Brother Hamza on Making Good on His Mistakes

"I got home on November 30, 2009 after being incarcerated for 21 years, 6 months, and 20 days. See, I was married to a beautiful girl, Hafsa, who gave me a beautiful daughter, Ruqqiya. We had a beautiful life together. But, my daughter died of cancer at nine. Two years later, a man murdered my wife. So, I found the person who killed her and I killed him. I do not regret killing him at all. If I had my way, I would dig him up, bring him back to life, and kill him again. I will say this again, so that I am being real clear. I would dig him up, bring him back to life, and kill him again. I have no remorse whatsoever because he took away something very precious from me. You see these cracks in the sidewalk, that is how my heart feels every day. I don’t think that I will every marry again. She was the only one who made me happy. 

"I came back to Washington after I got out because this is where my problem began and, Insha’Allah, this is where my problems shall end. I came back to rectify what I f-ed up and work to change the areas I once corrupted and tainted. I was a tyrant on these streets until I bit into Islam whole heartedly while I was incarcerated.

"I came to the faith on August 25, 1980. I was walking on New Jersey and 4th St. NW on a Friday and heard the call to prayer. It pricked my heart and I walked into the Masjid and everything became as clear as day. But, I did not live as a good Muslim until I was locked up. Some of the most beautiful times that I have had in my life were when I was incarcerated, especially the Muslim holidays. I was the Imam when I was locked up in Kentucky. People looked to me for guidance, strength, and help. While I am free now, sometimes I miss those days of having such a position of responsibility now that I am living on the streets. 

"I have no family or home, but Allah places people in my path to help me. He places people in my path to feed me, clothe me, and give me knowledge. He also places people in my path, so I can give what I have back to them. There is a hadith in the Koran says that if you see a wrong, first change it with your hands. That means do something about it. If you can’t use your hands, use our mouth. That means speak on it. If not that, change it within your heart. I want to use my hands, words, and heart to spread wisdom and knowledge to people here. Allah has a purpose for me, which is to help my brothers and sisters and make good on my mistakes."

Lloyd on Washington's Other Monuments

"I was born in Dayton, Ohio. My Dad was an aircraft engineer at the Wright-Patterson Air Force base. He eventually got a job on some new thing called computers and we moved around a bit before settling in the D.C. area in 1965. 

"By hit or miss, I became a photographer while in college in Connecticut. When I came back to the area, my work was taking me all over the city and I started seeing these shrines to people who were killed on the streets. To me, it was like watching someone’s heart bleed in public. There is a huge amount of emotional content in them. They are homemade folk art and very specific to D.C. From my relatively small research, there have been shrines recorded back to the early Middle Ages in Europe. The instinct to build shrines varies from place to place, but they are immediately recognizable no matter where you are.

"I started photographing the shrines seven years ago. I have been to over 500 and documented over 200 of them. Many of them are very modest, just some police tape and a teddy bear, but others are huge. I have seen panties and condoms, but typically it is plush toys, balloons, and liquor bottles. I think that a lot of these items represent someone's hope for the deceased and for the community. Maybe it is a hope for a better, safer, and heavenly place for the deceased and a call against violence in the community.

"When newspapers were strong, you could find information about every shooting in the Washington Post. Now, someone getting shot doesn’t make the paper. Three or four people have to get shot before that becomes news. I still drive around looking for the shrines and also use the area police resources to keep up with what is happening. I think that I have been to almost every shrine in the area since I started. I do not document the vigils out of respect for the families, but I take photos of the shrines to capture crime’s aftermaths and how it affects people. I am interested in documenting and sharing the healing aspects of shrines and how people try and rebuild themselves using this folk art.

"Doing this is part of my own way of keeping my priorities straight. I think that our job in life, if we have a job, is to learn and enlarge the consciousness of ourselves and others. I do this with no support, but because it is the right thing to do. I would like to bring this work into a public awareness program and to people who can make use of it, like survivors of street violence.

"As one guy said to me at one of the shrines, 'No matter how bad you are, no one deserves this.' When someone is murdered, you don’t just kill a person. You are also killing their entire family. Life is a short, complicated, and mysterious gift. Some lives end too soon. I can’t imagine ending this work unless the murders disappear in this city."

Read more about Lloyd Wolf's work here.

Jovonne on her 2019 Bid for Mayor

Jovonne, left, is pictured with her mother, Shirley.

"I was born in Washington D.C. and grew up on 6th St in Shaw. In my neighborhood, if you didn't have a good family or support network to help you, you would end up as another statistic. I feel blessed that I had both, but things were still hard. The first experience that made me think the world was crazy was at ten years old. I was outside playing and all of the sudden, I heard a car speeding down the street and this pop,pop..pop,pop. There were bullets everywhere and people were running in all directions. Can you imagine living in a place where the hustlers don't care who they shoot? I always wanted to tell them that it was them who made our neighborhood bad. 

"There were way worse environments that I could have been in, though. There was an apartment building on 13th and S St. called Garfield Terrace. I went to school with some kids who lived there. When I saw how these kids were living, I felt like I lived in Georgetown. The dope heads were in their hallways. My Mom couldn't make sure that the neighborhood was safe for me, but she made sure that the area from our house to the corner was a safe environment. We were the house that no one messed with because people were scared of my Mom. She never had to apologize to me about our neighborhood because we were the lucky ones. It definitely was not the best neighborhood, but it certainly wasn't the worst. 

"We lived in a nice, working class neighborhood. I felt like I was raised in a village. If a neighbor saw me jaywalking, they would tell me to go back across the street and wait for the green light, and then they would tell my Mom. My Mom allowed us to live our lives, but we had rules. The most important one was to finish high school. There was no dropping out in my house. College was an option, but high school was mandatory. I graduated from Cardoza High School in 2001 and went to college in Dover, Delaware. 

"Since I was little, everyone around me expected a lot out of me. I think a lot of that comes from starting at the New Community for Children in 1990. Their program helped me to recognize my talents and opened my eyes to the world. With time, I recognized that I was setting trends and not following them. If I could get all of my friends to follow me in doing something silly at school, I thought of what it would be like if I led them to do something positive. I started to do community service and found a love for children. Everyone is not blessed to have a good family and supportive community, so if you can help just one child, you could change someone's life just like my life was changed. 

"When I came back from college, I got a job here teaching 4th grade at New Community. I love the mission here, which is that each one teach one. I let my kids know that they can relate to me. Sometimes they are shocked that I know what things are like for them on the street. They look at me as an adult, not as someone who has been through the same things they go through everyday. 

"I would be really interested in taking my experience and talking to kids in private or suburban schools about urban life. I would love to tell people that we are not different. We just live in different worlds. A lot of people glorify that world, especially those who don't live in these neighborhoods, but people lose their lives here every day. The streets will chew you up and spit you out if you are not strong enough to survive them. You can judge the life and decisions people make here, but until you live here, it is hard to beat the odds. I don't know too many lawyers or doctors, but I do know a lot of hustlers, drug dealers, and drug users. I might not be rich or famous, but I did beat the odds. So did my sister and brother. And these kids can, too. They just need people to believe in them and give them an opportunity. 

"My goal is to be mayor and help make people's lives better and give people who want them opportunities. We don't need hand outs, but we need to help those who want to help themselves. So watch out for me in 2019. Jovonne Simpson, remember the name."

New Community for Children provides underserved children and families in Washington, DC with before school, after school, and summer programs that help them strengthen their academic skills as well as foster the self-confidence and creativity needed to realize their fullest potential. Donate your time or money here.

John aka Unique on Fighting Back

"I was born in Brooklyn and raised in Staten Island. The community that I lived in was overrun with crack cocaine. A lot of my friends got into selling drugs. I, personally, didn't think that was for me, and I went in the opposite direction. When I was eight years old, I joined the Young Marines. When I was older, I remember seeing the Guardian Angels in my neighborhood. I thought they were a gang because of how they looked. They were all wearing the same outfits and looked like gangsters. But I questioned them about what they were doing, and they told me they were out to be role models and help the community. 

"When I was 14, I joined the Guardian Angels. You needed to be 16 to join, but I lied about my age. I didn't have any brothers, only younger sisters, so it was nice to have all of these guys as older brothers to me. Every Angel has a code name. I always thought that John was too common. They call a man without a name John Doe. A toilet is a john. A man who picks up prostitutes is a john. I said that I needed something unique and that's where the name come from. 

"I came to D.C. 21 years ago, when I was 19. At that time, crack cocaine was terrible in the D.C. area. A lady in Bladensburg, Maryland, reached out to the Angels in New York and asked us to come help her keep the Mattapony Apartments safe. The police were outmanned and outgunned, and they heard about the good work that we were doing up in New York. I was just out of high school and offered to move. I came down to patrol the area, recruit people, and start the Guardian Angeles in the area. I had a couple of guys come down from New York occasionally to help me, but I basically did this by myself. It was my duty to stay here and help make the community safer. 

"My goal is to get as many young people involved and keep kids away from drugs and violence. The problem is that we are working against so much negative stuff on TV, in the rap videos, and on video games. Plus, so many young black men don't have black guys to look up to. We are working to be role models for these kids and bring the positive back to the neighborhoods. People want to do something to help their community. They just don't know how. We help provide positive options. We don't want to bring people from outside the community to fix things. We want the change to come from within, which is why we recruit people from the neighborhoods where we work. 

"The truth is that I haven't seen that much of a difference in crime since I got here. Statistics show that crime has dropped, but I personally don't see it. Obviously, it depends on where you are, but we are in Southeast now and people here don't feel safe. There are still murders and drugs on these streets. Years ago, if someone robbed a woman here, you would need the police to come and stop the community from beating the thief. Now, they don't call the police at all because they don't trust the police or because they've given up.

"People always say to me they don't have time to help. Come on, put down that XBox and come and help your community. Right now, I could be home relaxing, but I am here. I drive the Bolt Bus five days a week back-and-forth to New York and I still make time to patrol these streets. If we don't fight back, the criminals will take over."

John "Unique" Ayala is the Director for the D.C. Metropolitan area Guardian Angels.

William on Being a Good and Faithful Servant

"I am originally from South Carolina. I came here by myself when I was 17. I have been living in D.C. about 53 years. I am 71 and the Lord has been good to me. I met my wife here and we had ten children. They all grown now and got their own places in D.C. and Maryland. They occasionally come in and check on me. 

"I raised my kids all over this city: in Northeast, Northwest and Southeast. It was rough in D.C. when I first came here and then it got rougher with all the drugs. Now, things are getting a little better as the police are trying to get them drugs out of this town. When the police got out of their cars and started walking and riding bicycles about four years ago, that made a difference. Hopefully, we can get all of the crime out of here and make this a better place to live. 

"I tried to keep my kids out of this by teaching them discipline and faith. I would sit down and talk with my kids about what was right and wrong. If they did wrong, I would take out the rod. That was back before all of this talk of child abuse. When they stopped people from whooping their children, that's when kids got wild. I was raised with discipline and I raised my kids the same way. If you don't try to keep your children straight, they are going to sassy out on you. They need to know who is the boss. When they grow up to raise their own children, they will thank you for it. 

"I was raised in a Christian home. My father was a preacher. We come from a religious family and I raised my kids in a religious home. Things in this city got worse when they took prayer out of the schools. A lot of kids had parents who worked two jobs and didn't have the time to teach their children about the Lord's prayers. They should put prayer back in schools. The way I see it, you should always keep the Lord first and then everything else will fall in place. I just thank the Lord that I raised my kids before they put the child abuse laws in place and while you could still pray in schools. Now, they are all grown and have good jobs. 

"The older I get, the stronger I believe. Some of the things that I have been through, I would not have made it without the Lord. I was in a car accident and the doctors gave up on me, but the Lord brought me through. Now, I spend my days enjoying Jesus and the space that he gave us to live in. When he calls me home to Heaven, I hope that I will hear him say, 'Well done, William. You have been a good and faithful servant.'

"That's about the best I can tell you." 

William, left, is pictured with his wife, Connie. 

John on Doing What He Must

"I was born in Poland, but I grew up in Italy. In 1958, I was molested by a Catholic priest at the age of 15. He was the priest of a small village where I was camping in the mountains on Italy. To this day, I still do not know the name of the priest. He offered to tutor me in Latin and then he molested me. In my case, it was only once. I can't imagine what it is like for people who are molested more than once. I was so traumatized. It was literally like being hit by lightning.

"After that, I was totally crushed and helpless. My first thought was that I ruined my life forever. My personality changed. I started to stutter and it stunted my growth. It made me insecure and withdrawn. When I went back to high school, people used to ask me why I was so sad all of the time. I used to tell them that my best friend died to get them off my back. The worst thing is that I blocked it out of my mind for 39 years.

"When I was 20, I left home and went to Canada by myself to get away from everything. When my younger brother wanted to join me, he was not able to get a Canadian visa, so we moved to Washington in 1963 because the American government was still issuing visas. We served in the U.S. Army together and then I went on to work in construction. I never really made anything of my life as I was so traumatized by my molestation. In my head, I was always a dish washer. My father had two Ph.D.s and a good job in Italy. I disappointed everyone in life - my parents, my wife, and my children.

"In 1997, there was a scandal in Texas and a boy committed suicide over molestation. I learned about the scandal in the news and that was the first moment that I started to recall my experience. I went to talk with a priest in Maryland about it. I was so nervous that I drove miles from my home so nobody I knew would see me, parked in a shopping center nearby and then walked to the church to to see the priest. He sent me to therapy, but the therapist was a religious Catholic. You can't be a religious Catholic and an impartial therapist about an issue like this.

"The priest told me to write a letter to the Diocese and send a copy to the Vatican's Embassy. In the fall of 1997, that is what I did. Sometime later, I received a letter from a bishop who seemed concerned and asked for more information. I wrote another letter with all of the details I had. No answer. I wrote another letter. No answer. I wrote a third letter. No answer. They were ignoring me. By then, I realized how much damage this had done to my life. I could not let this go by.

"At the time, I was not ready to talk about my molestation publicly, so I stood outside the embassy with a huge question mark and a sign that said, 'Bishop, why don't you recognize my letter?' The bishop eventually wrote me back saying that the priest who allegedly molested me died ten years ago, but he would pray for me and the church would pay for my therapy. I thought that prayers of the Bishop were not quite good enough for a wasted life. So, in 1998, I made this big sign that said, 'My life was ruined by a Catholic pedophile priest.' I stood on this corner where I still stand today. There were many intelligent people who would give me a thumbs up or a victory sign. But, every day people would yell, 'Hey, loser' to me. Can you imagine standing with that sign and people yell, 'Hey, loser' to you? I have also had people give me the finger and insult me, including priests. Can you imagine?

"I have been here everyday, seven days a week, since 1998. I want reparations. The money would show that they suffer a little bit. If I got reparations, I would stop doing this. They are scared of paying me, though, because of the precedent. There are thousands of kids who were molested in Italy alone. And look at all of the cases that are coming out now around the world.

"There is a quote by John F. Kennedy that has guided me through all of this, 'A man does what he must - in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers and pressures - and that is the basis of all human morality.'

"Would you give up? I couldn't live with myself if I did. Life would make no sense if I didn't do this."

Read more about John here.

Sidra on Raising Your Kids Right

"D.C. was great when I was growing up, but this ain't no place to raise children any more. Now that I got two kids, there isn't too much that I like about D.C. I really want to get out of here. Don't much mind where I go, as long as it is not here. I am being for real.

"I was raised uptown in D.C. and then moved to Maryland. I liked it there for my kids because it was safe and quiet, but I be going crazy with nothing to do. I recently got an apartment in Southeast. I really didn't want to move there, but an apartment came through the city where I would be able to live on my own with my two kids.

"I tell you, Southeast ain't nothing but corruption. I don't want to live or raise my children here. It's like every time he gets up out of the house, he gets into it with somebody. My son is four years old. My daughter is one and too young to deal with all of this. What is wrong with these parents where my son can't just go outside and play? These parents ain't raising their kids right.

"See, I teach my children discipline. My son knows what's right and what's wrong. You can see a difference in how I raise my child and how they do. But we all got to suffer from these parents who don't care. That just ain't right. So, I got to shield my child and keep him in the house or bring him to Northwest when he wants to go to the playground. But now that it is getting hot outside, it is too hot to be in the house all of the time. When he does go out, I keep him close where I can watch him.

"I want my kids to be successful. I want them to stay in school and go to college. That is why I am trying to get them away from Southeast. Most of them other kids, I can tell, aren't going to get too far. As for me, I am 26 and starting college. I want to be a nurse and get out of this city."

Sidra is pictured with her son, Mekhi.

Lisa on Her Path Back to the Cathedral

"I have been carrying my city swag since I was 8. To me, that is walking with purpose and not showing fear. I went to John Eaton Elementary School in Cleveland Park. My Mom and I were living in Shaw, but she had a friend who lived near the school and we used her address so I could go there. As everyone knows, D.C. does not have the best schools. In the 80's, they were even worse, especially in Shaw. I come from a family of teachers and my Mom was insistent that I get a good education. John Eaton was a diverse school and most of the kids that I knew at school did not live in the neighborhood. I don't know if everyone was using someone else's address to go there. After school, a bunch of the latch key kids would trek across town after school by ourselves. Every day, I took a metro and two buses to get home.

"Ironically, my Mom is a social worker and worked in the child protection section of Children's Hospital. Because she had strange hours, I ended up on my own a lot and had to grow up very quickly. After I made the trip from school to home, I was to stay in the house until she got home. I could not go out, so I would just look out the window at the street outside. Because of that, I was not really able to develop relationships with kids in my neighborhood. Shaw was a very drastic change from Cleveland Park. There was a lot of PCP, or Love Boat as it was called, in the neighborhood. I always thought that the name was interesting because I watched the Love Boat and I never saw people stripping off their clothes and running down the middle of the street naked and high on drugs. And I certainly never saw Captain Stubing, Isaac, and Julie around our neighborhood.

"When I was 10, I got a babysitter from around my way who was 16. I was so excited because she would meet me at my house after school and I could hang out with her. She would take me everywhere she was going. Through her, I learned what boys on my block were hustling and saw people go to jail. I used to think that jail was like a gym because when the boys would come back, they'd be full of muscles. I probably saw a whole bunch of stuff I was not supposed to see. At the same time, I used to go to my friend's houses from school who lived this very sheltered life on the other side of town. Their Moms would always be home with snacks and they had lots of bedrooms and yards. It was very fairytailish and the kids seemed kind of naive to me.

"Even though I felt more comfortable and safe in Cleveland Park, I never felt a part of it. The level of privilege I encountered there, especially when I went to National Cathedral School, was unlike anything I had ever seen. The kids had stuff that was exorbitant to me. I remember going off to my Mom once because some girl in my class spent $8 on a pair of socks. I couldn't believe it. I felt like this was their world and I was just passing through it. What I did not envy, though, was the family dynamics that I saw in a lot of households. I didn't see a lot of loving homes. Even though we had to make a lot of sacrifices, my parents were very loving and attentive. In around 8th grade, kids started drinking in school. The big thing was screwdrivers in water bottles. What kind of situation is a child coming out of where they feel like they need to drink a screwdriver at 1pm?

"After high school, I didn't spend any time around Cleveland Park. I was very rebellious and kind of turned away from those experiences. About ten years ago, I got frustrated about something and went on a long walk. I didn't know where I was going, but I ended up coming back to the National Cathedral. I knew the path here so well from all of my trips as a kid. Coming back helped me to recognize how important this place was for me and my development. Now, it is like home and I don't look at myself as being an 'outsider' anymore. This place is a part of me.

"Now, several of my closest adult friends are friends from my time at Cathedral. In addition to rediscovering the place, I reconnected with the people just like I did with the grounds. We come from different worlds, in many ways, but the foundation laid from our adolescent years makes for a very close bond. It is the place, for sure, but the people are the marrow of my connection to that place. I love it mostly because I love them. Most people that know me will tell you that they have been here at some point because this is where I drag people to hang out or to sit and work. I look around and my footprints are all over this place. I now realize how much a part of me this place is."

Anthony aka Big An on Breaking the Cycle

"I'm 14. I was born down on Morris Road. I'm going to school to get educated. I'm in the 9th grade and studying math. I like school because it keeps me out of trouble. You know, it is hard growing up on the streets because people ain't playing out here no more. There ain't no fighting with your hands no more, people go straight to weapons. I try and avoid fighting when I can by staying focused on school and football. 

"See, I want to get out the ghetto when I grow up. My parents and grandparents were born in the ghetto.  They tell me lots of their stories about living here and I don't want to live like that no more. I am going to  break the cycle and get out. When I grow up, I want to be an NFL player. I have been playing football my whole life. Now, I play defensive tackle on my high school team. If that doesn't work out, I will work in technology." 

Big An, left, is pictured with his friend, Brandon.

Carol on Showing the Beauty of D.C.

"I am 60 years young. I have been living in Northeast for about 50-some years. I left once to go to Newark, New Jersey and stayed gone for eight years. I came back because I could not live no place else but D.C. The people in New Jersey were fine and everything, but there wasn't a sense of closeness. If I walk down the street and look at you and say, "Good morning,' what would your reply to me be? In New Jersey, they don't know. You say good morning and they don't say nothing. Here in Washington, even the winos say good morning to you.

"Today, I am taking my granddaughter, my great niece, and the two girls I take care of out on a stroll. These girls have no connection to D.C. because no one has taught them anything about this city. What they know about this city is that if you hear gun shots, you hit the floor. But there is so much beauty here, especially on H Street, that I am trying to show them. Back in the 60's, H Street was a beautiful place to walk and go shopping. On Sundays, parents would stroll up and down the street after church. After the riots, it all changed. 

"As I look around, our black children need help. There are a lot of bright, young black kids out here, but there is not a lot out there for them. All they need is something to do and somewhere to go, so that they can be proud of themselves. I am so proud that my granddaughter wants to be a doctor and my great niece wants to be a lawyer. But no one talks about that - what black children want to be. They talk about what they do that is not right. Like I said, there are a lot of positive black children out there. We need to help them for a change. 

"I would like to get a hold of the people passing laws and just shake 'em. Some of those people have no knowledge of what life is really like in the inner city of Washington, D.C. They just pass these laws. I mean, laws are fine, but if they are not working year-after-year, why are you keeping them? Some of them are as silly as silly can be. Look at what is going on with H Street. Why are you going to put in a streetcar? We already have buses and cabs. Instead of putting in this nonsense, build some schools. Streetcars were on H St. when I was a little girl. You decided to tear them down once already. Now, you want them back? This is silly nonsense. If you want to develop this area, develop the schools and help our children.

"When I went to school, you could play in peace. There was no cussing and fighting going on like you have today. You didn't have children running for their lives. I lost my son to these streets. He was a professional boxer and had been accepted to the University of Maryland. He got caught up with the wrong crowd. You know, the day he died, I had a bad feeling. Mothers can sense things. I remember driving to work and seeing an ambulance pass. I said, 'Lord, someone just lost their baby.' It turns out that it was my son in the ambulance. He had been shot. I was working as a nurse at the time, so they let me see my boy at the hospital. He was shot in the head and up and down his arm. I knew my baby was gone. People say that this is part of life on the streets, but I won't accept that. See, I believe in God. My son did not belong to me, but to God. I guess God wanted to take him back. I accept that, but I will never accept the violence in my community."

From left to right, Precious, Dominique, Oluwaferanmi, Leondria, and Carol. 

Cyndee on Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive

“I was born in Utah and then traveled around the country with my folks while my Dad was doing graduate school. I moved to the D.C. metro area when I was 8. I left for college and then ended up back in D.C., but did not plan on staying here. Bikini Kill, a band that I was really into, did a benefit concert for Helping Individual Prostitutes Survive (HIPS). Throughout my life, I had really close friends who chose to do informal sex work because working the graveyard shift at 7-11 sucks. In doing that, many of them got into abusive situations and did not have the resources to get help. HIPS seemed like the right place for me to volunteer at the right time. I started as a volunteer in 1994 and have been here in different capacities every since. I became the executive director in 2001. 

"At HIPS, we are working to improve the health and welfare of sex workers rather than trying to 'save them' from what they were doing. We work using a harm reduction strategy. At HIPS, we work with sex workers to help them decide what is and is not working in their lives. It’s all about self determination. There are few people who we interact with who are doing sex work in whatever capacity for a new purse or a $600 pair of shoes. Most of the people we work with are trying to feed themselves and their families or pay the rent. Some have chosen to do this over other forms of employment. More often than not, they are doing this because it is a last resort. Some are also supporting drug habits and some have not had access to education or job counseling. It is very hard to live in this city on minimum wage. The myth about upward mobility in employment does not play out all that well. As much as we work with job training, it is challenging for many of these people to find regular employment. 

"The more we push sex work underground, the more dangerous it gets. Since the institution of the prostitution free zones in D.C., which are similar to drug free zones, and gentrification, sex workers are working increasingly in poorer, more dangerous neighborhoods. Now, we are also seeing how technology is changing sex work. When I started at HIPS, it wasn’t really safe to stroll without working for an established pimp or manager. In some ways, technology gives sex workers more ability to work independently if you have the access and knowledge. Yet, in some sense, it has made sex work less visible and more underground. Now, you don’t have that person on the corner who is going to make sure you get back from your date alright. We do outreach to both those on the corners and online to help them stay safe and informed. 

"We have varied interactions with the powers that be in Washington. We are funded publicly by the health department for HIV prevention, needle exchange and victims services. Thanks to their support, we are able to make sure that our clients, sex workers, have the tools they need to reduce the public health problems normally associated with this work. Obviously, our goal is different than law enforcement and sometimes, we can be at odds. Our goal is to help empower sex workers. The only real tool that the police has is mass incarceration, which is a success story to them, but in our view is not a success story in the long run. 

"Our approach is that we want to live in a healthy community that is free of violence, coercion, and disease. Unfortunately, those in sex work get the brunt of those things. By working with that population to address their health and wellness, we are raising the bar for this city. Because we make those conditions less miserable, sometimes sex workers have the ability to do something different. We find that the less coerced and dependent people feel, the more they are able to make informed decision about sex work. The more we can improve their lives, the more they will settle on a job that they like that gives them agency." 

Cyndee Clay is the executive director of HIPS.

Councilmember Tommy Wells on Getting the Love Back

“I first came to Washington in 1983. I was about 27 years old and was just graduating with a Master's in Social Work from the University of Minnesota. I couldn't figure out where I wanted to go, but I knew that I didn't want to go back to Alabama where I grew up. I went to talk with a professor whom I thought very highly of to ask what he would do in my situation. He said, 'I would go to Washington. Washington is the most exciting place I have ever lived.' Being quite easily influenced, I worked a little bit that summer and then sold my car, a little Honda station wagon, and bought a one-way ticket to Washington. As I walked out from Union Station on September 6, I just fell in love with Washington that very moment. It was a beautiful day and the buildings were such heroic structures. My heart raced a little bit then and hasn't ever stopped.

“In 1985, I took a job as a child protection social worker for D.C. That early experience taught me a lot about Washington and the neighborhoods that most people had never been in. Starting in 1985. the city essentially went broke and that was the beginning of crack and the AIDS epidemic. That led to an explosion of kids coming into foster care. At the same time, because the city was going broke, there was a hiring freeze on social workers, so the caseloads were exploding. I had over 40 kids and families in my caseload, but had colleagues who had from 200 to 500 kids.

“I remember that there was a young man in my caseload who tested positive for HIV at 15. I needed to find a home for him, but group homes would not take him. I found a gay AIDS activist in the city who said, ‘I will do it.’ I took that information to the government, but the city never paid him or did its part to support him. We had a crisis and the government could not respond. The system wasn't there to help kids with HIV and AIDS. These kids ended up in group homes, which are essentially orphanages, instead of foster homes. In response, when I ran the Consortium for Child Welfare, one of the first things I did was to write grants to create a recruitment program for people who were willing to be foster parents for children affected by HIV. That was a powerful experience because I was just moving a couple of gears and it changed the whole machine. Now kids were going directly to families. Some of those kids were even adopted and most went on to live healthy lives. Experiences like this made it clear to me that I was more drawn to systemic change rather than helping people one at time.

“There are two things that ultimately impacted my decision to run for political office. One is that, with time, I was providing more of a leadership role to social workers in the city, which made me more of a public person. The other thing is that during the late 80's/early 90's, D.C. became the murder capital of the world. I would read the paper on Monday morning about the egregious things happening in my ward and didn’t want to leave the house. I would feel so dark, gloomy, and fearful that these awful things were happening.

“I wanted my neighborhood to be better, so I ran for Advisory Neighborhood Commission. Even though it is only Advisory, I really felt like I was making a difference. It introduced me to a lot of public policy issues that affect our world. Because of my concern about kids, I ran for School Board and won in a District that was over 75 percent African-American. It gave me hope that if people recognize they want a better future in D.C., they will give you a chance regardless of your race. I love Washington and to get the love back was just an extraordinary experience.

“At the school board, I mandated that all students had to be fully immunized. At the time, 20,000 out of 60,000 kids had not gotten their immunizations. It was a powerful feeling to see how you could have an impact on a child's life through elected office. When Sharon Ambrose was not running for reelection in Ward 6, I saw an opportunity to continue to make major systemic changes. I felt good about electoral politics and ran to be a member of the Council.”  

Councilmember Wells was first elected to the City Council in 2007. He is the Chair of the Committee on Human Services and currently sits on the Committee on Economic Development, the Committee on Public Services and Consumer Affairs, and the Committee on Health. Tommy is also Chair of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments Human Services Planning Committee, Chair of the DC Safe Routes to School State Network, and the incoming Chair of the Chesapeake Bay Local Government Advisory Committee. Learn more about Councilmember Wells here. 

Michael on Growing Up

"I was born in Hawaii. I came to D.C. when I was three. I am Hawaiian, Egyptian and white. D.C. is a great place, but a bad place to grow up. I would not recommend it. There is too much gang activity and all that jazz. If you grew up somewhere else, I would suggest moving here. I wouldn't raise children here though. I have younger siblings, but they live in Gaithersburg. My parents and siblings couldn't deal with living here, so they moved. I decided to stay because D.C. is pretty much all I know.

"There was this one time when I was minding my own business and walking up 14th Street and got chased by at least twenty people just because I look like I look. People thought I was in the 18th Street gang. They beat my ass pretty bad. Some of the gangs are territorial. You can't walk in certain neighborhoods if you don't belong to that gang. Most gangs are just people who have known each other for a while and they just established a group. Around Columbia Heights, there are so many gangs. There is MS-13, 18th Street, and a bunch of other groups, most just form to go up against MS-13. I learned all of this on the street. You have to.

"For me, this gang stuff has been going on since middle school. I don't fight because I want to, but because I have to. I try to talk my way out of things before I fight when I can. If you don't mind defending yourself once every month or so, D.C. is a great place to live."

D.C. is home to over 130 gangs. The District has an estimated 2,500 active gang members and 5,000 others who are “loosely affiliated.” Read more about them here.

Terrence on Dressing for the Occasion

"I grew up in D.C., 14th and Randolph St. Northwest. I spent most of my life in D.C. until I moved to Montgomery County and then joined the Army. I served for eight years, including tours in Germany and California. I came back to D.C. in 1985 after being discharged. I had a brain aneurysm in California and now the left side of my body is paralyzed. I came back because this was home and pretty much all of my family lives here. This place had changed a lot while I was away and continues to change all the time. Just look at some of our neighborhoods. I mean Chinatown is completely different than how it was when I was coming up.

"Today, I had a job interview doing security so I had to dress for the occasion. I woke up this morning and this is what I felt like wearing. Come on man, I got this job. I have been in the Army for eight years. I know what I am doing when it comes to security."

Noor on Being a Builder

"Every person comes from somewhere and is going somewhere. Most of them don’t understand that true happiness is in the journey, though. Along the way, life presents us with a number of tests so that we can arrive at who we are. Some people become givers and some become takers, some build and some destroy. But, history shows us that the greatest people were builders. People like George Washington Carver, Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Benjamin Franklin, and George Washington. They built this society and invented things. We need to follow them and not let people tear this society down.

"Within the city, we have a whole lot of people who make and give out the law. All we need is the golden rule to get on the right track and lead the world. In time, we will arrive and I believe that there is a lot of learning that we can do through Islam. Now, with Islam, they talk about the terrorists, but in this city you have the greatest militia of police anywhere in the world. Here, you have the FBI, the CIA, and all kinds of police you don’t even know about. I have lived in this city 61 years, all of my life, and have seen people terrorized on a daily basis by those here to protect them. Unless we become builders and love one another, we can’t live in harmony."

Councilmember Phil Mendelson on Maintaining D.C.'s Openness

"I have always been interested in government, which I inherited from my mother and her side of the family. My mother ran for City Council twice in the suburb of Cleveland Heights, Ohio, and lost each time. She was also active in the League of Women Voters. Her mother had been active in the Michigan League of Women Voters and served as its president. I thought that Washington was an interesting place and came here for college. I majored in political science and was involved in student government. I originally thought that I would go into the federal government, specifically Congress, when I graduated. Before I finished college, though, I moved to McLean Gardens, which had a very active tenant association because it was going through a series of battles with the landlord. The landlord wanted to evict everyone and redevelop the land with enormous rent increases and condominium conversions. Each time, the landlord was unsuccessful because the tenants were active. Through my involvement there, I got interested in D.C. politics and have been involved in D.C. issues, community activism and D.C. politics ever since.

"My involvement with McLean Gardens led me to the Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC), where I served for twenty years. I got involved in zoning issues and promoting reasonable development in neighborhoods rather than allowing a private developer to redevelop a neighborhood without regard to a larger plan or context. Probably the most noteworthy struggle I was involved in with the ANC was the redevelopment of 4000 Wisconsin Avenue in the late 80's and early 90's. Along with a few other people, I organized a community organization that went to court and significantly altered the approach, or lack of approach, toward the planning of that space. The building eventually got built, but there were a lot of changes that we forced. From there, I went on to run for City Council.

"A striking thing about being on the City Council is that there is a lot of interesting legislation that gets passed and that does not get all that much attention. When I was first elected to the City Council, I authored and got through the Council the Urban Forest Preservation Act, also known as the Tree Bill. Environmentally, it was a big step forward for D.C., although I think what was ultimately passed wasn't as strong as it could have been. Still, it does a lot for the environment, specifically our trees.

"But, D.C. issues like the gun-control legislation get more attention because they are national issues. That's big-time stuff in terms of media attention, but it may not necessarily be the most important legislation for D.C. I am pleased with what we did with gun control because it's a very controversial issue. We were able to build a consensus and get through the Council, in light of the Supreme Court decision, terms that respect what the Supreme Court ordered, but, at the same time, constitute possibly the strongest gun control law on the books. We are far more restrictive in terms of weeding out people who will potentially misuse guns in violent ways than any other city. We have some other measures in place to weed out the more dangerous guns, like the cheap Saturday-night specials. We also have a renewal provision that will continue to keep our registration procedures up-to-date. After the Supreme Court decision, the police had to go and dust off gun procedures that hadn't been used in thirty years. In the process, they learned that the police had no clue where most of the people were who had received the 30-40,000 gun permits issued before the gun ban. It was rather embarrassing. Now, I think that we're making progress and have alternatives that are pretty good compared to other cities.

"Reflecting on my time here, there is one other observation that strikes me abut being in D.C. This city, because of the federal presence, is much less open than it used to be. There are far more restrictions on the ability to travel around and go into places.

"The most obvious example is Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House. I think that's a metaphor for the direction this city has gone in, which is unfortunate. The city spends more time being frightened and, in its fear, restricts its citizens rather than remain open. That openness has always been a hallmark of this city. You used to be able to walk onto the White House and Capitol greens and have a picnic. We have slowly chipped away at that, which is unfortunate. Some of it, though, is pervasive across America, as we think we need to make things ever more inaccessible to protect ourselves against crazy people and terrorists. The remarkable thing about crazy people and terrorists is that what motivates them will motivate them to work around the restrictions we put in place. We ought to look at different approaches towards dealing with them. Rather than seal off areas and search people, let's look at alternatives that deal more directly with those threats and maintain the openness that has been a trademark of our society."

Councilmember At-Large Mendelson was first elected to the City Council in November 1998. He is the Chairman of the Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary and is a member of four additional committees: Health; Housing and Urban Affairs; Human Services; and Libraries, Parks, and Recreation. Along with representing the Council at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments, he is also the Immediate Past President of the Association of Metropolitan Planning Organizations (AMPO). Learn more about Councilmember Mendelson here.

Assistant Secretary Dan Tangherlini on Focusing on Outcomes

“I grew up in Auburn, Massachusetts. In 1991, I came to D.C. after graduate school as a Presidential Management Intern with the Office of Management and Budget. I thought that I would work here for a few years and then go back to Massachusetts. The longer I stayed, though, the more deeply routed I became. I met my wife here. We bought and renovated a house on Capitol Hill. We started a family here. Any notion of leaving got increasingly distant with time.

“Somewhere along the way, I got interested in this city itself and how to make it better. When Anthony Williams was appointed Chief Financial Officer for Washington, I was offered an opportunity to be a detailee in his office from my position in the U.S. Department of Transportation. When Mr. Williams became mayor, he asked if I would serve as CFO of the Police Department. Chief Ramsey had just come in from Chicago. There seemed to be so many exciting things going on at that time. With the Police Department, we were working on issues no less important than the safety of the citizens living in the nation’s capital. Still, I had no intention of staying with the city for longer than a few years. But, from the Police Department, I went to the D.C. Department of Transportation (DDOT), then Metro, and then became the City Administrator and Deputy Mayor. Now, I am back in the federal government as Treasury’s Assistant Secretary for Management, Chief Financial Officer, and Chief Performance Officer.

“One of the great stories from my time in the city is of the Circulator bus. Someone once described me as the father of the Circulator. I think that is an unfair description. There were so many people who had been working on this idea for a long time. There was the Museum Bus that cropped up in the 80’s then died, and the Blue Bus started by Ginger Latham, and the Georgetown Bid. The Blue Bus connected Georgetown and Dupont Circle. I mean, can you imagine two cooler destinations to go to and from? What was fascinating was that the bus served primarily workers in Georgetown. For them, the bus was a huge bonus because parking in Georgetown can be a nightmare and the transit connections can be unreliable. I used to joke that the bus schedule is a list of times that the bus will not come. This shuttle made it easy for people to get to work. The Blue Bus made it clear that there was a market for similar bus routes.

“At DDOT, we shifted our mentality from roads and moving goods and people to connecting places. The Circulator fit beautifully into that and Mayor Williams was a huge supporter of the idea, as were Councilmembers Jack Evans, Tommy Wells, Jim Graham, and others. Councilmember Carol Schwartz gave me a year to make it work. We found these beautiful Van Hool buses with big windows and three doors in Oakland that the city didn’t have the money to operate. We found some cash from an old settlement related to when trolley prices went from 5 to 10 cents and a bunch of riders sued and won the old assets of the Capital Transit Company. That money had been put in a bank and was sitting there for about 30 years. The only thing that money could be used for was bus service in the District of Columbia. We used that $11 million to buy 29 buses. “The Circulator was what we called the project. We had focus groups to name the bus and tried things like the Go D.C., or D See, or one route would be Zip and the other Zap. Overwhelmingly, much to the horror of the brand people we brought in, people voted for the Circulator. They said, ‘But it is so bureaucratic.’ But, this is Washington and the answers people gave for why they liked the name Circulator was that it described what it does.

“People who had never ridden buses before were riding the Circulator. Polls showed that people liked that it came frequently and started and ended in places that people recognized. It was a model of what bus service could be. Since then, Metro went on to build some of their express routes and bring on much cooler-looking bus equipment. They also started NextBus to inform people about bus schedules, so people would have more faith in the bus system. Finding those ideas that are already sitting there like the Circulator and implementing them and finding ways of making things that people take for granted more interesting, those are the projects that I love working on.

“My time in the city was one adventure after another. The great thing about the city is that you need to deliver services every day. There is an old joke in municipal governance that a mayor runs for office every day because someone’s garbage needs to get picked up or someone needs to respond to a 911 call. That really focuses you and shows you that it is all about the outcomes and service delivery to the taxpayer. Trying to bring some of that focus to outcomes and the need for speed is what I am trying to bring to the federal government now.

"While I work for the Treasury, I will always stay connected with D.C. I still have so many friends who work for the city. People still stop me all the time to ask what I think about this and that. I just can’t not share my views. My life is here. My family is here. There is no way I could remove myself from D.C. life short of moving to Alaska. Even if I did that, I think that people would still call me there to see what I think about things happening here.”

Jerry on His First Christmas Home Since 1998

“This is my first Christmas home since 1998. I am ecstatic. I was released from prison on October 16th of this year after being incarcerated at the Coleman United States Penitentiary in Daytona, Florida for ten years. I was locked up for manufacturing, distributing and possessing with intent to distribute drugs. They caught us with three kilos of coke, five pounds of weed and six guns. I never meant to get in so serious. I was just caught up with all of the money. We talking hundreds of thousands of dollars. That is hard to walk away from. I mean, I was just a simple kid from D.C. when all of this went down. I don’t think that all people who are incarcerated are bad people, I just think they made bad choices like I did. 

"I thank God that I am no longer on the other side of the fence. First thing that I did when I got out of prison was say, ‘Thank you God.’ After that, I went to Target and applied for a stock job. The lady said, ‘You need to apply online'. I’m like, 'I am the only one in the line right now. What are you talking about?' She said, ‘No, you need to apply online, not get on line to apply.’ I was computer illiterate so I had no idea what she was talking about. 

"I came back to D.C. because this is the only place that I am familiar with. Being away for so long, D.C. seems brand new to me. I feel like a stranger in my own community. People have moved out or died who I was affiliated with. I feel like I am in a new town or something. I am just trying to make the adjustments - the mental and social adjustments - that are necessary for me to survive and remain law abiding. That is my first goal, to not break the law anymore and to be successful and productive. 

"Now, I feel the love of Christmas all around me. People are very warm around this time of the year. Even if I don’t have any family here, I now get a chance to make a family with new people I meet here. On my first Christmas back, I am just going to eat a lot of turkey and ham. I will still be among strangers at dinner, but at least I will be free. In prison, for Christmas we got a stocking with a writing pad, some candy canes and peanuts. That’s what they give you each year. I thank God for the liberties that I didn’t have before. This is a very special Christmas for me."

Twin on the Street Code

“I have a story that you won’t believe. I am telling you, this is all real. I got shot multiple times on the streets of Southeast DC in 2003. It started off with my twin sister, we’re identical, getting in an argument with a little boy, a juvenile. He was probably 13 or 14-years-old. He disrespected her and called her a bitch. This was not in our neighborhood where we know everyone, but out in Southeast. The next day, we went back around that neighborhood to go gambling. We saw the little boy again and he looked at us and told his friend, ‘Fuck them. Fuck the both of them.’

“My sister went back to go argue with the little boy. They had words and I told my sister to leave that little boy alone. When I said, “Little boy.’ he jumped up off the steps and said, “I’ll show you little boy!” He ran into the house and got a gun. When he did that, one of his friends said, ‘Boy, you just got that gun and you be pulling it on everyone.’ He turned on us with the gun, but one of his friends grabbed it and stopped him. I was like, man, how did this get so serious all of the sudden? I was mad. I was heated. I said, 'This ain’t gonna go down like this.' I mean, who the fuck this little boy think he is? That little boy could not just do that and disrespect us. My friend who I was with said, ‘Don’t sweat it. I have more than one gun at my house.’ I didn’t want to kill the little boy. I wanted to show him that he couldn’t do what he just did and think it’s ok. I mean, he did that shit to me and I didn’t want him to do it to someone else.

“I went back around the alley where the little boy hung out. He was sitting on a car, rolling a joint. His back was turned and I put the gun to his head. He was scared as shit and started apologizing, saying he had no beef with me and my sister. I told him to stay the fuck out of our way. I said, 'We don’t know you and you don’t know us. We don’t have no beef with you. I am just showing you how easy it is to get you, too. You just pulled a gun on us for no reason at all. I am teaching you a lesson.' I turned around and walked away. The next day, I went back to the neighborhood to meet a friend, not even thinking about the little boy because I was passed that. I was talking with some friends and I saw the little boy come out of the alley. It was 100 degrees and he was wearing a long coat with a hood on. He kept his hands in his pockets. I was like, “Oh my God. I know what he’s getting ready to do. I ain’t no fool.’

“The little boy was anxious. I knew he was going to shoot me so I started running down the alley. All of the time I thought he was shooting at me, he was actually shooting in me. I only starting feeling the bullets when I heard someone say, ‘That crazy ass nigger is shooting her.’ I was shot three times in my left forearm. When I finally fell over, he came over to me. I said, ‘Look, I don’t know you and I have no beef with you. You shot me three times. Just turn around and walk away and I’ll do the same.’ He kept looking at me and I knew that he was getting ready to shoot me in my fucking head. So, I turned around and ran and held my head in case he tried to hit me there. He shot me in the head, but he took off my finger instead. He also shot me in the thigh and then in my back, my L1 vertebrae. I thought he was never going to run out of bullets. Finally, he just ran away and my friends came to help me. I could not move. I was paralyzed.

“I went to Howard University hospital on May 9, but did not go to surgery until May 11. I had DC Alliance insurance, but they would not do surgery on me that night or the next day. They waited until Medicaid kicked in on May 11. Man, I stayed fucked up for two whole days because of medical insurance. When I finally got Medicaid, I went to surgery and got back feeling in my right toe. We were celebrating, but I still could not walk so I had to go to therapy. But, God is good. They said he can make the paralyzed walk again and I am prime example. I was so determined that I wasn’t going to live my life in a wheel chair. I went through a lot, but I can smile about it now. I am happy this happened to me and not my twin. She would not have survived because I am much stronger than she is.

"You know, when I was in the hospital, the police came by telling me they knew who done shot me and wanted me to ID him, but I didn't tell them nothing. I said it was a drive by. You know, street code. Turns out that the little boy and two of his friends went out to Anacostia after he shot me up and shot five people, including three women who were just hanging out. They got caught and the little boy got 77 years. Sometimes I think that those people would have still been here had I told on him, but you know the street code. Knowing what I know now, I can say that I would have told on him, but, in truth, I know that I wouldn’t snitch. I just look at it as what I won’t do someone else might do or God will take care of. I didn’t even think about telling the police. I wasn’t scared or nothing, I just didn’t want no one to tell on me if I was in the same situation. It’s been like that on these streets for a long time. Didn’t I tell you I had a story for your ass.”