Patrick Blais had been president of his Northwest Washington community park for a year when his doorbell rang at 9:45 on a Saturday night.
Outside was a self-styled community activist, an African American whom Blais had never met: Marvin A. Rich.
(Gene Thorp/The Washington Post) - Location of Crispus Attucks Park
Rich, accompanied by two women, came to launch another salvo in a neighborhood spat that has turned ugly enough to draw the attention of police commanders and advisers to Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D).
The dispute could be viewed as a clash of familiar antagonists — gentrifiers vs. old-timers, whites vs. blacks. While some of that friction exists, the conflict is more convoluted and bizarre, pitting one fixated man against his infuriated neighbors. Naturally, both sides have hired attorneys.
Blais, a white corporate executive, remembers Rich telling him in his living room that night that Blais was not the true president of Crispus Attucks Park, nestled at the center of a block of rowhouses in Bloomingdale.
“I own the park,” Rich pronounced, according to Blais.
Blais said that a not-for-profit organization owns the park and that it had elected him president.
“No,” Rich replied. “I’m the president.” He described himself as “the founder,” adding, “I report to a higher board.”
Rich confirmed Blais’s account, except he said he never told Blais he owned the park and doesn’t remember any reference to a higher board.
Blais asked Rich and the women to leave, and they complied. But they kept up their campaign for control of the park, a quest that Blais and his neighbors allege in a lawsuit is racially charged and driven by intimidation and fraud — charges Rich denies.
Blais and his allies sought help from police and city hall, both of which refused to intervene. The reason: District documents in which the park’s president is listed as none other than Marvin A. Rich.
Changing neighborhood
Blais and Rich are suing each other in D.C. Superior Court, each claiming control of the Crispus Attucks Development Corp., which has owned the park under one name or another since the 1970s.
“I was here first, I grew up here, I’m from here,” Rich, 53, said in an interview. “They’re fake. They’re pirates. They should have patches over their eyes.”
Blais and his allies dismiss such statements as fable. Where, they ask, was Rich when they were raising money, organizing yard sales, planting irises? Where was he when they turned an asphalt jumble into a lush vista?
“Marvin Rich and his family are disrespecting the park, with impunity,” said Blais, who is also suing Rich’s daughter and girlfriend. “It’s a laughable fraud.”
Burbling beneath the dispute are the jagged passions of a rapidly changing neighborhood. A decade ago, Bloomingdale’s population was 90 percent black. Since then, an influx of young professionals has made it 30 percent white.
Read more about D.C.’s population change.
John Salatti, a white Bloomingdale civic leader, said Rich has long been consumed with the shift. At various points, Salatti said, residents have complained about Rich driving his truck through the neighborhood blaring speeches by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
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