Bowser urges Biden to end telework policies for federal workers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Metro is a mess. The roads are more congested than ever (and they just announced plans for 100s more speed cameras in case going down major arteries like 16th wasn't painful enough). And crime is worse than ever. Maybe Bowser should focus on ways to make it easier for people to get downtown, rather than forcing them to do it against their will.

Exactly! make it more attractive for people to want to come in. She has been bashing commuters, taking parking spaces away, creating more and more bike lanes, cameras, etc for years. Where the hell does she think feds can afford to live? It's not an easy bike ride to work.

This!
DC treats commuters really bad, makes them feel unwelcome. Why would they want to come back?

+1. You can’t put bike lanes on major arterial roads AND expect professional workers to return en masse Can’t have both.

Understand induced demand. Over time, the lanes won’t make any difference to the time of your commute.

Induced demand means fewer people commuting downtown, ergo you can't have both bike lanes on major arterial roads AND expect professional workers to return en masse

That's absurd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I telework 2 days and when I was in DC yesterday I bought a burrito and a bottle of water from Qdoba and it was almost $20.00. Bowser can start by fixing vagrancy and homelessness Fed workers aren’t going to buy enough lunch to fix DC even if they all return full time.

Jesus. What a waste of money. It seems like prices everywhere have increased 50% or more. The idea that Federal workers need to come back in order to be ripped off is ridiculous. I recommend stocking up your office with protein shakes from
Costco. They are cheap, filling and provide all your essential nutrients. Maybe it’s not as satisfying as a burrito, but when the alternative is to spend $20 at Qdoba I’m going with the shake.

DP. Prices have totally gone up. I generally bring my lunch but previously when things get busy would buy out once a week, but I swear lunch at my pre-pandemic quick service haunts cost 50% more. Just not worth it. I'll still get a coffee/muffin sometimes but have really buckled down on bringing my lunch.

I'm a fed and I go in twice a week. I stopped getting coffee from the shop next door to my office because it was just to expensive to justify. I'm now brining it from home which is something I never thought I would do but I guess $6 for a latte was my tipping point.

I'm going to guess my agency's leadership doesn't give a damn about Bowser. None of them live in DC and they seem to enjoy teleworking as much as the rest of us. If she wants to criticize the way the fed government is managing its real estate profile that's one thing but suggesting how they manage employee benefits is going to far. Plus there are a lot of DC government employees who are teleworking some percentage of time. Until she brings back all DC employees full time she should limit these types of comments/demands.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I telework 2 days and when I was in DC yesterday I bought a burrito and a bottle of water from Qdoba and it was almost $20.00. Bowser can start by fixing vagrancy and homelessness Fed workers aren’t going to buy enough lunch to fix DC even if they all return full time.

Jesus. What a waste of money. It seems like prices everywhere have increased 50% or more. The idea that Federal workers need to come back in order to be ripped off is ridiculous. I recommend stocking up your office with protein shakes from
Costco. They are cheap, filling and provide all your essential nutrients. Maybe it’s not as satisfying as a burrito, but when the alternative is to spend $20 at Qdoba I’m going with the shake.

DP. Prices have totally gone up. I generally bring my lunch but previously when things get busy would buy out once a week, but I swear lunch at my pre-pandemic quick service haunts cost 50% more. Just not worth it. I'll still get a coffee/muffin sometimes but have really buckled down on bringing my lunch.

I'm a fed and I go in twice a week. I stopped getting coffee from the shop next door to my office because it was just to expensive to justify. I'm now brining it from home which is something I never thought I would do but I guess $6 for a latte was my tipping point.

I'm going to guess my agency's leadership doesn't give a damn about Bowser. None of them live in DC and they seem to enjoy teleworking as much as the rest of us. If she wants to criticize the way the fed government is managing its real estate profile that's one thing but suggesting how they manage employee benefits is going to far. Plus there are a lot of DC government employees who are teleworking some percentage of time. Until she brings back all DC employees full time she should limit these types of comments/demands.

+1 This!

I’ve stopped buying coffee out completely. But prices downtown are insane and when I do go in, I also bring my own coffee which is also something I never thought I’d do. I walked into a Compass coffee a few months ago and look at the prices and just turned around and walked out.

I also agree that the DC mayor has no business thinking she can dictate anything to the Federal government, which is why the Federal government has paid her no mind.

Not to go off-topic, but it’s hard to see how DC statehood can ever be taken seriously if that cannot manage their affairs without always demanding Federal handouts, when the city already benefits the most from the Federal government than anywhere else in the country.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She needs to shove it. There are homeless people all over the sidewalks near my office. You can't even walk on the sidewalk if you want to go out to lunch. She should worry about that.

+1000

Bowser should first worry about cleaning up all the vagrancy, crime and homelessness in downtown DC. Office workers will be more likely to come back when it looks less like a war zone.

As someone who works downtown three days a week (right by Metro Center) and walks from Farragut North to my office, I think "looks like a war zone" is absurd hyperbole.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Metro is a mess. The roads are more congested than ever (and they just announced plans for 100s more speed cameras in case going down major arteries like 16th wasn't painful enough). And crime is worse than ever. Maybe Bowser should focus on ways to make it easier for people to get downtown, rather than forcing them to do it against their will.

Exactly! make it more attractive for people to want to come in. She has been bashing commuters, taking parking spaces away, creating more and more bike lanes, cameras, etc for years. Where the hell does she think feds can afford to live? It's not an easy bike ride to work.

This!
DC treats commuters really bad, makes them feel unwelcome. Why would they want to come back?

+1. You can’t put bike lanes on major arterial roads AND expect professional workers to return en masse Can’t have both.

Understand induced demand. Over time, the lanes won’t make any difference to the time of your commute.

Induced demand means fewer people commuting downtown, ergo you can't have both bike lanes on major arterial roads AND expect professional workers to return en masse

Sorry, how does induced demand mean fewer people commuting downtown? Induced demand is a traffic engineering concept that explains why widening roads in the name of easing traffic doesn't actually ease traffic.

[Anonymous]

Weird. I'm a federal employee who bikes to work more now because there are safer places than when there was nothing. My neighbor a few doors down is also a fed and he bikes downtown too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I telework 2 days and when I was in DC yesterday I bought a burrito and a bottle of water from Qdoba and it was almost $20.00. Bowser can start by fixing vagrancy and homelessness Fed workers aren’t going to buy enough lunch to fix DC even if they all return full time.

Jesus. What a waste of money. It seems like prices everywhere have increased 50% or more. The idea that Federal workers need to come back in order to be ripped off is ridiculous. I recommend stocking up your office with protein shakes from
Costco. They are cheap, filling and provide all your essential nutrients. Maybe it’s not as satisfying as a burrito, but when the alternative is to spend $20 at Qdoba I’m going with the shake.

DP. Prices have totally gone up. I generally bring my lunch but previously when things get busy would buy out once a week, but I swear lunch at my pre-pandemic quick service haunts cost 50% more. Just not worth it. I'll still get a coffee/muffin sometimes but have really buckled down on bringing my lunch.

I'm a fed and I go in twice a week. I stopped getting coffee from the shop next door to my office because it was just to expensive to justify. I'm now brining it from home which is something I never thought I would do but I guess $6 for a latte was my tipping point.

I'm going to guess my agency's leadership doesn't give a damn about Bowser. None of them live in DC and they seem to enjoy teleworking as much as the rest of us. If she wants to criticize the way the fed government is managing its real estate profile that's one thing but suggesting how they manage employee benefits is going to far. Plus there are a lot of DC government employees who are teleworking some percentage of time. Until she brings back all DC employees full time she should limit these types of comments/demands.

+1 This!

I’ve stopped buying coffee out completely. But prices downtown are insane and when I do go in, I also bring my own coffee which is also something I never thought I’d do. I walked into a Compass coffee a few months ago and look at the prices and just turned around and walked out.

I also agree that the DC mayor has no business thinking she can dictate anything to the Federal government, which is why the Federal government has paid her no mind.

Not to go off-topic, but it’s hard to see how DC statehood can ever be taken seriously if that cannot manage their affairs without always demanding Federal handouts, when the city already benefits the most from the Federal government than anywhere else in the country.

D.C. doesn't demand federal handouts. It gets federal payments for things like health care, highways, etc., the same as the states do. The largest single tranche of federal money D.C. gets is for Medicaid. If you think any states would be able to manage their budgets without federal aid for things like that, you're dreaming.

What usually happens is the District eats the costs for things the federal government does that use up D.C. government resources, like, for instance, providing extra police during inaugurations (or rescuing Capitol Police during insurrections). Or, as I suspect we'll see again this year, picking up trash from federally owned and administered land around the city during federal government shutdowns.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Weird. I'm a federal employee who bikes to work more now because there are safer places than when there was nothing. My neighbor a few doors down is also a fed and he bikes downtown too.

Are you doing that 5 days a week? I think that all the mayor wants to know.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I telework 2 days and when I was in DC yesterday I bought a burrito and a bottle of water from Qdoba and it was almost $20.00. Bowser can start by fixing vagrancy and homelessness Fed workers aren’t going to buy enough lunch to fix DC even if they all return full time.

Jesus. What a waste of money. It seems like prices everywhere have increased 50% or more. The idea that Federal workers need to come back in order to be ripped off is ridiculous. I recommend stocking up your office with protein shakes from
Costco. They are cheap, filling and provide all your essential nutrients. Maybe it’s not as satisfying as a burrito, but when the alternative is to spend $20 at Qdoba I’m going with the shake.

DP. Prices have totally gone up. I generally bring my lunch but previously when things get busy would buy out once a week, but I swear lunch at my pre-pandemic quick service haunts cost 50% more. Just not worth it. I'll still get a coffee/muffin sometimes but have really buckled down on bringing my lunch.

I'm a fed and I go in twice a week. I stopped getting coffee from the shop next door to my office because it was just to expensive to justify. I'm now brining it from home which is something I never thought I would do but I guess $6 for a latte was my tipping point.

I'm going to guess my agency's leadership doesn't give a damn about Bowser. None of them live in DC and they seem to enjoy teleworking as much as the rest of us. If she wants to criticize the way the fed government is managing its real estate profile that's one thing but suggesting how they manage employee benefits is going to far. Plus there are a lot of DC government employees who are teleworking some percentage of time. Until she brings back all DC employees full time she should limit these types of comments/demands.

+1 This!

I’ve stopped buying coffee out completely. But prices downtown are insane and when I do go in, I also bring my own coffee which is also something I never thought I’d do. I walked into a Compass coffee a few months ago and look at the prices and just turned around and walked out.

I also agree that the DC mayor has no business thinking she can dictate anything to the Federal government, which is why the Federal government has paid her no mind.

Not to go off-topic, but it’s hard to see how DC statehood can ever be taken seriously if that cannot manage their affairs without always demanding Federal handouts, when the city already benefits the most from the Federal government than anywhere else in the country.

D.C. doesn't demand federal handouts. It gets federal payments for things like health care, highways, etc., the same as the states do. The largest single tranche of federal money D.C. gets is for Medicaid. If you think any states would be able to manage their budgets without federal aid for things like that, you're dreaming.

What usually happens is the District eats the costs for things the federal government does that use up D.C. government resources, like, for instance, providing extra police during inaugurations (or rescuing Capitol Police during insurrections). Or, as I suspect we'll see again this year, picking up trash from federally owned and administered land around the city during federal government shutdowns.

You believe that the Federal government is a drag on DC’s finances?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone from the Biden administration acknowledged or commented on this?



https://thehill.com/homenews/3796406-dc-mayor-urges-biden-to-end-telework-policies-for-federal-workers/

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser called for the Biden administration to end work-from-home policies for federal government employees Monday, highlighting office buildings left empty by the remote work policies as opportunities for affordable housing.

Washington D.C., like many other major U.S. cities, has seen a rise in vacant office buildings as work-from-home protocols remain in place across multiple sectors. Bowser leaned on the Biden administration to drop the policies in her inauguration address for her third term in office on Monday.

As Bowser attempts to attract 100,000 new residents to the city, she explained that it is time for the federal government to refill the spaces with government employees or take advantage of the opportunity to attract and house more residents.

“We need decisive action by the White House to either get most federal workers back to the office most of the time or realign their vast property holdings for use by the local government, by nonprofits, by businesses and by any user willing to revitalize it,” Bowser said.

“Converting office space into housing is the key to unlocking the potential of a reimagined, more vibrant downtown,” Bowser said.

I feel like many posters are reading the misleading title of the thread and not Bowser's actual statement in the first post. She's asking the Federal govt to either use the space they have or release it so others use it. It benefits no one to have empty office building downtown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone from the Biden administration acknowledged or commented on this?



https://thehill.com/homenews/3796406-dc-mayor-urges-biden-to-end-telework-policies-for-federal-workers/

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser called for the Biden administration to end work-from-home policies for federal government employees Monday, highlighting office buildings left empty by the remote work policies as opportunities for affordable housing.

Washington D.C., like many other major U.S. cities, has seen a rise in vacant office buildings as work-from-home protocols remain in place across multiple sectors. Bowser leaned on the Biden administration to drop the policies in her inauguration address for her third term in office on Monday.

As Bowser attempts to attract 100,000 new residents to the city, she explained that it is time for the federal government to refill the spaces with government employees or take advantage of the opportunity to attract and house more residents.

“We need decisive action by the White House to either get most federal workers back to the office most of the time or realign their vast property holdings for use by the local government, by nonprofits, by businesses and by any user willing to revitalize it,” Bowser said.

“Converting office space into housing is the key to unlocking the potential of a reimagined, more vibrant downtown,” Bowser said.

I feel like many posters are reading the misleading title of the thread and not Bowser's actual statement in the first post. She's asking the Federal govt to either use the space they have or release it so others use it. It benefits no one to have empty office building downtown.

She is demanding that the Federal government compel workers back to the office. The thread title is accurate.

[Anonymous]

People have literally been murdered in front of my NE DC federal building. There are routine security notices about crime. You can't walk anywhere without smelling pot or human waste or coming into contact with visibly mentally ill homeless people. Metro is unreliable and dangerous, both because of fellow passengers and physical maintenance issues. Or you deal with terrible traffic that necessitates driving in at 5:30 a.m. -- and even that isn't early enough these days. How is this appealing?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:She needs to shove it. There are homeless people all over the sidewalks near my office. You can't even walk on the sidewalk if you want to go out to lunch. She should worry about that.

+1000

Bowser should first worry about cleaning up all the vagrancy, crime and homelessness in downtown DC. Office workers will be more likely to come back when it looks less like a war zone.

As someone who works downtown three days a week (right by Metro Center) and walks from Farragut North to my office, I think "looks like a war zone" is absurd hyperbole.

It looks like a war zone when the only way you see DC is on Fox News.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Metro is a mess. The roads are more congested than ever (and they just announced plans for 100s more speed cameras in case going down major arteries like 16th wasn't painful enough). And crime is worse than ever. Maybe Bowser should focus on ways to make it easier for people to get downtown, rather than forcing them to do it against their will.

Exactly! make it more attractive for people to want to come in. She has been bashing commuters, taking parking spaces away, creating more and more bike lanes, cameras, etc for years. Where the hell does she think feds can afford to live? It's not an easy bike ride to work.

The glib war on commuters they have been waging looks pretty counter productive and a lot like self-inflicted harm now that they are begging the Federal government to force them back.

There's no "war on commuters", just like there's no "war on cars".

Are you really going to claim that commuting into DC hasn't gotten exponentially harder over the past 20-30 years as a direct result of policies enacted by the mayor/s?

Oh, you mean DRIVING into DC.

Is your opinion that Metro service has IMPROVED over the past 20 years? A transit system that has been losing riders every year since 2008? A transit system that has spawned this website: https://ismetroonfire.com/

LOL.

They have certainly made it a lot easier to bicycle (less than 4% of commuters), but it has gotten a lot harder for everyone else - and more expensive.

DC isn't solely responsible for Metro. But I agree; the number one thing that would make commuting more attractive would be more frequent and reliable Metro service. Encouraging more and more people to drive is a bad idea; they should be encouraging public transport, carpools, and biking options, though, and making public transportation more attractive.

[Anonymous]

Once the red headed stepchild, always the red headed stepchild.