Ward 5 CM McDuffie responds to calls to defund the McMillan development project - "I have been on the record for years in my support for the thoughtful, fiscal and socially responsible development at McMillan"

From: WARD5@yahoogroups.com <WARD5@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 21, 2020 10:48 PM
To: Yahoogroups <ward5@yahoogroups.com>; Brookland Group - New <brookland@groups.io>
Subject: [WARD5] ask McDuffie how massive give away of public money, over $300 million to developers is fiscal and socially responsible,

Good Reasonable Folks, just a quick update on McMillan,

First, thank you to the 12 Ward 5 residents who pushed Kenyan McDuffie to deal with equity at McMillan and for Black residents in Ward 5 to be heard! He finally responded at 5:30pm yesterday, after weeks of getting letters from residents all over the city and after these Ward 5 residents (see the To list above) wrote an open letter to him last week. 

Yesterday in the course of 2 hours, CM Elissa Silverman (and the whole Council) got 60 emails from many others saying that Kenyan was ignoring Black DC residents from Ward 5. More on that below . . . 

TODAY JUL 21: 

1. You can watch the Budget hearing today at www.dccouncil.us/council-videos/ 

2. Please write to Trayon White (twhite@dccouncil.us) and ask him to support moving an amendment to #DefundMcMillan today. CM Silverman wrote back to one of our letter writers saying that if one other Councilmember would support her, she'd raise the amendment to the budget asking to move the McMillan monies to real human needs. Trayon is our likely candidate. Please write to him! twhite@dccouncil.us 

3. Think about how to respond to Kenyan McDuffie calling the current McMillan giveaway "thoughtful" and "fiscally sound." He also complains about us upholding our right to challenge this legally, calling it a "protracted" fight. Well if it wasn't but for all the obvious corruption around this project, now highlighted even more with this pandemic, no Courts would have sided with us and the demolition machines would have been in there tearing out 1.3 cubic feet of concrete historic structures by now. Kenyan seems to be missing the point that using taxpayer money to pay developers to take our public open green space to build more market-rate condos is no longer tolerable by anyone! www.SaveMcMillan.org/corruption

 

WE CAN AND MUST RESPOND TO KENYAN! TAKE A LOOK AT HIS LETTER BELOW. SEND HIM YOUR THOUGHTS DIRECTLY. kmcduffie@dccouncil.us

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From: McDuffie, Kenyan (Council) <kmcduffie@DCCOUNCIL.US>
Sent: Monday, July 20, 2020 5:26 PM
To: bettercity2020@gmail.com <bettercity2020@gmail.com>; Cynthia Carson <cyncarson@gmail.com>; sapphire91264@gmail.com <sapphire91264@gmail.com>; mariajns134@gmail.com <mariajns134@gmail.com>; topagent@writeme.com <topagent@writeme.com>; stims28@hotmail.com <stims28@hotmail.com>; melliott1031@gmail.com <melliott1031@gmail.com>; grandmaneeka@yahoo.com <grandmaneeka@yahoo.com>
Cc: Flowers, Marisa (Council) <mflowers@DCCOUNCIL.US>; bmitchell@dccouncil.us <bmitchell@dccouncil.us>; McClure, Brian (Council) <bmcclure@DCCOUNCIL.US>; Cislo, Kelley (Council) <KCislo@DCCOUNCIL.US>; McNair, Jonathan (Council) <jmcnair@DCCOUNCIL.US>; Crawford Riddick, Marita (Council) <mcrawfordriddick@DCCOUNCIL.US>; Agwai, Ogochukwu (Council) <oagwai@DCCOUNCIL.US>; Grant, Silas H.. (Council) <SHGrant@DCCOUNCIL.US>
Subject: Re: Cynthia Carson (Ward 5 resident since 1995) and fellow Ward 5 Residents to Councilmember McDuffie: Please Defund McMillan 

Thank you for your email and calls regarding the budget. I appreciate the calls for investment in the Black communities of Ward 5 and the District. I have made substantial investments in systemic change at the Council to move a Racial Equity Agenda forward. The REACH Act, which will be funded in the FY21 budget, creates Office of Racial Equity and requires all Council legislation undergo a racial equity assessment to score it for its impact on racial equity goals. These investments are alongside specific initiatives that will create and grow black owned businesses, generate employment and support our families. 

 

As you may know, I have been on the record for years in my support for the thoughtful, fiscal and socially responsible development at McMillan. I have been dismayed by the protracted development process and remain hopeful that placing McMillan into productive use, creating substantial opportunities for employment, mixed-income housing, recreational and retail amenities alongside usable and accessible open space will come to fruition. The goals of some have been to dismantle this project by any means, and we can agree to disagree on that point.

 

I also remain committed to the redevelopment at Crummell alongside the long-standing request from neighbors for investments for interim recreation space in the neighborhood. In this year’s budget there are investments of over $1m to create those interim recreational spaces as well as recurring funds for a new clean team and ongoing recreational programming for the Ivy City community.

 

However, removing funding for McMillan and dedicating it to Crummell is shortsighted and will not further the goals of re-investment at either location. The development of a new recreation center at Crummell is not stymied by funding alone. As I have stated numerous times, I remain committed to working with the mayor and the residents to create a path forward for the inclusive redevelopment at Crummell.

 

The letter and subsequent emails point to the disproportionate impact COVID19 has had on the black community, the need to invest in family – sized housing in Ward 5, adequate mental health and other supports for our neighbors; these goals are indisputable and ones where we are aligned. I remain open to any thoughtful proposals to tackle these issues in a constructive and collaborative manner.  

 

In service,

 

Kenyan

 

 

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From: Cynthia Carson <cyncarson@gmail.com>
Date: Tuesday, July 14, 2020 at 2:14 PM
To: "McDuffie, Kenyan (Council)" <kmcduffie@DCCOUNCIL.US>
Cc: Marisa Flowers <mflowers@DCCOUNCIL.US>, Barbara Mitchell <bmitchell@dccouncil.us>, Brian McClure <bmcclure@DCCOUNCIL.US>, Kelley Cislo <KCislo@DCCOUNCIL.US>, Jonathan McNair <jmcnair@DCCOUNCIL.US>, Marita Riddick <mcrawfordriddick@DCCOUNCIL.US>, Ogochukwu Agwai <oagwai@DCCOUNCIL.US>, Silas Grant <SHGrant@DCCOUNCIL.US>
Subject: Cynthia Carson (Ward 5 resident since 1995) and fellow Ward 5 Residents to Councilmember McDuffie: Please Defund McMillan

July 14, 2020

 

McMillan is a project set forth by felons Harry Thomas Jr., Kwame Brown, oversight by felon Michael Brown "I couldn't resist the culture of corruption on the City Council", initiated by a mayor not elected but installed by electoral fraud that sent 7 people to prison. Lets not forget Federal Prosecutor Ron Machen, who said "if you don't believe we are cleaning up corruption in the DC govt, test our resolve". Wow, imagine if they had "no resolve",, we'd be over run by criminals. The City Council and the mayor are a RICO, racketeering organization. With subservient HPRB, Zoning Commission and Mayors Agent evaluating their own boss, Bowser is VMP's development partner but "its not fixed!" Its just an INSIDER DEAL, very pretty. When there are so many alternative ways to do this RIGHT! Never mind that a govt paying a PR firm to interfere with our First Amendment Rights to "petition the govt for redress of grievances" VIOLATES the Constitution. So Kevin please correct all my lies, EACH ONE, as it has nothing to do with me, its the corrupt boondoggle, not me personally in any way, and correct all my misstatements one by one, I'm listening.

 

Daniel Goldon Wolkoff
Adams Morgan Stained Glass
1231 Randolph Street, NE
Washington, DC 20017
Tel: 202-232-8391
www.adamsmorganstainedglass..com