By Deborah Bailey,
Contributing Editor
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser took the oath of office for a third term Jan. 2, unveiling a goal to add thousands of residents to the city’s population by 2028. Bowser also pledged to listen closely to residents’“big ideas” and push relentlessly to make D.C. the 51st state.
“We will explore every strategy to get control over our (D.C.) affairs,” said Bowser after being sworn in by Anna Blackburne-Rigsby, chief judge of the D.C. Court of Appeals, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
“We will not stop until we get two senators and admission as the 51st state,” Bowser continued, to hearty applause from the audience.
Bowser, 50, said her third-term victory last November marked a “mandate to be bold, to think big, to push the envelope, and above all else, to win for Washington, D.C.” .
She said she wants to reclaim D.C. ‘s downtown, pledging to add thousands of residents to the city’s center, converting unused office space to residential housing. She called on the Biden administration to either call federal workers back to the office or give up federal “property holdings for use by local government, by nonprofits, by businesses, or by any user willing to revitalize it.”
The statehood theme was echoed throughout the swearing in ceremony. Baptist Church Pastor Kendrick E. Curry’s invocation asking God’s blessing over “Douglass Commonwealth” to Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton’s urging of lawmakers to be wary of efforts by a Republican-led House of Representatives to suppress D.C. autonomy.
“We will fight to defeat every anti-home rule amendment and rider,” she said.
In addition to Bowser’s swearing in, new Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb and members of the D.C. Council were sworn in.
Schwalb, the District’s second elected attorney general, said he will follow the agenda set by his predecessor, Karl Racine, to use the office of attorney general to create equity in home ownership opportunities as well as strengthening the District’s approach to reducing violent crime.
“Everyone deserves to feel safe in their neighborhoods,” Schwalb said.
Matthew Frumin, of Ward 3, and Zachary Parker, of Ward 5, were also sworn in as new council members.
Kenyan McDuffie, former Ward 5 council member, was sworn in as one of four at-large council members serving the District.
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