WASHINGTON—Since 2014, residents of the Mount Pleasant community in Washington, D.C. have advocated for the establishment of a small community-controlled park adjacent to Kenyon St. and the main roadway. The piece of land has long been frequented by Latino immigrants and day laborers who play board games and gather as a community.
This led to the proposed name of Amigos Park, or Friends Park, to be representative of the Latino population in the neighborhood and to symbolize the spirit of the people who regularly use the space. It would be the first park named for Latinos in the District’s history. The effort to develop the park was sparked by late community advocate Arturo Griffiths, Jr.
There have been a variety of different visions for what the park might become. Some initially wanted a dog park, which has historically been tied to gentrification in D.C.; others wanted more police presence in the area since some white residents reportedly felt unsafe around the people that frequented the current area.
Griffiths’ vision was for a “welcoming, culturally rooted public space that brought neighbors together across generations.” The coalition that Griffiths founded to push this campaign forward, the Amigos Park Coalition (APC), states in its mission that it wants a “beautiful, welcoming, culturally rooted park and a design that tells the story of Mount Pleasant’s diverse working class and immigrant communities.”
The D.C. Council has secured over $1 million for the project, led by Councilmembers Brianne Nadeau (D-Ward 1) and Janeese Lewis George (D-Ward 4). The APC, working alongside professional architects and greenspace experts, presented a concept design of Amigos Park to district agencies and gathered more input after resolutions were passed by the local advisory neighborhood commissioners.
Other forces, however, had different plans.
One of the major hold ups in the effort was that the parcel of land where Amigos Park would sit was only partially owned by the District of Columbia. Half of it was owned by a private developer, which initially housed a 7-Eleven convenience store and later a Streets Market grocery store.
The district (led by Mayor Muriel Bowser and the Department of General Services, DGS) was in negotiations to purchase the private parcel from the owners of 7-Eleven until they ended up selling the property to a developer in California named Blake Megdal, who then leased the property to the owners of Streets Market.
Megdal, initially open to negotiating with the district to sell the land parcel for the full park development, ran into a roadblock with his new renter. Due to D.C.’s right of first refusal laws for renters, the Streets Market owners can block any transaction between the landlord (Megdal) and the district.
The owners of Streets Market have no interest in the development of the park and have actually been caught on record making racist remarks toward the Latinos that frequent it, using reactionary language, calling them criminals simply for being in the park and playing chess as they usually do. Negotiations were eventually dropped by the mayor’s office due to the refusal of the Streets Market ownership.
Because of this roadblock, community members, alongside the APC, have temporarily abandoned efforts to advocate for a “full park” along the public and private parcels. But the mayor’s office, initially led by the now defunct Office on Latino Affairs, moved forward with a “half park” concept without input from the Mount Pleasant community. As of early August, the mayor’s office put fencing around the area where the “half park” would be built and removed all of the belongings of those who frequented the area.
The community and the APC quickly sprang into action and painted banners that were hoisted along the fencing following the measure. The slogans read “The community wants a full park,” “No valoran los sentimientos de los hermanos latinos (“They don’t care about the feelings of the Latino brothers”), and “People = park = trees.” The city removed the banners the next morning and posted official documents about the Amigos Park development with AI-rendered photos that did not match any community concept of the park.
Residents are furious with how they are being treated and are now demanding city officials to pause construction of the poorly-designed “half park” until a new mayor assumes office in January 2027. The APC, a diverse representation of the community, is urging more transparency and public input on the development.
The dropping of negotiations to secure the full parcel of land during Trump 2.0 solidified what many see as outgoing Mayor Bowser’s anti-immigrant agenda. Not only has she put immigrants in harm’s way by collaborating directly with Trump’s federal agents and their terrorizing of the D.C. community through the “Safe and Beautiful” Task Force, but she has also actively undermined projects that would empower the Latino community throughout the district—like Amigos Park.
Bowser has also joined Trump’s anti-DEI tirade and abolished D.C. offices representing different communities.
We hope you appreciated this article. At People’s World, we believe news and information should be free and accessible to all, but we need your help. Our journalism is free of corporate influence and paywalls because we are totally reader-supported. Only you, our readers and supporters, make this possible. If you enjoy reading People’s World and the stories we bring you, please support our work by donating or becoming a monthly sustainer today. Thank you!
CONTRIBUTOR
