Man Stops Traffic at 17th and K to Demand $200 Million
Morning Roundup: Goodbye, Abe Edition
Judge Throws Out WTU Suit Over Teacher Layoffs
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Morning Roundup: Rain Won't Go Away Edition
Good morning, Washington. Have you wondered what will happen to the empty school buildings D.C. will have once Chancellor Rhee shuts down the 23 schools she plans to close? Some of the anti-closure activists have expressed concern that they will be torn down and sold to developers, but the Examiner reports a slightly different story this morning. The fate of some of the schools has already been set: Bowen Elementary School in Ward 1 is set to be turned into a police substation and homicide victims' unit; Park View Elementary, Garnet-Patterson Middle, Bunker Hill Elementary, Green Elementary and Wilkinson Elementary are all scheduled to be used for "swing space" for existing D.C. Public School programs; and Stevens Elementary downtown will be used for an "unspecified economic development function" -- does that mean condos? With so many more schools on the list, we'll be watching to see what else the city has in store for those soon to be empty buildings.
Mt. Pleasant Fire Victims Retrieve What's Left: Want to feel really sad this morning? The Post has a heartbreaker on the victims of the recent Mt. Pleasant fire getting back a few personal items that the fire left behind. Many of the residents of the building that was destroyed, who were largely lower income immigrant families, had kept their entire life savings in cash inside their apartments. Several reported having lost thousands of dollars in cash in the fire.
Deonte Rawlings Investigation Questioned: It's been six months since 14-year-old Deonte Rawlings was shot and killed by an off duty D.C. police officer, and WUSA reports that the attorney for the Rawlings family is accusing Mayor Adrian Fenty of breaking his promise to the youth's family to conduct a fair, open and honest investigation. A grand jury investigation has been convened to look into the shooting.
Briefly Noted: Man may have killed himself with cyanide ... Virginia Tech families offered $100,000 settlements ... Chief Lanier clashes with police union.
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Re: what to do with the closing schools, it seems that the city has plans, but nothing has been officially set. I, for one, would be happy if they did anything with these schools rather than let the sit there and deteriorate like that school on Franklin Square. Such a waste.
Anyone know what these "leaves "on signs in Dupont are? I saw three signs this morning at the corner of Corcoran St and New Hampshire Ave NW with these green leaves duct taped to the sign poles.
i think those leaves were put there as a "happy spring" sort of thing. i think the only intent is. makes the stop sign look like a flower.
only intent is to make*
The Office of Planning has actually been convening community meetings for the schools for which there is currently no plan so that the community can discuss what is most relevant to them - ie, charter school, health clinic, etc. What was said at one of these meetings last week was the the City will retain ownership of all of the buildings.
Huh, I didn't know there was a Bunker Hill Elementary school here. The Bunker Hill elementary school in my hometown closed because parents didn't want to send their kids to a school that was directly across the street from a conspicuously marked adult bookstore. Ahh hometown zoning laws...
When these schools close will the "Drug Free Zone” remain, or will all drugs be welcomed?
Interesting contrast in the two shooting death stories this morning...
LeDroit Park Civic Association is trying to turn Gage-Eckington School into a park. Or at least make sure something happens to it sooner rather than later because another old school in our neighborhood stood vacant for decades.
A police substation and homicide victims' unit?
Something tells me a unit of homicide victims won't be very effective.
It would be a nightmare if the city sold land it wasn't using to developers and made some money! We all have to do everything in our power to make sure that doesn't happen!
There are bunch more meetings in the next few days about the school reuse. They only posted the first set on the office of planning's web site. The others are:
Ward 1: Tubman ES April 1 6-8pm
Ward 4: Barnard ES April 9 6-8pm
Ward 5: McKinley Tech HS April 10 6-8pm
Ward 7: Kelly Miller MS April 3 6-8pm
Ward 8: Patterson ES April 3 6-8pm
voteprime, hungeegirl: Very cute. It reminds me of the fire flower from Super Mario Bros.
This American Life has a piece called The Plan and it starts off by focusing on one particular school in DC that is slated to close even though it's performing well.
The link for the full episode is on the left and scroll to the 32:51 mark for the piece.
I am somewhat sympathetic to the concerns on the part of neighborhoods over the disposition of the to-be-closed schools. But I don't think the fact that these are schools, as opposed to say city-owned empty lots, should significantly affect the city's approach. The city should consider the effect a new condo or police station would have on the neighborhood. But I don't think the parents should have any disproportionate say in the matter. Whether to close the school and what to do with the property are two totally different questions. I suspect that the professional activists will want to conflate them and turn this whole exercise into another part of "The Plan".
That said, I don't know who could claim grievance over the disposition of Stevens School. It's not exactly a "neighborhood" school. Although now that I think about it, I can think of one entity that would love to get its mitts on that property, and its name rhymes with Dee-Bubble-you. Given this institution's historic relations with the greater Foggy Bottom neighborhood, this would probably lead to yet another epic battle.
hungeegirl, thanks. That's probably it!
And mellbell, now that you mention Super Mario Bros, I can't not see it.
I see that tvc15 (and Ira Glass, I guess) beat me to mentioning "The Plan".
I really wish I get my hands on "The Plan" so that I could do some real estate speculation. What's next overlords? Bloomington? Ivy City? Le Droit Park?
bloomington? have i been forcibly moved to indiana?
@ Reid: I don't think even GW would want the old Stevens school. It's too far away from campus (although, they could want to buy it, build commercial stuff on it, and lease it out like they do the 2000 Penn complex).
But I agree - Stevens isn't in a neighborhood anymore; it's all commercial around there. That's a completely prime candidate for selling to some developer.
After you reanimate the homicide victims, the trick is training them only to eat the brains of criminals instead of going after the general populace. It definitely solves any problem with recruiting, though.
sorry, the link for the this american life episode is here
Stevens is also right off of K St (and right across from the Korean restaurant- mmm bimbimbap). I'm sure some lobbyist is craving them some prime real estate.
Strangely, Stevens was doing quite well academically and then in 2006 the overall scores on Stanford-9s dropped significantly.
IMGoph: the Plan works in mysterious ways. Call it rebranding. Soon Brookland will be Brooklyn, Park View will be Park Avenue, and Eckington will be Greenwich Village.
OPKAC: GW already operates buildings all around that intersection. I wouldn't be surprised if they wanted to use that building for some hospital related purpose.
ugh. sorry, I am obviously html deficient and will retreat into observation mode for while.
tvc15: I used to screw that up a lot too. The way I do it is this: left-facing arrow a href="http://website.com" right-facing arrow word you want to appear left-facing arrow /a right facing arrow.
There are at least 4 or 5 empty school buildings near my house (live across the street from Dunbar), and I cant figure out what they are going to do with them. Turn them into something useful or sell them and put the money into the schools you are keeping.
GW can house all its students with STDs in a rebuilt Stevens School.
Which will be renamed the Ronald W. Reagan Washington National Capitol Waterfront Infirmary for Loose Morals.
That Mt. Pleasant fire story is the Post's red meat. If it's anything they excel at, it's maudlin tales of urban woe. I bet the editors are kicking themselves that no puppies or kittens were killed.
Any day now, I expect the Post to have a scare quote banner like CNN.com:
TODAY'S TOP STORIES:
1. Young, Attractive White Woman Missing, Presumed Sexy
2. Paris Hilton Has Another Abortion, Given Its Own Reality Show
3. Bush to Bin Laden: "Any day now, Binny-Boy."
4. New Study Suggests 90% of Most Studies Require More Study, Funding
5. Economy Exhibits Both Negative Gains, Positive Losses
6. "Where are my balls?" Neutered Dog Barks
7. Defective Answering Machines Recalled
8. Somewhere in Middle East, Something Explodes
9. Millionaire Career Politician Claims "Outsider" Status
10. Congress Shrugs, Declares War on Iran, North Korea, Mordor
For what it's worth, both Hillary and Barack voted against the Mordor War.
What exactly is "swing space"?
Personally, I would love to see daycare centers open in some of these buildings. There's a real need.
And John Kerry was against the Mordor War before he was for it.
This message brought to you by Swiftcorsairs of Umbar for Truth.
"Swing space" generally refers to a currently vacant school building that is used to house the operations of other schools temporarily while they are undergoing relocation or renovations that prevent them from using their own facilities. So for a couple of years the space holds Elementary School A while major renovations are done, then when that project finishes the place becomes Middle School B while that school's new building construction is being finished, and so on.