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, NEWashington, DC 20017
Tel: 202-232-8391
