This is the most impressive protest tactic I’ve ever Seen

by Prince Of Petworth June 22, 2016 at 3:00 pm 27 Comments

cartoon

Thanks to a reader for sending:

“We found this in our mailbox. It’s all about the reduced amount of green space in our neighborhood now and in the future. It’s a few pages long and well done.”

Ed. Note: Back in April we talked about the “Massive Development Plans for Woodley Park”.

Woodley Park Neighbor

Where JBG built the underground garage back like 10 years ago, there were no trees. It was a big grassy field then and it is a big grassy field now.

Now, what they did to the grounds around Wardman Tower is kind of gross. But neighbors seem to mistake private property for something that is not private property.

The neighbors near that hotel have been the absolute best example of NIMBYism I have never seen in my 20 years of living in DC. There has been a hotel on that land for a century. They need to get over themselves.
- Shawnnnnnn
  
  Also, the old Sheraton hotel back in the 1950s took up most of that empty lot where they built the underground garage AND the empty space where the new condos are JBG built on the end of that lot. So at some point that area had a building on it.
  
  I mean, no offense to the neighbors, but you live in one of the most wooded, park like parts of the city. You can’t find some trees in Woodley Park, you’re doing it wrong.
- Rainman
  
  “The neighbors near that hotel have been the absolute best example of NIMBYism . . .”
  
  There are soooo many candidates for MOST NIMBYIST NEIGHBORHOOD in this city, I wouldn’t bet the Woodley park nimbys are the mostest.
  - DC Denizen
    
    Ugh. I can’t wait until the use of “NIMBY” fades. It’s a lazy rhetorical device to diminish the thoughts and opinions of others, whether they are valid or not, rather than to speak to the topic at hand on its merits.
    - Rainman
      
      The term will stop being used when it is no longer useful — or accurate. Human nature being what it is, the term is likely to be useful and accurate for a long long time.
    - d
      
      I honestly don’t understand this degree of NIMBYism. I’m not a young kid anymore and have seen all sorts of human behavior in my years, but how is it that these dullards waste so much of theirs’ and others’ time trying to preserve neighborhoods in ember? This mentality is unfortunately prevalent throughout DC but is especially bad west of the park. It’s honestly the #1 reason I would never move to an upper NW neighborhood even though I have the means to do so. Also, don’t these bores understand that they would have done all they could to stop the very hotel they now romanticize from being built?
  - Painter
    
    “NIMBY” is a general term that could be good or bad. A 10-story building of luxury condos next door is not exactly an oil pipeline or sewage treatment plant. And it looks pretty good from the perspective of the resident on the 10th floor. But not so good from the 2- or 3-story row houses in its shadow across the street.
    - Shawnnnnnn
      
      But when those rowhouses were built, there was a tall building on that lot. I’m sorry, but you don’t get to forever preserve something at some precise moment in time when it only suits you.
- Painter
  
  Before the underground garage was built, there were many, many beautiful large trees, as well as a much larger grassy area. They had to be removed when the garage hole was dug. If citizens do not make an effort to retain green spaces throughout their city, they will disappear, because it’s more lucrative to build on them than to retain them. Rock Creek Park and the C&O Canal trail, as well as many smaller green spaces, would have disappeared long ago without the forethought and effort expended to save them. In addition, this issue is not only about green space, but about scale.
  - NearNortheaster
    
    Then raise the money to buy the land?
    - Shawnnnnnn
      
      Exactly. Those are preserved using tools that are not just preventing the rightful owner of a property from using it for the same purpose it has previously been used for. Oh and speaking of the park, if you need wooded trees and shade, walk a block. Rock Creek Park is literally on the other side of that hotel.
      
      I worked and lived near there for many, many years and assure you, there are as many trees there as there ever were. The difference is there is a luxury apartment building sitting where the more dense trees were. Has nothing really to do with the garage.
      
      Also, again, that land is not owned by you and just because you live across the street from it does not give you the authority to demand it remain empty or wooded or otherwise in perpetuity. That hotel has been there longer than most of those houses.
      - textdoc
        
        D.C. considers trees beyond a certain circumference to be something worth maintaining for the common good (for the shade canopy, etc.) — that’s why you have to get a permit to cut a “special tree.”
        .
        Some people on PoPville talk as though individual property “rights” trump all. In a city as dense as D.C., there’s often a community /neighborhood interest in what happens on an individual property. You might believe that should be given no weight — and that’s your prerogative. But it’s certainly also the neighbors’ prerogative to do whatever is in their power to see that their community/neighborhood interest is represented.
      - NearNortheaster
        
        Communities and neighbors should absolutely have opportunities to voice their opinions, but they should not have a right to have those views represented in the final outcome. We have extensive protections against harmful development through a web of zoning codes and ordinances, so the mantle doesn’t need to fall upon the single family homeowners who live nearby to the exclusion of all other city interests. Their knowledge of the area is certainly valuable, but their bias against any change is a shackle on the city writ large.
ZoningCommiss

When DC zoning, and other areas, comes to realization that all of the parking requirements are antiquated and dumb. Developers won’t need to waste money (drives up prices) on required parking spots. The amount of cars on the road today is the maximum amount of cars the world will ever have. With uber, lyft, car2go, etc. more and more people are ditching cars. We need to fix the zoning and city planning and these arguments will be a thing of the past. let’s focus on the real issue people.
- wobber
  
  “The amount of cars on the road today is the maximum amount of cars the world will ever have”
  
  Huh?
- Anon X
  
  Its funny. because I bet since you posted this comment, the number of cars worldwide increased. So, I guess you’re wrong.
jzdc

Wow! Anyone know where one can see the full comic book?
- anon
  
  yeah, I want to see that! didn’t make it into our mailboxes in northern Woodley Park, though our building probably wouldn’t put them in our mail slots unless they paid to mail to each unit individually.
- Formerwoodleyresident
  
  The artist’s website is eachdayisacelebration dot com
  - anon
    
    Oh, thank you for that website address!
Anon

Have the over-educated Woodley Park retirees lost their ability to read without the gentle help of illustrative pictographs?
Painter

To see the comic in its entirety, you can go to http://www.EachDayIsACelebration.com. It was posted in parts over the course of four days, May 20th-23rd.
John

Boo hoo. Major cities should be dense. Build, baby, build!
- NearNortheaster
  
  We’re not hurting for green space. Public parks alone–excluding all private parks, like Yards Park–comprise over 19.4% of DC’s land area, the second highest (as a percentage of total land area) of any US city.
  - Shawnnnnnn
    
    Hilariously in this particular example, the neighborhood is literally called Woodley Park and sits nestled beside the enormous federal Rock Creek Park.
    
    The land in question has never had a dense number of trees. Ever. It used to have a huge wing of the original hotel structure on it in fact.
    
    And frankly, when it comes to the solution, I’d say JBG did a pretty impressive amazing job of building the underground garage and putting an enormous green space back on top of it. Fewer trees? Maybe but not many fewer. It looks nice. They could have of course simply built a gate around the entire property and kept the neighbors out of it altogether.
NearNortheaster

It’s not actually about green space, it’s about parking. It’s always about parking.
Painter

Those of us who have been raising our children in the neighborhood remember well the many happy times spent among the beautiful old trees until those playtimes ended with the trees’ removal for the underground garage construction. A few new, young trees have been planted, but it will be decades before they reach a significant size. But if you “worked and lived nearby for many, many years” in the 1920s, perhaps, then that explains why you were not familiar with the older, large trees we here knew so well.

Subscribe to our mailing list