Renovations to 11th Street Bridge area to include park and education center

By Aria Brent,
AFRO Staff Writer,
abrent@afro.com

For decades, the divide created between the two communities on either side of the Anacostia River has served as a physical representation of differences in race, socio-economic status and even life expectancy. 

Now, D.C. officials are working in collaboration with the nation’s largest multinational telecommunications and media conglomerate, Comcast, to bridge that gap in both a literal and figurative sense.

A local non-profit group, Building Bridges Across the River, has been working with the city of D.C for nearly a decade to figure out how they can repurpose the old 11th Street vehicular bridge. After much dialogue, the two organizations are now teaming up to renovate the space into a park, complete with an education center, a performance space and a cafe and communal space.  

The team will provide free public wifi throughout the park, and the education center will feature digital training skill classes and 15 laptops for community use. The project will break ground in August 2024 and is scheduled for completion in late 2026. 

For more than ten years, countless meetings have been held in the Ward 8 community to discuss the renovations, design concepts and the repurposing of the bridge. 

“Once we heard enthusiasm for the idea we said, ‘Alright, well what should be [in] the park? What kind of programming should be in this new civic space that serves the community?’ and we heard great ideas,” said Scott Kratz, senior vice president of Building Bridges. “They had ideas about an environmental education center, a performance space that can amplify the voices, culture and arts of local residents, access to the river through kayak and canoe launches, safe places to play in an intergenerational play space,and a cafe.”

Focused on keeping the community first while creating the concept for this multi-million dollar project, the city and Building Bridges also launched an international design contest in 2014. The community was involved in multiple ways by competing in the contest and participating in the selection process that helped choose the project’s design team.

Kratz noted that members of the community are excited to see their ideas come to fruition as the project’s construction is getting scheduled. He also explained how much effort is being put forth to assure that gentrification and displacement don’t interfere with the park being enjoyed and utilized by those who helped shape it. 

“We started a larger effort to do what we’ve done from the beginning, which is go back to the community and look to see where there might be some actions that we can take in affordable housing investments, supporting Black entrepreneurs, small businesses east of the river, workforce training and the arts and culture investments,” Kratz stated. “We want to make sure that the same residents who’ve been through some tough times east of the river can be here for the good times.”

A series of programs that have been set up through Building Bridges Equitable Development Plan that has allowed Ward 8 residents to receive resources for housing and career training since 2015. 

The organization has invested several million dollars into Black owned businesses in the area via pro bono technical assistance and grants to assure that they can balance the revenue the park will be bringing in. Through their Equitable Development Program, a total of $92 million dollars has been invested into the betterment and development of the East Anacostia community. 

The work being done by Building Bridges has already benefited the Ward 8 community. The impact that will come with the bridge’s reuse is expected to be life changing for some residents. Providing access to free public wifi both in and around the park, free laptops and public programming that’s focused on increasing digital literacy are only a few of the ways that Comcast plans to be part of the solution that’s going to close the divide amongst the Bridge Park community. 

“We know for a fact that in Wards 5, 7 and 8, there is a lower rate of subscription—that being those who subscribe to home internet service. There’s a lower digital literacy [rate] and that’s from a lack of understanding how to use the internet to benefit them for jobs, and homework,” explained Misty Allen, vice president of government affairs and community impact for Comcast’s Beltway Region.

Allen noted that approximately 28 percent of D.C. residents don’t have internet access at home. The low digital literacy rates, specifically in the Bridge Park community, are a reflection of some of its members being older and unfamiliar with internet use. She explained that living in the age of technology has brought a set of challenges to the community’s elders that is leaving them under-resourced.

“Part of the community is also overcoming fear and reluctance. If you think of our senior citizens, they’re being faced with a need to embrace technology like they never had before,” Allen stated. “A lot of our banking has become digital and even doctor’s are now doing pre-screens digitally before they take in-person meetings. We have to help all of our citizens and residents adopt the internet and really be connected to our digital world.”

For over a decade, Comcast has been working with organizations like Building Bridges to solve the digital divide that exists in so many communities. The telecommunications giant is backed  by a $1 billion dollar commitment called Project Up which focuses on the unlimited possibilities that can occur when people have access to digital resources.

Kratz shared with the AFRO that the project is preparing for the city’s transportation department to solicit their general contractor in May of this year. 

Although it will be nearly another two years until the bridge is done, the project is highly anticipated and people are already envisioning everything it will bring to the community.

Kratz is hoping the space will serve as an area for residents and guests to reconnect.

“This will be a place where you can reconnect with nature,” he said. “You can reconnect with the river, and you can reconnect with each other.”

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