Day by day, President Donald J. Trump speaks with disdain for the District, most recently telling reporters aboard Air Force One that the federal government should take over a structure that’s been under the authority of Mayor Muriel Bowser for a decade.
For Emma P. Ward, a local educator and senior advocate, Trump’s rhetoric is revenge for what she called Bowser’s flamboyant show of solidarity with those who protested George Floyd’s police-involved murder in front of the White House during the pandemic.
“Mayor Bowser put that Black Lives Matter sign right in front of the White House without President Trump’s permission,” said Ward, a District resident of more than 50 years. “He looks at it as her taking power.”
In the years since Bowser commissioned the creation of what’s now known as Black Lives Matter Plaza, her administration, in collaboration with the D.C. Council has dedicated dollars and resources to high-impact tutoring, downtown rental conversions, and amenities for historically underserved communities.
In recent months, the mayor has touted pre-pandemic population and tourism figures that are anticipated to increase with the unveiling of a Marion S. Barry mural and launch of the world’s first go-go museum and cafe.
The Bowser administration also continues to invest in underserved communities, including a new hospital east of the Anacostia River and a future anchor for Ward 7’s economic development. However, as D.C.’s housing stock faces decimation, Bowser is set to introduce legislation reinstating pre-pandemic eviction protocols and narrowing the scope of tenant protections.
In the realm of public safety, the Metropolitan Police Department has faced criticism for a string of police-involved shootings, including that of violence interrupter Justin Robinson.
Other qualms date back to the beginning of Bowser’s third term when she aligned with Republicans who struck down the Revised Criminal Code Act. Much to the chagrin of activists, Bowser, in collaboration with D.C. Councilmember Brooke Pinto (D), also joined Democrats across the U.S. in employing what social justice advocates consider draconian responses to violent crime.
As the Bowser administration touts last year’s drop in crime and its progress demolishing homeless encampments, Ward remains vocal about the poverty she witnesses along the street named after Barry.
“I see homeless people get on the bus and ride from one end of the line to the other almost every day,” she told The Informer. “They’ve been out in the cold all night and they want to get warm and sleep in peace.”
Ward said that a federal government takeover could exacerbate D.C.’s housing conundrum, and more.
“I see us in an economic crisis, and I know we will be affected by it. Things are twice as high,” said Ward, a District substitute teacher. “What’s gonna happen to the U.S. Department of Education? What happens to students who don’t get service? What’s happening with the schools if we lose that money? It’s a problem.”
President Trump Speaks, and D.C. Mayor Bowser Responds
Trump’s position about the District bore similarity to that of Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.), both of whom introduced legislation in their respective chambers of Congress to repeal home rule.
“I think we should run it strong. Run it with law and order,” Trump said about the District on Wednesday evening. “Make it absolutely flawlessly beautiful. I think we should take over Washington, D.C. and make it safe. People are getting killed. People are being hurt. You have a great police department there, but somehow they’re not utilized properly.”
Since entering the presidency for the second time, Trump has unleashed a slew of executive orders that have triggered appellate court cases, spurred federal government unemployment and stoked fears about the drastic effects of federal funding cuts.
The president has also announced a yet-to-be-released executive order that clears homeless encampments and increases prosecution for violent crime. As District residents await more information about the executive order, Bowser continues to express her willingness to collaborate with the White House on prosecution for gun crimes and judicial vacancies.
Bowser, who last met with Trump at Mar-a-Lago Club in December, stressed that her line of communication with the White House remains open as she works to ensure that Trump understands the current state of affairs in the District.
“President Trump left D.C. at the end of his first term in a COVID environment. And in a COVID environment, I think he still has a picture of COVID-era D.C.,” Bowser said. “It’s very much the post-COVID environment where the issues with homeless encampments is much diminished. Not completely solved, but much diminished from the D.C. that he left.”
On Thursday, Bowser denied seeing any connection between Trump’s rhetoric and congressional Republicans’ attempted takeover of D.C.
“I think they’re unrelated,” Bowser told reporters on Feb. 20. “What the president said, he said many, many times on the campaign trail.”
Bowser appeared skeptical about the BOWSER Act gaining traction.
“Getting bills, especially controversial ones, through both houses is never simple,” she told reporters. “And so I would put a change to Home Rule in that category. It would have to get through the House, and it would have to get through the Senate.”
Her tone later turned a bit more serious as she implored lawmakers in the House to think twice about Medicaid cuts.
“That’s going to hurt not just us. That’s going to hurt everybody,” Bowser said. “But it will also impact public safety. If people aren’t getting the medical services, mental health services, services in schools, services in the homeless services sector related to Medicaid, that’s going to have a very negative impact on public safety.”
Questions Persist about D.C.’s Response to Homelessness
Bower also defended her administration’s handling of housing insecurity in the District, including the demolition of half of the city’s homeless encampments — with a caveat.
“We have to keep working cooperatively with Park Service and our agencies and our nonprofit providers to get people into shelter,” Bowser said. “The good thing that people in the District should know, and we’ll make sure the president understands this, is that we have shelter space. We have space in our system for anybody who’s on the street.”
A John A. Wilson Building insider speaking on background said that, as of the council’s legislative meetings on Jan. 18, Bowser hadn’t officially submitted what’s known as the Rebalancing Expectations for Neighbors, Tenants, and Landlords Act, or the RENTAL Act.
An Executive Office of the Mayor spokesperson said that the legislation would be officially submitted on Jan. 21, though they provided no proof upon request.
With temperatures below freezing, concerns persist about shelter space. By October, before the launch of the District’s winter plan, nearly all of the District’s shelter beds had been filled. While District officials plan to add 500 more shelter beds within the next three years, including a men’s shelter and an emergency shelter, critics say that housing policy like what Bowser espouses could increase displacement.
Under the RENTAL Act, tenants in apartments with majority market-rate units would no longer have protections under the Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA), a law allowing for the negotiation of a property sale when the landlord attempts to sell their building to a third party.
This provision builds upon 2023 council legislation exempting new downtown office-to-apartment conversions from TOPA, and a 2018 law doing the same for tenants of single-family homes. D.C. Councilmember Janeese Lewis George, a Ward 4 resident with TOPA experience, questioned how the trend addresses D.C.’s housing problem.
“The gutting of TOPA is unnecessary,” Lewis George told The Informer. “Tenants dealing with high cost of living are using TOPA to protect themselves and make sure they have the necessities.
Though the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development maintains that market-rate tenants rarely utilize TOPA, Lewis George said that changes to the law disregard the cost-of-living burdens affecting relatively well-to-do Washingtonians.
“It’s greed and it’s out of touch,” said Lewis George as she encouraged housing advocates to mobilize against the RENTAL Act. “Once you lose TOPA, it’s hard to get it back.”