Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Our Newest Neighbor, Barack Obama

Barack Obama campaigns at the old convention center site in September 2007.
Photo:
precentorpium on Flickr.


There's tremendous excitement as we learned last night that come January 2009, DC's Ward 2 will have a new resident of particular prominence, President Barack Obama. President Obama will move into a historic white house at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. It is a charming historic home with a nice view of the park and the National Mall, and within walking distance to downtown living, including Foggy B0ttom and Dupont Circle. President Obama will live and work just 2 blocks from my office and about 14 blocks from my home. I doubt I'll run into him at the new CityVista Safeway, but I'm very happy to have him as my new neighbor.

This is a tremendous day of momentus importance for our country and for Washington, D.C. Truly, the American dream remains a reality and, after eight years of heading down a mind-boggling, hair-pulling wrong path, we will hopefully move in the right direction with educational opportunity, support for small businesses, equality, and economic revitalization. Let us also hope that Obama's presidency, coming with Democratic gains in both the House and the Senate, also means that disenfranchised residents of the District of Columbia will finally attain full voting representation in the U.S. Congress. [UPDATE: Congresswoman Norton believes the legislation to give the District a vote in the House has a good chance given Democratic gains last night].

By the way, any thoughts on where he and Michelle will send their kids to school? As you may remember, during the final debate, he praised Mayor Fenty and Chancellor Rhee for undertaking an ambitious plan to improve our city's public school system and their support for charter schools.

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