Corridors of People

A longtime resident of Cleveland Park recently posted the following message:

Bob Ward’s idea for redistricting ANC3C to divide Cleveland Park along 34th Street is unsound. As the ANC3C website says, "ANC’s function as citizen advisory boards, representing the citizens of a particular neighborhood.” (I take “citizens” to mean residents.) The proposed ANC redistricting uses commercial corridors rather than neighborhoods as key identifiers, implying that avenue businesses and redevelopment are the ANC’s primary concern.

The Cleveland Park neighborhood has always been defined as the area bounded by Rock Creek Park on the east, Wisconsin Avenue on the west, Woodley Rd on the south, and Melvin Hazen Park on the north. Boundaries of the CP Citizens Association and the CP Historic District coincide with this definition. Some of the residents’ most obvious common interests include Eaton and Hearst elementary schools, Macomb playground, Rosedale, Tregaron, Metro and buses, traffic and parking, and downhill stormwater drainage. 34th Street is Cleveland Park’s center of gravity and should not be an ANC boundary.

Businesses on both commercial corridors, Wisconsin and Connecticut Avenues, are easily accessible and considered part of the neighborhood by Cleveland Park residents. The planning process for Connecticut Avenue will concern all CP residents, not only those who live on the east side of the neighborhood.

Many members of the Task Force very early on raised the idea that ANCs should have centers of gravity, and that those centers should be our corridors. A previous Task Force member wrote to tell us focusing on corridors was the aim of the 2011 effort too. There are several reasons for this, but perhaps the one most meaningful, and maybe less obvious to people living off the corridors and what this poster may not understand, is that our corridors are where most people in our Ward live! According to the DC voter list (which can underrepresent apartment dwellers), 57% of Cleveland Park and 67% of ANC 3C are apartment residents. We are corridors of people.

It is also true that a lot of the ANC business relates to the commercial corridors. Future planning too is focused along the Connecticut and Wisconsin Ave corridors. People should have a voice as to what happens along the corridor where the live or live closer to.

Most people in the new Wisconsin Ave ANC live on or just near Wisconsin Ave. That is where the population density is. They deserve their own ANC whose priority focus is Wisconsin Ave. The residents on the side streets close to Wisconsin Ave on the side streets should have a say in what happens there too.

Most people in the Lower Connecticut Ave ANC live on or just near Connecticut Ave. That is where the population density is. They deserve their own ANC priority focus is Connecticut Ave. The residents of the side streets (including myself) should have a say in what happens there too.

For my response to the idea that ANC will need to cooperate on some issues, as they do today, see my previous post. And to read about the intentional exclusion of Connecticut Ave residents from the ANC that is the center of where they live, read here.

If you support the idea that focusing on corridors as population centers - centers of gravity - is how our ANCs should be constructed, please let the Task Force know.

There are three ways to provide input to the Task Force:

1)      You can send an email to ward3ancredistricting@gmail.com

2)      You can post a comment for the public record using this form

3)      You can show up at our Tuesday meetings and make comments live (just show up and raise your hand).  Information on our meetings can be found here.