DC is getting a new mural

First Up

A mural of the suffragist Mabel Ping-Hua Lee is going up in Chinatown ahead of a July 4 grand unveiling, NBC4 reports. The first Chinese woman to get an economics PhD in the U.S., Lee worked in New York and joined the push for the 19th amendment there. A few blocks away, there’s another roster of famous faces coming to the side of the reopened Ben’s Chili Bowl on U Street. The legendary eatery is soliciting suggestions of “activists, historical figures, celebrities, D.C. legends or athletes.” So far, nominees include Duke Ellington, John Lewis, and Kevin Durant.

Whichever hero they pick, I’m into it. In recent years, too many debates around public memorials have involved who to take down, not who to put up. And even when we have put names on things, it has still fit the kill-your-idols mood: After racist Woodrow Wilson’s name was stripped from a D.C. high school, the replacement wasn’t some other famous figure. Instead, the rebooted Jackson-Reed High School is named for a former local teacher and a school system administrator.

It’s good to be growing our roster of shared heroes — especially in today’s Washington, where only the very divisive president’s name seems to be going up on things.

But it’s not easy! Other cities can rename grand boulevards. Here, we’re stuck with state avenues. And much of our public land belongs to the National Park Service, with all the politics that adds. So we’re left with murals, vulnerable as they may be to weather, graffiti, and demolition. Let's have more of them!

What D.C.'s Talking About

Cooked-Books Drama. At least 15 senior police officials have been implicated in an internal report over manipulated crime stats, Washington City Paper’s Mitch Ryals reports. A mainstay of Republican criticism of Democratic-run D.C. has been the claim that the Metropolitan Police Department downgraded major crimes and otherwise cooked the books to make crime look less bad. The internal report — whose details have been demanded by James Comer’s Oversight Committee — seems to corroborate that. The political fallout will be huge. Ryals has the names of the implicated officers.

JLG and Unions. Is the campaign-finance complaint against Janeese Lewis George a big deal? Could be, writes Cuneyt Dil in his Axios column. She’s been accused of illegally colluding with a union-backed Super PAC. The campaign calls it baseless. But, as Dil notes, much of her campaign muscle comes from organized labor: Last weekend, when I encountered Lewis George canvassers in my neighborhood, every one of them wore a union shirt. An ongoing investigation could chip away at that source of manpower. (Lewis George supporters have lodged their own finance complaints against Kenyan McDuffie.)

Big Trivia Comes to Town. In February, the online trivia platform Sporcle acquired homegrown pub-quiz firm District Trivia. And according to USA Today’s David Oliver, the results are bad! He laments that the out-of-towners replaced the idiosyncratic questions at his neighborhood D.C. bar with random ones that could have been asked anywhere. Barroom trivia is a weirdly big part of District life, so watching the local guys crumble before the Q&A behemoths feels especially poignant.

Itchy Summer Ahead? D.C. is in for a “whopper” mosquito season, Axios reports. That’s bad news for sweet-blooded people like your humble newsletter writer, who suffers enough during regular years. The grain of salt: The forecast comes from an executive at a mosquito-abatement company, so he would say that, wouldn’t he? With or without a marketing push from its forecasters, anti-mosquito yard-spraying is a growing local service, the story reports.

Finally: Kennedy Center Clowners. There are two schools of thought about the Trump loyalists running the Kennedy Center: One holds that they’re a devious ideological cabal. The other thinks it’s a bunch of clowns with no clue. The clown-show argument was strengthened by yesterday’s Politico report about new chaos: Apparently Rick Canny, one of many consultants brought on under Trump loyalist Ric Grenell, has now alienated colleagues by...mocking the president.

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Porchfest Like a Pro

It’s Porchfest season! The neighborhood music festivals — with performances on local front porches — come to Adams Morgan tomorrow and Petworth on May 30. Here's Kaela Cote-Stemmermann’s guide to some of the bands to see:

Adams Morgan (May 2)

• DC Rock Academy (3:00 p.m.) — Always a fan favorite. Super talented kids ripping rock music covers like you wouldn’t believe.
• Historically Close Friends (4:00 p.m.) — A queer pop band that belts out sick covers of songs from bands like The Beaches, MUNA, and Paramore.
• Kids Table (5:00 p.m.) — A local indie-pop band that’s on the up-and-up and has impeccable summer vibes. Check out their Tiny Desk concert.
• La Unica (5:00 p.m.) — The only Irish Latin live music band in the U.S. They make fiddles and bongos feel like a happy marriage.

Petworth (May 30)

• Music with Mr. Rob (3:00 p.m.) — A kids musician performing at the main stage, always a banger with the youngsters.
• Des Demonas (3:00 p.m.) — Eclectic indie rock mixed with retro garage-punk and a dash of Afrobeat, this band is full of veterans from D.C.’s underground music scene.
• The Montaines (6:00 p.m.) — This alt-pop band absolutely rips and brings you right back to your high school head-banging glory days.
• The Experience (7:00 p.m.) — With its unique mashup of go-go, rock, soul, pop, and R&B, this D.C. classic will close out Petworth Porchfest.

Want more Porchfest tips?

What To Do