Bundy Meeting recap

morning all! Last night's OPM meeting regarding Bundy had excellent turnout from the community & the director Robin Eve Jasper did come to address community concerns, yay!  We had all of our ANC 2C Commissioners there as well as many stakeholders.  Anyhoo, we got an update on the history of the development of the Bundy School for Safe Shores, I wont get into some of the inconsistencies of who said what a few years ago, imho let sdeal with the current situation which has...some open doors.  First of all, OPM has changed their tune from telling us 'the lot is going to be a parking lot and that's that' to... 'we are examining how much parking is necessry and multiple use may be possible on bundy lot.'  I have got to give the squeaky wheel neighbors props for that one! Now there are certain hurdles to overcome: OPM will know in about 30 days how many parking spaces Safe Shores will actually need (not sure why this calculation takes a month but ok..) Also since Bundy lot is owned by the feds, a land transfer is in the works which is expected to happen in the fall.  So there is plenty of time for the neighbors to talk about all of this.  I also want to point out that the Bundy School site already has 18 parking spaces.  They are expected to have 60 people working there.  If you allow for every single person to drive and have private parking, thats a max of 42 more spaces needed no?  The Bundy Lot is big enough for 100 cars so theoretically they would need less than half of it for parking...Compromise on the horizon!  back to that in a sec.

2 things bothered me:  the first is these words from OPM Director Robin Eve Jasper regarding the Bundy School: "In this budget environment, it's highly unlikely that the landscaping plan will be fully implemented." (Oh really? not to sound like a broken record but that $h!#@^!t would never fly in georgetown and should not fly in Shaw.  besides, this is a facility for abused children! leaving the yard bare & funky contibutes to it looking like a forbidding fortress.  this is supposed to be a welcoming place, plant some nice flowers and trees.  I'm sure many neighbors would be happy to help dig.)  The other thing was that ANC 2C03 Commissioner Doris Brooks went on about having a park for children being more important that dogs, a valid sentiment echoed by others (but as a certain neighbor said not mutually exclusive).  But she adamantly opposed the renovation of a park in her own backyard on the 600 block of N St NW and indeed officially voted in 2006 for DC to give it to UHOP for "housing or parking."

Ok so the compromise & moving forward bit...The community has several sites either underutilized or possibly available for use for parks & recreation.  We have in play the Bundy Lot (or part of it hopefully), Dunbar Park (NJ & O), N Street Park on the 600 block, & let us not forget existing places like Kennedy Rec. & NY Ave Playground.  Its totally up to neighbors to support what we have and work for further enhancements.  There are enough places & space that we really can have it all, parks for kids, dogs, adults ...and everyone can be happy.  I'll just say that if there were to be a dog park in the community, the most palatable option I would hope, for even the most ardent opponent, would be Bundy Lot.  The site has few direct adjacent neighbors and if I am not mistaken, they are in support.  The same cannot be claimed for the other sites.  At any rate the public dialog is ongoing and this is a good thing. discuss :)