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Excerpt:

The Gateway to Anacostia is now a corner lot with the faded remains of a wall on the brink of collapse, imprisoned by a chain link fence. 

But it is here, at this intersection of optimism — Good Hope Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue — in Southeast Washington where some hope a monument will soon stand.
Over the summer, the city’s Department of Housing and Community Development surveyed nearly 200 people in Ward 8 to gauge their interest in a piece of public art in this scraggly place. Among the choices: murals, elaborately lit designs, landscapes. 

But the people wanted a totem pole. The behemoth sculptures, typically carved from trees by native peoples to illustrate ancient legends, watch over lands in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. There are also some near Union Station, part of another installation. 

“The things with the eagles?” asked Ralph Phillips, 29, as he walked along Good Hope Road. “That makes sense to me. The Indians, the Native Americans were the first ones here. It could be a nice tribute to them and help show off our neighborhood.” 

One evening this month, the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities invited five local artists to share their ideas for a piece to symbolize the neighborhood’s past, present and future. The artists sat before fewer than a dozen neighbors, all interested in seeing the area move away from being the city’s portrait of poverty.