THE NORTHWEST CURRENT-WASHINGTON INFORMER VOTER GUIDE QUESTIONNAIRE

2/28/2014

"The Washington Informer newspaper and The Northwest Current are teaming up to provide the official voters' guide for the Ward 5 race. Here are some questions you would need to answer."



WARD 5 COUNCIL CANDIDATE CAROLYN C. STEPTOE’S
RESPONSES TO CURRENT-INFORMER QUESTIONNAIRE Responses will be published in print newspapers

1) In Ward 5, there are some neighborhoods that have crime problems while others do not. What will you do as a council member to fight crime in the ward?

As an advisory neighborhood commissioner in Ward 5, I regularly attend monthly community meetings and stakeholder meetings wherein our Ward 5 residents address their public safety and crime concerns their ANC and the Fifth District Metropolitan Police Department. While varying in scope, type and degree, residents from all Ward 5 neighborhoods express concerns about specific crimes occurring in their neighborhoods. Whether robberies, assaults, disorderly conduct, theft, metro crimes, burglaries, shootings, and yes, even homicides, no Ward 5 neighborhood is exempt from crime. Recently, my own Brookland neighborhood made news for its snatch and grab ATM robbery and ranking as the most dangerous Metro station. Same as other wards in the District, Ward 5 has struggling communities and populations. Studies have found that those living in poverty and poverty-stricken areas have fewer options in life. They tend to have health and housing issues, high unemployment and education issues. They also tend to live closer to freeways and industrial areas, which are, themselves, traditionally areas of high unemployment. As long as our citizens’ basic needs are left unmet, unfortunately many will turn to crime to survive. However, I believe that, given the opportunity of decent-paying employment, affordable housing and quality education, these struggling citizens will become productive citizens.

As the Ward 5 councilmember, I am sensitive to our struggling populations and shall continue to help them out of disparate poverty and income and educational inequality. As one of only five recipients – citywide - of the 2013 Metropolitan Police Department Citizen of the Year award, I will build on the sustained, collaborative alliance and community partnerships already established with the Metropolitan Police Department. As MPD observes, I am not afraid to face community issues head-on and this is reflected throughout the community, businesses and citizens of my community. I will bring this same vigilance to all neighborhoods of Ward 5. Specifically, our city council must demonstrate its dedication to effective policing by its substantive budgetary allocations on behalf of District citizens and the MPD patrol offices charged with protecting and serving our residents. Appreciatively, the Fifth District Precinct, which patrols the majority of Ward 5, saw the greatest crime reduction in the city in 2013.

I will also structure a multi-faceted plan to create safer Ward 5 neighborhoods. We need smart investments in effective programs to reduce recidivism; the most serious crimes are committed by previous offenders. At a minimum, our returning residents need a high school diploma and we must invest in job training and apprenticeship programs that help put them on the pathway to a livable, career earning job. Studies show that a good education and a decent, wage-earning job is the best deterrent to crime.

2) Ward 5 has the third highest unemployment rate in the city. What will you do to see that unemployed Ward 5 residents find jobs?

The city is experiencing tremendous economic prosperity and economic dividends. Unfortunately, significant populations in Ward 5 are hurting and suffering in silence. Despite the city’s gentrification and revitalization policies, many Ward 5 residents feel left out, pushed out and ignored by leadership. Economic inequality, joblessness, unaffordable housing, poor schools, poor city services, homelessness and overall fear about day-to-day survival makes the District a tale of two cities for many. The economic and income disparity inequality gap in Ward 5 - same as in Wards 7 and 8 - was reflected in a 2012 census data report. This report was published by the DC Fiscal Policy Institute and showed that the District of Columbia has one of the highest levels of income inequality among the nation’s cities (“D.C.’s gap is one of the nation’s widest’). Only Atlanta and Boston showed higher levels of income inequality in 2010. The report stated that the disparity was the result of two vastly different economies in the District - one economy is populated by college graduates thriving in well-paying information and government jobs; the other is for people lacking higher education, scrambling for even low-paying work. In Ward Five, income disparity is stark and prevalent w/disproportionately high numbers of minority Ward 5 households live just at or below the poverty line, receive food stamps, TANF, are jobless and have low educational attainment.

Our city must substantively allocate funds to re-introduce job readiness (career wage earning trade and technical vocation schools) for our residents. In addition to creating accredited vocational and technical educational schools, I would elicit that local universities, public and private sector collaborative partnerships become re-established as a feeder gateway to ensure successful entry for our youth into living wage earning careers. Trade and vocational programs would range accounting to bookkeeping, automotive technology, nursing; computer information systems, welding, cosmetology, microcomputer support, digital media to graphic design. Our city has, historically, heralded and budgeted taxpayer dollars for trade and technical vocation training. To our credit, our wise city tax dollar investments proved a viable, sustainable benefit for all. We must enact legislation and policy which creates and promotes substantive technical and vocational educational training to ensure the successful workforce, living wage entry of our resident.

3) Ward 5 has the highest concentration of seniors in the city. What will you do to see that seniors can age in place and that the ward is more senior-friendly?

In the District of Columbia, reports indicate that about 11 percent of our city’s 630,000 residents are 65 or older; more than half of those residents live alone.

In recent years, our city budget has made significant cuts to key programs for our seniors. Thousands of older adults depend on services and programs funded by the District -- from home delivered meals to adult day health care. Lack of affordable housing is identified as the biggest challenge to uniting the city and the population grows. Yet our city continues to cut the budget for senior services. In 2013, hundreds of District seniors showed on a very rainy day at a council budget hearing urging the City Council to move $5.8 million from the mayor’s wish list for the D.C. Office on Aging onto the 2014 budget. Although the proposed budget for senior services is roughly $30 million, advocates note more is needed to support life in a city where basic necessities have become increasingly expensive. District seniors deserve what belong to them; they lived and remained in the city when no one else wanted to be here. Our seniors gave their time, money and their life to the District of Columbia and we must ensure they are able to live comfortably, fairly and respectfully in our city in their old age.

As councilmember, I will introduce legislation for more budget allocation to support senior programs. Programs such as transportation, health care and financial counseling for our seniors are necessities. Unfortunately, due to the recession, many senior advocacy groups are experiencing inability to further managing their senior programs. Ward 5’s Seabury, Washington Home for the Aged, the DC Chapter of AARP, Legal Counsel for the Elderly are but a few senior providers impacted by the recession. Since 2009 advocates note, seven nonprofit senior organizations have dropped as lead agency providers.

As councilmember, it is not unreasonable for our city to strongly advocate for substantive funding for our seniors. Our city must also retain its momentum to fund senior groups and senior programs. Seniors need community recreation rooms and recreation facilities to exercise and socialize. Many need senior day care centers and senior well centers. Ward 5 has such facilities but not in all Ward neighborhoods. As councilmember, I shall introduce budgetary legislation to support our seniors and their quality of life. Additionally, significant senior waivers, tax credits and tax abatements must be enacted to protect against erroneous tax liens, liabilities and high payments,

4) Ward 5 is changing demographically with new residents coming in and the more established ones feeling a bit threatened. What will you do to bridge this divide and unite the ward?

Gentrification in Ward 5 and the city has created a conspicuous schism - top down. As a current, 3-term advisory neighborhood commissioner in the Brookland neighborhood of Ward 5, I know first-hand the ongoing negative, domino effect, (including very divisive citizen wars) the city’s gentrification-as-a-key-revitalization strategy has on city policy, city legislation, budget allocation and city agency. In Ward 5 and throughout the city, new and old residents, black and white residents are, in real time, polarized and pitted against each other in response to city policies and city legislations derived from gentrification. Old residents feel ignored, shut out and left out as taxpayers. New residents feel entitled, expectant and deserving as taxpayers. Both simply want and deserve quality city services reflective of their individual life and needs.

Meanwhile, city policy and city legislation has created a real-time schism whereby households, individuals and populations in Ward 5 are suffering in silence. Our city is a tale of two cities - the haves and the have-nots - and this disparity is growing. City processes of fair and substantive redress for our citizens’ and their concerns about quality of life issues are typically minimized, marginalized or routinely ignored. In the face of the District’s prosperity dividend, issues involving inappropriate development in our neighborhoods, school closures and poor schools, loss of parks, diminished senior and health services, rising homelessness, reduced youth advocacy are all shuttled to the back to continue the frontal revitalization push of the city’s gentrification agenda, processes and policies. The divide created by the city is huge and the wedge is a reality of unfairness, disparity and sometimes animus. As ANC, the divide took very ugly turns in Ward 5 such that in the course of ANCs’ carrying out their duly sworn duties to provide a voice to the most directly affected residents about issues and projects, intense, mob-like anger, hostility, threats even court action from pro-gentrification factions ensued against ANCs. Such behaviors are an unfortunate residual reality of imbalance city strategies and imbalanced city policy.

As councilmember of Ward 5, brokering discussions and eliciting cooperative engagement among neighborhood stakeholders is tantamount to success. Nationwide, such discussions and dialogues continue, some in very public mediums. Thoughtful legislative sensitivity and substantive, balanced enactments on behalf of our District citizens must take precedence over legislative deference to big business and special interest goals.

As councilmember, since I do not accept any campaign contributions, I will not be beholden to special interest groups or business – only the voters of Ward 5 and their quality of life concerns.






Paid for by Candidate Carolyn C. Steptoe, 1257 Lawrence Street, NE, 2013 Ward 5 D.C. City Council candidate (D.C. Official Code §1-1102.10). A copy of our report is filed with the Director of Campaign Finance of the District of Columbia Board of Elections and Ethics (D.C. Official Code §1-1102.01(e)).