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Our Business Matters: A year-end update

A look-back at the challenges and concerns of community businesses

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The past nine months have provided this columnist the privilege of sharing observations, information and feature news profiles on some of the issues, challenges, people and perspectives originating with the local business community. The following is a special year-in-review update on several 2011 “Our Business Matters” topics.

A “scandal scarred” D.C. Council reverses vote on taxes by dropping its opposition to raising local income taxes, already among the very highest in the nation, with a new top rate hitting the small business community hard – allowing for yet another District government spending increase.

Year In Review: 2011

As the year comes to a close, the Council rushed last week to mask some of the stench emanating from the Wilson Building by approving a timid ethics bill after more than two months of discussion punctuated by a nine-hour federal raid and property seizure by IRS and FBI agents at the home of D.C. Council member Harry Thomas Jr. (D-Ward 5).

Meanwhile, criminal and ethical investigations into alleged improprieties by several elected officials drag on, while other Council members suffer the unabated suspicions of residents regarding potential wrongdoing or questionable ethical behavior – in total engulfing a majority of the Council as well as the mayor.

Earlier this month, D.C. Council legislation was introduced addressing taxicab confusions: inferior service, regulatory chaos. Overconfident taxi drivers, believing that their support of Mayor Vincent Gray’s successful 2010 campaign would lead to adoption of their call for a nearly doubling of fares, went ballistic when the D.C. Taxicab Commission instead recommended more modest increases, elimination of most surcharges – including for extra passengers, and a number of service improvements.

Local hospitality industry and business organizations, joined by the grassroots consumer group D.C. Taxi Watch organized by gay Dupont Circle Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Jack Jacobson, led the opposition to the huge fare increases requested by drivers and demanded better service, including the ability to accept credit and debit card payments and the forced retirement of aged vehicles.

A hearing on the bill is expected in January. Even if passed, don’t expect to see implementation of service improvements for at least a year.

While the annual “Small Business Survival Index” will soon be issued for 2011, little suspense surrounds whether the District will again rank last among itself and all 50 states – detailing how D.C. small businesses face worst-in-nation obstacles. The release of this nationwide study will undoubtedly herald D.C.’s last place reign again this year – a dishonorable distinction held for as long as anyone can recall and disproportionately affecting the outsized percentage of lesbians and gays engaged in entrepreneurial activities.

D.C. Council member Mary Cheh’s “Scarlet Letter” legislation to post sporadic, outdated, meaningless and arbitrary “snapshot” health inspection “letter grades” at the entrances of all food service and hospitality establishments again languished in limbo with no pick-up of support among her colleagues. Reflective of the folly of this proposal by the Democratic Ward 3 Council member, the city’s meager number of inspectors remains insufficient to conduct timely regular inspections or fulfill required re-inspections.

Washington remained one of the very few locations reflecting on its D.C. bag tax: paper, plastic or puffery? Although neighboring Montgomery County, Maryland, institutes a mandatory fee next month, nearly all other jurisdictions across the country have rejected similar business mandates, some by voter referendum.

While retailer compliance remains a significant and serious problem, local consumers have resigned themselves to either paying the minor nuisance price of paper or plastic bag usage or toting around their own household bags. The city has discontinued its recent advertising campaign reminding residents that “the law remains in effect” and checkout clerks now often wait for a customer to volunteer whether they want a bag without needing to ask — except when serving befuddled visitors and tourists.

The last year saw little let-up in the usual shenanigans by neighborhood citizens associations, tiny cadres of random residents forming business licensing protest groups and many Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) members fighting local economic development, commercial projects and alcohol licensing applications. It became more apparent, however, that these squeaky wheels enjoy less support among their neighbors than ever before.

It became widely known in the Dupont Circle area that VIDA Fitness faces opposition by ‘provocateurs’ protesting a liquor license application for the rooftop pool and lounge atop the new U Street fitness center location that opened in mid-July. Prominent community businessman David von Storch was only days ago ultimately successful in acquiring an Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) license — but not before suffering several hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees, expenses and lost revenue. The unique amenity will be available to neighborhood residents enjoying one of the sold-out pool memberships beginning April 1 upon the return of warm weather.

A 25-year D.C. entrepreneur, von Storch long ago became familiar with the business obstacles easily and often cavalierly posed by “an extraordinarily small number of people agitated by new development and change.” “The irony of this all,” he now says, “is that as much as the license protestants fought it, the first thing they will mention when selling their home will be its proximity to amenities such as a world-class fitness center, restaurants, nightlife and entertainment.”

A few blocks away, disappointment that a foreign government Chancery — replacing a gay-owned community bed-and-breakfast hobbled by operating restrictions urged by a small number of residents — paved over the front lawn and removed three towering trees underscored that Dupont denizens doth protest too much and illustrated the oftentimes unintended consequences following in the wake of neighborhood obstructionists.

For the record, the Chancery recently removed the concrete ground cover, illegal under the District’s applicable “public space” restrictions, at the urging of the U.S. State Department. No word yet on tree replacement.

In the same vein, Eric Hirshfield provided readers with a personal reflection of his business start-up experiences and participation in industry advocacy efforts regarding D.C. regulatory hurdles as the Duplex Diner pioneer hands over the keys to former bartender and new owner Kevin Lee at mid-year. Hirshfield detailed his experience with the exasperating and notorious so-called “Voluntary Agreement” process leading up to a 1998 opening and continuing operation.

The popular community venue enjoys the renewed affection of customer “stakeholders” under Lee’s stewardship, and the business has recently re-instituted a Sunday brunch. Hirshfield currently assists area businesses in navigating the arduous regulatory process as he examines potential commercial and residential development projects in his Adams Morgan neighborhood.

The highly successful second annual 17th St. Festival unites area to promote business in late September, doubling the number of attendees according to festival co-chair and coordinating sponsor Urban Neighborhood Alliance (UNA) vice president Stephen Rutgers. UNA hopes to continue to build alliances unifying Dupont Circle businesses and residents to overcome the legacy of bitter past regulatory battles, allowing the area to create a more favorable environment for enterprise success – such as that experienced to the more business-friendly east where the 14th and U streets ‘Arts District’ blossoms into more.

Despite the fact that D.C. gives ANCs ‘great weight’ on medical marijuana, the city continued a glacial pace toward implementing its uber-cautious and restricted program. Fear of a threatened federal crackdown resulting from President Obama’s assault on medical marijuana laws has not yet stopped the District from preparing to sometime in the next year issue business licenses for the small number of cultivation centers and dispensaries.

Although the D.C. marriage law engages fewer than predicted during the nearly two years since the initiation of marriage equality in the nation’s capital, minimizing the projected revenue benefit for local businesses and the city’s tax coffers, marriage between heterosexuals has certainly fallen out of favor. Barely half of American adults – a record low of only 51 percent – are currently married, continuing a long downward trend in marriage “market share” unrelated to economic cycles, according to a Pew Research Institute analysis of U.S. Census data released on Dec. 14.

2012 will present both usual and unique challenges and controversies affecting community business activities. A celebratory toast to the hardworking and dedicated purveyors of the amenities enhancing our shared cultural lives is appropriate as we enter the New Year.

Mark Lee is a local small business manager and long-time community business advocate. Reach him at [email protected].

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Community comes together to repair WorldPride history exhibition

Vandals damaged pictures, timeline walls on June 22

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(Photo courtesy Rainbow History Project)

Earlier this month, vandals shouting homophobic slurs damaged the 8-foot hero cubes and timeline walls of the Rainbow History Project’s (RHP) WorldPride exhibition “Pickets, Protests, and Parades: The History of Gay Pride in Washington.” The week’s incident was the fifth homophobic attack on the exhibition chronicling DC’s LGBTQ+ History, the vandalism damage was only made worse by the storms this past week. 

In response, RHP posted a call online for volunteers and donations and over a dozen volunteers showed up on Saturday to repair the exhibition in its final stretch. 

It took three hours, but the group assembled during a heat advisory to bend the fences back into place, fix the cubes and zip tie all the materials together to keep them safe. Some of those who came out to volunteer, Slatt said, were known RHP volunteers but most were total strangers who had attended an event here or there or just wanted to get involved for the first time, one was even in D.C. as an out-of-town guest and after seeing the Instagram call, decided to spend their day lifting some heavy fencing back into place. 

When asked why they showed up, volunteer Abbey said: “especially during Pride month, it’s so important to come together as a community, not just to celebrate, but to support each other. To know that this historic exhibit is even able to exist right now under this administration is really amazing. The fact that we’re just able to help continue it in its last leg of being out here is really important.”

 “Rainbow History Project does a lot of work for the community,” another volunteer Ellie said, “they show up in a lot of ways that I think we really need right now, so in terms of being asked to come out and do a couple hours of lifting, that is something that we can easily support and do.”

 “We put out a call asking for support from the community, and so we didn’t know what we’d get,” Slatt continued, “but strangers have shown up. We were upset, we were crying. We were trying to come up with a battle plan and more and more people have shown up with open arms and empty hands to do this. It’s 95 degrees, we are melting in the heat. It’s just amazing the number of people who have come here.”

If anything, the anonymous exhibit designer said, the people who vandalized the exhibit made the community stronger and mobilized members passionate about preserving and sharing our histories. Their efforts backfired in a big way — bringing together people who had only attended one or two RHP events or had read about the organization online to actively contribute to the work. 

It’s a meaningful representation of the history of D.C.’s LGBTQ+ community, one that often starts with a small group of people who come together to protest but soon mobilize their communities and enact monumental change in the nation’s capital.

“If Pride in D.C. started with 10 people picketing the White House,” Slatt remarked, “you just got 12 more to join the gay history movement.”

This was especially poignant, another volunteer Mattie said, on the week that the Supreme Court issued a decision allowing Tennessee to ban puberty blockers and hormone therapy for minors seeking gender affirming care. It was a devastating moment for the LGBTQ+ community who mobilized once more in front of the Supreme Court this past Friday. 

“It’s been actually really important to see this community come together in the face of direct attack on our history in the wake of direct attacks on our rights,” Mattie said, “and we stand up to that. We come together, and we represent. That is so important to maintaining our strength and our community throughout trying times now and ahead.”

When asked about how community members can support RHP’s work and repair the damage long-term to the exhibit, Slatt urged people to donate to RHP, to volunteer as exhibit monitors, and to come visit the exhibit. 

“We’ve been doing this for 25 years. This is our 25th anniversary, and if it weren’t for volunteers donating their time and their talents, if it weren’t for small dollar donors, we would never have gotten anything done,” Slatt said. “I’d say to anyone out there that we are on this plaza all through Independence weekend, we are here through the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, people can come on down.” 

Slatt and other volunteers will be leading tours each evening at 7 p.m. at Freedom Plaza, and people can pre-order the exhibition catalog right now, which will be delivered in time for LGBTQ+ History Month in October. 

Emma Cieslik is a D.C.-based museum worker and public historian.

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Can we still celebrate Fourth of July this year?

President Donald Trump wants to be king

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(Washington Blade file photo by Michael Key)

Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday commemorating the ratification of the Declaration of Independence by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing the United States of America. The delegates of the Second Continental Congress declared the 13 colonies are no longer subject (and subordinate) to the monarch of Britain, King George III and were now united, free, and independent states. The Congress voted to approve independence by passing the Lee resolution on July 2, and adopted the Declaration of Independence two days later, on July 4. 

Today we have a felon in the White House, who wants to be a king, and doesn’t know what the Declaration of Independence means. Each day we see more erosion of what our country has fought to stand for over the years. We began with a country run by white men, where slavery was accepted, and where women weren’t included in our constitution, or allowed to vote. We have come far, and next year will celebrate 250 years. Slowly, but surely, we have moved forward. That is until Nov. 5, 2024, when the nation elected the felon who now sits in the Oval Office. 

There are some who say they didn’t know what he would do when they voted for him. They are the ones who were either fooled, believing his lies, or just weren’t smart enough to read the blueprint which laid out what he would do, Project 2025. It is there for everyone to see. There should be no surprise at what he is doing to the country, and the world. Last Friday his Supreme Court, and yes, it is his, the three people he had confirmed in his first term, gave him permission to be the king he wants to be. The kind of king our Declaration of Independence said we were renouncing. A man who with the stroke of a pen can ruin thousands of lives, and change the course of America’s future. A man who has set back our country by decades, in just a few months.

So, I understand why many are suggesting there is nothing to celebrate this Fourth of July. How do we have parties, and fireworks, celebrating the 249th year of our independence when so many are being sidelined and harmed by the felon and his MAGA sycophants in the Congress, and on the Supreme Court. Yes, there are those celebrating all he is doing. Those who want to pretend transgender people don’t exist, and put their lives in danger; those who think it’s alright to take away a women’s right to control her body, and her healthcare; those who think parents should be able to interfere on a daily basis with their children’s schooling and wipe out the existence of gay people for them. Those who pretend there was a mandate in the last election, when it was only won by about 1 percent. Those who think disparaging veterans, firing them, and taking away their healthcare, is ok. Those in the LGBTQ community like Log Cabin Republicans, who think supporting a racist, sexist, homophobe is the right thing to do.

So, what do we, as decent caring people, do this Fourth of July. What do we say to those who are being harmed as we celebrate. What do we say to those trans people, those women, those immigrants who came here to escape their own dictators, and are now finding they have come to a country with its own would-be dictator. I say to them, please don’t give up on America. Don’t give up on the possibility decent loving people in our country will finally wake up and say, “enough.” That the majority of Americans will remember we fought a revolution to escape a king, and we fought a civil war to end slavery. That we moved forward and gave women the right to vote, and gave the LGBTQ community the right to marry. Don’t give up on the people that did all that, and think they won’t rise up again, and tell the felon, racist, homophobe, misogynist, found liable for sexual assault, now in the White House, and his sycophants in congress, and his cult, that we will take back our country in the 2026 midterm elections. That we will vote in large numbers, and demand our freedom from the tyranny that he is foisting on our country. 

So yes, I will celebrate this Fourth of July not for what is happening in our country today, but rather for what our country actually stands for. Not for birthday parades, and abandonment of the heroes in Ukraine in support of dictators like Putin. But for the belief the decent people in our country will rise up and vote. That is what I will celebrate and pray for this Fourth of July. That is what I think the fireworks will mean this July Fourth. I refuse to accept defeat the same way our revolutionary soldiers wouldn’t, and the way our troops in the civil war wouldn’t till the confederacy was defeated. 

I will celebrate this Fourth of July because I refuse to accept we will not defeat those who would destroy our beautiful country, and what it really stands for. 

Peter Rosenstein is a longtime LGBTQ rights and Democratic Party activist.

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Is it time for DC to have new congressional representation?

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton will turn 89 in June

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Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) (Washington Blade photo by Michael Key)

With WorldPride, Supreme Court decisions, military parades in our streets, mayor and City Council discussions about a new football stadium, it is entirely understandable if we missed the real local political story for our future in the halls of Congress. Starting this past May, the whispered longtime discussions about the city’s representation in Congress broke out. Stories in Mother Jones, Reddit, Politico, Axios, NBC News, the New York Times, and even the Washington Post have raised the question of time for a change after so many years.  A little background for those who may not be longtime residents is definitely necessary.

Since the passage of the 1973 District of Columbia Home Rule Act, we District residents have had only two people represent us in Congress, Walter Fauntroy and Eleanor Holmes Norton, who was first elected in 1990 after Mr. Fauntroy decided to run for mayor of our nation’s capital city. 

No one can deny Mrs. Norton’s love and devotion for the District. Without the right to vote for legislation except in committee, she has labored hard and often times very loud to protect us from congressional interference and has successfully passed District of Columbia statehood twice in the House of Representatives, only to see the efforts fail in the U.S. Senate where our representation is nonexistent. 

However, the question must be asked: Is it time for a new person to accept the challenges of working with fellow Democrats and even with Republicans who look for any opportunity to harm our city? Let us remember that the GOP House stripped away millions of OUR dollars from the D.C. budget, trashed needle exchange programs, attacked reproductive freedoms, interfered with our gun laws at a moment’s notice, and recently have even proposed returning the District to Maryland, which does not want us, or simply abolishing the mayor and City Council and returning to the old days of three commissioners or the very silly proposal to change the name of our Metro system to honor you know you.

Mrs. Norton will be 89 years old next year around the time of the June 2026 primary and advising us she is running for another two-year term. Besides her position there will be other major elected city positions to vote for, namely mayor, several City Council members and Board of Education, the district attorney and the ANC. Voting for a change must not be taken as an insult to her. It should be raised and praised as an immense thank you from our LGBTQ+ community to Mrs. Norton for her many years of service not only as our voice in Congress but must include her chairing the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, her time at the ACLU, teaching constitutional law at Georgetown University Law School, and her role in the 1963 March on Washington. 

Personally, I am hoping she will accept all the accolades which will come her way. Her service can continue by becoming the mentor/tutor to her replacement. It is time!

John Klenert is a longtime D.C. resident and member of the DC Vote and LGBTQ+ Victory Fund Campaign boards of directors.

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