Rosedale Neighborhood News in the Hill Rag, May 2009

Extracted from "May Calendar - Go. Do. See.", page 24 [highlights have been added]



Extracted from "Capitol Streets - Bulletin Board", Page 38


Rosedale Gets Love (and Cameras) from the Community
by: Tanya Snyder

Peanut Johnson Field
Ward 6 resident Jerome Grey asked for community support to rename Rosedale Field after an African-American woman who played in the Negro Baseball League half a century ago. Mamie “Peanut” Johnson was discovered at the Rosedale playground by a scout when she was about 18 years old. She became one of three women to play professional men’s baseball (all three played in the Negro Leagues).

Johnson signed with the Indianapolis Clowns in 1953 after being rejected by a professional women’s team because of her race. During her three-year career, she pitched at such legendary ballparks as Yankee Stadium, Comiskey Park and Griffith Stadium. She reportedly acquired her nickname when she was playing in Birmingham and a Black Barons player asked, “How do you expect to strike anybody out? You’re no bigger than a peanut.”

She struck him out.

Johnson won 33 games and lost eight. Her career ended when the league did. Once Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in the major leagues in 1955, soon to be followed by Johnson’s friend and mentor Satchel Paige, the need for a Negro League was diminished, and their best players were being recruited by the big leagues.

Community member Robert Clayton joined Grey in speaking for the name change. He said it was an opportunity to recognize a great African-American role model for young women. He said the name change would make Rosedale Field a “memorial to what women can do.”

Clayton and Grey emphasized that they’re not suggesting changing the name of Rosedale Recreation Center – just the field.

Rosedale Friends
Rosedale Recreation Center got yet more attention from the ANC this month. Two organizations are trying to both be the center’s best friend. The Rosedale Youth Initiative and the Rosedale Citizens Alliance are applying jointly to become a “park partner” to the Rosedale Recreation Center. The process has changed since the last time they applied, and they now need a letter of support from the ANC to form the Friends of Rosedale.

The Department of Parks and Recreation will only accept one application to be a “friends of” group for the center, though the joint application doesn’t present a problem. However, there is some pressure to act soon.

To fundraise for the center, an organization needs to be a “park partner” or the official “friends of” group. Since the groups can’t fundraise for the activities, there’s no money to hold them. The ANC worried that the process was holding up some youth activities.

The groups’ plan for park improvement and maintenance includes volunteer cleanups and other beautification projects, such as planting flowers, minor maintenance projects and painting (with the approval of the DPR.)

Meanwhile, commissioners and Community Outreach Committee Chair Elizabeth Nelson agreed that the organizations be “park partners” and not “friends of” since the “friends of” designation makes an organization the key contact for future redevelopment of the community center. They want the ANC to have that status.

The ANC sent the question back to the committee for further discussion. The committee may then decide to draft a letter for the ANC to send in support of the application.

Cameras at Rosedale
The ANC voted to write a letter in support of the installation of a surveillance camera at the corner of 17th and Gales streets NE in front of the entrance to – you guessed it – Rosedale Recreation Center. Metropolitan Police Department Lieutenant Renato Caldwell of the Public Service Area (PSA) 103 says the corner is a “blind corner” that the police are unable to monitor adequately.

Over the past year, there has been a 200 percent increase in robberies with guns and a 40 percent increase in non-violent burglaries, all within 500 feet of this location. Also, summer is right around the corner, when crimes rates tend to spike. Several community members spoke in favor of the cameras.

Extracted from the ANC6A [Report], page 52 and 53

All above images and text have been extracted, in its entirety, from the May 2009 Hill Rag

Cafe Roma in the Hill Rag

In the "Bulletin Board" (page 36) within the January 2009 Hill Rag:





HERE is a RCA post on Cafe Roma's management advisory of "Interruption in Operations".

To assist one our Rosedale community businesses, RCA has asked the Mayor's office to provide a "liaison" to assist Cafe Roma's owners in finding resources and networks to allow them to reopen with a sustainable business and marketing plan.

In response, RCA has been contacted by Chris Taylor, Co-Ward 6 Outreach and Services Specialist with the Mayor's Office of Community Relations and Services. He stated a member of the Department of Small and Local Business Development will contact and work with Café Roma.

Please contact Café Roma’s Yohannes Kidane @ yohanneskidane@gmail.com, for further information on Cafe Roma's 'interruption of operations'.

Newly Elected SMD 6A08 Commissioner Kelvin Robinson

RCA would like to welcome SMD (Single Member District) 6A08 Commissioner-elect, Mr. Kelvin J. Robinson. RCA looks forward to meeting our newly elected commissioner and working together with him on important Rosedale Community issues.




Click HERE to view ANC6A's map

Below is an article in the December 2008 Hill Rag publication about the Commissioner-elect and SMD election.


ANC 6A - Second Chances

Williams’ Former Chief of Staff is New ANC 6A Commissioner
by: Tanya Snyder

Filling the Void
ANC 6A will soon have a new face – though one that is well known to many in the city. Stephanie Nixon’s replacement is taking a first foray back into city politics after a less-than-honorable discharge from a high post four years ago.

Nixon (6A-08) resigned from the ANC over the summer when she got engaged and moved out of the district. ANC Chair Joe Fengler praises Nixon’s service to the residents of her district and her special focus on public safety.

Her seat has been vacant for the last few meetings. Since she resigned less than six months before the election, no one could campaign for her seat. So there were no candidates for the seat in the Nov. 4 election.

But DC election law says that any write-in candidate can declare his or her candidacy up to seven days after the election. That means even if someone tells you the day after Election Day that they wrote you in for a position which had no candidates, you can submit an affidavit of candidacy the next day. If no one else does so, you win.

In this case, 104 people were written in for ANC commissioner for 6A-08. Only one has submitted his affidavit, and the deadline has now passed. As of press time, that person had not yet been notified that he had won the position. But ANC Chair Joe Fengler and Executive Director for the office of the Advisory Neighborhood Commissions Gottlieb Simon have confirmed that Kelvin J. Robinson has won the election.

“We’re excited to have someone back to fill the position,” says Fengler. “It’ll be great to have someone back to represent the interests of the residents of 6A-08.”

Robinson will be a new face on the ANC, but he’s no newcomer to DC politics. He served as chief of staff under Mayor Anthony Williams for three years. He’s lived in Capitol Hill since moving to Washington in 2000 – first at Third and A streets and now in the house he owns at 16th and A streets. Before coming to Washington, he served as the Director of Legislative and Public Affairs for the Florida League of Cities for seven years.

He also has experience with something Washingtonians are all too familiar with: car pollution. Robinson served as the Bureau Chief for Emissions Control within the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

ANC commissioners don’t often bring such a high level of government experience. ANCs are the lowest level of city government. Commissioners are elected volunteers with other, usually unrelated, day jobs.

Perhaps he’s starting over. Robinson resigned from Williams’ office in July 2004 just before being charged with “illegally urging city staff members to contribute money to the mayor's 2002 reelection campaign,” according to the Washington Post. During a campaign rally in August 2002, Robinson allegedly asked DC employees, including his subordinates, to volunteer to work on the mayor’s reelection campaign. Earlier that same year, Robinson allegedly asked city employees to buy tickets to the Kennedy-King dinner, a political fundraiser for the DC Democratic State Committee. He was charged with violating the Hatch Act, which prohibits most DC employees from soliciting political contributions or engaging in political activity while on duty.

In a statement following the settlement of the case, Robinson asserted his innocence. “As I have stated from the beginning,” his statement reads, “no such violations of any federal or District laws or rules ever took place, and … my record of leadership and service to District residents remains unblemished.”

Within a month of resigning, Robinson worked as a consultant for Wal-Mart as the giant big-box chain looked for inroads in the Washington area.

One condition of the settlement was that he could not seek or accept employment with the District of Columbia for two years. That term ended two years ago. So it stands to reason that his entrée into neighborhood politics is a way of testing the waters for a full reentry down the line.

Whatever his alleged indiscretions, Robinson has dedicated many years of his life to public service and plans to take his service to the ANC seriously. “Quite frankly,” he says, “all issues are issues at a neighborhood level first, and then they bubble up to a District-wide level.”

He says he’s been disturbed by the “lack of leadership” he’s witnessed around issues that affect the community, from the spike in crime to cleanliness of the streets to economic development. “There’s a lot of economic development occurring in other areas,” he says. “There are plans for it to grow out eastward. Someone with my background might have a little more to say about that.”

Robinson says he’s always been involved with his neighborhood, even if it’s just working with his neighborhood to make sure it’s clean and the garbage is collected.

In Robinson’s current day job, he works as a consultant, helping build capacity for small and midsize companies.

Gottlieb Simon says new ANC members will be sworn in Jan. 2. They will receive a daylong training session in December.

The exact number of remaining ANC vacancies is unknown since officials are still counting absentee ballots and write-ins. Simon anticipates at least a dozen vacancies when all is said and done. People can then petition to fill the vacancy. If more than two people petition to fill the same seat, a special election will be held in February or March.

The ANC class that will be sworn in this January will be about two-thirds returning incumbents and about one-third new members. Robinson will be the only new member of ANC 6A. All of the commission members ran unopposed except for Chair Joe Fengler and Bill Schultheiss (6A-06), both of whom easily defeated their opponents. Fengler’s opponent, Jabriel Ballentine, was approved to serve on the Economic Development and Zoning Committee at the post-election

RCA Included as a Non-Profit to Consider for Donations

Hill Rag's November 2008 issue includes an article, "Dollars That Make the Most Sense: Helping the Hill on a Budget" by Heather Schoell, which includes RCA as a Capitol Hill non-profit organization to consider for donations.

Donations will be used to fund community building projects. Some past efforts have included the Kingman Park Rosedale Community Garden, Community cook-outs, and the Rosedale Tigers Colorguard. To learn more, email us at rosedalecitizensalliance@gmail.com or join us at the next meeting, Monday December 1st at Cafe Roma.

Read the entire article HERE

Cafe Roma in the Hill Rag Again!

Cafe Roma was included in the November 2008 Hill Rag article: "Full Bellies, Capitol Hill Style. A Guide to Shopping Locally for Holiday Munchies" by Monica Cavanaugh. Read the entire article HERE

"Café Roma is a bit off the beaten path, but don’t let that keep you away. Stop in and drool over their homemade cakes, pies and torts. We hear their tiramisu is particularly scrumptious. Find them at 411 18th St. NE."


Photograph by Andrew Lightman


Click HERE to view Cafe Roma's first appearance in the Hill Rag (April 2008).


(Disclosure: quoted text and photograph excerpted from November 2008 Hill Rag)

04/08 Hill Rag Article - Cafe Roma

This article, "Cafe Roma - Brings Life to 18th & D", by Heather Schoell, appeared in the April 2008 Hill Rag, under "Dining 2008".



Since the article was published, Cafe Roma has continued to expand its menu by adding frozen (tea-based) fruit and coffee drinks, breakfast items, lasagna, calzone, a variety of tasty canolis and additional cakes.