FRIENDSHIP TERRACE OPEN HOUSE
From:   LLateana@goodwinhousewest.com (Linda Lateana)

Friendship Terrace, our neighborhood affordable retirement community,
will be celebrating its 30th Anniversary on Sunday, October 15 with an
Open House and Reception from 1:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.   It is located at
4200 Butterworth Place, NW, phone 202-244-7400.  We're fortunate
to have such a facility available in our area.
 
 

COMMUNITY BULLETIN BOARD
From:   Kriegi@aol.com
This is just a note to tell you about a good handyman by the name of MARK
VERNA who is good, careful, and inexpensive ($25 an hour). He comes from
Takoma Park and his phone no. is 301-891-2854.
 
 

E-- RAT--ICATION
Inspired by the following e-mails and earlier e-mails from NancyLeRoy and
Enid Holden, I called 727-1000 and asked to report a rat problem at the
corner of Wisconsin and Fessenden, Armand's Pizza Express. I was given a
reference number (#94148).  Today I was called by Ronnie Harrington of the DC
Department of Health who told me he had gone to Armand's and spoke to the
manager about the problem. Everything was in sealed bags today but he will be
monitoring the place for the next month to make sure the garbage stays in
sealed bags. If you notice any problems, feel free to call Mr. Harrington on
535-1955 or 438-8811 and let him know.

I am very pleased to get this response from the city on this problem.

---------

From:   Patty.Adam@compassamerica.com (Patty Adam)
I am sure we can call the Mayor's office and get some direction here.  These
businesses are required by law to keep their premises clean enough to prevent
rats.  If their Dumpster is overflowing, they need to get another one.  A
health inspector should be notified to make a surprise visit there.  If you
need help with this, please let me know, I will start making some calls.  I
also live close by.  Perhaps some pictures of the dumpster area would help?

From:   tylergreendc@yahoo.com (Tyler Green)
The city actively solicits citizen complaints about violators of the new
anti-rat law. Call the main district number and ask to report a rat law
violation.
 
 

WISCONSIN AVENUE BEAUTIFICATION PROJECT
From:   Kcolombant@aol.com (Kersti Colombant)

Urgent -- Volunteers and Adopters needed!
This is our neighborhood. We all want it to be greener and cleaner along
Wisconsin Avenue. we need volunteers to:
help with new planting, weeding, picking up trash, adopt a tree,
 
adopt a block,  help on clean-up days,  donate funds for new plants and
mulch.
Please call us:
Ralph at  686-9550
Kersti  at 966-8837

The Wisconsin Avenue Beautification Project is a partnership effort among
local residents, businesses, and institutions to relandscape Wisconsin Avenue
between Tenley Circle and Fessenden Street.

Fall clean up -- Sat and Sun,  Nov 18 and 19, 1pm to 4pm.
Meet at Fessenden & Wisconsin
 
 

AU STUDENT PROBLEM REVISITED

This is a particularly good time to look at this problem since American
University is trying to get approval for its Campus Plan. There was an
extensive discussion of the problem at the September ANC3E meeting, which was
attended by a number of AU officials. It seemed to boil down to this:  The AU
folks said that they could not do much to control off campus students unless
the students broke the law. The ANC commissioners said that they, the
University, makes that policy and needs to change that policy. Tad DiBiase
told them that, from the point of view of the students, it should be  a
privilege to attend AU, not a right. The community felt that the University
had much more power to control or punish problem students than it seems
willing to use.

There will be a BZA Hearing on the AU Campus plan on either November 16 or
December 12. I would urge anyone with a serious student-neighbor problem to
speak at that hearing.  For more details, contact Steve Posniak at:
sposniak@earthlink.net or 224-1836.

The timing of all this is not lost on the University. In the recent NW
Current, David Taylor, Chief of Staff to the AU President, writes, in a
letter to the Editor, that, "Students suspected of misconduct are called in
for meetings with the dean of students or coordinators of Greek affairs." He
writes that they are warned about potential legal consequences of further
misconduct.

I presume this means, among other things, that they are told that they can be
arrested by the DC police for underage drinking, etc.  He further states that
these meetings often eliminate or dramatically reduce the problem.

I think this problem needs to be addressed on two fronts:

First and foremost is that the University must take responsibility for making
sure its off campus students are not destroying good will between the
neighborhood and the University. They need to get tough with students who are
creating problems in the 'Hood. After all, they can force such students to
either live on campus or go elsewhere for their education. They make their
own policies; they can tighten them.

Secondly, we the residents have an obligation to keep the heat on the
relevant University officials and on the police to break up parties and make
arrests where necessary. Parents won't be happy with the University when
their little darlings keep getting arrested at loud, late, swills. We also
may need to pressure landlords to choose their tenants more carefully and
evict ones who damage quality of life in the community.

If you're next to a student problem house, the University officials to call,
and keep calling until the problem is corrected, are: Faith Leonard, Dean of
Students  885-3300; Danny Kelley, Coordinator of Greek Life 885-3390; Campus
Police in some instances 885-2527 (open 24 hours a day). The president's
office line is 885-2121. Concurrently, you need to call, and keep calling:
the landlord of the house; and  DC police 311. If you're not happy with the
police response, call back and ask to speak to a Communications Supervisor.
If you're still not happy, call back to either 311 or 282-0070 and ask for
the 2D Watch Commander. During the day, Commander Peter Newsham can be
reached at 282-0042.

When you call University officials, they would like to have the address and
name of  the landlord, and names of the students, if you have that
information.

Keep in mind, that probably most AU students are pretty good neighbors, but
if you have a problem house, don't suffer in silence. This community knows
how to make enough noise to get problems resolved.

--------------------
I've received a number of e-mails about students, but I will publish just
this last one:

From:   kenanddavida@starpower.net (Davida Perry)
I'm especially concerned about what we can do about the terrible problems
caused by AU student houses - not just the noise and outdoor parties that go
on all night...we've had drunk driving, beer and liquor cans and bottles all
over, drunk, loud students on our street (and our property) all night, etc.

I just want to let you know that this is a VERY important issue for so many
of us.
And as far as I can tell (from talking to police dispatchers at all hours of
the night)
the student house on my street - at 4528 Burlington Place - is the worst
offender in
AU Park.
 
 

THE TOWER -- LATEST UPDATE
There is now a tower e-mail list of some 300 addresses. You can get on it by
contacting either Jo Cooper at  CooperJM@aol.com, or Jill Diskan at
Jdiskan@foe.org.  To avoid duplication, I won't try to publish every  tower
notice. Therefore, I urge all interested residents to get on that e-mail
list. You will get all the tower notices as soon as they are issued.

Many of you sent me CC's of very thoughtful thank you letters to Mayor
Anthony Williams. He deserves our thanks for doing the right thing on this
tower permit. He's under enormous pressure to cave in on this. I know our
letters will help reassure him that stopping and removing the tower is the
correct course of action. Thank you for taking the extra bit of time to let
him know of your appreciation.

----------------

From:   CooperJM@aol.com
TOWER UPDATE
October 12, 2000

OK-- We got the permit rescinded.  Now what?

Our focus needs to be in three places now:

1.  Legal:  This is probably going to be a heck of a court battle, very
likely of national importance.  We have suggested the city hire expert
counsel, just as American Tower has done.  We are going to participate in
alliance with the city, in an amicus brief, or whatever way will be found
most effective.  Damian Didden, head of our legal committee, will be meeting
with Con Hitchcock, an expert zoning attorney, later this month for a
consultation.  Please ask anyone in our community who has legal or research
expertise that could help to contact Damien at:      Damian_didden@yahoo.com

2.  Health:  Many of us have had our consciousness raised about EMRs thanks
to this tower.  There is real, logical concern about existing ambient
radiation in our community-- we are ringed by broadcast towers, and there is
no government agency doing readings to find out existing levels, to determine
whether they are over maximum allowable levels, and to access whether our
community, or parts of our community, is in harms way.

We have started a health committee, with some significant goals:  to arrange
for systematic, comprehensive, independent  readings of existing EMRs in our
community, to find if there are hot spots over the maximum allowable limits;
and to access health histories in the area, to see if there are disease
clusters or patterns that we can detect.

Ann Loikow is heading this committee.  If you have expertise or interest in
this area, please contact her at:  johnl@erols.com

3.  Fund Raising:  The very next committee we need to form is fund raising.

Legal:  Our legal participation in this case-- which we consider to be
crucial to really win this tower battle-- will be costly.  We don't have a
budget yet-- and we hope to have significant professional input from lawyers
on our committee, as well as reduced counsel fees, to lower the cost.  But,
it's got to be substantial any way you look at it.  Do we want this tower?
No.  I think to insure a successful end result, we are going to have to get
involved on this level.

Health:  We will need funds for equipment and an expert to do the EMR
readings.

And critical to achieving our health goals will be continued public
education.  Some of you have seen the tape, 'Broadcast Blues.'  This is an
excellent production on a similar tower proposed for the community of Lookout
Mountain, Colorado, where a forest of pre-existing towers also exists.  It is
an excellent, hour-long education on the whole subject.  There is a new tape
available on cell towers, as well.

We'd like to obtain multiple copies of both of these tapes, which cost $32
and $10, respectively, and establish a community lending library, tasked to
circulate the tapes to schools, churches & synagogues, and other community
groups.  We've already had requests.  Is someone interested in being our
outreach/librarian?  Please contact me.  And will those of you interested in
donating tapes also contact me.  This is a really effective way we can
broaden public awareness, and with cell towers springing up all over town,
this should be a city-wide concern.

Finally:  Are there among us folks with fund raising experience and interest
who would be willing to work on this effort?  Please contact me.

We have a lot to be proud of.  This community has pulled together in record
time to achieve what might have appeared to be an impossible goal:  We
STOPPED THE TOWER!  But, this process is NOT OVER until the TOWER COMES DOWN!
 Let's keep on the effort to insure that happens.

One final note:  a personal and public thanks to each and every one of you
who have helped with this endeavor to date.  There are a number of people in
the community who gave richly of their precious time in these past weeks; I
have already thanked by name all (I hope!) of the folks responsible for
collecting an incredible number of signatures over one weekend.  Special and
particular thanks also to:  my husband, Tim Cooper, who did such brilliant
press work;  Ann Loikow, who insisted I pay attention to this tower, and who
has provided mountains of informative material to back up her concerns;
Laura Akgulian, whose wisdom, humanism, research and activist skills have
given this rather hastily assembled movement both substance and right
thinking; Damien Didden, for gracefully stepping forward to assume a critical
leadership role in helping form and heading our legal committee; Bob Meffert,
for his amazing ice calculations paper, giving shape to our safety concerns;
Tony Gorman, Marla Mitnick, Mary Abate, Robin and others for great research;
Ana Suarez & John Graetz for their fabulous flyers with the tear-off stubbs,
and so many other significant contributions; everyone on our legal & health
committees, who have begun the good, hard work; Caroline Lawrence, for
working the room with her volunteer sign up sheet; and all of you who came
out for our demonstrations & press conferences, making the statement that
this is NOT just a small group of residents who oppose the tower.
Jo Cooper