The Washington Post: Housing advocates push for more aggressive rent-control measures in D.C.

In Sept, D.C. council signed off to extend the 1985 rent control law until Dec. 2030, which allows annual rent increases by landlords. Fearing a higher rate of gentrification in the city, a coalition of 17 groups, unveiled "The Reclaim Rent Control" campaign.  This campaign, seeks to expand rent control laws in four ways listed below: 

● Cap annual rent increases at the rate of inflation by eliminating the extra 2 percent allowed under the current law.

 ● Make small, four-unit apartment buildings and all buildings built before 2005 subject to rent control.

● Make new units subject to rent control after 15 years.

● Cut the minimum number of properties landlords must own before they are subject to rent-control provisions and eliminate what are known as “vacancy increases,” which allow landlords to increase the rent of a unit when it is vacated by the previous tenant. 

According to a National Community Reinvestment Coalition, out of any other city in the country, D.C. had the greatest "Intensity of Gentrification". To be exact, between 2000 and 2013, 40% of the District's lower-income neighborhoods experienced gentrification.  Further research found that over 20,000 African Americans were displaced during that time from their neighborhoods by affluent, White outsiders. Unite Here Local 25 representative, Benjy Cannon, states “Our members live in D.C., and even with the strong wages and benefits we’ve been able to secure for them, staying in the city is still really, really difficult and really, really expensive,” “It’s so important to have a diverse cross-section of groups pushing for this because issues of inequality, racism, housing, poverty, employment — they’re all interconnected.”

Read More

The Daily Beast: Is this Embattled D.C. Hotel Sleazier than Trump's?

Last spring, two real estate developers named Matt Wexler and Brian Friedman barreled into a local community meeting in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, D.C., for a board called the Business Improvement District. The two had just opened a new hotel in the area, and they wanted more cops on the street. Furious that the board had not complied, Wexler read a four-page letter, demanding the leaders’ resignation over what he called “unethical,” “blatantly outlandish,” and “disgusting hypocrisy,” according to a report in Current Newspapers. The performance left the room in shock. “To come in and run roughshod over everyone because of your size—that’s not right,” BID Vice President Arianne Bennett, who runs a local falafel shop, told the outlet at the time. “I got bullied by my own personal Adams Morgan Donald Trump.”

Read more

WAMU: MGM Grand National Harbor Workers Worried New Ownership Will Cost Jobs

The MGM Grand National Harbor is one of the top-grossing casinos for its parent company MGM Resorts International. But union employees are concerned that changes to its ownership structure could result in downsizing at the casino.

In a precautionary move, union workers gave public testimony Thursday asking Maryland’s Gaming Commission to increase regulation on hedge funds seeking stakes in casinos. Union workers are worried that MGM’s new relationship with hedge funds Corvex Capital and Lands & Buildings could influence staffing levels at the National Harbor casino.

Read the fully story here.

WAMU: An Update On Metrorail’s Late-Night Service

The Federal Transit Administration announced that it might pull $1.6 billion in funding from the Washington region if WMATA decides to extend its Metrorail hours. The FTA cites safety concerns: Extended service hours would cut into overnight Metrorail maintenance.

This puts a wrinkle in the debate about extending Metrorail hours. Proponents of longer hours say that the current schedule disproportionately affects workers in the hospitality industry, who struggle to find reliable, affordable transportation once Metrorail closes. But others are worried that extending the hours would lead to more delays for daytime riders and an economic loss for the WMATA, since Metrorail maintenance would need to shift to daytime hours.

Listen to the segment here.

Washington Post: Metro to subsidize Uber & Lyft fares to fill late-night service gap

UNITE HERE Local 25, a hospitality union representing about 7,500 workers in the D.C. region, seized on the Metro plan as a “PR stunt.”

“Local 25 is deeply skeptical of [Metro’s] reported plan to subsidize ride-sharing instead of re­instating extended service hours,” the union said in a statement. “That [Metro’s] plan essentially proposes to privatize a part of our public transportation infrastructure in the process only adds insult to injury.”

Read the full story here.

Curbed: D.C. Council gives final approval to Airbnb regulations

D.C. residents who use Airbnb or similar booking services to rent out their homes will likely have to abide by new regulations starting next October, when they are set to go into effect. The policies represent the first time the city has charted comprehensive laws for short-term rental units—an effort that has sparked a fierce debate spanning roughly the past two years.

Read the full story here.

Jaffe Report: Winners and Losers in the DC Election

“John Boardman and Dyana Forester: The District’s unions went head to head with the developers and the business community in the at-large race — and beat them badly. Boardman’s UniteHere Local 25 of the Hotel Workers union put feet on the ground for Silverman, along with Forester’s United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400. Service employees (SEIU) and the Laborers union backed Silverman as well. In the coming political and policy battles, the unions put themselves in position to push around the business side, thanks to their support of Silverman.”

Read the full story here.