Tuesday, April 29, 2014

response to today's Twitter tweets on VMP's community outreach efforts

See this 04-29-2014 message from Vision McMillan Partners's Tania Jackson:

I want to address a misconception that I am seeing discussed on Twitter. 
                                                              
This past weekend,  members of Fontaine and Company – part of the Vision McMillan Partners team— canvassed door to door in Bloomingdale as they’ve done in the past to remind residents about the upcoming zoning hearings.  We felt that additional outreach about the hearings would be beneficial to everyone in the community, and are encouraging people to come out to the hearings, which start May 1st.
               
I am seeing that the Friends of McMillan are tweeting that there were canvassers being “paid to drum up support for McMillan” which is clearly untrue.  The people out in the neighborhood this past weekend, members of the VMP team, were out educating and notifying neighbors about the hearing schedule, and also helping people understand how they could participate in the hearings if they asked for information about that, as well.  
                                                     
As I stated on Twitter, Im unsure where this is coming from when it comes to FOMs tweets. Im pretty sure everyone knows Im the neighborhood outreach coordinator for the team, and I know that people are familiar with Mike and the other folks from Fontaine & Co who have been at meetings over the past several months.  As we have in the past and will continue to do in the future, were working to ensure that people are aware of the upcoming opportunities to provide input for the process.  Do we want people to support us?  Absolutely. Are we aware that not everyone does?  Absolutely.  However, weve always outreached to the neighborhoods surrounding the site about ways to get involved in upcoming hearings and community meetings.  
Idisappointed about what seems to be a purposeful  mischaracterization of our actions.  
Thank you,
Tania Jackson


8 comments:

Unknown said...

So, just to be clear, are you saying that the Fontaine and Company employees are canvassing the neighborhood on a volunteer bias, without pay? That is strange. I thought that you and VMP were being paid by the Mayor's office, with my taxpayer money -- despite the fact that this plan is developing without my input -- without adequate transparency, without proper due process.

Todd said...

Right...case in point is this current Community Benefits Agreement (CBA). Why is VMP dealing only with ANC5E when Dianne Barnes has purposely sidelined the Bloomingdale Civic Association, the Stronghold Association and the McMillan Advisory Group who have put forward their own CBA. How does ANC5E's CBA in any way reflect the desires of the community? Brief: it doesn't. It's just another example of VMP end running around the community. Sorry Tania...i think that you are genuinely interested in getting the community on board, but VMP isn't really making a good faith effort. Instead they've just set up their puppets in ANC5E and are working the system that way. It is a striking example of DC inner workings, but unfortunately not unusual given that DC was characterized by the Washington Post as the single most corrupt municipality (or state) in the entire country.

Daniel in brookland said...

I understand that Jamie Fontaine has a list of goals and priorities, at least one of which goes well beyond "informing" the community.
The one that states " NEUTRALIZE THE OPPOSITION". Tania, my good friend, does that sound ethical. We pay our taxes and then its used to pay an outside , Baltimore PR firm to pollute, dilute, and NEUTRALIZE, our sincere community opposition to the VMP Plan. If your support is not spontaneous, and freely provided, voluntarily without your PROMPTING, it is corrupted, REALLY. How Council Committee Chair Bowser can just say this abuse concerns her, and do nothing in her "oversight", more like Green light, shows this corrupt, smelly system for what it is, and it stinks!
Also,,,,is it true that Anne Corbet is paid almost $200,000 a year? WOW! Even the Mayor(unindicted) is paid less when he is being paid above board, not by suitcases full of cash from Jeff Thompson and who ever. Which side do you think we can take Tania?.
Please give Anne an additional assignment, as she is over paid, to re-develop the Washington Hospital Center parking lots with your medical office plan, and solve the storm water runoff crisis.
If you watched Council-member Cheh Environment Committee hearing on March 24, she supports sustainable agriculture in DC, a food, nutrition and exercise HUB.
Please see this fascinating video:
http://youtu.be/ILzWmw53Wwo
Guess what , perfect place is McMillan, without VMP, and the crew who have made your careers hanging on this WRONG headed plot.. We support adaptive re-use of McMillan Park as an "underground" urban farm, that saves the entire surface park for our recreation, festivals, open space, great views,,our land, not Annes, or Gray's, for our needs..your benefit too my friend, Daniel

taxpayer said...

C'mon Ms. Jackson. What you said is definitely not all true. The gentleman that came to my door definitely pressed me to testify IN FAVOR of the development. And, he gave fuzzy information that he couldn't expand on. I want the site developed, but not like the current dense plan. I could go for it with changes, but when you lie (or manipulate the truth) I lean toward support for a whole new developer.

Joe said...

An "underground urban farm"? What?!?!?!?

Unknown said...

Todd, you're correct, I am genuinely interested in community feedback and involvement, and we set up a process designed to elicit just that. At the start of the CBA process I specifically stated that the ANC would be the place where all of the input from the civic association and MAG should land. As the representative entity given "great weight" by the Zoning Commission this is an appropriate ANC function. For this reason we visited every civic association and provided the same information about process and timeline. The negotiation is between ANC 5E and VMP, with the ANC providing the input received from all of the entities previously mentioned. Appreciate that you recognize our desire to receive input, but I think that your description of how the process works does not reflect what it actually is.

Todd said...

Right Tania....however the fact is that both BCA and SCA specifically requested that Dianne Barnes and ANC5E rescind the support letter for the document. Further the MAG is the entity SPECIFICALLY set up by NCRC to advise VMP on the development. So in the end, you have no input whatsoever from either neighborhood community association that borders the site (there are no others bordering the site) NOR the MAG. Sorry, it is an inescapable truth that ANC5E doesn't represent the communities in this regard or on the CBA. That is demonstrable. ANC5E is running itself and we cannot figure out why (although there are alot of rumors on the street as to why ...i won't mention them here). However, without any support from the 3 key community orgs around the site, I just cannot even fathom how VMP will claim it has community support. Combined with the recent traffic study that doesn't even address the situation inside Bloomingdale or Stronghold (but instead focuses on the wider catchement areas), it's just so plainly evident that VMP has no intention of even addressing issues in the immediate area around McMillan. The process you set up was beautiful Tania...i was there and we met personally. Too bad they basically threw out any community input when they went to design the site. I suspect however the the Zoning commission will force VMP to look at the CBAs put forward by MAG and BCA.

mona said...

Ok if we are talking about VMP people knocking on doors and canvasing the neighborhood to get people to go to the zoning, then I want to know who is the FOM a** who has been trespassing on my property? I wish this FOM supported person would have the guts to say something to me instead of putting FOM signs in my yard without my permission and defacing my Create McMillian sign. This is how FOM works, in the middle of the night trespassing and defacing property. If you have something you want to say to me, by all means feel free to knock on my door and say it to my face. Don't sneak around in the middle of the night like a creepy crawly rodent.