In the News

Message from the Mayor

I strongly urge the members of the DC Council to take up the plan for building a new central library downtown before the year ends and the legislation dies. Failure to act now jeopardizes funding and delays the critical process of restoring pride in our city's library system.

We have spent more than two years studying the library issue and we've come too far to let this legislation simply die for lack of action. Residents of the District of Columbia need and deserve a 21st century central library that shortchanges no one and includes everyone. Building the central library at this new site can be a strong statement that we hold education and literacy to be our important civic priorities, deserving of a place of prominence in our new vibrant downtown. The Council has at least one more meeting scheduled this month, and I would encourage all District residents who care about the state of our library system to contact the Council and demand that this issue move forward."

The library plan is strongly supported by Council Chairman Linda Cropp and incoming Mayor Adrian Fenty as well as Committee Chairman Kathy Patterson, among others. I urge Councilmembers Cropp, Patterson, Fenty and others to work with their colleagues in the coming weeks to address any lingering concerns.

I thank the Council for a strong legislative session on Tuesday, December 5 and for approving several critical issues including the Comprehensive Plan which will help to guide how the city provides affordable housing, jobs and growth for residents in years to come.

There has been a tremendous amount of public discussion and review of the comprehensive plan, and I am pleased to see this proposal approved. The Comp Plan process has been underway for three years, starting with the Citizen Summit in November 2003. Before the Comp Plan was released, there were more than two years of community meetings, attended by thousands of residents. This has been one of the most thorough and inclusive processes in the history of the Comp Plan. This is a citizen-driven plan, built from the bottom up, which reflects no particular political agenda but endorses key goals and values we can all support – more affordable housing, more jobs for District residents, well-managed growth, and a cleaner environment.

I commend the Council for passing the DC Green Building Act of 2006 which will phase in green building requirements for the public and private sector, and I thank the members of the Green Building Task Force for their work to reach consensus among widely disparate interests. The adoption of this progressive legislation puts the District at the forefront of municipalities in the United States using green buildings as a tool to address climate change. The reduction of carbon emissions resulting from the construction of green buildings is an example of the visionary action I intended when I signed the US Conference of Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, which committed the District to work toward meeting or exceeding the Kyoto Protocol targets. The District is one of only a handful of municipalities in the country that require the private sector to construct green buildings, and we are moving on multiple fronts to build and encourage the construction of green buildings.

I expect to sign the green buildings legislation shortly; other legislation was endorsed on first reading with final passage expected on December 19.