FOSTERING CONNECTIONS FUELING GROWTHMOUNT VERNON TRIANGLE COMMUNITY IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT FISCAL YEAR 2018 ANNUAL REPORT OCTOBER 1, 2017 TO SEPTEMBER 30, 2018 ABOUT THE NEIGHBORHOOD & MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATION About Mount Vernon Triangle Mount Vernon Triangle is at the heart of the city—both geographically and culturally. Its boundaries include 17 blocks within the East End of downtown, bordered by 7th Street NW to the west, Massachusetts Avenue NW to the south, New York Avenue NW to the north and New Jersey Avenue NW to the east. Mount Vernon Triangle is a welcoming, authentic, and centered neighborhood that mirrors the city’s unique mix of historic and modern buildings, longtime and new residents, and diverse cultures, restaurants, and experiences. About the Mount Vernon Triangle Community Improvement District (MVT CID) The mission and vision for the MVT CID is to develop Mount Vernon Triangle as a unique neighborhood within the East End of downtown Washington, DC, with a strong residential community, Class A office space, diverse places to shop and dine, and attractive, safe and active parks and public spaces. Berk Shervin (right) & Kenyattah Robinson (left) JOINT LETTER FROM THE CHAIRMAN AND PRESIDENT & CEO Dear Friend of Mount Vernon Triangle: It has been another strong year of growth for the Mount matter your income, place of Vernon Triangle Community Improvement District (MVT origin or longevity in the District, CID). Your support of our organization has enabled Mount Mount Vernon Triangle is an Vernon Triangle to continue to blossom into the vibrant inclusive community where all mixed-use destination envisioned since its birth out of the are welcome. Mount Vernon Triangle Action Agenda published 15 years ago. Thanks largely to the intentional planning and skillful In addition to our fundamental mission to execution of many partners in both the public and private maintain a clean and safe neighborhood, sectors, Mount Vernon Triangle has grown into a defined the MVT CID also continues to advance place that is both an integral part of downtown as well as a efforts in support of commercial and retail neighborhood with its own distinct and emerging identity. attraction and retention; activation of our limited yet highly desired parks and open space It’s clear that Mount Vernon Triangle’s recent growth has resources; enhanced marketing and community been both necessary and essential to our city’s growth. events; artistic and cultural activities; transportation Despite comprising just 0.50% of all taxable DC land area, planning initiatives; and assistance for our neighbors properties in Mount Vernon Triangle in FY 2018 were who are homeless or otherwise unstably housed. responsible for 1.0% – or $3.4 billion – of the city’s total appraised property value, and 1.4% of city real property Contained within this annual report is a summary of tax collected–rising from 0.97% in FY 2009. Real property some of our major activities since our last annual report. taxes generated in the MVT CID rose at a compound Fostering connections among neighbors and beyond our annual growth rate of 8.3% between FY 2009 and FY 2018. borders is how the MVT CID is helping to fuel the growth That is more than twice as fast as the D.C.-wide average of both Mount Vernon Triangle and the entire District. of 3.9% over the same period. The returns accrue to us all when Mount Vernon Triangle grows, because so does the Thank you for your continuing support of the MVT CID. District’s ability to serve all who depend upon its services. We look forward with great enthusiasm to continuing our And, that’s something we can all be proud of. work on your behalf in the years ahead. We’re equally proud of Mount Vernon Triangle’s With very best regards, contributions toward some of our city’s most important priorities. Of the 181 housing units currently under development in Mount Vernon Triangle, 175 – or 97% – will be affordable to residents earning between 30-80% of the area median income. And, one out of every five units in the neighborhood will be affordable once Mount Vernon Berkeley M. Shervin Kenyattah Robinson Triangle’s build-out is complete–ultimately proving that no Chairman of the Board President & CEO 1 BUILDING A CLEAN, SAFE & WELCOMING COMMUNITYCLEAN STREETS ARE ABOUT MORE THAN NEIGHBORHOOD BEAUTIFICATION: THEY ARE ALSO ONE OF THE STRONGEST INVESTMENTS WE CAN MAKE TOWARD COMMUNITY SAFETY. OUR STAKEHOLDERS ALREADY RECOGNIZE THIS INSEPARABLE RELATIONSHIP AND CONSISTENTLY REINFORCE THAT PRIORITY IN THE ANNUAL NEIGHBORHOOD PERCEPTION SURVEY. Cleanliness & Landscaping concerns and even giving directions in our neighborhood has drastically While our residential and office to visitors. improved in recent years. What’s worker populations continue to more, our annual Neighborhood grow, the MVT CID has consistently Grant funding received from the Perception Survey – along with earned high marks for keeping the Department of Small and Local other efforts to regularly engage our neighborhood clean. In 2018, 90% Business Development (DSLBD) community members, meet their of respondents to our Neighborhood helps to enhance and extend the needs, and address their concerns – Perception Survey described the MVT services that we provide. MVT CID consistently shows that respondents as “clean or very clean,” a record has partnered with Central Union rank safety as the top strategic high and marked year-over-year Mission’s “Ready to Work” job priority for the MVT CID. improvement from 80% in 2017. training program for our Clean Team services, which enables us to fulfill IN 2018, 74% OF Our Clean Team Ambassadors, our function of cleaning the streets, affectionately known as “the guys provides work force development RESPONDENTS in green,” are the foundation of support and gives a second chance TO OUR our work to improve quality of life to our formerly homeless and/or NEIGHBORHOOD through activities that promote clean incarcerated District neighbors. and safe streets. This dedicated PERCEPTION seven-member team is out on SURVEY DESCRIBED the neighborhood’s streets every IN 2018, 90% OF MVT AS “SAFE” OR day, between 7 am and 7 pm on RESPONDENTS “VERY SAFE.” weekdays and 7:30 am and 3:30 pm TO OUR on weekends, serving as ambassadors Building a vibrant urban to the community and ensuring a NEIGHBORHOOD neighborhood that attracts more welcoming, enjoyable and attractive PERCEPTION residents and businesses creates experience for our many residents, SURVEY DESCRIBED more opportunity for crime. Despite office workers and visitors. that challenge, total crime in the MVT AS “CLEAN” MVT CID has decreased by 35% You can find our team members OR “VERY CLEAN.” from 2016 to 2018, more than triple working hard throughout the the rate of decline for the District neighborhood, tending to public Public Safety as a whole during the same time spaces and helping out with private Creating a safe environment in the period. Furthermore, across the most sidewalks during snowstorms and MVT CID is the vital first step to common categories of reported other weather emergencies. Our making all other developments and criminal activity, the MVT CID has ambassadors embody the authentic improvements in our neighborhood the distinction of expanding its and welcoming nature of our special possible. A safe neighborhood residential and commercial footprint community by caring for plantings provides a solid base to promote while reducing crime at rates that and medians, maintaining trash economic activity across all realms, significantly exceed those for the receptacles, reporting public safety and we are proud to say that safety District and Ward 6. 2 TRASH REMOVAL 360,000 MVT CID CRIME TRENDS VS. WARD 6 POUNDS & DC (2016-2018) GRAFFITI INSTANCES CRIME TYPE MVT CID WARD 6 DISTRICT-WIDE 320 ELIMINATED 315 POSTERS & STICKERS REMOVED Total Crime -35% -13% -9.5% PUBLIC SPACE PROBLEMS & DEFECTS IDENTIFIED & REPORTED TO 311 164 Theft -31% -0.8% -3.0% MULCH DISTRIBUTED IN Theft lbs SUPPORT from Auto -36% -12% -5.0% 2,500 OF BEAUTIFICATION ECO-FRIENDLY ICE MELT Robberies -39% -37% -32% 1,500lbs DISTRIBUTED FOR WEATHER EMERGENCIES Neighborhood safety has notably improved since transforming our Property Managers Committee into the MVT Safety Council in January 2017, with nearly three out of four survey respondents to our 2018 survey regarding our neighborhood as “safe” or “very safe.” This represented a notable uptick from the previous year’s results, which showed that only two out of three respondents regarded the MVT CID as “safe” or “very safe.” The MVT CID extends a special note of thanks to our partners within the Metropolitan Police Department’s First District, the United States Park Police and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for helping us achieve these results in support of our efforts to instill a “culture of safety” in all areas of our Mount Vernon Triangle community. Serving Our Most Vulnerable Neighbors through Homeless Outreach To care for our neighbors who are homeless or otherwise unstably housed, these are some of the ways MVT CID has worked to ensure that our most vulnerable community members remain safe and supported: Homelessness Partnerships. The MVT CID continues to work in partnership with BID colleagues, District agencies, leading non-profit providers of housing for the chronically homeless, the National Park Service, and United States Park Police to responsibly address homeless individuals within the community and seek solutions to improve their health and living conditions. Homelessness Roundtable. In January 2018, MVT CID and the American Association of Medical Colleges convened a homelessness roundtable to provide a platform to discuss the MVT CID’s procedures for addressing homelessness, and how residents, retailers, the faith-based community, business leaders and other key community influencers can best engage on this very important issue. The forum was instrumental in helping us and our participants identify additional measures that could be implemented, the partnerships that could be forged, and the human and financial resources that could be leveraged to make episodes of homelessness within our community rare, brief and non-recurring.