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Thursday, October 03, 2013

Brookland resident Daniel Wolkoff: "Mr. Franklin at the barbed wire fence closing off McMillan Park"

See this 10/03/2013 message from Brookland resident Daniel Wolkoff:
 


The new photo on the www.friendsofmcmillan.org website  is an excellent photo. Long term Bloomingdale residents remember the years they enjoyed McMillan Park. They have been excluded from their own park since 1986 by a barbed wire fence the DC govt has forced on them. It represents the miserable performance, and racism of DC City Council and all the mayors since 1986. I hope we can distribute this photo to the present council and their staff. Maybe the photo image can help them perceive exactly what THEIR racism and economic class discrimination has meant to the community. An affront to social justice, they have unanimously shown no interest or concern about aw if fencing off 25 acre parks is somehow normal or acceptable. As we all know if McMillan had been located in the preferred sections of upper NW, it would have been restored and enjoyed by residents all these years. Keeping the park fenced off for 27 years and excluding the public use of necessary recreation and outdoor open space, to deliver the land and a fortune in profits to developers is a crime against the community. We need to move the discussion along the lines of social justice, as much or more than historic preservation. I think if McMillan were actually an empty green space it would have just as much legitimacy as a public park , even with out all the amazing history and fascinating structures.

It is pathetic that these so called leaders need to be convinced that our parks are for recreation, all of them, and they should hang their heads in shame for all the years they perpetrated this miserable failure. 

      Andrea Swanson, our sister activist in Trinidad, recently speaking at a forum in Brookland on "how the people fought the DC Freeway and saved their homes" was describing the Mayor's dumping of a diesel bus parking lot on Trinidad's  historic Crummel School , fumes and all. She has won in court to stop Mayor Gray and this abuse of her community, and he is still appealing the judges order. We should all write to

Judge Judy Macaluso and defend Andrea and her co plaintiffs in  Trinidad. She has fought the mayor to keep out this racist plan he would never push on a white upscale neighborhood. She is carrying on the tradition of previous generations of Trinidad activists to get the historic Crummel School restored and returned to community use after 30 years, boarded up and deteriorating.

Andrea used a phrase to offer context to this injustice, she called it

"socially acceptable wrongs!" ACCEPTABLE TO WHO?
 

Please see the photo of Mr. Franklin a Bloomingdale resident who played in McMillan Park, slept there on hot summer nights and remembers the vistas and sunsets, our so called leaders have blocked from us in open and continuous racial prejudice.

This mayor, elected with almost 1 million dollars in fraudulent campaign donations, and 5 of his closest campaign officials going to prison, worked with Harry "Tommy" Thomas Jr, still in federal prison for $350,000 embezzlement , Kwame Brown, resigned council chair  and on parole, and Michael Brown, about to be sentenced for accepting bribes from the FBI posing as city contractors, worked together on the McMillan development. The main partner EYA, gave Harry Thomas Jr. a $55,000 payment for his help on their previous project at Chancellors row 4 blocks from McMillan.

The mayor and city council are right now preparing the "surplussing" of McMillan to the developers. A system, proposed by Harry Thomas Jr., and voted by the city council, self-empowering the council, a quasi-legal version of racketeering, where public land, and public money is moved to private corporations for their profit, with never a single vote from the people.

The mayor is ignoring 25 years of community activism, thousands of petition signatures and hundreds of DC voters testimony to SAVE MCMILLAN PARK. Right after his own Deputy Mayor held a public comment meeting where 50 people poured their hearts out in opposition to the "give-away" of this needed park, Mayor Gray stated on WAMU FM that " he is not aware of any opposition to the development plan".

 What we have here is a SICKNESS of fraud, theft, corruption, cronyism, DIS-ENFRANCHISMENT and complete contempt for the people and the environment.

 Just learn the history of the Bloomingdale floods, to see what economic class discrimination has done.

At this exact time the Mayor releases his "Sustainable DC Plan", to make the District the "greenest" city in America by 2035!! Every word in this Green Plan calls out to save McMillan and create sustainable community building for all of us, and adaptive re-use of the amazing historic structures, especially under-surface masonry galleries. The Mayors plan will demolish and overbuild this park,  demolished for an incoherent "Tysons Corner "type development, 12 story buildings,, all universally rejected by our HPRB, right on top of horrible flooding. It is specifically caused by the storm water  run-off from Washington Hospital Center complex, and that is where we need RE-Development.

The Mayor will flat out falsify his required verification that McMillan Park, precious public land is no longer needed for public use, which is absurd, so call and write to your council-members and demand our public use be re-instated immediately. Even tours of the fascinating site were blocked by the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, who worked for Trammel Crow one of the mega developers feeding on this pig trough,  as hundreds of residents were increasingly motivated to join the fight for McMillan Park.

The Mayor and City Council are moving ahead to "surplus" the park, and CRAZYEST thing, award the ten developers a $319 million (taxpayer dollars) subsidy and decades of massive profits for endless construction where already an Olmsted designed park exists. Our park is languishing and fenced off in utter contempt of the history of DC, the recreational needs and residents like Mr. Franklin who lived with a barbed wire fence across the street from his home since 1986.  

Contact your "representatives" and please demand we, SAVE McMillan Park and see the photo of Mr. Franklin and McMillan on www.friendsofmcmillan.org

Daniel Goldon Wolkoff
1231 Randolph Street, NE
Washington, DC 20017
Tel: 202-232-8391

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