DC gov giving $50,000 to restaurants "to remain operational"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s just so odd that DC voted well over 90 percent for Harris yet every time there’s a thread started on DCUM about something related to DC politics the thread is hijacked by rapid Republicans who insist they all actually live here and often say they have for decades. Either they’re full of shit or every Republican in the city gets a DCUM news alert.

Or, maybe you're just an idiot with really bad judgement.

Nice response. Straight out of the MAGA playbook.

You don’t live here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Downtown is dead but go into ay DC neighborhood like Shaw, Petworth, Columbia Heights and you'll see restaurants and bars thriving. But they still need help. That's what this grant is trying to do. Not help the big investors but the small business owner who employs her neighbors. $50k is a drop int he bucket to the corporate handouts that are given but everyone is up in arms. And that $50k investment gets spent in the community, employing people, buying from other local businesses, paying taxes

What an incredible waste of tax dollars. People don't go out to eat because it's expensive as fkuc and there's nowhere to park.

You don't live in the city or you wouldn't be worrying about parking. So it's not your tax dollars and not your concern. As an actual DC resident, restaurants are our neighbors and our arteries and I don't consider helping our our neighbors to be a waste of money.

This has to be the absolute dumbest comment yet.

Why? It's true. We live in DC and don't know a single DC resident who drives to a DC restaurant. Not a single one. Like, ever.

You don't live in the city and your opinion on how our tax dollars are spent is irrelevant. Worry about Maryland or Virginia.

I live in the city you moron. Either you live in an insanely tiny bubble, never leave your neighborhood, are lying, or all three. Regardless, you have absolutely no integrity or credibility.

No, you don't. Or if you do, you're not driving to restaurants and worrying about paying to park. Your post is bullshit.

Not the person you are responding to, but you are a bottom of the barrel level idiot. I live in one of the most walkable locations in DC (Logan circle / Shaw near the convention center), and I regularly drive to restraints as do plenty of neighbors. Say, if I’m craving Neapolitan pizza and want 2 Amy’s do you think I’m metro’ing and then bussing or just getting in my tiny compact car and taking a nice drive?

Also I’ve probably lived in DC longer than you, considering I’ve lived in DC my entire life with the exception of college in Virginia plus 3 years of work post college. Again, you’re a dumb person.

I live in your neighborhood and if you feel the need to drive to 2 Amy’s, well, first of all you’re white AF as well as a little ridiculous considering the quantity and quality of places that you/I can walk to, and second you can find parking near 2 Amy’s easy enough.

To blame what’s going on with DC restaurants on the price of parking is just plain idiotic.

I’m quite literally half black (father is black dude from Brooklyn), half white (mother is white dc native), but I’ll admit that I am more culturally white in some ways, and am proud of who I am so I’m not going to get all upset about your dumb comment attempting to bring up race as a ‘gotcha’. White isn’t an insult unless you are a wackadoo who is obsessed with race like yourself.

That being said — why is it difficult for you to understand that sometimes one gets sick of going to the same pizza place in their neighborhood (All Purpose) and occasionally likes to venture to other, less transportation accessible neighborhoods to eat their pizza? And why is it so difficult to understand that not everyone has the same lifestyle as you? I enjoy driving, enjoy my little beater car that is fuel efficient and easy to park, and I’m perfectly happy without you telling me that I’m “white AF” for my lifestyle when I am quite literally a half black person.

Also I don’t blame what’s going on on parking, I think that factor is so far down the list. It’s mostly terrible policies like the tipped wage law, raising the non tipped minimum wage in an unpredictable fashion, crime, and the general lack of business friendliness in this city. If you’ve ever tried to get a permit to do anything on your house you know what I am talking about regarding the latter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Downtown is dead but go into ay DC neighborhood like Shaw, Petworth, Columbia Heights and you'll see restaurants and bars thriving. But they still need help. That's what this grant is trying to do. Not help the big investors but the small business owner who employs her neighbors. $50k is a drop int he bucket to the corporate handouts that are given but everyone is up in arms. And that $50k investment gets spent in the community, employing people, buying from other local businesses, paying taxes

What an incredible waste of tax dollars. People don't go out to eat because it's expensive as fkuc and there's nowhere to park.

You don't live in the city or you wouldn't be worrying about parking. So it's not your tax dollars and not your concern. As an actual DC resident, restaurants are our neighbors and our arteries and I don't consider helping our our neighbors to be a waste of money.

This has to be the absolute dumbest comment yet.

Why? It's true. We live in DC and don't know a single DC resident who drives to a DC restaurant. Not a single one. Like, ever.

You don't live in the city and your opinion on how our tax dollars are spent is irrelevant. Worry about Maryland or Virginia.

I live in the city you moron. Either you live in an insanely tiny bubble, never leave your neighborhood, are lying, or all three. Regardless, you have absolutely no integrity or credibility.

No, you don't. Or if you do, you're not driving to restaurants and worrying about paying to park. Your post is bullshit.

Not the person you are responding to, but you are a bottom of the barrel level idiot. I live in one of the most walkable locations in DC (Logan circle / Shaw near the convention center), and I regularly drive to restraints as do plenty of neighbors. Say, if I’m craving Neapolitan pizza and want 2 Amy’s do you think I’m metro’ing and then bussing or just getting in my tiny compact car and taking a nice drive?

Also I’ve probably lived in DC longer than you, considering I’ve lived in DC my entire life with the exception of college in Virginia plus 3 years of work post college. Again, you’re a dumb person.

I live in your neighborhood and if you feel the need to drive to 2 Amy’s, well, first of all you’re white AF as well as a little ridiculous considering the quantity and quality of places that you/I can walk to, and second you can find parking near 2 Amy’s easy enough.

To blame what’s going on with DC restaurants on the price of parking is just plain idiotic.

I’m quite literally half black (father is black dude from Brooklyn), half white (mother is white dc native), but I’ll admit that I am more culturally white in some ways, and am proud of who I am so I’m not going to get all upset about your dumb comment attempting to bring up race as a ‘gotcha’. White isn’t an insult unless you are a wackadoo who is obsessed with race like yourself.

That being said — why is it difficult for you to understand that sometimes one gets sick of going to the same pizza place in their neighborhood (All Purpose) and occasionally likes to venture to other, less transportation accessible neighborhoods to eat their pizza? And why is it so difficult to understand that not everyone has the same lifestyle as you? I enjoy driving, enjoy my little beater car that is fuel efficient and easy to park, and I’m perfectly happy without you telling me that I’m “white AF” for my lifestyle when I am quite literally a half black person.

Also I don’t blame what’s going on on parking, I think that factor is so far down the list. It’s mostly terrible policies like the tipped wage law, raising the non tipped minimum wage in an unpredictable fashion, crime, and the general lack of business friendliness in this city. If you’ve ever tried to get a permit to do anything on your house you know what I am talking about regarding the latter.

Ironically that bama is themselves "white AF"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s just so odd that DC voted well over 90 percent for Harris yet every time there’s a thread started on DCUM about something related to DC politics the thread is hijacked by rapid Republicans who insist they all actually live here and often say they have for decades. Either they’re full of shit or every Republican in the city gets a DCUM news alert.

You sound like a troll. This is just moronic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This isn't about I-82.

It is about the decimation, between COVID and trump layoffs, of downtown DC.

"Eric Ziebold, formerly chef-owner of Kinship and Métier, told WTOP that he closed his restaurants because he “couldn’t find an environment that made sense to resign a lease currently with the state of things.”

“In the post-pandemic world, people aren’t going downtown as regularly as they used to,” said Ziebold, who attributed this to workers not returning to offices, traffic, crime and parking issues.

Ziebold also said he hesitated to extend his restaurant lease because of Initiative 82, which aims to raise the minimum wage of tipped workers, including restaurant employees, from the current $10 to $17.50 by 2027. The policy has become a flashpoint for restaurateurs, many of whom say rapidly changing labor costs make long-term planning difficult.

Although D.C. voters approved Initiative 82 in 2022, the D.C. Council voted to pause the increase of tipped minimum wage in the city in June 2025. The D.C. Council later voted to repeal the initiative so minimum wage would increase to 75% of the city’s minimum wage by 2034.

“How do you sign an extension when you have no idea of how you’re supposed to pay your employees?” Ziebold said.

https://wtop.com/food-restaurant/2026/05/restaurant-closures-struggles-downtown-dc/

+1

[Anonymous]

yep

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s just so odd that DC voted well over 90 percent for Harris yet every time there’s a thread started on DCUM about something related to DC politics the thread is hijacked by rapid Republicans who insist they all actually live here and often say they have for decades. Either they’re full of shit or every Republican in the city gets a DCUM news alert.

You sound like a troll. This is just moronic.

It's not moronic to make the obvious observation that the comments on DC political threads on this board are inconsistent with the general voting patterns in the city. What's moronic is maintaining the opposite.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s just so odd that DC voted well over 90 percent for Harris yet every time there’s a thread started on DCUM about something related to DC politics the thread is hijacked by rapid Republicans who insist they all actually live here and often say they have for decades. Either they’re full of shit or every Republican in the city gets a DCUM news alert.

You sound like a troll. This is just moronic.

It's not moronic to make the obvious observation that the comments on DC political threads on this board are inconsistent with the general voting patterns in the city. What's moronic is maintaining the opposite.

Oh good -- another obnoxious dumb guy who thinks he's smart. Why are there suddenly so many of you people? Let me guess: You're white. You're in your late twenties or early thirties. And you've lived here for almost seven years. So you really know the real DC. And you can totally spot who is a real Washingtonian. Gentrifiers are all the same.

[Anonymous]

DC has had a tough go of it since the pandemic. Some of it is beyond the city's control. Remote work devastated downtown. No did shit about inflation. Trump and DOGE cost a lot of people their jobs. But some of it was the city's fault. I-82 blew up the economics of the restaurant industry, and we're still dealing with the fallout. Crime got really bad. The city tried to make traffic and parking as miserable as possible, and now people don't move around the city like they used to or they go to the suburbs instead. It seems like the city is now trying to paper over with its mistakes by sending restaurants checks. But what is $50,000 going to do? It's not going to save a single restaurant. I'm sure everyone will take the money, because why not, but then they're just do whatever they were going to do anyway. If they were going to close, they will. If they weren't going to close, well thanks for the windfall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC has had a tough go of it since the pandemic. Some of it is beyond the city's control. Remote work devastated downtown. No did shit about inflation. Trump and DOGE cost a lot of people their jobs. But some of it was the city's fault. I-82 blew up the economics of the restaurant industry, and we're still dealing with the fallout. Crime got really bad. The city tried to make traffic and parking as miserable as possible, and now people don't move around the city like they used to or they go to the suburbs instead. It seems like the city is now trying to paper over with its mistakes by sending restaurants checks. But what is $50,000 going to do? It's not going to save a single restaurant. I'm sure everyone will take the money, because why not, but then they're just do whatever they were going to do anyway. If they were going to close, they will. If they weren't going to close, well thanks for the windfall.

The DC government is funded by parking tickets. It's intentional.

[Anonymous]

They should take that money and put people on the BZA so that small businesses can actually get the permits to renovate their spaces and get business going rather than sign a lease and wait and wait and wait.

[Anonymous]

Insane.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s just so odd that DC voted well over 90 percent for Harris yet every time there’s a thread started on DCUM about something related to DC politics the thread is hijacked by rapid Republicans who insist they all actually live here and often say they have for decades. Either they’re full of shit or every Republican in the city gets a DCUM news alert.

You sound like a troll. This is just moronic.

It's not moronic to make the obvious observation that the comments on DC political threads on this board are inconsistent with the general voting patterns in the city. What's moronic is maintaining the opposite.

Oh good -- another obnoxious dumb guy who thinks he's smart. Why are there suddenly so many of you people? Let me guess: You're white. You're in your late twenties or early thirties. And you've lived here for almost seven years. So you really know the real DC. And you can totally spot who is a real Washingtonian. Gentrifiers are all the same.

Wrong on all counts. Well, not all. I'm white.

[Anonymous]

We are busier than ever, but cannot find workers. 2 people are doing the job of 3.
$10 an hour for servers is killing our restaurant.
I will ask the owner is he is going for the $50k.
I think he is using his personal money to keep the restaurant afloat. I wish he'd close already.
Every worker we have would easily find another job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are busier than ever, but cannot find workers. 2 people are doing the job of 3.
$10 an hour for servers is killing our restaurant.
I will ask the owner is he is going for the $50k.
I think he is using his personal money to keep the restaurant afloat. I wish he'd close already.
Every worker we have would easily find another job.

The reality is that the mandatory minimum wages and low profit margins are forcing restaurants to minimize staff. There aren't any workers available that your owner can afford.