By Guest Contributor, on September 17th, 2013 
Cross-Posted From Street Sense Written by Eric Falquero
Three children race through the intersection of Providence and Capitol streets NE. Two kids ride scooters and one is on a bike. An oncoming taxi stops short.
Danger seen, crisis averted.
But traffic pollution poses a more insidious threat to neighborhood health, local activists say. And it is proving harder to stop than a hurrying cab.
In the low-income community where many residents already suffer from respiratory ailments, the Ivy City Civic Association (ICCA) is fighting to keep the city from opening a new tour bus parking lot. The neighborhood is hemmed in by busy New York Ave.NE as well as train yards, warehouses and city vehicle lots. And advocates worry the increased fumes from the charter buses will only make health problems worse.
“We can’t just let you come in and kill us,” says ICCA president Alicia Swanson-Canty, 40, who has spent her whole life in Ivy City. She worries that current pollution levels in the neighborhood are taking a particularly heavy toll on elders, including her mother.
On December 10, 2012, Superior Court Judge Judith Macaluso buoyed the advocates in their fight against city hall. She ruled that city officials violated the law when they moved forward with plans for the bus depot without getting the required input from the local Advisory Neighborhood Commission (ANC) or doing a mandated environmental review.
But now, the Ivy City activists are bracing for the next round of their battle.
City Mayor Vincent Gray is appealing the ruling and his day in court is is scheduled for Sept. 17. The office of the mayor would offer no comment for this story, except to say the city is pursuing the requirements specified in the injunction.
Advocates hope the December ruling will stand. And they hope for more. Their ultimate goal is seeing the former Alexander Crummell School, where the bus lot is proposed, transformed into a community or recreation center that could offer resources that are now in short supply such as a safe play area for kids and adult education classes.
“If they’re trying to make this a community, we need a rec,” said Ivy City resident Juice Williams, age 39. “We don’t need buses, we nee
d something productive: job training, GED classes…”
His fellow resident Nate Wales and David Hayes agreed that a community center would be a haven for children like the ones they had just watched cross the street in front of the taxi.dents Nat
“They’re not doing anything but chasing each other in the same circles,” Wales says of the kids.
Hayes could not help but compare the lack of services in Ivy City to the resources in other neighborhoods. “Brentwood has a work program, Rosedale has a rec, Edgewood has a rec…”
Wales added that the presence of a juvenile detention center does not send a hopeful message to young people. “There’s nothing to do, but they’re ready for you when you get destructive.”
Swanson-Canty said she believes that workforce development programs could help both longtime residents and men staying at the New York Avenue Shelter, which is also located in the neighborhood. She pointed out that the city has been promising a community center to Ivy City for years.
“Just give us what you said you would,” said Swanson-Canty. Most recently the city’s 2006 comprehensive economic development plan called for a community center and additional green space in Ivy City.
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By Guest Contributor, on December 11th, 2012 
Cross-posted from the Washington Post Written by Mike DeBonis
Attorney Johny Barnes with Ivy City residents outside of Crummell School.
The activists fighting to keep a tour bus parking lot out of Ivy City won a significant victory Monday when a judge ordered the city to hold off on its plans.
Superior Court Judge Judith Macaluso found that city officials broke the law by not seeking input from the area’s advisory neighborhood commission and by circumventing a mandated environmental assessment.
While the city can finish construction on the lot, next to the Crummell School at Kendall and Gallaudet streets NE, it cannot use the area to stage buses until it seeks approval from the local ANC and seeks a more comprehensive environmental review. That process could take several months.
During court hearings, a former city official said plans were presented to the Ivy City Civic Association rather than the ANC because the ICCA had been ”more vocal” about the project, which involves repaving the lot and erecting a new fence and landscaping.
“To reason that the ANC need not be consulted because it was less vocal and therefore less interested than the ICCA is simply not permitted under District law,” Macaluso wrote.
Jose Sousa, a spokesman for the District’s economic development office, said officials are “examining the decision and evaluating for immediate appeal.”
The city pressed the Crummell School parking plan after the creation of an intercity bus terminal at Union Station in September meant evicting tour buses from parking spaces there. In court, the former city official said a proposal to park the tour buses at the old Greyhound terminal just north of Union Station was eliminated because ANC members there “didn’t want buses there period.”
Johnny Barnes, a civil rights attorney who represented neighborhood residents, called the ruling “a resounding victory, not just for Ivy City but the entire city.”
“The court recognized the role of ANCs in the city,” he said. “The District has not been respectful of that role. This could mean a turning point in the role that ANCs play and were intended to play.”
Barnes acknowledged “some concern” that the city will cross the T’s identified in Macaluso’s ruling, then move ahead with the bus lot plans. “But I have more hope than concern,” he said. “My hope is that the mayor and those in positions of power will recognize that you can’t run roughshod over the right of participation at the grass-roots level.”
By Guest Contributor, on December 11th, 2012 
Cross-posted from DC’s Independent Media Center Written by Luke On the 10th of December, Judge Judith Macaluso ruled for the plaintiffs in Vaughn Bennett, et al v. Union Station Redevelopment Corporation, et al. The motion for a preliminary injunction to stop construction was GRANTED, Empower DC held a victory party later that evening. From Empower DC’s email announcement: JUDGE GRANTS IVY CITY MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION AGAINST CHARTER BUS PARKING LOT Today, Judge Judith Macaluso ruled in favor of the Plaintiffs in the case case of Vaughn Bennett, et al v. Union Station Redevelopment Corporation, et al. The court docket entry states:
“It is ORDERED, that the “Motion for a Preliminary Injunction,” filed by Plaintiffs Vaughn Bennett, Andria Swanson, and Jeanette Carter on July 26, 2012, is GRANTED. It is further ORDERED, that Defendants Union Station Redevelopment Corporation and Mayor Vincent C. Gray are ENJOINED from operating a diesel bus parking facility on the grounds of the Crummell School until (a) procedures established by D.C. Code § 1-309.10 are complied with and (b) USRC submits an accurate Environmental Intake Form and Environmental Impact Screening Form to the District of Columbia Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, and complies with any requirements that result from evaluation of those submittals. It is further ORDERED, that this injunction shall not restrain Defendants from completing construction or, or maintaining, the lot and appurtenant facilities. It is further ORDERED, that this injunction shall not be lifted except by further order of the court.”
The order likely means that construction of the charter bus parking lot on Gallaudet Street NE in Ivy City will have to stop until the court lifts the injunction or the District of Columbia and the Union Station Redevelopment Corporation comply with the judges order.
By Liane Scott, on November 28th, 2012 
The following is the latest television news coverage from the District’s local networks regarding the Bennett Vaughn vs Union Station Redevelopment Corporation lawsuit.
One of the District’s poorest neighborhoods is fighting City Hall’s proposal to the ground around historic Crummell School into a tour bus parking lot.
Judge Judith Macaluso came to see Ivy City with her own eyes. It’s one of the District’s poorest neighborhoods fighting City Hall’s turning the ground around historic Crummell School into a tour bus parking lot.
“They always did what they wanted to do to Ivy City and I hope they put a stop to it,” says Brenda Ingram-Best. The city already parks hundreds of school buses here, plus other city vehicles. Residents complain they’ll now have fumes from tour buses. “I have siblings who have respiratory problems,” says Stephen Scarborough. “I’m totally against the idea.” “My daughter is asthmatic. Literally yesterday she had dark circles under her eyes,” says Peta Gay Lewis.
Judge Macaluso would not answer questions. “It’s not a press conference,” she says. “This is just a viewing so I can understand the content in the courtroom.”
Activists have taken up the cause. “They went ahead and started construction,” says Parisa Norouzi. What if the city loses in court? “Let’s see what happens,” says Mayor Gray. “It’s pending at this stage. I don’t think it’s appropriate for me to comment on it until this has been settled.”
Judge Macaluso will hear the case again in her courtroom Thursday.
A DC Superior Court judge left the bench to take a tour of Ivy City as residents near the historic Crummell School are fighting the bus depot lot being built.
A D.C. Superior Court judge visited the northeast D.C. neighborhood where residents are fighting the building of a bus depot near the an historic school.
The Alexander Crummell School near Okie and Kendall streets, built in 1911 and abandoned in 1980, is on the register of historic places, but its expansive yard off New York Avenue is being paved over for the District to use as a tour bus parking lot beginning in March.
Neighbors — some who went to the school — want a job center and community place for the mostly poor and struggling Ivy City neighborhood. They’ve gone to court to block the parking project.
“We were to get the building ready for the neighborhood,” said 82-year-old Remetter Freeman, who graduated from the school in 1941 and helped get it on the historic register. “We wanted to put in job training, lots of things. For the kids, a library.”
“There’s a lot of people around here that are sick and have respiratory problems,” former student Jeannette Carter said. “Then there’re the little kids. They don’t have nowhere to play but in the street. And when I was going to school, we used to have fun right there in the evenings and stuff, all kinds of programs and things we had to do.”
D.C. Superior Court Judge Judith Macaluso took a walking tour of the area to see what neighbors are complaining about. The suit in part alleges the city failed to follow city laws and the heavy bus exhaust is unsafe.
“The city government hasn’t done anything by way of surveys, assessing the problem in the community,” lawyer Johnny Barnes said. “People have lived here forever, and they’ve just been dumping on them because they’re low income and they haven’t voted in the past.”
Neighbors and activists say there’s already too much industrial use in a neighborhood where about 1,200 people struggle to live every day.
DC Judge Oversees Temporary Bus Depot Lawsuit Visits Ivy City
WASHINGTON -A D.C. Superior Court judge left her courtroom on Monday to get a good look at an issue that has many D.C. residents upset.
Judge Judith Macaluso toured the Ivy City section of Northeast D.C. It involves a case concerning a temporary bus depot that is being built in Ivy City. Members of the community have filed a lawsuit asking Judge Macaluso put a stop to it.
Residents believe the pollution created by the buses parked in the bus lot will cause health problems for those living nearby.
The temporary lot will store as many as 65 buses, which are typically used to travel the New York-D.C. route. The lot will be used until bus storage is created once Union Station undergoes a multi-billion dollar renovation.
When the temporary lot is . . . → Read More: Local TV Coverage of the Ivy City Bus Depot Lawsuit
By Guest Contributor, on November 14th, 2012 As wave of projects begin to sprout, so do disputes
Cross-posted from the Washington Post Written by Jonathan O’Connell
New apartments and shops are spreading into neighborhoods across the Washington region, with developers looking to capitalize on a better-than-average economy and a massive influx of young adults.
Apartment hunters have wider options, more residents have grocery stores in their neighborhoods and, with dozens of new restaurants and bars, Washington has begun to change its reputation as a gray-suit government town.
Many residents are celebrating the changes. But others aren’t.
And as this new wave of development rises, a chasm between its champions and its skeptics is beginning to show.
In Northeast D.C., Ivy City residents have sued to try to prevent Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) from relocating a bus depot for dozens of private buses into their neighborhood to make way for upgrades at Union Station.
In Washington Highlands, one of the poorest parts of the District, public housing residents sued the D.C. Housing Authority out of concern that they would be permanently displaced from their homes when their units at Highland Dwellings were refurbished.
It isn’t just the low income or disenfranchised who are fighting back. In Wheaton, residents turned away a mixed-use proposal pushed by Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D). Residents in Reston have formed an advocacy group, Rescue Reston, and say they have gathered 650 signatures opposing the possible redevelopment of Reston National Golf Course.
There have always been battles between residents and the developers, planners and city officials proposing alterations to neighborhoods. But with the economy gaining steam and apartment construction booming, disputes that faded during the recession are beginning to boil again.
“I think in many ways it’s the same, but now we have many more examples of how these communities are getting screwed over,” said Parisa Norouzi, director of the community organizing group Empower D.C.
‘No trust’
Empower D.C. battled former mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s attempts to close excess schools and lease the buildings to developers, projects that Norouzi said were driven by “gentrification or private profit.” She says those battles have better prepared residents and organizers for disputes such as the bus relocation, which Empower D.C. and residents are fighting in D.C. Superior Court. “At this point, there is really no trust in the process,” she said.
A hearing on the case is expected Tuesday. A Gray spokesman declined to comment.
In other instances, the opponents to zoning changes or development are the well-heeled. Neighborhoods in wealthier parts of Northwest D.C. are raising concerns about parking shortages under proposed changes to the District’s zoning code, while in Reston the concern is a lack of green space should the golf course’s owner try to build a project to capitalize on the construction of two Silver Line Metro stations nearby.
Some Wheaton residents rejected plans to create a mixed-use downtown project because it might resemble the redevelopment of Silver Spring — a success to some but not others. “We know how many small businesses struggled and went out of business in Silver Spring,” Bob Schilke, owner of the Little Bitts Shop of cake supplies, told the Montgomery County Council in February.
Sometimes even the terms used to describe development have have taken on widely different meanings. The D.C. Housing Authority became the envy of other cities in winning seven grants under the federal HOPE VI program, which enabled the District to overhaul blighted public housing projects into mixed-income neighborhoods.
The agency’s renovation of Highland Dwellings, east of Bolling Air Force Base, isn’t a HOPE VI program and no market rate units are even being built. But spokeswoman Dena Michaelson said the agency could have done a better job making that clear to avoid the lawsuit it faced (and since settled).
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