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

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
-DC purchases the Washington International School primary school campus next to Duke Ellington (it's not for sale). Allows expansion of Duke Ellington's building footprint and additional outdoor space appropriate to a general purpose HS.
.

The Ellington Field is at 38th and R. DC wouldn't need to buy WIS.

That ship has sailed. It is now a parks department property. But it is not big enough for a high school and you already have a brand new high school in the area. Too bad Hardy never used to that filed… thanks for your leadership mary cheh!

It has a regulation grass field and the track could easily be expanded. Are you sure you know which property is being referred to?

I go there almost every day. Remember when they were “busing” kids from Hardy to far away fields and the Duke Ellington field was empty.

A high school campus requires more space. Duke Ellington is not going to be converted to a regular high school. Those two properties will never be reunited. Duke Ellington field is not a school property. https://dgs.dc.gov/ellingtonfield

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Frumin seems to propose overhaul/upheaval for the parts of Ward 3 where he does not live. Seems to be fine proposing re-development/low-income housing/dispensaries as long as it's not his neighborhood.

That's his M.O. As a school redistricting committee member, all of his efforts were focused on ensuring that Janney and AU Park were left undisturbed. He was quite willing to jettison other Ward 3 schools from Alice Deal, and presumably Wilson, saying that some had to sacrifice for the greater good and that Ward 3 had to do its share -- presumably so long as the share was coming from some other neighborhood. He dismissed it all as just "collateral damage."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frumin seems to propose overhaul/upheaval for the parts of Ward 3 where he does not live. Seems to be fine proposing re-development/low-income housing/dispensaries as long as it's not his neighborhood.

That's his M.O. As a school redistricting committee member, all of his efforts were focused on ensuring that Janney and AU Park were left undisturbed. He was quite willing to jettison other Ward 3 schools from Alice Deal, and presumably Wilson, saying that some had to sacrifice for the greater good and that Ward 3 had to do its share -- presumably so long as the share was coming from some other neighborhood. He dismissed it all as just "collateral damage."

And his area also doesn't seem to be affected by the voucher program. Looks like he is the council member for AU Park, not Ward 3.

[Anonymous]

If you wonder how we got here, just read this:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1090537.page#23647404

Please. Never Again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you wonder how we got here, just read this:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/1090537.page#23647404

Please. Never Again.

You voted for the Leopards eating people's faces party. Are you surprised they won and are fulfilling their promises?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Neither does Maret.

If you love Maret’s arrangement then be on notice that DC is actively considering a similar arrangement with a for-profit sports group for a longterm preferential lockup on the Hearst Park field. Although DC recently spent millions to redo the park, including its large natural turf soccer field, the private group wants to tear out the grass and install artificial turf. In exchange for their “generosity” they will get a longterm lease that effectively shuts out the community during prime hours. It makes the Maret deal seem reasonable by comparison.

Artificial turf is horrible! Heat islands that worsen on-field injuries. And no way to dispose of them, despite what the salesmen say. Read up on it.

[Anonymous]

As others have said, the Council acts like crazy activists throwing money at pet projects while watching the city fall apart.

The city can’t even properly fund Ward 3 schools or get the ward the universal pre-K the rest of the city has (something Eric Goulet has been continuously pushing, but I haven’t heard Frumin mention at all). There was another discussion where people said that Eastern could get a lot of their in-boundary high performing students to attend if they could guarantee that rigorous classes would be provided no matter what. The response was no, the city doesn’t have enough money to promise a handful of rigorous classes.

But sure, let’s buy a huge property and then start daydreaming about what to do with it. Let’s spend hundreds of millions of dollars giving 8,000 people free apartments for life in upper Northwest:

https://www.robertwhiteatlarge.com/dcha-reforms-fy24-housing-budget/

Let’s give everyone a free e-bike! Almost all of the Councilmembers have signed off on McDuffies bill for D.C. to start giving out reparations:

https://dcist.com/story/23/02/27/mcduffie-reintroduces-reparations-bill/

I get that people in this city are _extremely_ turned off from local politics. 99% of the people talking about “taxation without representation” probably couldn’t name the 13 elected representatives that run this city. But it’s hard for me to understand how this level of incompetency just gets completely ignored.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Intelsat building sits on a ground lease from the federal government. So DC wouldn't be owning the ground, just the 45 year old, highly inefficient but classified historic, buildings which sit on them, plus whatever term remains on the lease. Each of the fifteen "pod" towers contains a highly inefficient central atrium.

Good lord this is a ridiculous system. The federal government needs to raze the site and sell off parcels (to the city, developers for housing, etc.)

It could become a whole new neighborhood right on top of a transit hub.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The fields are literally across the street. Like they are closer to the former Whittle school than St Albans fields on the same campus to their academic buildings.

Those are UDC's fields.

[Anonymous]

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

Last time that looked at that building for a school, they were told it was prohibitively expensive to renovate it to code for a public school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The fields are literally across the street. Like they are closer to the former Whittle school than St Albans fields on the same campus to their academic buildings.

Those are UDC's fields.

UDC needs to start sharing more. They have little interest in limited commercial mitt access to their facilities. Yet they get nearly all of their funding from the taxpayers’ teat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

The fields are literally across the street. Like they are closer to the former Whittle school than St Albans fields on the same campus to their academic buildings.

Those are UDC's fields.

UDC needs to start sharing more. They have little interest in limited community access to their facilities. Yet they get nearly all of their funding from the taxpayers’ teat.

Correction: community access

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Neither does Maret.

If you love Maret’s arrangement then be on notice that DC is actively considering a similar arrangement with a for-profit sports group for a longterm preferential lockup on the Hearst Park field. Although DC recently spent millions to redo the park, including its large natural turf soccer field, the private group wants to tear out the grass and install artificial turf. In exchange for their “generosity” they will get a longterm lease that effectively shuts out the community during prime hours. It makes the Maret deal seem reasonable by comparison.

Maret’s deal was great. Hardy was there 20 years before the Maret deal and never once used that field or used Duke Ellington. This shows there is no demand from Hardy during or after school. Now Jellleff because of the Maret deal is one of the most used field in the city while Duke Ellington is a dog park. Also Maret’s school fields and gyms are heavily used by rec and travel leagues. Should that stop?

Hearst field is another undeveloped field but the offer by PPA is a joke. The DCPR needs to turf it, put lights in and monetize it. You should see what Sidwell gets for renting its fields out. The demand for field space far out strips the supply in DC. A lot of the privates and public school properties are not allowed to have activities on the fields because the neighbors have put restrictions on the fields.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Neither does Maret.

If you love Maret’s arrangement then be on notice that DC is actively considering a similar arrangement with a for-profit sports group for a longterm preferential lockup on the Hearst Park field. Although DC recently spent millions to redo the park, including its large natural turf soccer field, the private group wants to tear out the grass and install artificial turf. In exchange for their “generosity” they will get a longterm lease that effectively shuts out the community during prime hours. It makes the Maret deal seem reasonable by comparison.

Maret’s deal was great. Hardy was there 20 years before the Maret deal and never once used that field or used Duke Ellington. This shows there is no demand from Hardy during or after school. Now Jellleff because of the Maret deal is one of the most used field in the city while Duke Ellington is a dog park. Also Maret’s school fields and gyms are heavily used by rec and travel leagues. Should that stop?

Hearst field is another undeveloped field but the offer by PPA is a joke. The DCPR needs to turf it, put lights in and monetize it. You should see what Sidwell gets for renting its fields out. The demand for field space far out strips the supply in DC. A lot of the privates and public school properties are not allowed to have activities on the fields because the neighbors have put restrictions on the fields.

Sidwell doesn’t have lights. No way community allows Hearst to have lights.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Neither does Maret.

If you love Maret’s arrangement then be on notice that DC is actively considering a similar arrangement with a for-profit sports group for a longterm preferential lockup on the Hearst Park field. Although DC recently spent millions to redo the park, including its large natural turf soccer field, the private group wants to tear out the grass and install artificial turf. In exchange for their “generosity” they will get a longterm lease that effectively shuts out the community during prime hours. It makes the Maret deal seem reasonable by comparison.

Maret’s deal was great. Hardy was there 20 years before the Maret deal and never once used that field or used Duke Ellington. This shows there is no demand from Hardy during or after school. Now Jellleff because of the Maret deal is one of the most used field in the city while Duke Ellington is a dog park. Also Maret’s school fields and gyms are heavily used by rec and travel leagues. Should that stop?

Hearst field is another undeveloped field but the offer by PPA is a joke. The DCPR needs to turf it, put lights in and monetize it. You should see what Sidwell gets for renting its fields out. The demand for field space far out strips the supply in DC. A lot of the privates and public school properties are not allowed to have activities on the fields because the neighbors have put restrictions on the fields.

Sidwell doesn’t have lights. No way community allows Hearst to have lights.

A few years ago Hearst was a beautiful green park, an oasis. Then DPR cut down most of the trees, damaging the park’s natural character. Is DC hellbent on turning Heast Park into an urban “recreation center”?!