At Each Hurdle, Stronger Resolve

Kurt Ehrman, a government lawyer, said he was told when he bought his home in 2000 that the apartments across the street would soon be emptied and turned into condos. Instead, two years later, he saw fliers seeking community support for the tenant purchase.

"I'm all for diversity," he said. "I don't want anybody across the street -- except for those selling and buying drugs -- moved elsewhere. But coming up with enough money to make sure those buildings are truly renovated, so that those of us who have a lot invested are satisfied, is going to be very difficult."

Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) was hearing from constituents on both sides of the street. Thomas, a political ally who had campaigned for him, sought and received his strong support for funding the tenant purchase. The northsiders, many of whom had also backed Graham's 1998 council bid, kept asking if he could stop the project.

In November 2002, Graham and Williams were elected to second terms. The next month, Graham called a meeting at the Reeves Municipal Center for his constituents on W Street. The topic quickly turned to crime. Rowhouse owners asked how the cooperative board would keep out drugs and violence.

"There was a shooting there. It didn't have anything to do with anyone in the building?" one man asked skeptically.

"Absolutely not," snapped Thomas. "Look around you." She gestured at Fitzgerald and several others. "We all have a lifetime of investment on this block. These are the people that are going to make the co-op what it is."

Graham ended the session after more than an hour, promising another soon. The tenants walked out to 14th Street, seething. The northsiders looked at them, they said, as if they were the drug dealers who sometimes loitered on W street.

"Don't group me with drugs," fumed Michelle Craig, a conventions concierge at a downtown Marriott. "The faces they see here aren't the faces selling drugs on the street. And we were here first. And I'm not leaving."

"We're trying to move the city forward. But we've got to bring everyone along, right?"

MAYOR ANTHONY A. WILLIAMS

The stress was getting to Thomas. She remembers sniffling through a Dec. 21 doctor's appointment, sagging with anxiety about all that would be lost if financing did not come through. Then her cell phone rang. It was a co-worker. A fax had come in from the D.C. government. The tenants' application for $2 million had been approved. Thomas burst into tears.

Her doctor asked if she was okay.