WINNER OF SIX SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS D.C. AWARDS FOR 2022
Celebrating 58 Years - Vol. 58, No. 29 • May 4-10, 2023
Pharrell Williams on Artists Rights
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‘IT SEEMS LIKE THEY’RE ROBBING US’
Talbert Terrace Residents Fight for Community Park By Kayla Benjamin WI Climate & Environment Writer Karen Hilliard, 68, has seen her Southeast, D.C. neighborhood change profoundly in the years since she first moved there as a 2-year-old. New condominiums have sprouted among the townhouses that have long made up the Talbert Terrace community in Ward 8. Hilliard’s new neighbors have trended younger, and the historically Black area has become far more racially mixed. But Hilliard said Talbert Terrace, despite all these changes, has managed to hold onto its spirit and “close-knit” community.
“There’s definitely been gentrification,” she said. “But the community is still the same, we still have that same bond. I think this is a unique neighborhood because everybody knows everyone.” That sense of community has become particularly crucial in recent months, as a handful of neighbors— Hilliard included—have continued a decades-old fight to protect a cherished green space. The lot across from Hilliard’s home, used as a neighborhood park for decades, has recently become the site for a planned 18-unit development.
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5 Karen Hilliard (center) joins other Talbert Terrace neighborhood residents in a short march on April 8 in support of protecting a beloved community green space. (Kayla Benjamin / The Washington Informer)
Dr. Ben Vinson III Tapped as 18th President of HU
Students Express Jubilation, Concern about HU’s Department of Defense Contract By Sam P.K. Collins WI Staff Writer
5Dr. Ben Vinson III, 18th president of Howard University (Courtesy Photo/ Howard University)
A year-long search for the next president of Howard University (HU) has culminated in the selection of Dr. Ben Vinson III as the institution’s 18th president. Vinson currently serves the provost, executive vice president, and Hiram C. Haydn professor of history at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. In assuming the helm at HU, Vinson makes his return to the D.C. metropolitan area after previously serving
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Bowser Set on Protecting K Street Transitway Project By Sam P.K. Collins WI Staff Writer
Adjustments to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s fiscal year 2024 budget proposal that defund the K Street Transitway and increase fees on rideshares going downtown have further emboldened the mayor and other local officials to press on with plans to revitalize Downtown D.C. On Monday, Bowser, D.C. Councilmember 5 On Monday, May 1, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2), D.C. Department of (D), D.C. Councilmember Brooke Pinto (D-Ward 2), D.C. Department of Transportation Director Everett Lott and several others converged on Franklin Park in Northwest to demand that the D.C. Council reallocates funds to a multi-year construction project intended to set up dedicated bus lanes and bike lanes along the K Street corridor and portions of L Street. (Shedrick Pelt/ The Washington Informer)
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