Mayor Gray Discusses the Budget

July 26, 2011

Mayor Vincent Gray took time to visit with the Kalorama Citizens Association this week. His arrival still seemed curious, even to himself, as it often is with newly minted and elected officials. And it’s already almost March.

“I remember this was one of the first places I came after I made my announcement to run for mayor,” he said. “Wasn’t even a year ago.”

He laughed to himself a little. “Seems more like 10 years ago, to tell you the truth.”

Since the triumphant elections, (the Democratic primary upset of incumbent Mayor Adrian Fenty) and the celebratory inauguration, reality has set in to some degree, much like the kind that’s setting in all over the country.

“I wish I came bearing good news,” he said. “But we’re in the same boat as everyone else. We have a major budget deficit to deal with and everyone is gong to suffer some. It’s about sharing the suffering.”

“It’s happening to everyone—look at our surrounding jurisdiction, look at Maryland, look at New York State and New York City where I just talked with Mayor Bloomberg who’s facing a huge deficit. We all commiserate. In Illinois, they balanced the budget—by raising the state income tax to over 60 percent. So these days it’s tough being a legislator, it’s tough being mayor, it’s tough making the hard decisions. But we’re going to do it, and we’re going to get through this.”

He said the city is facing a 2012 deficit of $500 to 600 million. “That means we’re facing severe cuts while trying to find ways to raise additional revenues.”

Gray said that he does not anticipate a control board takeover of the city. “It’s very simple,” he said. “I know people worry about it. That’s one of the constraints on our government that others don’t have. If we don’t balance the budget, we lose control. The reason that won’t happen is that I will never, never allow that to happen.”

“This is going to be about shared sacrifices and shared decisions,” he said. “One of the biggest problems we have is that we’ve spent down our fund balance account, basically our savings account. That’s how we managed to balance the budget the last few years. Now we’re looking at for 2012 a possible deficit in the neighborhood of $600 million. I always see this thing when I go around talking about cuts and sacrifices—and people nod their heads, they say yeah. But then [they say] not in my neighborhood, not my program, not this place.”

He continued: “There will be severe consequences, but we have no choice.”

“The good news is that our bond rating is not down. But we have an unhappy prospect and duty in front of us. It’s going to be difficult, but we will get through it and come out ahead at the end of it all. But for now and the next few years, no question things will be difficult.”

Gray appears to be turning into a passionate advocate for statehood. “Look at what’s happening,” he said. “They (the House) want us to eliminate anything to do with abortion; they’re telling us we can’t fund our needle exchange program, which is so effective in combating AIDS here. Mind you, they’re talking about what we can do with OUR money.”

“How much longer are we going to put up with this?” he asked.

He’s often said he’ll be an advocate and a strong one, but he wants people behind him. “I don’t understand the apathy about this,” he said. “We have the right—the duty—to make decisions about how we spend our money, and yet nobody seems to care. There’s always the same people who speak passionately about this. Look what’ s happening in the world, in Egypt, in Tunisia, all over the Middle East. People demonstrating for liberty and freedoms, including some freedoms that we ourselves don’t have here. Where’s our outrage? There’s no self-government, Lincoln said, unless everyone participates.”

His talk, with some question and answer time, came at a meeting that resembles other such meetings across the city—the body civic taking on such issues as noisy bars, which is a big topic in Adams Morgan where bars and night life are a large part of the commercial economy, but also a major quality of life nuisance for residents. It’s an eternal battle that reflects itself in other areas of the city, including Georgetown. There’s concern about shuttered storefronts—an increasing number here—and who here is going to be asked to share in the sacrifice.

“I’m not contemplating across-the-board cuts,” Gray said. “I think this is going to be a strategic approach. There are some cuts it just doesn’t make sense to do—we can’t eliminate job training and expect to deal with the several unemployment issues in our poorer wards, for instance.”

News of bin Laden’s Death Digs Up Old Memories


My son called me last night from Henderson, Nevada at 11:30. You know how it is with late night phone calls. You get that sinking feeling: Something’s wrong.

Turned out something was right.

“Did you hear the news?” he asked.

My son isn’t the effusive, over-the-top type, but I could tell he was glad about the news of Osama bin Laden. You have to be an al Qaeda member not to be relieved that bin Laden was gone for good.

I watched the president’s speech about the news as he connected the dots between 9/11 and its tragic outcome for so many people in New York and here in Washington. I flashed almost instantly back to that day, as I’m sure many did. Osama bin Laden did not live in a cave, as many had originally thought, but a comfortable, pricy compound outside of Islamabad in Pakistan.

I went to sleep and it stayed with me. I woke up thinking about it.

I thought it might be a good thing to take the same 42 Metro Bus I took less than ten years ago to the Farragut Square stop and relive the time, thinking maybe something would come of it.

I stopped at Lafayette Square in front of the White House where the night before in a spontaneous eruption of joy and relief, Americans, most of them young, demonstrated vibrantly and defiantly and celebrated the death of a fiend whose deed has haunted and changed our daily life.

Flags were waved. People shouted, “USA! USA! USA!” At a New York and Philadelphia baseball game, crowds cheered. At a rousing gathering of people at Ground Zero in New York, where the dust is still holy, in fire stations all over the city, in Boston and the heartland, people cheered.

It was quieter at Lafayette Park by mid-morning the next day, but the buzz was still palpable with the sun shining off the press umbrellas and gear on the White House grounds, where a sniper loomed on top of the building. The boisterous throngs had left, but there were still tourists posing in front of the White House, the usual mis-an-scene on the street and the decades-old permanent anti-nuke and peace demonstrators. The media remained, many of them international television crews, roaming like restless pigeons going over crumbs, looking for archetypical Americans to interview. The middle-aged, mustached man with an American flag t-shirt corralled everyone. Anyone who might have looked like a heartland tourist was instantly buttonholed.

A man was on the phone, calling someone in Florida, “We got the SOB,” he said. “Thank god. We got him.” He was an Oriole fan, a retired landscaper at Loyola, a man still haunted by what he had seen on television those ten years ago, planes going into buildings. “I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “I thought it was a Rambo movie. You just don’t forget. Too many people. It was a shock. I never had a cell phone til’ then.”

His name was Strickland, and he embraced the moment as if it was a lifeline to the time before it happened. “I bet you money,” he said, “that right about now he’s in good company. You know, Hitler, Stalin, those guys. And I bet Mohammed wants to have a stern word with him too, about what he did to the reputation of Islam.”

A man walked around carrying a sing that read, “End the wars,” a message not entirely engaged with by people who wanted to savor this moment, as a War on Terror victory, who couldn’t forget that Tuesday morning and the disaster that came out of the skies and all the years since.

“The guy deserved to die,” a high schooler said. He was three years old when the airplanes hit the World Trade Centers.

Geraldo Rivera arrived, resplendent as only he can be: the mustache, the suit, the sparkling teeth and the clichés. “There’s Geraldo, “somebody yelled. He got the crowd to wave at the White House. “What goes around comes around,” the Fox News star said. People cheered.

There were girls in threes holding up newspaper headlines to be photographed. The guy in a flag t-shirt came by. His name was Joe Pisciotta, and he was a history teacher at TC Williams High School in Northern Virginia. He’d gone to the Pentagon only moments after the plane had crashed into the building. “I took some pictures,” he said. “You could see what was happening…the destruction, what the plane had done, all that furious destruction.”

“Maybe all those families, all those people who lost someone, maybe they’ll get some closure,” he said. “We all need it, I guess. I’m glad he’s dead.”

He did not say this with rancor and that reminded me that I was glad, too. Not dancing-in-the-street glad, but glad nonetheless. I remembered that day too, because I was right here, where he and I were talking.

I was going to the Corcoran for an exhibition. I didn’t make it. There were hundreds of people on their cell phones, frantic.

I asked the policemen, who were as calm as a rock in sunlight, what was going on. “Two planes hit the World Trade Center buildings. Another one hit the Pentagon a little while ago. One is supposed to be coming this way.” He nodded at the White House behind us.

None of it quite registered. That a plane could actually crash into the White House didn’t occur to me. Like everyone else, it overwhelmed me. I had not seen the images on television yet. Then it registered.

I saw Christian stockbrokers kneel in the street and pray for New York. I saw thousands begin the long trek home across the Virginia bridges, the circles leading to Bethesda and Chevy Chase and further on.

I bought a throw-away camera at CVS. I went to the Mayflower Hotel to find a phone. People were huddled around a television set, and you heard about them trying to get to New York. With Peter Jennings announcing, I saw the second tower fall. I couldn’t think of anything at all. A woman said that we were all going home to a different world.

I didn’t know what that meant, thinking back, but I knew it was the truth. Later in the week, people in the neighborhood came to a nearby plaza, lit candles, and sang “We Shall Overcome.”

That was nearly ten years ago. The deaths, the shock and the wars are never far from my mind. Osama bin Laden’s death shows that. President Obama gave a speech touching on memory and unity: all of us are haunted the same way.

In a year when bad news was a part of your breakfast cereal, the death of an evil man seems like bloody sunshine. I bask in it, uncomfortably, waiting for warmth and relief, as if something had ended at last.

Ins & Outs of Local Business


Over the past few months Georgetown has seen many businesses open, a few close down, and some move to new locations. Be sure to get all the information before embarking on your holiday shopping in Georgetown!

On Wisconsin Ave., Georgetown has added some sugar, spice and everything nice. The walls of Georgetown Candy, located at 1417 Wisconsin Ave., are covered with all different assortments of sweets and treats for the holidays.

The Tea and Spice Exchange, located at 1069 Wisconsin Ave., offers a huge range of different spices and seasonings, perfect for the Thanksgiving turkey or Christmas ham. You can bet they have those rare spices and unique salts that you might see in a cookbook but wouldn’t know where to find. Their tea selection is an international bazaar of flavors and styles.

Muncheez Mania, at 1071 Wisconsin Ave., right next to The Tea and Spice Exchange, offers homemade fare late into the night. Grab sandwiches, salads, wraps and crepes until 4a.m., when they finally close up.

At 1237 Wisconsin Ave., Madewell, a store in the J Crew chain, opened offering great styles at great prices and perfect gifts this holiday season for women.

Ugg Australia opened a store at 1249 Wisconsin Ave. in late September, just in time for the fall boot craze.

Ed Hardy reopened after closing last spring, bringing back their funky styles to 1250 Wisconsin Ave.

Not too far from Wisconsin Avenue in the Georgetown Park Mall, The Dandelion Patch opened, offering designer stationary and much more with which to announce your Christmas party or to spice up your Christmas newsletter to friends.

At 3221 M St., Barbour opened offering clothes for the country lifestyle with great outerwear for the winter. Hu’s Wear expanded their space on M Street, offering more unique designer items for women.

Cadey’s Alley welcomes Alessi, which sells classic designs for household items. They have a Christmas guide to inspire ideas for those on your Christmas list with a keen eye for home aesthetics. Also in Cadey’s Alley, Design Within Reach, at 3306 M St., expanded their space, where they have modern furnishings to update your home for your holiday parties.

City Sports will soon open a DC flagship store at 3338 M. St. in Cadey’s Alley for all your active-wear needs.

At 1211 Potomac St., the infamous headquarters of the controversial Philly Pizza, Go Fresh opened its doors, serving sandwiches and salads, with unique vegetarian options, including choice baked potatoes with assorted toppings. And while the owners of Go Fresh are the same folks who owned Philly Pizza, it’s safe to say this won’t stir up half the commotion.

P Street saw both closings and openings. At 3236 P St. Ella Rue opened, offering overstock or consignment designer apparel at a low cost. Proper Topper, an accessory and gift store, closed, but there is still a location at Dupont Circle for your holiday shopping. Quantum Fitness closed too, so prepare to work off that Thanksgiving turkey elsewhere.

Formerly located at 1614 Wisconsin Ave. Presse Bookstore closed suddenly in early October, but is still selling online. Bandolino, a shoe store focused on comfortable stylish shoes, formerly located at 1329 Wisconsin Ave., has also closed.

Many are still awaiting the opening of Sprinkles Cupcakes at 3015 M St., which is scheduled to open in January, and Serendipity3 for more unique desert options in Georgetown.

At 2101 L St., nutritional chef Annie Leconte, who attained her MBA from GW, has opened her first restaurant, Litestars, which serves up soup drinks, salads and more. The restaurant aims to serve functional, nutritious foods—perfect for lunch while trying to stay trim through the regular holiday gluttony.

And last but not least, congratulations to Rockland’s Barbeque and Grilling Company, at 2418 Wisconsin Ave., for 20 successful years of cooking up their now-famous, fingerlickin’ neighborhood barbeque. [gallery ids="99564,104789" nav="thumbs"]

Casablanca means White House


“I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!” Captain Renault said as he was pocketing a bribe in Rick’s casino in the movie Casablanca.

Last week, the Wall Street Journal and this week, Congress have both reacted to recent budget news the same way: “We’re shocked, shocked that the federal budget deficit projections for 2012 have been revised upward from $1.1 trillion to $1.6 trillion.”

Well…what did Congress think that a $500 billion tax cut was going to do? Have no impact on the deficit? Collect less, but expect the bank account to not go down? Wait. That was two months ago—a lifetime in politics. More than enough time to be erased from the public and government memory.

Here’s the big picture: In the 2012 federal budget, taxes will bring in $2.1 trillion and spending will be $3.7 trillion, leaving a $1.6 trillion deficit. Compare that to 2000 when tax receipts were $2.1 trillion – unadjusted for inflation – and spending was $1.8 trillion.

The budget debate drove the election and promises were made to cut $100 billion, or about 6 percent of the amount needed to balance the budget. When it became too difficult to find that much to cut, the hurdle was reduced to $35 billion, but the Tea Party got mad that it wasn’t enough. Now the promise is to find $60 billion in thus far unspecified cuts.

But let’s give Congress credit anyway for finding that $60 billion. That’s about 4 percent of the annual deficit, leaving another 96 percent to cut to balance the budget.

Let’s look under the hood and find some ideas. Defense, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are sacred. Few Senators and Representatives can vote to cut those items and be re-elected, so even now, as we debate this, that can is being kicked down the road again until next year. Just like the past 30, 50, 80 years.

Let’s dig in and see what we can do. The Department of Education seems to be an easy target, always at the top of the list of federal departments to eliminate. Wipe it out. The states can do a better job taking care of education anyway. Students can get their loans from banks. If banks won’t make loans and young people can’t afford to go to college, they can get jobs, save, and then go to college later. That saves $70 billion. Good start.

Everyone knows that HUD is a snake pit of problems. If we’ve learned anything in the past decade, we know that Wall Street has all kinds of secret ways to make the housing market function. That’s another $40 billion. Now we’re getting somewhere. We’ve cut that first $100 billion. Only $1.5 trillion to go.

Maybe this piecemeal approach is too slow and painful. Like pulling off a Band-Aid slowly rather than jerking it off. Here’s a thought: With all this talk about smaller government, how about no government? Eliminate it all.

No one likes the IRS and the Treasury Department. Or the EPA. Those environmentalists are so pesky. Transportation could be turned over to the private sector like parking lots. Just make all the highways toll roads. Pay for it when you use it. Send Congress and the President home. Shut the Courts. Turn out the lights. The states can figure it out because they are required to have balanced budgets.

Drastic times require drastic action. So, if we eliminate the entire federal government as we know it, would that balance the budget? Not really. In fact, not even close. All federal government operations cost $400 billion, about 25% of the total deficit. That leaves another $1.2 trillion to cut.

Hmmm. This is going to be really tough. Especially since we’re scared to touch defense, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.

And heaven help us if we raise taxes. President Reagan taught us an important lesson: Cut taxes and the budget will balance itself. Except that he raised taxes in seven of the eight years he was President and the annual budget deficits doubled on his watch. President George H.W. Bush taught us that a vote to raise taxes is a vote for your opponent in the next election.

Casablanca is the answer: We’re shocked, shocked! Maybe these problems don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. If we don’t figure this out, we’ll regret it. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow, but soon and for the rest of our lives.

Good lines, huh? Even 70 years ago.

Remember how Casablanca ended? Renault threatened to have Rick arrested. Rick threatened to shoot Renault. They decided that was MAD, or Mutually Assured Destruction. So they promptly changed their minds, and as they walked away together, Rick said, “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

Congress and President Obama need a date night at Washington’s Casablanca, White House. They could watch that movie together.

NPR: Eyes on the Prize


There is a new level of irony in Juan-gate at NPR. Senior Vice President for News Ellen Weiss, who spent nearly three decades at NPR, recently “resigned” over the issue, and for CEO Vivian Schiller withholding her bonus. Journalist Juan Williams, whose mishandled firing led to these actions, built a career on brilliant journalism, including a nomination for a Pulitzer and his seminal work on civil rights in “Eyes on the Prize.” The irony is that his case has become a distraction from keeping the eyes on NPR’s true prize.

Lost in the accusations and responses about a news organization gone awry is the bigger existential threat to NPR. Although NPR’s listeners are abundant and loyal (bigger than the combined nightly network broadcasts by some measures), and its endowment flush, we should remember that Vivian Schiller took over an organization with a business model that is fundamentally broken. Schiller’s task is nothing less than reinventing the NPR business.

Here is the problem. NPR is not a broadcaster. For all its own fundraising and other undertakings, it relies heavily on local public radio stations to pay to air its programs. But NPR sees a major part of its future online. Yet if the “big money” broadcasts, such as Morning Edition and All Things Considered, are put live online, then there is no reason for listeners to tune into local stations or their websites to hear them. Obviously, that would eat into the listener loyalty to, say, WAMU (DC’s public radio station) and effect how much listeners will feel compelled to send into the legendary pledge campaigns, which make up a sizable part of their annual budgets and ability to pay NPR’s fees. Furthermore, these local stations control NPR’s board, a development after the stations saved NPR from shutting down in bankruptcy in the 1980s.

Schiller has a history of building new successful media business models, from CNN, to Discovery-Times documentary network, to leading the New York Times newspaper into its current online incarnation. But this is her biggest challenge yet. To be successful at NPR, she needs to find a way to reconcile seeming mutually irreconcilable needs and get the local stations to go along. Withholding her bonus and forcing management changes because of this one personnel issue doesn’t help in that crusade.

NPR has long had a checkered past in its handling of human resource issues. But wherever one stands on Juan-gate, if you are in any way invested in NPR’s existence, there is a far bigger prize to be focused on today. Survival. [gallery ids="99586,104913" nav="thumbs"]

The Power of One


It’s been 10 days since the astounding ouster of President Mubarak. Many Egyptians who adopted Tahrir Square as their makeshift home embodied the dignity and resolve that epitomizes human potential. As they abandoned fear and committed their lives to democracy, freedom rang in the streets of Cairo.

Their ripples of hope became a wave to wash Mubarak from banks of the Nile, a peaceful but forceful tsunami overflowing the shores of the Mediterranean and Arabian Seas.

Every day, our screens are filled with images of thousands of youths whose courage evokes great spiritual leaders. They recall Mahatma Gandhi’s nonviolent movement for India’s freedom and Martin Luther King’s rallies for a united America. These heroes of humanity set remarkable examples, as may be true of the current demonstrators in the Middle East, whose goals may take years to fully achieve.

Still, these movements have unprecedented speed and impact. Middle Eastern youths are re-branding their region from violent terrorism to peaceful activism. They have achieved the near forgotten prophecy of technology to lift up humanity. And they have created the incredible phenomenon of rolling revolutions as individuals become fully empowered.

The vibrant energy of the Arab states recalls the campaign and inauguration that transformed D.C. two years ago. But these Middle Eastern movements, which represent the overthrow of systems rather than the unlikely outcome of one, may be a more powerful inspiration.

They remind us that vast and growing inequality has tangible consequences. In America, the wealthy bask in greater luxury while the poor struggle for food and shelter and the middle class lose rights and income. Workers, galvanized by a plan to end to collective bargaining for most Wisconsin public employees, are taking to statehouses around the country in an unprecedented statement of solidarity.

They remind Washingtonians that demands for fair representation can be taken from the back of our cars to the front of the Capitol.

They remind us that more important than the clothes or houses we live in are the ideals we live by. That the hunger for opportunity, justice, and democracy is universal. And according time to struggle for these cherished ideals, despite daily demands, is to seize the chance to write history.

They show us the power of one and the importance of living life by example. To many in the Middle East, the difference between democratic leadership creating broad economic opportunity and the status quo was the contrast between virtual slavery and exalted freedom. And they won it after one person rose up fearlessly, then another, then another, and many more.

Individually, it is important to champion causes with the power to transform our communities, be it healthy and affordable food, safe and effective schools, greater equality or sustainable industries.

By singly living out our values we can, together, create a brighter future for our country.

The Player: Linda Levy Grossman


Linda Levy Grossman is reviewing photos for this article with WTOP’s Bob Madigan and me at RIS restaurant. Grossman, the Helen Hayes Awards president and CEO explains one of them.

“We wanted the recipients of the awards to have something that would distinguish them,” she says. “One of the staging assistants brought out Victoria’s Secret bags and I said, ‘I’m going to tell you right now, on behalf of the Helen Hayes awards for all you recipients: you’re all going to get lei’d.’”

Winners received, “lovely 68 cent leis from Oriental Traders – no expense was spared,” she says, as we laugh. “The Victoria’s Secret bag cost more.”

The night when the organization bestows awards on the finest actors in DC – this city’s answer to the Tony’s – is one of Grossman’s most inspiring and challenging ventures. “Immediately after the presentation the curtain comes down and I’m wandering around and hearing people say, ‘Gosh. I wish I had seen that,’” she recalls. “And I ask myself how can we lasso that energy and get them to the theater?”

The evening brings out the verve and creativity with which Grossman pilots the organization at the helm of the region’s performing arts. But it also demonstrates her demanding mission. While she sees more than 100 shows each year, she strives to ensure others also invest their money and time.

The Evolution of Helen Hayes

For the last year and a half, she has been working with consultants on a Compass foundation grant to identify the 27-year-old organization’s true potential. A major focus: to translate her oft-quoted challenge of putting “butts in seats” into a loftier goal of branding. The CEO of two years wants to define Washington theater like Broadway or the West End.

“Before you go to London or New York you think: What am I going to see when I get there,” she says. “Imagine visitors coming here to go to the theater.”

The evolution will encompass changing the communications, strategy, governance, programming, staffing, funding and name of the organization (although the award’s will remain unchanged). It will build on the core functions that have helped expand Washington’s 20 niche theaters to today’s vibrant 79 since she joined Helen Hayes.

Grossman has spent more than two decades supporting the group, including 13 years on the leadership team. Yet she is modest about her accomplishments, unlike her friend and sometime co-worker, Olney Theatre Centre Producing Director Brad Watkins.

“The Helen Hayes Awards have really created the engine for the expansion and growth of the theater industry in Washington DC,” Watkins said in a phone call. “It is that sort of a central linchpin that has given such focus to the arts that allowed companies of varying size to flourish.”

In its new guise, the organization will continue to promote a culture of theatrical excellence and provide a stamp of achievement to those who shine. The $1 million organization will expand their advocacy for the arts, cultivating new audiences and building on an education program that has already introduced 40,000 children in District public schools and Boys & Girls Clubs to the magic of the theater. That project has special resonance with Grossman.

“I respond to that program so personally and am so enthusiastic about it because I was one of those children whose life was literally turned around by a teacher,” she says.

Childhood Dreams

The Baltimore resident aspired to become a pediatrician in the 11th grade, approaching it with trademark, if misdirected, enthusiasm.

“I was the poster child for future doctors of America,” she announces. “I volunteered in hospitals, I was a candy striper, I audited classes in medical school, I saw surgeries.” Yet despite flagging interest and dropping math and chemistry grades, she didn’t know how to alter her ambition. That changed when one class she enrolled in was filled and she was reassigned to a speech class.

“That was a pivotal moment in my entire life,” Grossman says. Ms. Ann-Michelle Bennett, the speech and drama teacher, saw potential in the shy and awkward teenager. She assigned Grossman to stage manage all the year’s productions. The newly directed and confident Grossman followed her idol to Emerson College, graduating with a degree in theater.

She came to DC after graduating, joining Harlequin Dinner Theatre a few years later. She worked long hours as she promoted the local touring company, living in a Germantown condominium development on a cul-de-sac with three coworkers.

“Linda was a culinary genius,” Watkins recalls. “Every now and then she would make wonderful, incredibly complex dinners that were far beyond what our unsophisticated palates could appreciate. We thought we were Knot’s Landing.”

The Harlequin led to other jobs, and she eventually ended up freelancing at the Helen Hayes. Over the years, Grossman has done virtually every backstage task—building sets, running light boards, stage managing, hanging lights and sewing costumes—as well as all deskwork, from communication to development.

Not surprisingly, Grossman exposed her son Benjamin to the theater at an early age. But her aspirations for him revolved around her desire for devoted care and the continued status as the most important woman in his life.

“I wanted him to be a gay dentist,” she quips. “He assures me he’s going to be neither, to which I say take a knife and stick it in my heart and turn it.”

Four years ago, after stage managing Shakespeare productions at Imagination Stage, Benjamin applied to the Baltimore School for the Arts, making his ambitions clear.

“I thought he would be an audience member,” she says. But Benjamin corrected her misconceptions.

“You’ve been taking me to the theater since I was two,” he told her. “You honestly think it wouldn’t have taken?”

True Appeal and Potential

To make it ‘take’ for others, she has to win time from popular and often heavily marketed pursuits like Facebook, television and movies. As she puts it, a theater ticket is “a purchase that is perceived to be risky, that is perceived to be expensive, that’s perceived to be something that ‘if I don’t like it, it’s two hours I am never going to get back.’”
However, she is working to combat this stigma. “There are phenomenal ticketing opportunities. It’s incredibly accessible. It’s two hours – take a risk. It’s not electronic. It’s alive, it’s real and it’s true.”

For some people, plays already hold huge appeal. Surveys show that theater and art attendance tends to be shaped like an hourglass: more shows in the later teens and 20s, a drop as people raise families, and a resurgence as they come back in their 50s and 60s. The graying of the audience is a helpful trend for theater.

But young audiences are a challenge, as education programs demonstrate. “When we talk to kids, we say, ‘Who has been in a theater?’ All the hands go up. Great. Tell me what you saw…and they refer to various movies.

“Then we ask, ‘Who’s seen live theater with real people on a stage acting out a story, a play, a musical?’… Not one.” But programs that go behind the scenes generate long-term enthusiasm from these first-time audiences.

Grossman would rather “under-promise and over-deliver” on the new organization. Yet she dreams about its potential impact.

“It could double the number of people who are currently in Washington theaters from 2 million to 4 million,” she says. “It could provide health insurance for actors and artists. It could more efficiently connect the about 130 education programs that are offered by area theaters with kids in area schools through the region who desperately need them.”

She pauses as she searches for a sufficiently dramatic word. “It could be dazzling.”

Click here to listen to the interview with Linda Levy-Grossman
February 23rd Interview with The Player Linda Levy-Grossman by Bob Bob Madigan, WTOP Radios Man About Town 103.5 FM

Will Tax Cuts For Top Tier Create Jobs?


My company is a small business. I think. We have approximately 25 employees. Even in our hometown Salisbury, North Carolina most people have never heard of us.

I’m not sure what the word “small” means, but compared to most companies in the US, we may be considered big. The IRS reports that approximately 6 million corporations, 3 million partnerships, and over 20 million proprietorships file tax returns. Corporations make the most money, have the best stats, and hire the most people.

Of the 6 million corporations, only 160,000, or 7%, have more assets than we have, and only 35,000, or 1.5%, have more sales than we do. Are we a small business? I certainly think so. Our employees think so. I wake up every day wondering if CVS or Walgreens or Walmart or all those other huge pharmacies are going to squash us.

So, I feel pretty much in the middle of this tax debate that is using small businesses as the bait for two hot tax issues. First, should taxes go up by 3% for people making over $250,000? Second, should employers have a payroll tax holiday if they hire new employees? Clearly, those tax breaks would increase my profits a little, but would they encourage me to invest and hire more employees? Absolutely not. Will it affect the 2012 election? Probably.

“Small businesses are the engine of job growth,” we’re told. Talking heads say that there are 700,000 small businesses earning over $250,000. On average, every county in the country has 200 small businesses earning that amount. In Virginia, Maryland, and DC, that’s reasonable, but drive 75 miles in any direction to an “average” county. Butch Cassidy was equally perplexed: “Who are those guys?” Most of those 700,000 small businesses earning over $250,000 are doctors and lawyers. Are they the engines for job growth?

Perhaps a brief tax history might help. In the early 1970s, Congress passed a 10% income tax surcharge to pay for the Vietnam War. Back then, both political parties were fiscally responsible, cooperative, and voted for that tax. It was pretty simple: compute your tax and add 10%. (Did you know that North Carolina has an add-on tax now?) If your tax bill was $1,000 and you had paid in $1,300, you would have gotten a $300 refund. But with 10% added to your tax bill, making it $1,100, your refund was only $200.

Over the next 20 years, taxes were cut on the idea that deficits would go down because economic growth would more than offset the revenue loss. Indeed, there was economic growth but deficits went up. President Reagan criticized President Carter’s $50 billion deficits, but his budgets (the President, not Congress, makes out the budget) were above $300 billion.

In 1988, the first President Bush, said, “Read my lips. No new taxes,” but knowing he had to be fiscally responsible, he raised taxes. In 1993, President Clinton raised tax rates at the top of the income scale about 3%. Over the next eight years, the economy grew like never before, tax receipts increased, and deficits disappeared. Microsoft, Apple, Coke, and many new and old companies grew like weeds despite higher taxes. The stock market tripled.

In 2001, the second President Bush passed a 10 year tax cut that is scheduled to expire at the end of this month. Today, compared to 10 years ago, the stock market is the same and unemployment is double.

Consequently, the United States now faces a huge and growing deficit problem. We spend $3 for every $2 we collect in taxes. There is waste, for sure, but not that much. Those dreaded “earmarks” are less than 1/10 of 1% of the entire budget. Contrary to popular belief, Congress cannot eliminate earmarks to balance the budget. In fact, just walking out of our wars and then eliminating the entire defense department completely wouldn’t balance the budget. Nor would eliminating Social Security completely. This is a really big problem.

Like students waiting until the last moment to prepare for exams, Congress has waited until the last moment to deal with the expiring tax cuts. (Frankly, this tax debate should be part of a larger debate about the entire budget.) President Obama is arguing that the Bush tax cuts should be kept for those making under $250,000. That will increase borrowing and the deficit by $2.7 trillion. The Republicans and some Democrats want to extend the tax cuts permanently which will increase borrowing and the deficit $3.7 trillion. So, this argument is about whether to borrow another $2.7 trillion or $3.7 trillion. Eliminating those pesky earmarks saves about $30 billion, or .001% of those amounts.

Why borrow these extra trillions? To help small businesses — like ours — hire people and grow. If my company earns an extra $10,000, these tax cuts save us $300. If Congress also passes a payroll tax holiday and we hire another employee for, say, $25,000, it will save us another $1,200. I’m not fond of taxes, but if the government cuts my company’s taxes $1,500, is that why my company is going to hire another employee? Not at all. We hire new employees when she or he is going to help our business, not to save $1,500 in tax.

Growing a business is about growing a business, not taxes. (Of course, we could move to the Bahamas or Ireland and reduce our taxes, but small businesses can’t do that.) No business decides to grow or not grow because of taxes. No business decides to hire a new employee or not because of taxes. Why doesn’t Congress understand that?

US Senator Everett Dirksen once said, “A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon it adds up to real money.” No more. Now, we talk trillions.

This debate is silly. Ignore the rhetoric. It’s about how much more are we going to borrow and increase the deficit. It is not about reducing the deficit by a dime.

David Post is the owner of a small business that was founded in Washington, DC and is on Inc. Magazines list of the fastest growing companies in the US. He was a professor at American University and Georgetown for 10 years. Contact him at: editorial@Georgetowner.com

Utraque Unum?


The Latin phrase (normally not in the form of a question) is Georgetown University’s motto—”both are one”—first found in St. Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians, regarding Gentiles and Jews together, on coins of the Spanish Empire, and later for the Jesuit school’s unity of learning and faith. Today, this phrase cannot be uttered between the University and the historic neighborhood to describe Georgetown, as the University’s new 10-year plan has moved neighbor groups to protest anew and loudly so.

Ward 2 Councilman Jack Evans finds the plan a “disappointment,” while University president John DeGioia believes the campus plan to be “modest.” A recent Georgetown Advisory Neighborhood Commission meeting did not echo such mild words.

The University has argued: “Georgetown’s plan includes a handful of new projects that would enhance on-campus academic and recreational spaces, including pedestrian-friendly walkways, construction that would allow buses to turn around on campus and renovations to the Medical Center. The new plan also carries over some projects not completed from the 2000 plan, including an addition to Lauinger Library, the renovation of the New South building for student space, and construction of a new athletic training facility on campus. The 2010-2020 campus plan reflects more than two years of conversations with the university community and local residents, and includes deliberate efforts to respond to concerns about enrollment, off-campus student life, safety and congestion in surrounding neighborhoods. For example, in response to community concerns, Georgetown removed its proposal to develop on-campus student housing in the 1789 block of 36th Street and decided not to request an extension of the chimney height on the heating and cooling plant.”

Citizens groups still strongly disagreed. They see the addition of more graduate students and lack of any new on-campus housing as threatening to the historic district’s quality of life.

Indeed, the Citizens Association of Georgetown—which acknowledges the immense value of the University, founded in 1789 in a Maryland village established in 1751—has started a Save Our Neighborhood Fund: “CAG has carefully reviewed the G.U. plan and believes it violates D.C. zoning regulations and would negatively impact the quality of life in Georgetown’s residential neighborhoods.”

CAG contends that the plan would increase graduate student enrollment by more than 2,100 students, thus “increasing the total student population from approximately 14,000 to more than 16,000 students, provide no additional undergraduate on-campus housing and add 1,000 parking spaces to accommodate anticipated additional traffic to campus and the hospital.”

Moreover, CAG continues: “We will testify before the Board of Zoning — the ultimate decision-maker regarding the campus plan. We need your help to prepare for this hearing, and to educate our neighbors, our community leadership, the University’s leadership and our city decision-makers about this issue.”

Georgetown student activists have been knocked out of their bubble by the neighborhood response to the plan. “It is definitely possible to understand [the neighbors’] concerns to some degree, but at times [they are] almost irrational,” said one student at an ANC meeting. And in the non-news category, let us affirm that some students have been the university’s worst ambassadors, causing late-night noise, rowdiness and vandalism.

“[The students] cannot follow basic rules of living,” ANC commissioner Tom Birch said at the same meeting. Students are left to ponder that some Georgetowners their parents’ age don’t really like them.

The previous 10-year plan wrought enormous changes within the campus: the Southwest Quadrangle (the University’s largest-ever construction), the Davis arts center and the new business school building, to name the biggest. The university is jammed against its west (Archbold-Glover Park) and south (The C&O Canal and the Potomac) with spillage, pushing north to Burleith and Foxhall and east into the west village of Georgetown. Such geography does not excuse University administrators’ past poor decisions, such as the fumbling of Mount Vernon campus. Indeed, just as the University has a presence in Qatar, and its students volunteer in Appalachia and Anacostia, the nation’s oldest Catholic institution of higher learning would do well to connect even more often and consistently to its neighbors just three blocks away.

The Georgetown ANC will vote on the campus plan at its monthly meeting, Feb. 28. “We’ve gotten the comments from the community organizations and the university. So, it’s time for us to take a position,” said chairman Ron Lewis. Expect lawsuits to follow—just like last time.

Again, Hoya paranoia spreads, and generational resentment grows. Not that anyone is really seeking a “Can’t we all get along?” moment. There need be no call for an idealistic “Utraque Unum.” Nevertheless, both of us are here, in this together, and we can say hello to each other. It is merely a separate peace that we can abide.

Government Math


A one-mile high stack of dollar bills is about $1.4 million. A billion dollars would be about 70 miles high.

The first thing Congress did after the election was cut taxes by almost $900 billion. That stack of dollar bills would be 60,000 miles high – enough to go around the earth twice, and then go from Washington, DC to Moscow. And back.

That was my best Christmas present: lower taxes for two years. PLUS a cut in social security taxes, which will make my paycheck go up about $150 per month this year. (Of course, if I don’t get a raise at the end of this year, my paycheck will go down next January.)

Voters like tax cuts. And Congress loves to please the voters.

Voters are also screaming for budget cuts. Congress knows how to talk the talk. But it hates the walk because taking money away pleases very few voters.

Government math is hard to understand. Maybe big numbers are just hard to understand.

The new Congress is now wrestling with budget cuts. The Republicans’ “Pledge to America” promised $100 billion in spending cuts. But after a week of facing the realities of the budget, they have reduced their target to $50 billion with some whispers that even $35 billion is going to be hard to reach.

How much is $100 billion? A stack of dollar bills about 700 miles long – about the distance from Washington, DC to Chicago.

The federal government spends about $275 billion per month and brings in about $175 billion per month, leaving a monthly deficit of $100 billion per month. So $100 billion in spending cuts would be the equivalent of the federal deficit for one month.

These are huge numbers and the math is very difficult. It reminds me of a situation I was in about thirty years ago when a client of mine refinanced a $2 million loan. I took the $2 million check from the new lender to the bank and asked that it be deposited immediately so that we could write a check for $2 million to repay the old loan. The teller told me that we would have to wait three days.

I asked for an exception. The teller talked to a vice president and we were able to repay the old loan immediately. The teller apologized and said, “I don’t handle $2 billion deposits that often.”

“That’s $2 Million,” I said, “Not $2 Billion.”

The next thing I heard was the budget lesson of a lifetime: “Million, billion? What’s the difference?”

Maybe that teller was right. Is there a difference? Can we understand what this is all about? Maybe this is the new math.

Last month, Congress reduced revenues by almost $900 billion and this month, promised to cut spending by $100 billion, and now hopes to squeeze at least $35 billion out of budget expenses.

Think about it this way: The next time your income goes down $9, tell your family that that you are going to reduce the family expenses by $1. Then actually cut expenses by 35 cents. That’s the new congress. Declare the family victorious for being fiscally responsible. That’s the new math. That’s the new Congress.

David Post is the owner of a small business that was founded in Washington, DC and is on Inc. Magazines list of the fastest growing companies in the US. He was a professor at American University and Georgetown for 10 years. Contact him at: editorial@Georgetowner.com