ANC5D Fails to Approve Grant; Mayor Bowser Steps in To Ensure Safe Activities for Neighborhood Kids7/27/2018
ANC 5D Commissioners voted during a special meeting on Tuesday ,July 24 not to support a $5,000 grant application submitted by LCA to improve out-of-school time activities for neighborhood kids at the Patsy Hartsfield Center.
After the vote, Mayor Bowser's office immediately stepped in to support the center and make sure that neighborhood kids did not miss out on the opportunity to visit museums and enjoy improved educational activities. ANC 5D currently has more than $100,000 available to meet the administrative needs of the ANC and support beneficial community projects. The commission, however, has never supported a grant application since instituting a formal review process in 2015. After a protracted review process, some commissioners expressed concern about whether educational programming for children provided a public benefit and others expressed concern that the commission had not followed its own review process or met deadlines for reading the application. Several commissioners encouraged LCA to reapply. The application review had been delayed on several occasions after Commissioner Butler (5D03) stated that he had not had time to read the proposal. The Patsy Hartsfield Center is in ANC 5D03 and it is standard for commissioners to manage proposals stemming from their own area even when the impact is broader. Comm. Blacknell (5D04) and Comm. Buggs (5D06) were the only two commissioners who supported the proposal, although Comm. Buggs was unable to attend the special meeting due to health issues. All other commissioners voted to oppose. Thanks to Mayor Bowser's leadership on this important neighborhood issue, our children still got the opportunity to take an exciting filed trip to the National Museum of African-American History and Culture on Friday, July 27. Take a look at highlights from the trip below.
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:
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 [email protected]. 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. |
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