To: HistoricWashington@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [HistoricWashington]
Save McMillan Park meeting Tuesday 6:00 PM and on the air WPFW Monday 10:50 A.M.
Demolition heavy equipment illegally operating on the site for Oct. 1, budget of $18 million to start decade of construction on the taxpayers dime, but will face renewed court fight and we need your help. Please bring your ideas, strategies, and participation!! So connect with Daniel and Chris, and Grace if you can't attend, for inclusion in coming programs for Save the Park! 202-232-8391 dangoldon@gmail.com
Meet Tuesday, August 27 from 6:00 - 8:30 pm at Lamond-Riggs Library to work on campaign organizing ideas. Address is 5401 South Dakota Ave NE. We'll meet in Room 2 upstairs.
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Friends of McMilllan Park!
WPFW 89.3 radio Monday August 26 10:50 A.M. morning listen in!
Daniel Wolkoff will do a call-in interview with Joni Eisenberg Show "Heal DC" show starts at 10:00 A.M. and Daniel's call in update is scheduled for 10:50 A.M.----Monday August 26.
Time is getting short to act to save the
neighborhood. DC offices of zoning and planning and the local courts are
conspiring to line the pockets of corporate developers who enable the racist
land use strategies pushing low-income residents out of the city. McMillan Park
represents an important part of our struggle for environmental heath and
economic justice.
The Park was a historic gathering place for
Black and brown residents to rest and recreate. Kite flying contests and
community-driven baseball fields were just some of the ways community members
created joy in the segregated Bloomingdale and LeDroit Park neighborhoods.
Adding to the historic value of this site are the possibly still-functional
sand filtration towers that could produce locally sourced, chemical-free, clean
water.
It’s *not too late* to bring this fight to
Bowser and her minions who would undervalue and destroy the rich culture of
this DC green space. Current plans would bring an additional 20,000 vehicular
trips through a region of the city already disproportionately impacted by high
asthma rates. As climate change and brings worsening air quality to cities
across the world, Bowser would move us backwards by refusing to listen to
community needs for health and wellness.
Meet Tuesday August 27 from 6:00 - 8:30 pm at Lamond-Riggs Library to work on campaign ideas. Address is 5401 South Dakota Ave NE. We'll meet in Room 2 upstairs.
The Asks:
· Immediately halt the planned development of
McMillan Town Center
on top of historic McMillan Park
McMillan Town Center
on top of historic McMillan Park
· Reopen the Park so that District of Columbia
residents and others may enter the park for purposes of recreation, exploration
and community
activities
residents and others may enter the park for purposes of recreation, exploration
and community
activities
· Conduct a ward-level evaluation of existing
housing stock, in addition to thorough assessments of the current planned unit
development (PUD)'s environmental health and social impacts
housing stock, in addition to thorough assessments of the current planned unit
development (PUD)'s environmental health and social impacts
· Commit to a public design competition and begin to
define, with full citizen participation, a new scope of work for planning the
Park's future
define, with full citizen participation, a new scope of work for planning the
Park's future
· Identify and implement genuinely affordable and
inclusive housing solutions as driven by community needs and interests
inclusive housing solutions as driven by community needs and interests
The Tasks:
· Prepare legal fight to uplift the Federal
protective covenants
protective covenants
· Obtain letters of support from organizations with
stake in this historic DC green space
stake in this historic DC green space
· Call and flyer your neighbors to share information
· Host small gatherings and help out with tours of the Park
· Help out with art, graphics, media, communications
· Outreach to your City Council members and ANC
Commissioners to pitch them our asks!
Commissioners to pitch them our asks!
In Solidarity,
McMillan Park Conservancy / Save McMillan Action Coalition
Attached -- Bowser defoliates historic site makes it hideous and readies for demolition including shearing off historic features like concrete "portal wall"
Daniel Goldon Wolkoff
13th and Randolph NE
7 comments:
Why are these being advertised?
I am confused as to how this is now being sold as a racist thing. There is nothing that indicates that, no facts support that. The only thing this group is doing is denying Bloomingdale neighbors (ones this group say they are trying to protect) easy access to a clean and safe park, access to grocery store, and restaurants. They are denying them access to economic improvement that provide jobs and stronger communities. Friends of McMillian park is led by Chris Otten... Read his history - once they get the pay day from the developer - they take the money and run. FOMP, it is time to move on - the real residents of Bloomingdale want to see their neighborhood be restored to the beautiful neighborhood it once was. Not a fenced off, overgrown wasteland.
They cite a 1970 book by a Howard University professor that says "McMillian Park" was one of only two public parks used by black residents until it was fenced off for security reasons during the ramp up to the U.S. entry into World War II. It was an example of "unintentional" racial integration only because the Army Corps of Engineers didn't chase anyone off, the citation says. Book is out of print. http://friendsofmcmillan.org/mcmillan-park-washingtons-first-racially-integrated-park/
facts.
It would be super awesome if you could just let them build the fucking shit and stop spamming us with this. I'd love to be able to walk to a grocery store. Calling it a park to begin with is a stretch, it's a fucking field.
Thank you! We need more of you and more people to speak up! Maybe we should take them to court and sue them for wasting our tax dollars and our time and damaging our community with their lies and their deceit. This is nothing more than their obsessive anti-development obsession.
Calling it a field is even a stretch. Maybe an industrial field. There are 2,100 manholes covering the, “field”.
The reason they call it a park is to confuse people into thinking the industrial filtration site was once a park. It never was. McMillan Park was across the street, on the west side of 1st St. FOMP and other protesters continue to use historic photos of the actual park across the street in their propaganda. Almost every neighbor I talk to who hasn’t done research has been convinced by FOMP that the sand filtration site was where the park used to be.
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