"Residents First"

Advisory Neighborhood Commission Election 2012

I'm Randy Steer, and I'm running to fill the Single-Member District (SMD) 3 seat in Advisory Neigborhood Commission 6B, now that Norm Metzger is retiring. I believe the current ANC has let the neighborhood down on a number of fronts in the past several years, and that it needs members like me who will put residents' interests first and who will be much tougher negotiators than the ANC has had previously.

Every neighborhood likes to think of itself as unique, but we have prominent external validation: the American Planning Association voted the area around Eastern Market as one of the ten best urban neighborhoods in the country. That is genuinely special, and it requires a special level of effort and foresight to keep it that way.

ANCs don't generally address big policy issues, but they have a very real impact on many issues that affect our every-day quality of life. Those impacts will often last for decades, and even generations, as in the case of the current ANC's failure to hold the Hine School redevelopment project to its originally-approved size, or even to achieve any meaningful size reductions. The new development will tower over pedestrians and the neighborhood for the life of the building -- easily 60 years or more.

In the "My Views" tab I'll try to express how I would approach different types of issues that typically come before the ANC.  My general approach can be described as analytic, practical, non-ideological, and resident-oriented.

Please feel free to e-mail me at the address below.

Or ask questions on the "Q&A" page
on this website.

Contact: 

Randy

Randy Steer has lived and worked in Washington for 28 years, and has lived on Capitol Hill in ANC 6B03 for 14 years.

 

Key Principles

Commercial Development:  Sensible, sustainable, scaled to the neighborhood. Priority should be serving the neighborhood rather than being a "destination". Increased density around Metro stations has benefits but must be scaled appropriately to existing buildings, the pedestrian and retail character of the immediate neigborhood, and distance from the Capitol and historic neighborhoods. (For instance, development at Stadium-Armory could appropriately be bigger than development around Eastern Market or Capitol South.)

Zoning waivers for home improvements:  Must be addressed case-by-case, but with a bias towards allowing neighborhood residents in smaller houses to expand a bit rather than having to move.

Liquor Licenses:  Can be used as leverage to negotiate operating agreements (noise, hours, customer behavior) as needed. But the 3 blocks of 8th St. (from D St. to I St.) may have exceeded the optimum density of liquor licenses (vs. retail).

Traffic and Parking:  Convenience of residents takes priority over convenience of visitors. Be cautious about any changes to Pennsylvania Ave. -- heed the lessons of pedestrian-hostile "squares" and circles elsewhere in the city.

Public Safety:  Maintain the 1st District police substation at Marion Square. Address the station's chronic parking issues: I'm sure that creative and selecive use of parking restrictions can accomodate the neighbors who receive such a safety benefit from being adjacent or opposie the station while also ensuing that officers don't have to park in traffic lanes. Aggressively pursue repeat offenders (car break-ins, robberies, etc.).

Dog-Friendly Capitol Hill:  Capitol Hill is one of the most dog-friendly neighborhoods in the city, and we should work to keep it that way.

Community Involvement

Randy has lived on Capitol Hill (in the same house) for 14 years, and before that he lived for 14 years in Adams Morgan.

Before moving to Capitol Hill, Randy was on the board of his tenants' association (nearly 400 units) and had been a member of the board and Treasurer of the Adams Morgan/Mount Pleasant Community Development Corporation, as well as Treasurer and DC VP of the Capital PC User Group. He was a founding member of his neighborhood's "orange hat" patrol (late-night safety patrol).

He also developed the first website for the Adams Morgan Day festival and has developed websites pro bono for non-profit community organizations as well as developing some of the first neighborhood-oriented websites in DC starting in the mid-1990s.

Over the past three years he has participated in many community discussions about the proposed Hine School redevelopment. He wrote a detailed analysis of the original four development bidders, circulated in the ANC and elsewhere in the community, which recommended the eventual winners (Stanton-EastBanc). More recently he has written testimony and spoken publicly in opposition to the increased volume, height, and "blockiness" of the new design, which is not consistent with the original design approved by the city.

Professional Background

Randy Steer has worked for the Federal government for 28 years, and for 7 years before that he was a defense contractor.

After receiving a Bachelor's degree in Physics, he began working on submarine sonar systems. 

He then earned a Master's in Public Policy at Harvard, and worked at the White House Office of Management and Budget for 17 years, overseeing R&D policies and budgets for renewable energy, energy conservation, and climate change. 

Since 2001 he has worked at the Department of Energy on renewable energy and efficiency policies and budgets, and is now working on best-practices and knowledge management.