A witness to the crash told they called 911 when the truck started smoking after it flipped.

Update crash with entrapment intersection of Salem Ln., Foxhall & Reservoir Rds NW. Driver of overturned dump truck has been extricated by & is being transported with non life threatening injuries.

— DC Fire and EMS (@dcfireems)

The witness said instead of crashing into the vehicles parked along Reservoir Road, the driver struck a pole and turned onto its side in front of residences at the intersection of Reservoir and Foxhall. Residents who live directly behind where the dump truck flipped, who said they heard the crash from inside their home, declined to comment for 91����.

Local resident Ray Montgomery was walking up Reservoir when he stumbled on the accident.��

“Drivers in this town just need to be careful,” Montogomery said. “I hate seeing stuff like this, you never want to see any type of accident, especially along this part of the road where it’s pretty residential and has tons of traffic.”

“When I came from my job site the truck was turned over so I wanted to see what was going on,” said a nearby construction worker who only provided their name to 91���� as D.P.. “I saw the tow truck come down, and I wanted to see how in the world they’re going to flip it back over.”

MPD blocked off a sizable portion of Reservoir Road, from the intersection of Reservoir Road NW and 44th Street NW up to the scene of the accident, turning oncoming traffic back around.

A tow truck arrived on scene shortly after the driver was taken to the hospital.

Bystanders, like Montgomery, were concerned the truck was going to roll down Reservoir once flipped upright.

“I don’t want this thing rolling down this hill once they flip it back over,” he said.

Accidents involving overturned dump trucks aren’t new in the District. , spilling concrete along Pennsylvania and Minnesota Avenues SE.��

The overturned dump truck in the Palisades was carrying dirt.

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The study shows the inequitable distribution of poor air quality throughout the city, revealing wards affected by higher pollution levels have a greater risk of health problems.��

The findings come as Eckington residents are fighting for greater equity in the city’s distribution of industrial land, with particular focus on those two asphalt plants.��

New research shows that neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., with more people of color, are exposed to more air pollution and have higher rates of disease.

— NASA Earth (@NASAEarth)

Fort Myer’s asphalt plants

Eckington Civic Association president Conor Shaw wants to limit industrial land in the neighborhood that contributes to Ward 5’s poor air quality. Shaw has his eyes set on the asphalt plants, which sit on the northern edge of Eckington, surrounded by homes and businesses.

Fort Myer Construction owns and operates the two plants. Fort Myer has been in business for nearly 50 years, providing the DMV with infrastructure needs, including asphalt and road pavement.

“It’s striking that there’s only two asphalt plants in the city and they’re both located in this part of town,” Shaw said. “It’s also striking that the city, to my knowledge, does not have any permanent air quality monitoring locations in this part of the city.”

like formaldehyde and arsenic, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Exposure to asphalt fumes can cause health issues including headaches, fatigue, eye and throat irritation, and even skin cancer, .��

“It is easy for an untrained observer to have seen steam rise from our plants and potentially confuse that with smoke and/or pollution,” Chris Kerns, the vice president and general counsel at Fort Myer, said in an email statement. “Fort Myer’s state-of-the-art asphalt plants, both located in D.C., are tested annually by an independent, qualified laboratory and are in full compliance with Federal EPA and District of Columbia DOEE [Department of Energy and Environment] standards.”

“It’s important for people to understand that the city is authorizing facilities like this [asphalt plant] to put pollutants into the air, especially those that are known to be harmful,” Shaw said. “They’re only supposed to do that at levels that are safe.”

Kerns, the general counsel for FMC, pushed back on that claim. “Because our plants are outfitted with approved and redundant filtering systems which are consistently monitored, results show that our readings are far below the maximum allowed under even those tight standards,” he said in the email statement.��

Shaw said the noise of the facility’s trucks and construction is also unacceptable. He said the plant operates late at night, early in the mornings and even on weekends. The designated truck route uses 4th Street NE, which runs adjacent to the facility, and is highly residential.

The plant is also next to the Metropolitan Branch Trail, “Northeast’s Rock Creek Park,” as Shaw likes to put it. The Rhode Island Ave-Brentwood metro stop is also just down the street.��

“You definitely notice on this part of the trail that you’re inhaling other things besides clean air,” he said. “Land that’s next to a trail and within a half mile of a metro station in the core of the District is not an appropriate place for an asphalt plant.”

Sylvia Burch, who’s lived in the Eckington area for years, said the trail is where she goes to decompress. But Burch said the asphalt’s plant presence doesn’t go unnoticed.��

“It’s smelly, it’s noisy and it doesn’t need to be in a residential area,” she said. “Use the land for something else, like housing or commercial use.”

Despite objections by some Eckington residents, Kerns said Fort Myer strives to create a safe place for local communities.��

“As a 50-year-old locally owned company, and as a responsible citizen, we are committed to a clean and safe environment. We are proud to be the leader in the District of Columbia in the production of recycled asphalt and the building of green infrastructure projects,” Kerns said.��

Eckington fights for a cleaner environment 

Over the past four years, Shaw and other Eckington advocates crafted a comprehensive plan to help improve the neighborhood’s growth and quality of life. In 2017, they submitted a vision to D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson, pushing to use industrial land, like the area which Fort Myers sits on, for more housing, retail and commercial development.

“These changes we’ve pursued wouldn’t push anyone out, it would have made it clearer to folks that residential and commercial uses instead of industrial ones would be welcomed,” Shaw said.��

Shaw said affordable housing was supposed to make it into the comprehensive plan, but he said Mendelson removed the recommendations made by Eckington residents and doubled down on his position that the District needs industrial land.��  

In April, to Mendelson, asking him to reinstate the ECA’s previous amendments for more housing. The letter stated that Eckington’s metro- and trail-adjacent properties are where D.C. must build affordable housing in order to achieve affordability, equity and environmental goals in the coming years.��

“The continued concentration of Production, Distribution, and Repair (PDR)-designated land in Wards 5 and 7 poses racial equity issues, as the Chair has acknowledged in discussions about this Comprehensive Plan,” the letter pointed out.��

Mendelson did not respond to a request to be interviewed for this story. But he did tell in May that industrial land is still needed.

“No one wants a concrete plant or an auto repair shop near their house, but we need them…Are we all going to have to go out to the suburbs to get our cars fixed? At some point, we’re going to wake up and say, ‘Geez, there’s no land left for the warehouse or the concrete plant,’” he said at the time.��

But the need for housing remains. Ward 5 resident and advocate Cynthia Carson said affordable housing is vital to local neighborhoods.

“There’s been so much history throughout these neighborhoods from racial covenants and unaffordable housing,” she said. “Local people can’t afford these places anymore, so something needs to change, affordable housing needs to be available here.”

An inequitable distribution of industrial land and air quality 

Fine particulate pollution levels in D.C. have declined nearly 50% over the past 20 years due to a number of . But the benefits of clean air are not distributed evenly across the District, according to the NASA study. And air quality data is limited,

The recent NASA study also highlighted how those exposed to higher levels of air pollution in Wards 5, 7 and 8 are predominantly people of color.��

.��

The map shows the percentage of Black residents in D.C. neighborhoods, with the dots representing the number of deaths attributable to air pollution per 100,000 residents. Those living in Spring Valley, Foxhall and other neighborhoods in Ward 3 are less likely to experience  poor air quality. (Courtesy of Susan Anenberg/George Washington University)

“It’s a legacy of frankly racist decisions, having these facilities next to communities that were almost entirely Black,” Shaw said.��

For the future, Shaw hopes to see proper use of industrial land in Eckington and other neighborhoods affected by poor air quality.��

“We think the city should be doing a lot more to ensure residents aren’t being exposed to unsafe pollutants,” Shaw said. “Until we do something about this, the inequitable distribution of industrial land and the exposure to pollutants is just going to continue.”

The post Poor air quality poses major threat to Eckington, other neighborhoods in Ward 5: NASA study first appeared on 91����.

For the Afghans who made it to the United States, a long journey of resettlement and integration lies ahead.

The Afghan Resettlement Report looks at the journey of evacuees fleeing Taliban rule in Afghanistan, how they are navigating the U.S. government resettlement system, and how they are being welcomed by nonprofits and local communities.

This podcast was reported and produced by the graduate broadcast journalism students of American University’s School of Communication.

Thank you to the local experts who shared their time and knowledge with the reporters of this podcast:

Mark Greenberg, Senior Fellow at Migration Policy Institute
Hannah Tyler, Research Analyst at Bipartisan Policy Center
Monika Evstatieva, Senior Producer of Investigations at NPR
Glenn Luther, Former Photography Instructor in Afghanistan
Rep. Abigail Spanberger, (D-VA) (Statements from House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on 9/13/21)
Noah Klose, Community Outreach Manager at Homes Not Borders
Billy Coleburn, Mayor of Blackstone Virginia
Lea Ruscio, Field Operations Lead for Team Rubicon
Kenneth Speicher, Parishioner at United Methodist Church
Timothy Young, Press Secretary for Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service
Huneressa Fariad, translator from the All Dulles Area Muslim Society
Taliha Masroor and the rest of her family, owners of Bistro Aracosia

Supervising Faculty: , SOC Professor 

The post The Afghan Resettlement Report first appeared on 91����.

But what should be a pleasant — and safe — walk to school often leaves her feeling anxious all because of dangerous intersections and speeding cars along the residential road.�� 

The mile-long stretch is dotted with five schools and a host of playgrounds and recreation centers. Thomas and some of her neighbors have complained about the stretch of road for years. But after so much inaction — from city agencies, countless studies and slow-moving bureaucracy — they’ve decided to take action on their own.��

 “With the recent tragedies around the city with young children being struck by vehicles, the urgency has become so much more apparent and we’ve really stepped up our efforts,” she said.��

Last month, Thomas and other Eckington residents banded together to form to improve safety in the area. The safety project aims to make Lincoln a less dangerous thoroughfare by creating cost-effective solutions. Thomas said implementing all-way stops and raised crosswalks would alleviate some of the danger for pedestrians. Though Lincoln is the project’s main priority, Thomas said fixing is also necessary.��

Lincoln residents say road safety has been an issue for a long time 

Pedestrian accidents aren’t new along Lincoln.��

According to , there have been seven car crashes on the road since January. One of the crashes included a pedestrian just last month.��

Thomas said at a recent community meeting, one neighbor said her mother was struck by a car on Lincoln years ago.��

“Making our streets safer for all of us while we walk around and enjoy the city just makes good sense to everyone,” Thomas said.��

Proponents of the new project say excessive speeding, blind spots and inconsistent traffic patterns in major intersections are the main issues. Last week, the project sent over 90 individual requests to DDOT and ANC 5E members for raised crosswalks, all-way stop signs and other safety measures.��

Thomas said many drivers use Lincoln Road NE as a shortcut to avoid the intersection of North Capitol Street and Rhode Island Avenue. She said Lincoln’s wide roadway design allows cars to speed through neighborhoods, putting pedestrians at risk.

“And while most of us are mainly pedestrians, we are drivers too. We want drivers to be safe and we want to be safe while we are driving our families around our neighborhoods too,” she said.��

Over 1,800 students commute to the schools on and adjacent to Lincoln each day. When kids are in the area, the speed limit on Lincoln is 15 mph. But the project hosted a community walkthrough last week, and cars were clocked going well over the speed limit, even with kids around.

30 mph on Lincoln rd. In theory it’s posted for 15 mph when kids are present (and they were).

— Fix Dave Thomas Circle (@FixCircle)

DDOT has mentioned Lincoln Road in , a long-range transportation plan in the city. But Thomas and other project members fear the safety issues on Lincoln won’t be resolved for years.��

“If DDOT would make this their first priority and actually follow through on it, that would go a long way to making us safer and restoring community trust in the department,” Thomas said.

The project’s emergency plan includes adding two radar speed displays on Lincoln, trimming or cutting down foliage and adding crossing guards during school commuting hours. For main intersections like where Lincoln Road crosses Rhode Island Avenue Northeast, the plan suggests adding speed cameras and raised, brightly painted crosswalks.

“These roads are designed to get traffic moving as quickly as possible through our neighborhoods, with little or no regard for pedestrians,” Thomas said.

Danger for North Capitol Street pedestrians and drivers

Like Lincoln Road Northeast, North Capitol Street runs through Eckington. The street has been a hotspot for accidents — from fender benders to fatal wrecks. Since 2017, eight people have been killed in car accidents in the Eckington and Bloomingdale area of the corridor, including five pedestrians.��

Another in a long list of reasons why this project is imperative for the safety and reunification of our neighborhoods

— Joseph Smallwood (@j_smallwood)

Although countless studies have already been done on North Capitol, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser recently approved another $1 million study on North Capitol Street to make it a safer thoroughfare.��

The new study will test the feasibility of the , a plan that focuses on leveling the highway underpasses and transforming them into a green space. The project would fill in the underpasses of North Capitol between V Street and Seaton Place.��

Proponents of the project like the Bloomingdale Civic Association support the project, as it would reconnect neighborhoods like Bloomingdale, Eckington, Truxton Circle and Edgewood, since North Capitol divides them. Though the underpass would be filled in, drivers will still be able to drive along at-grade lanes along North Capitol 

, Ward 5 Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie said he requested and received $1 million for the study in the 2022 fiscal year budget.

“This analysis will help determine the best way to connect Ward 5 neighborhoods, address traffic and safety concerns and improve the quality of life for residents,” he said.��

Eckington Civic Association President Connor Shaw and Ward 5 activist Nick Sementelli have a different vision for North Capitol Street. They are advocating instead to bring the entire corridor up to street level, filling in all the underpasses which would reduce speed and traffic. Filling in the underpasses would also restore east-west access along the corridor. Their plan also prioritizes pedestrian accessibility and dedicated bus lanes.��

Shaw and Sementelli said the deck over project’s vision for a park is too narrow of a plan for the corridor and limits options for the future. The deck over would only cover a block of North Capitol, while Shaw and Sementelli’s idea covers the entire North Capitol Street corridor.��

“I’ve been in and around that street for a very long time,” Sementelli said. “I had always been aware of the incredible danger of the street, certainly hearing cars speeding through the underpasses there, seeing wrecks and crashes on the regular.”

Sementelli took interest in the efforts to make North Capitol Street less dangerous when he and a few neighbors dug up previous studies done on the street. He said the studies never came to anything. Sementelli said DDOT and the NoMa BID outlined nearly 60 recommendations in a that would make the street safer. He noticed only around 12 of the recommendations had been done, nearly a year after the NoMa BID and DDOT study came out.��

Both Sementelli and Shaw said the current highway-like design of North Capitol is responsible for high speed and accidents.

“Our focus is turning this street from what is and is intended to be a highway for commuters,” Shaw said. We want to turn it into a street that serves the neighbors that live here, has slower speeds, and has more sidewalk space.”

Both the deck over and community boulevard projects seek to ameliorate the danger of North Capitol’s intersections and underpasses. But Sementelli is confident in his proposal.

“We’re going to have this once in a generation opportunity to transform North Capitol Street and really look holistically at how to improve safety and how we can deliver a more sustainable future for residents,” he said.��

For Thomas, she wants to see continued support for neighborhood safety.��

“We have grandparents who want their grandkids safe when they visit, and our neighbors who aren’t parents want their friends, families and neighbors safe too,” she said. “We’ve had nothing but support from all of our neighbors.”

The post Eckington, North Capitol residents fight for safer streets first appeared on 91����.

“Events like this are starting to come back in the park,” Williams said. “Of course, we’re still in a pandemic, but it’s nice to just walk out my backdoor and enjoy a movie with all my neighbors while still being socially distanced.”

The Bloomingdale neighborhood considers Crispus Attucks Park the hidden gem of the area. It’s a 1.4 acre pop of green tucked inside a city block framed by gray concrete sidewalks and brick row houses. Before the coronavirus pandemic, the park was an epicenter for community events like movie nights, beautification days and celebrations. But COVID-19 forced the community to put a pause on bigger events in the park, like the annual Bloomingdale Community Day and the park’s film festival, both usually attracting hundreds of people.

Though people were advised to stay home in the early months of the pandemic, community members still retreated to the park. They hosted socially-distanced picnics, art classes and smaller celebrations.

Kiko Bourne, president of the , says foot traffic increased during the pandemic. The CADC is a nonprofit that oversees the park’s preservation.

“We think that many Washingtonians discovered the park for the first time last year, as it was one of the safe places to gather,” she said.

Bloomingdale resident Vicky Chao, who’s lived in the neighborhood for eight years, says she found the park to be a sanctuary.

“It was definitely a safe-haven for me and other people during the pandemic, especially at the beginning,” she said. “I think it bettered people’s mental health because you could come out here, enjoy the fresh air and stretch your legs when we were all stuck in our homes.”

Unlike other parks in the city, Crispus Attucks Park is not managed by the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation. It relies heavily on donations and volunteers to maintain it. The annual upkeep costs thousands of dollars, according to the CADC. Bourne says there are both positives and negatives of the park being community owned.

“One positive is that we have a nonprofit board composed of diverse neighbors, some who have lived near the park for decades and others who are newer to the neighborhood, who contribute a diversity of opinions about the park’s priorities,” she says. “On the negative side, keeping the park safe and beautiful for all requires a lot of work from people who volunteer their time.”

But, Bourne says the pros outweigh the cons.

“We were able to transform an abandoned telephone company cable yard into a park specifically because we are community organized and community driven,” she said. “There would be no park if there was no community.”

Events like the park’s annual summer film festival costs hundreds of dollars to put on. Without donations, community events like this wouldn’t happen.

“I think it’s important for people to continue to volunteer and donate now and in the future, because this park completely relies on the community,” said Bloomingdale resident Valerie Yurk. “If we want to keep on having events like this, donations are essential.”

The park’s annual film festival, which aired a sing-along version of Hamilton for its final night, was postponed in 2020. With vaccinations available and cooler weather fast-approaching, community members and the CADC said it was time to bring neighborhood events back to the park.

“It’s clear that neighbors are ready to be together again and we are fortunate to have this space to bring them together,” Bourne said.

The post At Crispus Attucks Park, return of outdoor events creates sense of normalcy during pandemic first appeared on 91����.

“There’s plenty of space to build in D.C.,” she said. “You don’t have to take one of the last greenspaces here that’s of historic value to the city, historians and definitely the community.”

Supporters of preserving McMillan suffered a recent loss as the D.C. Court of Appeals is allowing demolition to begin. Despite the Sept. 29 ruling, community members and organizations, like , have filed lawsuits challenging the city’s demolition permits.

The 25-acre park has been the center of other court battles since ideas of redevelopment started, including

consisting of EYA Inc., Trammell Crow Co. and Jair Lynch Real Estate Partners designed a 2.1 million-square-foot plan that will include office spaces, housing, condos, a grocery store, a park and a community center.��

Carson said the development plans are too much. She wants to see a more effective development to preserve the greenspace like building an amphitheater or a park that would be open to the public.��

“We just need smart development and we don’t have smart leaders,” she said. “I think the mayor and her entire team lack vision and I think they’re going to be sorry if they develop this place to the extent that they want to develop it.”

Renowned architect Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. designed the grounds of the park, which became open to the public in 1912. The park is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and

In 2016, Mayor Muriel Bowser, Ward 5 Councilman Kenyan McDuffie and others broke ground on the site. The groundbreaking was solely ceremonial, as demolition was not legally allowed.��

Shovels break McMillan ground

— bill rice (@ricebilldc)

The recent court ruling has made people wanting to save and protect the site furious. At a rally in support of preserving the park, community member Maurice Cook said the development will be unaffordable for the people who have lived in the area for generations. 20% of the plan’s housing will be affordable to those earning 50-80% of the area median income.��

“It’s just another symbol of what has occurred throughout the city,” Cook said.

Others are ready for the redevelopment, like Bloomingdale resident Amy Zhou.

“It would just infuse life into what is otherwise a barbed wire, fenced-off plot of land,” she said.

Zhou and other neighbors counter-protested the rally.��

“It’s not that I’m against these counter proposals, it’s just that none of them are real, none of them are material,” she said. “People want to see something versus nothing.”

Park supporters argued the new development will cause even more traffic headaches. Kirby Vining, treasurer of Friends of McMillan Park, said in hearings before the Zoning Commission, the .��

Vining said Friends of McMillan Park hired an engineer from WMATA to look at traffic data of the North Capitol Street and Michigan Avenue intersection. Vining said the engineer projected that car trips would be around double the given estimate.

“I don’t want to live in a neighborhood where there’s going to be thousands of additional cars,” Carson said.

Protestors are also worried about airborne asbestos if demolition begins. Carson wants to see the 20 filtration sites tested appropriately. Even at low levels, the CDC says

“We want to test it, I don’t know why anyone would be against testing it,” she said.

Despite the possibility of the underground structures containing asbestos, demolition permits were approved as part of the D.C. Court of Appeals’ ruling. Supporters of the park will continue to fight for McMillan during their court hearing on Oct. 26.

“People have been in this neighborhood for generations,” Carson said. ”And we don’t want new unaffordable apartments and condos to take up the space.”

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