A rainbow in Cleveland Park by Ian Livingston licensed under Creative Commons.

Candidates seeking the Ward 3 DC Council seat soon to be vacated by Councilmember Mary Cheh took to the virtual stage on Monday, April 4, to discuss housing, transportation, and land use issues in a forum cosponsored by GGWash, Cleveland Park Smart Growth, and Ward3Vision.

The nine candidates in attendance were: Phil Thomas, Monte Monash, Eric Goulet, Matthew Frumin, Beau Finlay, Tricia Duncan, Henry Cohen, Deirdre Brown, and Ben Bergmann (all the candidates who have filed for this race). Cuneyt Dill of Axios moderated the forum, and GGWash’s DC Policy Director Alex Baca kept time. Andrew Aurbach, Megan Draheim, and Ryan Keefe contributed logistical support.

DC’s Ward 3 includes the neighborhoods of Chevy Chase, Cleveland Park, Friendship Heights, Glover Park, Palisades, Rock Creek Park, Tenleytown, Van Ness, Woodley Park, and others.

Cheh won the Ward 3 seat in 2006 and in recent years chaired the Council’s Committee on Transportation and the Environment, which oversees the Department of Transportation among other agencies. Ward 3 has been one of the pockets of the city lagging furthest behind in achieving the District’s new housing production goals. It’s been a recent staging ground for both fierce local support for and opposition to planned bike lanes.

The District's affordable housing production targets and progress for each planning area since Jan. of 2019. Chart from DMPED

GGWash is involved with a number of candidate forums this spring, including an online Ward 5 councilmember forum and an in-person council chair/mayoral forum in March, both focused on transportation issues. These educational events are intended for voters to learn more about the views of candidates in the DC Democratic primary. GGWash will also choose to endorse candidates in the primary, and in DC’s general election, principally based on their answers to questionnaires we send to each campaign, which address housing, transportation, and land use. Questionnaires were sent to candidates whose information was on file with the Board of Elections by March 12.

You can view the recording of the Ward 3 forum here.

Don’t forget to sign up for the next forum we are hosting for the At-large Councilmember seat, which focuses on transportation, housing, and land use and is moderated by Washington City Paper’s Alex Koma Tuesday, April 19, at 7 p.m. Register here.

Forums are being recorded, and we’ll provide recaps here and via email.

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Tagged: chevy chase dc, cleveland park, dc, elections, friendship heights, glover park, housing, mary cheh, palisades, politics, rock creek, tenleytown, van ness, ward 3, woodley park

Caitlin Rogger is deputy executive director at Greater Greater Washington. Broadly interested in structural determinants of social, economic, and political outcomes in urban settings, she worked in public health prior to joining GGWash. She lives in Capitol Hill.

Alex Baca is the DC Policy Director at GGWash. Previously the engagement director of the Coalition for Smarter Growth and the general manager of Cuyahoga County's bikesharing system, she has also worked in journalism, bike advocacy, architecture, construction, and transportation in DC, San Francisco, and Cleveland. She has written about all of the above for CityLab, Slate, Vox, Washington City Paper, and other publications.