This URL is for Sale: Phone or Text (240) 559-853
This URL is for Sale: Phone or Text (240) 559-853
An Open Letter to the Directors of Bethesda Self Storage Partners
10 July 2020|Bethesda Self Storage Partners, Macedonia Baptist Church, River Road Moses Cemetery
Shane C. Albers, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Theresa Guske, Executive Vice President of Operations
Kelly McKone, Executive Vice President of Real Estate
Ivan Ketterman, Chief Financial Officer
Markus Hartl, Senior Vice President
John Auchenbach, Senior Vice President of Underwriting
1784 Capital Holdings, LLC
8777 N. Gainey Center Drive, Suite # 191
Scottsdale, Arizona 85258
Dear Shane C. Albers, Theresa Guske, Kelly McKone, Ivan Ketterman, Markus Hartl, and John Auchenbach:
I am writing to you, as a native Washingtonian and as a resident of North Bethesda, Maryland, to ask that your firm stop excavation work at Parcel 191 located at 5204 River Road in Bethesda, Maryland and to work with all concerned parties starting with Macedonia Baptist Church so as to have the grounds surveyed to identify human remains so that they may be exhumed and reinterned in a proper and respectful manner.
The River Road Moses Cemetery is known to partially exist on property where the Westwood Towers building stands and - shamefully - under a portion of the adjacent parking lot, which is Parcel 175 as well as Parcel 177. The graves that existed were all part of the public records and were indeed desecrated by Laszlo Tauber’s company Westwood Ventures and its contracted excavation firm. If we had ex post facto Hate Crime legislation that speaks to grave desecration, which we do not, there would be just cause to bring a case. But all assets from Westwood Ventures have long been shielded behind the charitable entity known as the North Bethesda, Maryland-based Laszlo N. Tauber Family Foundation.
Our culture, our nation, today is at a tipping point as a result of police brutality and extra judicial killings of black Americans. Historical revisionists, who have over many years published the other historical narratives concealed for decades, moreover, have produced a generation of Americans that some call being “woke.”
There is indeed an awakening, and the general sentiment is that of hurt, anger, and the desire to see fairness for everyone. The public reaction across Montgomery County, Maryland including my own community has been numerous signs in front yards that read “End Apartheid in America” and “Black Lives Matter” and the like. Community residents are standing on corners with signs and waving at traffic and cars are beeping in support as was the case in Garret Park on Thursday, July 9, 2020. And, also organized marches are taking place and businesses like Porsche Bethesda in Pike & Rose were boarded up out of fear of mayhem as was the case on Friday, Jun 5, 2020 when a large, organized Black Lives Matter protest marched down Rockville Pike.
The River Road Moses Cemetery fits into this current climate of being “woke.” This topic very recently came on my radar screen. Piecing together what I have, Fraudulent Conveyance should apply here to all of the complicit parties given the existence of public records, and the manner in which the African American community and its history on River Road were ignored and treated as invisible to affluent real estate developers, their companies, their contractors, elected representatives within the Montgomery County Government, and those within the Maryland National Capital Park & Planning Commission. Our entire system was used to re zone and rename that community as well as the River Road Moses Cemetery into a historical memory hole called oblivion. Ethnic cleansing, as ugly as the phrase is, is quite accurate to describe what happened.
I have heard story after story from black Americans, in historically all black enclaves like Scotland which is just two miles from our home, that they were thrown off their land and out of their homes - dispossessed - as developers helped to rewrite the zoning ordinances to have their homes and communities condemned during the era of white flight, or suburbanization, in response to the 1954 Supreme Court decision that desegregated schools. What resulted was a hollowed out business core in many cities resulting in all black ghettos along with all white suburbs protected by restrictive covenants and Housing and Urban Development enforced redlining in mortgage lending to ensure a racially apartheid system in community planning.
And, as the delicious ironies of the hand of God worked, I read accounts of some of these same developers thrown out of the back seat of their limo drive to work and left dead on the side of the road since the back door was not locked as the driver hustled them to work and the helicopter that was thrown out of the sky leaving another dead - from the same family of developers alleged to have thrown people out of their homes. It happened. I read the accounts. I spoke with the people. I grew up in this system. And, I sold residential real estate and originated mortgages for most of my career right here. So, I am aware of what actually happened. Whether it is the hand of God or an angry mob from the ancient world cutting off the noses of the marble statues of Roman emperors so that what remains of once noble faces more closely resembles pigs, turn about is always fair play even if unpleasant, shocking, or apocalyptic. Tipping points are riddled all across history as well as our current day.
With these points and commentary made, Parcel 191, which is owned by your firm Bethesda Self Storage Partners, LLC, should be part of the discussions among all concerned parties given that we have unmarked and disturbed graves from prior development activity. Conducting a proper survey to identify all human remains prior to any excavation and construction is only reasonable. The fear and concern, which is reasonable, is that excavation activity will result in crushed bones that will be lifted by a back hoe and then dumped like refuse. The whistle will blow, work will stop, and the burlap bags will come out to collect the remains - a repeat performance of what happened when Westwood Towers was being developed. That is very possible given the murky nature of the site's history and where the remains may be today as a result of prior development activity. As a result, I am writing to ask that your firm err on the side of caution and concern for all of the residents of our community.
No one alive today, to the best of my knowledge, created the many problems that existed in the past. We all, however, have inherited them. I am certain that your firm did not know of the River Road Moses Cemtery. How could you? I cerntainly did not until recently. We are not at fault. But it remains for each of us to do our part to bring about the solutions to the problems that in fact exist. The River Road Moses Cemetery is an open wound for all of us, who are now aware of what has happened.
In the final analysis, I think it is fair to say, we would like to all end up on the right side of history, and that we do not want more desecration of historically all black cemeteries as if men, women, and children of African descent - Americans - were never part of our shared history here in Bethesda, here in Montgomery County, Maryland.
Please, do not wait for County Executive Marc Elrich to ask or compel, or for a court to issue a stop work order. Be the leaders that you are, and take the lead. As corporate executives, I look to you to not just provide the services that our communities need, but to be socially responsible and to also set the right moral tone. You have the ability and the means to help bring about some measure of healing and reconciliation as well as a lot of good will. If I have to lend my time and energy to help raise funds to cover added costs, I am ready, willing, and able to participate to help you to do the right thing.
Respectfully,
Peter Hebert
Sources:
Sources:
THE RIVER ROAD MOSES CEMETERY: A Historic Preservation Evaluation Report prepared for the River Road African American community descendants.
Cc: John McCarthy, District Attorney’s Office for Montgomery County, Maryland
Dr. Michael Blakey, Professor of Anthropology and American Studies at William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia
Marc Elrich, County Executive for Montgomery County, Maryland
Andrew Friedson, Councilmember for District 2 in Montgomery County, Maryland
Approximately 40 clergy members in just Bethesda, Maryland
Bethesda Historical Society
Montgomery History
Maryland Historical Society
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