Last month, Mayor Adrian Fenty and Ward 1 Councilmember Jim Graham held a special ceremony heralding the reopening of the Banneker Recreation Center. Prior to the ceremony, neighbors complained that the Georgia Avenue center, which had been closed over a year for repairs, was contributing to an uptick in juvenile delinquency in the neighborhood. They complained that the kids who might normally find themselves at the rec center were finding themselves in trouble instead.

After only a few weeks of operation, the rec center's doors are closed again.

Two weeks ago, Darren Jones, president of the Pleasant Plains Civic Association, says he noticed a sign on the front door of the rec center indicating that it was closed again until further notice. Before, the Department of Parks and Recreation blamed their failure to get the building open on an unfinished wheelchair ramp. This time, it's the air-conditioning system.

"The air conditioner has been out, that's my understanding," says department spokesperson Regina Williams. The agency, she says, is waiting for a special part to come in for the HVAC unit. Williams says she doesn't know for sure when the center will be open again.

Jones says that after such a lengthy prior closure, having the recreation center closed again is unacceptable.

"It's offensive that...a year and a half after they started [doing] almost $4.8 million in renovation, they're still having problems with the AC system," Jones says. "It's outrageous."

If you didn't know there was an election today, you're far from the only one. In the special election for District I school-board representative, writer Mary Lord was the only candidate on the ballot, and her campaign for a body eviscerated by Mayor Adrian Fenty's schools takeover hasn't elicited much turnout around Wards 1 and 2.

In the three years Arnold Goldberger has worked the polls at the Marie Reed Learning Center in Adams Morgan, he usually sees three or four hundred voters by the early afternoon. By that time on Tuesday, he'd seen eight.

"Normally when we open the polls at 7 a.m., there's a line to the front door," he says. "People in this precinct, they're active. They vote."

By 2:15, only six people had voted at Garnet-Patterson Middle School.

Brent Beemer, a 37-year-old government employee who lives in Logan Circle, was one of the few who turned out to vote. He says not knowing Lord couldn't stop him from fulfilling his civic duty.

"We yell about our voting rights in this city all the time," Beemer says. "So when given the chance to exercise them, I think that we should. It's just the right thing to do."

Louise Green, the precinct captain at Metropolitan Baptist Church and a 30-year-veteran poll worker, described the voter turnout for the special election as "very low."

But there was some excitement to be found. Arlester Brown, precinct captain at Fifteenth Street Presbyterian Church, had seen more action than most in his ward. By 4 p.m., he'd processed a whopping 17 voters, and he'd even witnessed a protest. A voter came to the polls, took his ballot, and then refused to vote, according to Brown, saying he was protesting the polls being open for just one candidate.

Board of Elections and Ethics spokesperson Bill O'Field says he won't take the protest of the $250,000 election personally. "It is an undervote, basically," he says. "That's the voter's right."

Back at Marie Reed, Goldberger didn't get nearly so much action. "We're going to petition the board...to give us extra pay for boredom," he says.

Regardless of what improvements are made around it, a charred façade of three old storefronts at the corner of Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. and Good Hope Road in Southeast has refused to improve. It's been vacant, overgrown with weeds, and even damaged by fire, and business advocates have championed its demolition for years. But since the structure is more than 100 years old, historic preservationists have stood in the way of that.

The Anacostia Economic Development Corporation has been trying to take over the aging structure for some time now, and now they have cause for hope. According to the Washington Business Journal, District officials have approved the demolition of the rear of the building. AEDC will be able to take over the building after that.

As executive director of Main Street Anacostia, Yavocka Young is painfully aware of how buildings like this one negate the corridor's viability and add to the perception of blight in the neighborhood ("Strip Tease," Nov. 16) She's not sure exactly how long it will take to redevelop the site, or what businesses will be able to move in or when, but she's hopeful it's a step in the right direction.

"I think it's good that development can move forward," she says.

Megachains aren’t always a fitting companion to history, but in the U Street corridor, the two are scheduled to become a package deal.

This fall, a CVS drugstore will open adjacent to the African-American Civil War Memorial at U and 10th Streets NW. The store will occupy the ground floor of the Prince Hall Grand Lodge. Now people stocking up on toilet paper and chewing gum will spill out onto the memorial site—not exactly what neighbors and planners envisioned. Derrick Woody, coordinator of the D.C. Office of Planning’s Great Streets Initiative, would have liked to see a restaurant or cafe with outdoor seating, coupled with an apparel store and perhaps a small welcoming center.

“Our vision was to have a use that drew people into the neighborhood and helped to animate that space,” Woody says. “I don’t see that people are going to be sitting outside of the CVS.” Frank Smith, founding director of the African-American Civil War Memorial, sees the reality pretty clearly: “Unfortunately, when you don’t own the property, your choices are limited [as] to what you can do.”

WUSA-TV's Bruce Johnson posted an old news clip (WMV) a couple of days ago that contained his report on Ralph Waldo "Petey" Greene's 1984 death. A version of Petey Greene's story is told on the big screen in Talk to Me, which came out in theaters last month.

After hearing (and writing about) the story of Lurma Rackley---the reporter Greene chose to write his autobiography just before he died---I've found old reports like Johnson's to be all the more relevant. There's so little information about Greene's real life that people are taking the movie at face value.

For instance, I was watching Tavis Smiley's talk show a few nights ago and Smiley was interviewing Don Cheadle, the actor who plays Greene in the movie. It was clear from Smiley's line of questioning that he assumed Cheadle was an expert on Greene. It's arguable that there are no experts on Greene---he wasn't an elected official, and there aren't gobs of information out there about him. But if there were an expert, it definitely wouldn't be the man who played a dramatized version of him in a Hollywood movie.

Smiley asked Cheadle a few pointed questions about dramatized scenes in the movie, and it was obvious that Smiley assumed those scenes were taken from Greene's real-life story. And Cheadle just went with it, improvising answers instead of informing Smiley and viewers that hey, he's just an actor reading a largely fictionalized script about a man who died over 20 years ago.

But that just goes to show that when you're dead and gone and someone decides to resurrect your story, they can tell it however they want. But check out the movie---it's pretty good. And read Rackley's book to get more from Petey in his own words.

Those cute Euro scooters and mopeds have been a favorite prey of local crooks for a couple of years now, but a couple of recent incidents indicate that scooterjackers have a new MO: Just hop on for a ride.

Last Thursday evening, Zia Koreishi was in Adams Morgan on his scooter when he noticed a couple of teenagers eyeballing him. He was waiting for the light to change at the intersection of 18th Street and Florida Avenue NW when one of the kids walked calmly up to his silver-and-black Yamaha Zuma and took a seat behind him.

"[He] said, 'Let's go for a ride,'" says Koreishi, a 31-year-old Brightwood resident. "I turned around and I said, 'No, I don't think so.'" But the thief pulled out a gun and pressed it to his spine.

"'You either get the fuck off...or I'm going to put five caps in your back,'" Koreishi says he was told. He got the fuck off.

Koreishi says the theft took less than 30 seconds. He immediately called the police who sent a few units out to scour the area. But they told him on the spot that he probably won't see his scooter again.

Less than a week later, a poster on a local scooter discussion board reported a similar theft at a stoplight on Park Road NW.

Despite the new tactics, the number of scooter thefts has been holding steady, says 3rd District Lieutenant Mark Dykes. "There has not been a rash of incidents," he says.

But that's not enough to reassure Koreishi. "It was a very skillful operation," he says, noting that the thieves were very calm "They had no masks; they were completely blending into the Adams Morgan landscape; they didn't stand out in any way."

The Department of Parks and Recreation held a special ceremony today to reopen the Banneker Recreation Center on Georgia Avenue. The rec center had been closed for repairs for over a year, and some neighbors had started to get restless, as it looked like it was to remain closed for the second crucial summer season in a row.

I have no idea what the rec center looked like beforehand, but I must say that today it looked great. The highlight of the facility is clearly the huge swimming pool out back, but when it's too cold to swim, the center will make a nice place to hang out and play some table games. It boasts a light-filled computer lab and a multipurpose-looking room that will probably make a good spot for community meetings. There's a game room that has a pool table, a pingpong table, and some other kind of table that I couldn't identify. Downstairs, I spied a weight room full of free weights and a mirrored cardio room which, to my disappointment, contained only two measley machines: a stepper and a treadmill. All in all, though, it's a great addition to the community. My only hope is that DPR will keep the center in the immaculate shape it was in today. (And get an elliptical machine for that cardio room!)

You've seen the maternal signs: the polite and pleading "Please curb your dog" or the more demanding "Scoop your pets poop!" and all other manner of slogans aimed at reminding dog owners to do something they know they're supposed to do anyway. The signs, like a nagging mother telling you to pick your wet towel up off the bathroom floor, may incite you to begrudgingly do the right thing, but they're easy to ignore if you're hellbent on being inconsiderate.

Enter a new breed of sign---this one spotted on the block of Champlain Street near our offices. It doesn't demand or boss you around, but rather appeals to your inner aesthete and horticulturist:

Judging by the neatly kept box and the health of the roses, it's working.

In the last six months, the residents of the Phyllis Wheatley YWCA in Shaw have put up with a sudden change in management, threats of eviction, and 54 lawsuits---most eventually dropped---for nonpayment of rent . Now the residents of the single-room-occupancy facility---mostly older disabled and mentally ill women---are getting eaten alive by bedbugs.

"The whole building is infested," says Sharon Rhoner, president of the newly formed Phyllis Wheatley Cares Tenants Association and a four-month tenant of the building. Rhoner says tenants have complained about the infestation to city agencies to no avail. Resident Vera Arrington says her bedbugs got so bad, she started treating them with a heavy-duty spray she got from the fire department.

Antonia Mathos, 53, who has lived at Wheatley since 2000, has had frequent complaints about the upkeep of the building. "These people refuse to do needed repairs," Mathos says, referring to Vision Realty Management, the company that recently took over responsibility for the building.

“Landlords are legally required to keep the building in compliance with the housing code, and it’s not,” says Rebecca Lindhurst, an attorney for nearby non-profit Bread for the City who has represented several tenants.

Sam Lowery, a Vision Realty partner, says his company is aware of the bedbug problem and has hired a pest-control company, but he says it takes everyone's involvement to kill the bugs. "This is an ongoing problem," he says. "We've asked that the treatment in place be buttressed by the residents with cleanliness and housekeeping."

Lowery says a list of recommendations was sent out in April that included notes on laundry, vacuuming, and keeping rooms sanitary.

Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Alex Padro says he used to refer women who had no other place to go to the YWCA for temporary housing. Now, he says, he'll think twice about making any referrals. "The board has abdicated its responsibility," he says.

In mid-March, residents of the Phyllis Wheatley YWCA in Shaw, a refuge for abused and mentally ill women, got a rude surprise. Vision Realty Management, which recently started managing the building, filed suit against 54 residents of the 116-room facility, claiming they owed thousands of dollars in back rent. Most of the women protested, saying they were paid up.

Now, months later, it seems they were right. The overwhelming majority of the suits, says Rebecca Lindhurst, an attorney with nonprofit Bread for the City, have not held up in court. "We have done an exhaustive search of all the cases that came out of that initial wave of suits, and according to my findings, it looks like everything except maybe five cases were dismissed," she says.

Sam Lowery, a Vision Realty partner, admits there were some recordkeeping issues on his company's end.

"When [tenants] produced the evidence that they'd paid based on evidence that we didn't have in our possession," Lowery says, "we asked that those cases be dismissed, and rightfully so."

"A few residents" still owe money, he says, "but we're working with them."

Alex Padro, a Shaw advisory neighborhood commissioner who's been involved in the dispute since March, claims Vision took advantage of the fragile state of some of its tenants by suing without proper cause.

"The fact that you had a new management company…come in, and records that were in disarray, prompted them to overreact," he says. "It was very cavalier, very unprofessional, and demeaning [to the YWCA residents]."

Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans might be returning to his roots as an advisory neighborhood commissioner.

For the past two months, the rancor that's come to characterize the Shaw ANC since the beginning of the year has paralyzed the group's operations. Scheduled public meetings in March and April were cancelled by Chair Doris Brooks---the first for no stated reason, the second because a community member started taping the proceedings---leaving ANC business, such as event permits and liquor-license applications, to Evans' office.

On April 30, Evans finally had enough, calling an emergency meeting to broker peace between the four commissioners. At the meeting, according to Commissioner Kevin Chapple (pictured), Evans promised to run the ANC meetings himself if things didn't improve. Chapple says his main complaint was Brooks' refusal to make important documents---agendas and quarterly reports, for instance---available for review before meetings. With Evans present, he says Brooks agreed to make the reports available and to even hold a special officers' election to make Chapple secretary at the May ANC meeting.

But at the meeting a few days later, Brooks declined to hold the election, saying there wasn't enough time on the agenda. Says Brooks: "That's gone and past, and I don't want to deal with it, really."

Evans says he's not concerned with how the ANC members treat each other, just that they take care of business. "The commissioners are working better together," he wrote in an e-mail. "The fact that they don't agree is not my issue. My concern was that they weren't meeting at all."

"I don't know what he means by that," says Chapple, who describes the May ANC meeting as anything but civil. "If he means that we had a meeting and it wasn't cancelled then that's one assessment. But I can't imagine that he...would think the ANC is working well. It was melee; it was a meltdown....I thought people might come to blows at one point. This is not a functional ANC."

Photo by Charles Steck

As a black person, I've developed, somewhat to my embarrassment, a formula to avoid the anxiety-ridden act of hailing a cab: (1) If possible, just catch the bus. The bus does not discriminate. (2) If you're going to be out super-late, just drive. Spending an hour searching for a parking spot beats being alone and stranded late at night any day. (3) If you're downtown, especially near a hotel, find a taxi stand---cabs are lined up and they have to take you where you want to go. (4) If the trip is two miles or less, just walk.

While I rarely hail cabs at all anymore, I was reminded of this over the weekend when I had the misfortune of watching a middle-aged blind couple (who also happened to be black) trying to catch a cab near Metro Center. Situated across the street at a patio table outside of Potbelly's, I watched this couple stand on the curb for about 20 minutes. Every 30 seconds or so, they'd listen for the surge in traffic before they raised their walking sticks into the air. And no one stopped.

Finally, a security guard from a nearby building came out and tried to help. But he was also black, and no one stopped for him, either. He then went inside to get somebody to help. This guy was white and, in a matter of seconds, a cab pulled up. It was one of those moments that you've read about or heard about on talk radio. For me, it was a moment that's played out countless times in my life that I'd forgotten about---like having no one to sit with in the cafeteria; it probably happened to you a long ago, but since you're not in school anymore, you don't think about it.

How humiliating it was to watch that scene play out. I felt as helpless as I'm sure the security guard did. While we both had our sight, we still couldn't do much to help the poor couple since we, too, were handicapped.

I've never been able to form an opinion on panhandlers. While on a very basic level I just can't embrace the practice of begging, from time to time I put myself in that person's shoes. I think, if things got as bad as that, if I had to beg on the street to get someone to give me a dollar, I would hope that someone would give it to me.

This weekend, I was near the intersection of New Jersey and New York Avenues NW queued up with the rest of the cars waiting to get on 395 when I saw an unusual panhandler. While this is a very hot intersection for panhandling or selling flowers, bottled water, and batteries, one panhandler's sign caught my eye. "Why Lie, I Need a Beer" was scrawled in black marker on his piece of cardboard. I rolled my eyes and kept going, but I saw some people giving the guy change.

Which got me to thinking. If I were on 18th Street and saw someone standing in front of Tryst with a sign that said, "I Really Need a Cup of Coffee," I think I'd be moved. While I can't understand needing a beer, I can relate to needing a cup of coffee, and I think I'd go in and buy the person a cup. But isn't it the same thing?

Last night, Norah Jones surprised me. When the show opened, the stage lights illuminated a tiny Jones, clad in a tasteful red dress and strumming a guitar as she purred the lyrics to "Come Away with Me." I didn't know she played guitar, but I guess it isn't so much a stretch given that she's so skilled on the piano.

Jones surprised me again at the end of the show. She ended on a Willie Nelson tune, telling the audience that this was the last song. I wondered to myself, how is she going to end the night (a) by playing someone else's song and (b) after not singing "Don't Know Why"---the hit that made her a star?

Of course, she left the stage and thanked us all for a lovely evening. The audience rose to its feet to give her an ovation, to beg her to come back and play what we'd all come to hear. I stayed in my seat and declined to play the game.

But the funny thing was, after Jones declared that Willie Nelson tune to be the last song of the evening, a lot of people got up and left. When she did come back on stage to play three more songs (including "Don't Know Why") a few people who'd been fooled crept back in and lingered sheepishly in the doorway to hear the real end of the show.

I wasn't surprised that they left. Not to say anything about the quality of Jones' performance, but I once read a review that referred to her as "Snorah Jones." I now know why. Some people just aren't meant to be seen live---or perhaps some people just aren't meant to be seen at Constitution Hall. The last time I was at Constitution Hall---with orchestra seats no less---I had a ball. I was up in the aisle singing and dancing along with Erykah Badu and the band. But I guess you kind of can't help getting crunk with Erykah Badu. She begs it of you. Norah Jones, not so much. It would have been nice to have seen her show by candlelight over glasses of Merlot at a more intimate venue like Blues Alley. But I can see it from her perspective. If you can pack Constitution Hall, why sell yourself short?

Earlier this month, the Shaw advisory neighborhood commission was about to start its usual monthly meeting (having moved from the Africare House, its usual location, to the United House of Prayer) when a constituent was singled out for videotaping the proceedings. ANC Chair Doris Brooks asked Brian Smith, proprietor of the OffSeventh neighborhood blog, to stop taping the April 4 meeting, but he refused. He insisted that he needed to tape it for neighbors who weren't able make it. Smith explained to Brooks that ANC meetings are public and that recording the proceedings is completely allowed. Brooks shouted, "This is not a public meeting!" and then adjourned.

Before Brooks was able to cancel the meeting, some neighbors voiced their concern that the meeting had been moved from the Africare House to the United House of Prayer church, where Brooks is a member. The characteristically boisterous Mary Sutherland, who ran unsuccessfully against Commissioner Alex Padro for the 2C01 seat in November, stood up and told meeting goers that if they didn't like the new rules and change of venue, they could leave. A church official even stepped in before the meeting was adjourned to ask that everyone honor "Sister Brooks'" request to turn off their recording devices. This set off neighbor concerns about the separation of church and state.

Since longstanding ANC Chair Leroy Thorpe lost his bid for re-election to political newcomer Kevin Chapple, the meetings have become increasingly contentious. Neighbors began videotaping the proceedings and posting footage on youtube.com in January. In each of the videos, Brooks protests.

"[Since that meeting] now I think everyone has calmed down and maybe it's time to start a real dialog about how to make things better in Shaw," Smith said today.