It was a rainy and windy evening, and I was concerned that many of the RSVPs will choose not to leave their warm homes to come to the campaign meeting. Moishe House SS is partnering up with Jews United for Justice to strategize the role we can play to make sure the soon to be constructed public transit will be a 'fair Purple Line'. I didn't need to worry long, as our front door kept opening to welcome more people. We had over 20 people present and intentional to learn about the Purple Line and the issues surrounding it.
We had three speakers, a huge advocater for the public transit, housing attorney for the local community, and a local rabbi. They provided a range of facts, perspectives and concerns about the arrival of the Purple Line. The biggest concern is the negatvie effect it will have on the current low-income tenants and small, local businesses. It is anticipated by many local community advocates that the Langley Park area (a community only 2 miles from the MHSS house) will experience similar mass displacement that was seen in Columbia Heights area when development began around the metro.
Unfortunately, two hours was barely enough time to get the conversation started about how a group of jews could mitigate the negative impacts. We still had a lot of research to do, and ended the meeting with assigning research questions to individuals and planning a next meeting.
I was very excited to the large response for the kick-off strategy meeting, and also for the continued energy and interest in the group to continue meeting and get this campaign on the ground. This campaign is very important to me, because Langley Park (the low income immigrant community likely to be displaced) is the community I work with every day as a community organizer. I look forward to our next meeting and planning our strategy and next steps for the campaign.
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