4000 Connecticut Avenue, when Whittle School still made its home there.
Since he wrote his pitch for moving the new MacArthur High School to the former Whittle School/Intelsat Campus at 4000 Connecticut Avenue, Ward 3 Council member Matt Frumin has revealed more about his proposal and his thinking in this FAQ, and in interviews with the The DC Line columnist jonetta rose barras, Washington Business Journal and The Washington Post. And from the Post, we learn Mayor Muriel Bowser’s response to Frumin’s plan:
“Officials shut the idea down in a letter to the MacArthur community last week.” And: “Asked about Frumin’s plan, or whether the city would buy the Intelsat/Whittle building for other uses, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser’s team referred to the school system’s letter.”
Filmmaker Aviva Kempner’s mother and uncle, in an undated family photo.
A more personal story from a documentary filmmaker: Forest Hills-based filmmaker Aviva Kempner specializes in revealing the stories of “under-known Jewish heroes,” including ballplayer-turned-spy Moe Berg, and the philanthropist who built the Rosenwald schools. However: “Two years ago, she decided that rising antisemitism and Holocaust denial demanded a more personal response,” writes the Post’s John Kelly. So Kempner’s latest film, showing at the Avalon Theatre through November 9th, focuses on two Holocaust survivors in her own family: her mother and her uncle.
Mid-career haul: Washington Business Journal compares “mid-career” salaries of workers with degrees from local colleges and universities. And the median salary for UDC graduates, at least ten years into their careers, is $96,100.
Social Media Mentions
October surprise! Cherry blossoms are blooming at UDC in Washington DC. 🌸 🎃 🍂 pic.twitter.com/buvDbQbwOL
— C on the scene (@Conthescene) October 21, 2023
https://twitter.com/DianeKrauthamer/status/1717158491876422105
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Patrick says
Sooo, no comment is the bottom line – to let Matt Frumin and the residents of the area know regarding the former Whittle School/Intelsat Campus.
Is it just going to lie dormant for months (years) to come…?
Will it be used for something useful in the near (hopefully not far) future….?
Or is there something secret going on with that building/location that will surprise/amaze us beyond all belief – and not petrify us with fear and anger with additional traffic gridlock….?
Will the site be leveled for another dense high-rise facility…?
We must, ahhh – cough, cough, thank Bowser and her staff for not giving us any real indication of whats to come for us and the city…
(NOTE:
if you happen to go to one of my web sites, please, PLEASE use Opera.
If you use Chrome or Firefox you will see annoying, distracting, garbage ads that WordPress inserts into the pages for those of us who do not pay an annual fee to have ad-free pages…)
Green Eyeshades says
Mayor Bowser hates Councilmember Matt Frumin’s idea to buy the Intelsat buildings for public uses, but the Washington Post implies that the Mayor and a few Councilmembers (not Frumin) want to spend Six Hundred Million Dollars ($600,000,000) on renovations to Capital One Arena for the benefit of the billionaire owner of the Washington Wizards and the Washington Capitals:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/11/03/monumental-capital-one-arena-improvements-dc/
This is the headline:
“Monumental asking D.C. for $600M for Capital One Arena, sources say”
This is how the Post implies the Mayor is behind the $600 Million proposal:
“A spokesperson for D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) issued a lengthy statement that she said was jointly attributable to Monumental.
” ‘The District and Monumental Sports are proud to have had a longstanding and positive relationship that has contributed greatly the vibrancy of this city,’ the spokesperson wrote. ‘ … The District recognizes that Capital One Arena serves as an important economic anchor as we continue to reimagine and reinvigorate our Downtown.’ ”
The Post story implies but does not state directly that Council Chair Mendelson and Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen also support giving the billionaire sports owner a lot of money for Capital One Arena, but doesn’t say how much of our tax dollars those two Councilmembers want to spend on the Arena.
I have a better idea. Our elected leaders should give each of DC’s eight Wards $75 Million to invest in public infrastructure and social services in each Ward, for schools, new childcare centers, renovations of retail facilities, off-street public parking, physically-protected bike lanes on major traffic arteries, tree planting and maintenance, and five dozen other more productive uses than a hulking sports arena. And more of these Traffic Safety Checkpoints (borrowing from Ward 4 Councilmember Lewis-George’s latest newsletter):
https://mpdc.dc.gov/release/mpd-conducts-traffic-safety-compliance-checkpoint-northwest-dc
What else should Ward 3 spend our $75 Million on?
Patrick says
Thanks.
“OF COURSE’. This now makes more sense as to Frumin’s proposal being, ahhh trash canned (to be polite here), kicked to the curb.
Green Eyeshades says
Monumental Sports is the multi-billion dollar corporation which owns the Wizards and Capitals and which leases their sports arena from the District. The billionaire who own the majority stake in Monumental is asking the District to cough up $600 million dollars for renovations at the arena.
The Washington Post just revealed this morning that the same billionaire owner of Monumental Sports, Ted Leonsis, allowed a Middle Eastern petroleum empire to invest $200 million dollars in Monumental Sports:
“In 2022, NBA team owners unanimously approved amending league rules, capping investments at 20 percent and ensuring the funds could only be passive partners. This summer, Leonsis became the first NBA or NHL owner to take advantage of these rules, selling a 5 percent stake of Monumental Sports to the Qatar Investment Authority for approximately $200 million. For Leonsis, it’s the ideal business relationship, and he said the Qatari fund will have no influence on Monumental’s teams.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2023/11/08/wizards-capitals-qatar-ted-leonsis/
If Ted Leonsis sold five percent (one-twentieth) of Monumental Sports to Qatar for $200 million, that means the entire Monumental Sports corporation is worth at least Four Billion Dollars (20 times 200 million dollars).
Why should the District bail out a Four Billion Dollar corporation with $600 million of desperately-needed public money? Tell Leonsis to get whatever he needs for renovations from other investors, like every for-profit corporation does in our capitalist system. Or else, demand that Leonsis sell the District 15 percent of Monumental Sports for the $600 million he wants the District to give him.
He can’t have our $600 million for nothing.