” Representing the Capitol Hill/Hill East, Eastland Gardens, Kenilworth, Kingman Park, Mayfair, Parkside, River Terrace and Rosedale neighborhoods

Join us for our December Virtual Public Meeting Tuesday, December 12, 2023 - 6:30 pm to 8:30 pm How to participate:

By computer: https://zoom.us/j/99188271171 Passcode: anc7d Or by phone: 1-301-715-8592 Webinar ID: 991 8827 1171 Passcode: 412631

YOUR COMMISSIONERS ELECTED TO SERVE YOU Who

Where

How to Contact Me

Wendell Felder Chairperson Brian Alcorn Vice Chair Brett Astmann Treasurer Ashley Schapitl Secretary Siraaj Hasan Commissioner Mike Davis Commissioner Ebony Payne Commissioner Marc Friend Commissioner Brianne Eby Commissioner

Parkside - 7D03

7d03@anc.dc.gov

Capitol Hill/Hill East – 7D08

7d08@anc.dc.gov

Rosedale – 7D07

7d07@anc.dc.gov or 202-630-1632 7d09@anc.dc.gov

Hill East – 7D09 Eastland Gardens/ Kenilworth – 7D01 River Terrace – 7D04

7d01@anc.dc.gov

Kingman Park – 7D05

7d05@anc.dc.gov or 202-427-2068 7d06@anc.dc.gov or 202-455-6238 7d10@anc.dc.gov

Rosedale – 7D06 Hill East – 7D10

7d04@anc.dc.gov

Volunteer Opportunities!

We are now recruiting community volunteers to build our five Commission committees. Our committees include: Community Outreach/Grants, Economic Development/Housing Justice, Environment, Public Safety, and Transportation/Public Space. Contact any Commissioner or 7d@anc.dc.gov for more information.

JOHNSON LAW GROUP Integrity, Value, and Social Responsibility

Hands-on Mural Making at Phillips@THEARC

On Wednesday, Dec. 13, 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., DC artist Chris Pyrate will lead a handson workshop about the elements of mural-making. Spending years working between Brooklyn and Miami, Pyrate has amassed notable clientele from Grammy Award-winning musicians such as Lupe Fiasco and staple commercial brands like Nike. Pyrate has installed countless murals nationally and has shown work at several festivals, such as the prestigious Miami Art Week and the popular SXSW festival in Austin, Texas. Free but reservations required. Phillips@THEARC is located at THEARC West, 1801 Mississippi Ave. SE. phillipscollection.org/thearc.

Wills, Estates & Trusts • Business Law & Government Contracting Property & Housing Disputes • Elder Law 1321 Pennsylvania Ave. SE • WDC 20003 • 202.544.1515 • jlgi.com

DC’S LEADING LOCAL NEWS PROVIDER!

Voices of Southeast: A Community Oral History Project

This oral history project is looking for people who’ve lived in the neighborhoods of Congress Heights, Parklands, Stantontowne, Bolling Air Force Base, Randle Highlands, St. Elizabeth’s, Barry Farm, Buena Vista, Oxon Parkway, Shipley, Washington Highlands Archer Park, Knox Hill, Garfield Heights, Bellevue and the surrounding areas. Come to Parklands-Turner Library, 1547 Alabama Ave. SE, on Fridays in December, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. If you have a story, sign up for an appointment by calling 202-645-4532 or chris.stevenson@dc.gov. dclibrary.org.

INTERESTED IN ADVERTISING? CONTACT: NOAH HOLMES

NOAH@HILLRAG.COM I (202) 400-3504 WA R D S 6

WA R D S 1 , 2 & 5

E AST OF THE R IVER M AGAZINE

WA R D S 7 & 8

D ECEMBER 2023

neighborhood news / bulletin board

2024 Cherry Blossom Festival Dates Announced

The 2024 Cherry Blossom Festival will be held Mar. 20 to April 14. The festival signature events are Blossom Kite Festival, Saturday, March 30; Petalpalooza at Capital RIverfront, Saturday, April 6; National Cherry Blossom Festival Parade, Saturday, April 13; Sakura Matsuri Japanese Street Festival, Saturday and Sunday, April 13 and 14. Petal Porch Registration is from Feb. 2 to March 20. nationalcherryblossomfestival.org.

Blerd (Black Nerd) Holiday Celebration at Phillips @THEARC

your exemption is valid for two years. Register at dpw.dc.gov/service/sidewalk-shoveling-exemption.

The Annual Senior Holiday Celebration

On Wednesday, Dec. 13, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., join the Department of Aging and Community Living for the 25th Annual Senior Holiday Celebration at the DC Armory, 2001 East Capitol St. SE. The annual celebration brings together seniors, sixty and older, from across DC to enjoy music, dance, performances, food, and more! RSVP at mayorbowsersseniorholiday2023.splashthat.com.

The National Shrine

On Friday, Dec. 15, 6:30 to 8 p.m., inFirst Saturday Bird Walks at Kenilworth Christmas Dinner spired by Wesley Clark’s centennial inOn the first Saturdays of the month at 8:30 a.m., join a NPS volunteer birder for a The Basilica of the National Shrine of the stallation genesis, Phillips@THEARC, bird walk around the aquatic gardens. All are welcome including beginners. Be sure Immaculate Conception, 400 Michigan in collaboration with Blerdcon founder to bring water, sunscreen and binoculars if you own some. A limited number of binAve. NE, will provide meals for hundreds Hilton George, and Prof. Raél Jero Saloculars can be borrowed with photo ID. It is a slow-paced, two-hour walk covering of poor, homeless, elderly, and needy inley, Founding Director of The Space about one mile. No registration required. nps.gov/keaq. dividuals living in DC and surrounding for Creative Black Imagination, MICA, areas on Christmas Day. Meals will be hosts a series of dinners and dialogues available for pick-up or delivery only. To on Blerd—Black nerd—culture. Fearequest a Christmas Day dinner, call 202turing supper and music, be a part of Join the DC Volunteer Snow Team 526-8300. All meal requests must be rea growing visual archive on Blerdom in the DMV. This The DC Volunteer Snow Program matches volunteers ceived by Friday, Dec. 15. Volunteers are needed to fill many special winter holiday session is presented in partnership with senior residents and those with access and functiondifferent positions. For more information, contact rsvp@bnwith the Hurston/Wright Foundation and will feature al needs for snow removal services in the aftermath of a sic.org or 202-526-8300. fireside poetry with Liberated Muse, a holiday-themed winter event. Each winter season, their goal is to ensure DJ set with DJ T5UN4M1, and warm winter treats with that Serve DC Volunteer Snow Team members/volunteers supper provided by Smoke Stack’s House of BBQ. Free adopt a resident that has submitted a Snow Removal ReThe AFI European Union Film Showcase but reservations required. Phillips@THEARC is locatquest. Volunteers will be deployed to the adopted home of Tickets are now on sale for the 36th annual AFI Europeed at THEARC West, 1801 Mississippi Ave. SE. philtheir selection when there are four or more inches of snow an Union Film Showcase, through Dec. 19 at AFI Silver lipscollection.org/thearc. impacting DC. Volunteers will be expected to complete Theatre, 8633 Colesville Rd., Silver Spring, MD. The full the volunteer service within 24-36 hours after the winter lineup includes 51 films from all 27 member states, sevevent has ended. Volunteers will also be expected to clear en US premieres and 21 Best International Feature Film “The Sunroom” Exhibition at the a 35-inch pathway spanning the length from the door to Oscar submissions. View the line-up at afisilver.afi.com/ Anacostia Arts Center the sidewalk (including any steps), as well as the immedisilver/eushowcase. Through Jan. 15, the Anacostia Arts Center, 1231 Marate sidewalk that surrounds the property. Volunteers are ion Barry Ave, SE, presents The Sunroom, a vibrant celnot deployed when there is ice. For additional informaebration of the holiday season and the thriving creative tion, email dcvsp@dc.gov or call 202-727-7925. servedc. Hypothermia Alerts community within Wards 7 and 8. In partnership with galaxydigital.com/snow-volunteer. Hypothermia alerts are activated when the National Weaththe Anacostia BID, Far Southeast Collaborative, and er Service forecasted temperature, including wind chill, is or Project Create, this exhibition showcases the diverse talwill be 32° F or below; or, when the temperature is forecastents of over twenty artists. Admission is free. The SunHow to Request Volunteer Snow ed to be 40° F or below, and the forecasted chance of preroom features an array of artistic expressions, including cipitation is fifty percent or greater. Transportation to shelRemoval Service modern, 3D, and acrylic works by esteemed artists such ter is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you see If you are a DC resident who is a senior or has access and as Brian Bailey, Kia Green, and Prelli Williams. This exsomeone outside in need of shelter or a welfare check, call functional needs and requires help clearing your sidewalks hibition invites all to experience a kaleidoscope of artisthe Shelter Hotline at 202-399-7093 or dial 311. If there is and front walkways this winter, you will need to request an tic endeavors. anacostiaartscenter.com. an immediate risk to safety call 911. When calling, include exemption from the Department of Public Works (DPW) the time, the address or location of the sighting, and a dethrough the Sidewalk Shoveling Exemption Program to scription of the person’s appearance. ◆ be eligible for free snow removal services. Once approved, 36

EASTOFTHERIVERDCNEWS.COM

LOOK FOR OUR

WINTER/SPRING

EDUCATION ISSUE PREK-12

NEXT MONTH!

PROVIDING DC PARENTS WITH LOCAL EDUCATION NEWS, RESOURCES AND MORE!

PUBLICATION DATES:

HILL RAG | 1/6 EAST OF THE RIVER & MIDCITY DC | 1/13

INTERESTED IN ADVERTISING? CONTACT YOUR SALES REP TODAY!

NOAH 202.400.3504 | KIRA 202.400.3508 ANDREW 202.400.3512 | CAROLINA 202.400.3503

E AST OF THE R IVER M AGAZINE

D ECEMBER 2023

east washington life

Meet Patrick Saah Political Asylee and Survivor by Anthony D. Diallo

espite being the owner of a more appalling, harrowing story than most cinematic horror movies, Patrick Saah generally appears cool, calm, and collected. The West African native and Ward 8 transplant has survived kidnapping, being shot, and a civil war in his homeland of Liberia, but still displays a cheerful countenance. “I will never forget that day in 1990. It was a tribal war. They [rebel forces] captured us in elementary class. I was in the 4th grade,” said Saah, 44, recalling the civil war (1989 to 2003) and the dramatic period as an 11-year-old when his life changed forever. “We learned later that many of my schoolmates were killed that day.”

Child Soldier

The rebels took those elementary students that they did not kill and forced them into battle. Those pubescent children, hardly teenagers, became collateral and unwilling pawns. Their innocence was hijacked, and their childhoods forfeited. Saah was in the clutches of the rebel army from 1990 to 1992 with absolutely no contact with family. He suffered a myriad of cruelties—physical and mental—from his captors. After being outfitted with “an AK-47 rifle and placed on the front line,” his kidnapping abruptly came to a depressing end when he was shot in both legs. “I lost my left leg and have a plate in my right foot,” Saah

said with little emotion on his face. Because he was now useless to the rebels, Saah was left on the battlefield and eventually reunited with his family in Monrovia, Liberia’s capital, after initially being cared for and treated at the Yekepa Hospital and released as an amputee.

Soccer: A Way Forward

“In 2007, I decided to use my disability to do something for myself and join the Liberia Amputee Soccer Team. I was selected to play for the National Team,” Saah proudly said noting that he had first joined the Mighty Conquerors which was a Liberian club team. Amputee football is basically the same as the standard version but with minor exceptions. An amputee is defined as one who is “abbreviated” at or above the wrist or ankle. Fielders may have two hands but one foot. Goalies may have two legs but one hand. The game is played without a prosthesis. Forearm crutches are the norm. Liberia’s national team was made up of the best members selected from various clubs. Saah played the striker position which is arguably the most important position besides goalkeeper on the football field. Strikers are generally the most advanced players whose primary responsibility is to score goals and assist others. In 2008, the Cup of Nations for Amputee Football (CANAF) was won by the host African country, Liberia. They narrowly defeated Sierra Leone 1-0 in a hotly contested match. They won the CANAF again in 2011 by defeating Ghana 3-2 in a penalty shootout finale. The team won a third CANAF in Kenya by beating Angola 6-5 in another penalty shootout and making Liberia a three-time champion. Saah has also traveled and played in Russia with the Mighty Conquerors and in Turkey with the national team.

Life and Love East of the River

Patrick Saah won three African Cups of Nations with the Liberian Amputee National Soccer Team. They won the championships - African Cup Nations in 2008 in Liberia; in 2011 in Ghana; and, in 2013 in Kenya.

E a s t o f t h e R i v er D C N e w s . c o m

That national team, which included 10 players and five staff, arrived in the United States in 2015 seeking political asylum. The team was housed in a Baltimore homeless shelter when they arrived before being moved to Washington and a New York Avenue shelter. It was there that Saah met Johnetta Mosley whom he would wed five years later and with

Wedding day (Sr. Pastor of the Shiloh Baptist Church in Waynesboro, Virginia, Warren B. Dawkins stands ready to marry Patrick Saah and Johnetta Mosley).

whom he now shares an apartment in Anacostia. “We would talk for hours about his family, my family, his country. Everything. He had a lot of passion. He was determined to tell his story and how [he and his team] were treated [here and back at home]. He was very vocal and even a bit of a hot head,” said Mosley, who worked as a social worker for Catholic Charities at the time. Mosley is a native of Waynesboro, VA, a small Patrick's son, Vandarlak Gaga Saah, and Patrick's mother, town in the Shenandoah Kumbah Toffee Saah). Valley. She came to the nation’s capital in 2000 to provide a better opportunity for her then-young son who had to learn American Sign Language after being diagnosed as hard of hearing. Mosley’s other child, a daughter, was diagnosed with a rare form of thyroid cancer. Both children, now adults, have overcome their adversity. Besides being a calming influence and support system for Saah, Mosley, 57, is the breadwinner who currently works as the Case Manager for Rapid Housing at the Far Southeast Family Strengthening Collaborative located on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue.

Wish List - Next Steps

While the amiable and good-natured Saah hopes to become a full-fledged American citizen, he is not idle. He works as a parttime custodian, 20 hours a week, for Goodwill Industries at the Architect of the Capitol (AOC) - Davis Memorial. He also serves as the janitor for St. Teresa of Avila where he works two to three days totaling nearly 20 hours there as well.

Patrick Saah coaches (for the love of the sport and no pay) a little league soccer team in 2018. The team's championship trophies stand by their fee

Additionally, utilizing his football acuity, Saah has volunteered in recent years as a youth soccer coach. His teams have been successful. Saah is active in the Catholic Church and is a fourth-degree member of the Knights of Columbus and the Worthy Warden of Byrne Council 3877 which represents St. Teresa of Avila and three other parishes East of the River. Meantime, according to Kevin Brothers, a staff attorney for Catholic Charities DC, who works in the organization’s Immigration Legal Services, “Patrick awaits a decision from USCIS [United States Citizenship and Immigration Services] to adjust his status and get his Green Card. I am surprised that it is taking this long since we sent [Saah’s] medical exam about two months ago. Once that comes through, Patrick will be required to wait the customary three years before being eligible to apply for citizenship.” Saah is naturally homesick. After finalizing his citizenship, he wants to return to Liberia for a visit to see his now 20-year-old son, Vandarlak Gaga Saah, his siblings (of which he is the eldest of six), and his mother, Kumbah Toffee Saah. “I’m heartbroken. I miss my mother. She always asks, ‘I wouldn’t see you before I go?’ whenever I speak to her on the phone. That blows my mind. I am always worrying about my status. Sometimes my [high blood] pressure goes up. Every month I must pay my lawyer $100 [for various fees],” laments Saah whose father died in 2013. Anyone wishing to make a donation on behalf of Saah can do so by contacting his attorney: Kevin Brothers; Catholic Charities DC; Immigration Legal Services; 924 G Street, NW; Washington, DC 20001 or via email at kevin.brothers@cc-dc.org. Please signify on any check or money order that this is a donation for Patrick Saah. u

TAE KWON DO TRADITIONAL KOREAN STYLE AGES 4 AND UP OPEN ENROLLMENT

JOIN ANY TIME, FOR ANY LENGTH OF TIME. 6TH & EYE ST., NE. - PARKING • MASTERGUTMAN@GMAIL.COM

E ast of the R iver M agazine

D ecember 2023

kids & family

by Kathleen Donner

Photo of Step Afrika!’s Magical Musical Holiday Step Show at Arena Stage at the Mead Center for American Theater by Margot Schulman.

At NORAD, more than 1,200 volunteers answer phone calls and emails in seven different languages from children around the globe asking about Santa on Dec. 24.

NORAD Tracks Santa at noradsanta.org

Family-Friendly Step Afrika’s Magical Musical Holiday Show at Arena

The world’s first holiday show incorporating the African American tradition of stepping, Step Afrika!’s Magical Musical Holiday Step Show is a feast for the eyes and ears. You’ll laugh, you’ll sing, and you’ll dance—yes, dance, along with Step Afrika!’s award-winning dancers on Arena’s fabulous Fichandler Stage as “DJ Nutcracker” sets the tone for a joy-filled, toe-tapping evening that’s a family-friendly holiday “stepstravaganza” like no other. $56 to $95. For ticket discounts, visit arenastage.org/tickets/savings-programs. Arena Stage, 1101 Sixth St. SW, from Dec. 8 to 16. arenastage.org.

Zoolights

Now in its 15th year, ZooLights will take thousands of visitors into a winter wonderland lit by more than half a million environmentally friendly LED lights and illuminations. Visitors can stroll through immersive lantern displays showing rainforest, grassland, desert, ocean and polar habitats and the animals that call them home. Live musical performances, delicious treat offerings and plenty of opportunities for holiday shopping make this special event a dazzling and immersive experience for families and nature aficionados. This year’s Zoolights are 5 to 9 p.m. (Sundays, 5 to 8 p.m.); with remaining dates of Dec. 1, 2, 3, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 21, 22, 23, 26, 27, 28, 29 and 30. Admission is $6 per person; free for age two and under. $30 for parking. National Zoo, 3001 Connecticut Ave. NW. nationalzoo.si.edu/events/zoolights.

EASTOFTHERIVERDCNEWS.COM

NORAD tracks everything that flies in and around North America in defense of our country. However, on Dec. 24, they have the special mission of also tracking Santa. NORAD has been tracking Santa since 1955 when a young child accidently dialed the unlisted phone number of the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Operations Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, believing she was calling Santa Claus after seeing a promotion in a local newspaper. Air Force Colonel Harry Shoup, the commander on duty that night, was quick to realize a mistake had been made, and assured the youngster that CONAD would guarantee Santa a safe journey from the North Pole. Thus, a tradition was born that rolled over to NORAD when it was formed in 1958. Since then, NORAD has dutifully reported Santa’s location on Dec. 24 to millions. Each year, the NORAD Tracks Santa website receives nearly fifteen million unique visitors from more than 200 countries and territories around the world. Volunteers receive more than 130,000 calls (phone number appears on the website on Dec. 24) to the NORAD Tracks Santa hotline. Children are also able to track Santa through Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. noradsanta.org.

See the National Christmas Tree Trains

The National Christmas Tree is lit every day from approximately 4:30 p.m. to midnight as part of the America Celebrates display at President’s Park (White House). This display is free to visit and is open to the public starting on Dec. 2. You can then visit the tree, surrounding model trains and decorations throughout the season. thenationaltree.org.

SERVING GRADES 5-12

CHART YOUR COURSE TO EXCELLENCE Apply today for School Year 2023-2024. Seats are limited. Complete the application online through MySchoolDC.org. #ChoosePaul and we’ll choose you back! Increase your chances of being matched with Paul PCS by making us your #1 selection.

WHY PAUL PCS FOR 5-12 GRADE? • Tier 1 High School and a 2022 Bold Performance School for the Middle School • Guaranteed seat for Paul 8th grade families into 9th grade at Paul IHS • SAT Prep, Tutoring, Honors AP Classes, Dual Enrollment, and In-House College Assistance • Over 20 competitive middle school, junior varsity, and varsity athletic teams • Free daily breakfast and lunch • Extended day after school programs including tae kwon do, cooking club, dance, and tutoring • Wraparound services, counseling, and student support resources for families with IEPs

Visit www.paulcharter.org to learn more. Questions? Email: Enrollment@paulcharter.org 5800 8th Street NW Washington, DC I (202) 291-7499 E AST OF THE R IVER M AGAZINE

D ECEMBER 2023

kids & family

Daisy Denicore, Tanasia Lane in The Other Side. Photo: Jati Lindsay

The Other Side at the KC

Clover’s mom says it isn’t safe to cross the fence that segregates their African-American side of town from the white side where Anna lives. But the two girls strike up a friendship and get around the grown-ups’ rules by sitting on top of the fence together. Education Artist-in-Residence Jacqueline Woodson’s simple yet powerful book The Other Side comes to life on Jan. 13 and 14 at 1:30 and 4 p.m. in a dance piece from choreographer and Kennedy Center Artistic Advisor for Dance Education Hope Boykin. When literal and figurative fences keep us apart, can we find the courage—and creativity—to knock them down? The Other Side is most enjoyed by ages five, up. $20. kennedy-center.org.

See the Trains at Season’s Greenings

Open through Jan. 1 (except Christmas), 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., the popular annual holiday display at the US Botanic Garden features model trains in the gated outdoor gardens, festive lights throughout the Garden, and the Conservatory features poinsettias, holiday decor, and DC landmarks made from plants. On the lawn in the gated outdoor gardens, G-gauge model trains circulate from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through displays of pollinators made from plant parts. Season’s Greenings is also open until 8 p.m. on Thursdays, Dec. 14, 21 and 28. usbg.gov.

Disney’s “Frozen” at the KC

An unforgettable theatrical experience filled with sensational special effects, stunning sets and costumes, and powerhouse performances, Frozen is everything you want in a musical: It’s moving. It’s spectacular. And above all, it’s pure Broadway joy. Frozen is at the Kennedy Center from Dec. 20 to Jan. 21. $35 to $185. (Visit kennedy-center.org/mytix for ticket deals.) Recommended for ages six, up. kennedy-center.org.

Storytime in NPG’s Explore! Space

Storytime in the National Portrait Gallery’s Explore! Space immerses kids in tales of artists, presidents, inventors, athletes and more. On Mondays, Dec. 4, 11 and 18; Jan. 8, 22 and 29; and Feb. 5, 12 and 26; 1:30 to 2 p.m., visit their family space in the Education Center (E151) before or after story time to play and learn about portraiture. Free and no registration required. The National Portrait Gallery is at Eighth and G streets NW. npg.si.edu.

Photo: Johnny Shryock

Snow Maiden at Synetic

In a frozen silver forest high in the mountains, a lonely boy builds a girl from snow. When she mysteriously comes to life, mischief, laughter, and enchantment abound. But what will happen when the ice begins to melt? Told through dazzling movement, dance, and acrobatics, Synetic’s magical take on beloved folktale Snegurochka is a story of hope, friendship, and the power of dreams. Snow Maiden comes to life in a 45-minute production set to an enchanting score to get us all in the holiday spirit. $35. Snow Maiden is at Synetic Theater, 1800 So. Bell St., Arlington (Crystal City), from Dec. 9 to Jan. 6. synetictheater.org. 42

EASTOFTHERIVERDCNEWS.COM

Capital City Symphony: Sleigh Ride! Annual Holiday Concert and Sing Along

On Sunday, Dec. 17, at 3 and 5:30 p.m., celebrate the joy and magic of the season with Capital City Symphony and their special guest, renowned soprano Amber Monroe. Together, CCS and Monroe will delight you with heartwarming holiday classics. Grab your family, friends, and neighbors and join them for a concert filled with holiday music and sing-along fun. Adults, $35; kids 16 and under, free. Atlas Performing Arts Center, 1333 H St. NE. atlasarts.org.

Family-Friendly First Night Alexandria

First Night Alexandria is the largest family-friendly, budget-friendly and alcohol-free New Year’s Eve event in the region. This year’s First Night Alexandria includes more daytime events with kids, families and seniors in mind. It’s also fun, affordable and safe. There’s an early evening block party at Market Square and fireworks are now at 6 p.m., not midnight. Pricing has been rolled back to pre-pandemic levels. firstnightalexandria.org.

Away in My Airplane at Air and Space

On Thursdays in December at 11 a.m., join Air and Space, Sixth and Independence Ave. SW, for a story about flying away in your own airplane. Where would you fly and what would you see? Write and illustrate your own airplane story book. airandspace.si.edu.

Holiday Family Activities at the Library of Congress

Every day from Wednesday, Dec. 27 to Saturday, Dec. 30; 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., join the Library’s Informal Learning Office, in the Jefferson Building Great Hall, second floor (LJ-200-E), for a crafting activity to celebrate the holiday season and the coming New Year. Learn about the Library’s holiday collections while you make your own crafts including writing cards, creating countdown chains for upcoming celebrations and learning how to write thank you letters. loc.gov/events/?q=holiday+family.

Family (all day) Game Day at SW Library

On Sundays, Dec. 10, Jan. 7 and Feb. 4, children and their families are invited to visit SW Library, 900 Wesley Pl. SW, on Sunday afternoon to play a selection of games that will be made available. dclibrary.org.

Family Christmas Service at the National Cathedral

On Saturday, Dec. 23, 11 a.m., a menagerie of live animals helps bring the Nativity to life in this joyful service of carols and prayers. Gather loved ones of all ages to welcome the Holy Family in the festively decorated Cathedral nave. ASL interpretation is offered for this service. Free, in-person passes are required at cathedral.org/calendar/family-christmasservice-2.

DC CAMP FAIR

PRESENTED BY

A J.O. WILSON PT

SPORTS

MUSIC

T RA D I

COME AND EXPLO SUMMER CAMP RE MANY OPTIONS Sa

t , J a n . 20 t h , 202 10:00 AM – 1:00 4 PM J.O. Wilson Elemen tary • 660 K St

reet NE

S ORSHIP SPONSIL LE AVA AB

& ARTS

FREE AND OPEN TO ALL PARENTS Y ORED B SPONS SON PTA IL W . J.O

TIONA

REFRE SH FOR S MENTS ALE

OVERNIGHT

AGES 3 - 18

ACADEMIC

For more information, email DCCampFair@jowilsonpta.org or go to DCcampfair.com 100 Gallatin St. NE Washington, DC 20011

PRE-K 3 – 5TH GRADE SPOTS AVAILABLE FOR THE 2024-2025 SCHOOL YEAR

EXPANDED ENROLLMENT IN PREK-3, PREK-4 & KINDERGARTEN

COME LEARN WITH US! APPLY TODAY!

Apply for admissions at: www.myschooldc.org or call (202) 888-6336

IN-PERSON OPEN HOUSE / INFORMATION SESSION: Tues. Jan 23, 2024 6-7 pm • Wed. Feb. 28, 2024 6-7 pm

VIRTUAL INFORMATION SESSION: Wed. Jan. 17, 2024 6-7 pm Tues. Feb. 20, 2024 6-7 pm

DC Prep is accepting applications for SY24-25 beginning December 11th Contact us about how to apply

Scan this QR code to register for a building tour

The enrollment team can be reached at school for questions at (202) 545-0515 or by email at enrollment@bridgespcs.org

w w w. br i d g e sp c s . org I 2 0 2 . 5 4 5 . 0 5 1 5 Accredited by Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools.

Call (202) 780-5126 for more information or visit: dcprep.org E AST OF THE R IVER M AGAZINE

D ECEMBER 2023

TOTAL

TOTAL TUTOR

OTAL

UTOR

OR ALL

TUTOR

TUTORING FOR ALL

TUTORING FOR ALL Dia de los Reyes Magos (Three Kings Day) at GALA

TOTAL

On Saturday, Jan. 7, 1:30 p.m. (show inside the theatre at 2 p.m.), join GALA for this annual tradition, the celebrated Three Kings celebration which brings Latin-American tradition to the streets of DC. This festive end to the holiday season features the timeless story of the Magi, performances by local musicians and dance troupes, a street parade, and free gifts for children. Free/gratis. GALA Theatre is at 3333 14th St. NW. galatheatre.org/post/threekingsday.

TUTOR

TOTAL

TUTOR

TUTORING FOR ALL

Work with experienced tutors one-on-one or in small groups to achieve your learning goals.

K-12 Subject Tutoring AP Test Prep SAT/ACT Test Prep College Counseling CONTACT US

(202) 240-7508 mytotaltutor.com info@mytotaltutor.com

PROMO CODE: 202TUTOR!

Photo: Stan Weinstein

Join the National Audubon Society Christmas Bird Count

A family holiday tradition for many, the annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC) is a long-standing program of the National Audubon Society, with over 100 years of citizen science involvement. It’s an early-winter bird census, where thousands of volunteers across the US, Canada and many countries in the Western Hemisphere, go out over a 24-hour period on one calendar day to count birds. To participate, you need to join an existing CBC circle by contacting the compiler in advance of the count day. All Christmas Bird Counts are conducted between Dec. 14 and Jan. 5, inclusive dates, each season. Read more and sign up at audubon.org/conservation/join-christmasbird-count.

A Family Christmas at the KC

On Saturday, Dec. 15 and Sunday, Dec. 24, at 11 a.m., both days, bring the kids 44

EASTOFTHERIVERDCNEWS.COM

for an unforgettable holiday experience as the Choral Arts Chorus fills the concert hall with holiday classics just for them. They’ll take you on a merry tour of Christmas favorites that will have your family singing all the way home. Expect a visit from Santa, Frosty, and Rudolph. This one-hour concert is perfect for children ages five and up. Tickets are $20 to $45. kennedy-center.org.

Jungle Discovery at Imagination Stage

Jungle Discovery is an engaging and immersive interactive experience for children ages three to six and their adults. Participants enter a fantastical jungle world where they may dress up as exotic creatures and explore the beautiful flora and fauna. Led by Jungle Guides, participants may choose to play in the jungle leaves, add flowers, play with sound using a rain stick, draw on the Mirror Mural, and make a warm nest to hide in.

There will be plenty of fun surprises in this multi-sensory environment. Jungle Discovery is at Imagination Stage, 4908 Auburn Ave., Bethesda, MD, from Dec. 26 to Jan. 14. Tickets are $19.50. imaginationstage.org.

Civil War Christmas in Camp at Fort Ward

On Saturday, Dec. 9, noon-4 p.m., the Fort Ward Civil War Christmas program features a Civil War-era Union Santa Claus, based on an 1863 cover of Harper’s Weekly by artist Thomas Nast, who will interact with the public, welcome children to the reconstructed Officers’ Hut, and visit soldiers in camp. Reenactors will interpret army life in winter camps that are decorated for the season, and celebrate by opening Christmas boxes from home, singing carols of the period around the campfire, and preparing holiday meals. The Museum will be decorated with festive greenery and a Victorian parlor tree. Children can make a holiday card or ornament. A variety of Civil War books and “stocking stuffers” are available in the Museum shop. Free admission. Fort Ward Museum & Historic Site, 4301 West Braddock Rd., Alexandria, VA. oha.alexandriava.gov/fortward.

Polar Palooza at the Atlas

On Saturday, Dec. 16, at 10 a.m., celebrate the holiday season at the Atlas, 1333 H St. NE, in a Winter Wonderland--and bundle up for Polar Palooza with the best ever Hip-Hop dance party hosted by Elements Dance Company (elementsuac.com) together with a live DJ spinning “baby beats” to get the party started. Enjoy dance performances, a Frosty Funk Cypher, and their Chilly Willy Hip Hop Creation Stations while experiencing a host of other family-friendly activities. Kiddie snacks, hot chocolate--and a little something for adults as well at their Atlas Morning Café. Recommended for ages zero to ten. Free but registration recommended. atlasarts.org/events/polar.

The Puppet Company’s Nutcracker at Glen Echo

NOW ENROLLING Grades 5-8

Through Dec. 31, join the Puppet Co. for their annual Nutcracker. This time-honored seasonal celebration includes Tchaikovsky’s familiar story of Clara and her prince, with some Puppet Co. nursery rhyme spin. Nutcracker is on stage at Glen Echo, 7300 MacArthur Blvd., Glen Echo, MD. Tickets are $15; under age two, no ticket required. Recommended for age four, up. Masks encouraged. thepuppetco.org.

CHOOSE A BETTER MIDDLE SCHOOL:

Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins

4 Enrichment Classes: Entrepreneurship, Dance, Yoga, Debate, Spanish & More!

Hershel just wants to celebrate Hanukkah with the community, but the Queen and King of the Goblins have forbidden the lighting of the candles. Can Hershel save the day and lift the curse? Glen Echo, 7300 MacArthur Blvd., Glen Echo, MD. Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins runs through Dec. 31. Tickets are $15; under age two, no ticket required. Recommended for age five, up. thepuppetco.org.

A Day of Action at the National Portrait Gallery

On Sunday, Jan. 28, 1 to 4 p.m., get inspired and find your voice. Art is activism and portraiture is powerful. Honor the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and his commitment to community action by joining the National Portrait Gallery and their partners for A Day of Action. Geared toward mobilizing teens and young adults but open to all, this event featuring local social justice partner organizations and community groups will empower visitors. Learn from change-makers who are doing the work and be inspired by the activists highlighted in the Portrait Gallery’s exhibitions “The Struggle for Justice” and “Forces of Nature: Voices that Shaped Environmentalism.” Free but registration is encouraged. The National Portrait Gallery is at Eighth and G streets NW. npg.si.edu. ◆

4 Small Classes = Individual Attention!

4 Social-Justice Focused Projects

JOIN THE COMMUNITY TODAY!

CapitalVillageSchools.org (202) 938-1416 E AST OF THE R IVER M AGAZINE

D ECEMBER 2023

XWORD Cities and Nations by Myles Mellor

Across:

1. Surprise win 6. English horse racing locale 11. Shirt part 14. Slider 18. End of a river 19. It makes quite a bang 20. Boy friend, in Bordeaux 22. That certain something 23. Caribbean capital 25. City that’s host to the Fringe (annual arts festival) 27. Stadium that hosted a 1965 Beatles concert 28. Complex dwelling 29. Some N.C.O.’s 31. Walrus features 32. Posterior 33. Forever and a day 34. Protein-full bean 35. Coupon clipper’s tool 39. “Grand” dam 42. Razz 46. ‘Twilight’ creature 47. ‘The Da Vinci Code’ author Brown 48. Unlucky 51. Major or Minor Bear 52. Puts down for the count 53. St Francis’ city 54. Temperature controls, briefly 55. Eastern Eurpean nation 61. Prefix with pathy 62. Qty. 63. Original manufacturer’s equipment, abbr. 64. Wailer 67. Jimmy 68. Not clear 72. Sale clause, abbr. 73. Billiard pusher 74. Rhode Island-based auto insurance company 75. African nations 84. Legal eagles’ org.

85. 150 religious poems 86. Nice view 87. “It just disappeared!” 89. Furniture with folding legs, usually 91. Koppel or Danson 92. Confectioner’s offering 95. Robert Louis Stevenson villain 96. Panama port 98. Hearing-related 99. Meddlesome 102. Abbr. on a copier paper tray 103. Way up the mountain 104. Four-stringed instrument 106. Size up 108. Crawl 109. Stag 113. Mexican city 115. South American city 118. Loaded 119. Dermal dilemma 120. Gallic girlfriends 121. Maj.’s superior 122. NYSE banner events 123. Newspaper inserts 124. Largest Italian lake 125. Fundraising game

Down:

1. They cover all the bases 2. Literary honey lover 3. Positive 4. Singer portrayed by Beyonce 5. Notwithstanding, for short 6. Capture 7. Small songbirds 8. R.B.I., e.g. 9. Dwarf in ‘’The Hobbit’’ 10. Windy, rainy season 11. Assist a wrongdoer 12. Crimson colors 13. Half a cocktail 14. Link 15. Creep around

E a s t o f t h e R i v er D C N e w s . c o m

Look for this months answers at labyrinthgameshop.com 16. Energy output units 17. Morse code line 21. Gay Talese’s “___ the Sons” 24. Uproar 26. Pay for 30. Bearded beast 32. Penultimate Greek letter 33. Money in electronic form 34. Baseball exec Bud 35. Law and Order ___ 36. Low-___ diet 37. “___ Excited” (Pointer Sisters hit) 38. Luxury home features 40. Hungarian composer; Franz ___ 41. Otherwise 43. Comparatively cockamamie 44. Turned into 45. Actor Harris and others

47. Bygone bird 49. Spanish bear 50. Caesar’s 1004 52. Kind of pad 53. A multitude 56. Taboos 57. Suffix with bull 58. Downed a submarine 59. Like cornstalks 60. Promise of a payback 64. Now Mumbai 65. On the train 66. “__ any drop to drink”: Coleridge 67. Groaners 68. First name in bridge 69. Profession, casually 70. MIT course 71. California University football team

73. Saharan transport 74. Impressed 76. Get off the fence 77. Org. Lincoln opposed 78. Taxi driver 79. Mexican pot 80. Makeup problem 81. Datebook abbr. 82. Court plea, informally 83. Go-getter 84. German cry 88. Sear 90. Indicates 91. Carry-on 92. Da Vinci code clue 93. Early president 94. Defunct space station 97. Counter offering, abbr. 98. Made up (for) 100. Bullring cheer 101. Lee noted for baked goods 104. Digital phone system, abbr. 105. Data 106. Shred 107. The ___ have it! 108. Small stream dam 109. Crime scene 110. Black-and-white predator 111. Writer Uris 112. Ibsen Museum locale 113. Hosp. picture 114. Electronics group 116. “Pulp Fiction” star, Thurman 117. Vatican vestment

AIR & HEATING

PAINTING To place a classified in East of the River, please call Carolina at Capital Community News, Inc. 202.543.3503 or email Carolina@hillrag.com

Roof Repairs and Replacements Specialists REPAIR & INSTALLATION • Flat Roofing • Slate Roofing LOCAL + FAMILY • Shingling OWNED & OPERATED • Skylights 30+ Years of Experience • Gutters & Downspouts • Chinmeny

Martin

Roofing CLEANING SERVICES

FLAT ROOF SPECIALIST WE STOP LEAKS!

• Roof Repairs • Tiles • Roof Coatings • Chimneys • Rubber • Gutters • Metal • Waterproofing FLAT •ROOF SPECIALIST Slate • Roof Certifications WE STOP LEAKS! We Do4 Everything! 4 Roof Repairs Tiles 4 Roof Coatings 4 Chimneys BOYD 4 Gutters 4 Rubber 4 MetalCONSTRUCTION 4 Waterproofing 4 SlateINC. 4 Roof Certifications

We Do Everything! LIC. BONDED. Lic. Bonded. Ins. INS

PROFESSIONAL CLEANING AT AN AFFORDABLE RATE

75 years in service

BBB

Member

202-223-ROOF (7663) 202-805-8011

PLUMBING Serving Capitol Hill & SW DC for Over 30 Years! Locally Owned

$20Off Your First Clean NEW CLIENT SPECIAL

Just Say I Need A Plumber®

Dial A Plumber, LLC®

• Licensed Gas Fitter • Water Heater • Boiler Work • Serving DC • References John • Drain Service • Furness Repair & Replacement

DAILY • WEEKLY • BIWEEKLY • MONTHLY PET & FAMILY FRIENDLY GET STARTED WITH YOUR FREE ESTIMATE!

703-719-9850 703-447-5500 standardcleaningservicesinc.com REFERENCES • BONDED & INSURED

ELECTRICIAN

Licensed Bonded Insured

Iboydhomeimprovements.com Call Now for your Free Estimate

202.860.9007

Kenny

202-251-1479 DC PLUMMER’S LICENSE #707

ROOFING

G G ROOFING

AWARDED BEST WASHINGTON, DC CONTRACTOR OF 2012 BY ANGIE’S LIST FAMILY OWNED & OPERATED • “50 YEARS EXPERIENCE” • Flat Roof Specialists

• Chimney Repairs

• Modified Bitumen

• Roof Coatings

• Skylights

• Gutters & Downspouts

• Shingles

• Preventive Maintenance • Metal Roofs

• Slate

10% OFF WITH THIS AD

202.425.1614 WWW.GANDGHOMEIMPROVEMENTS.NET

Licensed & Insured | All Work Managed & Inspected by Owners

WIRING

CUSTOM WIRING & REPAIR

Cable • Data and Phone Wiring CCTV • Computer Network • Smart Home TV Mounting • Home Theater

FURNITURE AND EQUIPMENT ASSEMBLIES

BLE C LINK

2 4 0. 30 5 .7 132

EARL & DENNIS OFFICEHOMENETWORK.COM