by Sacha Haworth

The Kennedy Street corridor, specifically between Georgia Ave and North Capitol Street, has long been a target for revitalization by the District. In 2022, DC’s Office of Planning quietly released a streetscape design for the stretch, with guidelines intended to help the District and developers with bringing in new projects and public spaces, and which in particular targeted 5th & Kennedy as a vibrant neighborhood “hub.”

Despite notable setbacks brought by the COVID-19 pandemic and the short-lived and controversial playable art installation, Kennedy Street is showing promise. Shellfish Market, a seafood restaurant owned by a local entrepreneur, opened on the northeast corner of 5th and Kennedy in spring of 2023, the new location of La Coop Coffee will be coming to the southwest corner, and the vacant buildings on the northwest side were recently sold to a developer. Condo buildings continue to spring up, and the cluster of restaurants and shops further west around the 7th Street intersection is a veritable mini-restaurant district.

And now there may be another opening on the horizon: that of a Kennedy Street Public Library. Neighbors, advocates, ANC commissioners and Ward 4 Councilmember Janeese Lewis George are all helping to accelerate what has sometimes been a slow and opaque process.

At the end of 2022, after much lobbying by Councilmember Lewis George, the Mayor’s budget included $5 million to fund the allocation of a construction site for a new library on Kennedy Street — a victory in that the budget initially didn’t include any funding for a new library at all. Nearly a year later in November 2023, without any further action from the city, ANC 4D passed a resolution in support of using the funds the Council allocated to buy land for the Kennedy Street library and shared it with the Administration.

One of the members of ANC 4D and Chair of its Library Task Force, 4D01 Commissioner Joy Pinkney, believes a library on Kennedy will help the area recover.

“It is about saving a community that has been hit very hard from decades of change,” she said. “Developers are coming in, shutting down services like CVS or grocery stores, refusing to offer them the opportunity to stay, so those communities are now without that service, that pharmacy.”

Pinkney, who worked at a library as a teenager, lauds libraries for the services and possibilities they provide, and envisions a media center where locals could learn computer skills, perhaps a social-services component, or an art gallery. “The sky’s the limit,” she said.

An empty-looking Kennedy street on a cold day could get warmed up with a new public library.

The Commission has sent out a Request for Proposal (RFP) for developers in the area to compete for the project, and has identified a proposed building site on Kennedy, which could also accommodate housing units. Meanwhile, in March, the Office of Planning and Economic Development will have to report their efforts on purchasing the land to the Council.

Councilmember Lewis George, who is also Chair of the Council’s Committee on Facilities and Family Services, pressed At-Large Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie for updates during a recent Council meeting, asking McDuffie whether he had spoken with Nina Albert, the then-Acting Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development and the person designated to oversee the project. Apparently McDuffie had reached out, but Albert never responded. Lewis George has also raised it directly with Richard Reyes-Gavilan, Executive Director of D.C. Public Library, and reached out to City Administrator Kevin Donahu, securing their public commitments to the Kennedy Library project.

On January 31st, the Council heard directly from the neighborhood. Community members took advantage of a hearing on making Albert’s position permanent to share their feelings on the promise of a library. Residents submitted testimony in advance, or showed up in person to deliver their thoughts on what the neighborhood needed.

In submitted testimony, one resident, Doreen Thompson, said she was elated at the plan for a library on Kennedy, saying she believes in “libraries as foundational community spaces which change lives…. I also look forward to Ms. Albert managing the $5 million the Council has allocated for this library by following through on the commitment to bring this much-needed public resource to Kennedy Street.”

Nina Albert was confirmed as the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development on February 6th. Although her role has not changed in anything but title and permanence, Brightwood Park residents hope this confirmation will mean the Administration will be more responsive to their outreach. Commissioner Pinkney is organizing a petition to the Office of Planning and Economic Development and the Council to be signed by residents who support the project.

Councilmember Lewis George also met with Deputy Mayor Albert after her confirmation hearing, where Albert pledged to work with DC Public Library and the Council to advance the acquisition of the land.

“This is about transforming our public spaces and meeting our community's full needs,” said Lewis George in a statement to Petworth News.

“It is not enough for Kennedy Street to be an opportunity zone for development. Kennedy Street also needs to be an opportunity zone for all the families, young children, immigrants, seniors, and working people who live in this community, which is a library desert,” Lewis George said. “Kennedy Street deserves the same resources that other DC neighborhoods take for granted.[The] funding is available now, and we need both the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development and DC Public Library to partner together on acquiring the land as soon as possible.”

“There is already a shovel-ready site that meets the requirements to become our new library,” Lewis George said, “while also delivering much-needed housing units. This project would be a win for Kennedy Street, a win for the District, and a win for our library system — but it is now up to the Administration to take action.”