Washington City Paper (May 29, 2020)

SPORTS WHAT'S BASEBALL WITHOUT SPITTING? 3 FOOD HOW YOU WILL PAY AT RESTAURANTS 20 ARTS CHECK OUT VIRTUAL HU ART EXHIBITIONS 24 THE DISTRICT'S FREE WEEKLY SINCE 1981 VOLUME 40, NO. 21 WASHINGTONCITYPAPER.COM MAY 29 –JUNE 4, 2020

The Election Guide

The issues and policies you need to know about before this year’s very different primary. PAGE 6

TABLE OF CONTENTS COVER STORY

6 The Election Guide: D.C.’s slate of primary candidates offer their takes on readers’ most pressing issues.

SPORTS

3 Spit Takes: Baseball players consider a season without sunflower seeds.

NEWS

4 Moving Backward: After temporary hotel stays related to COVID-19, many homeless residents are hesitant to return to the shelter system.

FOOD

20 Payment Plans: Will the COVID-19 crisis prompt restaurants to permanently stop accepting cash?

ARTS

22 Worked Up: For artists who are also essential workers, a global pandemic presents a unique series of challenges.

23 Film: Zilberman on The Vast of Night 24 Access Granted: Two Howard University curators discuss moving art shows online.

CITY LIGHTS

25 City Lights: Order a book from a Dupont institution or watch a documentary about a sumptuous banquet.

DIVERSIONS

21 Crossword 26 Savage Love 27 Classifieds

Cover Illustration: Carlos Carmonamedina

Darrow Montgomery | 700 Block of 8th Street SE, May 16 Editorial

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2 may 29, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

SPORTS BASEBALL

Spit Takes

By Kelyn Soong @KelynSoong The sunflower seeds in Clark Klitenic’s mouth made him feel like a grown-up. It didn’t matter that he was only a fourth grader on one of Bethesda Chevy Chase Baseball’s select youth teams in Montgomery County. In his mind, Klitenic was a baseball player—a real one, like his coaches and the professionals he saw on TV. At practices and games, Klitenic would grab a handful of sunflower seeds and pop them in his mouth, chewing the seeds and spitting out the shells one at a time. That was baseball; you learn how to swing a bat, throw a ball, and crack and chew a sunflower seed without spitting the whole thing out.

“When you’re a little kid, you see your coaches, you look up to coaches so much, and you see them chewing seeds. You want to be like that,” Klitenic explains. “It’s like an image thing.”

Klitenic, now 19, eventually realized no one cared if he chewed seeds or not. But by the time he enrolled at St. Albans School in Northwest D.C. and became one of the top pitching recruits from Maryland, the left-hander was already hooked on sunflower seeds—ranch flavored ones, in particular. He still finds himself keeping seeds in his mouth at all times on the baseball field. Klitenic recently wrapped up his freshman year competing at Duke University, but plans to transfer to Yale University in the fall.

“Culturally, that’s just part of the game,” he says. “You can’t wait to go outside and shoot some sunflower seeds. It’s definitely deeply ingrained. I would say it’s part of the game.”

The novel coronavirus pandemic may soon change that.

Sports leagues around the world are mandating health precautions to ensure that, when games resume, they do so responsibly, like playing without fans in order to safely reintroduce competition. In the United States, where approximately 100,000 people have died from COVID19, major sports leagues have yet to return to play.

A 67-page document delivered from Major League Baseball to the Major League Baseball Players Association earlier this month detailed the proposed protocols for starting the 2020 MLB season, which include procedures for COVID-19 testing, the location of a modified “spring training,” and on-field rules. As reported

by The Athletic, the return of MLB games could

Illustration by Julia Terbrock

To bring back baseball, MLB is asking players to stop spitting sunflower seeds.

It won’t be an easy adjustment.

mean “no spitting, using smokeless tobacco, and sunflower seeds in restricted areas. Any physical interactions such as high-fives, fist bumps, and hugs must be avoided at club facilities.”

As aggressive as the measures sound, they echo best practices proposed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Spitting is one of the behaviors that the CDC recommends eliminating from youth sports to reduce the spread of COVID-19, since the virus spreads mainly through respiratory droplets.

But can there be baseball with no spitting?

For a sport that’s so entrenched in traditions and routines—from Little League to the MLB—that will be a hard habit to break. MLB teams typically provide sunflower seeds and chewing gum for home and away teams during games.

“Spitting is almost such a compulsive thing,” Klitenic says. “That’s really a tic. You have guys that will spit between every pitch. Spitting is a compulsive issue. I think [if MLB implements the no-spitting rule], you’ll see a lot of big leaguers in the [batter’s] box spitting, and having an ‘uh-oh moment.’ It’s not a conscious thing. It’s almost part of your routine, as disgusting as that sounds.”

Spitting in baseball dates back to the use of chewing tobacco. The sport became immensely popular in the United States in the mid-1800s, and at the time, Americans used chewing tobacco regularly.

Decades later, around the time players started wearing fielding gloves, players used the tobacco juice to soften their gloves and pitchers applied saliva to the baseball (a “spitball”) to change the spin of the ball, says Fred Frommer, a baseball historian and author of several baseball books. MLB outlawed the spitball after the 1920 season.

Chewing tobacco and other smokeless tobacco products, with their link to an increased risk of oral cancers, have been banned in the minor leagues since 1993, and more than half of the 30 major league stadiums, including Nationals Park, are tobacco free. In 2014, Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn died of salivary gland

cancer at age 54; he told the San Diego UnionTribune in 2010 that he believed the cancer was related to his dipping habit.

Players still use chewing tobacco, but in the mid-1900s, another tradition began to spread: eating and spitting sunflower seeds.

A 1980 Sports Illustrated article by Roy Blount Jr., “The Seeds of Content,” detailed the spraying of the “little flecks” on the baseball field and dugout. “I guess it’s the modern-day chewing tobacco,” Baltimore Orioles pitcher Mike Flanagan was quoted as saying. The team’s clubhouse attendant Jim Tyler told Blount that the team went through about 200 cases of sunflower seeds that season.

Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson started chewing seeds in 1968, his first full MLB season, and is credited with popularizing the now-ubiquitous habit. Jackson considered himself an expert in the art of chewing sunflower seeds, and kept handfuls in his pockets. In front of Blount and other reporters, Jackson demonstrated the skill.

He popped 20 seeds in his right cheek, selected one with his tongue, carefully cracked it open, held the seed between his incisors, and closed his mouth. Once he opened it again, the shell was halved, with the seed in the middle of his tongue.

Jackson then spit out the shell.

Decades later, baseball players of all levels do the same.

When Caden Cary was 7 or 8, he saw MLB players on TV spitting out sunflower seeds. He asked his dad to explain it to him, and soon tried it out for himself. He started off by eating one seed at a time, then two.

“Now it’s like 20,” Cary says. “I just put them in my mouth. I don’t really count.”

Cary, who lives in Northeast Washington, recently turned 11. He played for Mamie Johnson Little League’s 10 and under all-star team and is on the Washington Nationals Youth Baseball Academy’s Hustle 12 and under travel team that practices in Ward 7.

He says he goes through about half a bag per game. And in the absence of competition and

practices due to the pandemic, Cary did the next closest thing to playing baseball last week: He bought a bag of sunflower seeds.

“My favorite flavor is sweet and spicy,” he says.

“I ate that ... because I needed the taste again.”

Like Cary, Adam Kolarek, a relief pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers who grew up in Catonsville, Maryland, and currently lives in Anne Arundel County, remembers being inspired by the major leaguers on TV and trying to emulate everything they did. He bought the same kind of gloves they wore and tried different batting stances in his backyard, just like Cal Ripken Jr. did.

And when the TV cameras panned over to the dugout, Kolarek saw players with their cheeks puffed out, spitting out mouthfuls of seeds.

“It’s just one of those kind of pastimes with baseball. You see it in movies, you see it all the time,” the 31-year-old says. “I remember, as a kid, you always swing by 7-Eleven on the way to the ball field, grab a bag of seeds, and everybody can relate to that.”

Kolarek, who played at the University of Maryland, doesn’t have to buy his own sunflower seeds anymore. Each step up the competitive baseball ladder opened him up to a bigger and better selection.

“In a dugout, at one time, I would say [there are] probably 30 to 40 bags, and then probably another 10 to 20 in the bullpen,” Kolarek says. “So each person can have multiple bags at a time.”

Of the total bags, Kolarek estimates that at least 15 to 20 get eaten in the dugout during the game, and that there are at a minimum five flavors provided: “You got regular, BBQ, ranch, the occasional dill pickle I guess, black pepper, and definitely hotter ones, too.”

He doesn’t have a certain quota he eats. One night he might just eat a handful, and other nights he might down half a bag. He’ll definitely have a piece of gum or two. During batting practice or warmups, he sees plenty of teammates who have seeds in their back pockets.

Kolarek compares the routine to eating popcorn at the movies. It’s part of the experience of playing baseball.

“You smell it, and you’re like, I’m at the theater, I’m gonna buy some popcorn,” he says. “So when you’re a baseball player, I mean, I have buddies who, when they go to games as fans, will sit in the stands, but just because of their memories, being a kid playing, my buddy will bring a bag of sunflower seeds and then spit them into a bottle ...

It’s just how you can associate a little snack while you’re watching the game.”

Kolarek believes that MLB players will understand the rationale behind a temporary spitting ban and be able to put things in perspective: “I realize nobody likes being told what to do … but the sacrifices that people are making right now in going to work as a nurse or a doctor or working in a grocery store, I mean, those are true sacrifices.”

But baseball without sunflower seeds—even at the highest level—will require adjustment.

“It’s just kind of like part of your equipment, almost,” Kolarek says. “You got your glove, and you got your bag of seeds, and you’re ready for the game.”

washingtoncitypaper.com may 29, 2020 3

NEWS CITY DESK

Moving Backward

“While it is true that D.C. is experiencing unprecedented economic distress and uncertainty, this budget does not do enough to address the urgent needs of our neighbors living without housing, and does little to alter the status quo of D.C.’s homelessness crisis,” Jesse Rabinowitz, an advocacy and campaign manager with Miriam’s Kitchen, said in his written testimony for a May 22 budget oversight hearing. “Without action from the Council, over 1,650 households will likely continue to experience chronic homelessness.”

Nowadays, concerns among homeless advocates extend to the government practice of moving people back and forth between shelters and hotels, especially when congregate settings have become even more dangerous. Long was shuttled back to 801 East on May 8, but returned to his hotel room on the same day, once it was discovered that he had tested positive for COVID-19 eight days before. And while Long’s experience offers just one example of what life is like now for individuals experiencing homelessness, City Paper spoke with numerous individuals, who are homeless or advocates, that denounce the practice. Caitlin Cocilova, a staff attorney at the Washington Legal Clinic who’s been helping Long, says she knows of others who are worried about what will happen to them once they’re moved into hotels.

During the coronavirus pandemic, people experiencing homelessness are being shuffled back and forth between shelters and hotels. Many do not want to return to communal living settings.

Until recently, Lowell Long didn’t have a place to himself for more than a year. These days, he gets to lay in bed, uninterrupted. In his room at Hotel Arboretum on Bladensburg Road NE, Long is able to take long, hot showers whenever he likes and sit on the toilet seat to think.

Using the bathroom at will is something many take for granted, as is some semblance of privacy in one’s own room. But for Long, who’s been living in his van or in homeless shelters for the past two years, privacy is a privilege that comes with staying in a hotel reserved for people who have come in contact with someone infected with COVID-19 or tested positive themselves. In Long’s case, it’s both. On April 24, he was moved from 801 East Men’s Shelter in Congress Heights to Hotel Arboretum after learning he was in close contact with a COVID19 patient, and on May 1, he tested positive.

Long says he doesn’t feel sick and is not experiencing any symptoms commonly associated with the disease.

A stay at one of the hotels the D.C. government has reserved for quarantine typically lasts between 10 and 14 days. Long, 44, has been living at the hotel for nearly a month, while he tries to get placed in a hotel where individuals who are vulnerable to severe illness related to COVID-19 due to age or preexisting health issues can stay indefinitely. The Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless has been advocating to D.C.’s Department of Human Services, the government body partly in charge of running the hotels, on Long’s behalf.

He fears returning to 801 East Men’s Shelter, where he contracted COVID-19. It’s also where he was assaulted.

On April 5, a security guard allegedly assaulted Long in the parking lot at 801 East Men’s Shelter. The assault landed Long in the hospital. According to the police report, the security guard told Long “that’s why your mother suck my dick last night,” right before he struck him with a closed fist to his right check and the top of his head. Long says the security guard, who regularly worked at the shelter’s front entrance, was a bully who threatened to beat him up before the incident occurred.

“I don’t want to go back to that hell hole,” Long tells City Paper by phone from his hotel room.

Long says “it was always rough” at the shelter, but it “got crazy” once the pandemic hit

the District nearly three months ago. Because there’s nothing to do—right now, 801 East Men’s Shelter residents are discouraged from leaving the shelter and there aren’t activities for them inside—some around Long resorted to using drugs, he says. When he was staying at the shelter, Long would lie in his bunk bed all day, watching Netflix on his phone or calling friends.

Long used to find relief from the shelter by going to the day services center downtown, where he ultimately signed up for Project Empowerment, a local government program that strives to move participants into the workforce. The program paused and the center closed, offering limited services by appointment only, during the public health emergency.

When Long needed to momentarily escape the crowds during the emergency, he’d ride the bus, with no specific destination in mind.

As nice as the privacy of a hotel is, Long isn’t in paradise. He is under quarantine, though DHS isn’t holding anyone against their will. He doesn’t feel sick, but he says he looks it, since he hasn’t seen sunlight in weeks. Not only does he miss being outside, but he also wants to find work. He’s worried about paying his cellphone bill. His phone is one of his few connections to the outside world.

Long recently learned he would not get to stay in a hotel indefinitely. Instead, DHS is moving him into La Casa’s transitional housing program in Columbia Heights. He’s returning to another communal setting, where he has to share a bathroom and room again, albeit with fewer people than at 801 East.

Homeless advocates have long expressed concerns about the dismal living conditions at communal shelters. Individuals who’ve stayed there say violence and pest outbreaks at shelters have prompted them to live in tents on the street instead.

The pandemic further underscores how dangerous these shelters are and the need for more government investment in housing, advocates argue, but it’s unclear whether officials will learn from this moment. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2021 ends homelessness for 150 households, according to The Way Home, a campaign to end chronic homelessness in D.C. That represents 7 percent of what the campaign requested. The budget also makes cuts to programs that help individuals experiencing homelessness.

4 may 29, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

Hotel Arboretum

Darrow Montgomery

By Amanda Michelle Gomez @amanduhgomez

making the case that the Law Center should partner with shelters.

“No one should be in these communal settings right now if they don’t want to be,” Cocilova says. “There may be some people who want to stay in [a] shelter for various reasons.

But the majority of people are being forced to live there, creating an environment that’s ripe for people to get sick again. And the fact that we are just cycling people back into communal shelters and allowing that to happen as policy is disgusting, in my opinion, and horrible for public health outcomes.”

DHS did not respond to repeated requests for comment on this story.

Jewel Stroman, who was formerly homeless and now advocates for those who are still unhoused, says she’s been hearing from women staying at Patricia Handy Place for Women in Ward 2 who can’t stay 6 feet away from one another. These women tell Stroman that there are upwards of 50 people living in a dormitorystyle room. Stroman’s aunt became infected with COVID-19 while staying at the shelter, and just returned after a short stint at a hotel to quarantine. “The issue doesn’t make sense to us—when people in shelters get sick or infected, they pull them out and place them into quarantine. But then throw them back into shelter,” Stroman says. “It’s counterproductive.”

The Washington Legal Clinic, along with others, is calling on the mayor to offer a noncommunal setting to anyone living in shelters or on the streets for as long as the public health emergency lasts, because the rates of infection are significantly higher among the unhoused population. As of May 26, 6 percent of individuals living in emergency shelters have tested positive for COVID-19, while 1 percent of D.C.’s total population has. At least 16 residents experiencing homelessness have died of COVID19. Homeless shelters have been rather candid about not always being able to practice social distancing due to lack of space. Advocates are calling for creative solutions so D.C. doesn’t continue to spend up to $181 per night on hotel rooms. More than 100 Georgetown Law students have written to their dean, asking him to share vacant university housing with unhoused residents, and a few penned an op-ed in the Post,

Advocates are especially concerned for individuals who have been moved to hotels because they were in close contact with someone who’s infected, but have yet to test positive themselves. They could get infected once they return to shelters, where practicing social distancing can be next to impossible.

Taylar Nuevelle was hearing similar complaints about social distancing from women who were staying at King Greenleaf Recreation Center, a shelter that’s usually only open between November and March, but that the government continued to use during the pandemic to create more space in the existing shelter system. Nuevelle, the founder of Who Speaks for Me?, a nonprofit that helps returning citizens, visited Greenleaf in early April to donate a phone to a woman who was staying there after being released early from a halfway house. When she got to Greenleaf, she says she

NEWS saw a group of women huddled outside who said they did not have enough hygiene items, like soap and tampons. Following her first visit, she posted on the DC Mutual Aid Network’s Facebook page requesting donations for the women at Greenleaf, and in the following weeks, she frequently visited the shelter so she could pass out donated items.

“There is no social distancing,” Nuevelle says. She describes a gym packed with side-byside cots,, where the women ate and slept head to toe. “They could smell each other’s breath, that’s how close they were when they were eating,” she recalls.

During her visits to Greenleaf, Nuevelle met a woman named Ikea Warren, who was eight months pregnant and staying at the rec center. Nuevelle began to help Warren get items she would need for her baby. She also successfully helped Warren advocate for herself so she could leave the emergency shelter and move into the Days Inn on New York Avenue NE, a motel where the government places many homeless families.

“How is it?” Nuevelle asked Warren about the motel in an April 20 interview posted on Facebook. “It’s very clean. They are very nice here. They feed us about three times a day.

It’s very relaxing,” Warren replied. “I feel so much more at peace, I feel more cared for, like a human being. When I was [at the shelter], I didn’t feel so much like a human being.” The

setting didn’t feel safe for long. Warren learned that a resident and staff member at the motel tested positive for COVID-19. She was eventually able to move to another, newer shelter before she gave birth.

Greenleaf was recently shut down as a homeless shelter, along with another seasonal shelter at Malcolm X Recreation Center, because it’s being used as a polling center for the June 2 primary election. Nuevelle still keeps in touch with some of the women who have since been moved to Harriet Tubman Women’s Shelter in Ward 7. The women—who’ve relied on Nuevelle to donate underwear, because they haven’t been able to do laundry for weeks, along with other hygiene items—tell her it’s too crowded to stay 6 feet apart. City Paper asked Bowser during a May 22 press conference whether the executive was securing another location for the residents who were staying at Greenleaf or Malcolm X to keep crowding in the existing shelter system at a minimum. Bowser wouldn’t directly respond to the question, only saying D.C. secured hotels for quarantine.

“The single people want to go to a hotel, they don’t want to be in these low-barrier shelters,” Nuevelle says. “The government is failing our most vulnerable.”

To begin reopening the city’s economy, officials are looking for a sustained decline in COVID-19 cases that do not account for communal settings like shelters. DC Health argues

there are strategies in place that confine cases, but movement among unhoused residents leaves doubt.

“I wish every person could have housing and, short of that, has a hotel room for the duration [of the pandemic], if they so choose,” Dr. Catherine Crosland tells City Paper. “But that’s not a reality at this minute.”

As the medical director for homeless outreach services at Unity Health Care, Crosland has been providing health care to individuals experiencing homelessness since before the pandemic. She used to care for these individuals on the streets or in clinics, but now she’s also seeing them at the hotels the government reserved to respond to COVID-19. Crosland is in charge of the medical care at these hotels. In this role, she’s advocating for universal testing for individuals experiencing homelessness, which still isn’t happening, and believes everyone should be in a hotel, because communal settings aren’t safe. “That would take an incredible amount of investment and not just monetary, but human investment, to run the places,” Crosland adds.

Crosland acknowledges the work DHS is doing to create quarantine hotels in two months. “The quarantine sites are not perfect in any means,” she says. “But these are DHS employees, many who haven’t done direct services and are dealing with issues that are really,

really challenging and difficult sometimes, and doing it with incredible grace.”

The benefits of housing individuals in hotels as opposed to communal shelters is clear when Crosland checks on them. She recalls one of her patients who was proactively moved into a hotel due to his age and medical status. (The criteria to be in a hotel is to be over 65 or have a medical condition that makes catching COVID-19 significantly more complicated.) “He just looked wonderful,” she says. Hotels for vulnerable individuals are less restrictive than hotels for patients under strict quarantine, she says, so residents of the hotel are able to use the common areas. It could feel like a retirement community because of the demographic staying there, she adds.

Rosalind Ellington, 58, was moved from the Patricia Handy shelter into a hotel because of a medical condition. “I don’t have to worry about going to the bathroom and cleaning somebody’s stuff all over the place at the toilet or shower. I don’t have to deal with that black mold from that ceiling and the elevator breaking down,” she says of her experience at the hotel. She has a mobility disability, which has made the last two years in the shelter system especially challenging. At one point, she was on the second floor of the Patricia Handy, despite needing a walker to get around.

“This is nice,” Ellington says. “Maybe I can get more help this way.”

#VoteSafeDC in the Tuesday, June 2, 2020 Primary Election: In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the DC Board of Elections is committed to providing a safe environment where every vote is counted. All voters are strongly encouraged to request a mail-in ballot instead of voting in person, unless absolutely necessary. Voting by mail is safe, secure and simple. Ballot request forms are available now at www.dcboe.org. If you must vote in person, 20 Vote Centers will be open throughout the District. Social distancing measures will be enforced, and voters will be required to wear face coverings inside the Vote Centers. Curbside voting will be available.

Only voters affiliated with one of the major parties (Democratic, Republican, DC Statehood Green or Libertarian) will be issued a ballot. Same-day registration will be available at all Vote Centers.

Need to Vote in Person?

If you must vote in person, Vote Centers will open from May 22 through June 1, 2020, from 8:30 am to 7:00 pm. All sites will be closed on Memorial Day, May 25, 2020. Vote Centers will open from 7:00 am to 8:00 pm on June 2, 2020, Primary Election Day. Voters can cast their ballot at any Vote Center regardless of where they live in the District.

You may visit us online at www.dcboe.org or call us at (202) 741-5283 for more information.

washingtoncitypaper.com may 29, 2020 5

WARD 2

The Election Guide

Jack Evans Age: 66 Neighborhood of residence: Georgetown Hometown: Nanticoke, Pa.

D.C. Council candidates answer questions about the issues most concerning District residents.

INTERVIEWS BY

CHELSEA CIRRUZZO AMANDA MICHELLE GOMEZ LAURA HAYES

MITCH RYALS TOM SHERWOOD KELYN SOONG

ALL PHOTOS COURTESY OF CANDIDATES

D.C.’s primary election day looks very different in 2020.

For the first time in nearly three decades, the Ward 2 seat is vacant and it’s anybody’s guess who will claim it. Jack Evans, who resigned from the seat in January just before his colleagues would have expelled him for violating ethics rules, is running to regain it. So are seven other challengers who have their own ideas about how to improve D.C. and reinvigorate their ward.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, voters hopefully won’t be congregating at polling stations. While a few sites have been open for in-person voting since May 22, voters are strongly encouraged to vote by mail. It will keep people safe, but it will also delay results. A Board of Elections official says that in order to allow mailed ballots enough time to arrive, results may not be certified until June 21—five days after the special election that will determine who will serve the remainder of Evans’ term.

Here at Washington City Paper, we’re also doing our election guide differently. Thanks to a grant from the Solutions Journalism Network, we were able to reach out to readers and ask them what they wanted elected officials to do.

More than 200 individuals responded and from those responses, we generated a list of questions we directed to candidates. Every Democratic candidate running for the Ward 2, Ward 4, Ward 7, and Ward 8 seats whose name appears on the ballot was asked to participate in the poll.

All but two of them agreed and their answers to select questions appear below. (Ward 8 candidates Mike Austin and Trayon White Sr. did not respond to interview requests.)

For candidates’ responses to our full slate of questions and more information about the solutions journalism approach to our guide, visit washingtoncitypaper.com/ electionguide20.

—Caroline Jones

What’s your new quarantine hobby? What are you binge watching during quarantine?

I’ve been running for reelection so that’s been taking up most of my time. Beyond that, I still run my five miles every day. I watch TV. The most recent show I’m watching, oh what was it called, [daughter shouts the title] Belgravia. It’s like Downton Abbey. I just finished.

EDUCATION

What will you do to combat education inequality across the District, particularly given the setbacks students experienced this year?

I’ve been a strong advocate for education since I have been on the Council for 30 years. The most important thing we can do is birth to 3. I believe we can get kids in school, in some setting, when they are 1 or 2 years old, and then into the education system—that makes all the difference.

Many children who come from a disadvantaged background—however you want to describe it— come to 1st grade with a vocabulary of 1,000 words. Then in a different setting, they come with 5,000. So you have to make up the deficiency right at the start if they are going to make real progress. That’s something I have worked on and lived, and continue to work hard on. In many ways, you have to have kids to understand what I’m talking about. That something I bring to the Council. I raised three children by myself.

Should the mayor maintain control of DCPS? Yes.

CRIME

Mayor Muriel Bowser supported federal prosecutors’ shift to charging some gun 6 may 29, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

crimes in federal court, rather than in D.C. Superior Court, as a tactic to combat gun violence. Attorney General Karl Racine recently argued the practice perpetuates racial disparities and suggested there is no evidence that it reduces crime. Do you support the practice? Explain your answer.

I understand the arguments on both sides of that. One reason the mayor did it was the federal court’s sentencing is different and maybe more than in local courts. Karl makes a really good point as well. We want to handle our own matters locally. I understand the positions.

Explain how you would address gun violence.

The NEAR Act is something that [Ward 5] Councilmember [Kenyan] McDuffie worked on, and I have been very supportive of. What it does is start in the neighborhood to try to prevent violence up front.

It would be great—but it is hard—to get rid of the guns. We had and still have some of the strictest gun control laws but guns are still prolific because of Maryland and Virginia. If we can get more cooperation from surrounding jurisdictions that would be helpful as well.

Some believe greater police presence will lead to less crime. Others fear more officers will lead to more harassment of black and brown people. Should D.C. increase or decrease the size of its police force? Explain your answer.

I would say we need to increase the police force. You go back to the 70s, it was 5,000, in 1990 it was 4,800, and now it’s dropped down to 3,800. I’ve championed 4,000 or more.

There was not a meeting I’ve gone to where they don’t ask to see more [of a] police presence. It makes people feel safer.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

Oslo, Norway, eliminated pedestrian and cyclist deaths in 2019 with the help of Vision Zero initiatives. Those include replacing onstreet parking with bike lanes, congestion pricing fees in the city center, and lowering speed limits. Do you support any of these initiatives? Describe your vision for eliminating pedestrian and cyclist deaths.

I support all of them, actually. Just slowing speed limits isn’t going to do anything.

We need to enforce and design streets to calm traffic down. Another area that I constantly supported is getting rid of one-way streets. Twoway streets slow traffic down.

What about bike lanes?

We can’t eliminate street parking. People have cars. But there are ways to put in protected bike lanes at the same time to keep parking. It’s a balancing act.

And public transportation?

We have to add miles of Metro. An example is Paris. There is no place in Paris where there is more than 100 yards from a Metro stop … We have to strive for that. The last thing: affordability. Metro is way too expensive. You should ride anywhere in the system for a dollar. That is how it is in Paris. New York City has a uniform fee.

You don’t know how much you have to pay here.

It depends on time and such.

HOUSING

Do you support eliminating single-family

zoning, as other cities have done in order to increase housing density?

Probably not. I wouldn’t eliminate it, no.

The Council is considering a bill to extend the District’s rent control law to 2030. There is a push to also expand the law to include more units. Do you support the bill? Do you support the expansion? Explain. How would you craft an ideal rent control scheme?

Yes, I support the bill.

Do you support advocates’ calls to expand?

I would have to see what they were talking about. I would be open to suggestions. Like all new units? Changing dates? A lot of specific things are involved in that.

What’s the ideal rent control scheme?

We have a very good rent control law, but it needs some strengthening.

Patrick Kennedy Age: 28 Neighborhood of residence: Foggy Bottom Hometown: Clearwater, Fla.

What’s your new quarantine hobby?

Or what are you binge watching during quarantine?

That’s a great question. Phonebanking?

Zoom chats. I haven’t been able to get into [watching] anything. I don’t think I have quite the attention span for it right now.

EDUCATION

What will you do to combat education inequality across the District, particularly given the setbacks students experienced this year?

Distance learning, I think, has widened some of the inequalities, because there are just certain students that benefit from having more regular check-ins, and the degree of an adult presence in their lives that I think they only get through being in school, and because of the digital divide, some families don’t have equal access to technology.

So I think it’s critically important to have a system of strong neighborhood schools, but there is no one-size-fits-all approach to education.

There needs to be coordination between the charter and traditional DCPS sectors. I don’t think we can fall into the trap of setting up these mutually exclusive false choices between the two sectors. So many families will go from DCPS to charter back to DCPS. Whatever choice it is that they’re making for their kids to choose the school that’s right for them. And the only way that you can do that, I think, is through sustained investment.

Should the mayor maintain control of DCPS? I think so. We’ve tried every education model in this city, in the course of the last 50 years, and all of them have had their downsides, but I think that we’ve made the most sustained progress under the current model.

CRIME

Mayor Muriel Bowser supported federal prosecutors’ shift to charging some gun crimes in federal court, rather than in D.C. Superior Court, as a tactic to combat gun violence. Attorney General Karl Racine recently argued the practice perpetuates racial disparities and suggested there is no evidence that it reduces crime. Do you support the practice? Explain your answer.

I’m ambivalent about it. For someone who is vested in local control, I think the maximum number of cases possible should be prosecuted under local statutes, and optimally long term I think we should absolutely resume prosecutorial authority locally under the attorney general.

There is a major concern, and, I have to say, anxiety in this ward about the rising amount of gun crimes particularly on the eastern end of the ward. I think that the mayor is trying the best way she can to try and combat gun crimes.

I think the most effective approach is going to be trying to intercept the traffickers from Virginia and other states.

How would you address gun violence?

I just can’t emphasize enough how much the problem is rooted in the trafficking. Fortunately, I think we have a better state government in Virginia this year that I know is looking to implement a lot of new gun restrictions, including restrictions on purchasing. These guns don’t get into the communities by accident, and they don’t get there by magic. They get conjured up by merchants of death. And they are putting guns into the hands of people who are making irresponsible decisions, some of whom are very young and don’t have the cognitive development where they can weigh the long-term consequences of things appropriately. It’s a real problem, and the gun traffickers need to be held accountable to the highest extent of the law.

Some believe greater police presence will lead to less crime. Others fear more officers will lead to more harassment of black and brown people. Should D.C. increase or decrease the size of its police force? Explain your answer.

I think D.C.’s police force is probably fine where it is. I think the issue with our current police force is that we have a lot of turnover and a lot of attrition. Many of them are working to the point of fatigue.

I think the pressures and the demands of urban policing are such that we lose a lot of people, and we lose a lot of really good people, to the lower stress jobs in Fairfax County or one of the suburban jurisdictions. So a tremendous amount of our resources, I think, are wasted if we can’t retain our officers.

I think community policing does work when you’re talking about [the] sort of issues in communities that have that sense of comfort. I think in Ward 2, for instance, there’s a constructive working relationship with the police that’s largely been formed, especially in the western parts of our ward. When people only see officers in the context of stops, that particularly has been a source of tension in areas, perhaps in Wards 7 and 8, and other parts of the city where there are legitimate tensions and issues with the police. I’d like to think that we don’t have that to the same degree in Ward 2, but I think that the antidote to a lot of that is really working through and establishing relationships proactively.

Yes, we need to reauthorize rent control. We do need to extend the number of units in rent control.

The way that we do it is by expanding gradually the number of buildings that are enrolled in rent control. I don’t think that you want to do it too suddenly. You don’t want to ramp it up to such a degree as to lend uncertainty to the housing market, because I think what you would do in that instance is just encourage housing providers to switch apartment buildings to condos or not invest in the District.

Kishan Putta Age: 46 Neighborhood of residence: Burlieth Hometown: Albany, N.Y.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

Oslo, Norway, eliminated pedestrian and cyclist deaths in 2019 with the help of Vision Zero initiatives. Those include replacing onstreet parking with bike lanes, congestion pricing fees in the city center, and lowering the speed limit. Do you support any of these initiatives? Describe your vision for eliminating pedestrian and cyclist deaths.

I support all of those initiatives. And I think we’ve made a rhetorical commitment to Vision Zero, and I don’t doubt the intent of those who are working on it. We’re just simply not moving quickly enough.

We just have tremendous opportunity to really build out dedicated bus lanes. My issue with how our city is operated in transportation is we’ve sort of let transportation innovation get ahead of our policy. We haven’t designed for the city that we want to be. We’ve let sort of the private sector come in with these innovations, and we’ve sort of tried to play catch up with them.

I think that [Ward 6 Councilmember] Charles Allen’s bill [aimed at subsidizing Metro fares] is a fantastic start. We want to incentivize people to use public transportation, and we need to have a bit of a carrot and stick approach.

The carrot is incentivizing people with [a] $100-a-month subsidy, and the stick is to say that if you are driving into a congested area in a single occupant automobile at peak times that you’re going to be charged a bit.

HOUSING

Do you support eliminating single-family zoning, as other cities have done in order to increase housing density?

Yes, I think that there is a tremendous opportunity to move towards duplexes in other parts of the District. Minneapolis has adopted this model. It’s not the end of the world. It really is just a question of whether the city can adapt its building stock to the needs of an expanding population, as we do have an expanding population in the city.

The Council is considering a bill to extend the District’s rent control law to 2030. There is a push to also expand the law to include more units. Do you support the bill? Do you support the expansion? Explain. How would you craft an ideal rent control scheme?

What’s your new quarantine hobby?

I did cut my own hair very carefully for the first time in my life. Didn’t come out half bad.

EDUCATION

What will you do to combat education inequality across the District, particularly given the setbacks students experienced this year?

A big part of the achievement gap is the digital divide. So much of the training needed for the future is tied to technology, which is expensive. And the lowest income families and kids in our city don’t have laptops or any devices in their homes.

We pushed and pushed for two years and finally got them to fund it, over $5 million, for 16,000 laptops.

So what will you do? So that’s what we’ve done, and I think we will have to double check that people have good internet connectivity. That still could use some work to fully bridge the digital divide. I want to beef up the distance learning.

I’m hearing a lot of the lessons are not live lessons, and I think more of them should be. The teacher should be there talking with kids. There should be more one-on-one with kids and teachers.

Should the mayor maintain control of DCPS?

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I think it’s definitely worth re-examining.

I would be more than open to public hearings and debate the pros and cons, listening to all stakeholders.

You’re not willing to say yes or no?

I’m saying yes, there should be some changes, but we should have hearings on this, because changes should be made.

CRIME

Mayor Muriel Bowser supported federal prosecutors’ shift to charging some gun crimes in federal court, rather than in D.C. Superior Court, as a tactic to combat gun violence. Attorney General Karl Racine recently argued the practice perpetuates racial disparities and suggested there is no evidence that it reduces crime. Do you support the practice? Explain your answer.

I am hesitant to go to the federal system, because the federal system has in the past had the tendency of being overzealous with sentencing, and indeed the track record has been disproportionately harmful to certain communities.

Explain how you would address gun violence.

I am a strong supporter of the NEAR Act. That’s where we fail so often in D.C.: enforcement and funding. It’s a very good law that needs to be implemented and fully funded.

The violence interrupter program has great promise. So much of the gun violence in our city is preventable, and there are trusted members of our communities who we need to partner with to do so. We need to train and groom more of them. It’s going to save lives.

Some believe greater police presence will lead to less crime. Others fear more officers will lead to more harassment of black and brown people. Should D.C. increase or decrease the size of its police force? Explain your answer.

Through [the MPD Community Engagement Academy], I got to learn a lot about policing and what I came away learning is that while I respect that they’re putting their lives on the line for us, the resources of MPD should be better used.

Before you spend more, make sure you’re getting the most out of your current resources.

More police is not the obvious solution to me.

I think we can do more with the resources we have. It’s about using our resources as widely as possible. Targeted increases can be called for.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

Oslo, Norway, eliminated pedestrian and cyclist deaths in 2019 with the help of Vision Zero initiatives. Those include replacing onstreet parking with bike lanes, congestion pricing fees in the city center, and lowering the speed limit. Do you support any of these initiatives? Describe your vision for eliminating pedestrian and cyclist deaths.

I’ve been really focused on safer streets my entire career with the D.C. government. The short answer is yes, I support safer streets and smart ideas to make our streets safer and to reduce traffic fatalities.

We need more traffic lights for cyclists. Study after study shows that when you build infrastructure for travelers, they obey the rules better and everyone is safer.

On congestion pricing, I’m very interested in

seeing how New York does with it, and I used to live in Singapore. I’ve seen it work. Our streets really are clogged. Since 2013, I’ve been pushing for a dedicated bus lane on 16th Street NW. When we have more efficient public transportation, people will stop driving. And if we give them a dedicated bus lane, I think more people will stop driving and hop on the bus to zip downtown.

HOUSING

Do you support eliminating single-family zoning, as other cities have done in order to increase housing density?

I support incremental changes to zoning laws. Specifically in areas with lots of transportation, high-trafficked corridors with lots of commerce and lots of things that are walkable. We should also push to beef up walkability and transit connections to transit areas so we can incrementally have more housing in these areas.

A general policy of mine is for any big changes, let’s phase them in incrementally.

We don’t need to take a hatchet. We can bring everyone together and keep everyone together.

The Council is considering a bill to extend the District’s rent control law to 2030. There is a push to also expand the law to include more units. Do you support the bill? Do you support the expansion? Explain. How would you craft an ideal rent control scheme?

I’m definitely in favor of reauthorizing rent control, and I’m willing to expand rent control, but I’m an incrementalist. I want to do things in phases. We shouldn’t do wholesale expansion of rent control. We can ease it in, so we can help people, but also make sure everyone can transition along.

I also think there’s a lot of loopholes in the rent control laws that need to be closed. So I’m supportive of closing loopholes proposed by the Reclaim Rent Control coalition, but I’m not signing onto that bill for sure. I’m for it in spirit, but want to closely look at the specific policies and possibly change those proposals before I vote yes or no.

Jordan Grossman Age: 34 Neighborhood of residence: Shaw Hometown: “Washington D.C.” (Editor’s note: Although he was born at a D.C. hospital, Grossman was raised in Potomac and moved to D.C. as an adult.)

What’s your new quarantine hobby?

Or what are you binge watching during quarantine?

Binge watching? Never Have I Ever, which is awesome. In terms of new hobbies, we have a two-month-old son. I wouldn’t call it a hobby, but I’ve been spending most of my time either hanging out with him or doing campaign stuff.

EDUCATION

What will you do to combat education inequality across the District, particularly given the setbacks students experienced this year with closures?

Number one, we need to invest in funding.

8 may 29, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

Number two, we need to invest in traumainformed care and mental health in schools. I think that was a need we had before COVID19, but I think this crisis is going to hit a lot of students really hard in a lot of different ways, and we have to be prepared for that. It’s not just covering all the content that we missed, it’s treating students as whole people and making sure they are OK and [can] be in a place they can learn.

Should the mayor maintain control of DCPS? My preference would be no, but I think addressing inequity would make more sense rather than fighting over another reorganization of the various bodies that govern education in D.C.

invest in public health approaches to preventing crime, like violence interrupters. We have a lot of inequity in our city and a lot of folks who suffer from a lack of opportunity, so whether that’s affordable housing, childcare, access to healthy foods—the list goes on, but I think we need to invest in those structural issues.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

Oslo, Norway, eliminated pedestrian and cyclist deaths in 2019 with the help of Vision Zero initiatives. Those include replacing onstreet parking with bike lanes, congestion pricing fees in the city center, and lowering the speed limit. Do you support any of these initiatives? Describe your vision for eliminating pedestrian and cyclist deaths.

I think we need to make Vision Zero into a concrete approach and not just a slogan. I think that comes from some of the proposals you mentioned, especially reclaiming some of our public space from cars and making them dedicated to pedestrians and cyclists and public transit.

I think number one, we can reclaim more of our space, and number two, I think we can reduce speed limits, and number three, we need to make our public transit more reliable and more frequent so it feels like a more attractive alternative to people who feel like they need to use cars.

HOUSING

CRIME

Mayor Muriel Bowser supported federal prosecutors’ shift to charging some gun crimes in federal court, rather than in D.C. Superior Court, as a tactic to combat gun violence. Attorney General Karl Racine recently argued the practice perpetuates racial disparities and suggested there is no evidence that it reduces crime. Do you support the practice? Explain your answer.

I agree with Attorney General Racine.

I strongly support the attorney general’s Cure the Streets program and the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement. I think we need to invest in public health approaches to addressing crime and that includes investing in violence interrupters.

Having the federal government involved in our criminal justice system has not been helpful or productive [when it] comes to returning citizens. It’s unhelpful at best to push more of our local criminal justice system to the federal government.

Some believe greater police presence will lead to less crime. Others fear more officers will lead to more harassment of black and brown people. Should D.C. increase or decrease the size of its police force? Explain your answer.

I don’t think we need to increase or decrease the size of the police force. I think we need to

Do you support eliminating single-family zoning, as other cities have done in order to increase housing density?

Yes. I think we should legalize apartments throughout the city. I support something that some folks call “gentle density.” Even if you just increase density to two, three, or fourplexes, which is similar, I think, to what Minneapolis did, you can increase our housing capacity by thousands of units without fundamentally changing the character of neighborhoods.

The Council is considering a bill to extend the District’s rent control law to 2030. There is a push to also expand the law to include more units. Do you support the bill? Do you support the expansion? Explain. How would you craft an ideal rent control scheme?

Yes. I do support advocates’ calls to not only extend, but strengthen rent control and close loopholes. I think rent control is extremely important to preserving the affordable housing we do have, especially for middle-income folks.

I don’t think it makes sense for the date when buildings come into rent control to be one date that’s decades in the past, I think it should be a dynamic date, so we are not only losing units, but also bringing into rent control.

Daniel Hernandez Age: 32 Neighborhood of residence: Dupont Hometown: Kansas City, Mo. What’s your new quarantine hobby?

I have a little more time for video games now than when I was going door to door all the time.

I picked up Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord. A little bit of the strategy genre.

EDUCATION

What will you do to combat education inequality across the District, particularly given the setbacks students experienced this year?

I think, particularly in the current crisis, some of the things to focus on are ensuring students continue to have access to food. It’s very hard to learn when you’re hungry. We’re not going to close the digital divide in a matter of months, but we need to do our best to ensure kids still have the ability to learn and attend school in whatever format that’s possible.

Those are things like providing laptops to students, providing WiFi to certain public housing areas or buildings that may not have that available. Whether that’s working with some partners or nonprofits, providing WiFi out of a van or bus or making sure WiFi is available from libraries, even if students can’t go in.

When we look at the budget, looking at how we do mental health counseling and assistance, as well as living up to goals of at-risk funding and making sure those are properly used as opposed to augmenting staff budget.

Should the mayor maintain control of DCPS? No, I don’t believe so. I don’t feel super strongly about whether there should be an elected school board, and they appoint a chancellor, or if we should have an elected superintendent.

Explain how you would address gun violence.

I believe very strongly we have to look more toward the root causes of violence to really make progress. We can’t arrest our way out of a problem, and those policies have continued to destroy communities. We do have to hold people who break the law accountable, but if we do better about making sure people have access to employment, job training, aren’t going hungry, and can put a roof over their head, I think you’ll see a continued drop in violence.

Some believe greater police presence will lead to less crime. Others fear more officers will lead to more harassment of black and brown people. Should D.C. increase or decrease the size of its police force? Explain your answer.

I’m comfortable with where we are in terms of the amount of police we have. We need to shift the culture and approach of policing. As someone who’s grown up with both sides of that conflict in the sense that I’ve grown up with family in and out of the criminal justice system, as well as several family members who are now retired police officers or working at the department, I think too often in police training and culture there’s too much antagonism, and an us-versus-them mentality.

I think we should emphasize community policing, officers on foot patrol, and officers getting to know the community. And when you do that, I think you cut out a lot of that fear and anger on both sides.

Things like the CPI plus 2 percent for the allowable increase in rent probably needs to be revisited. There are good consumer protection changes as part of the Reclaim Rent Control platform that I think are good ideas. There are others that I’m a little more wary of. I support a rolling inclusion basis for bringing new units under rent control, but I’m not sure what the best time window for that is. Maybe 30 years, so extending it up to 1990, and a rolling basis from there, but I would like to see more research.

Brooke Pinto Age: 28 Neighborhood of residence: Logan Circle Hometown: Greenwich, Conn.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

Oslo, Norway, eliminated pedestrian and cyclist deaths in 2019 with the help of Vision Zero initiatives. Those include replacing onstreet parking with bike lanes, congestion pricing fees in the city center, and lowering the speed limit. Do you support any of these initiatives? Describe your vision for eliminating pedestrian and cyclist deaths.

Yes, absolutely. There’s a lot of things that we need to do. Some are street redesigns, traffic calming measures. Lowering the speed limits is something we can do, but it’ll essentially be a revenue raising activity if we don’t change the streets to accommodate the speed limit we’d like them to have.

We’ve put together some pretty decent plans to address this, but this mayoral administration has continued to slow walk or sideline projects. I think we need legislatively required milestones and progress, and need to push back against the mayor when she doesn’t follow through on what we should be doing there.

CRIME

Mayor Muriel Bowser supported federal prosecutors’ shift to charging some gun crimes in federal court, rather than in D.C. Superior Court, as a tactic to combat gun violence. Attorney General Karl Racine recently argued the practice perpetuates racial disparities and suggested there is no evidence that it reduces crime. Do you support the practice? Explain your answer.

I’m on Racine’s side here. I think it’s a bit of the mayor trying to look like she’s doing something while some surrounding jurisdictions aren’t as helpful or cooperative as we try to tackle the availability of guns.

HOUSING

Do you support eliminating single-family zoning, as other cities have done in order to increase housing density?

Yes. The Council is considering a bill to extend the District’s rent control law to 2030. There is a push to also expand the law to include more units. Do you support the bill? Do you support the expansion? Explain. How would you craft an ideal rent control scheme?

I do support extending rent control. There are some pieces of the reclaim rent control platform I think are good. Things like ending voluntary agreements, which have clearly been abused.

What’s your new quarantine hobby?

Or what are you binge watching during quarantine?

I wish I had a more fun answer for you. I have been calling voters mostly—all day and all night. I’ve heard of a lot of great shows that I look forward to watching one day in the future.

EDUCATION

What will you do to combat education inequality across the District, particularly given the setbacks students experienced this year?

I’m concerned about making sure all of our teachers have the training necessary to provide distance learning, particularly since most health experts predict a second wave of this virus in the fall or winter. We need to make sure that teachers across the city have the requisite training to provide meaningful distance learning.

We also need to have greater focus on our run-down vacant buildings that need to be updated to fit the needs of our current students and not fall into disrepair. I was really discouraged to see the mayor, in her original budget, had pledged to increase education spending by 4 percent, but now with everything going on, she reduced that to 3 percent. Education is one area where funding needs to be increased,

especially now. Age 3 through 17, if you fall behind one year, that can affect you for the rest of your life.

Should the mayor maintain control of DCPS? Yes, but shifting mayoral control is not among my first list of priorities.

CRIME

Mayor Muriel Bowser supported federal prosecutors’ shift to charging some gun crimes in federal court, rather than in D.C. Superior Court, as a tactic to combat gun violence. Attorney General Karl Racine recently argued the practice perpetuates racial disparities and suggested there is no evidence that it reduces crime. Do you support the practice? Explain your answer.

As a city, we need to be moving toward a model of more local control over our criminal justice system, not less. We have very strict gun control laws here, we should be empowered as a city to have our elected prosecutors bringing those charges.

We’ve seen a lot of great success with our restorative justice program wherein victims of crimes can opt in to a restorative justice model, when perpetrator and victim come together for a targeted mediation to address not just the punishment of the crime, but why it happened in the first place, and to show a human face of that trauma to the perpetrator. We’ve found there’s great success when the person who committed a crime understands how deeply they have affected and traumatized the victim.

That program needs to be expanded so we can handle our crime and our residents within our own borders.

Explain how you would address gun violence.

We need more lighting on our streets. We need more cameras in our public spaces. And in the longer term, I want to expand the “cure the streets” model that’s carried out through OAG and the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement.

Some believe greater police presence will lead to less crime. Others fear more officers will lead to more harassment of black and brown people. Should D.C. increase or decrease the size of its police force? Explain your answer.

We have a community trust problem in our city, when many members of our community have been traumatized by police officers through stop and frisk and other violatory practices.

There’s a lot more work we need to do to build community trust and make sure our police department has clear rules on what is and is not acceptable behavior. I want to make sure we’re building up community trust and listening to the needs of each neighborhood, as opposed to applying a one-size-fits-all increase or reduction.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

Oslo, Norway, eliminated pedestrian and cyclist deaths in 2019 with the help of Vision Zero initiatives. Those include replacing onstreet parking with bike lanes, congestion pricing fees in the city center, and lowering the speed limit. Do you support any of these initiatives? Describe your vision for eliminating pedestrian and cyclist deaths.

washingtoncitypaper.com may 29, 2020 9

What they’ve done in Oslo is impressive and is worth aspiring to. Linda Bailey and the District Department of Transportation have done a great job with Vision Zero in D.C. But we need more connected and truly protected bike lanes. I don’t think we are in a place like Oslo, where we can eliminate all of our parking spaces. Many of our residents and small business owners still drive and need access to residential and commercial parking. I want to be careful that we’re not applying a one-size-fitsall approach and saying we’re eliminating all of our parking spaces for this really important goal of reducing or eliminating cyclist deaths.

HOUSING

Do you support eliminating single-family zoning, as other cities have done in order to increase housing density?

This is another area that depends on the neighborhood. There are certain neighborhoods where I’m in favor of eliminating singlefamily housing and increasing density.

I think the social housing options that have been proposed in other countries like Denmark is the future of our city to have true mixedincome people living together. We’ve seen great success there. I’m very interested in leaning into that model in D.C. The Council is considering a bill to extend the District’s rent control law to 2030. There is a push to also expand the law to include more units. Do you support the bill? Do you support the expansion? Explain. How would you craft an ideal rent control scheme?

We need more rent control units in our city and we need greater enforcement of those rent control laws so that tenants aren’t being taken advantage of. We know that many tenants sign these leases, and years later, they’re getting utilities charges and other types of add-ons that aren’t readily apparent upon first glance that are in violation of rent control laws. It’s important that we have greater oversight, enforcement, and accountability, which will lead to protections for tenants and deterrents for landlords.

Yilin (Ellen) Zhang Age: 32 Neighborhood of residence: Kalorama Hometown: Troy, Mich.

What’s your new quarantine hobby?

Or what are you binge watching during quarantine?

I like watching these little otters on YouTube—I don’t really watch movies anymore—and then rewatching some documentaries, Knock Down the House.

Otters? Kotaro and Hana, this one video has like 14 million views. It’s interesting what people are interested in watching.

EDUCATION

What will you do to combat education inequality across the District, particularly given the setbacks students experienced this year?

In D.C., approximately a third of students in public schools at home don’t have access to the internet. To combat this, we need to make

sure the resources are delegated equally, and in some places they may need more resources, because children may need access to healthy foods, mental health resources, and access to the internet and computers.

And I think that takes working across public and private partnerships, working with different organizations to see how we can get children the basic necessities to continuing their education, and also involving the parents more.

Should the mayor maintain control of DCPS? That’s a very complex question. Sometimes you can’t just move the power around. That doesn’t necessarily address the root cause of the issues.

CRIME

Mayor Muriel Bowser supported federal prosecutors’ shift to charging some gun crimes in federal court, rather than in D.C. Superior Court, as a tactic to combat gun violence. Attorney General Karl Racine recently argued the practice perpetuates racial disparities and suggested there is no evidence that it reduces crime.

Do you support the practice? Explain your answer. Explain how you would address gun violence.

I’m always operating with the mentality that we are a state and we should be able to adjudicate our cases fully. So I would disagree that this should be passed to the federal level.

Explain how you would address gun violence.

With the NEAR Act, I agree we need to take a public health approach to addressing gun violence, to addressing crime across the city.

Inequality is really rooted in income inequality across the city. Ward 2 has an incredibly high average income level annually, and then you look at Wards 7 and 8, so there’s this great disparity. I think we need to address the root causes, which is making sure that everyone has access to basic necessities, quality health care, quality grocery stores, that we have increased walkability across all neighborhoods, and that people have access to job opportunities, and that we diversify our economy so people can

10 may 29, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

enter into different employment that will offer upward trajectory.

Some believe greater police presence will lead to less crime. Others fear more officers will lead to more harassment of black and brown people. Should D.C. increase or decrease the size of its police force? Explain your answer.

I don’t agree with increasing the police force.

I think we need to invest more in peace keepers and people who are mediators and people who are building trust in communities. So no, I don’t agree with more resources into enforcement. We need more social workers and case managers.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

Oslo, Norway, eliminated pedestrian and cyclist deaths in 2019 with the help of Vision Zero initiatives. Those include replacing onstreet parking with bike lanes, congestion pricing fees in the city center, and lowering the speed limit. Do you support any of these initiatives? Describe your vision for eliminating pedestrian and cyclist deaths.

In D.C., yes, we need to build more resilient infrastructure, so there are bike lanes where residents can really benefit. We’re starting to see more things introduced in D.C., such as scooters, so we need to have infrastructure that’s ready to have them.

With replacing parking, that’s a case-by-case basis. Some roads in D.C. you simply can’t do that. Decongestion pricing in our city center: I’m looking at the equality impacts. If there’s individuals who [need to get to] the city center for their job, but don’t have access to efficient and convenient public transportation in their neighborhood, then we’re inconveniencing them with another charge. I think we need to do a study on it first and understand what is the traffic flow.

I’m in support of lowering speed limits if it’s going to change the behavior and make it safer for pedestrians. I think we first need to look at all the issues, and I think one of them is making sure that the signage is clear to people and that the lanes are marked clearly so people can see it.

HOUSING

Do you support eliminating single-family zoning, as other cities have done in order to increase housing density?

I don’t agree with completely doing away with single-family zoning. I know some of my counterparts have said they do agree with that. But when you look at Ward 2, we have a lot of unique neighborhoods, and yes, we need increased density in some areas to support everyone who is looking for housing … but I also think we need to maintain our historic buildings, and maintain our unique characteristics.

I know some say, “If you don’t do away with it, we’re never going to have enough affordable housing.” I don’t know if that’s necessarily true.

The Council is considering a bill to extend the District’s rent control law to 2030. There is a push to also expand the law to include more units. Do you support the bill? Do you support the expansion? Explain. How would you craft an ideal rent control scheme?

I agree with continuing rent control. I agree with taking a look at it and expanding rent control.

I’ve also said in the past that I support expanding

rent control to newer buildings and looking at the possibilities of the newest building.

The Reclaim Rent Control platform makes a lot of good points about filling some of the gaps.

I think the only thing that I would want to look at is for the landlords who own the smaller buildings with under four units. And we’re making sure our small business landlords are appropriately resourced and the policy is not going to put them at a great disadvantage.

John Fanning Age: 57 Neighborhood of residence: Logan Circle Hometown: Washington Heights, New York City

What’s your new quarantine hobby?

Virtual conferencing! A lot more reading. The New York Times, which I read frequently. I’ve been on social media more than ever. I’m not on Instagram, but Facebook and Twitter.

EDUCATION

What will you do to combat education inequality across the District, particularly given the setbacks students experienced this year?

We have to make sure we close the digital divide, which I’m learning there was a challenge with students having access to the internet. I think that’s very important moving forward. So I’m willing to work with [the Office of the Chief Technology Officer] and our service providers to make sure we connect them to the digital divide, right?

We’re gonna have to figure out how we’re going to open our libraries during this whole COVID pandemic and during the summer in particular.

Should the mayor maintain control of DCPS? Yes.

CRIME

Mayor Muriel Bowser supported federal prosecutors’ shift to charging some gun

crimes in federal court, rather than in D.C. Superior Court, as a tactic to combat gun violence. Attorney General Karl Racine recently argued the practice perpetuates racial disparities and suggested there is no evidence that it reduces crime. Do you support the practice? Explain your answer.

I don’t [support it]. We won’t be able to implement reform policies until we take over the management of our courts and federal prosecution system. So if I’m in line with turning over prosecutions of gun offenses into the federal system, it doesn’t fall in line with what I would like to see happen with us moving reforms forward in the city.

Explain how you would address gun violence.

This is a challenge. There must be an underground market for it. Somehow guns are getting into the city from other jurisdictions, and I think we should be working with the [Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] to come up with a comprehensive strategy to monitor these gun purchases.

Some believe greater police presence will lead to less crime. Others fear more officers will lead to more harassment of black and brown people. Should D.C. increase or decrease the size of its police force? Explain your answer.

We should increase it. And I say that because the population growth of the city, especially with the addition of entertainment districts, like Southwest and H Street NE, there is a demand on our department.

I think we can work on biased policing and stop and frisk. There needs to be more extensive training within the department, so a lot of these issues don’t keep recurring, but I think we need to expand the department.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

Oslo, Norway, eliminated pedestrian and cyclist deaths in 2019 with the help of Vision Zero initiatives. Those include replacing onstreet parking with bike lanes, congestion pricing fees in the city center, and lowering the speed limit.

Do you support any of these initiatives?

Describe your vision for eliminating pedestrian and cyclist deaths.

Yes. I’m for lowering the speed limit and I’m for increasing protected bike lanes in corridors where the engineering and design is possible. So if we want to decrease fatalities and improve our mobility in the city, it has to be a priority. I also would support banning right-hand turns on red at all intersections with traffic lights.

What about congestion pricing?

How do we have a long term vision to keep folks from driving into the city? One way is to work with regional partners in the business community. A lot of them offer parking, and maybe we should subsidize transit. Another idea I had is expanding the Metrorail systems. I would support regional funding to expand the Orange line out to Crofton, Maryland.

We’re not going to get rid of the vehicle. I don’t think we’re ready for that. But we can decrease congestion by expanding the Metro and subsidizing employees to get on the transit system.

HOUSING

Do you support eliminating single-family zoning, as other cities have done in order to increase housing density?

I would like to do more research on that and work with the Office of Planning where we possibly can do that in parts of the ward. I would support it, and then in others there might be a lot of opposition to doing that.

Ward 2 is uniquely different. We have a lot of historic neighborhoods. Like residents in Georgetown, they don’t want to see the character of their neighborhood [change], sort of like that house on 11th Street, or 10th and V Street where it went up three, four stories and it looked ridiculous. You can have special exceptions or variances, but what is it going to look like and what impact is it going to have on the block?

The Council is considering a bill to extend the District’s rent control law to 2030. There is a push to also expand the law to include more units. Do you support the bill? Do you support the expansion? Explain. How would you craft an ideal rent control scheme?

This is like a negotiation. If you look at all the rental housing we lost in the last 20 years, it’s like over 150,000 units. My position is to negotiate and do it in 10 year increments. So I would propose making amendments to the rent control legislation to include properties up to 1995, and in 10 years we add another 10 to it, which would increase the stock of rent control units significantly.

WARD 4

Brandon Todd Age: 37 Neighborhood of residence: Petworth Hometown: Washington, D.C. What’s your new quarantine hobby?

Or what are you binge watching during quarantine?

I have started to cook, which is something that I’ve never done before. Usually in my refrigerator I have yogurt, bananas, almond milk, and Raisin Bran. But in quarantine, I’ve made pot roast. I’ve made fried pork chops. I’ve made roasted brussels sprouts. I’ve made salmon. So it’s been a learning experience for me.

EDUCATION

What will you do to combat education inequality across the District, particularly given the setbacks students experienced this year?

We know with distance learning over the last two and a half months or so that our students will need extra help. We know that with the possibility of a modified school schedule in the fall that DCPS is going to have to work doubly hard to make sure that our students are not falling so far behind. So, you know, I will continue to make sure that our [per] pupil funding rates are at appropriate levels. But also make sure we have the technology that is going to be needed to make sure that no child is left behind during COVID-19.

Should the mayor maintain control of DCPS? Yes, without a doubt, I think it’s very important to have mayoral control of schools.

one of the best police departments in the country. We have a police department that has been very focused on a community policing model, and we have amazing community and police relations.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

CRIME

Mayor Muriel Bowser supported federal prosecutors’ shift to charging some gun crimes in federal court, rather than in D.C. Superior Court, as a tactic to combat gun violence. Attorney General Karl Racine recently argued the practice perpetuates racial disparities and suggested there is no evidence that it reduces crime. Do you support the practice? Explain your answer.

Yes, I do. I think that we can leverage some of the resources that the federal government has for some of those gun crimes.

Explain how you would address gun violence.

I think that obviously public safety is a government-wide approach. I have convened a government-wide task force to help look at public safety challenges in my ward that’s comprised of the Metropolitan Police Department, the Office of Neighborhood and Safety Engagement, the Department of Employment Services, to Consumer and Regulatory Affairs, to the Department of Youth and Rehabilitative Affairs. It’s about 40 offices and agencies across the government.

I also have a Ward Four Advisory Committee on Public Safety that advises me on policies and community initiatives around public safety.

Some believe greater police presence will lead to less crime. Others fear more officers will lead to more harassment of black and brown people. Should D.C. increase or decrease the size of its police force? Explain your answer.

I think that we should increase the number of police that we have in the District of Columbia. You know, our city is growing by leaps and bounds every month and every year. And I think it’s important that we have a police force that is equipped to deal with the growing cities like ours. No matter what neighborhood I’m in, I hear neighbors say they want to see the police. I think we have

Oslo, Norway, eliminated pedestrian and cyclist deaths in 2019 with the help of Vision Zero initiatives. Those include replacing onstreet parking with bike lanes, congestion pricing fees in the city center, and lowering the speed limit. Do you support any of these initiatives? Describe your vision for eliminating pedestrian and cyclist deaths.

I support lowering the speed limit, I support protected bike lane infrastructure for a protected bike lane network—a citywide network that can take an individual from one part of the District to the next. And we have to have robust public transportation in bus and rail.

Last year, the District restricted right turns on red at about 150 intersections throughout the city. I believe that we need to eliminate right turns on red at every intersection in the District. I want to see the data around if intersections have improved, if there have been less accidents, there’ve been less pedestrian accidents or less bicycle accidents or vehicular accidents. But I think we should move to no right turns on red, period, all across the District.

HOUSING

Do you support eliminating single-family zoning, as other cities have done in order to increase housing density?

No, I do not. I think that we have to be creative, and we have to use areas that are appropriate for multi-family housing and that are appropriate for lots of density.

We have huge housing needs. We have to build 36,000 units in the next five years. And I think that we’ll be able to do it by upzoning on corridors like Georgia Avenue NW and Kennedy Street NW and Riggs Road NE and South Dakota Avenue NE where there’s a tremendous opportunity to bring a number of units and increase density.

The Council is considering a bill to extend the District’s rent control law to 2030. There is a push to also expand the law to include more units. Do you support the bill? Do you support the expansion?

Explain.

Absolutely, I support extending rent control. The course that I believe we should take is to pull together stakeholders and figure out what exactly an expansion looks like. I know that that is, you know, being under consideration from the Committee on Housing and Revitalization. But I do support the extension of rent control.

How would you craft an ideal rent control scheme?

I want to hear from a number of stakeholders. I think we have to hear from renters, we have to hear from advocates, we have to hear from housing providers, affordable housing providers, market rate housing providers, we have to hear from experts, you have to hear from a government official to figure out what is best for the District of Columbia.

washingtoncitypaper.com may 29, 2020 11

Janeese Lewis George Age: 32 Neighborhood of residence: Manor Park Hometown: Washington, D.C.

What’s your new quarantine hobby?

Or what are you binge watching during quarantine?

I’ve been watching this show on Hulu called Siren. Very weird, I know, it’s about mermaids.

It’s terrible. I’m embarrassed.

Other hobbies: just, like, finding multiple ways to use bananas. So there’s been banana bread, banana pudding.

EDUCATION

What will you do to combat education inequality across the District, particularly given the setbacks students experienced this year?

One, change the way schools are allocated funding to not just include enrollment, but to include the sociological makeup of the school and consider those factors as well as enrollment. Closing the digital divide, providing laptops to every individual student. Finally, changing the evaluation system for educators to be one that’s negotiated by our educators. So ending the impact of evaluation, and then continuing to amplify our parent voices.

Should the mayor maintain control of DCPS? No. I served on the school board actually premayoral rule as a student representative. I think it’s so critical to have the checks and balances in our education system. And right now, we don’t have checks and balances, and it’s led to the parents’ voices, teachers’ voices and educators’ voices [suffering] as a result of it, as we just saw with the closing of Washington Metropolitan High School.

CRIME

Mayor Muriel Bowser supported federal

prosecutors’ shift to charging some gun crimes in federal court, rather than in D.C. Superior Court, as a tactic to combat gun violence. Attorney General Karl Racine recently argued the practice perpetuates racial disparities and suggested there is no evidence that it reduces crime. Do you support the practice? Explain your answer.

No, I stay with Attorney General Karl Racine.

Having worked in criminal justice my entire career, there’s literally no evidence that it results in reducing crime.

And so, we want to take evidence-based approaches that work to solve crime … The attorney general is the one who’s elected by the people of D.C. And so that’s the person who should be able to lead on what we do in criminal justice here in our city. And I do think [federal prosecution] will actually lead to continued inequity and mass incarceration that we’ve seen across our country.

Explain how you would address gun violence?

I have done a lot of studies actually on Chicago, who’s done a great improvement in reducing gun violence. They targeted communities that were ridden with gun violence, and they put investments in those communities.

They put violence interrupters in those communities to interrupt crime before it happens.

They created a crime lab, a University of Chicago Crime Lab. I want to see us do a university crime lab here in our city that is able to trace and make decisions based on the data of how we’re able to trace gun violence and also have a database of guns and be able to trace the trafficking.

Some believe greater police presence will lead to less crime. Others fear more officers will lead to more harassment of black and brown people. Should D.C. increase or decrease the size of its police force? Explain your answer.

It’s not the amount of police that makes a difference. It’s the police investment in the community that makes the difference. I’m not for decreasing or increasing the police force. I’m for utilizing our police department in a way that is going to be beneficial to our community.

There’s a difference between community policing, where you have officers who are walking the same beat every day, who are out of their cars, interacting with the community. Back in the day, you knew who your officer was, like, “Oh, hey, Officer Smith. Hey, how you doing?”

so that people aren’t speeding on the roads and really changing the attitude.

HOUSING

Do you support eliminating single-family zoning, as other cities have done in order to increase housing density?

In our city, we have so many different neighbors and are so complex. So, in certain areas of the city, yes. But I would say citywide, no.

The Council is considering a bill to extend the District’s rent control law to 2030. There is a push to also expand the law to include more units. Do you support the bill? Do you support the expansion?

Explain. How would you craft an ideal rent control scheme?

Yes, I am in support of expanding it up to buildings built before 2005 and expanding into four-unit buildings. That would add an extensive amount of rent controlled apartments.

I think one of the other issues we see with rent control is it has loopholes. So, I think the eligibility date and closing existing loopholes is important.

Capping the annual rent increase at level of inflation and eliminating the extra 2 percent allowed under the current law. The current law cap increases at inflation plus 2 percent. So that means rent increases are still outpacing wage increases in the District, so that leaves residents who have fixed incomes in danger of displacement.

Marlena Edwards Age: 53 Neighborhood of residence: Shepherd Park Hometown: Washington, D.C.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

Oslo, Norway, eliminated pedestrian and cyclist deaths in 2019 with the help of Vision Zero initiatives. Those include replacing onstreet parking with bike lanes, congestion pricing fees in the city center, and lowering the speed limit. Do you support any of these initiatives? Describe your vision for eliminating pedestrian and cyclist deaths.

Yeah, absolutely. One of the things I think is important is that we look at a congestion tax. I also think we have to be putting those who are most vulnerable first, and who’s most vulnerable in our community when it comes to the way we use our roads: our pedestrians and bike riders.

I think when we talk about the speed limit, it’s really about creating the infrastructure so that people aren’t driving fast. We can lower it down to 20, but it’s about creating the infrastructure

12 may 29, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

What’s your new quarantine hobby?

Or what are you binge watching during quarantine?

Just continuing on with the campaign with alternative strategies to door knocking. No new hobbies at this time.

EDUCATION

What will you do to combat education

inequality across the District, particularly given the setbacks students experienced this year?

I am a master’s level social worker, so I have worked extensively with all groups and populations across the city. To deal specifically with inequity, I worked on a project with Department of Health Care Finance, in combination with DC Public Schools and the Office of the State Superintendent, where we were able to find funding through Medicaid in order to provide services that are so needed [for] our children here in Washington, D.C. The District used to pay a per diem for these services, but instead of paying the per diem, the program that we put together was so that these agencies, DCPS could bill Medicaid, which is coming from the federal dollar.

So what I would do is look at the comprehensive money modeling plan for each school in Ward 4, or look across the District of Columbia, when we get to that point, and look at whether or not all of these schools have the full complement of staff that they need to make sure that you have all of the services in place. That will make sure that you have all the proper staffing in place at each of the schools that are needed to give each child a full educational experience, and so that they can meet age-appropriate educational benchmarks.

Should the mayor maintain control of DCPS? No, I do not believe that the mayor should continue to have control of DCPS. I believe that you need to strengthen the role of the Office of the State Superintendent.

CRIME

Mayor Muriel Bowser supported federal prosecutors’ shift to charging some gun crimes in federal court, rather than in D.C. Superior Court, as a tactic to combat gun violence. Attorney General Karl Racine recently argued the practice perpetuates racial disparities and suggested there is no evidence that it reduces crime. Do you support the practice? Explain your answer.

The District does need more powers in terms of charging for gun crimes, and part of it has to do with when you need to expedite crime and appropriately charge someone.

Now, I am in favor of reform in the criminal justice system. And I have attended a function where it was a new unit in Fulton County, Georgia, with Paul Howard, the DA there. And with that specific program is the conviction integrity unit program. It’s like the Innocence Project where you go back, you look at a crime, you see if there’s a racial bias that may have been involved with someone who was over sentenced, if they were in jail too long inordinately, and if they should be released. So, yes, along with that I believe in overall criminal justice reform in the District to make sure that there’s no bias in terms of gun crimes and any other crime.

Explain how you would address gun violence.

One time they had a program where people could come and turn in guns if they had it illegally and not be charged. That was many, many years ago. But at this point, when you’re dealing with gun violence, there’s a lot of issues tied into it—often maybe social economic issues tied into it. So I would look at lowering gun violence by working first with the different groups, which

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will be the Metropolitan Police Department.

I would have monthly meetings in each ward with the Metropolitan Police Department, the ANC, any residents, any business owners, and any stakeholders in that specific ward. And they come together and develop a matrix so that we have an opportunity to discuss, “Where are the trouble spots?” so that we can be proactive with policing versus reactive.

And then reintroduction of community policing, where we have more bicycle and foot patrols in the neighborhood, officers on Segways, so that they get an opportunity to meet with residents. Residents then get an opportunity to meet with them and to build trust amongst the two groups.

Also reinstituting the officer-friendly program where you have police officers go into the schools early to meet with the children and explain policing to them.

Some believe greater police presence will lead to less crime. Others fear more officers will lead to more harassment of black and brown people. Should D.C. increase or decrease the size of its police force? Explain your answer.

Oh, they need to increase the size of their police force. One issue we’re dealing with is safety in the schools. We don’t want any shooting in schools because there have been recommendations or suggestions that you should not have police officers acting as security detail at schools or maybe after hours. I don’t feel that it singles out black and brown people or any other person in this city. You need police protection and you need safe passage because there are children who are afraid of gang violence on the way home.

You have teachers who need protection. We need their presence in order to feel safe.

And then there is continual training for officers. As a MSW, I’ve had a colleague who would go to the Metropolitan Police Department and provide training on how to de-escalate situations. If someone is schizophrenic or exhibiting signs that may appear to be violent, they can learn that the person may not physically hurt them, the person is more danger to themselves, and they understand how to de-escalate the situation without using violence.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

Oslo, Norway, eliminated pedestrian and cyclist deaths in 2019 with the help of Vision Zero initiatives. Those include replacing onstreet parking with bike lanes, congestion pricing fees in the city center, and lowering the speed limit. Do you support any of these initiatives? Describe your vision for eliminating pedestrian and cyclist deaths.

My vision for the Vision Zero initiative in the District of Columbia would be working with DDOT to expedite any infrastructure improvements, to identify areas where there is possible danger to pedestrians, and expediting environmental impact studies, in terms of where bicycle lanes should go. Yes, I’m for the Vision Zero initiative. The lowering the speed limit? Yes. 20-to-25 miles per hour—25 miles per hour for more busy streets. Yes, adding bike lanes as appropriate.

About 80 percent of the individuals who work in Washington, D.C., come in from Maryland and Virginia, so I believe that they should be charged a small commuter tax that could be used to build out our infrastructure to improve roadways, to

add bike paths, to add the staffing that’s needed to implement the Vision Zero plan.

And another part would be improving public transportation. And that’s how you would lower the dependence on cars, because if we get with our regional partners and make sure that the Metrorail is intact, bus service is intact, not eliminating any bus lines, that’s how we could move towards the initiative—not being so dependent on cars and being able to implement pedestrian travel and bike safety in our neighborhoods.

HOUSING

Do you support eliminating single-family zoning, as other cities have done in order to increase housing density?

It depends. In terms of single-family zoning, no, I would keep it the same, but just making sure we have a different mix of housing in each of the neighborhoods, whether it’s single-family, whether it’s duplex, whether it’s apartment.

The Council is considering a bill to extend the District’s rent control law to 2030. There is a push to also expand the law to include more units. Do you support the bill? Do you support the expansion? Explain. How would you craft an ideal rent control scheme?

Yes, definitely. I would agree that the law should be expanded to homes that are built up to 2006, that there needs to be an extension of making sure that landlords are not charging tenants any fees for a capital improvement. Making sure that the hundred million dollars that, they say, per year goes towards low- and middle-income housing and putting on an additional hundred million. So the first hundred million dollars must be dedicated to low- and middle-income transitional housing, and then the next hundred can deal with regular development in order to make sure that we’re meeting our affordable housing goals and rent control.

How would you craft an ideal rent control scheme?

Well, if you put the matrix together, then you can tell what is the maximum amount that you should raise the rent each year, so that you say that you’re not outside of inflation and overcharging individuals. I believe that’s the best way to gauge rent control. We all know that there have been instances where individuals may be living in an apartment and, in order to get rid of the tenants, rent is raised exorbitantly to push them out, so that you can convert to condos or other practices that may be unfair.

WARD 7

Kelvin Brown Age: 38 Neighborhood of residence: Hillcrest Hometown: Mobile, Ala. What’s your new quarantine hobby?

Or what are you binge watching during quarantine?

I’ve been watching Outlander, and the second one I caught up on was Game of Thrones, and I watched the Hillary Clinton documentary.

14 may 29, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

EDUCATION

What will you do to combat education inequality across the District, particularly given the setbacks students experienced this year?

One of the things prior to COVID-19, there were many inequities in education, from a lack of resources to the student-teacher ratio. As a councilmember, one of the things I would look to do is make sure we fully fund our schools. To make sure our students have opportunities for vocational training.

The second thing is that we invest in after school, out-of-school programming, so as our kids transition from their normal day, they have opportunities to further build on what they learned during the day, and give them opportunities for them to build additional skills, hobbies, trades. The next thing is, I want to work with our parents and work with our nonprofits and churches within our communities to develop solutions to close the digital divide.

Should the mayor maintain control of DCPS? I truly believe that DCPS should be independent of mayoral control. However, I do believe the mayor has a role to play in education to make sure our kids are receiving quality education that’s equitable and is standardized across all wards.

As it relates to crime and public safety, I totally believe that we should take a healthbased approach. Gun violence, from the statistics I’ve seen now, most of it occurs from 16 to 25 years old, the offenders and victims as well.

We have to take a holistic approach to solving gun violence in our community, which means we need to strengthen our family structure all across Ward 7 and across the District. We need to make sure we have adequate resources available to our community leaders and our mentors, by way of violence interrupters to secure the streets. If we invest in our youth and we provide them access to the required resources, such as jobs, vocational training, after-school programs where their minds are occupied, that will lessen the proliferation of gun violence.

Some believe greater police presence will lead to less crime. Others fear more officers will lead to more harassment of black and brown people. Should D.C. increase or decrease the size of its police force? Explain your answer.

This is a very complex issue. And I don’t think it’s an answer to whether we increase or decrease. We can’t police ourselves out of the current situation we find ourselves in. I would be of the mindset to actually do further research and follow a behavioral approach to solving crime. That includes working with community leaders, working with the street programs I mentioned, working with our church and philanthropic groups, so we can get into our communities.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

CRIME

Mayor Muriel Bowser supported federal prosecutors’ shift to charging some gun crimes in federal court, rather than in D.C. Superior Court, as a tactic to combat gun violence. Attorney General Karl Racine recently argued the practice perpetuates racial disparities and suggested there is no evidence that it reduces crime. Do you support the practice? Explain your answer.

I am aligned with Karl Racine’s viewpoint that there are racial inequities in the criminal justice system that we know currently exist. We should retain that control and not cede it to the federal government.

Explain how you would address gun violence.

Oslo, Norway, eliminated pedestrian and cyclist deaths in 2019 with the help of Vision Zero initiatives. Those include replacing onstreet parking with bike lanes, closing major streets to cars, congestion pricing fees in the city center, and lowering the speed limit.

Do you support any of these initiatives?

Describe your vision for eliminating pedestrian and cyclist deaths.

I do agree with the tenets of the Vision Zero plan. And I do think it’s a very aggressive and bold plan that we need to fully fund and incorporate across the District. And also, I think that we need to make sure that we assess the needs of each one of our communities to make sure we have a multimodal transportation system that is equitably distributed across Ward 7… that connects our residents to grocery stores, to job opportunities, to pharmacies, to recreation, etc.

I truly believe that if we build a city that’s more equitable and representative of our neighbors and our residents, we will begin to see a downward trend in the number of deaths, pedestrian deaths, and car accidents.

HOUSING

Do you support eliminating single-family zoning, as other cities have done in order to increase housing density?

Where appropriate, we should eliminate single-family zoning, but to do it with a broad brush across the entire city or the entire ward, I think would be the wrong thing to do. But we do need to make sure, from a housing equity standpoint, that we are approaching each community or each ward with the same lens.

The Council is considering a bill to extend the District’s rent control law to 2030. There

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is a push to also expand the law to include more units. Do you support the bill? Do you support the expansion? Explain. How would you craft an ideal rent control scheme?

This is very easy for me. Absolutely we should expand rent control and make newer buildings accessible to rent control. From a supply and demand standpoint, we need to look at innovative strategies around community land trusts, look at public-private partnerships, and look at our nontraditional players in the housing market to build supplemental funding streams.

Anthony Lorenzo Green Age: 34 Neighborhood of residence: Deanwood Hometown: Washington, D.C.

What’s your new quarantine hobby?

Or what are you binge watching during quarantine?

Trying to make sure I catch up on some of my shows. Campaign life has definitely taken up a lot of the time, even under quarantine. I also have to be mindful—I have asthma—so trying to make sure I’m good as well. But, a lot of binge watching.

EDUCATION

What will you do to combat education inequality across the District, particularly given the setbacks students experienced this year?

We have to provide more support for our families that have stepped up to try to create an education environment for their kids at home. And that hasn’t been an easy transition process for a lot. We still have a big, huge digital divide, and that means we have to be committed in making the right investments into ensuring that every kid has a laptop and a tablet, and I do feel the roll out of that was a little behind the eight ball.

And we know that our teachers have been on the

front line of that to make sure that they have all the tools necessary to educate our kids. While we’re dealing with a crisis like this, we have to make sure that we’re doing everything possible to bridge that digital divide, including moving a little faster, propping up more WiFi areas across the city. We still have some communities over in Ward 7, just for example Mayfair, where connectivity is a major issue.

Should the mayor maintain control of DCPS? No. I am one of those folks that believe that we should not hesitate to give everyday people the power to make the decisions on how our children should be educated, the curriculum that they are educated with, and how facilities should be maintained, and who we hire to lead the educational effort in this city.

CRIME

Mayor Muriel Bowser supported federal prosecutors’ shift to charging some gun crimes in federal court, rather than in D.C. Superior Court, as a tactic to combat gun violence. Attorney General Karl Racine recently argued the practice perpetuates racial disparities and suggested there is no evidence that it reduces crime. Do you support the practice? Explain your answer.

I agree with the attorney general on this. It’s just not the attorney general saying this. We’re hearing this come from the grassroots across Wards 7 and 8, where they are saying that handing more of our criminal justice system to the feds is not going to reduce crime. And especially when we’ve seen people who are non-black being able to walk freely through this system with less accountability than the rest of us who are black and brown. I believe that we need to have more control over our criminal justice system, having a local elected district attorney or maybe have the attorney general having more flexibility to prosecute crimes that are committed by adults.

Explain how you would address gun violence.

We truly have to be committed and invested in attacking the root causes of violence, peeling back those layers and ensuring that we’re making those equitable investments in people in our community, so they don’t have to make decisions about survival, or make decisions because they have no clue of what conflict resolution looks like for them.

Some believe greater police presence will lead to less crime. Others fear more officers will lead to more harassment of black and brown people. Should D.C. increase or decrease the size of its police force? Explain your answer.

I believe our police force is at a level where we are putting so much investment and hope and expectations on police officers to perform the duties of social workers. So, putting more money into police and expanding the force, or even at the level it’s at right now, is not going to reduce the rate of violence. It hasn’t. We saw what happens when we over police communities. D.C. is no stranger to the mass incarceration era. We still have family members who are coming home who are falsely convicted of crimes they didn’t commit. We have officers who have no relationship with our community outside of having ice cream socials with

16 may 29, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

seniors. They have no relationship with the community that would connect them to who actually is committing violent crime in our neighborhoods. So, you have this epidemic of black folks walking down the street being stopped because they fit a broad description of white shirt, black shirt, blue jeans. And that affects everyone. It’s made our neighborhoods more dangerous because now we have police officers who feel they are not accountable to law and unfortunately have taken lives from our community that [we] still haven’t found a resolution to.

Rebecca J. Morris Age: 31 Neighborhood of residence: Benning Road Hometown: Washington, D.C.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

Oslo, Norway, eliminated pedestrian and cyclist deaths in 2019 with the help of Vision Zero initiatives. Those include replacing onstreet parking with bike lanes, closing major streets to cars, congestion pricing fees in the city center, and lowering the speed limit.

Do you support any of these initiatives?

Describe your vision for eliminating pedestrian and cyclist deaths.

I do support those positions. I feel that we have to have a broad set of tools available to make sure we can say we have zero fatalities in our communities. And we definitely see a high number of traffic incidents east of the river. I do believe in expanding opportunities for folks to ride bicycles in our communities, which include protected bike lanes, ensuring that a lot of our intersections are safe for pedestrians to cross.

We’re not going to solve this problem through speeding cameras. That’s been the main focus from this administration and previous administrations. We saw a billion dollars was collected in tickets from speeding cameras, but we’re still seeing a high number of traffic deaths.

HOUSING

Do you support eliminating single-family zoning, as other cities have done in order to increase housing density?

I do. I definitely want to see more effort being made to expand housing opportunities for all in areas where it has been a struggle to give affordable housing development. And that’s places west of the Anacostia River that have not been carrying the same burden as those of us in Wards 7 and 8. And, for many of us in Wards 7 or 8, we know that an affordable housing label is being slapped on a lot of projects, but it’s not affordable for a lot of working families.

The Council is considering a bill to extend the District’s rent control law to 2030. There is a push to also expand the law to include more units. Do you support the bill? Do you support the expansion? Explain. How would you craft an ideal rent control scheme?

I do support that bill, and I support the[Reclaim] Rent Control platform in its entirety. The moment is now to expand and strengthen rent control laws, not just reauthorizing the status quo for another 10 years. We have to make clear that housing is a human right by fighting for affordable rent-controlled housing, expand the laws to protect more tenants, and close loopholes, like eliminating predatory voluntary agreements. As someone that has faced eviction and homelessness early in my life, I fully understand the struggles that everyday working families have trying to survive in D.C.

What’s your new quarantine hobby?

Or what are you binge watching during quarantine?

I’ve been volunteering by helping to provide hot meals to the community. I’ve actually been going inside certain stores and helping to provide [personal protective equipment] to cashiers and workers. And I’ve been watching a lot of World War II documentaries.

EDUCATION

What will you do to combat education inequality across the District, particularly given the setbacks students experienced this year?

First thing I would do, I’d make sure we are properly resourced. Ward 7 lacks proper resources. And I’d make sure we are funded equally across the city and make sure that the families have everything we need to make sure that they can be properly educated. And also provide the extra help in our schools so that students can become well-rounded.

Should the mayor maintain control of DCPS? The Department of Education should have control versus the mayor. The schools that black children tend to populate have always been lacking the resources. That’s been an issue since segregation. There should be some sort of middle ground. Right now, the schools in the area where I live haven’t improved under the mayor.

CRIME

Mayor Muriel Bowser supported federal prosecutors’ shift to charging some gun crimes in federal court, rather than in D.C. Superior Court, as a tactic to combat gun violence. Attorney General Karl Racine recently argued the practice perpetuates racial disparities and suggested there is no

evidence that it reduces crime. Do you support the practice? Explain your answer.

I don’t support it going to federal court. I do believe we need more mental health empowerment programs and hubs in each neighborhood.

Crime starts early. A lot of times people don’t have the resources or know how to combat situations in a healthy manner.

Explain how you would address gun violence.

As it relates to violence, we could have hubs in each neighborhood where people can do group counseling, have other resources that they can have, or access for mental health. I believe crime would lower because the community would now have the resources to teach each other how to possibly solve issues in a healthy manner.

Some believe greater police presence will lead to less crime. Others fear more officers will lead to more harassment of black and brown people. Should D.C. increase or decrease the size of its police force? Explain your answer.

I don’t think there should necessarily be an increase, especially in the areas in which I live. I grew up in Ward 7. One of the neighborhoods I lived in was heavily populated with jump out [squads] in the morning. Along with proper education and providing pools of jobs in our area, and having mental health, I think that would lower our crime. We don’t need the police unless it’s necessary that they be called.

If we provide the resources where it’s necessary, crime would go down.

building, no matter what year it was built, falls under rent control. Anything that’s rented out in the city should fall under rent control.

Veda Rasheed Age: 35 Neighborhood of residence: Benning Ridge Hometown: Washington, D.C.

HOUSING

Do you support eliminating single-family zoning, as other cities have done in order to increase housing density?

I don’t think we should abandon that law.

That’s only because, in theory, it will create an issue of developers, people coming in and purchasing homes just to tear them down or add apartments. It would be an unfair advantage to the everyday person who would just like to purchase a home. I think it will create issues, companies creating just more expensive [properties]. It just doesn’t sound good.

The Council is considering a bill to extend the District’s rent control law to 2030. There is a push to also expand the law to include more units. Do you support the bill? Do you support the expansion? Explain. How would you craft an ideal rent control scheme?

I would support it ... Something that I would want to happen, is to make sure that any

I have spent so much time, frankly, working at home to keep the train moving. I wouldn’t say I’ve had a hobby by any stretch of the imagination. As far as TV is concerned, I’ve paid lots of attention to CNN, especially around COVID-19 issues, and I’ve watched our own Channel 16 here in D.C. to keep up with what the mayor is doing with COVID-19.

EDUCATION

What will you do to combat education inequality across the District, particularly given the setbacks students experienced this year?

I have been a strong proponent of education, and have worked very hard as council chair and then as mayor to continue the focus on improving educational outcomes for our children.

And I have no intent of deviating from that. I’ve made it very clear that education reform is one of the most important things for me. And also, I have focused on early childhood education.

Those over time ultimately pay off so much for our kids and families.

Should the mayor maintain control of DCPS? The answer is yes.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

Oslo, Norway, eliminated pedestrian and cyclist deaths in 2019 with the help of Vision Zero initiatives. Those include replacing onstreet parking with bike lanes, closing major streets to cars, congestion pricing fees in the city center, and lowering the speed limit.

Do you support any of these initiatives?

Describe your vision for eliminating pedestrian and cyclist deaths.

I think we could add bike lanes where it’s necessary. Possibly having the “no right turn” is something we could think about as a policy throughout the city. I think if we have some sort of middle ground, it can possibly work. As far as parking, in certain areas we can eliminate parking. We can come up with a middle ground.

I was a clerk at D.C. Superior Court in the criminal division for nearly a decade. I also worked with Attorney General Karl Racine as a staffer, and I currently serve as an ANC commissioner. So public safety is a big issue in Ward 7. As far as it goes with fighting crime in our community, I believe in a hands-on approach.

The federal government prosecutes our local crimes here, and our misdemeanors are prosecuted by the Office of the Attorney General.

So we have unique jurisdiction because we don’t have prosecutorial authority over the local crimes that happen here. I believe I would need a little bit more context in what it is.

Some believe greater police presence will lead to less crime. Others fear more officers will lead to more harassment of black and brown people. Should D.C. increase or decrease the size of its police force? Explain your answer.

I think that depends. I support community policing where police officers get to know the members of their community … and it doesn’t feel like they are patrolling or controlling the community. So it just depends on the nature and circumstances. There’s no one-size-fits-all approach. We have different, unique communities.

What’s your new quarantine hobby?

Or what are you binge watching during quarantine?

I guess my quarantine hobby is trying to relax, just walking and getting fresh air. I haven’t really been watching much television.

EDUCATION

What will you do to combat education inequality across the District, particularly given the setbacks students experienced this year?

As one of the only candidates currently raising two young boys, one in elementary school, one in high school, one of the things I do think that we should continue is digital learning and distance learning. Make sure every child has access to the internet, and also ensuring individuals have technology access to computers and tablets.

Should the mayor maintain control of DCPS? I would look into restoring some power to the school board and still allow the mayor to appoint the chancellor.

CRIME

Mayor Muriel Bowser supported federal prosecutors’ shift to charging some gun crimes in federal court, rather than in D.C. Superior Court, as a tactic to combat gun violence. Attorney General Karl Racine recently argued the practice perpetuates racial disparities and suggested there is no evidence that it reduces crime.

Do you support the practice? Explain your answer. Explain how you would address gun violence.

Oslo, Norway, eliminated pedestrian and cyclist deaths in 2019 with the help of Vision Zero initiatives. Those include replacing onstreet parking with bike lanes, congestion pricing fees in the city center, and lowering the speed limit. Do you support any of these initiatives? Describe your vision for eliminating pedestrian and cyclist deaths.

I do support Vision Zero. I do support bike lanes. I do support traffic calming in different quadrants of the ward. The thing the [ANC] looked at was hazardous intersections … some of those are federal evacuation routes, so we couldn’t put up speed bumps. The only thing we could do is reach out to MPD to put up speed cameras … The city is growing rapidly. I do think we need to look at other modes of transportation.

HOUSING

Do you support eliminating single-family zoning, as other cities have done in order to increase housing density?

It’s something I would have to look more into before I take a position.

The Council is considering a bill to extend the District’s rent control law to 2030. There is a push to also expand the law to include more units. Do you support the bill? Do you support the expansion?

Explain. How would you craft an ideal rent control scheme?

I do think we need to extend the rent control law to 2030. Yes, we need to expand the law as well.

Vincent C. Gray Age: 77 Neighborhood of residence: Hillcrest Hometown: Washington, D.C. What’s your new quarantine hobby?

Or what are you binge watching during quarantine?

CRIME

Mayor Muriel Bowser supported federal prosecutors’ shift to charging some gun crimes in federal court, rather than in D.C. Superior Court, as a tactic to combat gun violence. Attorney General Karl Racine recently argued the practice perpetuates racial disparities and suggested there is no evidence that it reduces crime.

Do you support the practice? Explain your answer. Explain how you would address gun violence.

What I support is that we have more control over our District of Columbia law enforcement system. That’s what I support. I don’t believe that we should be involved in supporting something that has the federal structure increasingly running our city. We have the capacity, we have the intellect, and we have the experience to run our own city, and that would include running our own law enforcement operations as well.

washingtoncitypaper.com may 29, 2020 17

Some believe greater police presence will lead to less crime. Others fear more officers will lead to more harassment of black and brown people. Should D.C. increase or decrease the size of its police force? Explain your answer.

You have to have a balance between the police presence and working to make sure those who are part of our police force understand and internalize what it really means to have community policing.

At the same time, it’s hugely important to continue building on our early intervention efforts, where you have crime interrupters, violence interrupters who have those kinds of relationships in the community that people will respect. There’s got to be a balance. It can’t be one approach versus the other.

When I was the mayor, we had 4,000 police officers. I certainly support trying to find a balance. I have legislation pending before the Council that would create incentives for police officers to live in the city. Sixteen to 17 percent of our police officers live in the District. My incentive plan would be to have police officers who live in the city would not have to pay local income taxes anymore.

What’s your new quarantine hobby?

Or what are you binge watching during quarantine?

I have been listening to the news broadcasts.

I have been watching a lot of television and talking to a lot of community people on Zoom and other ways.

HOUSING

Do you support eliminating single-family zoning, as other cities have done in order to increase housing density?

I do not support eliminating that. It would require changing zoning rules and regulations, and it would probably change the structure of housing in some of our neighborhoods.

I like the idea of single-family housing, and I’ve supported that.

The Council is considering a bill to extend the District’s rent control law to 2030. There is a push to also expand the law to include more units. Do you support the bill? Do you support the expansion?

Explain. How would you craft an ideal rent control scheme?

I support the bill to retain rent control.

I think that’s an important tool in keeping people in the District of Columbia. It makes housing more affordable. I don’t necessarily support adding … I think we should continue to invest in affordable housing.

James Leroy Jennings Age: 64 Neighborhood of residence: Deanwood Hometown: McCormick, S.C.

WARD 8

Stuart Anderson Age: 60 Neighborhood of residence: Anacostia Hometown: Washington, D.C.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

Oslo, Norway, eliminated pedestrian and cyclist deaths in 2019 with the help of Vision Zero initiatives. Those include replacing onstreet parking with bike lanes, congestion pricing fees in the city center, and lowering the speed limit. Do you support any of these initiatives? Describe your vision for eliminating pedestrian and cyclist deaths.

I support bicycles. I support protected bike lanes. The religious community on 9th Street NW has been very vocal about this issue. What I have urged is that the bicycle advocates … and churches should work together to try to find a way.

as deputy marshals to assist police and monitor and control this issue.

Some believe greater police presence will lead to less crime. Others fear more officers will lead to more harassment of black and brown people. Should D.C. increase or decrease the size of its police force? Explain your answer.

I feel that the police force should be increased. But at the same note, I would like to have a deputy marshal program of residents appointed by the federal court with D.C. legislation creating that partnership with federal as well as local governments, so [the residents] can assist the police with these crimes and crime prevention and working with the neighborhood social programs such as Boys and Girls Clubs … to show the younger folks pathways to positive mentorships.

EDUCATION

What will you do to combat education inequality across the District, particularly given the setbacks students experienced this year?

I’d like to meet with the charter schools as well as the public schools. Until this [virus] situation has resolved itself, I think virtual learning and distance learning probably would be one of the top agendas.

Should the mayor maintain control of DCPS? I think not. I feel that the schools should have full autonomy. The city council should be the only one to govern that body and try to get the public schools and charter schools to come to some consistency on working together.

CRIME

Mayor Muriel Bowser supported federal prosecutors’ shift to charging some gun crimes in federal court, rather than in D.C. Superior Court, as a tactic to combat gun violence. Attorney General Karl Racine recently argued the practice perpetuates racial disparities and suggested there is no evidence that it reduces crime.

Do you support the practice? Explain your answer. Explain how you would address gun violence.

I do not support the mayor’s plan on that to have the federal intercede in prosecuting those cases. It should be done on a lower level, the District level. There are some disparities in the justice system with these crimes in D.C. As far as responding to gun crimes, a program that I want to propose is the deputy marshal program for the residents in Ward 7, so they can have some basic control of the situation. I would propose through the city council to appoint and deputize the citizens in Ward 7

18 may 29, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

Oslo, Norway, eliminated pedestrian and cyclist deaths in 2019 with the help of Vision Zero initiatives. Those include replacing onstreet parking with bike lanes, closing major streets to cars, congestion pricing fees in the city center, and lowering the speed limit.

Do you support any of these initiatives?

Describe your vision for eliminating pedestrian and cyclist deaths.

I would like to present that to the community.

But in my eyesight, that sounds like a good program, because we have to kind of reduce the number of accidents, fatalities with bicyclists and pedestrians. So closing streets and so forth, designated for pedestrians and bicyclists, I think that’s a great idea. I would support it, but I would like to bring it to the community for their input and their recommendation.

HOUSING

Do you support eliminating single-family zoning, as other cities have done in order to increase housing density?

I do not support that. There’s too many of those [apartments] coming up around the city now. I feel that takes away from the neighborhood as far as gentrification is concerned, moving those persons from neighborhoods [with] these new sites going up. And people have to relocate, they can’t relocate to other wards because of the sensitivity of members going to other wards, just like the Section 8 program.

Oftentimes, they can’t use those vouchers throughout the city because certain wards’ landlord practices are discriminating. Just the stigma of coming from certain areas, there’s some discrimination.

The Council is considering a bill to extend the District’s rent control law to 2030. There is a push to also expand the law to include more units. Do you support the bill? Do you support the expansion? Explain. How would you craft an ideal rent control scheme?

I support any laws that cap off rent because right now it’s out of control. You know, landlords have the upper hand on what they charge.

For some of the units, there should be a status quo of what units should cost in the city of Washington, not designated by the landlords.

If the government really wants to contribute to something, they should set what the guidelines are, what the rents should be for people in one bedroom, two bedrooms, and so forth.

What’s your new quarantine hobby?

Or what are you binge watching during quarantine?

I’m getting some rest. The corona has done some stuff, changed the way I’ve done stuff and drastically impacted my campaign, and I’m feeding people more than I usually do, but that’s nothing new to me.

EDUCATION

What will you do to combat education inequality across the District, particularly given the setbacks students experienced this year?

One of my suggestions is to figure out how to do a rotating opening of the library ASAP to help families that have internet and computer access challenges. We have a lot of students who are not getting their material and who aren’t able to do the online stuff, so we have to combat that in another way.

There’s also a behavioral problem. For no fault of their own, children are coming to school with trauma. Some of that stuff needs to be taken care of in the home. Too often these great instructors that we have spend hours out of the day separating those children. That affects all students. Nobody can learn in the classroom if the instructor is tied up separating children.

We have so much trauma inflicted upon the lives of our children. We need to be addressing that in a more direct and intentional manner.

I’m not sure how many social service workers they have per school, but I can tell you it’s not enough.

Should the mayor maintain control of DCPS? Unequivocally, no.

CRIME

Mayor Muriel Bowser supported federal prosecutors’ shift to charging some gun crimes in federal court, rather than in D.C. Superior Court, as a tactic to combat gun violence. Attorney General Karl Racine recently argued the practice perpetuates racial disparities and suggested there is no evidence that it reduces crime. Do you support the practice? Explain your answer.

I don’t necessarily support or not support the effort. The bottom line is D.C. needs to govern its own citizens. We gotta get the federal government out of our business. I know that’s not a direct answer, but the bigger problem is, we’ve already tried to have tougher laws, so in that sense I would be opposed to it.

Explain how you would address gun violence.

We not only have to go after the individuals who have guns in their hands, but we have to tighten up our laws around gun auctions and other venues where people get guns.

Some believe greater police presence will lead to less crime. Others fear more officers will lead to more harassment of black and brown people. Should D.C. increase or decrease the size of its police force? Explain your answer.

When you see an increase in militarization of communities, you create a heightened sense of the populus. We need to be treating some of the trauma in this community, and then we won’t have a need for so much police presence.

I think that what we have is adequate. We don’t need to increase it. I don’t believe we need to decrease it. We need to shift our focus away from policing and more toward treatment.

understand the idea of providing more housing, increasing density, but I really want to have that conversation with the Council to talk about protection of people who have invested all of their lives in the house they now have, and I want to do that while protecting the rights of those people who own their homes. [I’d like] some kind of a grandfather clause that it couldn’t touch certain areas until the ownership was transferred.

The Council is considering a bill to extend the District’s rent control law to 2030. There is a push to also expand the law to include more units. Do you support the bill? Do you support the expansion? Explain. How would you craft an ideal rent control scheme?

Categorically, yes. I would even look at some of the loopholes. I would also support removing the 2 percent increase over the inflation rate, and I would support bringing those new properties in after a period of time.

And we could create a period of time where they have a level of exemption from the rent control law, but then we also have a definitive period in time when they come under rent control.

Yaida Ford Age: 39 Neighborhood of residence: Anacostia Hometown: Vancouver, Wash.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

Oslo, Norway, eliminated pedestrian and cyclist deaths in 2019 with the help of Vision Zero initiatives. Those include replacing onstreet parking with bike lanes, closing major streets to cars, congestion pricing fees in the city center, and lowering the speed limit.

Do you support any of these initiatives?

Describe your vision for eliminating pedestrian and cyclist deaths.

I do support some of the Vision Zero initiatives. There are clearly areas that I feel we need to do [away] with on-street parking. Another thing is relocation of the bus stops and creation of bike lanes. I believe with that we have to do some extensive studying before we just continue to put them in.

I’m for the idea of encouraging other modes of transportation that help us fight our gas and carbon output, but we also have to be more strategically thinking. We have to be mindful of where we’re installing [Capital Bikeshare] racks.

Eventually, we’ll get to the point in Ward 8 where we’ll get more of that. But I support it in general, but we have to look at some of the applications for its introduction and maintenance, and then we have to also make sure we’re doing good, solid, promotion of the idea, so people are aware.

Oftentimes people in the community are not part of the process, so they don’t know it’s even being discussed, and that creates animosity.

What’s your new quarantine hobby?

Or what are you binge watching during quarantine?

I’m a trial lawyer, so our job doesn’t stop. We’re not doing trials, but motions are still flying. I do civil rights work, so I’m in police brutality cases. I’m in discrimination cases, and we have deadlines. I’m still working in between our campaigning … I haven’t turned my TV on since April. I just called the cable company, and I was like, “Just cut it.”

HOUSING

EDUCATION

Do you support eliminating single-family zoning, as other cities have done in order to increase housing density?

That is a question that bothers me. I

What will you do to combat education inequality across the District, particularly given the setbacks students experienced this year?

I think a holistic approach is needed. We know that funding is not equitably allocated, but there’s reasons for that—the higher per pupil funding.

We know that per pupil funding isn’t as high as it should be, according to the 2013 adequacy study. So I think advocating for us to get there.

We have to have an approach that addresses trauma inside of the school, and the trauma that our kids take into school with them from home.

Without that, we’re still going to see gaps. Our kids are just as bright. They’re just as scholarly.

They’re just as innovative. They’re just as curious. But they are not given the opportunity to succeed. We need to incorporate [a trauma informed approach to learning] into our curriculum, into our educational environment, and it needs to be culturally competent.

Should the mayor maintain control of DCPS? We’ve had five different chancellors in what, five years? I don’t agree with that approach.

CRIME

Mayor Muriel Bowser supported federal prosecutors’ shift to charging some gun crimes in federal court, rather than in D.C. Superior Court, as a tactic to combat gun violence. Attorney General Karl Racine recently argued the practice perpetuates racial disparities and suggested there is no evidence that it reduces crime. Do you support the practice? Explain your answer.

I think if the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the ones who prosecute these cases don’t come from the communities that they’re serving, if they’ve never visited the D.C. Jail, they don’t know the conditions that inmates are living in, it just creates an environment where you have the prosecutorial authority that’s disconnected from the community, and that’s why I think the attorney general has a point.

I used to work for D.C. Superior Court as a law clerk. I worked on the criminal docket for Judge Harold Cushenberry Jr., who is now retired, and we saw that the U.S. Attorney’s Office was prosecuting serious felonies, and there was no connection. The judge was concerned that the prosecutors were just being too harsh, particularly with those who were 16 years of age and charging them as adults. There was no sense that these kids can be rehabilitated.

Karl’s got a restorative justice bent. He’s one of the most progressive attorney generals in the U.S., if not the most progressive, and we are seeing some results from that. I would like to see the District of Columbia assume local control over prosecutions.

Explain how you would address gun violence.

I would take a holistic approach. Local control over prosecution, and I would like to take a look at Chicago’s model. In Cook County, they are using cognitive behavioral therapy inside of the jail with inmates who have been brought in or convicted with gun charges or convicted of violent crime. That looks at the impulsive reaction that men and women use when they’re engaged in violence, and it teaches them how to use a rationalized thinking process.

Some believe greater police presence will lead to less crime. Others fear more officers will lead to more harassment of black and brown people. Should D.C. increase or decrease the size of its police force? Explain your answer.

I think that’s the wrong question. I don’t think it’s a matter of decreasing or increasing. I think, unless you have a collaborative approach and a community based model, you can increase the number, decrease the number, and it’s not going to change crime, and it’s not going to change the interactions that we have with police.

I think that the community based model basically integrates the police into the community and introduces them to us in a way that’s non-threatening, and it lets them know that we want them here.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION

Oslo, Norway, eliminated pedestrian and cyclist deaths in 2019 with the help of Vision Zero initiatives. Those include replacing onstreet parking with bike lanes, closing major streets to cars, congestion pricing fees in the city center, and lowering the speed limit.

Do you support any of these initiatives?

Describe your vision for eliminating pedestrian and cyclist deaths.

In Ward 7 and Ward 8, we have a horrific number of pedestrian vehicle-related incidents that don’t always lead to deaths, but we have a high number of collisions. I’m definitely in favor of lowering the speed limit … As it relates to putting bike lanes and replacing parking with that, I wouldn’t do that, but I would like to survey where that needs to be done. I wouldn’t just lap up bike lanes because it’s the trendy thing to do.

HOUSING

Do you support eliminating single-family zoning, as other cities have done in order to increase housing density?

I wouldn’t. I don’t think we can eliminate that in D.C. altogether. I think we need to make informed decisions. And so I don’t necessarily agree with wholeheartedly just eliminating single-family zoning altogether. I think we look at what we need to do and creative ways to create and expand multi-family housing.

The Council is considering a bill to extend the District’s rent control law to 2030. There is a push to also expand the law to include more units. Do you support the bill? Do you support the expansion? Explain.

The reauthorization? I think we definitely need to extend it. But I would like to see some movement on making voluntary agreements illegal. I think that’s a loophole in that law that allows landlords basically to get away from rent control. That loophole needs to be closed.

Do you support the push to expand the law to include more units?

You mean to change the applicability of the rent control? It’s time to change it and make it so that newer housing is included under rent control. I absolutely agree with that, 100 percent.

How would you craft an ideal rent control scheme?

That’s hard to answer briefly. I would look at voluntary agreements. I will look at making it so that more students were included under the rent control regime. I would look again at inclusionary zoning. I would just look at capping rent increases at the rate of inflation. I would look at hardship petitions and eligibility, because certainly all landlords are not huge and institutional … I wouldn’t agree to get rid of hardship petitions, but I would establish some type of means test perhaps, for landlords who are applying for that.

washingtoncitypaper.com may 29, 2020 19

Illustration by Maddie Goldstein

FOOD YOUNG & HUNGRY

Payment Plans Is the demand for contactless payments during COVID-19 accelerating the hospitality industry’s march toward a cashless future?

By Laura Hayes @LauraHayesDC BBQ Bus Smokehouse co-owner Che Ruddell-Tabisola remembers Tuesday, March 17, well. On that day, the Brightwood restaurant welcomed carryout customers for the first time since Mayor Muriel Bowser suspended dine-in service at all D.C. establishments the day before. A woman paid for an $8.75 meal with two five-dollar bills she removed from her bra. “We did the transaction, then I started Googling if you could catch coronavirus from cash,” RuddellTabisola recalls.

Much about the transmission of COVID19 is unknown, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published guidelines, last updated May 27, advising restaurants to use contactless methods of payment when possible.

The CDC also explains that, while it’s possible to get COVID-19 by touching your face after coming in contact with a surface or object with the virus on it, especially if you don’t wash your hands, the main form of transmission is still through respiratory droplets.

Ruddell-Tabisola is making the call neighborhood by neighborhood. While the new BBQ Bus location in Brookland doesn’t even

have a cash register, continuing to accept cash in Brightwood was obvious. “The majority of our transactions are cash,” Ruddell-Tabisola says. “We have a lot of grandparents in Ward 4.”

His company could save $2,100 a year by eliminating cash, mostly from shaving off payroll expenses. Employees wouldn’t need to stay late counting money. But a couple thousand dollars isn’t incentive enough to alienate the restaurant’s cash-carrying customers, according to Ruddell-Tabisola. “Absolutely, we’re going to continue to take cash,” he says.

Not all restaurant and bar operators are as keen on exchanging cash during a pandemic.

They say their employees have health concerns and want to limit direct interactions with customers. As a result, restaurants and bars are temporarily or permanently turning to contactless forms of payment, accelerating the march toward a cashless future that doesn’t include everyone.

One in five adult D.C. residents are credit invisible—a term used to describe 45 million American consumers with no credit score or way of paying with a credit card, according to Capital Area Asset Builders Executive Director Joseph Leitmann-Santa Cruz. His organization helps local low- and moderate-income residents build wealth and financial independence.

Even debit cards aren’t a given. According to

20 may 29, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

a 2017 Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation survey, 8 percent of District residents don’t have checking or savings accounts. Another 21 percent may have accounts, but are considered underbanked because they rely on money orders, check-cashing agencies, and payday loans.

Leitmann-Santa Cruz doesn’t think cashless businesses are trying to be exclusionary, nor does he discount the arguments for going cashless that predated COVID-19, such as increased efficiency and employee safety. “But it could still be seen as economic segregation,” he says, adding that it’s typically low-income families, people of color, and undocumented immigrants who don’t have access to mainstream financial services.

“Some restaurants will say, ‘That’s not our clientele,’” Leitmann-Santa Cruz says. “But that’s not the corporate citizenship mentality or role they want to be displaying. There’s no onesize-fits-all in a pandemic, but we cannot and should not allow those who have traditionally been underserved and marginalized to become further underserved and marginalized.”

Leitmann-Santa Cruz testified at a February hearing on the D.C. Council’s Cashless Retailers Prohibition Act of 2019. If enacted, it will compel all retail businesses to accept cash.

There have been similar movements in neighboring cities—Philadelphia became the first city

to ban cashless stores last year. Some companies reversed their cashless policies as a result.

Homegrown fast-casual salad chain sweetgreen started accepting cash again in 2019, after being one of the first D.C. businesses to go fully cashless in 2017.

At-Large Councilmember David Grosso introduced the bill with several colleagues. He says he didn’t hear enough opposition at the hearing to make him pull back, even now. The Committee of the Whole was set to mark up the bill before councilmembers shifted their focus to COVID-19 emergency legislation in March.

“This pandemic has hit the most vulnerable among us the hardest,” Grosso says. “We should be working toward building a more equitable city as we reopen after this emergency, not further excluding those who are unbanked or underbanked. Businesses should certainly be taking steps that protect the health and safety of their workers and patrons, but prohibiting cash payments isn’t the only way to do that.”

While awaiting potential regulatory changes, bar and restaurant owners are locked in an emotional game of tug-of-war over how they’ll ask customers to settle their bills—with one side wanting to keep employees and customers safe and the other side looking to be as inclusive as possible.

Lulu’s Winegarden owner Paul Carlson says although he’s always sought to accept all forms of payment, that aim is on hold during the pandemic. According to his tabulations, 99 percent of his customers pay with credit cards.

Once his U Street NW restaurant reopens, customers will view the menu, order, and pay using GoTab, a Ballston-based startup.

Customers scan a QR code posted throughout the establishment that will prompt an ordering system to launch in a web browser. “Anyone with a device with internet access can open it without downloading an app,” Carlson says.

Payment is processed using whatever method is stored on the device. “We have a young demographic, so it’s likely they have Apple Wallet.

You can order and pay in seconds,” he adds.

Red Bear Brewing Co. in NoMa started using a similar contactless method through Arryved, a point of sale system designed for breweries. It’s been useful for takeout and delivery orders, and co-owner Bryan Van Den Oever says they plan to continue using it as phased reopening begins and the brewpub can have walk-in customers.

“Everyone has a smartphone,” he says.

“We ask that they download the Arryved app, which they developed just for this situation.

They literally start a tab and pay right on their phone. We’ll confirm payment and pour them a beer.” Right now, Van Den Oever says they’re not accepting cash, and wonders if they’d be willing to before a vaccine becomes available. Customers will eventually be able to pay directly with credit cards again.

If Washingtonians want to dine or drink at Lulu’s or Red Bear in the early phases of reopening, it will help to have a smartphone and a data plan. According to the Pew Research Center, 81 percent of Americans had a smartphone in 2019. “All the cool dudes and dudettes creating

FOOD DIVERSIONS CROSSWORD apps in Silicon Valley, they’re focused on peers similar to them who have access to credit cards, and bank accounts, and smartphones,�

Leitmann-Santa Cruz says.

Going cashless is painful for Pow Pow, a plant-based fast-casual restaurant on H Street NE, where about five customers pay in cash per week. “In our neighborhood, it matters,� says chef and co-owner Margaux Riccio. “We reluctantly went cashless three weeks into the stay-at-home order, after reading about how cash was causing the spread among workers.

We feel going cashless is a mistake and wildly inappropriate for our community that we strive to serve, however, the safety of our staff outweighed our personal beliefs.�

Currently, Pow Pow takes payment online and through its free app. Eventually, customers who enter the store will be able to insert their chipped credit cards into a reader or use Apple Pay. Even though they currently have a cashless policy, Riccio and her staff can’t help but make exceptions. Once, a quick-thinking employee asked a customer to seal their cash in an envelope, where it sat for a couple of days.

Other times, they’ve given food away. “That’s not sustainable,� Riccio says. “But we will be cashless until we hear it’s safe not to be.�

CAVA CEO Brett Schulman confirms the Mediterranean fast-casual chain went cashless, despite bucking the trend back in 2017. “We pride ourselves on being an inclusive company,�

Schulman told City Paper at the time. “If you’re trying to make high-quality, healthier food accessible to more people, you can’t exclude the people who have the least access to it.�

The pandemic has tempered Schulman’s conviction. “Looking at CDC guidance, we temporarily suspended using cash,� he says.

The majority of orders come in through digital channels like the CAVA app. In store, the pin pad and receipt printer are on the same side as the customer. “We’re going to continue to revisit and look to evolve as the situation evolves, but currently the restaurants are cashless.�

Two restaurant owners plan to arm servers with handheld mobile payment devices that interface with Toast, a POS system that’s growing in popularity. Daniel Kramer, managing partner at Duke’s Grocery, Duke’s Counter, and Gogi Yogi, started using them before the pandemic because they speed up service. Instead of a server making laps between the table and the POS terminal, they can swing by just once. “Give me your card, click the tip, bye,� Kramer says. He vows to continue accepting cash. “Ever since I was running a lemonade stand, the idea of saying ‘no cash’ never made much sense [to me].�

Anna Bran-Leis is planning to use Toast handhelds at Taqueria del Barrio in Petworth once she can serve patrons on site again, though she knows it will take some retraining of customers. Dining out isn’t the predictable dance it once was. Bran-Leis says she’s already getting blowback from individuals who don’t like scanning a QR code to view the restaurant’s menu on their phones.

Her restaurant is currently cashless. “The majority of our customers aren’t paying in

cash,� she says. “Based on that, the health of my staff was far more important than the possibility of missing out on some sales because I wasn’t going to take cash.�

Other restaurants will ask customers to pay in advance. Dave Roubie, the managing director at Tabard Inn, says the hotel’s restaurant will be reservation-only when they first reopen.

Customers will need to enter a credit card number when they book using OpenTable. “When the last touch happens with dessert or coffee, we’ll ask if they want dinner placed on the credit card on file,� Roubie says. If customers insist on a more traditional payment process, they can visit the “payment station� stocked with sanitized pens. The restaurant will accept cash or cards.

Mintwood Place in Adams Morgan will also use a prepaid system for reservations.

Customers will order and leave gratuity in advance. General manager Gene Alexeyev says he’s struggling with what gratuity amount to suggest, given service will be streamlined. “You won’t get the fully transportive experience,� he says. “We’re going to fast-forward through some things together.�

When they eventually take walk-ins, he predicts Mintwood Place will use handheld payment devices. Alexeyev says 99 percent of transactions—even at the bar—were credit cardbased before the pandemic. He sees going cashless as a natural shift. “The pluses outweigh the minuses.�

Even cash bars are going cashless. When Ivy and Coney opened in 2014, co-owner Chris Powers says he and his partners elected to be a cash bar to keep prices affordable. “We wanted to sell $3 beers and hotdogs,� he says. “Looking at credit card fees, when your ticket average is so low, it wouldn’t have allowed us to run the bar the way we wanted to run it.�

Credit card processing fees are typically between 1.5 percent and 3.5 percent per transaction, but some companies charge more for contactless processing, according to Brent Kroll, the owner of Maxwell Park wine bars in Shaw and Navy Yard. He’s been keying in credit card information manually so customers don’t have to swipe and sign. “You’re going to pay a higher fee per transaction because you’re trying to be safer and not get people sick,� Kroll says. “You could lose 10 percent of sales for being safe and keying in cards.

The rich are getting richer, and they’re not giving any breaks during coronavirus.�

Nevertheless, Ivy and Coney stopped taking cash when they reopened for carryout during the pandemic. “It’s notorious for being touched by too many hands and is an unnecessary risk,�

Powers says. “Customers will not feel comfortable handling cash anytime in the future. I know our bartenders won’t. They don’t want to take cash from 15 people an hour.�

The dive will strive to keep prices low. “Being a cash bar has been part of the identity of the bar, much to the chagrin of some customers,� Powers says. “We spent six years establishing ourselves as cash-only. It is going to be missed, but in the scheme of things, this is a low-lift, easy thing to do to make people more comfortable.�

Like A Boss

By Brendan Emmett Quigley

Across 1. Ultimate object?

5. ___voce 10. Key with one flat: Abbr.

14. “This is bad�

15. It’s read in a Nook 16. Island nicknamed “The Gathering Place�

17. Stir up 18. Dry Spanish wine 19. Condo, e.g.

20. Jobs of Apple 23. Bad guy 24. Words said flashing one’s badge 27. Penne or rigatoni 30. Islamic duty 33. Islamic holy men 34. Sports equipment with a V-shaped groove 35. Snap 37. Mattar paneer green 38. Musk of Tesla 41. Slow down, in mus.

42. Dues collectors 43. Town in Utah 44. “Can It Be ___ Simple� (Wu-Tang Clan) 46. Saucer crew 47. Zoom meeting operators 48. Vinyl siding?

50. Player who popularized dunking from the foul line

51. Page of Google 58. Some lawyers: Abbr.

60. Constellation with a belt 61. Waterloo’s home 62. Swell problem?

63. Backsides 64. Plumbing problem 65. Spread choice 66. Traitor’s fate, often 67. “What ___ can we do?�

Down 1. Her archenemy is Swiper 2. Chain that serves pancake sliders 3. Cutting sound 4. Nerves 5. Start the rally, maybe 6. Award that sound like two letters 7. Workbench gizmo 8. WWII villain 9. Giraffe’s cousin 10. Wee-hour time 11. They might tidy up some chest hair 12. Sashimi fish 13. Stick (out) 21. Goddess of the dawn 22. Gives off 25. Breakfast made in a pan

26. Whence the phrase “at wit’s end�

27. Some aquarium fish 28. On an incline 29. Evoking John and Paul, say 30. One of the Backstreet Boys 31. Fancy tie 32. Casual Friday outfit 35. Quarterback Dawson 36. Returns collectors 39. Its new, in Napoli 40. Milk, jokingly 45. Attends, as a problem 47. Time sheet nos.

49. Wear down

50. Thick 52. Basic idea 53. Place for old platters 54. Chatroom guffaw 55. Take it easy 56. Pairs 57. Stuffing seasoning 58. It might be massaged when bruised 59. Fifth note

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washingtoncitypaper.com may 29, 2020 21

ARTS

Worked Up

Photo by Deanna Echanique

For these local artists, essential work was the foundation of a creative life. Now what?

Deanna and Roberto Echanique

By Michelle Delgado Contributing Writer When Roberto Echanique started having panic attacks in between appointments, he knew something had to give. As an HVAC technician with chronic asthma, he often works in challenging conditions involving dust and extreme temperatures. But as the coronavirus pandemic ravaged the D.C. area—posing a particular threat to those with respiratory conditions like his—the risks began to feel overwhelming. “At that point, I was really freaked out,” he says.

Bot h he a nd h is pa r t ner, Deanna Echanique, are essential workers living in Hyattsville, whose fields haven’t slowed down during the pandemic. And, like approximately 333,000 other American workers according to a 2019 report from the National Endowment for the Arts, Roberto and Deanna are both visual artists who rely on income from their full-time

jobs. For many artists, essential work can offer financial stability that remains stubbornly elusive in creative fields. Yet the pandemic has cast these professions in a new light, as essential workers are forced to weigh potential health risks against the necessity of a steady paycheck and health insurance.

While most headlines focus on front-line health care, grocery, and delivery workers, the classification encompasses a wide range of professions. In April, the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency published a list of jobs necessary for maintaining the nation’s infrastructure. HVAC technicians like Roberto, whose work keeps residential and commercial buildings safe and habitable, are listed in six of the 21 possible subcategories.

The pressure to continue working through the pandemic is particularly intense in the D.C. area, where essential workers make up nearly 75 percent of the workforce, according to a report

22 may 29, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

from the United Way of the National Capital Area based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics—the highest in the nation, due to the area’s concentration of federal workers.

As the sole office administrator at an architectural engineering firm, Deanna is a federaladjacent worker who has continued going into the office. “The government still wants their deadlines met,” Deanna says.

For Roberto and Deanna, commitment to their essential jobs runs deeper than the need for stability during a financial recession. Despite pandemic-related uncertainty, essential work promises financial freedom and security that is often unattainable through careers in the arts. A 2017 survey conducted

by Artfinder and a-n, an artists information company, found that three-quarters of American artists earn $10,000 or less from their art per year—far below D.C.’s $82,000 median income and the $132,000 in annual income renters need to comfortably rent

a two-bedroom apartment, according to a 2019 analysis by financial advice company SmartAsset.

How do artists make a living, if these numbers don’t add up? In 2019, Karol Jan Borowiecki, an economics professor at the University of Southern Denmark, published a study examining 160 years of U.S. census data that revealed that access to generational wealth was the biggest factor in determining whether or not someone would work in the arts.

Some artists presumably have partners whose income supplements their own. And of course, many artists work full- or part-time jobs to make ends meet.

Before turning to HVAC, Roberto spent 20 years working in theater production across the D.C. area. Theater production was creatively and intellectually fulfilling, requiring craftsmanship that spanned painting, carpentry, metal work, and electrical work. Some productions, such as Imagination Stage’s rendition of The Magic Paintbrush, required complex problem solving; along with executing a multimedia production about a young boy whose paintings became reality, Roberto’s work supported the safety and comfort of the production’s deaf and hard-of-hearing cast and crew. “It was a phenomenal experience and an absolutely beautiful show,” Roberto says.

But the creatively-fulfilling work came with little financial reward. Roberto’s top-paying job in theater production—a stint as a technical director—paid just $40,000. “There were points when, even though I was working more or less full time in theaters, food and housing were not secure,” Roberto says. “I’ve been homeless a little bit. I’ve had to miss a meal.”

In 2019, after just a few years into his second career as an HVAC technician, he earned around $58,000—enough to support his painting and photography. “I’m not starving to make my art anymore,” Roberto says.

Deanna has also experienced chronic underpayment in her chosen artistic field. Her lifelong love of comics began when she discovered Sailor Moon at 11 years old. In 2000, she began posting web comics online, then submitting her work to publishers. As her artistic interests shifted from romance to erotica, her work found traction; between 2012 and 2015, she drew comics that were featured in five anthologies, including My Monster Boyfriend and Food Porn. In 2012, while working her current fulltime job, Deanna spent every available moment racing to meet a book deadline. “I would go to work, come home, eat dinner, work for three, four hours, go to sleep,” she says. “On the weekends, I’d work from like 9 or 10 in the morning until 9 at night.”

By 2014, this constant deadline-driven work resulted in cubital tunnel syndrome, a debilitating condition that required surgery. “It was causing my entire arm to go numb from the elbow down,” Deanna says. “When I would try to pick up a cup of water, it would hurt.” Though she felt the injury brewing, she ignored it, determined to meet her deadlines. “Art school really instilled a lot of terrible, terrible working habits that came back to haunt me as an adult,” she says.

ARTS ARTS FILM REVIEW After recovering from her injury, Deanna continued to work on anthologies. But the experience left a bitter aftertaste that prompted her to calculate her hourly and page rates. The calculations were eye-opening. “$12, $11 an hour is what I ended up getting paid for what is highly skilled, creative labor,” Deanna says. In the spring of 2016, she publicly disclosed the low wages on Twitter. “I had a really severe backlash to that,” she says. “I kind of dropped out of the comics industry. I basically just draw for me now, and I work my day job.”

Though Deanna’s day job continues to provide steady support, the pandemic has brought surreal changes. At first, Deanna commuted through empty streets and had an entire floor of the building to herself—ample room for social distancing. As the pandemic became a new normal, however, her colleagues returned, often wearing branded bandanas her company purchased to supplement widespread shortages of personal protective equipment.

The experience has been unsettling, particularly since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 20 to 50 percent of COVID-19 cases may be asymptomatic.

Employees coping with heightened risks, such as health conditions or elder care responsibilities, have yet to return. “It’s kind of like when you’re in a dream and everything seems normal,” Deanna says, “and then something really weird happens out of the corner of your eye.”

In Roberto’s line of work, PPE is more complicated. Instead of working in a consistent location, he visits multiple households across the D.C. region each day, often working in tight spaces. HVAC technicians also rely on public restrooms, and already struggled with access before the pandemic: Many are forced to keep empty soda bottles in their cars, or seek out wooded areas in between house calls.

With restaurants and businesses closed to the public, it’s unclear how they are expected to find workarounds.

For many artists, essential work can offer financial stability that remains stubbornly elusive in creative fields.

Still, both Roberto and Deanna say they’ve felt supported by their employers throughout the pandemic. When Roberto first approached his employer, he asked to take three consecutive weeks off—all of his paid time off. Instead, his employer returned with a better offer: Why not take a voluntary furlough? The option allowed

Roberto to retain his current health insurance, reserve his paid time off for the future, and claim unemployment. Five other employees had already chosen this path. “I had no idea— we work by ourselves, and there’s not a whole lot of communication between us,” he says. “When I heard that, it was a pretty big relief.”

Deanna describes her workplace as a family.

“I’ve been there for a long time, and already, there was an environment where we care for each other,” she says.

Essential work has also given Roberto and Deanna the financial support to invest in their art. In 2012, they purchased a home in Hyattsville, within walking distance of the New Carrollton Metro Station. Today, Roberto uses the detached garage as a studio where he paints, mainly a series called “Buena Vida” that focuses on skulls and flowers. “Having an HVAC job helped with that; that security was part of it,” he says. As he builds a portfolio of work, Roberto aims to use his wages to finance the costs associated with gallery submissions.

For Deanna, comics no longer feel like a viable profession. “Comics doesn’t pay you enough to live on it, unless you’re one of the lucky few who get a big book deal,” she says. “Even in those cases, they don’t give you enough of an advance to live off of. You need somebody to support you or another means of income.”

(Data from PayScale, which places comics artists’ median income at around $39,000, backs up her assessment.)

Regardless, Deanna continues to make comics, particularly ones tailored to the fandom surrounding One-Punch Man, a popular web comic with anime and manga adaptations. In 2019, Deanna collaborated on a book with artists from South Korea, Indonesia, Sweden, and Germany, then traveled to Japan to sell it at a convention. “I’m proud of the things I did when I was working in indie comics,” she says, “but right now, I’m just living my truth in One-Punch Man land.”

Though essential work presents health risks and inspires fear during the pandemic, Roberto and Deanna are staying focused on the bigger picture. Until theater production, comics, and other artistic fields can offer workers fair wages, benefits, and basic support, it seems like the best option they have.

On May 15, Governor Larry Hogan lifted Maryland’s stay-at-home order. With that, Roberto’s furlough came to an end. Now, he’s back at work, wearing a surgical mask at all times. Though customers seem more relaxed, he says masked interactions can feel awkward: “It’s like, here’s this new social, cultural norm we’re all supposed to suddenly adopt.”

During Roberto’s furlough, his company had time to adapt. “I work for an HVAC company— not a medical safety equipment procurement company,” he says. “They’ve been trying their best all along.” When he needs to retrieve parts or equipment, colleagues arrange curbside pickup. And latex gloves—once scarce—seem more plentiful. Still, the transition isn’t without discomfort. “This first week, I just kind of knew that it was gonna kick my ass,” he says, “and it did.”

High Frequency The Vast of Night

Directed by Andrew Patterson The Vast of Night requires some degree of trust. Its plot unfolds in an oblique way, to the point where you may not know what is happening until the film’s final minutes. The characters have a peculiar way of speaking—clipped, impatient, mannered—and they never quite say what they feel. What is ultimately rewarding about this film, one of the year’s best, is that the filmmaker puts even more trust in us. Director Andrew Patterson knows he has dynamite on his hands, and reveals the film’s pleasures with the right cocktail of urgency and patience.

This review avoids plot details, and that is in the spirit of the film, as its writers James Montague and Craig W. Sanger use sleight of hand throughout their crisp runtime. It takes place in the 1950s, in a small New Mexico town.

How small? When everyone goes to the high school basketball game, the biggest event of the week, all the houses and stores look abandoned.

Our entry point is Everett (Jake Horowitz), the town’s DJ and motormouth who is somewhere between friendly and brusque. His friend is Fay (Sierra McCormick), a switchboard operator who hears a strange sound on Everett’s nightly broadcast. She calls him immediately, and together they attempt to investigate the sound’s strange source.

The fast-paced dialogue is a clever way to obscure that not a lot happens in this movie.

In fact, the obsession with analog technology suggests this film could unfold like a radio play, like what Orson Welles did with War of the Worlds. There are long stretches

that unfold in darkness, with wan pools of light, so Patterson really wants us to listen.

The dialogue demands active engagement with what these characters say. Everett constantly conceals what he is thinking, even as he talks a mile a minute. There is a growing sense of acknowledged paranoia—Everett casually mentions that the sound is from a Soviet invasion—except its true source is far more wondrous.

On top of the unique dialogue, The Vast of Night looks terrific. It is immersive in a way that few films achieve, with Patterson and cinematographer M.I. Littin-Menz’s evocative use of light and shadow. There are also some mindboggling camera movements, including a long take where the camera hurtles from one part of town to another, pausing to regard the basketball game in progress before continuing its speedy pursuit.

Aside from the urgency this shot creates, it also shows that you’re watching the work of natural filmmakers. Comparisons to early Spielberg are easy, particularly because the filmmakers are obsessed with a specific slice of mid-century Americana, although they do not do this stunningly original film justice.

So much of The Vast of Night is about storytelling, and about listening. Fay opens the film as an amateur with her new tape recorder, and Everett demonstrates how to use the device by interviewing whoever happens to pass by. He believes that people are inherently captivating, even if they do not believe it themselves, and there is a repeated line where he says what happens “is good radio.” Later, as he and Fay investigate the sound, there are patient monologues from people who are unafraid to explore its strange implications. The Vast of Night is a nostalgic film that explicitly celebrates the past, but also has the wherewithal to critique it. It’s that good.

—Alan Zilberman The Vast of Night is available to stream starting May 29 on Amazon Prime.

washingtoncitypaper.com may 29, 2020 23

ARTS

Access Granted Howard University’s virtual exhibition widens the reach of its art.

On May 9, Howard University’s 50th annual art faculty exhibition opened—but unlike in past years, this installation was unveiled online.

It runs to the end of July.

The curator of 50th Faculty Exhibition, Miriam Ahmed, a lecturer in graphic design at the university, explains that user experience was their primary consideration in creating the 3D virtual display with Kunstmatrix’s augmented reality tools.

The virtual format is creating more opportunities to engage with audiences: Faculty publications are highlighted in the virtual exhibition, which is not typically done in a physical gallery space. The department is hosting artists’ talks online every Wednesday at 11 a.m., from May 20 to July 22. During each talk, they’ll release a hint for a scavenger hunt, and announce a winner at the end of July. The first clue is bison, Howard University’s mascot. Attendees are challenged to click through the exhibition, look at each artwork, and count the bison. Details like arrows on the floor guide viewers through the space.

Alongside the faculty exhibition is the Annual Art Graduates Exhibition. The virtual installation of graduating students’ artwork was curated by Alexander T. McSwain, an assistant professor in the art department and coordinator of Howard’s electronic studio, which covers user interface design, augmented and virtual reality, 2D and 3D animation, special effects, product design, and motion graphics.

These exhibitions are making art and arts education more accessible.

“Our department has always had social impact in our mission, ever since we started in 1921,” Ahmed says. “And that was long before social impact were buzzwords.”

She relates the innovation of the digital displays to the art department’s long history of being on the cutting edge of African American art, with professors who were major players in the black arts movement, like Akili Ron Anderson and James Phillips.

McSwain and Ahmed spoke with City Paper about these projects came together and the lasting influence they think the virtual realm might have on the greater art community.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Courtesy of Miriam Ahmed

By Jennifer Anne Mitchell Contributing Writer

Howard University’s virtual 50th Faculty Exhibition Washington City Paper: How did you decide to make these exhibitions digital?

Alexander T. McSwain: Going digital was almost an instant thought … so it was really more so about us figuring out how.

WCP: How long did it take to design and complete both exhibitions?

Miriam Ahmed: We called for exhibitions about two weeks before, so [that] gave faculty and students about two weeks to submit their work. And then we did about a 24-hour sprint when we were just processing the submissions.

And then I think we put up the exhibitions in about three days. We wanted to launch on commencement, so that’s why we made sure to do everything in that timeframe.

WCP: Did the artists take the photographs of their work?

MA: They did actually—they did a pretty good job photographing their work, I think. It was a challenge, definitely, to try to get people to photograph with proper lighting and proper perspectives from home when they don’t have a studio setup, but everyone did a phenomenal job getting work that was high quality.

WCP: With students at home, how has digital learning been in general?

AM: It’s been a challenge, more so because students having to leave campus so abruptly, going home, they might not have a computer that works. You know, technical issues that come with them being at home, plus dealing with the actual virus itself. So it’s been

24 may 29, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

a challenge, but it’s been more of an overall positive experience for students. They’re still wanting to come to class. Still wanting to learn, even through this crisis.

MA: Our programs [the graphic design and electronic studio program] quite often have guests who come into the classroom digitally via digital conferencing. I think it’s safe to say that, between Alex and I, we had a pretty seamless transition in terms of the delivery of the coursework. But the main challenges were making sure that the students had the facilities that they needed where they went to, and then dealing with the emotional and psychological impact of this whole pandemic.

WCP: How did students push through these difficulties?

MA: I have one particular student, when he went home, he didn’t have access to a computer.

He just had his phone and his tablet. And all the libraries close by were shut down, so he didn’t have a space to go to where he could engage in the coursework. We were coding in HTML and CSS, which require a computer to do. So he wasn’t able to get access to that. So what he ended up doing was working on his tablet and hand coding. It’s impressive when someone says that they are able to hand code, but this guy was literally writing handwritten code on his tablet, which he got a lot of credit for in my class. That’s something that I wouldn’t expect.

WCP: How might this exhibition influence the greater art community?

AM: In terms of what the virtual gallery reality means in the wider scope: access and people

being able to experience [art]. So, say next year, when all of this is over, does that mean that the virtual gallery goes away? I don’t think [so]. I think [a virtual gallery] will enhance future gallery openings to where we’ll be doing simultaneous openings, so that people who may not travel or can’t travel or someone in a whole different country can still experience our students’ work, and still in a gallery setting, but virtually.

WCP: What new perspectives come out of this experience?

AM: I guess how important it is to be accessible—or for students to have access. Not necessarily wanting to switch fully online, but having a component. D.C. isn’t the cheapest place to live, so our education being more accessible to more people would only benefit the art world. You know, there’s a lot of artistic talent out there, but the financial or the fiscal responsibility might be preventing them from becoming an artist or really focusing on their art, so this kind of allows us to reach people where they are, versus them having to come to us to get an education.

I’m hoping that other galleries do follow suit.

Because it’d be a shame not to have a new opening during the summer because of COVID-19, versus other galleries being inspired to do a virtual gallery themselves.

MA: Traditionally, the arts don’t get as much attention. They’re not seen as valuable as the other fields, but hopefully through this exhibition we’ll show not just the art program, but Howard, we’re right there; we’re cutting edge. We’re critical to society and the community.

CITY LIGHTS City Lights

Kramerbooks’ Postmates delivery Kramerbooks & Afterwords has called its Dupont Circle location home since 1976, and has become a symbol of both the neighborhood and the power of independent booksellers. Happy couples credit Kramerbooks as the perfect spot for first dates, and its list of noteworthy clientele includes former President Barack Obama and Monica Lewinsky. And despite COVID-19, Kramerbooks is keeping its bookshop—and its legacy—alive. The bookstore-meets-café launched a book delivery service through Postmates, and bookish shoppers can choose a new release like Suzanne Collins’ The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Stephen King’s If It Bleeds, or Kawai Strong Washburn’s Sharks in the Time of Saviors. If finding a specific novel feels tricky, Kramerbooks also offers mystery bundles. Staff members handpick three books from specific genres, like sci-fi, horror, or Japanese literature, and then bundle them up for $45. Feeling hungry? Add a sandwich, salad, or pastry from Fedwich, Kramerbooks’ pop-up collaboration with Federalist Pig. Oh, and as rumors circulate that Kramerbooks & Afterwords could be headed for a different neighborhood (owner Steve Salis swears the shop isn’t going out of business), there’s some comfort in seeing Kramer’s pivot to the digital world. Grab your phone, grab a book off your reading list, and cozy up for the long days ahead. Kramerbooks & Afterwords is open for Postmates orders from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Cutoff for orders is 7:30 p.m. Prices vary. —Sarah Smith

century suggests a somewhat hardscrabble outpost, in contrast to images of Zanzibar made a decade earlier that depict a bustling trade hub with sturdy monuments to commerce. An atlas from 1848 offers some remarkable lithographic portraits of individuals and families drawn from daguerreotypes; the book’s highly detailed landscapes are at times surprisingly abstract. In the exhibit, the distance between colonizer and colonized is never far from the surface, but nowhere is it more noticeable than in a collection of identification photographs from the Seychelles islands. The images are of Africans who were rescued by the British Navy from slave ships in the 1860s and 1870s.

Despite their supposed “liberation,” they were taken to a depot, photographed, renamed, and forced into indentured servitude for five years.

The effect of their fate can be plainly seen in their faces, which are printed in no-nonsense fashion, replete with muddy blemishes and an overlay of bureaucratic jottings. The exhibition is available at indian-ocean.africa.si.edu, along with a selection of music and poetry from the region. Free.

—Louis Jacobson

City Lights

Smart Mobility

City Lights

Sailors and Daughters: Early Photography and the Indian Ocean The exhibit Sailors and Daughters: Early Photography and the Indian Ocean focuses on the people and ports of the Indian Ocean, offering a whirlwind tour across continents, decades, and photographic technologies. The exhibit, mounted by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African Art, stretches from photography’s birth in the mid-19th century into the early 20th century and spans genres, such as portraits, landscapes, and nautical images. A peek into Oman just after the turn of the 20th

What might transportation look like in the very near future, when we have places to go and people to see? Sweden has a few ingenious and even entertaining ideas, and virtually welcomes you to take a look. On March 4, the House of Sweden unveiled Smart Mobility in its gorgeous exhibition space overlooking the Potomac River in Georgetown, as well as two fashion and design exhibitions on the lower-level galleries. While you can’t enjoy river vistas during the pandemic, you can check out their online overview of cool Nordic transit innovations, from driverless Volvos to hybrid electric bikes. But not everything in the exhibit has wheels. Sweden has long been a leader in child safety, so the exhibition also includes car seats that could get infants back in the front of a car, as well as the latest hipster baby carriers. The especially

The section that (temporarily) shows you how to enjoy staying home.

promising Hövding 3 is not an Ikea bookshelf, but a bike helmet that inflates like an airbag and protects necks during collisions. Not every Scandinavian scientific advance successfully becomes the next big thing, however, which is why Smart Mobility also includes examples from the Museum of Failure, curated by Sweden-based psychologist Samuel West. So get excited about that bike helmet, and get a good laugh out of the Bilar race car-shaped candies that were supposed to be marshmallows, but turned out more like Swedish fish. The exhibition is available at houseofswedenexhibitions.com. Free.

—Rebecca J. Ritzel

City Lights

Soul of a Banquet Cecilia Chiang has a fickle relationship with fate. In director Wayne Wang’s documentary Soul of a Banquet, the near-centenarian founder of the legendary Mandarin Restaurant in San Francisco speaks of “destiny” when recounting her rise to culinary greatness. Her biography, as well as the somewhat accidental circumstances surrounding her entry into the restaurant business, argue otherwise. Born the seventh daughter in a wealthy family, Chiang details a Chinese girlhood suspended between tradition and modernity, as well as her experiences during the Japanese occupation of China and the effect of the Cultural Revolution on her family. Fellow chefs Alice Waters and Ruth Reichl provide more context for Chiang’s place in the food world, describing her as a kind of taste memoirist—a chef known for not only introducing California to authentic dishes of Northern China, but also her aura of hospitality and commitment to a gastronomical “education.”

The film finishes with an intimate behind-thescenes look at Chiang’s preparations for a dinner to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Waters’ restaurant, Chez Panisse. Stainless steel slices through tender meat like butter; pinches of spices fly into mixing bowls; someone ushers a gleaming pork belly to a plate. It’s a montage of the senses, and Chiang is at its head. Soul of a Banquet is available to stream through May 31 at asia.si.edu. Free.

—Amy Guay

City Lights

A scrapbook of early aeronautica As the world reconsiders the future of air travel, consider taking a look at the distant past to dream of more personalized transportation.

The Smithsonian Libraries currently hosts an

array of old books, but one that catches the eye is a scrapbook of early aeronautica, compiled in the mid-19th century by William Upcott. Filled with clippings and drawings of the early days of hot air ballooning organized in chronological order, the book is both a trippy look into the past and a historical document. The famous Montgolfier brothers make an appearance, as well as many early balloonists from across Europe. Clippings of antiquated balloon races and other forms of aeronautical entertainment can be found throughout the three volumes.

There are also accounts from the first parachutists, aeronautical poetry, and firsthand letters describing aeronautic ascents. If that doesn’t strike your fancy, there are many speculative drawings and interpretations of balloon flight.

The scrapbook offers a unique perspective on a world that was rapidly industrializing and coming to terms with a new reality. The scrapbook’s three volumes are available at library.si.edu. Free.

—Tristan Jung

City Lights

Making a Door Less Open Car Seat Headrest’s Making a Door Less Open may just be the perfect album, from the perfect band, for the present moment. Frontman Will Toledo grew up in the deep suburbs, recording his first music as a high school student in Leesburg, Virginia. Searching for privacy as a teen, he drove his parents’ car around suburbia, recording in various parking lots. That strategy feels especially relevant now, as young adults worried about spending months alone in city apartments packed up and headed back to childhood homes. With all of the disruptions to normal life came a lot of change, and, for many, a lot of angst. Car Seat Headrest’s newest release comes after a four-year hiatus from new music, and it too marks a period of change.

Making a Door Less Open has received some criticism; Toledo and fellow band members Ethan Ives, Seth Dalby, and Andrew Katz shifted to incorporate hip-hop, EDM, and pop into their standard indie rock. Oh, and Toledo, at least for now, is moving away from “being” Toledo. He began promoting the album as “Trait,” wearing a gas mask with LED eyes. In fact, all of Making a Door Less Open is a collaboration with Toledo and Katz’s 1 Trait Danger, an EDM-focused side project. The sound is a little different, but the angst is still there. The album’s high and low points speak to this moment’s collective feeling: Exhaustion, angst, manic quarantine cleaning.

Making a Door Less Open may not be a Pitchfork winner, but it’s worth a listen right now. The album is available on Bandcamp, Spotify, and YouTube Music. Free–$9.99.

—Sarah Smith

washingtoncitypaper.com may 29, 2020 25

DIVERSIONS SAVAGE LOVE

ABUSE, SEX AND DRUGS A Novel by Taylor

THE LIFE OF TEENAGERS ON THE STREETS OF AMERICA The story of friends forced by circumstance to find a better life for themselves on the streets.

But the streets are hard, and the world is unforgiving. And unfortunately, not everyone is strong enough to make it.

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CITYPAPER

I don’t want to become one of those people who write to you complaining about how I married someone I wasn’t sexually compatible with 10 years ago and now my sex life still sucks. I already know I need to break up with my boyfriend and I was about to do it when he got sick with the flu. This was at the beginning of March.

I assumed he’d be sick for a week and then we would have an unpleasant conversation. But then the entire country shut down and my boyfriend was officially diagnosed with COVID-19.

So I haven’t seen him since the last weekend in February—Monday was Memorial Day, Dan, in case you’ve lost all concept of time—and I’ve been playing the role of the supportive and worried girlfriend from afar. But it’s been hard.

Both my parents are in high-risk groups and my mental health has been battered. My boyfriend is finally getting better and I don’t know what to do when I finally have to see him again.

I’m not breaking up with him because he’s a bad person and I don’t want to hurt him, but that’s exactly what’s going to happen. I feel guilty because I’m choosing my happiness over his. I know I shouldn’t, Dan, but I do.

—Feeling Resentful About Uncoupling Dilemma

Pandemic or no pandemic, FRAUD, you can’t stay with someone forever—you can’t be miserable for the rest of your life—to spare that person the routine and surmountable pain of getting dumped. Not breaking up with your boyfriend while he was fighting COVID-19 was the right thing to do, of course, and I don’t for a minute question the sincerity of your concern for him. (You want to see the relationship end, FRAUD, not him.) But don’t wait until you see him again to break up with him. It’ll suck for him, of course, but the world is full of people who got dumped and got over it. And the sooner he gets over you, the sooner he’ll meet someone else. For all you know he’s been chatting over his backyard fence—at a safe distance—with a neighbor he would be interested in dating, if he were single.

—Dan Savage

WASHINGTON

Stay tuned with local news.

Follow City Paper on social media. @washingtoncitypaper @wcp @washingtoncitypaper

For the past few months my GF and I have been quarantined together. Except for the time we’ve spent working, we’re constantly in each other’s company and doing things together. It’s been great so far. It’s good to know that we won’t get tired of each other or feel smothered. The main problem is finding something to watch or something to do. Any suggestions?

—Quarantined Until

I’ve been reading The Mirror and the Light, the final installment of Hilary Mantel’s epic account of the inner life of Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII’s most powerful minister—the guy who arranged for the beheading of Anne Boleyn—while listening to whatever classical music my husband puts on. But just so you don’t think it’s all award-winning fiction and high art where we’re quarantining, we’ve also been watching 90 Day Fiancé, which is a complete (and completely engrossing) shit show, and The Simple Life with Paris Hilton

26 may 29, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

and Nicole Richie, which I missed when it first ran. So obviously I would suggest fiction, music, and crap television—and anal, of course.

—DS My problem is that I am seriously worried about missing out on life. I’m a man. I find men attractive but I have no idea how to get to know one. For the first time last summer I met someone and we were sexual with each other. He was a hockey player. But he is gone now. And when I try to be friendly with other men, I get called out for f lirting. I am gay and don’t know how much hurt I can take.

—Making All These Connections Hard

“You’re going to have to pick your poison: Risk having an awkward conversation with parents who are likely to be supportive or continue to wait—possibly for years—before you start exploring your gender presentation.

The choice seems obvious to me.”

More than 80 percent of gay relationships got their start online before the pandemic began, MATCH, and that number is surely higher now. So if you get on gay dating/hookup apps instead of flirting with random men, you would be talking to a self-selected group of men who are inviting other men to flirt with them. You’ll still face rejection, of course, and you’ll still get hurt. To live is to suffer, as some philosopher or other once said, but the suffering is easier to bear if you’re getting your dick sucked once in a while.

—DS I’m 34, non-binary but presenting female. Due to a series of personal tragedies (death, deportation, illness—it was not a top 10 year), I’m sheltering with my parents. Long story short, I’m 100 percent financially dependent on my parents right now. The upside is I’ve had a lot of time to become comfortable with the fact that I really, really want to mess around with cross-dressing. I would love to get a binder and a masc get-up and

haircut and just see how that feels. My parents will want to know “what this means” and they won’t take “ fuck if I know” for an answer. It will be a long time (maybe years) before I’m either eligible for disability or ready to work again, and I just can’t wait that long. So much of my life has already passed me by and I’m tired of waiting for a “right time.” But binders and clothes and haircuts cost money. Keeping masc stuff around the house means people will eventually see it. Again, they’d probably be supportive, but I just want to keep this private. Is there a way to do it?

—Hoping For A Third Option

Other than winning the lottery and moving out on your own tomorrow, HFATO, there’s no third option here. You’re going to have to pick your poison: Risk having an awkward conversation with parents who are likely to be supportive or continue to wait—possibly for years—before you start exploring your gender presentation. The choice seems obvious to me.

—DS Got in an argument recently about pegging and its original definition: “a women fucking a man in the ass with strap-on dildo.” I feel it’s moved beyond that and now means anyone wearing a strap-on fucking anyone else in the ass. My friends insisted that only a man can be pegged, and only by a woman. As the originator of the term, Dan, we turn to you: Can a woman peg another woman?

—A New Ass Licker

I will allow it.

—DS

Are some people just bad at sex? My partner has been overwhelmed with work and our sex life suffered a major decline. He’s working with a psychotherapist who told him some people are just not good at sex and he should just accept that he’s one of those people. It broke my heart to know someone said that to my partner. Am I overreacting? Is there some way to take this as anything but wrong? Or is this therapist a clown?

— C o m p l e te ly Un d e rm i n i n g Ne gat ive Therapy

There are people out there who are “bad at sex” by objective measures. There have to be.

But “good sex” is so subjective that I’m not convinced objective measures really matter.

For example, I got a letter yesterday from someone complaining their partner is “bad at sex” because they just lie there, silent and inert, while the letter writer “does all the work.” But if the person who just lies there was partnered with a necrophiliac, well, that “silent and inert” stuff would make them great at sex, not bad at sex, at least by a necrophiliac’s standards. As for your boyfriend, CUNT, you’re in a better position to judge whether he’s good at sex—by your subjective standards—than his shrink, presumably. And if you enjoyed the sex you were having before your partner was overwhelmed with work, then he’s good at sex—he’s good at sex by your standards—and here’s hoping you get back to having lots of good sex together soon. —DS Email your Savage Love questions to mail@savagelove.net

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Stay connected while staying at home.

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