Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WaPo has an article up: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/a-private-school-saved-a-public-dc-field-should-it-get-preference-for-play-time/2019/10/21/7030f9c8-f412-11e9-a285-882a8e386a96_story.html

I didn't expect much from the Post and it didn't disappoint.

Although I did like this bit:

“They accused our children of being the quote, ‘Children of the powerful’ and denied quote, ‘black and brown kids’ access to the field,” said Ian Cameron, who leads the school’s board of trustees.

His wife is Susan Rice.

The lack of self-awareness of many of the Maret witnesses was breathtaking. They sure talk the talk. Their crisis PR guy, who is very likely a Maret parent, had them all singing from the same sheet music. “Misinformation” “social media” “the media” “back room deal” “race and privilege.” Were any of them able to look at how this so-called contract extension was handled and see how slimy it was? So many of them loved to wax poetic about how community minded Maret is and took offense to Silverman reminding everyone That Maret did what it did with Jelleff for Maret, first the foremost. The requirements added to the easement contract (ie the swimming pool) was the cost of doing business, not stuff Maret desired to pay for because they are good citizens. But they want to claim it now. Rewriting history.

If Mater's going to rent it then they might as well have to pay a fair market rate. I wonder what income the city could get on open air parking lot on Wisconsin Ave in Glover Park?


We keep that land in public trust for all our residents. If it's going to be used for and controlled by exclusively private interests then it has no purpose and shouldn't exist. Subsidizing Market, one of the richest schools in the country, is not in the public interest.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thing is messed up. All of the improvements Maret has made to the field will be used up by the time this deal expires. They're basically getting to rent it for cost because of their political connections. The Hardy soccer team should just "squat" on the land and see what happens. They have nothing to lose.

Actually, it isn't at cost. It is a crazy rate Maret would be paying based on their investment:

Maret used Jelleff for 10 hours per week for 20 weeks a year -- 200 hours. Jelleff charges $70 per hour for its use. Cost to Jelleff would be 14K per year. Maret has used the field in this way for 10 years. 10 X 14,000 = $140,000. Maret put 2.4 million into Jelleff. So they really paid $1200 per hour over the last 10 years. Another 9 years doesn't even get to the 2.4 million number.

But, of course, Jelleff doesn’t charge anything near market rates for rental of prime urban land.

And under regular permitting, there is no way Maret would have been able to get all the prime time.

Under regular permitting they wouldn't have gotten any. As an organization that doesn't serve primarily DC residents they would be the lowest possible priority level.

Anonymous wrote:WaPo has an article up: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/a-private-school-saved-a-public-dc-field-should-it-get-preference-for-play-time/2019/10/21/7030f9c8-f412-11e9-a285-882a8e386a96_story.html

I didn't expect much from the Post and it didn't disappoint.

Although I did like this bit:

“They accused our children of being the quote, ‘Children of the powerful’ and denied quote, ‘black and brown kids’ access to the field,” said Ian Cameron, who leads the school’s board of trustees.

His wife is Susan Rice.

What are chances of President Warren nationalizing Maret? Can we dream? Or is that too Trumpian?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thing is messed up. All of the improvements Maret has made to the field will be used up by the time this deal expires. They're basically getting to rent it for cost because of their political connections. The Hardy soccer team should just "squat" on the land and see what happens. They have nothing to lose.

Actually, it isn't at cost. It is a crazy rate Maret would be paying based on their investment:

Maret used Jelleff for 10 hours per week for 20 weeks a year -- 200 hours. Jelleff charges $70 per hour for its use. Cost to Jelleff would be 14K per year. Maret has used the field in this way for 10 years. 10 X 14,000 = $140,000. Maret put 2.4 million into Jelleff. So they really paid $1200 per hour over the last 10 years. Another 9 years doesn't even get to the 2.4 million number.

There's no investment. By the time the proposed giveaway is up all the improvements will be fully depreciated and we the public will have to pay to fix it back up. In other words, we the public get zero benefit from this "deal".


And please don't insult everyone's intelligence with that $70 and hour bs. That's a massively subsidized rate for DC residents to use public fields on an occasional basis (and y'all know that).

Anonymous wrote:The Maret people talked so much about charity and diversity and community.

But this contract renewal was an opportunity for them to show that they truly live their belief in equity, not just that they espouse it when it’s easy.

Their character was tested, and they failed the test.

You misunderstand their charity. They are charitable but also they know better than all of us - especially our myopic and Trumpian elected officials - what is best for us. We must trust that they have our best interests at heart and be grateful for what they give us, even of that which we paid for ourselves.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thing is messed up. All of the improvements Maret has made to the field will be used up by the time this deal expires. They're basically getting to rent it for cost because of their political connections. The Hardy soccer team should just "squat" on the land and see what happens. They have nothing to lose.

Actually, it isn't at cost. It is a crazy rate Maret would be paying based on their investment:

Maret used Jelleff for 10 hours per week for 20 weeks a year -- 200 hours. Jelleff charges $70 per hour for its use. Cost to Jelleff would be 14K per year. Maret has used the field in this way for 10 years. 10 X 14,000 = $140,000. Maret put 2.4 million into Jelleff. So they really paid $1200 per hour over the last 10 years. Another 9 years doesn't even get to the 2.4 million number.

But this math ignores that they made the improvements primarily for themselves and their use of the space precludes others from taking advantage of those facilities during the times when they could and that the improvements have a shelf life.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thing is messed up. All of the improvements Maret has made to the field will be used up by the time this deal expires. They're basically getting to rent it for cost because of their political connections. The Hardy soccer team should just "squat" on the land and see what happens. They have nothing to lose.

Actually, it isn't at cost. It is a crazy rate Maret would be paying based on their investment:

Maret used Jelleff for 10 hours per week for 20 weeks a year -- 200 hours. Jelleff charges $70 per hour for its use. Cost to Jelleff would be 14K per year. Maret has used the field in this way for 10 years. 10 X 14,000 = $140,000. Maret put 2.4 million into Jelleff. So they really paid $1200 per hour over the last 10 years. Another 9 years doesn't even get to the 2.4 million number.

Maret is paying what they would have to pay if they had been given the field free and clear.

True. They would still pay for turf and fencing even if it were their own land.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thing is messed up. All of the improvements Maret has made to the field will be used up by the time this deal expires. They're basically getting to rent it for cost because of their political connections. The Hardy soccer team should just "squat" on the land and see what happens. They have nothing to lose.

Actually, it isn't at cost. It is a crazy rate Maret would be paying based on their investment:

Maret used Jelleff for 10 hours per week for 20 weeks a year -- 200 hours. Jelleff charges $70 per hour for its use. Cost to Jelleff would be 14K per year. Maret has used the field in this way for 10 years. 10 X 14,000 = $140,000. Maret put 2.4 million into Jelleff. So they really paid $1200 per hour over the last 10 years. Another 9 years doesn't even get to the 2.4 million number.

But, of course, Jelleff doesn’t charge anything near market rates for rental of prime urban land.

And under regular permitting, there is no way Maret would have been able to get all the prime time.

Anonymous wrote:The whole mess is only about how it benefits DPR/DC/Bowser, they don't look beyond that.

Delano Hunter is in over his head and is only doing the bidding of his boss.

Don't see how this benefits DPR.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thing is messed up. All of the improvements Maret has made to the field will be used up by the time this deal expires. They're basically getting to rent it for cost because of their political connections. The Hardy soccer team should just "squat" on the land and see what happens. They have nothing to lose.

Actually, it isn't at cost. It is a crazy rate Maret would be paying based on their investment:

Maret used Jelleff for 10 hours per week for 20 weeks a year -- 200 hours. Jelleff charges $70 per hour for its use. Cost to Jelleff would be 14K per year. Maret has used the field in this way for 10 years. 10 X 14,000 = $140,000. Maret put 2.4 million into Jelleff. So they really paid $1200 per hour over the last 10 years. Another 9 years doesn't even get to the 2.4 million number.

Maret is paying what they would have to pay if they had been given the field free and clear.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This thing is messed up. All of the improvements Maret has made to the field will be used up by the time this deal expires. They're basically getting to rent it for cost because of their political connections. The Hardy soccer team should just "squat" on the land and see what happens. They have nothing to lose.

Actually, it isn't at cost. It is a crazy rate Maret would be paying based on their investment:

Maret used Jelleff for 10 hours per week for 20 weeks a year -- 200 hours. Jelleff charges $70 per hour for its use. Cost to Jelleff would be 14K per year. Maret has used the field in this way for 10 years. 10 X 14,000 = $140,000. Maret put 2.4 million into Jelleff. So they really paid $1200 per hour over the last 10 years. Another 9 years doesn't even get to the 2.4 million number.

Then why are they doing it, especially given the incalculable cost to the school’s reputation? Is it because the school is run by idiots or just because Maret desperately wants the local community - in spite of the unremitting torrent of vicious lies and innuendo leveled at them by said community - to have nice and shiny things to play with, even if they can’t actually play with them until after their bedtime.

I think I would propose Hardy gets the field for a hour before school (DC Middle Schools seem to start relatively late - it seems possible to get a middle school practice in during the time before school -- with the bias that my suburban public school with plenty of land did not have middle school sports teams). Jelleff AC and one other TBD group get the field from 3:00-5:00; Maret gets the field from 5:00-7:00 - has the same obligations imposed and funds the cost of the morning bus from Jelleff to Hardy. DPR process put in place so this cannot happen again and DPR commits to re-doing Ellington field for the benefit of public schools and other non-private stakeholders. Nobody truly happy.

Anonymous wrote:This thing is messed up. All of the improvements Maret has made to the field will be used up by the time this deal expires. They're basically getting to rent it for cost because of their political connections. The Hardy soccer team should just "squat" on the land and see what happens. They have nothing to lose.

Actually, it isn't at cost. It is a crazy rate Maret would be paying based on their investment:

Maret used Jelleff for 10 hours per week for 20 weeks a year -- 200 hours. Jelleff charges $70 per hour for its use. Cost to Jelleff would be 14K per year. Maret has used the field in this way for 10 years. 10 X 14,000 = $140,000. Maret put 2.4 million into Jelleff. So they really paid $1200 per hour over the last 10 years. Another 9 years doesn't even get to the 2.4 million number.