Hunan King of the Hill
You dash in for your “pickup” at the Hunan King tucked in between Mickeys’ Pub and CVS at 7th and Pennsylvania SE without giving much thought. After all, it’s dinner time, you’re hungry and this is a carryout. It becomes a habit of mind after more than a dozen years.

And the language barrier is such that there is little to chat about as I pick up my food, pay my bill, and smile at the familiar “thank you” from cashier Airu Xu. At Christmas I politely comment on the lights and poinsettia which are often still there in the spring. Though the boundaries of language do exist, I would concede that Airu Xu has learned more English than I have learned Chinese.

In the case of the Hunan King, my pleasure is not just in the good food, but the incredibly polite and kind people who run this business. Their’s is a different kind of service. Efficient. Polite. Your order always ready. No mistakes. No one is trying to get into your head as they sell you the evening’s specials. In fact, there remains a wonderful anonymity in the comings and goings.

Yu Bin Bi bought his business in 1992. He and his wife Qian Fang Chen have been in the US since 1983 when they left Nanzing, their native city of 6 million and once the capital of China. Yu Bin, struggling with my questions, says he came here to be with his father who left China in 1948 and who was a “ very good chef.”

You don’t get the sense that they fled Communist repression. They both describe life in China as good. But they have come a long distance and even today Qian Fang returns to her half a world away home every few years. The trip is almost 24 hours long and Qian Fang spends 2 to 3 weeks with her family. Life in China today she tells me “ is much better.” I ask if there are problems going home with the Communist government. “None” she replies proudly, “I am an American citizen.”

Yu Bin and Qian Fang have raised two daughters, and sent them to local colleges. Both now work in the federal government. They own a home now in Reston, a long way from their early days in an apartment in DC’s Chinatown. 

I ask them both about the US and if they have any regrets leaving their home country.  “None” is the unhesitating answer, once they are certain of my question. “Good schools “ Qian Fang says. Yu Bin nods approvingly. Qien Fang continues; “ Glad we came.” “Yes. Yes.” Yu Bin adds. Both work 12 hour days six days a week.

Business for them has thrived with Yu Bin indicating this success with a hand that steadily rises. I ask how many regulars they have and they answer “many “ with polite smiles, adding that they make 15 to 20 deliveries every night. Each carryout order includes a fortune cookie. The message “You will live a long and successful life” appears frequently. As I do.

Martin Rock, a regular who overhears our conversation, offers his testimonial that Hunan King serves among the very best Chinese food. “ I lived in Asia for several years. A lot of Chinese places here Americanize their food. This is more like the original. ……..and the prices are good.” 

I ask them who their favorite customers are besides me and they laugh. “You” they answer as they judiciously lower their voices so that Rock eating nearby will not hear them. And the most popular dishes? They grab a carryout menus and circle Steamed Dumplings and Vegetable Kung Pao Bean Curd among others.

Habits, I think, ruefully as once again I promise myself I will order something other than my usual -- Chicken Lo Mein and Chicken Fried Rice. Next time it will be the Bean Curd.

Hunan King is open from 10 AM to 10 PM daily. Call 543 9336 for the “pickup or delivery” that is their phone English. Sorry, no website but plenty of “thank you’s ” from Airu Xu  

Parking and RFK
I was watching the National’s Greg McCarthy squirming in his seat as he testified at a January 11 Parking Roundtable called by Ward 6 Council member Tommy Wells and Chair of the Committee on Economic Development, Kwame Brown.

The reason for McCarthy’s opening day jitters is that with less than 60 days to go before the gleaming $611 million taxpayer-financed Nationals Stadium opens, there are only “4000 maybe 5000” parking spaces secured nearby,  thus increasing the intensity of his plaintive entreaty:  “Take the Metro. Take the Metro. Take the Metro.”

At one point during the hearing McCarthy graciously invited the attendees on a trial run bus trip to RFK stadium on Friday, January 18. This particular piece of an 11th hour proposed alternative parking plan would have ticket holders drive to RFK (don’t we have a ballpark there already with 10,000 parking spaces? ) and take a shuttle bus over to the new stadium. A formal agreement has yet to be signed with the District government.

I called the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission to verify that the bus would be taking us on a trial run. After being put on hold and transferred about repeatedly and asked whether I was planning to write about the bus trip, I was gently disinvited by a voice mail that said: “ Unfortunately this is for a small group of folks with MPD and DDOT just to see if it works. “

I decided to head over anyway and arrived on Friday on time at Lot 8 where Martz bus #9521 sat idling its engines. There were six or seven passengers inside the darkened windows. With no experience at bus stalking, I cautiously followed the bus onto I-395 where it exited on 8th St, turned left under the freeway and then right onto M. A good route, I thought. Then a straight shot to South Capitol and the ballpark. It took just under 20 minutes and was just over 3 miles. Unfortunately, on game days these streets will be jammed with traffic especially as you near the stadium.

Among the problems of using RFK as a parking solution is that while ticket holders will likely arrive at varying times coming to the games, everyone will head for the exits at the same time at game’s end.

It’s clear that one day, sooner than later, the savvy Lerner business family and baseball establishment will rue that they did not construct that parking lot under the stadium as was originally proposed. Or, perhaps they will use the lack of adequate parking as a reason to say goodbye to good ol’ DC. Again.

National’s Stadium’s Strange Fruit

Southern trees bear a strange fruit
Blood on the leaves and blood at the roots
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees

No subject goes to the heart of days that none of us want to revisit as the powerful symbol of a noose and its connection with the lynching of African Americans in the United States. From 1880 till the mid ‘50s there were 3437 lynchings. Although often seen as a Southern phenomena, the last recorded lynching was of a young man, 14 year old Emmett Till of Chicago, in the 50s who was lynched for looking too long at a white woman. His life was taken in Greenwood Mississippi on August 28, 1955. Strange Fruit, the Billie Holiday song’s sad inspiration, was based on a lynching in Marion Indiana in 1937.

So it was no joke when Steven White, along with co-worker Larry Cross (think about those last names), both electrical workers and job foremen at the Nationals Stadium, claimed according to press reports that they intended only humor in showing a noose he fashioned to at least four African Americans on the job site of the $611 million dollar taxpayer funded baseball stadium. Both men were fired by their employer, Truland Inc.

This latest racially charged incident comes on the heels of Truland, Inc.’s firing in October of six African American union electricians for taking offense at being referred to as “monkeys’ and being told that “monkeys could do better work than you” by another white man who was not fired, but simply transferred to another location.

All three perpetrator’s of these offenses are members of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), Local #26 as were the six fired African Americans.

In the autumn, both the DC Sports and Entertainment Commission (DCSEC), technically the owner of the stadium, and IBEW Local #26 were slow to act. This time, DCSEC acted swiftly as Courtland Cox, whose own anti Jim Crow credentials are impeccable, met immediately with Clark/Hunt/Smoot, the contractor, and successfully pushed for their dismissal.

Kwame Brown who oversees the Committee on Economic Development and who is up for re-election scheduled a “roundtable “ for January 30 to look into this matter.

Norval Scott, one of the fired African American workers, with co-workers still on the job site, reports he was told by a white worker still on the job site that one of the men showed the noose to other African Americans and allegedly said: “This is what we are going to do to Norval Scott.”

Scott also reports that in the era of the ubiquitous cell phone, a camera was used to make a record of the incident which other news outlets are reporting was a noose found on the floor of a break room. This may be the reason these workers were dismissed so quickly. Scott has not been invited to Brown’s Roundtable.

Courtland Cox, in what may be an attempt to downplay the incident, insists that the two incidents are unrelated. However, he did contend that the six African Americans were fired for “non-productivity.” If so, I would ask, why have they been offered their jobs back at the stadium or at another site with back pay and their employee jackets expunged of any negative record as part of the settlement with Truland after news reports of their objecting to being called “monkeys. “

There is the possibility of legal action on the part of the six fired African Americans under the DC Human Rights Act. Jeff Spaulding, an attorney for Scott, says “ this incident strengthens our case.” Same company, same job site, same racially charged incidents. Same tax payer funded stadium.

In his press release, Councilmember Brown reports he will not tolerate this kind of behavior. That is well and proper and good. But what he might better do to serve those of us in the District is to really strengthen these Project Labor Agreements that merely set goals in hiring and put some real teeth into minimum hiring standards for District residents as journeymen and apprentices. So far, stadium hiring of DC residents, which was used as justification for the tax dollars spent on the project, met the quota in only three of 23 job categories. Enforcing this agreement would be taking action that would bring real change for real people.

If there is good news it is that as a country we have come a long way on matters of race despite incidents such as these. People no longer get lynched while local governments look the other way. White and Cross have been fired. And there is pending legal action which may well be painful for Truland Inc.