From: Erin
Subject: Re: CM Evans: Following on McMillan
Date: Fri, 29 May 2015 06:49:11 -0400
To: friends-of-mcmillan-park@googlegroups.com
I agree with Daniel.
Post this correspondence widely. I don't even mind that all the council members have been copied here. All DC residents should know that "deferring to the Councilmember from Ward 5" is how they've washed their hands of responsibility of giving an historic place to developers to destroy. And, that form letters are being sent out as responses - how thoughtful.
Scott Roberts, something for your list serve!
Andrea, same reply to Brian,, it is a form letter..Please send this out to Intowner, Hill Rag, and other Letters to the Editor,,I'll put it on the Brookland Listserve,Daniel
On Thu, May 28, 2015 at 9:44 PM, Andrea Rosen <aerie@rcn.com> wrote:
Dear Councilmember Evans,
I very much appreciate your thoughtful response. Only you and Councilmember Cheh have seen fit to respond.I do not expect the Councilmember from Ward 5 to reconsider his position. I have nothing but contempt for him. He presents himself as a progressive, but that is a carefully crafted front. McMillan does NOT belong to the Councilmember from Ward 5, even if he were actually living in his grandparents’ house across the street. It belongs to the District of Columbia. It even belongs to the nation, as it is on the National Register of Historic Places.I attended the meet-and-greet in Bloomingdale during your Mayoral campaign where we McMillanists regaled you with Save McMillan arguments. You were at least willing to listen, for which I give you a great deal of credit.All over the world, enlightened governments are adapting old industrial structures for the 21st century. Those sites have become draws not just for the people who live nearby, but for travelers. They are economic engines. What the city proposes to do with McMillan is born of this city’s lowest ebb, 1987, and the developers’ stranglehold on our government.The battle over McMillan, which is a battle over the soul of the city, has affected me deeply. I spent my first three years of life within a stone’s throw of McMillan, drinking the water purified there; I used to drive past the site twice a week as a high school senior with an internship on Capitol Hill. McMillan is place-making in a way McMillan Town Center can never be. I and hundreds of others over the years have spent chunks of our lives fighting for a plan worthy of the place—one actually exists, paid for by the city in 2002, although an international design competition, like the one held for the 11th Street Bridge project to which the city is contributing, would be a great way to restart the process—but we may as well have been screaming at the bottom of a well.McMillan Park supporters have been law-abiding citizens, jumping through every hoop the government has set, attempting to shore up every protection extended to this historic landmark (GSA preservation covenant that came with the land and conveys with the land to every successor owner; DC Preservation Law; Federal preservation law), expressing overwhelming popular opposition for the present plan. All fruitless. Starting with Mayor Adrian Fenty, the government has worked to subvert the plan devised in 2002 by the Office of Planning that enjoyed ample participation and support by the community. Every agency has fallen into line with the new plan from Dallas-based Trammel Crow et al--who was selected without an RFP--from the Historic Preservation Review Board (trapped under DMPED) to the rubber-stamp Zoning Commission to the present Mayor’s Agent. Speaking of kicking laws to the curb, the Councilmember from Ward 5 doesn’t even care that the affordable housing proffered by Trammel Crow et al does not meet the standard of his own disposition of public land amendment, which is emblematic of just how corrupt this plan is.Some people are forced out of the city because of the impossible economics; others leave because they come to abhor the way the city is run--perhaps you recall the era when D.C. lost much of its monied population—valuable for tax dollars, if nothing else--because people cannot abide a badly run city. Sadly, I increasingly think of leaving because I cannot countenance the District government's disrespect for law.When the government ignores its own goals for sustainability; condones drivers to hellish commutes along a major artery; deprives a whole ward of green space for recreation; and colludes with a PR firm hired to discredit the government’s own citizens and "provide cover for local elected officials,” there is something rotten in the state of the District. Every member of this Council, if she or he does not step forward to stop the development juggernaut squashing McMillan in this budget, is complicit in this abuse of power.Andrea RosenChevy ChaseBenighted Ward 4On May 28, 2015, at 6:46 PM, Evans, Jack (COUNCIL) <JACKEVANS@DCCOUNCIL.US> wrote:
Andrea - as Mayor, I would have had more sway on this issue, than I do as the Ward 2 Councilmember. When it came down to the budget, it's not a line item review. The budget was not perfect, but it really was pretty good, and required lots of discussion to get to a consensus. While I did argue for a few Ward 2 issues of importance to my constituents, I deferred to the Ward 5 Councilmember to pull this issue out for discussion and he did not.
Thank you for contacting me.
Jack
-----Original Message-----
From: aerie@rcn.com
Sent: Monday, May 25, 2015 8:15 PM
To: Evans, Jack (COUNCIL)
Cc: murielbowser@dc.gov; muriel.bowser@dc.gov; mbowser@dc.gov; mayor@dc.gov; eom@dc.gov
Subject: CM Evans: Following on McMillan
Dear Councilmember Evans,
Last year, when you were you were running for Mayor, I was thrilled to hear you agree to support Save McMillan Park.
Then I was disappointed when you then turned around and voted to dispose of it. Please redeem yourself by voting on Wednesday to defund the $69 million Destroy McMillan line item.
Regards,
Andrea Rosen
aerie@rcn.com
---
Ward: 4
Zip: 20015
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