Friends of Stead Recreation Center

Friends of Stead

BEFORE

Our Dupont neighborhood has limited green space and that makes Stead Recreation Center at 1625 P Street NW all the more important. For too many years, I have argued that Stead should be a green welcoming and inviting neighborhood treasure. For too many years, Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) did no maintenance. I was so fed up with how ugly and dirty Stead looked that I started doing regular cleanups. Dupont Circle Citizens Association (DCCA) bought me the first weed-eater to cut down the weeds in front of the playground. After about ten years, I had worn out two weed-eaters and was using a third one before Parks and Recreation started their own regular maintenance.

In years past, I regularly picked up intact beer bottles, broken beer bottles, and even the occasional shell casing. The arrival of MPD Lt. Diane Groomes, now MPD Deputy Chief, meant strict police enforcement and the end of finding shell casings and broken beer bottles.

FIRST FRIENDS OF

Dupont resident and now City Paper Editor, Erik Wemple, started the first Friends of Stead to help me out and provide some structure for making improvements to Stead. During this time, The University Club did a major cleanup one year, followed by building a pergola to provide shade for the sandbox. Over the years, the Club has sponsored annual events for kids at Stead.

The biggest boost during this time was when a landscaping company donated and installed an irrigation system in the field, smoothed out the playing field and put down new sod. They also beautifully landscaped the front of Stead. One unforgettable memory was a meeting just before the installation. The landscaper spoke to Friends of Stead, Parks and Recreation Maintenance Manager, Stead Manager, other city officials and residents. He said, “Stead will look great when we put in everything, but the key will be maintaining what we’ve done.” Every single person including Parks and Recreation Managers turned and looked at me. DPR managers all knew that they were not going to take responsibility. Their lack of accountability and responsibility continues unfortunately to this day.

SECOND FRIENDS OF

The first Friends died from lack of Parks and Recreation support. The second Friends of has had success and while it took too many years we now have the current Stead renovations in progress. The improvements cover the area from the sidewalk to the building. Finally, the ugly unwelcoming chain link fences are gone. The new steps and handicap access are welcoming and inviting. The playing field remains in use. Wendy Meltzer deserves several gold stars for heading Friends of Stead and for persistently fighting to get the Stead renovations started and hopefully completed soon.

RATS AND CHILDREN

Stead provides a perfect situation for rats. Multiple restaurants along 17th Street NW with their trash in the alley adjacent to the Stead field provide a food supply. Stead playground provides plenty of space for rat burrows. DPR’s rat abatement contact for most years was so low that it barely payed for gas for the exterminator to come by, much less do proper abatement. However, the contract allowed DPR to claim they were doing something. While cleaning up, I frequently counted dozens of rat holes-both in the field and in the front area. At one point I made signs with arrows pointing to the rat holes and reading, RAT HOLES.” Department of Public Works (DPW) agreed to start abating the rats at Stead. DPW’s Ronnie Herrington gets credit for any progress against rats at Stead, not DPR.

MAINTANENCE?

The irrigation system sometimes gets a needed inspection and turned on in the spring and off in the fall and sometimes not. It should not require citizen’s complaints in order to get the irrigation maintained and used, but it does.

Parks and Recreation maintenance has been only somewhat successful. I always loved planting liriope because it was dog pee resistant, drought resistant, green year around and I thought indestructible. Parks department showed me that you could kill liriope. In the heat of summer, cut the liriope down to the ground with a weed eater and killed all the liriope that I had planted.

All the great landscaping mentioned earlier had become overgrown and needed trimming. Did Parks and Recreation trim and clean? No. They removed every healthy green growing plant in the front area and as replacements put in half-dead plants. Most of them died. Eventually, DPR did replace the dead plants. I was so upset by that fiasco that I stopped doing anything at Stead. Some time after that, a grandmother visiting from Atlanta, GA, was so horrified by the appearance of Stead after taking her grandchildren there that she asked if I would help her weed the front area. How bad is it when visitors to our city are embarrassed by the appearance of our DC Parks and Recreation public property? I did help her weed and clean up Stead.

Several different growing seasons recently, there were hundreds of blooming flowers in the front area and Stead looked so much better. Parks and Recreation fixed that improvement, by chopping down all the blooming flowers. The following year they again chopped down the blooming flowers, but did spare the daffodils and tulips that I had planted over the years.

ACTIVITIES

Stead should provide programs and activities for kids and adults of all ages. Individual groups, primarily adults, may rent the field, but Stead conducts no activities for kids or adults to use the field. Can Stead rightly be called a recreation center without any programs and activities?

MURAL

Any mention of Stead must include a grateful thanks to the owner of Skewers and now Busboys and Poets, Andy Shallal. When there was a kid’s ball team, he bought uniforms and equipment for the kids. He has twice provided money to paint a large mural on the west side of Stead overlooking the full sized basketball court.