FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 1, 2020
Contact: Black Lives Matter (BLM) DC press@dcblm.org
Marcus Goodwin is portraying himself as a champion of the people and Black empowerment. He’s attended rallies and calls for putting people over politics. However, the reality is much different.
Because we believe that all Black lives matter, especially Black people in marginalized communities, DC BLM has no confidence in Marcus Goodwin and urges our supporters, members, and people of good conscience to NOT support his developer backed at-large council campaign.
Marcus Goodwin is a corporate-backed opportunist who will say whatever he thinks sounds good to get elected. His real agenda is not Black empowerment; it’s serving DC’s big monied interests.
In addition to the issues raised in the linked video, we wanted to highlight Marcus’s development history and dispel the myth that Marcus Goodwin is an affordable housing developer or advocate for small business owners or poor and working-class Black people across the district.
Marcus Goodwin’s career has focused on finance and development, with a heavy emphasis on market-rate and luxury housing. While he claims to have spent his career in affordable housing development, only his most recent employer can point to any robust affordable housing projects. His previous employers developed a few affordable units while contributing to the gentrification that pushed the same Black people out of the city Goodwin now claims to champion.
In 2019, Marcus Goodwin joined NDC. NDC is a development company that does small-scale condo development, retail, and affordable housing in the District. NDC often pairs their condo developments with fully affordable apartment buildings in similar neighborhoods. To date, NDC has delivered 493 affordable units with another 130 affordable units in the pipeline — a shameful total of 623.
NDC received a lot of press in 2018 after it locked out tenants of 1100 Eastern Ave NE. The small business owners who were locked out had only one day of warning. The story of the displacement quickly spread and the tenants ultimately sued, accusing NDC of using soil tests showing hazardous materials to fabricate an urgent reason to remove tenants and move the development project along.
Remarks from Core Organizer Anthony Lorenzo Green are below. Find a full thread of remarks here.
"When Marcus Goodwin joined NDC and pushed the minority-owned businesses in Deanwood to take settlement agreements after being locked out on a lie… Forcing minority-own businesses, including the ones owned by Black women for almost a quarter of a century, to agree to settlements that included non-disclosure language really prevented Deanwood from negotiating effectively for a CBA on a matter-of-right project w/ tax money.
Everyone jumps for joy about the Benning Market project in River Terrace but never bat an eye when folks mention how people in Ward 7 crowd-funded for a project they have no community-ownership stake in. That's how Black developers like NDC operate..."
Marcus Goodwin’s actions don’t demonstrate a love for Black people, or any people who aren’t rich or well-connected. And we believe you cannot lead people you don’t love. There’s no clever or dazzling way to end this because his appalling record of contributing to displacement makes it plain: Marcus Goodwin is not fit for the DC Council.
Black Lives Matter DC is a member0based abolitionist organization centering Black people most at risk for state violence in DC, creating the conditions for Black Liberation through the abolition of systems and institutions of white supremacy, capitalism, patriarchy and colonialism.
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