PRESS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact Jeannie Amado, Champlain Street Neighbors, 240-299-6240
Contact Blanca Aquino, Columbia Road Commercial & Friends, 202-246-2673
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Latino Voices Stifled on Adams Morgan Hotel
DC Zoning Commission, ANC, Others Ignore Longtime Residents, Businesses
The voices of Latino and other longtime residents of Adams Morgan, fearful of gentrification and displacement, are having trouble being heard in the debate over the construction of a high-rise luxury hotel in the heart of their community.
The problem came to a head on Monday evening at the DC Zoning Commission’s third and final hearing on the hotel. Despite the legal obligation for the commission to listen to all sides and points-of-view, the commissioners initially refused to hear testimony from the Latino residents and other immigrant businesses owners who had made the trip to the hearing expressly to voice their objections.
“It’s as if we are just trash, ready to be thrown away by the city,” said Teresa Lopez, a longtime Adams Morgan resident. “We feel hopeless, but are outraged, and we won’t stop until the gentrification, displacement, and discrimination we are witnessing stops. This behavior by District planners is a complete disregard of the diversity of people which make Adams Morgan unique.”
The Zoning Commission’s attitude and actions fit a pattern of ignoring Latino families and small businesses and other low income residents – by Advisory Neighborhood Commission 1C, the DC Office of Planning and, of course, the developer. Particularly galling is the lack of accommodation for the large Spanish-speaking members of the community, including almost no meetings with interpretation services for the Latino residents and small businesses threatened by rising rents and other displacement effects of the hotel.
More info here:
* http://www.noadmohotel.org
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Champlain Street Neighbors
champlainstneighbors@mailbolt.com
