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Monday, May 08, 2017

Westbard cemetery protest set for Tuesday 11 AM at MoCo Council office building

Macedonia Baptist Church and their supporters in the community will rally again tomorrow, Tuesday, May 9, at 11:00 AM in front of the Montgomery County Council office building, located at 100 Maryland Avenue in Rockville. They are protesting the plan by the County and a developer to construct a parking garage on top of an African-American cemetery, located on the site of Westwood Tower in Bethesda, and demanding a transparent and legitimate investigation of the cemetery.

Their efforts have resulted so far in County Executive Ike Leggett offering to pay for two anthropologists selected by the church to conduct an independent study, instead of the private firm hired by the developer, Regency Centers. However, that can only happen if the Planning Board stops the current investigation, and postpones its June 9 agenda item on that site in Regency Centers' larger Westbard redevelopment plan.

County Councilmember Marc Elrich is trying to get his colleagues who have so far ignored the issue, and the institutional racism displayed by the Planning Board and Planning Department towards the church, to sign on to a letter to the Board. That letter will ask them to table the June 9 agenda item, and begin negotiations with the church on the cemetery investigation.

Let's have a HUGE turnout tomorrow at 11:00 AM outside the Council building. The rally will then move into the Council meeting, for a silent vigil.
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12 comments:

  1. Anonymous9:16 AM

    https://ggwash.org/view/63285/ggwash-editor-dan-reed-is-a-finalist-for-montgomery-county-planning-board

    LOL

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  2. MDBGA9:24 AM

    I must say, the first two paragraphs were great, the rest was a bit more opinionated. However, 9:16 AMs article just goes to show what media is becoming in this area. Maybe Robert isn't wrong mixing his opinions in his reports.

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  3. MDBGA9:54 AM

    Would love to go, but why would they do this at 11:00 on a workday? Its going to be very difficult to attend for people who are employed full time in office setting jobs.

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  4. Anonymous10:05 AM

    9:54 AM - Why? Because they don't have jobs and they want to interrupt council day to day affairs and appear like they are victims.

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  5. Anonymous11:37 AM

    9:16 AM "Overall great guy". That was neither an article nor a blog entry. Sounded like Mr. Albert giving Reed an amateurish toast.

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  6. Anonymous8:37 AM

    Pathetic to appoint a representative of Greater, Greater Washington to the Montgomery County Planning Board. What the Planning Board urgently needs is a member or members oriented to the concerns of residents. As it now stands, the Board's key constituents are developers.

    The County is tone deaf.

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  7. Anonymous8:40 AM

    So how many old white NIMBYs showed up this morning?

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  8. Anonymous10:08 AM

    I am excited for this development to get underway.

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  9. MDBGA12:43 PM

    I wasn't able to go, can anyone fill in how it went?

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  10. Anonymous2:04 PM

    If there had been more than three attendees, Dyer would have reported on it already.

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  11. Anonymous5:48 PM

    Two people showed up, but Dyer forgot to set the alarm clock to wake himself in the daytime. So no pictures.

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  12. Robert Dyer9:24 PM

    5:48: I was there, idiot. There is news and there are pictures, and there were definitely more than 2 people there.

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