What to do when you don't have heat

Hey friends,

I'm authoring my first newsletter of 2025, and I'm pretty excited about it! Fresh off a successful end-of-year fundraising campaign, The 51st team met last weekend to brainstorm and strategize ways we could help make D.C. residents' lives easier, more community-centered, and fulfilling this year. It was so much fun — again, best job ever. Plus, we're gearing up for a long weekend ending on MLK Day (I'm personally choosing to ignore that other thing happening on Monday).

So, in this week's newsletter, we've got a roundup of to-do's:

• What to do if your apartment is too cold this winter.
• What to do if you hate winter — whether your home is toasty or not.
• What to do if you're avoiding the inauguration this weekend or just want to enjoy a fun event.

Plus, stick around for links to other local news stories, ways to plug in to your community, and a rant from Colleen that you don't want to miss.

Christina Sturdivant Sani

What to do if your apartment doesn't have heat

Did you know that between Oct. 1 and May 1, your landlord is required provide heating of least 68 degrees for most of the day? If you’re piling on layers and doubling up on socks inside this winter, here’s what you need to know.

It's Inauguration weekend. Here are 26 ways to enjoy D.C. anyway.

Whether it’s volunteering for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, attending a protest, vibing to live music, or laughing with loved ones, we’ve rounded up a list of activities to keep you busy and in community with like-minded people.  

How The 51st team cures the winter blues

If you’re feeling dreary this wintry season, you’re not alone. Our team has curated a low-cost list of mood-boosting activities to lift your spirits as we wait for spring’s arrival.

19 things to do around D.C. this weekend

Listen to hip-hop classics played by the Kennedy String Quartet, attend a booze-free happy hour in honor of Dry January, or celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legacy at the Anacostia Community Museum.

Here's some news you might have missed this week.

• More than 400 WaPo staffers sent Bezos a letter expressing lack of confidence in the paper's leadership and asking him to intervene. [CNN]
• Temperatures are expected to hover in the 20s early next week — bundle up! [Post] 
• Metro’s new fare evasion strategy ignores root issues faced by Black residents such as poverty, chronic unemployment, and access to affordable housing, critics say. [Black Agenda Report]
• Tension is brewing at Compass Coffee. [Post]
• How D.C.’s immigrant community is finding hope in uncertain times. [WAMU]
• Some senior residents in Columbia Heights have been stuck at home for months due to an elevator outage. [Post]
• A former D.C. employee pleads guilty to extorting low-income residents, taking money to process free public assistance applications. [WTOP]
• Once again, Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton introduces a statehood bill for D.C. residents to have voting representation in Congress and to fully govern themselves. [The Afro]
• D.C. is going all-in on the pandas’ return to the zoo. [Washingtonian]

Washrag

This is a place where we highlight and discuss local gossip. This week, Colleen weighs in on a lackluster campaign from the Bowser administration.

This week in "You Have To Try Harder Than That": Mayor Bowser announced a new program to inspire conversions of vacant office buildings for non-residential purposes — inauspiciously titled: Office to Anything. The full name is somehow even worse: “The Central Washington Activation Projects Temporary Tax Abatement.”

And well, where to begin … As writers, we here at The 51st completely understand how hard it can be to come up with compelling copy. Brainstorming is tiring, especially when the extent of your brand creativity typically starts and stops with slapping “Mayor Muriel Bowser Presents:” onto an event’s promotional materials, regardless of the mayor’s actual involvement in said event. 

But “Office to Anything?” This slogan is the linguistic equivalent of a shrug. Someone just kinda gave up here. As our own Martin Austermuhle put it, “Office to Anything” is both desperate and indecisive. It’s that person in the group who says they’d be “fine with anything!” for dinner, but then objects to the first three suggestions — or worse, sits through a meal they don’t like and only announces their displeasure after the fact because they “didn’t want to be a problem.” 

And despite the endless possibilities implied by the word “anything,” isn’t this a program that would probably benefit from some specificity? Is “anything” really going to get people jazzed about a graveyard of emptied offices? And as one particularly astute commenter noted, what’s stopping “Office to Anything” from resulting in an “Office to Office” outcome? 

Anyway, let’s run with it; we can dream! What about Office to H Mart? Office to New Huge Park With A Bunch of Public Bathrooms? Office to Metro-accessible Costco? Office to Please God Not Another Tatte!!!

What would your Office to Anything dream be?

Your Civics Download

You’ll find this handy guide to public meetings at the bottom of every edition of The 51st. We’ll refine and improve along the way, so if you think we’re missing resources, please let us know!

It's a slow start to public meetings this year but there are still ways to plug in, and some handy things to know.

• On Wednesday, Jan. 22, from 6 p.m. - 8 p.m., FREE DC, a campaign that spun off the 2023 Hands Off DC efforts, will be hosting a virtual campaign orientation. Guests will learn about FREE DC’s mission to protect D.C. residents from the incoming Trump Administration and how they can take part in the movement. You can register for the virtual event here. 
• On Thursday, Jan. 30 at 1 p.m., the Mount Pleasant Library will hold a training for administering Narcan (naloxone), the opioid overdose reversal drug. Guests will learn how to recognize and respond to an opioid overdose. Free Narcan and fentanyl test strips will be provided.
• On Friday, Jan. 24, from 6 p.m. - 8 p.m., Diáspora Pa’lante Collective DMV will be hosting a panel discussion on tenant organizing with organizers from the Woodner Tenants Union. The event will take place at the ONE DC Black Workers & Wellness Center. Childcare and food will be provided. You can RSVP here.
• Don't forget — it's time to turn your holiday cheer into mulch! DPW will be collecting Christmas trees from the curb until Friday, Feb 28. Here's everything you need to know.

Well, that's all for now. Take care of yourselves, and we'll see you next week!

Christina Sturdivant Sani