Why is the Foxhall Community Citizens Association scared of public school children?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/apr/29/dc-residents-angry-over-plan-raze-hardy-park-build/

Headline: "D.C. residents angry over plan to raze Hardy Park, build school"
Lede: "Anger, confusion and recrimination have erupted in one of the District’s tonier neighborhoods over city plans to raze parts of a park that is being renovated in order to build a public elementary school."

Truth: Nobody is proposing razing anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCPS should just completely junk these plans.

Unless children are in person in standard classroom settings the crowding problem may take care of itself as people opt to move to the suburbs, go to charters, or for those who can afford it, go private.

Why would you buy a building without a plan?

The neighborhood is transit inaccessible because it wants to be "exclusive." GDS realized that it was a poor property for this and other reasons. That is why they sold.

Just because something is available to purchase doesn't mean you should buy it. What incredibly poor planning.

Now there is a site that few want to send their children to -- the justification is some parents told them to buy. Who are these parents? What was the strategy?

DCPS can be so frustrating and disappointing all at once.

DCPS has an advantage over GDS, they aren't constrained by zoning. DCPS has the power of the state behind them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The GDS site does not seem large enough for a HS, but could see a MS on that campus. Would this replace Hardy Middle School or supplement it? If it were a HS, the enrollment would be between a quarter and a third of Wilson's population.

Curiously, the survey is running over 50% for a new high school on the site. I don't get the thinking behind this. Most sensible option is to make GDS the new Hardy MS and then put a new HS on Wisconsin. Or maybe put a new MS on GDS, keep Hardy on Wisconsin with new boundaries to relieve Deal, and then use this Lord & Taylor site the NIMBYs love so much for a new HS. Lord knows that both a new HS AND MS are needed WOTP to relieve overcrowding at Wilson and Deal.

Right now Hardy is 46% in-boundary. It could also hold a few hundred more kids if needed. If Deal crowding could be solved by sending kids to Hardy, it would have been solved already. Adding more middle school capacity in the southern half of the ward does nothing for Deal, but it creates a whole lot more middle school seats that have the right to attend Wilson. The only way to solve for Deal is going to be a new middle school somewhere within the current Deal boundaries, probably in the northern part of Ward 3.

A new high school that Hardy feeds helps crowding at Wilson, although it doesn't completely solve the problem. The only question I see is whether you put the new high school at MacArthur, or move Hardy to MacArthur and put the new HS at the current Hardy location on Wisconsin. I prefer the second just because MacArthur "feels" more like a middle school location and Wisconsin "feels" more like a HS location to me. But that's my subjective opinion.

PP, I get the "feel" but it also just makes more sense. HS kids can take the multiple bus lines on Wisconsin. Some may take the red/blue/orange lines to closest stop then change to bus. The GDS MacArthur campus can accommodate 575 students, perhaps more if DCPS can negotiate an increase in enrollment numbers for that site. That number is more than the current Hardy level and could siphon off of the Deal enrollment.

The Lord and Taylor site makes a LOT of sense for another high school, especially because it is metro-accessible. And maybe it can be built in a way that a MS can also fit on the land.

GL DC parents! DCPS, do this!

I don't see a MacArthur MS any more attractive to Deal families than a Hardy MS, and if capacity at Hardy could solve Deal crowding, Deal crowding would be solved.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/apr/29/dc-residents-angry-over-plan-raze-hardy-park-build/

Headline: "D.C. residents angry over plan to raze Hardy Park, build school"
Lede: "Anger, confusion and recrimination have erupted in one of the District’s tonier neighborhoods over city plans to raze parts of a park that is being renovated in order to build a public elementary school."

Truth: Nobody is proposing razing anything.

If half-truths and misinformation have a home in DC, its at the Washington Times. So of course that's where their story ended up. Somehow the geniuses behind this campaign failed to realize that peddling your story to the Washington Times isn't going to help you curry favor with the DC government.

[Anonymous]

DCPS' listening session tonight is a shocking display of NIMBY-ism on the part of the Foxhall community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DCPS' listening session tonight is a shocking display of NIMBY-ism on the part of the Foxhall community.

I was sick to my stomach.

Summary: “I value diversity BUT I value my ability to picnic outside more”

Bravo to the Hispanic/Jewish gentlemen that spoke up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/apr/29/dc-residents-angry-over-plan-raze-hardy-park-build/

Headline: "D.C. residents angry over plan to raze Hardy Park, build school"
Lede: "Anger, confusion and recrimination have erupted in one of the District’s tonier neighborhoods over city plans to raze parts of a park that is being renovated in order to build a public elementary school."

Truth: Nobody is proposing razing anything.

If half-truths and misinformation have a home in DC, its at the Washington Times. So of course that's where their story ended up. Somehow the geniuses behind this campaign failed to realize that peddling your story to the Washington Times isn't going to help you curry favor with the DC government.

The Washington Times has been explicitly designed by the right to harm Democrats, the educated, and DC residents — and DC government knows that.
It’s a hack paper filled with hacks hired to deceive the poor suckers that read it.

If the Foxhall people don’t know this they are REALLY out of touch.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCPS' listening session tonight is a shocking display of NIMBY-ism on the part of the Foxhall community.

I was sick to my stomach.

Summary: “I value diversity BUT I value my ability to picnic outside more”

Bravo to the Hispanic/Jewish gentlemen that spoke up.

How many people spoke? How did the DCPS reps respond?

[Anonymous]

“Let me first just say that I am a huge supporter of public education...” said every last one of these NIMBYS before launching into some absurd diatribe about the childhood obesity epidemic. My favorite were the several
Speakers who I personally recognized, whose children go to private school. It’s as if these people don’t understand how usable and green elementary schools are. Key is an example. Mann is another, Stoddert hosts an entire Rex soccer league for Christ sakes! If they build a school there, it will only benefit the neighborhood, that green space, the value of their homes, the list goes on...

[Anonymous]

It was clear that most of the speakers don't know anyone who attends public school. And believe that a school will take up the entire site.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It was clear that most of the speakers don't know anyone who attends public school. And believe that a school will take up the entire site.

Their frame of reference is private schools, which are generally locked up when school is out. They've never visited Key or Mann or Stoddert to see that the field and playground are open when the school is closed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCPS' listening session tonight is a shocking display of NIMBY-ism on the part of the Foxhall community.

I was sick to my stomach.

Summary: “I value diversity BUT I value my ability to picnic outside more”

Bravo to the Hispanic/Jewish gentlemen that spoke up.

Your post is inaccurate and unnecessarily polarizing. Many speakers clearly made the point that the neighborhood values the green space at Hardy Park and they want to preserve it. Why is that so wrong to want to preserve green space in a city and ask questions about other site selection options? And they don't trust DCPS to build out the property in a manner that properly preserves whatever remains of the park. After the Christmas Eve giveaway of the Old Hardy School we should all be skeptical of DC gov/DCPS intentions.

Speakers also pointed out other key problems with the location of the two new schools and the complete lack of transparency for the selection of the Foxhall site or how these new schools fit into the larger, longterm school facilities plan. Just look at a map, the location of the new schools makes no sense for anything other than a single local elementary school which could be located at the old GDS site. DCPS needs to go back to the drawing board.

As for the gentlemen you mentioned, his assertion that the Foxhall neighborhood is racist was belied by the very large and diverse group of neighbors who spoke out against the flawed DCPS plan.

- Ward 3 parent of two DCPS students who lives nowhere near Foxhall but believes opponents of the Foxhall site made some very thoughtful arguments

[Anonymous]

DCPS had nothing to do with the Old Hardy giveaway. DCPS had nothing to do with the decision to build a school at Foxhall. That all came out of the Mayor's office. Foxhall was a political settlement of the controversy around Old Hardy ( or a poison pill for the cynical). So yeah, there's a lot not to like. And I feel bad for the DCPS folks who have to defend decisions they didn't make.

But the Foxhall neighbors are arguing in bad faith. They are either deliberately distorting the facts or they haven't taken the trouble to educate themselves

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCPS' listening session tonight is a shocking display of NIMBY-ism on the part of the Foxhall community.

I was sick to my stomach.

Summary: “I value diversity BUT I value my ability to picnic outside more”

Bravo to the Hispanic/Jewish gentlemen that spoke up.

Your post is inaccurate and unnecessarily polarizing. Many speakers clearly made the point that the neighborhood values the green space at Hardy Park and they want to preserve it. Why is that so wrong to want to preserve green space in a city and ask questions about other site selection options? And they don't trust DCPS to build out the property in a manner that properly preserves whatever remains of the park. After the Christmas Eve giveaway of the Old Hardy School we should all be skeptical of DC gov/DCPS intentions.

Speakers also pointed out other key problems with the location of the two new schools and the complete lack of transparency for the selection of the Foxhall site or how these new schools fit into the larger, longterm school facilities plan. Just look at a map, the location of the new schools makes no sense for anything other than a single local elementary school which could be located at the old GDS site. DCPS needs to go back to the drawing board.

As for the gentlemen you mentioned, his assertion that the Foxhall neighborhood is racist was belied by the very large and diverse group of neighbors who spoke out against the flawed DCPS plan.

- Ward 3 parent of two DCPS students who lives nowhere near Foxhall but believes opponents of the Foxhall site made some very thoughtful arguments

What is completely disingenuous is this argument that the green space at the park will be completely lost. If green space is so vital shouldn't the city be tearing out the basketball court, the tennis court and the playground? And that crappy fieldhouse! Think of how much more green space there would be if that was razed!

[Anonymous]

The recording is here: https://youtu.be/aY-uiZCOfzs

The Hispanic / Jewish gentleman speaks at at about 1:41:00.

His testimony has to be one of the ballsiest things I’ve ever heard said in a community meeting. And he is dead right.

This “Save Hardy Park” campaign has nothing to do with a park. It has nothing to do with parking. The history bears that out in excruciating detail.

These people simply don’t want public school children in their neighborhood and most especially don’t want any “at-risk” public school children.

Anyone who gives their arguments the scarcest consideration is a victim of fraud.