Here's our roundup of must-read posts from the week:
So much for a fresh new year. It's hard to put this week into words, but suffice it to say it's been rough. Top of our minds this week, amid the chaos at the Capitol, are the very real and often overlooked residents of DC. Interim Director Caitlin Rogger wrote about how that oversight led to what we saw Wednesday.
The legacy of racism shows up in large ways and small, subtle ones. In one corner of the District, a neighborhood historic district application raises questions around what preservation is for, and who serves.
Along the H Street Corridor, locals have a different kind of request for the city: stop drivers from crashing into buildings. Three cars into three buildings in three months just seems like a lot.
Virginia pedestrians are getting a legal win: jaywalking is finally being decriminalized.
Finally, avoiding a parking ticket seems great, but DC's parking enforcement slowdown during the pandemic has hidden costs.
By Caitlin Rogger (Interim Executive Director) • January 7, 2021
Are all Americans “real Americans”, or are some of us in a different category? It’s nothing new to hear national politicians question the “realness” of the residents of Washington, DC. And though the drumbeat of alarming, often conspiracy theory-driven events has escalated, yesterday’s events made it clear as day that fictionalizing a real place where people live and work as a “swamp” whose only purpose is nefarious has a profound cost.
By Nick Sementelli (Board of Directors, Advocacy Committee) • January 7, 2021
Ward 3 neighborhood Colony Hill’s nondescript historic district application will test the Historic Preservation Review Board’s minimum standards and raise further questions about preservation’s relationship to the history of racial segregation.
By Wyatt Gordon (The Virginia Mercury) • January 7, 2021
Though it didn’t garner as much attention as other police reform measures during the special legislative session that ended this fall, a provision to decriminalize jaywalking in a pretextual policing bill from Delegate Patrick Hope, D-Arlington, means that come March 1, police will no longer be able to stop folks for the act of crossing the street outside of a marked crosswalk.
By Alyssa Alfonso (Guest Contributor) • January 6, 2021
DC has dialed back parking enforcement during the pandemic. Avoiding a parking ticket feels great, but making parking easier comes with some troubling consequences.
