Comments on: Consultant to Old Soldier’s Home Responds to Recent Post

By: lol

lol — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:38:28 +0000

good poem…

unless of course the directors go ahead as planned and lease the land to condo developers…

I am still flabbergasted how people wanting to turn this into park land are somehow being vilified

By: johnpaul

johnpaul — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 14:11:52 +0000

A thought on this Veterans Day:

Ode to a Soldier

Here at the Soldier’s Home,
You will find the remnants of our Wars.
Many military men and women
Bearing the wounds, pain and scars.

Each bearing tragic memories
Of full scale combat and more,
Defending our rights for Freedom,
Is what they were fighting for.

Now in their twilight years
Let us give them some peace at last,
Just a bit of compensation
For their Suffering in the past.

Known today, as the
Armed Forces Retirement Home
It is safe refuge they have earned,
Giving of their lives for us all.

No one has the right to infringe
On this Hallowed Ground,
It is their home forever
To this we are duty bound.

So rest easy Soldier, Sailor,
Airman and Marine,
You are now safely Home,
Thank you for your service,
Rest easy, You are Home.

By: Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 21:02:10 +0000

My bad. I fumbled the hectares to acres conversion. I blame the Stone Cutters for keeping the metric system down.

How’s this – 22 acres is about 20 football fields. That’s still a pretty big park.

By: lol

lol — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:26:32 +0000

Yeah… central park is about 850 acres.

By: Dirty

Dirty — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:22:45 +0000

22 acres is almost half the size of Central Park? What Central Park are you talking about?

By: Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:15:32 +0000

I understand that emotions are high but we should refrain from implying that decisionmakers at AFRH are motivated by some illegal purpose. The unsubstantiated speculation and innuendo is incredibly unfair. If you have specific evidence (not a hunch), please present it. If not, keep the allegations to yourself.
The fact that AFRH wants to get as much revenue as possible is not suspicious to me. People keep saying that they are funded with taxpayer money. This may be true but my understanding is that there is no specific annual appropriation. If the trust money comes up short, it can go to Congress but there is no guarantee that the money will be appropriated. I don’t see anything wrong with AFRH trying to maximize its revenue so that it doesn’t need to go begging to Congress every year.
Someone characterized the park currently planned as “small.” 22 acres is almost half the size of Central Park. And it does not sound like it will be inaccessible to Petworth residents; it just sounds like they may have to hike a little bit to get to it. Just like Petworth residents currently have to hike a bit to get to Rock Creek Park.
Don’t get me wrong. I would love to see a park closer to Park View/Petworth. But I’d settle for one in the SE corner of that parcel.

By: Voiceofreason

Voiceofreason — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 20:12:36 +0000

Please move our troops somewhere else, somewhere where theyare safe. They deserve no less.

By: AF

AF — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 19:06:19 +0000

I’m concerned about the part of a previous post I have pasted below. If they are going to re-purpose their land, I hope it will be in a way that is community-friendly, and doesn’t just profit powerful people who make condos. Do the residents have any voice in the decision? Noisy imposing construction would affect the quality of life for those around there. It would be great for the residents, and for everyone, if they could be more connected and safely mingle in a nice park with the rest of the public. It sounds like that is how it used to be. Why do we put old people out of sight? Children should be able to interact with these soldiers and understand who they are. The part in question is pretty distant from their lodging, and too far to walk if you are disabled; there should be a shuttle for them to the bottom of the property. Is there a way to make a public park a source of revenue for the Home? I would totally get involved in making that happen, so tell me if there is a meeting. A shady deal with condo developers doesn’t help the veterans or the public. Is that really what is going on? It’s very hard to tell. Does that consultant represent the interests of the veterans, or the developer, or the person who makes decisions on behalf of the veterans, or who? Is it right that one person, the CFO, decide this? Is there any evidence of kickbacks?

“NCPC has already required AFRH to work with the community on creating a public park there, but they have not responded to any of Washington Central Parks requests to start this process. They have offered to help raise money, but the leadership at AFRH isn’t interested. The CFO’s goal with that land is his vision and his alone. He wants condos, and I’d be surprised if he wasn’t making money off the deal because that is the only thing he is willing to talk about.”

By: Take5

Take5 — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:35:26 +0000

The public park in that plan is a small park on the south east corner, inaccessible from Petworth. Its also in a private community.

The wanted to develop the northwest corner also, but NCPC said no and told them to work with the community to build a park.

By: Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 18:01:40 +0000

Am I missing something? The consultant said:

“The Master Plan for development of one corner of the campus, the southeast corner, INCLUDES A LARGE 22 ACRE PUBLIC PARK. That development is APPROVED BUT PRESENTLY ON HOLD until market conditions improve. The expectation is THE NEIGHBORHOOD WILL HAVE ACCESS TO A TRULY LOVELY PUBLIC PARK when development takes place.” (emphases mine)

Unless I am reading this wrong, there is a PUBLIC PARK in the works. So what are the complaints about?