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Saturday Thanks Don't End At Thanksgiving Photo: November 28, 2009
Ward 6 D.C. Council member Tommy Wells is first out of the gate with a statement admonishing his colleagues for considering diverting funding away from longstanding projects in order to fund the construction of a new Convention Center Hotel. Word of such discussions, which would involve taking away dedicated subsidies from projects like the Southwest waterfront, the Capitol Riverfront, the Skyland Shopping Center and the O Street Market, first surfaced earlier this week.
As you might have guessed, Wells sees stripping funds from projects within Ward 6 as a dealbreaker. Here's his statement to the press:
"I am asking the Chief Financial Officer and my Council colleagues to cease discussion about the possibility of delaying the TIF and PILOT funds promised to the Southwest and Capitol Riverfront communities and incorrectly stating the projects are not on track. It is unwise for the City to even suggest going back on its commitment at the exact moment the project is moving forward to attract private financing. If attempted, it would create uncertainty and jeopardize the jobs, affordable housing, retail amenities and public investment that have been promised to our residents.""The District has just finished the Land Disposition Agreement and a Memorandum of Understanding between all lease holders, allowing the Southwest development team to move ahead with the amenity based project," added Wells.
Wells concluded, "Diverting funding away from the Southwest and Southeast neighborhoods at this time in favor of a fully government funded mega hotel breaks the promise we made to our residents that we are ready to move forward."
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Advocates in DC denounce racism in housing displacement of 30 tenants in Columbia Heights
In the last two weeks, two major evictions occurred -withing 24 hours- in Ward 1 and Ward 4, and 30 people were affected including 4 minors. All of the tenants are brown and black people of Latin Americans origin, and to many of them this seems like racist discrimination.
http://carlosqc.blogspot.com/2009/06/group-in-dc-dennounces-racist-housing.html
I don't get it. There's a dozen hotels within a six-block radius of the Convention Center. Are these people too lazy and/or stupid to walk that far? Haven't they heard of a cab? And why is DC subsidizing their laziness/stupidity? And where are they going to put this white f**king elephant? Next to the Convention Center? It's not like 9th Street is brimming with street level retail. They'd have to go to Chinatown to get a drink or dinner or gawk at the Hooters girls any way. This polished turd has Jerk Evans' stinky fingerprints all over it.
Hey Carlos, why don't you keep you racist fear-mongering to you own blog.
By the way, if you don't want to be evicted, pay your rent!
Agree 100% with the councilmember's statement---but would like him to go further and assure us he won't vote to authorize $750 million in bonds to pay for this thing (which, incidentally, only costs $550 million, and its a mystery why they need to issue $200 million more in bonds). Beyond just why would DC fund the building of this hotel when (a) private developers aren't willing to risk their own money on it, and (b) it would create oversupply in a neighborhood already full of hotels, is that issuing the bonds would lower the city's credit rating---which basically means, that bonds that will need to be issued in the future (e.g., to fix crumbling infrastructure, etc.) will be more expensive.
Hasn't the financial collapse of the last 18 months taught any of the members of the DC Council about the need to be fiscally responsible??? Say NO to a publicy-financed hotel.
If the Council signs off on this deal, the city's bond rating goes to junk bond status. Gandhi's said as much when this came up last year. They wouldn't be able to finance a lemonade stand, let alone an Olds Toronado from Gary's Beautiful Cars. Clearly, the council has no f**king clue how to handle their constituents' money. What kind of idiot blows that sort of cash on a hotel? $h!t, even in Monopoly, you have to buy houses before you can buy a hotel. They're like the idiot who mortgages all their properties just so they can buy Park Place, and they end up losing that as well as all their Get Out of Jail Free cards, and Barry needs as many of them as he can get.
If the Council signs off on this deal, I will be one pissed off SW resident.
By the way, if you don't want to be evicted, pay your rent!
Actually, if you read what Carlos posted on his blog you would know that the people in question weren't evicted, they were forced to move out of the building so the landlord could make repairs to bring the building up to code. This is a *very* old trick for getting folks out of buildings.
My guess is this has less to do with race and more to do with the landlord wanting to rid himself of tenants who are paying below market rent.
Hasn't the financial collapse of the last 18 months taught any of the members of the DC Council about the need to be fiscally responsible???
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
"My guess is this has less to do with race and more to do with the landlord wanting to rid himself of tenants who are paying below market rent."
Good for the landlord. The price of rent, like the price of everything else should be set by the market. If you can't afford market rent, then get out and move somewhere cheaper. I would love to live in a penthouse apartment with panoramic views of the city, but I can't afford it, so I don't. I have no right to live in a place I can not afford, and neither do these people.
Now, to get this back to the hotel, you could build the world's greatest hotel, like the place in Dubai on the island, and it still wouldn't bring business to the convention center. The convention center is too small. It was too small the day it was designed. The city knew this, and since it couldn't build a mega-center (there simply isn't the space) DC should have kept the old center, refurbished it, and accpeted that they are never going to be able to compete for the big mega-trade shows.
Given its location and access to the Congress, etc. DC will always get its share of professional association meetings. Nearly all of those can be accomodated in existing hotels or in the convention center as it is. Let's leave it at that and spend the city's money on something more imporant, or, how about this novel idea, give hard-working middle-class residents a small tax break this year.
Hillvada, Rent control is part of the lease contract; the landlord gets eviction assistance from the district, and enforcement of the lease contract, and in exchange complies with the District mandates about renting out residential real estate (namely, rent control).
The tenants agree to pay a given rent, and priced into that judgement was the understanding that they were paying a premium to have controlled (rather than fully floating) increases in their rent. This happens all the time in (completely non-rent-controlled) commercial leasing, where tenants often pay a premium to have the right to extend their lease at a controlled-escalation rent without committing to a 10 or 20 year lease.
Hillvada, a government doesn't have to provide eviction assistance; it's not obliged to do so. It doesn't _have_ to enforce any contract, if it repeals the legal instruments that give it that power. The landlord is getting a service in having access to these remedies; he or she must pay for that privilege, partially through taxes, partially through concessions to the public policy goals of the local government.
Okaay, why this showed up as a reply to mlswanso3470 rather than hillvada I have no idea...
You can't give money and then take it away for something else... that's wrong and the DC Council needs to grow up and find the money for this hotel somewhere else, or wait on it. If they want the money from other projects than they should borrow it with fair and equitable interest and a contract for fast repayment. Neighborhood residents shouldn't have to miss out on their projects just so we can build yet another hotel that will not really benefit any DC resident!