14 February 2008

Welcome to a New Contributor!

It takes a lot of eyes and ears to keep up with the heartbeat of a community. I'm glad to be allowed to contribute to Stop, Blog, and Roll. Jaime has done an extraordinary job collecting together many of the resources for Ward 5 residents and I'm hoping to help distill this information into news you can use. You need more than just access to information, but also some sense of the patterns, some ideas how things are interconnected.

I'm joining on here to respond to the needs of readers and neighbors, so please feel free to contact me with your questions. What can we do to clean up RI metro stop? Why is the Brookland escalator constantly broken? What do we have to do to get some spectacular, clean and safe playgrounds? Why is it so difficult to find out where the MPD5 meetings are located? What developments are going on? Which charter schools are moving into the area and how will they impact the neighborhood? From large to small, these issues make up the fabric of our daily lives in these neighborhoods.

I'm sympathetic to the large number of neighbors who can't make week night meetings because of families and jobs but who still want to contribute meaningfully to the community. Blogs and online information become vital tools to connect us.

  • I have deep connections in the community, including my native Washingtonian husband and his extensive family, but I'm fairly new to Ward 5.
  • When asked, I say I live in Brookland. But just between you and me, I live in what a very few might call “University Heights,” a tiny and often forgotten portion of Greater Brookland between Brookland and Michigan Park.
  • I moderate the Brookland Announcements Listserv. I'm the editor of the Capital Sierran for the DC Chapter of the Sierra Club.
  • I'm a mother, an environmentalist, urban planner, educator, activist. I have degrees, a few too many, in English, German, Urban Planning, and Natural Resources.
  • I work hard trying to keep my old house from falling apart, with various degrees of success.
  • When the weather allows, I garden. When it does not permit, I read local blogs and publications while dreaming of better weather.
  • I knit. I cook. I parent a toddler.
  • I look forward to spending a lot of life here in Brookland, which is obviously an exceptional community by any measure.
You can contact me with ideas or news at brooklandjess@earthlink.net.

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