Huge Party in Edgewood

My Saturday started out quite nicely as I got up early to get ready to volunteer with Caseys Trees to plant 9 new trees in our neighborhood in the triangle across from Edgewood Terrace.  I met volunteers from all over the city and our neighborhood and got to thank the neighbors who were able to get the whole event organized.  It will be really nice when the trees grow and are able to shade the very popular neighborhood bus stop.  I left that tree planting to go straight to the Edgewood Community Garden planting.  I arrived to see that there were 30 to 40 volunteers already there.  It was great to weed, plant and talk with neighbors that I usually just chat with while walking by each other's houses.  The garden was planted quickly with so many volunteers and I was then able to head home to tackle my own yard work.  When I came back inside later that night I found my phone full of text messages, emails and tweets about a huge party at the Edgewood Recreation Center.

I have reached out to CM McDuffie and his staff to help us get to the bottom of the organizers of this party and the police response.  A neighbor was told by the police that it was the Howard University Police responsibiltiy to manage this crowd.  Why they would think that since the party was on DPR property with no permit is beyond me.  If I had seen the messages sooner I would have called the DPR Rangers, but I would think that MPD would have done the same and it does not appear that they did.  There was only 1 arrest from this event posted on the MPD5D listserv this morning and I think that we need to hear about the MPD response and what can be done differently if this ever happens again.  There was drinking (open containers of alcohol are not allowed at DPR parks) and people have said there were between 700 and 1000 people there (which would have required a DPR permit).  I asked my neighbor who is a Howard student if he went to the party and he stated that he did and it was an event hosted by a group that calls themselves "Dreams Never Die".  I used that information and all of the information from neighbors to search through the internet and below are just a sample of the pictures of the event that I found.

http://dreamsneverdie.wix.com/dndhu#!events/cgj5

The group "Dreams Never Die" fashions themselves as event planners, but it seems to me that they just throw big parties without getting permits or thinking about locations.  On their website they have videos from past parties thrown in public alleys bragging about taking decks off houses. There were no open restrooms so many neighbors reported people peeing in the recreation center area, on Shaed School building and in alleys.  Events have to have restrooms available. The garden that had just been planted was passed out on and danced on destroying all the work that neighbors had spent that morning doing.  The park and children's playground area that had just been cleaned is filled with broken glass from this event. If this group wants to plan events they should book locations that can accommodate that size crowd and pay to use them and get permits. If they want to have events with alcohol they should find a location where that is legal to host them and apply for proper ABRA permits.   None of these should be issues for event planners if they really wanted to host a real event and not an illegal party. 

Many Howard University students were upset that Howard was associated with the party as it was not an official Howard event.  Some of them were partygoers that tweeted at me with outrage at "defaming" Howard's name, but their outrage is misplaced.  They should be outraged at fellow partygoers that told neighbors they went to Howard and/or that it was a Howard party and then posted on social media calling it a Howard event.  There are several Howard students that want to help repair the garden and they should be commended for both cleaning up someone else's mess and helping to build bridges to the Edgewood community. 

Below are some pictures that have been posted by party attendees so you can judge for yourself.  I will update when I hear back from CM McDuffie.