If you haven’t already heard: 2018 is the “Year of the Anacostia.”

What began as a conversation between a few organizations (the Anacostia Waterfront Trust, the National Park Service, the Anacostia Watershed Society and the 11th Street Bridge Park) has grown into a collaborative effort between over 70 different public, private and nonprofit entities.

These groups joined together to create “a yearlong invitation to honor history, celebrate progress, and enjoy the Anacostia River and its surroundings while envisioning an inspiring future.” And it has been a big success.

On May 30, 2018, the Anacostia Waterfront Trust partnered with Resilient DC and the Urban Waters Federal Partnership to host a one-day conference and ideas forum titled “Equity, Resilience & the Anacostia River Corridor.” The purpose of this event was to convene experts, leaders and practitioners in park programming and urban planning to share experiences and best practices in building equitable and resilient urban waterfronts.  

As Ambassador with the Anacostia River Urban Waters Federal Partnership, I recently hosted a conversation alongside Jonathan Goodell of the Alice Ferguson Foundation about mapping efforts in the Anacostia River watershed. There are many groups in the watershed who currently use mapping platforms or manage geographic data, and this event was an opportunity to share information with each other and identify possible ways to work together. Below is a summary of the conversation, organized by topic area with links to online maps included. If you would like to share links to additional maps or datasets, or join the conversation about mapping, please contact me.

All major religions have strong themes about protecting the earth. Rain Gardens are a practical way to do it, and, in DC, can bring real monetary benefits to houses of worship by “monetizing” their rooftops, parking lots and roads.

As some advocates begin to question whether the restoration of the Anacostia River corridor might contribute to patterns of inequitable economic growth in DC and in Maryland, I have wondered: What can the people in charge of parks and green space do to maximize positive benefits for nearby residents while minimizing the negative possible impacts like displacement?

Before investigating the second question, I looked into the first: What kind of benefits do parks provide communities?

Thanks to the hard work of many community advocates and government agencies, the health of the Anacostia River is swiftly improving and long-held negative perceptions about the value of the river and its parks are beginning to shift to the positive. Yet as river advocates encourage people to visit and enjoy the increasingly restored riverfront during the Year of the Anacostia, the Anacostia River continues to maintain its historic reputation in Washington as a stark dividing line for wealth, health indicators, race and more. Some advocates fear that the improvement of the Anacostia River may not serve residents who suffered through its darker years. By raising the desirability and value of land near the river, some fear the restoration itself could contribute to patterns of inequitable economic growth, gentrification and displacement that loom over the DC region and many U.S. cities.