As Washington D.C. suffers from a flight of business coinciding with a surge in violent crime, the city’s mayor is proposing a $401 million plan to revitalize the capital’s struggling downtown, focusing on the troubled area around “Black Lives Matter Plaza” a few blocks from the White House.

According to the official city website promoting the “Downtown Action Plan,” the mayor, Muriel Bowser, hopes to create a “vibrant, economically sustainable, diverse, and equitable area at the heart of the city.”

The proposed spending comes as Black Lives Matter Plaza, a large, multi-million dollar street mural first established in June of 2020, after the anti-police unrest surrounding the death of George Floyd, is facing scrutiny from the district’s overseers in Congress. In October, 25 members of the House and Senate wrote Ms. Bowser asking her to remove the mural due to antisemitic comments by Black Lives Matter organizers in the wake of the Hamas attacks on Israel.

Ms. Bowser has refused to remove the mural. In late November, a report by the Washington Examiner found the city recently spent roughly $270,000 maintaining the area’s 50-foot painted street-emblazoning of the slogan “Black Lives Matter.” The establishment of the mural itself as a pedestrian plaza cost more than $5 million.

According to the Washington Business Journal, the cash infusion Ms. Bowser proposes is “urgently needed to stem the ‘hemorrhaging’” as an increasing number of vacancies in the city’s downtown area has dented the progressive-run city’s coffers. 

In a press release circulated on Monday, city officials warn that “underutilized commercial space and decreased activity are poised to fuel a self-reinforcing cycle of declining investment, property values, and tax revenues.”

The release details that, “Annual tax revenue generation in Downtown D.C. has already fallen $243 million since 2019, and this number is poised to decline by an additional $193 million over the next five to 10 years without intervention.”

While the mayor and city officials are blaming the downtown’s woes on the lasting impacts of the pandemic and increased telecommuting, local businesses and property owners in Washington D.C. are expressing more concern over the rise in crime. The city, which sought to restrain its own police force in the aftermath of the 2020 George Floyd demonstrations, is now suffering from a surge in violent crime amounting to a 40 percent year-over-year increase in 2023. 

Robberies, representing one of the prevalent crimes committed in the city, have become a driver of this increase. According to a report by Axios, the affluent Adams Morgan neighborhood experienced a 95 percent increase in robberies in 2023. The “Historic Green Triangle” has not escaped the crime wave. In the latest incident less than three days prior to the proposal’s announcement, armed bandits targeted a local jeweler in the Farragut Square area, making off with over $200,000 in watches. 

The impact of the upswell in crime has not escaped the President’s own family. As Sun previously reported, in November, miscreants stole night vision goggles and other gear from a Secret Service vehicle guarding the residence of Naomi Biden, the President’s granddaughter, in the exclusive Georgetown neighborhood. Shots were fired when the thieves sought to abscond with their loot in a stolen car. 

The press release touting the downtown redevelopment plan touts the “Historic Green Triangle,” consisting of the area between Farragut, McPherson, and Lafayette Squares, which the Black Lives Matter Plaza bisects. 

Ms. Bowser’s plan touts a “reimagination” of the area … that benefits all residents and businesses by offering jobs, various housing types, and a robust tax base for the District,” according to the plan’s website which was launched on Monday. 

The project’s intended expenditures include $82 million for streetscape improvements, cultural districts and the arts; $76 million for “economic drivers” including universities and housing; $55 million for parks and open spaces; and $32 million for “public safety” initiatives. 

Though initially funded by the city and the federal government, officials hope that the private sector eventually doles out investments for the district. The president of the local business improvement district, Katheryn Clement, told the Washington Business Journal that “additional investment from the private sector over a period of time” is expected after the city’s vision and plan is “articulated.” 

The city hopes their plan will “kickstart” the city from its “inflection point” that it pins on the lasting impacts of the pandemic. 

Partly in response to the crime wave, some of the city’s most notable institutions are seeking safer havens elsewhere. Among the exodus are two of the city’s professional sports teams, Washington’s Wizards and Capitals.

In an interview with NBC4 Washington earlier in February, the owner of the two teams, Ted Leonis, explained that the rise of crime in the city has become a serious risk factor. Mr. Leonis spoke of his fear of fans being the object of violent crime in the periphery of the stadium.