Bates Area Civic Association

See this short-and-sweet report by Washington City Paper Housing Complex reporter Lydia DePillis on YouthBuild Public Charter School’s recent Request for Expressions of Interest (REI) for a partner to develop the upper floors of the JF Cook School.

So are Bates area residents the bad guys here? What do you think?

No Movement on the Horizon for J.F. Cook School
Posted by Lydia DePillis on Oct. 3, 2011 at 7:28 am
http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/housingcomplex/2011/10/03/no-movement-on-the-horizon-for-j-f-cook/

For a second there, it looked like Youthbuild public charter school was about to start making progress again on its plan to make use of the vacant J.F. Cook School in Truxton Circle after neighborhood protest killed the participation of the Latin American Youth Center, which brought millions of dollars worth of funding from various sources to house at-risk youth. Now, they`re back to the drawing board yet again: Nobody responded to Youthbuild`s new request for expressions of interest in partnering to redevelop the school, and Youthbuild doesn`t have the capital necessary to renovate the place on their own, meaning potentially years of uncertainty before anything happens at the site.

The Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education hasn`t made clear their intentions for the building; they could just decide to throw the school back out to bid. But local Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners` refusal to consider any housing or social services narrows the options quite a bit.

I hope they`re happy.
++++
P.S. Be sure to click on the washingoncitypaper.com link above and read the comments posted …