Trees again (planting and plaints); Takoma Junction task force

Just a quick note (ah, but that's impossible for me) before I endeavor to revive Endangered Species & Wetlands Report, the newsletter I've published for 15 years this month. In fact, the actual 15th anniversary is coming up -- it might coincide with my son's 6th birthday -- October 9. That was when I launched ESWR, the most tongue-twisted acronym one could ever hope to come up with. It's been my cash cow (yeah, right), but hopefully also a journal of some value to people in the ESA, wetlands and takings (not so much) law communities. But lately (that's a loose use of that word) it hasn't lived up to expectations. If you're environmentally inclined, please check out the new site and offer constructive criticism. Thank you.

On to TP, the unfortunate acronym for Takoma Park. Trees are in the news again. Actually, when aren't they? This time the debate is over the costs and benefits of solar energy compared with the those attendant to the tree canopy.

Actually (there's that word again), the costs of trees are never discussed. It's always all those benefits, especially the miraculous way they cool the air. Did you know that it's not as hot in the shade?  The example I love is the one Catherine Tunis keeps trotting out -- the $2,000 of taxpayers' money she and the Greenhouse Gas Action Plan people spent back in 1999 proving that ambient temperatures in a treed backyard are lower than those you'd find in the parking lot of a Langley Park shopping center. Personally, I can't think of two more climatically different locations. But they proved it! Chances are, if you step out of your car to grab a pollo entero from Señor Chicken at 12:30 pm on a Wednesday when it's 97 degrees out, you'll be hotter than if you were sipping a cool drink in the backyard of your ----- Avenue home. Eu-friggin-reka.
But on to NEWS, not HERSTORY

"It's not right, it's not fair, I'm still a mess and you still don't care." Fountains of Wayne, Little Red Light

  
The latest re-iteration of this "research" took place at the city council's Sept. 27 meeting, where a good hour and a half was spent on the tree ordinance and hearing various complaints about its implementation (or lack of implementation). I'll offer a few documents and background here, but please also go to http://takomapark.patch.com, where my debut column is on this very subject -- the meeting and discussion. Thanks to Ryan McDermott for allowing me to disgorge my thoughts -- oooh, gross -- on the Patch site.  

The following item was updated Monday, Oct. 25

Appointments to the Takoma Junction Task Force were made Sept. 27 and tonight (it's going to happen, according to the agenda). A  bit more above-board than the sleight-of-hand involved in the selection of members of the Task Force on Environmental Action, which I was co-chair of (and that title and a sawbuck won't get me a coffee at Starbucks, I'm betting).


Twenty people were appointed Sept. 27 to the new body, which is charged with figuring out how to revitalize and redevelop that nightmare intersection.

The task force, which has been given a year (twice as long as the Task Force on Environmental Action got) to come up with a report, also is supposed to "create work plans with recommended near- and long-term actions for Council consideration that addresses [sic] the community’s interest in improving existing traffic patterns; resolving pedestrian safety concerns; increasing public use of public spaces; providing for the redevelopment  of city-owned properties; enhancing the physical appearance and condition of properties; and increasing the economic viability of area businesses."

Sounds simple. Have at it, guys. They just have to figure out how to balance the needs of Junction businesses, pedestrians, cars, the co-op, the city-owned lot next to the co-op, and historic preservationists. 

The environmental task force recommended something for the junction – a "roundabout" to ease the traffic problems. But that seems unlikely to occur, as it would necessitate removal of the "park" located across from the TPSS co-op, and its attendant mural, benches, etc.

Historically, it is an interesting structure, and that's important, because Historic Takoma Inc. (HTI) is well represented on the task force.

"Historic" members include Lorraine Pearsall, either HTI's vice president for preservation (HTI website) or president of HTI (city task force applicant list); Susan Robb, HTI board member, and James DiLuigi, HTI board member.

Also newly appointed to the task force is Howard Kohn, who lives near the Junction, is well-known as a political kingmaker and head of Takoma Park Neighborhood Youth Soccer (what Takoma soccer mom doesn't know 16 Jefferson Ave.?), and is married to HTI muckety-muck Diana Kohn -- not that we'd ever suggest Howard's objectivity would be influenced by something as pedestrian as marriage.

Other members:

Roz Grigsby, Executive Director of the Old Takoma Business Association; Roger Schlegel, who captured 40 percent of the vote in the mayor's race last year; Jeffrey Trunzo, a Sherman Avenue resident, Silver Spring-Carroll neighborhood association member, and regulatory analyst at the Food and Drug Administration; Lorig Charkoudian, chair of the TPSS Co-op; Ellen Zavian, SS Carroll Association's chair of Subcommittee on Junction Function; Hailu L. Aichehi, a real estate agent for Heymann Realty Inc. (at least, according to the Web); John Salmen, owner of Universal Design, at 6 Grant Avenue; Kay Daniels-Cohen, head of the SS-Carroll association;  Steve Dubb, membership director for the co-op; Megan Gallagher, 7331 Carroll Avenue; Seth Grimes, ubiquitous local activist and former mayoral candidate; Andy Kelemen, who has been a member of the informal "Fireplace Group" that had been meeting to discuss the future of the Junction; Linette Lander, Katrina Oprisko, William Coulter, and Jennifer Sisane.

At this point the distribution for the task force is:

Ward 3 (the location of the Junction): 10 members (Councilmember: Dan Robinson)
Ward 1:  4 (Councilmember: Josh Wright)
Ward 2:  3 (Councilmember: Colleen Clay)
Ward 4:  1 (Councilmember: Terry Seamens)
Ward 6:  2 (Councilmember: Fred Schultz)
Washington, D.C. - 1

Alas, the task force has no representatives of Ward 5 (Councilmember: Reuben Snipper).

Once again, Ward 3 dominates a task force, just as it did with the TFEA (the environmental task force).