April 28, 11:33 a.m. Downpour. And yet S Street SE was filled with the sound of scrapers on flaking wooden railings, paint rollers squeaking up – down – up on freshly plastered walls; heaps of mildewing clutter lying in piles by the sidewalk, waiting for an afternoon pickup; and what appeared to be at least a hundred volunteers, decked out in white and green HGTV / Rebuilding Together t-shirts doing most of the hard (and now at least somewhat soggy) labor.

When Washington, DC, was voted one of three winners of Home and Garden Television’s “Change the World. Start at Home” contest, it won help on three revitalization projects: landscaping and cleanup at Anacostia Park along the river, building a new play area at Bethel Christian Fellowship Child Development Center and renovations and repairs at 12 homes on S Street in the Fairlawn neighborhood, immediately adjacent Historic Anacostia.

On the job Monday was Carter Oosterhouse, host of HGTV’s “Carter Can” (and Nautica cologne model) – a little damp from the rain but still sporting a varsity smile. A native of Northern Michigan and now residing in Los Angeles, this was Carter’s first time in DC. Only here for the day, he seemed to shrug off the fact that his only view had been through rain-shower windows. “Washington is a beautiful city. I’m glad to have the chance to give back to a city with so much history,” noting that the neighborhood’s history and beauty is evident even on such a day.

Carter is an environmentalist in the purest sense: part of the mission for his show and work is to create places that people can live healthy lives in. Being green “is a long term commitment,” Carter said. Acknowledging that any renovation project is likely just as much a toll on the pocketbook as it can be on a person’s sanity, the HGTV host listed a few ways to tread a little more lightly on the environment during any home renovation without breaking the bank:

1. Seal any cracks (especially around door and window frames) where outside air can leak in and indoor air can leak out.
2. When replacing a light bulb, use a compact fluorescent bulb. The upfront expense might be slightly more, but it will last 10 times longer than a standard bulb, takes less energy and gives off less heat.
3. Paint with fume-free paint, meaning paints that don’t “off-gas” cancer-causing Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC). Ask for paint that is low or no-VOC.

As a kid, Carter spent most of his spare time outdoors. “I played outside a lot with the other kids – although it was a rural area, there were still parks – we didn’t sit at home watching TV. Where you live is a huge stepping stone to how you live.” Despite being famous for his good looks and handiness with power tools, Oosterhouse also devotes time to his foundation “Carter’s Kids,” which, dedicated to promoting active lifestyles in today’s youth, teams up with kids and teenagers to design and build playgrounds and youth centers in neighborhoods that need them most. His goal is to answer the question “how safe are the areas kids spend their time?” with action. “When kids have a good environment, it helps them in a big way,” Carter added.

Looking through the door to the crowd of eager volunteers, some with hammers, others with paintbrushes and all with big hearts, Oosterhouse continued. “It’s amazing with something like this – people taking initiative even in the rain! Sometimes all people need is a little bit of a kick-start to fall back in love with their neighborhood.”

Student Walkout at Cesar Chavez-Parkside:
Two-Day Protest Responds to CEO's Realignment Proposal
by Virginia Avniel Spatz

Hundreds of students staged a walkout at Cesar Chavez Public Charter School on April 8 and 9, protesting a proposed staffing “realignment” that would mean the loss of four popular dean/coach/mentors and other staff members at the Parkside Campus.

“The deans are the backbone of the school,” declares Demetrius McDaniels, a ninth-grader who helped organize the walkout, “They keep everything in place.”

The school is safe, McDaniels believes, “because [deans] know who is coming in and who is going out.”

Students oppose replacing the deans with security guards, he says, arguing that guards won't have the same kind of relationship with students. “We really look up to these people. They're like our role models … mostly everybody's father is dead or either locked up. … They're father figures to us, and we really want them to stay.”

In addition, the ninth-grader notes, the basketball team reached the championship three years in a row under a dean's coaching. “They might get new coaches, but it won't be the same,” he sighs.

During the protest, about a dozen students, including McDaniels – who has become default media spokesperson for the group, he says, because everyone else “is upset and angry, and they don't want to talk” – met with Irasema Salcido, founder/chief executive of the Chavez Schools and acting principal at Parkside Campus. They were told that a school-wide forum would be arranged to discuss the realignment and other issues. The meeting has been postponed, however, leading McDaniels to wonder if the principal “already made her decision.”

Greg Rhett, a Chavez parent and occasional consultant for the school, suggests instead that DC CAS testing interfered with further meetings with the students. In addition, he believes “the CEO is mulling options.” Adding certified teachers is part of a wider focus on academic improvement needed in the wake of missed benchmarks.

McDaniels says some students believe “the school is not going to be the same” after realignment and are talking transfer. Rhett says, however, that while parents are considering the realignment draft – and the relative importance of athletics and academics – he sees no “mass exodus.”

A small number of parents observed and supported the protest, and Rhett believes the students “did what public policy students are taught to do.”

Also to be commended, Rhett adds, “is the staff that has been impacted. They were out there appealing to the kids to get back to class. … It was emotional for them, but they have been truly professional in carrying out their duties.”

While community leaders – including Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander – applaud the students for their peaceful, well-organized activism, it remains to be seen how student concerns will be incorporated into changes at their school.

Norma Barfield, chief of development and marketing for Cesar Chavez schools, says that the usual planning process – which takes place each spring for the following fall – is still underway and that staffing arrangements are part of that process. “It is not a completed effort,” she says, adding that administrators spent many hours listening to student concerns and will consider those along with other school needs in final decision-making.

Options for Re-Opening Libraries:
Location, Community Process Debated at Council Hearing
by Virginia Avniel Spatz

Concerns and confusion about the Benning Neighborhood Library dominated an April 19 hearing of the DC Council Committee on Libraries, Parks and Recreation. Testimony did include the other three libraries currently under construction – Anacostia, W.T. Daniels, and Tenley – but Benning drew more community witnesses and more testimony from DC Public Library. Committee Chair Harry Thomas Jr. (Ward 5) explained, in fact, that he called the hearing at the request of Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander who was concerned that information about Benning – as well as the other libraries under construction – needed to be on the record.

DCPL has been planning to rebuild on the former Benning Library site. Witnesses testified to dissatisfaction with specific aspects of the design and with the community involvement process. Community process and design questions are further complicated by an offer from City Interests – the developer of East River Park shopping center – to swap land with the District, thus relocating the library.

City Interests argues that development at East River Park “changes the context” of the area – re-establishing the street grid in place of the suburban-style mall, for example – in ways that warrant review of the library's design and placement. Payment to offset disparity in swapped land value could be used for a more extensive library, they suggest. Several witnesses asked that the community be given this option and allowed to decide.

DCPL argues that nearby development was considered in Benning's design and that any location and/or design change will delay construction. John Hill, president of DCPL's board of trustees, said any proposal requires budget detail – including funding for a larger building's additional utilities and staff – and timelines.

Among points at issue in the appeal of Tingling-Clemmons, et al. vs. Fenty – which will be heard in early May – is DCPL’s commitment to three more meetings with the community in the next three months regarding the Benning Library re-construction. In the meantime, other organizations are hosting meetings on the topic.

ANC 7D has scheduled a Town Hall meeting on the topic, May 10, 11 a.m., 5140 Nannie Helen Burroughs Ave. NE. Contact Dorothy Douglas, 202-396-6421.

Benning Dynamo, an informal group organized to gather and disseminate information about the library, is conducting community surveys for adults and youth. Opinions and participation are welcome. Next meeting: May 14, Capitol View Library. Contact Willette Seward, 202-397-2028, wseaward@yahoo.com.

$900,000 for Restoration in Historic Anacostia
by David Garber

On the morning of April 15, Mayor Fenty and Planning Director Harriet Tregoning held a press conference at a home on Valley Place SE to announce the delivery of $900,000 in grant money for the 53 homes slated for exterior improvements in the Anacostia Historic District (roughly bounded by Martin Luther King Jr. Ave, Good Hope Road, 16th Street, and Talbert Street SE) under the Historic Homeowners Grant Program.The press conference was mostly symbolic: large check, beautiful family receiving grant money, handful of residents and community supporters cheering it on – but also very encouraging to see that this process (initial grant applications were due last summer) really works, and that grantees and neighbors will begin seeing real results soon. Yet despite the promising press conference, the grants are still being held by the Office of the Attorney General while legal documents are finalized. Once finalized, the exterior renovations and restoration can begin very soon. “We have all the contractors just waiting to start,” notes Brendan Meyer, preservation specialist with the Office of Planning and coordinator of the grant program.

Already in the middle of the next round of applications, this time the program is open for homeowners in 12 of the city’s 45 designated historic districts. The deadline for the next round – the program’s third – is Aug. 1.

Questions regarding the Historic Homeowners Grant Program and application should be directed to the program coordinator Brendan Meyer at 202-741-5248 or brendan.meyer@dc.gov.

Benning-Minnesota Partners Sought:
District Seeks Developer, Retailers for Benning Corridor
by Virginia Avniel Spatz

The District will choose a developer for 4.85 acres at the Minnesota Avenue Metro station by mid-summer, Mayor Adrian Fenty announced in late March. Proposals are being accepted through early May, community presentations will be offered in June, and a developer will be selected in July.

Proposals for “Phase II” can accommodate up to 600,000 square feet of housing, office and retail projects. “Phase I” consists of a new Department of Employment Services headquarters, ground-floor retail and a 468-space parking garage. Together, the projects encompass nine acres at Minnesota Avenue and Benning Road NE.

Ward 7 Councilmember Yvette Alexander expects development to begin bringing long-needed basics – from hardware stores to sit-down restaurants – to the area along with related jobs. Attracting retail to the ward will be key, she says. So Alexander will be touting Ward 7 at this month's Global Retail Real Estate Convention in Las Vegas, Nev., and seeking out quality retailers to rejuvenate the ward's affordable, growing neighborhoods.

Ward 7: Teens Develop Security Snapshot:
Woodson, Fellow Students Feel Unsafe at School
by Virginia Avniel Spatz

Woodson Senior High School students, along with colleagues from Anacostia (Ward 8) and Eastern (Ward 6) senior highs, recently surveyed their peers “to get a snapshot of how students feel about the safety and security in their schools.” The survey was designed and conducted by participants in the Youth Education Alliance (YEA), a nonprofit organization of teenagers and young adults dedicated to collaborative approaches to school problems. YEA surveyed 140 students at the three high schools and security personnel at Anacostia.

YEA found that students, on average, felt slightly unsafe at school – school averages ranged from 2.5 to 3.1, where 1 was “don't feel safe” and 5 was “feel very safe” – and wanted more and better trained security personnel. The biggest barrier to safety was neighborhood beefs; fires were a particular issue at Woodson. But students also called for reforms in teaching and other areas that would improve the school overall.

Based in part on survey results, YEA calls for more training of guards and police officers, mediation to help students solve problems non-violently, and collaborative work to “build a sense of community among students and staff as part of a holistic approach to ending violence.”

A Coffee Shop on Anacostia’s Main Street?
by David Garber

Speculation is rising about plans for a new coffee shop on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue in Anacostia. In the last weeks of April, District food enthusiasts at DCFoodies.com discovered that a local businessman bought much of the equipment from the newly-closed Murky Coffee on Capitol Hill and has plans to open Big Chair Coffee, preliminarily named in homage to the monolithic seat located just across the street.

Yavocka Young, executive director of Main Street Anacostia and Ward 8 DC Council hopeful, confirmed that the owners have been steadily working inside the building and have applied for a Main Streets grant for exterior signage.

The location, 2122 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave, is currently vacant. Its windows cracked and the aging façade bearing the uneven load of a haphazard addition seemingly falling into itself, the proposed business would be a welcome addition to the Anacostia neighborhood, and its indoor and outdoor seating would be noticeable step up from the variety of mostly carry-out food and convenience stores along the same corridor.

Initial response to the possibility of such a place in Anacostia has been positive, leading one “And Now, Anacostia” blog reader to comment, “Whoa – that would be amaaazing!”

ANC Notes

ANC 8
 There will be an election to replace Commissioner 8A 07 on May 6 at the UPO on Good Hope Road during the regularly scheduled ANC 8A monthly meeting.

Commissioners reiterated their unanimous support to move the bus stop from the corner of 14th Street SE and Good Hope Road, where loitering has been a recurring problem, to the space in front of 1335 Good Hope Road, less than a block away. Both WMATA and representatives from the Metropolitan Police Department have been to the site and agree that it is not being used as intended. The commission sent a final letter to WMATA, and it is awaiting action.