How pathetic to see that a so-called minister needs to resort to racial bigotry and attacks on his neighbors—black, brown, and white—to defend his violation of dozens of laws enacted to preserve and protect our neighborhoods (“Never on Sundays (But Intermittently on Fridays),” 5/14). It’s too bad to see the Washington City Paper’s reporter fooled by his act. Then again, his show seems to have worked with most of D.C. government for the past decade—or at least until one dedicated worker at the Department of Tax and Revenue decided to get out of his cubicle and take the time to uncover this scam before being hung out to dry by the bureaucracy.

It doesn’t take Woodward and Bernstein to figure out that when the owner of a property doesn’t allow even entrance to his “church” to your reporter (or for that matter, anyone else), he is hiding the fact that this blighted property bears no resemblance to a house of worship. Apparently, the glass bottles smashed around the base of the trees on the property, the piles of trash, and the illegal padlocked chain-link fence on public property surrounding the building weren’t enough of a hint, either.

Homeowners and citizens of all races who play by the rules and try to get the attention of our elected officials to correct violations of our law are losing faith in our city government. When Mayor Williams and our councilmembers buckle under to the Johnny Cochran race card and fail to enforce basic zoning and tax laws, just as the Barry administration did, it truly is a sad day for all of us. I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Dupont Circle