DC Mayor Bowser talks crime, economy, and state of the District
WASHINGTON - D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser sat down with FOX 5’s Marissa Mitchell for a conversation centered around the transformation of downtown D.C, with a focus on economic development, safety, and the city's comeback.
The mayor highlighted the city's progress, including a decrease in gun crime and homicides, and outlined a goal of adding 15,000 new residents to downtown D.C. Bowser also emphasized the importance of investing in the city's redevelopment of neighborhoods like Chinatown, and transforming office spaces to residential areas.
Our interview with Bowser came one day after a 2-year-old girl was caught in the crossfire during a shooting in the District. The toddler was walking outside with her daycare group when a group of armed men opened fire around 11:30 a.m. Thursday near 22nd Street and Alabama Avenue. The girl was transported to the hospital. Two men were killed.
On where the city stands in terms of crime:
"Well, as you know, we're driving down crime. Just like cities all over our nation, we experienced a spike last year. But to have a 30% decrease in gun crime, a 26% decrease in homicides, carjackings down double digits. Now we just need the news to catch up with us."
On people who hear that crime statistics are going down but still don't feel safe:
"What they're what they're telling us is, thank you. Thank you for making sure the police are out in our communities and visible. Thank you for holding all parts of the criminal justice system accountable, and holding people accountable who are using guns in our city."
On calls for President Biden to step down:
"This is this is what I know. We're going to have an election on November the fifth that may be the most consequential for our American democracy. And I know that the vision that Democrats will present at our convention and on November 6, will be the one that prevails."
On transforming downtown D.C.:
"Well, a big part of our focus in this year is making sure we're investing in the comeback of our downtown. Post-COVID we have to really remake how people interact with our downtown.
We have more people working at home, so we need more people coming to visit restaurants, going to concerts and sporting events, and that's what we see. You know, this year, we had the most visitation, tourist visitation, we broke a record. 27 million people visited Washington. We have sold out concerts. We had the biggest Mystics game in the history of the franchise, right in downtown D.C.
So, that's the story that we want to keep going out, and we hope that you all will come up with a graphic that says, ‘city on a comeback,’ ‘city on the rise,’ ‘more people downtown,’ ‘more people enjoying their nation's capital.’
What we want to see is a focus on the city's comeback. Our downtown action plan, our Chinatown redevelopment, how we're going to transform an arena right in the heart of the District of Columbia. We've seen even on our Metro system, has come back better than any transit system in the nation.
Our school system is growing. We have the highest population increase of any school district in this entire region. And so, we know that parents are voting with their feet, we know that concert goers and restaurant goers are voting with their feet. And I'm so proud of our entrepreneur community, our restaurant community. You know that we have the most new restaurant starts per capita of any city in America. So that's our story."
On office to residential transformation:
"We're going to see more of that. What we've learned is that our downtown, you know, has been focused on the office environment. We’re the home of the federal government and federal workers, so we have about 90% of our downtown for office workers. Well, we have to change that mix and we need more people downtown. So, I've outlined a 15,000 new resident goal for downtown. And part of the way that we'll get to it is converting underutilized or unused office space to residential. And we have the most in the pipeline of any place in America."