Colleen Cordes delivered a letter on behalf of Community Vision for Takoma this week warning of predicted “alarming” cell tower radiation from multiple antennae on a Takoma Park apartment building, and the racial equity issues of this potential health threat. The City weighed in to demand more information before a new antenna is approved. The issue, and Colleen, ended up on the local news. Here is our letter:
Welcome to Community Vision for Takoma (CVT), an informal network of around 1000 Takoma residents and nearby neighbors dedicated to Takoma Park’s progressive legacy. We follow city government and politics closely, and advocate on issues including structural racism and gentrification, preserving and expanding our affordable housing, public land use, City budget issues, and transparency, accountability, and increased public participation in local government. In an era when there is little independent local journalism, we provide an independent lens on City government with frequent communications to our network.
CVT was born a decade ago out of the desire to see a Takoma Junction revitalization that used public land for the public good. We provided a way of organizing when the City’s plans to develop the publicly-owned property at the Junction–land that was secured for the purpose of benefiting the residents of the community–evolved into a developer-driven project for an office/retail building that would not have been affordable for small, locally-owned businesses, or inclusive of all Takoma residents, exacerbating racial and socioeconomic segregation. We also believed that the plan would: increase the Junction traffic congestion and related safety concerns; eliminate space for community activities and public gathering; drive up rents in a commercial neighborhood of businesses owned by Black people and people of color; and threaten the survival of the community-owned grocery store which is one of the largest employers in the City and the only unionized service business.
After many years of community resistance, the City ended their plans to develop the Junction. Today, we are grateful to have a thriving Junction filled with independent restaurants and small local businesses that depend on the public land there for events, deliveries, and parking.