DC4RD’s latest: The “Thank you & No Thank You” Update
Giving thanks to Brookland Manor folks, supported by OneDC and Washington Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights who are standing up to Mid-City Financial greed mongers seeking to displace hundreds of black and brown families from their Ward 5 home.
- Residents Of Brookland Manor Want Change — But Not If It Means Dividing Families
- Armed Security Forces Terrorize Brookland Manor Community
- Brookland Manor Litigation Fact Sheet
Giving thanks to Congress Heights residents and president, Ruth Barnwell who along with Justice First and other allies are pushing back against slumlords and winning the AG’s help.
- D.C. Residents Are Fighting a Slumlord to Regain Control of Their Neighborhood
- Sanford Capital to ‘Negotiate Exclusively’ With Congress Heights Tenants Over Their Property’s Future
Giving thanks to Barry Farms Tenants and Allies – Ward 8 families and residents supported by Empower DC among others – who are protesting the razing of their home and the 1.6 billion giveaway to an out-of-town private developer of one of the most, if not the most historic land and culture in the city.
- D.C. Housing Authority files raze applications for Barry Farm, hopes for demolition by Q1 2018
- Displaced Barry Farm’s Residents Sue DCHA for Loss of Housing
- D.C. Government Is Trying to Intimidate Us Into Leaving, Barry Farm Residents Say
- Youtube Video #justiceforbarryfarms
No thanks Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau for making it even harder for homeless folks to seek services in this so-called progressive city.
No thanks to cheerleaders of the Union Market Tax Gift — Mayor Muriel Bowser and Councilmembers Phil Mendelson, Charles Allen, Robert White, and Kenyan McDuffie.
They talk being progressive, but they support funding monied investors and out-of-town developers who want to construct an exclusive and segregated high-rise high-luxury brand new community on top of what was the Florida Avenue Market (the only wholesale market in the District razed for the rich) and hand over an 85-million dollar blank check. (The Mayor funds “affordable housing” at $100 million annually).
No thank you the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (“DCRA”) for issuing permits to unethical contractors and developers who f**k up people’s homes and allow developers to build luxury cracker-jack boxes that won’t be resilient to climate change.
- As aging D.C. rowhouses are renovated, scores of alleged construction, permit problems
- House Fires Burn Much Faster Than They Used To
- D.C. Failed To Enforce Law On Vacant And Blighted Homes, Audit Says
- Shit in Tubs at Sanford Properties
No thank you Councilmember Mary Cheh for giving away the historic Franklin School (13th and K Street NW) to a group of inside players who want to operate a private museum (despite the CFO exposing how private museums are failing in the city). In a startling display of ignorance, Cheh supported the gift of this prime property without even knowing how many available public assets (buildings/land) we have left downtown for social needs (say for the homeless).
- PR22-0360 – Franklin School Disposition Approval Resolution of 2017
- Homeless Worry About The Loss Of A Gathering Space [DOWNTOWN] As MLK Library Closes
No Thank you Councilmember Jack Evans and Metro for not ensuring developers (“foreign investors” who intend to make bank by constructing luxury developments on prime time land next to our public transit hubs) share equitably in funding the gaps in the Metro budget. Instead Evans wants to force working DMV residents to cough up more taxes and pay stricter higher fares for less services. But thank you to the SaveOurSystem campaign.
- In major change, Metro to no longer allow negative SmarTrip balances
- How foreign investors are transforming a long-forgotten D.C. neighborhood
No Thank you to the so-called “smart growthers” and the Mayor’s “planners” in defining an affordable housing in the District as $1500+ a month for a studio/one-bedroom.
But big thanks again, and love to those doing something, especially those residents and families directly impacted by the overdevelopment of the city and sheer greed of the monied classes and privileged politicos.
Please do and try to find the time to see and hear public housing residents tell their own story fighting displacement in their upcoming play, “On My Mind/In My Heart” with several production dates coming up. Also starring the legendary, DJ RBI.
Thank you to all the amazing organizations and individual community leaders trying to make a difference in fighting displacement and seeking to ensure EXISTING residents, families, culture, and DC life is protected from the influx of “outsider” global capital and invasive force of well-heeled single professionals.