Events: Give your thoughts on DC agencies’ performance at upcoming hearings

Each year, the DC Council holds oversight hearings on every single agency in the government, and any member of the public can speak. It’s a great way to give praise and/or criticism in front of top agency officials and the councilmembers overseeing that agency,

Oversight hearings have already begun and continue through March 6. DDOT’s is February 25 and the Office of Planning holds its hearing February 28. The full schedule is on the council website. There are then a second set of hearings to discuss the budget for the next fiscal year, from March 20 to April 9.

To sign up for a hearing, find it on the schedule (there’s one embedded page of oversight hearings and a second for budget) and see the instructions about who to email to sign up.

Note that the hearings are during the day and can last for hours. Unfortunately, that often limits participation to professionals in the field, retirees, or people who can take off a whole day to sit at the Wilson Building.

Other events from around the region:

Tuesday, January 14

Join an extraordinary conversation about buses: Join GGWash Tuesday, January 14, along with nationally-recognized bus advocates, to learn leading lessons from across the country that our region can deploy to prioritize the bus, during our League of Extraordinary Bus Advocates event.

Our speakers will discuss what other regions are doing to improve bus transportation, with the goal of pushing elected officials, decision-makers and advocates to set our sights higher to make the bus competitive. The event takes place from 5 to 7 pm at the Pepco Edison Place Gallery, 702 8th Street NW. RSVP for this free event.

Understand more about the District’s streetscapes: Learn about the District’s streetscapes during a Q&A about “proposed federal planning and design guidance for our capital city’s streetscapes.” The National Captial Planning Commission staff will present the “Streetscape and Lighting Frameworks – an update to the 1992 National Mall Streetscape Manual.”

NCPC will hold two discussions on the same subject on different days: Tuesday, January 14 from 6:30 pm to 7:30 pm and Wednesday, January 15, from 10 am to 11 am., both at the National Capital Planning Commission, 401 9th Street, NW, Suite 500.

Thursday, January 16

What happened to DC’s planned communities?: Scholars Mary Corbin Sies and Isabelle Gournay will be on hand to discuss their new book Iconic Planned Communities and the Challenge of Change, as part of the Greenbelt Museum’s quarterly lecture series. The panelists will explore “what happened to planned communities after their glory days had passed and they became vulnerable to pressures of growth, change, and even decline.” This event runs from 7:30 pm - 9:30 pm, Thursday, at the Greenbelt Community Center, 15 Crescent Road, Greenbelt, MD.

Though the is event is free and open to the public, you must sign up for your ticket. Click here for more details.

Sunday, January 19

Learn about the history of DC’s Chinatown: Come learn all about DC’s Chinatown from 2 pm - 4 pm Sunday, at the I Street Conferencing Center, Level C, 600 Massachusetts Ave NW. The presentation will include “creative workshop activities to engage audience perspectives and memories of D.C.’s Chinatown.” Sunday, January 19, 2020, 2:00 pm–4:00 pm, I Street Conferencing Center, Level C, 600 Massachusetts Ave NW, Washington, DC. This is a Talk Story event, a monthly gathering offering programs and oral histories.

Special guest will be Jen Low, designer and landscape architect, This event is free and open to the public. Click here for more information and to register.