Plans for Park Improvements in Shaw Are Stalled

Map It:  Shaw-Howard U 

AT THE CORNER of 9th and Q streets NW in Shaw, one of the District's many triangle parks sits waiting for upgrades.

In 2006, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, working in collaboration with the Washington Convention Center Authority and the D.C. government, announced the selection of an artist to craft a sculpture honoring Carter G. Woodson, the African-American historian and writer whose work led to the creation of Black History Month. Woodson lived in a house around the corner on 9th Street, which will be renovated by the National Park Service for use as a Woodson museum.

But as local blogger and Shaw resident Rob Goodspeed has documented, the park improvement project is going nowhere fast — it's held up while the D.C. government figures out which agency has the authority to lead it forward.

The mayor's office told Goodspeed it still supports the Woodson sculpture and park project, but said that officials are still "in communication with the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities to see if they will be willing to take on management of this project." So far, as Goodspeed notes, not much has happened.

Standard disclosure: Goodspeed and this writer co-founded DCist.com in 2004, a site we are both no longer affiliated with.

» "Technicality Holds up $2,500,000 for Neighborhood Park" [Goodspeed Update]

Photo by Rob Goodspeed/Goodspeed Update