Jonetta Rose Barras: Blinding light
By: Jonetta Rose Barras
Examiner Columnist
August 20, 2009
Installing a fancy scoreboard, an 18-foot fence, stadium-style seating and lighting: worthless. Maintaining the character of a neighborhood playground and its surrounding community: priceless.
Nevertheless, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's administration seems intent on spending more than $1 million to make changes to Chevy Chase Playground -- even as the city raises taxes, reduces services and delays development projects to close a $700 million revenue gap.
"Where is the money coming from?" asked Pat Cunningham, one of dozens of Chevy Chase residents who have waged a year long fight against the changes.
John Stokes, a spokesman for the Department of Parks and Recreation, said funds for the Chevy Chase project come from the capital budget. Like other government managers, he argues the difference between operating and capital budgets.
But, it's all money -- taxpayers' money -- which should be spent wisely to produce maximum benefit.
It appears the greatest beneficiary of the renovations will be Capitol City Little League. It serves youths -- age 5 to 16 -- who live in upper Northwest principally and pay between $90 and $185 in registration and fees to participate, according to its Web site. CCLL is quite influential, boasting contacts in political, business and media circles. Until recently, the mayor's sons played in the league.
Those connections could explain why the city is creating "premier" ball fields at sites used extensively by CCLL. Already the group dominates the space at Chevy Chase, playing four days each week and frequently multiple times in one day, residents said. That leaves few opportunities for neighborhood kids who aren't in the league.
CCLL didn't respond to several requests for comment.
The tension surrounding the planned "improvements" has spilled over into Maryland. The chair of the board of managers of Chevy Chase Village, which sits just across the street from the playground, sent a letter to Fenty last year expressing concerns over the lights "for their potential intrusion" and the stadium-style seating for "the increased crowds it portends with associated parking, sanitation and noise."
This week, Shana Davis-Cook, acting village manager, said they remain concerned but were assured that "money for the project is no longer available."
Not true. Ximena Hartsock, DPR's acting director, said the money is still in the budget for a "comprehensive facelift" of the playground and the field. But "there is no design yet," she said.
That contradicts what Ward 3 D.C. Councilwoman Mary Cheh told me. She said the "whole project has been scaled back" but confirmed there will be lights that are more directional and can turn off automatically.
It's understandable that Cunningham and her neighbors are worried. The government's confused, and they face a formidable adversary in CCLL: "They are extremely organized and very driven," Cunningham said. "They even have their own attorney. We're not organized that way."
Residents shouldn't have to be. City officials shouldn't make decisions based on the squeakiest wheel. Nor should preserving a community's history and character play second fiddle to politics.
Jonetta Rose Barras, hosts of WPFW's "D.C. Politics with Jonetta," can be reached at Rosebook1@aol.com
