Meet your ANC 3F candidate: Naomi Rutenberg, 3F03

ANC 3F03

Five of the six people running to serve us on Advisory Neighborhood Commission 3F are incumbents. The sixth is Naomi Rutenberg, who is running to fill the seat held by the past four years by Mary Beth Ray. You’ll find information on Rutenberg and the five incumbents in our 2016 election guide, and here, Rutenberg introduces herself.

My name is Naomi Rutenberg, and I am a candidate for ANC single-member district 3F03 in Forest Hills.

I have lived with my family and worked in ANC 3F for 18 years, residing first in North Cleveland Park and now in Forest Hills. Our neighborhood has incredible natural resources, history and diversity of life experiences. My wish is to protect and enhance them, and promote these resources to our neighborhood and all the residents of our city.

My professional life has been in international health and development. For many years, I worked at a non-profit. Recently, I joined a startup company who is committed to a double bottom line: being profitable and doing good. Much of my work in health focused on delivering HIV services to hard-to-reach populations in low income countries. In this work, I observed many connections between our city’s challenges and strategies and the programs and people I engaged with.

Also, I have learned over the years, frequently on dog walks, that this district is populated by many people with remarkable life experiences who are generous with serving the neighborhood and a variety of social and environmental causes.

I want our ANC to be a force for fostering connections between the public, non-profit and private sectors, and between diverse residents within the ward and with others in the city, in order to enliven our own neighborhood and contribute to DC being the great city I believe it is.

A truly great and unique asset of DC is Rock Creek Park and 3F03 is a principal gateway to the park, used by many neighborhood residents and commuters. The single-member district of 3F03 also includes large areas of the park, including Soapstone Creek and Broad Branch Creek, which are at various stages of rehabilitation. As your representative, I will work to ensure that our perspectives are heard about these projects and a just balance of neighborhood, city and park management concerns are heard and addressed.

I am running to represent our ANC district because I believe our neighborhood is a terrific place to live. After many years of benefiting from its resources, I want to be in service to my neighbors and our city. From my conversations with you, I know there are various issues of concern to the neighborhood. I look forward to talking with you, learning more about these, and being your voice in DC government.