More about the tyranny of neighborhood parochialism...

Federal Reservation at 8th, K, and West Virginia Ave. NE
Originally uploaded by rllayman.

(Federal Reservation at 8th, K, and West Virginia Ave. NE)

One of my first successful grant applications was to the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities for a public art project for this piece of land, one block from J.O. Wilson Elementary School in northeast. The application was submitted on behalf of Near Northeast Citizens, the neighborhood group there, and it was one of the communities picked. (This was in 2001,.)

Back then, ANC6A (in a different geographic configuration with different, and much "worse" Commissioners) was pretty bad, and the ANC Commissioner for that SMD, Wanda Stevens-Harris, blocked the project from proceeding, by getting the ANC to block the public space permit. (Granted, I wasn't happy with the sculptor picked by the group--a heroic modern metal sculpture was on tap...)

So the project never proceeded. In 2004 I was told that the money was still set aside for the project. I don't know what the status is now.