D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser on Wednesday broadened her efforts to “reimagine” downtown with the launch of a framework for luring more residents and visitors to the city’s core, the latest piece of her administration’s focus on helping the District recover from the pandemic.
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Bowser (D) awarded a $200,000 grant to the DowntownDC Business Improvement District to conceptualize a “Downtown Action Plan,” which leaders described as a “once-in-a-century” opportunity to collect ideas to revitalize public spaces, create more retail opportunities or convert uses of office buildings downtown, among other possibilities. The Downtown BID will partner with the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District and Federal City Council to study what’s driving population and economic trends in D.C., and use the findings to deliver proposals for boosting the downtown economy to Bowser this fall.
“You have heard me talk about our recently released comeback plan, which is our five-year economic development strategy for D.C. It sets big goals. How do we create more jobs and opportunity?” Bowser said. “And that is why we are focused on the downtown part of the plan today — because our ability to fund programs in every neighborhood depends on the robust activity of our downtown.”
