{"id":334,"date":"2020-07-06T16:10:25","date_gmt":"2020-07-06T16:10:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/?p=334"},"modified":"2020-12-24T20:41:35","modified_gmt":"2020-12-24T20:41:35","slug":"black-residents-to-dc-council-defund-mcmillan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/dc\/citywide\/334","title":{"rendered":"Black Residents to DC Council: DEFUND McMILLAN"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SaveMcMillan.org\/defund<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Media advisory, Monday, July 6, 2020
Contact: Linwood Norman, smac.dc@gmail.com, 202-656-3012<\/small><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DC City Council is being asked by Black residents in the District to use the Council\u2019s newly adopted \u201cracial equity lens\u201d to analyze and then defund the McMillan Park redevelopment plan, because it will intensify displacement in a city that is one of the fastest gentrifying in the country. The group demands defunding, i.e. rejecting, the $75.5 million the Mayor has budgeted for McMillan in FY 21 and using the money for health clinics, low-income housing, school laptops, immigration centers, and other critical human needs and services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe continued practice of allowing public land to be use for for-profit housing cannot solve the affordable housing crisis. If we truly believe Black lives matter, then access to affordable housing for Black people must also matter,\u201d<\/em> says Ward 6 resident and teacher, Coy McKinney. \u201cBlack Washingtonians have disproportionately been harmed by the affordable housing crisis, thus, if we’re serious about justice, we must treat housing as the human right it is and act accordingly.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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The DC Government\u2019s plan for the 25-acres of public land at North Capitol Street and Michigan Avenue, NW calls for a suburban-style \u201ctown center\u201d with 2+ million sq. ft., of mostly market rate housing, offices and medical buildings. Most of the structures at McMillan Park, a National Historic Landmark would be crushed and thrown away and its breathtaking views of monumental Washington would be shrouded by new 120 foot tall buildings dwarfing the iconic above-ground silos and pump houses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Until WW II, when the site was fenced-in, McMillan was one of the first safe spaces as an integrated park in the District. After the war, the park was never reopened, a reflection of the racial discrimination put upon the Black residents who had moved into the area, who now are being taxed out of the community and the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is time now for the Council to step up and use its racial equity lens and Defund McMillan, especially during this endemic,\u201d<\/em> proclaimed Antoinette Lawson, longtime Ward 8 resident and healthy foods advocate. \u201cWe want to fund human needs, not corporate greed.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Examining the development plan for McMillan Park through a racial equity lens reveals these critical inequities:<\/p>\n\n\n\n