President’s Message
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By Eric Langenbacher, president@burleith.org
The holidays seem like a long time ago with everything going on—a presidential impeachment, Jack Evans’s resignation, and a 70-degree day in mid-January! But, I hope that everyone had a happy and restful break. 2020 is gearing up very quickly in Burleith and beyond.
In fact, the BCA’s first event of the year—our 9th annual winter gløgg party—is happening on Sunday, February 2, from 4–6 pm at the home of Linda Brooks (3600 T Street). Please RSVP by January 30 (instructions are included in the link above) to enjoy delicious mulled wine, snacks, and socializing with friends and neighbors. Mayor Muriel Bowser and other local notables have indicated that they will attend. As always, I am deeply thankful to Linda for opening her home to the community. This is always a highlight of the year—and don’t worry, the party will be finished with lots of time for Superbowl festivities to commence.
I saw many of you at the Department of Parks and Recreation’s January 15 meeting concerning the future of Ellington Field. (If you were unable to attend, here is DPR’s presentation from their project web page.) As you know, I have been very concerned ever since we caught wind of potential changes to control over and usage of the field last summer. (Read the results of the BCA’s November neighborhood survey.) To remind everyone, the Department of Parks and Recreation is trying to take control over the field from DC Public Schools, and the Duke Ellington School of the Arts particularly. The process was extremely untransparent initially, but it has gotten better as of late. Substantively, my position has always been to maintain current resident access and to moderately increase public school usage—in particular only for our local schools, Ellington, Hardy, and perhaps School Without Walls. I would very much like to see control stay with DCPS. Whatever happens, we need to be vigilant and vocal with our preferences and need to minimize any impacts from increased traffic, parking, trash, construction, lights, etc.
The BCA is also quite concerned about changes to local bus routes. Recently, the transportation authority (WMATA) announced plans to eliminate the 30S, 30N, and D1 lines and to combine the D2 and G2 lines (although the specific route envisioned has not yet been made public). We have heard from many neighbors who vociferously oppose such changes. In fact, most people appear to want an increase in service. There are several opportunities coming up to make our voices heard and we will alert everyone to these meetings.
On another note, the BCA is always looking for volunteers. Right now we are looking for an editor for the Burleith Bell, our community newsletter that appears in hard copy four times a year (March, June, October, and December). We are also looking for a webmaster for our website.
The BCA Board is currently planning our events and other initiatives for 2020. Our premier event, the Burleith Summer Picnic, is likely going to take place on Saturday, June 13. We also plan to continue two neighborhood clean-ups in the spring and fall. Other initiatives include some fundraising to repaint the call boxes around the neighborhood and initial discussions regarding events and activities related to the centennial of Burleith coming up quickly in 2023. We are open to any and all ideas, so if something comes to you, please email us.
There will be a lot of politics over the next 11 months. Close to home, we will have elections for our council member. The current situation with no or an interim representative is certainly suboptimal. Burleith has really benefited over the years from vigorous representation. I fear that impactful decisions will be taken during this interregnum. Personally, I feel that major decisions such as changing control over the Ellington Field should be put off until these basic issues of representation are resolved.