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dle on difficult issues. She was both compromising and uncompressing, recognizing the value of reaching a solution, but holding then firm to her positions.” He added, “I learned from her example.”
The Eastern Market Peace Treaty
David Grosso and Sharon Ambrose at a Grosso fundraiser on Capitol Hill in September 2012. Photo: Andrew Lightman
Sharon took to heart the advice of her political mentor, Ted Gay. “Identify your followers, get out the vote, hope everybody else forgets (to vote),” she said in a Washington Post interview. She won with 2,888 of the 11,640 votes cast. Former Ward 3 Councilmember Kathy Patterson (D), who served on the Council with Sharon, believes that she had an enormous institutional effect. “Sharon was a very big part of professionalizing the legislature,” observed Patterson. “One of the things you could measure over
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time was the depth and quality of committee reports. There got to be a bit of rivalry between my staff and hers over the quality of our committee reports. She fostered a quality of excellence in council work.” Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans (D) agreed: “Sharon would remind you of your high school English teacher. She was stern and fair. She did not suffer fools.” Council Chair Phil Mendelson (D) described her as “one of the best councilmembers, if not the best. She knew how to thread the nee-
While Sharon had a significant impact on her colleagues, she worked to greatest effect in her beloved Ward 6. As a new councilmember in 1998, she faced a ward riven by disagreements over the future of historic Eastern Market. “The Capitol Hill community was committed to the idea of saving the market,” recalled Brian Furness, a community activist and member of the Capitol Hill Restoration Society (CHRS), “but there were huge divisions, often quite bitter, about how to save it and over what should be its eventual use.” Tensions were also rising among the growing flea-market, farmers and South Hall merchants over space and resources. There were disputes over management and finances. The flea market operated illegally on public space. A group convened by the CHRS had been meeting to craft a solution, said Furness, and had come to agreement on a set of principles that could solve all the outstanding problems. When Sharon came into office she charged Esther Bushman, her legislative director, with developing legislation for Eastern Market, which Sharon saw as suffering “demolition by neglect.” Months of meetings and discussions eventually incorporated the principles established by the CHRS committee into a bill. When the bill was referred to the DC Council’s Committee on Government Operations, Sharon whipped votes for her proposal. “Her 16 years of council experience made her a major force,” Bushman said. “Everyone knew and respected her.” The legislation passed in 1999 and was “a prime example of using the art of compromise to get something accomplished,” said Donna Scheeder, chair of the Eastern Market Community Advisory Committee. Remarked Ellen OpperWeiner, lawyer, neighborhood activist, and member of the CHRS committee, “It unified Eastern Market. It never would have passed without Sha-