The extreme portions of the St. Martin's Housing Project aside--not to mention its complete lack of parking (parking in the area is already drying up)--the biggest issue with the project from the residents was that St. Martins can in no way guarantee who is going to actually live there. In fact, I remember one official from the project even saying that although on paper the project will have allotments for certain incomes, they could not "turn away" people with section 8 housing vouchers applying for any of the units. And of course there was no plan whatsoever to find people who fit into the 'planned' income allotments. Given the state of such high density projects around the city, who could blame some residents for not feeling on edge even though they just invested their life savings in the neighborhood?

But what this episode really highlighted for me was the 'reverse racism' that exists in the city of Washington. Basically if you had any issues with the development you are a racist, and--according to residents such as Mr. Braxton--are the equivalent to a modern day cross burner. I find comments like that pretty amazing given that the opponents of the project (who merely wanted it scaled down to suit the neighborhood) are people chose to move into a neighborhood that is 90% black. (And of course, the meetings of citizens concerned with the project were actually completely mixed). But as you can see, the proponents of the project used the equivalent of modern day McCarthyism--allegations of racism--to scare everyone away from testifying. And henceforth, I sign this letter...

-ANONYMOUS

I think Steve Rynecki and Steven White were very accurate in their descriptions of our situation. It was very disheartening when a church you once had respected would ignore community concerns and instead try to frame objections as divisively as possible. Father Kelly’s Washington Post quote “The opposition is being led by new whites who think they can take control of the neighborhood” made that quite clear. As a mixed race individual who grew up in affordable housing in NYC; that was unfair and disrespectful of the greater community and I was surprised that came out of his mouth in any context.

As former president of the ECRD my biggest regret in loosing the battle is the consequences my Eckington neighbors are likely to experience. Of the 111 homes within a mere 200 feet from the complex (a legally designated area of concern for the zoning board) 80 homes signed petitions against the project in its current form. That was quite a majority. But the Catholic Church and the city will do what it wants despite the feelings of those mostly affected. In this era of downwardly spiraling home prices, you would think that there would be plenty of existing structures to be converted into affordable housing, but there is no profit in that.

As for the college grad that comes out making $50,000 they would be earning far too much to be allowed to live at St. Martin’s since it is not a mixed-income complex.

As for the convent, I am glad that they are forced to keep it preserved but after past dealings with them I don’t trust that the will not “accidently” break it.