D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser climbed on a backhoe to begin the demolition of two buildings at St. Elizabeths Thursday to make room for a sports and entertainment development that the Washington Wizards will use for practice and the Mystics will use as home court.
Protesters disrupted the mayor’s news conference.
“Our government and our mayor is spending our tax dollars on things like a Mystics stadium and a streetcar to nowhere and putting money into projects that do not help the people that are getting displaced in Barry Farms,” said Schyla Pondexter-Moore of Empower DC. “It doesn’t help public housing from being torn down, it doesn’t stop displacement and it doesn’t stop gentrification. We’re being pushed out of the city.”
“Nobody lives here, so nobody is being displaced,” Bowser told News4.
Wizards owner Ted Leonsis looked for a location for a state-of-the-art practice facility for years. Last year he reached a deal with the city to build the 5,000-seat arena on the east campus of St. Elizabeths, just steps from the Congress Heights Metro station.
Bowser hailed the deal as an economic boost for southeast D.C.
“Some may scream, and some may shout, but I’ll be back, I’m going to invest, I’m going to keep our promises, and it won’t just be today,” she said. “It will be every day.”
The project is scheduled to be completed by 2018.
