Local News/Neighborhoods

Metro construction/partial shutdown leads to near gridlock

Submitted by Luke on Tue, 06/07/2016 - 02:17

The 6th of June was the first day of Metro's emergency "Safe Track" repair program. Construction is being done in a staged manner and started with only delays and not the coming closures. This still put enough extra cars on the road to put some intersections dangerously close to literal gridlock, as some drivers got caught in the intersections as lights changed. Drivers are told to never, ever enter the intersection until there is room to get back out of it, but will disregard this if they fear turning cars will otherwise take the space. If adjacent intersections get blocked this way, the result can be a spreading nightmare of traffic that cannot escape until the gridlock is taken apart from the outside in.

Video showing drivers blocking the box during severe traffic on 16th st about 5:30PM June 6, 2016

Local News/Neighborhoods
Metro Safe Track traffic mess Day 1

Mayday reportback from DC and around the world

Submitted by Luke on Sun, 05/01/2016 - 21:16

On Mayday (May 1), there were two marches in DC. One was the annual march from Malcolm X Park to the White House, which included demands that ICE be expelled from DC, that the TPP trade deal never be ratifed, and that area stores respect the Driscolls Berries boycott. The other march began at Marbury Plaza where Alonzo Smith was murdered by "special police" in Anacostia and ended at the 7D police station.

Video of the Malcolm X Park to White House march

Empower DC's video of a speaking stop during the Anacostia march on 7D

Local News/Neighborhoods
Strategy/Theory/Movement Issues
World Uprisings

Marching down 14th st

Mayday march to White House in DC

Developers' gentrifying, "space finding" bus tour blocked in Anacostia

Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 04/20/2016 - 14:15

On the 19th of April, some of DC's gentrifying developers held a "space finding" bus tour of Anacostia looking for convenient places to displace local people and build new settlements for the wealthy. Like the settlers who came before them, they found they were not welcomed by those they seek to evict from their homes. Protesters from Empower DC and Black Lives Matter blocked the streets and forced them to turn back. The Washington Business Journal. Cops ordered the bus driver to reverse out of the trap, then arrested one of the activists to retaliate for driving off the condo builders and their bus. This was the second time this same bus tour was attempted and blocked.

Very intense 3 min video cut from Empower DC's half hour video

Housing/urban Issues/Gentrification
Local News/Neighborhoods
Blockading developer bus tour in Anacostia

Bowser's regime raids another homeless camp

Submitted by Luke on Thu, 03/10/2016 - 15:00

On the morning of March 10, Mayor Bowser's DC government declared the homeless people living in tents along the 1st st wall near Union Station to be garbage and sent the Department of Public Works to discard their belongings. Some but not all of the tent campers were offered housing, some have no place to sleep tonight. Once again those who don't make $100,000 a year can thank Mayor Bowser for her determination to prevent those who cannot afford rent from sleeping anywhere that offers overhead cover except for the very limited space in government-approved shelters.

Video from clips by Street Sense and Mike Brice Saddler

Housing/urban Issues/Gentrification
Local News/Neighborhoods

Photo by Street Sense

Anacostia residents protest Congress Heights mass eviction plans

Submitted by Luke on Thu, 03/10/2016 - 14:48

On the 9th of March, Anacostia residents rallied at the Congress Heights Metro to protest continuing attempts to force out tenants at the Congress Heights apartments. The landlords there hope to illegally evict or drive away all tenants so the apartments can be razed and replaced with a larger complex of shops, offices, and luxury housing. Residents are standing their ground and refusing to leave in spite of a total maintenance cutoff and other harassment. They were supported in this protest by residents of Barry Farms, who are resisting similar displacement/gentrification plans.

Video from the Congress Heights Rally: "we ain't going anywhere!"

Housing/urban Issues/Gentrification
Local News/Neighborhoods

Photo by Justice First

Anacostia residents vow to defy mass evictions

Tenants facing mass eviction, rent hikes storm Bush Properties office

Submitted by Luke on Thu, 02/25/2016 - 17:40

On the 25th of February, tenants from Museum Square and Mt Vernon Plaza backed by ONE DC and API Resistance showed up outside their landlord's office in Clarendon, VA. Originally the plan was to send a delegation inside to deliver their letter demanding an end to illegal attempts to intimidate tenants into moving out. The tenants themselves though had another idea, with almost the whole group essentially storming the building and taking over the lobby. Bush Properties accepted their letter, but the person taking denied that they were even at the right office. Organizers knew better than to buy that excuse but everyone marched back outside, chanting "we'll be back!"

Video from the Bush Properties tenant protest

Housing/urban Issues/Gentrification
Local News/Neighborhoods
Tenants drive home the "no mass evictions" message to Bush Properties

Bowser faces disruption and St E's demolition ceremony for sports stadium

Submitted by Luke on Fri, 02/19/2016 - 14:57

On the 19th of February, two women with a banner disrupted Mayor Bowser's ceremonial appearance at the start of demolition of part of the old St Elizebeth's psychiatric hospital. They were able to get behind the Mayor's podium and shout her down before being dragged away by dozens of men. The site is slated for replacement by a new stadium for the Washington Mystic also to be used for practice by the Wizards. Once again, professional sports is allowed to demolish public property in DC.

Housing/urban Issues/Gentrification
Local News/Neighborhoods

Photo by DCist

Rich Ward 1 residents scream about proposed homeless shelter

Submitted by Luke on Wed, 02/17/2016 - 22:34

On the 17th of February, FOX News pre-empted the crime coverage that usually starts their broadcast to focus on furious upscale residents at a Van Ness community meeting. The subject was Mayor Bowser's proposal to locate one of 8 dispersed homeless shelters in their neighborhood. Objections to opening a homeless shelter in upscale neighborhoods like anywhere in Ward 1 are usually based in NIMBYism (not in my back yard) fortified with an unhealthy heap of racism. In this case, there are legitimate questions about Mayor Bowser's objectives, given her police raids on homeless camps and her seeming belief that more arrests,searches, and police harassment can solve any social problem.

Housing/urban Issues/Gentrification
Local News/Neighborhoods

"Muriel's gotta go-go" dance party demands removal of Mayor Bowser

Submitted by Luke on Sat, 01/16/2016 - 22:16

On the 16th of January Black Lives Matter activists staged the first "Muriel's Gotta Go-Go" dance party outside the Reeves Center.The dance party was complete with a sound truck playing banned go-go music, prohibited in DC nightclubs by ruthless governmental harassment. Due to this ban the protest was billed as a civil disobedience just for playing the music. Demand included not only the removal of the ban on playing go-go music in clubs, but the removal of DC Mayor Bowser from office. In response to the Black Lives Matter movement she has proposed more cops, more fines, and more searches and activists are saying this shall not pass!

Video highlights of Muriel's gotta go-go(46 sec)

Local News/Neighborhoods
Police/Legal/Prisons
Race/Racism

Photo by Preston Mitchum

Mayor Muriel Bowser's gotta go-go!

Wal-Mart cancels plans for two more DC locations

Submitted by Luke on Fri, 01/15/2016 - 13:49

On the 15th of January, the Washington Post announced that Wal-Mart is canceling plans to build a "super-center" in SE at the proposed Skyland eminent domain project and in NE at Capitol Gateway. Wal-Mart was quoted as saying “Our experience over the last three years operating our current stores in DC has given us a fuller view on building and operating stores in the District,” perhaps meaning a failure to "capture 100% of the retail market" around each store.

Labor/Economics/Business
Local News/Neighborhoods

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