Gay man fights to retain stadium ANC post
31st October 2008
A gay businessman who owned the land in a gay entertainment enclave that was wiped out by the Washington Nationals baseball stadium is fighting to retain his Advisory Neighborhood Commission seat in a dramatically changing area.
Robert “Bob” Siegel is being challenged for his ANC seat by Geoffrey Kreiss, a property manager and resident of one of the new condo buildings that emerged in Southeast D.C. near the Anacostia River where the stadium is now located.
“It’s an area of explosive growth,” said Andy Litsky, the gay vice chair of ANC 6D, which includes Siegel’s single-member district, ANC 6D07. Litsky is running for re-election unopposed in nearby ANC 6D04.
Siegel and Litsky are among 24 gay ANC incumbents or challengers running in the Nov. 4 ANC elections in districts across the city. Sixteen of the gay ANC candidates are running unopposed.
The unpaid ANC commissioners are charged with advising the city government on neighborhood related issues ranging from liquor license approval and trash collection to zoning and public safety.
In addition to the new baseball stadium, Seigel’s district includes the Washington Navy Yard and the sprawling U.S. Department of Transportation building, which opened last year on M Street, S.E. The district also includes nearly a dozen new high-rise office and condominium buildings that recently opened or are under construction.
For more than 20 years, Siegel owned and managed the properties of at least five adult gay clubs on O Street, S.E. that were demolished three years ago to make way for the stadium.
He has served as an ANC commissioner since 1998. Supporters say he has worked hard to represent his constituents in apartments and row houses, with most living in a senior citizen complex or public housing units. Nearly all of these residences were displaced by upscale development associated with the new stadium.
Neither Siegel nor Kreiss could be reached by Blade deadline.
Litsky said Seigel has been credited with working “tirelessly” to stop plans by developers to demolish about a dozen private row houses located next to the site of a new townhouse development north of M Street, S.E. The 1890s era houses weren’t located on the “footprint” of the stadium but were seen by developers as property that could be better used for new, upscale townhouses.
Seigel and the homeowners succeeded in fending off plans to demolish the houses.
Skip Coburn, chair of the First District Police Citizens Advisory Council, which monitors crime- and police-related issues in that area, said Siegel has been a strong advocate for crime-fighting programs in his role as council secretary.
Kreiss is a member of the board of the Capitol Hill Tower, one of the first new condo buildings to open in the area at 1000 New Jersey Ave., S.E., as part of a development attached to a Courtyard Marriott Hotel.
It could not be determined at Blade deadline whether Kreiss was challenging Siegel over Siegel’s role as a lead opponent of the baseball stadium. Siegel was one of the plaintiffs in an unsuccessful lawsuit that challenged the city’s decision to invoke eminent domain to seize the properties of businesses and homes located on the site of the then-proposed stadium.
In addition to Litsky, two other gay incumbents in ANC 6D are running unopposed for re-election: David Sobelsohn of 6D02 and Roger Moffatt of 6D05.
In the city’s Shaw neighborhood, gay ANC incumbent Alexander “Alex” Padro is running against challenger Sarah Livingston for the ANC 2C01 seat. Padro said Livingston is part of a faction of neighborhood activists aligned with former ANC commissioner Leroy Thorpe, who opposes gay rights initiatives and has called gays “faggots” at public gatherings.
Thorpe lost his re-election bid two years ago to a gay-supportive challenger, Kevin Chapple, in a hotly contested race for the ANC 2C02 seat. Thorpe is running again for the seat this year.
Padro has endorsed Chapple and has called on gay residents and their allies who live in ANC 2C to vote for him and a slate of candidates lined up against the Thorpe-backed candidates. Those allied with Padro and Chapple include Jessica Lanza of ANC 2C03 and Theresa Sule of 2C04.
Thorpe has said his tenure as a longtime Shaw civic activist who aggressively fights crime in the area makes him better qualified to serve on the ANC.
Thorpe and Livingston could not be reached by Blade deadline.
In nearby Logan Circle, gay ANC Commissioner Christopher Dyer of ANC 2F03 announced he was not running for re-election in order to devote more time to his role as director of the Mayor’s Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Affairs.
Three other incumbent gay members of ANC 2F are running for re-election unopposed. They are Matt Raymond of 2F04, Dustin Cole of 2F05 and Michael Benardo of 2F06.
Lesbian civic activist Christine Burkhart, who holds the seat for ANC 4A06 in Ward 4’s Brightwood neighborhood, is running against challenger Frederick Hunter.
She said that among the issues she is promoting are public safety and community-friendly development along the George Avenue, N.W. commercial district.
Hunter did not return a call by Blade deadline.
In ANC 4C09, which represents Ward 4’s Petworth neighborhood, gay commissioner Joe Martin is running unopposed for re-election. Martin also serves as Ward 4 coordinator for the Mayor’s Office of Community Affairs.
The only other gay ANC commissioner facing a challenger this year is Lee Brian Reba, who holds Ward 3’s ANC 3C01 seat in Woodley Park. Reba, who works as deputy chief of staff for D.C. Council Chair Vincent Gray (D-At-Large), is running against challenger Paul Poe. Poe did not return a call by Blade deadline.
Reba said his role as a committed civic activist and advocate for Woodley Park residents has won praise from Councilmembers Mary Cheh (D-Ward 3) and Jim Graham (D-Ward 1). Both have endorsed Reba’s re-election bid.
In other races, incumbent gay ANC commissioners Barrie Daneker of ANC 5C07, which represents the Eckington neighborhood, and Timothy Day of 5C10, which includes the Brookland-Catholic University area, are running unopposed.
Also running unopposed are two incumbent gay ANC commissioners representing Capitol Hill. They are Neil Glick of ANC 6B08 and Ryan Velasco of 6C07.
Another gay incumbent running unopposed for re-election is Larry Ray of ANC 1A07 in the Columbia Heights neighborhood.
Gay civic activist and taxi cab driver Laurence James “Larry” Frankel is challenging incumbent David Garrison for the ANC 6B02 seat on Capitol Hill.
Frankel said he’s running because he believes Garrison and the other ANC 6B incumbents failed to go to bat for Capitol Hill residents over what Frankel calls “ridiculously over-restrictive” parking regulations put into effect because of the new baseball stadium.
D.C. Councilmember Tommy Wells (D-Ward 6) said the restrictions were intended to safeguard against baseball fans taking up too many parking spaces on Capitol Hill streets.
Source: Washington Blade