Check your registration: Confirm your registration to make sure your ballot goes to the right address. You can check your registration online. The Board of Elections also recently mailed postcards to registered voters. If the information on yours was correct, you’re all set. If you need to change anything on that postcard, fill it out, fold it, tape it and mail it back.
Register to vote: If you are not registered to vote, visit the DC Board of Elections website to find out how to register. You can also register or update your registration if you go to vote in-person, which is called “same-day registration.”
Vote by mail or ballot drop box: When you receive your ballot in the mail, you can fill it out and return it by mail. Read all the instructions carefully to make sure you fill out everything required and send it back by the deadline. If you prefer, instead of mailing it back, you can drop it in a secure ballot drop box. In Lamond-Riggs, there will be drop boxes at UDC-CC Backus (5171 South Dakota Avenue NE) and the Lamond Recreation Center (20 Tuckerman Street NE). Any voter can use any drop box location.
Voting in person and early voting: If you prefer to vote in person, you can visit a vote center on Election Day, November 3. The vote centers in Lamond-Riggs will be at UDC-CC Backus (5171 South Dakota Avenue NE), the Lamond Recreation Center (20 Tuckerman Street NE), and LaSalle-Backus Education Campus (501 Riggs Road NE).
You can also vote early starting October 27. The closest early voting sites to Lamond-Riggs will be at Ida B. Wells Middle School (405 Sheridan Street NW), Emery Heights Community Center (5801 Georgia Avenue NW), and Turkey Thicket Recreation Center (1100 Michigan Avenue NE).
For more information: Check with the DC Board of Elections for updates or if you have questions. Their website is https://www.dcboe.org and their phone number is (202) 727-2525. Remember that in-person lines and telephone wait times can be long on Election Day, so make your voting plan in advance if possible.
Workers needed: Looking to make some extra money and serve your community? The Board of Elections is hiring election day workers. If you’re 16 or older and a DC resident, you can be an election day worker! Apply online or find more information here.
Catching up on some older news. Earlier this month, Riggs Park had a cameo on an episode of House Hunters on HGTV. An engaged couple looking for more space looked at three homes during the episode. Residents might notice the second home is near the Riggs-LaSalle Recreation Center. The caption on the home says it is in Queens Chapel area (probably because that is what Google maps calls part of the neighborhood), but the house hunter calls the neighborhood Riggs Park. Check it out.
I am reposting Advisory Neighborhood Commission 4B’s call for applicants for the Commission’s new Housing Justice Committee. The chair of the committee wants to make sure that the committee is representative of the entire ANC. To that end, they are especially interested in receiving applications from residents in Riggs Park on the Ward 4 side of the community (Single Member Districts 4B08 and 4B09).
The resolution establishing the committee describes the committee’s work as follows:
The Committee’s work shall include (1) considering proposed developments within the Commission’s boundaries for purposes of determining how best to maximize affordable housing, including deeply affordable housing; (2) analyzing and providing feedback on proposed legislation and policy affecting affordable housing and homelessness with a goal of increasing and expanding deeply affordable housing; and (3) hosting and supporting educational events on topics related to affordable housing and homelessness.
Below is the initial call for applications with information about how to apply. The application deadline is August 31, 2020.
The Commission is seeking applicants for Committee membership. You must be a resident or businessowner within the Commission’s boundaries to be a member. Check if you reside within the Commission’s boundaries here: https://anc4b.com/about-the-anc/.
If you are interested in serving as a member of the Committee, please send a statement of interest, including any relevant experience, by August 31. The Commission will not be monitoring responses to the listservs. Please send any statements of interest directly to the Chair of the Committee, Commissioner Erin Palmer (4B02), at 4B02@anc.dc.gov.
Below is what I shared with the Department of Parks and Recreation regarding my comments on the new playground proposed for the Riggs-LaSalle Recreation Center. I encourage other community members to directly share their feedback with Peter.Nohrden@dc.gov. Feel free and share your thoughts in the comments section too.
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Good day Mr. Nohrden,
Thank you for meeting with members of the larger Lamond-Riggs community on Wednesday, August 19, 2020, to discuss the plans for the new playground located at Riggs-LaSalle Recreation Center. I appreciated hearing about the plans under consideration and your willingness to encompass feedback from the community. As noted in the Upper Northeast element of the District’s Comprehensive Plan, “…much of Upper Northeast is starved for public parkland. More active recreational areas, playgrounds, athletic fields, and traditional neighborhood parks are needed.” So, this community discussion and project are welcomed.
I support the new playground project. Anything that gets our kids and families outside, playing in the fresh air, the better in my opinion. As requested during the meeting, please find below some additional thoughts for consideration.
· Link the new playground with the existing splash park and other amenities in the existing play space. A safe passage between the two sites will be a vast improvement to ensure children and families do not need to dodge vehicles in the parking lot just because they want to play.
· Install as much native landscaping as possible, with minimal sod grass, at the site, including markers indicating what plant species are present. This could make for a great learning tool informing the community about the flora all around them. More information about the landscaping plan in future meetings would be appreciated.
· Clearly display the hours of operation for the playground on a visually appealing sign
· Prefer the swing set over the zipline as it would allow more opportunities for children to play
· Ensure the design of the new playground is one that is aesthetically pleasing and blends into the natural environment and neighborhood whenever and wherever possible. This could include choosing earth tone colors, public art, using building materials which are more environmentally friendly and long-lasting, as well as removal of unsightly existing structures and tall chain-linked fencing.
For your reference, the desire and need for a new playground has been a topic of interest in the community for many years. I personally have heard the issue raised at various community meetings, directly to city officials (go to 42 minutes in the recording of this LRCA meeting with Mayor Bowser in February 2018), and while chatting with neighbors. Moreover, the 2009 Small Area Development plan for our neighborhood called for more active recreation, such as playgrounds or trails. Though that specific recommendation was to work with the U.S. National Park Service, it is quite applicable for working with the District’s Department of Parks and Recreation too. As a testament to the community’s interest, below is a sampling of what was shared on our public neighborhood listserv in support of the new playground:
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Again, I appreciate your willingness to work with the Riggs Park community on this project to ensure we have the best playground possible that meets the community’s needs. To paraphrase from the 2004 Play D.C. master plan,
Our legacy of parks provides an extraordinary foundation and we owe it not only to our predecessors, but to our current and future residents to capitalize on and fully realize our rich heritage. We must continually invest in, and improve our existing parks and recreation centers citywide to provide quality and equity of service…we must strengthen the connections between parks and neighborhoods, and residents and their communities.
I encourage the Department of Parks and Recreation to send updates on this project, including future meeting announcements, directly to the neighborhood list serv to ensure as many residents are made aware as possible. Emails may be sent to lamond-riggs-community@googlegroups.com. I’m also willing to forward messages directly to the group on your behalf.
On August 19, 2020, the DC Department of Parks & Recreation and Department of General Services held an initial community meeting about a new playground that will be built at Riggs-LaSalle Recreation Center. The rec center is located at 501 Riggs Road NE at the corner of Nicholson Street NE. The playground would be built on the Nicholson Street side of the rec.
The project website is https://dgs.dc.gov/riggs-lasalle. The presentation has not been placed on the website just yet, but a resident kindly passed along screenshots that I have placed below. (Update: The presentation is now on the project website at https://dgs.dc.gov/riggs-lasalle). If you have an interest in this project, please send comments to the project manager Peter Nohrden at peter.nohrden@dc.gov. Officials hope to start construction in fall 2020 with completion anticipated late 2020/early 2021. They have asked that people send comments in the next two weeks, so please send comments as soon as possible.
I suggest that people take pictures of things at other playgrounds that they really like and send that with their comments. This new playground will be limited by space and budget. The footprint they are working with is only 5,000 square feet, so there is not a ton of space for a vast array of playground equipment. The budget is only $550,000. The rec would really need (and could benefit from) a full redesign and layout to really have a larger, cohesive play space, and that is just not going to happen at this point.
Features of the proposed playground
A play area for 2 to 5 year olds and a play area for 5 to 12 year olds. There is an Option A and an Option B for both so let officials know if you feel strongly about either option.
New signage
Shade trees and low maintenance landscaping
A couple of benches oriented towards the play structures so that parents/guardians can keep an eye on their children and socialize
Swing set with one toddler swing and two regular size swings
Optional drinking fountain with bottle filler
The playground would be ADA accessible
The playground would be open 7 days/week and open to the public during school hours
A few suggestions raised during the community meeting
Some initial comments from residents who attended the meeting:
Connect the new playground to the existing playground with a pathway
Connect the new playground to the existing splash pad so that children do not have to cross an active driveway to go back and forth between the two
Keep the existing playground open to the community. The existing playground is open to the community during non-school hours when school is in session.
Supplement the existing playground with different items at the new playground so that children have more play structures.
Remove or relocate the shipping containers on the field to increase the amount of space for a playground. These containers apparently have been used to store equipment for the football team, but it is not clear if the team needs that storage space. The project team is discussing that with the rec center staff.
Remove the batting cages to increase the amount of space for a playground. Some residents seem to believe that the batting cages are not used. I believe they are used by baseball/softball teams, but I do not know for sure. Other residents stated they would like the batting cages to remain.
Have more sitting areas for parents/guardians
Include the drinking fountain
Several residents expressed a desire for a walking path/track at the rec. DPR officials noted this is a longstanding desire, but noted the layout of the field make installation of a walking track difficult and doing a a full scale redesign of the field is cost-prohibitive at this time.
Have a security plan in place
A few concerns & a little background
One of the big concerns that came up even before the meeting and one that has existed with the existing playground is safety. I mentioned in this post that the community worked for several years to get the existing playground opened back up to the community. It was finally reopened in June/July 2019. I did not go into all of the drama of getting that playground reopened.
The existing playground had been closed to the public for at least 8 years that I know of, but I am pretty sure it was closed for a longer period of time. The official reason we were given for its closure to the public was that it belonged to the school next door, LaSalle-Backus Education Campus. I served as president of the Lamond-Riggs Citizens Association (LRCA) from June 2017 to June 2019. We held a public meeting in February 2018 with members of Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Cabinet. I asked parents to attend that meeting to ask the mayor about opening the playground to the public. In response to questions, the mayor stated that it should be open and that she did not know why it was closed. We let DC officials know that we were pretty sure the playground belonged to DPR not DCPS. [Note: At the same time, we were also working to get funding for a new playground because there was not a playground open to the public in the neighborhood at all. We did get a commitment for funding.]
There was a scramble with DPR, DGS, and DCPS doing research, and they eventually determined that the playground actually belonged to DPR and that the school had first right of use. The school would have exclusive use during school hours, and the school would be responsible for cleaning and maintenance of the playground during school hours. During non-school hours and on the weekends, the playground would be open to the public and DGS would be responsible for cleaning and maintenance. In order to open the playground to the public, DGS had to install an ADA ramp and a second entrance. So all of that was done and the playground was reopened to the public last summer.
Unofficially, many residents believe the playground was closed for so long because of safety reasons. I spoke with MPD officers who stated that they thought the playground was in a poor location, basically sitting in a valley behind a tall chain link fence, making it difficult for officers patrolling to see the playground from Riggs Road. DPR officials have said the same. Likewise, the playground could not be seen by officers patrolling on Nicholson Street because the playground sits behind the rec center. The playground was built years before the rec center. When the rec center was built, it was constructed with its back side facing the playground. That layout made it difficult for rec center staff to monitor the playground. As part of the reopening, DGS installed cameras on the back side of the building.
But really the issue is that the playground has been around for decades, so it was there during the crack epidemic. All sorts of things took place on the playground and kids were returning to school finding things they should not be finding on a playground. There are hot blocks in the neighborhood. Over time, the area around the rec became one of the hot spots. One would think people would not do antisocial, anti-community things around an elementary school and community recreation center that community residents lobbied to have built, but here we are.
So now the current president of LRCA, Rodney Foxworth, is objecting to a new playground on the pretense of public safety concerns and that “the community” was not notified. Public safety is a legitimate concern, but it is also a concern that exists regardless of whether this new playground gets built, as I noted above. The new playground would face Nicholson Street and would be visible from the street. DPR reached out to the ANC commissioner for that area ANC Commissioner LaRoya Huff (4B09) to do a site visit and talk about plans for the playground. Ms. Huff is also a current officer on the board of the LRCA. She is also a staffer for Ward 4 Councilmember Brandon Todd.
I will go ahead and say it. One of the frustrating things about this conversation for me is that the loudest voices citing public safety concerns and problems with “process” are the ones who love to talk about how long they have lived in the neighborhood and they love to behave in an unwelcome manner to anyone who was not raised in the neighborhood or who moved into the neighborhood in the last 10 years. The people engaging in anti-community behavior near the rec are not strangers. They are people that long-time residents know. They grew up here. They are friends and relatives of long-time neighbors.
This notion that we should not have anything in this neighborhood because it will just get messed up is a hopelessness and fiction that I just cannot abide. Yes, we need to have a plan in place for making sure the playground stays clean and the equipment is not destroyed. That plan should already be in place for the existing playground. Yes, we should be realistic about the fact that prior to COVID-19, certain people liked to congregate in front of the rec and on the side of the building out of view of the cameras and engage in anti-community behavior. We should also tell the truth that they were permitted to do so. We do not actually have to just shrug and say welp when we see our own neighbors using a community space in ways making it difficult for that space to be used for its intended use, but that is what has been happening. We do not actually have to just shrug and say welp when long-time neighbors know the people responsible for the few shootings that have happened near the rec.
Last summer a few residents (not the loudest voices) and a DC government employee started a program working with some of the youth who would hang out at the rec, and that program was very promising. That is the type of work that we should be championing and expanding. There is a new Friends of Riggs-LaSalle Rec that is in the process of standing up. Once that organization is fully stood up, hopefully it will be an avenue to support this community space. Bottom line, I hope that as neighbors we actually do the work and work together to have the community we want.
Remember to send any comments about the proposed playground to Peter Nohrden at peter.nohrden@dc.gov.
The District Department of Transportation is conducting a survey on its Slow Streets initiative. Slow streets are limited to local traffic only and the speed limit is 15 mph to facilitate neighborhood-based social distancing while walking, running, and cycling. If you have an interest in this initiative and want slow streets where you live, be sure to fill out the survey.
View of fenced-off Lamond-Riggs Library at 5401 South Dakota Avenue NE awaiting demolition and rebuild. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the interim library at 395 Ingraham Street NE has not opened.Please visit the library’s website at https://www.dclibrary.org/ for the latest information on which locations are open, what services are available, hours, and virtual offerings.
Art Place at Fort Totten Phase Two
Raze of former Riggs Plaza Apartments on 4th Street NE between Ingraham and Kennedy Street. Photo credit: Robert Oliver
View of Riggs Park Place signage from South Dakota Avenue and Riggs Road NE. Preconstruction meeting took place on August 14. Expect to see more activity in next couple of weeks. Photo credit: Tom Budinger.
As previously noted, a new playground will be built at Riggs-LaSalle Recreation Center on the Nicholson Street NE side of the center. There will be a virtual community meeting on August 19, 2020. Please plan to attend to learn about the scope of the project and timeline and to get your questions answered.
Riggs-LaSalle Recreation Center Playground Community Meeting August 19, 2020 6:00 pm-7:00 pm Hosted by DC Department of Parks & Recreation
The Commission is seeking applicants for Committee membership. You must be a resident or businessowner within the Commission’s boundaries to be a member. Check if you reside within the Commission’s boundaries here: https://anc4b.com/about-the-anc/.
If you are interested in serving as a member of the Committee, please send a statement of interest, including any relevant experience, by August 31. The Commission will not be monitoring responses to the listservs. Please send any statements of interest directly to the Chair of the Committee, Commissioner Erin Palmer (4B02), at 4B02@anc.dc.gov.
View of trail under construction from Galloway Street NE
As expected, the National Park Service has completely fenced off the path that was under construction between Gallatin and Galloway Street NE to formally connect North Michigan Park to Fort Totten Metro Station. NPS is still assessing next steps after finding an unexploded ordnance shortly after construction began. NPS expected construction to take no more than 120 days, but this latest development makes the timeline unclear.
Neighbors, do not be alarmed if you see a white utility vehicle and individuals in safety vests and hardhats prowling your alley. They are a roving inspection team responsible for evaluating the sturdiness of the wooden utility poles. A repair team will follow and perform the work needed based upon the information collected. This may include wrapping the pole in a steel mesh, according to one of the utility team members.
Next Stop...Riggs Park 