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- 5-24-09: Vincent Gray Doesn't Get the Message
- 8-17-09: JUFJ Announces Jeremiah Fellowship
- 8-14-09: Fenty Administration Implements Long-Awaited Affordable Housing Law
- 8-3-09: Statement by JUFJ Rabbi in Residence Elizabeth Richman on Slayings at Tel Aviv LGBT Center
- 7-17-09: Statement by Rabbi Gilah Langner on behalf of JUFJ
- 7-3-09: Open Letter to Prince George's County Hearing Board
- 6-24-09 Dozens of Residents Speak Out on Purple Line Development in Langley Park
- 6-23-09: Testimony by Jacob Feinspan to the Prince George's County Planning Board
- 6-23-09: Testimony by JUFJ Intern Shira Dickler to the Prince George's County Planning Board
- 4-17-09: DOES Commits to Stronger Enforcement
- 4-8-09: JUFJ Executive Director Jacob Feinspan's Testimony Before D.C. Council Committee on Finance and Revenue
- 4-1-09 JUFJ's 8th Annual Labor Seder Focuses on the Plight of Day Laborers
- 3-19-09: JUFJ's Program Director Darya Mattes Testifies before D.C. Committee on Housing and Workforce Development
- 11-17-2004 - Interfaith Support for Affordable Housing
- 7-18-08 JUFJ Celebrates Victory for Domestic Workers
- 7-25-04 - Jewish Community supports Affordable Housing
- 6-26-08 Jewish Groups Respond to Kosher Meat Scandal
- 5-23-08 - JUFJ responds to kosher meat scandal
- Tikkun Leil Shabbat
6-23-09: Testimony by JUFJ Intern Shira Dickler to the Prince George's County Planning Board
To the Prince George's County Hearing Board,
My name is Shira Dickler and I'd like to think that I am informally representing the students at the University of Maryland, College Park. If there is a moral to my testimony, it would be that really every demographic finds this issue important.
I am 22 years old and I just graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park in May, but I decided to stay living in the area. For College Park students, if you are leaving campus you are probably going through Langley Park. For me, whenever I go down University Boulevard I am opened up to a place full of culture and value for the people who live there. It defines what it is to live in PG County and to be a student at UMD, that we have all of this so close by for shopping or eating.
I think the idea of a purple line is incredible and I wish it had been built while I was in college. The developments talked about here sound exciting to be a part of. But along the same lines of the importance of the new line and developments come the importance of preserving the integrity of the area and making sure that the Langley Park residents are still able to stay there. It wouldn't be fair for the people that can most greatly benefit from this development to have to move because of rent hikes in their houses and businesses and therefore not be able to enjoy what the purple line developments will bring.
If this plan hopes to bring great new features for the students to be able to benefit from, a transient community, how much more so should the residents who've lived there longer than I be able to enjoy them. As you've heard from other testimony, there are a huge amount of people who have lived here decades longer than I and other students have.
I hope you will support the motion to minimize disruption to the people living in affordable housing and keep Langley Park's cultural and social integrity intact.
Thank you for letting me testify at the June 23rd hearing. I appreciate learning more about what you will be doing to help the Langley Park residents in response to the testimonies you heard and read.
Sincerely,
Shira Dickler
University of Maryland, 2009
