By Nick Erickson
The landscape of work has changed over the past two years, and Americans are speaking up that they’d prefer it stay that way. Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser wants those people to know she is listening.
Appearing virtually Thursday night as the first George Talks Business guest of the spring semester, Bowser (D) noted that the pandemic showed how much could be accomplished away from a physical office space. According to a recent Gallup study, 45% of all full-time U.S. employees now work from home either full-time or part-time compared to just 6% who did before March 2020.
But as cities across the country are realizing, what happens to those businesses in the heart of once bustling downtowns if the daily foot traffic is no longer there? As part of their reopening strategy, reimagining the city’s central employment district is among the top priorities.
“We know that this is the time of great movement,” she said. “People are thinking about where they want to work, but employers are also thinking about their space needs. We want D.C. to always be attractive in those considerations.”
In addition to looking into repositioning commercial office buildings to housing and repurposing public spaces, Bowser said the city is also looking at creating innovation districts to attract young startup companies and entrepreneurs. She specially mentioned the Golden Triangle Business Improvement District that is working with GW and the D.C. government to create an innovation district.
“We think that innovation district lets employers know that this is the caliber of worker you can attract and that these are the institutions that are already there that will provide some synergy among employees and businesses,” Bowser said.
Bowser pointed to the vitality funds in her last budget as evidence of the city’s commitment to attracting new, high-growth companies. GW School of Business Dean Anuj Mehrotra, who moderated the event, expressed excitement about the idea of an innovation district and what that would mean for the university.
“I think we are very excited, of course, of the prospect of the research and the opportunities for our students because of the innovation district and to be in a position to play a role in that at GW,” Mehrotra told the mayor.
As the discussions about how Americans work and protecting those workers continue, there’s another to be had regarding who has access to that employment.
Mehrotra referenced GW’s partnership with the Coalition for Nonprofit Housing and Economic Development to provide training for local minority owned businesses in D.C through a program called ELEVATE and asked the mayor what initiatives the D.C. government was putting forward to support local small and minority business owners who have been affected by the decline in daily commuters.
Bowser highlighted the certified business enterprise law that requires D.C. to spend a portion of its $18 billion budget with smaller local businesses and stressed her commitment to changing the trajectory of unemployment in the city that has disproportionately affected people of color.
“I think all of the investments that the city makes is focused on how every person regardless of where they live for what their background is has access to quality housing, a great education and amenities right in their own neighborhood,” Bowser said.
In addition to creating an Office of Racial Equity that looks at whether investments made are advancing opportunity for everyone in D.C., the city also has created an equity request for proposals that would increase development opportunities that are majority controlled by minorities.
That last part is especially important, Bowser said, because the city is growing. Mayors from around the country gathered in D.C. this week for the United States Conference of Mayors, and Bowser said multiple of her counterparts commented at the amount of development and construction projects they saw in the city.
People—including GW students, faculty and staff—have long been called to Washington to challenge themselves. Even as the way people work has and will continue to change, Bowser said D.C. is still a place to chase ambitions, and everyone from all backgrounds should be afforded that opportunity.
George Talks Business is hosted by the GW School of Business, interviewing C-Suite executives, government leaders, entrepreneurs and alumni. The program runs each semester and is available on YouTube.
