Speaking of ANCs

At the "cocktail" part of the "DC Mayor's Awards for Excellence in Historic Preservation" on Saturday night, in a conversation with the Intowner's intreprid reporter Anthony Harvey, I learned that ANC6A and ANC6C are atypical in that standing committees have community members in addition to the elected Commissioners. Since this is really the only area I have lived in in the city of Washington, I just figured this was typical.

If it isn't, it's a real waste of community capacity and resources, and a real bobbling of an opportunity to engage citizens in a substantive way in community affairs.

I wrote about this, somewhat derisively, in the context of ANC6D earlier in the year, in this entry "YIMBYs from Brooklyn to DC -- Thinking about Community Participation in Shaping Development" not knowing until this past weekend, that they were the rule, rather than exception. (Note however that they have since opened up their committee rosters to community members...)

Also see this entry "Neighborhood Planning Meta-Website."