ACTION ALERT: DC Mayor Muriel Bowser Exposing Homeless Children to Asbestos & Lead Particulates
You read the title correctly: "DC Mayor Muriel Bowser Exposing Homeless Children to Asbestos & Lead Particulates". I'm not one for hyperbole. However, the unimaginable is being done by the mayor of our nation's capital. It's deliberate. What makes it worse is that it's for political gain. Muriel Bowser is up for re-election during the DC Democratic Primary on June 19th, 2018. The winner of the Democratic Primary has always gone on to become mayor, which makes the Democratic Primary the city's de facto mayoral election, though we DO go through with the formality of a general election anyway. This disregard of the lives of the poor (including children) is all the more reason NOT to vote for Bowser in June (or in November either, if she wins the primary).
In DC (and probably many cities) developers are major contributors to mayoral campaigns. Ms. Bowser needs campaign funds to last into early November. DC developers have also sought to redevelop the DC General campus for a long time. This property has been considered for a number of different redevelopment projects over the past 10 years. In early 2008 it was supposed to become part of the Hill East subdivision; but, then the economy went south and the plan was scrapped. A couple of years later the conversation about redeveloping "Reservation 13" (the name of the plot of federal land on which the defunct hospital sits) was rehashed but went nowhere. In late 2014 Mayor-elect Bowser sought to bring the 2024 Olympics to DC and she tossed around the idea of building the Olympic Village on the DC General campus. We didn't win that Olympic bid. Now Amazon is considering building its second headquarters here in DC and Mayor Bowser has put DC General forth as a possible site for HQ2. Building proposals have come and gone. Mayor Bowser's plans for closing DC General and turning it over to developers have had setbacks.
As THIS BLOG POST indicates, the effort to replace the DC General Hospital-turned-family shelter has been a long and protracted one which even led to MAYOR MURIEL BOWSER PUBLICLY CURSING AT THE COUNCIL CHAIRMAN because the DC Council prevented her from steering contracts to her developer friends who'd fund her campaign. The Bowser administration developed a plan to close DC General. Its definitely necessary. No argument there. She plans to replace it with several smaller shelters; but, various delays occurred and the timeline for completion of these smaller shelters had to be adjusted. Her administration initially stated that DC General would not be closed until all of the smaller replacement shelters had come on-line. When it became apparent to Ms. Bowser that the pushed-back completion dates would dissatisfy her campaign donors, she decided to err on the side of DANGER.
So, the rush to begin this hazardous abatement work and partial deconstruction is to ensure that there's no turning back -- that "the train leaves the station". -- that there is no more stalling in terms of closing and deconstructing DC General so she can give this property to her friends THIS YEAR. She's therefore willing to begin asbestos and lead abatement as well as some deconstruction on unoccupied parts of the hospital while homeless families are still occupying other parts of the building. there exists a strong possibility that the asbestos and lead particulates will enter the occupied portions of the building. No one is asking that the building not be torn down -- just that this dangerous work for which workers wear protective space suits not begin until the building is completely empty. (I was surprised to learn that there is absolutely no law or regulation that would protect these families from such an atrocity.)
Muriel Bowser wants to ensure these developers that they will indeed obtain this prime real estate by the end of 2018 so that they'll, in turn, fund her re-election bid. (The last time that an incumbent won re-election was in 2002; and, I moved to DC in 2005.) Ms. Bowser's goal of satisfying these developers is actually putting homeless children and their parents in danger. It therefore shows that Muriel Bowser (and possibly DC's local political paradigm) has sunk to a new low. People of conscience must do all that we can to ensure that our elected officials and governments don't get away with this type of behavior.
HERE'S WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Contact DC Councilwoman Brianne Nadeau who has oversight of the Human Services Committee (preferably by Midnight on March 10th, 2018) and submit written testimony telling her to wait until after DC General is vacated before moving forward with this work. March 11th is the day that the deconstruction contract will be passively approved if the DC Council fails to act. Feel free to submit comments after that date anyway in order to tell DC officials how the mayor has sunk to a new low. It helps if you are a DC resident; but, for an atrocity of this magnitude, I'd welcome ANYONE to weigh in HERE. Thank you.
In DC (and probably many cities) developers are major contributors to mayoral campaigns. Ms. Bowser needs campaign funds to last into early November. DC developers have also sought to redevelop the DC General campus for a long time. This property has been considered for a number of different redevelopment projects over the past 10 years. In early 2008 it was supposed to become part of the Hill East subdivision; but, then the economy went south and the plan was scrapped. A couple of years later the conversation about redeveloping "Reservation 13" (the name of the plot of federal land on which the defunct hospital sits) was rehashed but went nowhere. In late 2014 Mayor-elect Bowser sought to bring the 2024 Olympics to DC and she tossed around the idea of building the Olympic Village on the DC General campus. We didn't win that Olympic bid. Now Amazon is considering building its second headquarters here in DC and Mayor Bowser has put DC General forth as a possible site for HQ2. Building proposals have come and gone. Mayor Bowser's plans for closing DC General and turning it over to developers have had setbacks.
As THIS BLOG POST indicates, the effort to replace the DC General Hospital-turned-family shelter has been a long and protracted one which even led to MAYOR MURIEL BOWSER PUBLICLY CURSING AT THE COUNCIL CHAIRMAN because the DC Council prevented her from steering contracts to her developer friends who'd fund her campaign. The Bowser administration developed a plan to close DC General. Its definitely necessary. No argument there. She plans to replace it with several smaller shelters; but, various delays occurred and the timeline for completion of these smaller shelters had to be adjusted. Her administration initially stated that DC General would not be closed until all of the smaller replacement shelters had come on-line. When it became apparent to Ms. Bowser that the pushed-back completion dates would dissatisfy her campaign donors, she decided to err on the side of DANGER.
So, the rush to begin this hazardous abatement work and partial deconstruction is to ensure that there's no turning back -- that "the train leaves the station". -- that there is no more stalling in terms of closing and deconstructing DC General so she can give this property to her friends THIS YEAR. She's therefore willing to begin asbestos and lead abatement as well as some deconstruction on unoccupied parts of the hospital while homeless families are still occupying other parts of the building. there exists a strong possibility that the asbestos and lead particulates will enter the occupied portions of the building. No one is asking that the building not be torn down -- just that this dangerous work for which workers wear protective space suits not begin until the building is completely empty. (I was surprised to learn that there is absolutely no law or regulation that would protect these families from such an atrocity.)
Muriel Bowser wants to ensure these developers that they will indeed obtain this prime real estate by the end of 2018 so that they'll, in turn, fund her re-election bid. (The last time that an incumbent won re-election was in 2002; and, I moved to DC in 2005.) Ms. Bowser's goal of satisfying these developers is actually putting homeless children and their parents in danger. It therefore shows that Muriel Bowser (and possibly DC's local political paradigm) has sunk to a new low. People of conscience must do all that we can to ensure that our elected officials and governments don't get away with this type of behavior.
HERE'S WHAT YOU CAN DO:
Contact DC Councilwoman Brianne Nadeau who has oversight of the Human Services Committee (preferably by Midnight on March 10th, 2018) and submit written testimony telling her to wait until after DC General is vacated before moving forward with this work. March 11th is the day that the deconstruction contract will be passively approved if the DC Council fails to act. Feel free to submit comments after that date anyway in order to tell DC officials how the mayor has sunk to a new low. It helps if you are a DC resident; but, for an atrocity of this magnitude, I'd welcome ANYONE to weigh in HERE. Thank you.
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