(By DCist contributor Zoe Mitchell)
According to a press release we’ve received, the activists who briefly occupied the Randall Shelter over Thanksgiving weekend are planning to drop by the Wilson Building today to listen in on a subcommittee’s vote on the fate of the building, and perhaps take action. The Subcommittee on Human Rights, Latino Affairs and Property Management is scheduled to vote today at 3 p.m. on declaring the Randall Shelter surplus property.
If Council Member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) changes his vote, despite the group’s lobbying, and allows the former school to be sold to the Corcoran Gallery and School of Art, don’t expect the activists to quietly go away. Members of MayDay DC, the Grey Panthers, the National Alliance of Black Panthers and the DC Black Panthers have promised an “undisclosed direct action” near or inside the Wilson Building if the vote doesn’t go their way. We’ll keep you posted if the activists get arrested again.
In November, activists were arrested and removed from the building’s roof by police using a fire truck, as seen in this Indymedia photo taken by Elvert Barnes. The activists had barricaded themselves inside to protest the closing of the homeless shelter. The city has made space available to accommodate the closing in a southeast facility, but activists argue it’s too far from other services in the downtown area.
