ANC Petition Deadline Approaching
Every political career has to start somewhere. Why not start the easy way—by winning an uncontested race for advisory neighborhood commissioner? The job doesn't pay and requires the ability to sit through the meetings, but it can be quite a little power trip, if that's what you're into.
As of 9 a.m. today, there were still 41 single-member districts that are wide open. No potential candidates have picked up the petition forms needed to get on the November ballot. If you're not in one of the empty guys, there's still hope: 164 of the 286 districts have only one candidate running.
Opportunity's knocking, but there's not much time to get the door. Twenty-five signatures from within your district must be handed in to the ANC office in the Wilson Building Board of Elections and Ethics office at 441 4th St. NW by 4:59:59, says ANC coordinator Gottlieb Simon. “If you haven't gotten in, the door will be locked at five.”
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10:09 pm
The job also puts the commissioners in contact with people throughout your commission, and from nearly every city agency. It teaches a lot about the city, and how it works or doesn't work. It offers a great opportunity to help one's neighbors and neighborhood. It used to be compared to Peace Corp work, but less so today. It can be as easy as a few hours per week, or as much as you care to make it. It's often frustrating, but is also rewarding. It's a worthwhile thing to do. Particularly if you are a caring and serious person.
7:19 am
The whole ANC system needs to be re-thought. As it currently stands, the ANCs are generally staffed with the neighborhood busy-bodies and NIMBYs who use the perch to communicate their own views with "great weight" to city agencies, particularly DCRA, DDOT, and the Office of Planning.
These agencies are caught in the vortex of using their professional expertise to implement what is best for the city, versus what NIMBYs in the community want for their own selfish purposes.
Just look at the commercial overlay on Capital Hill, Woodley Park and Cleveland Park. DCRA has been challenged time and time again about "how" to count the footage for commercial properties to help limit the number of "food establishments" in a neighborhood. In Cleveland Park, NIMBYs try to use the Uptown Theater as part of the count, to curtail new restraunts from coming in.
DDOT and things like the Fessenden Street blockage or the Military Road "experiment" are nothing more than NIMBY interests negatively affecting traffic conditions for the rest of the community and City.
The case of Historic Preservation and HPRB is interesting too, case in point the useless Giant at Wisconsin and Newark, which was to be redeveloped almost 8 years ago, and sits in a sea of vacant store fronts, particularly after the ANC crafted opposition to a proposal that is much less dense and impactful than the current one.
The case of "overdevelopment" in the Wisconsin Avenue corridor, where NIMBYs have packed the various ANCs and a re fervant about Ward 3 Candidate Cathy Wiss, to the extent that they are pulling Clintonian definitions (contrary to standard national practices) to cloak Ms. Wiss in the smart growth mantra. This despite the common sense appraoch to planning which suggests that massing density and development around Metro stations provides economic, environmental, housing and other benefits to the community.
Yes, the ANCs either need to be completely eliminated, or else professionalized so there are inducements to get people who truly represent the community actively engaged.
The folks who give tireless efforts to help the community are to be commended, but at the same time, these bodies are not necessarily acting in the best broader will of the community and City.
1:17 pm
In a democracy, good work is its own reward. More competative elections would help ensure the ANC's "Great Weight" is in-line with the wishes of the nieghborhood. Initial thought by the public, rather than re-thought by any city authority, seems the obvious cure for the concerns advanced in the second post above. If you don't like what ANC's do, either go out and vote or run yourself. Whining about it from the sidelines isn't going to get you any satisfaction.