Small Business Support Groups Adopt Fighting Spirit to Survive Shutdown

By William G. Schulz

When DC Mayor Muriel Bowser issued a “stay-

at-home” order that began on April 1st, the local economy was already reeling from a month of worsening news about the Coronavirus/COVID-19 pan-demic. Her last-ditch move —in accord with federal guidance — to keep people indoors and safe from possible Coronavirus infec-tion, has left scores of local busi-nesses temporarily closed and on financial life support.

How long businesses can main-tain “hold” status will depend on a variety of factors, including timely delivery of various finan-cial rescue packages from the DC and federal government. Timely federal support looked uncertain, at best, at the time of this writing in early April.

The much-criticized White House response to the pandemic now includes promised financial aid to small busi-nesses via the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Critics in Congress and elsewhere say the dollars allotted so far are insufficient to the scale of the emergency, and a haphazard scheme for soliciting loan applications and distributing the money is causing delays in getting federal funds

to businesses in need. As for the CARES Act, “So much more

could be done,” says Miss Pixies owner, Pixie Windsor, whose popular vintage home furnishings store at 1626 14th St., NW, has been integral to the transforma-tion of the 14th Street corridor into one of DC’s premiere shopping and nightlife destinations. She says she currently can-not pay rent on her $20,000 per month retail space and has been forced to lay off all employees. She does plan to reopen, but not until the Coronavirus public health crisis is over.

Windsor credits Historic Logan Circle Main Street with information on grants and loans that may be avail-able from the District. [Ed. Note: The Logan Circle Main Street pro-gram, like some of the other Main Street programs, was the subject of an InTowner article late last year describ-ing the mission of District Bridges which manages a number of the Main Street programs, such as Logan Circle’s.]

Indeed, a variety of DC neighbor-hood business improvement districts (BIDs) and historic main street groups say they are working overtime to assist constituents and prop up small neigh-borhood businesses however possible.

Shaw Main Street’s Executive Director Alexander M. Padro, for example, says his group has focused on assisting the many restaurants and

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Shown is the iconic cascade that greets

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grand Neoclassical-style Meridian Hill Park at

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photo—William G. Schulz--InTowner.

These women are practicing social distancing (even more than 6 feet!) at the small park on the north side of 17th St. & New Hamp. Ave. just as the DC parks department (DPR) sign encourages.

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View looking south on 18th from T St. of normally packed, but now deserted, Lauriol Plaza patio.

Cont., SHUTDOWN, p. 3

Neighbors Want Vital Retail Nearby, Not What they Call “Retail Killers"

By Larry Ray*

Aneighborhood becomes attractive when it includes

a vital retail area, but there are a variety of “retail kill-ers.” North Dupont Circle Resident Bob declares, “DC government, ANCs, com-munity associations, and BIDs [Business Improvement Districts] that say they pro-mote retail need to focus on eradicating the so-called retail killers.” These include vacant buildings and especial-ly vacant retail stores, empty lots, storage units occupying retail spaces, professional offices (attorneys, accountants, doctors), and nonretail entities locating in ground floors spaces intended for shops.

Based on many interviews and polls, neighborhood residents especially desire —• grocery and convenience stores (but not

necessarily extra large like Walmart);• pharmacies;• hardware stores (but not necessarily extra

large like Home Depot);• locally owned restaurants (but not neces-

sarily fast food outlets);• bank branches that are focused on the

needs of the neighborhood that they serve (some would rather have retail than banks);

• fitness centers.[Editor’s Note: Interestingly, what our

reporter learned from neighbors here is very much in line with what residents in one Atlanta, Georgia neighborhood say,

photo—Larry Ray—InTowner.

Cont., RETAIL, p. 4

Essential Stores & Services Respond to Daunting Coronavirus Challenges

By P.L. Wolff

On Wednesday, April 8th, the same day DC Mayor Bowser issued her

Order 2020-058 on “Social Distancing

Requirements Protocols for Food Sellers and Farmers Markets,” Safeway’s Eastern Division in Landover, Maryland, which over-sees its stores in DC, issued its own directives to store managers. One of the key provisions is that “occupancy levels [are to be limited] to one person per 150 square feet during nor-mal business hours and one person per 300 square feet during special hours reserved for seniors and other vulnerable customers. . . .”

This means that at the Corcoran Street Safeway, during regular hours, a maximum of 25 customers can be inside at the same time (far less during “special hours”). This explains why shoppers at 11 a.m. on April 10th when this restriction had just that morn-ing been put in force there encountered a long line all the way up 17th to R Street.

CLICK HEREto continue article

photo--William G. Schulz--InTowner.

Pre-Coronavirus protective orders view of the neighborhood’s mainstay Corcoran St. Safeway at 17th St., NW; if this photo had been taken on April 10th, scene would have been far more astonishing.

Page 2 • The InTowner • April 2020

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Coronavirus ChallengesLast month we asked whether DC will be able to meet the financial challenges the

Coronavirus scourge will cost the District, specifically major loss of tax revenues. We wrote of “the prospect of possible fiscal undermining of the District’s finances due to an anticipated looming reality of substantial revenue losses (already sales tax revenue is fall-ing) along with emergency expenditures as a result of trying to cope with the Coronavirus onslaught” and asked, ” Where will the funds be when the emergency spending needs to kick into high gear?” Concluding our comments about this, we noted, “the question that looms large at this moment is if the DC government will be in any way able to put up the dollars needed. . . .”

That was four weeks ago, and just now have DC officials announced that hard (non-medical) times upon us. First, the Mayor announced a freeze on hiring, salary increases, and travel. But, that’s nothing compared to what will need to be done, presumably in May when the Council will be called upon to revise the remaining five months of his year’s budget so as to make up for the projected revenue loss of somewhere in the range of $607 million. Beyond September, the fiscal 2021 budget, according to the numbers crunchers, will need to shave of an additional $500 million.

There is no question that this will mean the shelving of many important needed proj-ects and program expenditures. The challenge will be that when the cutting gets under-way that it be done with a scalpel and not an axe. The politicians will be under huge pres-sure from special interests and charitable groups to spare their clients/constituents. There is no question that much of those are vital to the wellbeing of large swaths of our citizens, but emotions must be kept in check.

For example, expenditures that are helpful to the small businesses and the agencies that provide collective support must not be cut out in favor of what might be considered as “more worthy” needs. Given that the DC’s fiscal health -- and the physical and mental health of all the actual people now unemployed and with no certainty that their employ-ers will ever be able to re-open, nothing should be done that could contribute to those small business employers (especially restaurants and bars) disappearing forever along with the thousands of jobs they and their suppliers and contactors have made possible and which have been a major contributor to DC’s vitality and economic stability.

While it appears that DC officialdom is clearly on top of the economic impact aspects and seems to be approaching dealing with it in an organized manner, unfortunately this does not seem to be so when it comes to how it is communicating with residents on mat-ters of immediate concern to them. Too often there is mixed and confusing messaging and even lack of revealing what should be obviously important information.

For example, there has been no information about any initiative to establish community testing sites in neighborhoods across the city, something that we know many residents are anxious be made available. Even we have not been able to receive a response about this from the Mayor’s press office. The very recent announcement of a drive-through DC’s only public hospital, United Medical Center in Southeast was good news. But what took so long and why only that single, DC-organized location? There should by now have been set up sites in cooperation with churches and other nonprofits around the city.

Fortunately, just recently, during this month’s first week, George Washington University Medical Enterprise, in concert with the GW Hospital, opened up a walk-up tent at its Medical Faculty Associates building, 22nd and I Streets, NW; drive-through testing is done at the corner of 20th and H Streets, NW. (How to proceed in obtaining doctor approval for testing and hours when open, click here. And, although not providing test-ing, Whitman-Walker Health at 1525 14th Street, NW and at its Max Robinson Center at 2301 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave., SE.

With so many DC agencies and special offices, along with large numbers of health-related and other nonprofits working on solutions, providing services and trying their best to disseminate useful and accurate information -- and in a generally far better fashion than the federal government which has truly failed (and put the U.S. to shame in the eyes of the world) -- we can only urge that everyone do their part.

Unfortunately, we see too many (seemingly mostly Millennials, sad to say) still congre-gating on street corners and too often not wearing face masks thereby putting at risk not only their friends but others who need to be out for truly essential reasons and have to get safely past those past those who refuse to wear masks without fear of contagion.

Page 3 • The InTowner • April 2020

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bars in that neighborhood, including con-vincing the DC Council to allow takeout and delivery of cocktails.

“Without Council’s action, every bar-tender in the city would have been laid off,” Padro says.

What’s more, Padro continues, Shaw Main Streets has undertaken the following initiatives: heavily promoting take-out and delivery of food and alcoholic beverages,

including maintaining a list of neighbor-hood carryout options on its website; pre-pared a social media campaign with the Twitter hashtag #ShawTakeout; implement-ed DDOT-approved free parking/pickup zones for customers and food delivery services; convinced the office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development to revise disaster recovery grant applications so that businesses would not have to show a 25% loss of sales in the first quarter of 2020; and they are providing small cash grants to business owners on a case by case basis.

Dave Perruzza, owner of the popular gay sports bar Pitchers in Adams Morgan at 2317 18th Street, NW, confirms the hard-ship for bar owners. He said he was forced to close his establish-ment on March 16th because of the mayor’s orders regarding mass gatherings. Like other nonessential businesses, he can now expect to remain closed at least until the end of April – and possibly longer if the mayor’s recent state-ments hold true.

Perruzza says he had no choice but to lay off his entire staff, but adds that customers have been assisting by purchasing T-shirts

proclaiming support of local businesses by visiting the a special “Support Tee” order site — all of the proceeds of which pro-vide financial aid to Pitchers employees. Perruzza also set up a Go Fund Me site where concerned customers can donate money to help support Pitchers staff mem-bers while the bar remains closed.

Heather Rosson, Marketing & Communications Consultant at the Adams Morgan Partnership — that neighborhood’s business improvement district (BID) — says the situation has been “obviously traumat-ic,” particularly for the once-thriving restau-rant scene. In response, her group started a “Buy Restaurant Bonds” campaign.

Rosson says the idea – inspired by the Buy War Bonds campaigns of both World War I and II — is to encourage customers to purchase gift cards for future dining, thereby helping the restaurant make it through the shutdown.

“We are trying to make a splash with this campaign to help draw attention to our 100-plus restaurants their employees facing an uncertain future,” Rosson says. “All of this is such a quickly evolving landscape.”

Rosson encourages restaurant patrons to participate through their own social media accounts using the hashtag #BuyRestaurantBonds. She also encour-ages restaurants to tag the Adams Morgan Partnership when posting on social media about the operating status of their establish-ments so as to help spread the news.

Blue Planet Scuba at 1755 S Street, NW is closed through the end of April in line with Mayor Bowser’s orders. (Disclaimer: this reporter is an instructor at Blue Planet). But owners Heather Tallent and Jonas Furberg say they are working on opening an online store for continuing scuba gear sales and they have pivoted quickly to offering a variety of online scuba classes and free, “fun” seminars. Their website’s Calendar page shows upcoming events and sign up options.

Since the end of March, 90% of small businesses in Dupont Circle have been closed, Bill McLeod, Executive Director of Historic Dupont Main Streets, says. “Everyone is struggling.”

McLeod says his organization is passing along sales ideas such as online sales, gift cards for customers to use later when busi-

nesses reopen, food delivery, go fund me campaigns for employees, and more. “Our website has been updated to include tips about supporting open restaurants, grants and loans, and the farmers market being open,” he says.

Also noted was that the Fresh Farm Dupont Market now has social dis-tancing rules in place to avoid dan-gerous crowding that might heighten the risk of Coronavirus infection. McLeod notes that plenty of fresh produce is readily available at the market. He says crowds of people

SHUTDOWNFrom p. 1

photo—William G. Schulz—InTowner.

Shown is the south gate on California St. justbelow 18th normally open but now locked leadingiknto the Marie-Treed Athletic Field. (For a wideaerial view, click here.)

photo--William G. Schulz--InTowner.

Customers for carryout at the popular Three Fifty Bakery & Coffee Bar on 18th just south of U St. seen keeping to the 6-foot social distancing as they patiently wait in the line starting near the Willard St. end of the block.

photo--William G. Schulz--InTowner. Cont., SHUTDOWN , p. 4

Page 4 • The InTowner • April 2020

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have been showing up when the market opens at 8:30 a.m. on Sundays, but this is not necessary.

“Show up at Noon when crowds are thinnest —please,” McLeod says.

For other Dupont neighborhood business, “The Dupont Circle BID anticipates and is preparing to play an integral role in recovery efforts,” says Executive Director Colleen Hawkinson. The BID’s team, she adds, is making weekly calls to each business to confirm whether they are open and to respond to specific needs like pick up/drop off per-mits from DDOT, availability of federal Small Business Administration loans, DC micro-grants, and more.

Further, Hawkinson says her organization has begun a #DupontStrong social media campaign to generate a sense of community and resilience throughout the crisis. She says the BID has sent, and will continue to send, surveys to businesses to get feedback on impacts, including on employees, busi-nesses, and needed relief.

Moving forward, Hawkinson says the Dupont Circle BID is researching avail-able grants and loans and distributing that information “so our members are aware of financial and other aid opportunities.”

“I 100% expect to remain in business after the crisis passes,” Miss Pixie’s Windsor says, echoing the sentiments of many now-shut-tered local business owners, which include gyms, salons, personal care product vendors, crafts stores, framing galleries, and more.

“I hope the government comes through with loans and grants to help keep everyone in business,” Windsor says. “The small busi-ness community in DC is huge and I think we have great support from the public.”

Copyright © 2020 InTowner Publishing Corp. & William G. Schulz. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited, except as provided by 17 U.S.C. §§ 107 & 108 (“fair use”).

SHUTDOWNFrom p. 3

photo--William G. Schulz--InTowner.

as reported in an article head-lined “neighbors want a mix of retail, restaurants, shops, and entertainment,” posted on the neighborland.com website.]

Retail stores are generally-identified as being actual “brick and mortar” establishmentds with with a storefront or façade on the first floor. (There, of course, online and virtual store fronts.)

Fran Levine, former co-owner of Soho Coffee and Tea at 22nd and P Streets, NW, shared her thoughts by email: “Yes, busi-nesses feed off of each other. When I ran Soho, I was grateful for the Fireplace Bar customers who stopped by for soup; the bookstore folks who stopped by for coffee; the State Liquor Store, for sandwiches; the gas station users for desserts. Having vacant retail spots around your place is bad business.”

Continuing, Bloom wrote, “Years ago when I first heard that Starbucks was going to open at 21st and P -- one block from my business -- this sounded at first like bad news. So I started an anti-Starbucks peti-tion. But, actually my customers educated me that even coffee shops feed off each other. Customers like variety. Sometimes, they want to go to a local shop and other times, Starbucks -- very different atmo-spheres.”

Most independent coffee shops thrive a bit better with a Starbucks nearby. In a 2013 article that appeared in Slate, “Don’t Fear Starbucks,” the author wrote that Starbucks creates “a coffee nexus” and actually helps the marketing of that immediate area where it has its strore; a nearby independent coffee shop offers a “unique spin.”

Storage Occupying Retail SpaceStorage uses occupying retail spaces is

another “retail killer.” The relatively new Wawa in Columbia Heights which opened in May of 2019 at 14th and Irving Streets, NW displaced 5Guys, Potbelly, and Pete’s

Apizza – all popular neighborhood busi-nesses.

Columbia Heights resident Betty com-mented by email, “So sad that Wawa dis-placed businesses and then used the spaces for storage. This surely puts a damper on retail in that area. I was expecting a super Wawa like the one downtown.”

Anne, also of Columbia Heights, in an email added that she “was surprised that Wawa does not have a 14th Street entrance but instead has a hidden entrance beside the Metrorail station.”

The Columbia Heights Wawa store occu-pies 6,000 square feet; it is the smallest of the other two in the District -- Georgetown at 7,100 sq. ft. and downtown at 9,200.sq. ft.

Replacing retail with self-storage has become a national phenomenon, Chicago being just one city where this is happening. A Chicago Tribune story last year about how a large Sears retail store that had closed was converted into a storage facility.

Shared Work Spaces Seen as Retail Killers

Some neighbors claim that shared work spaces, especially those occupying what were or ought to be retail stores along neigh-borhood shopping streets are detrimntal to the overall viability of local retail.

RETAILFrom p. 1

CLICK HEREto continue article

photo--Larry Ray--InTowner.

Richard of Columbia Heights says, “This Wawa is not inviting.”

Page 5 • The InTowner • April 2020

THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION 21st & Q Sts., NW; (202) 387-2151

By Joseph R. Phelan*

African-American Arists and European Modernist Tradition

(through May 24, 2020)

CLOSED DURING CORONAVIRUS(possible extension following)

An absorbing exhibition, “Riffs and Relations: African-American Artists and

European Modernist Tradition,” opened at  the Phillips Collection a month before the shutdown. The show brings together an array of 20th and 21st century black artists who were influenced, in one way or another, by their encounters with modernist works. At the same time, the show reminds us that from the very beginning of the 20th century, European artists were learning from African art.

Over 30 African-American artists are rep-resented in this show, including high-profile figures such as Romare Bearden, Aaron Douglas, Jacob Lawrence, Alma Thomas, Norman Lewis, Martin Puryear, Faith Ringgold, and Robert Colescott. There’s also a bevy of contemporary women artists whose works are making their Washington premiere. Alongside their paintings, sculp-ture, photography, and prints can be found works by the major figures of European modernism from Monet to Mondrian. The

result is an admirable and entertaining effort to widen and diversify the story of modern art in America.

One key figure in this story is Alain Locke, the seminal African-American philosopher of the Harlem Renaissance, who lived in Washington and taught at Howard University. In his epoch-making book The New Negro (1925) Locke insisted on the impor-tance of African art as conceptu-ally modernist and encouraged African-American artists to com-bine in their works the African legacy with European modern-ist forms.  He also believed in, and advocated, the “cross fertil-ization” of cultures. He held at that time the radical belief that “great cultures” are the result of the “fusion of several cultures . . . [the] fermenting of one civilization by another.” It’s no wonder that this intellectual had such a powerful effect on his students and readers in the larger culture.

At the beginning of the 20th

century, Matisse, Picasso, Braque, and the German Expressionists felt that the  con-ventions of European art had become too tame, too civilized, and too banal. They began to study the artifacts of African cul-ture that were relegated to various ethno-graphic collections in Paris. As guest cura-

tor Adrienne Childs writes in her catalog essay, European artists saw a “simpler, unvar-nished, spiritual, and authen-tic” culture embodied in the African objects. In their home cultures, these artifacts called forth primordial responses of fear, longing, exhilaration, and piety.

Modernists wanted to elicit these responses also, but their available tools -- the tech-niques of mimetic painting and sculpture -- seemed no longer up to the task. Two revolutionary works of 1907, Matisse’s Blue Nude and Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon signal the enor-mous transformation that encounters with African masks and sculpture had on these two artists.

Within a few years there was a very significant change in taste in advanced circles which propelled African art

out of the ethnological collections and into the galleries and ultimately the most presti-gious art museums.

Modern art, and the exhibition, begins with Manet’s notorious Luncheon in the Grass (1862) which puts two female nudes at a picnic with two fully dressed men. By removing any mythological or allegorical

justification for such nudity and painting the scene in a bold and sketchy manner, Manet was challenging academic tradition and announcing a new freedom for the artist. Almost a century later when Manet’s painting had itself become a “classic,” Picasso painted a series of pastiche versions proclaiming his freedom to “riff” on tradition.

Ms. Childs has selected five 21st century works which re-imagine the Luncheon from various perspec-tives. Carrie Mae Weems’s photo-graph After Manet (2015), Robert Colescott’s rarely seen painting Sunday Afternoon with Joaquin Murietta (1980), along with one work from the Picasso series are standouts in the first room.

Moving on, Elizabeth Catlett’s sculpture Ife (2002) is paired with Matisse’s Large Seated Nude (1930). The idea is to showcase the ability of both artists to synthesize diverse influences from Africa and other cultures. In an adjacent room Harlem Renaissance artist James Lesene Wells’s print Primitive Girl (1929) uses the idiom of  German Expressionism to por-tray the strength and dignity of a working class woman. Aaron Douglas’s Negro in an African Setting (1954) depicts Africa

through an Art Deco lens. Hale Woodruff’s The Card Players (1930)

riffs on Cezanne’s pivotal work of the same title which depicts humble figures on a scale usually reserved for grander subjects like history or mythology. Picasso’s and Braque’s breakthrough Cubist works intro-duce a gallery of still life pictures by David Driskell, Norman Lewis, and Woodruff. Remarkable landscapes by Lois Mailou Jones and William H. Johnson are placed in dialogue  with similar works by Utrillo and Soutine, respectively. Romare Bearden’s Poseidon (1977)  is a wonderfully fresh and frightening portrait on the sea god enemy of Odysseus from his series Black Odyssey. And speaking of  an inspired work, Alma Thomas’s Watsui (1963) is a delightful riff on Matisse’s late abstract The Snail (1953). Finally Frank Stewart’s photographs give us a chance to salute some of the black artists in the show.

There is always one work in an exhibition that I can’t get enough of. At the Phillips, it’s Homage to Nina Simone (1965). I’ve never heard of the artist, Bob Thomas, but he’s a great underappreciated talent. He was the earliest African-American artist to engage with the history of European art. This celebration of the black jazz musician derives its composition from Bacchanal with Lute Player by the great 17th Baroque mas-ter Poussin,  filtered through the hot fauvist colors of Henri Matisse.

Too few of the paintings are on the Phillips website. In the interests of all, it would be

good for the museum to post more. There is an audio tour (without images) images, and an all-too-brief YouTube tour of the galleries. Both of these features are narrated by the guest curator Adrian Childs who also wrote the sensitive and thought-provoking essays in the important catalog.

* Joseph R. Phelan, a Washington based author and teacher is The InTowner’s museums exhi-bitions senior reviewer. He has taught at the

Catholic University of America and the University of Maryland University College and was the founding edi-tor of Artcyclopedia.com, the fine art search engine.

Copyright © 2020 InTowner Publishing Corp. & Joseph R. Phelan. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited, except as provided by 17 U.S.C. §107 (“fair use”).

Art & Culture

Elizabeth Catlett, Ife (2002).

Alma Thomas, Watusi (Hard Edge) (1963).

William H. Johnson, Cagnes-sur-Mer (1928-’29).

Hale Woodruff, The Card Players (1930). Bob Thompson, Homage to Nina Simone (1965).