The Washington Post - USA (2020-09-14

KLMNO

METRO

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 , 2020. WASHINGTONPOST.COM/REGIONAL EZ RE B

EDUCATION

A new AP program has the

potential to make Black

studies a popular college-

prep offering. B

MARYLAND

A surge of gun violence in

Baltimore last week

leaves at least 45 people

shot, 11 of them fatally. B

OBITUARIES

Ted Halstead, 52, author

and social entrepreneur,

helped create D.C.-based

73 ° 78 ° 82 ° 73 ° policy institutes. B

8 a.m. Noon 4 p.m. 8 p.m.

High today at

approx. 4 p.m.

82

°

Precip: 25%

Wind: N

8-16 mph

New cases in region

Through 5 p.m. Sunday, 1,491 new

coronavirus cases were reported in

D.C., Maryland and Virginia,

bringing the total number of cases

to 264,516.

D.C. MD.VA.

+40+ 577 +

14,592 116,110 133,

Coronavirus-related deaths

As of 5 p.m. Sunday:

D.C. MD.* VA.

+0 +2 +

616 3,838 2,

* Includes probable covid-19 deaths

BY EMILY DAVIES

In a once bustling alley at the center of

downtown D.C., Gregg Rozeboom sat alone in his

restaurant, again.

Five months ago, the quiet days and slim sales at

Fruitive, a plant-based restaurant, were bearable.

There was funding from local and national emer-

gency relief programs and a sense that the pandem-

ic would soon end.

But as summer wound down, Rozeboom exhaust-

ed his grant money and lost all hope that normalcy

would return with fall. He had seen the novel

coronavirus spread around him, watching neigh-

boring office buildings, once flush with loyal

customers, remain vacant.

With little left to do but wait for Congress to pass

another round of legislation that would help small

businesses, Rozeboom made deep personal sacri -

fices to keep his b usiness afloat. He r ecently decided

not to renew the lease on his house in Northern

Virginia that would have allowed his five children

SEE BUSINESSES ON B

BY KATIE METTLER

As generational wounds burst

open and conversations about po-

lice violence sparked anew in

communities across the nation,

the leaders of one of the wealthi-

est majority-Black counties in

America decided to once again

turn a critical eye inward.

In early July, about a month

after a Minneapolis police officer

knelt on George Floyd’s neck be-

fore his death, Prince George’s

County Executive Angela D. Also-

brooks (D) formed a Police Re-

form Work Group tasked with

scrutinizing the hiring, training

and use-of-force practices in the

local police department.

The work group has been meet-

ing by video conference for weeks.

It first held a listening session

with county residents, who large-

ly expressed strong support for an

examination of mental health and

policing, an investment in the

economy and education, and a

commitment from authorities to

ensure that the department looks

more like the community it

serves.

The group then began inviting

officials and law enforcement rep-

resentatives to teach them about

the training and recruiting prac-

tices of the department, laws that

prevent the release of police per-

sonnel files and internal affairs

investigations.

Alsobrooks asked for reform

recommendations by Oct. 30 for

the county, which has struggled

with police brutality and fraught

relations between the community

and law enforcement in the past.

Alsobrooks said her vision was

to create a tailor-made team “that

really spoke to our needs here in

Prince George’s County.”

Those needs reflect the nation-

al conversation about changes in

policing and consider the hyper-

SEE REFORM ON B

Pr. George’s moves to build on p revious police overhaul

WORKING GROUP REVIEWING POLICIES, INPUT

Seeks to ensure force reflects the community it serves

BY LAUREN LUMPKIN

Restrictions began to relax.

Restaurants reopened their

doors. And, slowly, people crept

out from their homes in the

middle of a pandemic.

But Madisyn Hess, 21, a senior

at Christopher Newport Univer-

sity, still hasn’t seen many of her

friends in person since March.

Hess, from McGaheysville, Va., is

paralyzed from the waist down.

Her lungs are damaged.

“My diaphragm is partially

paralyzed, so respiratory illnesses

are very dangerous for me,” said

Hess, who is studying psychology.

“Flu season, pneumonia season,

I’m already at high risk.”

Hess’s school in Newport

News, Va., like hundreds

throughout the country, re-

opened in August for a mix of

in-person and online classes.

Many of the students who have

returned are eager to restart their

social lives. At CNU, officials re-

ported six active cases, all stu-

dents, on Friday.

“I’ve been invited to a few

parties, which, obviously, I de-

clined,” said Hess, who lives in an

off-campus apartment with her

boyfriend. She can’t r isk contract-

ing the novel coronavirus. “ It’s

just not in the cards for me this

year.”

SEE SUPPORT ON B

Vulnerable

students

build virtual

community

Online group helps those

most at risk from virus

connect and unwind

BY REBECCA TAN

The drop boxes are coming.

In t he next few weeks, hundreds

of election drop boxes will be in-

stalled in the District and sur-

rounding suburbs, providing a

new voting option for residents

wary of casting their ballots in

person because of the coronavirus

pandemic or worried about the

reliability of mail-in voting.

In D.C. and Montgomery and

Prince George’s counties, voters

can expect to see 400-pound, six-

foot-tall structures made of heavy-

duty steel placed outside public

high schools, libraries and com-

munity centers. Starting at t he end

of this month, the boxes will be

available 24 hours a day and

guarded by surveillance cameras,

in-person s ecurity or a mix of both.

In V irginia suburbs, w here s tate

lawmakers approved the use of

drop boxes just two weeks ago,

voters are likely to see smaller,

foldable boxes placed inside early-

voting sites and Election Day poll-

ing places. These will be available

only during the d ay, guarded by an

attendant at all times.

President Trump in August

questioned the use of drop boxes,

claiming they are “a voter security

disaster” in a tweet that has since

been flagged by Twitter for violat-

ing rules on election integrity.

Trump suggested that drop boxes

allow voters to cast their ballot

multiple times, adding, “A lso, who

controls them, are they placed in

Republican or Democrat areas?

SEE VOTING ON B

Ballot drop boxes are coming to the D.C. region

KEVIN LAMARQUE/REUTERS

A woman casts her ballot at a drop box for Maryland’s primary on

June 2. The boxes offer a new option for voting amid the pandemic.

Struggling in a ‘ghost town’

Sputtering summer sales and dwindling federal aid cripple D.C.’s small businesses

PHOTOS BY AMANDA ANDRADE-RHOADES FOR THE WASHINGTON POST

Audrey Sosa, top, browses the menu of Fruitive at CityCenterDC, a high-end shopping center, above, that has suffered amid the pandemic.

As Congress squabbles over virus relief, owners of small businesses across the region are left teetering on the edge of financial ruin.

President Trump’s

hostility to cities

may help him

politically, but it

threatens to

worsen the

recession because metropolitan

regions are the engines of the

nation’s economic growth,

officials and analysts say.

The risk arises not just from

the president’s rhetoric

criticizing urban unrest. Trump

and his Republican allies in the

Senate are also rejecting fresh

financial aid to state and local

governments and to public

transit systems in a second

coronavirus relief package.

That shortchanges areas such

as the Washington region and is

a recipe for deepening and

prolonging the economic slump.

About 1.3 million state and local

government employees have lost

their jobs since March, and

economists project that number

will more than double in the next

18 months without help from

Congress and the White House.

“Cities are the economic

drivers for future growth,” said

Nan Whaley (D), mayor of

Dayton, Ohio, and vice president

of the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

“If you want to get out of a

recession caused by a pandemic,

SEE MEMO ON B

Trump’s hostility to cities

could worsen recession

Regional

Memo

ROBERT

MCCARTNEY