B4 EZ RE THE WASHINGTON POST.MONDAY, AUGUST 10 , 2020
inexpensive improvements to the
bus network,” Puentes said.
l Escape from the city?
Finally, there’s much discussion
but little certainty about whether
the pandemic will reverse the
“back to the city” movement that
has swelled the population of the
District and other prosperous
urban centers.
There are some signs that
people will be less interested in
living in dense neighborhoods,
where social distancing is more
difficult. Increased use of
telework may reduce demand for
commercial office space.
Maura Brophy, director of
transportation and
infrastructure at the Federal City
Council, said those trends,
combined with the District’s high
housing costs, pose a risk to the
city’s economic competitiveness.
“If employees no longer see the
benefit of physically locating
here, that’s a real threat to the
economy,” Brophy said. “If the
benefit of being in the office
doesn’t outweigh the cost of the
commute — whether safety cost
or economic cost — people just
aren’t going to do it.”
But a surge of residents to the
suburbs, where people are more
car dependent, would only
aggravate traffic.
For now, planners say the
immediate task is more study of
all these issues.
“It’s very important that we
take a second look, a deeper dive
at the long-term impacts,” said
Monica Backmon, executive
director of the Northern Virginia
Transportation Authority. “What
will our new normal look like?”
[email protected]and monitor traffic volumes,” and
“consider all new information
that becomes available to ensure
solutions will meet the needs of
Marylanders.”
l Budgets. Sharply reduced
state revenue means less
spending and more delays for
road, bridge and transit projects.
The Northern Virginia
Transportation Authority cut
$240 million from its spending
plans for 2020 through 2023, a
reduction of about one-seventh.
Among other things, that means
less money to widen the
Richmond Highway (Route 1)
and add a bus rapid transit line
there.
Virginia Transportation
Secretary Shannon Valentine told
a virtual conference of the
Northern Virginia Chamber of
Commerce on Wednesday that
construction of a much-
anticipated new span at the Long
Bridge over the Potomac River —
a vital passenger and freight rail
connection between the District
and Arlington — could now
require up to 14 years, instead of
10, to complete the project’s first
two phases.
R educed funding in Maryland
will make it harder for the state
to come up with hundreds of
millions of dollars it may need to
complete the light-rail Purple
Line.
Stretched budgets will
encourage governments to spend
scarce money on less-expensive
projects such as adding bus
service, creating dedicated bus
lanes, and improving bike and
pedestrian networks.
“It does make sense to be
investing in relativelyhighway expansions, especially
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s
plan to add toll lanes to parts of
Interstate 270 and the Capital
Beltway (Interstate 495).
Telework “could reduce peak-
hour travel by as much as
10 percent or more,” said Stewart
Schwartz, executive director of
the Coalition for Smarter
Growth. “All our highway
expansion has been tied to peak-
hour demand. This calls into
question highway expansion.”
Maryland Del. Marc A.
Korman (D-Montgomery), a
critic of Hogan’s plan, said a drop
in commuting volume would
worry private companies
recruited by the state to build the
project in return for toll revenue.
“Is it going to be profitable, or
are [the companies] going to
demand even more of a taxpayer
subsidy of some kind, so they can
turn a profit?” Korman said.
Hogan (R) has said the project
would not require taxpayer
funds, but a recent state study
said a state subsidy might be
necessary depending on how toll
revenue stacked up against
construction and borrowing
costs.
Erin Henson, a spokeswoman
for the Maryland Department of
Transportation, said the I-495
and I-270 projects were
important not only for
commuters but also for trucking.
“As we plan for Maryland
recovery, these critical
infrastructure projects are key to
rebuilding our economy and
keeping the supply chain
moving,” Henson said.
But she added that MDOT will
“track trends in travel behaviorl Telework. Perhaps the
biggest unknown is the extent to
which the rise in telework will
transform commuting patterns.
There’s little doubt that more
people will telework after the
pandemic than before, but no one
knows by how much. A difference
of a few percentage points in the
rate of teleworking can translate
to tens of thousands of cars on
the road, or passengers on
subways and buses.
A July survey of 180 companies
in the region found that the
average share of workers who
telecommuted at least
occasionally rose from about 1 in
3 before the pandemic to 4 in 5
during it.
The report, commissioned by
the Metropolitan Washington
Council of Governments (COG),
also found that 57 percent of
work sites expected to see a long-
term increase in teleworking,
even when the pandemic is
behind us, compared with pre-
pandemic levels.
Partly because of telework,
traffic volume in the Washington
metropolitan area was down
22 percent in mid-June,
compared with before the
pandemic, according to the
traffic analysis firm INRIX.
COG Deputy Executive
Director Kanti Srikanth
cautioned that telework was “not
a silver bullet to address all our
mobility needs.” But he said it
was “definitely an opportunity
now to see if we can get that big
push to enter the next level” of
working from home.
l Highway widening. Transit
advocates cited telework as a
reason to rethink proposed8000 series.
The plunge in ridership is
costing Metrorail and Metrobus a
total of $2.5 million in revenue
each weekday. Metro doesn’t
expect ridership to recover until
January at the earliest, and
probably not until a vaccine is
widely available.
Metro has been able to sustain
service so far only because of aid
it received in the federal relief
package approved in March, but
that money is going to run out
soon. Negotiations over another
package collapsed last week but
could be revived.
Metro and the region’s
Democratic-dominated
congressional delegation want
any federal package to provide at
least $32 billion for the nation’s
transit systems.
But Metro officials and outside
analysts say the best they can
hope for is probably an overall
total of $15 billion, because of
resistance to new spending from
the Republican-led Senate and
the White House. Metro’s share of
that would be about
$800 million, which is not
enough to avoid furloughs and
service reductions.
“What we keep hearing, if
there is any [transit] funding, it
may fall closer to $15 billion,
which is not adequate,” said Joe
McAndrew, managing director
for transportation at the Greater
Washington Partnership.
State and local governments
are also hoping to receive federal
aid in the next relief package.
Without it, the District, Maryland
and Virginia would be hard-
pressed to do much to help
Metro.“Just look at what happened
with Metro,” he said. “You were
seeing ridership increases just
before the pandemic.... Now you
have this unbelievable scenario
where you have transit officials
encouraging people not to ride”
because of virus concerns.
It’s not all bad news. The
District has used the time with
fewer people on the roads to
build more dedicated bus lanes.
Bicycle use is up. Fewer Metro
riders and vehicles on the roads
have given Metro and
transportation departments time
to catch up on maintenance and
repairs.
Still, much of the picture is
ominous. Here are some
highlights of transportation
challenges confronting the
region.
l Metro. Officials use terms
like “catastrophic” and
“armageddon” to describe the
system’s money woes. Prospects
worsened last week when
Congress and the White House
failed to agree on a financial
relief package, in which
Democrats want to include
billions of dollars for public
transit systems.
If more federal aid isn’t
forthcoming, the Metro board in
September would have to
consider making significant
service cuts, furloughing
thousands of workers, or both.
The transit agency might also
have to delay completion of
Phase 2 of the Silver Line, which
is supposed to open sometime
next year, and the purchase of its
next generation of rail cars, the
MEMO FROM B1
REGIONAL MEMO
From funding crisis to telework’s rise, transportation is in historic turmoil
civil liberties advocates have ar-
gued that inmates should be re-
leased in large numbers to avoid
their possible infection and death.
On the day of Ienzi’s death, a
family member who had been
sleeping in an upstairs bedroom
awoke in the late morning to loud
noises and the sound of Ienzi
screaming. She headed down-
stairs and saw Ienzi struggling
with an unknown man who was
wielding a knife.
The man with the knife fled.
The relative ran back upstairs,
called 911 and was able to give a
description of Ienzi’s attacker t o
police.
Ienzi, who had been stabbed
multiple times, was transported
to a hospital, where he died of his
wounds.
Another family member, after
reviewing the neighbors’ surveil-
lance footage, identified the man
seen running f rom the home as
Wilson. The relative said that he
knew Wilson and that Wilson had
visited Ienzi’s home three or four
weeks before the slaying.
After that visit, Ienzi’s relative
said, he noticed many silver coins
missing from the home.
[email protected]
[email protected]while awaiting sentencing, ac-
cording to online court records.
But in April, he filed an emergen-
cy motion for release “due to im-
mediate threat posed by covid- 19
pandemic,” according to court re-
cords. That motion was granted at
an April 30 hearing, according to
records. An unsecured bond of
$5,000 was set, and the sentenc-
ing hearing was postponed until
November.
So Wilson walked free — for
about three months, until he was
accused of fatally stabbing Ienzi.
His case marks the second time
in recent weeks that a D.C.-area
inmate released because of coro-
navirus concerns h as been ac-
cused of committing another
crime. In Virginia, Alexandria po-
lice said this month that a rape
suspect released from jail over
fear of the virus killed t he woman
who had accused him.
The virus has swept through
the country’s jails, which — as
necessarily confined spaces — do
not easily lend themselves to so-
cial distancing and other health
and safety measures. In response,BY MARTIN WEIL
AND HANNAH NATANSONA Maryland man accused of
killing a 63-year-old last month
had earlier secured release from
jail by raising concerns about the
coronavirus, court records show.
The man, Justin Andrew Wil-
son, 26, of Germantown, was ar-
rested July 28 and charged in the
death of Egidio Ienzi, according to
Montgomery County police. Ienzi
was fatally stabbed in his Ger-
mantown home on July 23, police
said.
Wilson was arrested after a
member of Ienzi’s family identi-
fied him as the man seen fleeing
the scene on neighbors’ home sur-
veillance video. He is now in po-
lice custody.
This is the second time this year
that Wilson has found himself
behind bars. Earlier this year, he
pleaded guilty in Montgomery
County Circuit Court to a charge
of theft of less than $25,000. He
also was charged with credit card
and identity theft.
W ilson was placed in custody
MARYLAND
Suspect in k illing was freed from jail
Sáenz said. This year, more than
five already have succeeded.
“It requires sacrifices,” Sáenz
said, adding that the novel corona-
virus has forced many partici-
pants to put their goals on hold.
Lorraine Ponce Lujan, who
trained as a physician in Peru be-
fore coming to the region and join-
ing the Welcome Back Center in
2017, is working to become a physi-
cian in the United States. In the
meantime, she’s working as a med-
ical assistant. She said she also
applied to be a contact tracer in
May but hasn’t heard back.
“To have the knowledge and the
skills to take care of patients and
just have to sit back and do noth-
ing about it because you are notall over the world obtain their
certifications here, said Carmen
Sáenz, the program’s director.
When internationally trained
medical workers come to the Unit-
ed States, they can’t start working
immediately. They must follow a
lengthy process involving lan-
guage and proficiency exams,
some of which may be offered only
a few times a year and all of which
can cost hundreds of dollars. They
have to gather transcripts and li-
censes from their home countries,
some of which may have to be
professionally translated.
The process can take more than
two years for nurses. For physi-
cians and dentists, it can be much
more laborious, including com-
pleting multiyear residency re-
quirements.
Even after passing the exams,
getting a job can be difficult —
creating a résumé and acing an
interview in a second language
takes preparation. As a result,
many who are helped by the center
initially take low-paying, entry-
level jobs for which they are over-
qualified.
Still, an average of four medical
workers a year are able to get
certified to work in the United
States with the help of the center,NURSES FROM B1 certified in this country takes a toll
on you,” Ponce Lujan said.
Across the country, 263,000 im-
migrants with health-related de-
grees are working in positions that
require a lesser degree than t hey
hold — if they are working in
health care at all, according to the
Migration Policy Institute in D.C.
In a county like Montgomery —
where about a third of its residents
are foreign-born — these medical
workers, with their language skills
and varying cultural back-
grounds, are especially needed
during a pandemic, when demand
is heightened, the Welcome Back
Center’s administrators and par-
ticipants said.
“The increased need for health-
care workers has nuances. Yes, we
need more respiratory therapists,
but we need more respiratory
therapists that speak the lan -
guages and understand the needs
of the communities most affected
by the pandemic,” said José
Ramón Fernández-Peña, who
founded the Welcome Back Initia-
tive, a national organization that
has helped more than 18,000 in-
ternationally trained health-care
providers from over 150 countries.
“The workforce in the communi-
ties has to meet the language and
cultural needs of these communi-
ties.”
The county’s Welcome Back
Center is a chapter of the initia-
tive.
Ponce Lujan said her back-
ground has helped her better con-
nect with Latino clients in her
work at a Montgomery clinic.
Rather than telling patients to
socially distance, for example —
which could be nearly impossible
for those living in cramped, multi-
generational apartments — Ponce
Lujan said she’s found it more
helpful to tell them how to be safer
in those conditions.
Ana Ramirez, who was one of
the center’s first participants, has
been working as a registered
nurse in Maryland since 2007.
Before she came to the United
States, Ramirez had worked in
emergency care and with the Red
Cross in her native Colombia.
Without the Welcome Back Cen-
ter’s help, she said the process of
becoming certified would have
taken much longer. She didn’t
know much English and was just
about ready to give up on working
as a nurse when she found the
center. “We just need someone to
open the door and let us prove that
we have the skills,” she said. But,
she added, “it’s hard to get that
door open.”
For Bambara, it has been
10 years of managing little more
than touching that door’s handle.
But she has faith it will work out
eventually, especially with the
help of the center and other partic-
ipants.
“I have that hope that I will get
there one day,” she said, adding
that allowing more international-
ly trained medical staff to work
during the pandemic is para-
mount. “It will help foreign
n urses. It will help the country. It
will help all of us.”
[email protected]Nurses note acute need as virus rages
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