Town Topics

Ari Post • June 18, 2013

On June 26, the D.C. Caribbean Carnival kicked off with a vibrant parade down the Georgia Avenue corridor. Mayor Adrian Fenty and his opponent in this year’s election, council Chairman Vincent Gray, seized the opportunity to attract a slew of potential supporters.

Following directly behind Ward 4 Councilmember Muriel Bowser, Fenty was flanked by a major contingency and a traditional Caribbean Carnival float, complete with beautiful women and blaring music. The reception for Fenty was a mix of cheers and jeers.

Gray, riding atop a fire truck, had with him a group of volunteers not nearly the size of Fenty’s, but was greeted with arguably more enthusiasm by the public, crowding the chairman to shake his hand and take pictures.

Georgia Avenue promises to be a center of primary politics this year. Fenty has moved his headquarters into the old Curtis Chevrolet building, and Gray, whose headquarters is downtown, is holding a grand opening July 3 at his field office, just over a mile away from Fenty’s camp.

Ari Post •

Last week, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) announced the introduction of legislation disapproving the D.C. city council’s approval of the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Chaffetz said in a statement, “I am opposed to legislative and legal efforts to reclassify or decriminalize the use of marijuana. Marijuana is a psychotropic drug classified under Schedule I of the federal Controlled Substances Act as having ‘high potential for abuse,’ ‘no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States,’ and a ‘lack of accepted safety for use of the drug…under medical supervision.’ While certain of these principles may be open to significant debate within segments of the medical community, and among pro-legalization/decriminalization groups, I am opposed to re-classification and decriminalization efforts. And while derivatives of marijuana are available in pill form for medicinal purposes, smoked marijuana is a health danger, not a cure, and therefore remains a harmful and dangerous drug for people of all ages.”

Given the Democratic control of the House, Senate, and White House, his disapproval stands virtually no chance of passing. Mike Meno, communications director of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), the nation’s largest marijuana reform policy organization, said, “This is a law that applies to local residents in D.C., and has nothing to do with the state of Utah. [Chaffettz is] grandstanding for people back home, who might be opposed to the idea of medical marijuana.”

The efforts of Chaffetz would seem to contradict the sentiments of the majority of D.C. area citizens, who approved a medical marijuana referendum by 69 percent in 1998 — scuttled by another out-of-state representative, Georgia Republican Bob Barr. Meno believes that Chaffetz’s disapproval ultimately “won’t do anything to block the implementation in Washington, D.C.”

Still, Chaffetz, the ranking Republican on the House committee that oversees the District, will doubtlessly attempt to insert prohibitions in the city’s budget along the way.

The legislation legalizing marijuana for medical purposes in the District was submitted to Congress on June 4, and is expected to make it out by late July. Once the system is in place, anywhere from five to eight dispensaries around the city will offer qualifying patients small amounts of marijuana for treatment of various ailments.

Ari Post •

A new bill from the D.C. council, the Transportation Infrastructure Amendment Act of 2010, has been put in place to address the addition of aerial wires to be used in the 37-mile, eight-line streetcar system, expected to begin service in 2012. The law would prohibit installation of any additional telephone, electric lighting or other wires over any streets in the city of Washington beyond those that existed before July 1888, except for aerial wires that the mayor may authorize for the streetcar transit system.

The bill limits this use to H Street/Benning Road – one of the two lines currently under construction – until a citywide plan is developed for using the wires for additional streetcar lines. For the time being, the city wants to use more advanced vehicles that can operate for limited distances without an overhead power supply, in order to preserve the aesthetic of areas with scenic or historical value.

The only streetcar propulsion system that meets the affordability, reliability and serviceability test will require overhead wires for most of the designated route covered by the transit system, without having an adverse impact on the visual experience, explained Richard Bradley, president of D.C. Surface Transit, Inc. and executive director of the Downtown BID. In a Committee on Public Works and Transportation hearing, Bradley testified that the proposed streetcar system has the potential to more positively and dramatically impact community and economic development than even the Metro system – another transportation system attempting to revamp itself, with the system.

With due attention paid to urban design, these overhead wires can blend seamlessly into the city scene. Federal laws constraining the city, he added, pre-date D.C.’s Home Rule Act and were enacted by Congress in the 19th century. They do not take into account modern streetcar design and technology.
“It is our view,” Bradley said, “that the city should make its own determinations about how it will grow and be sustained into the future. This legislation puts the responsibility for determining an acceptable balance between community development and historic preservation upon the city.”

Gary Tischler •

In Washington, nothing is official until the mayor cuts the ribbon. Or the pasta, as was the case for the “official” opening of Carmine’s on June 5, the classic New York Italian family-style restaurant where everything is a little and a lot outsized.

The 700-seat restaurant with nine private dining rooms and a classic wrap-around bar is bound to make an impact at its new Washington location at 425 Seventh Street, a welcome addition and new sight during hard economic times.

D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, in the midst of an increasingly tough re-election campaign, found time to make things official for the New York-based Alicart Restaurant Group’s foray into Washington. “This shows we’re moving ahead and in the right forward direction,” the mayor said. “We welcome Carmine’s as a terrific addition to our constantly growing downtown area.

“We’ve been to a lot of ribbon-cuttings lately,” he quipped to Ward 6 Councilman Tommy Wells, who’s also up for re-election. “I think I’ve lost track.”

Jeffrey Bank, CEO of Alicart, said the company would consider bring other restaurants like Artie’s Delicatessen and Virgil’s Real Barbecue to D.C. The Washington incarnation makes the fifth Carmine’s, including two in New York’s theater district, one in Atlantic City and one in the Bahamas.

“We’ll look forward to seeing that one,” Fenty said. Bank Developer Doug Jamal, Deputy Mayor Valerie Santos, Wells and others were on hand to help launch things at the restaurant, which combines a classy city design with a family-style atmosphere of both size and intimacy. The top people at the D.C. Carmine’s are General Manager Arlene Weston, Chef Terry Natas and Kyle Carnegie, head of special events and catering.

“Everything’s big at Carmine’s,” Bank said. “It’s a kind of wow factor, oversized. The portions are sized to share among one or more people. Big portions, low check.”

For the occasion, big plates of penne, chicken, and Caesar salad and grand portions of tiramisu were on hand.

The project, which brought over 300 new jobs to the District, is one of the biggest in recent stringent times, flying into the teeth of an otherwise depressed economy.

Ari Post •

Five months after D.C. Councilmember Marion Barry was censured and stripped of his committee chairmanship for giving a contract last year to an on-again, off-again girlfriend Donna Watts-Brighthaupt, the Office of Campaign Finance has admonished the former mayor but cleared him of violating city law.

Cecily E. Collier-Montgomery, director of the campaign finance office, reprimanded Barry (D-Ward 8) in an official order posted Monday after the office found that he did not follow the city’s regulations for employee conduct.

She wrote that Barry “failed to disclose his personal and financial relationship with Donna Watts-Brighthaupt. Disclosure of the relationship would have resulted in the transparency of the transaction and removed any cloud from the contract process.”

But Barry called the order a “vindication” at a news conference Monday and had harsh words for high-profile lawyer Robert S. Bennett, who led the D.C. Council’s independent investigation into the contract and into several earmarks Barry gave to groups in Ward 8. He accused Bennett of acting against the morality of the US Justice system, saying, “His attitude was guilty until proven innocent.”

Barry, whose legal troubles have pockmarked his storied political career, was apologetic to the public for using poor judgment. However, he vehemently maintains that he broke no laws to begin with.

The campaign finance office probe also cleared Barry’s staff and others involved in the earmarks process, though reprimanded his carelessness, writing that “Barry failed to closely monitor and oversee the activities of his employees and the operations. Because of these failures to take the appropriate action, Councilmember Barry’s conduct adversely affected the confidence of public integrity of District government.”

The probes into Barry’s contracts and earmarks were spurred by his arrest July 4, 2009, on allegations of stalking Watts-Brighthaupt in Anacostia Park. The charge was quickly dropped, but some council members questioned why Barry had hired Watts-Brighthaupt.