Bruce-Monroe to get "temporary urbanism" over parking lot

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Bruce-Monroe to get "temporary urbanism" over parking lot

by David Alpert and Kent Boese • March 11, 2010 12:18 pm

What do you do with vacant land whose developments stall in an economic recession? One option is to turn all empty space into paid parking lots, which generates revenue but brings traffic and little benefit to communities. The other is to find interim uses that serve people rather than cars, also known as "temporary urbanism."

Example division of uses on the Bruce-Monroe site. Image from OP.

In 2008, the District closed the Bruce-Monroe Elementary school in Park View, with plans to demolish the school and solicit developers to build new mixed-use buildings and a new school.

Unfortunately, with the economic downturn, no developers were interested, and the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development started planning a parking lot by default.

Neighbors organized against the lot, and successfully persuaded the DC government drop the parking lot plan. On Monday, the Office of Planning presented a set of ideas for temporary urbanism instead.

They divided the 120,000 square foot site into 8 areas, each of which could accommodate a different use. The 3 areas adjacent to Georgia Avenue are zoned commercial (C-2-A) and could accommodate profit-making interim uses such as farmers markets, while those are not allowed in the rest of the site, zoned residential (R-4).

OP listed four primary functions available for the site:

Arts: public sculpture, outdoor concerts, an art walk
Recreation: basketball, volleyball, mini golf, skate park, climbing sculptures
Education & Community: open air markets, mobile workshops
Open space

Community members received dots of four colors, one per category, to place on the portions of the site where they wanted to see those uses. OP would identify functions the community deemed paramount, and then decide the specific uses at a future time.

Attendees could also tell early on that temporary urbanism was not going to be the only focus of the meeting.

Parents and students from Bruce Monroe. Image by Kent Boese.

Well before the scheduled start time of 6:30 pm, parents, teachers, and students of the Bruce-Monroe @ Park View school started filing into the room with banners, picket signs, and plastic cups taped together with stones inside to make noise.

They were angry, they were frustrated, and they were vocal. They made it clear that an interim use of the site is unacceptable. They want a school, and they want it by 2011.

A cacophony of chanting broke out time and again, frequently being "Build our school." Early attempts to start talking about the interim use of the site were disrupted by frustrated attendees that wanted to see the school move forward. While eventually Ward 1 Community Planner Tarek Bolden was able to make his presentation, it was an uneasy peace that allowed him to move forward.

While it is easy to understand where the representatives of the school are coming from, it was frustrating to hear the District representatives questioned on why a school hasn't started to be built when charter schools are moving forward and a new CVS is being constructed—projects that are not funded by the city the way public schools are.

9 comments

Tags: Bruce Monroe, DC, municipal parking, Park View, public spaces, schools, temporary urbanism

Bruce-Monroe won't stay a park, might not be a school (Jul 30, 2010)
DMPED unveils new Bruce-Monroe interim use plan (Jun 24, 2010)
Then and Now: Monroe School auditorium (Sep 29, 2009)
Could the slowing economy benefit DC schools? (Apr 13, 2009)
The growing classroom (May 21, 2009)

David Alpert is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Greater Greater Washington and Greater Greater Education. He worked as a Product Manager for Google for six years and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He loves the area which is, in many ways, greater than those others, and wants to see it become even greater.

Kent Boese posts items of historic interest primarily within the District. He's worked in libraries since 1994, both federal and law, and currently works on K Street. He lives in the Park View neighborhood, and is the force behind the blog Washington Kaleidoscope.

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Great success for Park View. The city is similarly planning to pave over a lot at 5th & K NW near City Vista. I think the way Park View organized was better planned than the daily picketing our ANC commissioner is doing at 5th & K. But he didn't engage the community in a forum to decide how we should attack the issue. He simply acted unilaterally and announced that he would be picketing.

by Paul on Mar 11, 2010 1:33 pm • link • report

I live across the street from the former school and organized the Stop the Lot website. While I sympathize with the parents and appreciate their passion and activism, I raised two points at the meeting that I think bear repeating here.

1. Even if the District Government decided TODAY that a new school would be rebuilt at the Georgia Avenue site, it would be at least two years before the doors could open. Yet there is no decision, and no funds have been identified. This alone dictates a strong interim use.

2. Those of us who live in the area -- and some of the parents do, but some do not -- have to live with the property outside of school hours. The big, elevated, isolated basketball court that existed when the building WAS a school was the perfect breeding ground for crime at night. Whether the District rebuilds the school or decides to do something else, it is imperative that both the interim and permanent uses be SAFE above all else.

by Alan on Mar 11, 2010 2:14 pm • link • report

Temporary Urbanism can't design away long term political neglect in the redevelopment of this section Georgia Ave. and the site specifically. Unfortunately, we are constantly in a posture of reacting to fear brought on by this neglect, rather than having to courage to envision, fight for and build something significantly better. The trap of development out of fear and reacting to neglect is why the site is where it is now. Time to move beyond the paradigm of fear and neglect.

by W Jordan on Mar 11, 2010 3:46 pm • link • report

Neighbors organized against the lot, and successfully persuaded the DC government drop the parking lot plan.

WAR ON DRIVERS!!

by oboe on Mar 11, 2010 5:10 pm • link • report

This is less a war on cars and more a matter of poor stewardship and/or deceptive politics coming home to roost. For years CM Graham has been at best selling the Bruce Monroe school community politically convenient false hopes about the restruction of their school on that GA site. The latest during the schools closings a couple of years ago.

Initially to keep the pressure off himself he had the Deputy Mayor's office include school reconstruction in a development RFI/RFP for the site, knowing that requirement would not produce results, because the city was not going to invest the amount of subsidy required to make such a deal work. But including the school in the RFP kept him temporarily out of political hot water.

Then the site sits. The city fails to properly secure the site which delays demolition. This is in part because thieves raid the site and cause environment damage.

Now instead of talking and working on quality long term uses of the site, we are stuck with temporary short term focused efforts one of which was the parking lot. This short term focus is blamed on the market, but its really because of the CM attempting to avoid the political consequences of discussing long term uses which would likely not include the school he had all but promised.

So once again, George Ave. gets short changed because of political manuerving gone south. The last time this happened in 2006 the potential relocation for the Central Union Mission was the cover for the CM's political priorities.

Unfortunately instead of helping to hold the CM accountable we get poorly thought out excuses covering for him. Charter schools are funded by the city and the CVS got a $2M TIF that it did not really qualify for(it was basically funded as an earmark). Instead of seeing one of these projects as better than the other all 3 are examples of poor stewardship as all are greatly flawed efforts because of the same politics. And Georgia Ave and its constituents suffer.

by W Jordan on Mar 12, 2010 1:20 pm • link • report

Alan
99% of the parents leave in the Bruce-Monroe community. They are currently walking 7 to 14 blocks to take their children to school.

by Incoming Bruce-Monroe Parent on Mar 12, 2010 1:33 pm • link • report

Hmmm....maybe not such a great idea to tear down that school afterall. Hmmm....

by Jazzy on Mar 12, 2010 8:03 pm • link • report

temporary urbanism works a lot better where there is already activity. The problem with the temporary urbanism proposals in DC is that they propose activity where there isn't enough regular urbanism activity as it is. With so many vacant buildings around this particular site, adding more stuff on this site, instead of focusing on improving the extant vacant or dilapidated sites seems like a distraction if you ask me.

by Richard Layman on Mar 14, 2010 10:51 pm • link • report

Jazzy, Ms. Rhee made the decision to close that school for teh children.

Others wanted to make decisions for adults, but she put teh children first.

Not.

by Trulee Pist on May 27, 2010 9:52 am • link • report