Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take it a step further

People complained about closing the service lane in Cleveland Park, how the former Babe's site in Tenley wasn't going to have parking, or how the 15 year 'battle" over Cathedral Commons was going to ruin the neighborhood. Yes all these things happened and pretty much nothing has changed.

Just better shops, more housing and better pedestrian experience.

Maybe it is time to stop listening to the NIMBYs in total and move on with the new development and progressive transportation initiatives.

the service lane debate is an evergreen one. The ANC 3C commissioners under 50 have been tagged with being "pro chain store" - not because they have proposed closing the service lane or because they are pro chain store, but because they are seen as a threat to the slow decline of CP.

Yes, I agree, the people who have lived in Cleveland Park for 30+ years have ruled over its decline. It is time to put a stop to it. That is why the new development there is a good thing, as are closing the service lane and adding bike lanes so more people can get there safely.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take it a step further

People complained about closing the service lane in Cleveland Park, how the former Babe's site in Tenley wasn't going to have parking, or how the 15 year 'battle" over Cathedral Commons was going to ruin the neighborhood. Yes all these things happened and pretty much nothing has changed.

Just better shops, more housing and better pedestrian experience.

Maybe it is time to stop listening to the NIMBYs in total and move on with the new development and progressive transportation initiatives.

the service lane debate is an evergreen one. The ANC 3C commissioners under 50 have been tagged with being "pro chain store" - not because they have proposed closing the service lane or because they are pro chain store, but because they are seen as a threat to the slow decline of CP.

“Take it a step further”. Commercial redevelopment of the strip for “density” will lead to higher commercial rents, which makes businesses like Vace or the antique jewelry store not feasible. In their place you will get more fast casual dining. The five over one cookie cutter experience turns every urban community into the bland equivalent of an outdoor suburban shopping mall. This is not what people imagine when diverse, vibrant urbanism is being discussed.

yes, they picture empty 1-story storefronts and parking lots.

which sounds a lot more like the "bland suburban shopping malls" envisioned by the PP and the sad, current reality of Cleveland Park.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take it a step further

People complained about closing the service lane in Cleveland Park, how the former Babe's site in Tenley wasn't going to have parking, or how the 15 year 'battle" over Cathedral Commons was going to ruin the neighborhood. Yes all these things happened and pretty much nothing has changed.

Just better shops, more housing and better pedestrian experience.

Maybe it is time to stop listening to the NIMBYs in total and move on with the new development and progressive transportation initiatives.

the service lane debate is an evergreen one. The ANC 3C commissioners under 50 have been tagged with being "pro chain store" - not because they have proposed closing the service lane or because they are pro chain store, but because they are seen as a threat to the slow decline of CP.

“Take it a step further”. Commercial redevelopment of the strip for “density” will lead to higher commercial rents, which makes businesses like Vace or the antique jewelry store not feasible. In their place you will get more fast casual dining. The five over one cookie cutter experience turns every urban community into the bland equivalent of an outdoor suburban shopping mall. This is not what people imagine when diverse, vibrant urbanism is being discussed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take it a step further

People complained about closing the service lane in Cleveland Park, how the former Babe's site in Tenley wasn't going to have parking, or how the 15 year 'battle" over Cathedral Commons was going to ruin the neighborhood. Yes all these things happened and pretty much nothing has changed.

Just better shops, more housing and better pedestrian experience.

Maybe it is time to stop listening to the NIMBYs in total and move on with the new development and progressive transportation initiatives.

the service lane debate is an evergreen one. The ANC 3C commissioners under 50 have been tagged with being "pro chain store" - not because they have proposed closing the service lane or because they are pro chain store, but because they are seen as a threat to the slow decline of CP.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take it a step further

People complained about closing the service lane in Cleveland Park, how the former Babe's site in Tenley wasn't going to have parking, or how the 15 year 'battle" over Cathedral Commons was going to ruin the neighborhood. Yes all these things happened and pretty much nothing has changed.

Just better shops, more housing and better pedestrian experience.

Maybe it is time to stop listening to the NIMBYs in total and move on with the new development and progressive transportation initiatives.

the service lane debate is an evergreen one. The ANC 3C commissioners under 50 have been tagged with being "pro chain store" - not because they have proposed closing the service lane or because they are pro chain store, but because they are seen as a threat to the slow decline of CP.

“Take it a step further”. Commercial redevelopment of the strip for “density” will lead to higher commercial rents, which makes businesses like Vace or the antique jewelry store not feasible. In their place you will get more fast casual dining. The five over one cookie cutter experience turns every urban community into the bland equivalent of an outdoor suburban shopping mall. This is not what people imagine when diverse, vibrant urbanism is being discussed.

yes, they picture empty 1-story storefronts and parking lots.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take it a step further

People complained about closing the service lane in Cleveland Park, how the former Babe's site in Tenley wasn't going to have parking, or how the 15 year 'battle" over Cathedral Commons was going to ruin the neighborhood. Yes all these things happened and pretty much nothing has changed.

Just better shops, more housing and better pedestrian experience.

Maybe it is time to stop listening to the NIMBYs in total and move on with the new development and progressive transportation initiatives.

the service lane debate is an evergreen one. The ANC 3C commissioners under 50 have been tagged with being "pro chain store" - not because they have proposed closing the service lane or because they are pro chain store, but because they are seen as a threat to the slow decline of CP.

“Take it a step further”. Commercial redevelopment of the strip for “density” will lead to higher commercial rents, which makes businesses like Vace or the antique jewelry store not feasible. In their place you will get more fast casual dining. The five over one cookie cutter experience turns every urban community into the bland equivalent of an outdoor suburban shopping mall. This is not what people imagine when diverse, vibrant urbanism is being discussed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Take it a step further

People complained about closing the service lane in Cleveland Park, how the former Babe's site in Tenley wasn't going to have parking, or how the 15 year 'battle" over Cathedral Commons was going to ruin the neighborhood. Yes all these things happened and pretty much nothing has changed.

Just better shops, more housing and better pedestrian experience.

Maybe it is time to stop listening to the NIMBYs in total and move on with the new development and progressive transportation initiatives.

the service lane debate is an evergreen one. The ANC 3C commissioners under 50 have been tagged with being "pro chain store" - not because they have proposed closing the service lane or because they are pro chain store, but because they are seen as a threat to the slow decline of CP.

Anonymous wrote:Take it a step further

People complained about closing the service lane in Cleveland Park, how the former Babe's site in Tenley wasn't going to have parking, or how the 15 year 'battle" over Cathedral Commons was going to ruin the neighborhood. Yes all these things happened and pretty much nothing has changed.

Just better shops, more housing and better pedestrian experience.

Maybe it is time to stop listening to the NIMBYs in total and move on with the new development and progressive transportation initiatives.

Anonymous wrote:Take it a step further

People complained about closing the service lane in Cleveland Park, how the former Babe's site in Tenley wasn't going to have parking, or how the 15 year 'battle" over Cathedral Commons was going to ruin the neighborhood. Yes all these things happened and pretty much nothing has changed.

Just better shops, more housing and better pedestrian experience.

Maybe it is time to stop listening to the NIMBYs in total and move on with the new development and progressive transportation initiatives.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never met the man, but could it be that that was top of his mind because he gets an earful in Foxhall on those buildings at Q? It was the #1 topic for months for the prospective constituency. Until the schools. So I’m not jumping to any conclusions

But on the schools. Why so much pushback? Who doesn’t want a school? This is like another Safeway. What’s with this neighborhood?! Don’t they have plane noise to worry about?

This is what I don't get.

My kids are in college now. When my oldest was 3 we moved into our neighborhood so we could send our kids to the local public school, one of the Ward 3 "good" schools. We sent three kids to that school, from Pre-K to 5th, and I consider those years to be among the happiest of my life. I have many close friends we met among the parents there, my kids have friends among the students. In my mind our neighborhood is the school, and the school is the neighborhood.

Why would anyone not want that? Why would anyone want to deny that experience to others?

People hate everyyyyything. They want everything to stay exactly the same, or be magically changed to fit exactly what they think they are entitled to.

What I don’t get is putting organizing energy into it. Seriously get an life - you’re spending your precious hours on earth protesting A SCHOOL? In our neighborhood they even protested a preschool!

Please, take all that negative energy and go pick up trash or read books to homeless children. Anything but the misery you’re indulging yourself in.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never met the man, but could it be that that was top of his mind because he gets an earful in Foxhall on those buildings at Q? It was the #1 topic for months for the prospective constituency. Until the schools. So I’m not jumping to any conclusions

But on the schools. Why so much pushback? Who doesn’t want a school? This is like another Safeway. What’s with this neighborhood?! Don’t they have plane noise to worry about?

This is what I don't get.

My kids are in college now. When my oldest was 3 we moved into our neighborhood so we could send our kids to the local public school, one of the Ward 3 "good" schools. We sent three kids to that school, from Pre-K to 5th, and I consider those years to be among the happiest of my life. I have many close friends we met among the parents there, my kids have friends among the students. In my mind our neighborhood is the school, and the school is the neighborhood.

Why would anyone not want that? Why would anyone want to deny that experience to others?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never met the man, but could it be that that was top of his mind because he gets an earful in Foxhall on those buildings at Q? It was the #1 topic for months for the prospective constituency. Until the schools. So I’m not jumping to any conclusions

But on the schools. Why so much pushback? Who doesn’t want a school? This is like another Safeway. What’s with this neighborhood?! Don’t they have plane noise to worry about?

Do you really want to go down that rabbit hole? But you ask an honest question and so I'll do my best to give you an honest answer.

There are probably not more than a dozen or so people who are leading the charge to oppose the schools. More in thr community are opposed, but this is based on misinformation spread by those original dozen.

The original dozen are largely white, elderly, and upper middle class. They have lived in the neighborhood for decades and view it as an enclave for white upper middle class people. They do not like the idea of their neighborhood changing, both because they romanticize the past and are threatened by notions of de-gentrification.

That is what the opposition to the schools is about. It has nothing to do with a park. Before the current proposal was put forth, the same people very publicly opposed a campaign that would have transferred the public building back to DCPS so that it could be used as a park. They were very explicit that the reason they did this us because they were scared that the park could be used as a public high school.

The original dozen could give a damn about the public elementary school. What they don't want is a public high school. They look at the Wilson / J-R high school and how rowdy they think the kids are and say they don't want that in their neighborhood. They are very explicit about that.

If you ask them, what they want (and what Goulet is falsely promising them) is for the old GDS site to be used as an elementary school and the high school to be moved somewhere else other than their neighborhood. Once MacArthur HS actually opens, much of the opposition to Foxhall ES will go away because they don't really care about it or the park.

It's base NIMBYism, but it's also tied in with whats going on in the apartments off Q street. They see the changes there and think that having a high school will accelerate those changes. That is, the neighborhood is being de-gentrified. To them, that's an existential threat to their way of life.

Oh no. It’s the opposite of that. There are about 6 people who really want an elementary school in that area. One of whom is an extremely racist and aggressively attack anyone who questions why an elementary school is needed in that location. They do not care about demographics, facts or splitting up existing neighborhoods. People like yourself. You never argue the facts just that those old white racist in Fox Hall do not want the white kids from Palisades, Wesley Heights and Glover Park coming to their “neighborhood”.

Most people do not care. Like Glover Park did not care. The city has proposed dividing Glover Park and shipping the majority of elementary age kids to the new Fox Hall elementary. Why…because there are not enough elementary age kids to fill a 1/4 of the school from Fox Hall. Glover Park is organizing and is strongly against this boondoggle. Wait till DCPS comes out with the new boundary showing Wesley Heights and everything south of MacArthur and east of Dana in Palisades going to the new Fox Hall elementary. That would relieve crowding at the elementary schools that feed Deal. That elementary will never be built.

Anonymous wrote:Never met the man, but could it be that that was top of his mind because he gets an earful in Foxhall on those buildings at Q? It was the #1 topic for months for the prospective constituency. Until the schools. So I’m not jumping to any conclusions

But on the schools. Why so much pushback? Who doesn’t want a school? This is like another Safeway. What’s with this neighborhood?! Don’t they have plane noise to worry about?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Never met the man, but could it be that that was top of his mind because he gets an earful in Foxhall on those buildings at Q? It was the #1 topic for months for the prospective constituency. Until the schools. So I’m not jumping to any conclusions

But on the schools. Why so much pushback? Who doesn’t want a school? This is like another Safeway. What’s with this neighborhood?! Don’t they have plane noise to worry about?

Do you really want to go down that rabbit hole? But you ask an honest question and so I'll do my best to give you an honest answer.

There are probably not more than a dozen or so people who are leading the charge to oppose the schools. More in thr community are opposed, but this is based on misinformation spread by those original dozen.

The original dozen are largely white, elderly, and upper middle class. They have lived in the neighborhood for decades and view it as an enclave for white upper middle class people. They do not like the idea of their neighborhood changing, both because they romanticize the past and are threatened by notions of de-gentrification.

That is what the opposition to the schools is about. It has nothing to do with a park. Before the current proposal was put forth, the same people very publicly opposed a campaign that would have transferred the public building back to DCPS so that it could be used as a park. They were very explicit that the reason they did this us because they were scared that the park could be used as a public high school.

The original dozen could give a damn about the public elementary school. What they don't want is a public high school. They look at the Wilson / J-R high school and how rowdy they think the kids are and say they don't want that in their neighborhood. They are very explicit about that.

If you ask them, what they want (and what Goulet is falsely promising them) is for the old GDS site to be used as an elementary school and the high school to be moved somewhere else other than their neighborhood. Once MacArthur HS actually opens, much of the opposition to Foxhall ES will go away because they don't really care about it or the park.

It's base NIMBYism, but it's also tied in with whats going on in the apartments off Q street. They see the changes there and think that having a high school will accelerate those changes. That is, the neighborhood is being de-gentrified. To them, that's an existential threat to their way of life.