Where should DC expand sidewalks?

This week, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser announced that the city will expand sidewalks so that people can safely access essential businesses.

We’re happy to see this! As we wrote last week, we think that, in order to make it so that people can safely comply with the mayor’s order, without fear of unfair or harmful enforcement, the city should give people more space to do the things allowed by the order. The order says residents can visit essential businesses and go outside to exercise as long as they maintain a six-foot distance from other people.

On Wednesday, the District Department of Transportation announced a few locations for sidewalk expansions, including in Columbia Heights, Foggy Bottom, Cleveland Park, Georgia Avenue NW, and H Street NE. The mayor has promised such zones in all wards of the District.

The mayor has also asked residents to contact their Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners with suggestions for where to expand sidewalks. From there, commissioners can email requests from their constituents to DDOT. DDOT will also be taking requests from Business Improvement Districts.

This is one good but small step, for sure. There’s an enormous need for lots of public space where people can get outside and safely social distance—bigger than sidewalk expansions outside of essential businesses. Plus, community-generated suggestions could skew toward places where representatives have the time and resources to filter these requests. We hope that DDOT will proactively expand sidewalks in parts of the city where this may not be top-of-mind, but is just as critical.

If you have a place in mind, we absolutely encourage you to write not only your ANC, but also DDOT and the mayor’s office, with your suggestions. And we’d doubly appreciate it if you—if you’re comfortable doing so—CC action@ggwash.org, so that we can get a sense of what people are asking for.

For my part, I’ll be asking my ANC, 1D, to suggest expanding sidewalks on Mount Pleasant Street. DDOT has already announced that it’s going to create more space for people to walk on Irving Street between 15th Street and Hiatt Place, outside of DCUSA. I’m really excited about that, but would love for people to be able to more safely and comfortably access Best World, Progresso, and Each Peach, which have all remained open.

We’ve provided instructions on how to do all this below. Feel free to drop your suggestions in the comments, too, but know that they’re more likely to be heard if you send that email.

Don’t live in DC? Email your elected officials to ask them to do the same thing in your jurisdiction!

Here’s how to send an email to your ANC

There’s no way to automate the process of contacting ANCs. You’ll have to write an email and the fill in the email addresses of your commissioners yourself. This takes a few steps, but it’s easy!

Here’s what you need to do:

1. If you don’t know your ANC, enter your address here to look it up.

1. Once you know your ANC, go to anc.dc.gov and use the drop-down menu to hover over your ward. (The first number in your ANC name is your ward — so since I’m in ANC 1D, I’m in Ward 1.) Click on your ANC’s name. Some ANCs have email addresses that allow you to email the full commission at once; for others, you’ll need to copy and paste the commissioners’ addresses separately.

1. Draft an email. It can be really simple. Here’s a template:

“Dear [your ANC commission], my name is [your name] and I live at [your address]. I’d love to see the sidewalk around [name your favorite essential business here], which is near [which intersection], expanded during the District’s COVID-19 state of emergency. Thank you!”

1. This is the most important part: Send the email to the addresses of all commissioners in your ANC. Also cc vision.zero@dc.gov (DDOT) and eom@dc.gov (the mayor’s office).

1. If you don’t mind, please cc us at action@ggwash.org. We can better advocate for expansions, now and in the future, if we can see what you’re asking for.

1. Hit send! You may or may not receive a response from your commissioner, but it’s so important that they, and the city, hear from you.