Bloomingdale resident John Salatti to moderate this afternoon's Friends of McMillan Park town hall meeting

From: John T. Salatti <john.salatti@gmail.com>
To: John T. Salatti <John.Salatti@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, September 13, 2013 10:29 PM
Subject: Fwd: McMillan Town Hall Meeting, St. Martin's Catholic Church, 9/14 from 3:00 to 5:00
 

Dear neighbors,

I have been asked to moderate this Saturday's Town Hall meeting about the future of the McMillan Sand Filtration Site,  The meeting is being held in the Pioneer Room of St. Martin's Catholic Church at the corner of North Capitol and T Street NW (enter on the T Street side of the church), starting at 3:00.  I urge you to come out and hear the presentations and offer your views.

Although the question about what the future holds for McMillan has been around for almost 25 years and many are weary of it, this development remains the single most critical issue facing the future of Bloomingdale.  I say that full well knowing the amount of construction that DC Water is about to begin.  Those water projects will be painful and disruptive for a few years, but they will be completed and most everything will go back to normal, in fact better than normal given that the sewer backups should stop.  As for McMillan, if the city goes forward with the current plans, the construction will go on for years and at the end of it, Bloomingdale will permanently altered.  Even the sewer issues we have faced, as painful as they were last year, have tended to be rare events and limited in scope.  Not so the development of McMillan.  Love it, hate it, we will experience those changes wrought by that development every day.

Some people have raised concerns about the Friends of McMillan, the group of neighbors organizing the Town Hall.  I have heard some say that the Friends are too strident or that they are anti-development.  To those who have those concerns I say, it is especially important for you to come out.  Make those concerns known and hear what they have to say. 

For those concerned about tone, I can offer that perhaps the tone is strong at times, but given that the city and its development partners have time, money, staff, etc. on their side, sometimes a little shoutin' is necessary to make sure that the drum beat of development does not drown out all other voices. 

For those concerned about anti-development, I note that I have spoken with many Friends, and to a person, even the most strident voices are not against all development.  All the Friends are excited about a number of development options that would maintain McMillan's hybrid role as a functional space (and generating tax revenue for the District) and as a historic public recreation space.  Come out and hear those ideas.

And whatever disagreements may (and I emphasize the "may") exist in tone, substance, or both among neighbors, I implore us all to come together as a neighborhood and advocate for what we (or as large a "we" as can be mustered) want.  If we let these internal conflicts blunt our voice, we will end up with a development that very few people that I have spoken with actually want, even those people who support a good amount of development in general at McMillan.

As part of my effort to learn more about McMillan and its impact on this neighborhood, I have spoken at length with a number of senior citizens who were young people when McMillan was still open to the public at the beginning of World War II.  They have given me a much greater appreciation for what McMillan has been and could be again.  From them, I first learned that McMillan Park (both the part with Reservoir and the Sand Filtration Site being considered for development) was one of the first integrated parks in segregated Washington.  And I learned how much this place meant to them and how pained they are that their children and grandchildren have not have the same experience that they had.  Only a few of those older residents are still with us to share their memories and their voices are weakened by age and infirmity.  But that can't be said of the rest of us.

So now is the time to make your views known.  If you really love the current plan, come out and share your views with your neighbors.  If you don't think too much of it, come out and share those views.  If you are not sure what to think, come out and learn what the city is planning, hear what else could happen at McMillan, and find out how you can make your positions known to the powers that be.

This is our neighborhood and it is up to us to speak up and help shape it.  I look forward to seeing you at St. Martin's and sharing pizza and drinks with you during the discussions.

Have a great day,

John

John T. Salatti

(202) 986-2592
"Together, Building a Better Bloomingdale"