Mt. Pleasant. © 2011 Michael W. Hicks

A bad day in Mt. Pleasant left Jean E. Louis dead. Louis was fatally shot Tuesday after a Metropolitan Police Department "Emergency Response Team" broke an hours-long standoff, and Louis lunged at an officer with a sharpened object, according to reports.

The episode raises, not for the first time, some questions about whether MPD is properly prepared to deal with the mentally ill when or if they become violent. In this particular instance, according to the department, they were—a cop on the scene was part of a special team trained to deal with such deadly situations.

In two separate altercations in 2009, police fatally shot and killed mentally ill District residents. David Kerstetter and Osman Abdullahi were both shot dead after each man allegedly rushed at officers with weapons. The tragedies prompted the department to succumb to a suggestion the Office of Police Complaints had been making since 2006: MPD needed a Crisis Intervention Team like the one in Memphis, Tenn.

CIT units are trained to bring a "humane and calm approach" to a crisis involving a mentally ill suspect. That's important, as confrontations between police officers and someone who's had a psychological break can easily turn bloody.

MPD says it's not releasing details about this week's shooting due to an ongoing investigation, so we don't know what methods the CIT member might have employed to try to subdue and save Louis. In a statement, MPD does say "responders" attempted to negotiate with Louis.

Though cops are justified in using lethal force when their lives are in danger, the mission of the CIT would seem to be to prevent that kind of life-or-death scenario from emerging. One question left unanswered for now: How much influence did the CIT member have over the developing crisis? And a second: Why did a distressed man with a screwdriver require a SWAT team to lock down Mt. Pleasant?

Photo by Stefanie Gans

Mount Pleasant, April 24

It's Good Friday and that means Shrine of the Sacred Heart church on 16th and Park will do the traditional procession through Mt. Pleasant and Columbia Heights. The procession begins at the church at 8:30 p.m. Darrow Montgomery has a great set of photos from last year's procession, but it's worth seeing for yourself.

The procession starts at the church, heading west on Park Road:

View Sacred Heart Church Good Friday Procession in a larger map

Photo by Darrow Montgomery

Mt. Pleasant Street NW, April 17

Song: "Welcome to D.C."

Artist: Mambo Sauce

Year: 2007

Relevance: High. The Census found 20,000 new residents had moved to the District between 2000 and 2010, so the title alone is right on point. Lyrics like, "We gonna be right here/We gonna be right here/We ain't goin' nowhere," though, could speak for the longer-time residents who—despite demographic changes—still make up most of the population.

Song: "Swann Street"

Artist: 3

Year: 1989

Relevance: Medium. The song harkens back to an earlier era of D.C. gentrification—though thanks to the ease of Internet-based music research these days, every myopic little twit moving here since the 2000 Census probably had it on a D.C.-inspired playlist before they arrived. Might there be a hidden message about the source of new municipal policies in this line: "Sometimes it seems/these hopes and dreams/all came from somewhere else"?

Song: "You're My Miss Washington D.C."

Artist: Nation of Ulysses

Year: 1991

Relevance: Low. The song blends vaguely political calls to action with vaguely sexual ones; the narrator is either trying to lead a revolution or get laid (or, knowing the Nation of Ulysses, both). But the chorus, "So many things that I'm dying to show you," could be addressed to newcomers to the District.

Song: "Mt. Pleasant"

Artist: Tuscadero

Year: 1994

Relevance: Medium. Some lyrics are a bit outdated now—"All liquor and lace/Drunk guys in your face/Broken 40s in the street/Losing lottery tickets at your feet," for instance, doesn't take the modern ban on single sales of alcohol into account. But the line, "It's my Beaver Cleaver neighborhood/Might not be clean but it sure smells good/Everybody's living like they should/I wouldn't leave it even if I could," still speaks to people who can't afford to move elsewhere in the District—even though, 17 years after the song came out, Mt. Pleasant isn't really affordable anymore, either.

Song: "Banned in D.C."

Artist: Bad Brains

Year: 1983

Relevance: Low. "Banned in D.C. with a thousand more places to go," the song opens, in what could be an anthem of the displaced. But it's really an anthem of D.C. hardcore fans banned from clubs—people who, 18 years later, are probably gathering to drink old-fashioned cocktails in the neighborhoods they used to run around in as straight-edge teenagers. Still, any excuse to shout, "You, you can't hurt me/Why? I'm banned in D.C." is a good one—especially on a Friday afternoon—so we're including it anyway.

Who Needs a Vote?: The Tea Party's rallying cry all of last year was, "No taxation without representation!" So it's somewhat mysterious that among the first moves the Tea Party-powered Republican House did today was to strip D.C. of the mostly symbolic representation we get for our tax dollars, voting down a resolution by Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton to retain a vote in the Committee of the Whole. Hey, at least they're taking care of the problems facing America by reading the Constitution out loud! -4

The Reagan Era is Upon Us: Speaking of Republicans, the last time the GOP ran things on Capitol Hill, Congress spent a good share of its time looking for things to name after Ronald Reagan, like airports (successful) and 16th Street NW (failed)—and he wasn't even dead yet. Now that we're in the 100th anniversary year of the late 40th president's birth, watch out; random Washingtonians may find themselves renamed Ronald by House resolutions. To commemorate the birthday, the National Archives is putting on an exhibit of Reagan's rare papers. Er, we mean, the Ronald W. Reagan National Archives. -1

Share This: Back in preschool, it was sometimes tough to learn to share with others; there was always one or two kids who simply didn't like the idea that everyone could take turns using toys, instead of each getting their own. Evidently, one of those kids, grown up, was in Mt. Pleasant lately. A Zipcar near Mt. Pleasant Street NW and Park Road NW was attacked earlier this week, its windshield bashed in and the Zipcar sign on the nearby curb dented. We just hope former DDOT czar and Zipcar honcho Gabe Klein is on vacation somewhere and didn't hear about this. -2

Mega Miss: The jackpot climbed to $355 million for last night's Mega Millions lottery drawing, but alas, the two winning tickets were sold in western Idaho and eastern Washington—the state, not the city. D.C. Lottery officials say the sales generated $200,000 for the city's general revenue fund, though, and local stores took in more than $33,000 in commissions. A total of 671,451 tickets were sold in D.C. since the last drawing on New Year's Eve. Better luck next time! -1

Yesterday's Needle rating: 65 Today's score: -8 Today's Needle rating: 57

Nomageddon: The East Coast is virtually paralyzed today, crippled by snow from Boston to Raleigh, N.C. Except here in the District, where we got the cold and the wind that accompanied all the snow, but nothing else. Since we're willing to bet a high percentage of people in the region have new snow shovels this winter (purchased to replace the ones that broke from overuse last time around), this is a rather unfortunate development. On the other hand, if it stops Sen. Tom Coburn from claiming there's no such thing as global warming, maybe it's not so bad. -2

Mt. Temporary: Regular storefronts sometimes feel too stolid, too permanent. A new Temporium on Mt. Pleasant Street won't suffer from that same problem; the arts space will be open for only 24 days over the next two months. Funded by the District government's Office of Planning, it's a follow-up to last summer's Temporium on H Street NE. No truth to the rumor that it's only a temporary space in order to avoid the complicated neighborhood politics in Mt. Pleasant. +3

Restaurants R Us: It may be news to the New York Times, but the District hasn't been the culinary backwater folks from other cities like to pretend it is for some time. Esquire is the latest publication to realize that, listing D.C. 8th in a ranking of the country's 10 best dining cities. Washington edged out Boston and Seattle in the list. And frankly, we'd expect to be able to overtake Houston, ranked 7th, except that as with all such rankings, this one is completely and utterly subjective, and so there's no reason to expect it to make any sense. +1

It's the Only Thing: Fans of the Jacksonville Jaguars can't be particularly happy today; the only thing worse than losing a game in week 16 of the NFL season and thereby jeopardizing your chances of making the playoffs is losing that game to the Washington Redskins. No playoffs in store for the Skins, alas, but they still managed a 20-17 overtime win in Florida yesterday, making Rex "Sexy Rexy" Grossman 1-1 as the improbable starting quarterback. At some point yesterday, we believe we heard a TV announcer speculate that the Redskins were actively trying to lose games this year, to improve their position in the draft. Why are we not surprised the team can't even lose properly? +2

Thursday's Needle rating: 66 Today's score: +4 Today's Needle rating: 70

1600 Block of Newton Street NW, October 31

Mount Pleasant, October 31

That, at least, is the argument Politico (er, sorry, POLITICO) has plastered all over its homepage this morning, breathlessly heralding the results of a survey 1,011 Americans and "227 Washington, D.C., Elites." The poll, taken by Mark Penn, finds the D.C. elites think the country is doing much better than the schlubs outside the Beltway. And the accompanying story plays up the expansion of government and the way it's kept the region afloat economically. "Washington has been largely shielded from the economic downturn, even in 2009, when most states and cities were hit the hardest," Politico executive editor Jim VandeHei and staff writer Zachary Abramson write under the headline, "Reality Gap." The crux of the argument:

The massive expansion of government under President Barack Obama has basically guaranteed a robust job market for policy professionals, regulators and contractors for years to come. The housing market, boosted by the large number of high-income earners in the area, many working in politics and government, is easily outpacing the markets in most of the country. And there are few signs of economic distress in hotels, restaurants or stores in the D.C. metro area.

That last bit, though, isn't actually true.

Unemployment in the District, after all, was at 10.4 percent in May—nearly a full percentage point higher than the national rate of 9.5 percent reported for June. Wander around the city, and it's not hard to find the "signs of economic distress" Politico blithely dismisses (take Mt. Pleasant, for instance, or lower Georgia Avenue in Park View, or Ward 8—and its median household income of under $30,000 and 553 vacant properties). The problem is, you have to leave the McLean-Bethesda-Chevy Chase-Rosslyn-K Street-Capitol Hill axis of power that dominates Politico's world to find them.

The story, and Penn's analysis, are careful to note that they're talking about "D.C. elites," not the city as a whole. (To make the cut for the elite, you had to work in politics or policy, earn more than $75,000 a year and have at least a college degree.) But the headline and the general thesis of the piece—that D.C. is doing just fine, while the rest of the country struggles—winds up contributing to the notion that no one lives here except politicians, lobbyists and overpaid government workers. Which City Paper doesn't have to remind any of you isn't true; frankly, Politico doesn't have to remind you about that, either, since they do note in their story that government employment and contracting only accounts for about 30 percent of the jobs in the entire region. But that blinkered view, that everyone in the city moved here to work in national politics, is pretty common among Politico's readers—many of whom, after all, did just that. (Then again, Penn's other appearance in the national media this weekend was a New York Times op/ed urging Obama to double the size of the space budget—an idea that is, actually, out of touch with reality.)

Yes, the region's economy is doing better than many others. And yes, there are plenty of people with high-powered political or policy jobs who are still flush. But there are thousands of Washingtonians who don't have a thing to do with the federal government, and thousands of Washingtonians are suffering through the recession just like everyone else in the country. The implicit message of the Politico story is that we're all vultures here, living the high life as government booms and taxes go up—while honest people everywhere else cut back and suffer.

Can't wait for the next round of Washington-bashing that inspires.

UPDATE: Turns out I wasn't the only one in the District whose first instinct on reading VandeHei's story was to start typing frantically. D.C. Democratic political consultant Chuck Thies e-mailed Ben Smith this morning to note the unemployment rates in Wards 7 and 8 hover near 25 percent—which doesn't exactly put Washingtonians on Easy Street. Maybe next time, Politico won't fall into the easy trap of assuming everyone in the District lives exactly the same life as their own well-paid editors and readers do. (But I'm not holding my breath.)

Columbia Heights, Mt. Pleasant, July 13th

Haydee Vanegas

The co-owner of Haydee's, a Salvadorean restaurant at 3102 Mt. Pleasant Street NW, sparked a neighborhood fight earlier this year when she decided to apply for a CN-class nightclub license, a move that would unburden her eatery from the city's stringent food-sales requirements and allow her to expand its hours of operation.

After months of arguing the issue on neighborhood Listservs and meetings of the local Advisory Neighborhood Commission, Vanegas and her detractors finally got to duke it out in front of the Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Board on May 26.

At the hearing, though, Haydee's opponents were thrown for something of a loop. A group of five nearby residents who had formed to protest the nightclub license were not allowed to testify because they had not filed the proper paperwork.  While the Mount Pleasant Neighborhood Alliance's Sam Broeksmit was permitted to testify, the topics that he was allowed to discuss were more limited than he had anticipated.

Broeksmit had planned to argue that a tavern license would meet Haydee's needs, that many of the signatures on the petition in support of Haydee's application were not from Mount Pleasant residents, and that Haydee's food sales are consistently above the 45 percent threshold it needs to meet as a restaurant. The ABC Board, however, only allowed him to speak to issues of peace and quiet, property values, and parking.

"They basically instructed Sam saying, 'You've got to defend the assertion that the conversion to a nightclub will cause problems under one or all of those categories,'" says ANC Commissioner Jack McKay, a supporter of Haydee's application. "He really wasn't prepared to do that."

"I definitely had to change on the fly," Broeksmit admits. "I guess I would say it was uneven. There was a very narrow box being put around what we could say and then a broad box around what Haydee's could testify to and what the Board to ask questions to."

The limited scope of what he was allowed to testify about was just the latest hurdle in what has been a "frustrating" process for Broeksmit.

His neighborhood association has pushed without success for Haydee's to instead apply for a tavern license with an entertainment endorsement, a compromise Broeksmit says would let Haydee's achieve its desired goals of longer hours for dancing, greater capacity, and a lower food-sales requirement but without near-total lack of restrictions that comes with a nightclub license.

"We support almost everything she wants, yet she wants it within a nightclub for no clearly articulated reason," Broeksmit says.

Given the bad blood between Broeksmit and Haydee's, though—the two were foes in the 2008 battle over the ban on dancing and live music at Mt. Pleasant Street restaurants—it's perhaps unsurprising that Haydee's is resistant to the tavern compromise. Haydee's owner Vanegas says she feels Broeksmit's group is "anti-business" and that the tavern license would come with "too many restrictions."

"They would still be at the mercy of the MPNA, and that's basically what Haydee objected to," McKay says. "I think largely because they have such a long history of conflict with the MPNA, they don't want anything to do with the MPNA."

The ABC Board has 90 days after the hearing to review and decide the case.

Photo by CarrieA, Creative Commons Attribution License