Absolutely Devastating DMV Job Losses

First Up

The new jobs numbers for the DMV are jaw-dropping: The metro area lost 103,900 jobs in the first year of the Trump administration, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That’s about 70,000 more than the next-worst metro.

The numbers disprove the old saw that the capital is recession-proof. It “signals a sharp contraction,” Yesim Sayin of the D.C. Policy Center texted me. “Nearly 43 percent of those losses are in the District, where employment is now close to pandemic-era lows.”

For a more visceral sense of what “contraction” means, read the New York Times account of the nearly 16,000 employees who lost their jobs when Trump killed the U.S. Agency for International Development. Fired staff are struggling to pay Washington-area mortgages. Less than half have found new work.

The combination of startling statistics about our regional economy and heart-rending stories about our D.C. neighbors makes the focus of the ongoing mayoral race seem especially odd. To judge from the coverage and the rhetoric, the city’s biggest issues are curfews, childcare, and dueling plans to build new housing for a population whose jobs, it turns out, may never return.

Perhaps there’s a political logic here: The most obvious solution to public-sector devastation is promising goodies to lure private-sector jobs. That’s not an easy ask in an unequal city where many residents would rather get help with rent and daycare than dole out corporate aid. Or maybe the lack of focus on this issue is the latest manifestation of the pathology where D.C. ignores “federal” news because it’s not “local.”

Either way, watch closely to see what aspiring leaders say about this latest shock. As of now: They’re not saying much! My new colleague Michael Brice-Saddler’s fresh dispatch about the race offers a sense of what’s animating them instead. Just scroll down to read, or click here.

What DC's Talking About

Curfew Latest. As City Cast’s Emma Uber predicted, the D.C. Council’s punt on a youth curfew bill was ripped by Mayor Muriel Bowser and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro. “The D.C. Council doesn’t take this stuff seriously enough,” Pirro said, standing with Bowser at an unrelated press conference. “They’re not doing their job.” What Pirro — and other critics — don’t mention: An eight-member majority supported restoring curfews; five holdouts kept the chamber from enabling the policy to go into effect before the fall.

Political Bedfellows. A pair of rival D.C. Council candidates in Ward 1 have been endorsed by….one another. Michael scoops that Rashida Brown and Miguel Trindade Deramo are asking voters to rank them first and second in the city’s first ranked-choice voting election. The pair are hoping to consolidate votes to counter the uber-progressive Aparna Raj, who has a big fundraising lead. It’s an early example of how RCV is changing local campaign strategy. Look for more such cases in the future.

Robo-Metro. WJLA’s Tom Roussey reports that Metro’s board will vote today on a plan that would make the Red Line fully automated — as in, no drivers on board. Advocates say it’ll be so smooth that no one will notice. It’ll be harder to miss another change: the “platform screen doors” coming to stations. The doors are meant to keep people from falling onto the tracks, but one little-discussed side effect is they’ll alter the austere feel of Metro’s iconic stations.

Crime in Ward 6! Republican U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, a top D.C. critic, made local news yesterday by announcing that a group of congress members had been victims of car theft: “Most Washington DC thing ever? Our van we take to baseball was stolen.” He soon issued an update: “Correction, it was ‘borrowed’ by another member.” Inside Elections’ Jacob Rubashkin won the ensuing social-media pile-on with this zinger: “Burchett is right: the most DC thing ever *is* a member of Congress blaming the city for something he and his colleagues did themselves.”

Finally: D.C.’s Most Famous Purse-Snatcher has been sentenced. Mario Bustamante, who pled guilty to stealing Kristi Noem’s Gucci bag, will do 36 months for wire-fraud and first degree theft. According to court documents, he and a partner targeted women at D.C. restaurants, swiped handbags, then used the loot to buy gift cards. One mystery remains unsolved: Why did the then-Homeland Security secretary have $3,000 cash on her when she ate at Capital Burger on 7th Street?

From City Cast's Own Correspondents

The election is a couple months away, and the battle between McDuffie and Lewis George is getting interesting. New City Caster Michael Brice- Saddler has been following the race and chatting up the people who are shaping it. Here’s his first dispatch:

The D.C. Mayor’s Race Is Actually Heating Up

Kenyan McDuffie is finally showing his teeth. Aside from a viral moment last month when he walked off a debate stage in protest, the former council member has largely been seen as the race’s lower-energy, establishment-aligned mayoral candidate. But he’s now signaling a more aggressive path forward, vowing to “call out misinformation” and reclaim the narrative from his top opponent, Ward 4 Council member Janeese Lewis George.

At Monday’s mayoral candidate forum at the Martin Luther King Memorial Library, that new gear was on full display. McDuffie arrived at the forum with a vocal contingent of supporters in campaign sweatshirts — a visible attempt to display the movement energy that has been a staple of the Lewis George camp since her January launch.

He didn’t stop at the branding. During his closing remarks, McDuffie took a direct swipe at what he claimed was Lewis George’s “imported” political model, asserting he would not run a campaign based on “dark money coming out of New York City.” It was a pointed reference to Lewis George’s ties to the Metro DC Democratic Socialists of America, a local chapter of a national organization that has been a primary engine for her ground game.

What To Do