Brown Gets His Endorsements Elsewhere

What can two former big-city mayors do for Michael A. Brown ? Something that Mayor Anthony A. Williams didn't do: endorse Brown for mayor of the nation's capital.

So what if they're in Atlanta and New York and the voters are in Washington? Brown says this shows that "no one else has the reach I have."

Brown traveled to New York on Tuesday to receive a "key endorsement" from former New York mayor David N. Dinkins at the 40/40 Club, where Big Apple supporters were to pay $150 to attend a late-night reception for Brown's Democratic primary campaign.

On the same day last week that Williams endorsed Council Chairman Linda W. Cropp (D), Andrew Young , former congressman, United Nations ambassador and Atlanta mayor, endorsed Brown.

Brown said that Williams's backing of Cropp came as no surprise and that he wouldn't have accepted Williams's support. It was evident, Brown said, that they "didn't share the same vision for the city" after the mayor kicked him off the D.C. Boxing and Wrestling Commission last year.

Not so with Young and Dinkins, friends of Brown's father, the late commerce secretary Ronald H. Brown . They describe the younger Brown as a "visionary" leader who can bridge differences, according to statements released by Brown's campaign.

"Michael Brown, the son of the late Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown, is a well-qualified, historical witness to visionary leadership in this country," Dinkins said in a statement. Young said Brown's "ability to cross class, cultural, general and age barriers should help D.C. to finally get full citizenship."

Brown was in Atlanta to raise funds for his campaign, which he last reported in March as having less than $12,000 in cash. Young endorsed him in front of a crowd of about 150 who paid $100 to attend a reception at an African American-owned art gallery.

"If the team around me, whether in New York or Atlanta, is going to help me, then [voters] will say he's the most qualified and connected," Brown said. "That means something to people."

'Can't Even Get a Trash Can'

The new condominiums sprouting in the Penn Quarter/Chinatown neighborhood have lured thousands of residents to downtown Washington in recent years. But some charge that city services have not kept pace with the burgeoning population.

Exhibit A: the disturbing lack of public trash cans.

That, of course, is not the only annoyance, according to Miles Groves , president of the residents association at the Cosmopolitan, which opened last year on Sixth Street NW near Gallery Place. Streetlights are out, police patrols are sparse and garbage collection sporadic, he said.