Get to know Janeese Lewis George, candidate for Ward 4 Council
/Petworth News interviewed the three Democratic candidates for Ward 4 Council, and is presenting their answers to a questionnaire here and a follow-up separate interview. All content below is supplied by the candidate. Each section was limited to a 200 word response. Reminder that Petworth News does not endorse in any election.
Janeese Lewis George (photo: Aimee Custis)
Candidate Name: Janeese Lewis George
Where do you live? I’m on 8th Street NW near Rittenhouse (Manor Park)
How long have you lived in Ward 4? Since I was born! I grew up at 2nd and Kennedy NW, and I currently live with my husband on 8th st near Rittenhouse.
What is your current profession? Before running for office, I was an Assistant Attorney General under Karl Racine, advancing public safety through an evidence-based programs.
Website: janeese4dc.com
Facebook Page: facebook.com/Janeese4DC
Twitter: @Janeese4DC
Provide your campaign platform: Why are you running, what do you stand for?
I was born and raised in Ward 4. I am a third-generation Washingtonian.
Several years ago my dad got sick. I took time off — unpaid — to care for him toward the end. Not long after, I noticed that Ward 4’s Councilmember voted against Paid Family Leave. That was when I first got angry.
Soon after, the landlord who owned the house I lived in told me he was selling and I would have to go. I exercised my TOPA rights and purchased the property. Then Ward 4’s Councilmember led the effort to eliminate TOPA rights for single-family renters. Families were not being represented, they were being actively pushed out of DC by their leaders.
I am Ward 4's first Fair Elections candidate. I’m not taking any donations from corporations or developers. That means I’ll be able to do what it takes to make housing more affordable, ensure every child has the right to attend outstanding neighborhood schools, prevent crime, build an inclusive economy for all of us, improve our transportation system, and demand accountability from DC’s leaders.
I will stand up to insiders and fight for families.
Provide an overview of your professional and/or personal background and experience, including volunteer work, activism, and what you have done to help residents that qualifies you as a great choice for Ward 4 Council.
As an Assistant Attorney General for the District of Columbia in the office of Attorney General Karl Racine, I worked to keep our community safe, with a focus on juvenile justice. We developed innovative, evidence-based programs to prevent violence. In addition, I also served as Assistant General Counsel at the Office of the State Superintendent of Education.
I dedicated my life to public service early on. In 2005, I was elected as Student Representative on the DC Board of Education and Ward 4 Representative on the DC. Youth Advisory Council. After graduating college, I completed a year of service with City Year, providing academic, behavioral, and attendance support to underserved seventh graders. I currently serve as an Executive Board Member for the Ward 4 Democrats, as well as a Committeewoman on the DC Democratic State Committee.
I’d be the only DC Councilmember with a professional public safety background and the only candidate running who has professional expertise in both public safety and education, two issues Petworth voters often tell me are most important to them.
George campaign team (photo: Aimee Custis)
What are your Legislative Priorities as a Councilmember? What do you want to achieve that makes you a better candidate?
I have five core areas of focus:
Housing: DC has some of the highest housing costs and most intense gentrification in America. Expanding rent control, especially in this time of economic disruption, is going to be one key to addressing that.
Education: Making sure every child in DC has the right — not just the chance — to attend an outstanding school in their neighborhood.
Community Safety: We have to start investing now in a public health approach that we know reduces violence. The old solutions haven’t worked. Had we taken an evidence-based approach a decade ago, we wouldn’t have the crime we do now.
Health: COVID has shown us that health inequality hurts black and brown residents at disproportionately high rates. The time to invest in hospitals and healthcare staff was yesterday.
Accountability: Throw big money out of and bring ethics into the Wilson Building.
You can read more about my position on the issues on my campaign website.
Share your position on Education issues in Ward 4. How can we ensure local schools, from elementary to high school, get the funding and support they need to encourage local residents to send their children to local schools?
My experience with DC’s public school system is what made me first want to fight for equity in our communities. I have been working on these issues since I was a School Board member fifteen years ago and continued this work when I served as a City Year Corps member. Currently, our classrooms don’t have enough funding, and our schools do not have the support staff, teachers, or resources they need to succeed. I’m proud to have won the endorsement of the Washington Teachers’ Union, a great honor for me as a DCPS grad.
I recently hosted a conversation with several of Ward 4’s leading education advocates which provides more detail on my views on how we can support students, teachers, and families. You can watch the video on Facebook.
Share your position on Transportation issues in Ward 4. How can we ensure non-automobile options are expanded, such as bike lanes, safer pedestrian crossings, etc?
Getting around DC is becoming costlier and more difficult. When we are not under a stay at home order, Ward 4 residents risk our lives just to travel down the street. Our transit system is especially challenging for seniors and residents with disabilities — late-shift workers often have no access to transit at all.
It’s time we made Ward 4 a transportation model for the city. Our bus system should be fast, reliable, far-reaching, and predictable, with free transfers between bus and rail. We can do a lot more to make streets safer for drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists. I have worked with the Washington Area Bicyclists Association and other advocates for complete streets. I support solutions that prioritize safety and convenience. Like on other issues, I start my process here by considering the most vulnerable.
You can read my fuller answers on this topic, Vision Zero (I'm pro!), and other questions relating to urban planning, zoning, and transportation on Greater Greater Washington.
(photo: Aimee Custis)
Share your position on Public Safety in Ward 4, focusing on what you will do to prevent gun violence, resolve nuisance properties, prevent drug dealing and ensure the civil rights of Ward residents. Additionally, do you support bringing back VICE squads to DC and Ward 4 in specific?
We lose far too many Ward 4 neighbors to violence. It is not enough to simply react after the fact — we must proactively prevent violence with a comprehensive combination of immediate and long-term approaches that treat violence as a public health crisis and use data effectively to stop crime before it happens. The top priority should be to bring the Cure the Streets Violence Interrupters program to Ward 4 immediately.
This program would ensure we have trusted people on the ground, in Ward 4 neighborhoods, who are trained in de-escalation, violence interruption, and conflict resolution to limit conflicts and break cycles of violence when they start. We must expand these programs now. As Councilmember I will introduce emergency legislation and secure funding for this program, as well as support the extraordinary work being done by our ANCs to develop specific, actionable plans to address this.
You can read more on my campaign website.
Share your position on Affordable Housing in Ward 4. What will you do to help long-time residents remain in their homes, what will you do to help new affordable construction?
If we don't take make major changes to preserve, produce, and protect, affordable housing, Petworth will lose the economic, racial, and cultural diversity that attracted most of its residents in the first place. Without housing stability, we can’t keep our sense of community.
Affordable housing means supporting renters who can’t afford the rising cost of rents in DC, reforms to rent control, and restoration of TOPA rights. It means fully funding lead pipe remediation for everyone. It means requiring that new construction and major multi-unit renovations include truly affordable units (not just units at 60% or 80% of area median income). During this crisis, it also means demanding mortgage and rent relief from banks and landlords while our neighbors struggle to make ends meet. It means fully funding permanent supportive housing and targeted supportive housing for those experiencing chronic homelessness, and major investments in programs like the Housing Production Trust Fund and the Local Rent Supplement Program. These programs are essential to the stabilization of our communities.
Share your position on Seniors Issues / Aging in Place in Ward 4.
My mom was displaced from our childhood home when she was entering the last years of her career. We know personally that it is harder and harder for seniors to afford to stay in the community where they’ve lived all their lives. I dream of a Ward 4 where grandparents and grandchildren live side-by-side, where people continue to live deeply-connected lives and have the opportunity to age in place. To make this possible we need significant improvements in access to affordable housing, quality healthcare, frequent transportation, and protection from fraud.
I will fight to increase investments in affordable housing, expand mortgage and renters’ assistance, and strengthen rent control.The cost of medication and care continue to rise and our healthcare system is less accessible. I will fight for hospitals that are safe for patients and that treat healthcare workers with dignity so Ward 4 seniors can get the care they need.
(photo: Aimee Custis)
What will you do to ensure bilingual communications in the Ward?
Including everyone in the political process and in government is a moral imperative and necessary for the true functioning of democracy. In Ward 4, dozens of languages are spoken, and our Spanish- and Amharic-speaking neighbors are an integral part of the community fabric and my campaign team. That’s why we don’t just campaign in English. Our website currently includes information in Spanish, and we share campaign materials in Spanish and Amharic as well. As Councilmember, I will continue to meet all Ward 4 residents where they’re at and in the language they speak.
The DC Language Access Act obligates the DC government to provide equal access and participation in public services, programs, and activities for residents of the District of Columbia who cannot (or have limited capacity to) speak, read, or write English. This law needs more oversight and enforcement. Recently, the DC Comprehensive Plan process didn’t follow it. As Councilmember I will make sure this important act is prioritized.
I will also work with DCPS where students speak 147 different languages/dialects.
What are the top three problems that you see with the current state of DC government?
Lack of accountability and oversight. An illegally-rented rowhome caught fire this past fall, and two people living inside were killed. DCRA had been to the property to inspect, but when no one was home, they gave up. DC does not have enough inspectors. DCRA is hardly the only agency with this kind of problem, but elected leaders need to hold themselves and more agencies accountable for these kinds of failures.
Strategies based on triangulation not evidence. We know what works to reduce crime. Other cities have shown clear, replicable results. In DC, too many policies are measured based on their political, rather than material, outcomes.
Money in politics. Jack Evans’ corruption is perhaps the most glaring example, but too often councilmembers are swayed not by what’s best for their constituents but by who is donating to their campaign. I’m extremely proud to be Ward 4’s first Fair Elections candidate.
With the COVID-19 crisis severely impacting small businesses in the Ward, what are your recommendations for support / stimulus packages, and what is your implementation plan?
DC has a $1.5 billion rainy day fund — and it’s raining hard as hell right now. We must act quickly to support our businesses so that they are still here when something resembling normal life resumes. Just like we have been displacing residents, we have been displacing businesses, too. I’d like to see provisions enacted to help stabilize commercial rents for locally-owned, community-serving businesses. I also strongly support cash assistance for our undocumented residents who are a crucial part of our economy and in particular the hospitality industry that has been hit so hard.
I am very concerned about the recent, closed-door meetings between the Council and some of the region's biggest businesses. I worry that a business support approach might be focused on the businesses with the most effective lobbyists — that's mostly very large-scale businesses not the local businesses that make Petworth and all of Ward 4 special.
Janeese Lewis George and her family (photo: Aimee Custis)
Additional Thoughts:
I have struggled through my family being displaced but a third rent hike in two years, experienced educational inequality, and lost friends to violence. Where some see “tough political issues,” I see “real life experiences.”
Take our present moment. We don’t wear masks outside simply to avoid catching COVID-19. We also wear them to avoid harming others. That’s how we should approach policymaking and constituent services when the pandemic passes, with what’s good for all of us, especially the most vulnerable, as our North Star. I will be the zealous advocate Ward 4 needs and doesn’t have in the Wilson building.
You’ll also see me in Petworth all the time: supporting our small businesses, visiting with neighbors, and being part of the community I’ve called home my whole life. I believe this is how we build the future we believe in, and invite you to join me.
Website: janeese4dc.com
Facebook Page: facebook.com/Janeese4DC
Twitter: @Janeese4DC
