BACA Meeting 1/5/09

Harry Thomas Jr. took up a good portion of the meeting. He was dressed in a nice dark suit, white or light colored shirt with french cuffs and a lovely crisp black and white or black and gray tie. Kudos to whomever picks out his clothes.
HT started off with a moment of silence for his intern who died in the recent tragic fire on Jackson St SE. There is a fund for her and her family and the local churches and community has been great in coming forward to offer help to defray some of the costs of the funeral expenses.
HT mentioned that he has been to some of the coffee shops in the area, chatting with the citizens, finding out their concerns. The big concern crime in the early morning, when people go to work.
HT talked about the violent crime that has been going on in Ward 5 and a majority of it is between familiars.
HT talked about the year in review. HT's been to 7 of the 12 BACA meetings. Of his accomplishments that I bothered to write down he designed a booklet on how to testify before the council. There is a question mark near that one. I don't remember why I made that note. He's also involved with municipal parking.
On the topic of DC schools being re purposed he reminded the assembly that some DC schools were given to DC by the Federal government and that 'gift' comes with limitations on use. So the schools may be limited to education and recreation.
HT talked about the budget cuts. He praised the leadership of Mr. Gandhi, of building in a reserve from the fat years so that we are not hurting as badly as some of the surrounding municipalities. However, new projects, capital projects and some long term projects are going to suffer.
Apparently there is some problem with Armstrong. Something about loss of green space so a church can park on Sundays. HT is looking into that.
The assembly mentioned that on the unit block of Bates and P St, DDOT employees have been parking illegally. HT will look into that.
HT admitted to getting ticketed for speeding and parking.
There was some chatter about a phone phishing scheme from the Blah Blah Federal Credit Union.
Mary Ann Wilmner spoke and got us to get into groups and talk about the vision for the neighborhood. She got us to figure out what we as civic association can do now. Some of the ideas was to petition to get the Dunbar track open to residents, another was to become a CDC, I didn't write down the other ideas.