The Washington Post - 26.08.2019

MONDAY, AUGUST 26 , 2019. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ M2 B3

When several laws pertaining

to renters’ rights expired in June,

New York’s legislature passed

sweeping overhauls that expand-

ed tenant protections statewide,

closed loopholes that allowed

property owners to raise rents

despite rent-control regulations

and abolished rules that allowed

property owners to deregulate

apartments.

The District’s rent-control law

comes up for renewal next year.

“I think the most important

part is just being this political

force that can counter all the

money in politics and specifically

its influence on the mayor’s office

and in the [D.C.] Council,” Bastek

said. “It’s foolish to believe that

just because something sounds

good and is good policy, it’s going

to pass.”

It is unclear how the organiza-

tion will define “tenants,” which

other cities have used to mean

rent-paying residents to recipi-

ents of public housing services to

homeless individuals and incar-

cerated people.

There are tenants who live in

high-rise developments, sin-

gle-family homes, small apart-

ment buildings and group

homes. Each group has its own

distinct needs.

The only way to address those

needs, organizers said, is to get

them talking.

“The thing about poor people

organizing is it demonstrates our

power to people who don’t think

we have power in the game,”

Settles said. “That’s what we need

right now.”

[email protected]

the political capital of renters.

“The biggest thing I would like

to see is planning with the peo-

ple, not for the people,” said

Karen Settles, a member of the

D.C. Tenants Union steering com-

mittee and a longtime housing

advocate. “This spirit of collabo-

ration is so needed right now.”

Settles, a former Advisory

Neighborhood Commission

member from Ward 7, said she

remembers the last time resi-

dents tried to jump-start a city-

wide force on housing, in the

1980s. The effort, a nationally

coordinated campaign, failed be-

cause of a lack of funding, she

said.

In the years since, she said, the

need for tenant advocacy has

increased.

“What’s so disturbing is here,

in our nation’s capital, we have an

out-of-control homeless problem

and many more people who feel

like they could become homeless

at any moment,” Settles said.

The group is broken up into

three arms: Uptown, or Wards 1, 3

and 4; Midtown, or Wards 2, 5

and 6; and Bridge to East of the

River, composed of Wards 7 and

8.

At its launch event, the group’s

goals were handwritten on poster

boards in English and Spanish.

The colorful words glowed as

sunlight filtered through the pa-

per.

“Join the fight to save D.C.’s

rent control,” read one. “Justice

for tenants.”

They are drawing inspiration

from New York’s recent rent-con-

trol fight.

was told we’ll have? My rent is

still too high,’ ” said Sela Lewis, a

member of the D.C. Tenants

Union’s interim steering commit-

tee. “I think we see this bubbling

frustration from folks who did

the work to create the culture of

the city and are just being left out

of what it’s becoming.”

A tenants union is not like a

traditional labor collective. Many

are volunteer-run and loosely or-

ganized. They are defined by

geographic area and vary in their

definitions of who is allowed to

join and who qualifies as a “ten-

ant.” The group does not have to

be recognized by any entity or

bargain for a particular contract.

Instead, it functions more as a

grass-roots lobbying effort, a col-

lective of activists trained on one

issue: housing.

“It can be really hard to orga-

nize in labor — it’s just not

something that everyone has ac-

cess to,” said Stephanie Bastek,

28, a member of the D.C. Tenants

Union interim steering commit-

tee. “But everybody needs some-

where to live, and that’s the basis

for everything.”

The group has been a longtime

goal of the Latino Economic De-

velopment Center, a nonprofit

group that has helped to organize

D.C. tenants within their own

buildings and leads regular clin-

ics on tenants’ rights.

Through the union, LEDC offi-

cials said they hope tenants can

learn from one another’s wins

and losses and support one an-

other in disputes. Others hope

the organization can translate

into a voting bloc and increase

nomic crash of 2008, cities like

Los Angeles saw a huge surge of

new developments as a way to

bring in investment and money,

and when you have that kind of

fast-moving development, partic-

ularly when it’s coming from

overseas or people who don’t

actually live in the city, they don’t

care about people who get dis-

placed in the process,” said Susan

Hunter, a caseworker with the

Los Angeles Tenants Union.

“Gentrification is always touted

as this way of cleaning up neigh-

borhoods, but it’s not being

cleaned up for the people who

actually live there.”

The District, New York and Los

Angeles are the three cities with

the most gentrified neighbor-

hoods in the country, according

to a report this year from the

National Community Reinvest-

ment Coalition, which compared

economic changes in low-income

neighborhoods from 2000 to

2013.

Gentrification can benefit ar-

eas when it leads to economic

investment and an increase in

opportunities and services in un-

derserved areas, experts say. But

problems arise when longtime

residents are pushed out as rents

and property taxes rise, leaving

them unable to benefit from

those improvements.

In the District, that has led to

the displacement of low-income

residents at some of the highest

rates in the country, according to

a study from the Institute on

Metropolitan Opportunity.

“We’re sitting here like,

‘Where’s all this opportunity I

in chants.
“Slumlords, you can’t hide, we
can see your greedy side,” the
group recited in unison.
With rising rents driving peo-
ple from the city and simmering
tensions over gentrification, or-
ganizers said the time is right to
launch the citywide mobilization
effort. And this time, several said,
they hope it sticks.
The District is not alone. Ten-
ants unions, collectives that mo-
bilize renters around common
issues to lobby political leaders
and fight for more stringent pro-
tections, have begun to appear
across the country.
Residents of Santa Rosa, Calif.,
and the surrounding region es-
tablished a tenants union this
year to push for more affordable
housing after wildfires devastat-
ed the area in 2017.
In Chicago, residents of several
buildings in the Albany Park
neighborhood banded last
month to form a tenants union to
address issues facing their slice of
the city.
Los Angeles renters formed
their union four years ago. Phila-
delphia’s was founded in 2016.
More established unions such
as those in San Francisco and
Oakland, Calif., created in the
1970s and 1980s, respectively, are
seeing increased interest, orga-
nizers said.
Email sign-ups are up. More
volunteers are turning out to
events. Office hours and calls to
hotlines have skyrocketed.
“In recovering from the eco-

TENANTS FROM B1

gave up.”

Then there’s the catty

parenthetical tacked onto the

menu of a breakfast meeting on

June 7, 1967: “Orange juice,

scrambled eggs, poached eggs,

ham, bacon, sausage, cinnamon

pecan buns, toast, tea, coffee.

(Pres ate some of all items).”

They were fat-shaming LBJ!

Where’s my Ken Gaddis when

I need him?

[email protected]

Twitter: @johnkelly


For previous columns, visit

washingtonpost.com/john-kelly.

his weight.

During a flight to Andrews Air

Force Base in Maryland on Nov.

4, 1966, he mentioned to his

secretary Mary Slater that “this

morning he was down to 212

pounds--within a week he would

be under 200 pounds!”

The entry for April 23, 1967,

when Johnson was flying to

Germany aboard Air Force One,

includes: “The President ate

sitting at the conference table.

Started w/ consomme, then roast

beef, green bean salad, potatoes,

dietetic pie, buttermilk and

Sanka. [Valet] Ken Gaddis and

the stewards made every effort

to discourage the President from

eating so large a lunch, but,

according to Ken Gaddis, ‘it

didn’t work.’ ”

Later, Johnson went to the

back of the plane and said he

wanted some crab meat.

“[When] Ken explained that he

really shouldn’t eat both crab

meat and roast beef, the

President countered by saying

that the crab meat was just an

appetizer. At that point, Ken

wall again.

So, we’re still friends, the

medicine ball and me.

I am in better shape. I’m

stronger. I worry less about

being unable to free myself

should I get trapped under a

lawn chair or an Ikea bookshelf.

However, I do worry about

getting trapped in a hole, and the

only way to reduce that risk is to

reduce me.

I confessed this realization to

Michael. He said people often

ask about the best percentage

between exercise and diet. Is it

80 percent exercise and 20

percent diet? Fifty percent diet

and 50 percent fitness?

“It’s 100 percent diet and 100

percent fitness,” he said.

Great.

I take consolation in knowing

I’m not alone. I recently

stumbled upon Lyndon B.

Johnson’s daily diary online. It

was typed up by his secretaries

when he was in the White House.

There amid the legislation, the

world crises and the politicking

is the president worrying about

every time I’m lifting a

dumbbell, Michael says,

“Exhale,” just as I’m about to

inhale?

I am making progress, though.

I got to pull on a rope the other

day. This wasn’t the rope I dream

about: the one that’s as thick as

an icebreaker’s hawser and is

stretched across the gym for

people to whip up and down like

they’re trying to throttle an

anaconda. This was a thinner

starter rope. It was looped

around a bar, and I just had to

pull it toward me as fast as I

could for a minute.

If you ever need your Venetian

blinds raised in a hurry, I’m your

man.

I was also excited to finally

toss a medicine ball. I’ve seen

other people pick up the

medicine ball and slam it on the

ground over and over again,

which looks really satisfying:

“Down, bad medicine ball!” This

exercise, however, involved

lightly tossing the ball against a

wall, squatting to catch it, then

rising and tossing it against the

up and down stairs, lifting flower

pots, reaching to the back of the

freezer to root around for an ice

cream sandwich.

The biggest breakthrough is

that I don’t dread exercise as

much as I once did, though I still

need Michael, my trainer,

demonstrating each exercise and

saying things like, “Don’t dump

your knee,” and, “Keep your belly

button in.”

I have no idea what that

means, but I try my best.

What I have noticed is that all

of these lifting, pulling, pushing,

stretching and bending exercises

were designed by sadists. There’s

an easy way to do them, and

there’s the right way to do them.

“That’s good,” Michael will say

as I’m on my hands and knees,

repeatedly lifting one leg like a

dog at a hydrant, “but keep your

back straight and your foot in

line with your knee.”

But, Michael, keeping my back

straight and my foot in line with

my knee makes this exercise

harder. Oh. That’s the point?

And how come, without fail,

It’s been four
months since I
started exercising
with a personal
trainer, and if I
were to stand
shirtless before
you now, you’d
probably say,
“John, dude, put
your shirt back
on. Do you not have a shirt? Take
my shirt. No? Well, how about
you just turn around then? Ooh.
No, that’s not any better. How
about I turn around?”
Rude.
What I’m saying is, after four
months, I don’t think I look that
much different. I haven’t lost any
weight, save for a single pound
that comes and goes, sneaking in
and out, like Bigfoot at the edge
of my peripheral vision.
However, even if I don’t look
much different, I feel different.
In a word, better. My core — that
elusive foundation of fitness — is
more easily “energized.” My
energized core has made doing
even little things easier: walking

Results from Aug. 25

DISTRICT

Mid-Day Lucky Numbers: 2-4-6

Mid-Day DC-4: 9-6-8-6

Mid-Day DC-5: 7-3-3-2-3

Lucky Numbers (Sat.): 3-0-9

Lucky Numbers (Sun.): 7-1-1

DC-4 (Sat.): 7-7-0-0

DC-4 (Sun.): 3-1-5-2

DC-5 (Sat.): 9-8-8-0-4

DC-5 (Sun.): 9-4-2-0-2

MARYLAND

Mid-Day Pick 3: 4-0-7

Mid-Day Pick 4: 9-0-7-9

Night/Pick 3 (Sat.): 2-9-8

Pick 3 (Sun.): 6-9-8

Pick 4 (Sat.): 4-7-5-8

Pick 4 (Sun.): 6-0-5-2

Match 5 (Sat.): 5-10-15-19-29 *28

Match 5 (Sun.): 1-2-5-30-35 *9

5 Card Cash: 4H-7S-10D-10C-6D

VIRGINIA

Day/Pick-3: 5-5-8

Pick-4: 7-8-2-0

Cash-5: 15-21-24-29-32

Night/Pick-3 (Sat.): 3-5-9

Pick-3 (Sun.): 5-1-0

Pick-4 (Sat.): 2-5-6-8

Pick-4 (Sun.): 9-1-6-0

Cash-5 (Sat.): 9-13-22-23-31

Cash-5 (Sun.): 3-6-24-26-31

Bank a Million: 4-11-19-23-30-31 *24

MULTI-STATE GAMES

Powerball: 5-12-20-21-47 **1

Power Play: 2

*Bonus Ball **Powerball

For late drawings and other results, check

washingtonpost.com/local/lottery

LOTTERIES

VIRGINIA

2 motorists charged

in fatal crash on I-66

Two men have been charged

with reckless driving in

connection with an eight-vehicle

crash Saturday that killed one

person, injured six and shut down

Interstate 66 for hours, Virginia

State Police said Sunday.

According to police, the chain-

reaction crashes occurred shortly

before 11 a.m. in the westbound

lanes of I-66, east of the exit for

Route 28. The crash involved five

sedans, an SUV, a pickup truck

and a tractor-trailer that

overturned, police said in a

statement.

Police said a 2007 BMW was

traveling west on I-66 when it hit

a vehicle in front of it. The BMW

then collided with a westbound

tractor-trailer, which then hit

several vehicles, including a

Toyota Rav4, before overturning.

The Toyota ran off the right

side of the highway, flipped over

the Jersey wall, and burst into

flames.

The driver of the Toyota was

identified Sunday as Joseph M.

Castellano, 28, of McLean; he

died at the scene. His 28-year-old

wife, whom police did not

identify, was flown to a D.C.

trauma center where she was

being treated for “life-threatening

injuries,” state police said.

The driver of the BMW,

Jonathyn R. Bland, 40, of

Centreville, was taken to Reston

Hospital with minor injuries. He

has been charged with reckless

driving.

The driver of the tractor-trailer,

Shahbaz Singh, 34, of Fairfax, was

taken to Reston Hospital with

serious injuries, police said, but

he was expected to survive. He

also was charged with reckless

driving. The tractor-trailer was

loaded with water bottles, state

police said.

Three other people suffered

injuries — one of them “serious”

— in the crash.

— Paul Schwartzman

LOCAL DIGEST

While on my fitness journey, I’ve discovered even presidents worry about weight

John
Kelly's
Washington

D.C. tenants form new union amid rising rents and gentrification

BY LUZ LAZO

If that Braille message on the
e-scooter you rented gave you
pause, rest assured, it’s not “how-
to-ride” instructions.
No, blind people aren’t riding
scooters. They do, however, need
to know how to contact the
scooter companies when they
encounter the devices, which
present a hazard when left lying
around.
“We may not ride it, but if we
trip over it, we can read the
Braille on it and find out who to
report it to,” said Shawn Calla-
way, president of the D.C. Chap-
ter of the National Federation of
the Blind. “We want the Braille
on them to identify the company
and their contact information.”
Some companies, including
Lyft and Lime, are retrofitting
their scooters with the informa-
tion, conforming with local pol-
icies that require the Braille
message and growing demand
from advocates for people with
disabilities that the information
be accessible.
As the micromobility services
expand, advocates have been
pushing the industry to include
company information that is
available to the general public —
such as a phone number or email
address — in Braille, too. And
more local governments are mak-
ing it a requirement for compa-
nies.
In the Washington region,
Montgomery County requires
companies to comply with all
federal, state and local require-
ments of the Americans With
Disabilities Act. The county spe-
cifically mandates that devices
have permanently affixed tactile
information “to enable blind and

visually-impaired individuals to

identify the ownership of each

vehicle and provide for their

direct communication with Par-

ticipating Company via tele-

phone, email or website.”

Maureen McNulty, a spokes-

woman for the Montgomery

Department of Transportation,

said she can understand that

the Braille on e-scooters may

confuse people, but in requiring

the devices to have the em-

bossed messages, the county is

ensuring that visually impaired

residents have the tools they

need to report problems.

“We hope that all users will

park e-scooters correctly,” she

said. But when they don’t, “this

regulation is intended to provide

some agency to the visually im-

paired if an e-scooter should

become a tripping hazard.”

Nationwide, the blind commu-

nity has raised concerns about

the impact the rapid prolifera-

tion of scooters is having on the

mobility of blind and low-vision

people. Local and national

groups have pointed to increased

hazards from scooters being

carelessly left on sidewalks, bus

stops and other locations where

pedestrians travel.

“These scooters are virtually

silent when in use, making it

impossible for those using nonvi-

sual means of travel to detect

them,” the National Federation

for the Blind said in a resolution

it passed last month.

The organization called on

Congress to set a minimum

sound standard for dockless

electric scooters and on state

and local governments “to enact

laws regulating scooter use to

control parking, prohibit riding

on sidewalks, and generally

avoid disrupting the flow of

pedestrian traffic.” Scooter com-

panies, the group said, should do

their part and “place their com-

pany name, scooter identifica-

tion number, and contact infor-

mation on each scooter in a

format accessible and easily de-

tectable by the blind;” they

should also “develop accessible

websites and mobile applica-

tions so that blind pedestrians

can easily communicate reports

of misuse or injury.” In a letter to

Maryland lawmakers this year,

the state chapter of the National

Federation of the Blind delivered

the same message.

Callaway said there is consen-

sus among activists nationwide

that action is required because

scooters have become a hazard

for pedestrians and even more so

for the blind.

“These dockless bikes and

scooters have not been a friend of

the blind community. They are

hazardous. People leave them in

the middle of the sidewalk, so it

is quite dangerous,” he said. “It’s

all about inclusion and safety.”

Some companies say they are

considering adding the Braille

message on all their scooters, not

just where they are required to.

Lime, a global e-scooter com-

pany with a strong presence in

the D.C. area, began to add

Braille messages to its scooters

in Chicago in June, then fol-

lowed with its devices in other

jurisdictions, including Mont-

gomery County. The company

said it is also enhancing train-

ing of its customer service team

to ensure timely responses to

accessibility-related reports.

“Lime is committed to work-

ing with people with disabilities

and disability-rights organiza-

tions to make our products and

services more accessible, while

also addressing challenges that

result from this new mode of

transportation in a city’s public

right of way,” the company said

in a statement. “We’ll continue

to make this a priority while

reminding riders to park scoot-

ers out of the path of those

walking or using wheelchairs.”

Lyft scooters in the Washing-

ton area also carry a Braille

message with the company’s con-

tact information.

[email protected]

THE REGION

Blind people don’t ride scooters. Why is there Braille on them?

LUZ LAZO/THE WASHINGTON POST

Lyft scooters in the District have a Braille message with the company’s contact information on them.

Blind pedestrians use this to report scooters that are left in locations where they can present a hazard.

ALEXANDR LOVKII /ALAMY

A man on a scale. John Kelly

has been working on his health.