ANCs...going rouge!

Community development/international development is my thing so in this 'federal city' that I presently reside a democratic body of community-minded individuals coming together to deal with neighborhood issues would ordinarily be a good thing.

The Advisory Neighborhood Commissions of Washington, DC in my opinion, however, don't cut it.

Of course, this intransigence goes ways back and extends to ANCs all around the city but most recently, we have the case of Big Bear Cafe's recent ABRA license support request to ANC5C that quickly went nuclear...complete with three postponed votes and a massive oppo dump once they did decide to go on the record.

This is further buttressed by a report from Rosedale Citizens' Alliance, of an ANC7D Commissioner apparently trying to shut down the Kingman Park-Rosedale Community Garden located in an interior block near E and 20th Streets NE. The purported reason are mosquitoes as a result of the garden's rain barrels and a generic claim that contaminated soil is being used to grow the vegetables/fruits. The neighborhood coordinator of the garden is adament that the rain barrels are covered with a mesh material to prevent access to the water by female mosquitoes and how ludicrous does it sound that a bunch of community garden folks would want to be growing food that they are actually consuming in "contaminated soil"...whatever the heck that means?

Do the ANC Commissioners who make these spurious claims ever bother to make sure their arguments are at least logical? This contaminated soil claim along with many of the allegations made about Big Bear simply sound like what they are...utter hogwash.