DC continues effort to revitalize Chinatown with 'Safe Commercial Corridor Hub'

WASHINGTON - For much of the last year, Chinatown has been a focal point of sorts with the surge in crime D.C. experienced in 2023.

FOX 5 covered businesses leaving, neighbors frustrated, the announcement that Monumental Sports and Entertainment was hoping to build an arena in Virginia and the subsequent announcement by Monumental that they would now stay.

While it may not have been on the timeline those stakeholders wanted, District leadership emphasized Tuesday – and in the last few months – that they are listening.

Mayor Muriel Bowser created a Chinatown Task Force, the D.C. Council passed the Secure D.C. bill aimed at improving public safety and the D.C. government also opened the District’s first Safe Commercial Corridor Hub in Chinatown in February. 

"I would say that we’ve been doing this kind of intergovernmental work since at least the middle of last year," said Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice Lindsey Appiah.

"While it takes time to get to kind of implement these different initiatives, we have been working and that’s why we’re seeing crime coming down, even since really July of last year," Appiah added.

FOX 5 looked at crime data within a 1,000-foot radius of Capital One Arena for the first three months of 2024 and compared it to the same time period for 2023.

The numbers there show a 45% decrease in all crime.  That number is 30% when you expand the search area to a 2,000-foot radius, according to MPD data.

Now, in comes the Safe Commercial Corridor Hub.

The hub puts the District’s services dealing with homelessness, mental health, substance abuse, nightlife, business and resident concerns within this hub to deal directly with concerns. The hub is also intended to help D.C. police in case of a concern or emergency.

RELATED: Downtown businesses support $515M deal between Monumental Sports and DC

Other Business Improvement District’s have community safety ambassadors walking the streets looking for concerns but this one is funded by a District grant.  

Recently, 10 trained ambassadors started to work for the Business Improvement District. They walk around and look for any issues or listen to people’s concerns.  

If they’re non-emergencies, the ambassadors will use an app to report an issue to the proper responding agency. If it’s an emergency, they’ll notify police.

About an hour after the press event ended Tuesday, FOX 5 saw two of the ambassadors, wearing red, notify police of what appeared to be a potential domestic incident. They notified police, who quickly responded.

One of those ambassadors is Demetria Mosley, who is already walking the beat and is trained on everything from de-confliction to how to administer Narcan. If Mosley walks past someone experiencing homelessness:

"Ask them anything I can do to help? First I say hello, how are you? And then they’ll say something back and I’ll say can I do anything for you? Do you need any help, and we’ll go from there," Mosley said.

FOX 5 spoke with residents and people who frequent Chinatown and while they say there’s more work to be done, they feel the overall public safety environment is better.

"It’s a lot going on. Especially coming out the train stations. But it seems as though it’s more peaceful," Alexis Jefferson told FOX 5.

"It’s still concerning, but in this area, in Chinatown, I don’t have that feeling of, you always have to have your head on a swivel wherever you’re at, but here I feel a lot more comfortable," said Christopher Michael, who says he’s mostly in Chinatown during the day.

The Mayor’s office says they hope to open similar hubs on U Street and Anacostia, but a spokesperson says there’s no immediate timeline on those hubs opening right now.