Name: CEO Initiative 2023: What’s Next For D.C.
Uploaded: 2023-10-04
Duration: 16 min 46 s
Description: Muriel Bowser, Mayor, Washington, D.C. Moderator: Matt Heimer, Executive Editor, Features, FORTUNE

Muriel Bowser, Mayor, Washington, D.C. Moderator: Matt Heimer, Executive Editor, Features, FORTUNE

CEO Initiative 2023: What’s Next For D.C.

Conferences

CEO Initiative 2023: What’s Next For D.C.?  

Good evening, everybody. Thank you for playing the Pina Colada song, my traditional walk on music before I arrive. Um So thrilled to see you all uh one last time and it's been such an inspiring and thought provoking day. I really want to thank each of you for your uh engagement and your collaboration and uh your commitment to the CEO initiative. It's a great thing to be part of every year. Um We're as a fortune, we're always happy to be hosting events here in the nation's capital. You know, to be at the epicenter of America's political landscape uh to be in this melting pot of cultures and ideas and ideologies. Uh as you probably know, uh Washington DC, it's not part of any state. It is a city governed by the mayor and the city council, but also accountable somewhat to Congress. And that puts Muriel Bowser in a uniquely powerful and just unique position among America's mayors. Mayor Bowser has an ambitious plan to shape and grow Washington DC. She's got her eyes on driving economic development, increasing the city's population and making the city in general just a destination for job creators. She also has the distinction of being the first black woman ever to be elected to three full four year terms as mayor of any American city. Um So given all this, we're especially grateful to have Mayor Bowser joining fortune this evening, we're going to talk about D CS changing landscape. Uh Talk about the impact of new technologies and talk about the policies that she's hoping will shape the trajectory of the city. So please join me in welcoming to the stage, Mayor Muriel Bowser. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you for asking. I'm glad to have you here. Thank you, my pleasure. Yeah. Um So as you might have heard, uh the my, my colleagues and I spent a lot of last week uh kind of fretting and saying, oh my gosh, how are we gonna put on a conference uh in Washington DC? If there's a government shutdown, what will we do? So if it was stressful for us, I have to mention like, what was it like for you as the mayor of Washington DC to anticipate, you know, a possible shutdown. Well, one of the biggest stressors that we had welcome by the way and welcome to the most beautiful city in the world. Um We had the World Culture Festival that chose Washington DC and the United States to come for their convening and literally hundreds of thousands of people um plan to be here on the National Mall, filling hotels and neighborhoods across the city. Uh and going to events, um they started, I think they loaded in on Friday and if there had been a shutdown, there was the possibility that they would have to shut down. Um So these are musicians and performers, musicians, performers, thousands of people, heads of state ambassadors, you know, all coming for um the world cultural to talk about peace. So that kind of a uh irony there. Um And talking about, you know, understanding across lines. So it's just a wonderful uh event and we were planning on it for a month. So I told everybody just, they're there and they're not gonna leave like what's gonna happen and we're going to support them as the city to figure out how it can work. We had conversations with, of course, the National Park Service and uh heads prevailed there. Uh And the shutdown was averted anyway. Glad to hear, at least, at least for a while, at least for now. How much of your own, you know, you've been here for a while. You, you, this is your ninth year in office. Uh You've got a lot of experience navigating all these quarters of power. How much of your, of getting your own agenda implemented is sort of dependent on Congress's sign off Congress's cooperation. Not much. Um You, you, you started off saying I like to say we're, we're not exactly a city, we're not quite a state and we are, there's nothing like us anywhere in the United States. So as the nation's capital, um we have a pretty flat governing structure. There's a mayor of 13 council members that decide on our $20 billion budget for 700,000 people. And uh we are, we while we interact with the, the Congress kind of like any another city would do with its state in its state legislature or our state legislature is the Congress. Um so it can interfere and it, it does, uh, usually on like social issues that get the congressmen attention back home, uh, on issues that they can't deal with at home, but they try to make points with in DC. No drag brunches on the Washington Mall, kind of something like that. Yeah. Well, let's talk about, I mean, you, as I mentioned, uh, it's your ninth year, you were just reelected last year. Um, let's talk a little bit more about what you may be able to do over that time. I mean, uh, how, uh, how does the city's economy specifically look different compared to when you took office back at the beginning of 2015? Well, a lot has changed and, um, part of what I, you know, share with residents when I went out and asked them to do this again. Uh, is that the job of being mayor is different post COVID? It's just a different job bringing the city back, um, filling the, the gaps that were created by the COVID and getting growth going again is a different job. So our time is very different. Like II I became mayor when with a raging economy, job growth um in residential growth. And our biggest problem was our economy was too hot. Um that it was driving prices up all over uh for, for housing in particular. And so we uh I have spent nine years really focused on how we build more affordability. Um because that um, we saw as the biggest threat to our growth, that families wouldn't be able to afford to live here and that some businesses would, wouldn't be able to, to come here, wouldn't choose our city. Um, because of the inactions are pretty good. But the goose that I frequently say that lays the golden neck for us has been downtown real estate and COVID wreaked havoc on downtown real estate. Um, but even with that, uh, I see kind of the positive energy, uh, in that space as well. And I think over the next 3 to 5 years, um, we're gonna see improvements there too. Is there gonna be some, I know like a lot of cities including my hometown in Chicago, you've got a lot of, uh, of downtown vacancy that might not go away no matter what happens with the economy. Is there some talk about like residential conversion there, is that a way to take some pressure off the housing market and some other neighbors? No, for sure. And, um, and even Chicago is in some ways situated better than we are because you have already have more residential downtown than we do. That's true. Uh We have a, a downtown that's about 90% commercial and that mix just isn't gonna work and it wasn't healthy before COVID. Um, and it certainly isn't now. So we're pretty aggressive about our subsidy programs to convert commercial real estate downtown to housing. We have a, we've laid out a five year economic strategy. I've dubbed it the comeback plan, um that set some pretty aggressive goals about downtown employment. Uh and how, what the government is going to do to be a partner to, to great developers who have great ideas about bringing people downtown. Got you. Uh We had some fascinating conversation earlier with uh Ken Frazier and Debbie Dyson at 1 10 about uh about matching skills to jobs and sort of bringing, uh you know, creating more opportunity for people in underserved communities by taking the college degree requirement of a lot of, a lot of employment. And there's also an upskilling component to that too. That's really important. Um I think a few years ago when I talked to you for CEO initiative, we were talking about upskilling three years later down the road. How's that going? I mean, uh you're reaching some more communities of that kind of thing. I think we're reaching more communities. We are actually experiencing less unemployment than in the history of the district of Columbia and in areas in the city um that have the most employment hurdles. Um So that's good. It's not great because we, we still like to be closer to the national average, but more people are working. Um And so that's a wonderful thing, but we also wanna be focused on uh our pipeline and especially for uh our residents, natives like me. Uh Well, not exactly like me but native Washingtonians who want to uh experience, it's the prosperity of our city. Um And so we know that starts in schools. Uh We're very proud of the investments we've made in our public schools. We're uh we probably have the most robust free pre K three program uh anywhere in the country. And I know when CEO S think about places to locate DC is open, by the way, um You're looking at what your young parents and your young employees, they're looking for great public schools where they can send their, you know, their three and four year olds uh for free. And that helps with the affordability, uh the affordability question. So we continue to be very focused on our public schools. Now, the that's pre K three, I'm gonna take you to the other end. Uh And we're calling it advanced technical education is kind of the new vocational education. Um but it's really going to all of our schools partnering with them, with our higher ed uh communities and training them for the, our actual job needs in the city. And that is really beginning to keep our kids engaged and excited about high school. I call it the new high school um where they're doing um school and they're also earn and learn opportunities and real training um with our partners so that they're, they're qualified and ready to work. That's a big deal. And again, that's also a draw for other businesses. It's, it's a draw. So most of our business uh groups have, have put workforce development at the top of their list of like our regional um work, work together. I see. Uh Speaking of reaching CEO S, uh I, uh I do wanna make sure that you all know the floor is open for questions. If you, uh if you want to ask one, raise your hand, we'll get a mic to you. Uh, because I don't want to monopolize the mayor. Um I know that another problem that a lot of cities grappled with in the wake of COVID was uh an uptick in crime. And I know there's been concern about rising homicide rates, rising gun violence here. Um I know you got a new, uh a new police chief in place which is encouraging. Can you tell me a little bit more about how you're navigating that? No, for sure. Uh I've been mayor long enough and I've been in elected office long enough to see crime go do like this sometimes. Uh and every time I that I've been in leadership and experienced spikes in crime, which we are experiencing um spikes in some crime in some places in our city. Um Is we literally throw everything at it. Uh And that's a lot of resources on the prevention side, but it's also a lot of accountability on the other side. Uh And one unique aspect of us in the district is that the political ceo me um does not control the whole criminal justice system. And so, so, uh, we have to work doubly hard um with our US attorney who is appointed by the president and accountable to the president not to the voters of the district. Uh We have to work doubly hard with our judges. We're not elected or appointed by DC residents, but in the federal judiciary. Uh and well, it's really state but, you know, it's federally appointed. Uh and likewise, um, like most places we have really had to deal with um, swings and attitudes towards policing. Um And I think a lot of kind of the tumult of this last several years around how we keep our cities safe and how um we um support and encourage constitutional policing and accountability is, is our focus. Sure, I read also recently, uh some coverage about some of the skills, uh I should say conflict resolution skills teaching that uh your administration has been working on uh as sort of an intervention before. Yeah. Uh unfortunately, what we are finding with our gun violence issues in the district is the conflict between having a, a legal gun and not knowing how to settle disputes and are leading to, to, you wouldn't even be, you will probably be blown away by some of the minor disputes that result in, in gunfire. I'm sorry to hear that. And it'll turn around, I believe it. Um, on a, uh, slightly less, um, uh, on a note that's a little bit, uh, a lot lighter. Uh, I, uh, was talking with your chief and she was telling me about, uh, that I had to ask a question about getting the commanders to actually play a game, uh, inside the chief would say that. Yes, uh, city limits, uh, tell us a little bit more about that. Well, there is a, uh, a pretty ground, uh, pretty, it's a groundswell of, um, talk and support and activity around sport in our city and a lot of times, especially on days like today, people don't think of DC as a sports tale, but we really are. Uh, so we have championship teams in, in, in baseball. We won the World Series fairly recently and, uh, the Stanley Cup and our soccer teams. Both the women and the men are doing well and women's basketball team has also won a championship recently, but we don't have our football team. Uh, and it is a source for Washingtonians of great despair. Uh, and so we've been working pretty hard on, on it, uh, for the last several years, not just on the team and the name and the, the, the ownership, but also, which is a larger issue for us is the RFK stadium, which is a pretty storied place, is surrounded by 100 and 70 acres of federal land. Um, that is basically just sitting there falling apart and unused and in a city like ours where we need more housing. Uh, we need more economic opportunity, we have to get control of it. And so that's what we're working on with the federal government now. Uh And you know, if all of the sports gods align, we'll have our team. Um, but we're gonna have a great mixed use development too. There's a little more than uh three years left in this last term of yours. We just have a few seconds left the current term. Uh Thank you for catching me on that. Thank you for catching me on that. Um, besides the stadium and just because we're wrapping up here, but besides the stadium, what would be, uh your one top of your wish list for what the city will look like at the end of this term? Well, I don't know if there's one thing, um, but for sure, I want to make sure that we are strong fiscally and that is what we're focused on. So how we are strong commercial um values and real estate and that people are, are working uh in DC. That's, that's part of our legacy. The promises I've made to the people of the district that include building a new hospital. Um making sure we transfer trans uh form high schools in the district is so important. And I'm known to say, um if I can say to the people who elected me all these years that everybody, we have a government in the city that gives everybody a fair shot and we've been successful. I wish you all the best. Thank you. Thank you so much for sharing it with us. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all very much. We're about to serve uh the next course, table two, do not take my stuff. Thank you all very much.