The Post is running a story today about other District communities disappointed by the ongoing parks feud between the Council and the mayor.  The disappointment appears to be widespread:

In interviews with advocates from Chevy Chase to Woodland Terrace to U Street, most activists said they oppose the delays. “They’ll be fighting, and our kids and residents are suffering,” [Football coach Steve] Zanders said.

And some are accusing the Council of feigning surprise:

Willie Ross, a Ward 7 Advisory Neighborhood Commission member, said the contracts must be investigated, but the council should have been more vigilant about its initial oversight. He said that some members attended groundbreakings with the mayor for projects that are now under scrutiny.

Whoops!

In our casual search of LeDroit Park’s history, we occasionally come across interesting tidbits in the most unexpected places.

A 1908 issue of The World To-Day, a self-described “monthly record of human progress”, featured an article on the breadth of professions and positions held by blacks in Washington at the time.  The article featured a photo of the U Street, looking east from 5th Street.  We have provided the original photo as well as a photo taken in the same perspective last week.

Ever since air conditioning, window shutters have never been as popular as they used to be.

Your author spent this evening in the Washingtoniana Division of the MLK Library researching the original building permit for his 1908 house.  Afterward, he browsed the Washington Post archives and came across several interesting articles, including the one transcribed below.

Though the streets, sidewalks, gas lines, water lines, and sewers of LeDroit Park were privately built, maintaining such infrastructure is costly for a private developer.  These utilities are usually conveyed to the municipality if build to the municipality’s code.  LeDroit’s developer, Amzi Barber, tried to unload the streets and utilities to the city, but the District Commissioners, probably upset over Barber’s off-kilter street grid, refused to accept the titles.  Recall that at this point, LeDroit Park was still a gated community closed off to visitors.

DISTRICT GOVERNMENT MATTERS
The Commissioners Do No Want the Streets in LeDroit Park
The Washington Post
January 7, 1886

The Commissioners having recently decided that they could not entertain any proposition to build sewers in the streets of LeDroit Park, because the streets were private property, Messrs. A. L. Barber, David McClelland and others presented the District with titles to the streets.  The Commissioners have decided, however, that the streets as now platted are not such as conform to the street system of Washington and its extension beyond the present boundaries of the city, and until such conformity is established it would appear to the interests of the District that title to these streets should remain where it is now, and that the District should refrain from assuming any responsibility or expense that would attach to them acceptance to public streets.  Therefore the deeds submitted by the gentlemen named have been returned.

The DC Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) is selling the vacant house at 475 Florida Ave NW (corner of 5th St and Florida Ave). The house is a wreck and if you glance closely at the second story windows, you can see that part of the roof has fallen in. Even still, the brick façade is a gem and with $250,000 (and probably more) in work, the place could be livable again.

A timely renovation is a requirement of the sale, per DHCD rules. This requirement ensures that the buyer will actually renovate the place rather than letting it sit as an eyesore and community nuisance.

The list price is $225,000 and all offers are due by 5:00 pm on Friday, February 5, 2010.

h/t: UrbanTurf

Now for some photos:

Yesterday’s Council hearing, one in a series on the parks debacle, revealed an expedited (but opaque) process for awarding park renovation contracts.  The Housing Authority issued a Request for Qualifications (RFQ), which simply determines which companies have the ability and experience to bid on the final contract.  An RFQ saves time by eliminating groups who do not have the ability to follow through on a project.

The second step is supposed to be a Request for Proposals (RFP), in which the qualified bidders submit cost estimates and designs.  The submitted proposals are what the city government and public review and debate until a final selection is made.

In response to the RFQ, a five-member panel composed of officials from the Housing Authority and mayor’s office selected Banneker Ventures, a firm owned by a close friend of the mayor, from among 13 applicants.  Recall that this step is merely supposed to determine who is qualified to proceed to the next step to bid on a contract.

Well, the administration decided it should end there and, after selecting Banneker as qualified, did not issue an RFP and just handed the $82 million in renovation work to Banneker to manage.  Banneker was awarded $4.2 million to manage the work to be performed largely by other firms.

None of this was done with Council approval, as required by law, and on Tuesday the Council voted on emergency legislation to restrict funneling of park money through the Housing Authority and to require the Housing Authority to notify the Council of all contracts above $75,000.

Voting Yes:

• Yvette Alexander
• Marion Barry
• Kwame Brown
• David Catania
• Mary Cheh
• Vincent Gray
• Michael Brown
• Phil Mendelson
• Harry Thomas
• Tommy Wells

Voting No:

• Muriel Bowser
• Jack Evans
• Jim Graham (who represents LeDroit Park)

We’re a week late on the news, but on October 28 President Obama awarded a Congressional Gold Medal to LeDroit Park native son the former Republican Senator from Massachusetts Edward William Brooke III.

Though he grew up here in LeDroit Park (at 1938 Third Street, NW), Sen. Brooke represented Massachusetts for two terms, from 1967 to 1979, and was a strong supporter of civil rights laws.  He co-authored the 1968 Fair Housing Act, the first Federal housing law (with teeth) to prohibit various forms of housing discrimination.

Speaking of fair-housing policies, in 1948 the Supreme Court ruled that restrictive covenants (restricting home sales on account of race and religion) were illegal.  At issue in the case, Hurd v. Hodges, was the purchase of 116 Bryant Street, NW, in Bloomingdale.

The Post reports that Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr. (D – Ward 5) will introduce a bill later today to prohibit the CFO from transferring any money to the Housing Authority, which is responsible for the construction of the new park in LeDroit Park, for 90 days.

Mr. Thomas believes the contracting improprieties warrant delaying the projects.  The Post writes:

Thomas, chairman of the Committee on Libraries, Parks and Recreation, said the council’s oversight powers supersede concerns about delaying construction of the recreation facilities.

“This is just government at its worst,” he said. “We can’t get caught up in the fact that neighborhoods have been promised things.”

Expect delays.

The Kennedeys, civil rights, the Beltway, riots, suburbanization.  All this and more will be covered tonight on PBS’s one-hour special, Washington in the ’60s.

Washington in the ’60s airs tonight on WETA (channel 26) at 9 pm.

On Friday the City Council held a joint hearing on the contracting dispute that has now ensnared the forthcoming park in LeDroit Park. The Post reported that Councilmember David Catania (I – at large) insisted the contracts are illegal, but Attorney General Peter Nickles (a Fenty appointee, we should note) insisted the contrary.

Our own ANC Commissioner Myla Moss (ANC1B01) submitted testimony on behalf of the neighborhood and the LeDroit Park Civic Association imploring the Council not to delay park construction. She noted in her testimony that the park design was the product of a transparent and exhaustive community process that developed a plan that is both affordable and popular in the neighborhood.  She further noted that the park plan had been discussed with several members of the mayor’s cabinet and with Councilmembers Jim Graham (D – Ward 1) and Harry Thomas, Jr. (D – Ward 5); the park plan was no surprise.

At the previous LeDroit Park Civic Association meeting, Mr. Graham noted that the Council had specifically set aside money for the project.

There’s still no word on what will happen next, but we certainly hope that certain members of the Council do not take the matter to court; litigation could delay the project for at least a year, if not several. Rebidding the contracts, we have heard, could delay construction by several months.

Alternatively, the Council could simply review the contracts as the law demands and approve the current plan (at least for our park and for other parks that have significant popular backing). We see this as unlikely since this would require the mayor to admit that his administration broke the law and it would require Mr. Nickles to backtrack on his current position that the contracts are legal.

It is also possible that the mayor and Council could come to some sort of lawful agreement to let work continue without delay. We hope the last option prevails and we suspect certain member of the Council are working to that solution; Mr. Graham is well aware of his constituents’ justified impatience.

One last thing: we thank Ms. Moss and the Civic Association leaders for their testimony.  This sort of advocacy requires a significant personal commitment of time and energy.

With some careful consideration of DDOT’s proposed streetcar system, we suggest one alteration regarding the Rhode Island Avenue route.  DDOT would prefer to run the purple route all the way down Rhode Island Avenue from P.G. County to Florida Avenue (at the edge of LeDroit Park), at which point it would follow Florida Avenue northwest to U Street, then down 14th Street to K Street.

We suggest that DDOT study placing the route entirely along Rhode Island Avenue all the way to downtown.  Rhode Island Avenue empties out onto M Street, which the route would follow onto New Hampshire Avenue and then to Washington Circle in Foggy Bottom, where it could turn back.

Our proposed route has several advantages:

• It’s more intuitive. Rather than zig-zagging from Rhode Island Avenue to Florida Avenue to U Street then to 14th Street, then to K Street, the proposed route would simply follow Rhode Island Avenue all the way downtown.  In fact, the route would become synonymous with the avenue, which is well known in the city and P.G. County as one of the main arteries.  Riders familiar with the city but unfamiliar with the map will know exactly where the line goes.
• It avoids congestion on Florida Avenue. The 400, 500, and 600 blocks of Florida Avenue NW, on the edge of LeDroit Park, are frequently congested even during non-rush hour periods.  Avoiding this section of road will reduce delays on the line.
• It’s more direct. DDOT’s route would take inbound passengers southwest along Rhode Island Avenue, and then northwest at Florida Avenue.  Our alignment cuts the distance from LeDroit Park to Washington Circle by 29% (2.0 miles versus 2.8 miles).
• It’s more central to Shaw. The proposed route passes closer to the center of the Shaw neighborhood and passes by the Metrorail station entrance at 7th Street and R Street on Rhode Island Avenue.  DDOT’s alignment passes on the edge of Shaw and two blocks from the Metrorail entrance.
• It provides more redundancy downtown.  In the event of a closure of the K Street Transitway (for an accident, vehicle breakdown, street protest, etc.) anywhere from Washington Circle to 14th Street, the proposed route provides a parallel set of tracks just a few blocks away allowing a quick diversion around the trouble spot.

This proposal will not reduce coverage at all, since the route we suggest eliminating is already covered by at least one other proposed line.

The map below illustrates the difference.  Click the buttons to switch between the DDOT proposal and the DDOT proposal with our amendment.

DDOT proposal Left for LeDroit Amendment

Download an image of our proposal.