Once again, we are forced to write to respond to another slanderous distortion of the views and intentions of members of the Logan Circle community by your newspaper. We refer to the 1/10 City Desk item “Metro 1, Studio 0,” or, as it should have been called, “Blind Ideology 1, Blind People 0.”
You have accepted former ANC 2F06 Commissioner Beth Solomon’s view of this minor matter without investigation and, as a result, have ridden right off a cliff. Solomon characterizes the desire of the Studio Theatre to relocate the bus shelter located just outside its door as some kind of attack on the homeless that will damage the interests of the nearby Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind. How absurd.
The “multimillion-dollar facelift” of the theater, as you call it, will double the theater’s performance space, leaving it with an even more inadequate lobby. Patrons regularly spill onto the sidewalk during intermissions. As the sidewalk is small, the theater sought to move the bus stop across the street, closer to the Lighthouse. The Lighthouse’s clients would no longer have to cross busy 14th Street to use the bus. How heartless.
Why didn’t the theater (and the Logan Circle Community Association [LCCA], which supported the move) just “adopt” the bus stop and “make it nice” for the homeless people who seek shelter there, as Solomon suggested? Because the problem is not that the bus stop is parentless and ugly. It is ill-placed to serve its patrons and in a poor location for theatergoers. Further, had Solomon participated in any of the discussions with the Studio Theatre she would have known that the theater accept LCCA’s proposal that its renovations include sidewalk improvements, landscaping, and an additional tree on 14th Street, thus “making it nice.” Is it truly so terrible to ask that the homeless people who use it cross 14th Street rather than asking the blind to do so? Apparently that is the view of Solomon, and by endorsing her views, Washington City Paper has once again assumed the worst about the Logan Circle community.
By the way, Solomon is no longer on the ANC. Apparently sensing the true views of her constituents, as you failed to do, she did not seek re-election for the current term.
P.S. We look forward to meeting with your editors to discuss the ongoing attacks we and our neighbors endure from City Paper as we try to rescue a neighborhood from neglect, crime, and the concentration of social-service providers.
ANC Commissioner 2F05
Former President
Blagden Alley Community Association
Helen Kramer
Chairman ANC 2F
Former President
Logan Circle Community Association