For the better part of a week, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) stood before District residents at budget forums across the District, articulating her vision of a city that weathers a Trump-induced downturn with investments in education, public safety and economic growth.
As it relates to economic growth, Bowser has identified RFK campus in Ward 7 as that catalyst, telling residents that, with D.C.’s chief financial officer recently predicting a revenue decrease of nearly $1 billion over the next three years, she remains focused on generating future revenue.
“The way out of [the financial downturn] is to have plans for four years and invest in them so that you have an income driver,” Bowser said on March 3. “The big thing that we have to be strategic about is investing in things that are catalytic, that create additional dollars, not take additional dollars, and sometimes that’s a hard concept for everybody to embrace.”
Some of those people include D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) who, as of that morning, appeared cautious about publicly financing a new football stadium with other capital investments, like the renovation of the Henry J. Daly Building on Indiana Avenue in Northwest and a new jail, in queue.
Meanwhile, a contingent of community members living near RFK campus are demanding the development of housing, food, recreation and other amenities. Even so, Bowser continues to promote a new football stadium as what she calls the only suitable pathway to economic development on the 177 acres of land along the Anacostia River.
“At this point, the types of uses that have expressed interest at RFK are all sports-related,” she told reporters.
RFK Stadium and the ‘D.C. 2050’ Comprehensive Plan
Ward 7 resident John Capozzi remains adamant that, despite a poll showing overwhelming support for a football stadium, the Bowser administration’s position on economic development doesn’t align with that held by the masses of District residents.
“If it’s so popular, why not have a referendum and see if people want to spend taxpayer dollars on a football stadium?” said Capozzi, a member of No Billionaire’s Playground, a group that’s organizing against the construction of a new football stadium on RFK campus. “There’s been skepticism, opposition, and hostility to the idea. People are supportive of the [Washington Commanders] but that’s not about spending taxpayer money to build something for a billionaire.”
Capozzi, a Hillcrest resident, counted among the hundreds who attended Bowser’s budget forum at Kennedy Park Recreation Center in Northwest on Saturday, where, for the third time that week, Bowser posited a new home for the Washington Commanders as a viable pathway to economic development.
More than a decade ago, Capozzi, then living just blocks away from what was then the home of D.C. United often lost the parking spaces near his home to soccer fans and patrons attending other events on RFK campus.
With those memories at the front of his mind, Capozzi said the Washington Commanders’ return to RFK campus wouldn’t bode well for residents brought into Ward 7 via redistricting.
“A lot of those residents have families and move there because of the neighborhood,” said Capozzi, a former D.C. shadow representative. “And now they will be confronted with traffic, noise and general mayhem from a stadium, which wasn’t in the plans five, 10, 15 or even 20 years ago.”
Capozzi’s remarks come one day after Bowser announced the launch of D.C. 2050, what will be the District’s first revamp of its comprehensive plan in two decades, at The Strand D.C., a Deanwood-based restaurant located less than four miles from RFK campus.
This new plan, which officials aim to submit to the D.C. Council by 2027, will follow amendments made in 2021 that are credited with helping Bowser meet her 2025 housing goals.
For nearly an hour, Bowser, with the support of D.C. Councilmember Wendell Felder (D-Ward 7) and Office of Planning (OP) Director Anita Cozart, outlined a two-year process where OP engages and shapes a comprehensive plan in collaboration with District residents, organizers and government officials.
Such efforts will start in March via a virtual platform and at Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Library in Northwest and Barry Farm Recreation Center in Southeast.
Cozart later delved into OP’s focus on preparing for the projected addition of 145,000 residents and 175,000 jobs by 2050.
“Our current comprehensive plan, it doesn’t address some of the things that we’re dealing with today related to the impact of the pandemic on how we live, we work, we shop, we recreate and connect with one another,” Cozart told residents, workforce development specialists, organizers and government officials who filled two levels of The Strand’s main dining area.
The comprehensive plan, she said, achieves OP’s goal by dictating the location of new housing and jobs, and the manner in which the District preserves and connects neighborhoods and invests in public spaces.
“And so when we rewrite our comprehensive plan, we can really identify how we as a city can develop and accommodate growth in a way that ensures our neighborhoods provide what residents need and need to thrive and for the city to be prosperous,” Cozart continued.
An OP spokesperson told The Informer’s it’s yet to be determined the degree to which this once-in-a-two decade process would affect development in the communities surrounding RFK campus — including Kingman Park, River Terrace, Benning Road and Hill East. However, amid residents’ concerns about noise and traffic congestion, Bowser revealed that OP will conduct a series of tests to ascertain the best scenario for residents.
“There’s a series of contests for what works for the community, infrastructure, of which there’s not really any there, so that’s gonna have to be built,” Bowser said. “The roads network, public transportation, access to emergency routes, all of those things.”
D.C. Councilmember Felder Weighs In
Weeks before the release of the D.C. Chief Financial Officer Glen Lee’s dismal revenue projections, Bowser joined Felder and Events DC personnel at Eastern High School in Northeast where, for hours, they answered residents’ questions about the status of RFK campus development.
As outlined in a plan that Bowser, Felder, and Events DC presented, the District will incrementally demolish the old stadium before focusing on the planning and development of an economic anchor. Officials will then focus on shaping the 30% of outdoor and park space located on the plot of land. The finalized plan to be submitted to the D.C. Council will include information about commercial activity on RFK campus and the funding of a sportsplex.
Bowser, in the weeks since the council’s approval of the land transfer, has employed what some describe as a new level of clarity in identifying a new football stadium as her ideal anchor of economic development. Her fervor on the evening of Feb. 13 came weeks after the end of what was one of the Washington Commanders’ best seasons in decades, and more than a year after the release of a Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development-commissioned report showing that “anchor sports facilities” in urban areas maximize pedestrian and economic activity.
Bowser continues to highlight examples throughout her 10-year mayoralty to further support her assertion.
“We can look at a lot of our projects around the city and see that they had anchors, just like St. Elizabeths,” Bowser said on Monday. “There was literally nothing happening at St. Elizabeth’s until we made the investment in the entertainment and sports arena, and now we have housing, we have jobs, we’ll open a hospital.”
In continuing her point, Bowser went to Southwest.
“Same is true at the Wharf, where there’s a lot of housing, but there are drivers, there are hotels, there’s The Anthem, there’s activity,” she said. “I think that we can see some other more sluggish activity in other projects that don’t have a driver, that have all-day traffic or night traffic of people living there, so you have to have that mix of uses.”
In the days following the community meeting at Eastern High School, Felder expressed his desire to help residents have as much information available when deciding on whether to embrace a football stadium as an anchor of economic development.
“It will be good to help neighbors, to present neighbors, rather, with two scenarios of what the redevelopment of RFK site looks like with the Commanders coming back, and then what the site looks like without the Commanders coming back,” Felder told The Informer.
While Felder didn’t reveal the timeline to release the two plans, he said that the final outcome must spur the type of economic activity that brings vibrancy to the community and ultimately finances the amenities that improve residents’ quality of life.
Last month, after joining his council colleagues in approving the transfer of RFK campus to the D.C. government, Felder reflected on the significance of the moment, alluding to what he called decades of underinvestment that could potentially be reversed with the most efficient use of taxpayer dollars.
Felder doubled down on that sentiment while speaking with The Informer.
“I’m a firm believer that if we get the anchor that will jumpstart some of our longstanding projects and then also bring the neighborhood-serving amenities that many neighbors want,” he said. “An anchor will help contribute to that. It’s not the only thing, but I think that it will deal with the necessary resolve.”
One Resident Seeks Bowser Administration’s Attention on Other Issues
Bowser is scheduled to submit her Fiscal Year 2026 budget proposal to the council within a matter of weeks. She recently hinted at a workforce development plan to support federal government employees who’ve lost their jobs since President Donald J. Trump entered office earlier this year.
Both documents, more than likely, reflect the reality of a projected FY26 revenue deficit of $300,000 caused by the hemorrhaging of federal government jobs.
On Monday, at The Strand, Charles Boston, an arborist and proponent of increasing workforce development opportunities for youth, questioned the degree to which the D.C. government will ensure that D.C. residents get to participate in the construction on RFK campus.
“We know that joblessness is high in the District of Columbia,” Boston told The Informer. “ It’s definitely higher than it’s ever been before post-pandemic with the learning loss and so forth. And even with the economy, some of the jobs that never return. And so this will be a great opportunity to provide construction career pathways to dislocated workers, youth that are not prepared for college.”
At the end of March, Boston has activities scheduled for aspiring arborists at University of District of Columbia and Langston Golf Course on Benning Road in Northeast. He described the events as part of his effort to expose more young people to trades that align with the District’s economic future while promoting environmental sustainability.
“Most of our parks are in very bad shape so [it’s about] having 50, 60, 70 acres of a nice forest plan,” Boston said. “The temperature is projected to be extremely hot by 2050, so let’s plan for that by planting trees.”
Speaking of sustainability, Boston expressed skepticism about the Washington Commanders’ return attracting economic development of benefit to Ward 7 residents facing housing insecurity and joblessness.
“We don’t have a lot of businesses in Ward 7 that are owned and operated by District residents,” Boston told The Informer. “From an economic standpoint, affordability is really important because even with some of the housing development we have now, most residents don’t earn an income to afford to rent [or pay ] mortgages.”
Cost of the ward 7 development?