On May 2nd, Deputy
Mayor for Planning and Economic Development Brian Kenner kicked off “InnoMAYtion,” a month-long initiative to showcase
the people, companies and programs that create jobs, engage DC residents, and
position Washington, DC as a global model for innovation.This year, innoMAYtion was bigger and better with 31 events across the city and 8.4M impressions using "#innoMAYtion"!
At the 2018 kick-off event, “Digital TransforMAYtion,” Administration
officials led a conversation with national and local technology experts
on civic innovation and how women are shaping the future of tech.
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 On Saturday, May 5th, DMPED, the Office of the Chief Technology Officer and the Department
of For-Hire Vehicles hosted the InnoMAYtion Hackathon where participants spent the day
collaborating on projects that focus on the advancement of women in tech,
transportation and how data can improve resident engagement (and eating a delicious lunch from MLK Deli, a Ward 8 Great Streets recipient).
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 On Thursday, May 31st, the finale celebration brought together the DC tech and
innovation community to celebrate the closing of the 2018 innoMAYtion campaign. Our
indoor/outdoor "Tech Block Party" featured tech experiences and
demonstrations, food, community, music and all the things that make DC
the “Capital of Inclusive Innovation.”
Events throughout the month focused on key
priorities from the Bowser Administration such as education, technology, small
businesses, and the creative economy.
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On May 17, Deputy
Mayor Kenner broke ground on 191 workforce housing and multi-family units in
the Parkside community. The Deputy Mayor was joined at the ceremony by
Councilmember Vincent Gray and CityInterests partners, Alan Novak and Peter
Farrell.
“Parkside
is growing, in the last two years we welcomed nearly 300 families to our
neighborhood, and we look forward to welcoming more in the coming years," said ANC7D Justin Lini. "I hope
that the dialogue that we’ve had success with in Parkside can be a model of how dialogue
with DC government and developers, like CityInterests, can help address community
needs like jobs, amenities and retail, and transportation access."
Over the last decade, CityInterests have brought to Parkside a
98-unit Senior Living Facility, 100 single family homes, the Unity Health
Clinic, the Educare Pre-School Learning Center, the Cesar Chavez Middle and
High School, as well as 186 affordable apartment units at the Grove. Within the
next year, the city will begin construction of a new pedestrian bridge
connecting Parkside directly to the Minnesota Avenue Metro. With these
neighborhood assets in place we can continue to implement our vision of
Parkside as a mixed income, mixed use community.
“Parkside is being developed with a keen awareness that a
successful community requires quality mixed income housing, robust education
and accessible healthcare, as well as strong community members who serve as
guardians for the area’s wellbeing,” said Peter J. Farrell,
CityInterests partner.
We
were also saddened to hear of the passing of our dear friend Alan Novak. Our thoughts and
prayers are with his family during this difficult time.
On
the eve of Memorial Day holiday, Bowser Administration officials, the Office of
the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development and Ward 4 Councilmember
Brandon Todd broke ground for HELP USA Veterans Housing on the Parks at Walter
Reed. This new 100 percent affordable housing development will consist of 77
units for previously homeless veterans.
Since coming into office, the Bowser Administration has sparked
the creation or preservation of more than 10,800 affordable units, with another
5,200 in pre-construction. In addition to making unprecedented investments in
affordable housing, since taking office, the Administration has increased
investments in permanent housing programs by nearly 62 percent and connected
more than 3,300 single adults to permanent housing, including more than 1,900
veterans.
“I’ve been doing this work for a
long time and I can’t think of a project that has more support from the city
that it’s in. Agencies in Washington DC from the mayor’s office on down
have been instrumental in this project,” said David Cleghorn, Chief Housing
Officer, HELP USA “It’s a collaborative of multiple agencies that provide the
support that we need, including money for bricks and sticks, money for social
services and money for housing subsidy all of what you need to make a
population of homeless individuals thrive in a new environment.”
 Washington Dulles International Airport and
Volaris Costa Rica, an ultra-low-cost carrier operating in Central America,
Mexico and the United States, celebrated the Washington, D.C., region’s first
low-fare service to El Salvador and Costa Rica on May 17th with delegations
from the Embassies of El Salvador and Costa Rica, the Commonwealth of Virginia
and the District of Columbia.
“These flights represent new opportunities to
connect families and cultures, to welcome more visitors and commerce
opportunities to the District, and to build on the strong international ties we
have built over the years,” said District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser.
“Today, we celebrate the start of a new connection between our nation’s capital
and El Salvador’s—one that is going to benefit thousands of District residents.”
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As part of U.S. Travel Association’s National
Travel and Tourism Week, Destination DC hosted a Travel Rally press conference
to demonstrate the economic impact of travel and tourism to the DC economy. This year was the eighth consecutive record-breaking
year at Travel Rally, where visitors spent $7.5 billion and employed 75,000 in the tourism industry!
"Thankful to live in a welcoming city where visitors contribute to our economy and help create jobs," said Twitter follower, @JackPfeiffer.
 On May 4th, Mayor Muriel Bowser awarded over $2.6 million in Great
Streets Small Business Capital Improvement Reimbursement Grants to 53 small
businesses across all eight wards. This investment continues the Bowser
Administration’s efforts to support local businesses, create new job
opportunities for DC residents, and grow the District’s emerging neighborhoods.
“We
are so appreciative to Mayor Bowser, Deputy Mayor Kenner and the city for all
they’ve done for small businesses. This grant has helped us go from a very raw
space to a finished space,” said Kim
Moore, Owner of Fitness Snob Studio.
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 On Tuesday, May 29th the DMPED crew visited
the offices of two DC-born technology companies that have helped position the
DC tech scene on a global stage and continue to shape the future of innovation
in the District! First, we went to 1201 Pennsylvania Ave, NW to FiscalNote's new space where Deputy Mayor Kenner toured, participated in a Q&A and spoke with employees on how we can partner together to make sure DC remains a technology hub.
The FiscalNote GRM is a data, workflow, and analytics platform designed to help organizations of all shapes and sizes effectively manage the impact of the outside world.
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Second, we visited TransitScreen's office in DuPont Circle to take a tour and participate in a demo presentation.
TransitScreen launched in 2013 from a civic technology project at Mobility Lab in Arlington, Virginia, focused on urban mobility solutions.
Their team grew out of the 1776 incubator and is now headquartered in downtown Washington, DC.
We look forward to working with the tech sector more and more because we believe this is the future of DC.
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 Great Opportunity Zones meeting held by Sharon Carney and Andrew Trueblood at our Half Street office on Thursday, May 24th!
Previously on April 20, Mayor Bowser nominated 25 census tracts to be Opportunity
Zones. Opportunity Zones is a new federal program that provides tax
incentives for investments in new businesses and commercial projects in
low-income communities.
For more info visit http://oppzones.dc.gov
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On May 10, Mayor Muriel Bowser cut the ribbon on the Portner Flats
Apartments, a new mixed-income, mixed-use property in the Cardozo/Shaw
neighborhood of Ward 1. With the support of DC Government financing, the
$43 million-project preserves existing affordable units for original
tenants, doubles the amount of affordable housing to 96 units, creates
new community services, and increases zoning density to incorporate
market rate housing and retail.
The Portner Flats site once housed Portner Place, a 48-unit,
garden-style building created under the U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development’s Section 8 program and had suffered from neglect.
After the tenants invoked their rights under the Tenant Opportunity to
Purchase Act to purchase the building, it was redeveloped by a joint
venture team of Somerset Development Company, New Community Partners,
and Jonathan Rose Companies. The DC Department of Housing and Community
Development (DHCD) provided a $2.4 million acquisition loan through the
Housing Production Trust Fund, and the DC Housing Finance Agency (DCHFA)
issued $27 million in tax exempt bonds and $14.5 million in equity
through the syndication of 4-percent low-income housing tax credits.
All residents of the original 48 apartments were provided relocation
apartments during the 18-month demolition and construction process as
well as a guaranteed return to the new building. With construction
complete, more than 75 percent of the original residents are now
returning to their brand-new, modern, energy-efficient apartments.
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