Harry Jaffe, The Examiner
2007-11-22 21:17:40.0
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Washington DC -

Even in this season of thankfulness, some columnists tend to take the easy path toward listing "turkeys of the year," for people who have made a notably boneheaded move.

Not me. Well, not until the end of the column.

My measure is to thank people who have made hard choices for the public good, often against their immediate personal interests.

Top of my list is Allen Lew. Six months ago Lew was on easy street, in relative terms, managing construction of the new baseball stadium along the Anacostia River. Dealing with contractors and politicians and major league baseball was no day at the beach, but the new ballpark was rising on time and on budget.

In June, Mayor Adrian Fenty asked Lew to manage the $2.3 billion modernization program for D.C. public schools. What kind of madman, I once asked him, would want to fix everything from faucets to leaky roofs to wavy gym floors in 140 decrepit schools? And deal with cranky parents, grabby politicians, marauding students, dissembling bureaucrats and lousy contractors?

Lew has already delivered. Students came to schools with better lighting, fresh paint, air conditioning. But my thanks go to Lew for repairing so many athletic fields and locker rooms. There is no way to count how many kids are playing football rather than selling crack because of the fresh facilities, but we have Lew to thank for many of the changed lives.

I ran into Coolidge High School Principal Nelson Burton at the unveiling of Lew's new football field behind the school on Sheridan Street. He graduated from Coolidge and came back in 2005 as principal - the seventh in nine years. Coolidge, located in a middle-class community near Takoma Park, was in a state of collapse. Burton, 34, has been assaulted in the halls, yet he's committed to sticking with the students and returning Coolidge to the days when it turned out Superior Court judges.

D.C. Attorney General Linda Singer has taken some heat for being too passive, but she has been the most aggressive of all in forcing landlords to remove lead paint from their buildings. This is no small thing. Lead poisoning can cripple a child's brain. Getting the lead out of city buildings isn't glamorous, but it can save lives.

Developer Doug Jemal has saved another piece of D.C.'s past. A few years ago he saved the Avalon Theater; now he has agreed to move the Waffle House, piece by piece, to one of his new buildings. Waitresses will follow, we hope.

Thanks must go to the anonymous bank official at SunTrust who tipped the feds off to the scam draining at least $30 million from the Office of Tax and Revenue. Absent the tip, money would still be seeping out.

Turkey of the Year award goes to Roy Pearson, who made D.C. the fodder for late-night comics by suing his dry cleaner for $54 million for losing his pants. He lost his pants, his lawsuit and his job as administrative law judge.

Final thanks to Superior Court Judge Judith Bartnoff for ruling against Pearson and putting us out of our misery.

hjaffe@washingtonian.com