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Our City and Operations Today

June 2, 2020

Hearts are heavy this morning. We know so many of you as an industry and as individuals are speaking up and taking action against injustice in your own ways and are working hard to be leaders for what is right.  We are here standing in solidarity with all of you who stand for much needed systemic change. All of us who live and work in this region celebrate the fact that DC is a place where people gather, sometimes by the hundreds of thousands and even millions of people to stand up for what they believe in, march, peacefully demonstrate, and work hard to have their voices heard time and time again.  We love that about this City. 

What is happening as each day moves into the evening hours this week does not feel like who we are and what we know so well, and while the vandalism and damage taking place is challenging, the Federal response to what is taking place in our City is deeply troubling as well.  

Today, the Mayor’s curfew begins again at 7pm, until 6am Wednesday morning.  You can and should operate during the day, if you choose to today.  The city urges everyone to close down businesses a few hours before curfew, by 5pm, to allow the City to do what it needs to do to prepare for potential activities in the evening. 

You may have seen in the media or in social media that our industry is included as “essential workers” in regard to the curfew.  While that was true in terms of COVID19, we do not have clarity from the City on that and do not expect to.  The Mayor wants people to get their employees home safely and for people to stay home and adhere to the curfew. 

We know this is challenging, on so many levels, and especially as so many of you were hoping to reopen your doors to the community and help employees get back on their feet. We can only imagine the many hard decisions you’ve had to make, these past 10 weeks, but also right now as you support your employees and industry colleagues this week and look out for your businesses. We will get through this and hope to see critically needed change across all cities in this country. 

Please reach out if you have any questions.  Our team is here.

Stay safe. Stay kind. 

Best,

Kathy