
City Cast DC with Michael Schaffer
🍽️ 100 DC restaurants closed in 2025
December 22, 2025 · 💌 Kaela
Ok, biker babes! Capital Bikeshare broke its all-time annual ridership record this year with a total of 6,369,376 rides, an 11% increase from 2024 🤯

What's CITY Talking About
Get Ready for a Higher Gas Bill
The average D.C. resident’s heating bill will increase by $11.24/month starting in January due to a pipeline replacement program by Washington Gas. They say it's needed to modernize D.C.’s gas infrastructure but it means higher rates for us. [Washington City Paper]
What We Know About The East Wing Construction
Shalom Baranes — one of D.C.’s most prolific modern architects — wound up being tapped to design Trump’s "classical" ballroom. Douglas Fruehling from the Washington Business Journal tells us why it was a surprise, what to expect, and how it changes the future of architecture in D.C. [City Cast DC 🎧]
Record Number of Restaurants Closed In 2025
Almost 100 restaurants in D.C. will have closed by the end of the year, with casual, full-service restaurants taking the brunt. Industry folk are calling it the “vanishing middle.” Luckily, over 100 restaurants opened this year, but that’s still 30% less than in 2024. [Axios]
- Related: We talked to Washingtonian food reporter Jessica Sidman about the state of D.C.’s restaurant scene right now. [City Cast DC 🎧]
New Federal Job Loss Report Includes Deferred Resignations
A new report from George Mason University shows that 41,500 federal jobs were eliminated in the DMV in 2025. This includes 15,000 job losses from deferred resignations, which were previously unreported. [Washington Business Journal 🔒]
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What To Do
Monday, Dec. 22
- ☃️ Snowball Shooters Take and Make at Benning (Dorothy I. Height) Neighborhood Library (Northeast)
- 😮💨 Meditation Mondays at African American History and Culture Museum (National Mall)
- 😆 The UnKosher Comedy Tour: Festival of Laughs Recap at Shaw’s Tavern (Shaw)
- 🥁 Brad Linde’s Bleak Midwinter Ensemble / Zoë Jorgenson & Parker Speirs at Rhizome (Takoma)
- 🛍️ DowntownDC Holiday Market on F Street Northwest (Between 7th and 9th Streets NW)
Tuesday, Dec. 23
- 💬 Beginners German Conversation Class at DC International Languages and Cultural Institute (Downtown)
- 🍿 Saturday Cinema: Black For The Holidays at Bellevue Library (Southwest)
- 🎤 Kinda Evil with Shagwüf, Meerwolff at Pie Shop (H St. NE)
- 🍪 Cookies for Santa! A Kid’s Cookie Decorating Class at Shop Made in VA (Alexandria)
- 🍻 Holly Jolly Christmas Bar at Puttery (Penn Quarter)
- 🎭 The Improvised Shakespeare Company at the Kennedy Center
Thanks for reading! Smell ya later alligators 🐊
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