McDuffie Off the Ballot, McMillan Supporters Weigh In
Peter Stebbins, Social Media Coordinator for the Save McMillan Action Coalition, said, “Karma is when this man won't get the chance to be the city's top attorney,” referencing the recent administrative and legal decisions keeping Kenyan McDuffie off the ballot this year.
Jimmie Boykin, a Ward 5 McMillan neighbor since 1969 said, “McDuffie is complaining that the Board of Elections stole his democratic rights. What about my constitutional rights and those of 45 other petitioners who had our pending Court case thrown out because of the McDuffie-McMillan nuclear option. I don't trust that man to be the city's attorney or frankly have any position representing me.”
Boykin is referencing the FY 2022 Budget Support Act amendment that Councilmember McDuffie championed to be passed last summer that forced the DC Court of Appeals to dismiss a pending case about permits and safety allowing demolition of the historic site to begin. Boykin talked about McDuffie stealing her rights to redress of grievances before the Court of Appeals late last year.
Continuing, Stebbins said, “McDuffie went out of his way on the Council to exempt the Mayor's proposed downtown-sized McMillan project from critically important DC law. Take for example, him letting slide the developers using DC taxpayer money to fund a PR firm to “neutralize public opposition.” Or, when McDuffie helped sole source the McMillan contracts by exempting the proposed luxury project from competitive bidding laws. And most recently, he worked full tilt to ensure the project was exempted from all historic preservation laws and basic construction protocols threatening our health and safety and pushing demolition forward. McDuffie is a scofflaw.”
Phil Mendelson Wins Sierra Club Endorsement In the Face of McMillan Carbon Footprint Blowout Project
Current City Council Chair, Phil Mendelson wins Sierra Club endorsement to continue as Chair of the Council in the 2022 Candidate race. Mendelson is running against ethics lawyer and Ward 4 ANC Commissioner Erin Palmer.
Mendelson wrote of the Sierra Club endorsement: “Protecting the environment has been a priority of mine throughout my decades of public service. The advantage of considering the re-election of an incumbent is that I have a record of accomplishments. It's a solid record. If past is prologue, you know where I stand.”
Daniel Wolkoff, a longtime advocate for McMillan being reopened as a public green space & park, responded: “Sierra Club must be off their rockers. Mendelson's McMillan project represents super urbanization and the paving over of what could be DC's Central Park, and the destruction of a historic civil rights site, robbing us all and our city's youth of healthy recreation and amenities. And, the Sierra Club must know that the full environmental impact study is still missing from the record. If this is Mendelson's track record, then we are all doomed as we crawl into the Anthropocene. Mendelson and his McMillan project are obscene and so is this endorsement.”