City Cast Expanding After WaPo Layoffs, City Spending Scandal, Baby Elephant Naming

15 years in and the DC SEU is still at it. Still helping DC save money, reduce energy use, and build a cleaner, more affordable future. Together, did you know they've invested $120 million in low-income communities? They put $99 million in DC-based businesses, too. And they have turned out over 300 graduates trained for the new green workforce. That is economic mobility, y'all. And that is what it's all about. Still here, still redefining power in the district. Find out more at DCSU.com. Today on CityCast, D.C., we're talking about the jaw-dropping cuts at the Post and the future of D.C. Including some exciting stuff cooking at Citicast. Plus, a shocking investigation into outlandish spending on so-called violence interrupter programs in D.C. A baby elephant, ISO a name? And in a member's only fourth segment, what you need to know about the latest congressional vote that could blow a hole in our city's government. I think I have figured out a way to explain it without getting too deep in the wonkery. I'm here with my Citicest colleague Annie Reese and Citicest's chief executive officer, the big cheese. David Plotz, Prince of Thieves, is here. Today is Friday, February 6th. I'm Michael Schaefer. Here's what D.C. is talking about.

Hey, Annie. Hello. Hey, David. Hello. So you guys, I kind of felt this week like we witnessed an act of vandalism. Absolutely. In a year that have felt like a year of vandalism of like the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Center and the federal workforce and all kinds of things that have, as like a child of D.C., it felt sort of like permanent fixtures on the Washington landscape. And now the post where I can't discern a whole lot of rhyme or reason for how they're doing this. Or I guess I hear the rhyme or reason, but it seems really boneheaded. But here we are. The great journalist Ashley Parker and ex-Washington Post, he has a wonderful story in the Atlantic this week about what it was like to be at the Post and what the post has meant. And it begins, we're witnessing a murder. And it casts it as this sort of deliberate act of sabotage by owner Jeff Bezos and... to a certain extent, the publisher Will Lewis, to undermine what has made the Washington Post so great. And I can't speak to their motivations at all, but it is as a Washingtonian who has literally been reading the Post. since, practically since the cradle, certainly since 1979 when the Orioles had a World Series run. Practically the cradle. I love that. I mean, we got it. I bet I've been in a household that has been receiving the Washington Post for literally for 56 years. I mean, the minute I was born, you had the post, and Mike, you the same probably. You know, at last summer, for my mom's 80th birthday, I found all these old slides in their basement. I scanned them into pictures. And so there were these baby pictures of me and like literally on the floor next to me. In August of 1973, there's our copies of the Washington Post front page. That's amazing. And I think, like, to your point, David, one of the things that has been so gutting about watching this unfold is just this prevailing feeling that it did not have to be this way. Like, it just does not seem like it needed to play out this way. And, you know, for any journalist coming up, I mean, you know, this is like the home of Watergate. You know, like it just, there's such a sort of storied element to the post, both nationally and especially for D.C. residents locally. Right. There's the, and that's the thing is that, yeah, it's the home of Watergate, home of, like, great foreign reporting, all that. But, you know, this was for a lot of my life and a lot of my career as a journalist, it was a place that could make or break a mayoral candidate or a city council candidate or a restaurant or a play. And, you know, they widely believed that they were responsible for putting Marian Barry over the top in his first election.

famously, post-lightening was a phrase. Like, somebody could be the subject of like a, you know, a... Sounds like something from Greece. Right. But it was a positive. Post-lightening. Somebody could be a subject of a sob story about the terrible circumstance of their life. It appears in the Washington Post, and all of a sudden, donations come flooding in. And it was like Jack Schaefer said yesterday, it was sort of the thing that set the news agenda. It was not the only news outlet in Washington, but it was the thing that set the agenda that sort of officially determined like this story is a real story or this subject is a subject that merits are thinking about over years. Yeah. And everyone else kind of measured themselves against. And I want to emphasize because, of course, Citicast DC is about DC as a city. The post is this tremendous national resource. you know, it seems committed, does seem like that's where they're going to invest, is continuing to invest in political and business coverage. Although, God, there's so much of it. Your former Home Politico, Axios, like, it's endless the number of outlets that are covering insider politics. But so they're going to do that. But how much of what the post was was an incredible educator, unifier, connector form of citizenship for Washington? for Washingtonians and like the percentage of people who received the Washington Post at the peak is extraordinary. Like it was unparalleled. It's like 70% or something. Yeah. And it was it was like a unifier. In the way that people talk about the, oh, the commanders were like this. Like it was the commanders and the post were kind of the unifying institutions. And I understand the, you know, it's a more fractured media environment and the metro coverage is hard to pull off. And like it's a. People are getting their information from a lot of other sources, including us. But it is it is shame not to have something, which is the unifying force that the post was able to be for this city for so long. I think one of the underreported things this week about things that got cut, they cut almost all of the critics. Didn't cut friend of city cast Phil Kennecott, but like theater critic, music critic. But like if you think of theater, right, like this at DC has a pretty strong theater community. I was talking to someone in that world today who's in conversations about like, should all of us theaters like band together and hire a theater critic? Which, you know, anyone who's a journalist can tell you why that's like a troubling idea. But like... It's a really important thing if you are producing something that is of merit to the world to get the word out, to have somebody review it. And, you know, even if that person's willing to say, like, you know what, you sucked. That show is no good. It is, so there's all of these other ripple effects of this on things that ostensive, you know, officially have nothing to do with the news and are not like City Hall or whatever. We have a lot of people who are employed in theater in Washington, and a whole lot of people who actually like spending the not...

insignificant amount of money it takes to buy tickets. Yeah, my master's project back in the day actually was on the changing role of the theater critic. Because if you think about it, like theater is so inherently local. And as we've seen so many newspapers around the country shrinking, those are often some of the first jobs to go. And like those are, you know, yeah, you can review movies or whatever. But those are being able, those can be seen by the masses, you know, like regional theater is this like inherently local community. thing. And yeah, when you stop having any of that dialogue or feedback loop, it really does hurt like city's identities for sure. Yeah. And similarly, I mean, I don't go to the theater, but I do go to a lot of sports. They have gotten rid of the sports section, which debate that a lot. But they've also gotten rid of their, the all met. So the all met is this function that the post has served where they. identified the top high school athletes in different sports around the metro area. And it's just something that people love. It is absolutely beloved. And it is utterly a connector for this community. I bet Julia Karen, our producer, I bet Julia was at Washington Post All Met back in the day. I don't know if she was an All Met athlete, but she was the writer of All Metz. Oh, I bet she was an All Met athlete and the writer of All Metz. I wouldn't put it past her. I'd vote for her. Hockey and journalism. She can do it all. You know, there was a huge, I'm a basketball ignoramus, but there was apparently a huge trade Wednesday from the Washington Wizards the day that the Post cuts came down. And this is like the biggest trade in their history. And basketball people say this is really exciting and it positions themselves for, and the point is it was not reported in the Washington Post, the local daily newspaper of Washington, D.C., because they have closed the sports section. Amazing. Do you want to ask me what we're going to do about it? So, yes. Go ahead and ask me, Mike, ask me what we're going to do about it. Well, look it, in the next, I suspect in the next six months, and certainly on social media yesterday, there was a lot of like, who's going to do this and what someone needs to do this, and there's going to be a lot of ferment around building things. And the one early piece of that, it actually comes from us, from you, David. Yeah. We're about to expand pretty significantly. Yeah, well, so we... Our own, Citicast is owned. So CityCast is a national network. So we're in 13 cities, which D.C. is one. But we're owned by a parent company, the Graham Holding Company, which is a D.C. Arlington-based company. And you probably know it. The Graham Holding Company was the Washington Post Company. It was owned the Graham Family. Owned the Washington Post through the Washington Post Company. And when they sold the Washington Post to Jeff Bezos, they renamed their company, the Graham Holding Company. Graham Holding is just this magnificent local treasure and they own citycast among other things. And they really believe in the importance of a independent, powerful functioning local media ecosystem in cities. And they've put money behind that in the form of launching city cast. And now we're going to, with their backing, we're going to invest to help.

build Citicast DC into the ultimately what I will expect will be the largest and most essential local newsroom in the area and we're going to start that immediately the posts the post layoffs is a chance for us to step in and try to fill some of that gap and we are immediately going to hire four journalists and immediately going to start doing the kind of deep local reporting on critical beats that we think the city needs and wants and that we deserve as citizens. And obviously, this is a baby step. This is not, we are not going to have a 100-person metro newsroom as the Washington Post did a few years ago. That is not, that's not in the card for us right now. But we're going to immediately start doing a lot more for the city. And I hope that helps make a difference for. citizens who need to be informed citizens about where they live and helps them stay connected to the city. And we if you're a, if you're a reporter laid off from the post, if you're a reporter not at the post, and you're interested in joining this project, get in touch with us. And if you're a listener to this podcast and you want to support what we're doing, please know that this is this. cost money and it's it's an effort so please consider also becoming a neighbor a member of of city cast because right now we're reaching about 50,000 of you with our podcasts and newsletters and social channels we need to reach a lot more and we're going to do that by Annie it's going to work with Mike to make something that is magnificent and has some of the incredibly useful information that you're going to need to be a great citizen of this region. Yeah, and if you're not already a neighbor, I wanted to say that you can do that at membership.citycast.fm. It's just $10 a month or $100 for the year. Again, that's membership.citycast.fm. And also the phone call that I got from you, David, telling me about this expansion was really exciting. It feels so gratifying to be at a place that... is expanding and is investing in local news, which has, you know, I mean, what happened at the post Wednesday was horrific, but also this is, the local news landscape has been shrinking years and years and years and years before that. So just being at a place that is still investing in coverage of DC feels really exciting and amazing. And it feels like, you know, look, for people who listen to the pod, the way it has worked is we will typically have an episode where we'll have a guest on who is an expert in something. They're a reporter who covered a great big story or a book writer or something like that. And for the most part, these are people whose expertise has been paid for by someone else, not us. And in a world where like the post is...

it's eviscerating its local coverage and presence. It's really cool for us to be like creating some of that content that we help sort of bring into the ecosystem to connect to people who want to connect to their city. That's a really cool move. You already know D.C. is more than Destination's capital. We gave America the football huddle, the blood bank, and go-go music. You're welcome, everyone. Our influence is everywhere, and now it's also on display at District Vibes American Pride, a free exhibit at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, running now from September 27th. It tells the story of how district residents like Chuck Brown, Dr. Charles Drew, and Carter G. Woodson shaped the culture of our entire country. I actually had a chance to see it recently, and I don't think I've ever been more stunned nor more blown away by a single exhibit. And I remember this feeling of swelling up with pride for my city just taking it all in. You get to stand in front of original works by DC artists, see the iconic Nixon resigns, a Washington Post front page. And my favorite part, play a jukebox loaded with the sounds that this city invented. So plan your visit at dc.library.org. That's dc.library.org, your library, your city, America's story. Can we talk about an actual piece of great local journalism that appeared in the Washington Post? I think the day before the acts swung. So, D.C. council member, Treyon White, who you may remember as the council member who was indicted for allegedly taking bribes that were on video, expelled from the council, then re-elected. One of the... alleged bribeers involved, was a firm that's part of this world of so-called violence interruptors, which is a program in DC to engage people who have sort of credibility in, quote unquote, on the streets, to go in and work with young people who are sort of in violence-adjacent lives and try to head them off at the pass. This has been historically like a

sort of an iffy use of resources because, you know, by definition, the people who are going to be getting the money, a lot of them are people who can have non-traditional resumes. There's not really a good scientific metric for like, was this money well spent, et cetera. And Megan Flynn and Jenny Gathright from The Post, both of whom I'm told have been spared the axe, did a really kind of jaw-dropping. report on one of these firms called Life Deeds, whose CEO has emerged as one of the, is in trouble for his own stuff and has emerged as one of the testifiers against Treon White. Yeah, and I think one of the things that was so egregious about this is obviously that life deeds emerged as a, like, presented itself as a solution to a real problem. You know, like back in 2023, D.C. had its highest homicide rates since the 90s, you know, looking for like tools to fix this. And they... And life deeds ended up using more than $400,000 in city funds. So it's just to me, it's one of those, it's like a classic story that makes your blood absolutely boil and sort of say like, how did people get away with this for so long, honestly? According to the reporting, they're like throwing boozy. pool parties with bikini chicks dancing around and taking their people on like go-kart expeditions to New Jersey. That does sound fun. Probably more fun if somebody else, like the government is paying your way. So it sounds extra fun. And where the CEO was allegedly doubled, like he was using his own house as the headquarters and getting his rent paid at way above the rate for the area. And he was getting it paid twice by two different agencies that he was billing. It was 5x, the market rate, according to the reporting, five times. I mean, it is so, it's so confounding. I mean, the whole violence interrupter industry is confusing. I've had the pleasure, really, of talking to people who work in this. And we did a series, we had a sponsor. interviews around this and the people who are working in this there's a true nobility to them and there's and they for the most part most of these people are not making a lot of money doing it they are they are doing it because they see other people on a bad path and they want to stop them for making the mistakes they've made and this is a this is like a really direct human to human way of changing people's lives and it's incredibly noble and and it as As you point out, Mike, it's like very hard to measure, though. It is hard to measure success. Like the success is almost things that don't happen. And it's kind of anecdote. It's like somebody who ends up getting a job. It's someone who ends up not doing something. But like that also means it's vulnerable to exploitation by people who are scummy. Right. And when you have lousy controls, shysters swoop in.

You know, some of that, like you say, it's because it's hard to measure. But some of it, I think the city government was asleep at the switch here. You know, this firm in question, according to Megan and Jenny's reporting, they listed, you know, you have to list a board of people who are going to be assuring your competence. There were people who they listed as their board who didn't even know they were on the list. And one was like an estranged brother-in-law. That's like that is the kind of thing somebody actually. can and should catch because that's not about like attaching a metric to something that didn't happen. Yeah. And so that's the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement, which is supposed to pay attention to this, seems to have not been paying attention. And if I were Mayor Bowser, I would be having some pretty serious conversations with the folks who oversee that office and folks who oversee them about why. Because this looks, it's a terrible look. It's a terrible look for the city. Especially because, again, like we've been talking about, this work is... This is such important work to do, but the investment in it has not necessarily been there, you know? And so, like, to have something that goes this awry, it just doesn't, it doesn't help anyone else's case for like, hey, you should invest a lot of money in this other violence interrupter program, you know? And I think there's, I'm so glad that the post stepped up on this because I think there has been a bit of a failing in media, too, on this, where, you know, it is. It's a noble thing. It has been, this program has been, uh, maumowed by people with malign intent, right-wing members of Congress, the DC Police Union that are trying to forever portray the city as not having their backs, calling this grift and so on, and it effectively gives them ammunition. And I'm sort of the view that if you are doing something that is like effectively good for society and good for the most vulnerable people in society, Maybe it's not fair, but you have to be even purer in terms of your accounting and your wonky management of dollars than anyone else has to be. Right. If some rich bank is spending money on booze-filled parties and go-karting, everyone's like, oh, of course. Right, but if you're... Held a different standard. You're held to a different standard. That's a really interesting point, Mike. And you're right that now it will be used. This will be used as a cudgel. And I'm sure this office will be defunded in some fashion. The excellence of this is that I assume that in the reporting of this, there were a lot of people saying, why are you beating up on this noble program and look at you, elite media, blah, blah. And it was good to tune that out because this is actually doing.

violence interruptors, the biggest favor you could do, which is to clean up that world in order to preserve it. And then has Tryon White's trial? I mean, semi-related, been pushed now to June? It's supposed to be next month, and now it's being pushed because he's having counsel issues. With a council, C-O-U-N-S-E-L, not C-O-U-N-C-I-L issues, although he's probably having those, too. But again, it's so embarrassing. And, you know, here's a person who represents what has historically been the most vulnerable ward in the city who stands for a lot of things that I think a lot of local people. care about in terms of like trying to bring along the last, the least, the lost. And Yet his name and what he is allegedly done and what he may soon be convicted of having done and the fact that his constituents were willing to, in a very close race, re-elect him, is going to wind up becoming an anchor around the city that will give ammunition to people who, for completely other reasons, wish DC ill. I was so... pissed last year when that re-election campaign happened. There were three candidates. Trey on White won with like somewhere in the 30s of percentage. And nobody in the political establishment had worked to get one of the two other candidates out of the race. You know, this is where if you have power, you can say, you know, like, hey, Annie, I want you to drop out of this race, but there's a job waiting for you in such and such place or, you know, I'll hook you up next time or whatever. Use your muscle. to make it a two-way race that he probably would have lost because it was it is going to be embarrassing and dangerous for the district you know it's it's too bad we can't afford we can't be just as oafish as some other cities but we can't and but no one stepped up to do that

Let's talk about the new baby elephant at the zoo. Oh, yes. David's been waiting for this. I love baby elephants. Just to be clear, Plotz is anti-panda pro elephant. You're anti-panda? Oh, yeah. Well, that's an Annie. We're going to have a whole special week-long series about that. Why? That'll be one of the reporters we hire will just cover pandas. Jesus. Plotz is Washington's leading panda foe. But I love elephants so much. I'm so excited to have a baby elephant. Baby elephants are... probably the greatest animals. So for those who don't know at the National Zoo, a new baby elephant was recently born, and the zoo is holding a naming contest. They're giving four name choices, and you have to provide a small donation in order to actually vote. But there are four names to choose from. Lynn Mai, which means spirit blossom. Taunee, which means gentle and beloved. two on, which means bright and intelligent, or my personal favorite, twet, which means snow. And that one is the one that feels, you know, most relevant to our current situation. But also, what would you guys, if you could just choose any name, what would you name this new baby elephant? Junk in the trunk. Oh, my God. That's terrible. Boo. That's awful. Just because it has trunk. Well, I mean, how many elephant puns can you come up with? Okay, that was true. You don't need an elephant pun. I don't love the idea of not of giving it, Tusker do I like, is not giving it a name in English. Like it's that these are, these names are, are, are they Vietnamese? What are they? And yeah, I think it, you know, it's an elephant living in America that's, going to have an American life and it should have an American name. And in fact, there should have a Washington name. And therefore, the name that our elephant should be is John Riggins. Defend your position. John Riggins, probably the, you know, the most iconic running back in Washington football history, just like an incredible character, you know, famous drinker the way. Elephants are famous for how they drink, bullish in his manner, but filled with bravado and joy, and just a DC icon of the highest order. And elephants are also known for sassing Supreme Court justices. Just the way Rigo did. Just the way Rigo did. I... I'm sad that Snowcrete wasn't an option. I really think that we should find ways to memorialize our current moment. And this does, this recent storm and all of the brouhaha that has surrounded it and the city's response feels like it's going to remain in the city's memory for a while. It's possible that it won't, but this sort of feels like something we're going to be talking about seven years from now being like, do you remember Snowcrete? And I kind of like the idea that we would.

that the animals born at the zoo would, like, kind of be part of D.C. history in that sense. Well, people should send CityCast their favorite elephant names, and we'll find something to do with it publicly. Maybe we can send our own letter to the zoo. But just for the record, the zoo has not, sadly, opened it up to general public right-in voting. They have limited us to just these choices. They have controlled the primary process. The party decides. They have. They're probably saving us from ourselves, but it is a little bit sad. Write in with your favorite names to us. All right, we put out news on Wednesday that we were expanding our local coverage in light of recent news, and our city-cast neighborhood responded in a huge, huge way. So many of you stepped up for DC Media, stepped up for your city, you became paying neighbors. So I apologize in advance, but stick with me because this is a long list of people who really, really, really deserve a thank you from us, and I hope from the whole city of D.C. So thank you to our new neighbors, Sydney L, Catherine K, Elizabeth O, Evan, I, Laura S, David K, Jonathan R, Emily M, Daniel D, Chelsea B, Anu M, Sandesh D, David L, Tamura P, Edri I, Bjaendra R, Alexa D, Christopher C, Megan C, Rachel L, Kim R, Seth G, Kara C, Barbara S, Courtney H, Kelly S, John W, Paul D, Patrick P, Alia G. Laura W. Cynthia S. Lisa K. Nina C. Rosemary R. Elizabeth H. Marjorie C. Stephanie B. Kumar C. and Ryan W. And Charissa B. You guys, thank you so much. Today, paid subscribers get a bonus fourth roundup chat about even more congressional interference in D.C if you want to be sure you always get the full episode, please become a member. Head to membership.citycast.fm and sign up. It's only 10 bucks a month. And members get ad-free listening, exclusive members events, and an extra events newsletter every week. Again, that's membership.citycast.fm.fm.

All right, well, that is all for today here on CityCast DC. Our production team this week was Annie Reese, Julia Karen, Ash Dick Durbin, Priyanka Tilvey, and Elizabeth Kama. Newsletter, Kayla Cote, Stemmerman, and Ash Dick Durbin wrote our fabulous newsletter Citicast DC this week. And our host of Bridget Todd and me, Michael Schaefer. Music is by Alex Roldan. With additional music from Philip Ayers and Rosedale from Triple Scoop music via Getty Images. If you enjoyed the show, seriously, write us with your own suggestion for an elephant name. We'll share it. We'll be back Monday morning with more news from Around the City. Bye.