Trump's DHS pushes for new 'emergency' demolitions of D.C. landmarks
But a memo uncovered by The Washington Post on Tuesday shows the administration using a new justification (that is, other than Trump’s vanity) to explain its latest effort to raze a part of D.C.’s history: a so-called emergency.
The Post reports Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, whose agency has engaged in some rather lavish spending on her behalf this year, issued a memo earlier this month “seeking to fast-track the demolition of more than a dozen historic buildings at St. Elizabeths in Southeast Washington,” which officials have been converting into a sprawling headquarters for DHS over more than a decade in accordance with historic preservation of treasured landmarks.
Per The Post:
‘Demolition is the only permanent measure that resolves the emergency conditions,’ Noem wrote in the memo. A risk assessment report undertaken by her agency ‘supports immediate corrective action,’ she wrote. The assessment report, which Noem included with her memo, concludes the vacant buildings ‘may be accessed by unauthorized individuals seeking to cause harm to personnel.’ The structures ‘provide a tactical advantage for carrying out small arms or active shooter scenarios,’ the report states.
MS NOW has not independently confirmed the memo. A spokesperson for the General Services Administration, which is overseeing development of the St. Elizabeths campus, confirmed to The Post that the agency had been alerted by the DHS about “a present security risk to life and property” at the campus “that may require us to demolish buildings.”
https://www.ms.now/opinion/trumps-dhs-pushes-for-new-emergency-demolitions-of-d-c-landmarks
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They were putting in a new Metro stop next door, and we did some archaeology work prior to construction. At the time it was still St. Elizabeth's Hospital for the Criminally Insane. It's where they put Hinckley after he shot Reagan. There was just a chain link fence around the grounds, and one day we watched a guy climb the fence and stroll off down the street.
Another day we heard gunfire, and some plainclothes detectives came by later, as they often did, to check up on us. They told us to be gone before dark every day. I asked about the shooting, and the detective told me "That was nothing. Just some kids over at the middle school." 
My boss got propositioned by some hookers on the way to the site. At 7AM. 
I don't lend much credence to these "emergencies" that have become endemic during the Drumpf regime, and obviously favor historic preservation, but in this case, I'm at least sympathetic to “a present security risk to life and property”. 
it's a secure fenced in federal complex with armed military guards. It's surrounded by sketchiness but it is separated.
Noem's security excuse is a stretch. She's exaggerating the danger. She just wants to speed up development of that area. The historic preservation part is taking forever. They were doing construction there 10 years ago when I was there, with no end in sight. She has also paused some other construction projects this year that were half built. So she's planning something and is probably frustrated with the slow pace so far.
MAGA likes to move fast and break things. Demolition is fast.
We just stayed out in Oxen Hill, which was it's own adventure, lol. But when we there we were a mile and a half from the murder epicenter of DC, and it weas a rough ass neighborhood, indeed. We also knew that it was thae last stop in that direction for the Metro, and a very long delayed and politicized infrastructure project. We suspected that the forces of gentrification would be close behind, and it sounds like we were right. If the current historic preservation is focused on the buildings and grounds themselves, they were pretty cool architecturally, but we couldn't access the grounds, lol. We did find some remains from a Civil War hospital next door, though. 
