Amid questions about whether the Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals will stay at Capital One Arena, the newly formed Gallery Place/Chinatown Task Force presented its plan to turn that portion of downtown D.C. into a nationally renowned tourist attraction and engine of economic development.
The first part of that plan, dubbed the Clean & Safe Agenda, is scheduled to launch in February.
During a Tuesday morning mayor-council breakfast, task force member Nina Albert told the D.C. Council that, under the Clean & Safe Agenda, the business community, via the Downtown D.C. Business Improvement District, will collaborate with D.C. government agencies around curbing crime and drug throughout Gallery Place/Chinatown.
Albert, acting deputy mayor of planning and economic development, co-chairs the task force alongside Jodie McLean of real estate firm EDENS and Deborah Ratner Salzberg of Uplands Real Estate. She told council members that the task force is striving to instill confidence in D.C. residents and out-of-towners that their visit to Gallery Place/Chinatown will be “safe and predictable.”
Safe & Clean Agenda, Albert said, will pave the way for Gallery Place/Chinatown becoming a premier arts and culture district, starting at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center and running south into the National Mall.
Later, in response to D.C. Council member Brooke Pinto’s request for elaboration on the matter, Albert said institutions, like the National Portrait Gallery, Shakespeare Theater Company, Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company, and Ford’s Theatre are exploring the possibility of bringing their attractions out into the streets.
“If Monumental Sports doesn’t stay, we have a runway in which we can continue to develop plans,” Albert said on Tuesday at Clyde’s American Restaurant and Bar on 7th Street, where the breakfast took place.
“That site becomes one site. The bookend is the FBI site and the anchor of the convention center,” she continued. “The theaters here make this area akin to a theater district. Focusing on Gallery Place first makes sense and it feeds the pivot of leading into tourism as part of our future economic diversity strategy..”
A Crime Spree and Questions About Secure D.C.’s Racial Blowback
The Safe & Clean Agenda is launching as the D.C. Council prepares for its first vote on the Secure D.C. Omnibus Act. This initiative also comes amid an incremental decrease in crime around Gallery Place/Chinatown, according to data compiled by the Metropolitan Police Department (MPD).
As of Jan. 29, violent crime dropped by 88% from the figure recorded at the same time during the previous year.
MPD also saw a decline in robberies, property crime, and burglary in Gallery Place/Chinatown. The department recorded similar declines in all crime categories, including assault with a deadly weapon, property crime, and motor vehicle theft, within a 30-day period.
There have also been no homicides or incidents of sexual abuse reported in the area so far this year. Theft, however, experienced a nearly 20% year-to-date increase.
For many, this, in part, indicates a problem that continues to affect Gallery Place/Chinatown and other D.C. neighborhoods.
Shortly before the mayor-council breakfast, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, Lindsey Appiah, deputy mayor for public safety and justice, and MPD Executive Assistant Chief Jeffery Carroll, visited the Old Council Chambers on Fourth Street in Northwest to answer questions about a crime spree that started less than a mile from Gallery Place/Chinatown a day prior.
On Monday evening, MPD responded to a shooting on the 900 block of K Street in Northwest. That incident left one person in critical condition.
The alleged perpetrator, Carroll said, entered the victim’s vehicle, shot them and fled soon after. Their victim walked out of their car and collapsed.
More than an hour later, MPD reported to the 1000 block of 3rd Street in Northeast where the same suspect unsuccessfully attempted a carjacking.
That suspect, Carroll said, soon after ran over to 3rd Street and N Street in Northeast where he held a gun up to two people, fatally shot one of them, and took their Chrysler 200. The Prince George’s County Police Department (PGPD) later found the Chrysler 200 abandoned in Takoma Park, Maryland.
Carroll said that, after committing another carjacking, the suspect ordered a rideshare vehicle, a Nissan Rogue, which he also carjacked. At 3 a.m. on Tuesday, the suspect, driving the Nissan Rogue, reportedly pulled up alongside an MPD cruiser on DC-295 near Blue Plains and shot the cruiser once before driving away.
PGPD later encountered the suspect in New Carrollton, Maryland where officers shot and killed him.
Carroll told The Informer that MPD, in conjunction with PGPD and other law enforcement agencies, worked throughout the night to track the suspect, whose name as of Tuesday afternoon hasn’t been released.
While MPD coordinated these efforts from its Command Information Center, Carroll told The Informer that the launch of the Real-Time Crime Center, scheduled for sometime between late February and early March, will provide local, regional and federal law enforcement officers with a state-of-the-art physical space where they can collaboratively monitor crime around the clock.
On Tuesday, as she spoke about the crime spree, and Appiah provided a public safety update, Bowser expressed her hope that the D.C. Council to pass the Secure D.C. Omnibus Act.
The omnibus bill includes elements of more than a dozen bills that Bowser, along with Council members Pinto, Robert White (D-At Large), and Charles Allen (D-Ward 6) introduced last year to coordinate government activity, increase accountability for perpetrators, and bolster crime prevention efforts.
On Jan. 23, the council’s Committee of the Whole approved the bill’s inclusion on the Feb. 6 legislative agenda, despite some apprehension from some council members about aspects of the legislation.
Less than a week later, on Monday, a racial equity impact assessment released by the Council Office of Racial Equity painted an ominous picture of what’s to come with the Secure D.C. Omnibus Bill’s passage.
In their report, analysts Jarred Bowman, Rolando Cuevas, and Milika Robbins, wrote that, if passed in its current form, the Secure D.C. Omnibus Act threatens the public safety of the area’s BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, people of color) residents.
The trio wrote that no evidence-based research supported the provisions outlined in the Secure D.C. Omnibus Bill. In speaking against the increased penalties, the trio noted that the consequences currently on the books haven’t curbed violent crime.
The report went on to highlight the likelihood that Black residents would be disproportionately incarcerated as a result of the legislation. It also pointed out that provisions around mask prohibition stand the chance of increasing racial profiling and surveillance of historically marginalized communities.
Patrice Sulton, executive director of D.C. Justice Lab, told The Informer that the racial equity impact assessment further affirms the need for the council to return to the drawing board.
More importantly, she said, D.C. residents deserve more of a say so about what’s in the bill. That’s why she and her colleagues continue to urge the council to forgo what she calls a distraction and aim for solutions that have been proven to meet residents’ material needs, not penalize them for being poor.
Sulton, who reiterated Bowman, Cuevas and Robbins’ point about intent versus impact, lauded Harriet’s Wildest Dreams for conducting teach-ins about the Secure D.C. Omnibus Act.
However, she lamented that many D.C. residents don’t have the time to deeply explore the legislation. She expressed her hope that the racial equity impact assessment, at the very least, causes council members to slow down and reconsider another course of action, even if it’s delaying the vote on the Secure D.C. Omnibus Bill.
“People just need to be comfortable with the truth that this [omnibus bill] will make our criminal justice system bigger, Blacker and more expensive and that’s not right,” Sulton said.
“Residents should be demanding more input. There’s very little people understand about what’s in the bill,” she added. “The council has a responsibility to break things down. We need more time between committee print and when a vote is dropped for people to be educated on it.”
Questions Persist About an Economic Strategy Focused on Tourism
The Gallery Place/Chinatown Task Force also includes former D.C. mayors Anthony Williams and Adrian Fenty as honorary co-chairs, along with DowntownDC BID Executive Director Gerren Price and Rita Lee of Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association of Washington, D.C., among other people, as executive committee members.
They will facilitate a nine-month process that includes, in addition to the Clean & Safe Agenda, temporary activations that increase foot traffic in Gallery Place/Chinatown, a search for investors, and community engagement.
Toward the end of the task force’s presentation, several council members weighed in on aspects of Gallery Place/Chinatown’s development.
At-Large Council member White asked about intentional development of affordable housing clusters while Allen inquired if there’s any consideration of how Metro would be sustained, given its precarious financial situation.
Council member Trayon White (D-Ward 8) reflected on the break-ins he recently experienced while parked in Gallery Place/Chinatown. He also touched on the financial strain that parking costs places on residents.
While Albert assured the council that the task force would cast a wide net for feedback, some council members, like Council member Kenyan McDuffie (D-Ward 5), questioned whether the task force is overlooking other D.C. communities and native Washingtonians.
“If we focus on Gallery Place, how can we ensure that we’re not slighting other areas that need investment in this comeback?” McDuffie asked the task force on Tuesday.
“What do you envision the role of longtime residents and institutions in the community?” he added. “Where do you perceive them having a role in guiding this process and feeling included? I don’t see at this point [the names of] people and institutions that have been instrumental to our communities [among the stakeholders].”
While she acknowledged the merits of McDuffie’s point, Bowser stressed the need for balance between tourism and investments in programs. She later told The Informer that programs intended to pave a path to the middle class for Black D.C. residents have been funded by a vibrant downtown sector.
“We’re proud of the investments we made in public schools, including giving people the opportunity to earn a living while studying,” Bowser said. “The reason why we have the gold standard of investment is because of our commercial property. The comeback is focused on Black Washingtonians.”
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