February 2008

Thanks from the Alt Gift Fair

In December, shoppers at the 9th annual Takoma Park Alternative Gift Fair captured the true spirit of generosity that the season is all about. Instead of buying stuff for people on their shopping lists who already have everything they need, shoppers used that money to shape a better world.

It’s certainly wonderful that shoppers donated more than $17,000 to 16 worthy causes in honor of family members and friends, but it becomes more impressive when you think about what that made possible. Because of their generosity, AMURT will provide 19 sets of clothes to orphans in Mongolia in the new year. Las Pacayas will be able to fund 28 academic scholarships for Guatemalan girls to attend school.
Meals on Wheels will provide 91 lunches and dinners for homebound Takoma Park residents. The Silver Spring Interfaith Housing Coalition will provide household supply move-in kits for 12 families starting new homes.

These are but a few of the gifts that shoppers bought. We would like to thank all who participated. It was a truly meaningful event.

— J. McCray
Alternative Gifts of Greater Washington

Tenants should stand up for their rights

Recently, I was greatly troubled to learn that the president of large Silver Spring property management company has refused to recognize a newly created tenants’ association and that his local resident manager had removed public notices of an upcoming tenants association meeting, shortly after they had been posted.

These actions of the apartment landlord and his resident manager are contrary to the laws of Montgomery County and have seriously infringed upon the legal rights of these tenants. Under Montgomery County Code Section 29, tenants have the right to form, join, meet, or assist one another within or without tenant organizations. Tenants also have the right of free assembly in the meeting rooms and other areas suitable for meetings within rental housing during reasonable hours, and they have the right to distribute freely and post in centrally located areas of rental housing literature concerning landlord-tenant issues.

When landlords abridge the rights of Montgomery County tenants, the tenants and their representatives should call the Department of Housing and Community Affairs, Office of Landlord Tenant Affairs, 240-777-3600 for assistance. While tenants need to know their rights under the laws of Montgomery County, the landlords must respect and abide by them.

— Alan Bowser
Silver Spring Citizens Advisory Board

Resolution vegetarianism

I’m surprised your January 2008 article, “Resolution Earth: how can I reduce my carbon footprint?” did not recommend switching to a vegetarian diet. Eating organically and locally isn’t enough, much of the Eastern Shore’s poultry industry, one of the largest sources of pollution in the Chesapeake Bay, is within the recommended 100 miles.

A 2006 United Nations report said that raising animals for food generates more greenhouse gases than all the cars and trucks in the world combined. Senior U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization official Henning Steinfeld reported that the meat industry is “one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems.

Each of us can reduce our carbon footprint simply by eating vegetarian foods. A local group, Compassion Over Killing, offers a free Vegetarian Starter Guide.

— Lynda Cozart
Takoma Park MD

Do we really need a performance space in Takoma Park?

I recently saw a published report that the City of Takoma Park intends to renovate the city council chambers council so that it might also be used as “performance space”. The new mayor, Bruce Williams, opined that spending more than $1.2 million to make the chambers useable for “community musicals and theater performances” “seems like a good hybrid at the moment”. According to the report, funding for the renovation would require “reprogramming” funds long earmarked for construction of a gym.

That being the case, elected officials need to tell us if, after nearly a decade of false starts, it is time to declare the gym dead.

While the renovation proposal is worthy of serious discussion, the Mayor and Council, not to mention all of us in the community, should consider:

1. More than $12 million has just recently been spent on transforming the “municipal building” into a “community center”. This begs the question why there is still a need to upgrade heating, ventilation and air conditioning and to meet requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act -- all of which, along with audio/visual system updates were reported to be uses to which the additional $1.2 million would be put.

2. The $1.2 million comes from what the article described as “potential grant funding”. The State of Maryland has just avoided a budget catastrophe. And just this morning Montgomery County Executive warned of a county budget crunch. We all pay state and county taxes and should not view grants as “free”.

3. I also read recently that the auditorium at the old Blair High School on Wayne Avenue, which has been unused for a significant time, proposed to be renovated as “community art space.”

4. There is existing, useable space for community musicals and theatre performances at the two elementary schools, two colleges, two private schools and one middle school within the city limits. Go slightly beyond our 2.2 square miles and there is even more, including the soon to be built county center in downtown Silver Spring and the vacant Takoma Theatre on the D.C.-side of the Takoma Metro Station.

Perhaps the fiscally responsible thing to do indeed might be to forego the potential grant money, use the $12 million renovated community center “as is” for performances and work with other institutions and entities to share existing space.
Finally, it would be good to know how many groups producing musicals and theatre performances are clamoring for space.

— Tom Gagliardo
Takoma Park, MD

Cut social services to illegal residents

In light of the projected record 400+ million dollar Montgomery County budget deficit and County Executive Leggett’s proposed multi-million dollar cuts in county services, it has become more imperative that the county revisit its costly policies and programs in support of illegal immigrants.

Individuals who have no moral or legal right to be in this country have no moral or legal right to receive county social services. For the county to continue to spend county tax dollars on social services for illegal immigrants while cutting social services to the neediest and most vulnerable legal county residents is unconscionable and unacceptable public policy.

No county social services to legal residents should be cut until the county has ensured that no county social services are being provided to illegal residents. Good starting points are the screening of applicants at the three county-funded day labor centers in order to prevent services to illegal immigrants, and amendment of the 2.3 million dollar county grant to Casa de Maryland to require that no county funds be used to assist illegal immigrants.

Mr. Leggett has stated publicly that the county “does not support illegal immigration.” It is time for Mr. Leggett and the county council to back up that statement with action.

— Jack Carson
Takoma Park, MD

Election coverage was incomplete

Following the recent Takoma mayoral and council elections, newspaper accounts failed to list first and second choice selections from candidate vote tallies. Since this was Takoma’s first “Instant Run-Off” election—where voters would be able to rank candidates­—I was disappointed to see such critical information absent. And not too surprisingly, this same information is absent on the City’s own website.

This is not a trivial or irrelevant matter. Take, for example, the one contested race for the Ward 3 Council seat between Bridget Bowers and Dan Robinson where the published results favored the latter, 235 to 112. Are these first place votes for each candidate, or are they a mix of first and second? Or, indeed, do they include third-place votes, since 10 write-in votes were registered?

One could easily imagine a scenario where the Ward 3 votes were split in such a way as to not overturn the outcome mind you, but show a much closer race than the total vote tally indicates. One should not have to guess and conjecture on such matters.

In the future, the City should include choice selection data in its election results, and a vigilant media insist that they do.

—Edward Faine
Takoma Park, MD

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