March 18, 2022
Dear Washingtonians,
This week, I submitted my Fiscal Year 2023 Fair Shot Budget to the Council. This budget is one that reflects what we are hearing from DC residents – your concerns about public safety and affordability, about how we can better ensure all residents have access to safe and dignified housing, about how we can make our roads safer and continue to rethink how we use public space and commercial corridors. It makes big investments in our young people – through our schools and facilities, but also through significant investments in early learning and out-of-school time activities.
This $19.5 billion budget is the most equitable budget in the history of the District of Columbia. With this budget, and with this $19.5 billion, we will do two things:
First, we are funding short-term and immediate solutions to some of our greatest challenges around affordability and public safety. For example, we lay out a path to get MPD back to 4,000 officers. We also propose using $31 million to end chronic homelessness for 500 single adults and 260 families.
But because this budget is so big, we also have an opportunity to go much deeper than just funding immediate solutions. We have the opportunity to attack, in very intentional ways, the root causes of our anxieties and inequities.
With a $5.7 billion health and human services budget, we can fund programs that primarily serve Washingtonians who are disproportionately affected by disparities in health outcomes, wealth, and opportunity.
With a $500 million Housing Production Trust Fund we can add thousands of new affordable homes.
With $251 million for a new jail, we can intentionally design and build a facility that better supports our values as a community. And that intention is to help people transform their lives while serving their time. And for people not in custody who need help escaping dangerous cycles of violence, we are funding a new Life Coach program – part of our growing budget for a public health approach to preventing violence.
With a $40 million package of Legacy Initiatives, we can help more Black residents who, right now, are wondering whether they need to move out of DC; and we can support them in building wealth through one of the best tools Black Americans have to increase our wealth – home ownership.
With a $2.2 billion education budget, we can address the immediate pandemic-related needs of our students and DC Public Schools can fund a strong equity-based budget model that ensures at-risk students who need the most are getting the most. Additionally, we will continue to make progress in adding more high-quality child care seats across the city, with another round of Access to Quality grants and $68 million to add more than 500 infant and toddler seats in our DCPS portfolio.
And with $13.5 million for expanded recreation, starting this summer, and another $60 million to build a new indoor sports complex on the RFK campus, we can ensure kids in all eight wards, regardless of their families’ income, can grow up with the same opportunities to play sports and enjoy the benefits of being an athlete that wealthy and middle-class children all across our country have access to.
There is a lot in this budget, and as you learn more about it, I think you will be as proud as I am. Two years ago, I told you that we are in this together and that we will get through it together. That is still true. Now, as we make our comeback, I am proud to deliver a budget that meets the unique moment we are in – a budget that will help more Washingtonians build a future in a safer, stronger, healthier, and more equitable DC.
Sincerely,
 Tonight, the DC Department of Parks and Recreation (DPR) will host Late Night Hype 2.0, a teen-focused experience starting at 7:00 p.m. on Friday and ending Saturday morning (when the center will be open for standard Saturday hours). The event will take place at Turkey Thicket Recreation Center (1100 Michigan Avenue, NE).
Late Night Hype 2.0 is focused on serving kids 13 years old and older and will include:
- Performance by DC’s Perf3ction Band
- Interactive art demonstration/session by Demont ‘Peekaso’ Pinder
- Full recording studio
- Late night pool party with DJ and water sports/games
- Pizza and wings
- Henna Tatoo artist
- Haircuts, braiding, and nail technician on site
- 360-degree photo booth
- Xbox and PlayStation video games
Music and art performances/demonstrations will take place between 7:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. After 11:00 p.m., the recreation center will remain open all night including the pool, open gym, and video games.
Late Night Hype 2.0 builds on a series of outdoor carnival-style events that took place last summer, and will continue two more times this spring: on Thursday, April 14 at Deanwood Recreation Center and on Friday, May 20 at Barry Farm Recreation Center. Additional details are available at dpr.events.
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 Tomorrow morning, at 9:00 a.m., join Mayor Bowser and residents from across DC at Freedom Plaza for the 4th Annual FITDC HerStory 5K.
The FITDC HerStory 5K is a Women’s History Month tradition, hosted by the DC Department of Parks and Recreation that routinely draws over 2,000 participants from all eight wards. Last year, when the in-person event was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a virtual 5K was held and over 2,500 participants signed up to run in their own neighborhoods.
A commemorative HerStory 5K t-shirt and runner’s bib will be provided to all participants while supplies last, courtesy of AETNA. Learn more and register at herstory5k.com.
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 The National Cherry Blossom Festival kicks off on Sunday, March 20, and goDCgo has some tips for getting to and around the festival, including on DC Circulator's "Blossom Bus" and Capital Bikeshare's "Bike in Bloom."
Learn more about how to get around the festival HERE.
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