Perhaps that's a sign that I really am "inside-the-Beltway," that I've been here so damn long that Admiral Stockdale's immortal words seem appropriate (although for a while, I had let my mistyped "Why I am here?" remain online. Embarrassing, very embarrassing).
Living here for an extended period, it's hard for your life not to become imbued with politics. Every issue is boiled down in the Washington Post to GOP v Democrats (I'm the latter, btw -- not a member of any organized party, etc.).
But I felt I should try to explain why I'm doing this blog, which will, I hope, become part of the soon-to-launch TBD.com operation launched by Allbritton Communications, which owns Politico (the story on the front page of the site right now [update 8/2: don't know what it is now] is "Speaker defends troubled majority," by David Rogers. Yes, David Rogers, formerly of the Wall Street Journal, who just sold his house on Philadelphia Avenue -- or did he? [Doesn't look like it; despite information provided to me by someone who is usually reliable -- hint: sometimes I call her "my wife" -- I have been told by Ward 1 councilmember Josh Wright, one of the few to have read this blog thus far, that Rogers "actually lives across the street from me and I do notthink he owns a house on Philly." OK, so Rogers lives on Maple and may or may not be trying to sell his house. Hey, when doing this blog thing you gotta break the ice with an error. That's a rule. I'm not perfect, never said I was. OK, enough groveling.]
[The rest of this is irrelevant, but I stuck the link to Vanishing Point in there, so I'm not going to delete all of it.]
Should we check it out and publicize that information, since we're a blog and there are no limitations, because we want to feel like Barry Newman in Vanishing Point, hurtling toward the edge while being counseled by a blind DJ?
Nah. Too much work. And Rogers, just to finish the aside, is what you would imagine a reporter should be -- a little disheveled, his shirt partially untucked, a tie hanging from his neck, knotted below an unbuttoned top button.
Yeah, and sometimes he chews gum!
But enough about Rogers; I'm not asking him to the prom, I'm here to supposedly fill people in on some Takoma Park news.
First I have to include this snippet I sent to Jeff Sonderman of the TBD operation. I think he may be delaying approval of my entry into the "community" because, really, I ain't got a blog yet. I'm hoping this little entry will remedy that.
How much copy do you need to officially call yourself a blog? I think the latest standard adopted by the Society of Internet Bloggers is either 1 word, 1 image or 1 video. An audio file really doesn't count because, uh, that's really 90s, y'know? I mean, that's just plain weird.(Then again, there's Mel Gibson's telephonic antics...But they're already established, those Radar people). To start things off, you need to slap a pic or a vid or the word "Beauty" on the web, and you can call yourself a Grade A certified American blogger.
Anyway, this is what I sent Sonderman, in response to TBD's request for information about my yet-to-be-born blog:
Category for blog: Community ["News" wasn't available on the list of a dozen or so categories.] [Added Aug. 5: Here are the categories I was given to choose from:
- Crime
- Politics
- Education
- Transportation
- Weather
- Entertainment
- Dining
- Lifestyle
- Sports
- Business
- Community
- Technology
- Environment
- Government
- Development
Name: Steve Davies [the name I told them I wanted to use for my posts. It's my real name, so I figured it would be easy to remember]
Logo: Simple, boring. I like it. They'll use this for ID purposes, not me – unless I want to. Can't say, exactly.
Then I went keystroke-happy, writing...[it's been edited somewhat from the original.]
I promise to provide a merely slightly varnished -- perhaps even jaded -- version of happenings in Takoma Park, a city of about 18,000 located (completely) in Montgomery County that borders Washington, D.C. to the northeast and Prince George's County to the west (oooh, lemme check that, OK?).
A city known for community activism and involvement, which has been called the Berkeley of the East but also, perhaps more appropriately, the People's Republic of Takoma Park, a city that had the courage to pass a resolution stating that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney should be impeached and to resolve that cage-free chickens are better than factory-farmed ones. Takoma Park, which had an extensive recycling program well before most other cities, which provides its residents free compost created from leaves picked up at the curb. We also have a corn silo -- organic corn only, please -- on city property to service the members of a cooperative who have corn-burning stoves.
Some may ask incredulously, What is there to write about? A better question is, where to start? It may be the oldest cliche in the book, but Takoma Park is a microcosm of so many other urban/suburban areas, demographically split between homeowners and renters, extremely liberal (beyond the mainstream on that score), struggling to make ends meet as the recession drags on, dealing with crime and immigration issues, trying to "re-green" itself after having long ago lost its reputation for being a pacesetter in that area. Incredibly diverse and progressive, but also strangely conservative. The local historic preservation group has always been influential, but it's taking years for them to finish renovating their new home at Takoma Junction [added 8/2 – Look for another 21-person task force to be appointed to address the issues at that maddening intersection of Carroll, Old Carroll, Ethan Allen, Sycamore, and Grant, with the Co-op, the Park (often referred to by other appellations), the gas station, the fire station, the vet's, the dry cleaner, the framers, the bike shop, the Laundromat, the auto shop, Jet Postal and the Falafel truck. Nah, not much happening there. Oh, and – the city-owned lot next to the co-op – what to do about that? Develop? Sell? Turn it into a water park? I vote, only half-jokingly, for a Water Tower that would provide water to thousands and make money for Takoma Park. Let the collected rainwater flow through a specially designed conveyance/filtration system, using rocks to slowly leach the water of any dangerous toxins. A carbon filtration system would complete the process, leading ineluctably to the moment when Mayor Bruce Williams grabs the first bottle of TakomaWater off the assembly line and quaffs it as flash bulbs pop and the assembled crowd applauds.]
A younger generation has moved in and probably doesn't fully understand how things work in Takoma Park. (Come to think of it, people who have lived here for decades have no clue). Ignorance of city affairs is widespread. The homeowners -- most of them white, but we'll get to stats later -- are likely as not working for a federal government agency or a liberal nonprofit, trying to save the world from various scourges. But when you're fighting Climate Change, poverty, a broken educational system and crooked politicians, you don't have a lot of time for the mundane matters of city government. The fact that change seems to come slowly, in odd fits and starts, may be one reason most people avoid city affairs.
There is a strong minority of involved people, however, who have been active in the community for years, and can be counted on to voice opinions on one topic or another. But it still can be work to follow the goings-on in Takoma Park. Despite the presence of two newspapers, the Takoma Voice and the (erstwhile) Takoma Gazette (now the Wheaton-Silver Spring-Burtonsville-Takoma Park Gazette), many important stories remain untold. It's my humble hope that I can shed some light on things here by providing people with information -- something to INFORM you about local affairs. I certainly will not be shy about voicing my own opinions, but they'll be pretty easy to recognize and distinguish from the cold, hard facts. Links to documents and video footage will be used to illuminate.
The city web site is often inscrutable (it's undergoing a makeover at some point, according to a survey posted a while back); the Ward boundaries are not well publicized or explained, and so are generally unknown. The city boundary itself also can be malleable. What exactly is in Takoma Park? I'm told, in fact, that no one actually knows which political entity has jurisdiction of certain areas along the city line with Prince George's. I hope to bring you more on that if this thing, this blog, lasts.
To allude pointlessly to one of my favorite movies, Takoma Park is a little like Lumberton, the small town in David Lynch's Blue Velvet. Obviously, it's unique because of its history, its proximity to Washington, D.C., and the incredibly talented -- and eccentric -- people who choose to live here.
But as in Lumberton, there is much in Takoma Park that remains below the surface. Maybe we'll unearth some of it here.
How do we know this is really Steve Davies and not an imposter? Takoma Park is full of ingenious residents.
ReplyDeleteWho else would be foolish enough to try?
ReplyDelete