DC Mayor-elect Janeese Lewis George outlines administration priorities

Grace, and for that, I appreciate it. But in all seriousness, I want to thank the voters of D.C. for electing me to be their next mayor. I also want to congratulate all the Democrats who won in D.C. and... across the country. I look forward to working with the new members of the D.C. State Board of Education, the amazing advisory neighborhood commissioners who have stepped up to also lead, and of course, members of our D.C. Council, and of course, our new member of Congress. A special congratulations to our new delegate, Delegate Robert White. I look forward to leading alongside you and defending D.C. and winning D.C. statehood. Today, I officially begin the work of building a people-first government. It is the start of the transition in the next two months. I will build a government that delivers on the promises of my campaign, including a D.C. we can all afford and a government that is accountable to its people. This morning, I announced my transition team, including my director, chairs, advisors, policy committee chairs, as well on our new transition website. These people will help me prepare and deliver on day one. You can find their names on my website, Janice4DCTransition.com. There, you can also find a new jobs portal because I am accepting applications for anyone who is interested in joining my administration. So if you are an experienced public servant or a dedicated community organizer or a policy expert from here or around the world or just someone who loves this city and wants to make it better, we want to hear from you. I've already got a number of applications in my DMs about rats, so I know people are interested in that position. So I am looking forward to people applying and making sure that you all are aware. Again, that's at Janice4DCTransition.com. Joining me today are the co-chairs and director of My Transition. These are the people who will help me make key hiring decisions, including the hiring of deputy mayors, directors, and commissioners. Collectively, they hold vast experience in presidential, state, and mayoral transitions, as well as experience in government operations and city budgeting. They've managed 1,000-person teams under immense pressure. And they've also brought communities together to fight for a more equitable and just city. Like me, they have a vested interest in the future of our city. And like you, they are residents of D.C., they are raising their families here, and so I couldn't be more grateful for them being willing to serve in this role. So, I want to introduce you to my co-chairs of transition, starting first with Bibi Otero. She is a decades-long resident and civil leader currently living in Abbotts Morgan. She is the former deputy mayor for health and human services under Mayor Vincent Gray. As deputy mayor, she managed a broad portfolio of agencies and led initiatives to strengthen coordination and accountability across government. She also served as a special assistant to the Montgomery County Executive and is the founder of the bilingual child care facility Centro Nia. Thank you, Bebe. Next, we have Gautam Raghavan. He has two decades of experience in building impactful executive teams. He served as the director of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel in the Biden-Harris administration and led the selection of more than 7,000 presidential appointees. He and his husband live in Crestwood and are proud parents of a D.C. public school student. Next, we have Greg Ackerman, who is a resident of Logan Circle. And a leader in the Living Wage Movement as the president of the D.C. Metro Building Trades Council. He's a key to my good jobs agenda, and we will make sure we have people in government who prioritize connecting our residents with good-paying jobs, fighting wage theft, and educating our kids about the trades earlier in school. Next up, we have Kimberly Perry. She has lived in D.C. for over... 26 years and is one of the nation's leading experts in youth and child public policy. She is the executive director of the D.C. Action and is essential to my education and child care platforms, among other things. She is also founding director of D.C. Hunger Solutions and former executive director of D.C. Vote. And last but certainly not least, we have Aaron Jenkins. He has executive experience across the public and nonprofit. And finally, my transition director, Jennifer Levy. She was first Deputy Attorney General for New York State Attorney General Letitia James. There she oversaw a workforce of more than 2,000 people in 13 offices. She's a fighter. She's led bipartisan negotiations with opioid manufacturers and distributors that resulted in $40 billion in settlement funds dedicated to opioid abatement nationally, including securing money for D.C. She has deep experience leading transition efforts, city government, and knows how to put people first in government operations. She is a proud Ward 5 resident. Right now, I have no additional announcements to share on any specific hires. But what I can assure you, our hiring process will be thoughtful and deliberate. I will be looking for individuals who will share my people first values and who hold experience in government operations. We need people with skill and integrity and a real hunger to make government work for the people. When I make final decisions, the people of D.C. will know my commitment to you is that this will be a transparent process that is accessible because that's what it means to build a people first government. I look forward to working with Mayor Bowser and her team and administration and what will be a successful transition. And I'd also like to thank the mayor for her support thus far for her public service all these years again. Thank you to Mayor Bowser and her team. We have an ambitious agenda ahead of us, but we have an even more ambitious team ready to get to work. Now I'd like to invite one of my co-chairs, Bebe Otero, to speak on behalf of the co-chairs committee. Bebe? Good morning. It is really a tremendous pleasure to be here. As someone who's lived in D.C. for more than 50 years, who met my husband here. Raised three children here, sent them to D.C.'s wonderful schools. I'm thrilled to have Janice Lewis-George as our mayor. On behalf of the transition team, I'd like to thank our new mayor, Janice Lewis-George, for entrusting us to help her build a people-first government. Janice Lewis-George ran a campaign on values and vision, and our job now is to put all of that in action. Over the next two months, we will seek out talented, experienced people here in D.C., across the nation, and even the world. We will vet and interview the best candidates for roles in the Lewis George administration. Again, anyone interested in applying, as our mayor has just said, DeniseforDCTransition.com is where you should go. We want the most talented people. We want the people who really want to serve this city. Our goal is to help her hire key and key roles. And as Denise has said, deputy mayors, directors, commissioners who are pivotal in enacting the mayor elects key campaign promises like universal access to affordable child care. We also want to make sure that there are no interruptions in the essential services that the people of the District of Columbia expect. Snow removals, trash collections, etc. So we will work together, as well as with the Bowser administration, to deliver a successful transition for Denise Lewis-George and for the residents of the District of Columbia. Thank you very much. Thank you, Bebe. All right, we will be taking questions, and I saw Tom's hand first. Yes, of course. Our transition office will be at 899 North Capitol. Which is special to me because that was the old office where the State Board of Education used to be when I was student representative on the Board of Education. So it is a special place and that is one of the areas that the The. Mayor Bowser administration really helped with us early on identifying locations for our office so we could get started on the ground day one, which is why we're so grateful. So we've identified that space. Our team is ready to be located there and to do the work. Last night was a great night for Democrats. Absolutely. And as I looked across the states that we saw wins in, from Mississippi to Texas, Michigan, I mean, just blown away. I think it's clear that this is a referendum on where people are in our country, as similarly as they are in our city in the conversations. People want to be able to afford to live. And people want a government that works just as hard as they do. And I think that was clear by the results that we've seen. People are struggling with paying bills, housing, utilities, child care. All of these things matter. And so I think we saw that clearly play out, and I am looking forward to working with all of our members of Congress, again, on both sides of the aisle, to the benefit of district residents, and I'm excited to continue to fight for our autonomy as well as D.C. statehood. Yeah, some things we are looking at as a team, and our co-chairs are going to dig in here. We've made a very decision that we need to do. First, a forensic analysis of our D.C. agencies and our budget, of course, looking for efficiencies and finding savings. We also talked about perhaps doing a desk audit in certain agencies to go desk by desk and see what is your job? What do you do? And we're hopeful that in doing this forensic analysis and a desk audit, we will be able to make some very clear decisions about any restructuring we need to do in government to make our government more efficiency and to save District taxpayers dollars. Yeah. You know, the district is situated very differently than in every other jurisdiction, not as it just relates to not having statehood, but we have to work with the federal government in various ways. So I'm looking forward to having conversations around public safety. One of the conversations we had early on was with our judges, and the chief judge said it's important for the function of our government. For D.C. Superior Court to be fully funded, that's an area that I want to work with people in Congress and say, can we fully fund our courts? What does that mean? That means they're able to hire more magistrate judges. And when they hire more magistrates, that means our landlord tenant courts works more effectively, efficiently. Our criminal justice courts that are backed up work more effectively and efficiently. So when I think about public safety, particularly, I think about the way in which our D.C. Superior Court needs to be fully funded. And that's something that is very specific that we want to work on. and work with this Congress even before achieving D.C. statehood to make sure that our government and our city is prepared on day one. Obviously, we're excited about the potential of a different park plan in the city. In D.C., we love our green space and we love our parks. And so there is opportunity for some land transfers or some joint jurisdiction of land. And so that's another area that we're excited to work with this administration and talking about even before we achieve, again, D.C. statehood and fight for our autonomy. You know again youth curfews has come up a number of times and I've said to people we have to do the thing the things that work and so we heard loud and clear from our young people it's why we also made a decision to have a youth committee a youth transition team that will have DC youth on it because our transition team want to hear directly from DC youth on what it will take. To make sure that they are safe and also to make sure that there is accountability and what that accountability looks like. We want all of our young people in D.C. to thrive and achieve. And so our transition youth committee will be weighing in on what it will look like for us to deal with this very real issue. Our young people hate. When fights break out, they said, we want to be out in open spaces. But they also said to me, you know, we don't want the small few of people who do those terrible things to take away the freedom and enjoy the rest of us have. And so I am charging them with coming up with a youth agenda and also establishing a D.C. Youth Advisory Council, which I was a proud member of under Mayor Williams administration, served as the Ward Four Youth Advisory Council. And so I'm looking forward to the work. And again, I can't wait to see what our young people say about how we can make sure they are safe and ensure that they are doing what they need to do because they have the resources and the opportunities that are necessary for them. Yeah, our co-chairs are going to be digging deep and looking at all of our talking and having conversations and looking at all of our agency directors. Our main priority is making sure that we have a continuity of service delivery, especially in those mission critical areas and public essential services. So when we think about education, we think about public safety. We just want to make sure that as we do this transition, we have the requisite people on board ready to stand and do the work that's necessary. And so we haven't made. We haven't made any final decisions around who is staying, who will be moving on, but the main thing is we are grateful for their service. Remember that all of these directors who stepped up to serve, many of them served for the entire 12 years. Some of them moved their way up in district government. We are so grateful for their service and as well as Mayor Bowser's service. And so as our team makes those decisions, of course, we will be very detailed. We're doing our searches. We're asking people to apply. And so that is where we are. We are in this process, and as we make decisions, the D.C. public will know, as will you. Yeah, our team, again, you know, we are not naive about where we are in the district. We know that we've lost thousands of district. jobs. We know that our economy has shifted, especially with the federal job loss. And so we are looking at really making really critical decisions, especially as it relates to budget. Again, that's why that forensic analysis and that desk audit that we are working and willing to do is so important. And so, you know, we're going to try to find efficiencies and savings where we can find them and make those decisions. Again, we're not leaving federal dollars on the table. We have We have a team who is ready to. maximize our federal dollars in every single way possible. And again, we are looking at ways we can ensure or close loopholes if necessary. But we want to be clear that we are not going to balance our budget on the backs of working people and working families. We are clear eyed that when I come in in January, that I will be doing the work of starting budget work. In fact, our chairs will be working with our budget director to do the work now to look at the budget to try to game that out now. That we can make some really great decisions as we move forward. But I feel confident that we can deliver on universal access to child care, that we can rein in our utility companies and deliver more affordability as it relates to utilities for our city. And of course that we can make it easier for people to build homes in the city, to build more homes so we can lower the cost. And I think those things will go a long way, yeah. We had an amazing tax hearing. I was really grateful for that tax hearing. It was very thorough, especially the first panel, which was the former tax revision commissioners. But I heard them loud and clear. I think one of the things we talked about was closing the loophole around the business activity. And I heard them loud and clear that said, hey, if this is a step that the district makes, remember that the tax revision commission also said that those came with other reforms and that it needed to be a balanced approach. And so now that we've gotten that feedback, I want to be sure to the community and to the people who testify, we heard you loud and clear. Our tax system currently isn't fair. And I believe everyone agreed that we could make it fairer and that we needed to take a balanced approach. And so my team is excited to do that work. And as we make final decisions, the people of the district will know. Thank you so much. And I first want to thank Telemundo for being here. I made a promise to Telemundo and other organizations in the press who have historically not been a part of it, that they would always be a part of the conversation. I do think. We need to engage Telemundo, as well as many of our other organizations. We talked to our Ethiopian and Eritrean reporters as well and welcome in this space. So I want to be clear that that's a first step, that Telemundo will always be welcome here, as well as any other press who represent that community and get information to our Latino community. I've been clear on the campaign trail and everyone in all eight wards, when I knock doors and talk to people, were clear that people wanted to end cooperation between our metropolitan police department and ICE. Our team is working on delivering on that because we believe in our city, our immigrant families are critical to our fabric of D.C., always have been and always will be. And so they should know and me that they have a mayor who is going to fight for them and work with whoever is necessary to protect them in this moment. So many organizations is why I love this city so much. We have so many organizations who've always already been on the ground helping getting our immigrant neighbors back to D.C. who have been taken. And so we're going to continue that work. I want our Latino community to know it's not just about ICE enforcement and immigration, although that is critically important, but we expect our Latino communities to be able to thrive in every facet. Housing affordability is just as important, and making sure their small businesses can thrive and have opportunities in the district is just as important. And making sure they are part of the conversation, they're in the room, and they understand that we see them as a fabric of the District of Columbia. And so as I work on this affordability agenda, I'm keeping. I'm keeping our Latino community in mind as I work towards fighting federal immigration law enforcement. I'm keeping them in mind and they will always have a space in this administration and in our room. So thank you for that question. Thank you. So first, I want to be clear that I picked chairs based on What I told the district residents I wanted to focus on. They asked for a government that worked efficiently and they asked for vast experience and they wanted me to make sure I hired directors and deputy mayors who had experience doing the work that weren't just loyal to me, but loyal to service delivery for district residents. And when I looked at our co-chairs, I saw people who have been doing this work for years. It was less about whether you ideologically align with me and more. more about do you love the residents of the District of Columbia, do you believe in public service, and do you believe in delivering for district residents across affordability, across transparency and accountability, and seeing everyone. Equity was important. All of our co-chairs defined a value in equity and making sure all eight wards of our city were represented in our government. And so their vast experience was something that was most important to me, and I said on the campaign trail that I was going to value experience. experience and value people who could get the job done on day one. That was the other thing. I wanted to make sure that I can deliver on day one. This is the big leads, not the small. And so we got to have the people who have done the work before. All of them have done vast work in the areas that they have been in. And so it's a group that I trusted. And I hope this shows the residents of District Columbia that that's where our government is headed with credible, quality leaders who are ready to deliver on day one. Yeah, so philanthropy is not funding our transition. As you know, our transition, we dedicated dollars. The council dedicated and passed dollars through our budget for our transition. And so we are going to be fundraising for our transition because we do need to do the vetting and hiring that is necessary to deliver on day one for district residents. And so that's going to be essential. But as I have said, our. Transition, we are going to be doing traditional fundraising as well as the money that was allocated to us in the D.C. Code. Yeah, you know, I think what's important for district residents is. Just how we run this transition process and that's the early ways we showed them and that's why I've been clear about us being transparent and clear and accountable to district residents. And so our goal is to make sure that we can make as many critical decisions as we need and understand that we will be making critical decisions over the next year or more to get our government where it needs to be. And so that is what we are trying to do and make sure that we're ready to hit the ground on day one And I'm so grateful that our co-chairs are ready for taking up that task, as well as our committee chairs and committee members who will serve under them. Oh, yes, the Warford Council seat. I will, on January 2nd, be as as noted by the D.C. Code, submitting my resignation. I want to start by saying thank you, Warford. As you all know. I am a proud uptown girl, a proud Kennedy Street girl, and so I'm so grateful to the ward that sent me here, and I will forever be indebted to the residents of Ward 4 who trusted in me to be their council member over the last six years. What I will say is my hope is that we can get the earliest possible date for the special election. I think March 16th has been identified as a potential date for the voting that will take place to replace myself and now. Delegate Robert White. And so we hope that that process will happen as swiftly as possible. So Ward 4 residents and residents across the district will be represented. Thank you. Thank you. We will have an office. I won't commit to sort of what the makeup of that office is now. That's something that my transition chairs are mulling over and deciding how we want that office and our deputy mayors to be organized. And so as we make that decision, we will let you know. But again, we are looking for someone who understands both two things. One, that our economic development in the district, that we are going to have to lean in on our anchors in a very real way, so a person who is ready to work. work with our university as we lean on them for creating new jobs and innovation and growth, who's willing to work with our hospitals and lean on them, who's ready to work with all of the anchors that represent this city, from our small businesses to our bigger businesses, someone who understands the things we need to do to make our economy grow and the changes we need to make within our agencies, right? Because some of the stuff is small things, right? We can't have Permits, people sitting waiting for permits for seven months, someone who understands that, someone who is ready to fight for our ambitious goal of building 72,000 homes and who knows what it takes to do that on both the. level of our agencies and on a higher level of attracting people to our city. And so that's what I'm looking for. Someone who's ready to work hard, someone who's innovative, someone who's ready to talk to everyone in our city. No one should be left out of the conversation and who's ready to grow our economy in a very meaningful way. We have so much talent here in the district. We have so many great anchors in this city and they are ready. I am ready. And so I expect my deputy mayor to be ready to deliver on creating those good jobs and growing our economy. Thank Yeah, thank you. So we have already engaged and contracted with the police executive research forum. They will be conducting a national and local search for our next police chief, and they have already begun the work to do so. you. They have conducted and assisted over 200 police executive searches, including in Baltimore and Boston. And so we are excited for them to begin We have asked them to work as swiftly as possible, but it's not. We are not interested in just, you know, having someone there on day one. We want the right person. And so I'm not going to put a timeline on that process. We, you know, obviously want to make sure we have someone there, but we want someone who's quality, who the residents of the district have asked to rebuild the trust within the police department and to rebuild trust with the community. And so I'm confident that we can find that person. We've been working with our organizations on the ground who do that work. We've talked to so many people and people have really weighed in. And so I look forward to the names they produce. And again, as we make that decision, the public will absolutely know about it. We will have conversations, of course, with our police union and our police department, members of the police department. They are district government workers and agency, and their voices deserve to be heard. And I want to say that to all of our district agency workers, these next couple of months, we will be coming to you, whether you are a sanitation worker or DPW or a claims adjuster. I think that's a great question, you know, and I think that's, you know, a question that Myself and Delegate Robert White have been talking about how we can strategize together, build the relationships in Congress we need to be able to stop some of the changes that are happening, as well as working with Attorney General Brian Schwab to see what legal measures we can take to slow down these processes or stop these processes before it's too late, before damage is done to some of these precious properties. So it is a team effort alongside our Delegate and our Attorney General. are going to work together to protect these very precious jewels of our community, both of D.C., but of the entire region. Absolutely. And it's not about running it through Congress. It's about making sure the Democrats in Congress know what the district is doing so they are best equipped to defend us. And so in conversations with Representative Jeffries and Robert Garcia and conversations We've had with senators, you know, it's important to them that they. Have the information to fight back for the district. And so, of course, I'm going to take the same approach. We need them not just to achieve D.C. statehood, but on so many other issues. And so, of course, I'm going to continue to take that approach to make sure that I communicate with them as we roll out different policies, as my transition looks to do the work to achieve universal access to child care. Those are conversations. Representative Jeffries and I talked a lot about Afford. affordability. And he agrees that affordability is what is on the minds not only of district residents, but residents across this country. And he's excited for us to work together to achieve affordability here in D.C. and across. So I'm going to continue to take that cautious approach and have those clear communications, because I think that is what sets the groundwork in 2028 for us to make a real case for D.C. becoming a state. No, not as of yet. Our teams are, again, in conversations and working to set up that meeting. And as soon as the meeting is set up, we will let you know. How many of you are ready? Well, you know, I instructed our co-chairs to take a real assessment of our government and them to come back to me and say, actually, these are the critical positions I think we need to fill. And so, obviously, again, our focus is making sure that our critical essential services can be maintained through a transition. And so health and human services is an area as we wait, await what the impact is going to be on federal Medicaid cuts for our community and TANF and SNAP. Of course, we have to make sure there's contact. Thank you. That our government is working and making sure their students are getting the education they need. So those top agencies are those that have a great impact on our residents, both their safety and essential services. And so that's what that's what our team is instructed to do. And I look forward to their recommendation back to me. No, absolutely not. Yes. Yeah, I think it's a great question. I want to say that my team has been working very hard and we feel good about where we're positioned for district residents to feel impact and especially in our first year in office. And so I want to say that I'm optimistic first and foremost about where we are positioned in the work that we're going to do to deliver affordability for district residents and especially in the areas that we have identified. But, you know, and I don't want to give. resonates the message that government can't make it happen or government can't do it. I think this moment and the results of last night showed that people are tired of hearing what government can't do and they want to see what government can do. And so I hope that as the year goes on, I'm able to show real impact and people are able to see the results. My team has been tasked with that very ambitious goal. And I can say that from our early conversations, we are ready to meet the moment. Yes, we have. We are wanting, we have called, we're going to have a people, the people's inauguration. And so we don't want to limit people. We don't want people to have to pay for inauguration. So we have set out a very ambitious fundraising plan to do that. We are going to do just like we did in this campaign and look to our small donor dollars, the 10,000 people who donated to our campaign. We're going to be calling them again. We've We've already started calling them to say, hey, will you donate to both inaugurations? Donation efforts and transition efforts. My team has been clear about where we are drawing the line in receiving donations and so I feel strongly that we are going to be able to have an inauguration open to the people. And we're really excited to roll that out as my team has worked really hard to make it fun for everyone and all ages of district residents. For inauguration, we will be fundraising across broad coalitions of district residents. And so I think that we just set the guidelines on if there's somebody doing business with the district or who has, you know, legislation weighing before the district, that those are dollars that we are not willing to take. That's right. Yes. Yeah, so those that will be coming out in the coming weeks. We are looking towards December to deliver that scorecard and to take the over 2000 responses we got from district residents as well as the 4000 district residents who showed up in person and distilling that into a scorecard. So we are working very hard to put that information together to develop that scorecard. And that's something that we want to have in place before I take office in January. Absolutely. You know, our teams have been talking across industries here in the district and we have been thinking about proposals that we need the federal government to work on and things that they would be excited about. Of course, we talked a lot about Union Station as a real development opportunity to create jobs and to also be able to create a regional transit system as well as develop the property that surrounds that. with some real opportunity for district and economic growth. So Union Station is an example. Again, I talked a lot about the parks and our want for more green space for district residents. We see some of that joint jurisdiction and transfers as a real opportunity to work with the president on. And so those are some of the examples. But as we when we go into that meeting, believe me, we were going in there with some proposals that we hope the president will be excited about, because I know he has an interest in building more housing and I know he hasn't. interest in development and so and apparently interest in parks as well and so we are excited to talk about those things and figure out where where we can make some ground and deliver for district residents. Yeah, you know, I made a pledge that I was going to be a mayor who focuses on education because I think it's important. I think education is important for economic growth and development, too, because people who can get educated and get good jobs in the city will come to the city and stay in the city. And our young people deserve that. When we talk to district residents and we talk to parents, there were some very clear issues they wanted to us to address chronic absenteeism. So we expect a chancellor who's ready to take on the task of addressing chronic absenteeism. In the past, we have not done. All that we can do around special education and so as we look at SPED and our SPED programming and how we empower our teachers and train our teachers, all of our teachers, how we make it easier for students to be in the least restrictive environment, that's what we want to do. So special education obviously is going to be a focus area and one that I hope our next chancellor will be able to focus on, making sure we can deliver for all district students no matter their capabilities or abilities as it relates to special education. We heard a lot from parents around wanting to make sure that math and English that we keep. Fighting for our literacy and our math scores to go up. We've seen great progress. Again, I'm always proud of how far the district has come and our great system that we have here in the district. And so we're going to keep fighting to meet those literacy and math goals and do the work, high-impact tutoring, showing up and doing the work. We also recognize that out-of-time school programs are an essential part of education, the arts and sports, and the work that it takes for young people to feel whole. In school, mental health has come up time and time again for our young people. That was the number one ask we heard from our young people. We need mental health supports in school, outside of school. And so, of course, I'm going to be looking for a chancellor who's excited and who has experience and who's ready to tackle those issues. And the issues that we face here in our district system, middle schools came up across the board. Parents feeling like we're buying into elementary schools for our public education. Thank you. be on making the improvements that district parents and residents ask for us to make. Of course, we're going to look at our teacher evaluation system and see what changes need to be made because our teachers are essential to making sure we can deliver on all the goals that we talked about. And I do believe that when our teachers are supported, it trickles down to our students. And so I'm looking forward to doing the work alongside our education champions with DCPS, within OSSE, within our DC public charter schools. to make sure that we can deliver for all students. Yeah, what a win we had on Sunday. Shout out to our commanders for a great win. We really was really excited. Whenever the commanders get a W, the district, we feel it and we have a W. I am excited to develop this RFK stadium to deliver and bring our commanders home. As I've said, I'm also excited for us to deliver on what promises we made to district residents who had concerns about that development. And so when we talk about jobs, we want to ensure that we have good jobs, good labor jobs, and we have residents. I'm excited to fight for what I believe is the right thing to do, which is to make sure that we are delivering not only the stadium, but housing and opportunities for small businesses. And so we I'm excited to look and work with. With our builders and to our developers to make sure that we can meet our goals as it relates to housing. Of course, environmental justice is an area I fought for. We fought to make sure, alongside my colleague Charles Allen, to make sure that we could get to a LEED Platinum or even more for a stadium. And so I was excited to see the solar plans that were rolled out. It was really ambitious. I think one of the most ambitious solar plans that I've seen a stadium do. And I communicated that to the commanders as well. I said I really like that solar plan. That's what I want to see. That's what district residents want to see. So I'm looking forward to working with the commanders, working with our Department of Buildings and all of our district agencies, as well as the residents and the businesses and the bids and the main streets that are part of Ward 6, 7 and 8, who also said that this needs to be a benefit for all of us. How do we make sure Minnesota Avenue, 8th Street and all of our Benning Road and all of our surrounding corridors get the support they need? I'm excited about the gold line. I'm going to be, again, meeting with Wamata and Randy about how we make that gold line happen and how we get it done swiftly and quickly so that we have the transportation that's necessary to make sure that as that stadium is developed, we are not impacting the residents in a harmful way. And I'm hopeful that people will choose to ride metro, to bike, to walk to the stadium versus drive to the stadium. I promise you it's the better way to get there. We're back in New York. Wednesday. We have to get back in New York. We have to get back in New York. We have to get back in New York. Yeah. We have to get back in New York. I know, right, this is a difficult day. It is, but I understand people working really hard. Great question. So listen, popular point, as you as you look at it, It is. I understand. We are here. We are here. this is one of the last waterfront properties on the East Coast, Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate it. That's great. like in the Northeast, which means while we have this value property, Thank you, great job. Thanks, everybody. I'm excited to hear what you guys have to say. Okay. Thank you. we got to get the best for it. I appreciate it. Absolutely. District residents asked me when I. Thank you so much, everyone. Have a great day. When I talked to residents, Have a great day, guys. Bye-bye. they said every deal that comes before this city, we want to make sure you do what you said you would do, which is put people first. And that is to analyze what do the people of our community need, specifically the people of the surrounding neighborhoods of Ward 7 and 8. And so for me, I think Poplar Point is an opportunity and an opportunity for us to build and develop. And I want us to be smart about how we do that and what decisions we made. Again, what I said with THRM is that it's. It's like putting the cart before the horse. I don't want to put something and agree to something on Poplar Point that then can foreclose the other development opportunities that can happen in Poplar Point. We want people to say, hey, we want to be on Poplar Point. We're willing to build X, Y, and Z. We're willing to show up for the residents and give these many amenities. And so I think it's important for us to be smart and prudent about what we do with Poplar Point. And I'm looking forward to see what proposals we can bring forward. I don't want to foreclose proposals by declaring that THRM is what's going to be there. THRM is welcome to continue to try to be one of the anchors and partners there, but I don't want to move forward in foreclosing those opportunities. We need to put the people of the District of Columbia first in all the deals that we made. That's the promise I made to district residents, and that's the promise I plan to keep. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you.