Daniel Goldon Wolkoff
1231 Randolph Street NE
Washington DC, 20017
202-232-8391
Chairman Mendelson and District of Columbia Councilmembers and friends, I hope you can listen to WAMU 88.5 FM, tomorrow Wednesday 12:00 to 2:00 PM, The Kojo Namdi Show will include WAMU District reporters Julie Patel and Patrick Madden (jmadden@wamu.org) on his special investigation into
THE "SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIP" BETWEEN DC GOVERNMENT AND DEVELOPERS.
At www.WAMU.org the analysis of Developers and District Government intimate relationship has little on McMillan. The Billion dollar mixed-use development being "Surplused" from public ownership to private development on a 25 acre historic central DC park. McMillan cost district taxpayers 10's of millions and the govt. fenced off and restricted public recreational use for over 27 years, smack in the middle of the most park deprived area of DC.
You can call in at 1-800-433-8850 and certainly email to KojoShow @wamu.org
Who are the few , making these momentous billion dollar decisions undemacratically, against common sense, and community health?
Also
The public hearing to "surplus" this Olmsted designed national treasure is
June 6, 6:30 PM at All Nations Church 2001 N. Capitol St NW, we are invited to comment to a "Mayors Special Agent" on The "surplus property" legislation. We must FORCE the Cit Council to have the guts to reject this transfer of our WEALTH to private developers. Vision McMillan Partners are ten(10!!) top developers, consultants, design firms, planning and architecture companies, who's "vision" has ben so mediocre, it has taken years and ten top firms to keep rescuing their cookie cutter plans for demolition and overbuilding the historic site.
But this isn't a derelect old warehouse along the Metro tracks which a responsible city govt. would be developing before demolishing a Registered historic Site and 25 acre central city park.
The legislation to "Surplus" I believe was first introduced by Council-member
Harry "Tommy" Thomas Jr. He is directly connected to VMP principal EYA, he brokered a $55,000 dollar donation from EYA, in exchange for the approval of their Chancellors Row development at St. Paul's in NE.
We want to know who approved the EYA take-over of McMillan, what was the process? Kwami Brown is a convicted criminal, Harry thomas is is in federal prison. Mayor Gray was elected by campaign and electoral fraud.
I hope Patrick Madden addresses the question of legitimacy
in this "Symbiotic Relationship". As we all know in a democracy, it is the consent of the governed that creates legitimacy in the government.
My McMillan testimony to DC Historic Preservation review Board is below.
Chairman Mendelson's letter to HPRB advocating rejection of the VMP plan is below
CM Mendelson Letter of Opposition to McMillan Development
Click to open:
Google Docs makes it easy to create, store and share online documents, spreadsheets and presentations.
Council-member Cheh praised my testimony as "inspirational", we can do much better!!
McMillan park was fenced off after DC purchased the park and Sand Filtration Plant from the U.S. Dept. of Interior for $9 million. Who gave the officials of the DC govt. consent to block public access to this historic park for over 27 years? Who gave consent for the Govt. to spend $250,000 a year to uselessly mow the lawn on McMillan?
In a democracy the people are given ballot referendum for their decision, not billions of dollars in city growth controlled by a handful of interconnected politicians , their friends and family, and the big businesses they serve.
Was there any referendum for public approval? Is there any BALLOT referendum on the VMP plan or the removal of McMillan from public ownership? Has the Govt. opened the public debate and facilitated the city resident's process of exploring and discussing the different options for this park. At least an educated electorate for some kind of consent? NO!
They are making horrible maistakes! Is your house backing up with human sewage during rain storms? Who consented to the elimination by demolition of our clean water filtration system, a critical system for our own water security should any problem occur at Dale Carlia. How irresponsible is that?
Our community deserves park and cultural amenities, and this park is the last solution, not hundreds of condos and thousands of toilets and sinks on top of the flood disaster. .
Our own DC Office of Planning Historic Preservation Office, Kim Williams , wrote this incredible nomination for McMillan to the National Park Service which designated it a Registered Historic District. Of course the city govt. has placed all kinds of holes in it's historic preservation law, read this to see what a travesty is going on here.
"Your own Nomination to the National Register of Historic Places ( http://www.nps.gov/nr/feature/places/13000022.htm) describes such a magnificent, fascinating and elegant historic and civic engineering accomplishment, it is difficult to understand how you will not completely protect and keep intact the McMillan site".
Council-member Cheh wrote the following in praise of my testimony to HPRB, now our own Historic Preservation Review Board is being replaced by a "Mayor's Special Agent".
A mayor elected by criminal campaign and electoral fraud, including biribes for campaign dirty tricks and a secret illegal $650,000 fund from donations by Jeffrey Thompson, the single largest city contractor!
Mayor Gray has been "invited" to be interviewed by the federal prosecutors three (3) times, and he has declined three times!
From: Council-member Mary Cheh
Dear Mr Wolkoff
Thanks so much for sending me your testimony. I found your vision for the Park to be inspirational. I confess I haven't been focused on this and regret that. Have all of the plans proceeded so far that this is a lost cause....
I am having my staff brief me on this next week.
Again, thanks for sending this to me.
Mary Cheh
On Mar 6, 2013, at 7:13 AM, "Daniel Wolkoff" < amglassart@yahoo.com> wrote:
McMillan Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., is a gem in the Emerald Necklace of parks planned by Sen. McMillan's Senate Parks Commission in 1906. Parks that the DC govt. does not think this section of the city deserves.
It is difficult to understand, why we are confronted with wrestling our own resources back from a government and development community, obsessed with huge new construction, which needlessly destroys our parkland. The simple recognition of the limits of resources, nature, energy and available land, need to be recognized and adhered to, for a healthy living environment. This tunnel vision would not have allowed NY Central Park or Rock Creek Park to exist unless excessively built over.
We need to emulate Manhattan’s Central Park, one of the world's “Great Places”. Over 500 acres, declining in the 1970s, where a conservancy joined with the City of New York for a 26-year public-private partnership to restore, manage, and enhance the magnificent park. It is hard to accept the District fencing off McMillan, our Olmsted park, wasting this "Great Place" and over $17 million for over a quarter of a century.Then spending over $250,000 annually to mow a lawn, no one could ever sit on, picnic on, stroll on or in any way benefit from! How could they leave this precious , large tract of parkland to waste, instead of simply planting trees which by now would have already grown into a tall lush forest with all its critical benefits to the environment, the storm water retention, the air, and the health of the community.
In any city including the preferred upper NW section of DC, with proper planning, the millions of dollars would have supported a McMillan Park Conservancy, and funded the restoration of the park and all its activities for our city, years ago. The complete waste of McMillan Park demonstrates the neglect and contempt the DC government has for DC's eastern section, under-served for generations, with one fifth the park space as the NW section, always given preferences. The Vision McMillan Partners development which destroys most of the historic landmark continues this unacceptable imbalance. I encourage the HPRB to reject the city’s development plans.
The McMillan Site is protected under the Landmark and Historic District Act of 1978, DC Law 2-144, the entire site and its context "PROTECTED!" VMP itself commissioned the Historic Preservation Report by EHT Traceries, Inc. which states "this level of development, is inconsistent with historic preservation of the site," AND THAT IS SELF EVIDENT!
We need all of this park space, our land, even more we need an expanded park system, for critical community activities and recreation. We need the vision of Sen. McMillan to restore and complete "The Emerald Necklace" of green space, woods, and trails for the health of our central city. For a higher quality of life, like the upper income areas of DC have enjoyed, since Olmsted designed Rock Creek Park in 1890.
Our wasteful city govt., sucking every dollar it can out of the tax paying residents, and pleading about increasing its revenue from McMillan. But the richest government in the world can increase its tax revenue as the parkside property values rise and the concessions, performances, art classes and a huge City Market generate tax revenue and fees in McMillan Park.
Revenue and benefits to our city will also come from the new residents, who do not buy condos on our parkland, but who buy and rent in alternative locations and renovate derelict properties, thus returning them to the tax rolls. Medical offices can be built across the street at Washington Hospital Center, where they belong. While patients from all the hospitals, especially Children's National Medical Center, and their families, get some fresh air, take a nice walk, and help their recovery in a "Healing Garden" at McMillan. City residents and our visitors need parks, destinations, and "Great Places." The real McMillan (Senator from Michigan) had that vision over 100 years ago. Nothing about this miserable failure, by the DC govt.,recommends them to develop, pave over, and sell out our park. McMillan should never have been lopped off in the first place. When the federal government offered it to DC for free if they maintained it as green space. The best option is to now revert to federal control where National Park Service and McMillan Park Conservancy can restore and provide recreation along the Glen Echo Model.
I support the park restoration and sustainable community design by CUA Professor Miriam Gusevich, a design which sunlights the underground creek creating a sand beach, offers us urban agriculture and forestry, and brilliantly creates a world-class City Market, in adaptive reuse of the huge existing under-surface masonry galleries. Even the “so dangerous” manhole covers can
be converted to skylights for a natural light source as you buy your fresh local farmed ingredients for dinner in the City Market below.
The restoration of McMillan is an incredible opportunity, the vision-less DC govt. is destroying. The reservoir in New York's Central Park serves thousands of joggers everyday, people meet and walk, for good exercise and camaraderie. It is a center, a social gathering, meanwhile our reservoir is fenced off and our park wasted since the 1980's. Even as First Lady Michelle Obama promotes exercise, urban gardening, and good nutrition, we need our jogging paths, our reservoir, and our urban farming system in the city center at McMillan. This is really a last chance, as all remaining
available land is being over-developed in an anti-environmental onslaught by the DC government and the big developers they serve, at our expense.
We need space where youth and under-employed can train in masonry (that's how it will be affordable to restore the park), carpentry, plumbing, landscaping, forestry and so much more.
The restoration of McMillan will be a wellspring for the whole city, training programs can spin off into urban conservation corps, to help seniors fix-up and insulate their houses, etc., etc. We need sustainable energy demonstrations, and we can preserve functioning sand filtration cells to exhibit the legacy of McMillan. And even more so, it is critical we preserve all of McMillan, as a back-up emergency clean water system. Just as the fence went up in World War II to protect McMillan, this, in a world of terrorism and sabotage, how irresponsible to demolish this critical clean water infrastructure.
The shining example, Glen Echo Park in Montgomery County, benefits all ages with a myriad of art, education, dance, theater, and festivals 365 days a year and preserved the charming 1930s amusement park and 1890s Chattaqua. Why did Montgomery County and the Maryland Park System join with the National Park Service and a Park Consortium, and do the most spectacular historic renovation? They considered a mixed use development at Glen Echo too, but they had the foresight and they value the population, the areas young people, and provided such wonderful services and recreation and preserved the history. It is very sad how mindless the DC govt. is. and no surprise we suffer crime and disrespect in return from our urban youth. They are killing each other and lives are destroyed, as DC launches another and another and another development for the rich. At McMillan, the community is ready to support our "Glen Echo", as a place to develop DC youth in health,character, and respect, “COMMUNITY BUILDING.” Every city official campaigns on supporting our young people, and all continue to fail them, and our homes and neighborhood security suffers the result.
We need this "Great Place" to help our youth and underemployed to succeed. We can teach masonry, carpentry, electrical, landscaping, forestry, urban agriculture and gardening, pottery and theater, all useful trades for becoming a responsible, productive adult.
McMillan is a protected landmark. The entire site is protected by our law – all of it - not to be demolished, paved, sectioned off with 50 buildings and strips of green space. We need to restore our Olmsted Park. It is your responsibility as the HPRB to preserve the historic character of our city and McMillan is ready for such beneficial adaptive reuse. The report from the developers, that McMillan is too deteriorated for reclaiming is ludicrous and they would have built over Manhattan’s Central Park too. I encourage the HPRB to reject the city’s development plans. Stop wasting a fortune in treasure, preserve historic McMillan Park, for so many excellent reasons,for its value to the environment, to our city, to our young people.
July 2012 Daniel Wolkoff 202-232-8391
amglassart@yahoo.com
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McMillan Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., is a gem in the Emerald Necklace of parks planned by Sen. McMillan's Senate Parks Commission in 1906. Parks that the DC govt. does not think this section of the city deserves.
It is difficult to understand, why we are confronted with wrestling our own resources back from a government and development community, obsessed with huge new construction, which needlessly destroys our parkland. The simple recognition of the limits of resources, nature, energy and available land, need to be recognized and adhered to, for a healthy living environment. This tunnel vision would not have allowed NY Central Park or Rock Creek Park to exist unless excessively built over.
We need to emulate Manhattan’s Central Park, one of the world's “Great Places”. Over 500 acres, declining in the 1970s, where a conservancy joined with the City of New York for a 26-year public-private partnership to restore, manage, and enhance the magnificent park. It is hard to accept the District fencing off McMillan, our Olmsted park, wasting this "Great Place" and over $17 million for over a quarter of a century.Then spending over $250,000 annually to mow a lawn, no one could ever sit on, picnic on, stroll on or in any way benefit from! How could they leave this precious , large tract of parkland to waste, instead of simply planting trees which by now would have already grown into a tall lush forest with all its critical benefits to the environment, the storm water retention, the air, and the health of the community.
In any city including the preferred upper NW section of DC, with proper planning, the millions of dollars would have supported a McMillan Park Conservancy, and funded the restoration of the park and all its activities for our city, years ago. The complete waste of McMillan Park demonstrates the neglect and contempt the DC government has for DC's eastern section, under-served for generations, with one fifth the park space as the NW section, always given preferences. The Vision McMillan Partners development which destroys most of the historic landmark continues this unacceptable imbalance. I encourage the HPRB to reject the city’s development plans.
The McMillan Site is protected under the Landmark and Historic District Act of 1978, DC Law 2-144, the entire site and its context "PROTECTED!" VMP itself commissioned the Historic Preservation Report by EHT Traceries, Inc. which states "this level of development, is inconsistent with historic preservation of the site," AND THAT IS SELF EVIDENT!
We need all of this park space, our land, even more we need an expanded park system, for critical community activities and recreation. We need the vision of Sen. McMillan to restore and complete "The Emerald Necklace" of green space, woods, and trails for the health of our central city. For a higher quality of life, like the upper income areas of DC have enjoyed, since Olmsted designed Rock Creek Park in 1890.
Our wasteful city govt., sucking every dollar it can out of the tax paying residents, and pleading about increasing its revenue from McMillan. But the richest government in the world can increase its tax revenue as the parkside property values rise and the concessions, performances, art classes and a huge City Market generate tax revenue and fees in McMillan Park.
Revenue and benefits to our city will also come from the new residents, who do not buy condos on our parkland, but who buy and rent in alternative locations and renovate derelict properties, thus returning them to the tax rolls. Medical offices can be built across the street at Washington Hospital Center, where they belong. While patients from all the hospitals, especially Children's National Medical Center, and their families, get some fresh air, take a nice walk, and help their recovery in a "Healing Garden" at McMillan. City residents and our visitors need parks, destinations, and "Great Places." The real McMillan (Senator from Michigan) had that vision over 100 years ago. Nothing about this miserable failure, by the DC govt.,recommends them to develop, pave over, and sell out our park. McMillan should never have been lopped off in the first place. When the federal government offered it to DC for free if they maintained it as green space. The best option is to now revert to federal control where National Park Service and McMillan Park Conservancy can restore and provide recreation along the Glen Echo Model.
I support the park restoration and sustainable community design by CUA Professor Miriam Gusevich, a design which sunlights the underground creek creating a sand beach, offers us urban agriculture and forestry, and brilliantly creates a world-class City Market, in adaptive reuse of the huge existing under-surface masonry galleries. Even the “so dangerous” manhole covers can
be converted to skylights for a natural light source as you buy your fresh local farmed ingredients for dinner in the City Market below.
The restoration of McMillan is an incredible opportunity, the vision-less DC govt. is destroying. The reservoir in New York's Central Park serves thousands of joggers everyday, people meet and walk, for good exercise and camaraderie. It is a center, a social gathering, meanwhile our reservoir is fenced off and our park wasted since the 1980's. Even as First Lady Michelle Obama promotes exercise, urban gardening, and good nutrition, we need our jogging paths, our reservoir, and our urban farming system in the city center at McMillan. This is really a last chance, as all remaining
available land is being over-developed in an anti-environmental onslaught by the DC government and the big developers they serve, at our expense.
We need space where youth and under-employed can train in masonry (that's how it will be affordable to restore the park), carpentry, plumbing, landscaping, forestry and so much more.
The restoration of McMillan will be a wellspring for the whole city, training programs can spin off into urban conservation corps, to help seniors fix-up and insulate their houses, etc., etc. We need sustainable energy demonstrations, and we can preserve functioning sand filtration cells to exhibit the legacy of McMillan. And even more so, it is critical we preserve all of McMillan, as a back-up emergency clean water system. Just as the fence went up in World War II to protect McMillan, this, in a world of terrorism and sabotage, how irresponsible to demolish this critical clean water infrastructure.
The shining example, Glen Echo Park in Montgomery County, benefits all ages with a myriad of art, education, dance, theater, and festivals 365 days a year and preserved the charming 1930s amusement park and 1890s Chattaqua. Why did Montgomery County and the Maryland Park System join with the National Park Service and a Park Consortium, and do the most spectacular historic renovation? They considered a mixed use development at Glen Echo too, but they had the foresight and they value the population, the areas young people, and provided such wonderful services and recreation and preserved the history. It is very sad how mindless the DC govt. is. and no surprise we suffer crime and disrespect in return from our urban youth. They are killing each other and lives are destroyed, as DC launches another and another and another development for the rich. At McMillan, the community is ready to support our "Glen Echo", as a place to develop DC youth in health,character, and respect, “COMMUNITY BUILDING.” Every city official campaigns on supporting our young people, and all continue to fail them, and our homes and neighborhood security suffers the result.
We need this "Great Place" to help our youth and underemployed to succeed. We can teach masonry, carpentry, electrical, landscaping, forestry, urban agriculture and gardening, pottery and theater, all useful trades for becoming a responsible, productive adult.
McMillan is a protected landmark. The entire site is protected by our law – all of it - not to be demolished, paved, sectioned off with 50 buildings and strips of green space. We need to restore our Olmsted Park. It is your responsibility as the HPRB to preserve the historic character of our city and McMillan is ready for such beneficial adaptive reuse. The report from the developers, that McMillan is too deteriorated for reclaiming is ludicrous and they would have built over Manhattan’s Central Park too. I encourage the HPRB to reject the city’s development plans. Stop wasting a fortune in treasure, preserve historic McMillan Park, for so many excellent reasons,for its value to the environment, to our city, to our young people.
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5 comments:
Build McMillan...it's time to get jobs, housing and economic development to this outdated industrial site and stop all the NIMBY's from controlling the destiny of DC residents struggle for a better life and living conditions!
Building can occur along Rhode Island and along North Capitol, south towards Florida Ave. There is the logical place to put new business - not McMillan. It makes 0 sense to put major development there considering lack of transportation infrastructure and the site's historical importance. I have no idea who TheCommiss is, but I think he/she needs to a bit more research on his assertion that McMillan is merely an outdated industrial site: http://friendsofmcmillan.org/park-history/
Most of these ppl commenting on the future of McMillan haven't lived in that area for more than 5-10yrs...the ppl that have owned homes there for over 20yrs want to see it developed. Find another "cause" to devote your day to like helping the homeless and/or creating more bike lanes! Smh
Lived in the neighborhood since 1982...so ready for this eyesore to be developed. I want it to be sensible but I also want this vacant land used for a purpose other than being a piece of fenced-in industrial history.
I have lived in bloomingdale for over 10 years and I want the space to be developed. It is an eyesore and such a waste of valuable space that can be beautiful, functional, practical for many needed services and offer lush green park space for the ever growing density of families in this area. I ignore that mounds of propaganda from the people pushing illegal charters and petitions, ignore the fear-mongering. Just develop sensibly, not over sized for the area, but do it smartly.
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