Do Something: The week of July 15, 2024

Weekly, Regional Policy Director Dan Reed and DC Policy Director Alex Baca will share with you an action you can take in the immediate future that has the potential, sometimes great and sometimes small, to increase the number of homes in our region, decrease the trips people take by car, make all of it safer, and not screw people over in the process. This week: send in your ANC candidate questionnaires; how Montgomery County’s economy relates to Dan’s dating life; Missing Middle and bathrooms in Arlington.

If you have any questions, email dreed@ggwash.org about Maryland and Virginia Do Somethings, and abaca@ggwash.org about Washington, DC, Do Somethings—or, about whatever you want to talk about.

DC

I had a great time on Sunday talking to those of you who came out to Grand Duchess in Adams Morgan for our open-house-meet-up-happy-hour-ANC-training. Thank you for being there! It was our last scheduled training on running for and serving as an Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner in the District, though I’d like to find time for another in the fall geared toward write-in candidates—so stay tuned.

You know the drill by now: The most Something you can Do, at this time, in DC, especially if you agree that there should be more housing, more affordable housing, and fewer trips by car, is to run for an ANC seat. Find your single-member district, check the Board of Elections’ candidate list to see if anyone’s running for it yet, watch our training, and, perhaps, declare your candidacy by picking up a nominating petition. Return it to BOE by Wednesday, August 7, 2024, with at least 25 valid signatures from registered voters in your single-member district. Email me at abaca@ggwash.org if you have any questions, want to chat through your feelings about micro-local elections, or want to know if you should go for a particular seat.

And, fill out our ANC candidate questionnaire. It’s required to be considered for our endorsement, and you get to broadcast your views on our issues to our audience—doesn’t matter if you’re fully aligned with our stances or not. So far, we’ve received questionnaires from:

• Peter Wood, the incumbent in 1C03—and a 2022 GGWash endorsee!
• Zach Adams, the incumbent in 2B08—and a 2022 GGWash endorsee!
• Howard Garrett and Parker Griffin, who are both vying for the 2G01 seat
• Thaddeus Bradley-Lewis, the incumbent in 3A01—and a 2022 GGWash endorsee!
• Chuck Elkins, the incumbent in 3D01—and a 2022 GGWash endorsee!
• Reginald Shaw-Richardson, who’s running for the 5D01 seat
• Paul Spires, who’s running for the 6A01 seat
• Ahmad Abu-Khalaf, the incumbent for 6E05
• Elizabeth Carter, who’s running for the 8C08 seat

If you’re running for an ANC seat, we want to read your questionnaire responses!, and I want to post them so that voters can read them, too. Responses are due on Sunday, August 11, 2024, at 5 p.m. Get ’em in!—AB

Maryland

First: Thanks to everyone who braved the storm and came to our Planners of Color happy hour last night at Shanklin Hall! I am always energized after these events in particular, and leave reminded of the amazing community we’ve built here over the past 16 years. Keep an eye out for an announcement about the next one, likely sometime this fall.

In the meantime: As a single human who lives in Montgomery County, I’ve been on a lot of last dates here with boys and theys from DC who decided the trip wasn’t worth it, I guess. That’s why I appreciate fellow single human and new GGWash contributor Weston Henry’s post this week about the lack of nightlife in Montgomery County. As Weston notes, it wasn’t supposed to be this way: ten years ago local officials were very preoccupied with nightlife in order to draw more young professionals who would later put roots down and bolster the county’s economy, with a big focus on Silver Spring. I was on a task force then-County Executive Ike Leggett set up to investigate ways to boost nightlife, and we made a bunch of recommendations.

There were some successes, namely in reforming alcohol laws and the county’s Department of Liquor Control, which led to the brewery boom spurred by Denizens in Silver Spring. Of course, a lot of things have happened in the past 10 years and county officials moved onto other things. Denizens moved too, out of the county. Founder and co-owner Julie Verratti was recently quoted in this deeply depressing Bisnow piece about Silver Spring’s struggling downtown saying that it was a “fight” to get customers in the door due to low foot traffic even before the pandemic. Other business owners said similar things. Today, Montgomery County’s economy as a whole is lagging the rest of the DC area, which is exactly what officials in 2013 were trying to prevent.

I go to bed at 10 pm now and I barely drink anymore, so I’m less worried about nightlife. But you know, when I go to Adams Morgan (such as last night at Shanklin Hall) or Union Market or whatever everyone looks so much younger, and I go home thinking what am I missing out on by not being in DC? Flip that around: who is missing out on me because Montgomery County isn’t hustling like its neighbors to draw people there with places worth hanging out at, neighborhoods they’d want to live in, and homes they could actually afford?

In that vein, I think of Attainable Housing Strategies–Montgomery County’s attempt to encourage more, and more affordably-priced housing production by opening up single-family zoning–as 2024’s version of the nighttime economy, bringing in younger adults who would then stick around and support our tax base. On WTOP this week, County councilmembers Andrew Friedson and Natali Fani-Gonzalez, Millennials like me, expressed some urgency about this. Attainable housing is, according to Fani-Gonzalez, “about creating more housing for other people who cannot afford to live in Montgomery County — for young families who cannot buy a home. That is a fact. It’s a fact.” Hopefully this effort will stick. In another 10 years, I’d hate to be talking about how the county didn’t follow through on this either.

Speaking of which: Tonight, the Planning Department hosts researcher Yonah Freemark and economist Lisa Sturtevant for a conversation about how local planning departments can increase housing production, and an analysis of our local housing market. It’s the first of a three-part speaker series on housing issues, with additional talks in September and October. This free event is from 5:30 to 7:30 pm at the Tower of Planning in Wheaton, and you can find more info here.–DR

Virginia

Arlington’s Missing Middle trial ended this week after running over. The debate on the last day was about whether the county’s sewers can handle all of the additional, uh, stuff from allowing duplexes, townhomes, and small apartment buildings, and their toilets, in areas where before you could only have one house per lot. County officials say yes–there’s enough capacity for the next twenty years of growth and bathroom breaks–but the ten neighbors who are suing the county to block zoning reform say they’re full of it.

I struggle with this argument, not just because I’m immature and find poop jokes funny, but because there are nearly ten million people in the combined Washington-Baltimore region, and local jurisdictions have to work together so everyone (and anyone who wants to come here) can all go to the bathroom. In Arlington’s Sanitary Sewer System Master Plan, officials note that the county receives wastewater from neighboring Alexandria, Falls Church, and Fairfax County, while in turn some of Arlington’s wastewater goes across the river into DC. Even if Arlington tried to block new people from going there, they can’t keep their…material out because it’ll just come from somewhere else.

It’s likely we’ll have to wait a month before the judge reaches a verdict. Hopefully they’ll send this argument down the drain where it belongs.–DR

Your support of GGWash enables us, Dan and Alex, to do our jobs. Our jobs are knowing how development and planning works in DC, Maryland, and Virginia. If it’s appropriate to take action to advance our goals, which we hope you share, we can let you know what will have the most impact, and how to do it well. You can make a financial contribution to GGWash here. And if you want to see Do Something in your inbox, scroll down and sign up for our daily emails.