Washington, DC — As election day nears, the mailboxes fill with the latest electioneering propaganda including Elissa Silverman's latest flyer showing DC's Attorney General, Karl Racine giving robust endorsement of her at-large campaign.
With rhetoric like "Representing people, not corporations," and "Opposing developer giveaways," Racine is full throttle for Silverman while ignoring his own role in promoting corporate developers and giving away significant air-rights entitlements.
On a near weekly basis, Racine's zoning attorneys provide the now infamous DC Zoning Commission with legal cover to approve major luxury projects citywide, resulting in land use approvals that greatly benefit the bottom-line of the Mayor's corporate-developer friends while completely ignoring the impacts on existing DC communities and families.
For example, Racine and his zoning lawyers took no issue with the Zoning Commission rubber-stamping hundreds of new luxury hotel rooms & 6,000 new homes across 20 new projects at the blinging new Union Market, with the Office of Planning only brokering 10-units qualifying as "affordable" family-sized (3+ bedrooms) homes. This type of valuable air-rights giveaway with little in return for existing DC residents holds similarly true for the deals at the Southwest Waterfront and Navy Yard developments, among others.
Racine's band of top-rate OAG attorneys at the DC Zoning Commission include: Alan Bergstein, Esther Bushman, Hillary Lovick, Jacob Ritting. The veteran Alan Bergstein, Esquire, has been plying his trade for more than two decades in DC, directly playing a role in the massive displacement of black residents throughout the city without blinking an eye. https://twitter.com/dc4reality/status/861394318896005120
"Racine's attorneys make it difficult for everyday people and impacted communities to engage in the zoning process and to actually win any permanent equity and compensation out of these disruptive and impactful luxury land deals," said Ilaf Ayyash who was pushed out of the longtime artists incubator at 411 New York Avenue, NE for a luxury hotel project. "We had to fight just to be heard, and now the OAG is staking claim to the Zoning Commission's indefensible positions in Court. It's such hypocrisy that Mr. Racine decries corporations and land giveaways when that is who his zoning lawyers excel at benefiting."
Union Market Neighbors will be clashing with Racine's lawyers again on November 13, 2018, at the highest Court in the District, the DC Court of Appeals, in seeking remedy from impacts due to another massive luxury project at 4th and Florida Avenue, NE. For more info >> http://www.dc4reality.org/unionmarketneighbors
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