f// Thursday, April 12, 2012

Kathy Henderson - Candidate Opening Statement

It is a pleasure to participate in C.O.V.E. I am always interested in entertaining the questions the citizens have. This is a time in our community that the citizens are going to elect a City Council member; it is an important opportunity for candidates. That person has to hit the ground running; that person has to be ready to meet with the Mayor, thats me, when they see me coming, they know I am coming for resources. I have my neighbors here tonight, who can attest to the fact that I am able to deliver. When I moved to my neighborhood I couldnt get my trash picked up, I called my ANC Commissioner, he couldnt help, I called my City Council Member, he said to me Ms. Henderson thats just the way it is, I found that unacceptable, thats the reason I decided to run. I have shared a very simple message: accountability, clean streets, safe streets and economic development. I was responsible for street pavements behind my house. I woke up one day, on Maryland Avenue there was a dead body in my backyard, people got killed due to no stoplights. We are moving forward. We cant afford to elect someone who just wants a seat. We need someone who can deliver, I am that person and I want to serve you. I am very pleased to be here tonight. Q&A 1. What is your vision for the pace and character of community economic development in light of the changing demographics of Ward 5, particularly in the neighborhoods situated west of the train tracks? My vision for Ward 5 is similar to your vision for Ward 5, you want clean streets, safe streets, and economic development, when you want to go to a set down restaurant, you want to do that in your community, and you dont want to fight for parking. When you go into Jim Grahams office you cant open the door because of all the ground breaking signs and shovels, well, I want to make sure that our Ward gets it share of economic development too. FOLLOW-UP a. How do you propose to revitalize our major corridors? I will start with cleaning up Ward 5 and the neighborhood infrastructure. I will tour each neighborhood, and make sure neighborhoods have clean streets and safer streets. We have trash at the Rhode Island Ave corridor that needs consistent cleaning, we need trees (trimmed), thats how you retain the candor and make it inviting. b. How do you plan to maintain neighborhood integrity in spite of economic development? You have to be strong; I think my service on the Historic Preservation Review Board gives me that experience. In terms of aged neighborhood facades, certain development may not fit, may disrupt neighborhoods and bring too much traffic. Developers have been very forceful, but I have a record of making sure that the residents concerns are incorporated into any development, I would hope to hear from citizens, I have fought for projects like the Atlas Flats, I would fight for the citizens and support their concerns. c. What kinds of businesses would you encourage, and conversely, what kinds would you seek to limit or restrict? I like retail and businesses. We need to continue to move our economy forward with stores and art galleries, things that people really want to participate in. What I dont want. I do not support medical marijuana facilities, Ive done the research and there is no science to support it, strip clubs, other
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businesses that people dont want, I will take a stand to make sure that we are not saturated in any way with businesses that other wards dont want. 2. How would you advance public safety so that residents (both long term and more recent arrivals) will feel safe in their homes and on the streets without fostering an environment which has the look and feel of a police state? We dont want a police state, but Ward 5 can benefit from enhanced community interactive policing. I really like what this community is doing with walk thrus. I have started the walk thrus in my community; I actually came over here to be instrumental in walk thrus here, as Geovani can attest to. I have an exceptionally strong record with public safety. My favorite way is to actually conduct walk thrus, these have been very effective. I have used it with the Mayor, Congresswoman Norton, and other government officials it really brings government into force. I recall we had a really big trash problem in our neighborhood, and once I invited the Mayor, one of the neighbors got up at 5 in morning to clean up her side walk, this is the kind of pride, I want to foster. We no longer have open drug dealers and drug sales who want to sale AK 7 out of the trunk of their cars and have shoot outs, we no longer had these violent crimes. The paradigm has changed. I can promise you this, if I am elected I will not rest until every neighborhood in Ward 5 is safe and I will garner the resources to make sure of it. FOLLOW-UP a. What ideas do you have for reducing juvenile crime and delinquency? Good and tough question. I dont know that Neil Stanley is the Director of the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, and he is doing a really good job, but we need to make sure the services are available and the facilities serve its purpose. We need to go back to curfews, wrap-a-round services; we need to make sure that schools are safe, and that children are actually going to school, and hold parents accountable, look at other jurisdictions on how parents are held accountable. We say we want to put in place safety measures, but when our Mayor tried to put them in force, the citizens backed off. We have to participate in the process. b. What do you propose to do to ease racial tension? Well, I am not going to sit here to tell you we have all the answers to fix race relations, we have the first African-American President in the history of the US, and unfortunately racial tension still persists. I will advocate for all Ward 5 residents, everyone benefits when we have safe streets, property values increase; the landscape is good (vibrant, safe and appealing). I will be sure that every citizen who comes to Ward 5 enjoys a vibrant, safe and enjoyable community. 3. What will you do to help insure that children in Ward 5, and for that matter, adults who are so inclined and so motivated, have the opportunity to attend quality schools without leaving their community? Thats a really important issue; one of the things I want to start with is accountability. I will regularly go into schools, I will look at the facility, and I will speak with students, the administration, because it is important that every student has a clean and functional environment. Thats one of the things we miss, we dont really know whats going on in our schools. We had a school to close and the Superintendent

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didnt bother to contact the Council, that wont happen on my watch. This is one thing we miss involvement in school closings. We need to ensure the Superintendent involves the population. FOLLOW-UP a. What is your position on the tension between regular public schools and the public charter school movement? I believe that every child deserves a high quality and free education, unfortunately our public schools have not always provided that, now we have charter schools that promise to provide that, I want to make sure they provide viable and equal education. I attended a meeting once, where the Charter School Superintendent didnt believe they had to attend, thats not true. We want to ensure charter schools are transparent and accountable. I want to make sure that all schools have viable programs for all of our students. b. What strategies would you implement to prepare our children for college or vocational training beyond secondary school? Recently, I was in a meeting with Kaya Henderson, and asked about phonics, and why we moved from them, this works. It is important that we teach our children phonics so that they can learn, when they dont they get taught; they get frustrated and go out to commit crimes because they cant read and decode. I once ran a program to teach children to read, people said that they couldnt but they all did learn to read. Our children can learn, we need to make sure we have the tools to provide them with the resources they need and the right environments to make sure they can learn. c. What are your ideas on opening one or more pubic Middle Schools in Ward 5? Clearly there is a need. I am not satisfied that parents dont have better choices. Ward 5 has been short changed in so many ways, its ridiculous that we have to rally for a middle school; we shouldnt have to beg to have our children educated. Unfortunately, I had to take my child to Ward 3, Wilson Sr. HS, and to junior HS because choices were limited. No parents should have to camp out to get their child in a quality school, every family deserves quality education. Schools like Wheatley Educational Campus is beautiful, the curriculum has improved, we shouldnt have to fight for a middle school, but, I will fight for every resource for you that I can get my hands on. 4. How do you propose to address the mounting issues of traffic gridlock and walkability in Ward 5, particularly west of the train tracks, especially given the significance of development projects that are either already underway (Rhode Island Row), or planned for the near future (McMillan), inside or just outside the boundaries of our neighborhoods? I really think we need to bring DDOT and the Office of Planning back to the table. We have issues that we shouldnt have; I believe citizens should have a choice. If you want to walk, you should be able to do so, if you want to drive you should be able to drive, you literally take your life in your hands at some of these crosswalks. Walking is a great way to reduce your weight, cleanse the environment; I would like to look at some plans in other states. If I am your City Council Member, I will make sure that DDOT and the Office of Planning does an exceptional job for our traffic calming, right now its a nightmare, around New York Avenue, traffic lights are not long enough and you take your life in your own hands. I will make sure we get the resources we need, we are entitled to safe streets like in other Wards in the city, and we should have them too.

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FOLLOW-UP a. What is your position on bike lanes and bike sharrows? We have tensions, when I was in high school in New York, I went to school on my bike, it was a wonderful experience, but the tension between motorist and bikers is so thick, that has to stop; some people believe that riding bikes is something Caucasians do, not blacks, thats not true, its not a racial issue. We need to come together on the common interests and talk about what we want, rather than the back room networks making decisions for the masses. I will make sure I support the concerns of all of Ward 5 residents. b. What is your take on the parking space conflict between some of our longstanding traditional churches and some of our newer residents? I understand that it is a two prong problem. Church goers want to make sure they have a space to go and worship the Lord, because we need spiritual enrichment every day ; but, then you have people who buy houses and they dont want to come outside, they dont want their parking spaces taken, especially when they pay the fees for parking. I am a certified mediator I would like to come and sit down with the citizens in community and have dialogue. I have come together in my community when we have parties and talked about parking and we didnt have the tension. When old time residents have homes and dont want to leave them, they should have a space, whether old or new residents, we need to create dialogue, and come to agreements, this is very effective.

[AUDIENCE QUESTIONS] a. How do you feel about public transit buses? Is that a trick question? Moderator No, this person is really concerned, they have asked this question before of other candiates. Henderson - It is a viable transportation, they should be reliable and at a low cost, they should be safe, clean and timely. I have had the unfortunate experience when riding the bus and it was not timely or clean. I have gone to many WMATA meetings and conveyed that we expect to have bus routes that allow us to traverse our Ward, that are clean. I am also concerned about buses on narrow streets. I would come up with a way to enhance our bus transportation on the West end without the quality of life being disrupted on narrow streets. I think buses are appropriate, we need them and I support them. I would be horrified if we didnt have them. b. What would you do to ensure that we get a grocery store? This goes back to my first priority to clean up the ward, safe streets, reduce the crime rate; then I think we are in a good position to advocate at the annual Shopping convention that I attend with the Mayor, I would make sure that an effective argument is made to anyone that they can make money to bring their store to our Ward 5, for them it is not a moral issue, but a money issue; also we want to make sure the street scapes support our needs to attract business to Ward. I will strongly advocate and support having a grocery store.

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c. Related to the topic of Historic Preservation, there are no Historic neighborhoods in Ward 5, would you advocate for this? I think every neighborhood in the Ward has historic value, and this is one of the ways we have been short changed. For example Spingarn sets across from Langston Golf course, DDOT and the Office of Planning have a ridiculous plan to tear up the front of Spingarn to put a storage facility there. As a Preservationist, I testified against such a request. On Florida Avenue we have pop up buildings. The Office of Panning would not dare think of putting these types of industrial facilities in other Wards, people would get upset and change their minds. I did facilitate a meeting with the Historic Preservation and community for preservation within the community that adds value and increase property values. Our communities Langston, Eckington, Carver Terrace, any street in our city has historic value, I propose to protect that value d. Would you support government providing subsidy for development in our Ward? I am not in the business of giving money away to businesses, you should have a viable business and able to sustain that plan without tax incentives. There has to be value added to the community. I want to sit down with the community and carefully look at whether we need to offer tax incentives. I certainly, would not be giving our tax dollars away to people who offer Pie in the sky dreams with benefits to the community. e. On juvenile crime, are you aware that two thirds of our youth in DYRS are being sent out of the District as far-away Canada, with limited parental involvement, which is discouraged, what know about this, and what would you do to change this? I actually worked at the DYRS, and I am not familiar with long distance placements as far as Canada, they may be committed through the court system. But, we need to ensure that the system is adequate, we need to make sure that there is accountability. Parents need to be involved because when youth are in the system they have committed a crime, and sometimes its symptomatic of whats going on in the family. We need to provide wrap-a-round services to the child and family. I dont know if we have youth committed as far away as Canada, if we do, this makes no sense, I will talk with Neil Stanley about this, he is approachable. I certainly dont support, and dont see that its viable, where would we get the money to pay for such services. f. How would you use the $50 million allotted to the McMillan Project? I am quite familiar with the plan, I wrote a paper about it while at Howard University. The current plan still does not have community support; it has a history of mistrust, change in developers, changing city funding and priorities, and the citizens were not happy with the development vision. One thing I am proud of, sitting on the Historic Preservationist Review Board, we always got developers to come back to the table to look at what the citizens want, I think that when the citizens have a leadership they can trust and will go back to the table to represent what they want and is more appropriate, this is more effective and what we expect at the end of the day. Closing statement I am very happy to be here this evening, I am very pleased at the opportunity to become your representative. I feel very strongly about our community, its mine, its yours, and I will fight on your behalf. I would be happy to get up every morning to serve you. My neighbors can tell you that I am a proven leader. I believe that you have the right person to fight for citizens. I come to you with an exceptional record. I am a proven leader that citizens can trust. I am the only candidate who has won numerous awards, I want you to know that when I undertake activities on behalf of the public, I take
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them very seriously; I really appreciate the opportunity to go to battle with the government and to come away with resources. I am responsible for that dental suite at DYRS; contracting with the government is aggravating, I know how to cut through red tape and how to deliver. I want you to know that you can count on me; the Census Bureau is looking at me, they have given me bonuses, they want me back. I would really do my heart good to be your City Council Member. Look at my record, the best predictor is past successes, for future success; my record is excellent, I am not taking money from strip clubs, I am not bundling; I dont support the back room networks. Ladies and gentlemen its time to move forward and I am ready to serve you. Vote for me. Visit my website: kathyhenderson4ward5.com.

Applause

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