More Madness in Adams Morgan
Last night's brazen shooting outside of Marie Reed is, according to Councilmember Jim Graham, the first killing in Adams Morgan this year. Although, he notes, there has been violence. (Yeah, we know. Some of it pretty awful.)
Cops have taken to sitting in their cars in the dark area where Champlain Street dead-ends because it's a well-known problem area. (Yeah, we know that, too.) The street is eventually going to open up, limiting its dark corners, which is a great move.
But about the shooting: No one feels at ease when someone gets shot to death in their neighborhood, especially when the shooting happens in a playground near a busy commercial strip at 8 o'clock in the evening. Especially when the shooter gets away. And, especially for some on my neighborhood forum, when you live in Northwest near what you think is scary Section 8 housing.
Leave it to the yahoos on the Adams Morgan Listserv to blame the murder on public housing even though "I fully support it," says "Dave."
Having lived on 18th street for 5 years now, and on a daily basis drive by the corner of Kalorama & Champlain, it's because of the section 8 housing that exists there. On dozens of occasions my wife and/or I have been harassed by groups of guys just "hanging out" on the corner there. Whether walking by with the dog (which we don't do anymore) or driving by, it's unbelievable what goes on on that corner. I understand the need for subsidized housing, and I fully support it. But this is where one of the main problems in our neighborhood lies. Having a cop sit in his car around the corner from here obviously doesnt deter anything, as proved by yesterdays shooting.
This is the classic liberal B.S. disguised as "concern" that is the hallmark of some squeaky wheels in Adams Morgan. Fortunately Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Bryan Weaver gets his facts straight: The scary housing where people "hang out" is a resident-owned co-op. I guess "Dave" will have to find someone else to blame, I mean other than the murderer who open-fired.
Comments
Leave a Reply
You can follow any responses to this entry through its comments RSS feed.
Blogs Linking to this Article
-
Linked From: July 17th, 2009Champlain Street Opening Up to Traffic Soon - Housing Complex - Washington City Paper
6:46 pm[...] A cop answering a call for a murder, two shot officers and another man down, a terrible drug sale gone wrong turned mugging (leading [...]
5:02 pm
I live in the Neighborhood what is the link to the forum? Thanks.
5:08 pm
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AdamsMorgan/
5:39 pm
Sorry, but that's only partially correct.
"The Champlain Cooperative purchased their building in 1989 and have been a successful limited-equity cooperative receiving place-based Section 8 assistance for almost 20 years."
5:46 pm
For a while this year the Hill East listserv had lots of people ragging on the Potomac Gardens public housing complex, claiming all youth crime emanated from inside.
Call it a meme!
6:02 pm
I believe that the main building that had long been the focus of police attention the Jubilee Housing building on Euclid between 16 and 17th is gone.
So a huge swath, the major swath of low income housing is no longer.
6:25 pm
not gone, renovations
http://www.jubileehousing.org/properties/property.cfm?id=9
6:31 pm
but gone for now. All the residents are gone. And since you got the police camera up at 17th and Euclid, police say much of the drug traffic has migrated east.
6:42 pm
Concentrating poverty is the great blunder of the 1960/1970's. It's one that the folks stuck in the cycle will likely be living with for another generation, if not more. It's due to the combination of NIMBY types who didn't want poor people in their neighborhood and misguided liberals who thought that if you could build a decent building, it would change the pathologies commonly associated with poverty. Now, we can't just bulldoze public housing without a solution, as I'm sure many want. It'll just shift the problem elsewhere. There must be a multi-pronged effort: mixed-income housing (no more than 15% "section 8"), early childhood education starting at age 3, comprehensive after-school programs, and a propaganda campaign of sorts aimed at stigmatizing crime, hate, and violence. Some may disagree with the last part, but it is necessary. Crime should be met with shame, not indifference or even celebration. No leaders in DC are willing to speak frankly about it. Well, it's high time someone does. Arresting your way out of this problem is not the way to go about it (although it offers necessary short-term remediation).
7:21 pm
I think this concentration of the poor theory is not quite true. Back in the day, working class and poor residents did reside in Adams Morgan. There were also tons of support. There was a functioning school (now still under reconstruction), boys and girls clubs, a movie theater, a roller rink, and after school programs and centers.
At one point, there were plenty of support systems in place for all families. A lot of that stuff has disappeared. Not all. But a lot.
It's really hard to argue though that Adams Morgan is some kind of poverty zone. Champlain Street, 17th, etc have all seen huge condo/loft construction. And the 1700 block of Euclid Street has almost completely changed over since 2000.
11:47 am
What is a limited equity housing cooperative?
Its a Co-op. In a co-op, the individual resident owns a share of stock in the corporation made up of all of the residents.
In its current use as a Co-Op the Champlain building may have individual residents that recieve Section 8 vouchers, but it is not a publicly owned or a DCHD apartment building. Any apartment building can have residents who use Section 8 vouchers... lets say the Park Plaza or the Melwood.... but it dosen't make them a scary Section 8 building.
10:04 am
I absolutely agree, the problem is in the Section 8 building. I live on Ontario Rd between Euclid and Kalorama. It is horrible what's happening there. I don't care if you call me liberal, i am actuality democrat. But I live there, I walk there and I am afraid for my life. I see people hanging out right in front of that building, drinking, being loud and not looking safe.
yes, poverty does bring crime, I am not sure what to do about it. maybe we should ask criminals what would deter them from making crime. Maybe these people are hungry and don't have money to eat. i don't know.
But it does not change how I feel, I don't feel safe!!! It is unfortunate because I really like Adams Morgan, but I have to think for future to move to another place.
10:06 am
By the way, cameras and opening the street, may solve the problem on Champlain Street, but did you think what happens to next street Ontario? They (criminals) would just move to next street, the street that i live on. Thank you!
11:25 am
SG spoke the truth.