Intelsat Building Proposal by CM Matt Frumin (Connecticut Ave/Van Ness)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Buying the building is fine, but the idea of moving MacArthur HS there now is nuttier than the original decision to put the school there in the first place. This idea - and the uncertainty it will create - will completely scuttle MacArthur for the foreseeable future and therefore J-R as well. It's really dumb stuff.

This isn’t a serious proposal. It’s a marker. What he’s doing is pretending that he’s trying to do something to prevent Ward 3 families in Palisades from being zoned out of J-R and to MacArthur.

[Anonymous]

What do some appraiser’s highest and best use report say?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Buying the building is fine, but the idea of moving MacArthur HS there now is nuttier than the original decision to put the school there in the first place. This idea - and the uncertainty it will create - will completely scuttle MacArthur for the foreseeable future and therefore J-R as well. It's really dumb stuff.

Yes. Make a new school there. It's okay to have a bit of an *excess* capacity for schools for a change..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Buying the building is fine, but the idea of moving MacArthur HS there now is nuttier than the original decision to put the school there in the first place. This idea - and the uncertainty it will create - will completely scuttle MacArthur for the foreseeable future and therefore J-R as well. It's really dumb stuff.

Don’t move it. Add a new K-12. Make it a magnet school.

[Anonymous]

Maybe they could do a combo UDC w a high school; like GWU and SWW

[Anonymous]

https://neighborhood.gwu.edu/sites/g/files/zaxdzs5996/files/downloads/DCPS%20and%20GW%20School%20Without%20Walls%20Partnership%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf

[Anonymous]

It's so close to JR. It doesn't make sense. The idea of MacArthur was that it would be a local school for those in Palisades, Kent, etc.

The problem is not so much the idea but that i struggle to have confidence in him right now. I'm worried that his policies would bring more instability and possibly reduced security into a neighborhood severely reeling from the voucher policy.

Also, this kind of grab concerns me that it could be more about developers and right now the thing we need is for developers to back off. Why didn't the city buy it years ago for UDC or whatever if it was such a great find?

[Anonymous]

Maybe it'll be the new HQ for the bike lobby.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Maybe it'll be the new HQ for the bike lobby.

[Anonymous]

This is such classic Frumin that the cartoon basically draws itself. Why bother trying to figuratively be everything to everybody when he can buy a massive building that can literally provide everything to everybody. Even noxious twerps like the Foxhall NIMBYs and the Lab School get all that they ever wanted out of this. Why bother taking a position on any issue when you can spend your days drawing the world's largest Christmas trees? I really tried hard to like the guy, but for he is a crude caricature for this city at this time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These things always become gifts and grifts to those connected. Terrible idea.

I mean it's DC. He probably wants his turn at the trough in case he is not re-elected.

Hasn't this discussion been had? Before MacAruthur? Seems like a mish mash of ideas. I dunno.

He forgot to mention pickleball courts.

He has no actual plan, just a laundry list of ideas. First step, buy the property. Second step, something something. Third step, everyone wins! That's not really a plan.

[Anonymous]

The idea of DC purchasing the property has merit. The idea that we should scuttle the MacArthur plan as it's being implemented, and hope that Lab School will go along with this plan, is asinine. As we've seen for years, the Lab School only cares about one thing: the Lab School and its wealthy benefactors (most of whom don't live in DC).

There's only so much DC can do with the Intelsat property if it bought it, because it has historic protection, for some stupid reason. So how about this: DC buys Intelsat and repurposes it into the new UDC.

As it stands now, the UDC campus is a hilarious misuse of that land; the area is a ghost town most of the time. By moving UDC to Intelsat, DC would get a huge parcel of land with more or less a blank slate. It could build schools, housing and retail on the property, right on top of a Metro station. It certainly would be a better use than the current UDC campus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Interesting idea, but the Intelsat site contains virtually no outdoor space for organized sports. The site is generally hilly. Students would have to use the fields at nearby UDC and we know the UDC doesn't like to share.

Since Frumin types RUINED this part of Ct Ave. I have a hard time taking any of their proposals for this area seriously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The idea of DC purchasing the property has merit. The idea that we should scuttle the MacArthur plan as it's being implemented, and hope that Lab School will go along with this plan, is asinine. As we've seen for years, the Lab School only cares about one thing: the Lab School and its wealthy benefactors (most of whom don't live in DC).

There's only so much DC can do with the Intelsat property if it bought it, because it has historic protection, for some stupid reason. So how about this: DC buys Intelsat and repurposes it into the new UDC.

As it stands now, the UDC campus is a hilarious misuse of that land; the area is a ghost town most of the time. By moving UDC to Intelsat, DC would get a huge parcel of land with more or less a blank slate. It could build schools, housing and retail on the property, right on top of a Metro station. It certainly would be a better use than the current UDC campus.

Please, no more "urban lofts"

[Anonymous]

I was shocked to see this from Frumin yesterday. I am a supporter of his but this is a terrible idea. One of his opponents in the election, Goulet who is now on the school board, basically ran on this idea and was defeated and criticized for it as presenting, among other things, a bad real estate deal. Now Frumin is promoting it? And suggesting we scuttle MacArthur school barely a month after it’s seemingly successful and good-start opening? Way to abandon MacArthur at a time it need support. This location is much too close to J-R to be viable as another HS without undermining J-R itself. And a complete distraction from pressing priorities. I hope he can find a way to detract this.