By Liane Scott, on May 12th, 2015 
Below are images of the playground on the Potomac Gardens public housing complex as it was when Grassroots DC was founded and moved onto the property back in 2013. Broken down and missing safety rails, is the playground at Potomac Gardens Public Housing Complex safe? How do public housing communities fix these issues?
playground no safety rails swingset but no swings no safety rails here either
The state of the playground was a topic of discussion in our basic computer class and a cause for concern in resident council meetings. Little Lights Urban Ministries, another nonprofit located in Potomac Gardens, who offers tutoring and a summer program for kids from pre-k to the 8th grade, also had concerns. The basketball court was another issue. Potomac Gardens’ resident Carlton Moxley sometimes laid out his own cash to replace the backboards.
One might assume that the playground of a public housing complex would be paid for and maintained by the government, but public housing is a complicated business. Most of us don’t even know who owns public housing. Is it the city? Is it the federal government? Below are some answers.
While the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) oversees the public housing program, it is administered locally by about 3,100 public housing agencies across the United States. The local public housing agency that administers Potomac Gardens and indeed all of D.C.’s public housing complexes is the District of Columbia Housing Authority (DCHA). Most public housing agencies own and manage their public housing developments themselves, but some contract with private management companies. DCHA does not manage Potomac Gardens itself; management of the property has been contracted out to CT Management.
All of this information, still leaves unanswered the question, where do the funds for the replacement of playgrounds in public housing developments like Potomac Gardens come from? The federal government funds public housing through two main streams: (1) the Public Housing Operating Fund, which is intended to cover the gap between the rents that public housing tenants pay and the developments’ operating costs (such as maintenance and security); and (2) the Public Housing Capital Fund, which funds renovation of developments and replacement of items such as appliances and heating and cooling equipment.
The purchase and installation of a new playground can easily cost more than $100,000. According to the US Department of Housing Operating Fund Budget for 2016 the D.C. Housing Authority will receive about $6,164 per unit to cover the gap between the rents that public housing tenants pay and the development’s actual operating cost. HUD’s Annual Budget does not explicitly state that District gets $6,164 per unit from the Operating Fund. The total budget for the Public Housing Operating Fund in 2015 was $4.44 billion. The share that goes to the District of Columbia Housing Authority is 1.1 percent or $48.84 million. The District of Columbia Housing Authority manages 7,924 units. Divide the $48.84 million by 7,924 units and you get $6,164 per unit. Of course, DCHA doesn’t spend $6,164 on each unit. Most of the money goes to salaries and other overhead costs. But this figure gives us an idea what kind of money DCHA has to work with to meet the maintenance and operating needs of the District’s public housing. In any case, we can’t expect DCHA to allocate $100,000 from the Operating Fund to pay for a single playground in one housing complex.
It might be more logical for the money to come from the Public Housing Capital Fund. In fact, DCHA received $27 million from the Capital Fund in 2014 and an additional $34.4 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. However, the Captial Fund grants were probably used for renovations and replacements needed in a single, housing complex or for specific projects like lead abatement, renovations needed to bring DCHA properties up to accessibility standards or environmental sustainability initiatives. Most of the Recovery Act funding will go to enhance housing projects that have or will become mixed-income developments like the townhouses at Cappers Carrollsburg. Getting money from the Capital Fund or the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to replace a single playground in a 100 percent low-income housing development is highly unlikely.
So, what then? Clearly, the playground in the images above needs to be replaced or torn down all together. If the community within the Potomac Gardens Public Housing Complex can’t expect help for a project like this from the District of Columbia Housing Authority, what do they do? . . . → Read More: A Place to Play: Potomac Gardens, Public Housing and Our Kids
By Grassroots DC, on May 11th, 2015 
Posted on behalf of the Office of the Tenant Advocate
Do you rent an apartment in the District of Columbia? Find out what your rights and responsibilities are. Spanish speakers welcome and encouraged to attend.
By Naji Mujahid, on May 5th, 2015 
Slogan already being co-opted. No?
I heard someone use the term ‘BLM’ today in reference to “Black Lives Matter”. For a quick moment I was confused because When I heard BLM, I thought of the “Black Liberation Movement”. It made me think of the passive language being used recently. Like “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!” Although I never liked it, I opted not to criticize this publicly because it was organic and speaking to the frustration of this current generation of activists. However, to me, “Black Lives Matter” sounds like whining and “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot!” sounds like surrender.
I commend people for their actions and voices during this time, but I encourage people to be mindful of their choice of words. The slogan “Black Lives Matter”, while true, is weak. It’s a plea for recognition. It’s an appeal of the powerless to the conscience of the powerful. We’ve been down this road before. White supremacy doesn’t have a conscience. Therefore, “Black Lives Matter” is a call that falls on deaf ears. Hence, for instance, the counter-slogan of “All Lives Matter” which only serves to dilute the message.
The Black Liberation Movement was not a plea or an appeal. It was an action of self-determination. It’s power came not from the society at-large recognizing it’s existence or legitimacy, but from the commitment of those involved, no matter how few, to fight for freedom within a society that has been consistent in it’s pathological racism.
“The limits of tyrants are proscribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress… If we ever get free from the oppressions and wrongs heaped upon us, we must pay for their removal. We must do this by labor, by suffering, by sacrifice, and if needs be, by our lives and the lives of others.” – Frederick Douglas
In many ways, history seems to be repeating itself. The urban rebellions of the 60s which eventually gave rise to the Black Liberation Movement were all sparked by police brutality. However, the BLM was eventually attacked, co-opted, and derailed. There is a lot to learn from in the history of the last 50 years of our struggle (really, the last 250 years). Way too much to adequately address in this small space. So this small note is just a caution to be deliberate, mindful, and strategic in how the demands and concerns of the current manifestation of the struggle are articulated. This is in no way meant to diminish the work that has recently been done.
By Liane Scott, on May 4th, 2015 
Cross-Posted from Media Matters written by Brian PowellL & Libby Watson video credit Benjamin Hancock
Kwame Rose, the Baltimore resident who confronted Fox News’ Geraldo Rivera over media’s biased coverage of the city, responded to Rivera’s personal on-air attacks in an interview with Media Matters. Rose reacted to video of his interaction with Rivera going viral, discussed the media landscape in Baltimore, and highlighted racial disparities in the criminal justice system.
National media has swarmed to cover the Baltimore protesters who have taken to the streets to voice concerns about the criminal justice system following the shocking death of Freddie Gray, a young Baltimore resident whose spine was fatally severed while in police custody. Fox’s Rivera was among those pundits reporting on the protests when Rose confronted the Fox personality and expressed frustration that the network failed to spotlight Gray’s death in favor of hyping the unrest that ensued, an exchange that quickly found a large audience online.
Rivera later used his platform on Fox News to bash Rose as a “vandal,” “annoying,” and an “obstructionist” on-air. He accused Rose of displaying “exactly that kind of youthful anarchy that led to the destruction and pain in that community.”
Rose has responded to Geraldo and to the video’s popularity, in an email exchange with Media Matters.
“I want people to know that this issue is bigger than some clip of me, it’s about Black Lives,” said Rose, after emphasizing that being featured in a viral video was never his intention. His frustration lies with establishment media and its depictions of Baltimore in the wake of the unrest.
“I have been out protesting for almost two weeks now without being on one camera,” Rose explained. “After Monday night when the media started pouring in, I sat at work and watched how the media basically forced people to believe that Baltimore was some Third World city. I just wanted to set the record straight and let it be known that this generation refuses to be misinterpreted.”
Rose noted how the media paid attention to the violence in Baltimore, but failed to cover the community’s efforts to unite and clean up the city.
“I sat and watched the media set up their camps in front of boarded up homes … while we were cleaning up the streets as one community. The cameras weren’t rolling, nobody cared. Outside agitators such as Fox News came onto the scene trying to exploit the situation. I don’t care about the people watching Fox News, but I will not let you report lies about the people of this city.”
Rose appeared largely dismissive of Geraldo and his personal attacks. He explained that in the minutes before the interaction captured on video, Geraldo was “walking around taking selfies and telling jokes.”
“When I approached him he continuously kept trying to avoid any intellectual conversation,” said Rose.
“Geraldo is like the majority of America,” Rose continued. “He fears a Black man so much that he [would] rather try to instigate a fight than to engage in a conversation. If you’ve seen the full clip of the video you’d know that his verbal assaults were a waste of breath.”
Rose also addressed the tendency of conservative media to deflect from stories about police brutality in favor of discussions of black-on-black crime, even though they “are incomparable subjects.”
By Grassroots DC, on May 1st, 2015 
Cross-posted from the BALTIMORE (AP) By JULIET LINDERMAN and AMANDA LEE MYERS, Associated Press
Baltimore’s top prosecutor announced criminal charges Friday against all six officers suspended after a man suffered a fatal spinal injury in police custody, saying “no one is above the law.”
“Mr. Gray’s death was a homicide,” State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby declared. His arrest was illegal and his treatment in custody amounted to murder and manslaughter, she said.
The announcement came after nearly two weeks of growing anger over Freddie Gray’s death, and only hours after Mosby received the results of the internal police investigation and an official autopsy report. As Mosby spoke, the city was bracing for huge crowds in two more waves of protests Friday and Saturday.
Mosby announced the stiffest charge — second-degree “depraved heart” murder — against the driver of the police van. Other officers face charges of involuntary manslaughter, assault and illegal arrest.
The officers failed to get medical help even though Gray requested it repeatedly after he was chased down and pinned to a sidewalk on April 12 and hoisted into the van. At some point while he was in custody, he suffered a mysterious spinal injury and died a week later.
Mosby said the switchblade officers accused Gray of illegally carrying clipped inside his pants pocket was in fact a legal knife, and no justification for his arrest, which she said was illegal.
Mosby said she comes from five generations of police officers, and that the charges against these six officers should in no way damage the relationship between police and prosecutors in Baltimore.
She swiftly rejected a request from the Baltimore police officers union asking her to appoint a special independent prosecutor because of her ties to attorney Billy Murphy, who is representing Gray’s family. Murphy was among Mosby’s biggest campaign contributors last year, donating the maximum individual amount allowed, $4,000, in June. Murphy also served on Mosby’s transition team after the election.
Fraternal Order of Police local president Gene Ryan told Mosby in a letter before the charges were announced Friday that none of the six suspended officers were responsible for Gray’s death.
The state medical examiner’s office said it sent the autopsy report to prosecutors Friday morning. Spokesman Bruce Goldfarb says the Office of the Chief State Medical Examiner will not release the report publicly while the case is under investigation.
The announcement prompted whoops, hollers and shouts of “Justice!” in the streets of Baltimore.
At the corner of North and Pennsylvania avenues, where the worst of the rioting took place on Monday, drivers honked their horns. When buses stopped in front of the subway station, people spilled out cheering as the doors opened.
There was no large gathering at the intersection immediately after the announcement, though: Nearly 100 police in riot gear were deployed, and for the moment, they had nothing to do.
In front of a fire station where Gov. Larry Hogan was scheduled to visit Friday, a man leaning out of a passing truck window pumped both arms in the air and yelled, “Justice! Justice! Justice!”
Ciara Ford of Baltimore expressed surprise at the decision to prosecute.
“I’m ecstatic,” she said. “I hope this can restore some peace.”
“It makes you cry,” said her friend, Stephanie Owens of Columbia.
They both expressed hopes that the officers would be convicted. And both believed that the protests in the city made a difference in ensuring that authorities took the case seriously.
“If we had kept quiet, I don’t think they would have prosecuted,” Ford said.
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Contributors include Brian Witte, Matt Barakat and Dave Dishneau in Baltimore
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