Rhode Island Insider

On Tuesday night I testified at the Ward 5 Economic Development Roundtable Hearing, sponsored by Kwame Brown on behalf of the Committee of the Whole.  My testimony focused on our community’s need to progress from planning and meetings (where we are now) to funding, implementation, and tangible economic development projects for Rhode Island Avenue NE (where I want us to go).  I highlighted three perfectly adequate arrows that we already have in our quiver:

1. the Rhode Island Avenue Small Area Action Plan created by the Deputy Mayor’s Office for Planning and Economic Development and adopted by resolution by the DC Council in May 2011;
2. Rhode Island Avenue’s Great Street designation; and
3. Rhode Island Avenue’s street car plan.

My message to Chairman Brown and the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development (DMPED) was that we need to implement these plans.  Years worth of meetings about what we want on Rhode Island Avenue has not yet yielded concrete benefits for our community.  We’re still overrun with auto-related businesses and vacant storefronts.  We still have far too few high quality sit-down restaurants and places to buy healthy food.  I’m not optimistic that more meetings will result in a different outcome.  In fact, the danger in holding an endless stream of meetings planning for Rhode Island Avenue is that the community becomes pacified by merely being heard.  It’s not acceptable for DC agency officials to show up at community meetings, listen to us, and then disappear into their offices until we convene another community meeting.

I don’t expect DC government agencies to single-handedly create the change we want to see on Rhode Island Avenue; but I expect them to be engaged and invested partners.  As ANC5A10 Commissioner Griffin often reminds us: we must participate in our own rescue.  That’s why I, and the Friends of Rhode Island Avenue organizers, are working on some real world projects to bring home-grown change to the Avenue.  We’re hosting our first-ever RIA street clean-up in Woodridge on March 3.  We’re working on an inventory of the commercial properties in Woodridge.  We’re planning field-trips to various eateries and stores in the DMV to demonstrate the interest and purchasing power of the customer base around Rhode Island Avenue. We’re organizing a team of FoRIA members to run the Metropolitan Branch Trail 5K fundraiser in May.  And we’re planning great community-centered events to bring neighbors together for some fun.

Last night we got a commitment from Council Chairman Kwame Brown to fund projects along Rhode Island Avenue if submitted in the 2013 budget.  Since we are stranded without a Ward 5 Councilmember, it is incumbent upon the DMPED’s office to submit a sizable 2013 budget request to fund the Rhode Island Avenue NE Small Area Action Plan.  The Chairman also asked the DMPED for a written plan on how to attract restaurants to Rhode Island Avenue.  And based on Nolan Treadway’s (excellent) testimony, the Chairman also requested that the DMPED secure a Capital Bikeshare station for Rhode Island Avenue in front of the Woodridge Library.

I went to the roundtable hearing last night seeking commitments, and Chairman Kwame Brown gave us his word that if the budget request comes before the Council for these projects, he will push it through.  While the DMPED’s office is busy with its post-roundtable budgeting work, I’ll be out there on Rhode Island Avenue with my neighbors, who are also my friends, cleaning up the Avenue by hand.  Please join us.