THURSDAY, MAY 26 , 2022. THE WASHINGTON POST EZ M2 B3
One of the
greatest friends
the wrens, robins
and chickadees of
Washington ever
had was the
author of a book
with the
wonderful title
“Birds Through
an Opera-Glass.”
Her name was Florence
Merriam Bailey and she was
among the first to champion a
radical idea: If you want to learn
about birds, it’s better to look at a
live one through a pair of
binoculars than to hold a dead
one in your hands.
“I think she’s a really
interesting person,” said Lisa
Alexander , executive director of
an organization Bailey helped
found in 1897, the Audubon
Naturalist Society, in Chevy
Chase, Md. The group is
celebrating its 125th anniversary
with a gala gathering on June 2.
In the late 19th century,
Americans were wiping out
entire bird populations to satisfy
the human desire to adorn hats,
scarves and coats with feathers.
Bailey decried the insatiable
hunger the millinery trade had
for birds.
“The history of the Audubon
movement involved a lot of
women naturalists,” said
Alexander. “It’s women who were
really appalled by the slaughter
of birds for fashion and food. It
was women who kind of planted
the seed that we needed to do
something about it.”
What’s especially remarkable,
Alexander said, is that women
such as Bailey were doing this
work — which included lobbying
for the passage of what became
the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of
1918 — at a time when they didn’t
even have the right to vote.
“They had to do it all by
persuasion,” Alexander said.
Among Bailey’s tools of
persuasion: enticing people to go
outside and look at the birds. She
was born in 1863 and grew up on
a family estate in Locust Grove,
N.Y., near the Adirondacks.
Bailey attended Smith College,
where she began leading birding
hikes for students.
Bailey published “Birds
Through an Opera-Glass” when
she was 26 and continued to
study birds throughout her life,penning both popular works
aimed at encouraging lay people
to embrace birdwatching and
more scholarly works describing
in detail birds native to various
areas.
In 1899, she married Vernon
Bailey , the chief field naturalist
of the U.S. Biological Survey.
They built a house at 1834
Kalorama Rd. NW, a houseremembered, one visitor wrote,
for “its oaks and squirrels and
birds (but no cats!).”
Because of the damage they
did to native birds, cats — along
with English sparrows — were
among Bailey’s least-favorite
things. “I would favor a license
for cats, which would greatly
diminish the number of unfed
alley cats that must hunt fortheir living,” she once said.
While it’s hard today to
imagine the Baileys’ Adams
Morgan home as a sylvan retreat,
apparently it was.
“Kalorama was pretty far out,”
said Alexander. “It was much
more verdant than it is today.”
In a 1916 interview with the
Washington Evening Star, Bailey
described the coveys of quail that
roamed the fringes of
Washington, “fed by the police
patrolling the outskirts of the
city.” She recommended porch
sleeping as a way to really
become familiar with different
birds. You’d be able to hear them
as they migrated at night, she
said, and in the morning you
could awaken to a chorus of
birdsong.
By 1912 — in between research
trips to the American West with
her husband — Bailey was
responsible for planning
educational programs for
Washington schoolchildren,
teachers and others interested in
birds. Bird walks organized by
Bailey could attract hundreds of
participants. She invited
lecturers such as Edward Avis ,
“a noted bird mimic, whistlerand violinist” from Connecticut.
Bailey died in 1948. In a
memorial essay in the
ornithological journal the Auk,
Paul H. Oehser wrote: “Though
not a robust woman, and as a girl
threatened with tuberculosis,
she developed a wonderful
vitality, both physically and
mentally. The rich experiences of
the outdoors, especially in the
great Southwest which she loved,
the companionship of her
husband, and the stimulation of
the work they were
accomplishing — these were the
rewards of the arduous life she
chose to pursue.”
Among Florence Merriam
Bailey’s messages was that
birding didn’t have to be
arduous. She wrote: The “student
who goes afield armed with
opera-glass and camera will not
only add more to our knowledge
than he who goes armed with a
gun, but will gain for himself a
fund of enthusiasm and a lasting
store of pleasant memories. Far
more than all the statistics is the
sanity and serenity of spirit that
comes when we step aside from
the turmoil of the world to hold
quiet converse with Nature.”Florence Merriam Bailey c hampioned birds and invited others to join the flock
John
Kelly's
Washington
2017 PHOTO BY LINDA DAVIDSON/THE WASHINGTON POST
An Eastern bluebird at the Patuxent Research Refuge in Laurel.
Watch and learn, Florence Merriam Bailey would have said.8 p.m. on Friday in the
5700 block of Marlboro Pike in
the District Heights area.
An initial investigation found
that the driver of an SUV — later
identified as Marquise Lewis, 29
— was headed south on
Marlboro Pike when he crossed
the double yellow line and hit a
pickup truck head-on, according
to local police. He was taken to a
hospital, where he died a few
days later.
The pickup truck driver had
minor injuries and a passenger
in the truck who was later
identified as Emma Bradley, 48,
was taken to the hospital, where
she died the next day, police
said. Both Bradley and Lewis
were from the District.
Another crash happened just
before 4 p.m. on Monday in the
8400 block of Central Avenue in
Seat Pleasant. Police said the
driver of a pickup truck was
headed east on Central Avenue
when it hit a car driven by a
man police later identified as
Jose Hernandez Chavez, 28, of
Hyattsville. Hernandez Chavez’s
vehicle then hit another vehicle.
Hernandez Chavez was taken to
a hospital, where he was
pronounced dead, police said.
The other drivers were not
hurt, officials said.
Both crashes are under
investigation.
— Dana HedgpethTHE DISTRICT
Man fatally shot on
North Capitol Street
A man died shortly after he
was shot Tuesday night just off
New York Avenue and south of
the Truxton Circle neighborhood
in Northwest Washington.
The shooting occurred about
10 p.m. in the 1200 block of
North Capitol Street NW, near
an apartment building.
D.C. police said someone
drove the victim, Jahmeze
Williams, 20, of Southeast
Washington, to a hospital, where
he died. No arrest has been
made, and police released no
other details.
There have been 77 homicides
reported in the District this year,
a 7 percent increase over this
time in 2021. Last year ended
with more than 200 homicides
for the first time since 2003.
There have been 20 homicides
in D.C. so far in May.
— Peter Hermann
MARYLAND
Prince George’s auto
crashes leave 3 dead
Three people died in two
recent crashes in Prince
George’s County.
One happened just before
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washingtonpost.com/local/lotteryLOTTERIESBY LUZ LAZOThe company that owns sub-
leasing rights at Washington’s
Union Station blasted Amtrak’s
bid to take over the property via
eminent domain, saying the pas-
senger railroad is attempting an
“unlawful condemnation” and
making a “grossly inadequate”
$250 million offer.
In a court filing last week,
Union Station Investco LLC (USI)
and its associate, Union Station
Sole Member LLC, challenged
Amtrak’s authority to use emi-
nent domain, saying the carrier
has not met requirements under
U.S. law to take over Union
Station, including proving that
the entirety of the property is
needed for its transportation op-
erations.
Under federal code, Amtrak
has authority to use eminent
domain to acquire interests in
property that’s necessary for the
use of intercity passenger rail
operations. In a complaint filed
last month in U.S. District Court
for the District of Columbia,
Amtrak said it hopes to take over
operations and management of
the train hall to pursue multibil-
lion-dollar investments, includ-
ing a long-planned concourse
expansion and repairs to a tunnel
under the station that Amtrak
said is “in serious need of repair
or replacement.”
USI’s filing counters that the
bulk of those two projects “will
take place in areas already sub-
leased by Amtrak” and adds that
the railroad can seek additional
space if needed. Amtrak subleas-
es a small portion of the station —
about 13.4 percent of it — from
USI for railroad operations,
which includes the concourse
area before passengers go to the
platform.
“Neither of these projects ne-
cessitate taking the entirety of
Union Station, which is approxi-
mately 420,797 square feet. Nor
could Amtrak expand its opera-
tions into many parts of the
Station because they are protect-
ed as historic sites,” USI argued in
the latest filing.
The station, which opened in
1907 in the heart of the nation’s
capital, is owned by the United
States but is leased to and operat-
ed by other entities. Amtrak al-
ready owns the station’s plat-
forms and railroad tracks. The
U.S. government in 1985 author-
ized the nonprofit Union Station
Redevelopment Corp. (USRC) to
oversee the property. Union Sta-
tion Investco has sublease rights
through USRC until 2084.
Officials at Kasowitz Benson
Torres LLP, the law firm repre-
senting USI, didn’t respond to
requests for comment Wednes-
day.
Amtrak said in a statement
Wednesday that its “focus re-
mains on protecting the safety
and security of the traveling pub-
lic, and to improve passengeramenities and experience at the
station.”
The Amtrak complaint also
names as a defendant Kookmin
Bank Co., a South Korean invest-
ment trust and lender in the
property. Kookmin Bank in a
separate filing last week called
for dismissal of the case, ques-
tioning Amtrak’s motive for tak-
ing over the property.
“Amtrak wants to seize control
of a valuable asset or at least
leverage its position in order to
extract economic concessions to
which it is not entitled,” the
Kookmin filing said.
The Kookmin and USI filings
decry Amtrak’s allegation that
the station is plagued by poor
maintenance and a lack of capital
investment. According to the
Amtrak filing, about $75 million
in deferred maintenance is need-
ed at Union Station, citing a
building assessment by USI and
the Federal Railroad Administra-
tion.
A transportation hub with re-
tail and food establishments,
Union Station also serves many
commuters using Metro, as well
as Maryland and Virginia com-
muter trains and local and inter-
city buses. The station’s outdated
facilities and poor lighting are a
source of traveler complaints,
coming as local officials havepushed for investments to mod-
ernize the busy transit hub.
“The potential that this site
holds is enormous,” Mayor Muri-
el E. Bowser (D) said during a
news conference at the station in
March. “Union Station is the first
place that many people experi-
ence Washington, D.C., and we
want that to be an exceptional
experience. ... We also know that
the redevelopment of Union Sta-
tion is critical to our transporta-
tion growth, and not just our
growth, but the entire region and
indeed the entire East Coast.”
Amtrak’s action comes amid a
push from the railroad and USRC
for a multibillion-dollar expan-
sion and overhaul of Union Sta-
tion that would add concourses
and tracks, more retail options, a
new train hall, and modern park-
ing and bus facilities. The pro-
posed expansion, at least a $10billion private and public invest-
ment, calls for a transformation
of the nation’s second-busiest rail
hub by 2040.
USI’s filing says it has made
“substantial and significant im-
provements to the Station” and
turned it into “a premier dining
and retail location” during its 15
years of managing the property.
Among the investments cited is
an $18 million project to restore
the ceiling in the main hall after a
2011 earthquake.
The Investco filing also alleges
that Amtrak is “thoroughly inca-
pable of running Union Station’s
non-rail operations.”
Amtrak made an offer to USI to
buy its leasing rights for $250
million on April 6 but said the
company did not respond to the
offer by an April 13 deadline. A
day later, the railroad filed the
lawsuit and made the $250 mil-lion payment to the court, “the
amount of which it estimates to
be just compensation,” according
to the court filing, which says the
amount was determined through
an independent real estate ap-
praisal.
The Investco filing calls the
$250 million “a lowball, bad faith
offer” and said the seven-day
deadline Amtrak imposed was
not “remotely sufficient time to
consider and negotiate the sale of
any significant commercial prop-
erty, let alone one that is as large
and complex as Union Station.”
Investco said Amtrak’s ap-
praisal was faulty and made with-
out sufficient analysis of the sta-
tion’s revenue and financial
standing, and that a recent inves-
tor valued Union Station at more
than $700 million. The court
would determine the appropriate
price if Amtrak were to take over.THE DISTRICT
Union Station operator opposes Amtrak’s bid for eminent-domain t akeover
Firm decries railroad’s
offer of $250 million for
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