>Photo by missmaya.

Nothing breathes a little life into a slow news week like some neighborhood listserv drama. The comments and tips line have been buzzing about the Cleveland Park Citizens Association turning the area into a “banana republic.” How? Well, let’s start from the beginning.

A while back, there was a proposal for a new Giant to move into the west end of the neighborhood. As any reader of DCist knows, fights over grocery stores can be bitter, vicious, and lengthy. When one pro-Giant member of the Association felt his views weren’t being represented by the CPCA, he started recruiting members in an effort to vote out the current leadership. This blatent power grab was described thusly by President George Idelson:

Normally, competition for leadership is healthy and our nominating process is wide open. Demonizing an association and encouraging a chaotic election is hardly normal. This is Cleveland Park, not some third world country… We need some time for cooling off [from the Giant debate]. Time to reflect on the issues. For these reasons, CPCA’s Executive Committee has executed the emergency powers granted in our bylaws to postpone the election of officers until the Fall. This is clearly an emergency.

Oh burn! Nice try with your coup there, dissident. Why don’t you shove this state of emergency in your pipe and smoke it!

So yeah, the ensuing rage has filled many a Cleveland Parkers’ inbox the last few days, with one side defending the many hours of volunteer work Idelson has committed to helping neighborhood businesses, and the other wondering when CP turned into Germany, circa 1933 (can you start a comment thread with Godwin’s law?). Some of our favorite quotes are after the jump. Do tell us, CP-ers, how do you feel about this mess?