The District of
Columbia has been announced as the best city in the country for women in tech for the fourth consecutive year. During the Bowser Administration, Washington,
DC has become a leading and desirable location for technology companies.
"The data shows Washington, D.C. continues to be a great place for
women in tech to work and live, relative to the 58 large cities we looked at.
The city claims the top spot in our study for the fourth consecutive year. What
sets D.C. apart is the strong representation of women in the local tech
workforce. Across the 58 cities we analyzed, women make up about 25.9% of the
tech workforce, but in D.C. women make up 38.5% of the tech workforce. That is
the highest percentage of local tech jobs filled by women in our
analysis." said AJ Smith, VP of Financial
Education at SmartAsset.
Earlier this month, Mayor
Muriel Bowser and Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Brian
Kenner traveled to Silicon Valley to pitch Washington,
DC as an ideal location for tech companies, promote the District as the capital
of inclusive innovation, and visit potential job creators.
“This
is a first-of-its-kind trip for the city in which we target the West Coast as
an opportunity to attract businesses and capital that will help us
spread prosperity across the District,” said Mayor Bowser. “As
we work to create more pathways to the middle class for Washingtonians, we are
focused on bringing in companies that are looking for the type of talent and
entrepreneurial spirit that exists in Washington, DC.”
Deputy
Mayor Kenner began engagement in California on Wednesday, February 7, and the
mission included meetings with tech giants Lyft, Netflix, Cisco, and Yelp. The team also met with Oakland-based Kapor Center
for Social Impact to discuss making the technology
ecosystem and entrepreneurship more diverse and inclusive, and the Center for Automotive Research at Stanford
University to discuss the District’s work related
to autonomous vehicles and mobility.
Additionally,
the team used the trip as an opportunity to seek ideas for the Bowser
Administration’s recently announced Request for Information (RFI) for an Inclusive Innovation
Fund. The new program aims to increase access to capital for
District entrepreneurs, particularly for underrepresented entrepreneurs, such
as people of color and women.
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“Access to capital is critical to starting
and growing businesses in the District, and underrepresented entrepreneurs –
including people of color, women, and LGBTQ residents – often face particularly
high barriers during the early stages. Our goal with this fund is to break down
some of those barriers and get more residents on pathways to the middle class,”
said
Mayor Bowser.
The Bowser Administration seeks to break
down some of these barriers by working with private sector partners to create a
locally-based investment fund that supports DC entrepreneurs, with an emphasis
on underrepresented entrepreneurs. As outlined in the RFI, the District is
willing to provide risk capital to enable an investment professional partner
that shares the Administration’s vision for inclusive innovation to build out a
program that makes a lasting and substantial improvement to the entrepreneurial
ecosystem. The
investment fund, which will be led by the Office of the Deputy Mayor for
Planning and Economic Development, will be focused on early stage ventures.
To view the RFI, go to dmped.dc.gov. The deadline to submit a response is March 6,
2018.
Mayor Bowser and Deputy Mayor Kenner announced new efforts to explore an autonomous vehicle (AV) program by
establishing the Interagency AV Working Group to proactively prepare the
District for AV technologies and ensure that AV deployment will benefit
District residents and visitors. The working group is comprised of District
agencies focused on transportation, disability rights, environmental issues,
and public safety. Additionally, the Bowser Administration is
partnering with the Southwest Business Improvement District (SWBID) to
release a Request
for Information (RFI) for a AV pilot program on 10th Street, SW.
“Washington’s
Southwest Waterfront is in the midst of a renaissance,” said Steve Moore,
executive director of SWBID. “The 10th Street SW corridor is
currently the fastest way to get from the National Mall – which attracts 20
million annual visitors – to the District’s newest, world-class waterfront
destination. Our hope is that AVs will enhance this conduit, act as catalyst
for innovative mobility solutions across the District, and ultimately create an
interconnected, sustainable community. This RFI is just the first step in what
we hope will ultimately become a successful – and historic – pilot project.”
The
SWBID RFI hopes to result in a “first-mile, last-mile” autonomous vehicle pilot
program along 10th Street, SW, adjacent to L’Enfant Plaza. The
street, which connects the National Mall via Independence Avenue and Banneker
Park to The Wharf, sits above I-395, and, with a manageable daily vehicle volume
of approximately 4,300 cars per day, is an ideal candidate for an AV pilot
zone.
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Some DC Neighborhoods are in short supply of grocery stores or other sources of healthy and affordable food. This Economic Intelligence Roundtable, brought to you by DC's Office of the Deputy Mayor for
Planning and Economic Development (DMPED) in partnership with the DC
Chamber of Commerce, brought together researchers, retailers, and
policy makers that explored what data tells us about the availability of
food in developing corridors and incentives to make nutritious food more
readily available. The main question was: "Can targeting economic development to specific
economic, geographic, and demographic factors close the grocery gap?"
“For many families in the District it’s not that they don't
know or don't want to do the right thing when it comes to making healthy food
choices, but they just have to have access to affordable healthy food options
and as a city we must get creative and find ways to provide that access,” said Tiffini Greene, Executive
Vice President, American
Management Corporation.
Since our first Economic Intelligence Roundtable in spring 2015, we have
been providing avenues of data-driven and technology-driven contact for
economic development policy and decision-making across several sectors.
If you missed it, check out the Facebook Live here!
The ribbon is cut! Engine Company 22 is the third new fire station built
during the Bowser Administration, and the second building to open at the
redevelopment of the former Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The station is the new home of Engine 22, Truck 11, and Ambulance 22.
The new $13.1 million Engine
Company 22 features:
- underground parking facilities
for personnel;
- a vegetated green roof;
- a community room for
neighborhood use;
- four
large apparatus bays;
- sleeping
and living quarters, a spacious sitting area, fitness areas, and a full
service kitchen; and
- administrative, training,
and apparatus bay support and vehicle maintenance areas.
Dr. Willie Hasson, Ward 4 resident, says, "With the burgeoning population shift and
increased construction at Walter Reed in the upper Georgia Avenue community the
citizens can feel secure that their City Government is responding to and
meeting their needs for the next century.”
Additionally, Engine 22 includes
a more intuitive floor plan that will improve internal response times by making
it easier for personnel to reach an apparatus to depart for emergencies. The
facility is also eco-friendly and energy efficient and designed to meet
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver Certification.
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Mayor Bowser
participated in the topping off celebration for the Beacon Center, a mixed-use building that includes 99 affordable housing units, which was a collaborative
effort between private entities and city agencies in the
historic Emory United Methodist Church and will offer community benefits in
Ward 4 along the Georgia Avenue corridor. The project took the Housing Production Trust Fund (HPTF) over the $100
million mark for the first time - up to $106 million in FY 2016. Overall the HPTF has over $276 million in
investments since Mayor Bowser took office in 2015.
The Beacon Center will provide spaces and
places to transition people from homelessness to permanent residency. It
will provide families, veterans and senior citizens with affordable rental
housing. It will be a resource for the community through its multi-purpose
space, full-service banquet facility, office leasing space, services and
commercial development. All of this will be created around a newly renovated
500-seat multipurpose sanctuary and community theatre with underground parking.
#InclusiveProsperity #DCvalues
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