Read the latest Ward 5 news in the
Councilmember’s weekly newsletter:
Read the latest Ward 5 news in the Councilmember’s weekly newsletter:
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LATEST WARD 5 WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
December 13, 2024
Dear Ward 5 neighbors,
This week, the Committee on Public Works and Operations held a hearing on my bill, the Opening Worker-Ownership: A New Economic Resilience Strategy (OWNERS) Amendment Act of 2024.
In a city of skyrocketing costs, it has become all too common to see community businesses close. And for many of these businesses, they aren’t hearing from the city about alternative ways they can stay afloat.
I introduced this legislation to direct the District’s Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection (DLCP) to survey our business ecosystem and work with relevant stakeholders and agencies to co-create a city-wide strategy for incentivizing and helping District business owners sell to their employees—a process called a worker cooperative conversion. This is an opportunity for DLCP, who is the only agency that every business in this city touches, to do outreach, learn why businesses are struggling, and then work with other stakeholders and agencies to explore how the District can support them more effectively.
LATEST WARD 5 WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
Reimagining Economic Development in the District
December 13, 2024
Dear Ward 5 neighbors,
This week, the Committee on Public Works and Operations held a hearing on my bill, the Opening Worker-Ownership: A New Economic Resilience Strategy (OWNERS) Amendment Act of 2024.
In a city of skyrocketing costs, it has become all too common to see community businesses close. And for many of these businesses, they aren’t hearing from the city about alternative ways they can stay afloat.
I introduced this legislation to direct the District’s Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection (DLCP) to survey our business ecosystem and work with relevant stakeholders and agencies to co-create a city-wide strategy for incentivizing and helping District business owners sell to their employees—a process called a worker cooperative conversion. This is an opportunity for DLCP, who is the only agency that every business in this city touches, to do outreach, learn why businesses are struggling, and then work with other stakeholders and agencies to explore how the District can support them more effectively.
The District faced many challenges in 2023: rising crime, Congressional interference, and looming budget pressures just to name a few. Yet in all of this, I witnessed time and again the resilience of Ward 5 neighbors and your commitment to working with my office to build healthy communities. I invite you to explore the 2023 Year in Review report to see all that we were able to accomplish together.
COUNCILMEMBER ZACHARY PARKER
Since taking office in January of 2023, Zachary has delivered for Ward 5 residents through responsive constituent services and significant budget wins. He has introduced dozens of transformative pieces of legislation, including bills to establish the District’s State Superintendent of Education’s School Support Office to improve low-performing schools, and the District Child Tax Credit which provides low-income and middle-class families fully refundable tax credits for children 17 years of age and younger.
LEGISLATION
Since taking office, Councilmember Parker has introduced more than 30 pieces of legislation, and co-introduced more than 150 additional bills. Learn about Councilmember Parker’s legislation, co-introductions, and committee assignments on the Legislation page.
COUNCILMEMBER ZACHARY PARKER
Ward 5 Councilmember Zachary Parker is an educator and a public servant. He taught 7th-grade math in New Orleans, post-Katrina, with Teach For America, and spent nearly a decade supporting DC school administrators at Ward 5 schools like Dunbar High School and Mundo Verde PCS.
Zachary sees firsthand the human impact of a system that leaves our most vulnerable behind. He grew up watching his oldest brother struggle with a one-size-fits-all school system that did not have the resources to support him, and now sees the challenges he faces in life because of it.
And Zachary suffered alongside his middle brother through a long and exhaustive battle with a healthcare system that treated him more like a problem than a patient before he ultimately passed away at 36 from kidney failure. These shouldn’t be the experiences families have when interacting with our public institutions. Zachary has dedicated his life’s work to transforming the systems that failed his brothers and so many like them.
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Building a stronger, healthier Ward 5 every day.
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