Yesterday Judge Macaluso granted a “stay” on the injunction against the operation of a diesel-bus parking lot at the Crummell School, allowing the city to park buses from midnight to midnight on Inauguration day.
While the Judge found that the city had demonstrated a need for parking that was in the public interest (the public being those from out of town coming to the Inauguration), we found their testimony to be another example of the city’s own project managers claiming ignorance about important plans and reports already issued, and not having done their due diligence to identify the scope of parking lots available. The Inauguration falls on the MLK Holiday when hundreds of thousands of workers who usually travel to DC will not be in town, and government-owned lots for workers will be empty. Clearly the Mayor and USRC are dead-set on using the small Crummell parking lot out of their own misguided grudge against a community that has stood up and demanded respect and justice.
Empower DC and the Ivy City Civic Association are forming the Ivy City Health and Environmental Justice Partnership with several local universities, health and environmental justice experts. Air quality and health monitoring will take place throughout the year. The Inauguration will be a day of action in the Ivy City community. Stay tuned for more updates.
We also await a date for the Appeals Court to hear the case, and we will expand our arguments to include the city’s violation of historic preservation laws. To get involved in the campaign for Environmental Justice in Ivy City, contact Parisa@empowerdc.org or (202) 234-9119 x 100
