Sometimes, the best way to bring different groups of people together is to hold a party.

Swinging music, good food and neighborly chitchat often can do more to foster community than a button-down diversity forum. That's Columbia Heights Mayor Gary Peterson's philosophy, anyway, in seeking to create a sense of cohesion in his inner-ring suburb of 20,000.

He'll host his latest party this Wednesday: the Mayor's Night of Music and Chili Feed.

"I just want to get people involved and meeting other ethnic groups. We were an immigrant community way back in the 1900s. We are still an immigrant community. We just come from different places," said Peterson, who has served three decades as mayor and as a City Council member.

"We have to be open to it and celebrate our diversity rather than bellyache about it," he said. "That's what's so beautiful about America."

Once a center for Polish immigrants, Columbia Heights has undergone a dramatic transformation in the past two decades.

In 2000, 87.4 percent of the city's residents were white, while 8.4 percent were foreign-born. Today, it's 65.5 percent white and 16.3 percent foreign-born.

The number of black residents has grown the most, from 3.6 percent in 2000 to 18.1 percent today.

The party, sponsored by the nonprofit Columbia Heights Activity Fund and the city's recreation department, will start at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Murzyn Hall, 530 Mill St.

It will feature the Scott Skaja '50s Tribute Band, the mayor's award-winning chili, the Lion's Club cash bar, and free beer and wine tastings provided by the city's liquor store. The $5 entry fee will help pay for a new flagpole in front of Murzyn Hall.

Shannon Prather