Do you know the story of how the land for Fort Reno Park and Alice Deal Junior High School (now Deal Middle School) was allocated? The land originally housed the Reno community, a majority-Black section of Ward 3. But in the 1930s, D.C. used eminent domain to forcibly remove almost 400 families living in the area to make way for the development, ultimately changing the racial makeup of that area of Ward 3 for years to come. 

There are multiple stories such as this across D.C.’s history that affect the makeup of the city to this day. According to data from the 2020 U.S. Census, the D.C. metropolitan area is the 13th most segregated in the country. And a new exhibit at the Cleveland Park Library in Ward 3 aims to examine the policies that created this problem. 

Undesign the Redline is an interactive exhibit that examines the racially segregated history of upper Northwest’s land development, explains the larger history of redlining across Ward 3, and explores the policies enacted to deny residents of color—with a particular focus on Black residents—access to homeownership in the area.

Undesign the Redline offers a comprehensive look at the policies that created structural racism in the region, and the show’s curators aim to set the stage for new conversations about how to “undesign” these systems.

The exhibit features five sections: two explain the general history and application of redlining; and one explores the government policies that led to redlining and the social movements that sprung to combat it; another section tells the story of redlining in Ward 3 with a focus on specific locations and stories of displacement in the area; the final section explores how to reframe the story of housing in the ward to make it more inclusive. 

Bill Jensen, one of the curators and tour guides for the exhibit, says he’s seen firsthand how Undesign the Redline is generating important conversations. “The best thing about group tours is the possibility of processing after,” Jensen tells City Paper. “That is sort of the essence of the exhibit.”

The curators believe this exhibit will provide an opportunity for people across D.C. to learn more about the fraught history of racial segregation and how it has shaped many of the city’s neighborhoods. The exhibit explores how Black families were displaced and excluded by the urban planning process in areas such as Broad Branch Road, Fort Reno Park, Macedonia Baptist Church, Barry Farm, and St. Columba’s Episcopal Church.

Since 2015, the design studio Designing the WE has brought Undesign the Redline to multiple cities, with the hopes of interrogating the history of redlining in localities across the U.S. Designing the WE’s team, led by co-founder Braden Crooks, works to bring the project to life by customizing the content for each city. The studio says that its design often stays the same between cities, but the research it conducts to find and present stories of housing discrimination are unique to the local histories of each area. 

The D.C. exhibit was brought to Ward 3 by a collective of places of worship in the area. The project was first conceived by parishioners of St. Columba’s Episcopal Church, who saw the exhibit while on display in Columbia, Maryland. They collaborated with the Adas Israel Congregation, Chevy Chase Presbyterian Church, Temple Micah, and Temple Sinai to help plan and execute the exhibit. Designing the WE says that this is the first time the exhibit has been initiated by faith leaders. 

Elizabeth Vaden organized a trip to Undesign the Redline with her fellow parishioners at St. Columba’s Episcopal Church when it was on display in Columbia. Vaden hopes the exhibit will help transform the future of Ward 3. 

“I was keenly aware that the area where I live in the upper Northwest is on the verge of a lot of change,” Vaden says. “There are a lot of potential development projects happening. There’s the mayor’s housing equity report … And I thought, we need a conversation like this in upper Northwest to prime ourselves for thinking about the choices we’re going to make as a community.” 

Providing a safe space for dialogue is at the core of the exhibit’s mission. “The hope is that this provides an opportunity to allow people to learn and to explore what has happened in their own space and then what our response needs to be,” Vaden says. 

The Cleveland Park Library will also host a series of programs to accompany the exhibit that take an intersectional approach to generating discussions about the past, present, and future of housing equity in D.C. The programming schedule includes a talk with visual artist Paula Mans, a conversation about redlining hosted by local high school students, a walking tour of Bloomingdale, and a screening of the documentary Barry Farm: Community, Land, & Justice in Washington D.C. 

“The beauty of this exhibit is that it tells these local stories in a very straightforward, factual manner … and the thing about a person’s story is that it’s their story,” Jensen says. “You can’t dispute that.”

Tuesday was an extra cold day in the freezer aisle of Foxtrot, a bougie grocery store chain with multiple locations in D.C. The grocery retailer abruptly shuttered all of their locations across D.C., Chicago, Austin, and Dallas with little notice to employees. 

Foxtrot’s owners, Outfox Hospitality, released a quick statement as they shut down all locations. The statement does not provide much explanation for the closures; owners claim that they “explored many avenues to continue the business but found no viable option despite good faith and exhaustive efforts.” 

The closure comes five months after Foxtrot merged with Chicago-based grocery chain Dom’s Kitchen & Market. The food and beverage Substack newsletter Snaxshot has reported that Outfox will file for bankruptcy. 

As of Tuesday, April 23, Foxtrot says it has disabled all customer-facing operations. The chain also says that all store operations, delivery capabilities, and store credits are no longer available. 

The move leaves some people in D.C. in limbo. Foxtrot has not explained how (or if) it will reimburse customers with undelivered delivery purchases or unused store credits. The decision to close also leaves their former employees in the lurch; some employees quickly filed a lawsuit Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, according to Bloomberg. The suit alleges that the company violated federal and state employment laws by laying off employees without notice and is seeking class action status that could include as many as 1,000 employees throughout the country.

Foxtrot was the closest thing D.C. had to the California-based Erewhon, the creme de la creme of absurdly priced boutique grocery chains. Foxtrot was known for its eclectic selection of high-end grocery products, featuring treats such as Geem seaweed snacks and a multitude of chic natural wines. 

While the chain has only been around in the District since 2021, it has developed a cult following. It will be missed by connoisseurs of overpriced snacks and mediocre smoothies.

Cooks, bakers, and baristas at both Wydown coffee shop locations in D.C. have filed an intent to form a union after they say their concerns about mismanagement and mistreatment have gone unaddressed. 

According to the Instagram page for Wydown Workers United, the employees claim that “management has demonstrated a consistent pattern of disregard for the concerns we have brought to their attention in recent months.”

“At both stores, we perceive a lack of urgency in maintaining facilities and equipment,” the post says. “Management has consistently dismissed our concerns regarding espresso machines breaking down in the middle of the day, drains clogging and sewage flooding the floor, recurring lapses in stock, growing pest problems and structural failures.”

The workers are seeking to join the Workers United Mid-Atlantic Regional Joint Board, which represents employees in laundry, fitness, food service, hospitality, manufacturing, and apparel across D.C., Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. 

Wydown ownership responded two days after workers posted their letter of intent online and has chosen to not voluntarily recognize the union. According to their official X account, Wydown Workers United has now filed an election petition with the National Labor Relations Board and will schedule a vote soon. Pro-union workers need a majority of votes cast to win certification. The employees cite short staffing and under-resourcing as two major sources of concern.

Workers from the H Street shop, located on the ground floor of the Apollo apartment building, claim that they were “recently subjected to overt, ongoing verbal abuse at the hands of [their] General Manager,” according to their Instagram post. Despite this manager’s removal, the union claims that workers there are “still experiencing the effects of mismanagement.” 

Holly Costanzo, a barista at The Wydown on H Street, says that problems there reached a new height when the general manager arrived. (Wydown workers have declined to identify the manager). 

Costanzo says the manager would raise his voice at employees. “There were instances where he was supposed to show up for certain shifts, like training shifts with the bakery or kitchen, and he just wouldn’t show up,” Costanzo tells City Paper. “And another co-worker asked him, ‘Hey, where were you? They expected you at the bakery.’ And he raised his voice and shouted, ‘That’s none of your concern. That’s none of your business!’”

Costanzo says that even though this general manager has been removed, issues at the coffee shop still remain. She says they “run out of supplies, like matcha or certain things to make our syrup,” and management is slow to replenish them. She also describes issues with the store’s infrastructure. “We’ve had structural issues, like part of our counter top fell off and that was maybe a month ago … [and] issues with the drain” that have not yet been resolved. “Another really big thing is that we are extremely short-staffed. … It’s very difficult for workers to take breaks because there’s no one to cover it. And also, there’s so much work that needs to be done during the day.”

Christopher Chandler, a barista at the 14th Street location, says, “[There have been] several times where there’s flooding on the floor, and I don’t know the exact health codes, but I just can’t imagine that’s acceptable,” Chandler says. “And mentally it’s just tough to have the flooding going on and not close the store down.” 

Tom Friedl also works at the 14th Street location and handles the burgeoning union’s social media account. He says, “There’s a pretty significant disconnect between what the staff feel should be prioritized and what the owners and the upper management feel is worth prioritizing.”

“I think because we are the people that [customers] see on a daily basis, they believe us when we say there are problems and it’s nice to know that they trust us like that,” Friedl says.

Across the U.S., and in D.C., unions have been forming in recent years in the hospitality industry, from Starbucks to fast food workers. 

“The majority of the time when you go to a coffee shop and you order lavender latte, the person making that for you is making $11 an hour, they don’t have health insurance, and they’re not working enough hours to make any of that work,” Friedl says.

Let’s go, queers! The 2024 lineup for the All Things Go Music Festival just dropped, and the lineup is filled with massive pop performers, most of whom identify as queer. 

The independent music festival returns to Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia on Sept. 28 and 29, for the 10th anniversary of All Things Go. Clearly the organizers at I.M.P. have gone all out with their eclectic lineup in celebration of the event. 

Headliners for the festival include pop princess Reneé Rapp (who just performed on the mainstage at Coachella this weekend), indie darling Hozier (fresh off his sold-out world tour), and Grammy Award-winning vocalist Laufey, who will be joined by the Kennedy Center Orchestra during her performance. 

Known by fans across the District as “Gay-chella,” “All Things Gay,” and “Lesbopalooza,” the festival is famous for platforming queer artists and musicians who often fall under the banner of the gay pop subgenre. This year’s lineup features multiple queer musicians, including Janelle Monáe, Julien Baker, Ethel Cain, Conan Gray, Chappell Roan, and Towa Bird. It’s a return for some artists: Both Cain and Baker performed at last year’s festival, Cain as a midday act and Baker as part of 2023 headliner boygenius.

Tickets for All Things Go Music Festival go on sale this Friday, April 19, at 10 a.m. allthingsgofestival.com.

A group of pro-Palestinian activists in Crystal City chained themselves together, and then to the lobby doors of the offices of Lockheed Martin, a security and aerospace product manufacturer that has contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense.

The protesters began with a march Monday morning starting at Boeing’s corporate headquarters on Long Beach Drive in Arlington. Activists then overtook the street outside of the Lockheed Martin building on Crystal Drive to protest the defense contractor and its contracts with the U.S. military. The action was part of other similar demonstrations around the world.

The nonviolent blockades cut off traffic access to the building between Crystal Drive and Long Bridge Drive earlier this morning. 

The organizers for the protest say that it was organized by “a coalition of groups and activists based in the DMV area,” going under the name Shutdown Lockheed Martin Corp. 

Organizers are demanding “an end to government funding for weapons programs such as the F-35 and F-16 fighter jet programs and an end to arms to Israel,” according to a press release. Last year, Lockheed Martin manufactured Israel’s third squadron of F-35 stealth fighter jets in a $3 billion deal that was financed using aid funding from the United States. 

The protestors used a series of lockboxes and chains to shackle themselves together while displaying signs that say “Our taxes fund Lockheed Martin’s war crimes,” “Israel Kills, Lockheed Profits,” and “Free Palestine.” A paper-mache olive tree placed in the entrance had the phrase “End the Occupation” inscribed on it.

According to footage provided by activists, the police cut off the lockboxes, and demonstrators were escorted out of the lobby shortly after their demonstration began. 

In their press release, the demonstrators are demanding an “end to the genocide in Gaza and the Israeli occupation of Palestine,” an end to all U.S. military funding and U.S. sale of arms to Israel, and an end to American tax dollars being spent on military weapons manufacturers. Instead, the group calls for investments in health care, housing, and other social services.

This protest is at least the second demonstration at Lockheed Martin’s Arlington location since the start of the Israel-Hamas war. The last protest happened in November 2023. During another demonstration at the Lockheed Martin office in Sunnyvale, California, earlier this month, an employee allegedly drove his vehicle toward protesters and brandished a knife.

Three D.C. men have been indicted on charges related to a carjacking and robbery crime spree that lasted multiple weeks and involved one of the men climbing through a McDonald’s drive-through window in a failed attempt to steal the cash register, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C.

The spree ultimately ended March 28, after a police shooting in Prince George’s County outside a GameStop.

The three men, Kanard Bishop, 26, Edward LeRoy Brown, 24, and Khalil Boyd, 18, have all been indicted for charges related to the spree. Filed in U.S. District Court for D.C. April 10, the 14-count indictment alleges that Bishop, Brown (also known as “Shiesty”), and Boyd targeted fast food restaurants, convenience stores, and package delivery vehicles while driving around in stolen cars from March 17 through 28.

On March 17, the indictment alleges that the three men, wearing masks, carjacked a 2008 Mercedes Benz at gunpoint on the 4300 block of Southern Avenue SE, taking the victims’ “car, phones, wallet and cash.”

On March, 20, the indictment alleges, the men carjacked a 2018 Dodge Durango with black racing stripes and committed six armed robberies, including at least two unsuccessful robbery attempts at two separate McDonald’s restaurants. 

According to a press release from the USAO, around 3 a.m. at a McDonald’s in Capitol Heights, “two masked, armed suspects climbed through a drive-thru window and attempted to open the register by pressing random buttons but were unsuccessful.” 

The crew then allegedly robbed the Denny’s on Benning Road NE. “The employee couldn’t open the cash register so the gunmen ripped the register off the counter and fled,” according to prosecutors. Less than an hour later, the crew allegedly hit another McDonald’s, this time in Landover. “One of the gunmen attempted to climb through the drive thru window but was pushed back out by the cashier,” according to the USAO’s press release. 

The thefts continued on March 27, when the three men allegedly carjacked a 2022 Dodge Challenger in District Heights. Hours later, they allegedly stole several packages from a FedEx truck. 

The final string of robberies allegedly occurred March 28, when the men were caught in the 2022 Dodge Challenger attempting to rob a GameStop in the 5700 block of Silver Hill Road in District Heights. Detectives from the Prince George’s County Police Department’s Carjacking Interdiction Unit had been watching the stolen car when they identified Brown and Bishop, who walked into the video game store and attempted to rob it.

Bishop fled on foot and was apprehended after a short chase. A detective shot at Brown in the parking lot, striking him in the lower body. Boyd, the getaway driver, led police on a car chase and was arrested in D.C. During the arrest, police recovered loaded guns on Bishop and Brown.

A bunch of jerks looking to score a free Koozie and stupid stuffed bear or something managed to commit one of the seven deadly sins of D.C.* while at the same time smearing the Queen of Country.

News broke via Jacob Rubashkin, deputy editor for Inside Elections, on X last week about a trivia cheating scandal at Red Bear Brewing Co. Rubashkin, a frequent attendee of the brewery’s Wednesday evening event, posted in a thread, which now has more than 4,300 “likes,” that the reigning champions of the past few weeks were caught using Shazam on an Apple Watch during the music round to bolster their scores. There were also “allegations of Googling.”

The allegations were later confirmed by one of the brewery’s co-owners Simon Bee in an interview with Axios.

Bee says the cheaters have been barred from participating in their trivia going forward, but declined to name them or even the name of their team. It seems everyone is desperate to discover their identities, but in the week since that City Paper has spent trying to identify the dirty rotten cheaters, we have found no one willing to snitch. (Anyone with information can find me at csposato@washingtoncitypaper.com.)

We couldn’t learn their government names, but here’s what we know: The cheaters were a duo that went under multiple team aliases throughout their time competing at Red Bear. Rubashkin says this is a common practice for most trivia teams. 

Two of their aliases have been confirmed by multiple sources. The week the team was caught, they were using the name “Single Moms Who Work Two Jobs Who Love Their Kids and Never Stop,” which has not only brought shame on to the cheaters themselves but has tarnished Reba McEntire’s good name as well. The team also previously played under the name “We Asked for the Brit Kate and We Got Kate Britt,” a lame reference to Kate Britt‘s response to the State of the Union.

Ryan Smith is a member of the team that came in second to the cheaters the week they were caught, March 27.

It was “devastating, but fine,” he says.

On the night in question, he says, “one of my teammates went up to collect our prize and she came back and she sat down and she said, ‘Guys, I think the team that came in first was cheating.’ We were like, ‘What, what’s going on?’ And she said that she heard the bartenders talking to the trivia hosts about the potential that the other team was cheating, and they were caught doing it. And we were like, ‘Haven’t they won for a couple of weeks in a row now?’” 

Rubashkin posted about the scandal on X a few days later.

“We were furious,” Smith says. “Both because we had come in second to them, but also like, who cheats in trivia? It’s so low stakes and it’s more about just having fun with your friends and the fact that there were people there who were cheating, just kind of takes the fun out of it.” 

Indeed, the stakes were decidedly and devastatingly low. Red Bear offers two kinds of prizes at its trivia night. Players can win individual rounds, and they’re awarded with booze. The overall competition recognizes the top three teams, and the first place prize usually consists of a prize pack that includes a hat, a Koozie, some stickers, a Red Bear plushie, and a $10 gift card to the brewery.

Smith says that the scandal has galvanized his team. “We should have won that week, and I think that means that we can win again,” he says. “We are determined to keep on going until we get that first place.”

Red Bear hosts a series of highly popular trivia nights throughout the week. More than 40 teams competed at the NoMa brewery’s April 3 event, when the cheating scandal was revealed. 

Players watched in horror as the Quizmasters, William Burlew, Neil Offner, and DJ, replaced their regularly scheduled opening presentation slide that usually celebrated the previous week’s winners with a “very stern warning” about cheating in the trivia games, according to Rubashkin.

Red Bear has taken a proactive stance against the cheating. In addition to banning the offending team, the brewery also started issuing a warning at the top of each game, reminding players about the consequences, which range from excommunication to execution (j/k, j/k but it should).

“It is not Red Bear’s fault, it is not the host’s fault,” Smith tells City Paper. “It was a couple of people who decided that they didn’t want to have fun, they wanted to win, which was a very silly way of approaching bar trivia. We love going to Red Bear. It’s one of my favorite breweries in the city. It’s a fun way to spend our Wednesday nights, so we will continue to be going. And hopefully when we win, nobody will accuse us of cheating.”

Even while Red Bear is now in a position where it has to be hard-asses about cracking down on unfair advantages, the Quizmasters have managed to maintain some of the fun by leaning into the chaos. The theme for last Wednesday’s night trivia: scandals. 

*The Seven Deadly sins of D.C., according to City Paper’s exhaustive and completely scientific research include, in no particular order: 

1. Standing on the left side of the Metro escalator

2. Muting the go-go music at the Metro PCS store

3. Being annoyed by mumbo sauce

4. Accepting a cash bribe inside an NFL cup

5. Letting the bitch set you up

6. Trying to shop on the Mall

7. And, of course, cheating at trivia, you assholes. Reveal yourselves!

Honorable mentions: Calling it “Reagan” instead of National; saying “City Council” (it’s D.C. Council); putting “the” in front of Palisades; saying you live in D.C. when you know damn well you live in Arlington; asking “what do you do?” on a date; exclaiming: “no one’s really from D.C.”; quadrant confusion.

Newly released police body camera footage of the nonfatal shooting of Deion Hinnant shows the 31-year-old running from Metropolitan Police Department officers while one of them repeatedly yells, “Let me see your hands!” The officer, identified as Investigator Bryan Madera, warns Hinnant that “I’m going to shoot you” before he fires about 12 shots, striking Hinnant.

D.C. Police have only publicly released body camera footage from Madera’s camera, though in previous police shootings, they have provided footage from multiple officers. MPD spokesperson Tom Lynch says the department only releases footage from multiple officers in fatal shootings. D.C. law requires MPD to release body camera footage and identify officers involved in serious and fatal uses of force within five working days of the incident. 

A representative with the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

Hinnant was shot around 8:50 p.m. on April 1, in the Langdon neighborhood in Northeast. He survived the shooting and is now facing criminal charges. Hinnant’s public defender did not respond to a request for comment.

Madera’s body camera footage, which is slightly obscured because the officer is running, shows Madera and other officers chasing Hinnant for about 19 seconds before Hinnant is seen stumbling as he cuts around a corner. Madera then fires multiple rounds into Hinnant’s back . An affidavit filed in D.C. Superior Court says that as Hinnant was running from the officers, he “appears to fall to the ground with his back to [Madera]. Defendant Hinnant gets up and turns his body 90 degrees to the right (eastbound), in the direction of [Madera].

“Defendant Hinnant then bends down reaching toward the ground with his right hand, appearing to retrieve an object,” the affidavit continues. “[Madera] discharged his service pistol multiple times at Defendant Hinnant.”

The affidavit does not say that Hinnant pointed the pistol at Madera or any other officer. But after he was initially shot and then stood up, the affidavit says, it appeared as if he attempted to toss the object in his hand, which officers believed was a pistol.

The affidavit says police later found a magazine at the corner of Bladensburg Road and V Street NE and a Hi-Point 9mm pistol on the roof of the building at 2110 Bladensburg Rd. NE.

According to the affidavit, officers working with the Violent Crime Suppression Division allegedly saw Hinnant get into an argument with an “unknown person.” Officers then claim that they saw Hinnant reach into “a satchel that was slung across his body, making officers believe that he was in possession of a firearm.” Hinnant began chasing the unknown person, according to police, prompting three officers to exit their unmarked patrol vehicles in pursuit. Another officer driving a marked car also joined the chase.

Hinnant has been charged with unlawful possession of a firearm due to a prior felony conviction, possession of an unregistered firearm and unregistered ammunition, assault on a police officer while armed, and possession with intent to distribute drugs. The affidavit says officers found a plastic baggie with a “white powdery substance the approximate size of a silver dollar,” along with two scales and $124 in cash.

Madera is on administrative leave while the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C. reviews the case for potential criminal charges. Then MPD will conduct an internal investigation. No other officers are on administrative leave, Lynch says.

This article has been updated with comment from MPD.

A lawsuit filed this week in the U.S. District Court for D.C. alleges that D.C. and the Federal Bureau of Prisons are denying incarcerated D.C. students an education, in violation of their Fifth Amendment rights and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

The plaintiffs, Makel Barnes and Darius McNeal, are incarcerated at two separate BOP facilities—Barnes, 22, in United States Penitentiary Canaan in Pennsylvania, and McNeal, 23, in Federal Correctional Institute Pollock in Louisiana. Both plaintiffs are D.C. residents who have not been allowed to enroll in a high school diploma program and have been denied access to special education services since they were sent to their respective BOP facilities.

Much of this issue stems from the fact that D.C. does not have its own prison and does not have control over those serving prison sentences for violations of D.C. law. Under the Revitalization Act, D.C. prisoners are shipped off to federal prisons run by the BOP, often hundreds of miles away from the District, to serve their time.

By contrast, the D.C. Department of Corrections, which runs the D.C. Jail, provides people in their custody with educational services through the Maya Angelou Public Charter School. New Beginnings Youth Development Center and the Youth Services Center, D.C.’s juvenile lockups where Barnes and McNeal were held respectively before they were transferred to the BOP, also provide educational services, according to the lawsuit.

This week, the D.C. Council passed a bill designating DOC as the agency responsible for providing education to incarcerated students.

The Washington Lawyers’ Committee, the nonprofit School Justice Project, and law firm Nixon Peabody filed the case on behalf of Barnes and McNeal and are asking a judge to grant class action status, meaning any rulings would also apply to students in BOP’s custody serving D.C. sentences.  

The lawsuit names District of Columbia Public Schools, the Office of the State Superintendent, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons as defendants and alleges that D.C. has “deprived every eligible D.C. student with disabilities serving a sentence in the BOP the education to which they are entitled for the entire time they are incarcerated.” 

In the lawsuit, Barnes and McNeal’s legal team outlines a series of denials from BOP that shaped the bulk of their complaint.

On July 25, 2019, BOP scheduled a teleconference with the D.C. Office of the Attorney General, and lawyers for DCPS and OSSE. After those conversations, BOP made it clear that it would not centralize D.C.’s incarcerated students in one facility, nor would it give the District access to these students within their facilities. 

Both Barnes and McNeal filed administrative due process complaints on Feb. 21, 2023. The pair alleged that the District deprived them and their peers of a free appropriate public education, as required under federal law.

On June 27, 2023, DCPS and OSSE sent a letter to BOP requesting access in order to provide eligible students from the District with “free appropriate public education,” as the law requires.

On Dec. 15, 2023, a hearing officer overseeing Barnes and McNeal’s complaints held that “the District violates the [Individuals with Disabilities Education Act] by failing to provide [free appropriate public education] to the Plaintiffs.”

Despite those rulings, Barnes and McNeal still have not received any educational services, according to the complaint.

Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, all students with disabilities are guaranteed the availability of a “a free appropriate public education that emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for further education, employment, and independent living.”

IDEA also requires that all states receiving federal funding under the law will provide “a free appropriate public education to all children with disabilities residing in the State between the ages of 3 and 21.” In D.C., all institutions are required to provide education to students with disabilities until the end of the school year in which they turn 22.

“The District is denying D.C. students with disabilities incarcerated in the BOP their right to an education – plain and simple. Young people in the BOP want their education,” Marja Plater, senior counsel at the Washington Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, says in a press statement. “Their rights matter, and they deserve to return home having had an opportunity to gain the skills necessary to successfully reintegrate into the community.”

Tayo Belle, deputy director of the School Justice Project, addressed the unique predicament of incarcerated students with disabilities convicted in D.C. 

“Our clients have been deprived of their rights to special education instruction and services while incarcerated for violations of the D.C. Code solely because of their status as D.C. residents,” Belle says. “If our clients were from any other jurisdiction, they would be serving their terms of incarceration for violating state law in a state facility where they would have access to the education they are entitled to under federal law. Instead, our clients who only want access to an education so they may earn a high school diploma and return to their community are being denied this opportunity.”

By denying these students their right to education, D.C. and the BOP are increasing their potential for recidivism, according to the complaint. A press release from the U.S. Department of Education says that “providing education in prison is proven to reduce recidivism rates and is associated with higher employment rates, which will improve public safety and allow individuals to return home to their communities and contribute to society.” 

“If we want to think about rehabilitative efforts for those of our citizens who are returning to the communities following their release and second chances, we have to also think about the ways in which we can ensure that they have access to their right to an education as one of the most basic points of citizenship,” Belle says. 

In addition to class action status, the lawsuit asks a judge to order the BOP to transfer D.C. prisoners to one facility so that they can receive an education to which they are entitled. The suit also asks a judge to order D.C. to provide those services, including access to a high school diploma program and special education.

“D.C. doesn’t have an option but to provide access to education to any student who is IDEA-eligible,” Belle tells City Paper. “This is not a real choice for D.C. to pick and choose whether it decides to provide education to some students over others. These students are no different than students within the community.”

A seemingly undesirable little cherry blossom tree has captured the imagination of D.C. and the rest of the country. 

Stumpy is a tiny, emaciated nub of a tree that sits on a flooded patch of land on the Tidal Basin near the Jefferson Memorial. Despite his appearance, which looks to have sustained some real structural damage, he manages to bloom cherry blossoms year after year. (Colloquially Stumpy has been gendered; folks use he/him pronouns to refer to the tree, mostly because he was popularized through a meme by a teenage boy.)

And now, it seems like the entire area is infected with a real Stumpy mania. Hundreds of people have made the pilgrimage to see Stumpy the Cherry Blossom tree during this year’s blooming season. He has his own mascot. National outlets such as the New York Times, NPR, and NBC News have written entire articles dedicated to the tree’s popularity. On March 30, he was featured in a joke on Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update with Michael Che and Colin Jost. 

The perseverant little tree has been a rising star in D.C. for the past four years. But soon, his light will be extinguished. 

Stumpy is one of 158 cherry trees along the National Mall that must be chopped down this spring. The move is part of a $113 million project aimed at rehabilitating the seawalls around the Tidal Basin and along the Potomac River through West Potomac Park. These repairs must be made in order to protect the majority of cherry trees from long-term damage due to failing infrastructure and rising sea levels. 

According to Mike Litterist, the chief of communications for the National Park Service, the damage Stumpy has sustained from inundation on the Tidal Basin is what has given him his atrophied appearance.

In an incredibly harrowing and deeply poetic way, it seems that the very damage that made Stumpy famous is also what is causing his demise.

Since the announcement about the trees’ removal on March 13, people in the D.C. area have rushed to memorialize the tree before it is too late. 

Stumpy’s first taste of fame came on Feb. 26, 2020, on the well-loved Washington D.C. subreddit. Jackson Winfrey, a high school senior from Kansas City visiting D.C. on a class trip, spotted the wounded cherry blossom tree, snapped a picture, and posted Stumpy to the subreddit. The post went viral on the hyper-local thread, capturing the attention of more than 500 users. 

Winfrey’s original post was meant to be a joke. It featured a photo of Stumpy pre-bloom with the caption, “This tree a little aways from Jefferson memorial is as dead as my love life, but I love it!” 

But Stumpy’s powerful imagery resonated deeply with many of the subreddit’s users. Instead of making people laugh, the tree prompted a sense of earnestness from the online community. Seeking to uplift both Stumpy and Winfrey, users wrote comments like, “May you bloom like this tree in the next few months” and “​​No matter how much they cut you down, let your light shine.” 

Since then, Stumpy has amassed a cult following online. Posters regularly submitted updates on his progress to the D.C. subreddit. Each spring, images of Stumpy’s full bloom during peak cherry blossom season flood social media sites including Twitter (now X) and TikTok. 

In 2023, WBALTV 11 called Stumpy a star among the Tidal Basin cherry blossoms. 

Since autumn of 2023, the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10 Mile and 5K has worked on making 2024 its “Year of Stumpy.” The CUCB planning committee has gone all out with this rollout. The group has unveiled an entire celebration of Stumpy’s life, complete with 25,000 T-shirts for runners and volunteers, 15,000 medals for participants who complete the runs, and an official 6-foot mascot. 

CUCB event director Phil Stewart says this celebration focuses on what Stumpy means to people around the region. “Stumpy is like a lot of us. We try harder and we make the most of what we’ve got,” Stewart tells City Paper. “Resilience is, I think, really key. It ties in with a lot of the runners who are running in the race.”  

The CUCB organizing committee received thousands of submissions for the T-shirt design contest for its 2024 races that take place on April 6 and 7, and its members drawn to a submission featuring Stumpy because of his perseverance. “We just felt like there was a natural connection between Stumpy and the participants in our race,” Stewart says. “We have runners of all abilities and for a lot of the participants in our race, completing this race is a big accomplishment and it takes a lot of resilience.”

Jessica Pascual is the local graphic designer who came up with the concept to use Stumpy as the focal point for this year’s races. She says Stumpy’s story inspired her to create the design for the T-shirt contest. “We were going around and looking at the cherry blossoms, and Stumpy was still alive,” Pascual says. “And I’m like, wow, this little tree by the Tidal Basin is still alive. It’s still flourishing. It’s resilient, essentially, and then I got the idea. That resonates with a lot of runners because you want to be resilient when you run.” 

For Pascual, that kind of powerful persistence is at the heart of Stumpy’s resonance. “It’s like an underdog story … You don’t have to be the prettiest tree out there. You don’t have to be the fastest runner in this Credit Union Cherry Blossom race. It’s your drive to stay alive or survive and work through all of whatever is around you … so I guess that’s why Stumpy has resonated with people.”

Stewart agrees that this aspect of Stumpy’s story is what has made him into such an important symbol. “Stumpy represents the underdog in a way: fighting back from challenges and triumphing over adversity … I’ve called him the little cherry tree that could,” Stewart says. “He’s smaller. He’s just got those few little blossoms coming out at the top, but darn it, he’s trying just as hard as those big, giant cherry trees that are all around him with a full head of bloom and so forth.”

While Stumpy will no longer grow in the Tidal Basin, he will live on in the hearts of the thousands across the D.C. area and the country. 

The National Park Service has cuttings from Stumpy that may be cloned and planted once the rehabilitation work is completed. And the CUCB has decided to adopt Stumpy’s story for their races permanently.

“Stumpy will become our permanent logo. He will continue to live on and appear this year and will appear next year and indefinitely,” Stewart says. “So we like to think that we’re providing a bridge for Stumpy to live on into the future.” 

The impact of this little cherry blossom tree will be felt for years to come. Stumpy’s story of hope and trying has made him into a cultural icon. 

Long live Stumpy the cherry blossom tree.