Hello everyone! Last week I was enjoying Miami’s hurricane-like weather and boy, did I miss our autumnal splendor. A week ago we had one of the most significant and inspirational nights in ten years, and I’m still feeding off that high– I hope you’re all feeling it still. And, of course, still closely watching the careful ballot-counting in Mississippi! What else is going on?
Of course, we also had local elections here in DC, but let’s just say that we’ve already been memefied thanks to the hardest-hitting (or really, the only) initiative on the ballot being about foie gras. For the uninitiated, the vegans or the clueless, it will soon be illegal to serve foie gras (Fatty [goose or duck] liver) in DC restaurants. Do I like foie gras? I mean, it’s fine– I’m honestly more of a liverwurst girl (do with that information what you will). But random, gleeful cruelty to animals is a bridge too far for me and if someone wants to stop serving something that is unnecessarily cruel, I say let them. So YAY/YEA FOR INITIATIVE 86. Haters can go eat liver with hepatic lipidosis over in Virginia or Maryland. Not so chic when you order a pathology, is it? By the way, faux gras exists now. Read more about it at the Washington Sun.
Anyway, you probably know the results of our other local races: Our new Mayor is Janeese Lewis George, as she won handily with 84.3% of the vote. Robert White won his race to succeed Eleanor Holmes Norton with 87.3% of the vote. In Ward 1, Aparna Raj will be the new Councilmember. In Ward 3, Matt Frumin ran unchallenged and will keep his seat. Over in Ward 5, Zachary Parker won his re-election, as did Ward 6’s Charles Allen. Oye Owolewa will fill one of the Democrat At-Large seats in the Council, and Elissa Silverman will return to the council as one of the Independent seats. For more election results, visit the DC Board of Elections portal.
Incidentally, this Election Day photo essay by the GW Hatchet staff is just lovely. So much talent!
A worrisome report by CityCast came to the conclusion that about 17% of the ANC seats do not have a candidate anyone can vote for. While the office of the Advisory Neighborhood Commission is non-partisan and unpaid, it is the smallest unit of government in the District and it is important! Learn more here.
Alas, the blue nuclear wave made some of the more incompetent elements of the government spring into action. According to Politico, we’ll be getting more National Guard in our streets thanks to Secretary of WAR, Pete Hegseth. But… can governors in suddenly blue states PLEASE recall their guards? DC is always going to have problems, but we don’t need a whole bunch of people untrained in how to deal with urban crime loafing around the city.
Wht will make H Street happier, healthier and hotter? For starters, how about more tall buildings and an Arts District between 12th and 15th Streets? Or…. maybe just more people? Urban Turf has more results from the land and market study carried out earlier this year.
Councilmember Charles Allen seems to be going at lengths to introduce autonomous vehicles to DC. Yay for allowing rideshare drivers to unionize, sure, but they are going to need unions if they are going to survive in an increasingly cutthroat market where they could potentially be phased out. The Washington Sun reports. Have I been aboard a Waymo? Yes. Was it really actually kinda cool, if unsettling. But…. I dunno. Maybe I’m not ready for the future.