HOW LOW CAN AMERICAN TOWER CORPORATION GO?

Judging from the all-out war that American Tower and its supporters are
waging on our  'Hood, I'd say there isn't anything they won't stoop to in
order to try to get that tower up.

It's one thing to go to court, take out ads, etc. in support of their
project. It's something else when the effort is to try to turn residents in
one part of the city against other residents in an all-out campaign that is
blatantly racist. They allow others to do some of their dirtier work for
them, but it's dirty work all the same. I would hope that, if there are any
future tower projects, that American Tower is barred from working in this
city.

The following ad was taken out in several papers by William Reed, president
of the Business Exchange Network and publisher of 'Who's Who in Black
Corporate America' It is located at 3200 13th Street, NW, Washington DC
20009.  202/588-8764. Website:  www.eaglenews.com.

American Tower never refuted the following  ad or, to my knowledge,  made any
effort to distance itself from it:

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

Word is Out, Mr. Mayor: Your Administration's favoritism toward affluent
voters is
inexcusable.
Business Exchange Network

Dear Mayor Williams:
Your Administration's favoritism is inexcusable.

You continue to give the predominately affluent Ward 3 voters whatever they
want. But you fail to give the rest of your inner-city citizens the same
consideration. Your administration admits it.

Most recently, you blocked the construction of the Tenleytown
telecommunications tower after the well-to-do residents of Ward 3 voiced
concern over the tower's location. In your rush to keep your rich citizens
happy, you overstepped your authority, exposing the District of Columbia to a
$250 million dollar lawsuit.

Just one more thing Mr. Mayor: It has come to our attention that you have no
problem constructing a similar tower in an inner-city neighborhood. Your own
staffers admit it.

Would you give a handful of people protesting from an inner-city neighborhood
the same consideration as you continue to give the more affluent citizens of
Ward 3? I guess we already know the answer, Mr. Mayor. We have repeatedly
asked this administration to set aside personal politics and be fair and
even-handed in its decision making process. We have been ignored.

Now, your pandering to the wealthy residents of Ward 3 threatens to cost the
taxpayers money.

As a long-standing organization representing minority business owners in the
District, the Business Exchange Network is outraged that you are playing
politics with such an important technological building block. Not giving your
poor residents an equal voice in their government is shameful enough. But
increasing their tax burden by exposing the District to a multi-million
dollar lawsuit is inexcusable.

Sincerely,

William Reed
President
Business Exchange Network

------------------
 

RESPONSE TO ABOVE LETTER BY RESIDENT

To: busxchng@his.com

Mr. Reed:

I am a bit puzzled by the concern that you raised in your letter to the
mayor that was in the Washington Times.  The fight against the tower in
Tenleytown has nothing to do about race, color, or class status.  Rather,
it's about protecting the health and welfare  of the people.

First, with respect to the health issues, as you may know, Tenleytown is not
only a diverse area, but one where two particularly diverse public schools,
Wilson and Alice Deal, sit right next to the proposed tower site.  It is
this fact alone that should warrant great concern for all Washington, D.C.
taxpayers who are parents since it has been shown from a variety of sources
that certain communication towers expose harmful radiation to people.  Do
you personally know the facts about American Tower's proposal here? Have you
seen any health studies and are you willing to share the burden that if the
tower is built, our D.C. children may be exposed to radiation that may lead
to cancer?

Second, with respect to the welfare issues, are you willing to set a
precedent that it is okay to litter Washington, D.C. with unattractive
buildings and towers?  Indeed, would your members be willing to establish
their businesses next to such towers and buildings?  I would expect your
answer would be no to both questions.  If we are to grow the tax base so
that all Washingtonians can prosper, then we need to create incentives that
will attract businesses to locate here. Building a 755 foot tower is not the
way to do it.  The towers do not create jobs in D.C.  The towers do not
attract people and businesses to the area.  The towers do not generate
significant tax revenue.  Instead, we need to create incentives so that the
companies such as WorldCom MCI and others that use towers and create jobs
for the District want to locate in D.C. rather than move to Northern
Virginia.  Also, we need to have retail stores (like the Mayor is trying to
do with Home Depot, Safeway and Giant) not towers in the neighborhoods.  By
doing so, residents can visit the stores and generate the sales tax revenues
that the City needs to grow.  Finally, we need to have empowerment zones to
encourage minority owned business to grow without the impediments of
government regulation.

I understand your frustrations about D.C. being exposed to a significant
liability and let's hope Judge Friedman dismisses the case outright with
prejudice.  However, the liability issue is not a problem that should be
blamed on the residents of Tenleytown.  Instead, you should be the concerned
about out of state companies taking advantage of low level district
employees to sneak something under the table in D.C. because the next time,
it could be in your neighborhood.

Remember we are all citizens of D.C. and we should all work together to make
this city a great place to live and work in.

Have a happy Thanksgiving.

Jeff Spigel
 

---------------------------
 

ARTICLE FROM WASHINGTON POST

Date:   11/30/00
Debbie Wilgoren's article in the 'District Politics' column in today's
Washington Post:

Tower Fight Turns Heated

In D.C. Superior Court, American Tower Inc. is battling Mayor Williams over
his decision to revoke its permit to build a huge telecommunications tower
just off Wisconsin Avenue NW in Tenleytown.

On the street, however, the enemy is not only Williams but the Tenleytown
residents whose protests prompted the mayor's action early this fall. And the
company has landed some unlikely allies.

William Reed, president of the Business Exchange Network and a longtime
advocate for minority businesses, has signed his name to an advertisement
that has appeared in The Washington Post and elsewhere accusing Williams of
"pandering to the wealthy residents of Ward 3" in stopping the tower while
allegedly ignoring the needs of inner-city neighborhoods.

The blistering letter to the mayor is short on facts--it doesn't mention, for
example, the mayor's recently announced plans to spend hundreds of millions
of dollars improving neighborhoods in Wards 4, 6, 7 and 8--and long on
invective.

"Word is out, Mr. Mayor," the headline blares. "Your Administration's
favoritism toward affluent voters is inexcusable."

Reed--a self-described Republican and "longtime friend" of former mayor
Marion Barry's--is passionate about the issue, but not so passionate that he
would pay out of his own pocket the thousands of dollars it must have cost to
run the ads in The Post, Washington Times, Northwest Current and elsewhere.

Reed said "responsible citizens who are concerned" paid for the ads--not him.
He would not elaborate.

The national anti-tax advocacy group Citizens Against Government Waste, which
also has taken out ads decrying the tower stoppage and the lawsuit it has
spawned, did not pay for Reed's ad, a spokesman said.

An official with the public relations firm hired by American Tower--which is
anything but a minority business--said the company also had nothing to do
with the ads, though it did arrange some radio spots that ran on two local
stations this month.

A spokeswoman for Williams said he had no comment on the ads.

On his Web site, Reed rails that Williams has replaced black city officials
hired by Barry with white aides, and questions whether the mayor is "black
enough" to lead this majority African American city.

"I wonder if he remembers where he came from," Reed said in an interview. "I
think it needs to be pointed out to him."

Reed said he saw the tower issue through a similar racial lens.

Not surprisingly, the Tenleytown residents disagree. They say they persuaded
the city to halt the project because it was approved in error, was being
built dangerously close to the sidewalk and was simply too big for its lot.

Race, class and geography, they insist, had nothing to do with it. Indeed,
Williams recently angered equally affluent residents of Cleveland Park, also
in Ward 3, by allowing a controversial apartment building project to go
forward.

"Fight us on the merits, surely. Fight us on the racial insinuations? No,"
said Tim Cooper, a leader of the Stop the Tower coalition. "It's just
unseemly and unsightly and just totally inappropriate."
 
 
 

WHERE TO FROM HERE?
From:   CooperJM

Volunteers Needed

Tower Update
December 3, 2000

Hi, Friends--

We have particular need of volunteers for two projects right now.  Can you
help?

1.  Petition Drive:  As you know, American Tower has been putting forth a
major, negative PR campaign.  One of their frequently mentioned barbs is that
we are a handful of influential people, or words to that effect.  This has
been repeated so often, we think it is time to put it to rest.

We calculate that about 11,000 signatures, 15 to a page, will make a petition
as long as the tower would be high.  If enough people can help, we think it
would be possible to gather this number of signatures in relatively short
order at Safeway, Fresh Fields, the metro stop, carpool lines and in our
neighborhoods.  Can you help?

2.  EMR Readings:  The tower has raised an issue of concern about existing
electromagnetic radiation in our community.  We have learned that neither the
FCC nor any other federal or local government agency monitors the levels in
our environment; we think it is important to find out where we stand now,
even before American Tower attempts to add another 169 antennae to the
neighborhood.  We need volunteers to help with this effort; do you have a
physics or electrical engineering background?  We are trying to understand
this stuff, and could use some help.  Have you experience/ interest in
working with maps?  We have to establish tower/antennae sitings on a map, and
calculate the approximate EMRs created, to help identify where readings might
be important.  Are you interested in this issue?  We could use your help
doing research, and pulling this project together.

On the health issue:  I have received one email from a resident who is
concerned that the health issue won't "win this battle".  We know that.  We
are not counting on the health issue to stop the tower.  But, we believe that
it is the responsible thing to do to investigate whether or not there is a
health problem, or indeed, could be a health problem if the tower were to be
built.  With Janney, Deal, Wilson, St. Ann's, St. Columba's & National
Presbyterian, among other schools, in the shadow of the towers, someone needs
to look at this issue.  It's our community, and-- since no one else is doing
it-- I think we can and should look.

3. Web Help Needed:  Do you have web design expertise or web editing
expertise or graphic design expertise that you could share to help shape up
our tower websites?

Two neighbors have given generously of their time and talents to create web
pages for us, and are prepared to update the pages once we really have them
going properly.  But, we really need help making them the best they can be.
If you have skills that could help, please contact me asap-- We are planning
a meeting this week.  The sites really need to be ship shape quickly, as we
start our new petition drive.

Can you help?

Thanks!
Jo
 
 

AND FINALLY ...

An occasional note to Mayor Williams, at:  mayor@dcgov.org --  to thank him
and to let him know we appreciate his  hanging in there with us --  is a few
moments of time well spent -- KS.