Our endorsement for Ward 6 DC Council: Charles Allen

Greater Greater Washington endorses Charles Allen for the Ward 6 DC Council seat in the Democratic primary.

Allen faces no challenger in the primary, and he’s been a consistent champion of transportation policy that’s sometimes more progressive than we ourselves at GGWash could have dreamed up. (See the Metro for DC bill, which would “put a recurring $100 balance to D.C. residents’ SmarTrip cards every month and make a $10 million annual investment in improving bus service and infrastructure in the District,” or the sweeping Vision Zero omnibus bill.)

But our questionnaire was no cakewalk, and Allen answered our inquiries with aplomb. We encourage you to read his responses in full here.

On housing and land use, Allen ticks our boxes by clearly supporting new construction and greater density in Ward 6, with an emphasis on more housing around Metro stations. Though we would have appreciated a bit more engagement with our inquiries on how he would use his powers as a councilmember to subsidize housing at different income bands, a highlight for us is his willingness to consider the addition of land zoned for production, distribution, and repair (PDR) in Ward 6, to alleviate the burden of PDR zoning on Ward 5, where it is disproportionately located.

Allen clearly gets what makes for good transportation. His answers to our questions should not surprise you: He supports congestion pricing, has a sense of the buttons that will need to be pushed to ensure that the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority is financially solvent once federal funding is no longer available, and can speak to how certain intersections within Ward 6 prioritize the throughput of drivers of single-occupancy vehicles over pedestrians.

But what’s most demonstrative of Allen’s grasp of how transportation works is not his policy chops but, rather, that he actually takes Metrorail, Metrobus, and bikes, unlike many of his colleagues and many candidates for office. When asked to name one trip he currently takes by car that he could replace by transit, on bike, or on foot, Allen wrote, “We currently walk our kids to and from school and take Metro downtown when not teleworking from home or in the community. But I sometimes drive our household’s car downtown to work when I need to make multiple trips for various meetings in a single day. I will continue to examine whether I can reduce those trips or transfer my mode.”

We look forward to Allen’s continued examinations in his third term on the DC Council.

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, and ways you can get involved.

DISCLOSURE: Per our 2022 endorsement process, Caitlin Rogger, a member of our 2022 elections committee, was recused from Ward 6 endorsement decision-making.