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Capture the Moment Page 37 Vol. 56, No. 38 • July 8 - 14, 2021
D.C. Debates Fate of Shuttered Marriott Wardman Park Hotel Some Residents Want City to Buy Historic Landmark
James Wright WI Staff Writer
5 The UniverSoul Circus opened July 4th weekend with one-of-a-kind performances from around the world – all coming together as under a single-ring big top. (See more photos on page 36).
District leaders and residents are engaged in a lively debate over a possible purchase --by the city--of the historic Marriott Wardman Park Hotel located in Ward 3 or allow a private developer to buy it. Marriott Wardman owners filed for bankruptcy on Jan. 11. The sprawling 1,152-room facility —a stage that provided a platform for national and local Black organizations in D.C. for decades – will be auctioned July 20.
Opioid Abuse Takes its Toll in D.C.
James Wright WI Staff Writer While most of the attention for the past 16 months has been on the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, opioid abuse in the District has increased, raising concerns of city officials. “I recently had to say goodbye to my daughter because of opioid abuse,” said Sherita McBroom, ANC commissioner for district 8E01 in Ward 8, during a forum at the Secret Garden in Southeast on June 28. “I have to face the issue every day since my 17-year-old daughter Jaylen died of opioid use on June 22,” she said. “She transitioned during the night. I will play that scene over and over again for the rest of my life.” While McBroom didn’t offer details, she blames opioids as the root cause of her daughter’s death.
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A group of residents wants the District to purchase the property in an effort to address the District’s housing needs. “The Wardman Hotel Strategy Team [WHST], the group that is asking the District government to buy the former Wardman Park Hotel for mixed income affordable housing, urged D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser to include at least $140 million for the purchase as requested by D.C. Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie, who represents Ward 5, in his Feb. 15 letter
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MLK III Seeks Reprise of Tone Set in the 1963 March on Washington Hamil Harris WI Contributing Writer
5 Martin Luther King III with his daughter Yolanda and wife Arndrea in Washington, D.C. in 2019. (WI File Photo/Robert R. Roberts)
In the wake of the recent Supreme Court decision and Republican controlled state legislatures further weakening the Voting Rights Act, Martin Luther King III is calling for people of conscious to come to Washington this Aug. 28 on the anniversary of the famous March on Washington. On Aug. 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a momentous speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial that the world remembers as the “I Have a
Dream” speech. preached about “Letting Freedom Ring, from the Lincoln Memorial and now, nearly 60 years later, many of the things his father fought and died for have not been achieved. “It disheartens me to say that as a country and society, we are not even close to where my father hoped we would be since delivering his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech 58 years ago,” said King’s son, who is chairman of the Board for the Drum Major Institute. "I think my father would be
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