Washington, D.C
Do Something: The week of February 19, 2024
Photo by Dan Malouff and edited by Dan Reed.
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: get hyped for the new Comp Plan; Moore Housing and a silly bill in Maryland; and the ongoing saga of accessory apartments in Virginia.
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
The Office of Planning (OP)’s performance oversight hearing is this week and, while I don’t think you need to testify, I think it’s worth watching. It starts at 9:30 am on Thursday, February 22, and I’m looking forward to any additional details that OP might provide on its newly released “Outlook for the District’s Next Comprehensive Plan,” which it’s calling “DC 2050.” That’s right: We’re rewriting it! It should be done by the end of 2027. I, personally, am thrilled. —AB
Maryland
Tuesday was the House hearing for Governor Moore’s Moore Housing bills. I was expecting a production, which it was—it’s not every day the Governor testifies for one of his own bills, and the hearing room was so crowded I sat on the floor. What I didn’t expect was to hear so much support from elected officials for the Housing Expansion and Affordability Act, which would require them to allow larger, denser housing developments with more dedicated affordable homes and a streamlined approval process. Officials representing all of Maryland’s major cities and big counties spoke in favor, or with some amendments. A representative from the city of Havre de Grace, north of Baltimore, was one of the few opponents.
The other day, I watched electeds in Rockville–which controls its own planning and zoning, unlike other communities in Montgomery County–discuss what the city’s position on Moore Housing should be. They’ll likely support it: councilmembers including our five endorsees agreed on the need for more homes, but not about having fewer public hearings. Councilmember Kate Fulton would like the approval process to go faster, while Councilmember Izola Shaw said disadvantaged communities need time to give feedback. Mayor Monique Ashton pointed out that public input has made some projects better, but councilmember Marissa Valeri noted that the people who speak at public hearings don’t speak for everyone.
“It’s easy to get people out [to public hearings] when they oppose something. It’s really really hard to get people out when they support something,” Valeri said.
That’s the argument behind the Governor’s bills: the residents who show up to these meetings usually don’t reflect the whole community and use this process to block or delay things they dislike, leading to our current housing shortage. With that in mind, Maryland legislators are working on some other bills (that only apply to Montgomery County) that take away chances for a vocal minority to block things–and one that would give them much more power.
HB 424 (formerly MC 3-24) would overturn a 1950s law that requires extra hearings for public housing proposals, which residents have used for decades to block affordable housing near them. And HB 1300 (formerly MC 8-24) would overturn decades-old property covenants that block homes that zoning already allows, like apartments–another tool neighbors have used to fight development. We support both of these bills, and you can find more info and our testimony here.
Then there’s HB 1364, sponsored by Senator Ben Kramer, who you may remember from a now-dead bill that would have stripped the Planning Department’s ability to talk about sidewalks or bike lanes. Now he’s back with a bill that would force Montgomery County to resurrect the People’s Counsel, a lawyer whose job is to represent “the public interest” in planning matters. The bill’s loudest supporters are organizations like the Montgomery County Civic Federation and the people who don’t like cell phone towers, you know, the type of folks who already show up to public hearings a lot.
There hasn’t been a People’s Counsel since 2008 in part because as we discussed above, the public is pretty diverse, and has lots of different and sometimes contradictory interests. Last year, following some other unsuccessful bills, Kramer did help create a workgroup that made good recommendations for how to make Montgomery County’s planning process more accessible to the public. The People’s Counsel wasn’t one of them. We hope that, like Brokencyde, it remains stuck in 2008.
If you have a few minutes and live in Montgomery County:
- Find your delegates and email them to say you support HB 424 and HB 1300, but oppose HB 1364 and the People’s Counsel.
If you have a few minutes and live anywhere else in Maryland:
If you have a few more minutes and live in Maryland, show your support for Moore Housing:
Virginia
It’s go time: After the Virginia Senate revived a bill that would legalize accessory apartments across the state, the House–which attempted to push this to next year–gets to take it up again. Thursday morning, a House committee will again review that bill, HB 900, which we’re supporting alongside our friends in the Commonwealth Housing Coalition. Meanwhile, Democrats in the House are caucusing all day Wednesday, meaning they’ll be talking about this a lot.
If you have a few minutes today (Wednesday):
- Cheat sheet–three of those committee members represent Northern Virginia: Delegates Atoosa Reaser (Loudoun), Laura Jane Cohen (Fairfax), and Candi Mundon King (Prince William and Stafford).
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.
Washington, D.C
Storm Team4 Forecast: A chilly, gusty Sunday before a cool start to the week
4 things to know about the weather:
- Chances of rain in the morning
- Gusty Sunday
- Chilly Monday
- Temps will rise again through the work week
Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to check the weather radar on the go.
After a nice and warm Saturday, changes arrive for part two of the weekend.
The first half of your Sunday will have a chance for showers. Winds will pick up with our next system and are expected to gust to about 20-30 mph. Cooler air will settle in, and lows Sunday night fall into the 40s.
Highs temps Monday will reach only into the mid to upper 50s.
However, temperatures will rise through the week, so you won’t need your jackets every day.
QuickCast
SUNDAY:
Showers, then partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 30 mph
HIGH: Lower 60s
MONDAY:
Partly cloudy
Wind: NW 10-15 mph
Gusts @ 25 mph
HIGH: Upper 50s
Stay with Storm Team4 for the latest forecast. Download the NBC Washington app on iOS and Android to get severe weather alerts on your phone.
Washington, D.C
‘It’s a twilight zone’: Iran war casts deep shadows over IMF gathering in Washington
The most severe energy shock since the 1970s, the risk of a global recession and households everywhere stomaching a renewed surge in the cost of living – hitting the most vulnerable hardest.
In a sweltering hot Washington DC this week, the message at the International Monetary Fund meetings was chilling: things had been looking up for living standards around the world. But then came the Iran war.
“Some countries are in panic,” said the fund’s managing director, Kristalina Georgieva, addressing the finance ministers and central bank bosses in town for the IMF and World Bank spring meetings. “The sooner it [the Iran war] ends, the better for everybody.”
Such gatherings are not typically used to fight geopolitical battles. “You don’t get people shouting at one another at these things,” one senior figure remarked. But, as a record-breaking April heatwave swept the US capital, no one could ignore the mounting damage from the Iran war.
Those familiar with the mood over breakfast at a meeting of the G20’s representatives on Thursday, which included Donald Trump’s treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, and the outgoing US Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell – said the atmosphere in the room was sombre amid an open exchange of serious views.
“It is such a twilight-zone meeting,” said Mohamed El-Erian, a former IMF deputy managing director who is now chief economic adviser at the Allianz insurance group. “There are several shadows hanging over it: one is the shadow that comes from concern about the global economy as a whole.
“The second is that some countries are going to be particularly hard hit, and it’s mostly countries that very few people are talking about. But the third concern is the adding of insult to injury: the fact that the US, which started a war of choice, is going to be hit, but by a lot less than elsewhere in relative terms.”
Before Thursday’s breakfast, Rachel Reeves had started her day with an early-morning jog. Joined by her counterparts from Spain, Australia and New Zealand for a run down the iconic National Mall, she posted an Instagram selfie with a not-so-subtle dig: “Friends that run together – work together.”
A day earlier, the chancellor had told a CNBC conference that she thought “friends are allowed to disagree on things” as she criticised Trump’s Iran war as a “mistake” and a “folly” that had not made the world safer.
Speaking at a venue just steps away from the White House, before a one-on-one meeting with Bessent, she said this “fair message” was needed because UK families and businesses were feeling the pain from higher energy prices triggered by the conflict.
Those close to Reeves insist her meeting remained cordial. Britain and the US have significant shared interests in AI, financial services and trade. The chancellor also said the UK government had little time for the Iranian regime.
But with the IMF having warned on Tuesday that the Iran war could risk a global recession – in which Britain would be the biggest G7 casualty – it was clear Reeves had travelled to Washington ready to pick a fight.
“I’m struck by how vocal she has been and the words she used,” said one global financier. “We know the disagreement between Bessent and [European Central Bank president] Christine Lagarde earlier in the year. But that was in private.”
At a cocktail party held at the British ambassador’s residence for hundreds of diplomats and financiers – including the Bank of England’s governor, Andrew Bailey, the chief executive of Barclays, CS Venkatakrishnan, and dozens of senior figures – this transatlantic tension, weeks before King Charles’s US state visit, was a major topic of conversation.
The other, in the balmy residence gardens, was one of its former occupants, Peter Mandelson, as revelations about the former ambassador’s appointment threatened to further rock the UK government.
Before the war, the agenda for the IMF had been about global cooperation; the adoption of AI, jobs and work to eradicate poverty. Each of those tasks had now been complicated, but not least the task of countries working together.
For many at the meetings, the focus was on forging closer global cooperation without the world’s pre-eminent superpower.
“Everybody is talking about how you hedge against American decisions,” said David Miliband, the former UK foreign secretary, who now runs the International Rescue Committee. “You can’t do without them, because they’re 25% of the global economy. But, in a lot of fora, they’ve pulled out.
“So everyone has to think, how does one structure international cooperation? The old west is not coming back. And so everyone has to figure out how to position themselves for that world.”
For those gathering in Washington, there was irony in the fact that they were meeting in the halls of institutions founded, under US leadership, to promote global cooperation after the second world war. The whole idea of the Bretton Woods institutions was to avoid the dire economic conditions and warfare of the 1930s and 1940s. Yet this year’s meeting was taking place amid these intertwining problems.
In their conversations about the best economic policy response to the shock of conflict, the economists also knew the real power to make a difference lay two blocks across town from the IMF and the World Bank – behind the security cordons and construction equipment blocking the White House from public view. “It is not clear they can do anything about it,” said El-Erian.
Still, with a booming economy driven by AI – including Anthropic’s powerful Mythos model, the topic of much conversation – most countries cannot afford to completely break off US ties.
“People want to find ways to insulate themselves from the mess. But, on the other hand, they admire the US private sector,” El-Erian said. “The best way I’ve heard it put, is: they want to go long the private sector and short the mess. But it’s almost impossible to do.”
Washington, D.C
Rosselli opens in DC, serving classic Italian flavors from chef Carlos
Washington, D.C. (7News) — Rosselli is the newest restaurant to open in DC.
Bringing in classic Italian flavors, Chef Carlos explained how he hopes his food is a unique addition to the Italian food scene in the DMV.
Chef also demoed a signature dish with Brian and Megan.
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You can learn more and book your table here.
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