Did you hear that rooster? Grab your photo or audio equipment and press record! That captured crowing may be just what David Schulman needs for Bird Calls, a public art project funded by the City of Takoma Park for Erie and Flower Avenues.

Schulman, an audio artist, joins forces with sculptor Howard Connelly to create an interactive art installation. The two artists will revamp an old pay phone and rewire the key-pad to play bird songs and educational information when you press a number.

David appeared on Takoma Radio Saturday, Aug. 20, and told interviewer Sara Prigan that he’s looking for the perfect rooster sound for the phone from a Takoma Park resident. If you think you have a winning cock-a-doodle doo, upload your audio file to Schulman’s website birdcalls.us.

David Schulman is an audio producer, violinist and composer. His creative partner Howard Connelly is a metal sculptor known for the Wrong Way motorbike sculpture popping a wheelie in front of Republic restaurant.

The two artists aren’t quite sure how Bird Calls will look, but you get a good idea through David’s concept drawings. However, David is sure of one thing. The selected rooster call will be credited in Bird Calls, and he will treat the winning contributor to a two-egg omelet at Mark’s Kitchen (or the vegan equivalent.)

This article appeared in the September 2016 edition of the Takoma Park Newsletter. The Takoma Park Newsletter is available for download here.

Have you been to a dance performance, film, or lecture at the Community Center this past year? Members of the Arts and Humanities Commission contributed to making that programming possible. We want to put a face on the Arts and Humanities Commission, so we are introducing some of our hardworking volunteers. This month, meet AHC Chair Susan Strasser and Vice-Chair Eric Gordon.

Historian Susan Strasser has lived in Takoma Park for 25 years, and she’s currently working on a series of talks to religious and c o m m u n i t y groups called “A White Historian Reads Black History.” After retiring from teaching at the University of Delaware (and a long commute), she joined the Arts and Humanities Commission and has worked especially on the humanities lecture series, now beginning its second year. Meanwhile, Susan has gotten to work with a great group of creative people and introduced some terrific presentations and performances.

Eric Gordon is a social worker with the Washington, DC-based nonprofit Art Enables, a vocational day program for artists with disabilities. He also participates in numerous artistic and freelance ventures under the guise of DC Creepers, including comics with DC Conspiracy, art for blood drives with Cartoonists Draw Blood, and various small press zines and mini-comics with the DC Zinefest community. Eric enjoys being part of the creative fabric of Takoma Park and being able to contribute some of his own personal creative energy through working with the Art and Humanities Commission is just icing on the cake.

Join Susan and Eric and volunteer to be on the Arts and Humanities Commission. You’re invited to attend a meeting to see if it’s a good fit for you. Then fill out the online application and submit it with a resume or statement of qualifications. Appointments are made by the City Council.

This article appeared in the September 2016 edition of the Takoma Park Newsletter. The Takoma Park Newsletter is available for download here.

Kick off the fall 2016 We Are Takoma arts and humanities series with an American music genre popular with artists half a world away. On Thursday, Sept. 1 at 7:30 p.m., venture into the contemporary jazz scene in Tokyo with PhD ethnomusicology student William Scally in his presentation Tokyo Jazz: Decentering “America’s Classical Music.”

The exhibition Traditions, featuring work by Susana Garten, Lauren Kingsland and Marsha Stein, opens with a reception on Thursday, Sept. 8 at 6:30 p.m., and remains on view through Sunday, Nov. 6.

Also on Thursday, Sept. 8 at 7:30 p.m., Docs in Progress presents the film Moosehead’s Wicked Good Plan followed by a discussion with filmmaker Sarah Katz.

The ever-popular Third Thursday Poetry series launches its 12th year on Thursday, Sept. 15 at 7:30 p.m. with readings by Grace Cavalieri, Megan Kuyatt, Charles Wright and David Salner with host Merrill Leffler.

Twirl your dress and tip your hat! Enjoy El Grito! A Mexican Dance Celebration on Saturday, Sept. 17 at 7:30 p.m. when dancers from Ballet Folklorico perform in honor of Mexican Independence Day (16 de Septiembre).

On Thursday, Oct. 6 at 7:30 p.m., George Washington University’s Dr. Jennifer Tobkin will present “Muhammad ibn Dawud al-Isfahani, A Poet of Male Friendship and Love in 9th Century Baghdad.”

Thursday, Oct. 13 at 7:30 p.m., you are invited to Street Sense Film Night for the screenings of Fairness Rising, Late Show, and Raise to Rise, three short films about homelessness in the nation’s capital made by people experiencing homelessness but for everyone to see.

Kate Bole and the Culkin School of Irish Dance show off their fancy footwork in Lilt ‘N Dance on Saturday, Oct. 15 at 7:30 p.m.

Third Thursday Poetry is back Oct. 20 at 7:30 p.m. with featured poets Jean Nordhaus, Martin Fitzpatrick and Renee Gherity.

Unless otherwise noted, all programs are free and take place at the Takoma Park Community Center.

This article appeared in the September 2016 edition of the Takoma Park Newsletter. The Takoma Park Newsletter is available for download here.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) is implementing a plan to repair and improve the Metrorail system called SafeTrack.

SafeTrack accelerates three years’ worth of work into approximately one year. The plan significantly expands maintenance time on weeknights, weekends and midday hours and includes 15 “Safety Surges,” long duration track outages for major projects in key parts of the system.

This program will impact commuters in Takoma Park. In addition to the resources offered by WMATA, the City is encouraging commuters to:

• Consider teleworking. The Takoma Park Library and Community Center, as well as many local businesses, offer Wi-Fi and provide comfortable places from which to work.
• Try biking. Keep an eye out for additional signs directing riders to recommended routes into DC, alternative metro stations, or all the way downtown.
• Consider carpooling. During the SafeTrack surges, the parking rates and times at the centrally located City parking lot at Takoma Junction will not be enforced to enable its use as a carpool lot.

For Surge #10, tentatively scheduled to begin in late October, the Red Line will be shut down between Fort Totten and NoMa. Key info from WMATA:

• Two stations will be closed, BrooklandCUA and Rhode Island Ave.
• Shuttle buses will replace trains between NoMa and Fort Totten.
• Expect crowding on all trains due to less frequent Red Line service.
• Green Line provides alternate path for travel between Fort Totten and Gallery Place.
• Red Line customers should consider alternate travel options and avoid traveling during rush-hour periods if possible; expect trains to be extremely crowded.

The City’s webpage on SafeTrack (takomaparkmd.gov/safetrack) is a good place to keep up to date on impacts and resources of the work in October.

This article appeared in the September 2016 edition of the Takoma Park Newsletter. The Takoma Park Newsletter is available for download here.

By Apryl Motley

Images of police officers shooting and being shot at have been all too frequent in recent months, leaving many communities feeling frustrated, angry and sad, and relationships with local police departments strained. In some communities no one’s talking – especially to youth – about these feelings. Efforts are under way, so this doesn’t happen in Takoma Park.

“It’s okay to feel frustration and anger; it’s what we do with those emotions that matters,” said Mayor Kate Stewart as she reflected on the violence and injustice to which communities across the country have born witness.

“These are not easy conversations to have, but they are necessary,” she continued. “They are hard for everyone especially in a community like Takoma Park where people care so deeply about being inclusive and building community.”

Illustrative of just how powerful one conversation can be, the recently announced Unity in the Community Initiative grew out of one Stewart had with Meagan Murphy, co-owner of Capital City Cheesecake, and Captain Tyrone Collington, an 18-year veteran with the Takoma Park Police Department. Murphy brought the idea to the table of holding an event to bring together police officers and residents in the community, particularly young people in middle and high school.

“As a mom, resident and business owner, it’s overwhelming to think about tackling this issue nationwide, but if I could start locally by knowing my own police department and talking to my neighbors, maybe other communities will take ownership as well and follow Takoma Park’s example,” Murphy said. “My overall vision is for the initiative to have a ripple effect.”

Building on the momentum from August’s very successful National Night Out, the initiative kick-off event is a Neighborhood Block Party at Capital City Cheesecake on Sept. 25 from 4–7 p.m. Everyone in the community is encouraged to attend, volunteer, or lend their services.

“Takoma Park is a place where the citizens and the police department normally have a great relationship, but in light of recent incidents with police in the community, we wanted to get ahead of the curve and bring our community together,” Collington said. “What we hope to get out of this initial event is a large gathering of the community, but building relationships is a continuous process all over the City. We want to unify the community and have the police and residents on the same page.”

Assistant City Manager Jason Damweber echoed these sentiments. “It is always wonderful when residents and local business owners help to develop and enact solutions to issues and challenges in their community,” he said. For Stewart it’s especially important that “young people in Takoma Park know we’re working on building positive relationships between residents and police.”

But make no mistake, this plan of action goes beyond one event. “We have to be proactive in creating a relationship with the police department to make sure we all feel protected and secure,” Murphy stressed. “This Initiative is ongoing, which is critical for its success. We are committing to rolling out events throughout the year to constantly build this relationship.”

For more information about how you can participate, contact Meaghan Murphy at meaghan@cccheesecake.com.

This article appeared in the September 2016 edition of the Takoma Park Newsletter. The Takoma Park Newsletter is available for download here.

By Helen Lyons

Takoma Park resident Sara Luterman plans to use the grant money she earned as the winner of the 2016 Advocates in Disability Award to create an interactive website to serve as a central hub for the disability community.

She received a $10,000 grant from the HSC Foundation and the Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation.

The Advocates in Disability Award is a project of the National Youth Transitions Initiative, a signature program of The HSC Foundation. A major focus of the initiative is bringing together the collective resources of multiple organizations to help young people with disabilities build paths to independence.

“There are so many people in the disability community, but they’re all in different places,” Luterman said. “[Information] is really scattered and hard to find unless you’re hooked up to the community leaders, which isn’t accessible for most people.”

Called NOS, the site’s moniker refers to the “Not Otherwise Specified” category so often seen on medical forms, and aims to provide the disability community with relevant news and a forum in the website’s comments section and social media channels. Luterman describes the publication as something “that doesn’t fit into a neat little box,” the same way human beings, in particular those with disabilities, don’t fit into tidy categories.

She hopes to change people’s way of thinking when it comes to how they perceive those with disabilities. “There’s this new social movement called neurodiversity,” said Luterman. “It’s based on the idea that the differences people have neurologically are natural and should be accommodated, rather than corrected. It’s a much more humanistic approach.”

Luterman said she has been advocating for the disability community “for the last few years,” after a hospitalization for mental issues exposed her to many of the obstacles and prejudices persons with disability face. “It was so awful that I became invested in making a change,” said Luterman. “It really lit a fire in me.”

This fire turned into activism, and NOS will serve as a way for other members of the disability community to come together and talk about diverse topics ranging from pop culture to the news, in their own voices.

“A lot of people who aren’t disabled think that they know what’s best for people who are disabled,” said Luterman, “and ignore what people who are disabled actually want. A lot of times it’s benevolent. But when it comes down to it, what disabled people individually want is what’s most important.”

Diagnosed with autism and partial blindness, Luterman’s advocacy work began after graduating from Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland in creative writing. In addition to creating NOS Magazine, she currently works as a program assistant at the Association of University Centers on Disabilities, sits on the board for the Association for Autistic Community and acts as a part of the Individual Advocacy Group to help protect the rights of adults who need assistance in living independently.

NOS will not only provide a forum for discussion, but it will also offer compensation for many of the disability advocates who contribute writing. Luterman said that paying people for their work is important. “A lot of the time, we’re kind of expected to work for free. Our experiences and expertise are undervalued even by people who are willing to say that they’re necessary.”

Those looking to get involved in writing for NOS may have to wait, however. “Right now I’m still in the preliminary stages, and am looking for an internet designer to help me revamp the page.”

Luterman’s advocacy work has been fruitful. “I have a very supportive community,” she said. “I like seeing the changes that I’ve made. I’ve been doing a lot of work in terms of working on cultural competence and understanding of what disabled people want and need. It’s rewarding to see results, and that’s motivating.”

While Luterman is somewhat new to Takoma Park, she believes she’s found another supportive community here. “I like living here a lot. I’m hoping to be here for a long time.”

This article appeared in the August 2016 edition of the Takoma Park Newsletter. The Takoma Park Newsletter is available for download here.

The Arts and Humanities Commission (AHC) consists of volunteers who meet at least quarterly to shape the cultural programming in the City, including the We Are Takoma series and public art proposal recommendations.

Currently, the AHC is an active group made up of individuals from the town’s creative community. But who are they? Beginning this month, we will profile several of our amazing commissioners.

Commissioner Kevin Adler says it was inevitable that he would move to Takoma Park. A journalist who loves reading, music, and interesting people, Kevin’s first exposure to Takoma Park was the Folk Festival. Later he became chair of that event and then joined the boards of the Takoma Foundation and the Arts and Humanities Commission. He is awed by the creativity of the residents of our city, displayed through our festivals, concerts, public art, poetry readings, dance performances, gardens and so much more.

Commissioner Camilla “Cami” Schaeffer is an elementary art teacher in Washington, D.C., by day and an artist by night. Currently, Cami is focusing on oil paintings and paper flowers for weddings, other events and home decor. She recently graduated from Boston University with a Master’s Degree in Art Education and is a member of the Perry Street Art Collective located at ReCreative Spaces in Mount Rainier. Takoma Park has impressed Cami with its commitment to art and culture through governmental initiatives to support individuals’ work in public art.

Commissioner Abraham “Abe” Joyner-Meyers, who is still in high school, is the youngest member of the commission. He has grown up in Takoma Park and is constantly inspired by the local community. From attending and performing at the Folk Festival to participating in lectures and discussions at the library, Abe has made engagement with Takoma Park’s arts and humanities community a central part of his homeschooling education. He is a talented fiddle player and is excited to see a new side of the creative process by joining the Commission.

This article appeared in the August 2016 edition of the Takoma Park Newsletter. The Takoma Park Newsletter is available for download here.

By Rick Henry

Controversial police shootings. Social media postings of police encounters. Protests. Police officers shot down in Dallas and Baton Rouge. It’s a difficult time for police departments and officers around the country.

It is against this backdrop that Takoma Park Police Chief Alan Goldberg begins his fourth year at the helm. Chief Goldberg, who has been in law enforcement for 38 years overall, says that while things like increased use of social media have changed the job considerably, many of the core tenets of law enforcement remain the same today as when he began his career.

In an interview at Takoma Park Police Headquarters on July 14, Chief Goldberg touched on those core tenets, the role of citizens, recruiting challenges and other concerns. What follows below is an edited transcript of the interview.

In your four years in Takoma Park, what do you feel is your top accomplishment?

The most immediate accomplishment is our continued effort to build relationships with regional partners. We have really tried to expand our capabilities there. We are a crossroads community with a lot of traffic from other jurisdictions coming through and into the city. To fight crime we need a regional approach that encompasses DC, Montgomery County and Prince George’s County.

What are some specific actions you have undertaken to build those capabilities?

Technology, communication and Mutual Aid agreements are three. (Note: Mutual Aid agreements are voluntary written agreements between two or more law enforcement agencies, which permit voluntary cooperation and assistance of a routine law enforcement nature across jurisdictional lines.)

With technology we are able to share data to identify crime patterns across the jurisdictions. That’s allowed us to move from just creating pretty maps to intelligence led policing and strategic deployment. The key is constantly working to improve communication and relationships between departments. (To that end, Goldberg serves as the head of the Washington Metropolitan Council of Governments Police Chiefs Subcommittee.)

Are there other areas of accomplishment that stand out?

I was very pleasantly surprised by the results of the customer satisfaction survey that was sent out to residents a couple years ago. We have very good relationships with all aspects of the community. People feel they can trust us. Most importantly we had our highest scores from people in the lower socio-economic category.

To what do you attribute this high level of customer satisfaction?

We try to be as transparent as we can be, and people appreciate that. We issue press releases almost every day about every arrest and our activities. We run a Community Police Academy twice a year where we bring in people and put them through a mini Police Academy experience that covers areas such as use of force and gives them a better understanding of why we do what we do. (Note: The next Community Police Academy will be held this fall).

What effect do things like body cameras and social media have on policing?

Our patrol officers now wear body cameras, but I stress to everyone that they are not a panacea. Whether they are being held by a citizen or an officer, they are two-dimensional and capture only a part of the story. They don’t show all the emotion of the situation or the decision making involved.

The concern with social media is that everyone is willing to jump to a conclusion without all the facts. People want instant answers, but the reality is answers can’t come right away. There has to be a thorough investigation because as I said, a video is two-dimensional and a lot of important information may not be included.

For us the cameras have been a good thing because though we have historically had very few complaints of any nature to include discourtesy, discrimination or abuse of authority or force. Since the officers got the cameras, we have had even less.

The reality is that an (unfortunate or highly charged) incident will happen. Our hope, and this relates to the customer satisfaction survey, is that the citizens trust us (Takoma Park police) enough that we will be able to do the job of investigating it properly.

In the aftermath of the Dallas police shootings, both Dallas Police Chief Brown and President Obama claimed that today’s police officers are being asked to do too much and take on too many roles and responsibilities. What is your reaction to those comments?

To some degree it’s no different than when I became an officer 38 years ago. I remember one of the first things I was told when I went to the academy was that being a counselor, parent and teacher was part of the job.

What’s different today is the degree to which we have to take on these other roles and the expectations from society. Take the mental health system, for example. Because of insurance, psycho-therapeutic medications and other factors, there are a lot less facilities available, and people are released earlier. Then they stop taking their meds, they have an incident with themselves or someone else, and now it’s left to the police to step in.

There are unrealistic standards being placed on police officers from people that don’t understand how our jobs work. An officer’s primary function is not to fix societal wrongs, but to protect individuals and society.

Do all of these issues we’ve discussed affect recruiting?

Most police officers join the force because they want to help people. No one joins because they want to get involved in a shooting. Those incidents change officers’ lives even if they are found to be justified. Many of them never rejoin the force.

When it comes to our specific recruiting situation, we have a few open positions that we have had trouble filling, but that’s more a case of competition. There are so many local jurisdictions—DC, Prince George’s County and Montgomery County—and they are all hiring, so it’s a challenge to put together an attractive hiring and recruitment package to entice a candidate to come to Takoma Park. We also don’t want to lower our standards just to fill positions.

What role do citizens play in the law enforcement process?

The Takoma Park Police Department only has 42 officers. That’s 84 eyes when everyone is on duty. There are approximately 17,000 residents in the city. That means there are 34,000 eyes who are looking out for the city and their neighbors. We need all of those extra eyes and ears to keep us all safe.

What are the biggest crime issues facing the city?

Most violent crime is down. We had a big spike last year in theft from auto. But because of the data sharing and the cross-jurisdictional relationships I referred to earlier, as well as an education campaign where we encouraged residents to lock their vehicles and remove valuables, we are able to arrest a lot of the thieves. We are seeing a little spike in aggravated assaults, especially between people who are related or know each other.

Tell me about your background.

I have been a police officer for 38 years. I spent the first 2.5 years of my career in DC and then came to Montgomery County where I grew up. I retired as a captain. I took a 10-month vacation then became the chief here in Takoma Park.

Why did you decide to take this job?

I had always wanted the opportunity to be the chief of a smaller department. I knew this area pretty well because I worked for a long time in Silver Spring. So when this opportunity became available, I decided to apply.

Any time table for retirement?

When they drag me out kicking and screaming (laughing). Seriously, I have no plans to leave any time soon. I enjoy doing what I do. The department and city are small enough that I can go out and be on the street and meet people and work with the officers rather than being an administrator all the time.

This article appeared in the August 2016 edition of the Takoma Park Newsletter. The Takoma Park Newsletter is available for download here.

After many lively and well-attended meetings, open houses and information sessions, the Takoma Park City Council, at their July 27 meeting, voted to approve the Development Agreement with Neighborhood Development Company (NDC), for the City-owned lot at the Takoma Junction. The agreement provides a roadmap for the development of the parking lot at the intersection of Carroll and Ethan Allen Avenues. The City Council selected NDC in 2015 to redevelop the lot with a mixeduse building, public space, environmentally-sustainable features and green space. The Council has final approval of critical aspects of the project, including the project schedule and the site plan.

The agreement also includes accommodations for the TPSS Food Co-op, a business adjacent to the City property. NDC and the TPSS Co-op are working on a private agreement between the two parties regarding the development. The City has proposed mediation to assist in that process.

The Council also approved the establishment of the Community Consultation Process Advisory Committee and appointed seven members to facilitate community input at specific stages of the development project. The committee’s efforts will focus on creating, in conjunction with Council, City staff and NDC, the process needed to guide broad community participation on various aspects of the development project. The committee will not be responsible for making substantive decisions or providing specific recommendations to the Council about the design, layout or use of the planned development.

Next steps in the process will include further study and planning. The site, a former dump, will require environmental clean-up and attention to stability of the slope. Existing and predicted traffic patterns and parking needs must be analyzed and addressed, along with the market demand for the commercial space in the project. NDC will work with the community, the Council and Montgomery County as plans develop.

Check the City website for updates regarding the Junction redevelopment at takomaparkmd.gov/ junction.

This article appeared in the August 2016 edition of the Takoma Park Newsletter. The Takoma Park Newsletter is available for download here.

By Diane Svenonius, Takoma Horticultural Club

Like homo sapiens, the white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) is a highly adaptable mammal equipped to learn from experience. Thus lists of “what deer won’t eat” must be regarded as provisional. A deer should eat seven pounds of forage a day, and lacking enough tulips and roses, it will eat the next best thing, down to the “rarely browsed” category. Also, tastes vary from herd to herd, place to place, and perhaps with what’s trending on the deer grapevine.

If deer are taking the joy out of gardening for you, there are two approaches you can take to remedy the situation: 1) modify the vegetation or 2) secure the space. (But first… was it deer? Lacking upper incisors, deer pinch and tear the leaves they eat. If there is a neat bite, it’s likely to be something with front teeth like a rabbit. But deer will take flowers off their stalks neatly. )

Plant things that you like which are not deer priorities. Deer are widely thought to avoid plants with these characteristics: fuzzy leaves, thorns/hairs/prickles, pungent odor (even if delightful to you), fibrous stems and leaves, and toxicity. Thus ferns, many ornamental grasses, euphorbias, Castor oil plant, aconitum, and strong-scented herbs like lavender, sage, rosemary and thyme are good choices. You can plant borders of them around beds of tastier plants to deceive deer.1 Meanwhile, fertilize and water ornamentals sparingly. Over-fertilized, overwatered plants have lush, tender, appealing foliage.

Many of us love our blooms and are loath to lose them. These flowering plants appear on published lists as those “rarely” or “seldom” damaged by deer: daffodil, bleeding heart, peony, lily-of-the-valley, moss phlox (phlox subulata), hardy orchid (Bletilla striata), garden pinks (dianthus), Siberian iris, red hot poker, lavender, salvia, beardtongue (penstemon), rose campion, daisy; alliums, butterfly weed, blazing star, threadleaf coreopsis, blanket flower, lamb’s ear, yarrow, Russian sage, goldenrod, spotted mint (monarda punctata), sweet Autumn clematis, Stella d’Oro daylily. Shrubs and trees include lilac, butterfly bush, juniper, spruce, boxwood and heather.

Secure the space with hardware, potions, lights and pets. If we can’t live without roses, tomatoes, and so on, fencing is the most reliable barrier. Use wire mesh on metal poles, or poly deer netting, which can be mounted on an existing shorter fence or on supports. It should be fastened down at the bottom. Cover fruit bushes and vegetable crops with netting (holes must be large enough not to trap birds). Monofilament fishing line can be strung at various heights; deer feel it’s there but can’t see it, so they don’t jump.

Repellents rely on ingredients that taste terrible or smell like a predator. They’re most effective if started at the first sign of a problem. Follow package directions, replenish after rain, and change brands to keep the element of surprise. Home remedies include human hair hung in net bags, Irish Spring soap on a string, and others. You can also get creative with mechanical “frighteners,” shiny noisy things, sound and light effects to frighten or discourage deer, but these become routine and are ignored unless changed. A barking dog can also be a deterrent. Finally, male deer rub their antlers on the bark of small trees and shrubs in late summer into fall to remove velvet from their antlers. Prevent this, which can kill your tree, by placing wire mesh around the trunk, up to five feet, supported with wood stakes.

Notes 1

To make attractive landscape combinations with deer resistant plants and for advice on cultivation, see 50 Beautiful Deer-Resistant Plants, by Ruth Rogers Clausen, Timber Press, 2013. 2 For other mammals in the garden and up to no good, see “Oh, Deer” by Kathy Jentz, Takoma Voice newspaper/Washington Gardener Magazine

This article appeared in the August 2016 edition of the Takoma Park Newsletter. The Takoma Park Newsletter is available for download here.