Outcry over Proposed “Multicultural” Job Center
The city is planning to hold a public working session after residents of the Brentwood neighborhood reacted strongly against a proposed multicultural training and employment center – which would serve the dual purpose of providing job training to unemployed residents and managing employment for laborers who currently line up for work outside the Home Depot on Rhode Island Avenue.

A packed room at an Aug. 15 community meeting at Israel Baptist Church erupted with objections to the center, following presentations by Ward 5 Councilmember Harry “Tommy” Thomas Jr. and other supporters of the proposed center. The majority of residents at the meeting objected to the use of taxpayer money to provide services to the laborers.

“You are going to jump over citizens that are underserved to serve undocumented workers,” Kathy Henderson, a community activist, said to a round of applause.

The Brentwood neighborhood is facing the highest unemployment rate in the city at one in three adults without a job, according to Advisory Neighborhood Commission 5B Chair William Shelton.

With $10 to $20 billion of development expected to come into Ward 5 in the next 10 years, the city wants to prepare residents for and connect them to the coming job opportunities through the proposed center. The city has secured a “first source agreement” with businesses moving to the area that mandates local residents have the primary right to newly created jobs, provided they have the required skills.

The other major problem the city is hoping to alleviate with the proposed center is the convergence of workers outside the Home Depot, which has been creating a nuisance for neighbors for the last two years. The city wants to regulate and manage the situation, to support the effort of laborers to find work and eliminate abusive labor practices.

“There is a population of mostly Latino workers who are being exploited. As a community we have the responsibility to put an end to this abuse,” said AFL-CIO Senior Officer Fred Allen, who has partnered with the city along with the Office of Latino Affairs and others on creating the proposal.

But community members rejected the idea of providing services for the laborers seeking work outside the Home Depot.

“There are only Hispanics at the Home Depot site. You are building a center for undocumented Hispanics with our taxpayer money while blacks can’t get jobs,” one resident said.

“The $500,000 you have secured should be for the black men in our community,” Henderson said of the money set aside from taxes on the Home Depot to help start the center.

The city is holding a Sept. 8 meeting that is designed to be a working session for neighbors that will address the community concerns and more fully detail the purpose of the center. The meeting will be held at Noyes Elementary School from 9 to 11:30 a.m.

“We want to make sure the issues are addressed in their communities and assure them that we are working towards that,” Councilmember Thomas said of the September meeting.

Ward 5 Crime “Major Issue” For Residents
Police are responding to several major crimes in Ward 5 this summer, as residents express concerns that public safety is a major issue in their neighborhoods.

One of the most dramatic examples of Ward 5 crime was the July 28 shooting at the Edgewood Terrace housing complex that wounded seven people. The victims included three children and four adults. Two suspects have been arrested in connection to the shooting, at press time.

Ward 5 Councilmember Thomas told DC North that the Fifth District police department has since started a partnership with the management of Edgewood Terrace. The incident occurred at the complex despite private security personnel on duty at the time of the shooting and ongoing video surveillance of the area, according to Thomas.

Thomas said that in order to prevent such incidents in the future, he put together a 10-point plan to coordinate the private security resources with the police department. He called it a pilot plan that could be adopted in other areas.

A recent survey of Ward 5 residents conducted by Thomas’ office found that the majority regard drug activity, armed robberies of pedestrians, and burglaries and thefts from residences as major issues in their neighborhoods. Forty percent rated safety after dark in their neighborhoods as poor.

Brookland residents are expressing concern about a number of muggings during the day and other serious crimes in the neighborhood. But police service area 502 officers said that despite a number of such incidents, crime statistics for the area are improved over previous years.

Overall crime was down 41 percent from the same time last year, according to police statistics given at the Aug. 2 PSA 502 community meeting at Turkey Thicket. “But even if we’re down 41 percent, we’ve still got a lot of robberies,” Sergeant Michael Skelly said.

Thomas said a key to solving crime and creating a deterrent – especially in terms of muggings and street crimes in the light of day – is for individuals to watch their streets and report any crimes that they may have witnessed.

“We’ve got to change the mentality of folks. These crimes are easy to solve if the community participates,” Thomas said.

Florida Avenue Market Faces Dueling Development Plans
“Every tenant who wants to stay there can stay,” John Ray, the attorney representing New Town Development Partners LLC, told the Capital City Market property owners and merchants who attended a July 31 meeting about one version of planned development on the site.

Many business owners are unhappy with the New Town development plan being touted by Ward 5 Councilmember Thomas because they say it will displace them. But Thomas says major development of that prime piece of real estate in Ward 5 is coming one way or another.

“This whole area is changing, and I personally believe this is an opportunity for you to stay without being displaced,” Thomas said at the meeting.

But those who oppose New Town are pointing to a competing process for planning development at the Capitol City Market at Florida Avenue NE and New York Avenue NE, which they say may be a positive alternative.

The Office of Planning’s parallel “small area” development plan is currently in the works for the site. The office recently created an advisory committee for the small area plan, which includes major New Town opponent Paul Pascal of the Florida Avenue Market Merchants and Property Owners Association.

Pascal says the Office of Planning recognizes the need to maintain the site for commercial use, because not much land is left in the city that has industrial zoning.

“The Office of Planning’s initial findings are along the lines of what the business owners and what Gallaudet wants,” Pascal said. The area plan advisory committee had its initial meeting Aug. 28.

The New Town plan will require “a lot of cooperation from the current stakeholders that are there,” Ray told the meeting of skeptical merchants. Former DC Councilmember Ray was legal counsel to Sang Oh Development LLC prior to becoming the lead attorney for the overall development project that is now being headed by Apollo Real Estate Advisors.

As set out in legislation passed last year, the New Town redevelopment would include a new wholesale market space, 1,700 housing units with at least 20 percent reserved for “workforce” housing, a YMCA, over 300 shops and restaurants and the creation of 3,184 permanent new jobs. The legislation also calls for the backing of 51 percent of business owners on the plan before it can move forward.