Excluded from Library Deal: NE Community to Hold “Let Benning Decide” Rally

As Beyond DC said in a post about the Federal Transit Administration, "with friends like these, who needs enemies," the same goes for urban design and mixed use vis-a-vis the DC Public Library system. A rare instance of significant community buy-in to a mixed use project gets quashed by the Growth Machine, which you would think would be clued into the need for better facilities accomplishing multiple objectives simultaneously.

From Robin Diener, DC Library Renaissance Project, 202/387-8030:

District Library Dynamos, a grassroots citywide library advocacy organization, will sponsor a rally to protest a decision by Trustees of the DC Public Library (DCPL) -- led by John Hill, Chairman of the Federal City Council -- to reject a proposal for a new library in Benning that would meet the needs of a community that suffers from the city’s lowest literacy rates, highest drop out rates, and steep digital divide.

At a special six-hour long Saturday hearing on April 19th convened by DC Council Library Committee Chairman Harry Thomas, the Benning community learned trustees had turned down a deal that included a land swap, a cash payment, and a library larger than DCPL has currently planned. Members of the local Benning Library Dynamo group seek a full public exploration of the possibilities and to be included in the final decision.

Trustees were informed, last July, of the sale to City Interests of land adjacent to the Benning Library -- just as DCPL was embarking on the long delayed process of library redesign (2004 designs were tossed out by the trustees in 2005). Throughout the redesign process, residents heard only vague answers to their repeated questions about the status of the shopping center development which they feared could overwhelm a new library.

-- See video of Benning community questions about location

Dissatisfaction with the public input process has been simmering in Ward 7, since ANC commissioners there brought suit to require DCPL to follow the law regarding ANC notice and great weight provisions.

-- See video of Trustees meeting where Benning residents speak out

WHEN: Saturday June 28, 2008 at 12 noon
WHERE: 3935 Benning Road, NE
site of the demolished Benning Neighborhood Library