Local Journalists Discuss State of the Capital at Annual Communities Roundtable
June 21, 2023
The prospect of D.C. statehood, revitalization of the city’s downtown, and tension between city leaders and the U.S. Congress over recent reform bills were all hot topics of discussion on June 15 at the annual Meet the Press Roundtable, hosted by the D.C. Affairs Community at Bar headquarters. Business and communications attorney James Bubar moderated an esteemed panel consisting of Tom Sherwood, political analyst on WAMU’s Politics Hour; Martin Austermuhle, reporter for WAMU and DCist; and Meagan Flynn and Michael Brice-Saddler, both government and politics reporters at The Washington Post.
Bubar began the discussion by weighing in on the 50th anniversary of the Home Rule Act, noting that Congress has disapproved bills involving the criminal code revision and police reform. Bubar asked, “What’s next?”
Flynn commented that the rapid succession of disapprovals from Congress is rare, but we should brace for a continuation of those resolutions with the current Congress.
“If you’ve [lived] here long enough, you know to expect the worse,” said Austermuhle, who noted that the last discussions among federal and city lawmakers on the criminal code revision suggested room for compromise on future D.C. resolutions.
Sherwood, on the other hand, had a dim outlook concerning the willingness of politicians from both sides of the aisle to promote D.C. issues. “The Republicans in the House don’t give a damn about the District,” Sherwood said.
As for the possibility of D.C. statehood, all of the panelists were skeptical that it would become a reality. Austermuhle, however, argued that the 50th anniversary of the Home Rule Act is an opportunity for the country at large to discuss the structure of D.C.’s government. “We can discuss what’s working and what’s not,” he said. “There is a lot more than can be done with the structure of D.C. government before statehood. That’s a productive conversation.”
Brice-Saddler took a pragmatic stance in which he argued that changing minds and opinions about D.C. statehood could be effective. He also mentioned that, even within the District, there are some people who don’t understand the full dynamics of the District not having full representation in Congress.
Sherwood expressed greater pessimism. “It’s not going to happen. As much as I support statehood for the District of Columbia, it’s a fantasy to think that we are making any progress,” he said. “It’s more important to protect what home rule that we have. But I’m old enough to say [that D.C. statehood is] not [going to happen] in my lifetime.”
Critical of President Biden when asked if the president’s fondness for the city will have a lasting impact, Sherwood reminded attendees that previous presidents such as Obama and Clinton have engaged in performative acts to show their support for the city rather than standing by it on issues. “Going out to our restaurants every once a while and making a pleasant nod is not the same thing as standing by our criminal code revision, which he didn’t do,” Sherwood said of Biden.
Also on the table was the topic of downtown vacancies. Like many other major U.S. metropolitan cities, the city’s downtown has yet to fully recover from the pandemic. Bubar reported that downtown D.C. has an 18 percent office vacancy rate. He also mentioned that federal workers continuing to work from home is having dire consequences on the city’s revitalization efforts.
“The federal presence in D.C. is significant,” echoed Brice-Saddler, noting federal workers’ strongholds on K Street and other major downtown D.C. thoroughfares.
Brice-Saddler and the other panelists all agreed that Mayor Bowser’s proposed plan of converting some downtown commercial buildings into residences is more architecturally and financially cumbersome than first conceived.
Sherwood suggested that the focus could be on opening a new high school downtown instead of zeroing in on bringing federal workers back into the office. [A high school] would allow access by students from all the wards,” he argued. “We will have a place where there are jobs [and] students in high school could have internships — not just in the summer, but also after school.”
The panelists also cited other neighborhoods such as the Wharf and the Parks at Walter Reed as thriving areas with a mixture of business and residential housing, where the city could direct its focus instead of downtown.
“What’s fascinating is the internal debates within the city government on how much attention … we give to downtown versus attention to other neighborhoods,” Austermuhle said.
The city’s rising crime rate was also addressed, with Bubar inquiring about possible solutions. All of the panelists acknowledged the rise of violent crime and its relationship to employment and housing inequities that often fall along racial and socioeconomic lines.
Flynn, who is a relative newcomer to the District, questioned the data that has been driving the discussion on the city’s crime problem. “Are decision-makers making data-driven proposals or politically driven proposals?” she asked.
Sherwood stated his support of any violence-prevention program but also argued that, for long-lasting progress in crime prevention, the city needs to do better in allocating resources such as affordable housing and job creation. In turn, he argued that social media, particularly neighborhood watch apps such as Nextdoor, have heightened people’s attention to crime.
“Social media has made every crime a headline crime,” Sherwood said. “Thanks to the Nextdoor app, we are inundated 24/7 with bad news about crime. It eats at you as a human being and tells you how fearful you should be. There is a great deal of fear that our leaders have yet to figure out how to address.”
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