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A Safer DC
We are one week away from celebrating the holidays with our friends and loved ones. This is normally a time when we like to reflect upon the positive moments of 2023 as we prepare for the New Year. However, due to our citywide crime crisis, those positives are few and far between as we continue our struggle with the brazenness of these incidents.
Just yesterday, retailers located in NoMa (REI) and City Center (Chanel) experienced smash-and-grab robberies conducted in daytime hours, on one of the busiest shopping weekends of the season. Both neighborhoods have seen transformative investments take place in the last 15 years, drawing in new residents, new retail, and visitors who shop and dine in the city. We cannot stand by and let these incidents become the norm. Every conversation I’ve had this year with business leaders, retailers, and workers has kicked off with extremely valid concerns about crime. In November, MPD Chief Smith joined me along the H Street NE corridor to meet and hear directly from businesses struggling to face these security challenges. My team and I have similarly met with businesses on several once-vibrant retail corridors to discuss strategies on how to address these issues.
Today, I convened a meeting with over two dozen representatives from local, regional, and national retailers, restaurants, and several of our industry associations. We gathered at the Downtown DC BID to focus on the immediate public safety needs of businesses and the people they serve. Retail theft, employee safety, and soaring enhanced security costs are drastically impacting a wide array of our businesses. We know the customer experience suffers when shoppers must ask for goods that are locked behind protective barriers. The threat of retail crime and the measures that businesses are taking to thwart it are driving shoppers to move their activity online, to other locations outside DC, or to stop certain in-store trips altogether. This is unacceptable, and we must combat this unfortunate trend quickly and comprehensively before more businesses decide to close permanently.
Today’s meeting follows an important meeting that I convened last week, which included a wide array of stakeholders from our local and federal law enforcement community, as well as individuals doing important work to prevent violence across the District. We had a frank discussion about what must be done to decrease the violence we are experiencing in our city and to identify gaps where the planning and execution of prior public safety strategies are falling short. These partners articulated a myriad of beliefs and values while proposing potential solutions, and we were united by the urgency and sentiment that more needs to be done to bring this crisis under control.
Our discussion follows last week’s news about Monumental Sports & Entertainment’s decision to move the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals out of DC to Virginia. Ted Leonsis’s decision amplifies what many business owners have complained to the Mayor about for months: the negative impact of crime and violence on their operations and visitor experience. The city faces yet another reversal of fortune with this potentially staggering loss.
The District has reportedly experienced the largest increase in violent crime of any major city in America. So, I am calling on the Mayor to use every resource within her existing authority to address this crime crisis immediately. If rapid action does not take place, we will soon see additional deserted storefronts and vacant office buildings, both realities that we have yet to overcome in the wake of the pandemic’s effect on our Downtown. Our budget, and the noteworthy investments we’ve made in affordable housing, education, and social services, will suffer as property values continue to decrease and local spending is constricted.
I look forward to working on common-sense solutions that will bring us a safer DC. There are elements of the crime bills before the Council that can help us achieve this goal, and I continue to engage with my colleagues on how we can move expeditiously to implement them. In January, the Committee on Business and Economic Development will convene a Roundtable on the Impact of Crime and Violence on DC’s Business Climate, so that the public can hear directly from our businesses, workers, and residents on this urgent matter.
December 18, 2023 Retail Theft Meeting Attendees:
Lowe’s, Target, Imperial Wine & Spirits, H&M, DC Chamber of Commerce,
Greater Washington Black Chamber of Commerce, CVS, Walmart, Albertons/Safeway, Pro Fish, Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington, DowntownDC BID, H Street Main Street, Georgetown Events/Surfside, Cork Wine Bar and Market, Giant Food, Wegmans, Hines Real Estate Advisory, Right Proper Brewing Company
December 11, 2023 Public Safety Meeting Attendees:
Councilmember Brooke Pinto, Ward 2 DC Councilmember
Amber Goodwin- Founder of the Community Justice and Community Justice Action Fund
Brian L. Schwalb, DC Attorney General
Dr. Joseph Richardson, Jr., Professor of African-American Studies, Medical Anthropology & Epidemiology at the University of Maryland
Eduardo Ferrer, Policy Director of the Juvenile Justice Initiative at Georgetown University
Heather N. Pinckney, Director of the DC Public Defender Service
Marcus Ellis, Executive Director of Peace for DC
Matt Graves, United States Attorney for the District of Columbia
Pastor Delonte Gholston, Peace Fellowship Baptist Church
Patrice Amandla Sulton, Executive Director of The DC Justice Lab
Rahim Jenkins, Chief Executive Officer of the National Center
for Juvenile Justice Reform
Rodger A. Fairfax Jr, Dean of American University Washington College of Law
Roger A. Mitchell, Jr. MD FCAP, Chair of Pathology and Chief Medical Officer
for the Faculty Practice Plan
Terri Odom, Director of the Family Court Social Services Division
Tony Lewis Jr, Author & Activist
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