November 28, 2005

Help the Schools

Even if you are not a parent you can still still help the local schoolchildren with your grocery store purchases - without spending any extra money yourself.

  • Safeway - go to escrip.com with your card number in hand and remember to renew each year. Local school ID numbers below. The contribution ranges from 1 to 3% of your monthly purchases. Contributions are made from October through May. Lost your card? Call 1-877-SAFEWAY to get your number.
  • Giant - you also need your card number. You can find the contribution formula here. Contributions are only made from October through March.
  • Snider's - receipts can be accepted by some schools for a 1% contribution. You will need to contact a specific PTA to see if it participates.

Schoolpop - if you buy purchases from online merchants using schoolpop as a gateway, the school gets a significant portion of the profits. Major online stores are included - Discovery Store, LL Bean, etc. etc. Please see the entry points for the individual local schools below.

Boxtops offers another online shopping gateway, and the percentage that goes to your school is quite explicit. Some of these can be significant, for example 5% at Target. The program is limited to K-8 schools. escrip also has an online gateway. If you registered your Safeway card you are already registered there.

Some actual box tops are also worth 10 cents each to neighborhood schools that participate in that program. These are mostly from cereal and baking items (pdf list).

Office Depot has its own 5% program, but you must inform the cashier at every check-out and it works only if you are purchasing certain school supplies.

TPMS PTA
Blair PTA
TPES PTA

Safeway (escrip) ID numbers for local schools (some just over the border from Takoma Park)
6658217 John Nevins Andrews School 117 Elm Ave Takoma Park MD 20912
6552798 Piney Branch Elementary School 7510 Maple Ave Takoma Park MD 20912
6559057 Rolling Terrace Elementary School 705 Bayfield St Takoma Park MD 20912
6630575 Sligo Adventist School 8300 Carroll Ave Takoma Park MD 20912
6576175 Takoma Academy 8120 Carroll Avenue Takoma Park MD 20912
6576179 Takoma Park Cooperative Nursery School 8204 Flower Avenue Takoma Park MD 20912
6576177 Takoma Park Elementary School 7511 Holly Avenue Takoma Park MD 20912
6583713 Washington-Mclaughlin School 6500 Poplar Ave Takoma Park MD 20912
6539098 Montgomery Blair High School 51 University Blvd East Silver Spring MD 20901
6599069 Takoma Park Middle School

Schoolpop gateways:


John Nevis Andrews Elementary SchoolTakoma Park0152094
Montgomery Blair High SchoolSilver Spring0119993
Our Lady Of Sorrows SchoolTakoma Park0152105
Piney Branch Elementary SchoolTakoma Park0120069
Rolling Terrace Elementary SchoolSilver Spring0120073
Rolling Terrace Elementary SchoolSilver Spring0628408
Sligo Adventist SchoolSilver Spring0152106
Takoma AcademySilver Spring0152107
Takoma Park Child Development CenterTakoma Park0624275
Takoma Park Cooperative Nursery SchoolTakoma Park0636499
Takoma Park Elementary SchoolTakoma Park0120066
TPES PTATakoma Park0623551
Takoma Park Nursery SchoolTakoma Park0120071
Takoma Park Middle SchoolTakoma Park0119859

And if you are a parent with a child in the TP schools, public or private, you can help us by carrying back school library books that have been returned here by mistake.

Posted by library at 12:06 PM

November 27, 2005

Slavery

What ever became of the Montgomery Journal? It disappeared and was subsumed, with the other Journals, into the Washington Examiner which recently published a short article on slavery in Montgomery County. The county had been trying to publicize the problem, asking people to be aware, to call 911 or 1.800.599.9291 if they have any suspicions.
See also:

For more information on slavery and its many forms we have this recent 2 volume reference work:
R 306.362 HISTORI The Historical encyclopedia of world slavery

Posted by library at 12:14 PM

November 26, 2005

Local Restaurants

The IT lab people at Montgomery College - Takoma Park have posted a list of restaurants within walking distance of the campus or accessible by the free downtown Silver Spring van. As the college is on the very edge of the city, most of the listed eateries are in downtown Silver Spring. The only Takoma Park ones included are those on Carroll and Laurel, near the clock. Don't forget that we also have many excellent small restaurants along both University and New Hampshire Avenues

Posted by library at 06:24 PM

November 25, 2005

Crime Stats

Early last week CNN had a story about a reference book - the new edition of City Crime Rankings. It is rare that a reference book gets headlines.

We don't buy City Crime Rankings because it is essentially a recompilation of the data from the Uniform Crime Reports which we do have. It does the 6th grade math for you. Here is how you can do it for yourself. To obtain a rate, divide the number for the crime of your choice by the population figure. Then multiply by an appropriate number to get the "rate per xx inhabitants" you want.

Example: 2004 Takoma Park Auto Theft (154/17875) x 1000 to get a rate of 8.615 per 1000 inhabitants. What does this mean? Look at the rates in other cities or at other times (see below). Of course this is easier to do using copy and paste from the online edition. But we do have the paper copy if you prefer it.

For crime statistics see:
R 364.1 UNITED Uniform crime reports for the United States. (Crime in the United States)
It sits next to
R 364.1 SOURCEB Sourcebook of criminal justice statistics.

Please note: The tallies will be close to those published by individual cities but not exactly the same, as some crimes are subsequently reclassified, the FBI no doubt makes an occasional typo, etc.

(Edited March 26 2006 to note: the TP Police Department is again publishing the local crime tallies on the web)

Here are some examples of tables constructed using that method (Just to encourage you. No guarantees as we are librarians not statisticians. Go look up the data and make your own constructs.)

Comparing the DOJ published Uniform Crime Reports for Takoma Park, Greenbelt and Westminster and dividing by the population estimates.
2004 crimes/1000 persons
Takoma Park: 43.972
Greenbelt: 67.869
Westminster: 44.196

All three have local police departments

  1. Takoma Park is inside the beltway, a close-in suburb, bordering densely urban areas including DC and some parts of Langley Park in unincorporated PG and Montgomery Counties. (police)
  2. Greenbelt, slightly larger than Takoma Park, is just outside the beltway, a more distant suburb that does not border urban and low income areas. It has the highest per-capita crime rate of the three cities. (police 54 officers)
  3. Westminster, about the same size as Takoma Park, is rural. The overall crime rate is similar to Takoma Park's but the type of crime is different. (police 43 officers)

Census Bureau US 2000 numbers (not the same as the FBI estimates)
Takoma Park: 17,299 | per capita income $26,437 | individuals below poverty level 10.3%
Greenbelt: 21,456 | per capita income $25,236 | individuals below poverty level 10.2%
Westminster: 16,731 | per capita income $20,320 | individuals below poverty level 9.6%

An aside: Have you looked at the SocioEcon mapper. We have no print equivalent.

Here are our pictures (approach them with scepticism - please make your own) followed by the source data from which we constructed them.


bar graph of violent crimes
bar graph of property crime

Source Data


Extracted from Uniform Crime Reports

2000Takoma Park Greenbelt Westminster
pop19471per 100022689per 1000 16189per 1000
homicide10.05130.13210.062
rape50.257100.44110.062
robbery974.982833.658211.297
assault271.387723.173583.583
violent1306.6771687.404815.003
burglary1377.0361526.6991338.215
larceny49425.37186438.08073145.154
auto theft1668.52527812.253422.594
arson00.00000.00090.556
property79740.933129438.0891556.520
total92747.609146264.43798760.967
2001Takoma Park Greenbelt Westminster
pop17556per 100021775per 100016980per 1000
homicide10.05700.00000.000
rape40.22890.41320.118
robbery703.987763.490160.942
assault281.595743.398422.473
violent1035.8671597.302603.534
burglary1508.5441788.1751227.185
larceny56232.01294443.35259835.218
auto theft19811.27842219.380291.708
arson00.00000.000140.824
property91051.834154470.90776344.935
total101357.701170378.20980947.644
2002Takoma Park Greenbelt Westminster
pop17827per 100022111per 100017242per 1000
homicide00.00010.04510.058
rape60.337140.63330.174
robbery25.1611064.794191.102
assault261.458713.211915.278
violent1246.9561928.6831146.612
burglary1076.0021600.0451196.902
larceny63935.84595743.28262035.959
auto theft22912.84641818.905301.740
arson00.00000.000 60.348
property97554.692153569.42277544.948
total109961.648172778.10688351.212
2003Takoma Park Greenbelt Westminster
pop17852per 100022211per 100017287per 1000
homicide20.11230.13510.058
rape90.504110.49540.231
robbery673.753793.557170.983
assault281.568462.0711096.305
violent1065.9381396.2581317.578
burglary1568.7391426.3931076.190
larceny44725.03995242.86261535.576
auto theft1769.85939917.964412.372
arson00.00000.00012 0.694
property77943.637149367.21976344.137
total88549.574163273.47789451.715
2004Takoma Park Greenbelt Westminster
pop17875per 100022293per 100017558per 1000
homicide00.00030.13500.000
rape20.11290.40400.000
robbery583.2451054.710120.683
assault291.622542.422663.759
violent894.9791717.671784.442
burglary1337.4411516.773754.272
larceny41022.93779935.84159233.717
auto theft1548.61539217.584311.766
arson00.000 0 0.0009 0.513
property69738.993134260.19869839.754
total78643.972151367.869776 44.196
5 yrsTakoma Park Greenbelt Westminster
pop avg18.12 22.22 17.05
homicide40.04100.0930.04
rape260.29530.4810 0.12
robbery3844.244494.04851.00
assault1381.523172.853664.29
violent5526.098297.464645.44
burglary6837.547837.055566.52
larceny255228.17451640.65315637.02
auto theft92310.19190917.181732.03
arson00.0000.00500.59
property415845.89720864.88391445.91
total471051.99803772.34434951.01

Note: The population estimate for Takoma Park for 2000 seems oddly inflated, but that is the number used by the FBI.

Posted by library at 08:29 PM

November 23, 2005

Thanksgiving

Indian corn
The library will be closed November 24th and 25th.

Open again at 10 AM on Saturday, November 25th.

And we will be open regular hours today, Wednesday the 23rd. Until 9 PM.

Posted by library at 12:29 PM

November 17, 2005

Smokeout

Nov. 17th. But whenever you are ready (or thinking about getting ready) here are some very good support sites with lots of useful advice and comfort:


Posted by library at 11:34 AM

November 16, 2005

Radio Night

Tonight, Wednesday November 16th, 7:30 PM. At the library. Radio Rules. Local radio producers share their work and talk about where you can listen to audio and how you can make your own. (This program is part of the 2005 Takoma Park Film Festival.)

    Neenah Ellis
    Emily Hanford
    Marika Partridge
    David Schulman

Posted by library at 12:36 PM

November 11, 2005

Veterans Day

red poppies
The library is closed today.

Statistics
Veterans History Project
Postcards
A letter from the Great War
and a poem

Here dead lie we because we did not choose
To live and shame the land from which we sprung.
Life to be sure, is nothing much to lose;
But young men think it is, and we were young.

A. E. Housman 1859-1936

Posted by library at 10:16 AM

November 09, 2005

Election Results

... can be found here.

Takoma Voice ward by ward breakdown.

A pdf version of the full results

This is the Gazette story.

Posted by library at 12:37 PM

November 08, 2005

Road Congestion

Public forum on alternative land-use and transportation scenarios

Wednesday, November 16th 2005, 7:30-9 PM
Piney Branch Elementary School, 7510 Maple Avenue
(two doors down from the library)
Hosted by the National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board's Citizen Advisory Committee.
For more information call John Swanson at 202.962.3295

What if people lived closer to their jobs? to transit?
What if new roads were built?
PowerPoint presentation of the scenarios
Linux/Mac/Windows open source users: download the file, open it in Impress (part of the openoffice.org suite) and hit F9 to start the slide show.

State, County and City representatives will be present.

Posted by library at 08:31 PM
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