November 23, 2022
Dear Washingtonians,
As you prepare to celebrate Thanksgiving, I want to take a moment to share with you how grateful I am to lead a city as dynamic and inclusive as Washington, DC.
Together, our world, country, and city have been through a lot over the past three years, and we are still learning and understanding all the ways our lives and communities have changed. As we grapple with those effects, I am more grateful than ever to live in and lead a city that always stands shoulder to shoulder guided by and in defense of our DC values.
I know that no matter what challenges we face, we will stick together. We will stick together in rejecting the hateful and dangerous ideologies – antisemitism, racism, anti-LGBTQ hate, attacks on women’s rights – that are sweeping our nation. We will stick together in fighting to end the gun violence that is terrorizing our country and stealing the lives of our young people. We will stick together in believing that it is always possible to do more good for more people.
We have a lot to be proud of as a city. In 2022, we broke ground on a new hospital in Ward 8, enrolled more than 96,000 students in our public schools, and opened the first new supermarket East of the River in 15 years. Our COVID Centers in all eight wards continued to vaccinate people, against the flu and COVID, so that we could safely return to the in-person traditions we missed in 2020 and 2021. But we still have some big challenges to overcome and a big job ahead of us—DC's comeback. If you have big ideas for the future of DC, share them at together.dc.gov or join us on Saturday, December 3 at our Together, DC! Big Challenges & Bigger Ideas Engagement Forum.
Thank you, DC, and have a happy Thanksgiving.
With gratitude,
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