Developers are finding an important new use for these buildings while addressing a growing need in the city: housing. Adams Morgan’s Universal building is about to join that trend.����

The Universal building is located at 1875 Connecticut Ave., NW, across from the Hilton Hotel where Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. When it was used as an office space, a variety of professions occupied the building, according to Adams Morgan ANC Commissioner Howard Bauleke.��

“The Universal building, for a long time, has been a headquarters for nonprofits and journalists and small policy shops and things like that,” Bauleke said. “At one time, it held a bunch of people with one of the federal housing agencies.”��

However, the now empty office building, originally owned by JBG SMITH, was sold to , a Philadelphia based real estate firm specializing in residential conversions.

Post Brothers is entering the D.C. real estate market for the first time with this $200 million acquisition.����

Turning office space into residential��

Office building plans are functionally different from residential floor plans, so many different steps have to be taken to shift an office into an apartment.��

“Office buildings usually have a core right in the middle with all your elevators and stairs, and a lot of empty space all around it, which is not the best way to design an apartment building,” John Edwards, a principal with , said.

Edwards said that the fundamental differences between an office and residential building make it challenging to design apartments with light and air.

“You end up having bedrooms that don’t have any windows, which is against the code for the most part.”����

When developers convert these buildings, they generally want to keep as much of the original infrastructure as possible.����

“You want to keep the stairs and the elevators, so you don’t have to put new ones in,” Edwards said.����

Another challenge developers face is figuring out how to fit as many apartment units as possible in a building with a limited amount of space.����

“Sometimes you end up having to even carve out part of the building in order to get a perimeter where you can actually get a unit with windows,” Edwards said. “Because if we didn’t carve this space out here, you’d end up with really deep units that are too long and narrow to be marketable.”����

However, a large advantage of an office to residential conversion is how sustainable it is.����

“The most sustainable building you can build is the one that you don’t build,” Edwards said. “So, if you’re able to reuse an existing building, you’ll have all of that embodied carbon in the structure of a building that isn’t being destroyed and rebuilt.”��

Many office buildings in the downtown business district are being redeveloped because developers must find a new use for them.��

“Converting them kills two birds with one stone – you get more housing, which the city needs, but you also have an income producing use for the building again,” Edwards added.��

D.C. needs more housing��

The Universal building will have 512 new units when the redevelopment is complete, according to Bauleke. He added that the units will be targeted towards middle class to upper middle class families.��

“We’ve got a real problem with the availability of affordable housing for the middle class and people who work for a living,” Bauleke said. “And so, anything you do that increases the total number of units in an area helps the overall picture.”

Under D.C. law, between eight-to-10% of residential units created must be targeted towards affordable housing under the , according to Bauleke.��

“That’s one of the things D.C. has done for a while to try to encourage the development of more affordable housing stock in the District,” he added. “So, this all fits into the larger picture.”��

Edwards said there are many different components an “affordable unit” must meet. For example, units with buried indoor bedrooms can’t be considered an affordable unit and at least one unit in the building has to be an affordable two-bedroom unit.��

“So, it goes into the city’s thinking that the affordable units are intended to be available to families with lower incomes,” he said.����

Affordable housing is an increasingly important issue for D.C. residents, such as Summer Boucher-Robinson, who’s lived in Adams Morgan for seven years.����

She lives in a big group house with four other people, each of them paying just over $1,000.����

“It feels like it’s pretty impossible to have your own space here in D.C. without a million roommates or without having a significant other or any of that,” Boucher-Robinson said.����

The Adams Morgan resident said the neighborhood could really benefit from more diverse and varied housing options.����

“Just different options instead of just buying your own home or having your own single family home,” she said. “I think big apartment buildings, communal housing is the way to go.”��

Aralis Rodriguez lives in Dupont Circle but works in Adams Morgan and said making eight-to -10% of the residential units affordable is great for the neighborhood.��

“That would be very attractive,” Rodriguez said. “This is a very good area. It’s a secure area.”��

She added that the affordable units would be especially attractive for young people.��

From Universal building to apartment complex��

Bauleke recently did a walking tour of the Universal building with the developers and said the ANC planning, zoning and transportation committee will meet later this month to hear about the project.����

“I expect that these folks will come and make a presentation similar to what they showed me: ‘Here’s what we want to do. And here’s where we need your support on these little zoning issues,’” Bauleke said.������

According to Edwards, the timeline for redeveloping a building from office to residential really depends on how much change is being made.����

“It could be as quick as a normal new building project,” he said. “Maybe six months, seven, eight months to design it, and then maybe a year, a little over a year, to actually do the construction to make that.”��

Edwards said getting approvals from the city is where a majority of the time goes.����

“A lot of these buildings downtown, there’s various reasons why you can’t do certain things because of the zoning, because it’s originally zoned as a commercial building,” he added. “So, the developers go back to the city to ask for waivers or special exceptions or variances for the zoning.”

Currently, the Universal building still has some retail stores on the ground floor, such as an Office Depot and the National Bank of Pakistan.

Bauleke said he’s unsure if these businesses will stay once the building gets redeveloped, but they will at least have to move out during the construction process.����

“They’re hoping to get the remaining tenants out of there by August and proceed fairly quickly,” Bauleke said.��

The post Vacant D.C. office building turning into prospective new homes first appeared on 91����.

On Nov. 2, Jubilee Housing and Sitar Arts Center “broke ground” on their new partnership, which was announced on Twitter by Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau. But these two organizations shared a long history prior to this collaboration.����

It was an honor to celebrate the beginning of ‘s new transformative project, which will bring deeply affordable housing to Adams Morgan and invest in the arts education of our young people by expanding !

— Brianne K. Nadeau (@BrianneKNadeau)

A long-term partnership��

“Sitar Arts Center and Jubilee Housing have been longtime partners – Sitar was initially founded in a Jubilee property,” Jim Knight, president and CEO of Jubilee Housing, said in an email. “Our missions work closely together on behalf of the community.”����

Jubilee Housing’s mission is “to build diverse, compassionate communities with opportunities for everyone to thrive through justice housing,” Knight added.

Justice housing is housing that’s located in resource-rich neighborhoods, close to schools and grocery stores, has transportation and offers onsite and nearby services. The housing is also deeply affordable and accessible to community members with the greatest barriers to thriving. ��

“Supportive services include programs that Jubilee offers in-house, as well programs offered through a network of neighborhood partners,” Knight said.����

Musician Rhonda Buckley founded Sitar Arts Center. She was inspired by her friend, and visual artist, Patricia Sitar.

Sitar and her friend Barbara Moore were worried about the after-school hours for the children living in Jubilee Housing, so they created Good Shepherd Ministries.����

“You know, their parents were out working, they would come home from school and have nowhere kind of safe and enriching to be,” Maureen Dwyer, the executive director of Sitar Arts Center, said.��

Buckley volunteered music lessons to the kids at Good Shepherd Ministries’ after-school center. She began to have a vision for a multidisciplinary arts education center, opened her own nonprofit and named it Sitar Arts Center after Patricia Sitar.������

When Sitar Arts Center was looking for partners for their new expansion, Jubilee Housing was one of the first stops.����

“The partnership came about in 2018 because Sitar had a growing waitlist for their affordable afterschool and summer arts programs and needed more space,” Knight said in an email. “Sitar reached out to Jubilee and it felt like providence in action, as Jubilee had just launched its first Justice Housing Partners impact investment fund and was ready with the funds needed for a fast strike acquisition.”

Jubilee Housing bought the empty building next door to Sitar, and the arts organization will buy most of the first floor from them to expand its offerings.����

The building will include three floors of “deeply affordable housing,” according to Dwyer.����

“Many of those units will be available to people at 30% or less of median income,” she added. “They’re larger units than typical. So, they’re big enough for families, several of them are two to three bedrooms.”��

In total, 50 units are being added, and the first floor will feature Sitar Arts’ after school programs that will be available for the families.����

The partnership is also expanding Sitar Arts Center’s footprint by 50% so the program will be able to reach around 500 more school-aged students, according to Dwyer.����

Sitar is also implementing a new workforce development program for “young adults to find career pathways to arts-based careers and careers in the creative industries,” she added.����

D.C. is becoming an increasingly expensive city��

Rent in the District has increased yearly, according to a report from . The average rent for a one-bedroom apartment in Adams Morgan is $2,504 – a 3% increase. For a three-bedroom apartment, average rent is $4,098 – over $200 more than the D.C. average.

According to Andy Wassenich, the assistant director of outreach for Miriam’s Kitchen, D.C. has two major housing resources, permanent supportive housing and rapid rehousing, to mainly help those in the homeless community. ��

The Department of Housing and Community Development also has the Inclusionary Zoning (IZ) Affordable Housing Program, which “requires that most new (and some renovated) residential developments include some affordable homes,” according to the .��

Permanent supportive housing is a long term, indefinite housing resource that provides people vouchers that can cover ranging rent prices.����

For example, “If it’s a one-bedroom apartment with utilities included, the rent that it will cover is $2648 a month,” Wassenich said. “It’s market rent.”��

Rapid rehousing is a short-term subsidy for up to 12 months. It’s for people who “just need a little bit of help to get back on [their] feet and regain employment and set a little money aside so [they’re] good to go for a while,” he said.����

To be eligible for the :��

• Households must make 50%, 60% or 80% of the median family income��
• Housing costs for an IZ home can’t be more than half of your income��
• Can’t be enrolled full-time in college or university program��
• Must live in IZ home as primary residence��
• Can’t own other residential property at the time of lease or purchase��

The process of getting an IZ home is based on a lottery system and only occurs when homes become available.������

The challenges of affordable housing make the partnership between Sitar Arts Center and Jubilee Housing an innovative model because of the various resources available for community members, according to Dwyer.����

“You know, have wonderful, beautiful new housing that’s big enough for families, and then a community anchor like Sitar that provides great out of school time programming, a safe place for kids to be until their parents return from work,” Dwyer said. “So it’s really a way for a family who is overcoming challenges to have a lot of what they need right there, the resources right there.”

The post Affordable housing efforts expand in Adams Morgan first appeared on 91����.

On a chilly, Tuesday morning, voters waited in an unusually long line at the Marie Reed Elementary School in Adams Morgan, while campaigners and volunteers handed out flyers and donuts.����

One campaigner was , the candidate for the ward’s board of education seat, and he spoke about what it’s like being a teacher and why he believes the education system is at a critical point right now.��

“I think that we need to make sure that we give kids the proper training and opportunities to be able to live self-directed lives,” Williams said. “Right now our education system is at a real breaking point with teachers leaving the classroom, and I think we need to make sure that we’re supporting teachers and giving students the resources they need to bounce back from the pandemic.”����

School safety has been a concern, particularly pedestrian safety, Williams added.����

A lot of people say the D.C. government needs to improve its safe passage program, Williams said. “There’s a concern about getting to and from schools safely.”��

Mayor Muriel Bowser that six community-based organizations would receive $4.3 million for fiscal year 2022 to support the D.C.’s Safe Passage program.��Among other things, Safe Passage places adults along select routes to ensure students can travel safely to and from school. ����

For Dayne Weber, a manager at a nonprofit organization focusing on education and a D.C. voter, working in the education field has emphasized the importance of the issue.����

“I really am hoping that we can ensure the safety of our kids in schools but also make sure that we have a good education system that prepares students for the world and prepares them to be good citizens,” she said.����

Throughout D.C., “school safety and well-funded schools is a critical issue,” according to Jeff Francer, a volunteer for campaign for re-election as at-large councilmember. He supports Silverman because she’s endorsed by teachers and supports well-funded public schools.

D.C. public schools are “funded through a combination of district local funding, federal grant funding, and other funding,” according to the .����

Jon Wilkins, an election volunteer and member of the Marie Reed parent-teacher association, said his background in education for the last six years and involvement with the PTA has highlighted schools and school safety.

“I think that the safety of schools and the importance of schools is really a high emphasis for the leadership and administration as well as for the parents in general,” he said.

Daren Thomas, a volunteer for at-large council seat campaign, also volunteers for an after-school children’s program at the Sitar Arts Center in Adams Morgan.����

“We’re always interested in the safety of those kids,” he said.��

Thomas said a big reason why the organization was founded 20 years ago was because there was more gang violence in the area and Sitar Arts Center wanted “to keep kids safe between three and seven,” he said.����

When Kevin Mulshine, a volunteer for campaign for D.C. attorney general, had his kids in school, things were not as up to code as they are now.����

“I was a parent during the time of fire code violations in D.C. schools, and it’s been great to see the improvements that have come to the local schools,” Mulshine said.����

He added that education was a big issue for him and his kids as they were growing up.��

Adams Morgan resident, Cathy Doan, has a daughter who grew up going to public charter schools and is currently a sophomore in college, so she said she believes in the importance of having a good education.��

“It’s the future of our youth,” Doan said. “So if we don’t have a good educational system, we’re doing them a big disfavor as we are the wider community.”

The post “Right now our education system is at a real breaking point.” Education key subject for Adams Morgan voters first appeared on 91����.

Instead, the event was met with intense backlash and criticism on social media and forced Tryst to rename the event to the “Adams Morgan Community Safety Forum” with no MPD presence.

The original event, scheduled for Oct. 20, generated angry comments that flooded Tryst’s Instagram, with many users upset that an event about safety included MPD. Some of the comments included:

Initially, Stavropoulos didn’t understand why people were so angry.��

“When we put it together, I was coming at it from the mindset of this is a community thing,” he said. “I was trying to figure out why people are equating it to a separate issue and not focusing on the community.”��

According to MPD’s website, is an MPD-sponsored event that is “dedicated to encouraging communication and positive interactions between law enforcement agencies and the public.”��

It is a program that has been in effect since 2018 and used in different D.C. neighborhoods.��

“The event has become so popular that the Metropolitan Police Department hosts similar coffee events with community members throughout the year,” the MPD website said.��

Plus, Stavropoulos said Tryst had hosted this event a few years ago with no issue. “It was successful, everybody was happy, there was no concern about it,” he added.��

However, when Mohir Muminiy, a worker at Tryst, contacted Stavropoulos about concerns he and some of his colleagues had with the event’s messaging, Stavropoulos listened and worked with Muminiy to rebrand.��

“I don’t believe police are the solution at all, however, if I kind of proceed with that rhetoric of ‘Yo completely cancel the event’ and all that, it wouldn’t have been productive,” Muminiy said.��

Muminiy was a large reason why the Oct. 20 event became rebranded as the “Adams Morgan Community Safety Forum,” did not include MPD and instead included voices from people in the community who have dealt with the biggest safety problem for Adams Morgan: homelessness.��

“Ideally, initially, we wanted to get it canceled, if I’m being honest,” Muminiy said. “But then, as we’re talking, we’re like, ‘OK instead of just canceling the event, while everyone is kind of looking at Tryst, let’s just turn it into a way that then will help the homeless population that we see is the current problem with the whole security within Adams Morgan.’”

The Tryst worker urged Stavropoulos to make the event tailored towards social services and get representatives from homeless shelters – which Stavropoulos took to heart.��

Andy Wassenich, assistant director of outreach for Miriam’s Kitchen, spoke at the safety forum about his role and the role of Miriam’s Kitchen for the homeless population.��

Wassenich explained that is a D.C. Department of Human Services contracted outreach provider. The organization works with the D.C. government and the homeless population to get them the proper food, housing and help they need.��

He added that Miriam’s Kitchen has night teams that check in on different neighborhoods in D.C.

“We have a night team that swings through here once or twice a week as well,” Wassenich said. “So if there’s ever anything that’s, you know, pressing we will send somebody up here or respond to it.”

Incidents relating to homelessness have upticked for businesses as they’ve started emerging out of the pandemic, according to Stavropoulos.��

“A lot of our managers were not trained to deal correctly with the individuals,” he said. “The knee jerk reaction is to kick them out of here or call the police. We know that there are ways to address the issue.”��

Ana Reyes, the owner of El Tamarindo, which is a few blocks down from Tryst, spoke about an incident she had with a homeless individual who came into her restaurant.��

“There was one situation where a gentleman came in and he seemed to be, you know, just a regular customer,” she said. “Came in, ate, had a couple of beers and then zonked out.”��

Reyes and her staff tried to wake the man up and, when he wouldn’t, she said her only option was to call the police. When the police arrived, they told her she could press charges.

“For what?” Reyes said.����

They gave her a , which is a form “that is used to prevent individuals from entering private property,” according to MPD.

“That’s as good as it gets,” Reyes said. “That’s the only resource that they were able to provide.”

Kristen Barden, the executive director of the Adams Morgan BID, explained that the BID has safety ambassadors who patrol the neighborhood during the day. They’re not law enforcement, don’t carry weapons and center their work around de-escalation.��

“I do mostly neighborhood security, homeless outreach, take initiative that businesses are taken care of,” Gari Requena, a safety ambassador, said.��

Requena has been a safety ambassador for almost two years and has worked in the security field for almost 15. His training came from his experience; he was not trained by the BID.��

The safety ambassador has introduced himself to many businesses in Adams Morgan so they know they can call him or another safety ambassador if they don’t want to, or need to, call the police.��

Before the community safety forum, Reyes didn’t know her neighborhood had safety ambassadors and said she would’ve rather called Requena than the police.��

Despite an onslaught of angry social media backlash and an event overhaul, Stavropoulos was happy with the outcome of the community safety forum. “I think I found in the last 20 plus years that everybody kind of wants the same thing and because we’re all so passionate about it, we don’t always have that same approach about how to solve it,” he said.

Stavropoulos said his mission statement for all his businesses is “Building meaningful connections one animal cracker at a time.”��

“And that’s for our staff but it’s kind of true for what we’re trying to do in the community too.”

The MPD third district and the Office of Councilwoman Nadeau did not respond to requests for comment.

The post Angry backlash forces a complete rebranding of a community safety forum first appeared on 91����.

The Adams Morgan BID staged the event to promote the pedestrian zone on 18th Street NW and Halloween, which is coming up next week. “The objective of the pedestrian zone is to be a tool for the economic recovery of all the businesses in Adams Morgan,” according to the . ��

Performers started staggering into the middle of 18th Street in a zombie-like fashion a little after 2 p.m. They all wore matching white T-shirts and had zombie makeup on.����

Kristen Barden, executive director of the Adams Morgan BID, was in charge of the flash mob, which appeared right before a fashion show. ��

“We wanted to kick off the fashion show with something that was fun,” Barden said. ��

The performers stayed in character as they danced to “Heads Will Roll,” “Look What You Made Me Do” and, of course, the classic Halloween anthem “Thriller.”��

“It was fun,” Shine Chang, freshman on the American University cheer team, said. “It was a little cramped, but we still made it work.” ��

Chang said that her team practiced the dance a couple times during their designated practice time, “but it was mostly by ourselves, or working with other people on our team to try to get it to the best it could be.” ��

She added that a large part of what made the experience fun was because of their outlook on it. ��

“It was fun just cause we would make it fun instead of thinking about it in a bad way,” Chang said. “So that definitely made it better than ‘Oh god we have to act like zombies.’ We made it a fun thing. We could’ve made it worse. But it was a really fun experience.”

Chang’s teammate, Miranda Lynch, said she was happy with the performance. ��

“I feel pretty good,” Lynch, a junior, said after the flash mob ended. ��

However, Lynch added that the performers were originally given a different story about what the flash mob would be for. ��

“We were told that it was going to be about a proposal,” Lynch explained. “I’m very thankful that it was not the case, because I think I would’ve felt very awkward watching a proposal, especially after a zombie themed flash mob. But we were not told why it was zombie themed nor that the event in general would have a Halloween theme to it.”��

Despite the absence of a proposal, the nearly three-minute dance was met with applause and intrigue from bystanders.��

Today was the last day for the Adams Morgan pedestrian zone, because they were only given permission from the D.C. government to host this event on three different Sundays. The BID also received $525,000 from the D.C. Office of Planning’s “Streets for the People” grant program. ��

According to the Adams Morgan BID website, “The majority of the funding will support the purchase and installation of permanent infrastructure.”��

Although the pedestrian zone won’t be back for a while, the fun events will go until late tonight.

“There’s lots of programming, all afternoon until 10 p.m,” Barden said. “So, everyone should come out and check it out.”��

The post A zombie flash mob invades Adams Morgan first appeared on 91����.

There are 152 murals in 72 neighborhoods, according to – a collaboration between the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities and the Department of Public Works.����

So, it was unsurprising when Wood decided it was time for his neighborhood to have one of its own.����

has served as ANC commissioner for Ward 1 since January 2021. Getting art into his community was a priority because “Adams Morgan has a pretty rich history as being a hub of art and just creative expression, but also of using that creative expression for political means and a good sense,” he said.��

Wood added that bringing a mural to the neighborhood is also good for community building.����

“I had that idea just to try to find and connect with more artists throughout the District, as well as potential avenues and platforms for those artists to be able to engage their work within Adams Morgan, because a lot of people really do want art,” he said.����

The ANC commissioner contacted the property owners of the condo building where the mural is located, put them in touch with MuralsDC and let the pieces fall into place. He said once he put all the right people in contact with each other, everything else was left to MuralsDC.����

“They just kind of did the rest because it’s a private property,” Wood said. “The condo owners within the building voted in one of the meetings about it.”����

According to MuralsDC public information officer, Nancee Lyons, she and her counterpart at the Commission on the Arts and Humanities chose the artist and the payment for labor is entirely funded by the Department of Public Works.��

Lyons added that the design concept was a conversation between the artist and the property owner, but all designs must be approved by DPW and the Commission on the Arts and Humanities prior to installation. MuralsDC keeps their mural themes loose and “Anything that supports the expression of love, peace, harmony, unity, tolerance and equity is encouraged,” she said in an email.

In addition to community building, Wood said the decision to bring a mural to Adams Morgan was to also hopefully attract small business owners and residents.��

“You hope that that’s something that will make people think, ‘Oh I’ve been thinking about starting and building a business. And I would like to find a location. And I want to be someplace that has some charm and some interesting aspect’ and art is a really big part of that,” he added.��

Overall, the process was fairly smooth, according to Wood, but as with anything there were some small disagreements.��

“There’s always resistance to things,” the ANC commissioner said. “Not necessarily because people are against art, but because you know, there’s just a difference of opinion on how different things should be expressed.”��

The mural, which is located at 1831 Belmont Road, was painted by local artist Federico Frum who goes by .

According to his bio on the MuralsDC website, Paz was born in Bogotá, Colombia and raised in D.C. His Latin American roots heavily influence his work which is centered around indigenous peoples and respect for Earth. He’s also worked as an art director and as a head designer consultant for Nike.

Lyons said the decision to go with Paz was because they “thought his cultural design style worked well given the cultural history of Adams Morgan.”

Wood said indigenous rights are important to his residents and something that the condo owners were particularly interested in.������

“Indigenous people, for lack of a better expression, have been treated very poorly,” he added. “And I think the tip of the iceberg of rectifying and undoing a lot of that harm, much of which can’t be undone, is things like art and promoting different ways of expression. Because otherwise that’s how histories get completely lost, isn’t it? We need ways to preserve that and actively engage with it as we go forward as well.”��

The Adams Morgan commissioner said that he sees art as an “incredibly political act” and as a tool to challenge systems of power that are hurtful.����

“Having the satisfaction of just artwork being presented publicly and visible and kind of evoking positive emotions, that in itself is impactful,” Wood said. “But on top of that, when it’s connected to a deeper cause, especially when it’s done really well, art is very important.”��

The new mural has already evoked many positive emotions in its viewers.��

“I think the color has a nice mix of blues and greens and yellows,” Virginia resident Kevin N., said. “It adds some vibrancy to the buildings.”��

Courtney S. added to Kevin’s point saying, “A little pop of color, I think, always improves something.”����

The mural sparked a discussion between them and their friend, Anna C., about what they each thought the painting is of. Courtney saw half a heart while Anna saw a helmet on a warrior.

Adams Morgan resident, Mimi K., said it was about time her neighborhood had a mural. “I mean there are murals all over,” she said. “It’s only right that there should be some here in Adams Morgan too.”

She added that any amenities for the community is always a plus for her.��

All four people requested to use their last initial for privacy reasons.��

The condo building the mural is located on is adjacent to Streets Market, a grocery store in the neighborhood. Store manager Francisca Martinec said the mural is a good idea, because it catches people’s eyes and can be seen from Kalorama Park directly across the street.

“It looks beautiful,” she said. “It’s a good appearance to the neighborhood.”��

When asked what he hopes people get out of this mural, Wood’s answer was simple – “I just hope people see it and smile.”����

The artist did not respond to requests for comment.

The post Why one Adams Morgan ANC commissioner brought a mural to his neighborhood first appeared on 91����.

But two queer spaces, one in Adams Morgan and another in Eastern Market, are trying to buck that trend.��

In 2018, A League of Her Own and Pitchers opened in Adams Morgan and, in 2022, As You Are opened in Eastern Market. Both bars have been trying to reshape the narrative of what it means to be a queer and lesbian bar and confirm the need for these spaces.����

“We need more spaces,” Barbi Lopez, a manager at A League of Her Own, said. “We need spaces to be able to meet other lesbians, other queer women.”����

A League of Her Own opened to be an exclusively lesbian and queer women space. It shares a dance floor with Pitchers, but they are two separate bars, according to Lopez. While they have the same owner, both have different managers.����

“I like to kind of think of it as we’re just a big queer space,” Lopez said.

Lopez started as the manager in January and said she’s fought to make A League of Her Own a more inclusive and welcoming environment.����

“I started a Reggaeton night, which is something you would never think would happen in a queer space,” she said. “You just feel like your inner child is just jumping for joy if you grew up in the early 2000s.”����

Reggaeton is a style of music from Puerto Rico and has musical influences from hip hop, Reggae, dancehall, Bomba and Plena. Lopez said she’s had people drive two hours just to attend this event because it’s a safe space for them to listen to their favorite music. ��

A League of Her Own has also been trying to expand into other activities that don’t necessarily have to involve drinking and partying, because the establishment wants to be a space for the community, not just a bar.

“We do open mics, and we do sip and paints,” Lopez said. “We have a next week.”����

For As You Are co-founder and co-owner Jo McDaniel, building a space to universally serve the community they’re in is the very mission she and her wife built their bar on.��

While their business has a bar, it also has a cafe that stays open past the standard Starbucks and Philz Coffee hours. McDaniel and her wife, Rach Pike, wanted to create a flexible, versatile space that serves as a jack of all trades.��

“We obviously have alcohol available, but it’s not the only thing we’re pushing,” McDaniel said. “We have coffee and food, and the cafe stays brighter and quieter so you don’t have to feel like you’re in a bar at all times. We have the patio that we work hard to maintain so folks that aren’t comfortable being inside yet have a space to gather.”����

Operating a queer bar is nothing new for McDaniel and Pike. Between the two of them, they have over 20 years of experience in this space. In fact, McDaniel worked at all three lesbian bars that have since closed down in D.C.����

McDaniel said part of what’s helped the business stay afloat, amidst the trend of lesbian bars closing, was the willingness to listen to the needs of their community and stay open-minded.����

“If you’re only offering one thing and your community wants more than that, either you have to shift or you’re not gonna make it cause people aren’t coming to spend money there,” she said.��

Currently, there are only 24 lesbian bars in the United States, according to the . McDaniel said she believes part of the reason lesbian bars close is because of exclusionary environments and behavior.����

“I think there’s something that can feel really TERF-y, so that’s trans exclusionary radical feminists,” she said. “TERF-y people are like ‘No this is just for women. Or this is just for lesbians’ and not everybody identifies that way, which is why we shied away from calling ourselves just a lesbian bar.”����

Being a business that is a welcoming safe space for everybody seems to be the central theme as to why lesbian bars still need to exist.��

Olivia Eutsler, a member of security at A League of Her Own, said just having a safe space for her to go to is so important.����

“I feel like it’s important to exist so we can have a safe space to go to,” Eutsler said. “A more comfortable space to be where you can like really be yourself.”

Tena Williams, bartender at As You Are, said she’s had jobs where the environment is not as accepting of who she is, so working in a queer specific space feels very supportive.����

“It’s nice to go somewhere where it’s like, ‘No. Be you. We celebrate who you are,’ and not just tolerate it,” Williams said.��

Not everyone feels comfortable at any spot, McDaniel said. Some people have never dressed as their true selves and a queer space is the only place they feel safe enough to do that. It’s important to hold spaces for people from all walks of life in a community, she added.��

“To have a lot of different intersections in the same space when you walk in, you immediately feel a sense of ease, a sense of safety,” she said. “It’ll always be necessary for us to have spaces to gather.”

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