This story was supported with funds from SpotlightDC with reporting by participants in Hola Cultura’s Storytelling Program for Experiential Learning. The story was edited by Christine MacDonald, Hola Cultura’s executive director and editor.
Dozens of immense willow oaks, red oaks, and lindens tower around the gargantuan husk of the long-defunct Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium in Northeast. The District Department of Transportation calls them “heritage trees,” large, mature trees that are illegal to cut down under D.C. law due to their irreplaceable environmental benefits.
But the D.C. Council, with Mayor Muriel Bowser’s blessing, just paved the way for razing an estimated 31 heritage trees around the stadium grounds—waving sizable illegal tree removal fines in the process. The exemption will amount to an estimated $1 million giveaway to the team’s billionaire majority owner, Josh Harris—that’s in addition to the approximately $1 billion D.C. taxpayers will supply over the next decade to overhaul the storied sports palace. (City Paper owner Mark Ein is part of the team’s ownership group.)…