If you have recently seen a group of young men and women in SYEP shirts or blazers around the neighborhood, chances are they are a part of The Langston Initiative, a project headed by the DC non-profit group, Federal City Council (FC2).
 
FC2 works with the National Park Service to improve the quality of the three golf courses owned by the Park Service in DC: Rock Creek Park, East Potomac, and Langston. Starting in 2019, FC2 plans to assume operational control and begin to plan for improvements at our neighborhood course. To identify how to create positive community outcomes through the course, FC2 partnered with Nspiregreen, a DC design studio with an established history of working with community's like ours throughout the district. Their team created a curriculum for local Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) interns at Uniting Our Youth and Golf. My Future. My Game. The SYEP interns are conducting interviews with members of the neighborhood to better understand the Carver and Langston neighborhoods' relationship with the golf course. The project will conclude with a presentation of findings and a community charrette.
 
Benefits of the Community History Gathering Project
The community history gathering project will help FC2 understand Langston’s history with and connection to the golf course, and it will also provide the following community benefits:

• Helping local student interns build skills for career and college readiness, including research, writing, communications and web design
• Hearing, sharing, and respecting Langston’s story in the words of community members
• Creating a website to showcase Langston’s rich history for a wider audience to see

 
Community Charrette: The community charrette later this year aims to build a wider conversation around the golf course, and how changes to come will benefit the neighborhood.
 
If you have any further questions about the interviews or want to participate, feel free to call (202) 793-5600 or email cholland@nspiregreen.com.

The numbers are in! Trash is down by 42% overall on blocks that participated in our anti-litter campaign so far this summer. This is the largest decrease seen for any communities participating in the program across the city. 

The Langston Civic Association partnered with the Alice Ferguson Foundation and the Anacostia Watershed Society to take a new, more evidence-based approach to fighting litter on our streets. We called on neighbors to sign up for a clean up and post signs on their block.

Of the blocks that participated, 20th St. NE, Bennett Place NE and 21st St. NE as well as the 1900 block of H St. NE. Litter decreased by 42% overall according to a preliminary review of our area. 

If you would like to learn more about the program and register your block to participate please read and sign up.

 
The Langston Civic Association's liquor  license protest of Sylvia's Liquor continues to move forward even after the store's owner failed to appear at a  mandatory mediation with the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration (ABRA) on Thursday, June 21, 2018.

The Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) Board which oversees ABRA and grants liquor licenses required that the store attend the session to discuss safety concerns.

Sydelle Moore attended the mandatory session to share issues submitted by neighbors about recent murders, drug activity, violent as well as sales of alcohol to minors. Although most ABRA protests end in a settlement between the store and the community, the owner's failure to appear makes this outcome unlikely.
 
Comm. Kathy Henderson (ANC 5D05) attempted to represent the store at the missed June 21 session. Henderson originally voted to protest the store's license on March 13, but ANC 5D lost the right to protest after she failed to submit paperwork or appear at a June 4 hearing. 

Henderson appeared at ABRA to request a new mediation date because the owner told her he was too busy to attend the mandatory session. Henderson, however, failed to provide documentation authorizing her to represent the store and is not an attorney, so she could not legally make requests on the owner’s behalf.
 
The June 21 mediation was scheduled several weeks in advance after the owner had already missed two non-mandatory sessions.
 
ABRA contacted the owner directly, after the missed session, but he has failed to reschedule. The owner did make an unscheduled appearance at ABRA alongside Henderson on June 25, but failed to notify ABRA or LCA and no mediator was available when they arrived.

​The ABC board will hold a final hearing to determine the status of the store's license on August 1, 2018. If you would like to testify, please contact Sydelle Moore at sydelle202@gmail.com or 202-681-6159 before Friday, July 13, 2018

The DC Tutoring and Mentoring Initiative (DCTMI), which partners with over 40 organizations across the DC metro area is interested in recruiting volunteers for this summer and the upcoming school year.

More than 2 out of 3 DC students (over 60,000 youth) read below grade level. Many more have other academic or non-academic needs. The group is trying to pair each of these students with a volunteer who can assist with academic and non-academic reading support for as little as one hour per week.