[from Adrian Fenty's online newsletter]
- I am very pleased that a District/Federal partnership will allow a $9 million renovation of the Petworth Branch Library during fiscal year 2007.
- NCRC has selected the Jair Lynch Company to develop a neighborhood-oriented retail development at 3910 Georgia Avenue in Petworth.
- The Armed Forces Retirement Home Draft Master Plan is available for download (as a 94-page PDF file) through this link. I testified against the draft plan before the Historic Preservation Review Board and the National Capital Planning Commission. Click here to read my testimony.
- The Lofts at Brightwood, a condominium project at the old Ibex building under construction by the Neighborhood Development Corporation, is on schedule to open this Fall, complete with a sit-down restaurant.
- Two charter schools are expected to move from Ward 1. The Academy Bilingual (ABC) Public Charter School, currently at 15th Street and Columbia Road NW, is moving to 209 Upshur Street NW, and the Latin American Youth Center's Youth Build Public Charter School (Adult Ed), currently at 14th Street and Columbia Road NW, is moving to the top floor of 4110 Kansas Avenue NW. I will share more information on these developments as I receive it.
Sorry, I forgot how to access this website, so I'm piggybacking on Cmember Fenty's newsletter insert.
Saw this article in Today's (4.13.06) WPost Metro section... hmmm, could this model work for us on a modified scale? Your thoughts...
Cleanup Team to Be Revived
$350,000 Program Will Focus on U Street and Shaw Areas
By Theola S. Labbe
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 13, 2006; DZ03
A $350,000 project approved by the D.C. Council last week will hire and train homeless and low-income District residents to clean the U Street corridor and Shaw neighborhoods in Northwest Washington.
The Green Team, a program that started in 2003 but ended in 2004 after funding ran out, will work from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day, including weekends, cleaning up trash, pulling weeds from tree boxes and painting over graffiti. Workers also will be trained in local history so they can act as ambassadors to visitors and residents wanting more information about the neighborhood.
The money is for one-time use during this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. The groups involved in planning the project are the Columbia Heights/Shaw Family Support Collaborative; the Coalition for the Homeless, which manages 13 homeless programs in the District; Shaw Main Streets Inc.; and the MidCity Business Association. In the coming weeks, the planners will decide the structure and scope of the program, including how many workers to hire.
"This means jobs for the homeless and a cleaner neighborhood," said Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), who requested the funds from the council. The Green Team was part of a council resolution approving $2.7 million in projects for Ward 1.
Graham said the project is similar to a business improvement district but without the extra taxes on businesses for additional services. Graham said the project highlights the need for a business improvement district in the U Street corridor and Shaw areas; districts exist in places such as downtown, Capitol Hill, Mount Vernon Square and, most recently, Adams Morgan. Under a business improvement district (BID), commercial businesses create a nonprofit organization funded by imposing a self-tax to pay for extra services and programs to promote the designated business area.
Scott Pomeroy, development officer of the MidCity Business Association, said the more than 100 members had identified neighborhood cleanliness as a top priority. They do not, however, want to follow the traditional improvement district model, because of the additional tax.
Pomeroy said there are more than 400 businesses in the U Street area, including trendy boutiques and ethnic restaurants, wholly different from the larger commercial businesses in other areas in the city that have BIDs. "We're trying be creative with this program so everyone can benefit without putting a new burden on businesses," he said.
The U Street corridor, once known as Black Broadway because it drew such performers as Duke Ellington and Pearl Bailey, has taken decades to recover from the 1968 riots following the death of Martin Luther King Jr. It now attracts thousands of shoppers and visitors and new residents buying condominiums priced at more than $300,000.
The Green Team will also work in the Shaw Main Streets area, which is defined as Seventh to Ninth streets between K Street and Florida Avenue NW. In addition to the blocks of rowhouses, eateries and boutiques, there are several places there of historical importance, including the Howard Theatre and the home of black historian and scholar Carter G. Woodson.
Alexander Padro, executive director of Shaw Main Streets Inc., said residents and business owners are concerned about trash on the streets and illegal dumping, but he added: "There's a limit to what the Department of Public Works can do."
Padro also theorized the Green Team will help neighborhood safety: "If you have a block that is clean and well lit and people are walking up and down, that's going to make the neighborhood a lot safer," he said.
The program is committed to hiring local residents. "We are looking for the unemployed and underemployed and homeless," Padro said, "so we can walk the talk and help to lift up neighborhood residents."
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
Posted by: Jean Asher | April 13, 2006 at 04:04 PM