ANC Round Up: Jack Evans Edition

Last night ANC2E met for its March session. While GM wasn’t too hopeful for an interesting meeting, he really ought to know by now that it doesn’t take an exciting agenda to have a noteworthy meeting. On top of the list of items worth noting was an extended riff by Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans.

Jack Speaks

Councilmember Jack Evans made his semi-annual trip to ANC2E. He started out giving a stump speech on the state of the District’s finances. But from there he really just went off in a bunch of directions. For the sake of brevity, GM is just going to list the real choice quotations:

• “The District of Columbia remains one of the strongest financial entities in America, state, county, or city. Our management of our finances since the Control Board Era, 1995 and 1996 to the present, has really been astute.” (Keep in mind that Evans has been the Chair of the Finance Committee for much of that time.)
• “My goal as a resident of Georgetown has always been to improve the infrastructure of Georgetown. When I first moved here back in 1994, Georgetown was a wreck.”
• “I always think it’s a bad decision when you are starting to run deficits in your government to raise taxes to cover them because it is a short term fix for a long term problem…The only way to deal with it is to get to the structure problem, you’re spending too much money…You can never raise taxes in a recessionary environment.” (Proving once again that this isn’t really a one party town; We’ve got Republicans in office, they just call themselves Democrats).
• “The school system, even with Michelle Rhee in charge, never fails to ask for more money next year than they did this year.”
• “If someone stopped me in the street and asked…why does P Street, where I happen to live, get plowed ahead of everyone else’s street? Because I live there, that’s why.” (He was kidding. He then said it’s because it’s a main bus and emergency route in and out of Georgetown.)
• “Why did Cambridge, Dent and Avon get plowed before R St.? Because they those people called me first, and that’s the only answer.” (He was sort of kidding here, but not really).
• “Statehood is not in the cards now.”
• “I hate to say this about one of my colleagues, but every time Marion Barry does crazy things it feeds right into Congress’ view that he could be elected mayor again and ‘God forbid if they had control over their affairs what could happen then?’ I was talking with Northrop Grumman about relocating and his name came up, and that’s a problem.”
• “I brought this up last time I was hear, neon signs. We still have neon signs in some of our commercial and residential areas. And we really need to act on that…If they’re illegal at some point we just need to go over there with a baseball bat and knock them out.” (He really didn’t seem to be kidding here.)

Hold on to Your iPhones

Lieutenant Hedgecock of the Second District made his monthly visit for an update on crime in Georgetown. Hedgecock put a particular focus on a rash of iPhone thefts. Apparently there have been three instances so far this year where robbers just snatch the iPhone right of the hands of the victim as they’re talking on the phone. There’s no app for a weak hold on your phone (right?) so make sure to hold tight.

Hedgecock also mentioned an unfortunate incident at Third Edition. Apparently a customer got a little rowdy and was being escorted out of the bar when he was seriously injured by the bouncers. According to Hedgecock, the customer is still in the hospital. An investigation is ongoing.

Red Light Conversions

As they did in the East Village, DDOT changed three traffic lights in the West Village over to stop signs. Notice the past tense there. They asked the ANC to weigh in on the possibility of the conversion, but then just went ahead and took the stop lights down before the ANC even met. There seems to be a majority of neighbors in favor of the move, but it’s bad form for DDOT to ask the ANC for input but then make the change before the Commission has a chance to weigh in.

Wrap Up

• A WASA rep was there to discuss a couple small projects. Key quote: “This has to be done on a routine basis. For WASA that means every 40-50 years.”
• The new bar trying to move into the Champion’s space will be called Deco and it’s fighting for a roof deck.
• Streetlight rehab will finally proceed again this year.