Dear Mayor Muriel Bowser, City Council Members, Members of the Office of Planning, Members of the ANC and the DC Zoning Commission,

We are writing to express our concern regarding case #15-19 which would displace the artists, creatives, and entrepreneurs currently housed within the Union Arts Building at 411 New York Avenue, NE, Washington, DC 20009.

The Union Arts building at 411 New York Ave NE is the last collective art space of its kind in Washington, DC. It is currently home to more than 100 artists across all genres and several small business incubators. The Union Arts building has served as the hub of creative activity within the district for over 40 years. Throughout this time it has served and catalyzed innumerable artists, musicians, writers and performers throughout the city. The building has incubated go-go, jazz, punk, moombahton and other distinctive DC music traditions over the past four decades and it continues to serve the community it reflects on a daily basis. The makeup of Union Arts artists is hugely diverse in age, race, and artistic practice and it is a valuable cultural asset to the city. It is a vibrant and inclusive ecosystem that naturally evolved over the course of decades and it is a space in DC that reflects the diverse and international character of the broader DC population (both natives and transplants). The artists who have called this building home have contributed immensely in shaping our distinctive DC culture that we know and love. It is the culture they helped create that we see at the heart of initiatives like the “Made in DC” bill or the “DC Cool” initiative. However, these artists, creators and makers are facing the erasure of their history and contributions to the city.

Our concern is not merely with change; change is inevitable. However, the rights and needs of the Union Artists were disregarded in June 2015 when the property was bought by developers D.B Lee and Brooke Rose (411 New York Avenue, LLC), who propose to largely demolish the historic warehouse and build a “boutique hotel with an arts program” in its place. The artists of Union Arts were not properly consulted and informed of this plan before receiving notice to vacate. Instead of working with the artists who already work and lease space in Union Arts, arts advocacy group, Cultural DC, was solicited to create an arts program in the new development. This plan will displace 100+ artists and cause the loss of 35,000 sq. ft. of creative workspace within an already space starved city. In all documentation to the ANC and Office of Planning the developers communicated that there would be no displacement. We are writing to tell you that we do in fact exist.

We believe that it is the responsibility of the citizens to be engaged in the democratic process. We also believe that it is the city’s responsibility to take a bold and active stance in communicating to developers and other outside influences that the needs of its citizens come before profit. We believe the city must step up and prove its commitment to its creative class and actively ensure that public spaces exist for creation and communication to take place between all sectors of the population. We will continue to hold our elected officials accountable to ensure their attention and time extends to all its citizens and that the Washington DC we imagine has a place for all of us to live, work, dream and create.

For us, that battle begins with the Union Arts building. The irony of displacing and scattering an art enclave to make space for art is not a new course of action for developers to attempt. At this moment we have a critical opportunity to do it right. Throughout the DC Creative Action Agenda and its Creative Placemaking initiatives the city is openly considering what part in the revitalization process that artists can and should play in enhancing the vibrancy of our city and imagining what our communities will look like in the future. We have seen time and again that city planners have the disheartening task of going back to “recover” what was destroyed by earlier waves of rapid development and displacement. For example, the city’s recent commitment to build 1,000 new artist live/work spaces within DC while the site of the first artist loft conversion space (the Union Arts building) is facing destruction. We have a unique opportunity to stop the destruction of a cultural treasure that embodies all the lofty ideals and goals the Office of Planning and the City Council talks about in recently passed bills and initiatives. The infrastructure already exists and people are doing the work. We invite the City to step up and protect the Union Artists and defend us against forced displacement so we can continue our work to create an inclusive and creative culture for the city we live in, vote in and love.

Sincerely Your Engaged Citizens,