What I learned at last night's ANC 2B Forum

1. We have a new group of residents who want to weigh in on the moratoriums. Several are wanting to phase them out in order to bring in new restaurants. I have heard this argument before but this is NOT the way to do it. Naive! 2. Several newbies want to encourage development and density in order to get more 1 and 2 bedroom units in our neighborhood to encourage families to live here but we all know developers will do what they can to make money in the marketplace. I don't think the demand is there. 3. They didn't display enough familiarity with our Dupont Circle history since many of them are new residents in our neighborhood. I wonder how the turnover in the ANC will affect past decisions and the respect for previous Commissioners who worked hard on these issues. 4. None of them stated how they would reach out to their constituents to get to know what they want and how they would represent them at ANC meetings. This is critical I believe! 5. "Balance" was a word that many candidates used to describe how they would juggle various goals for the neighborhood. 6. In the contested races, the choices were clearly defined last night. For example, Jagoda wants to let the moratorium go while Nichols still sees some usefulness in having one. Padgett agrees with Nichols while his opponent, Michael Warwick, seems to think the ANC has signaled that it wants to phase out the moratorium (?). Not in attendance: Justine Underhill, Stephanie Maltz, Nicole Mann, Noah Smith and Ed Hanlon. Those of us in 2B09 had no candidates in a contested race to hear from last night. All in all, it's a young and largely uninformed group of candidates with a couple of exceptions. The burden is now on the two senior Commissioners, Silverstein and Feldstein, to train the newbies. I think they need to be asked what their training plans are going to be...