Build No Harm

the following is something a bunch of neighbors wrote together.  we were going to try and get it published, but then stuff happened (helena died etc) and it never went anywhere.  but i find it worth sharing.

Anyone else noticed that there’s an awful lot of building going on around here? Seems like you can’t turn a corner in DC without seeing yet another newly-erected crane looming above.  Probably because there are 57 construction cranes peppering our skyline, symbolic of the rapid changes taking place across the District.  

the block we love so much!

We certainly feel it (I’m trying to think of the actual emotion that we are feeling: scared, frustrated, worried, apprehensive, oppressed? ) in our neighborhood. We live in Eckington, the neighborhood that abuts the north side of “NoMa,” a newly-created neighborhood near Union Station.  Historically known as Swampoodle, developers decided to change the name to be more like New York City.  Because doesn’t every Washingtonian want to be just like NYC? (sarcasm)

The pace of so-called development is staggering. As the development increases the famous Dave Thomas Triangle cluster at the intersection of Florida and New York Avenues gets worse.  Traffic accidents and fatalities have increased. 

Developers build to maximize profits by “developing” up every last inch of space on the plot – At Elevation, the building actually juts out over Florida Avenue.  Soon cars will drive underneath apartments. No streets are widened to accommodate the thousands of new habitants. They forgot to consider that humans need green space, so now they are spending $50 million to build a park (mind you the same developers are fighting the $45 million price tag to turn McMillan Park into a 27 acre greenspace.   Most of the $50 million will be used to buy back land from the existing developers, who scooped much of it up at fire-sale prices from the district government just a few years ago!  

Historic Firehouse at Q and N. Cap

The developers are encroaching on our historic neighborhood. NoMa got full, and the developers we write about got into the game late.  B&B Development clearly cut a sweetheart deal when they purchased 50 FL Ave. NE.  They are rushing a zoning amendment through the zoning commission to turn the historic Ice House into a 9-story condo with a 3 story parking garage just 16 ft from a row of historic homes that were build around 1903. 

The land for this project is zoned for industrial/commercial, services that the MidCity East survey demonstrates the community desperately needs.  We need gyms, hardware stores, ….  Our community also needs entry-level and trade jobs.  

B&B is playing a game of smoke and mirrors with the residents of Eckington.  They failed to provide the notice required to all residents within a 200 foot radius of the building.  They pretend to be providing necessary retail, but when pressed we learned that it was just two stores that would be added, a coffee shop (no thanks I have Big Bear Cafe) and one other retailer in 7000 sq ft of a 9 story condominium: Hardly mixed-use in our humble opinions. 

l'enfant had a vision
we can actualize it!

In a rush we filed for Party Status, we only had 20 days to get all of this together, which is evidence of the true community we have built here.  In Eckington, we are working hard to keep all of our neighbors in the neighborhood.  We are a group of people from every income bracket and other way we classify people.  There isn’t a Black Q Street and White Q Street, we are all Q St. Which is why we are fighting this together.

  

This development will permanently damage our homes, and may even cause their collapse.  Just this week on Q St a developer destroyed a rowhouse trying to flip it quick.  The historical façade went crashing down and threatens the integrity of long-time resident Kenny [last name]'s home.  Just the vibrations from the demolition caused heaps of cracks and concerns for him.  He called DC??  Who agreed and put a stop order on the house, but it was either too late, or they didn’t obey the order.

There is no question that digging down three floors only 16 feet behind our property lines (which start with retaining walls) will harm the very foundation of our homes – not to mention the destruction to our retaining walls. 

Q St NE is working hard to fulfill the Mayor’s vision of making DC the greenest and best place to live in the world.  Many of us have already installed solar and many more of us are making plans.  We face regular power outages in the summer and are hoping that by getting a high concentration of solar we can create a micro grid and save some of our food during our annual Independence Day Black-out.  B&B’s solar study showed that during the winter months, those of us on the South-side of Q St. will not have any sunlight at all, all day, for about 8 weeks.  In the spring we will have about 30% of the sun we currently enjoy and by summer we will be fortunate enough to have almost all the sun we now have in December.

We have peach and plum trees in our back yards.  We share our yards to grow vegetables, working together and utilizing everyone’s talents to produce flowers and delicious healthy foods.  Imagine what our garden will look like when a 9 story condo blocks all of the sun from our yards.  

We can do better. We deserve better.  We have been the victims of DC corruption for too long.  Remember it is our neighborhood that Council Member Harry Thomas, Jr  stole his money from.  It had real impact on our children.  Its time the District stand with us.

We don’t want Eckington turned into Crystal City or even be part of NoMa. We want investment in our neighborhood, but it should be in something that increases our quality of life, rather than hurts us. You have awakened a sleeping Tiger.  May we have time to change the direction of the District to build without harm!  

July 11th at 441 4th St. NW suite 220 at 6:30 (until about 10:pm

) a Zoning Commission hearing will be held to determine if there developers can build their enormous carbon footprint.  Please join us in opposition and ask them to BUILD NO HARM!

Friends of Q Street NE

Out of the Mouth of Babes: Eqypt

i miss you something fierce Helena!!!

obit by Tami et al,

Helena Ponkanen Andelin

1949 ~ 2013
"Aiti"

Our beautiful, faithful mother Helena Mirjami Ponkanen Andelin passed away in Salt Lake City at the age of sixty-four on June 22, 2013 of an unexpected stroke. She was born in Joensuu, Finland on April 7, 1949 to Finnish Karelian parents, Antti Olavi Ponkanen and Alina Halonen, the fifth of six children. At age 13 Helena joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She immigrated to the U.S. to attend BYU, where she fell in love with Brian Berry Andelin. They married on January 25, 1972 in the Los Angeles Temple and had seven children.

As a young girl, Helena loved playing in the forests near her home, picking berries and flowers, and playing in the snow. She spent her life surrounding herself with beautiful things while seeking to enrich the lives of others through love and service. She loved the landscape and people of each place she lived: Finland, CA, MO, OR, TX, AZ, VA, and UT. She graduated from LDS Business College in Interior Design and loved learning and reading. She had been a member of the Utah Opera Guild. Her life work was that of a mother and a disciple of Jesus Christ. She loved serving her family and serving in the church. She was a modern pioneer who loved her family and made great sacrifices so they could enjoy the blessings of the gospel. She was eternally grateful to the LDS missionaries in Finland who taught her family. She will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved her. 

Preceded in death by Brian B. Andelin, parents, brother Martti Ponkanen. Survived by children Karina (Karl) Brown of Nibley, UT; Tami (David) Owen of Draper, UT; Clark (Jessica) Andelin of Mexico, MO; Tanya (Dave) Gibson of Baltimore, MD; Joseph (Ivonne) Andelin of Draper, UT; Todd Andelin of Salt Lake City, UT, Brian Andelin of Provo, UT; twenty grandchildren, sisters Pirjo (Tero) Tarma of Finland; Raija (Bob) Maddock of Salt Lake City, UT; Liisa (Val) Higginbotham of South Jordan, UT; and brother Matti Ponkanen of Finland.

Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, July 1, 2013 in Salt Lake City, UT at the Emigration 21st Ward on 2nd Avenue (100 North) between J (650 East) and K (700 East) Streets. From Temple Square, go east on South Temple and turn north on K street to 2nd Avenue. Viewings will be at the same location on Sunday, June 30 from 6-8 p.m. and Monday at 9:45 to 10:45 a.m. prior to funeral. Interment at the Salt Lake City Cemetery.
Online condolences at http://www.legacy.com/guestbooks/saltlaketribune/guestbook.aspx?n=helena-andelin&pid=165547634&cid=full

A YEAR FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN CHINA

An important statement from Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng. Please add your voice to their call by signing the petition.

From June 2013 to June 2014, the world will approach the 25th anniversary of China’s crackdown in Tiananmen Square in 1989, when the Chinese military opened  fire, killing thousands of students and other peaceful demonstrators.

iconic tiananmen sq photo

Today there are calls from incoming President Xi Jinping for a “renaissance” in China, and the realization of the China dream.  At the same time, many in the Chinese leadership and media have recognized that the dream for China cannot become a reality without social and political reform.

We have taken President Xi Jinping’s statements as a small opportunity for hope that China, in expanding its role as a world power, will begin to throw off some of its more oppressive practices.

We find reason to hope that he and others in the Chinese leadership will hear the voices of ordinary citizens across the globe, when we say that the China dream will not and cannot be realized while its citizens are subject to “thought reform” through the oppressive laogai labor camps.

Since China’s Cultural Revolution literally millions of Chinese citizens have been forced into slave labor camps for offenses related to thought and expression. In recent times these include increasing percentages of innocents, including lawyers who tried to defend their own rights and rights of others, ordinary public who tried to uphold their rights and were abducted and sent to jail to be persecuted; and those who  have done nothing more than state their loyalty to their religious leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, participate in Christian religions which have not been “authorized” by the Communist Party, or practice Falun Gong, a spiritual meditation system based on the ancient traditions of China itself.

ap photo
tiananman sq 89

Reports from former inmates of the laogai camps detail prisoners living on the edge of starvation and exhaustion in infested and horrific environments, while being forced to produce commercial goods — goods that we have unknowingly purchased in Western stores. Uncounted numbers of prisoners, credibly believed to be in the tens of thousands, have been executed and their organs harvested for sale — a practice so despicable it is nearly beyond our comprehension.

As we approach this historic anniversary, today’s world’s leaders have the opportunity to distinguish themselves from leaders of the past who, for the sake of economic progress or in the name of “national security”, have turned a blind eye to atrocities committed by Chinese leaders against their own citizenry. We ask our leaders to speak on our behalf to President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party. Tell them what they already know — that the dream of China can be realized only when its citizens’ universal human rights and dignity are upheld and respected. And that the laogai system and the brutal repression of freedom of thought, conscience and speech, the most basic of human rights, will remain a festering sore on the China dream until it is addressed and removed.

God Bless You,

Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Chen Guangcheng

Build No Harm

Eckington is Zion to me.

The full breadth of the 99% share a common garden behind Ms Jackie's house.  We work together and are learning how to grow organic vegetables and flowers together.  Ms. Kim does all her weird experiments on the soil with the help of Joseph and a few other kids.  We watch each other's kids houses, and people.  We watch after and take care of each other.  We celebrate birthdays, Easter, Christmas, Passover, Chanukah, Kwanza, 4th of July, Memorial Day, seriously ... this block has a tradition for each of these holidays.  Its amazing!

Like many families, we have had this party we've talked about throwing for about four years now, but just have never gotten around to organize ... because every night is kinda like a party ;)

We go through spurts of energy where we decide we are going to get spiritual and read the bible together ... but then we get worried people will differ to much about dogma and decide it doesn't matter that much.  Maybe more fun to keep it light.  ;)

Still,  Laffe keeps us all one our toes and honest. Not a date goes by that I don't get teased.  But I know she always has my back.  Because she is there, I don't experience one fear that has stunted me my whole life.

My neighbors are family.  Through thick and thin, we are here for each other.  And now some developer has looked over our little kingdom and decided he wants to taken position of the whole of it, with a 9 story condo.  If I wanted to live in Crystal City, I'd live there!

It will block out our sun entirely for the winter months.  We will get partial sun in spring and fall, and nearly all the sun we used to get typically in the summer.  If I wanted to live in Anchorage, I'd live there!  (I mean I do want to live there in the summer, don't get me wrong, but I'd never survive an Alaskan winter)

The city is encouraging people to produce their own electricity and take some pressure off the grids, which yall know sucks around here.  So why in the world would they want to put that massive foot print behind a bunch of housing trying to install solar?

Its so crazy because we "want new residential like a hole in the head" as one member said in our Eckington Civic Association Meeting: which I don't think we joke about around here.  But we do want jobs!

Here is a letter my neighbors and I put together over the weekend.

Dear Neighbor,

We are hoping to unite our neighborhood around opposing the construction of another condominium building in South Eckington.  As one neighbor said at last week’s ECA meeting: “We want more residential like we want a hole in our head” – which around here isn’t something we joke about.  

We are concerned by the negative impact more residential can have on our neighborhood. Some include:

• Impact on Florida Avenue, New York Avenue, and NorthCapitol Street traffic.  Pedistrian safety is at an all time low in this corridor.  One neighbor calls it a Cluster-Effe.  The impact of an additional 50 families would bring us to a crushing point.  They want many more than 50 people living there.  Don't forget, we will soon have Elevation to add to the mess.  David Thomas Circle will be like Mumbai
•  Impact on electrical grid.   We have annual mid-summer blackouts as it is.  We have frequent loss of power during storms.
• Impact on water supply. 
• Loss of privacy for homes on the southside of Q Street NE
• Loss of views from rooftops of Q St NE
• Noise and light pollution

Additionally, we are worried that during construction the foundation of our homes can be negatively impacted or worse.  As we saw in the building collapse in Philadelphia and even further down Q St, the vibration from and impact to the surface so close to homes could cause houses in desperate need of repair to collapse.

We need jobs!  The space is zoned to be a hub of employment: industrial. Why would the city get rid of this prime real estate already zoned to help tackle the problems of today’s youth: unemployment, to residential?

The District’s paltry efforts forhelping youth were hijacked by our crocked Councilmember who embezzled thosefunds.  It would be nice if the citywould acknowledge the lasting impact of his crimes on our community and give usthe youth center our neighborhood so desperately needs.

We could have any number of jobtraining and apprenticeship programs for trades related to the rehabilitation and restoration the community so desperately needs. Along side locally own private-businesses.  Or a business incubator, or a teaching training site in partnership with Teach for America.

We are asking all of our friends, neighbors, and fellow citizens who believe in smart growth and development rather than destruction and abuse.  We ask that you stand with us to demand that they Build No Harm! (Shout out to our compatriots in NW!)

Across DC developers and corrupt politicians are trying to ramrod enormous energy guzzling behemoths of days gone buy (pun intended) on some of our nations treasures.  McMillan Sand Filtration Site!  (This is the history of the site ... I don't want to get off topic but this should be a national travesty!)

The property I'm writing about today was built in 1923 as "The Ice House". It was where all Washingtonians got their ice.  The Huff family owned and operated it in such a way that even the developer reminisced about his childhood memories of picking up supplies for birthday parties and what not.  Imagine the stories those walls could tell.

The property is zoned for what we need here industrial commercial, just check out the MidCity East survey and see what you learn.  A super majority of the community is in agreement that we don't want more residential.  Some few who plan to flip their houses for a profit , and show up at meetings, want it because it will increase their property values. Those of us who call Eckington home don't really want our property values to go up any higher, it only means higher property taxes.

The ANC is voting on Tuesday the 18th to support or oppose the project.  I don't have the details of the meeting but plan to post them here.  Please, if you agree with what we are saying, and you can make it on Tuesday, we'd love your moral support.  We feel a bit like David and Goliath, we are just praying that there really are more of us than them.

this is the MOST beautiful of all the views of it.
mostly like deseret towers
but those were only 7 stories and had cool architecture