Big GDS news

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I've never seen anyone say anything like that on the Tenleytown listserv.

Must be the rando who made fun of you at some ANC meeting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think I know who you're talking about. He claimed to be from this area and work here, but he has a very active social media account and seems chummy with the architect and the chief Ward 3 Vision useful idiot.

I suspect that he's another one of the GDS's paid for team, like the woman who claimed to recently have moved here, with kids that she conveniently didn't bring to the meeting.

Why would anyone bring their kids to a public meeting? That is just stupid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think I know who you're talking about. He claimed to be from this area and work here, but he has a very active social media account and seems chummy with the architect and the chief Ward 3 Vision useful idiot.

I suspect that he's another one of the GDS's paid for team, like the woman who claimed to recently have moved here, with kids that she conveniently didn't bring to the meeting.

It's now part of Development 101 to have an "astroturf campaign" -- a faux grass roots strategy of 'community members' who come out of the woodwork to support a particular development project. Some may be paid consultants, who speak at meetings and may author op-ed pieces for local newspapers. Others simply may wish to ingratiate themselves with and get business from the developers. More numerous are the grad students and stay at home moms who are engaged by the developer's PR consultant and get paid a few dollars for each posting they do on list servs and social media. Sometimes, development interests will work with industry-friendly groups like Ward 3 vision to create astroturf groups, say "Tenleytown Neighbors for Smart Growth" or whatever. For all while, all of this really impressed council members and zoning officials but lately they have caught on to these tactics.

[Anonymous]

At another meeting he admitted he was from some rural town in New York before going on some unhinged rant about how we all need to be crammed tighter to prevent his house from flooding.

Again this "smart growth" jam that we can reduce auto use and all it takes is destroying your neighborhood and throwing the elderly under the bus. Why does it always have to be this neighborhood? Why not one of the many in this city that need revitalizing?

At any rate he wrote a suck-up post for GreaterGreaterWashington, again this is a guy who lives in the Hamptons or something. http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/27353/a-private-schools-plan-could-totally-revamp-public-space-in-tenleytown/

[Anonymous]

Amazon has a system for organizing small tasks just like you described, called Mechanical Turk. I think it may be worth looking through their listings to see if Ward3Vision has left any breadcrumbs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At another meeting he admitted he was from some rural town in New York before going on some unhinged rant about how we all need to be crammed tighter to prevent his house from flooding.

Again this "smart growth" jam that we can reduce auto use and all it takes is destroying your neighborhood and throwing the elderly under the bus. Why does it always have to be this neighborhood? Why not one of the many in this city that need revitalizing?

At any rate he wrote a suck-up post for GreaterGreaterWashington, again this is a guy who lives in the Hamptons or something. http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/27353/a-private-schools-plan-could-totally-revamp-public-space-in-tenleytown/

The person you are citing here grew up in Tenleytown and is a local architect. Hardly part of a conspiracy and hardly an "outsider"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think I know who you're talking about. He claimed to be from this area and work here, but he has a very active social media account and seems chummy with the architect and the chief Ward 3 Vision useful idiot.

I suspect that he's another one of the GDS's paid for team, like the woman who claimed to recently have moved here, with kids that she conveniently didn't bring to the meeting.

It is funny that people think that anyone who supports a development proposal MUST be a paid shill.

[Anonymous]

It's not so surprising that people think that an unemployed architect sucking up to the project architect in print might be interested in a different kind of "place-making."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not so surprising that people think that an unemployed architect sucking up to the project architect in print might be interested in a different kind of "place-making."

He is not unemployed, so you can think of an alternative conspiracy.

[Anonymous]

In DC?

[Anonymous]

Yep.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not so surprising that people think that an unemployed architect sucking up to the project architect in print might be interested in a different kind of "place-making."

This whole GDS project is getting kind of yucky. They even hired a consultant who got caught in a conflict of interest scandal during NCRC's first effort to get BZA approval of its expansion.

[Anonymous]

That was rehashed 25 pages ago.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think I know who you're talking about. He claimed to be from this area and work here, but he has a very active social media account and seems chummy with the architect and the chief Ward 3 Vision useful idiot.

I suspect that he's another one of the GDS's paid for team, like the woman who claimed to recently have moved here, with kids that she conveniently didn't bring to the meeting.

I talked with someone who is very active at GDS, and without expecting approvals to be a total done deal at this point, they are quite optimistic about getting things through.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not so surprising that people think that an unemployed architect sucking up to the project architect in print might be interested in a different kind of "place-making."

He is not unemployed, so you can think of an alternative conspiracy.

It says right in his article profile that he is "pursuing an architecture license." Doesn't sound too employed to me. Is that like a Law school grad becoming s politico since they couldn't pass the bar?