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This is a fact of real estate life here in the District of Columbia. Mr. Dowdy. Is that not true everywhere if you have something you want to sell?

Mr. FABER. True, so it stays the way it is. This is what the AdamsMorgan community is faced with. That is why demolition is slated for a very small section of Adams-Morgan. That is the place where, No. 1, you have a very bad land-use combination of light industrial and residential.

No. 2, the type of structures that are there now require, in the main, demolition because they are not suitable for reconstruction.

Mr. Dowdy. You are making a good case for a much smaller project area than that proposed here.

Mr. FABER. I am not trying to make a case for a larger or a smaller area. I do not feel that I am qualified to speak to that issue.

Mr. DowDY. You are stating the facts as you see them which would indicate that you

Mr. FABER. As a judgment I would feel that area A being included in the plan does not do any particular harm to area A other than to set certain code restrictions on commercial rooming houses. I think that there are one or two spots in the area that would be involved in the enforcement of the code.

Mr. DOWDY. Thank you, sir.

(Subsequently, in reply to some of the foregoing statements by Mr. Faber, Mr. Thomas F. Smith submitted the following letter for the record:)

HOUSE DISTRICT COMMITTEE,
Old House Office Building,
Washington, D.C.

WASHINGTON, D.C., November 17, 1964.

GENTLEMEN: It has been brought to my attention that Mr. S. Faber called me a "liar" because I testified today that, "I didn't know, about 15 to 25" (buildings were to be torn down), or (businesses displaced) in the Ambassador Theater block, while he claims there are only 13. (In answer to Congressman Springer's question.)

Frankly, I don't care if there are only 2, or 5, or 10, 13, 14, 15, etc. It seems the usually harsh attack against personalities by the pro-RLA group in AdamsMorgan area against one of the anti-RLA plan. They deal in name calling.

My rough estimate was based on the following, still from memory-post office, Security, Inc. (also H. S. Smith & Son, Inc. at same address), Swiss Candy Shop, Bonded Lightning Protection Co. (also Bonded Grounding Systems, Inc.). Nomikos Bros., Ballantine's Grill, Ace Beverage Co., Ambassador Valet, Walker's Men's Shop, Bing's Carry-Out, Ambassador Jewelers, Cynthia's, Aristo Dry Cleaners, Dravillas Realty, Columbian Inn, and Columbia Glass & Mirror Co. There may be a few more; but these total 18 the way I count them, or at least 15. The point is that once again I have to sustain a personal attack, the kind that the "in" group mounts to drive someone out. Mr. S. Faber has made it too unpleasant for some of us in the 18th & Columbia Road Business Association to rejoin or attend their meetings. The same type of personal attack is given in the community council and in the planning committee to those who oppose it. This was testified to previously before you. Now you have seen it yourself. Fortunately it does not affect me any more very much. Let's hope it does not achieve its purpose of clouding the real issue the inequities in the plan. Thank you for hearing me out.

Sincerely,

Mr. Dowdy. Mrs. Gladys W. Davis.

T. F. SMITH.

STATEMENT OF MRS. GLADYS W. DAVIS

Mrs. DAVIS. My name is Mrs. Gladys W. Davis. Until this past week I lived at 1826 Vernon Street NW., Washington. While my husband had lived in this same apartment building since 1945, I have lived there only since my marriage to him 14 years ago. We have both been members of the Vernon Street Association since it was formed; my husband was president of it for 2 years and he has continuously represented our association at the Adams-Morgan Planning Committee. I have been one of our association's representatives to the Adams-Morgan Community Council since its formation.

In 1959 we were so discouraged with the condition of our building, the street, and the neighborhood that we were looking for another place to live. Then, when we heard about the demonstration project we decided to try to stay and help in whatever ways we could to improve the neighborhood. We did everything we could to help. One of the projects my husband worked on at night and weekends was the photographic documentation of street frontages showing how the blocks in the area looked before anything was done to renew it. Through our respective positions on the planning committee and the community council we put our shoulders to the wheel and we watched the spirit and the morale of our area change from despair over the serious problems of the neighborhood to hope that we might be able to save it.

Then, when we got to a certain place, it seemed that we were left hanging in midair between our goal of a renewed neighborhood and physical and social problems too great to face. Let me just describe the conditions of Vernon Street. Many people there live in apartments which lack full-time janitors. As a consequence the entrance halls and stairways are so poorly cleaned as to make one ashamed to have guests. When apartments need to be redecorated, tenants do the work themselves. A number of the row houses on the block are in poor condition, many of them overcrowded. When those who drive to work take their cars, their spaces are immediately filled with automobiles driven there from a nearby automobile dealership and service station. When that car is ready to be serviced, it is raced down our street to one of the most dangerous intersections in the city and replaced by another car waiting for work to be done on it.

Our children play on the streets, or on chewed-up lawns, or make games of running through the first floors of the apartment buildings. They have no adequate play space. A number of them are denied the fundametals of basic education because they go to school on parttime schedules.

Gentlemen, there are serious problems in Adams-Morgan. I believe that all the tutoring which adults in our association give to children cannot make up for the way they are being shortchanged in education and opportunities for constructive leisure-time activities. I believe that people cannot live decently and with self-respect when the clost of decent, sound living accommodations is always beyond their ability to reach.

I believe that we cannot continue to condemn the underprivileged for their failure to live up to better living standards when the housing they are provided is substandard and deteriorated, when the neighborhoods we force them to occupy provides them with nothing but the example of sordidness, crime, and violence.

I regret to say that my husband and I simply could not take the problems of Adams-Morgan any longer. We liked the location of the neighborhood; we had many friends there. But the condition of the building in which we lived, the problems of parking, the vandalism, the disgraceful appearance of the streets-these were more than we could cope with. We just had to find another place to live.

For the sake of my neighbors who remain, for the sake of the children who still need the opportunity to grow up as self-respecting citizens, I urge your support in moving the Adams-Morgan project forward without further delay.

Thank you very much for this opportunity to present my thoughts on the matter of Adams-Morgan.

Mr. DowDY. Thank you.

Mr. Edward Perpall.

STATEMENT OF EDWARD A. PERPALL, MEMBER, CALIFORNIA STREET ASSOCIATION, AND DELEGATE TO ADAMS-MORGAN PLANNING COMMITTEE

Mr. PERPALL. Chairman Dowdy, members of the subcommittee, my name is Edward A. Perpall. I live at 1858 California Street NW. I have lived at this address for more than 25 years. I am a member of the California Street Association and I am its delegate to the Adams-Morgan Planning Committee. I have been associated with this project since its inception.

I would like to make a few remarks on why I, as a citizen of the District of Columbia and of the Adams-Morgan area, feel that an urban renewal project is needed for our neighborhood. I am not going to speak in technical terms, but rather in terms of those things I have observed which convince me that something must be done to renew the area in such a way as to make it a decent place for those who wish to live here.

When I first moved into California Street, it was a normal, middleincome neighborhood. Trees, flowers, and well kept lawns showed me that people cared about the block they lived on. Most of the houses were single-family dwellings, housing one family. I have witnessed my street deteriorate into one of the most overpopulated streets in Washington, with most of the single-family dwellings now being used for roominghouses or tenements. Recently, a house which for merly housed 5 persons became the living place of more than 25 persons. Now, absentee landlordism is the rule rather than the exception. I am quite aware of the stated intentions of private redevelopers to restore the area in which I live, but I can hardly believe that their plan has a place for me and others like me who consider that the right to have a decent home in a decent neighborhood belongs to all people, not just the privileged and the very wealthy. A Georgetown-like restoration would result in the virtual exclusion of middle-income families from the area, both white and Negro. It is no secret that some

people, Negroes in particular, cannot live just anywhere they want to live. The simple and time-tested technique used is to outprice them both on the rental and sale market.

Further, consider for the moment what our once-lovely neighborhood now provides for its teeming population-inadequate playgrounds and schools to which the area's children are sent on half-time shifts because plans for the neighborhood failed to take into account the increase in population which naturally resulted from the permitted conversion of single-family homes into multiple-family houses. Our children are forced to use the sidewalks, streets, and alleys for a playground. Fortunately, within recent months we have had only two traffic incidents which involved children. But, must we wait until this problem gets so serious that we have to add traffic fatalities to the growing list of other problems before we can get real help for a neighborhood that is in serious trouble? Should we look to the private redevelopers to construct a new school, and should we expect private enterprise to create more play space for our children?

Only one house in our block has been sold in the last 6 months to a person who plans to make his home on California Street. Because we all know the condition of that house, unless our new resident-owner is able to secure reasonable financing under FHA he will need to put trusts on top of trusts. If the plan goes into effect, the entire neighborhood will be upgraded and financing for needed repairs and renovation will be available under longer terms and more reasonable rates. Our neighborhood is well worth saving, but the tools to save it are not now at the disposal of those who need theem.

We are well aware that under the Adams-Morgan urban renewal plan there will be some displacement of residents, some heartbreaks and many inconveniences. We feel that the benefits will far outweigh the personal misfortunes that some will face. All of us stand to gain more than we can possibly lose. Some have expressed concern about displacement of the poor, mainly because the plan does not call for them to be rehoused right here in Adams-Morgan. Strangely enough, these are the same people who have opposed every suggestion for increasing the amount of public and low-cost private housing. They simply assert that because massive displacement took place in other renewal projects, it must take place again. Mr. Doyle has publicly stated to us, and I believe he has also similarly stated to this committeee, that it would be his wish to have no additional new housing built in the area which would be of a luxury nature, that he would want all of the new housing to be low cost and middle income. I believe he means this, and I know that as long as citizens organizations in the Adams-Morgan area exist, he will not be permitted to forget that this is our wish, too.

If we are really concerned about displacement of people, why haven't we heard more about the uprooting of people which has been going on as a result of private restoration? People are being forced out of their homes now with no help, whereas under urban renewal, the RLA has the legal obligation to rehouse displaced families in decent, safe, and sanitary housing at rents they can afford to pay. Expenses of moving will also be provided. We who have helped to develop a mechanism for communicating with our Government partners fear renewal by private enterprise far more than we fear renewal of our neighborhood through reasonable and controlled urban renewal.

We need urban renewal in Adams-Morgan. We need the plan without further delay.

I thank you very much for your attention.

Mr. Dowdy. Did you hear Mr. Doyle testify that about 250 lowcost units will be built in the area? Would that take care of you? Mr. PERPALL. 250 units?

Mr. Dowdy. Yes: low-cost units.

Mr. PERPALL. We are concerned more about the public housing. That is what we are thinking about.

Mr. DOWDY. About 250 public housing units.

Mr. PERPALL. Public housing? That was his statement?

Mr. Dowdy. That is in the plan, as I understand it, now. I think that is correct.

Mr. PERPALL. We do not think enough public housing is available, We would like to have more.

anyway.

Mr. Dowdy. He said the rest of it could be provided by private development, and I think he mentioned people with about a $10,000 or $12,000 income could afford it, what you call the middle income.

Mr. PERPALL. In my area, Mr. Dowdy, there are people paying rent for inadequate housing who, if given a chance, the same income would provide them adequate housing, but the housing is not there. A lot of times this housing problem is that they cannot afford to pay, but there is also the problem of ability to pay with no housing.

Mr. Dowdy. Of course, we have run into this all through. I have asked the question in these hearings why there has not been some lowor middle-cost housing built, and we are told land is too valuable to put that kind of housing on. That is the reason all they have done has been luxury housing.

Mr. PERPALL. It seems to me in this plan the idea that has been developed and the idea that I have gotten is that there will be housing made available for these people, not by tearing them down, but by fixing them so they will live up to the code, be standard housing, and be available to this type of people who need that type housing.

Mr. Dowdy. I hope you get it, but we have not done it anywhere else in the United States of America.

Mr. PERPALL. You are better able to say that than I, but we hope that would be the case. Someone has said, and Mr. Doyle has said, that this would be the case, that there would be available housing for this type person. We are hoping, should anything happen, this would be the case.

If I may, sir, Miss Helen Bronheim, a homeowner in the 1800 block of Wyoming Avenue, would like to have a statement inserted in the record.

Mr. DowDY. That may be done.

(The statement referred to follows:)

STATEMENT OF MISS HELEN BRONHEIM

Gentlemen, my name is Helen Bronheim. I am a homeowner in the 1800 block of Wyoming Avenue in the Adams-Morgan area. My husband and I bought our home about 3 years ago, after a long search for a house in a truly urban setting, where we could see, and know, and choose among many kinds of people and many kinds of shops, and where our children could do the same. And I favor the Adams-Morgan renewal plan because I believe that it is the only way of assuring that the basic heterogeneity of the neighborhood can be maintained.

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