Shepherd Park Deal Feed

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The mid and upper grades at Shepherd are still predominantly AA. Someone correct me if this has changed recently, but I believe the test scores still cannot be broken out by white race since there are < 10 white students in each testing grade.

True. The largest group of white students are in PreK.

Incorrect. This year the statistics are split for PARCC Grade 3 (still n<10 for Grades 4 and 5). Go look yourself before you say "true."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bowser won't be mayor forever, and the Green Team bench is finally thin (thank god). Todd has no chance of following her into office -- he's a cretin -- and very well could get voted off the Council next election.

Once Bowser is gone, all bets are off with regards to this issue.

I think you're overlooking the number of politically well connected UMC AA folks in the neighborhood. DC politics has deep roots in SP, and it's not going anywhere without an ugly fight.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bowser won't be mayor forever, and the Green Team bench is finally thin (thank god). Todd has no chance of following her into office -- he's a cretin -- and very well could get voted off the Council next election.

Once Bowser is gone, all bets are off with regards to this issue.

I think you're overlooking the number of politically well connected UMC AA folks in the neighborhood. DC politics has deep roots in SP, and it's not going anywhere without an ugly fight.

Yes, and down into 16th st hgts/crestwood. There is a reason those neighborhoods were part of the "tweaks" to the boundary revisions and those reasons aren't moving away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bowser won't be mayor forever, and the Green Team bench is finally thin (thank god). Todd has no chance of following her into office -- he's a cretin -- and very well could get voted off the Council next election.

Once Bowser is gone, all bets are off with regards to this issue.

I think you're overlooking the number of politically well connected UMC AA folks in the neighborhood. DC politics has deep roots in SP, and it's not going anywhere without an ugly fight.

Not to mention current council person that lives and has kids that attend Shepherd. Also, Deal is 3.4 from my house, MacFarland is 3.6. Wells does not have enough space to admit Shepherd and Lafayette (the only way a move would be sold).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bowser won't be mayor forever, and the Green Team bench is finally thin (thank god). Todd has no chance of following her into office -- he's a cretin -- and very well could get voted off the Council next election.

Once Bowser is gone, all bets are off with regards to this issue.

I think you're overlooking the number of politically well connected UMC AA folks in the neighborhood. DC politics has deep roots in SP, and it's not going anywhere without an ugly fight.

Yeah, it's not just the mayor. Someone posted this recently on the SP listserv, in the context of a discussion of gentrification (someone argued that SP was being gentrified, and the below poster disagreed):

"Please remember that Shepherd Park is/was home to two presidents of Howard University, the Secretary of HUD and HHS, a Fed governor, a Pulitzer Prize Washington Post columnist, the first female mayor of the District of Columbia, a US Marine Corp general, the civil rights attorney for whom the municipal office building at 14th. & U is named, the Executive Director of the regional transit authority, the head of the Smithsonian and more medical doctors, attorneys and judges can one can count, ALL of whom were/are Black."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bowser won't be mayor forever, and the Green Team bench is finally thin (thank god). Todd has no chance of following her into office -- he's a cretin -- and very well could get voted off the Council next election.

Once Bowser is gone, all bets are off with regards to this issue.

I think you're overlooking the number of politically well connected UMC AA folks in the neighborhood. DC politics has deep roots in SP, and it's not going anywhere without an ugly fight.

Yeah, it's not just the mayor. Someone posted this recently on the SP listserv, in the context of a discussion of gentrification (someone argued that SP was being gentrified, and the below poster disagreed):

"Please remember that Shepherd Park is/was home to two presidents of Howard University, the Secretary of HUD and HHS, a Fed governor, a Pulitzer Prize Washington Post columnist, the first female mayor of the District of Columbia, a US Marine Corp general, the civil rights attorney for whom the municipal office building at 14th. & U is named, the Executive Director of the regional transit authority, the head of the Smithsonian and more medical doctors, attorneys and judges can one can count, ALL of whom were/are Black."

Additionally, that email left out a lot of people too. Former NAACP President, current councilman at large come to mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bowser won't be mayor forever, and the Green Team bench is finally thin (thank god). Todd has no chance of following her into office -- he's a cretin -- and very well could get voted off the Council next election.

Once Bowser is gone, all bets are off with regards to this issue.

I think you're overlooking the number of politically well connected UMC AA folks in the neighborhood. DC politics has deep roots in SP, and it's not going anywhere without an ugly fight.

Yeah, it's not just the mayor. Someone posted this recently on the SP listserv, in the context of a discussion of gentrification (someone argued that SP was being gentrified, and the below poster disagreed):

"Please remember that Shepherd Park is/was home to two presidents of Howard University, the Secretary of HUD and HHS, a Fed governor, a Pulitzer Prize Washington Post columnist, the first female mayor of the District of Columbia, a US Marine Corp general, the civil rights attorney for whom the municipal office building at 14th. & U is named, the Executive Director of the regional transit authority, the head of the Smithsonian and more medical doctors, attorneys and judges can one can count, ALL of whom were/are Black."

Additionally, that email left out a lot of people too. Former NAACP President, current councilman at large come to mind.

PP. Also, NPR on-air folks, DC government execs, etc. Also plenty of politically "unconnected" people like area medical directors, NIH scientists, etc.

[Anonymous]

Shepherd Park is absolutely upper SES. I don't think you can call it gentrified because it has been upper SES for decades. It hasn't been white and SES, in part due to historical WOTP redlining. It's where wealthy black families have lived for a few generations.

What you can say is that it is increasingly racially diverse. Shepherd Elementary has historically been less diverse because many parents could and did choose private schools for their kids. I'm thinking of Eaton, Mann and Hyde.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Shepherd Park is absolutely upper SES. I don't think you can call it gentrified because it has been upper SES for decades. It hasn't been white and SES, in part due to historical WOTP redlining. It's where wealthy black families have lived for a few generations.

What you can say is that it is increasingly racially diverse. Shepherd Elementary has historically been less diverse because many parents could and did choose private schools for their kids. I'm thinking of Eaton, Mann and Hyde.

AA SP resident here. It is undeniably becoming more white, and more uniformly high SES. It seems in the past it was more a mix of middle class and UMC. Teachers and regular feds could afford to live here; now it's becoming all UMC. As it becomes more desirable for people of all backgrounds, prices have gone up, and with that, less SES diversity. Because fewer AAs and other POC are UMC, the neighborhood is trending more white.

It is what it is. I don't want it to look like WOTP anytime soon. However, a lot of longtime families hold on to their houses, and there are still some AA families that have bought here recently, even homes in the 1.3-1.6 range. So I think it will remain pretty diverse for at least a couple more decades.

[Anonymous]

It may be likely that Shepherd will be rezoned. If Bowser's plan to put affordable housing in neighborhoods west of the park comes to fruition, rezoning and OOB rights will HAVE to end. There is no way Deal and Wilson can handle the influx of students that thousands of units of affordable housing will likely bring.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It may be likely that Shepherd will be rezoned. If Bowser's plan to put affordable housing in neighborhoods west of the park comes to fruition, rezoning and OOB rights will HAVE to end. There is no way Deal and Wilson can handle the influx of students that thousands of units of affordable housing will likely bring.

I should add that affordable housing would also address the issue of the "whitening of Deal and Wilson" and reduced SES diversity that would result with zoning out neighborhoods east of the park and ending OOB rights. When certain contingents realize what this affordable housing plan will mean for their own families, the fighting and strange bedfellows that result will be fascinating to watch.

[Anonymous]

Wilson is currently 38% OOB. I wonder whether ending OOB might be more acceptable to people than zoning schools out. OOB rights have only been in place since 2009, and DCPS has had increases in enrollment since then. I'd be fine with OOB having a preference, but not a right, to attend feeder schools. If there was significant grandfathering in place (e.g., 3-5 years), hopefully that would be palatable for most people.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bowser won't be mayor forever, and the Green Team bench is finally thin (thank god). Todd has no chance of following her into office -- he's a cretin -- and very well could get voted off the Council next election.

Once Bowser is gone, all bets are off with regards to this issue.

I think you're overlooking the number of politically well connected UMC AA folks in the neighborhood. DC politics has deep roots in SP, and it's not going anywhere without an ugly fight.

Yeah, it's not just the mayor. Someone posted this recently on the SP listserv, in the context of a discussion of gentrification (someone argued that SP was being gentrified, and the below poster disagreed):

"Please remember that Shepherd Park is/was home to two presidents of Howard University, the Secretary of HUD and HHS, a Fed governor, a Pulitzer Prize Washington Post columnist, the first female mayor of the District of Columbia, a US Marine Corp general, the civil rights attorney for whom the municipal office building at 14th. & U is named, the Executive Director of the regional transit authority, the head of the Smithsonian and more medical doctors, attorneys and judges can one can count, ALL of whom were/are Black."

A secretary of HUD. Well, there you go.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bowser won't be mayor forever, and the Green Team bench is finally thin (thank god). Todd has no chance of following her into office -- he's a cretin -- and very well could get voted off the Council next election.

Once Bowser is gone, all bets are off with regards to this issue.

I think you're overlooking the number of politically well connected UMC AA folks in the neighborhood. DC politics has deep roots in SP, and it's not going anywhere without an ugly fight.

Yeah, it's not just the mayor. Someone posted this recently on the SP listserv, in the context of a discussion of gentrification (someone argued that SP was being gentrified, and the below poster disagreed):

"Please remember that Shepherd Park is/was home to two presidents of Howard University, the Secretary of HUD and HHS, a Fed governor, a Pulitzer Prize Washington Post columnist, the first female mayor of the District of Columbia, a US Marine Corp general, the civil rights attorney for whom the municipal office building at 14th. & U is named, the Executive Director of the regional transit authority, the head of the Smithsonian and more medical doctors, attorneys and judges can one can count, ALL of whom were/are Black."

A secretary of HUD. Well, there you go.

I think these are mostly individuals who've lived in SP in the past, not currently. For example, I know the house former mayor Sharon Pratt lived in, and it's currently owned by someone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wilson is currently 38% OOB. I wonder whether ending OOB might be more acceptable to people than zoning schools out. OOB rights have only been in place since 2009, and DCPS has had increases in enrollment since then. I'd be fine with OOB having a preference, but not a right, to attend feeder schools. If there was significant grandfathering in place (e.g., 3-5 years), hopefully that would be palatable for most people.

That's already happening. It was closer to 50% very recently. The OOB numbers at Wilson elementary and MS feeders is plummeting. It will just take a few years for that to hit Wilson. Curtailing OOB rights isn't a viable long term solution. (Of course, some of the OOB students are in special needs programs and self-contained classrooms that are not going away - so the number will never be zero).