Many of the matters discussed in D.C. Council chambers on Tuesday afternoon concerned aspects of life in a major city — mayoral transition, contracting and procurement, rat abatement, nightlife noise mitigation, and ticket enforcement.
In the realm of rat abatement, the council unanimously approved the Rodent Education and Management Yields (“REMY”) Results Amendment Act of 2026 on its first reading. D.C. Councilmember Christina Henderson (I-At large) introduced this bill to, among other things, subsidize the purchase of rodent-proof trash receptacles for commercial businesses.
For Henderson, however, installment of trash receptacles is not the end all, be all to curbing rodent infestation in the District.
“As you know, this has to be a multi-pronged strategy,” Henderson, responding to D.C. Councilmember Brianne Nadeau (D-Ward 1), said during the council’s Oct. 20 Committee of the Whole meeting. “It’s not just birth control for rats, it’s not just fixing the litter cans, it’s not just dealing with the rodenticide piece, but so long as rats have easy access to food, they will not go away. They will just keep reproducing.”
The Politics of Noise Mitigation
In the years following the pandemic, the District experienced a slight rebound that brought the population closer to pre-2020 levels. In the years preceding COVID-19’s arrival, the population density in the nation’s capital substantially increased, compelling questions not only about rat abatement, but noise mitigation and traffic enforcement.
On Nov. 10, the council will tackle noise mitigation when it conducts its first reading of the Nightlife Noise Balance Amendment Act of 2025, a bill intended to clarify the Alcoholic Beverage and Cannabis Administration’s (ABCA) response to noise complaints against nighttime establishments.
In runup to that discussion, Henderson will more than likely weigh in on how commercial-to-residential conversions could infringe on nightlife in Downtown D.C.
“This is something that’s going on in Ward 2,” Henderson told Nadeau during the council’s Committee of the Whole meeting on Oct. 20. “I got a row of bars, a little strip club. They’ve all been operating for decades. And now, all of a sudden, there’s an apartment building on the corner that hadn’t been there. But for decades, me and my bar, we’ve been good. And now, all of a sudden, you move in and now I’m in trouble. I’m being fined. I can get shut down. I can get my license taken.”
The Nightlife Noise Balance Amendment Act, introduced by Nadeau, makes clear that ABCA investigators are not required to enter a D.C. resident’s home to substantiate a noise violation, and could instead make such a call if noise is heard within 15 feet of the resident’s property. Other tenets of the bill allow ABCA, with the use of a separate fine schedule, to suspend a liquor license and place restrictions on the endorsements of licensees after four noise complaints within two years.
As Nadeau explained, she sought to rectify what she described as a “broken nightlife noise enforcement scheme.” Her introduction of this bill follows the council’s passage of the Harmonious Living Amendment Act of 2024 and Amplified Sound Mitigation Regulation Amendment Act of 2024.
“When this bill came to us from the mayor, it just said that ABCA could start issuing penalties based on noise heard right outside a residential zone dwelling. We received very clear testimony from nightlife businesses that that way was too vulnerable, too unreasonable, even bad faith complaints,” Nadeau said on the dais during the council’s Committee of the Whole meeting. “We also heard testimony from ANCs [advisory neighborhood commissions] and other community leaders who are frustrated [that] the existing framework offers no meaningful relief from overwhelming noise. So we put a lot of work into a more balanced, predictable standard and clear enforcement process.”
Currently, restaurants, taverns, nightclubs, hotels and multipurpose facilities, by virtue of the Noise Control Act, are prohibited from producing any type of noise that can be heard in any premises other than the licensed establishment.
A task force that consists of ABCA, D.C. Department of Buildings (DOB), and Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) has been charged with conducting noise checks outside of District buildings and monitoring establishments that are the subject of complaints. According to a council staffer, the entity has not been in operation for at least three years.
If approved, Nadeau’s legislation would restore the noise task force while requiring ABCA to assess whether noise from a nighttime establishment disturbs the peace. As Nadeau pointed out, the bill prioritizes compliance over punishment by ensuring that ABCA explores noise mitigation before issuing violations.
“As we work to fix this, we need to be mindful of our physical climate…and strike a balance between the nightlife economy and residential noise,” Nadeau said. “Nightlife establishments are a valuable part of the District’s economy and culture. I certainly could not imagine a Ward 1 without them.”
Like Henderson, and later D.C. Councilmember Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5), D.C. Councilmember Charles Allen (D-Ward 6) raised concerns about nighttime establishments receiving penalties by virtue of their proximity to residents’ backyards.
Allen, who has purview over the H Street NE corridor, even went further as he scrutinized the circumstances that, according to Nadeau’s legislation, would warrant an interagency response to residents’ noise complaints.
“What I’m concerned about is a person who might want to weaponize this process,” Allen said. “In theory, I could launch a hundred complaints about the same place and I’m going to basically push it up the list to be in [the] top five. Do you see what I’m getting at?”
For years, as the District continued to experience economic development, longtime residents and artists have butt heads with real estate developers and transplants. The Harmonious Living Amendment Act aimed to rectify this conflict by imposing soundproofing standards on new residential constructions in parts of the District with amplified sound. Meanwhile, the Amplified Sound Mitigation Regulation Amendment Act regulates sound levels coming from street performers.
Currently ABCA doesn’t have decibel readers, meaning that ABCA personnel would rely more on what they hear once they arrive at the scene of a complaint. Pinto, who recounted instances when she received late night phone calls from residents perturbed by noise, pressed for accountability measures that relied more on empirical data than, as she explained, the perspective of arbiters.
“If we think about other contexts of how fast the car was going, we don’t say, ‘Well, let’s have the police officer just kind of vibe check it to see if the car was going fast or not.’ We have speedometers,” Pinto said. “When we look at any other violations of the law, it provides protections for every party to have a commitment to objective metrics. And so I appreciate that noise can be a little bit unique because of the source of the noise, but I don’t think that means we move completely away from objectivity.”
Amid all the discussions, Nadeau sought to remind her council colleagues that the council had already, to some degree, accounted for their concerns, particularly those related to commercial-to-residential conversions and ABCA personnel lacking decibel readers. However, as she pointed out, the council hadn’t quite put its money where its mouth is.
“If this body really wants to address that issue, there are two things to do: fund the Harmonious Living Act and fund the Amplified Sound bill,” Nadeau said. “That addresses both the soundproofing issue, the issue with noise being heard in mixed zoning, and it also gets to the sound readers and every agency having them. Those are on the books. They just haven’t been funded.”
More Talk About Automatic Traffic Enforcement
In what represented a continuation of discussions from a previous legislative meeting, D.C. Councilmember Trayon White (D-Ward 8) aimed to stop the doubling of automatic traffic enforcement tickets after 30 days through the Parking and Traffic Ticket Penalty Reduction Emergency Amendment Act of 2026.
On the day preceding the council’s Oct. 20 additional legislative meeting, D.C. Council Chair Phil Mendelson (D) revealed that White’s emergency bill was “out of order,” meaning that it would incur a fiscal impact.
That’s why the chairman said he would instead explore what he described as more permanent legislation during the next council period.
“I think we’re all of the same view that the increased frequency of ticketing because of automated traffic enforcement and the level of the fines is just creating an unreasonable burden, and that that ought to be cut in half, and then we will deal with it in the budget,” Mendelson told The Informer. “Whether we can fund it or not, I don’t know, but that’s the point of letting bills…go through the ordinary process…What Trayon White is proposing is for us to adopt a bill that will go out of existence before it could ever have any effect. That kind of doesn’t make sense.”
During the council’s legislative meeting, Ward 8 D.C. Councilmember White too alluded to his introduction of a permanent bill to reduce automatic traffic enforcement fines. This action, as he explained, comes two years after his introduction of similar legislation that stalled in the council’s Committee on Transportation and the Environment, chaired by Allen.
While White said he understood the intentions behind imposing fines on negligent drivers, he questioned the degree to which this traffic enforcement strategy proved effective.
“We can hold motorists accountable without financially devastating them, and the evidence tells us that the burden of our current system fails to disproportionately affect Black and brown people in the city,” Ward 8 D.C. Councilmember White said. “There’s an issue of double jeopardy here…You are essentially paying double for the same offense, and there’s a play on words that speaks to fine versus fee, [in] which the fee is the same amount as the fine. It’s changed the word so it won’t be duplicative.”
As of Oct. 20, MPD has recorded 35 traffic fatalities, which is 67% more than what was recorded at the same time last year. North Capitol Street and New York Avenue has been identified as one “consistently dangerous” intersection.
Allen, a staunch proponent of traffic safety, rebuffed assertions that he’s blocking attempts to lower the burden of tickets. He said his legislation, the Strengthening Traffic Enforcement, Education, and Responsibility (STEER) Amendment Act of 2024, also known as the STEER Act, allows D.C. drivers to waive up to $500 in ticket fines by attending safe driving classes.
“Most people change [their behavior,] none of us want to get a ticket. So most of us, if we get one, we change our behavior,” Allen told The Informer. “But we also have to have serious consequences for the folks that are just ignoring all that. We do have [a] relatively small number of people that are just constant dangerous drivers and speeders that put people at risk. And that isn’t just going to be a ticket in the mail. We’re going to have to have strong enforcement actions against those drivers.”
Public Schools to be Named in Honor of Malcolm X and Alma W. Thomas
On its first reading, the council unanimously approved the Malcolm X Elementary School Designation Act of 2026, legislation that Ward 8 D.C. Councilmember White introduced to name a Mississippi Avenue SE-based elementary school exclusively in honor of Malcolm X.
“The school name would stand on its own, honoring the life and legacy of Malcolm X, also known as El Hajj Malik Shabazz, to commemorate the values and identity, empowerment, and social justice that are essential to our children’s education and to keep his memory alive,” Ward 8 D.C. Councilmember White said during the council’s Committee of the Whole meeting on Oct. 20.
More than a decade ago, the school known as Malcolm X Elementary School moved from Alabama Avenue SE to the site of a shuttered school that was named in honor of longtime D.C. Public Schools teacher Mildred Green. The site has since been referred to as Malcolm X Elementary @ Green.
In September, White joined D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, D.C. Department of General Services Director Delano Hunter, the freedom fighter’s eldest daughter Ambassador Attallah Shabazz, and several others at Malcolm X Elementary @ Green to celebrate the campus’ $67 million modernization and unveiling of a Malcolm X sculpture.
Weeks later, White said the mission to solidify the elementary school’s name didn’t come without prodding from community members. He told council colleagues he would follow through while ensuring that Green continues to receive her flowers.
“I do want to note that we will also be working on introducing legislation to honor the life and legacy of Ms. Mildred Green,” White said. “She was a Washingtonian who attended D.C. Teachers College, now known as the University of District of Columbia, and George Washington University. Green served as a teacher and a principal at numerous D.C. public schools and passed in 1956. She was considered a master teacher and a builder of character.”
Judging from her remarks, Henderson will likely become a partner in this endeavor.
“We normally only take people’s names off buildings when they are problematic in nature,” Henderson said during the council’s Oct. 20 Committee of the Whole meeting, “and at least from what I can see, there’s nothing problematic about Mildred Green’s legacy in the District, being a District educator, but also helping the District through the period of desegregation.”
Henderson went on to ask Mendelson how D.C. Public Schools (DCPS) will ensure Green’s legacy doesn’t “get lost” in the school name change. In response, Mendelson pointed out the preservation of records about Green at the Charles Sumner School Museum and Archives in Northwest.
However, Henderson didn’t relent, as she spoke to the bigger picture.
“My point still stands: across this entire nation’s capital, we have very few buildings that are named after women,” she said on the dais.
Eight miles across town, community members in Ward 1 participated in a process to change the name of a middle school building often referred to as the “Old Benjamin Banneker High School.” That building, located on Euclid Street NW, will be renamed in honor of Alma W. Thomas, a 20th century artist and teacher who broke racial barriers while imparting knowledge on District youth.
During its Oct. 20 legislative meeting, the council unanimously approved the Ward 1 school renaming on the first reading of the legislation actualizing this process. For Nadeau, the legislative achievement counts as part of a larger mission to, not only establish a public middle school in Ward 1, but ensure that more public spaces are named after women, people of color and local leaders.
“DCPS has encouraged the council to take the lead, even though there isn’t a strong process for meaningful community dialogue and input,” Nadau said during the council’s Committee of the Whole meeting. “So…we did what we could with a school that doesn’t have a community yet because it’s not yet open. We engaged the Wards 1 and 2 Education Council, the Euclid School Community Working Group, ANCs, and other community organizations and residents. And I also put out a survey to hear directly from the community.”
After Benjamin Banneker Academic High School established its new home near 9th Street NW and Rhode Island Avenue NW, the old building on Euclid Street NW served as a DCPS swing space. In preparation for a 2028-2029 launch, Nadeau said she wanted to christen an official name for a school that accepts students from Cleveland, Garrison, and Seaton elementary schools.
On the road to council approval, community members originally mulled naming the building on 800 block of Euclid Street NW in honor of local legend Dolores W. Tucker before opting for Thomas, whose craft closely aligns with what students in the building will pursue once it opens.
Nadeau revealed that, in lieu of a school renaming in Tucker’s honor, she would shepherd legislation to ceremoniously rename the portion of Euclid Street NW between Sherman Avenue NW and Georgia Avenue NW after the late community leader.
That process started last month with Nadeau’s introduction of the Dolores Tucker Way Designation Act of 2026.
Despite the council’s unanimous approval of what’s now known as the Alma W. Thomas Middle School Designation Act of 2026, at least one council member had concerns about procedure.
“One of the listening sessions that…was organized by Councilmember Nadeau’s office, I don’t think that Alma Thomas was considered as one of the names during that conversation,” Pinto said during the council’s Oct. 20 Committee of the Whole meeting. “A lot of parents who may have thoughts on it weren’t really able to participate in that way….This school is not gonna be open for another two years, so there’s not really a risk in my view of pausing and just making sure that the community has a full opportunity to participate and then hopefully celebrate and be really enthusiastic about something they’ve waited a very, very long time for.”
