tour historic McMillan Park - Saturday, 04-21-2012

This message is from Mary Farrell - mjfranc6b03 @ aol.com

The original McMillan Park gardens were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. Olmsted, Sr. is known as the ``father of American landscape architecture, having designed New York`s Central Park, the US Capitol grounds, Stanford University, and the country`s oldest state park, the Niagara Reservation in Niagara Falls. DC residents enjoyed access to McMillan park until World War II. In 1985, the slow sand filtration plant at McMillan was replaced with a new rapid sand filter plant. The tour will be on Saturday, April 21, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at the entrance, 1st Street, NW, one block north of Channing Street NW. Metered parking available.

Sponsored by ANC Commissioners Tony Norman, James Fournier, Mark Mueller, and Hugh Youngblood. Free tour and refreshments. Kids and pets welcome (if monitored). Come see, photograph, and enjoy this uniquely historic site.

two McMillan activities this Saturday, 4-7-2012

1) McMillan Community Meeting – Saturday, 04/07/2012

From Dianne Barnes:

The McMillan Project Community Meeting
Saturday, April 7th, 2012 - 2PM – 5PM
The Summit Apartments
116 T St, NE

MAG (McMillan Advisory Group) is sponsoring a second meeting to hear community issues, concerns, and ideas about the McMillan Project.

For more detailed information, please call Dianne Barnes, 202 then 387- followed by 2497.

2) We Heart McMillan Park Party & Exhibit Opening at Big Bear Cafe – Saturday, 04/07/2012

Subject: McMillan rally

This is a rally in support of the McMillan Sand Filtration Site.The event will have music and information about what the future holds or could hold for McMillan.

WE ♥ MCMILLAN PARK PARTY & Exhibit Opening (DC)
Saturday, April 7, 2012, 7:00pm - 10:00pm at Big Bear Cafe
https://www.facebook.com/events/300997049973014/

Bloomingdale safety walk – Tuesday, 03/27/2012

From: Jennifer A. McCann
Cc: tj quinn ; John T. Salatti ; Jeremy Fegley
Sent: Tuesday, March 20, 2012 9:31 PM
Subject: Bloomingdale Safety Walk - Tue March 27 @ 7:00 PM

Bloomingdale Block Captains -

We`re overdue for a Safety Walk...and spring is here (so is crime)! Attached is the flier for next week`s Safety Walk, which will take place on Tue March 27 @ 7:00 PM (meeting place is Window`s Cafe at 1st St and Rhode Island Ave NW).

Please do your best to circulate the attached flier to your area of responsibility. In addition to retransmitting electronically, if you know of any seniors (or others) on your block who do not have email access, please consider providing them a hard copy of attached flier.

Thanks so much,

Jennifer McCann

And here is the text from the flier:

Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners
Hugh Youngblood and James Fournier
Invite you to take part in a
Bloomingdale Public Safety Walk

Help Bloomingdale continue to grow into a safer neighborhood!

Who: You! ...and your children, dogs, friends, etc.

All are welcome to come, regardless of where you live. This is about making a strong presence in the community, showing that Bloomingdale will not tolerate crime in our neighborhood.

When: Tuesday, March 27, 2012 at 7 pm
Where: Northwest corner of 1st and Rhode Island NW
(Meet in front of Windows Café. Dress comfortably and bring a flashlight!)

suggestion to redirect the DC budget allocation for McMillan elsewhere; a Randolph Pl NW neighbor responds

First, see this message sent by ANC 5C03 Commissioner Hugh Youngblood to the mayor, the DC Council and others regarding the current DC budget's allocation towards the McMillan Sand Filtration site project:

From: Commissioner Youngblood
Date: March 8, 2012 6:06:09 PM EST
To: ``vincent.gray @ dc.gov``
Cc: Cross Jason , ``eric.goulet @ dc.gov`` , ``kbrown @ dccouncil.us`` , ``vorange @ dccouncil.us`` , mcheh @ dccouncil.us, ``twells @ dccouncil.us`` , dcatania @ dccouncil.us, pmendelson @ dccouncil.us, mbrown @ dccouncil.us, jgraham @ dccouncil.us, jevans @ dccouncil.us, mbowser @ dccouncil.us, yalexander @ dccouncil.us, mbarry @ dccouncil.us, James Fournier , 1B10@anc.dc.gov, ``Edwards, Ronnie (ANC 5C11)`` <5C11@anc.dc.gov>, Bradley Thomas <5C01@anc.dc.gov>

Subject: DC Budget Input and McMillan

Dear Mayor Gray:

It was a pleasure chatting with you and your team at the Florida Avenue Park ribbon-cutting event on February 25th.

Thank you for sending budget representatives to the community to discuss our City`s current fiscal challenges. Mr. Eric Goulet provided a comprehensive overview at the 27 February Bloomingdale Civic Association meeting and asked us to submit ideas to help shape the future.

On behalf of Bloomingdale and the surrounding communities, Commissioner Fournier and I urge you to please reallocate the $50m (plus any contingency reserve) currently earmarked for McMillan to other capital projects in Ward 5. The Rhode Island Avenue corridor, Bates Area, and other under-served communities within Ward 5 would reap much greater benefit from this investment than would the already developed Bloomingdale community.

Mr. Goulet noted during the Bloomingdale Civic Association meeting your desire to focus the City`s limited budget resources on development projects most wanted and needed by the community. The people of Bloomingdale oppose the Vision McMillan Partners (VMP) master plan as presented. Bates and Rhode Island Avenue representatives have, however, strongly expressed their desires for new development in their communities.

Additionally, we recognize that the massive additional infrastructure investment that would be required to mitigate adverse storm water and transportation impacts of the proposed VMP plan on the Bloomingdale community lie well beyond the reach of the funds currently allocated for the VMP plan. If the current McMillan plan were to proceed, the project could easily snowball out of control and face funding shortfalls for years, leaving the people of Bloomingdale and the surrounding communities to contend with the adverse impacts.

McMillan deserves world-class, sustainable development, and other Ward 5 communities have much greater immediate needs for investment.

Sincerely,

Hugh

--
Hugh Youngblood
ANC, SMD 5C03
240 . 925 then 1079

b) Now see this subsequent message from a Randolph Place NW resident:

From a Randolph Place NW resident:

I am concerned about an e-mail sent by one of our ANC Commissioners, Mr. Youngblood, to the D.C. City Council, in which he is affirmatively ASKING the city to ``reallocate`` funding of $50,000,000 ($50 million) AWAY from Bloomingdale. First, he claims that he is writing ``[o]n behalf of Bloomingdale.`` He never sought his ANC`s input on this issue, to my knowledge -- I wasn`t ever asked, nor any of my neighbors. Nor did he seek input from the Bloomingdale Civic Association. He is writing on his own behalf, and nothing more. His motives are unclear, at best. (He also claimed that he is writing on behalf of another ANC Commissioner, Mr. Fournier. This is likewise untrue. Mr. Fournier has stated to the ANC 5C, which forwarded it to the Attorney General`s office (to whom this issue and that of Mr. Youngblood`s other possible conflicts of interest were reported) that he was not even aware of this e-mail; Mr. Fournier distanced himself from the content of Mr. Youngblood`s message, in writing, on March 11, saying: ``I did not know about this e-mail.`` So, too, has the chairman of ANC 5C, Ronnie Edwards.)

Second -- and this is what I am most worried about, as should every Bloomingdale resident -- this presents the unfortunate situation of one of our own Bloomingdale Commissioners not only ``urg[ing] to please reallocate the $50 million (plus any contingency reserve)`` away from Bloomingdale, but more importantly him claiming that the ``Bloomingdale community [is] already developed,`` and therefore apparently does not need any more funding from the city. Again, this is untrue. We certainly DO need funding from the District -- as much as we can get. And Mr. Youngblood, as our Commissioner, should certainly make sure that his ANC is obtaining all the funds he can get, rather than sending them away to unspecified other projects and districts that are not even within his purview. Plus, please take a walk along North Capitol or Florida Ave. N.W., and tell me with a straight face that you consider this blight ``developed.`` You cannot.

Lastly, setting aside the present time and his limited tenure, this sets a terrible precedent for future projects or requests for any D.C. funding for Bloomingdale, well after Mr. Youngblood will be gone -- this is not just about the McMillan site, but will affect any kind of funding or future development: if Mr. Youngblood`s statement that ``Bloomingdale is already developed`` is taken at face value by the Council, the City will certainly reconsider, if not outright reject, future requests for support by us. The Council can quote this untruth right back at us: ``Bloomingdale doesn`t need funding -- your area is `already developed,` according to your own ANC...``

It behooves our Commissioner to rally on behalf of his own. At a minimum, he should be a passive representative, as he has been for most of his tenure. But to affirmatively steer funds away from his own neighborhood is decidedly not part of his mandate as our ANC Commissioner.

Let`s just put it this way: Georgetown is certainly ``developed`` by anyone`s standards. Yet, its ANC Commissioners are not going to steer funds away from Georgetown to ``other under-served communities`` that may perhaps ``have much greater immediate needs for investment.`` ...... Trust me -- Georgetown will take it. So should we. Mr. Youngblood`s position as ANC Commissioner is not to hand out money to others that was given to the community that he represents.

Bloomingdale Public Safety Walk -- tonight, Wednesday, 01/25/2012

See this reminder message from Bloomingdale resident Jennifer McCann:

Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners John Salatti, Hugh Youngblood, and James Fournier Invite you to take part in a Bloomingdale Public Safety Walk

Help Bloomingdale continue to grow into a safer neighborhood!

Who: You! ...and your children, dogs, friends, etc.

All are welcome to come, regardless of where you live. This is about making a strong presence in the community, showing that Bloomingdale will not tolerate crime in our neighborhood.

When: Wednesday, January 25, 2011 at 7:00 pm
Where: Northwest corner of 1st and Rhode Island NW
(Meet in front of Windows Café. Dress comfortably and bring a flashlight!)

Bloomingdale public safety walk - Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2012

See this event announcement from Bloomingdale resident Jennifer McCann:

Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners John Salatti, Hugh Youngblood, and James Fournier

Invite you to kick-off 2012 by taking part in a
Bloomingdale Public Safety Walk

Help Bloomingdale continue to grow into a safer neighborhood!

Who: You! ...and your children, dogs, friends, etc.
All are welcome to come, regardless of where you live. This is about making a strong presence in the community, showing that Bloomingdale will not tolerate crime in our neighborhood.
When: Tuesday, January 3, 2012 at 7:00 P.M.
Where: Northwest corner of 1st and Rhode Island NW
(Meet in front of Windows Café. Dress comfortably and bring a flashlight!)

Together, Building a Better Bloomingdale

an alternative use proposal for Bloomingdale's McMillan Sand Filtration site -- a medical marijuana cultivation site

See this message from ANC 5C03 Commissioner Hugh Youngblood:

Dear Bloomingdalians,

Please see the following proposal for an alternative use of the McMillan Reservoir Sand Filtration site shared by a senior member of the community who lives on the Unit block of Florida Ave NW. This proposal could potentially generate a level of revenue for the City that would dwarf the expected level of revenue from the cookie-cutter mixed dense urban development project proposed by the DMPED-VMP hybrid team. Please feel free to call me or email me with your thoughts.


``After having gone to several meetings and then reading Bradley Thomas`s testimony before the City Council, I have finally figured out what is behind the redistricting flap--McMillan. Despite the protests and hard work of our honest, motivated and pure hearted ANC representatives, it appears that McMillan will be separated from Bloomingdale. The McMillan pie is so rich and is attracting so many fingers that our leaders just can`t compete with all that greed. So let`s be realistic, McMillan will be exploited to the benefit of developers and politicians rather than the benefit of the community. Knowing this, why don`t we stop trying to beat them and let`s join them. Soon we will have poor little marijuana plants growing inside nasty warehouses under artificial light all over Ward 5. If we can convert McMillan to a farm, these plants can grow in the environment nature intended: fresh air, clean soil and direct sunlight-- in a word, organic and free range. There are many out of work tobacco farmers in Calvert County who would happily do the cultivation. With proper care and fertilization, the District can grow enough marijuana to provide the medicinal needs of the whole east coast. What a financial boon this will be for the citizens of the District of Columbia. We can even end the Lottery. You know that nasty little mechanism the government uses to flitch money from the financially disadvantaged under the false promise of instant wealth. The District can even undercut the price of marijuana charged by the Mexican Cartels, striking a blow against smuggling along the Country`s southwest border. The adjacent Washington Hospital Center can reap financial gain by setting up a clinic across the street where ``headache`` prescriptions for marijuana can be obtained. Of course, we will need a gift shop on the premises to fill the prescriptions and sell the required paraphernalia: bongs, gas masks (for communal use) cigarette paper, pipes, T-shirts and hats etc., all of this to the employment and economic benefit of the District. With legalization, there will be many out of work marijuana sniffing dogs. We can create a feral colony to walk among the plants to discourage thieves. The fence around McMillan can be easily fortified with wire and guard towers to protect the plants. As the project progresses, we can add a church so that many visitors can experience a religious high. We can call it ``The Head Church of DC.`` Money will be gushing out of McMillan at a flow which greatly exceeds the amount of water which the site once produced. Of course, we can expect that the Feds will want a piece of the action. You can imagine the constituent jealousy of DC residents not having to pay any taxes as a result of the McMillan income. No problem, we`ll just trade a piece of the action for statehood, and finally we will be able to vote--thanks to McMillan. Our boring city flag can be replaced by one sporting a brightly colored marijuana plant and we can shed the old name (District of Columbia) and call ourselves the Marijuana Republic. Yes, there is a bright future for this useless piece of real estate which is no longer in Bloomingdale.``

Hugh Youngblood
ANC, SMD 5C03
240.925.1079
anc5c03 @ gmail . com

Bradley Thomas: "Why I Support in Part and Oppose in Part the Position of Commissioners Salatti, Fournier on the Ward 5 Redistricting Plan"

From ANC 5C01 Commissioner Bradley Thomas:

WHY I SUPPORT IN PART AND OPPOSE IN PART THE POSITION OF MY COLLEAGUES COMMISSIONERS JOHN SALATTI AND JAMES FOURNIER ON THE WARD 5 REDISTRICTING PLAN

Today, Tuesday, November 29, 2011, I attended and gave oral testimony at the hearing on B19-528, the Advisory Neighborhood Commissions Boundaries Act of 2011, conducted by the D.C. Council’s Subcommittee on Redistricting. I sat and listened intently to all 42 other witnesses and paid particular attention to the witnesses who spoke on the topic of what effects the Ward 5 Redistricting Task Force plan may have on the Bloomingdale community. Go into the hearing, I believed (a belief that was validated by the testimony presented) that the dispute, for lack of a better term, boils down to three issues which I summarize here in the form of three questions:

1. Does respect for the democratic principle of “one person-one vote” dictate that adjustments need to be made in the proposed Single Member District (SMD) lines because of the fact that the population of many of the proposed new SMDs does not fit within the 2,000 plus or minus 5% target specified in the redistricting guidelines?

2. Would the Bloomingdale community, which is by and large represented by a single civic association, the Bloomingdale Civic Association, be adversely impacted by having its population split between two ANCs?

3. Would an ANC configuration which places the McMillan sand filtration site in an ANC other than the one in which the majority of Bloomingdale’s residents live leave the Bloomingdale community without an effective voice in the development of the McMillan site?

My friends and colleagues, Commissioner John Salatti (5C04) and Commissioner James Fournier (5C07), have been quite articulate in answering all three questions in the affirmative. And while I reach the same conclusion as to question one, for the reasons I laid out in my testimony before the Redistricting Subcommittee this afternoon, I differ with Commissioners Salatti and Fournier on questions 2 and 3. While I don’t expect to change any minds, I do encourage all of my friends in Bloomingdale, and yes, we can still be friends even if we don’t see eye to eye on every issue, to read the full text of the written testimony I submitted today.

Anyway, for what it’s worth, here is the text of my testimony:

ANC Redistricting Hearing Testimony-full text
Commissioner Bradley A. Thomas, ANC5C01

Let me first express my gratitude to the Honorable Co-Chairs and members of the D.C. Council’s Redistricting Subcommittee for allowing me to be heard on the issue of ANC redistricting in Ward 5. My name is Bradley Thomas and I am the Commissioner who represents Single Member District ANC5C01. I also chair the ANC5C Economic Development Committee.

The decision to testify in this matter has not been easy. I do so reluctantly because the last thing I want to do is to give the impression that I’m opposed to Bloomingdale or the way it has unified and progressed under its current leadership. On the contrary, I consider myself a supporter of Bloomingdale. Never-the-less, I rise to support the Ward 5 ANC Redistricting Task Force proposal.

I was not a member of the task force but I believe the team was fairly selected from a cross section of the ward and that it operated through a fair and open process. Like my friends from Bloomingdale, I didn’t always agree with every decision the task force made but unlike them, I don’t question the integrity of the process.

First off, I have great affinity for Bloomingdale. I’ve never mentioned this before but my roots there go back more than 80 years. As a boy, my father, with his newly divorced young mother moved to Flagler Place in 1928 or 29, shortly before the stock market crash that plunged this nation into the first Great Depression. 60 years ago, my grandmother moved from Flagler Place to the unit block of W Street, N.W., where she lived until her death almost 20 years ago, about a year after I moved into my home just south of Bloomingdale’s southern border of Florida Avenue. Thus, from a purely emotional standpoint, I want to support Bloomingdale at every juncture.

Secondly, I have nothing but respect and admiration for Bloomingdale’s current Commissioners. Hugh Youngblood is as energetic and enthusiastic as any public servant I can name. John Salatti is popular among his constituents and knowledgeable about the goings on both in and around his community. James Fournier is as thoughtful and articulate a spokesman as anyone I have met in my year on ANC5C. All three of them take very seriously the interests of their neighborhood and work tirelessly on behalf of the citizens who elected them. But I come here today because on the ingular issue of whether the redistricting plan coming from the Ward 5 Redistricting Task Force adversely affects Bloomingdale, I firmly believe that their position is ill-informed and emerges from a “glass is half empty” perspective.

Let me begin by stating that I agree with my colleagues that any redistricting plan ought not have any single member districts that fall outside of the 2,000 plus or minus 5% population threshold specified in the redistricting guidelines. I strongly urge the Council to make any adjustments that might be necessary to insure that we don’t wind up with some districts with for example, fewer than 1,800 residents and others with more than 2,200. I think, from my outsider’s point of view, that that kind of tweaking can be done without scraping a generally reasonable and well thought out plan. But Commissioners Fournier, Salatti and Youngblood have articulated the position that the proposed redistricting plan will divide Bloomingdale and dilute its political voice. I respectfully disagree. The Bloomingdale Civic Association (or BCA), which represents most of the residents living within the boundaries of what are now ANCs 5C03, 5C04 and 5C07 will not be disbanded by the adoption of the redistricting proposal. The BCA will still represent those same residents. Under the new plan, however, that constituency will have a voice in not one, but two ANC’s in Ward 5. Presently, they have three votes out of 12 on ANC5C, thus representing a 25% voting block. Under the new arrangement, Bloomingdale residents will be the majority in 4 SMDs and will have one vote out of 6 (or 16 2/3 % ) on one ANC and 3 votes out of 6 (or 50 %) on another ANC in the ward. Thus overall, Bloomingdale will have a greater, not a lesser voice in Ward 5. Think of it as analogous to a set of parents, apprehensive about their daughter’s impending marriage. The best advice for those parents is “don’t think of it as losing a daughter, think of it as gaining a son.”

My colleagues in Bloomingdale also argue that the new proposal is detrimental to Bloomingdale because it takes from them control of McMillan Reservoir. With all due respect, I submit to the Council that the McMillan project does not belong to Bloomingdale but rather to all of the citizens of the District of Columbia. Furthermore, its development, with job creation, housing opportunities and environmental impact reaches far beyond Messrs. Fournier, Salatti and Youngblood’s single member districts. The storm water run off and traffic effects alone will be felt as much in my SMD, on the south side of Florida Avenue, as in Commissioner Youngblood’s SMD on the other side of the street. If Mr. Youngblood and Mr. Salatti get to have a voice in McMillan’s future, why shouldn’t ommissioner Pinkney and I be permitted to speak on behalf of our affected constituents?

Once again, I did not serve on the Ward 5 Redistricting Task Force. And when I heard of the plan to change the configuration of the ward from 3 large ANC’s to 6 smaller ones, I was less than enthusiastic. ANC5C currently covers all of Ward 5 west of the railroad tracks. If we are going to divide what is now a 12 single member district ANC into 2 ANCs, logic dictates we should do so as evenly as possible. The only logical place to draw the dividing line is through Bloomingdale, the neighborhood which is geographically in the north-south center of our present ANC. If we keep all three current Bloomingdale SMDs together, we wind up with two unbalanced ANCs; either a large one on the north end and a significantly smaller one on the south, or vice versa. The opposition to the proposed split presumes that the two new ANCs cannot work together for the collective good
I respectfully disagree. If this is to be One City, then we in Ward 5, can and must function as One Ward.

In conclusion, I say to the Council that I hope the redistricting proposal put forth today will receive a favorable reading. And to my friends in Bloomingdale I say that I hope you will take a fresh look at the proposal and see the glass as half full; a chance to have more, not less, input into the affairs of the ward and the city. The bottom line is that the task force which drafted the proposal was composed of 30 or more spirited and opinionated individuals and we know from experience that whenever two or more people get together, there are going to be differences of opinion. This committee worked through its differences to reach a consensus. Would I have reached the same results? Maybe, maybe not. But I honor and respect the efforts of those who volunteered their time to take on this formidable task. If the Council needs to make minor adjustments to make the SMD population numbers work, by all means it should do so. But let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water.

last night's Bloomingdale Civic Association election results

See this message from Bloomingdale Civic Association President Teri Janine Quinn:

Congratulations to the Bloomingdale Civic Association`s newly elected executive board members and delegates! Many thanks to our outgoing executive board members and delegates: Elle Cayabyab Gitlin, Em Hall, Diton Pashaj, Hugh Youngblood, James Fournier and Tolu Williams. We look forward to having another successful year!

BCA 2011-2012 Executive Board

President Teri Janine Quinn
First Vice President Bertha Holiday
Second Vice President John Salatti
Corresponding Secretary Jeremy Fegley
Assistant Corresponding Secretary Myra Dandridge ​​
Recording Secretary Regina Anderson
Assistant Recording Secretary Scott Roberts​​​​​
Treasurer Michel Fine
Financial Secretary Regina Anderson
Robert Brannum (Past President)

BCA Delegates to the DC Federation of Civic Associations

Chris Rodousakis
Robert Brannum

The next BCA meeting will be Monday, December 19th.

Best,

Teri Janine Quinn

"CM Thomas submitted Ward 5 redistricting plan to the DC Council one month ago"

From: James Fournier
To:
Cc: John Salatti ; Tim Clark ; Hugh Youngblood ; Brice McCracken ; Geoffrey Hatchard

Sent: Wednesday, November 9, 2011 3:09 PM
Subject: TIme sensitive message re redistricting development

Hear this crucial news bulletin regarding the ongoing Ward 5 redistricting issues from concerned Ward 5 residents, Commissioners Tim Clark, James Fournier, John Salatti, Hugh Youngblood, and Geoff Hatchard and Brice McCracken.

Councilman Harry Thomas recently made several promises to Ward 5 residents to address the turmoil created by his redistricting plan to split neighborhoods like Bloomingdale and Trinidad into multiple ANC commissions. Specifically, Harry Thomas promised that he:

``will work to incorporat[e] concerns`` regarding re-districting ``through the task force`` (Nov. 3, 2011 e-mail);

``in an open and transparent way`` will address residents` concerns about his re-districting plan (Nov. 4, 2011 e-mail); and

``[W]ill continue to work with you and the residents of ward 5 to ensure input `` concerning redistricting (Nov. 7, 2011 e-mail).

We have just learned that Councilman Thomas nearly one month ago submitted to the DC City Council his plan to cut Bloomingdale into separate ANC commissions as well as truncate other surrounding neighborhoods. In fact, Councilman Thomas submitted his plan to the DC Council`s Subcommittee on Redistricting on or about October 11, 2011, weeks before meeting with the Bloomingdale Civic Association and repeatedly placating constituents in other neighborhoods with the promise of addressing their concerns and recommendations. In fact, he had already submitted his plan for DC Council consideration weeks before he continued making promises to the contrary.

Given Harry Thomas`s repeated disingenuousness with both the elected representatives and constituents of our neighborhoods, it is crucial to reach out to the members of the DC Council`s Subcommittee on Redistricting to express your concerns. They can be reached as follows:

Councilman Michael Brown – mbrown @ dccouncil.us - (202) 724 - 8105.
Councilman Jack Evans – jevans @ dccouncil.us - (202) 724 - 8058
Councilman Phil Mendelson – pmendelson @ dccouncil.us - (202) 724 - 8064

Their bios and key staff are set forth at http://www.dccouncil.washington.dc.us/council.

Harry Thomas has already characterized as ``bogus`` and ``misrepresentative`` the proposal to keep neighborhoods like Bloomingdale and McMillan in a single ANC Commission. That proposal is the subject of a three part series in Greater Greater Washington, numerous neighborhood list discussions and recent community meetings. If you disagree with Councilman Thomas, let him and the City Council know - now.

The proposed plan will have an tremendous effect on Ward 5`s historic and close knit communities for the next ten years.

To make sure that the integrity of Ward 5 neighborhoods are preserved and the redistricting process does not fall victim to Ward 5 politics, make your presence felt. On Monday the 14th, the Ward 5 Redistricting Task Force is scheduled to meet at the Fifth District Headquarters, 1805 Bladensburg Road, NE, starting at 6:30. The meeting is open to anyone. If the Task Force clearly senses that a broad swath of the community does not approve of the plans being sent to the Council, the Task Force will likely balk at supporting such efforts.

As always, feel free to reach out to any of us should you have any questions.

Bloomingdale public safety walk -- Sunday, 11-13-2011

See this message from Bloomingdale resident Jennifer McCann:

Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners
John Salatti, Hugh Youngblood, and James Fournier
Invite you to take part in a

Bloomingdale Public Safety Walk

Help Bloomingdale continue to grow into a safer neighborhood!

Who: You! ...and your children, dogs, friends, etc. All are welcome to come, regardless of where you live. This is about making a strong presence in the community, showing that Bloomingdale will not tolerate crime in our neighborhood.

When: Sunday, November 13, 2011 at 7:00 P.M.

Where: Northwest corner of 1st and Rhode Island NW
(Meet in front of Windows Café. Dress comfortably and bring a flashlight!)

Together, Building a Better Bloomingdale

Hugh Youngblood's letter of interest to the EPA on the McMillan Sand Filtration site received

More Hugh Youngblood here:

From: Hugh Youngblood
To: Hall.Abby@epamail.epa.gov
Sent: Monday, October 31, 2011 10:48 AM
Subject: Re: EPA SGIA Letter of Interest Submission -- McMillan Reservoir Park

Good Morning Abby,

Thank you for providing confirmation of receipt of our LOI submission.

I'll certainly be in touch with follow-up questions. To start, are you aware of any other resources that we should explore for support on this grand project?

We look forward to working with you and your colleagues at EPA.

Hugh


On Mon, Oct 31, 2011 at 10:23 AM, wrote:

Hi Hugh,

I have successfully received the letter of interest for McMillan reservoir. Thank you for your interest in the SGIA program. I should be in touch by early January with news on our final selections.

In the meantime, please feel free to be in touch if you have any questions.

Thanks,
Abby
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Abby Hall
Office of Sustainable Communities
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Phone: (202) 566-2086
http://www.epa.gov/smartgrowth
http://www.twitter.com/EPAsmartgrowth


From: Hugh Youngblood
To: Abby Hall/DC/USEPA/US@EPA
Date: 10/28/2011 09:09 PM

Subject: EPA SGIA Letter of Interest Submission -- McMillan Reservoir Park

Dear Ms. Hall,

Per the EPA SGIA RFLI, the McMillan community project team is pleased to deliver the attached Letter of Interest, as supplemented by the related information below.

1. Project Contact -- Hugh Youngblood; Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner, Single Member District 5C03; 240.925.1079; anc5c03@gmail.com; 70 R Street NW, Washington, DC, 20001
2. Description of Smart Growth Challenge -- Community Resilience to Disasters and Climate Change, Community Energy Planning, Land Use Strategies for Economic Development
3. Role of EPA-led Team -- Please refer to attached LOI
4. Potential Impact of this Project -- Please refer to attached LOI
5. Political and Public Support -- Please refer to attached LOI

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you,

Hugh

--
Hugh Youngblood
Chief Executive
+1 202 596 9241
hugh@youngbloodcapitalgroup.com
Youngblood Capital Group, LLC
[attachment "McMillan EPA SGIA LOI_Final_28Oct2011_with Appendices.pdf" deleted by Abby Hall/DC/USEPA/US]

here is Hugh Youngblood's Letter of Interest submission for the McMillan Reservoir Park

In the Hugh Youngblood post from yesterday, he references his EPA SGIA Letter of Interest submission for the McMillan Reservoir Park.

You can see Hugh's letter below:

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0Bzau3aNkylA7N2MzZjYxYjktZDY5MC00ZTJiLWEyN2MtZWUzZWMwYmU5YWUw

Hugh Youngblood: EPA SGIA letter of interest submission for the McMillan Reservoir Park

See this email from ANC 5C03 Commissioner Hugh Youngblood.

I didn`t know what SGIA represented, so I googled ``SGIA EPA`` and got ``smart growth implementation assistance``, so I guess that`s what this is.

From: Hugh Youngblood
To: ``hall.abby@epa.gov ``
Subject: EPA SGIA Letter of Interest Submission -- McMillan Reservoir Park

Dear Ms. Hall,

Per the EPA SGIA RFLI, the McMillan community project team is pleased to deliver the attached Letter of Interest, as supplemented by the related information below.

1. Project Contact -- Hugh Youngblood; Advisory Neighborhood
Commissioner, Single Member District 5C03; 240.925.1079;
anc5c03 @ gmail.com; 70 R Street NW, Washington, DC, 20001
2. Description of Smart Growth Challenge -- Community Resilience to Disasters and Climate Change, Community Energy Planning, Land Use Strategies for Economic Development
3. Role of EPA-led Team -- Please refer to attached LOI
4. Potential Impact of this Project -- Please refer to attached LOI
5. Political and Public Support -- Please refer to attached LOI

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Here is the link to the Letter of Interest document:
https://docs.google.com/open?id=0Bzau3aNkylA7N2MzZjYxYjktZDY5MC00ZTJiLWEyN2MtZWUzZWMwYmU5YWUw

Thank you,

Hugh

--
Hugh Youngblood
Chief Executive
+1 202 596 9241
Hugh@youngbloodcapitalgroup.com
Youngblood Capital Group, LLC

LeDroit Park and Bloomingdale Community Safety Walk – Wednesday, 10-26-2011

See this message from Bloomingdale resident Jennifer McCann:

COMMUNITY SAFETY WALK
Join your neighbors from LeDroit Park & Bloomingdale

WHEN: Wednesday, October 26th @ 7:00 PM

WHO: You! ... and your children, dogs, friends, etc. All are welcome to come, regardless of where you live. Please consider bringing a flashlight to light up the neighborhood! Officers from the 3rd and 5th Districts of the Metropolitan Police Department will join us.

START: Anna J. Cooper Circle (3rd & T Streets, NW)

Sponsored by: Bloomingdale & LeDroit Park Civic Associations, ANC Commissioners Salatti (5C04), Youngblood (5C03), and Fournier (5C07)

www.LeDroitParkDC.org
www.BloomingdaleDC.org

LeDroit Park/Bloomingdale joint community safety walk -- Wednesday, 10-26-2011

See this message from Bloomingdale resident Jennifer McCann:

COMMUNITY SAFETY WALK
Join your neighbors from LeDroit Park & Bloomingdale

WHEN: Wednesday, October 26th @ 7:00 PM

WHO: You! ... and your children, dogs, friends, etc. All are welcome to come, regardless of where you live. Please consider bringing a flashlight to light up the neighborhood! Officers from the 3rd and 5th Districts of the Metropolitan Police Department will join us.

START: Anna J. Cooper Circle (3rd & T Streets, NW)

Sponsored by: Bloomingdale & LeDroit Park Civic Associations, ANC Commissioners Salatti (5C04), Youngblood (5C03), and Fournier (5C07)

www.LeDroitParkDC.org
www.BloomingdaleDC.org

tonight: Bloomingdale Safety Walk

See this announcement from Bloomingdale resident Jennifer McCann:

Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners
John Salatti, Hugh Youngblood, and James Fournier
Invite you to take part in a
Bloomingdale Public Safety Walk

Who: You! ...and your children, dogs, friends, etc.
All are welcome to come, regardless of where you live. This is about making a strong presence in the community, showing that Bloomingdale will not tolerate crime in our neighborhood.

When: Tuesday, October 4, 2011 at 7:00 p.m.
Where: Northwest corner of 1st and Rhode Island NW
(Meet in front of Windows Café. Dress comfortably and bring a flashlight!)

Help Bloomingdale continue to grow into a safer neighborhood!

McMillan Planned Unit Development (PUD) documents available for pubic review

See this message from ANC 5C03 Commissioner Hugh Youngblood:

Please publish the following note to the relevant listservs and blogs to help spread the word about the McMillan PUD documents available for public review.

Hello,

We need your help with McMillan.

On behalf of the for-profit McMillan development team, the DC Government intends to apply for a Planned Unit Development (PUD) in the coming months.

``A PUD is a planning tool which allows a developer greater flexibility in site planning and building design. This flexibility permits the developer to incorporate amenities in the project that exceed those that could have been achieved under the general provisions of the Zoning Regulations. When a project is designated as a PUD, the Zoning Commission usually mandates the development of standards specifically tailored to the project.`` (http://dcoz.dc.gov/services/zoning/commish.shtm)

There`s still time to make a difference. We invite you to review the draft McMillan PUD documents and collect your questions, comments, and concerns for submission to the Zoning Commission and the McMillan Advisory Group (MAG).

Please send me your email address if you`d like me to provide you access to the McMillan PUD documents via an online file repository.

Thank you,

Hugh Youngblood
ANC, SMD 5C03
anc5c03 @ gmail.com
@ANC5C03

a resident's concern about the proposed medical marijuana dispensary

See this 09/09/2011 message passed along by ANC 5C03 Commissioner Hugh Youngblood:

A resident of the Unit Block of Florida Avenue NW shared the following concerns to facilitate dialogue about medical marijuana in the community.

``Wow!! Soon our neighborhood will be the epicenter of feel-good pharmaceuticals in the District of Columbia. New businesses are sprouting up everywhere around us. One night, Volunteers of America slipped into the Madison at 52 Florida Ave. NW and is distributing psychotropic drugs from that location. About a block away, we will have a ``legal`` marijuana distribution operation on North Capitol Street (just south of the Halfway House on Quincy Place NW, just east of the Mental Health Clinic on Florida Avenue NW, around the corner from the S.O.M.E. Soup Kitchen and n nestled in between the Ex-Offender Project and the Homeless Transgender Clinic on North Capitol Street NW).

Throw in the crack operation which comes and goes along First Street and a liquor store on every corner, and we service about every drug culture out there. In retrospect, it is regrettable that the methadone clinic has closed. The opiate crowd is not represented. Think how diverse our neighborhood will become with the influx of the new consumers. A heavy burden will be lifted from MPD. Why chase the drug trade when it will be impossible to determine the legal from the illegal? Now that we have attracted them here, it is only right that we provide accommodations. After all, smoking is prohibited in most enclosed areas such as restaurants, taverns, fast food outlets, etc. It would be unsightly to allow people to sit on our steps and nod off, plus that marijuana smell can be pretty obnoxious. My suggestion is that we face reality and create space for our new neighbors. The new Florida Ave. Park is now just beginning a million-dollar facelift. As we all know, the old Park was a haven for alcoholics, druggers, prostitutes and the like. It was seldom that you walked by and did not detect the odor of burning marijuana. The original idea for the new Park was to create a space where children could play and the neighborhood could come together. This is unrealistic. The City is just wasting its money. The new consumers will be attracted to the new Park just as bees are to honey. Forget the children`s play area, the horseshoe pits and the basketball courts. The Park needs outside toilet facilities, space and safe furniture for those who are physically impaired while under the influence of the pharmaceuticals we are providing. Sunset liquor store can expand to a head shop to conveniently provide pipes, bongs, cigarette paper and perhaps even water pipes for use in the Park. Those who opposed gentrification (whatever that means) will now have the last laugh. Just as our fragile neighborhood was getting over the violence, drug trafficking, high crime and unsafe streets of yesteryear, it looks like it`s headed back. This is progress.``

--
Hugh Youngblood
ANC, SMD 5C03
240 then 925 then 1079

next Bloomingdale safety walk -- Wednesday, 09/07/2011

See this message from Bloomingdale resident Jennifer McCann:

Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners John Salatti, Hugh Youngblood, and James Fournier

Invite you to take part in a

Bloomingdale Public Safety Walk

Help Bloomingdale continue to grow into a safer neighborhood!

Who: You! ...and your children, dogs, friends, etc.
All are welcome to come, regardless of where you live. This is about making a strong presence in the community, showing that Bloomingdale will not tolerate crime in our neighborhood.
When: Wednesday, September 7, 2011 at 7:00 p.m.
Where: Northwest corner of 1st and Rhode Island NW
(Meet in front of Windows Café. Dress comfortably!)