Bates Area Civic Association

It was a good meeting tonight.  Quick recap before I go off to bed.

Linda Argo, from DCRA headlined the meeting. She spoke of efforts to remove our NJ Ave billboards.  She didn’t really say anything we haven’t known here, except her talk did give insight into the amount of thought and effort that DCRA and the city in general has put into the effort.  She said it is consuming at least a couple of people on her staff full time.  She was pretty well-versed on the effort.

It has been stated here before, but as a reminder: This Friday there is a  hearing to schedule a preliminary injunction hearing. November 6, at 10:30 a.m., before Judge Motley in Courtroom 112 at the D.C. Superior Court. Community members are welcome to attend any of the hearings in the case.

Linda Argo seems really awesome –  that’s my personal initial impression.

Next,  spoke Ms. Mary Tracy, President of Scenic America, who spoke about her work in Philadelphia ridding that city of over 500,000 square feet of billboards. She worked there with a group called SCRUB and she entered into this effort doing exactly what our community is doing – trying to rid her own neighborhood of two billboards owned by Clear Channel. Let’s hope our effort is easier – she didn’t have the city advocating for her as we do, and the effort took years.

She showed an interesting map which I hope to post here that showed how the prevalence of billboards in an urban area is greater as the income level of the community declines. These companies target marginalized neighborhoods. The richer the neighborhood the fewer the billboards.

Ajia Meux from North Capitol Collaborative came to tell us about the work her organization is doing.  However, time ran short and she didn’t get to speak. I’ll be posting material from her as I get it.  Ajia said she’s a rep now for our association, so we’ll be seeing more of her.

Richard Norwood, our liaison from the Mayor’s Office, spoke very briefly to tell us that the mayor will be doing a walk through in the community on November 9 at 3.30 PM and will begin at First and Florida Ave.

Finally, the meeting ended with a talk about how the BACA should address disagreements among members. It was stated that before an issue is subject to debate on the blog – when it is a contentious issue that has potential for miscommunication or when the BACA has taken a position on an issue but there is still internal dissension – that the issue should be addressed at the BACA meeting in a personal forum before it is transmitted via this blog.  Guidelines about the blog should be more clearly understood before people are allowed to post.

This blog is going through growing pains, as is our neighborhood and our civic association.