Politics

Neither rain nor sleet nor snow will stop the deluge of candidates for Ward 4 city council. Earlier today I had the great pleasure of speaking with Mr. Artee Milligan. Mr. Milligan would not let a little snow stop him as he showed up for our meeting prepared for the weather with a yellow stocking cap on his head.

Background

Mr. Milligan grew up in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and graduated from LSU with a degree in accounting. He worked for Exxon Mobile for over 20 years and was known as “the fix it man.” Mr. Milligan is an expert in “process reengineering.” He moved to Ward 4 in 1994 and lives in the Shepherd Park neighborhood. He got interested in the race for city council because he said “I’m going to live and die in ward 4 and I love ward 4 and Washington DC.” Currently, Artee J. Milligan is Executive Director of Metropolitan/Delta Adult Literacy Council. He has been in this position for the past 4 years and is very proud of his record of graduating 30 students per year. His organization helps students who drop out of the public school system to achieve their GED and if they desire to attend a community or 4 year college.

Mr. Miligan explained that he feels the pulse of ward 4 residents and he will use his record of success and hard work to make sure that “we are making the community better.”

Development

Speaking of Domku, Mr. Milligan explained that “these are the kinds of places we want in Ward 4.” He continued, “ward 4 is missing the right kind of retail development.” He seeks to encourage development whereby everyone benefits. He hopes that this development will keep tax dollars in DC as well as create jobs for its residents. He cited living in a low density environment as one benefit of living in Ward 4. “We need to manage our density to retain our quality of life,” he explained. He hopes to guide this development as a representative of Ward 4 by providing “extraordinary customer service.” Milligan explained, “I know that residents want clean streets, safe communities and the right kind of development…people won’t have to call me to get these things done because I will already be working on them and they will happen automatically.”

Alley Maintenance

I recounted a story to Mr Milligan about a car that pulled up in my alley blasting music while its passengers relieved themselves against a garage. I asked him what was the appropriate response. Mr. Milligan suggested that I call 311 because long term data would be compiled that could be used by the police later on. The theme of data collection and analysis was one that emerged throughout our discussion. Mr. Milligan was actually quite passionate in his response, insisting that our alleys are not properly maintained and patrolled at present.

Public Schools

Milligan does not support Mayor Fenty’s plan to take over the public school system. He believes that the mayor and council should focus on improving after school programs, improving early childhood development and ensure that test scores and graduation rates improve. Ed. Note: I have to admit, Mr. Milligan cited a number of statistics here to back his claims but quite frankly I couldn’t write them down that fast, but his access to these statistics were quite impressive to a layperson like myself. Milligan believes that Dr. Janney and Robert Bobb should be given the chance to succeed before they are judged. He has a lot of faith in those two gentlemen. If they do not succeed then they should of course be held accountable. Finally, Mr. Milligan was adamant that no vote should take place on Fenty’s plan before a ward 4 representative is elected. Milligan explained that there is just too much at stake in this matter for ward 4 not to be represented.

Crime

Mr. Milligan summed up the solution in one word: jobs. Then another word: opportunity. He cited more statistics here about DC unemployment jumping to 6.3% coinciding with an increase in crime this past January. Quite simply Milligan explained that more jobs equals less crime and more opportunity equals less petty crime. He believes the issue of crime is closely tied to the education system. He explained that the city needs to invest more in technical and vocational training to provide opportunities to its residents. As a councilmember Milligan said he would push for greater funding and explained that “just because a student drops out of the public school system doesn’t mean that the city is no longer responsible for that student.” He told me that 75% of those folks in prison do not have a high school diploma. He believes if we can give these residents opportunities they will then have something at stake in the community and “those with a stake in the community don’t go to jail.”

When asked about community policing Milligan said that he would like to see it on a routine basis and not just as “a flavor of the month” like when a murder is committed. He says that community policing is not a panacea rather it will tax a mix of initiatives to reduce crime.

Homeless Shelter

He believes the Mission Shelter should stay where it is on 14th Street. He believes that the Petworth community does not seek this type of development.

Old Soldiers and Sailors Home

Milligan believes that the local ANCs should help design and shape the development that will occur in the old soldier’s home. He did, however, emphasize the importance of affordable housing which he explained was a quality of life issue. He would like to see affordable housing for our first responders and teachers. He said the development is a good thing when everyone benefits not just the wealthy. With affordable housing providing living accomodations for cops, firefighters and teachers then they will have a greater stake in their job as well. He explained that there was a big difference when people live and work in the same community rather than working in DC and going home to Virginia or Maryland.

Campaign funds

Mr. Milligan was joined by his campaign manager, Devlin Hilman who incidentally was wearing a matching yellow snow cap. Mr. Hilman is a 100% volunteer as is all of his staff. He explained that his volunteer staff is the equivalent of a six figure campaign war chest. However, he explained that this race is all about filling Mayor Fenty’s shoes and that he knows he can get the job done. He does not believe that any campaign should be excluded just because they haven’t raised a certain number of funds. He was very proud of the committed staff that he had assembled. Having said this, Mr. Devlin reminded Mr. Milligan that today was his 51st birthday. To celebrate his 51st birthday he will gladly accept $51 campaign contributions.

For Fun

Last great book read: The Four Agreements about life experiences and being able to accomplish anything you want to. Mr. Milligan did say that he also reads lots of statistic based articles. “An article that has a lot of data really gets my blood flowing because inside the data is the way to make our lives better.” said Milligan.

Musical taste: He likes everything except heavy metal. Last music he listened to was Prince’s new album but he enjoys a wide variety.

Last great movie: Crash

In Sum

I was extremely impressed with Mr. Milligan. He was sharp and he certainly knew his statistics. I’m sorry I couldn’t do justice to all the statistics he cited. Whether we discussed, schools or crime or the homeless shelter, he did not hesitate in responding and provided very clear and consise answers peppered with supporting data. I also liked his comments about development and the importance of not losing our low population density. My only concern is that he came off a little bit like a calculating businessman. He was a little detached from some of the issues where I would have liked to have seen a bit more passion. Nevertheless, even if detached he certainly a
ppeared to know what he was talking about.

To learn more you can visit his website at http://milliganforward4.com/

I was sent an email this morning telling me about a website covering the Ward 4 special election. You can access it here. It was started by a guy named Jeff Steele who says:

“This website is non-partisan and unaffiliated with any organization. It is a private effort aimed solely at increasing access to information about the upcoming election.”

It has lots of good info on the candidates including upcoming events. I think it is worth checking out.

Michael Brown has scored the prime real estate location for a huge banner urging voters to select him for City Council. This location is at the Sweet Mango Cafe at the intersection of New Hampshire and Georgia. Now, we should remember this is the spot where Fenty had a huge sign for his Mayoral campaign. There was even a small Fenty sign left over underneath the huge Michael Brown banner. Now, we all know Fenty has endorsed Muriel Bowser. Hmm, intriguing. Sweet Mango Cafe is Fenty territory. Now they have a huge Michael Brown banner, hmm, am I reading too much into this? Well if the previous election is any indication to the effectiveness of the banner location the other candidates may be in trouble. It seems the gloves are off and this campaign is on!

On Sunday I had the opportunity to sit down with Ms. Muriel Bowser at Petworth’s very own Domku restaurant. I met with Ms. Bowser promptly at 10 a.m. and I was pleased to see that she had already arrived and was waiting for me. Ms. Bowser insisted that I call her Muriel so I will do so throughout this post to avoid any confusion with the other candidate Bowser. Muriel had a bit of raspy voice presumably from constant campaigning. Muriel had a tea and I had a coffee (and later some borsht). So we proceeded with our interview with the sweet tunes that Domku always spins humming in the background.

Background

Muriel is a native Washingtonian and currently lives in Riggs Park. Muriel graduated high school from Elizabeth Seton and grew up in the neighborhood of North Michigan Park with her parents and five siblings. She noted that her father was one of the first ANC’s ever elected. She attended Chatham College in Pittsburg, PA where she received a degree in history. She came back to Washington, DC where she worked for a couple of years in the private sector before receiving a Master’s degree in public policy from American University in 2000. Muriel currently works for Montgomery County as the assistant director for the Silver Spring regional center. This center essentially focuses like a mini town hall representing 150,000 residents. Muriel believes that this experience will serve her well should she be elected to Washington’s city council. Muriel made it clear that should she be elected she would completely devote her work to the city council. Muriel became an ANC member for Riggs Park in 2004. Muriel is perhaps best known as the Ward 4 Precinct Coordinator for the Fenty 2006 Mayoral Campaign. Muriel has received Mayor Fenty’s endorsement.

Muriel had worked with then Councilman Fenty in her position as an ANC member of Riggs Park. She noted that they worked closely on a range of issues including a gas spill, development issues and bringing a new recreation center to the area. As Ward 4 coordinator for Fenty, Muriel was exposed to the entire Ward and all the issues it faces. She believes they work well together because they share similar leadership styles.

Public Education

Muriel believes that this issue is important to all residents. “Where our schools go our city will go,” she explained. The fact that the city is not graduating half of our kids is a huge problem according to Muriel. She said that this is a fundamental problem that needs to be addressed. She believes that we now have a strong executive to work on this problem and she supports Fenty’s plan for the schools. She believes it is extremely important that our kids graduate with the appropriate skills so that they can participate in the economy. She said that we need programs that are worthwhile to the kids. She believes that these programs should equip our kids with the requisite skills so that they can go right into the workforce. She also believes that there are greater socio economic factors at play. She firmly believes that we need to make sure that our schools attract a diverse student body. Ultimately the schools should attract students that could go to private schools but choose to go to our public schools.

Crime

Muriel believes that we need to face the known criminal activity currently in our communities. She continued, “We need focused efforts at removing the problems that we know exist.” She believes there is a vicious circle at play whereby the criminals are arrested and go through the system quickly and then return to the community without any viable alternatives to distract them from returning to their crimes. By making opportunities available we can break the vicious cycle, she said. At the same time she believes that the police have a job to do. She is adamant that we cannot have drug dealers taking over our communities. Rather, she argues that the police need to become involved with the communities. She said “obviously, we need to see the police on the street and we need them to come to community meetings but the police need to be involved before the problems arise.” If the police get involved in the community before the problems arise and participate in regular community gatherings then there will be a solid trust built, she explained. It is essential that the police get to know the residents so that the residents feel comfortable and trust the police should a problem arise, she explained. Muriel supports the use of police cameras but only as a tool that can help them do their job better. She was concerned that the cameras may simply push the criminal activity a few blocks away from the cameras.

Litter

Pride and ownership of the community is essential to battling this problem according to Muriel. She believes that we should take advantage of tools that exist like anti-littering campaigns but it is also up to local residents and community associations. She said, “If we see trash we should pick it up”. However, we have to make sure that the city services are also doing their part. In particular she mentioned that the city needs to make sure that trashcans are emptied when overflowing and to make sure that other basic services are fulfilled. She explained how the issue of litter is actually quite important and cited the broken windows theory. She explained that if there is trash on the streets, then that may lead to people placing graffiti on walls, which could lead to greater crimes. She explained that if the issue of litter remains unchecked then the neighborhoods would continue to slide. “We have to draw the line”, she said “and why not draw the line at litter.” She believes there should be a zero tolerance policy toward litter. When pushed to explain how a zero tolerance policy would be implemented she advocated a marketing campaign. However, she reiterated that the city has to do its part so that residents know they are not alone in this battle.

Development on Georgia Avenue and the Old Soldiers and Sailors Home

Muriel would like to make sure that the residents have their say in what types of development occur. She believes that the office of planning has done a great job starting the process with their great streets program. Specific issues that need to be addressed are parking, public safety and litter. She encourages a strong monitoring process to ensure that these issues are addressed. When asked what she herself would like to see occur, Muriel mentioned that she would like to spend her dollars in DC. Therefore, she would like to see a sit down restaurant, a coffee shop, a grocery store, a hair salon, a dry cleaners but she explained that we need to make sure that we have entertainment for our seniors. She would like to see any development mixed to ensure that we can “eat, dine, shop, work and play.” She believes that this type of development will continue to attract people to our neighborhoods. She did mention that this development should be sustainable to ensure that there are not adverse environmental effects.

When asked about the availability of green spaces to residents in the Old Soldiers home, Muriel explained that green space is important throughout the Ward. She said that we need to be creative to make sure each community not only has green space but also to ensure affordable housing. She said that affordable housing and green space are hard to quantify but they are invaluable. Regarding green space, Muriel explained that it was essential to have public spaces where our kids can play, where our pets can walk and where we can maintain our fitness. Furthermore, she said, these public spaces are vital to community development so that people can go outside and congregate. One way to achieve this goal is work closely with the adjacent affected communities like Ward 5.

Proposed Homeless Shelter move to Georgia Ave.

Muriel mentioned that she often hears that Ward 4 cares very much about those less fortunate
but that Ward 4 is already shouldering its fair share. She believes these types of programs should be spread out throughout all the Wards. Therefore, she does not support the move.

Yard Signs

Muriel explained that she heard of only two people that received her yard sign in error. In one case she explained that local neighborhood kids moved one of the signs. However, she was adamant that anyone who receives a yard sign in error could have it immediately removed. Furthermore, she will personally apologize to whomever this happens. But since she has only heard of two instances, she does not believe this is a big issue. She believes it is resolved.

For Fun

Muriel is currently reading Barack Obama’s Audacity of Hope.

Musically, Muriel is an intense Prince fan (ed note: Prince the musician not the Prince who is writing these words.) but she enjoys a wide range of music and is currently listening to Nina Simone.

Muriel doesn’t get to see too many movies but is a big James Bond fan and is looking forward to seeing Dreamgirls and the Pursuit of Happyness.

In Sum

Muriel Bowser is clearly one of the front-runners for this election with the support of Mayor Fenty. Like Fenty she is quite young and certainly brings a lot of passion to Ward 4 politics. She didn’t seem to be pandering to issues of particular interest to Petworth residents. However, one of my concerns is that she didn’t seem to have too many innovative or new ideas to address the standard problems facing our community. I do believe she has the passion and the intelligence to be a strong advocate for Ward 4. I only hope that her youth and relative inexperience will not affect her ability to work with the current council members.

If you would like to learn more you can visit her website at www.muriel4ward4.com

Yesterday afternoon I had the opportunity to sit down with Ms. Renee Bowser in her home on 2nd Street in our very own Petworth. As many remember from an earlier post this was our second attempt to meet and this attempt, I am happy to report, resulted in no injuries.

Ms. Bowser is originally from Philadelphia, PA. She left Philly in 1979 to attend Bryn Mawr College after which she attended law school in North Carolina and following that received an LLM from the University of Wisconsin Law School. Ms. Bowser arrived in Washington, DC in 1983 and has lived in Petworth since 1989. Ms. Bowser’s career in DC began as a labor lawyer for the federal government. Currently and for the past 21 years Ms. Bowser has been an attorney for the United Food and Commercial workers International Union (UFCW). Ms. Bowser was proud to note that she is the only labor candidate in the race and is a member of the DC Statehood Green Party.

In her 20s Ms. Bowser volunteered for the first black elected official in Pennsylvania, Hardy Williams. In her capacity as a volunteer she mostly worked on housing issues for him. In her past Ms. Bowser has also been active in anti-apartheid causes and was an early supporter of the African National Congress. Closer to home in Washington, Ms. Bowser has twice served on the DC Commission on Human Rights. Additionally, this is her third term as an ANC 4D02 commisioner of which she was the chair in 2006. Ms. Bowser ran unsuccessfully for City Council against Adrian Fenty in 2000. Although she was proud to have taken 11% of the vote in that November election.

Public Education

“We don’t need to get rid of the school board to improve the schools.” said Ms. Bowser. “We have to make sure that the money is going to the right places.” explained Ms. Bowser. At this point Ms. Bowser rattled off a series of numbers and statistics which seemed pretty impressive to me but then again I am a simple person. Ms. Bowser was adamant that the current “per pupil formula” needed to change and currently acts as a drain on the public schools. “Children are not widgets” said Ms. Bowser. I don’t really understand what the means but it seemed like a great quote. However Ms. Bowser did recount a story she had heard on one of her many walks in the neighborhood. She recounted the story of a parent of a student at Shepherd Elementary School, who said that each parent has to pay $500 a year and pay for the school’s librarian and books. Ed note: as I am not working for the Washington Post, I haven’t confirmed that fact. Nevertheless, Bowser explained that it was ridiculous for parents to be paying for these things while the city continues to add more schools. Ms. Bowser would work with the current school board to try and correct these problems. She prefers working with the current school board to Mayor Fenty’s plan of taking over the schools. Ms. Bowser explained that the system set up in NYC which Fenty hopes to mirror has not even worked all that well. She noted that test scores had actually gone down in NYC. Ms. Bowser believes it is essential to prioritize the improvements needed to the DC public school system to put the money where it is most needed.

Crime

“You are not going to police your way out of these problems.” said Ms. Bowser. She explained the role that DCRA plays in not addressing the litter issue. She believes the DCRA needs to be completely overhauled. She believes that the city puts its allegiance to the developers rather than to the individual residents. While Ms. Bowser does support community policing she believes the overall problems need to be tackled “Ward wide”. She explained how many of the issues are interconnected. She suggests tackling transportation issues, alley issues, and others together. She believes with better organization it will put more pressure for positive change. She then went off on a bit of a tangent explaining that a lack of organization resulted in the loss of DC general and is “why we have a baseball stadium.” She also explained the problems of the formula racetrack in North East near the RFK stadium which took place a few years ago.

Economic Development

“The comprehensive plan is so vague to me that we don’t know where they are in the process.” said Ms. Bowser. She believes that this development must improve the city. She believes that we “don’t have to give anything away” because the developers want to be in the city. She feels that the community was prosper as well and that there is no reason to give away this valuable property. She believes we have to be in on the ground floor with regards to the Old Soldier’s home development. Again she stressed the importance of unity here. She argues that there will be more power and influence if those who are interested in affordable housing, green space and safety all stick together and use one voice. This will result in more muscle to influence the development.

Potential Homeless Shelter move to Georgia Avenue

Ms. Bowser is not against the move to Georgia Avenue but does feel that it needs to be strictly monitored and policed to make sure that there isn’t public loitering.

She would however like to see a moratorium on group homes in Ward 4. They need to be monitored as well to make sure that they adhere to regulations.

Gentrification

Ms. Bowser does believe that gentrification is a problem due to its affect on affordable housing. She feels that we need to make sure that the housing crisis doesn’t become more severe as a result of gentrification. But she concluded that “people want people who are good neighbors.

For Fun

Ms. Bowser is reading the Great American Job Scam by Greg Leroy and recently read a book about Ella Baker.

She listens to a lot of world music, African music and blues.

The last great film she saw was Hotel Rwanda although she enjoyed the Constant Gardner as well.

In Sum

Ms. Bowser is clearly a passionate person who is willing to fight for residents of Ward 4, particularly those who are less advantaged. Meeting her was like running into a tornado. She speaks very quickly on a diverse area of topics. She was running up and down the stairs and answering telephone calls throughout our meeting. I was a little disturbed to see how much time she focused on issues that were not directly related to Ward 4 ie the baseball stadium and DC general hospital. But back to the brass tax, Ms. Bowser is smart, experienced and full of ideas.

If you are interested in learning more you can visit her website at www.RENEEbowser.org.

Last Thursday morning I was able to sit down with one of the front runners for Ward 4 City Council – Michael A. Brown. To many the name should sound familiar as he just ran unsuccessfully for mayor. Others may recall the name because Mr. Brown is the son of Ron Brown former Commerce Secretary in the Clinton Administration. The visit was quite convenient as Mr. Brown has set up his campaign (exploratory) headquarters right in the heart of lower Petworth. Mr. Brown was dressed impeccably in a pinstripe suit with bald head glistening.

Taking a look around his office you could tell we were not dealing with an amateur. There were maps all over the place with Ward 4 outlined in pencil with stick it notes all over it. I admit I don’t know a lot about campaign maps but since there was more than one I was impressed. Secondly, there was a white board and I glanced at number four since it was prominently displayed on the wall. Number four: call Oprah. Now I wonder if it is that Oprah or another Oprah. The beauty of a blog is the ability to speculate. The office was quite impressive if cluttered with campaign materials and papers, maps, and signs covering almost every inch of the working space. Later in the morning I saw his campaign staff crouching around laptop computers. Finally, you could tell Mr. Brown was a true Washingtonian as he compulsively checked his blackberry handheld device. Maybe something he picked up from the successful Ward 4 representative he is looking to replace. At any rate with the pleasantries out of the way we were able to talk turkey.

Mr. Brown is a third generation Washingtonian who grew up in Shepherd Park, attending Shepherd Elementary School. But he has also had an interesting background outside of DC. He attended college in Massachusetts where he said he played basketball. As we spoke of his college experience you could find a mischievous smile on his face, I think of this smile as a smile of privilege. It was a contagious smile though, not a pompous one. At any rate Mr. Brown has also worked for the campaign of Gov. Dukakis when he was the Democratic nominee for President. Additionally, Mr. Brown has spent time in many parts of Africa including South Africa, Ghana, Benin and Nigeria working as a lobbyist. Mr. Brown is married with twin children who attend school in Ward 4.

Education
As Mr. Brown spent a lot of time in Africa he noted that in Nairobi, the schools are often run down lacking many supplies but the children “read, write, and count better than all of us” because education is a priority to them. We need to make education a priority for our children. He does not believe that education is a priority to our youth. He suggests that our young people be exposed to culture: our museums, plays, and to accomplish this through mandatory class trips. We see folks coming in from all over the country looking at our museums, our children should have the same benefit according to Mr. Brown.

Mr. Brown also sees the need for careers and to jobs to be available to our youth upon graduation. As such he also advocates for the (re)establishment of vocational and technical schools. These are not for everyone but they should be an option and any stigma that is attached to them should be removed. Mr. Brown believes that this transition could be identified in Middle School when the young folks can be given a road map identifying all of their options. Mr. Brown explained the link between lack of education and crime and the remedy – Hope. Mr. Brown was adamant that we needed to show our youth hope to break the cycle of despair and crime.

Public Safety
Mr. Brown was proud to note he has been credited with spending time with young people in troubled neighborhoods. “We need to engage these youth” said Mr. Brown. We should set up apprentice programs, entrepreneurial programs and programs addressing the unemployed, said Mr. Brown. Mr. Brown often linked many of the issues facing Ward 4. We can not properly address public safety without addressing public education without addressing affordable housing without addressing public safety etc. “People need hope and opportunity to stop crime.” This resonated with me, as a student of the Middle East Peace Process, hope was often linked with stopping that cycle of violence as well.

However, community policing is important as well. The surveillance cameras alone will not solve the problem rather smart police deployments. Here Mr. Brown linked affordable housing with police deployment. The city should provide better affordable housing to our City’s police officers and firefighters so that they will live in the communities they serve and therefore have a greater stake.

Hope, hope, and more hope
This message was repeated over and over. When addressing pride in the community and gentrification Mr. Brown explained that the residents shouldn’t feel displaced. They need to feel hope for the future and everything else will follow.

Old Soldier’s Home
We should consider a dog park according to Mr. Brown. This goes to the issue of density and public space is extremely important. I’m not sure how strongly Mr. Brown feels about this issue as I really had to push for an answer on this, it was not the first thing that came to his mind when addressing Old Soldier’s home development. But the fact that he eventually said it does seem to be a good sign.

Property tax
We should eliminate property tax permanently for seniors said Mr. Brown. Mr. Brown explained that as residents are pushed out due to high property taxes we also lose out on the local economy because these are the people who are shopping at our stores. This will hopefully help us retain our residents. Also Mr. Brown supports capping property tax for the rest of us for 38-52 months to figure out a responsible rate.

Homeless Shelter in Ward 1 on Georgia Avenue
Mr. Brown is publicly opposed to moving the current homeless shelter on 14th and R to Ward 1 on Georgia Avenue. Every Ward should have to deal with special needs and Ward 4 currently has many group homes so the Shelter should not be moved especially without significant community input.

For Fun
Mr. Brown is reading $40 million slaves by William Rhoden.

Mr. Brown listens to an ipod and is not sure of the last songs his kids downloaded for him but he likes anything from hip hop to Frank Sinatra.

Mr. Brown last saw Casino Royale (he is more of a Roger Moore fan.)

In sum
I would not be surprised to see Mr. Brown representing Ward 4 in April. He has an established staff, many volunteers, and an unsinkable positive spirit. I may worry that he is only using this position as a springboard to future politics but I guess everyone does that. So in the short term, as evidenced by positioning his headquarters in Petworth, I believe as Councilman for Ward 4, Mr. Brown will keep Petworth at the front of his thoughts.

You can visit Mr. Brown’s website at www.brown2007exploratory.com

T.A. Uqdah
Last Wednesday evening I had the pleasure of sitting down with Mr. Uqdah and his wife and campaign manager Pamela Ferrell to discuss Mr. Uqdah’s run for Ward 4 City Council. My neighbor and Domku bartender Joe was making fun of me for pretending to be a journalist when Mr. Uqdah and his wife arrived. Mr. Uqdah had a presence about him that allowed me to recognize him immediately even though we had never met. Mr. Uqdah, dressed impeccably in a tan suit, is a tall man with a magnetic personality that makes you feel like you are in the presence of a TV star, a professional athlete or a, well a politician.

Although, as I was to learn, Mr. Uqdah did not come across as a traditional politician littering our conversation with campaign rhetoric, rather Mr. Uqdah comes across as the exact opposite, frankly he is a passionate person with an engaging personality and with some bold and somewhat controversial new ideas, if not the most politically sophisticated ones. Clearly there is no Greenberg and associates feeding him polling data behind the scenes here. Nevertheless, Mr. Uqdah seems to be brimming with confidence and charm. The fact that Ms. Ferrell was able to join us was an added bonus. Ms. Ferrell was about half the size of Mr. Uqdah with very serious eyes that exuded intelligence. So we sat down for a half an hour interview that ended up lasting one and a half hours. Mr. Uqdah had the mussels and a black coffee while Ms. Ferrell had a specialty tea and apple pie.

Mr. Uqdah is a lifelong DC resident who attended public school in DC and now lives in the Brightwood Park or 16th Street Heights neighborhood of Ward 4. He is 54 years old and the father of two young children. He has lived in Ward 4 for the past 26 years and he previously ran for city council, unsuccessfully, in 1992. Currently he is a businessman, he and his wife own and run Cornrows & Co. hair salon on 14th Street. In addition to a businessman, Mr. Uqdah, is a community activist, volunteer and lobbyist for a variety of causes. Although he seemed most proud of his efforts working with community youth as well as working on efforts to beautify neighborhoods in Ward 4. When asked why he was running now he replied “the opportunity presented itself.”

DC Public Schools
Mr. Uqdah supports in principle Mayor-elect Fenty’s plan on taking over the school board, however, he will first need to see the plan in full before he will make a final judgment. Mr. Uqdah presented some unique ideas as we discussed the DC public school system. DC should consider establishing more vocational schools to teach our youth practical skills that can help address the City’s future needs. He offered the teaching of elevator and escalator repair as an example. Secondly, and a bit more controversially, Mr. Uqdah stressed the need for more parental involvement vis a vis their children’s education. He suggested an admittedly radical solution to make the parental role a mandatory one. When I inquired further as to what exactly he meant by mandatory he alluded to the fining and/or incarceration of parents if they failed to fulfill their roles. Now what exactly their roles are to be aside from attending PTA meetings was not completely flushed out. Nevertheless it was refreshing to hear a point of view that included the importance of parents in the successful education of their children.

Mr. Uqdah’s children are currently home-schooled.

Garbage on the streets
“Consider legislation that would make an additional tax for carry out restaurant orders” Mr. Uqdah boldly suggested. This additional tax could then be used to fund additional cleanup crews. But to get at the root of the problem Mr. Uqdah believes that this issue must be addressed in DC public schools. “The kid need a civics lesson,” he said. Couple that with more garbage cans on the street and you can make a dent in the problem. Mr. Uqdah hopes that if the children are educated to take pride in their community they can then transfer this pride to their parents and guardians.

Crime
Cameras will not solve the problem according to Mr. Uqdah. Rather we need a revised community police effort. This effort will allow Ward 4 residents to get to know their neighborhood police officers just like many residents know their mailmen/women. When I asked Mr. Uqdah who his mailman was he answered without hesitating. He also told me where his postman lived and when his birthday was. It was very impressive. Mr. Uqdah said he can train people to do what he has done successfully: cleaning up neighborhoods, working with troubled youth, even getting a dysfunctional mental health home removed from his neighborhood.

In Mr. Uqdah I saw a man who practices what he preaches. But my concern is that many of his answers worked on a small scale but I question whether they can work on a larger Ward wide scale. It was not clear he had fully thought out the obstacles to translating his personal experiences to a Ward of over 50,000 residents.

Gentrification
Not an issue according to Mr. Uqdah. The best way to get people to integrate into their neighborhoods is simply to get out with your kids or your pets and meet and talk with your neighbors.

Georgia Avenue Revitalization
We need more restaurants, bookstores, flower shops, bistros, watering holes, we need all of those things according to Mr. Uqdah. This was music to my ears. Although Mr. Uqdah does not believe that the government should dictate what type of stores must go in certain locales. Let’s let the market take care of that, said Mr. Uqdah.

Proposed Homeless Shelter in Ward 1 on Georgia Ave
We need to create a program to transition the homeless not simply to shelter them temporarily said Mr. Uqdah. The people running the homeless shelter must give real assurances that they will have ultimate accountability for the shelter he said. When pressed if he supported the specific shelter in Ward 1 off Georgia Ave, he said he would not support its move from the U Street area.

Old Soldiers’ and Airman’s Home
“In a perfect world I’d like to see really affordable housing” said Mr. Uqdah. He tweaked Mayor William’s wish that DC attract 100,000 new residents, rather Mr. Uqdah would like to see DC attract 100,000 new families. The key to that success, according to Mr. Uqdah is affordable housing. Mr. Uqdah did not mention anything about the need for public green spaces.

Books, Music and Movies
Mr. Uqdah is currently reading a book on Martin Luther King’s leadership style by Donald T. Philips.

Mr. Uqdah is listening to a CD by John Legend.

As for movies, Mr. Uqdah reminded me that he had two little children and mentioned something about the wheels on the bus going round and round.

In Sum
Mr. Uqdah is someone with a real passion for the City and for Ward 4 in particular. He has adopted the successful green colors (his campaign literature does feature a photograph of Mr. Uqdah in an unfortunate combination of light green turtle neck sweater and green felt hat but this is not a fashion critique) from the Fenty campaign, and most importantly he is not afraid to speak his mind. I have no doubt he would be a passionate advocate for Petworth.

You can visit Mr. Uqdah’s website at www.UQDAH44.com