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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This isn't about I-82.

It is about the decimation, between COVID and trump layoffs, of downtown DC.[/quote]

"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/

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