{"id":497,"date":"2021-03-04T19:12:56","date_gmt":"2021-03-04T19:12:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/?p=497"},"modified":"2021-03-04T19:37:22","modified_gmt":"2021-03-04T19:37:22","slug":"press-release-more-than-115-people-register-and-attend-protest-of-ward-5-councilmember-kenyan-mcduffie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/dc\/497","title":{"rendered":"Press Release: MORE THAN 115 PEOPLE REGISTER AND ATTEND PROTEST OF WARD 5 COUNCILMEMBER KENYAN MCDUFFIE"},"content":{"rendered":"<div dir=\"ltr\">\n<div class=\"gmail_quote\">\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-size: large;\"><b>MORE THAN 115 PEOPLE REGISTER AND ATTEND &#8220;VIRTUAL&#8221; PROTEST OF WARD 5 COUNCILMEMBER KENYAN MCDUFFIE<\/b><\/span>FOR RELEASE: March 3, 2021<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Contacts: Beth Wagner, Organizer, <a href=\"mailto:ward5criesout@gmail.com\">ward5criesout@gmail.com<\/a>, (301) 800-1497; Ms. Minnie Elliott, BMBVRA President, <a href=\"mailto:bmbvassociation@gmail.com\">bmbvassociation@gmail.com<\/a>, (202) 299-6647<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><b>Washington, DC<\/b> \u2014 In what may be a first in DC, Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie was the object of a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tinyurl.com\/thisprotest-whereskenyan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">large virtual protest<\/a>, with more than 115 registered audience members on Tuesday evening. Ward 5 residents are very angry over McDuffie&#8217;s refusal to act on critical issues facing his ward in Northeast, Washington, DC.The Councilmember has refused to meet and otherwise turned a blind eye to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>the displacement of Black tenants from Brookland Manor, the largest affordable housing complex left in DC, located off Rhode Island Ave., NE,<\/li>\n<li>the loss of greenspace from the 23-acre site of the Howard University Divinity School off Taylor St. NE.<\/li>\n<li>the threat of asbestos release from the demolition and development of McMillan Park and with its 2+ million square feet of proposed luxury redevelopment and no truly affordable family sized units;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.tinyurl.com\/thisprotest-whereskenyan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Tuesday&#8217;s &#8220;virtual&#8221; protest<\/a> led with families living at Brookland Manor on Rhode Island Avenue, with Councilmember McDuffie supporting the MidCity development plan to increase density of the property, quintupling its value, plus providing a $47 million DC tax gift. MidCity has fenced off the common spaces, including swimming pool and has hired private security to harass residents for being outside, like leaning on fences and other meaningless infractions, which were written-up as &#8220;infractions,&#8221; and used to evict tenants.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"gmail_quote\" style=\"margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #cccccc; padding-left: 1ex;\">\n<blockquote><p>The Councilmember \u201ckicked us under the bus \u00a0. . . and he will pay for it at election time unless he changes,\u201d said Ms. Minnie Elliott, President of the Brookland Manor\/Brentwood Village Residents Association (BMBVRA).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Regarding the Howard Divinity property, the community is asking that CM McDuffie \u201cuse his power to reflect the will of his constituents\u201d to reject rezoning plan and corresponding Comprehensive Plan change, according to Robert Haferd of the Howard East Neighbors.\u00a0 So far there\u2019s been \u201cno response\u201d to this request from the Councilmember\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<p>The Councilmember has also ignored repeated requests to meet on the McMillan asbestos problem that could impact a large part of Ward 5 and affect the city\u2019s water supply. Residents living nearby the park have sent in complaints to agencies like the Inspector General and Independent Auditor and say McDuffie is conflicted due to ties with the real estate developer class (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.tinyurl.com\/mcmillanparknews\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">http:\/\/www.tinyurl.com\/mcmillanparknews<\/a>).<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"gmail_quote\" style=\"margin: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #cccccc; padding-left: 1ex;\"><p>In summary, Maurice Cook who helped convene the protest in solidarity with Brookland Manor addressed CM McDuffie directly: \u201cYou are making this city unaffordable for &#8230; us to have housing &#8230; we need you to help us\u201d and alleviate &#8220;past harms.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><br clear=\"all\" \/><b>###<\/b><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_502\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Protest-against-Ward-5-CM-Kenyan-Mcduffie_small.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-502\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-502\" src=\"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Protest-against-Ward-5-CM-Kenyan-Mcduffie_small-300x169.png\" alt=\"115 People Protest Kenyan McDuffie\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Protest-against-Ward-5-CM-Kenyan-Mcduffie_small-300x169.png 300w, http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Protest-against-Ward-5-CM-Kenyan-Mcduffie_small-768x432.png 768w, http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Protest-against-Ward-5-CM-Kenyan-Mcduffie_small.png 950w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-502\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">115 People Protest Kenyan McDuffie<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MORE THAN 115 PEOPLE REGISTER AND ATTEND &#8220;VIRTUAL&#8221; PROTEST OF WARD 5 COUNCILMEMBER KENYAN MCDUFFIEFOR RELEASE: March 3, 2021 Contacts: Beth Wagner, Organizer, ward5criesout@gmail.com, (301) 800-1497; Ms. Minnie Elliott, BMBVRA President, bmbvassociation@gmail.com, (202) 299-6647 Washington, DC \u2014 In what may be a first in DC, Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie was the object of a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,73,1,14,74,13,49,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-affordable-housing","category-brookland-manor","category-dc","category-historic-sites","category-howard-divinity-school","category-mcmillan-park","category-public-property","category-w5"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=497"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":504,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497\/revisions\/504"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.dcfeedback.com\/fit2print\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}