Brian Flahaven

• The rescheduled ANC 6B Hill East Task Force meeting is next Wed., Oct. 5, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm at Payne Elementary School (1445 C Street SE). The task force will discuss the status and future of the Eastern Branch Boys & Girls Club Building located at 17th & C Streets SE. Please bring your questions!
• The Ward 6 Redistricting Task Force has sent their final report to Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells. As I mentioned in a previous post, I oppose the task force plan because it moves 1,275 residents on the western side of the current ANC 6B into the primarily Capitol Hill NE focused ANC 6C. The plan also makes significant changes to 6B single member district boundaries, though the SMD where I would reside remains relatively intact. I encourage you to share your thoughts on the plan with Councilmember Wells. You can also participate in an online poll at The Hill is Home.
• Some great news for Hill East. The District Department of Transportation announced earlier this week that a new Circulator bus route is being added to our neighborhood. The route begins at the Potomac Avenue Metro plaza, proceeds to Barracks Row and ends at the Skyland Shopping Center. Start date is Monday, Oct. 3. You can view the full route on the Circulator website. A big thanks to Councilmember Wells who pushed for this additional route during his way too short tenure as transportation committee chair.
• We (me included) often complain when city agencies and services miss the mark. However, we often don’t take time to recognize and thank city agencies and workers when they provide great service.  I want to thank the District Department of Transportation for handling two recent issues in our neighborhood. The first relates to Hurricane Irene and DDOT’s quick response when a large branch damaged the front porch and blocked the entrance to a row house. A DDOT crew came and moved the branch during the peak hours of the storm. The second issue involved a car parked on a street scheduled for tree work. The car’s owner was out of the country and some helpful neighbors asked me if there was any way to prevent the car from being ticketed and towed. Working with the Dept. of Public Works, DDOT towed the car out of the work zone and made sure it was not ticketed. Thanks DDOT!
• Finally, make plans to attend the 13th Street Community Park and Garden Yard Sale Fundraiser on Sat., Oct. 8, 9:00 am – 1:00 pm at 13th St. SE and C St. SE. You can support the new park by dropping off items for donation the morning of the Yard Sale (starting at 8:30 am) and/or purchasing items during the sale itself.  Organizers are accepting donations of clothing, kitchenware, electronics, home decorations, books, movies, toys, etc. For more information, or to drop off donated items prior to Oct. 8, contact Ksenia Kaladiouk at parkcoordinator@gmail.com

Have a great weekend!

Since the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashanah begins this Wednesday evening, ANC 6B’s Capitol Hill East Task Force Sept. 28 meeting has been rescheduled for Wednesday, October 5th, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm at Payne Elementary School (1445 C Street SE). The task force will be discussing the status of the Eastern Branch Boys & Girls Club Building (17th & C Streets SE). Here is a link to the agenda:

• ANC 6B Hill East Task Force Agenda Oct 5, 2011 (pdf)

Hope to see you there!

Last week, the Ward 6 Redistricting Task Force met twice to finalize their recommendations on ANC boundaries for Ward 6. On Monday, Sept. 19, on a divided 5-4 vote (1 abstention), the task force approved a major and controversial change to ANC 6B. The new plan moves 1,275 6B residents who live between First Street SE, East Capitol Street SE, 8th Street SE and Independence Avenue SE into ANC 6C, a primarily Northeast commission centered around Union Station and the NoMa neighborhood. Despite receiving an online petition with signatures of more than 200 residents, the task force voted again 5-4 to keep the controversial plan during their Thursday, Sept. 22 meeting.

Prior to Thursday’s vote, I wrote the task force and urged them to return to their “status quo” plan, a plan they unanimously approved in August. You can read the full text of my statement below. My main concern with the new plan is that emphasizes numbers over neighborhoods. The plan prioritizes ANC 6C’s desire for 7 commissioners over the wishes of affected residents, who clearly will be worse off. Many of the affected residents can see Eastern Market from their front door, yet will have no voice in issues affecting the market. This is wrong.

Since they approved an entirely new plan, the task force was forced to re-draw all the ANC 6B single member district (SMD) boundaries to fit the commission’s new population. View the proposed 6B SMD boundaries. Thanks to a last minute amendment that kept the Barney Circle neighborhood whole, the boundaries of my single member district changed very little (though I would now live in 6b10). However, the task force did draw current ANC 6B Chair Neil Glick into 6B10 as well, setting up a potential race between current commissioners. In addition, four other commissioners were drawn into the same single member districts.

The task force will meet for a final time tonight (Mon., Sept. 26) from 6:30 pm – 8:30 pm at 1100 4th Street SW, Second Floor  to finalize their plan. My sense is that the task force meeting will not include an opportunity for public comment. I plan on attending and tweeting the meeting.

Note that the task force will submit their plan to Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells, who will ultimately have the final say on the ANC boundaries.

My Sept. 22 Statement to the Ward 6 Redistricting Task Force

Ward 6 Redistricting Task Force members,

I’m writing to urge you to re-consider the major change you made to the redistricting plan on Monday, Sept. 19 and to support the status quo plan you unanimously approved in August. Unfortunately, I’m out of town for work this week and will be unable to attend tonight’s meeting.

Before I outline my concerns about your new plan, I do want to thank you for agreeing to serve on the task force and for the thoughtfulness you’ve brought to a difficult process. Serving on this task force is a thankless task…but I want to thank you for stepping up to serve and for the time and effort each of you have put in.

I am disappointed that a majority of the task force has put “numbers” before “neighborhoods” by moving 1275 residents from ANC 6B to ANC 6C in the new plan. The arguments for why this change is needed remind me of the arguments we in Hill East heard from the ward redistricting task force earlier this year, such as “we need to equalize the size of the wards” and “it doesn’t matter which ward you are in.” I strongly disagreed with these arguments during the ward redistricting process, and I strongly disagree with them now in the ANC redistricting process.

ANC 6C supported adding their three westernmost SMDs to 2C “because of constituents’ similar interests and issues as NoMa and North Capitol corridor development continue to move through their neighborhood.” I’m glad that 6C and the task force listened to residents who agreed that this change made sense.

However, ANC 6C’s argument in favor of adding a portion of 6B goes against the same argument they made for attaching their 3 westernmost SMDs to 2C. The 1275 residents who live south of East Capitol Street have much more in common with rest of the constituents in 6B and issues related to Eastern Market and the Hine development that directly affect their neighborhood. As I’ve said over and over again, where possible, residents should be in ANCs with their primary commercial corridors. NoMa is not the primary commerical corridor of the affected residents.

I respectfully, but strongly, disagree with Task Force Chair Fengler’s belief that residents should not be in the same ANC as their commerical corridors. If this is the case, why do ANC’s matter at all? The primary powers of ANCs relate to liquor license requests, voluntary agreements and zoning cases. The 1,275 residents who are moved from 6B to 6C will have not have a voice in the liquor license requests or zoning cases around Eastern Market and Hine, though they will be directly affected by those developments.

And the historic district argument is also a weak argument. About 1/2 of ANC 6B is in the Capitol Hill Historic District. What value do the affected residents receive for being grouped with another portion of the same historic district? No value, in my opinion.

The only rationale for moving 1275 from 6B to 6C is to make the “numbers work” and to de-prioritize the views and best interest of the affected residents. This is a bad idea…and an idea I thought was dismissed when the Rice/Fengler plan failed to gain any traction with the task force in August.

One final point: we also argued during ward redistricting that it was unwise to move large numbers of people and disrupt their representation when it was totally unnecessary. The same can be said of the ANC redistricting process. The task force’s new plan not only moves 1275 unnecessarily, it also means a massive redrawing of ANC 6B SMDs with little time to gauge community input or thoughts about the new district lines. Why disrupt so many residents when you have a stronger “status quo” plan that keeps neighborhoods grouped in the same commission areas?

Again, I encourage you to re-consider your new plan and to return to the status quo plan.

Thanks again for your time and consideration,

Brian

Brian Flahaven
Commissioner, ANC 6B09

On Wednesday, September 28, ANC 6B’s Hill East Task Force will hold a meeting on them status of the Eastern Branch Boys & Girls Club Building, located at 17th and C Streets SE. The meeting will be from 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm at Payne Elementary School, 1445 C Street SE.

The building, owned by the city and maintained by the DC Department of Real Estate Services, has been vacant since the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Washington closed its doors in 2007. In 2009, Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells formed a task force to discuss the building and to make recommendations on potential uses. Read the task force report (pdf).

During the Sept. 28 meeting, the Hill East Task Force will hear from:

• DRES on the current condition of the building,
• Chuck Burger, chair, and members of Councilmember Wells’ Eastern Branch Task Force
• Neighborhood residents.

I hope to see you there!

We had a big crowd – around 50-75 residents – at the ANC 6B meeting last night at St. Coletta. Many attendees came to voice concerns about two issues 1) ANC redistricting and 2) a special exception request by the Community Action Group (CAG) related to their property at 124 15th Street SE. Here is a brief recap of major commission actions:

• The commission unanimously approved a parking variance and special exception request for 1442 Pennsylvania Avenue SE, the old KFC site. A big thanks to the neighbors and Douglas Development for all of the community meetings and discussions.
• During the community speakout, Ksenia Kaladiouk announced that the Friends of the 13th Street Community Park & Garden is holding a yard sale and fundraiser on Saturday, October 8. You can learn more at www.13thstreetgarden.org.
• After a lengthy debate and discussion, ANC 6B voted 8-1 to approve an ANC redistricting resolution that conveys the commission’s strong support for the status quo plan adopted by the Ward 6 Redistricting Task Force. The resolution also states ANC 6B’s clear opposition to an ANC 6C proposal to move area in the western part of 6B to 6C.
• The commission voted 7-2 to remove language from the resolution that expressed ANC 6B’s disappointment that Near Southeast (Navy Yard, Nationals Park) was not added to ANC 6B. I was in the minority on this vote. While adding Near Southeast would make 6B a large, potentially unwieldy 12 member commission, I feel very strongly that the views of Near Southeast residents, who overwhelmingly want to be a part of 6B, should not be ignored. And the language did not say that the commission planned to fight on for Near Southeast…it just expressed our disappointment. However, a majority of the commission decided that the resolution should remain silent on the issue.
• The adopted redistricting resolution also suggests that the proposed northern border for 6B09 extend along Massachusetts Avenue SE from 15th St. SE to 19th St. SE. This change would add the northern side of the 1800 block of D St. SE and the southern side of the 1800 block of Massachusetts Ave. SE into 6B09.
• Ward 6 Redistricting Task Force members attended the meeting to hear input from the commission. Joe Fengler, Cody Rice, Antonette Russell, Ken Jarboe and the other members of the task force deserve a great deal of credit for the time, effort they’ve put into the redistricting process.
• I announced that the next ANC 6B Hill East Task Force meeting will take place Wednesday, Sept. 28, 6:30 pm – 8:00 pm at Payne Elementary School, 1445 C Street SE. The topic will be an update on the Eastern Branch Boys & Girls Club building, located at 17th St. SE and C St. SE. More details to come on this meeting.
• On an 8-0-1 vote, the commission approved a slate of new resident members to serve on ANC 6B committees and task forces. The following residents were approved from 6B09:
  • Planning & Zoning Committee – Ksenia Kaladiouk
  • Transportation Committee – Keith Smith (former 6B09 commissioner)
  • Hill East Task Force – Kate Wall
  • Outreach & Constituent Services Task Force – Darren Cole and Evan McCarthy

  Thanks to Ksenia, Kate, Keith, Darren and Evan for volunteering their time to represent our neighborhood.

• A number of residents showed up to voice support for and opposition to a request by CAG for a special exception related to their property at 124 15th Street SE. The case itself is pretty straightforward – CAG needs a parking special exception in order to begin construction of their new building. However, a number of residents voiced concern about parking and noise issues they’ve had with CAG in the past and asked the commission to postpone a vote on the case until October. Complicating matters was the absence of Chair Neil Glick due to illness. Commissioner Glick has been working with CAG and concerned residents to draft a memorandum of understanding. After hearing from attendees, the commission ultimately voted to support the CAG special exception with the expectation that CAG and the neighbors will reach an agreement on the MOU.
• Commissioner Brian Pate (6B05) announced that Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells will soon introduce legislation creating a new governing structure for Eastern Market. ANC 6B will likely hold a special call meeting in October to learn more about the proposed legislation and to hear comments from the community.
• The next ANC 6B meeting will be on Tuesday, October 11.