Cleveland Elementary School at 8th & T Streets NW in Washington, DC

Freshly renovated only six years ago, the award-winning Cleveland Elementary School at 8t and T Streets NW is beautiful inside and out. The school has served the Shaw community for 100 years. It didn’t always serve Shaw’s black residents but 100 years ago the city was segregated and so were its schools. Within it’s integrated history, Cleveland has done a pretty good job of recognizing the changing demographics of its students–69% African-American, 29% Latino. It is one of very few schools in the DCPS system with a dual-language Spanish immersion program. This all sounds great, right? So, why is it going to close by 2017?

Here it is important to emphasize that the closing of Cleveland Elementary by 2017 is simply a prediction and what’s more it’s my prediction and my prediction alone. I am no expert. On the other hand, one need not always be an expert to read the writing on the wall. In this case, the wall being the Prince of Petworth, which is a lovely blog. Unfortunately, with all its pretty ads for houses and condos, real estate agents, developers and developer-friendly politicians, the blog is an incessant reminder to me that I have been displaced from the Petworth community. It’s got nothing to do with Jim Crow laws that might have once kept me out. There’s no redlining keeping me from buying in the neighborhood. I just don’t have the money to afford a house, a condo or an apartment there. Alas, I’ve digressed into the politics of envy. Forgive me.

What does this have to do with Cleveland Elementary? In keeping with The Prince of Petworth’s focus on development, the Prince interviewed David Batista owner of “All Souls” neighborhood bar which, should it be granted a liquor license will reside directly across the street from Cleveland Elementary School. The article itself is nothing as compared to the 96 comments that follow, which is not surprising given the last sentence of the blog post which reads, “If you live in the neighborhood and have any questions or concerns you can contact David directly via email at dtb1514(at)Yahoo(dot)com and if you’d like to support the plans (to grant All Souls a liquor license) be sure to let your ANC reps know.” Beyond suggesting that those who support the bar contact the ANC and show their support, the conflict between the bar and the neighborhood is not defined. Despite the fact that the Prince of Petworth calls itself a “neighborhood blog,” the post did not include any members of the neighborhood that would be affected. No interview of the Cleveland Elementary School principal who objects to the bar. No interview of any of the parents who also object and are planning to take their children out of the school should All Souls be granted a liquor license. No interview of the future mother-to-be who lives next door, who probably moved into the neighborhood hoping it would be a good place to raise a family and is now genuinely frustrated, to say the least. Since the Prince of Petworth did not define the conflict between the bar and the neighborhood, I’ll do my best to do so here.

The problem as I understand it is not that complicated. Yes, there are folks, like the pregnant lady living next door, who are worried about the noise, undesirable foot traffic, problems with parking, etc. But the really big objection is the proximity to the elementary school. The District of Columbia has a zoning law on the books that prohibits establishments that serve alcohol from operating within 400 feet of a school. All Souls would be 22 feet away. Why is the Alcoholic Beverage Regulation Administration even considering their application? Apparently, there’s at least one liquor store within the 400 foot boundary and since they are allowed to operate, the court says that any establishment that wants to violate the 400 foot law should be allowed to do so. So much for the will of the people who worked to have that zoning law enacted. It seems those community members who think its best if little kids are not forced to watch adults buying and consuming alcoholic beverages–that any substance abuse counselor will tell you is the number one gateway drug–isn’t worth too much either.

This video below, 22 feet is too close, is a visual demonstration of the parents concerns.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7jVPx_-TTo

Not to appear one-sided, a . . . → Read More: Cleveland Elementary Predicted to Close by 2017