Washington City Paper (Aug. 21, 2020)

NEWS IS THIS THE END OF ANC TWITTER ACCOUNTS? 4 SPORTS PRESSING PAUSE ON COLLEGE FOOTBALL 7 ARTS PRO ARTISTS CREATE COLORING PAGES 14 THE DISTRICT'S FREE WEEKLY SINCE 1981 VOLUME 40, NO. 33 WASHINGTONCITYPAPER.COM AUG. 21–27, 2020

Local property management companies and building owners are benefiting from COVID relief during the pandemic, while the tenants of those buildings struggle to pay rent. PAGE 8

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TABLE OF CONTENTS COVER STORY 8 Path of Lease Resistance: The same property management companies and building owners pressuring tenants to pay rent are benefitting from pandemic relief funding.

NEWS 4 Tweet Revenge: A decision from the Board of Elections could end local government Twitter use for good.

6 Rising Inaction: COVID-19 cases continue to increase in D.C., but local leaders stop short of closing businesses again.

SPORTS 7 Fumbled Return: College football’s cancelation is the latest consequence of the country’s inadecuate coronavirus response.

FOOD 12 A Death in the Family: Hospitality industry professionals discuss the difficulties of working after losing a loved one to COVID-19.

ARTS 14 Color Theory: Six local artists contribute coloring pages to HEMPHILL’s latest project.

15 Film: Zilberman on Tesla 16 Love Rules: Artist Julie Wolfe’s page in the HEMPHILL 2020 coloring book

CITY LIGHTS 17 City Lights: Check out a statue of Joan of Arc or try a new way to play bar trivia at home.

DIVERSIONS 13 Crossword 18 Savage Love 19 Classifieds Cover Photo: Darrow Montgomery Cover Design: Julia Terbrock

Darrow Montgomery | 1700 Block of Park Road NW, August 17 Editorial

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NEWS LOOSE LIPS

Tweet Revenge

Illustration by Ashley Jaye Williams

Ed Hanlon may have single-handedly destroyed local government agencies’ Twitter usage.

By Mitch Ryals @MitchRyals Ed Hanlon is on the verge of back-to-back victories.

Last month, Hanlon notched a win in one of his latest battles against advisory neighborhood commissioners on his own ANC, 2B, which covers part of Dupont Circle. The scrap stems from Hanlon’s efforts to get his hands on emails between commissioners Randy Downs and Daniel Warwick, both of whom served as the ANC’s liaisons with the D.C. Department of Transportation regarding the hotly contested 17th Street bike lane.

ANC 2B passed a resolution during its July 8 meeting approving DDOT’s plans for the bike lane, which has been in the works since at least 2017. Hanlon, who was the lone dissenting vote, appears to have been caught off guard that the project was moving forward and ahead of the meeting demanded access to emails between his fellow commissioners and DDOT. For good measure, Hanlon clarified that he was seeking correspondences that occurred over government and personal email accounts, those sent by snail mail, and

messages sent over Snapchat.

Downs, who is in the middle of an independent run for the Ward 2 Council seat, and Warwick, who chairs ANC 2B, refused Hanlon’s demands and told him to file a Freedom of Information Act request.

In turn, Hanlon said he was entitled to the emails and Snaps under the ANC Act, which gives all commissioners “equal access” to the commission’s records. He sought the opinion of the D.C. Office of the Attorney General, which initially told him in June that Downs and Warwick did not have to share emails sent from personal email addresses and that Hanlon’s interpretation of the rules governing ANC emails would produce “unnecessarily absurd results.”

Relentless in his pursuit, Hanlon asked the OAG to reconsider. At the beginning of July, OAG reversed its original opinion, writing that emails from commissioners sent on behalf of the ANC “belong to the ANC.” Warwick and Downs say they spent the better part of their Fourth of July holiday compiling emails in order to comply with OAG’s decision and Hanlon’s demand for a quick turnaround. (Hanlon did write in emails that he

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was willing to compromise on a timeframe.)

Although the bike lane will move forward, mark one for Hanlon in the win column.

Hanlon’s current battle has been percolating for about a year and has consumed the energy and attention of two D.C. government agencies. If Hanlon wins, it would mean two of his fellow ANC 2B commissioners are on the hook for a $4,000 fine from the Office of Campaign Finance. It could also mean the end of government-run Twitter accounts as we know them.

Last December, OCF sustained a complaint from Hanlon over the use of ANC 2B’s Twitter account. Hanlon alleged that ANC 2B commissioners were using the account to illegally support Patrick Kennedy’s Ward 2 Council campaign.

Warwick and Aaron Landry, who represents single member district 2B04, appealed OCF’s decision to the Board of Elections, which has yet to make a final decision. During the hearing on Aug. 5, Landry and Warwick provided several examples of governmentrun Twitter accounts posting content similar to that which OCF says violates the law.

Since the beginning of the year, three ANCs

in Ward 2—2A, 2B, and 2E—have deleted all their content and unfollowed all accounts to avoid becoming the next target of Hanlon’s complaints.

Hanlon did not respond to LL’s requests for comment.

During the BOE hearing, the director of the Office of Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners, Gottlieb Simon, told the board that if OCF’s order is upheld, “I have come to the conclusion that it will be necessary for me to advise commissioners to delete accounts if they have them and to refrain from establishing new accounts, as there would be considerable liability in their continued operation.”

In September 2019, Hanlon accused his fellow commissioners of breaking the law that says government resources cannot be used to support a candidate for public office.

The offensive behavior, according to Hanlon’s complaint, is a retweet from ANC 2B’s official account of one of Landry’s tweets.

“I love the 17th Street Festival,” Landry tweeted last August, along with a picture he took while standing outside ANC 2B’s booth.

Landry tagged Kennedy, who was campaigning for the Ward 2 Council seat at the time, in the photo. The photo tag linked to Kennedy’s personal Twitter account, which at the time described him as a Ward 2 Council candidate and featured a link to his campaign website.

In Hanlon’s view, the retweet equated to support for Kennedy’s campaign.

In December, OCF general counsel William SanFord agreed with Hanlon and slapped six of the eight ANC 2B commissioners with a $4,000 fine, despite the fact that none of them actually sent the retweet, and only two of them had access to the account.

The ANC’s unelected executive director, Peter Sacco, sent the retweet but is not mentioned in the order.

All but two of the six commissioners were later absolved, but Landry and Warwick are still on the hook for the fine. Warwick and Landry filed motions for reconsideration and appealed OCF’s order to the BOE. SanFord denied the motions, and the two are awaiting a final decision from the BOE. At the same time, Hanlon continued to file complaints about his and other ANC’s Twitter accounts. As they rolled in, OCF staff would notify Landry, who recorded the conversations. In one call that he shared with LL, OCF attorney advisor Austin Franklin says Hanlon claimed that ANC 2B violated the law by following Kennedy.

“Can you just unfollow him, please?”

Franklin asked.

“Excuse me?” Landry replied, asking whether OCF could provide any official guidance. “I’m a little shocked that this is even being taken seriously. This is really ridiculous.”

Franklin did not give a legal justification for why the ANC 2B account should unfollow Kennedy and asked again if Landry was willing to bend to Hanlon’s demands.

NEWS “It’s one thing to get harassed by this guy,” Landry said. “I get harassed by him all the time, but to use the Office of Campaign Finance as a tool for his harassment, that’s where I think a line is drawn.”

Later in the same call, SanFord, the OCF general counsel responsible for evaluating Hanlon’s complaints, came on the line. He questioned Landry about an unrelated tweet in which Landry expressed his frustration that Jack Evans was allowed to participate in the public campaign financing program despite his outstanding ethics fines.

Landry’s insinuation that SanFord was solely responsible for allowing Evans to draw public dollars for his Ward 2 campaign troubled him.

“I thought you and I had discussed matters involving what’s before the Office of Campaign Finance as gentlemen, and I expect us to do that,” SanFord said on the call. “I don’t know why you felt it was necessary to post that information regarding me personally.”

At the time, SanFord had not ruled on Landry’s motion for reconsideration, and he assured Landry that the critical tweet would not factor into his decision. During another conversation, Landry says SanFord encouraged him to delete the retweet at the heart of Hanlon’s original complaint in order to avoid any potential negative consequences

for Kennedy.

“I felt … that it was super inappropriate for a government agency that had jurisdiction over this to encourage me not to challenge an outcome that I understood to be wrong,” Landry says.

SanFord declined to comment because the complaint is still pending before the BOE. Hanlon also submitted a complaint alleging the ANC 2A Twitter account was illegally promoting Kennedy’s campaign by following his personal account as well as the accounts of those who supported him. ANC 2A, which Kennedy chairs, had already purged its tweets, retweets, and “likes,” Kennedy told OCF when they contacted him regarding the complaint. He promised to unfollow all users from the ANC 2A account to avoid more headaches.

During the hearing in front of the BOE on August 5, Warwick and Landry pointed out several examples of government-run accounts tweeting similar content.

The O f f ice of Pla n n i n g ret weeted Kennedy’s October 2019 tweet about his amendment to the Comprehensive Plan, for example. And the BOE retweeted a tweet from Ward 7 ANC commissioner Keith Hasan-Towery, whose bio contains a link to his campaign website, about registering seniors to vote.

LL notes that the examples Landry and

Warwick provided don’t show a candidate actively campaigning like Kennedy was in Hanlon’s original complaint. But the violation, according to OCF, is that the tagged photo of Kennedy linked to his own account with another link to his campaign website.

“Of all the candidates that ran for that particular seat, only Patrick Kennedy is prominently featured,” SanFord argued during the BOE hearing. “Only his Twitter page was linked to the ANC 2B Twitter account, and that is because Landry and Warwick and others were supporting Patrick Kennedy’s campaign. They have every right to do that. But what they do not have a right to do is to use government resources to facilitate a candidate or candidates of their choices.”

While SanFord did not find whether the violation was intentional, Hanlon, who supported a different candidate for the Ward 2 Council seat, was not willing to make such a concession. “This was not a mistake, this was deliberate,” he told the BOE. Landry and Warwick argued that OCF’s interpretation would mean that the scores of D.C. government-run Twitter accounts would be in violation of campaign law.

Asked whether he agrees with Landry’s previous assessment of Hanlon’s complaints as politically motivated, Warwick declines to speculate.

“I know the complainant doesn’t like me,”

he says. “But this is entirely about OCF and their inability to understand social media and provide laws or even provide any sort of guidance that would allow the use of social media by governmental entities including ANCs. ‘Delete your account’ isn’t what the government should say to the government that wants to connect with neighbors and constituents.”

Landry is one of four ANC 2B commissioners not running for re-election this November.

Downs is running for the Council seat, and the other two commissioners, Kari Cunningham and Beverly Schwartz, did not respond to LL’s emails.

But Landry says his decision to step away is due in large part to the antagonistic role Hanlon has played on the commission.

“For me, and at this time in my life right now and dealing with all the harassment that I’ve gone through with Ed Hanlon, it was like, enough,” he says.

Warwick is running again, “against my better judgement.”

“To be honest, if I was smarter and cared more about my own personal sanity, I probably wouldn’t be running as well,” he says.

“But I am hopeful that Commissioner Hanlon won’t be a commissioner next year, and we can start to rebuild the commission and do productive things.”

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NEWS CITY DESK

Rising Inaction The health department says the data does not support calls to suspend indoor dining. So what does that data suggest D.C. do to reverse the trend?

By Amanda Michelle Gomez @AmanduhGomez “INCREASING TREND” reads a July 23 press release from the District’s health department. An accompanying line graph shows multiple red dots that represent peaks in new COVID-19 cases throughout the month of July.

That press release was the first time the Bowser administration acknowledged that the number of cases in D.C. was climbing again, after the city experienced weeks of declines and plateaus at the end of spring and into early summer.

On July 24, a day after the press release went out, Mayor Muriel Bowser ordered anyone traveling into D.C. from “high-risk” states to self-quarantine for 14 days.

Three weeks later, little has changed. D.C. experienced another peak in cases on Aug. 3, when it recorded 83 positive test results, according to DC Health’s graph of community spread, which measures cases by symptom onset and excludes infections in congregate settings like nursing homes and homeless shelters. This is the highest peak in cases since May 28, when the city saw 90 new cases and was under a strict stay-athome order.

The community spread graph is updated daily, but the data in it trails the present by about a week and a half. As of Aug. 18, D.C. reported an average of 61 cases per day during the past week, yet the executive order related to travel is the last major action the administration has taken to reverse the trend.

COVID-19 cases started to slowly and steadily increase during Phase 2, when the Bowser administration relaxed more coronavirus-related restrictions and allowed select businesses to reopen indoor services at reduced capacity on June 22. On that day, D.C. recorded 37 cases per day, based on a seven-day rolling average. Despite calls to restrict riskier activities like indoor dining, Bowser has not rolled back any activities or suspended the operations of any businesses. The mayor says she’s following the advice of her health department, and DC Health

Director Dr. LaQuandra Nesbitt says the coronavirus data does not indicate that she should recommend such action.

“I’m getting asked by the Council and I am getting asked in this room all the time, ‘When are you going to close indoor dining?’” Nesbitt said during a press conference on Aug. 18. “I can’t make the data tell me to tell you that 30 to 40 percent of my cases are related to it. That is just not the case.”

“We know indoor dining is high risk. We have people indoor dining in the District. I’m still seeing a higher proportion of my cases related to the workplace or travel, and not attributed to indoor dining,” Nesbitt continued.

Nesbitt declined to offer any more detailed information about workplace infections, but she did elaborate about travel. Of the 971 people who tested positive between July 31 and Aug. 13, Nesbitt said 102 people reported traveling while infectious and more than 70 percent of those people say they traveled by plane. Nesbitt also said 145 of the 971 people who tested positive reported attending a gathering of five or more people while infectious. About 90 percent of gatherings were under 50 people—they at least followed that part of the Phase 2 guidance—but more than 60 percent say people were not practicing social distancing at the event, be it a religious service, cookout, or party. A majority of the people who attended these events said at least part of their gathering occurred indoors. By comparison, Nesbitt said 5 to 8 percent of the new cases were connected to people eating at restaurants.

“You’ve heard Dr. Nesbitt talk about travel,” Bowser said later in the press conference. “That is why we continue to make reminders to people to not get complacent about their activities.”

Nesbitt’s insights are based on data gathered by her department’s contact tracers, a team of nearly 300 investigators who interview D.C. residents that test positive for COVID-19 along with individuals those residents come in close contact with. Contact-tracing data so far shows cases are not connected to one another, as a majority of sick people who answered an investigator’s question about whether they knew someone who tested positive said no. The data has limitations. Contact tracers completed interviews in roughly 70 percent of positive cases between June 16 and August 13, but they just started asking the same questions within the last two weeks. It’s unclear what questions were added, but Nesbitt suggested contact tracers recently started asking about indoor dining. DC Health is looking to further refine its contact-tracing program and is, for example, having staff conduct home visits with those who are unreachable or decline to complete their interviews.

The Aug. 18 presentation came after members of the D.C. Council questioned Nesbitt about what her department had learned from contact tracing and if that knowledge could prompt rollbacks of any kind to reduce cases. According to the Post, Nesbitt became frustrated with lawmakers’ line of questioning, saying, “Sometimes the tone and the tenor of these questions are completely insulting, as if we are not doing our level best to stem the tide.”

At-Large Councilmember Elissa Silverman

6 august 21, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

says she sees weekly calls with DC Health as a way to provide oversight. She continues to call for more transparency around contact-tracing data, and suggests DC Health publish its findings on its online dashboard, as a few other states have.

She’d like to see something like Louisiana’s public data, which includes a list of the settings where outbreaks are happening and how many cases are associated with those settings.

Silverman is also among those residents who thinks the city should suspend indoor dining again. She disagrees with the decision to reopen indoor dining rooms and gyms during Phase 2, given what epidemiologists are learning about the coronavirus. Since the start of the pandemic, the World Health Organization stressed that COVID-19 spreads through virus-laden droplets when a sick person talks or sneezes, and updated its guidance in early July to say that COVID-19 may also spread through respiratory droplets so small they linger in the air in confined indoor spaces.

“We know the risk is high,” Silverman says.

She believes the decision to not suspend indoor dining speaks to how important restaurants are to the local economy and how influential the lobbying of the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington is.

“We can take action as a government to prevent the spread,” says Silverman. “We can’t go into your house or your backyard, but we can say indoor dining is closed.”

In a Council call with the executive on Wednesday, the topic of restaurants came up again. Silverman wondered if the increase in cases among young people could be related to indoor dining. Nesbitt told her the data does not suggest this.

An analysis from the Center for American Progress found states in the Northeast better contained coronavirus transmission as compared to the rest of the country, including D.C., because lawmakers there made masks mandatory before lifting stay-at-home orders and waited to reopen indoor dining at restaurants and bars. Emily Gee, a health economist at the think tank who led the research, says the analysis does not suggest D.C. restrict all indoor services— just dining, because restaurants are prime vectors.

“Besides the fact that places like Michigan have traced huge outbreaks to bars and restaurants,” Gee says, “inherently, you can’t wear a mask the whole time you’re in a bar or restaurant if you’re dining or drinking. You need to pull down that mask.”

“There’s also a huge cost to being at this state where [transmission is] not quite low enough that we can even have public schools running,” she says.

Case counts do not tell the whole story.

Hospitalizations related to COVID-19 have either been decreasing or plateauing during Phase 2, and the positivity rate has stayed below 5 percent.

“Overall, D.C. is doing relatively well as compared to other states, but has the opportunity to be even better,” says Joshua Sharfstein, the vice dean at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who is advising mayors across the country on the coronavirus.

“The city is still at risk for a real increase,” he

cautions.

So should the city close indoor dining? “It’s sort of a question if we want to push cases down enough to create a margin of safety ... It makes it safer to open schools,” says Sharfstein. “If you were able to get virus transmission lower, cases would go down, especially heading into the fall.”

The transmission rate has increased to an alarming level at two different points during Phase 2. The transmission rate, or the number of people a sick person is likely to infect, crept above 1 in late June and early July and again in late July and early August. A value above 1 means the virus is spreading and more cases are likely.

Throughout the pandemic, Bowser has repeatedly said she has the ability to reinstate restrictions if coronavirus data suggests D.C. reopened too quickly. “We see it as a valve going on and going off, so my expectation would be that the health department would consider some things that had to be turned off,” Bowser said during a June 5 press conference, where she announced the benchmarks the city needed to meet before moving to Phase 2.

During this press conference, the health department also released information on what in the coronavirus data could trigger reinstating restrictions. DC Health would possibly recommend an intervention if D.C. saw three days where new cases were greater than “Day Zero.”

The department later determined “Day Zero” was June 15, when it recorded 45 cases. D.C. only recorded fewer than 45 cases on two days in July.

So far during Phase 2, the Bowser administration has taken two notable interventions. On July 22, the mayor made masks mandatory whenever someone leaves their residence, except in limited circumstances, and, two days later, made quarantine mandatory for select travelers. Enforcement remains a challenge. Officials generally let businesses and individuals enforce the mandates themselves. Nesbitt, for example, has not used her authority to order anyone to quarantine or isolate.

“What we are trying to do is educate people so they know what their risk is if they put themselves in that situation—that goes for dining, that goes for travel, and that goes for being in a group setting,” says John Falcicchio, Bowser’s chief of staff and deputy mayor for planning and economic development.

Dr. Amanda Castel of George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health can understand why D.C. has yet to reclose or restrict anything, as it is faring well within the context of what is going on nationally.

From a public health perspective, Castel supports restricting riskier activities. She could also understand officials needing “strong evidence” from contact tracing to justify restrictions because of the political and economic realities.

“But they are doing other things, adding layers to what is already in place to see if that is making a difference,” she says, referring to the mask and travel orders, as well as the investment in the contact-tracing program.

Castel likens it to a smoldering fire. DC Health is not seeing any sparks that might prompt the city to tamp down the spread, and for now, there are no flames.

SPORTS FOOTBALL

Fumbled Return

By Kelyn Soong @KelynSoong The day after Greg DesRoches informed his future in-laws of his intention to propose to their daughter, he received a call from his soon-to-be father-in-law with a simple directive about the wedding.

“He said, ‘Get your calendar out. Here’s the date. This is when it’s gonna happen,’” DesRoches remembers.

Being a University of Maryland alumnus and marrying into a family of fellow Terps meant planning around Maryland sports. That tradition lives on today for DesRoches, as his nieces and nephews also schedule their weddings around Maryland games. DesRoches says he can’t remember the last Maryland football game in College Park that he’s missed. He’s been a season ticket holder since 1967, three years after he graduated from the university with a degree in history.

But even before the Big Ten Conference canceled its fall football season earlier this month, DesRoches says this year would’ve been the end of his half-century-long streak. At 78, he’s part of the age group with the highest risk for severe illness from COVID-19. He has no intention of attending college football games in person. Not until a vaccine arrives, at least.

“The whole planet is at war against a killer virus,” says DesRoches, who lives in Columbia, Maryland. “It’s a pandemic. How anybody would see it any other way begs a lot of questions.”

The United States, in particular, has been struggling to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus. More than 5.3 million positive cases have been reported in the country, and more than 170,000 people have died from complications of the virus—by far the most in the world. The fact that major college athletic conferences like the Big Ten and Pac-12 have canceled their football seasons reflects the country’s collective failure in addressing the pandemic and also reveals the fractured state of college football, a uniquely American sport.

In a statement released last week, Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren cited the “ongoing health and safety concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic” as the reason it

Kelyn Soong/File

Losing college football is a consequence of the nation’s failure to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

would be postponing fall sports. But while the Big Ten and Pac-12 have halted sports competition this year, the other three Power Five conferences—the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Big 12 Conference, and the Southeastern Conference—have all elected to move forward with a fall football season. Other local teams, including Georgetown University’s football program, which plays in the Patriot League, Howard University, which plays in the MidEastern Athletic Conference, and Division III Catholic University, which plays in the New England Women’s and Men’s Athletic Conference, have also suspended competition for the fall.

The inconsistency among conferences has revealed the fragmented infrastructure of college football and amplifies the problems with the amateurism of college sports. Unlike professional leagues, which have players’ unions to make coordinated demands, there is no single authority within college football calling the shots. Even though the NCAA announced it would be canceling fall championships this year, that does not include the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision or the College Football Playoff.

And up until last week, the Big Ten had intended to host its fall football season. In response, football players in the conference had issued a proposal to protect athletes during the pandemic that was published by the Players’ Tribune on Aug. 5. A group of Pac-12 football players also wrote a letter in the publication and threatened to opt out if their demands were not met.

“The NCAA—which is known for its zeal for regulations and enforcement—has had ample time to prepare for the safe return of its athletes to competition, yet it has done nothing,” the letter to the NCAA and the Big Ten reads.

“Its laissez-faire approach is forcing each conference and each school to create its own plan, resulting in inconsistent policies, procedures, and protocols.”

The proposal included a call for oversight and transparency in COVID-19 testing, penalties for noncompliance, and contact-tracing protocols for anyone who comes into contact with

those on the team that test positive.

Critics of the so-called amateurism of the college sports infrastructure have argued that conferences would rather punt on the season than address the growing criticism from college athletes, who are unpaid, and their supporters.

“This coming together of the student athletes, this solidarity is the scariest thing in the NCAA [for] the presidents and athletic departments,” says Matt Winkler, a professor of sports analytics and management at American University who also worked at three different NCAA programs for 11 years. “Not playing this fall decentralizes some of that movement ... If they [have] a union of student athletes on their hands, that’s really scary to presidents and athletic directors and powers that be. So if they don’t play this fall, it puts a little distance between that movement and solidarity and all that stuff.”

But that doesn’t mean that players themselves are all on the same page. At the University of Maryland, players have been split on the decision to cancel the fall season. According to head coach Mike Locksley, six players in the program have opted out due to COVID-19 concerns, including last year’s starting quarterback, Josh Jackson, but several players have been vocal in their desire to compete, posting on Twitter with the hashtag #WeWantToPlay.

“Have torn my ACL twice in less than 2 years,” redshirt senior running back Jake Funk wrote on Twitter one day before the Big Ten’s announcement. “Rehabbed in a friends [sic] barn all quarantine. Athletes have worked too hard for this opportunity. The guys who have ‘opted in’ should be treated with the same respect as the guys who have ‘opted out’. We understand the risk.”

In a conference call with reporters last week, Locksley expressed disappointment in the Big Ten’s decision, but also pride in his players for adjusting to a constantly changing situation.

“My heart breaks for our players,” he said.

“They’ve worked really hard over the last couple of months here, and for no fault of their own, football has been taken away from them.

We’ve had guys that have gone through some

extensive rehabs to get back in an effort to play in the best shape of their lives. We have guys that are ready to go play their senior seasons, which is their last shot, and then to tell them that there’s no football now, that’s a tough pill to swallow and hard for all us.”

Locksley added that there have been no positive tests at Maryland since July 8, and that players can continue to remain on campus and work out, as long as they adhere to the protocols that are in place where players and staff are tested regularly.

The economic impact of losing college football in the fall will be severe, not just on schools with participating teams and their athletic departments, but on surrounding businesses.

College football is a multibillion-dollar industry. It’s been described as the fabric of college towns, especially in areas that don’t have their own professional football team. ESPN’s College GameDay averages millions of viewers.

Washington Business Journal reports that Maryland’s football program accounted for $46.6 million in athletic department revenue in the fiscal year 2018—48 percent of the school’s total athletic revenue that year. Football teams at historically Black colleges and universities like Howard can receive paychecks worth hundreds of thousands of dollars when they schedule to play Power Five Conference programs.

“For football, it’s a lot of butts in seats, people paying for tickets, and the economics that go all around that, parking, seating, and all that stuff,” Winkler says. “But it’s also heads in beds.

A lot of people travel and stay for the game. And so that’s hotels, motels, Airbnb ... So heads in beds and butts in seats are going to be drastically impacted on Saturdays for sure. A place like Maryland, most of their alumni is local, so probably less heads in beds, but a lot of butts in seats, even if they had attendance issues off and on through the years.”

The Big Ten is evaluating options for fall sports, including the possibility of playing in the spring, a prospect that Maryland’s Locksley said he and his team would be prepared to make happen.

But ultimately, if the Big Ten commissioner’s words are to be believed, it will depend on how the country is doing in its fight against coronavirus. In March, the loss of college football in the fall was seen as one of the worst-case scenarios.

“I was hopeful that we would not be in this situation,” says Dr. Anne Monroe, an associate research professor of epidemiology at the George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health. “I think everyone across the country was hopeful that we would have made progress in the five months that we’ve had ... so it’s disheartening that we have not had a coordinated national response that would allow us to resume some of the activities that make us all feel normal.”

On the off-chance that the country manages to efficiently turn its pandemic response around and college football resumes next spring at the University of Maryland, DesRoches will be at Maryland Stadium, sitting in his usual seat at midfield—under one condition.

“If there’s a vaccine,” he says.

washingtoncitypaper.com august 21, 2020 7

Path of Lease Resistance As the pandemic drags on, tenants and housing advocates report hostile confrontations with property managers over unpaid rent.

Jewel Burgess, Park 7 resident

By Morgan Baskin Photographs by Darrow Montgomery

T

he first time she remembers protesting in the region, about 10 years ago, Tara Maxwell was outside the Virginia home of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

His wife Virginia, the target of Maxwell’s ire that day, is a prominent right-wing lobbyist and current adviser to President Donald Trump’s administration.

“If I can protest at Clarence Thomas’ house, I can protest at anybody’s house,” Maxwell says dryly. “It doesn't bother me.”

So when Maxwell, an independent contractor with experience in law enforcement and political consulting, moved into the Park 7 Apartments on Minnesota Avenue NE last August, she was not afraid to raise hell over problems with her living conditions.

To start, she says, there was the persistent gas leak from her stove. Then there were the cockroach-infested washing machine and dryer, and the roaches she’d find scaling the walls of her building’s hallways. Little did she know that Park 7––which opened in 2014––was notorious among housing advocates for its poor management, with maintenance requests of-

ten languishing for months without resolution.

“This is my home,” Maxwell says. “I shouldn't have to feel, you know, oppressed and bullied and harassed, just to be able to live here. And I should be able to have decent amenities and maintenance repairs. I shouldn't have to fight and argue for that.”

Months after Maxwell moved in, D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine announced that Park 7 Residential LP, a Maryland-based corporation owned by prominent local developer Chris Donatelli, would refund nearly half a million dollars to 470 current and former tenants of the building who were improperly charged for water use, which had falsely been marketed as included in rent. (Neither Donatelli nor a spokesperson for Park 7 responded to City Paper’s emailed requests for comment. When City Paper called Donatelli, he cited a conflicting meeting and said he would call this reporter back. He did not do so before press time.)

Of the 377 units at Park 7, 362 are affordable, or rented below market rate, and many of the tenants are low-income workers, seniors, and people with disabilities.

By June, when it was clear that the economic effects of the pandemic were far from over, Maxwell notified Park 7 Residential via email that she was going on a rent strike and would withhold rent payments. Shortly thereafter, she

8 august 21, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

began surveying her building to see if anyone else would join her. She’s not the only one–– Stephanie Bastek, a DC Tenants Union board member who has been organizing Park 7 tenants for three years, estimates that 28 families are on rent strike, and that 94 have signed onto a letter demanding rent forgiveness.

Meanwhile, as conditions at Park 7 continued to deteriorate this spring, one of Donatelli’s other property companies received between $150,000 and $300,000 in a Paycheck Protection Program loan meant as pandemic relief, public records show.

“What's funny to me is that the argument all these landlords are making when they're pressuring tenants and assigning payment plans is, ‘We need your money to pay management, we need your money to make sure that, like, the building runs smoothly,” Bastek says. “And that seems like a total lie.”

Maxwell began seeing tweets from the DCTU as it organized rent strikes across the city and reached out to the group, not realizing initially that it was already working with Park 7 tenants. In August, she linked up with the DCTU to canvas one of Donatelli’s other, more well-maintained properties: Highland Park in Columbia Heights, a mixed-use complex located above the neighborhood’s Metro stop, where studio apartments rent for about $1,900

a month and a two-bedroom can run $4,200.

COVID-19 has affirmed what Maxwell already believed to be true about the city in general, and her apartment in particular: That living in a building of lower-income residents makes them less visible, and their concerns less acute, to people in positions of power than they would have been if they had more resources.

The canvassing group, which included a resident of Highland Park and two from Park 7, arrived at the building around 4 p.m. on Aug. 12, and spent about an hour and a half knocking on doors. They visited 15 apartments, handing out fliers that read, “Your landlord discriminates.”

“At Park 7, Donatelli has failed to maintain sanitation [standards] under COVID, consistently intimidates tenants organizing, and refuses to pay for extermination. Children have nowhere to play but by the trash,” the flyer continued.

Maxwell thought the afternoon was going pretty well. Most of the Highland Park tenants who answered their doors politely took the fliers, and several asked questions about the conditions at Park 7. Even though none asked her to leave or expressed annoyance, Maxwell says around 5:30 p.m., Jason Sadlack, one of the managers of the property, stopped the organizers in a hallway and told them to leave. When they didn’t, he asked a colleague to call the

police, according to Maxwell. (Sadlack did not respond to City Paper’s request for comment.)

Video clips of the incident recorded by DCTU activists show a male and a female Metropolitan Police Department officer repeatedly telling the organizers to vacate the property, despite the fact that they were accompanying a Highland Park resident and behaving lawfully.

“The Tenant Bill of Rights allows us to organize,” an organizer tells the officers pointedly but calmly. “We are legally allowed to be here.”

D.C. law says that landlords “may not interfere with the right of tenants to organize a tenant association, convene meetings, distribute literature, post information, and provide building access to an outside tenant organizer.”

“The thing is, I know y’all the guest of him, but because y’all passing out these fliers, they don’t want you here,” the male officer responds.

“What law are we violating?” two organizers ask over and over. Although the officers do not cite one, the male officer tells the activists, “Management wants y’all to leave, now y’all have to leave.” The whole group grows more and more agitated, and people begin speaking over each other for several minutes.

“If they want y’all locked up, we have to lock you up,” the male officer says at one point. “You haven’t told us what laws we’re violating,” the organizers repeat. (A spokesperson for MPD says that there is no incident report for the event, but wrote in an emailed statement, “We are looking into the matter to see if there were any policy violations in this incident.”)

For renters across D.C., it is not enough that the pandemic has caused hundreds of thousands of them to lose their jobs, savings, sources of stability, and, in some cases, loved ones. They must now contend with what many tenants and housing advocates say are hostile confrontations with property managers over unpaid rent, ranging from threats of eviction to disputes about living conditions and payment plans. At many buildings, this is happening as property managers continue to disproportionately enjoy federal and local financial assistance in the form of PPP loans, eviction prevention funds, and mortgage forbearances.

“I think what's problematic is landlords applying for and receiving these loans on the premise that they can't cover their expenses because the tenants are unable to pay their rent, and then turning around and demanding and collecting the rent from the tenants anyway,” says Rachel Rintelmann, a supervising attorney at the Legal Aid Society of D.C. “Between the federal money and the rents that are eventually going to be repaid by tenants in order to avoid eviction, it's actually not impossible that some of these landlords may come out ahead after this crisis.”

According to court records, Donatelli’s company, Park 7 Residential LP, filed writs of eviction for eight Park 7 tenants between March 11, when Mayor Muriel Bowser issued a COVID-19 stay-at-home order, and April 27.

The cases include complaints about unauthorized pets, nonpayment of rent, and excessive noise, representing a small fraction of the District’s total eviction filings over that period.

Property managers initiated eviction proceedings against nearly 1,300 people between March 16 and May 5, according to data compiled by Stomp Out Slumlords, the housing

ing one in late July in Prince George’s County, where activists physically blocked the landlord from kicking out his tenants. And in Virginia, a high-eviction state, according to data from the Eviction Lab at Princeton University, some tenants have received five-day “pay or quit” notices from their landlords this summer, despite a ban on evictions.

Jennifer Berger, an attorney who heads the Office of the Attorney General’s social justice office, says her team has already issued dozens of cease-and-desist letters to property managers of various sizes for pandemicrelated housing violations. Those violations include eviction threats as well as illegal rent increases and charges for amenities that tenants can’t use under current coronavirus restrictions, such as gyms. Berger has also heard from tenants whose landlords have entered their homes during the workday in alleged attempts to intimidate them.

“There's the explicit ‘pay or move’ kind of stuff,” Berger says. “And then there's also just the harassment because [tenants] aren’t paying, with hopes that it's so unpleasant that the tenant will leave.”

T

Meridian Heights

Park 7 advocacy arm of the Metro D.C. chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America. D.C. Superior Court records show that even more eviction cases have trickled in since then, although they’ve dropped off in number.

Many of these eviction filings came from companies that have benefited the most from local and federal assistance related to COVID-19. Urban Investment Partners, for example, received between $1 million and $2 million in PPP money, yet it and its subsidiaries filed at least 79 writs of eviction after the stay-at-home order went into effect. Borger Management, Inc., the recipient of between $350,000 and $1 million in PPP funding, has filed 42 writs of eviction, and Gelman Management Company, which secured between $1 million and $2 million, filed 25. (The U.S. Small Business Administration has not shared

specific PPP loan amounts, only ranges.)

And while the D.C. Council made it illegal for property managers to evict tenants for the duration of the public health emergency and for 60 days after, the Landlord and Tenant branch of D.C. Superior Court, where eviction cases are heard, said it would not automatically dismiss the cases filed during that time. Many of those cases are still pending, and given the backlog of housing cases from before the pandemic, it’s unclear how quickly they will be resolved.

These are just the documented cases.

What’s harder to tell is how many people have endured harassment from their landlords, whether that be in the form of hostile payment notices or dumping tenants’ belongings on the street. The DCTU has outright stopped a handful of extrajudicial evictions, includ-

here are two main financial issues that property managers are facing right now, says Randi Marshall, the vice president of government affairs in D.C. for the Apartment and Office Building Association of Metropolitan Washington, a trade group of residential and commercial developers and property managers who operate in the D.C. area. (Prior to joining AOBA, Marshall most recently worked as a senior police advisor on housing and land use issues for D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson.)

The first, which is most common among market-rate and luxury-priced rentals, is an abnormally high vacancy rate. Many college students who might otherwise be renting offcampus are now staying at home to save on rental costs, and workers who live in higherpriced buildings are choosing not to renew their leases. On the whole, AOBA members who operate market- to luxury-priced buildings anticipate seeing a 10 percent vacancy rate, nearly double the norm. “There is a crisis in leasing,” Marshall says.

The second issue is faced most acutely by renters of affordable and below-market rate housing, likely occupied by lower-income tenants whose homes are not subsidized by local or federal housing vouchers. These units, Marshall says, have been “hit hardest by tenants’ inability to pay rent.”

“It’s kind of the middle, low-to-middle buildings that are facing the biggest vulnerability when it comes to how do you [financially] sustain these buildings,” Marshall says.

She says that, for a number of reasons–– higher utility costs in master-metered buildings due to more tenants working from home; a decrease in timely rental payments; an uptick in private trash pickup; buying PPE for employees––the pandemic has been costly for building operators.

One of the largest pools of assistance funds available for developers and property management companies are PPP loans, which were designed to subsidize payroll costs for businesses that have been financially impacted by the pan-

washingtoncitypaper.com august 21, 2020 9

demic. Business operators can also apply for total loan forgiveness––though the process is complicated––if they meet a number of spending criteria. PPP loan recipients are eligible for forgiveness even if they use a portion of the money on other operating costs, like rent, utilities, and interest on mortgages.

According to PPP loan information released this summer by the SBA, more than 40 D.C.-based property management, development, and construction companies, including ubiquitous players like UIP Companies, Douglas Development Corporation, Blue Skye Construction, Bernstein Management Corporation, and MidAtlantic Realty Partners, have received PPP loans. Some range from $150,000 to $300,000; others are between $2 million and $5 million.

(In several cases, as for UIP, Borger, the Peebles Corporation, and Cafritz Interests LLC, those loans were approved by EagleBank, the Bethesda-based bank whose former CEO Ron Paul allegedly engaged in an inappropriate business relationship with erstwhile Ward 2 Councilmember Jack Evans. Ben Soto, the finance director for the nascent campaigns of Mayor Bowser and lame-duck Ward 4 Councilmember Brandon Todd, sits on EagleBank’s board.)

Property owners have other, more specific forms of financial relief available to them.

The CARES Act, for one, created new tax advantages for multifamily property owners.

And for properties financed through federally backed mortgages, as roughly two-thirds of properties in the country are, owners are entitled to defer payments for at least 90 days.

Marshall says many property managers are electing not to apply for federal assistance, adding that these options “are not as attractive as many people might feel it is. Many of those loans have high interest rates, and that’s money you wouldn’t have to pay interest on before.” PPP loans, according to the SBA, have a one percent interest rate.

In D.C. specifically, programs like the Emergency Rental Assistance Program also provide tenants who are short on rent and face eviction the money they need to make payments on time. Although renters cannot legally be evicted right now, many continue to file ERAP applications, according to data provided by a spokesperson for the Department of Human Services: 1,477 people applied for funds between March 11 and Aug. 3, just 453 fewer applications than the same period last year.

How businesses are using those funds is less clear. There is little, if any, local or federal oversight over PPP spending, and few strings attached to the money that companies claim will make or break their operation.

In some cases, those resources have allowed property managers to pass along their savings to renters. The J. Alexander Management Company, which owns and operates the New Hampshire & First Apartments near Fort Totten, notified tenants this summer that those who lost income due to the pandemic would be eligible for a combined rent forgiveness and payment arrangement plan: For every $100 of their rent tenants pay each month for the next year, the company will knock $200 off. Beyond those 12 months, the company will reduce rent by $300 for every $100 the tenant spends, according to a letter the

company circulated to tenants. The SBA’s PPP database shows that J. Alexander received between $150,000 and $300,000 in PPP loans.

(A spokesperson for J. Alexander did not return City Paper’s request for comment.)

“They are offering some rent forgiveness,” says Katharine Richardson, an organizer with the DCTU. “They said, ‘We've got this PPP money, and we'll share it with our tenants.’”

Renters have comparatively fewer paths to financial assistance than property owners and managers. While U.S. residents received a $1,200 stimulus payment from the Treasury Department this spring, that money is long out of sight for those who lost their jobs, if they received it at all. Locally, in addition to the eviction moratorium, the D.C. Council also implemented a new regulation under the Coronavirus Support Emergency Amend-

long term, those striking and their supporters hope that Cobalt Property Group, a South Carolina-based real estate investment firm that owns the building, and NOVO Properties, its management company, will offer some form of rent forgiveness. The majority of tenants pay between $1,500 and $2,000 a month for studio or one-bedroom apartments.

And while they use the language of the “cancel rent” movement, the strikers and their asks, as outlined in a May letter to NOVO and CPG, are more specific: Rent forgiveness for the months of March, April, and May, and more broadly, a rent repayment plan that wouldn’t see tenants increasing their monthly payments.

“NOVO’s response has been, ‘We want to do everything we can to help people stay in their homes, but, like, you’ve got to pay all this money,’ so not necessarily offering a real solu-

Stephanie Bastek ment Act of 2020 that requires property managers and owners to negotiate new rental payment plans with tenants who request one, with a minimum of a one-year repayment term to keep monthly payments low.

But that presents an obvious problem: If a renter has lost her job and has no source of income, making her unable to pay rent, she certainly won’t be able to commit to a year’s worth of monthly payments plus a percentage of what she previously owed. In practice, that is, payment plans look a lot like taking on rental housing debt.

The majority of building managers that Richardson has worked with haven’t shown a willingness to go beyond what the law requires to accommodate renters. On 15th Street NW in Columbia Heights sits a 60-unit building called Meridian Heights. Since April, Richardson has helped organize about 40 families in the building to push for collective rent forgiveness, many of them Latinx immigrants who work in the service industry and have lived there for years. Importantly, many of these tenants, some of whom are on a rent strike, aren’t eligible for existing government assistance because of their immigration or worker statuses.

“It’s primarily people who just don’t have the money to pay [rent],” Richardson says, “a lot of restaurant workers, people who worked in cleaning, building maintenance.” In the

10 august 21, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

tion,” Richardson says.

“We are totally empathetic to what people are facing,” says Brett Summers, a managing partner at NOVO. But, he says, the building’s owners haven’t agreed to rent forgiveness, or to negotiating “as one individual body.” He says NOVO has sent notices in Spanish and English “saying we’re willing to have those meetings. We’re willing to do Zoom calls to negotiate.”

Summers notes that NOVO also manages CPG’s other multifamily building in D.C., an apartment complex on Sherman Avenue NW. “DC Tenants Union organized Sherman in June, and we went from 98 percent [rent] collection at Sherman in May to 50 percent in June,” he says. “I found it interesting, because we didn’t have a collection issue before, even though COVID had been in place for a couple months. I’m not saying residents aren’t having financial hardship, but people were finding ways or had resources to pay rent.”

Meanwhile, Meridian Heights’ tenants were growing increasingly frustrated. In May, Don Pavon, a tenant organizer and fixture of the building, died of COVID-19. At the same time his wife had to launch a GoFundMe to help raise money to repatriate his body to Honduras, the tenants allege that NOVO threatened to evict her from the building because she wasn’t listed on the lease. (“Totally false,” Summers says. “An inflammatory so-

cial media story just designed to activate and enrage residents.”)

Aside from grieving the loss of a friend, tenants were also worried about contracting the virus themselves, and about the general state of the building. Video of the property taken over the course of the spring and summer show dumpsters overflowing with garbage bags, piled in stacks around the bins. “It’s not safe,” one tenant narrating the video says. In what they describe as the absence of regular or thorough cleanings from NOVO, tenants donned masks and long rubber gloves to sweep and sterilize common areas. Other videos show small cockroaches crawling across the lobby’s black-and-white tiled floors.

On all these counts, Summers denies that the company was in the wrong. In addition to sending a pest control company to treat the building “top to bottom” in early August, Summers says that while the private trash hauler they contract with might have gotten backed up, the building “never did not have a trash hauler.”

“What has become clear to us is that tenants did not report repair and maintenance issues” at the outset of the pandemic, Summers says. “It’s evident now that we’ve received an enormous number of requests since the rent strike has come into play.”

Public documents reveal that NOVO, which manages 19 properties in D.C. alone, has received financial assistance during the course of the pandemic. NOVO Development Corp. received between $350,000 and $1,000,000 in PPP loans, SBA documents show. And a document breaking down the financial status of roughly 60,000 federally backed mortgage for multifamily apartment buildings with federally-backed mortgages in the country shows that, in a good year, Meridian Heights has a comfortable budget surplus: close to $690,000 in reported revenue, and expenses and debt service totaling $515,304, leaving about $173,000 in gross revenue. (“Financially, [the pandemic] hasn’t been as significant as we may have feared, but there’s definitely been a reduction in collective incomes,” Summers says.)

After declining to collectively bargain around new rental payment terms, NOVO began contacting residents individually, encouraging them to sign individual payment plans.

When some declined to do so, the company sent them a second letter. “By signing below, I certify that I have been given an opportunity to enter into a payment plan … I AM DECLINING THIS PAYMENT PLAN,” the document says.

Richardson believes that it’s the company’s way of teeing up a win in court should the company decide to pursue evictions once D.C.’s moratorium lifts this year: “If they go to court [for an eviction], they can be like, ‘Look, we have this documentation that tenants rejected their right to have this payment plan,’” she says “We're seeing a lot of landlords sending notices to tenants––really aggressive notices, in some cases. Sometimes they are offering the repayment agreements that they're required to enter into with tenants under the law. But the problem is, sometimes they're offering repayment agreements that don't comply with the law,” Legal Aid’s Rintelmann says. “They're offering repayment agreements that are, you know, just completely impossible for tenants to comply

Chris Donatelli’s residence with, or they’re adding terms like, ‘You agree that not only will you repay the balance, but you will pay your rent on time each and every month for the next year,’ which is not permissible under the law.”

AOBA’s Marshall notes that, in general, many tenants who live in AOBA members’ buildings have proven reluctant to reach out to their property managers about potential payment plans. One of AOBA’s members, who Marshall declined to name, operates about 7,000 units of rental housing; of the 300 tenants who have fallen behind on rent, the company reported that only 30 people entered into payment plans.

It could just be that it’s too soon for many renters, particularly the newly unemployed, to agree to a new payment plan. How are you supposed to commit to a new rent schedule when you can’t find a job and don’t know how much money you’ll make when you do?

“When you look at the relief that is provided to tenants, or that has been discussed, it's always temporary relief, and it's never really complete,” Rintelmann says. “They really fail to acknowledge that many, if not most, lowincome workers will not be able to resume making full rental payments, let alone rental payments plus a repayment portion, any time in the near future. And so these plans, in some ways, just prolong the crisis for a lot of low-income families.”

T

he sun is setting on the Capital Memorial Seventh-Day Adventist Church in the tony enclave of Forest Hills, and across the street, the lights are on inside Donatelli’s $6.2 million mansion.

Donatelli bought the property, Forest Hills’ only landmarked home––built in the Shingle style in the late 19th century and dubbed the

Tara Maxwell Owl’s Nest––in 2006. Sitting on two acres of land, it’s tucked back from the street behind towering trees, and Donatelli spent a nice sum doubling the home’s square footage when he renovated the property. There are turrets and stained glass windows, a pool, and a miniature golf course. Donatelli, his wife, and their four children “take pleasure in the quirks and whimsical touches in their historic home,” a 2013 real estate feature in the Washington Post muses.

And on a balmy evening in mid-August, the block is quiet; it’s punctuated only by the chatter of Little League stragglers practicing their swings at the baseball diamond across the way and the soft fuzz of radio jazz stream-

ing in the park next door. But the DCTUn has other designs for the night.

About three dozen tenant organizers, plus a smattering of tenants from Park 7, donned face masks and black T-shirts to disrupt Donatelli’s dinner hours. Bearing cardboard signs, white sheets, and flags, all emblazoned with slogans like “cancel the rent” and “rent strike,” the crowd parked themselves in the concrete driveway of the Adventist Church, using Donatelli’s home as a backdrop for their demonstration against his management practices.

“Chris Donatelli, you are oppressing and exploiting your tenants,” Park 7’s Maxwell says with gusto into a mic that’s been hooked up to an amp, staring down Donatelli’s house.

“We are in a health pandemic and that doesn’t seem to bother you.”

She pauses, the end of her words bouncing down the block. One of Donatelli’s neighbors steps onto his balcony and begins filming the scene. Others who live on the street wander down to suss out where the noise is coming from.

There are the poor housing conditions, sure.

There is also the small fact that many people simply cannot afford their rent anymore. But mostly, it seems, there is anger over Donatelli’s blanket refusal to engage with tenants about these concerns. Responding to an email from a Park 7 renter that said “tenants are putting up with so much and are expected to be quiet”—one of the few times he replied to tenants who requested a meeting with him—Donatelli wrote, “God bless you [and] our team during this difficult time.” He added a prayer emoji.

“You’re sitting in your home on the hill with your round driveway, but we’re sitting in fear,” Maxwell says to cheers from the crowd assembled behind her. “You can live pretty much anywhere you want. We don’t have that luxury. Cancel the rent.”

The street traffic grows: Two teenage boys whiz by on skateboards, stopping at the outskirts of the crowd to listen in. A handful of Donatelli’s neighbors, all of them older and white, stop to ask this reporter with genuine curiosity just what’s going on here. They’ve never seen anything like this in their neighborhood, they say. Behind Maxwell, an activist twirls a flag in the air that reads “RENT STRIKE.” At the mic, another Park 7 resident surveys the crowd. In this neighborhood, “you see kids playing soccer, you see kids skating,” she says, eyeing the skateboarders. But in Ward 7, which has been hit hard by COVID-19, she says, kids are too scared to play in the street. “You don’t see nobody skating.

They’re afraid to come out.”

On internet forums for the unemployed trying to navigate arcane unemployment insurance systems, people across the country with $10 to their names ask where you can go to make a hundred bucks a week for transfusions of blood plasma. Some suggest that fertile women sell their eggs. Washingtonians best each other with the number of times they’ve tried to reach D.C.’s Department of Employment Services, to no avail. “My savings are drying up a bit and I’m just getting a little nervous,” one user says. “This is the crisis of a lifetime for all of us, and we're all just trying to get by,” adds another. The number of people in D.C. who say that the unemployment office has not responded to their claims continues to mount.

In Ward 7, where Maxwell and her Park 7 neighbors live, nearly 17 percent of people are unemployed, data from DOES shows. At least 89 residents of the ward have died from COVID-19. This misery, and the weight of this knowing, is the drumbeat of daily life.

“We are not going to continue to allow your reign of terror,” Maxwell continues.

Through the living room windows of the house, a man’s silhouette is visible. He peers out the window sporadically, surveying the crowd that crossed a city in the middle of a global pandemic to make their points heard.

They don’t want platitudes. They don’t want pity. And they certainly do not want Chris Donatelli’s thoughts and prayers.

washingtoncitypaper.com august 21, 2020 11

FOOD YOUNG & HUNGRY

A Death in the Family

needstoearnaround$133,000beforetaxestoafford the average apartment rental price in the District.

“We shouldn’t have to work 80 hours a week to pay rent,” Ordaya says. “We’re killing ourselves.

All these people have a second job. There’s got to be some sort of way to have rent-controlled, livable places where we don’t have to pay $2,400 for a one-bedroom.”

He also believes restaurants and bars, should they survive the pandemic, could pay their employees more. “This industry needs to find a way where all of us in the front of house and the back of house aren’t working ourselves to death,” he says.

Owners, too, have much to grapple with right now, including Nic Makris. He’s behind The Blaguard and Homestead and lost his fatherin-law, Iraj Askarinam, to COVID-19 on June 2. The two men were close—when Makris’ own father died in 2002, Askarinam stepped in, playing both a paternal and mentor role in Makris’ life.

Makris began dating Askarinam’s daughter, Elizabeth, in 2000, when he was 16, and worked for his future father-in-law throughout much of his career in the hospitality industry. “He was a very stick to his guns person who was always willing to give advice, unsolicited,” Makris says. “If he disagreed or had something to say, he had to tell you. He’s a serial oversharer. I can’t put enough emphasis on that.”

Askarinam, who opened Spaghetti Garden in Adams Morgan in 1981, was known to many around town as “Mr. Spaghetti.” He and his brothers went on to own a handful of other bars and restaurants in the neighborhood, including Brass Monkey. Askarinam taught Makris, a budding restaurateur in his own right, how to be

For hospitality industry professionals who’ve lost a loved one to COVID-19, the pandemic is doubly debilitating.

At least 770,000 people around the world have lost their lives to COVID-19. Losing a loved one to the disease has been particularly difficult for local hospitality professionals who have already seen the pandemic decimate their industry. Whether they’re ensuring tables are 6 feet apart or reminding patrons to put on their masks, every move is made while thinking about the virus that killed someone close to them. Reconciling these two realities brings up complicated emotions. Some workers say the experience has given them a fresh perspective on the bar and restaurant industry.

Mack Ordaya followed his father into the restaurant business. Alberto Ordaya was a chef in D.C. for decades, and left D.C. in February to care for his mother in Peru. COVID-19 infiltrated their small community and infected Alberto and a number of his brothers and sisters.

“It happened really, really fast,” Ordaya says.

“The doctor says he might have had it for 10 days before he died.” His father was eventually admitted to a hospital and put on a ventilator.

Alberto passed away on Aug. 1, at the age of 66.

While Ordaya had the chance to FaceTime with his father a few weeks earlier, he didn’t get to say a proper goodbye. He remembers his dad first and foremost as a hard worker, sometimes to a fault.

“He was working too much—60 or 70 hours a week,” Ordaya says. His father had one stroke in the early 2000s and another three years ago, when Ordaya was working at Bluejacket. After the second stroke, Ordaya paused to consider how much time he himself was spending on the clock.

“No one should work to live. I feel like we all do that too much.”

Now Ordaya is employed part time as a server at The Salt Line, where he says he feels safe. The owners are taking precautions to protect staff from contracting COVID-19. “We have managers patrolling the floor, making sure people are wearingmasksthewholetime,”hesays.“Theysetagood example. They’re not killing anyone with hours.”

But Ordaya recognizes that not everyone can afford to work less, especially in a city as expensive as D.C. A 2019 SmartAsset study found an individual

Darrow Montgomery

By Laura Hayes @LauraHayesDC

12 august 21, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

independent and when to take risks.

Makris has operated his restaurants throughout the pandemic, offering takeout and delivery at The Blaguard and some outdoor seating at Homestead. The whole time he was trying to make ends meet, he had Askarinam in mind. “I was worried for the health and safety of my fatherin-law,” he says. “I begged him to stay home and told him not to come over because I had decided to continue working.”

Askarinam still contracted COVID-19 and died at the age of 76 at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital. Elizabeth was able to say goodbye in person, but everyone else had to say farewell on FaceTime.

Because Askarinam was an Iranian Jew, the family finagled a way to sit shiva over Zoom. As is tradition, the family gathered for seven days to mourn. Even a rabbi signed onto the virtual platform. But the Askarinams deviated from the norm to be as inclusive as possible. “We opened it to the public,” Makris says, which allowed Askarinam’s former employees to participate. “His life was not centered in a synagogue. It was centered at Brass Monkey.” They said prayers, and close family and friends shared stories. “It was really helpful to experience that and mourn the loss and the struggle and the hardship together,” Makris says.

Still, it’s been an emotional summer.

“Everyone is mourning the loss of their preCOVID life,” Makris says. “To also lose a loved one I’ve known and considered family, it was just really hard. And all of my livelihood is in limbo. I’d love to feel confident that my restaurant is going to make it through this. We will if we’re willing to spend every dollar in savings we have. There’s just

so much loss we’re feeling.”

Askarinam’s death continues to weigh on Makris. “It’s definitely affecting how I’m operating and how I’m feeling,” he says. Makris remains nervous about the future, but for now he’s concentrating on keeping his staff safe while also bringing in enough revenue to outlast the pandemic.

“If the goal is to live and get to the other side of COVID, I’d like to get my businesses going again.

I’ve been flighting, and I need to fight.”

Bartender Allison Lane has been fighting for months in response to the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer. She was one of about 70 people who took shelter in a home on Swann Street NW during the protests against antiBlack racism and violence at the beginning of June.

Lane live-tweeted her experience with police that night, and her comments quickly went viral.

The tense situation prompted her to start a nonprofit called Bartenders Against Racism that works to combat racism and discrimination in the hospitality industry through awareness, education, and leadership development initiatives.

“I was trying to figure out where I fit in with my family now, and my friends,” she says. “I expected certain bad things to happen, like people being hateful about BAR. I didn’t think about personal things, like my family getting sick.”

But that’s what happened. On Aug. 2, Lane lost her aunt, Sonya, to complications related to COVID-19. “She was an incredible woman who took care of everyone in the family,” Lane says.

“When she passed, it was really, really sad. The worst part is COVID is so vicious. I can’t see her being a person who wasn’t wearing a mask. She was probably caring for her two elder parents. I

Mack Ordaya

FOOD can only imagine she was doing things that were benefiting her community.�

Sonya, who was 55, was living in West Virginia, where Lane’s family hails from. “They put her in the hospital on a ventilator,� Lane says. “Then she was brain-dead a week later. It just ravaged her body.�

Lane says she’s tried therapy to help her cope with both the death of her aunt and all of the changes in her life. She recommends Talkspace, an online therapy app that she says is affordable and flexible. She’s currently working at a bar, Electric Cool-Aid, that’s entirely outdoors, which brings her some comfort. “I feel 70 percent safe,� she states. “I’m not going back to working inside. I just can’t see it happening.� Like other hospitality professionals, she’s frustrated with customers who don’t respect rules that either the city or a venue have enacted to limit community spread of the virus. “‘Curt but kind’ is my motto,� she says. “I wish patrons were a little more concerned about the safety of their community.�

Amber Bursik, who co-ow ns DC9 Nightclub, agrees. She lost her mom, Katy, the day before Mother’s Day. Katy was 69 years old and living in a group house in the D.C. area with people around the same age when she died. “She failed to tell me someone in the house had COVID and was in the hospital for over two weeks,� Bursik says. “They came home after getting the all-clear, then went back to the hospital. Two days later, my mom passed away. I didn’t even know she was sick. She died at home.�

While Bursik says no autopsy was performed to confirm that COVID-19 complications caused her mother’s death, she’s convinced that’s what happened. She didn’t get to say goodbye and found out when a Montgomery County police officer called as she was leaving work on a Saturday night.

They weren’t very close. “We’re a mother and daughter,� Bursik says. “I’m an only child and she’s a single parent. A lot goes along with that.�

Still, she could have used more time to process what transpired. “I definitely had to focus on work.

There’s no other option for us at this point,� she says. “We’re all in survival mode.�

Bursik took one day off to pick up her mother’s belongings, and got tested before coming back to the nightclub. She says it’s ironic she had to pick up her mother’s cremated remains through curbside pickup, the same service she offers for food and drink at her nightclub.

DC9 was taking COVID-19 seriously before Katy died, but the death further cemented how dangerous this pandemic is. “Before it happened, I sat with it for a little and thought we would open up indoor dining and events,� Bursik says. “We’d had some things planned out and scheduled and now we’re not comfortable with it. Not at all.�

The DC9 team is utilizing its roof deck and recently applied to erect a “parklet� that will enable them to expand how many seats are available outdoors. Bursik says she was unwilling to do that until the city mandated that masks be worn in public, hoping the rule would have some teeth and help them enforce the policy. “There’s still a frustration level of people not taking it seriously,� she says. “I’ve lost someone and imminently, at any point, we could lose our business too.�

DIVERSIONS CROSSWORD

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Across 1. Funky fresh 5. Breaking Bad cook 9. Sensei’s room 13. Cross-dresser in a Kinks song 14. Old Testament prophet 15. “Victory is mine!�

16. Top of the heap 17. Loosen, as sneaks 18. Femoral groove spot 19. Spanish conquistador Hernån’s posse?

22. Lure 23. Sunday meal 26. “That’s stand-up comic Povitsky!�?

31. Singer/songwriter AlborĂĄn 34. Pulled leg muscle, colloquially 35. Singular prefix 36. French 101 word 37. They’re counted in November 38. Bock alternatives 39. President’s term, historically 40. Sing on a mountaintop 41. Livid 42. “Here’s a tip: sign up for the armyâ€??

They make all our reporting free for everyone.

45. Like Indians 46. Question from someone you haven’t seen in a while 50. Song praising an authoritarian figure?

54. Funk guitarist’s pedal 57. “Think outside the box!�

58. Roughly 59. Nerve appendage 60. “Let go of me�

61. Musical break 62. Seats for some weddings 63. Chuck 64. Sedgwick who was part of Andy Warhol’s �superstars�

Down 1. Where it’s at 2. Biker’s invitation 3. Time to use the siren emoji 4. Deed purchased at a government auction 5. Grapes in a glass 6. Festival lineup 7. For the flock 8. Truths in math 9. Harsh punishment handed down by the victor

10. Have a hold on 11. Kamala’s running mate 12. It’s better than nothing 14. Le Louvre, e.g.

20. Talk back?

21. Like optimistic outlooks 24. NFL coach with the most regular season wins 25. 2020 Christopher Nolan movie 27. ___ Island 28. Like cleared cookies 29. It might be in a laundry pile

30. Breadmaking stage 31. Spa treatment 32. Spots for fountains, maybe 33. Those in charge 37. Player Piano author 38. Paint seller 40. “Darn tooting�

41. “The fat ___ the fire�

43. Jaguars’ rivals 44. What do you see?

47. Unit of dignity 48. FC Barcelona’s all-time leading scorer 49. Ham things up 51. You might get it from kissing someone 52. The basics 53. Guitarist Lofgren 54. 2020 Cardi B single 55. Cutting feller 56. Dumbstruck response

LAST WEEK: UP WITH PEOPLE

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ARTS

Six local artists explain the inspiration for their HEMPHILL coloring book pieces and discuss what they’ve worked on in quarantine.

By Jennifer Anne Mitchell Contributing Writer Nine artists at HEMPHILL created a coloring book during the COVID-19 stay-at-home mandate. The gallery printed limited editions and published a downloadable digital copy on July 15.

“Art endures and so will we,” HEMPHILL states in its opening pages.

At first glance, the project seems whimsical, but there is also depth to the artwork that speaks to the times, like shapes that are placed at a physical distance and Black fists that rise up from a chaotic scene.

City Paper, which also put out a coloring book cover recently, spoke with the six contributing artists based in the Washington area—Julie Wolfe, Renée Stout, Robin Rose, Hedieh Javanshir Ilchi, Steven Cushner, and Rushern Baker IV—posing the same four questions to each of them to learn more about their HEMPHILL coloring book work and their art.

These interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity.

Julie Wolfe WCP: What motivates you to make art?

WCP: How has your artistic process changed during this time?

JW: I’ve been able to really focus more and spend more time on things. So my work has been much more detailed, thoughtful, and intentional.

WCP: What inspired your coloring book piece?

JW: It came from two series. One is called Magnitude of Equality—the radial sections [in the series] are all different colors. It’s supposed to be a cross section of views, ideas, and backgrounds; you put it all together [and] it has more magnitude. The eye is from a series called Dream Sequel: Seeing Again. I have been photographing artists’ eyes from all over the world. They’re shown all together on a wall in a grid pattern. So I just took one of those eyes that I had photographed and used it in the center.

Renée Stout WCP: What motivates you to make art?

RS: I can’t remember a time when I didn’t make art. I’ve been making art since I was a child, so I can’t even explain the motivation.

WCP: What art have you been making during quarantine?

RS: When something’s about to take place that’s really traumatic, I get these anxieties, little tremors, [like] something’s just not quite right. As early as 2015, before the 2016 election, the show I was having at HEMPHILL was [about how] I felt that the country was going to be at a major crossroads.

Since 2015, all [my] work has been touching on the issues that have been coming up for the past three years.

WCP: How has your artistic process changed during this time?

JW: It’s a means of expression for me to translate what I’m seeing and feeling, and documenting it and sharing that.

RS: I think because I noticed things back in 2015 [and] some of that stuff is really coming to pass, it’s fueling me to keep saying the things I need to say. I’m inspired to work more.

WCP: What have you been making during quarantine?

WCP: What inspired your coloring book piece?

JW: I did one drawing a day and stamped it with a library stamp with the date on each one. The images were mostly related to activities and observations [of] things that would happen during the day.

After I finished that, I started working on this other series. I published a book last year about dreams and the subconscious. I’ve deconstructed it and [made] silk-screened images of dreams that we’re having now during COVID-19 that are much more vivid and intense than what we

RS: My coloring book piece is based on a piece that I did in the early ’90s, an actual bullhorn. I stuffed it with all these magic substances [the piece features horn, cloth, bone, husk, twine, pigment, latex paint and shell], then decorated it and embellished it with beadwork and pigment. A collector bought it a long time ago, and a few years back it ended up in the collection of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. I got a chance to revisit it when the museum opened. So it’s been on my

14 august 21, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

Courtesy of HEMPHILL Artworks

Color Theory

were having a year ago. I’ve been talking to people about their dreams. Each [page] has a screen print image on it that’s covering the image that was there previously.

Rushern Baker IV’s page in the HEMPHILL 2020 Coloring Book

mind recently, and when they wanted us to do a coloring book page, that thing popped up. It’s a nice shape. I could easily render a line drawing of it and make it into something interesting in a two-dimensional way.

Robin Rose WCP: What motivates you to make art?

RR: I’ve always been incredibly inquisitive. I consider myself a finder. I’m like a frustrated archeologist, and basically motivated to find something that I don’t see. If I saw it, I wouldn’t make it.

WCP: What art have you been making during quarantine?

RR: I usually work in sequences or episodes. It all started [in] March. The first one was “Breathe.”

I’m working on a new diptych right now, and I’m trying to just document my own experience during this time.

WCP: How has your artistic process changed during this time?

RR: Each painting really has to count. I’m at

a point in my life where I don’t need a sense of hyperbole. I’m not interested in painting a painting; I’m interested in painting the painting. I don’t need a lot of preliminary work, sketches, second go-arounds. It’s got to be the painting. It’s got to be committed totally. I think that’s the way it’s always been, but it’s more profound and pronounced now.

WCP: What inspired your coloring book piece?

RR: About five years ago, we bought a 1960s beach house in Rehoboth Beach [Delaware].

When [the pandemic] happened, [my wife] Judy and I, and Hannah, my daughter, decided to come out here.

I was a musician as well, so I see visual experiences rhythmically, in a way. I spend a lot of time on YouTube because it’s such a teaching tool, especially if you’re a visual person. I found the Victoria Crater on Mars, and inside the crater are these incredible rhythm patterns. It must have been produced by something. Whatever that material [is], it reminds me of the beach and watching the sand shift, the rhythmic patterns of the waves coming in and coming out. In the coloring book, I just kind of wanted to point that out.

ARTS ARTS FILM REVIEW Hedieh Javanshir Ilchi WCP: What motivates you to make art?

HJI: I think it’s just a need. I’ve always wanted to use my hands, and the idea of creating something out of nothing appeals to me.

WCP: What art have you been making during quarantine?

HJI: For a couple months, I was stuck and I couldn’t make new work. It took a while to find something playful but that also related to the pandemic. I started to use colors that are a bit more toxic in their look and had an acidic sense. So I used neons, acidic colors, combining accidental paint splatters with layers of pattern.

WCP: How has your artistic process changed during this time?

HJI: One thing that changed was using colors that were harsher, which I wanted to relate to the virus, sort of an organic, uncontrolled substance.

It was really difficult to work in the house, so I’m really happy to be back in the studio. It’s a group space, so we have to find a schedule.

WCP: What inspired your coloring book piece?

HJI: I do a lot of patterning in my work, from Persian or Islamic patterns. I thought that would really fit well with the idea of coloring. So I took an older drawing I had for a piece, and I created two shapes so they’re almost mirroring; one of them is flipped. It’s almost like two figures coming together and having that kind of gap, thinking about distancing that we’ve been going through.

Steven Cushner WCP: What motivates you to make art?

SC: It allows me to exercise a part of my personality that I don’t think I can exercise in public. I tend to be a little bit reserved. In my painting, I tend to be much more impulsive. It’s like any kind of physical activity. I try to paint every day. I’m a better person for it. I feel better. I think better. I’m easier to be around.

WCP: What art have you been making during quarantine?

SC: I feel both guilty and lucky [that] I have a studio at home, so I’ve been able to get probably more work done than I would have in normal times. I think I probably went through the same kind of emotional roller coaster that most people did.

For the first six weeks, I found it very difficult to focus. The idea of business as usual didn’t seem to make any sense, and in some ways doesn’t seem to make any sense still. If or when we’re lucky enough to come out of this, the world is going to look different, and the priorities for everybody, both the world at large and on an individual level, may be rethought.

WCP: How has your artistic process changed during this time?

SC: I have a little bit more patience because I know I have unlimited time. I’m thinking a little bit more as I’m working. And I’m thinking a little bit less of myself and my work, and maybe a little bit more about its place in the world.

WCP: What inspired your coloring book piece?

SC: The way I work is I have my major work, paintings, but I always have work on paper going simultaneously, and every few years I’ll change my materials as a way to challenge myself. For the last year or so, I’ve been working on some smaller wood cuts in my studio. The piece in the coloring book is a woodcut, but it was kind of an artist’s proof that then developed into an image in full color.

Rushern Baker IV WCP: What motivates you to make art?

RB: I draw inspiration from historical moments and current events. In all of my work, there is this sense of urgency and energy but also chaos that comes from a sense of anxiety that surrounds the work. We’re living in a pandemic [with] societal threats on a micro and macro level. Then, also thinking about navigating the world as a Black man in the United States and the micro level threats of racial animus. That, on top of all the big picture things, it all seeps into the way that I think about my paintings.

WCP: What art have you been making during quarantine?

RB: I’ve been looking at these old Kurz and Allison prints of the 54th Massachusetts Regiment, the first all-Black unit to serve in the Civil War. I’ve been taking some of that iconography and imagery and incorporating that into a new series of prints and paintings. It feels really relevant right now.

WCP: How has your artistic process changed during this time?

RB: In the past, [my] work tended to be more of an objective form of abstraction. It was still speaking to the history of Black abstraction from people like Sam Gilliam. With all of the political upheaval happening right now, the work has been getting more specific and more explicit.

WCP: What inspired your coloring book piece?

RB: This coloring book image was based off [of] a collection of paintings I made that I kind of traced over to allow whoever would be coloring this in [to] go in and add color. The only area I colored in for them were the Black fists that were arising out of the chaotic moment of the composition. I think it speaks, again, to current events.

Make or Break Tesla Directed by Michael Almereyda The biopic is one of the least daring movie genres. Filmmakers can be too focused on accuracy, and the lead actors often care more about mimicry than nuanced performance. From My Left Foot to Bohemian Rhapsody, viewers have a baseline expectation of where these stories will go. If Walk Hard was an attempt to skewer this genre, then director Michael Almereyda’s Tesla is an attempt to reinvent it. Almereyda and his cast break the fourth wall, include idiosyncratic, anachronistic pop culture references, and call attention to the artificiality of the film’s own production values. This approach is a good fit for the material, since a traditional biopic of inventor Nikola Tesla would be too staid.

When we first meet Tesla (Ethan Hawke), he is working in a lab owned and operated by Thomas Edison (Kyle MacLachlan). Many biographies and pop history books speak of the rivalry between these two inventors, although Tesla suggests they merely walked the same path for a short while.

The most intriguing section of the film is where Tesla strikes out on his own, powering the World’s Fair in Chicago with alternating current and experimenting with lightning storms in Colorado.

Other important figures wander into his life, like George Westinghouse (Jim Gaffigan) and famed actress Sarah Bernhardt (Rebecca Dayan). All this suggests Tesla was a particular man, incurious about fame or success and driven by where his ideas might lead.

That kind of man—intelligent, reserved, and awkward—does not typically make for a compelling biopic. Tesla’s primary tactic for sidestepping that concern is simple: Eve Hewson plays Anne Morgan, daughter of J. P. Morgan and friend to Tesla, who narrates the film. She provides crucial biographical details, sometimes with the aid of a MacBook that sits in front of her; she defines fame through how many Google results these inventors have. Perhaps this tactic is off-putting, but then we realize it is no more artificial than an onscreen title card or dialogue with an overabundance of

exposition. Morgan’s narration allows the main characters to be themselves, so the scenes with Tesla and Edison are more about personality than advancing the plot.

There are other flourishes that you might expect in an art house film. Almereyda uses rear projection for scenes where he could not shoot on location, and instead of going for realism, he highlights how artificial it is. This is no low-budget film that tries to look respectable, but rather it becomes respectable by owning its limitations. There are other, sillier moments that depend on the audience’s knowledge of film history. In one scene, MacLachlan devours a piece of pie as Edison, a nod to Agent Cooper in Twin Peaks. And longtime Almereyda fans may recall that MacLachlan and Hawke last squared off in his modern adaptation of Hamlet. This metatext serves as a trenchant reminder that biographical films need not be stodgy historical documentaries.

The dialogue is modern and Hawke’s performance is more physical than anything. His Tesla switches in and out of a European accent, and he moves like he’s in a constant state of discomfort. MacLachlan is the right mix of charm and menace, especially given Edison’s reputation as a cutthroat businessman. Still, the most memorable scenes eschew character development altogether. Hewson delivers her lines like a gossip or co-conspirator, and part of the fun is the impression that we’re being told a secret.

Late in Tesla, there is a moment that is both incisive and rebellious. Hawke has always dabbled in music, and here he grabs a microphone, singing a pop song from the 1980s. The important thing is that he does this as Tesla, moving awkwardly and barely singing along to the beat. With the lyrics slowed down, we can hear how the inventor might have identified with the song and its meaning. Of course, sketch comedy and parody have incorporated these kinds of references for as long as the genre has been alive. It is rare and refreshing to see it in a film that expects its audience to take it seriously. Just because Tesla was active in the late 19th century doesn’t mean that he should speak or act like an old-timer. He was a man of his day, just like all of us, except he also happened to be a brilliant thinker.

—Alan Zilberman Tesla is available Friday on VOD.

washingtoncitypaper.com august 21, 2020 15

Courtesy of HEMPHILL Artworks

ARTS

Julie Wolfeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s page Love Rules in the HEMPHILL 2020 Coloring Book 16 august 21, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

CITY LIGHTS City Lights

The Palestinian Diaspora Stories: Chile and Colombia Did you know there’s a large population of Palestinians throughout Latin America? There were several waves of Arab migration from Palestine between the 19th and 20th centuries, and many immigrants settled throughout countries such as Honduras, Colombia, and Chile. The latter country is home to half a million Palestinian-Chileans to this day, boasting the largest Palestianian community outside the Arab world. To learn more about this community, join the Museum of the Palestinian People on Aug. 21 for a discussion about the diaspora in Chile and Colombia. The discussion will be hosted by two community leaders: Marcelo Marzouka, a Palestinian-Chilean lawyer and scholar who promotes investment in Palestine, and Odette Yidi, a Colombian-Palestinian scholar on the Palestinian diaspora in the Caribbean. The talk begins at noon on Aug. 21. Registration is available at eventbrite.com. Free.

—Kaila Philo

City Lights

We Don’t Know Either Live City Lights

The Joan of Arc statue McPherson, Logan, McClellan, Joan: One of these is not like the others. The circles and parks of D.C. are sprinkled with bronze men of stature looking valiantly ahead while on horseback, traditionally a sign of military prowess, but there is only one place to pay respects to an equestrian woman. It’s fitting that she was presented by the Society of French Women of New York to honor all the women of the United States. Today, Joan of Arc presides over Malcolm X Park with her sword raised above her head—but that’s not always been the case, as sword thieves have made off with it several times since she arrived in 1921. (She went nearly two years without it recently, from 2016 to 2018.) Joan of Arc was not exactly the oversized white man with bad politics you usually see looking down over the city. She was a teenaged farmer who, through her fierce commitment to the French cause and her claims of divine revelation, captured the attention of the son of the king, who deferred to her; she then led a 15th-century battle against the English. Stroll the shaded gravel lanes of the park and, as you approach the center, enjoy the presence of Jeanne D’Arc, libératrice. The statue is located in Malcolm X Park near 15th and Belmont streets NW. Free.

—Ellie Zimmerman

City Lights

U Hall TV U Hall TV provides a more intimate club experience than could ever be imagined in the middle of a global pandemic. Just two days away from celebrating its 10th anniversary in March—a celebration that usually involves a week of back-to-back dance parties and live performances—U Street Music Hall closed its doors to the public due to the pandemic. When D.C. entered an indefinite quarantine, owner Will Eastman created U Hall TV as a way to connect with the club’s loyal patrons. U Hall TV currently broadcasts live DJ performances via Twitch, where the audience can also connect directly to the artist through the chat feature, something that was near-impossible in real life.

“The livestreams are the only way to fulfill our mission to present great music to our audience,” says Eastman over the phone. The livestreams also provide a means to raise money for the club’s staff through sales of U Street Music Hall merchandise. By the fall, Eastman plans to expand its offerings to include live bands, panel discussions, and artist interviews. Eastman says the ultimate goal “is to create a 24/7 full-service entity that melds community outreach with the best freeform new genre bookings with our no-attitude ethos.” The weekly schedule and livestreams are available at twitch.tv/uhalltv. Free.

—Casey Embert

Before the pandemic, District Trivia had become a mainstay of the D.C. post-work drinking scene, hosting events at more than 80 bars and restaurants. But while in-person trivia is still on hold, the folks at the We Don’t Know Either podcast, a show featuring District Trivia question-writers, have filled the void with thrice-weekly trivia events streamed via Facebook Live. We Don’t Know Either Live is free to play and features three rounds of trivia. The questions cover a wide range of knowledge, including music, pop culture, sports, history, movies, and zany fun facts. The format matches the old in-person trivia nights, with 10 questions that ramp up in both difficulty and value, as well as two do-it-yourself puzzle rounds. “Although there’s no substitute for the excitement and sense of competition you feel at a live venue, I thought the online District Trivia event was a fun, well-run quarantine activity,” frequent player Olivia Fritz noted. “It was basically a shortened version of what you would experience at an in-person trivia night.” We Don’t Know Either Live runs on a different schedule every week, which you can find on the Facebook group (which has 2,723 members as of writing, in case you were wondering how popular these games are). We Don’t Know Either Live generally runs on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, as well as on sporadic weekends. Games kick off in the evenings and run less than 90 minutes. Feel free to play along with friends or test your mettle by yourself! Information and schedules are available at facebook.com/groups/wedontknoweitherlive. Free.

—Tristan Jung

City Lights

The Orpheus Project One of few American opera training programs to occur in-person this summer took place not at a renowned music conservatory, but at a mid-priced hotel near Dulles Airport. The Wolf Trap Opera 2020 summer residency program got underway in June, when more than 30 singers took over two floors of a hotel. Artists got their own suites, Wi-Fi, and occasional visits from a masked pianist. “The hotel lifted their noise restrictions for us so they could practice, which was wonderful,” says Lee Anne Myslewski, Wolf Trap’s vice president for opera. Once two weeks of quarantine were complete, the singers bubbled up and began rehearsing in both indoor and outdoor spaces at Wolf Trap. During non-pandemic summers, the fellows typically perform two chamber operas at The Barns and one major production at the Filene Center. This year, Myslewski and her staff focused on performing opera for film, producing four thematic concerts. The second in the series, The Orpheus Project, can be streamed on demand this weekend, and features D.C. soprano Chanae Curtis (as well as five other singers) performing songs from various settings of the Orpheus myth, the tragic tale of the Greek hero who follows his lover Eurydice into the underworld. Although Wolf Trap was unable to give the singers the live performances they hoped for, director David Paul staged eerie scenes throughout Wolf Trap’s restored 18th-century barn.

The resulting films should be timely: What is 2020 if not a strange, otherworldly hellscape? The opera is available beginning Aug. 23 at 3 p.m. at wolftrap.org. Free.

—Rebecca J. Ritzel washingtoncitypaper.com august 21, 2020 17

DIVERSIONS SAVAGE LOVE I’m a 35-year-old woman. I recently discovered I’m a size queen. (Is it OK for me to use this term?)

This has been brewing for a while, as I have dabbled with purchasing larger and larger cucumbers and fucking myself with them after a good wash. I use a condom and tons of lube and it’s been amazing.

Are there any safety or health concerns I should be aware of? I’m moving away from fucking produce and purchased my first sizeable toy. I see safety tips online for men who like large toys in their butts but I wanted to know if there is anything I should be aware of as a vagina-haver. I mainly partner with men but am expanding to date women. I’ve been fisted only once by a woman and absolutely loved it.

—Finding I Lately Love Enormous Dildos

City Lights

Mike Birbiglia’s Working It Out “Cleverness is overrated, and heart is underrated,” Mike Birbiglia wrote in 2016 for the New York Times. The empathetic Georgetown University and DC Improv alum, known for storytelling shot through with an enthralling honesty, is also a comedian, director, actor, writer, filmmaker, author, and now host of a free weekly podcast. Since May, Birbiglia has gifted comedy fans with about a dozen podcast episodes in which he works out new material amid veering, spelunking conversations with other comedians or creators. In the second episode, stand-up comedian and former Saturday Night Live writer John Mulaney, who, like fellow basketball fan Birbiglia, belonged to an improv group at Georgetown, tells vulnerable tales about youth sports travails. This evolves into Birbiglia explaining that a touch of unwarranted self-belief is part of getting on stage: “Hands down, I don’t know a single comedian for whom this isn’t true. You will bomb a lot of times. And when you’re bombing, you basically have to tell yourself: No, this is going pretty well.”

Agreeing with him, Mulaney harkens back to the basketball court, where he warmed the bench.

“I did think I would get better. Yeah, I’m only 12,” he recalls. “I didn’t know that that was it.”

In the seventh episode, he chats with Sarah Cooper, a comedian and author who moved to Rockville at age 3, graduated from the University of Maryland College Park, and went on to work for Yahoo! and Google. She now does viral videos of her lip-syncing Donald Trump. And apart from the podcast, Birbiglia and his wife, poet J. Hope Stein, are participating in Politics and Prose’s P&P Live! Series on Aug. 21, where they’ll discuss their insightful new book about becoming parents, The New One: Painfully True Stories from a Reluctant Dad. The podcast is available at workingitout.libsyn.com. Free.

—Diana Michele Yap

So long as you’re taking it slow, FILLED, so long as you’re using lots of lube, so long as you’re playing with toys that have flared bases and were designed for insertion play, and so long as those toys are made of body-safe materials like silicone, then you’re doing everything right.

And yes, FILLED, you may use the term “size queen” to describe yourself!

—Dan Savage I’m a longtime fan of your column and your podcast.

Recently a discussion came up on Facebook and I was curious as to what your take on the situation was. It was about diaper play: A group of people seem to think that enjoying this kink is the same thing as being a pedophile or engaging in “pedo-lite” behavior. Another group—myself included—believes that it is simply an expression of a kink between two consenting adults, and therefore isn’t the same as pedophilia at all. I was curious as to what your take on the situation was, or if you had any suggestions on how to approach this topic with the first group? Thank you, wishing you all the best!

—Wandering Ethical Terrain Of Nappies Employed Sexually Does fucking someone who’s wearing a dog collar count as bestiality? Of course not, WETONES, because dog collars no more turn consenting adults into dogs than diapers turn consenting adults into infants. And the disapproval of strangers on the internet not only won’t stop an adult who wants to wear diapers from wearing diapers, WETONES, but that disapproval makes wearing diapers all the more arousing because the transgression and “wrongness” of wearing diapers makes wearing diapers arousing—not for everyone, of course, but for most people who are into wearing diapers. Which means your disapproving friends are playing right into the pervy hands/crinkly rubber shorts of all the diaper lovers out there.

And while it’s true that some people who are into age play are also into diapers, WETONES, it’s not true that everyone who’s into diapers is into age play. For most people who get off on diapers, it’s the humiliation of being a diapered adult that turns them on, not the fantasy of being a child.

—DS My husband and I recently watched the fantastic ’70s porn Alice in Wonderland: An X-Rated Musical Fantasy (we got to it by watching Meatballs). It was everything I’ve ever wanted in a porn. Perhaps you or your readers could recommend something similar to put in our rotation?

—Likes To Watch

18 august 21, 2020 washingtoncitypaper.com

Check out Caligula. This intermittently pornographic 1979 film probably isn’t as lighthearted as the version of Alice in Wonderland you stumbled over, LTW, but it doubtless has a much more interesting backstory and far bigger stars. A young and sexy Malcolm McDowell as the mad Roman emperor with Peter O’Toole (!), John Gielgud (!!), and Helen Mirren (!!!) in supporting roles. Even better, this amazing train wreck of a movie is based on a screenplay by Gore Vidal.

—DS Here’s a quickie: If a woman is attracted to cis men and non-binary humans (who can have either a penis or vagina) but that woman is not attracted to cis women … would that woman be bi or pan? Labels are not super important to me, Dan, but I’m calling on my friendly neighborhood sex advice columnist for help just the same!

—Loves All Bodies Except Ladies While bisexual was once commonly understood to mean “attracted to both sexes,” the

“While a lot of people use bi and pan pretty much interchangeably these days, the bi label is probably a slightly better fit for you, LABEL, seeing as your libido disqualifies all members of one gender — your own — from emotional, romantic, or sexual consideration. ” Human Rights Campaign’s online glossary now defines bisexual as “emotionally, romantically or sexually attracted to more than one sex, gender or gender identity.” That same online glossary defines pansexual as “the potential for emotional, romantic or sexual attraction to people of any gender.” While on the first read, there doesn’t seem to be much daylight between those two definitions, LABEL, there actually is some difference between being attracted to “more than one [gender]” and being attracted to “people of any gender.” And while a lot of people use bi and pan pretty much interchangeably these days, the bi label is probably a slightly better fit for you, LABEL, seeing as your libido disqualifies all members of one gender—your own—from emotional, romantic, or sexual consideration. —DS I’m a queer man who’s starting to bottom again after

10 years of being on top. I have a butt plug that my anus keeps pushing out, even though I’ve tried relaxing and lots of lube. It feels great when it’s in, and then there it goes! I need tips! But not just the tip, please.

—Exciting XXX Toy Or Projectile?

The butt plug you’re using is too small. Like other recovering tops before you, EXTOP, you made the mistake of purchasing a small plug because you didn’t think your ass could handle a medium or large one. But butt plugs are held in place after the widest part slides all the way into your ass, past your anal sphincters, and then your sphincters close around the neck of the plug, the narrow part before the flared base. But if the wide part isn’t much wider than the narrow part—if you bought a plug that looks more like a finger than a lava lamp—then the anal sphincters will push the plug back out. Or, even worse, they’ll send the plug flying across the room when your sphincters contract at the moment of orgasm.

Do yourself and your wallpaper a favor, EXTOP, and get yourself a bigger plug.

—DS I am an avid reader, and I incorporate much of your advice in caring for my patients. I have tremendous respect for you and your column. Nonetheless, I must raise a concern about a small comment in your response to COVET, the woman who was wondering about getting together with a new partner for sex despite social distancing: “Life is short,” you wrote, “and this pandemic is going to be long.” The lockdown is indeed difficult, Dan, but the concept that “this pandemic is going to be long” leads too many of us to feel as if the pandemic will never end. Impatience is driving some people to risky behavior that can be otherwise avoided. With attention to safety measures, we can reduce our risk of infection, as well as emotionally survive until a vaccine is available. Patience with the pandemic is analogous to the perseverance that Londoners used to get through the bombings of World War II. —Practice All Necessary Deeds Especially Masks Isolating COVID-19 Thank you for sharing, PANDEMIC!

—DS

I got into my Lyft at 6 a.m. this morning to go to the airport. My driver was an older man with a Southern drawl. The Savage Lovecast was playing on the radio when I entered his car and I thought he was going to turn it off when he realized it was still on, and I was already planning to ask him to turn it back on if he did. I’ve had some heartfelt beautiful and rich conversations with my Lyft drivers and I thought we would bond over our shared love of your show. I was literally sitting in the backseat thinking, “This is so great, we are so different, but we have at least one thing in common. I wonder how long he has been a listener, and could he be a Magnum subscriber too?”

Then I realized the episode playing was the one I was listening to the previous night as I fell asleep ... and then I realized my phone was connected to his car’s Bluetooth. Oops. Love you, Dan! —Sheryl In TEXAS! Thank you for sharing, SIT, and thanks for turning a new listener on to the Savage Lovecast! —DS Email your Savage Love questions to mail@savagelove.net

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washingtoncitypaper.com august 21, 2020 19

Year Up is Closing the Opportunity Divide Capital One partnered with non-profit adult training program Year Up to help close the opportunity divide and launch careers.

Trading his books for a job in retail, Eyoeal Zewdo dropped out of college just months after getting started.

He watched as his friends earned their college degrees four years later and started jobs that far outpaced his salary — despite being promoted to store manager.

Searching for a new path, a friend working in tech told Zewdo of his experience with Year Up, a free, 12-month intensive program for 18-24 year olds without a bachelor’s degree.

“I thought it was too good to be true,” Zewdo said. “He said it was free school and they trained you to be ready for the professional workforce. I said ‘why not?’”

With nearly 90% of its student body composed of people of color, non-profit Year Up is committed to closing the opportunity divide that cuts off more than 6 million young adults from a stable career path despite having the talent and drive to achieve more.

Recognizing that U.S. businesses face a significant skills gap of 12 million jobs through 2025, Year Up offers tracks in business and tech to fill this pressing need for more skilled workers.

Pursuing Year Up’s IT track, Zewdo took classes at Northern Virginia Community College’s Alexandria campus for six months. Zewdo and his classmates then embarked on six-month internships with local companies to sharpen the skills they’d learned in the classroom.

As they neared the program’s conclusion in June, this Year Up cohort had the unique opportunity to ready themselves for their upcoming job hunt during a day of mock interviews with over 150 Capital One associates.

Closing the Opportunity Gap and Launching Careers While Capital One has typically hosted around 50 Year Up associates for internships each year since 2013, Naomi Smouha, Community Relations Manager at Capital One, aimed to expand this partnership to assist every student.

“They are untapped talent,” Smouha said. “They just haven’t had the same opportunities to network and have access to the corporate workforce. Year Up provides them the training and companies like Capital One opens the doors.”

While Year Up students are given ample professional preparation through classroom and internship opportunities, Capital

One’s mock interview session aimed to simulate the unfamiliar feeling of being interviewed by a prospective employer.

Zewdo’s nerves locked up on him when he sat down with Kerry Osborne, a Senior Audit Manager at Capital One. “I always killed it in the classroom so I didn’t really practice much,” Zewdo said. “When I spoke with Kerry, I went in really confident but then I got really nervous and started choking up. I stumbled on certain answers I would’ve assumed I’d knock out of the ballpark.”

While those mock interviews were designed to be as realistic as possible, Osborne saw him fumbling on his words and felt the need to help.

Zewdo sat stunned as Osborne paused the interview. He had unknowingly found a new mentor.

“I’ve been so lucky in my career to have a number of coaches along the way that were really invested in helping me to grow my skills and achieve success,” Osborne said. “This was just a small way for me to give back and help someone as they’re getting their career underway.”

Osborne offered Zewdo a mental framework to use when answering any interview question. Reflecting how candidates for positions at Capital One are asked to walk through their experience, Osborne suggested he answer each question by presenting the situation, action he took and results he achieved.

For Osborne, she felt comfortable to break away from the mock interview structure because she realized it would provide Zewdo with an opportunity to hear real-time feedback, after which he could practice the new approach in further mock interview questions.

Towards the end of the interview, it became apparent to Osborne that Zewdo had spent ample time going through her background after connecting on LinkedIn, as he asked her specific questions about her career and how it translated to her work at Capital One. From there, the conversation quickly turned from interview tips to a chat about life and Zewdo’s goals for his professional and personal future.

Just one week later Zewdo found himself following Osborne’s guidance during an interview for an IT Support role with a DCbased law firm.

Three days after that, Zewdo received his very first offer letter in his new field.

SPONSORED STORY FROM CAPITAL ONE

Helping Students Become Better Versions of Themselves “If it wasn’t for that mock interview with Kerry, I promise you, I wouldn’t have done as well as I did,” Zewdo said.

Zewdo’s gratitude to the Capital One associate that helped him grow is a recurring sentiment felt by Year Up associates, according to Year Up’s employment placement manager, Yolanda McCleary.

“Capital One has proven their commitment to helping our students become the best versions of themselves,” McCleary said.

“Our students often share how the care, dedication and mentorship provided from the Capital One staff has left a lasting impact on their lives.”

The strength of their connection shined through when Osborne learned of Zewdo’s big news.

“I just kind of squealed when I heard he got the job,” Osborne said. “He shared the wonderful news and I felt so honored that he thought of me as being an important component of his success.”

Just one month after starting his new job, Zewdo is already looking to pay forward the help he received from Year Up and Capital One in realizing his goals.

“For me, Year-Up was a second chance that helped me figure out what I want to do and sparked my interest in getting education,” Zewdo said. “Seeing that there are people like Kerry that are willing to take the time to give me the pointers to have success in my own life, I feel like one day I have to repay that to people in my similar situation. I owe that.”