Reply to Real talk about the city’s economy, federal buildings leases, and telework impacts

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I live in Shaw. Been here nearly 20 years. I’m very worried about the direction the city is going in— which is rapidly into a cesspool of crime, blight and vacancy. I think we can’t undo the remote work. I work in DuPont just two days a week and my spouse with full time. Our neighborhood is loud (constant construction which I now worry will sit empty), motorcycles/atvs, loud engines, etc). This has gotten worse, not better. The bike lines sound like a good idea, but have led to ore rush hour congestion, not less, leaving cars to idle longer in traffic, leading to more pollution exposure.

I feel like this is dire. We need big ideas to realign downtown that doesn’t bank on feds and k street suits coming back. We need to get enforcem no public camping and address violent crime with more police and get rid of this woke Coincil. How about converting buildings into live/work loft spaces, with a good number of affordable units. Incentives for small businesses, cafes, etc. destroy ugly, outdated and vacant buildings for green space? Make some core thoroughfares into pedestrian malls with semi permanent outdoor markets and streeteries?

[b]Was just in Paris which was thronging with tourists, tons of restaurants, cafe, markets and small businesses. Besides their culture, what other things do they do to ensure their cities remain vibrant? [/b]I noticed street cleaning trucks out everyday picking up litter and washing the streets literally.[/quote]

Paris is a real world class city, which DC never was.  Cities like NY and Paris have tourists and hoarded of people who want to live there regardless of employment.

DC is a company town.  [b]Very few people would ever aspire to live here if they won the lottery.[/b]  There has always been limited high end shopping and entertainment.  The mayor and local government made a huge mistake going all in on Covid.  While it was nice to go against and hurt Trump, they ended up only hurting themselves.  Remote work to a certain extent is here to stay and it will likely take DC decades to recover.

I saw the writing on the wall during the protests and sold my property in DC.  A city does not have a great future if it’s allowing that kind of behavior while keeping schools closed and punishing small businesses.  [/quote]
This is an excellent point. Even if someone in DC did win the lottery, it’s unlikely they would stay and if they did stay it’s 50/50 they would live in the city or suburbs.

DC however does do a decent job of attracting tourists, but because the city has never itself had to work to attract investment, it does a very bad job catering to them. After the museums there’s not enough fun stuff for tourists to do in the city. It’s emblematic of a city that’s used to and expects everything handed to it. [/quote]

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