Police Staying Put

Plans to move DC Police headquarters from Indiana Avenue in Northwest to Southeast have been scraped by the Fenty administration which has concluded the move would be too costly. DC Councilmember Carol Schwartz is applauding the decision and taking some of the credit.

In a prepared statement the veteran lawmaker says “I am pleased that the Mayor has decided not to go forward with the plan to move the Metropolitan Police Department to the Virginia Avenue location,” Schwartz said. “Not only was this property extremely expensive for the proposed use, but relocating MPD to this facility would have exacerbated the parking problems in that area by bringing hundreds and hundreds of additional automobiles into the neighborhood daily. Add that to the increased traffic that will affect this area when the new baseball stadium is completed and trouble would have been inevitable.”

The statement goes on to say "When Councilmember Schwartz, who had only recently become Chair of the Committee, learned that Mayor Fenty appeared to be moving forward with the previous administration's negotiated relocation of MPD Headquarters and various other police offices to 225 Virginia Avenue, S.E., she promptly scheduled a public oversight hearing on the matter. At that June 7th hearing which lasted more than four hours, Schwartz expressed her concern about the lease, which was initially set at $6.5 million per year but the building would have required that the District invest at least an additional $100 million dollars to make the facility usable for police purposes. However, during testimony at the hearing, it was learned that the $100 million would have been financed by the leasors of the building, bringing the District’s annual lease payments to $16.5 million.



On another subject--See Kwame Run!

At Large DC Councilman Kwame Brown doesn't seem to have any challengers in his re-election bid next year; but that hasn't stopped the first term legislator and Chair of the Economic Development Committee from amassing an impressive early campaign war chest. In only 30 days or so Brown has collected about $140,000.That will pay for a lot of the yard signs that Brown became noted for in his inaugural run for public office; but more importantly the Councilman is hoping the money will discourage would be opponents from getting into the race. My sources say Mayor Fenty and Brown are set to meet later this month with an endorcement of Brown among the topics to be discussed. The Poplar Point development will no doubt also be on the menu.