The city's streatery guidelines are punishing small businesses and vibrant neighborhoods. We need a permanent solution to keep these staples of the city’s dining scene.
“We have to do something,” said At-Large Councilmember Robert White. “If we don’t, I think we’ll see federal intervention.”
The emergency bill passed unanimously. Still, a little over a month later, President Donald Trump declared a crime emergency in D.C., kicking off a federal intervention that continues to this day.
And the debate over the expanded youth curfew the council imposed for three months hasn’t ended either. It was revived this week, when lawmakers voted to reinstate the curfew for another three months — with a looming debate about making it permanent.
City officials have quietly fretted that a failure to keep the youth curfew in place could result in more high-profile incidents that provoke Trump to crack down on the city again. Activists and some of their allies on the council, meanwhile, openly worry about keeping the curfew in place, particularly when federal agents and National Guardsmen could be the ones to enforce it.
Those fears and concerns from both sides were partially realized on Halloween night in Navy Yard, where what police said was initially a peaceful gathering of juveniles grew into an unruly mob that was chased down by D.C. police and the National Guard. Video of the melee rocketed across social media, with varying interpretations. Some said it served as evidence that federal forces are needed in D.C., while others argued that federal forces are actually increasing tensions with local communities.
“Since August, things have changed,” said Ward 4 Councilmember Janeese Lewis George this week. “Federal troops are patrolling the city. This is why we cannot continue to implement tools that invite surveillance or more policing of our kids. This city is occupied, and we are taking a huge risk with young lives by voting on a curfew right now.”
Teen takeovers and and curfew zones
While D.C. has long had a youth curfew in place in the summer — kids under the age of 17 had to be home most nights at 11 p.m., or midnight on weekends — Bowser proposed tightening it in June. Officials were struggling to respond to large numbers of youth, often organized through social media (and known as takeovers), gathering at city hot spots like Navy or The Wharf and causing havoc.
An 11 p.m. curfew would apply to anyone under the age of 18, and MPD would be empowered to designate temporary enhanced curfew zones where no large groups of kids would be allowed after 8 p.m.
Cycles of juvenile crime have prompted periodic debates over when kids should be off the streets since the 1970s. In 2006, the last time the issue flared up, then Mayor Anthony Williams convinced the council to set a 10 p.m. youth curfew for the summer. (At the time, Council Chairman Phil Mendelson was skeptical. "It doesn't actually fix anything, though it feels good," he said.)
Speaking to the council in late October, D.C. Police Chief Pamela Smith reported that MPD had established seven expanded curfew zones over the summer and saw no violations or arrests.
“With narrowly tailored periods of enforcement, it increased community safety without increasing juvenile arrests,” she said. “This is what we want to see. Of course, some people would like to do away with the curfew entirely. But that is not where we are right now, and I have to deal with reality, not aspirations.”
The emergency curfew bill expired in early October, and Bowser quickly pushed for it to be renewed. Most lawmakers were on board; some saw it as a tool the city could publicly tout to federal officials as proof of their commitment to be tough on crime, a point Mendelson himself made when he testified to a House committee in mid-September.
But slivers of dissent appeared, with some councilmembers expressing concern over federal agents and the National Guard potentially enforcing the expanded curfew and others calling for a hearing to let the public weigh in. An initial push to extend the expanded curfew into the fall fell short, causing a mild panic amongst proponents of the tool in the Wilson Building.
“We spent a couple of months with marauding teenagers — I mean literally taking over different locations — and to send the message that we want to go back to that level of mayhem is irresponsible,” Bowser told a Washington Post reporter.
Police officials say the takeovers again flared up after the curfew bill lapsed, capped off with the incident at Navy Yard, which prompted Bowser to declare a brief public emergency and impose an even stricter five-day youth curfew.
‘A short-term tool’
At the council’s hearing last week, residents shared a variety of nuanced views on the issue.
Ward 2 Councilmember Brooke Pinto, who chairs the judiciary committee, called the expanded curfew an “effective tool.” ANCs commissioners from Navy Yard and U Street testified that they had seen immediate improvements in safety when the youth curfew zones were in effect over the summer.
Karen Christian, a Ward 5 resident whose two granddaughters have attended takeover events, said it served an important purpose.
“A youth curfew, while imperfect, can serve as a temporary safeguard. It is not a solution to the deeper issues that drive youth behavior, but it can help reduce immediate risks,” she told lawmakers. “If the curfew prevents even one child from being shot, trafficked, or arrested, it serves an essential purpose.”
But Tara Martin, the mother of Daleneo Martin, a teenager who was shot and killed by a U.S. Park Police officer during a scuffle in 2023, spoke out against it. "The curfew may silence a street for a few hours, but it does not heal the pain that drives our kids outside. Our kids need opportunity, not punishment," she says.
And even if only used on a short-term basis, Christina Hanson, a former DCPS teacher and Ward 7 resident who still works with kids, worried about possible enforcement by federal agencies.
“MPD continues collaborating with federal law enforcement agencies,” she said. “If our policing systems cannot ensure safety or accountability in these partnerships, we cannot justify creating new pathways for contact with our children. A curfew is exactly that: another opening for stops, questioning, and escalation.”
Next up: a permanent bill?
Earlier this week, the council voted to extend the expanded youth curfew for another three months. Still, a number of councilmembers said they want to see additional investment from Bowser and city agencies in alternative activities and programs for youth.
“We have to understand why some of these kids are out late at night: they don’t want to go home,” said At-Large Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie. “And until we address those root causes, we’re going to turn to short-term solutions like curfews.”
At-Large Councilmember Christina Henderson, who had initially opposed the extension but changed her vote this week, also said that the region as a whole needs to identify workable solutions since kids are traveling from jurisdiction to jurisdiction for planned takeover events. (Similar curfews and restrictions have been imposed at the National Harbor and Pentagon City Mall.)
And this debate will continue: Bowser has already introduced a bill to make the enhanced youth curfew permanent. Speaking at a meeting on Wednesday evening, Bowser said the city already offers alternative programs and activities — and that at some point, it needs to show a little tough love.
“We have to say to our children, ‘You cannot walk into an establishment, turn over the tables and chairs, and get on the tables and start twerking. You can’t do that. And we know you’re more likely to do it if there are 300 of you doing it unsupervised,’” she said. “We’re teaching them that lawlessness is OK.”
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