Bates Area Civic Association

 

ANC 5C 01 REPORT TO THE BATES AREA CIVIC ASSOCIATION

 

JUNE 6, 2011

The following is a recap of activities in Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) 5C generally, and our Single Member District (SMD) ANC5C01 in particular, since May 2, 2011:

ANC 5C MAY MEETING

The last meeting of the ANC took place on Tuesday, May 17, 2011, at the Beacon House at Edgewood Terrace. All eleven sitting commissioners of ANC5C were present and a special election was conducted during the meeting to fill the vacancy on the Commission for the representative for Single Member District 5C08. The two candidates for the position were Heather Deutsch of 320 Bryant Street, N.E., and Marshall Phillips, Sr., of 336 Channing Street, N.E. 73 ballots were cast and Mr. Phillips prevailed by a vote of 43 to 30 and was sworn in as Commissioner for ANC5C08.

The ANC voted to defer proposals from the Executive Committee regarding financial control measures until the Grants and Finance Committee has completed its review and reported its final findings. The creation of a special D.C. Statehood Committee was approved without opposition. I promoted the July Fourth Frolicking Family Fun Festival, asking for and receiving several volunteers from among the citizens in attendance. The Commission then entertained community concerns ranging from the on-going Walmart controversy, to speed bumps in the 100 block of V Street NE, to children’s summer basketball, to grid lock at New York Ave. and First St., NW.

Councilmember Harry Thomas, Jr., spoke about anti-bullying legislation he recently introduced and reported on progress on the McMillan Reservoir and Rhode Island Avenue economic development projects. He also mentioned that the Council is expected to release its redistricting recommendation at the end of May. Commissioner Tim Clark announced the lifting of the moratorium on processing of grant application and on my motion, a special meeting was scheduled for May 31, 2011, to consider urgent grant requests. That meeting was held as scheduled and five grants, totaling over $26,000.00, were approved.

MAY 4, 2011 MEETINGS

Wednesday, May 4^th was a whirlwind day of meetings. At 5:00 pm, I attended a meeting at Dunbar High School on the school’s modernization project. Lead architect Matthew J. Bell displayed the drawings of the new building and emphasized the new traffic pattern, parking facilities, roof solar panels and open spaces incorporated into the design. By 6:15 pm, I was at the Jair Lynch Development Partners Offices on U Street, NW, for a meeting of stakeholders in the McMillan Reservoir Project. It was explained that the plan calls for eight stages; 1) sourcing, 2) pursuit, 3) design & pre-development, 4) permitting & sales, 5) financing, 6) construction, 7) occupancy & settlements and 8) closeout. Finally, at about 8:00 pm I attended Mayor Gray’s budget briefing for Ward 5. It was the fourth of eight scheduled briefings the mayor conducted to give residents of each ward an opportunity to hear and be heard regarding the city administration’s 2011-2012 budget development process.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

On Saturday, May 7, 2011, the Economic Development Committee of ANC5C held a screening of the film “Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price.”

The event took place at McKinley Technology High School. It was sparsely attended but in the open forum which followed the showing of the film, it was clear that those in attendance were solidly opposed to Walmart’s plan to open four stores within the District of Columbia.

REDISTRICTING MEETING

Councilmember Harry Thomas, Jr., conducted a Town Hall Meeting in the CAPCS auditorium on Thursday, May 19, 2011. He explained that by law, the District of Columbia is required to divide its population roughly equally among its eight wards. Due to a city population increase of 30,000 over the last ten years, and the disproportionate growth of Ward 2, the city is required to realign its wards to decrease the population of Ward 2 and increase the populations of Wards 7 and 8. Mr. Thomas said that he will advocate for no changes to the Ward 5 boundaries since our ward is within the margin of error for the ideal ward population. He also acknowledged that the U.S. Census Bureau has determined that the center of population for D.C. is 222 Bates Street, NW. He committed to introduce a resolution before the Council to officially commemorate that spot, located in our SMD, and to support some kind of ceremonial recognition at that address.

FAMILY FUN FESTIVAL

Planning is underway for a July 4th Frolicking Family Fun Festival on the grounds of McKinley High School. To date, two conference call meetings have been conducted with a third planned for this Thursday at 7 pm to consider newly revealed logistical obstacles that may cause us to rethink the event. Contact me if you wish to be in on the call.

ADVISORY CABINET

Saturday, May 28^th, we held the fourth meeting of the newly formed Advisory Cabinet of ANC 5C 01 at the home of Geovani Bonilla. There was a great deal of discussion about the impact of S.O.M.E. (So Others May Eat) on the quality of life in our neighborhood. It was agreed that we would consciously monitor concerns and bring those issues to the attention of the organization’s sponsors if S.O.M.E. is not responsive to neighbors’ demands for improvement. The other hot topic of discussion was the name of the neighborhood. Jennifer Ragins made an impassioned and well documented case that the historic and geographically accurate name of our community is Dunbar-Shaw. The more recent name of Truxton Circle, she argued, is both misleading and honors an ante-bellum landholder who was a slaveholder.

WRAP-UP

The next meeting of ANC5C is scheduled for 7 pm on Tuesday, June 21^st, location to be announced. As always, B.A.C.A. members are encouraged to attend.

That’s my report.

Bradley A. Thomas

(202) 670-0151

5C01@anc.dc.gov