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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OMG. Would some kind soul break down this extremely long post? [/quote]

Let me try . . . The Foxhall Community Citizens Association (FCCA) is scared of public school children. The public school serving Foxhall - as with many others in Ward 3 - is over-crowded. A solution to this problem appeared in the form of a public school building leased out to a wealthy public school until 2023. Instead of doing what the community wanted and advocating for this public school building to be given back to DCPS, the FCCA did all it could to ensure the lease was extended in virtual perpetuity. The FCCA eventually got what it wanted, but the city then announced a plan to build a new public elementary school right next to that school building. This new school building may end up taking away a bunch of land currently used for a public park. In response, the FCCA is pulling all sorts of shenanigans - including naked attempts to misrepresent community sentiment and harking back to the old NIMBY favorite on parking concerns - to stop the construction of a public school building that would help alleviate overcrowding in the Wilson feeder pattern.  [/quote]

Wow. And I thought the Cleveland Park NIMBYs were crazy.  [/quote]

This is 100% my impression. I sadly live in this neighborhood which i refer to as sh1th--le village because the neighbors, just a few are so nasty.  They will literally drive you from your own home and don't dare do any kind of improvemt or construction or dcra will breathe down your neck and even though it gets tossed out or no Vio it's still such a waste of time, harassing and awful. Oh and don't dare be a minority or married to a minority, these disgusting bags of garbage will treat you like dirt.  I wish the city would demolish the neighborhood and i OWN there.[/quote]

I didn’t know a lot about the neighborhood before all of this drama started and figured that the FCCA was unrepresentative of community sentiment. I’ve been truly appalled about what I’ve learned about it through the responses on the listserv and the accounts of those few minorities that live there. Finding out that people who harbor views like this live in DC and participate in civic associations was an unwelcome shock. Maybe the worst thing about it is that they have, at least, managed to hold up the opening of both the elementary and high school proposed for the area.[/quote]

The FCCA isn't a civic association. In DC, "Civic Association" has a very specific meaning. In the early part of the 20th century, "Citizens Associations" -- along with the Federation of Citizens Associations of DC -- were formed in the white parts of the city to lobby the Congress on local issues. One of the biggest issues was insuring that the white parts of the city stayed white, and the citizens associations were very active in implementing racial covenants and then suing to insure they were enforced. In the Supreme Court case that invalidated racial covenants in DC,  the original plaintiff was the Mount Pleasant Citizens Association.

The bylaws of the Federation of Citizens Associations limited membership in its member organizations to white men until the 1970's. Removal of this restriction was not the result of any great change of heart on the part of the federation. Rather, in 1973 the IRS had ruled that organizations that discriminated were ineligible for tax-exempt status. They figured it was better to keep their tax-exempt status.

Civic associations -- along with the DC Federation of Civic Associations -- were founded in black neighborhoods. Their primary purpose was opposing the Citizens Associations.

The FCCA is a [b]Citizens Association[/b]. [/quote]

Wow. I just learned an awful lot about DC’s history as a result of assuming “civic” and “citizens” were interchangeable. Sometimes stupidity can make one smarter, I guess.[/quote]

Ugh...explains much of my frustrations and disgust in this neighborhood.  Wish I'd known before I moved here.  It's not everyone, but a small vocal group of folks in this area really make it very unpleasant to live here as a minority unless you are willing to totally submit and step and fetch.  I've never lived anywhere like this and prior to this lived in other areas of DC, Dupont Circle, U street, and even Van Ness that were totally normal.  There is a real bunker attitude among some here.[/quote]

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