Dear Neighbor,

This month, I am highlighting a few projects and priorities that are important to the District in my newsletter. As I have shared, my team and I are spending time this summer ensuring policy initiatives we advanced throughout this past year are implemented as planned, conducting oversight of our District agencies and programs, and meeting with residents across the city to hear ideas about how we can best serve you.  

This week, I want to share with you:

• Our vision to build a vibrant and resilient Downtown DC, and
• Why this mission is so critical right now.

Our Vision for our Downtown

Our Downtown is the backbone to a financially stable and prosperous DC; it generates almost one-fourth, or $2.3 billion, of all our local revenue! This revenue allows the DC Government to support and invest in critical programming for all eight wards.

This is why collectively, DC Government is moving forward a focused vision to cultivate a vibrant and resilient Downtown - made up of multiple neighborhoods - that residents of all ages from all wards can enjoy, where businesses small and big can thrive, and visitors across the world want to visit.

Through the pandemic, we saw that the most resilient neighborhoods were made up of “mixed-use corridors,” or places where residents can find housing, transit, grocery, retail, and hospitality all within a few blocks.

To ensure we have a Downtown that supports District residents and honors our place as the Capital of the United States, we are working hard to charge forward a vision that invites residents, visitors, and businesses to the area and creates a more diverse set of offerings.

Our vision includes:

• Enriching our parks and green spaces,
• Creating intuitive walking paths from the National Mall to the Convention Center and from Union Station to the White House,
• Expanding pop-up opportunities for small and local businesses,
• Incentivizing art and event activations of our vacant and public spaces,
• Generating increased housing and affordable housing,
• Converting office buildings to other productive uses,
• Retaining existing businesses and attracting new industries, and
• Ensuring there is a place for everyone to work, live, and play Downtown.

Here are just some of the ways we as a government are already pushing forward this vision:

• Big Ideas for the Gallery Place/Chinatown Neighborhood: I serve on the Gallery Place/Chinatown Task Force, which has identified “8 Big Ideas” for the future of the neighborhoods around Capital One Arena for immediate activation and long-term vibrancy. We are now in the process of implementing some of the immediately actionable ideas, such as activating Gallery Place, and planning ahead for larger capital projects. I encourage you to learn more about these exciting "8 Big Ideas” here!
  

• Office-to-Housing Conversions Underway: I funded key pillars of my RECOVERY Act to incentivize the transformation of vacant offices into housing and mixed-use spaces to bolster the resiliency of our Downtown. So far, 10 properties are undergoing these conversion renovations, and the first major housing conversion project – The Elle in Golden Triangle – opened this summer to residents!
  
• Our Business Improvement Districts (BIDs): DC Government empowers our DowntownDC and Golden Triangle BIDs to support safety efforts; keep our streets, sidewalks, and parks clean; coordinate events, performances, and pop-ups that bring our communities together; and advocate for our small and local businesses. As an example of just how fantastic our BIDs are, in June alone, the DowntownDC BID collected 32,000 pounds of trash, removed 106 stickers, posters, and graffiti; and conducted 510 business wellness checks.

• Safe Commercial Corridors Grants: I funded a grant program through my Secure DC public safety law to provide our BIDs with additional resources to support safety efforts in their neighborhoods. Here's how these grants have already been put to use:
  • The DowntownDC BID launched the Penn Quarter-Chinatown Safety Team to monitor for safety and facilitate appropriate responses and supports for residents and businesses when an incident does occur. In June alone, the Safety Team completed 845 routes through the neighborhood to increase presence and supports.
  • The Golden Triangle BID established a new Safety Specialist program, which has already made thousands of contacts with the businesses and properties, as well as improved case management and community engagement with unhoused residents.

• Capital One Arena and Monumental Sports: In March, the District came together with Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE) to move forward an agreement to renovate the arena and keep the Wizards and Capitals here at home throughout 2050. This deal also includes commitments to activate the area for entertainment spaces and festivals with increased security and safety supports in the neighborhood.

• Abounding Events and Entertainment: Our Downtown is constantly teeming with events for residents and visitors of all ages to enjoy! Just take Artomatic, the eight-story vacant office building at 21st & M St NW that was transformed into an interactive art gallery filled to the brim with local artist offerings, and Kids World, a pop-up celebration in Franklin Park with music performances, furry friends, games, and bouncy castles! Find upcoming events of all kinds here and here.

Our collective public-private partnerships and focus make all of these phenomenal initiatives possible.

Why This Matters Now

As we saw during the pandemic, our Downtown started to show points of weakness as offices terminated their leases or downsized, businesses struggled or closed, and the flow of people significantly decreased as people worked from home or ceased travel.

Through some of the focused efforts I just mentioned, we have already begun to see a renewed return of residents and visitors to our Downtown outside of work hours to about 90% of 2019 levels. However, office occupancy now steadily hovers around 50% of 2019 levels, signaling a sustained shift in how our downtown buildings are being used and a needed reimagination of how we can use and activate many of these buildings.

Without our collective attention and action to activate these buildings, we risk a downward spiral of outcomes for the entire District spurred by foreclosures, long-term vacancies, and a sharp curb to our tax revenue streams. We have the tools and momentum to turn things around, but we cannot afford to take our foot off the gas.

We want our Downtown to be a place that residents from all eight wards and from around the region and world can enjoy, and this vision is one that excites me. I hope it excites you, too!

If you have any ideas or thoughts you’d like to share, please reach out! I want to hear from you.

Lastly, I’ll continue to highlight a few projects and priorities throughout August that are important to the District through my newsletter. Make sure you are subscribed to my newsletter to receive it in your inbox each week!

Yours in Service,

Brooke  

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