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.
On June 29, 2020, the DC Public Charter School Board (DCPCSB) voted to fully approve a 15-year charter for the Social Justice School, effective July 1, 2020. School officials have attended several ANC 5A meetings over the past year to inform residents about plans. The school will be located at 5450 3rd Street NE. The school has a three year lease agreement with Rocketship Public Charter School to co-locate at the site, with a one-year option to extend. Construction to renovate the old warehouses at this location to house school facilities is ongoing.
According to documents on file, Social Justice School will operate a middle school serving grades 5 through 8. For its first year of operation in school year 2020-2021, the school has a target enrollment of 65 students–maximum 75 students–in grades 5 and 6. Its goal is to grow the student population to a total of 300 students in grades 5 through 8 by school year 2023-2024. On June 16, 2020, the day after the school enrollment deadline, the school had 41 enrolled students. Because enrollment lags target, the DCPCSB required the school to develop a contingency budget. See the contingency budget here and the contingency budget narrative here. The DCPCSB determined that the school will be financially viable with an enrollment of 41 students and that the school will have sufficient resources to deliver its programs:
Based on the review of the contingency budget, DC PCSB staff concludes that, at an enrollment of 41 students: ● The school will be financially viable. The budget shows a positive net income of $59,558 and 112 days of cash on hand. To help offset decreased revenue, Social Justice PCS has secured a $500,000 credit enhancement from the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) and a $250,000 loan from CityBridge for facilities-related costs if required. Also, NewSchools Venture Fund has promised an additional $160,000-grant pending its full charter approval (see Attachment B). ● The school will have sufficient resources to deliver its program. The budget maintains appropriate levels of staffing, including one English language arts teacher, one math teacher, one science/wellness teacher, and one liberatory design thinking teacher. Some key personnel positions have been reimagined. For example, the executive director will assume the responsibilities of the principal, while the previously identified principal will serve as the founding math teacher. Also, the director of student supports with [sic] oversee both case management and service delivery for the projected four English learners and nine students with disabilities.
It is still too early to know what school will look like for DC students in the fall. If in-person classes are scheduled, with Rocketship, AppleTree, and Social Justice School at the campus at 3rd Street and Kennedy Street NE, we will have quite a few new students in this corner of the neighborhood.
Dr. Anthony Ramdass, owner of neighborhood pharmacy Ramdass Pharmacy, discusses his work assisting vulnerable residents during the COVID-19 pandemic in this column by Courtland Milloy in the Washington Post. Dr. Ramdass visits homes of seniors to deliver prescriptions and vaccinations. This is one column by Mr. Milloy that I am happy to promote. Learn a bit about our neighborhood pharmacist and why health equity is so important.
A neighbor asked to share information about her missing cat. Please contact Karen at the phone number or email address below if you spot Ma’Cat.
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My Siamese mix cat, Ma’Cat, has been missing since Tuesday, May 26. He’s tan/brown with a black face and paws, and striking blue eyes. (He has seal point colors…) He’s an indoor/outdoor cat (though more indoor than outdoor). He was a rescue from the streets of Delaware, so he’s generally not afraid to be outside. He is a medium size cat. He’s neutered. He has a microchip but no collar (it always falls off).
We live on 8th Street, NE, between South Dakota and Gallatin. After I posted on FaceBook and some local listservs (NextDoor and Brookland list), two folks said they may have seen Ma’Cat on Chillum between 11th and Jefferson. I’ve put up a bunch of fliers in the area but no luck so far. Looking for a lost cat is kind of like looking for a needle in a haystack, but he might be hiding out in Riggs Park. If anyone may have seen Ma’Cat, please give me a call at 202-640-8679 or email me at karen.orenstein@gmail.com.
Anything folks can do that could help us find Ma’Cat would be deeply appreciated. His 6 year old human brother misses him!
It is a tough time in DC and around the country right now. In the midst of a pandemic, we are seeing nationwide protests catalyzed by police brutality, racialized violence, systemic inequalities, and the deaths and mistreatment of Black people. People are grieving and people are also mobilizing.
I think most readers of the blog know I am a Black woman. What many do not know is that my father was killed by police when I was a junior in college. This was over 15 years ago when facebook was just becoming a thing. And now of course we have a ton of social media and so many ways of having conversations and expressing ourselves, so people are having difficult conversations around policing, race, equity, and democracy. We were already having many of these conversations in DC before the protests because of concerns around gentrification and change in this city, but protests have a way of focusing dialogue.
So I did want to take a moment to acknowledge this moment. There are a lot of resources out there for people who want to participate and also just learn. The National Museum of African American History and Culture just released a new portal called “Talking About Race.” Anyways, I encourage neighbors to find ways to embrace this moment as we continue to take care of ourselves and one another.
Recently blog contributor David Kosub got in touch with Stephanie Mills Trice to share information about her Voices of the DC Fort Totten Storytellers Project. The project was supported by a DC Oral History Collaborative grant in 2018, providing an oral history of the Fort Totten neighborhood, which sits west of the Fort Totten metro station between Fort Totten Park, the Old Soldiers’ Home, and Rock Creek Church Cemetary.
Ms. Mills Trice states,
As a product of Fort Totten, Jules Johnson and I wanted to tell the truths of our childhood fun and the history of African Americans in the 1950s beginning to enjoy the equal opportunity of purchasing homes in the community developed by Morris Cafritz. ➢ 2011 – We met at the PG County Library on September 19th and the idea was born ➢ 2017 ~ I received an email from Marion Woodfork Simmons written on my birth date March 10 to AAHGS members about oral history training and funding opportunities for individuals with family in DC to partner with DCOHC to conduct interviews. • 1st interviewee – Arnetta Missy Barnes, DC native, 2nd cousin, 94 years young shares OH • Missy’s father, Frank worked at Hotel Harrington when he passed in 1925 and in her possession was the original 1925 bereavement donation list on the hotel letterhead with the address 11th & E St NW which still is within of walking distance to the Foggy Bottom area. ➢ 2018 ~ After a 7 year hiatus and on a whim, I put in for a DCOHC grant detailing what was envisioned back in 2011 and the powers to be or serendipity itself I was awarded the grant.
Through the journey, we were able to create a network of friends and neighbors who wanted to share their untold life experiences of living in Fort Totten and to-date the collection totals 20 oral histories and still growing. Even more exciting was to end the project with a community celebration at The Modern at Art Place thanks to the Cafritz Foundation the owners and descendants of the developer, Morris Cafritz.
The Cafritz Foundation has filed a Modification of Consequence for Block B of Art Place at Fort Totten seeking approval for modifications to the residential, family entertainment zone, and landscaping components of the plan approved by the Zoning Commission. ANC Commissioner Gordon Fletcher (5A08) will be having a single member district meeting at some point to discuss the proposed changes.
Proposed residential component changes:
Modifications to the façade and fenestration treatment of the residential structure along the former 4th Street and Ingraham Street;
Raising the proposed pedestrian bridge across the closed 4th Street one level – to the third floor;
Creation of a central lobby for the residential building;
Grouping of the 30 artist affordable units in the northern tower to create more of an actual artist community rather than having the units dispersed throughout two towers; and
Creation of separate loading areas for each portion of the residential building rather than having one large loading area.
Proposed Family Entertainment Zone (FEZ) component changes:
Increase in height of the drum and fins by eighteen inches to better screen the roof structure;
Reduction in the massing of the structure above the Aldi grocery store along South Dakota Avenue; and
Internal modifications that result in slightly modified square footage for the various uses.
Proposed landscape component changes:
Redesign of the Kennedy Street Plaza – removing the previously approved circular drive and vehicular drop-off area;
Relocation of the dog park to property adjacent to Block B on the west side of former 4th Street; and
Enlarged 4th Street central plaza for additional restaurant seating
The plan previously included one remaining Riggs Plaza apartment building on the west side of 4th and Kennedy Street NE to accommodate remaining Riggs Plaza tenants. The filing states, “The building that was previously shown in this location is now vacant and is no longer necessary for tenant relocation purposes, as the remaining Riggs Plaza Apartments tenant has been provided relocation opportunities.” So it looks like that space can now accommodate the dog park. Eventually Kennedy Street will be realigned during a future phase.
Heads up, Galloway Street between South Dakota Avenue and 7th Street NE will be closed on Tuesdays and Thursdays when COVID-19 testing is being conducted at UDC-CC Bertie Backus. The alley just behind the campus will also be closed to traffic. The testing hours are 10:00 am to 2:00 pm, but the security and police officers I spoke to stated they start closing off the street between 8:30 am and 9:00 am. This is the first day of testing so they are hoping to establish a consistent schedule for when they set up and take down street barriers.
Today at her daily press conference, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that UDC-CC’s Bertie Backus campus will serve as a COVID-19 testing site open on Tuesdays and Thursdays beginning on April 23, 2020. The campus is located at 5171 South Dakota Avenue NE. Appointment is required. Call the testing hotline at (855) 363-0333.
Greater Greater Washington has questionnaire responses from Robert White, the incumbent Democratic At-Large councilmember and the sole Democratic candidate for an At-Large seat on the DC Council for the primary election scheduled for June 2, 2020. The questionnaire covers issues such as building more housing, bus lanes and bike lanes, how to improve the process for planned unit developments, transit subsidies, and how to improve public housing. Check it out here.
Posting has been light since the COVID-19 pandemic public health emergency began and it will continue to be light. We are all being deluged with emails and ever-changing information every single day and I do not want to add to the pile.
Hopefully by now everyone is plugged into the best information sources. DC’s COVID-19 website is coronavirus.dc.gov. That comprehensive site has information on topics such as free meal/grocery locations, COVID-19 testing, and unemployment insurance. In addition, DC councilmembers are all sending daily updates so reach out to your councilmember if you are interested in being added to their list. Residents are instructed to wear masks to grocery stores, pharmacies, and large retail centers, so do not be surprised if you are turned away if you are not wearing one. ETA: Metro also instructs riders (both metrorail and metrobus) to wear masks. The mayor’s order has been extended to May 15.
Please consider supporting organizations that are supporting individuals and families in need, such as Capital Area Food Bank, Food & Friends, and Martha’s Table. Mutual aid networks have been established across the city. Ward 4’s is here and Ward 5’s is here. Empower DC has a handy community resource guide with links to many different places that are providing resources and that are also accepting donations.
Many residents are supporting local businesses by ordering delivery and takeout. In Riggs Park, Culture Coffee Too has decided to close operations until the public health emergency is over. The Parks Main Street notes Hunan Shrimp Boat, Ramdass Pharmacy, Riggs Dry Cleaners, and Riggs Liquor are all open. In addition, Hellbender is open for curbside pickup with Timber Pizza available on the weekends and lately has been making pre-ordered oysters available for pickup on Thursdays as well. Washington City Paper has a handy article about how to be a good restaurant patron at this time.
Remember to fill out the Census 2020 questionnaire that you should have received in the mail and be sure to request a mail-in (absentee) ballot for the DC primary election that will be held in June. There will be a very small number of precincts open so officials are strongly encouraging all residents to vote by mail.
There will be a few posts coming up this week. If anyone is interested in publishing a post, please reach out. I hope everyone is taking care and staying healthy.
Metro has extended the comment period for the FY 2021 proposed budget to March 9, 2020. View the details of the proposed budget, including changes to service and fares for metrorail and metrobus, at wmata.com/budget.
There is still time to fill out Mayor Bowser’s budget survey. Visit budget.dc.gov to let the mayor know what you believe DC’s budget priorities should be.
Sign up to clean up! Join your neighbors for a Spring Cleaning Day. The event will bring neighbors together to make our community beautiful.
Your neighbors are hosting a Spring Clean Up Day on March 21. Volunteers will pick up trash in the woods around where New Hampshire Ave crosses over the metro tracks. The event will bring neighbors together to make our community more beautiful and healthy through trash pickup.
Litter is a pervasive problem in our community, and we hope that a highly visible clean up event will help to foster behavior change and encourage new attitudes around littering so that it becomes socially unacceptable to litter or to allow litter to accumulate on our streets and natural areas.
The first 20 people to sign up to clean up will get a free pint from Hellbender Brewery!
ANC 5A submitted comments on proposed amendments to DC’s Comprehensive Plan. The submission incorporates comments submitted by myself and a couple of other residents. The ANC also repeated its request for more time for residents to respond to the proposed amendments.
One item that did make it into the ANC’s submission is “Preserve the historical single-family style homes, with No apartments in North Michigan Park.” There was a bit of discussion on this topic at ANC meetings. The North Michigan Park residents in attendance felt strongly about this. It is a point of pride for them to say there are no apartments in North Michigan Park. I have always found this curious. I have mentioned before, the wholesale pushback against apartments is really puzzling because the same residents are fine with adding a drive-thru at the McDonald’s in that neighborhood. Adding a drive-thru where there was none before seems way more problematic than building one apartment building, but I do not live there so it does not have to make sense to me.
At the ANC’s special meeting on February 12, ANC Commissioner Gordon Fletcher (5A08) stated that North Michigan Park has always been a neighborhood of single family homes so it should stay that way and should not have to change. This sentiment is why I simply listen when people talk about affordable housing, inequity, and gentrification in DC because actions often do not match the narrative, which is a little more complicated than we often treat it. Zoning laws have historically been used to keep out people who are viewed as undesirable, whether that be based on race, religion, sexual orientation, socioeconomics, or other characteristics. In this case, desire to keep out housing voucher holders is clearly the motivating factor (though certainly voucher holders can also rent single family homes).
There is a discussion in this city right now about adding more housing. The mayor’s goal to add 36,000 units by 2025 is slogan-y and not super realisitic, but the point remains that the city does need more housing. The narrative is that it is residents west of the park who are going to be the big obstacle to getting more housing, including affordable housing. That may be true, but it is also single family homeowners generally all across the city who do not want their neighborhoods changing at all. People like what they like and they don’t like what they don’t like.
There are legitimate issues with increasing density. Without attendant upgrades to infrastructure, there are going to be problems. A firefighter who lives in the community noted that a whole new community has been created in Fort Lincoln and no new firehouses have been built so the response time to get to that part of the city could be better. Schools that are seen as desirable are already overcrowded. In addition, simply throwing up cheap housing or putting housing in ill-conceived places is going to create problems for residents who live in that housing.
Our public officials now have the uneviable task of reconciling competing priorities and interests in this planning document. One of their clear goals is getting something approved to address the delay in projects held up in litigation. I am pretty sure whatever the final document looks like, there will be plenty for people to like and dislike and many inconsistencies will remain.
Due to the Thanksgiving holiday, ANC 5A held its November meeting on November 13, 2019. Commissioners present: Frank Wilds (5A01); Grace Lewis (5A02); Chair Ronnie Edwards (5A05); Sandi Washington (5A07); Gordon Fletcher (5A08)
Ramdass Pharmacy was robbed of narcotics on Monday, November 4 around 2:30 am. Other pharmacies across the city were robbed the same week. Ramdass was robbed again at gunpoint on November 11 around 3:30 pm. T-Mobile on South Dakota Avenue has also been robbed a couple of times. Lt. Patrick Schaut said MPD has discussed security issues with both stores. For T-Mobile, Lt. Schaut said MPD has to go through corporate headquarters to obtain video and it is up to corporate headquarters what kind of security they want to have in their store.
There have been a couple of street robberies. As it is getting dark early, be aware of surroundings. Do not walk with phones out or earbuds in.
If you are doing online selling or buying and arranging for pickup of items, arrange to meet up at a police station. As holiday season approaches, have deliveries delivered to safe locations. Try not to have deliveries sitting unattended on the porch.
Councilmember McDuffie has two new staff members–Legislative Counsel Sandra Karpinsky and Committee Director Justin Roberts. Senior Advisor Silas Grant will be conducting a walkthrough of Commissioner Gordon Fletcher’s SMD (5A08) with Commissioner Fletcher, a Ward 5 MOCR, and DDOT on November 21 at 4:30 pm. Meet at the corner of South Dakota Avenue and Galloway Street NE.
The councilmember’s holiday party/toy drive will be on December 12 at Dock 5 at Union Market.
Rocketship Charter School
On October 28, 2019, the DC Public Charter School Board (DCPCSB) approved the opening of Rocketship’s third campus at 5450 Kennedy Street NE. Rocketship returned to the ANC to explain the kidnapping that occurred at its Rocketship RISE campus in Ward 8 on October 11. The incident was reported by Fox 5 DC.
Joyanna Smith, Rocketship DC Regional Director, stated that on October 11, Rocketship RISE Academy was holding parent-teacher conferences so the school was actually closed. Parents asked if care could be provided all day for parents who needed it, so Rocketship asked its before and aftercare provider Springboard to provide care for the day. Ms. Smith said that the school has two sets of doors, one at the entrance where visitors must be buzzed in. The second set is manned by a paid, off-duty police officer. A mother went to the school for her two sons. The alleged kidnapper walked in behind the mother and at the second set of doors, told the officer that he was with the mother and that she was the mother of his children. The officer believed him, did not ask for identification, and allowed him to enter. Then the alleged perpetrator went to the gym where the boys were playing and after playing with them for about 15 minutes, persuaded them to leave the gym with him. A Rocketship office manager saw the alleged perpetrator with the boys and suspected something was amiss and took the boys away from the man. Police were called and only then did anyone realize that the individual was a registered sex offender and that he should not have been on the property.
Rocketship terminated its relationship with Springboard as of November 8, 2019. Ms. Smith said she was not informed about the incident until several days after it happened and only a few days before DCPCSB’s October 28th meeting. She stated that probably the biggest failure was not alerting parents within 24 hours of the incident, so they are working to regain the trust of parents, which she said is a difficult process for everyone. They are also working on protocols to make sure everyone knows security procedures and each person’s role and responsibility, so that the communication gap between the school’s leadership and Rocketship leadership does not happen again.
There was protracted discussion among the commissioners led by Commissioner Frank Wilds (5A01) about whether the ANC should go on record with a vote on the school. This even though DCPCSB already held its public meeting and approved opening a third campus, and the ANC had several opportunities to take a vote and to submit comments before the new campus was approved and did not do so. Commissioner Wilds accused Commissioner Fletcher of “being on the take,” but offered no details on what that was supposed to mean. Commissioners Wilds, Grace Lewis (5A02), and Sandi Washington (5A07) voted in favor of taking a vote, with Commissioner Fletcher opposed. It was unclear how Chair Ronnie Edwards (5A05) voted. Chair Edwards stated the ANC will not have a December meeting, so it is unclear when exactly they plan to conduct this vote.
Construction on the interior of the new campus will continue throughout the winter months. Rocketship will continue to attend the ANC meetings to provide construction and other updates.
Social Justice Charter School
As previously noted, Social Justice Charter School will operate a middle school at Rocketship’s new Riggs Park campus beginning in school year 2020-2021. Representatives of the Social Justice School returned to talk about their school model. Students have crews and learning is based on a social justice model for each class. Social Justice School representatives hold a community engagement event each month. This month’s event is a design competition at Lamond-Riggs Library on November 23 at 2:00 pm. The school anticipates having a hearing before the DCPCSB in February 2020 about the school’s facilities. A condition of the school’s conditional charter approval is that the school must show that it has a lease or title for a sufficient school facility by February 2020.
Miscellaneous
During the community concerns portion of the meeting, I stated that I believe the ANC should have some sort of code of conduct because Commissioner Wilds continued to behave in a very unprofessional, inappropriate manner. Aside from constantly haranguing Commissioner Fletcher as well as guests to the ANC, he has more than once yelled at me on public streets, making false statements. Even though he would often miss ANC meetings, he would be sure to come to LRCA meetings on a monthly basis when I was president simply to disrupt them by constantly yelling about long-settled issues. During one such meeting, he told the treasurer of LRCA at that time “to go back to Africa.” He told a white resident that she should move out of the neighborhood and that she would never be welcome here. He still refuses to apologize for his very inappropriate behavior. I noted this is the same man who constantly defends Jack Evans amidst Evans’s very clear ethics violations. Commissioner Wilds did not have any comments during the meeting after I made my statement. But right after the meeting, he stormed up to me, got right in my face, wagging his finger in my face, saying that I am “disgusting.” Neighbors, this is a near 80-year-old man who knows better and should be doing better and none of the commissioners remaining in the room stepped in to tell him to chill. The ANC really needs to do a better job of speaking up when commissioners are behaving inappropriately.
On Saturday, November 16, 2019, Hellbender Brewery will celebrate its fifth anniversary. Here is a link to get tickets. Some more details:
Price: $15 (receive custom anniversary pint glass and first beer) – not too shabby
Beers: Releasing 5 barrel aged beers, including the official anniversary beer: Imperial Honey Farmhouse ale made with local wildflower honey (from the owner’s father’s bee hives – well as a vegan, I’ll try the other four I guess) 😊
Food: Timber Pizza and Smoke and Ember BBQ – um, I love food trucks
Free Spirits: One Eight Distilling and Sangfroid Distilling from noon-3p – um, I love free spirits
Music: DJ Tokyo Lovehandles from on top of the brewhouse all day – um, I guess I love Lovehandles too
Games: Cornhole and giant jenga set up in the brewhouse – never a dull moment
Perhaps we should have a Thirsty Third Thursday neighborhood gathering to help celebrate, but instead of Thursday, it’d be Saturday . . . .
Next Stop...Riggs Park 