It was 8 a.m. at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Kentucky, and 66-year-old horseman Charlie Boden was explaining terms.

Boden looked out at the dirt track.

He was one of a few in the crowd. Horses were training, so not much was to be expected.

But these days, crowds weren’t like they used to be. Boden said that aside from opening day, not as many people came to watch the horses race anymore.

Congress passed the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act in 2020 with the intent of creating an organization that could monitor the safety conditions of horses in the thoroughbred industry.ĚýSome in the sport were not fans of outside intervention. Others saw it as a necessary tool for regulation.

Matt Dinerman is a horse racing announcer for Oaklawn in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and fell in love with the sport young, going to the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club with his dad.

“The thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. There’s no other sport, I don’t think, that takes you on a ride like this sport does,” Boden said.

The post A lifelong horseman reckons with the thoroughbred industry’s future first appeared on 91ÇŃ×Ó.

The new site is the brainchild of Carl Brown, executive director of the DC Small Business Development Center. The online marketplace, which launched Nov. 8, allows businesses to sell directly to customers.Ěý

So far, over 30 businesses have signed up to use the marketplace, and the products featured on it range from books and food to educational services and yoga gift cards.

The DC SBDC has been around for 40 years and provides resources for small businesses to grow, develop, and flourish. It works with businesses to help individuals get jobs, as well as helps secure loans for those businesses.Ěý

The center is housed within Howard University, and receives its funding from both Howard and the U.S. Small Business Administration. It services the community at large.

Carl Brown, executive director of the DC SBDC, said that he and his team created the new site, among other things, to teach the students at Howard University who are interested in becoming entrepreneurs about e-commerce.

The marketplace presents an opportunity to learn the tools of the trade.

Sellers on the site collect 100% of their profit, an aspect that Brown said was not common among other marketplaces.

While an individual who sells on Amazon might take home 70% of the profit and pay a 30% premium to Amazon for being able to sell there, Brown said sellers get the full amount of their product sales on the Shop DC SBDC website.

For local business owners who don’t have a lot of experience marketing themselves online, the new site assists with product photography so sellers can get the best possible photograph to entice buyers to purchase their product.

This type of care and attention to detail for promoting local businesses is another aspect that separated the Shop DC SBDC platform from other online marketplaces, Brown said.

The program’s entrepreneurial mentorship extends to students beyond Howard University. Brown said students from other schools in the area like Georgetown, George Washington, Catholic, or American universities are welcome to use the site and learn through Brown and his team at DC SBDC.

“I’m trying to show you my hand, so you can play the best hand that you got,” Brown said when discussing how he wanted to use the lessons he learned as a young entrepreneur to pay it forward.

He wanted to see exponential financial growth for his students and mentees specifically.

Brown has acted as a mentor to a long list of individuals. Having worked for 25 years in a variety of capacities, most notably in consulting and training, he’s traversed the public and private sectors.Ěý

He’s held positions at the US Patent and Trademark Office and the Department of Treasury, as well as at the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority.

He said it was sad to see former individuals he’d known who didn’t strategize for their future, making the same income they were making 10 years ago. He wanted those individuals to be making millions.

The shift in generations was changing things though.

“The difference is, these young folks don’t want to make the same $100,000 year after year. They want to see exponential growth year over year. That’s what I want to see,” Brown said.

He derided older entrepreneurs who complained about a lack of opportunity.

“You hear the same BS over and over again. ‘Oh we not getting opportunities.” No, you not getting opportunities because you bring the same dumb shit to the table every time,” Brown said.

Area business owners were excited about the opportunity to reach a wider audience and to take advantage of the entrepreneurial opportunity Brown had set out to create.

Van Strother runs Lord Made, a company that helps with content branding and advertising through photography and videography. He said he relished the opportunity the new website presented.

Strother said the marketplace offered him a chance to gain more exposure for his business, adding that it provided an important service to start-up brands like his.

“I hope it brings clients, hope that it brings awareness of the level of photography that Lord Made does,” Strother said.

Many sellers had only just begun using the Shop DC SBDC website and were yet to see tangible results regarding its financial benefits. But the optimism about what it could bring was evident.

Blum Tea’s Keisha Cofield praised the marketplace for promoting small businesses that are the “lifeline or bloodline to the community.”

More importantly, it provided a platform for her to showcase the fruits of her intense labor.

“I have a cool business, I worked really hard,” Cofield said.

Sharon Wise runs Wise Workz, a company that offers sensory items for people with autism and other cognitive disabilities, and said she sought to create products and services for individuals who needed help mentally coping with the same issues she did growing up.

A survivor of abuse, Wise said she ran away from home and was in and out of jail during the early part of her life. She said she committed low-level crimes to be able to access the mental health care, like cognitive behavior therapy, that was only available in the prison system.

Since then, she has committed herself to self-care, for herself and others, and made it her life’s work.

“People’s lives are being restored by virtue of the fact mine was destroyed early on,” Wise said.

She was looking forward to the services the online marketplace could provide.

“What I hope that Shop DC SBDC brings to my business is visibility, heightened marketing, and promotions of our products,” Wise said.

The post New online marketplace looks to help next generation of D.C. small businesses, entrepreneurs flourish first appeared on 91ÇŃ×Ó.

The tension comes as a potential government shutdown looms and leading national security agencies face crises including expiring Department of Homeland Security clearances and a hard-right

Mayorkas and Wray asked lawmakers to fully finance their agencies, citing national security threats, including geopolitical foes and potential lone wolf attacks inspired by the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

“Lone actors and nation-states such as Russia, Iran, North Korea and the People’s Republic of China [can] use computer code to steal sensitive personal information, shut down our critical infrastructure and extort millions in ransom payments,” Mayorkas said.

Mayorkas cautioned lawmakers that the United States could be vulnerable to an attack due to a handful of DHS authorizations that are on pace to expire in the coming weeks.

The DHS lost its ability to carry out anti-terrorism initiatives that prevent hazardous chemicals from being weaponized in July, Mayorkas said.

He also said Homeland Security will lose authorization to mitigate the threat of weapons of mass destruction and gather intelligence, in addition to limiting “the Secret Service’s ability to protect the president and vice president.”

Wray reiterated the issue of expiring authorizations and emphasized the importance of continued intelligence collection.

“It would be absolutely devastating if the next time an adversary like Iran or China launches a major cyber attack, we don’t see it coming,” Wray said.

‘Ghost bus’ and Jan. 6

Mayorkas and Wray’s points went largely unaddressed by House conservatives who earlier this week to impeach Mayorkas and threatened to defund the FBI.

Republican lawmakers tore into Mayorkas and Wray, accusing them of abdicating their duties and conducting a sting operation during the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., addressed Mayorkas first, briefly citing his failed impeachment of the embattled secretary. Higgins complimented Mayorkas as a “worthy adversary” but said that he’d made his case against him already and was done with him now.ĚýHe then turned to Wray.

Higgins asked Wray several times if the FBI had confidential human sources or plants dressed as Trump supporters during the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Wray said he could not reveal where he had and had not used confidential human sources but rebuffed claims that FBI plants attended the riot on Jan. 6.

“If you are asking whether the violence at the Capitol on January 6 was part of some operation orchestrated by FBI sources and or agents, the answer is emphatically not,” Wray said.

Higgins continued his line of questioning.

“Do you know what a ghost bus is?” Higgins asked.

Wray said he wasn’t sure he’d used the term before.

Higgins said the term was pretty common in law enforcement. He explained that a ghost bus was a vehicle used for secret purposes and referred to a cardboard cut-out of buses behind him.

Higgins said the alleged buses were filled with FBI informants that were planted at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

“Your day is coming Mr. Wray,” Higgins said.

Rep. McCaul, R-Texas., called out Mayorkas for a “dereliction of duty.” McCaul cited his concern over “special interest aliens,” which the Department of Homeland Security defines as non-US individuals who pose a national security risk to the US.

“Sir, I’m going to argue that you’ve been aiding and abetting the deaths and the criminal enterprise that has occurred in this nation,” McCaul said.

Before the hearing, Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., questioned Mayorkas’ representation of the facts.

“The only person that thinks the Southwest border is secure is Mayorkas,” said Green.

Democratic lawmakers chastised their Republican colleagues, defending Mayorkas and suggesting that conservative attacks were exaggerated and unjustified.

“I think it’s incredibly dangerous to accuse Secretary Mayorkas of aiding and abetting crimes,” said Rep. Dan Goldman, D-N.Y. “As you well know, you need to have the intent to do that, and it’s clear that, whether you disagree or not with Secretary Mayorkas’ approach to dealing with the border, that to accuse him of aiding and abetting crime is very serious, and I think, unwarranted in this situation.”

Mayorkas narrowly avoided an impeachment inquiry when the House voted Nov. 13 to send the resolution proposed by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. to committee, sidelining it for the moment.

The post Lawmakers and intelligence officials spar over security funding first appeared on 91ÇŃ×Ó.

These owners say theft doesn’t seem much different than in past years for them but add that they hope the bill solves problems for larger businesses.

Bowser introduced the ACT Now Act on Oct. 23, 2023. Among several , the legislation aims to create criminal penalties for organized retail theft. Specifically, it seeks to define organized retail theft as a felony with a prison sentence of up to 15 years.

The offices of Mayor Bowser and Councilmember Brooke Pinto didn’t respond to requests for comment.

According to theĚý, organized retail theft is theft organized and carried out by criminal rings that steal large amounts of goods to resell for profit.

According to Metropolitan Police Department’s Year-to-Date Crime Comparison data, theft in the District has increased 22% from 2022 to 2023, with 9,212 incidents of theft last year and 11,194 instances of theft so far this year.Ěý

According to , incidents of theft in ANC 2F, which encompasses Logan Circle, have increased by 16% from this time last year. There were 388 incidents in 2022, and there have already been 402 incidents in 2023. There were 325 incidents of theft in the ANC in 2021.

Amanda McClement, owner of home goods store Salt and Sundry, said the crime bill was concerned with a group of people running into a store to steal a bunch of stuff at once. That wasn’t something she experienced.

“I don’t think it’ll help us specifically,” said McClement.

Crime rates didn’t seem to her to be any more significant than any other year, according to McClement, but theft was still an obnoxious and damaging inevitability of running retail businesses.

It was a reality she had to contend with, but she didn’t see any solutions. She said theft, especially for her small business, felt personal.

“It’s literally money out of your pocket,” said McClement.

She said the crime bill was aimed at corporate chains.Ěý

Craig Smith is the chief executive officer of A Few Cool Hardware Stores, a retail group that owns 13 Ace Hardware locations in the DMV area. Smith said he fully supports the mayor’s new bill.Ěý

Smith said he hopes it curbs theft in the District, but he admits his stores don’t experience the same type of theft as other stores. He said the stores affected most were places like CVS and Walgreens.Ěý

Although he hadn’t noticed a major uptick in crime in his stores over the past year, he admitted thieves had become a little more brazen. Offering an example, he said he’d seen people leave other stores with carts full of merchandise they hadn’t paid for.

Theft at Ace stores, according to Smith, wasn’t the organized retail theft the bill seeks to address. Though he wondered if it could be chalked up to the resale value of hammers versus the makeup and detergent that had been stolen at larger chains, he offered another potential reason as well.

“They will still try it, but we’ve been in business for over 20 years in the Logan Circle area and I would say we’re ingrained in the community,” said Smith.

He said people might think twice about stealing from stores that are locally and employee owned. A Few Cool Hardware Stores are both, with 30% of the company owned by staff.

If people who work in the store have eyes on customers and customers know they’ll talk to them, it’s more daunting to steal, according to Smith.

He said attentive employees are the outlier, not the norm right now.

“I don’t think you walk into too many stores these days that are retail stores that you get great customer service in,” said Smith.

The Small Business Development Center’s Executive Director Carl E. Brown, unlike Smith, didn’t see any real solution for theft. He said the new crime bill wouldn’t fix any problems.

“It’s not going to do anything to address theft,” said Brown. “If that was the case, then people wouldn’t commit crimes.”

He said the issue was much deeper than stealing, pointing to the rising cost of food and other goods and its effect on lower-income communities.

“They feel that it’s their privilege and right to steal from you because they feel as though you’re stealing from them by charging the amount you’re charging,” said Brown.

Serv-U Liquor’s Ralph Mokonnen said crime was nothing new.

“Stealing is like going to work right now,” said Mokonnen. “It’s normal, like watching football or basketball.”

He said he couldn’t say whether the crime bill would help and believes it’s the government’s job to figure that out.

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The resolution, which the Logan Circle ANC released on Sept. 20, addresses 15th Street NW between Massachusetts Avenue NW and U Street NW. It calls for the one-way, three-lane street to be reduced to two lanes. It also calls for traffic cameras, a reduced speed limit, increased signage, more stop signs, raised pedestrian crosswalks, and fixes to any unpaved bike lanes.

ANC 2F, which represents Logan Circle, and ANC 2B, which represents DuPont Circle, say that the street as currently constructed encourages drivers to speed recklessly in a pedestrian-heavy area where people bike frequently.Ěý

But residents felt that lane reduction would create more potential for accidents. They also felt that riders of scooters and bikes were just as much to blame as drivers for dangerous conditions.

“It’s pretty unusual,” said ANC 2F Commissioner David Rubinstein when speaking about the layout of the street. Rubenstein is ANC 2F’s Public Space and Transportation Committee chair.

“It allows traffic to go faster than the speed limit,” said Rubenstein. “There’s a potential for a lot of conflict.”

The issue is not new and has persisted for some time, according to Rubenstein. He said his ANC has made prior resolutions to no avail.

Rubenstein said that this time ANC 2F has banded together with ANC 2B, which released aĚý on Sept. 27, and that as a result, the resolution had gained traction.

He said that DDOT has acknowledged the resolution.

Jeremiah Lowery, advocacy director for the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, commended the resolution as a net positive for safety in the area.

“Those measures that they’re proposing are proven to reduce traffic deaths and serious injuries,” said Lowery.

However, he said that WEBA is not satisfied with the pace of change.

“The ANC shouldn’t have to pass this resolution. The changes they’re proposing should be on every intersection,” said Lowery. “DDOT occasionally needs some pushing.”

He said that getting drivers to slow down and respect all road users directly benefits bikers.

Enforcement tools and street design are key ways to make a street safer, according to Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen, who chairs of the D.C. Council’s Committee on Transportation and the Environment.

“Research shows that speed cameras do slow down drivers, but people have to believe that cameras are there for safety – not revenue,” Allen said in an emailed statement.

Resident Juliette Wilder disagreed with the resolution’s proposed implementation of speed cameras. She said the cameras are “super predatory,” but that signage wouldn’t hurt.

Reducing the number of lanes from three to two was also a nonstarter for Wilder. She said she didn’t understand how it would lead to a reduction in reckless driving, adding that it could lead to a back-up of traffic that could cause accidents.

She also said that riders of bikes and scooters were not blameless, noting times she’d been driving where she almost got into accidents with people drunk scootering.

Frank Albinder, another resident, also called out bike riders.

“I’ve seen bicyclists get hit when they were not in the right, like someone had a green arrow and the bicyclists ignored,” said Albinder. “So nowadays scooters and bicycles and motorcycles, they pretty much ignore all the lights.”

He similarly didn’t see how a reduction in lanes would help safety.

“It’’ll just make congestion much worse,” said Albinder.

He acknowledged that drivers sometimes go well above the 30 miles per hour speed limit and that, at night, pedestrians are in danger of getting hit.

According to a written statement from DDOT provided by its Public Information Officer German Vigil though, the area is not as high-risk as others.

“It is worth noting that this corridor is not featured in ourĚýĚýas one of the most dangerous corridors in the District, nor is it on theĚý,Ěý, orĚý. While there will always be additional work to meet the needs of District residents and visitors, we always have to make the difficult decision to prioritize areas that historically do not have the same level of investment,” read the statement.

Rubenstein said the ANCs are waiting to hear back from DDOT.

“We will give DDOT time to digest it and then get back to us with their thoughts before we decide on any next steps,” said Rubenstein.

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Bar owners hope the pending bill would save them money by reducing insurance costs. However, lawyers argue it would remove the power of a customer to sue if they are over-served and hurt themselves.

Council members Brooke Pinto and Christina Henderson proposed , in January 2023. The legislation would revise existing law to say that a dram, or bar, is only liable for a drunk patron’s injury if the bar’s staff knowingly serves an obviously intoxicated person. The “knowingly” and “obviously” parts would be new.

“I co-introduced this legislation to address the District’s exorbitantly high liquor liability costs that are not only the highest in the region, but second highest in the nation,” said Henderson in a prepared statement. “The current law is vague and does not provide a definition for ‘intoxicated’ or ‘intoxication.'”

Business owners say that the proposed law would save them money by making it harder for drunk patrons who injure themselves to sue. They say that if their liability goes down, so too would their liability insurance.

John Guggenmos co-owns P Street’s Number Nine bar in Logan Circle and supports the pending bill. He published last month, detailing its economic impact.

“It is defining intoxication, it is defining the standard of knowingly serving someone, what that means,” said Guggenmos of the proposed bill.

Jean Paul Sabatier, co-owner of Logan Circle’s Jane Jane bar on 14th Street NW, agreed.

“It is to everybody’s benefit to offer a bit of clarity to these small businesses in general to make sure we’re outlining what intoxication means for everybody,” said Sabatier.

For Guggenmos, it comes down to what’s fair.

“Even if I only served you one drink and you had six or seven at another bar, I would be liable,” said Guggenmos.Ěý

Alabama revises its liquor law.

Guggenmos pointed to Alabama’s April 2023 revision of its liquor liability law as an example of the positive change the District’s Dram Act could bring.

Alabama’s new law says a bar is only responsible for the injury or death of a person if they “knowingly” serve someone who is “visibly” drunk. According to Alabama Retail, an association that represents retailers in public policy, Alabama enacted the legislation to lower the cost of liability insurance for businesses.

The Alabama statute says that knowingly serving alcohol to an intoxicated person means that the bar “knew or should have known under the circumstances.”

Guggenmos said that the cost of liquor liability insurance directly correlates to an ISO rating that is given to states.

The Insurance Services Office, or ISO, assigns a number for how risky it is to insure establishments in a state.

Before the revision, Alabama had a score of 10, the highest possible. After it enacted the changes, ISO changed the state’s rating to a 5.Ěý

Guggenmos said the District’s rating is a 9. He also provided a background memo for the Dram Act legislation that showed premiums as high as $400,000 for nightclubs and restaurants.

Supporters hope a reduced score would lead to lower insurance premiums.

“The legislation would bring DC’s liability insurance costs in-line with much of the rest of the country by reducing those costs for neighborhood bars and restaurants who struggle to pay these premiums at a time of increasing inflation and overhead costs,” Henderson said in her prepared statement.

‘A solution looking for a problem.’

Lawyer Timothy Clinton of the law firm Clinton & Peed doesn’t see a correlation between the proposed changes and reduced costs.

He said the District’s proposed Dram Act is a solution looking for a problem.Ěý

“If this is an insurance problem, this should be regulated by the insurance,” said Clinton. “If the [ISO] score is high because we have such excessive intoxication in the District because they’re getting drunker than other states, this regulation will have the opposite effect than what’s desired.”

He said that the new law would give bars more power to over-serve. It would prohibit drunk patrons who hurt themselves from suing the place that provided the alcohol, according to Clinton.

He noted specifically a section of the proposed law that states that no lawsuit could be brought “by the person to whom the alcoholic beverage was sold or served.” Clinton said the proposed revision wouldn’t hold bars responsible when they should.

“The answer is not to give immunity to the people who are responsible for excessive intoxication,” said Clinton.

He said the new law would also harm alcoholics by shifting blame away from the bars that profit from their habitual drinking. Clinton said that bars should be accountable for making responsible decisions, especially on behalf of a person with an illness whose judgment is impaired.Ěý

Clinton said he is passionate about the issue because of a lawsuit he was involved with a few years ago. He noted he won a wrongful death case in 2019 where his client’s husband was over-served by a bar and died of complications after collapsing.

Clinton testified against the Dram Shop Clarification Act during a June 2023 hearing before the District Council’s Committee on Business and Economic Development. Trial lawyer Brendan Klaproth of Klaproth Law and government affairs director Frank Harris from Mothers Against Drunk Driving also objected to the proposed law during the hearing.

David Super, a professor with the Georgetown University Law Center who teaches contract and tort law, said he agreed with Clinton’s arguments against the Dram Act.

“This would make it very difficult to hold dram shop owners accountable for irresponsible behavior,” said Super.Ěý

The Council Office of Racial Equity also raised concerns about the Dram Act’s effect on communities of color.Ěý

In its of the proposed law, CORE said that, while anyone can seek damages for an alcohol-related injury, residents of color face greater challenges in doing so.Ěý

“B25-0056 will likely harm justice and economic outcomes for Black, Indigenous, and other residents of color who are victims or related to victims of alcohol-impaired actions,” said CORE.

Next steps.

“The next step will be for the Committee on Business and Economic Development to hold a markup and vote on the bill prior to consideration by the full Council,” Nicholas Pcholkin, legislative assistant to Henderson, said in an email.

The council has until the end of the legislative session in December 2024 to act on the bill, according to ChĂŠ Ruddell-Tabisola of the Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington. If it does not become law by then, it can always be reintroduced.

Ruddell-Tabisola said he hoped the bill would be enacted much sooner because the current law gives plaintiffs unlimited power and harms small businesses.

“If you’re a local neighborhood restaurant, this insurance is so expensive. It’s so far out of reach,” said Ruddell-Tabisola.

Dylan Halpern is a resident of Logan Circle and was unaware of how the current law works.

“I’ve lived in D.C. for seven years, and I did not know this,” said Halpern.Ěý

He said he didn’t see how adding language about knowingly serving a patron or visible intoxication to the current law helped.

“I’m just not sure how you could prove this,” said Halpern.

The post Bars fight for new liquor liability rules, face pushback first appeared on 91ÇŃ×Ó.

Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., and Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., gathered colleagues Thursday evening to publicly show their support for Israel and hold a moment of silence for the Israelis that died during the Hamas attack Saturday.Ěý

“When Israel and the United States need one another, it’s moments like this where we step up, and it is actions that matter so much more than words,” said an emotional Schultz.

She said that the moment of unity meant everything to her as a Jew, as a Zionist, and as a human being.

Hamas launched a ground and air attack against Israel Saturday that has killed 1,300 Israelis. They also took 150 hostages. Israel declared war shortly after and bombarded Gaza with airstrikes, killing more than 1,400 Palestinians.

Israel declared war shortly after and bombarded Gaza with airstrikes, killing more than 1,400 Palestinians.

The attack on Gaza has displaced 300,000 Palestinians from their homes. The U.N. is warning of an ensuing humanitarian crisis for the now homeless civilians of Palestine since borders are closed and they are unable to leave the territory.

Democrats and Republicans descended the steps at 6:45 PM. They held electronic candles, their faces illuminated.

A group of staffers stood several feet away. They watched and took pictures. Visitors to the Capitol looked on from behind a temporary fence farther away, as they weren’t allowed closer for security reasons.

Sam Dorn gathered to witness a show of support that he defined as important. He said he wanted to be a part of the moment.

“We’ve seen so many historic moments both for good and for bad in front of this building in the past couple years and to stand here and say America is firmly and resolutely behind Israel,” said Dorn, trailing off.

He said he was praying that Hamas would understand the severity and consequences of its attack.

“I hope they gain that understanding,” said Dorn.

Pervaze Sheikh and his wife stumbled upon the prayer, unaware beforehand of what was taking place.

“I think it’s appropriate to have a vigil. I think it’s also appropriate to recognize that many civilians on both sides are being killed and hopefully, there’s a quick end to the situation,” said Sheikh.

Gottheimer began the vigil and addressed the crowd briefly before handing it over to ĚýSchulz. She thanked lawmakers for gathering on short notice for the event.

Several other lawmakers spoke, including Republicans who said both parties were united in their support.

Gottheimer reiterated the same point.Ěý

“There is nothing that divides us on this issue,” said Gottheimer.

A prayer was conducted afterward, followed by a moment of silence.

Before dispersing, Schultz offered an expression in Hebrew that she said meant that Israel would live forever.

The death toll for Israel is the largest since the Yom Kippur War 50 years ago when 2,600 Israelis died. The death toll for Palestine is the highest since the 2014 Gaza War when 2,251 died.

Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv Thursday, where he pledged ongoing US support.Ěý

Israel has vowed to eradicate Hamas in the ensuing war.

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Art All Night took place this past Saturday, and it provided local artists an opportunity to showcase their work in venues around the neighborhood. Several residents and small business observers said the event showed that art can be a viable framework for revitalizing the area’s small business community.

The event was part of a that took place over the whole weekend, but it marked the first time it was held in Logan Circle.

Painter has been selling his paintings on the corner of 14th and S streets, NW, for six years. He was looking forward to the event because he said it provided a platform for him to show his work to people who otherwise might not see it.Ěý

He said the support of the Logan Circle community has been the recipe for his success so far and the event was another milestone in his career, one that wasn’t always so easy.

“I lost my business, and I was like, ‘What am I going to do next?’ And the first piece I painted, I sold. I was like, ‘Hey, you might have something,’” said Ryan. “With the continuous support of the community and my consistency, here we are. So now I’m kind of a pillar in the neighborhood.”

Ryan had owned and operated Planet Chocolate City and its two locations from 1997 to 2008. He sold his own clothing label there, which included jeans, sweatsuits, socks, hats, and hand-painted dress shirts.

Others in the art community were just as excited about the event.

Victoria Reis is the co-founder, executive director, and artistic director of Transformer D.C., a nonprofit arts venue that’s been in Logan Circle for over 20 years. She’s also a resident of the area.

She noted the pandemic’s lasting effects on Logan Circle and described Art All Night as a perfect embodiment of how art can grow community through engagement.

“The neighborhood has changed so much,” said Reis. “Older businesses have left, and newer ones have popped up.”Ěý

She said Art All Night’s arrival in Logan Circle was important because it increases the likelihood that people will engage with Transformer and other art venues beyond just one night.

The event has very real economic benefits for the artists and art spaces in the area, according to the Logan small business community. They said that having a day on the calendar for residents to go out, engage with artists and venues, and buy work means money in the pockets of the artists and places that sell.

Main Street America’s Dionne Baux has witnessed the event and its positives firsthand. She attended the Congress Heights event in a prior year.

“It really provides an opportunity for micro-entrepreneurs as well as brick-and-mortar businesses, said Baux.Ěý

She said that it gives them both a platform to showcase what they’re selling.

Baux is vice president of field services for Main Street America, which represents neighborhood commercial districts across the country.

According to Baux, Main Street America created a four-step way to “revive and rejuvenate commercial” spaces that the Department of Small and Local Business Development implements in Washington, D.C.

The benefits of art in the Logan Circle community extend beyond just the artists and businesses taking part in the event, though. Art brings people together and allows others in the area to sell their services too, says Carl E. Brown, executive director of the D.C. Small Business Development Center at Howard University.

“Small businesses, restaurants, coffee shops, even the bars and restaurants, some people go and see and say, ‘Hey let’s get a bite to eat, slice of pizza, and beer [afterwards],’” said Brown. “It allows a lot of people to get out and see that normally would probably be home Netflix and chilling.”

Painter Ryan was excited about Art All Night but knew that one event wasn’t the answer to everything. It’s about the long haul, he said.

“A lot of times, like, with art, I tell artists, it’s like yes, the sale was great, but the sale might not come for two weeks from now. Like, earlier in the day I sold a piece from a guy I met a month ago down at the Ronald Reagan building where I did an exhibit,” said Ryan.

“So, I think that sometimes as artists, you want to like sell right now, but for me personally, it’s like growing the brand because my brand is more important than one sale.”

The post Art event looks to uplift Logan Circle economy first appeared on 91ÇŃ×Ó.

Changes in consumer practices, social detachment, and a stark shift in the economic landscape are posing challenges to small businesses in the area. These issues, all trickle-down effects of the pandemic, have been exacerbated by the arrival of new Covid strain BA.2.86.

“I think my biggest concern is a further break in people’s day-to-day lives,” said Scott Abel, owner of 14th Street’s Solid State Books. “Visitors to the store, neighbors, Washingtonians at large, we’ve already dealt with years of really disassociating stuff.”

Abel opened his second location in Logan Circle in May 2023 and spoke confidently about his store’s ability to meet the upcoming wave head-on, his first location having already survived the initial years of Covid.Ěý

He said he was most concerned for the increasing isolation of residents and its effect on the neighborhood and its businesses.

“My worry is that we kind of continue to disrupt the fabric of the community. If people don’t want to leave their homes, it’s hard to maintain and sustain third places like a punk club or a bookstore or a coffee shop,” said Abel.

Jessica Barakat of 14th Street’s Crown Pawnbrokers was worried about the culture of shopping changing altogether.

“A lot of people are moving away from person-to-person and brick and mortar. We need places to shop and touch things,” said Barakat.Ěý

Crown Pawnbrokers was opened in 1935 by Barakat’s great-great-grandfather and provides cash loans to patrons, among other services. Barakat said an increasingly digital world and an aversion to germs in a post-Covid economy pose a new kind of threat to this way of operating.

“People didn’t want to touch cash for a long time with Covid. [Now] there’s a larger divide between the cash and credit world,” said Barakat.Ěý

She spoke about stores that have apparently stopped taking paper money.

“A lot of businesses that don’t take cash, not only is it illegal, but I won’t go. It’s discriminatory against people who have cash. If I give my kid $5 to run over and grab a drink from the coffee shop, and they say they don’t take cash, it’s a strange thing. I worry because some people are unbanked,” said Barakat.

The District enacted legislation in December 2019 that prohibits businesses from rejecting cash payments. The law went into effect April 2021 and aims to protect people without access to a credit card from discrimination.

Covid-induced fluctuations in the economy are a constant theme for the community.

Michele Molotsky is a main street director for the non-profit District Bridges and described what she saw as the neighborhood’s two largest financial issues. Her organization helps economically vitalize the Logan Circle community by explaining grants to small businesses and organizing events that help generate customers for them.

“The current problem is workforce. The other problem would be rent,” said Molotsky.

According to the , the district’s unemployment rate rose from 4.7% in February 2023 to 5.0% in July 2023.Ěý

At the same time, tipped minimum wage in the district increased in July 2023 from $6 an hour to $8, and the minimum wage increased from $16.10 an hour to $17.Ěý

“I think staffing continues to be a challenge, attracting and keeping people when the economy seems so volatile,” said Molotsky.

Molotsky pointed out that the increase in Logan Circle rent has also made it harder for small businesses to survive.

“It’s a very popular area right now. A lot of landlords want top dollar, over $100 a square foot. At that rate, only a national brand is able to pay that kind of money. A lot of landlords would rather hold out and be vacant [because] you know a big chain … is going to pay rent no matter what happens,” said Molotsky.

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