Crime, loss of sports teams cut off lifeline in downtown D.C.; leaders talk as business owners fret

Rampant crime and the looming loss of the NHL’s Capitals and NBA’s Wizards will mean the “slow death” of the District’s downtown, business owners warn, despite Mayor Muriel Bowser’s optimism about plans to revitalize the struggling city center.

Open drug use and hostile vagrants in the Chinatown neighborhood around Capital One Arena, home to the two departing sports franchises, compounded with regular car break-ins, robberies and thefts across the broader downtown area, have business owners inside the District’s economic engine worried about the future.

“I’ve got long-term employees and long-term customers that are just hesitant to come into the city,” Robert Wiedmaier, an acclaimed chef who runs Marcel’s and Brasserie Beck downtown, told The Washington Times. “We just had someone shot right down the street from us.”

D.C. police said a bystander was seriously wounded in a shooting around 5:45 p.m. Monday near Mount Vernon Square in Northwest, roughly two blocks from Brasserie Beck. The same assailant fatally shot another man during a carjacking in Northeast and opened fire on two police cruisers before dying in a shootout with police in Prince George’s County, authorities said.

The bloodshed became the latest headache for Ms. Bowser, who has made reining in crime a top priority amid sharpened criticism from congressional lawmakers and growing frustration from local business leaders.

Speaking to D.C. Council members during a breakfast on Tuesday, she outlined a plan to create thousands of jobs and new housing downtown while establishing a “festival plaza” outside the National Portrait Gallery as part of her administration’s bid to persuade Ted Leonsis, the owner of the District’s professional hockey and basketball teams, to ditch his proposed move to the Virginia suburbs in 2028.

“The violence that we saw yesterday was senseless and tragic,” Ms. Bowser said.

Mr. Wiedmaier said the District’s soft-on-crime reputation is proving to be a major drag on his businesses.

Foot traffic is down at both of his downtown restaurants, he said, as wealthy suburbanites fear that a night out in the District would mean keeping watch for predatory carjackers.

Even city leaders are on guard. Trayon White, who represents Ward 8 on the D.C. Council, said his last two trips to Capital One Arena resulted in car break-ins.

Jon Langel, general manager of Bobby Van’s Grill on New York Avenue Northwest, said the workers who went remote early in the pandemic and never returned left behind empty city streets that are particularly vulnerable to criminal activity.

“I’m a big believer that if you don’t have people walking on the streets in major cities, you’re creating the opportunity for danger,” Mr. Langel told The Times. “More bodies, more eyeballs, limits that opportunity. There’s just not enough people in this area right now to solve a lot of the problems.”

Any further drops in nighttime sidewalk traffic would impact Kamal Azzouz, who co-owns Urban Roast on G Street Northwest with his brothers. Their eatery has thrived since opening in June 2020, partly because of weeknight sports and concert crowds.

The Urban Roast owner said he is hopeful for the mayor’s vision for downtown, especially the “festival plaza” she has proposed, but persuading the sports franchises to stay is critical.

“The reason why people come to that Penn Quarter area is mainly because of the arena,” Mr. Azzouz told The Times. “We’re not going to really be a touristy area. We’re not going to be an area where people just come and walk around D.C.”

Restaurants in the city have had an uphill climb ever since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This fall, a survey from the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington said food prices were up 23% since 2019. Roughly three-quarters of eateries in the city reported less profit than before the pandemic.

The survey found that more than 50 restaurants closed in the District last year. That includes The Pursuit Wine Bar & Kitchen and Brine Oyster & Seafood House on H Street Northeast. Both said the city’s crime problems were among their reasons for closing.

Ms. Bowser put a positive spin on the dining scene Tuesday by mentioning a recent Yelp analysis that found the District had more restaurant openings per capita than all other major American cities.

“It’s simply not true that restaurants aren’t opening and thriving in Washington,” Ms. Bowser said. “Now they have some hurdles, like we’ve thrown some things at them, including changes in the way they pay workers.”

The mayor was referring to Initiative 82, a contentious measure that created a minimum wage for tipped workers after a majority of voters supported it in 2022.

She said her administration is attempting to counter the mandated wage hike by offering millions of dollars in grants to businesses once applications open next week.

The administration first announced the mayor’s “DC Comeback” plan in January 2023, about time she urged President Biden to order federal workers back into their downtown offices.

That comeback seemed to stall when John Falcicchio, who headed the city’s planning and economic development office, became embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal.

Soon afterward, the city’s worsening crime crisis took over D.C. leaders’ attention in the mayor’s office and council chambers.

Plans to revitalize downtown weren’t outlined until Mr. Leonsis joined Virginia’s political heavyweights in December to announce his teams’ planned move to Alexandria.

Mr. Wiedmaier, the restaurateur, called the proposed relocation of the two sports teams a “death kiss” to the area around Capital One Arena.

He said he is pushing his landlords to increase security at his businesses because he sees crime trending in the wrong direction.

It’s a hard pill to swallow for Mr. Wiedmaier, who will celebrate the 25th anniversary of his French restaurant, Marcel’s, in March.

“It’s the slow death of the city,” he told The Times. “It’s a trickle-down effect. We don’t do well, then other restaurants don’t do well, and then it’s just landlords that don’t get paid and their buildings are empty anyway. It’s not a very good environment right now.”