Parking, Liquor Stores Among Major Issues Facing Neighborhood

Michael Musante was elected in November to be commissioner for Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) single member district 6A05, which covers the southern portion of the Corner Forum area. Within the Corner Forum area, Mr. Musante represents the residents on the 400 block of 13th Street, on Duncan Place, and on the odd side of E Street. Richard Sundberg spoke to him Friday about his background and about the neighborhood.

Michael, thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to do this. Could you tell us give us some background on where you were born, and when you came to the neighborhood, and that sort of thing?

Okay. My name is Michael Musante. I have lived in the neighborhood for approximately four and a half years with my wife, Ramola, and our cat, Newman, and we now reside at 411 11th St. NE. We've lived in that location for about a year and a half. Originally, I came from a small town in the northern panhandle of West Virginia called Follansbee, which is approximately 35 minutes west of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. I've only lived in two places, in my life: Follansbee and Washington, D.C.

I came here to attend college at George Washington University, which I did in late August of 1990 — and from late August of 1990 to the present, I've been here in Washington, D.C., for both undergrad and grad school at G.W.

You're our ANC commissioner, of course, here. Which ANC are you commissioner of?

Single member district 6A05, which would be the east side of 10th Street to the west side of 16th Street, and the north side of C Street to the south side of E Street.

What made you decide to run for the ANC?

Well, I actually thought about running for the ANC two years prior to this election. However, at that time, there were a number of things going on in my life. I had switched jobs, I was getting married, and I knew from people who lived in the neighborhood who were friends of both mine and my wife's that the gentleman who was running for ANC commissioner was actually a good guy — Ronald T.T. Nelson — and would do a very good job, so I kind of put it out of my mind at that point, and decided that it would probably be best, at that point in my life, not to add another thing onto it.

I decided to run this year because Ronald was leaving the country, and I still had a very strong desire to run for ANC commissioner and felt that this would probably be a very appropriate time, so I threw my hat into the ring.

What do you think are the major issues facing the neighborhood at the moment?

I would say there are at least four or five major issues, one of which has been brought to my attention by a number of residents, and that is out-of-state cars, or licenses that are not District licenses, parking along our streets, taking up spaces that should be spaces for permitted cars who actually have Zone 6 stickers. That's one major one.

The second is liquor stores following voluntary license agreements that they have signed, and, Richard, I know that you and I are going to start working on one at this next ANC meeting — and stopping any others [from] coming into the neighborhood, because we have enough of them. I'm not anti-business, and I'm not anti-liquor store, but when you have enough, you have enough, and I think for our radius here, we've got plenty.

Also, simple things like garbage collection and sidewalk repair — those are two major issues. When weather is warmer, [I have] plans for a Complain to Your ANC Commissioner Day. I'm gonna actually hold a day for each block, starting at 16th Street, working my way back towards 10th Street, where I will make sure the blocks are plastered with the fact that I will be starting from C Street and walking down to E Street — [and to] come out and tell me that the trash isn't being picked up, things like that.

Also, traffic speeding through the neighborhood — the addition of some stop signs or different things like that — that's a big one.

And then, last but not least, there are, I think, opinions of some people in the neighborhood that not enough is being done to deal with the issues of regentrification, and the fact that there are a number of different people — and, to be quite honest, I would have to put myself in the "different" group, being a young, white married couple, even though my wife is Indian and by no means would fall under Caucasian — there are some racial tensions that, while it's nothing compared to the things that we've seen in the past in D.C. — it is an issue. There are older people here, who live in our neighborhood, and perhaps taxes are becoming burdensome, and different things like that, so that's something that I'd like to start a dialog on.

Great! Well, I think that pretty much covers it. Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Just that I am here, and my door is open, and people can call me. My home number is 202-548-2542. I can be reached by two different e-mail addresses: one is musanteanc@yahoo.com or mfm81472@yahoo.com. Either will work.

They can also stop by my home: I'm at 411 11th St. NE. And I'd just like to see as many people get involved in the neighborhood as possible, because I can do my job better only when concerned citizens approach me and say, "This needs to be worked on," or, "This is going well, but we can improve upon it."

And one more thing: I did want to put in a plug in for the fact that we are trying to construct a Lovejoy Park by the Lovejoy condominiums — the old Lovejoy School is being converted into condominium loft apartments — and a large number of citizens have rallied together to build a park.

We have formed a nonprofit organization, and that's something, actually, that I would like to see the neighborhood rally behind and push to a successful completion. And they can contact myself for more information on it.

Well, I thank you very much, Michael, for taking out some time to talk with me this evening.

Thank you, Richard. §