Bowser Placates Congress. Plus, Union Station and Mystics Season

Hey folks, on June 3rd, just about two weeks from right now, CityCast is going to be recording live at Wright proper brewing company in Brookland. We're going to be talking craft beer with the executive director of the DC Brewers Guild. There's more information on our Twitter and Instagram. We're at CityCast underscore DC. Today on CityCast DC, DC's mayor made a trip to Congress this week and it maybe wasn't as bad as it could have been. CityCast, Brianne Catilve and Julia Caron are here with me for our weekly news roundup. We are also going to be talking about the latest twist in the push to reinvent Union Station. And the Washington Mystic season is just kicking off. We will discuss how to be the best possible fan. Today is Friday, May 19th. I'm Michael Schafer and here's what DC is talking about. So, Priyanka, you watched the mayor's trip to Capitol Hill, which as we talked about on Monday, the advance previews were grim indeed. The expectation was it was going to be several hours of members of Congress from far flung districts who don't represent people who live here wagging their fingers and scolding the mayor of Washington about things that are conveniently right-wing talking points. What wound up happening? Yeah, I mean, frankly, I was really hesitant to watch because of that. And then also, it was the same day as the DC budget vote, which frankly feels a lot more consequential since it's about how the city spends its money. So, a lot of my attention on Tuesday, which was the day both of these were happening, was on the budget vote instead, which if you're curious about that, check out our episode from yesterday. We had the Washington Post's Michael Bryce Sadler on to talk about what made it into the budget, what was cut, who won, what battles. It was pretty rowdy over the past few weeks. But then I did turn my attention to what was happening with Mayor Bowser up on the hill. We got to say that the day started on Congress with the Senate passing the disapproval resolution about DC policing reforms. So these are the reforms that restrict some policing tactics. It makes it harder to hire officers that have passed misconduct. A lot of different police reforms that have been in place temporarily in DC and they're trying to make them permanent. The Senate voted to strike that law by a vote of 56 to 43. So some Democrats jumped in there. Just not the happiest start to a day that's going to be about DC oversight. Little aside here, it's interesting the legality around all of this because the Senate vote came 60 days after the House vote. And so DC leaders say like, you're too late. You acted too slowly. This is already DC law. But the Senate parliamentarian is like, oh, we get veto power over your laws for any time two years after something passes. So this is like a whole. Wait, wait, wait, wait. So like to go into this loophole for one miniscule second, you're telling me anything that's passed in the last two years potentially is on the table to just be like, gonzo, done, whatever. That is what the Senate parliamentarian is saying. It is really confusing because DC leaders have responded to that being like, that is not how we understand the oversight legislation. So we'll see. We'll see what happens there. Regardless, Biden said that he was going to push the police reforms through anyway. He was going to veto the disapproval resolution. But this is just like a really murky bizarre start to a day about DC oversight. And then it kind of just went all uphill from there, which was very surprising. And Eleanor Holmes Norton, our non voting DC delegate came out and said like she was surprised but elated by some of the things that went down in this hearing. It turns out that Bowser and James Comer, who is the head of the oversight and reform committee, they have a lot of opinions in common. They both opposed the DC criminal code reform, which Congress overturned earlier this year. They both want the US attorney for DC to prosecute more crimes, which hasn't been happening. 67% of the arrests that came across the prosecutor's desk did not make it to trial last year. And then both Bowser and Comer also want more federal workers back in the office. They're like this remote working thing is not good for, well Bowser says it's not good for downtown. I imagine Comer says it's not good for productivity or something. It was just shockingly congenial. To be clear, we didn't have a moment like we had in the last hearing where Rep. Gary Palmer called DC schools inmate factories and Clay Higgins called the city a liberal haven where prosecution is virtually zero and crime is rampant. We didn't have a contentious moment like that where they were like actually your city sucks. No, no, the most contentious thing I saw was also Clay Higgins trying to come at Bowser over like statehood. He was like, is there any other municipality that has access to our seat of government as the citizens of Washington DC? And Bowser was like, actually they all have more access because they have voting members of Congress and two senators. He tried to say something about like, oh, but a DC resident can run into, you know, all hundred senators at a party and you can rub shoulders. Yeah, that time I've run into every single human that's ever been on Capitol Hill and told them, yo, give me a statement. Yeah, that's what Bowser said. Like I have never been at a party with all of the senators. What are you talking about? Right. But that was the original reason like going back to, you know, in the room where it happened that there was not that this was going to be a capital of the country would not be part of a state. Right. The idea that like the residents of that state would then somehow get an unfair amount of influence over the function of the government and the kind of obvious response to that, which I don't think Bowser really gave. I mean, her response was correct is that somehow the rest of the world manages to have seats of government where the residents are fully empowered and where it doesn't constitute some kind of unfair system. And we probably can do it too. And that also that, I mean, the weird thing is that that kind of 18th century logic is especially untrue now when for a lot of members of Congress, you know, the only time they spend like in non capital parts of DC are like during their ride to and from national where they go for every four or five days a week when they're not voting. We're in a moment where they don't really have to live here anymore. They often don't live here anymore where thanks to the internet, social media, people are able to be just as close and just as persistent and just as much of a pain in the butt of members of Congress if they don't live here. So it's a kind of especially outdated anti-statehood argument and like all the arguments kind of on both sides, it's a little bit fallacious because the real logic on both sides is if DC were a state, it would be more democratic votes, maybe balancing out some of these empty rural states that have a lot of Republican votes. You know, for everyone who's not a DC resident, that is kind of the driving force for those of us who are DC residents, it's just kind of humiliating and embarrassing that we have to answer to these guys who don't live here and don't answer to us when it comes to all kinds of things about how we police ourselves or tax ourselves or so on. Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, of course, the focus of this oversight hearing was meant to be crimes, some of the crime things that came up on the positive side or at least as far as I'm concerned, positive side. Comer said something about how his team would look into the Harris Rider, which is the one that bars DC from taxing the sale of cannabis, which is like the main thing that's holding up proper regulation of sales in DC. That's why we have all these weird gifting shops and medical licensed loopholes to be able to sell marijuana in the city. And then on the more contentious side of things at this oversight hearing, they might have been nice to Bowser, but they were not nice to the US attorney for DC, Matthew Graves, who was there with her. She had invited him along to answer questions. And the Republicans went after him. The main thing was the failure to prosecute that I talked about earlier. He said that the reason they haven't trial for every single arrest last year or even a majority of them is because of the unaccredited crime lab. DC's friends at crime lab famously lost accreditation recently. And Graves says that that makes it hard for them to hold up these cases in court. This is something that Bowser has also criticized him for. She's like, you've got plenty of federal dollars to be able to pay for proper lab work. So that was a big thing that the Republicans went after him for. I mean, did they mention that they would either pour more money into it or they would help assist in building the crime lab back up? Or was it just like, you suck at your job? Just prosecute more even if your crime lab is bad. Comer literally started the whole hearing saying that we're disappointed with the way that you were doing your job. So yeah, I mean, these oversight hearings aren't really about solutions, are they? It's just Republicans poking the bear being like, you're doing this wrong, you're doing this wrong, you're doing this wrong. That's why I was so surprised to hear about Comer wanting to talk about the cannabis writer, because that is indicative of some sort of solution oriented thinking, which you don't normally see here. But look, we can also, I mean, underneath all of that, what I agree with you, it's just about poking the bear and getting headlines back home where people don't have to actually live in DC. There is like a real thing, but crime is up and this question of how much do we prosecute is kind of the nub of a lot of issues. It was a big point of the criminal code reform that Congress overturned. They were going to make it easier for more people to get jury trials. Putting people away was going to take more time and more effort and more prosecutors and more cops showing up to testify. Part of the logic there was on the part of people who think we lock up too many people and think we prosecute too many people. Part of the logic was if we make it more time consuming to prosecute, then fewer people will be prosecuted. So there is, in the reform side of the aisle, there is a desire to prosecute fewer people and there is like a great philosophical difference there, Bowser and the Republicans in Congress are on one side of it and progressives in DC are on another. So they kind of framed it as like you're not good at your job, you're not doing your job. But the fact is there's a lot of people who want him to not prosecute more people, particularly for kind of nickel and dime stuff. Yeah, Mr. Mina is non-violent crimes and he did say that the cases that they have taken to trial are the violent offenders and the ones that they've dropped are the ones where they're like, this isn't worth the extra crime lab dollars because these are petty crimes or misdemeanors. All right, so cast your eyes while we're up on Capitol Hill, just go a couple blocks north and you find Union Station, which is a beautiful, beautiful building and one that we can't ever seem to get quite right. It was redone as a shopping mall 30 or so years ago and now if you go there it's kind of empty and grim and there is a long-awaited federal plan to redo the thing. $8.8 billion, the details of it got released this week. I don't know if you guys got a chance to see it. It's pretty beautiful. It's part of a plan that would also cover up tracks and basically create a new neighborhood up there between NOMA and Union Market. The station itself would be preserved in a way that kind of keeps the old beauty of it but creates big new concourses, new shopping, more capacity and the idea is to make this like a really welcoming gateway to Washington. It's supposed to take like 18 years. Wow. And we know that that actually means probably like 20, 25, 30 years. 30. We've got some time to peruse the blueprints. My thought reading this was like one, hey that looks like a cool station and two, we talked about this yesterday with the K Street Transitway. The idea that, so this is like an idea that's been kicking around since 2012 that kind of germinated in pre-COVID world and now is going to live in post-COVID world, a world where there's a lot more working from home or a world where we're anxious about retail being able to survive at all. And it's kind of, you know, they're in a, the city is in a tricky situation because on the one hand, you know, a better station and more convenient station, a station where you don't have to line up in those ridiculous, snaking lines in the past O-Bom-Pam is better for getting people to come to DC and especially now it's, we need, you know, every incentive we can get have people come in. On the other hand, building a station geared towards like increasing rail commuting to Washington. I don't know if that's the best investment at a time when we're not sure if people want to commute to work, period. Yeah, I agree. I mean, I wonder if the aim is to maybe facilitate more tourist travel via rail, but that would require a commitment from all of the different cities and hubs up and down the East Coast. So that's probably a bit ambitious. Right. Also, like, I don't know if you guys make your, your vacation, uh, planning decisions based on the quality of the train station. I think most people would make it based on how often the dang train comes. Right. And unless you're in the East, talking about the East Coast, the answer is not very often. That's true. But I think this redevelopment, particularly the, the new housing and neighborhood thing, this burn-on-place that they say they want to build up is so contingent on this revision to Union Station happening. Like do we even think like that will be a possibility? Like they want a whole new neighborhood, but it's contingent on local dollars and federal dollars and a supposedly 12 year plan. But we actually know it's going to be like a 30 year plan to make a new neighborhood place. Right. So they aren't the funding for this yet, but, but it is, uh, eligible for some of the infrastructure funding under President Biden. And one thing we do know about President Biden is he spent a lot of time in the Indian station. He does love his Amtrak. Yes. He does love his trains. The right point is that, you know, if this all goes right in 50 years when we look back on this, I think the much more important thing than the new concourses and the wider train births is going to be the idea that that this city with incredibly high housing prices and incredibly tight market created sort of new capacity up top. Yeah. I think that it's an area of town that feels very, uh, industrial, which most of DC does not. And I know that this is decades down the line, but I'm looking forward to it being a more neighborhood feel. All right. So who is going to be picking up lunch when we all go out to this new neighborhood in uh, 15 years? Oh, God. I vote for pre-oncoping. I got you. Amazing. Thank you. All right. Let's talk mystics, you guys. Those of you who watch our Washington Wizards know it's not a great epoch for men's basketball in the district. The mystics, on the other hand, have had a lot of success. And for those of you who haven't gone, they've got this like really cool facility across the river and it's a lot of fun and enthusiastic and kind of pure joy in the audience. Is there going to be pure joy in the court this year? So what's the prediction for how the teams going to be? Okay. The vibes are going to be pretty good. Uh, Elena Deladon, who is the team's like unicorn. Uh, and if you want an explanation of why, you can listen to our interview with Kate Yontulis of Just Women's Sport to explain why Elena Don is like one of the greatest players to ever play. Aside from the fact that she has the most spectacular name. That's true. That is true. Fabulous name. So she is finally healthy. She's had back issues in the past, but she says she's ready to rock Natasha Cloud, also healthy Ariel Atkins going to lock it down on defense. Like we're going to see a team that is pretty stacked and probably as healthy and ready to rock as we've seen in years. One of the changes that they did make is that they do have a new coach, but it's kind of the same as the old coach. Uh, so Mike Tebow, who was the coach and general manager of the team stepped away from on court duties. He's only going to be GM and his son, Eric Tebow is taking over. Oh, wow. He was assistant for 10 years. Yeah, runs in the family. So yeah, new guy same as the old guy. We'll see. Their first game is tonight. They play the New York Liberty. And if you've been following any of the news, you'll know that the New York Liberty is kind of a super team now. They got Brianna Stewart, who is a local from New York. They got Sabrina Ionescu signed to a new contract. They got Courtney Vander Sloot signed from the Chicago sky. They got a former MVP candidate in John Cole Jones. Like this team is loaded, but the mistakes might be a sleeper pick to make some noise from the playoffs. It should be fun. It should be interesting. And wait, so is this a situation where you can just get tickets the same day if you're if you're signing to wing it or do they tend to sell out? So you can definitely get tickets the same day. It is one of those things where I would recommend like searching for the prices closer to game time. They tend to drop in price closer to game time, especially if you want to be, as Kate mentioned, closer to the actual court and the mistakes bench where they're making the most noise and having the most fun. So I would lurk on Ticketmaster. I would lurk on Seat Geek. I would lurk on your app of choice to find your tickets and go that way. And when we're talking like cheaper tickets, how cheap like what do you pay on average when you go to a missx game? So in the past, I've typically paid like $35 to go to a missx game. Sweet. I mean, sad, pretty good. Like sad for the team that that that's kind of what they're valued out right now, but that's awesome as a as a viewer. To be fair, I was looking at tickets for this and the cheapest tickets I saw were $58 and that's with fees included. So get them while they're hot, get it while you can get in. There's limited seats because the ESA is pretty small. I think it's like 2000, maybe 5000 seats. So get in while you can. Not bad though. That's really not bad. For a last minute, ticket to a sports game. Yeah. For a good team too. Yeah. So I would kind of nerd out for a minute. Do it. From pure athletics to DC history slash clothes. They've got a cool New Jersey concept. Can you tell about that? Yeah. So every year the WNBA releases this series of jerseys called the Rebel jerseys. It's a time where people can use new and different art and styling and kind of give a voice to the city. You might have seen some of the older versions of the Rebel jerseys. They're like pink and blue and they say rise on the front. I thought they were pretty sick. These new ones are inspired by civil rights activists and educator Nanny Helen Burrows, who apparently started one of DC's first women's basketball teams. Wow. Which I didn't know. Yeah. At her national training school for men and girls. So across the jerseys, the words like struggle and battle and overcome are going to be on the jersey and then like think loudly and think boldly is going to be on the waistband. They're kind of like this black and white color scheme, I guess to maybe reference the monuments. I think they're kind of cool. I love that. Do you buy one of these new 2023 Rebel jerseys, Bianca? Maybe by the end of the season, if I become a major mistakes fan, which you're making the case for. So it could happen. I won't say no. I try. All right. We have a tip of the day, which is actually mistakes related. What is it to? Okay. So this might come as a shock to some people. The mistakes are the only WNBA team with a pre and post game show on TV. So DC is going in for women's sports. Love to see it. You can check it out on NBC Sports Washington. So if you're a streaming person, if you're a cable person, yeah, you can get all your mistakes news there and you can sink your teeth into some pre and post game action. Sounds like a really fun time. Yeah. Amara, thank you guys for being here. Yeah, thanks. Thanks, Mike. That is all for today here on CityCasty. Our lead producer is Priyanka Tilvay. Our producer is Julia Karen. Our newsletter writer is Kayla Cody-Stemmerman. Our production assistant is Susanna Brown. And our hosts are Bridget Todd and me, Michael Shafer from Politico. Music is by Alex Roldan. If you enjoyed the show, why not tell a friend, rate the show, leave us a review and subscribe to our morning newsletter for Heaven's Sakes. We'll be back Monday morning with more news from Around the City. Bye. Bye. You . .