Reminder – DECAA Canidades Forum Tonight – Your Score Card – Questions

DECAA's CANDIDATES FORUM

Your Score Card – Questions – see attached and below

At-Large Seats on the DC Council

Co-Sponsored by 

TENAC, DC’s Tenant Advocacy Coalition,

Shaw-Dupont Citizens Alliance

And The Library Renaissance Project

Thurs., Sept. 17, 2020, at 6:30-8:30 P.M.

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82538246632?pwd=QXpXc0JCeG9tMnBZTXlEdEJxVnNHZz09

+1 929 205 6099 US (New York)

Meeting ID: 825 3824 6632

Passcode: DECAA

Iris McCollum Green, Esquire, Coordinator

deca…@gmail.com (202) 785-1171.

QUESTIONS FOR AT-LARGE COUNCIL CANDIDATES FORUM

1.      The District of Columbia has a Public Financing Program for Candidates which matches the contributions of individuals 5 to 1.  Are you participating in this program? Please answer YES or NO. 

2.      Are there PACS or Super PACS outside of your campaign spending money on your behalf? Please answer YES or NO.

3.      According to the District’s Parks’ Plan, there is a known lack of green space in the Dupont East area. The Masonic Temple has proposed to build a luxury apartment building on the last remaining green space in the neighborhood located between 15th and S Streets, NW.  DECAA is currently in litigation over this proposed building.  Would you support stopping the project?  If so, how?

4.      What are your views on having the city purchase the land or engage in a land swap for the green open space behind the Masonic Temple to keep it green?

5.      It is notable that there is a shortage of affordable housing for both moderate- income and low-income wage earners in the District of Columbia. What NEW and INNOVATIVE (emphasis added) measures would you propose to increase the amount of affordable housing for both income groups?

6.      Unique to the Dupont East area is a dual lane (two-way) bicycle track on 15th Street, N. W. which runs adjacent to the sidewalk, borders people’s homes, and forces residents to cross the bike lanes to reach their cars or to go across the street. While protected bike lanes make cycling safer for cyclists, unregulated bike lanes pose risks for pedestrians. What actions would you take to develop and enforce rules and regulations city-wide to protect pedestrians from accidents with cyclists and scooters?

7.      As a result of the killing of George Floyd and even before, there has been a constant refrain across the country for police reform.  What reforms would you propose to ensure the fair and equitable treatment of Black and Brown people by the police in the District of Columbia?

8.      There is an increase in the number of homeless encampments in the Dupont and downtown areas of D.C.  The COVID-19 pandemic has drawn attention to the fact that most of those suffering from homelessness are Black and in poor health.  When the ban on evictions is lifted, we should anticipate a precipitous spike in homelessness.  How do you propose to address the chronic issues around homelessness in the District of Columbia?

9.      Based on your response to that question, how do you propose to fund your suggested measures?

10.  The number of murders of innocent victims and children committed by private citizens, especially with the use of handguns, appears to be increasing in diverse D.C. neighborhoods. What, if anything, would you propose to make these neighborhoods safer for their residents.

11.  How would you provide oversight of the Community Partnership over homelessness prevention services which currently receives $81 Million from the DC Budget and which is said by the DC Auditor not to be fulfilling its contract?

12.  In the long running battle over proposed development at the federally and locally historically landmarked McMillan Sand Filtration Plant (aka McMillan Park), which has been in litigation for several years, what is your position on defunding the $75.5 million dollars currently allocated for the McMillan project and reallocating it for things such as public housing repairs and construction of new affordable housing?

13.  How will you ensure that communities will have significant input and control of plans like the comprehensive plan as well as ensure input and control of future development in communities?

14.  For purposes of this discussion, we are defining defunding the police as reducing the MPD budget by removing from the Department the responsibility over certain functions such as responding to calls relating to substance abuse, mental illness, homelessness, and reassigning those responsibilities to other more appropriate city agencies or new agencies and not abolishing the police department. What are your views on defunding the police under that scenario?

15.  Mayor Bowser, D. C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and other city officials have called for bringing back the Washington NFL Football Team to a new stadium on the site of the current RFK Stadium.  Ward 6 Council Member Charles Allen and others strongly oppose the construction of a new stadium on that site in lieu of affordable housing, jobs, new green space and recreation.

What is your position on how that site should be utilized?

16.    Would you favor or oppose public financing for a new stadium on that site?

17.  Would you support construction of a stadium on that site even if it is privately financed?

18.  The D.C. Housing Authority is often slow to provide housing to the homeless and its buildings habitually fall into disrepair.  Private developers do not build housing for the homeless.  Would you support the creation of a central office for homelessness independent of the Mayor that will buy or rent buildings or units, oversee repairs where necessary, and provide homes for the homeless? YES or NO.  If so, how would you fund it?

19.  How will you ensure racial equity in the preservation and creation of housing in the District?

20.  If elected, would you seek to codify housing as a human right as legislation or public?

21.  In preparing the Fiscal 2021 budget, the D.C. Council rejected by an 8-5 vote a modest proposal to increase the income tax rate on residents with a yearly income above $250,000.  Is that a proposal you could have voted for?  If yes, why?  If not, why not?

22.  Is there some other proposal you would favor for creating a more progressive and equitable tax structure in the District of Columbia?

23.  Following the MPD police shooting of 18-year-old Deon Kay on September 2, 2020, some have called for the firing of MPD Police Chief Peter Newsham. What, if anything, is your opinion on the call to fire Chief Newsham as a result of this shooting.