Image by Aimee Custis used with permission.

Greater Greater Washington endorses ANC 4B Erin Palmer to hold the position of DC Council Chair. As Palmer’s responses to our questionnaire demonstrate, she brings a clear-eyed understanding of the power of this role to make needed progress on pressing housing, transportation, and land use challenges. As Chair, she would be courageous, fair, and action-oriented.

We did not receive a response to our questionnaire from incumbent Phil Mendelson. We’ve been cheered to see the Chairman’s responsiveness on some of our issues in the past few years, but a response to our questionnaire is necessary to be considered for GGWash’s endorsement.

Regardless, Palmer’s thoughtful and comprehensive answers would have been hard to beat. Her emphasis on oversight and accountability is appropriate not just for the role of Council Chair, but to actually address housing and transportation. Making housing more attainable overall; ensuring the production of subsidized, means-tested affordable housing in particular; and providing frequent, reliable transportation are medium- to long-term endeavors with no singular solutions, and the multitude of policies needed to address them can fail without an attention to detail.

Palmer’s grasp of the powers available to the Chair is thorough, and on display in her Council Accountability Plan, which “proposes improving the process of forming and assigning membership to Council Committees to assure neutrality, expertise, and consistency and to avoid the appearance of impropriety,” in addition to “a number of mechanisms to strengthen the Council’s institutional knowledge base and oversight functions.”

Housing

More than that, Palmer’s responses to questions that are core to GGWash’s work are solid, reflecting the philosophy of production, fair share, and integration of transportation and land use that undergirds our housing work. In response to a question about the distribution of new housing, she wrote:

“Every Ward has a responsibility to do its part to address the affordable housing crisis in DC. This means that new housing must be built in areas of the District that have historically not done their fair share to accommodate our new neighbors, especially in areas that already have high quality transit and are rich in amenities. Transit-oriented housing provides the opportunity for convenient access to public transportation and reduced car dependency. We have the opportunity to build more housing – including affordable and deeply affordable housing – above public facilities like library and recreation center buildings and on publicly-owned land.”

Transportation

And, she’s a natural on transportation, which shouldn’t come as a surprise: Palmer doesn’t drive, has actively promoted sustainable transportation projects in her own ANC, and has supported other commissioners in such efforts throughout her tenure. She’s connected the dots between her personal experience, that of her ANC, and necessary policy changes in her Safe Streets Infrastructure and Public Safety Plan. Palmer also gave us full-throated support for congestion pricing (“WMATA is facing a large deficit, and congestion pricing revenue can help us with sustained local funding. We have to focus our efforts on improving our transit systems and infrastructure and ensuring they deliver equitably.”).

Palmer’s treatise on East Capitol Street, her pick for a corridor in need of revisioning, fully recognizes “the stark and glaring disparities that exist in our treatment of the communities it runs through and how it is emblematic of disinvestment in certain communities – even at the cost of lives.”

She understands what’s at stake when it comes to transportation equity. And her approach to public transportation and road safety demonstrates how such policies can be more equitable, rather than just saying they should be—a mindset that’s quite rare among candidates and sitting elected officials:

“…Improving our transit systems and infrastructure and ensuring they deliver equitably…means fully funding and rigorous oversight of the District Department of Transportation’s plans to ensure that they deliver separated bus facilities so that all residents have access to high-quality transit – even if they don’t live by a train station. We have to explore more ways to ensure frequent, easy bus service – like subsidizing pilots for off-board fare collection, fare free routes, and all-door boarding.”

Still, Phil?

Chair Mendelson often touts his years of experience and fine-grained approach to balancing the District’s budget. We don’t dispute those assets. However, his continued appointment of At-Large Councilmember Anita Bonds to chair the Committee on Housing and Executive Administration (formerly Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization) shows a lack of willingness to use the power of the chair to cultivate committee leadership when an alternative is desperately needed. His tendency to absorb committees at times of upheaval, such as finance and education, means that his office is often, understandably, stretched across too many issues, and has missed opportunities to cultivate leadership among his colleagues.

Councilmembers should perform like the team of leaders they are tasked with being, even when individual members disagree. That’s not possible unless the Chair sets the example by appointing and supporting effective committee heads.

The Chairman’s calling card has long been his moderating influence on a Council that some local observers characterize as increasingly full of runaway progressives, in service of a budget so balanced that the Control Board is vanquished in both reality and spirit. Amusingly, his latest mailers tout him as a lifetime progressive—Palmer, who harnessed that rhetoric earlier on, seems to be the one in this race who has tapped into what voters want to hear.

While there is room for GGWash’s ideology on both sides of the Democratic spectrum (housing people is fiscally sound and humane; public transit is more efficient than private vehicles and more affordable than owning a car), we are unsure of what to make of the “progressive” mantle claimed by an incumbent who has used the last four years to oppose progressive measures like Initiative 77 and the Homes and Hearts Amendment Act, which raised taxes on District residents making over $250,000 to fund increased salaries for early childhood educators, housing for residents experiencing homelessness, and a monthly stipend for families enrolled in the Earned Income Tax Credit. (GGWash did not endorse in the 2018 election for council chair.)

GGWash has benefited from the Council’s leftward lurch. It has brought the District more appropriate approaches to building more housing, and more affordable housing, beyond tax abatements and TIFs; proposals to subsidize public transit costs for residents; and a general acknowledgment that government, not the private sector, can and should determine the District’s future. Palmer might steer the Council further in that direction, but she has the focus to ensure that the budget remains sound in doing so.

At GGWash, we often say that good government is the most urbanist issue of all. We’re pleased to endorse Palmer—who we believe will meaningfully expand access to housing, affordable housing, and frequent and reliable transportation for fiscal, social, and moral reasons—for Council Chair. It’s evident that Palmer wants the job. We don’t see a reason why she shouldn’t have it.

Visit our 2022 elections hub, where you’ll find candidates’ responses to our questionnaire, information about who we are endorsing, how we arrived at our decision, recordings of our candidate forums (including a Council Chair forum), and ways you can get involved.

DISCLOSURE: Per our 2022 endorsement process, Ron Thompson and Nick Sementelli, members of our 2022 elections committee, were recused from Council Chair endorsement decision-making.