Photo by Benjamin R. Freed

To anyone who pays attention to D.C. politics, the idea of “getting to know” mayoral candidate Jack Evans may seem silly.

The Ward 2 politician has served on the Council since being elected in 1991, making him the longest serving member with a well-established record. This also isn’t the first time Evans has run for mayor, having unsuccessfully done so in 1998.

But here we are again, with a different set of challenges facing a Washington that is at once booming in some areas and languishing in others. With that in mind, DCist sat down with Evans in early December to discuss as many issues as we could within a 30-minute time period.

The interview has been condensed and edited for clarity and length.

DCist: For the Washington football team to come back to D.C., should they have to change their name first?

Evans: I believe they should change their name. Whether or not they can’t come back unless they change their name, I’d have to give that some thought. Because the name change is certainly the responsibility of [owner] Dan Snyder and the National Football League.

DCist: At the Ward 5 mayoral debate, Busboys and Poets owner and candidate Andy Shallal said he thinks “seniors get really incensed when we start talking about bike lanes all the time, when we start talking about things that have nothing to do with them. We feel that’s the most important thing we have to address.” Do you think the city focuses too much on bike lanes?

Evans: Just right. … Bike lanes are important in our city. Ward 2, the ward I represent, has half of all the bike lanes in the entire city. We’re working to make sure that we have the bike lanes and improve them, and actually study the ones we have to make sure that they’re working the way we wanted them to work. It’s a very delicate process, because you have bikes lanes, you have cars, you have joggers. You have a lot of different interests — you have streetcars now — competing for the rights of way. As we go forward, we’re going to have to manage this very carefully.

DCist: How do you feel that the D.C. Department of Transportation has performed under current director Terry Bellamy?

Evans: Good. I like Terry and I think they’ve done a good job.

DCist: Big topic of debate, as it should be: Affordable housing. How do we create it, how do we maintain it? What are some actual proposals that you would put into place?

Evans: Politicians take lots of credit for things that they do, but I will just say this: There’s no one in the government today — the mayor, the Council — who’s done more for affordable housing than I. Long ago, during the [Tony] Williams administration, we started something called the Housing Production Trust Fund, which I then led the way in getting it implemented and, more importantly, funded.

We started out with the proposition that it be funded with a percentage of the Deed Recordation Tax, a when the Deed Recordation Tax, during the decline of the 2006-7 time period, there was less money then we had been getting, I ensured that we set a floor on the amount of money going into the Housing Production Trust Fund so we could keep a substantial amount there. [I] have led the efforts this year alone to fund the Housing Production Trust Fund with over $100 million.

The Housing Production Trust Fund is the best method to create affordable housing because it’s a partnership between the D.C. government and the non-profit sector, which are very good at producing affordable housing.

Most of the projects done in the city have been things that have come through my committee. And we have ensured that affordable housing gets produced.

Now having said that, in Ward 7 and parts of Ward 8 in a lot of meetings I’ve had, some people are concerned that there’s too much affordable housing. And so there has to be a balance between affordable housing and market-rate housing, so you don’t put all your affordable housing in one area and keep it from developing in a way that you can afford many of the other things that come along with a neighborhood. So that’s a delicate balance that we have to continue to observe. And many people are unaware of that.

DCist: What would you say to people who find past administration’s promises to better serve people east of the river lacking? Take for example, that there’s just three grocery stores in Wards 7 and 8 to serve east of the river residents.

Evans: I don’t want to comment on promises made by other politicians, I’ll just tell you what I intend to do. I’m already, as the Ward 2 Councilmember, working with business groups in both Ward 7 and Ward 8 to build the foundations to create economic development. There’s several ways we’re doing it. Number one is through the BID concept. BIDs are business improvement districts that we have successfully used in Ward 2, everywhere. And east of the river, a lot of times businesses don’t have the money to support a BID. So I will be doing legislation in January to create BIDs that are government-sponsored for a three- to five-year period, with all the other attributes of BIDs. And BIDs are fundamentally two things: Clean and safe.

[Referring to the Georgetown BID:] Every hour on the hour, they come up and down the streets and clean up, put the trash in the receptacles. There was a time in Georgetown after the weekend, [there’d be] trash everywhere. You don’t have that anymore because the BID keeps it clean all the time. And safe: You see the people walking around with walkie-talkies and uniforms. It gives you a feeling that the place is safer, and it is because they’re in touch with the Metropolitan Police Department. So in many of the corridors in Wards 7 and 8 — Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, whatever you want to look at — we’re going to establish BIDs to start that process. BIDs also employ many neighborhood people, at all levels.

Number two: One of the things we’ve been very successful at in Ward 2 again is grocery stores. Now, grocery stores are not like, you and I just walk into a grocery store. If you go to 7th and O streets you’ll see what I’m taking about, the new Giant. It sells food, but it’s also a book store, it’s also a coffee shop. It’s a town center. The Whole Foods at 14th and P; the Whole Foods in Foggy Bottom. These are the kind of catalyst for development that just don’t exist in Ward 7 or Ward 8.

I have Whole Foods sitting in my office last week … talking to them. I’ve been involved in getting three of the four Whole Foods in the city. … They’re opening two more, and they want to open stores east of the river. So I’m going to work with them to identify areas where these stores can open and then create the catalyst that other development will follow.

On 14th and P, once that Whole Foods opened … the CVS opened. Then the Caribou Coffee. Then we partnered with Studio Theatre and a number of other businesses to create an environment in a street that was traditionally known for drugs and prostitutes. It’s now one of the most vibrant streets in the metropolitan region. So that’s the kind of economic development I’m looking at to create in other parts of the city. And I have done it. I want to stress that: There’s no one running today that has done it. They may want to it or promised to do it, as your opening question started out with. But I’m the only who’s actually done it. And done it again and done it again after that. So I can do it again in these areas, and I’m working with the neighbors right now, with the businesses to do it whether I’m the mayor or the Ward 2 Councilmember.

DCist: On to Metro. People may assume that the city has the ability to make Metro do what it wants, but that’s not the case. What would you say to D.C. residents who want an improved system?

Evans: The problem with Metro is that we do not have a dedicated funding source. It relies on three jurisdictions — D.C., Maryland and Virginia — to pay, and every jurisdiction is always coming up with a reason why they don’t want to pay more. And it’s a formula, so everyone’s got to do it together or it doesn’t happen. So that’s why we’re stuck where we are. The federal government was a huge player in building Metro — they paid for one-half of the cost of the entire system, which was a great barter for the District of Columbia. … It was such a mistake by the region not to keep the federal government involved in the construction of Metro.

When I was chairman of the [WMATA] board in 1994 with General Manager David Gunn, he and I devised the fast track system which got the 101-mile system built in the first place. If they were building it one line at a time, we’d never get it done. We’d still be building it. So we just built everything all at once and got it done. What we need to do though is to expand Metro with another 100 miles. And we have plans to build all other lines, the ones out of Dulles which they’re doing now. More intercity lines is what I’d like to see built. There’s no Metro stop in Georgetown, there’s no Metro stop in Adams Morgan. There’s no Metro stop in many of the places in the city that would be well-served by them.

The best example I can use is Paris. There’s no place in Paris that is further from a Metro stop than 100 yards. … What makes a heavy rail work is convenience and price. So if it’s cheap and I can get to it, I’ll use it. Otherwise, I don’t want to be bothered. … So that’s what we have to strive for in this region — a system that is affordable and is everywhere. And you need dedicated funding source to do that.

As mayor, I would get the governor of Virginia and governor of Maryland, the county executives from the counties involved here and figure out what that dedicated source is. Is it a gas tax? A gas tax doesn’t really work that well, particularly here in the District we don’t have that many gas stations anymore. So it’s not a great idea. How about a regional sales tax? Well people really rebel at sales taxes. Could that be something that we could get past across the region? That’s one of the fundamental issues with Metro is you need the dedicated funding source.

We have a system that, when it was built in the ’60s and ’70s it was shiny and brand new, but now it’s wearing out. Richard Sarles, who I think is an excellent general manager, has this $10 billion Metro 2020 [plan]. And I’ve met and discussed it with him, and it really is the fundamental building blocks to create a system that is going to work for all of us. This region will suffocate if we don’t expand Metro.

You have to be a visionary at the time you’re doing it. You don’t get a second chance sometimes. So when Metro was built — not having a third rail, not having a car tunnel under the Potomac River, where they built the tunnels. You have a tunnel coming over from Rosslyn to Foggy Bottom. God, just imagine if you put a [Metro] car tunnel there. Then you would alleviate a lot of the congestive traffic that comes into Georgetown across the Key Bridge. So those are all the ideas that were missed. So going forward I want to make sure that we don’t miss those opportunities. Those are grand things I’m talking about.

On a smaller scale, getting the elevators and escalators working. We’re still struggling with that problem. When I was there, we privatized it. That didn’t work. We built the canopies over the escalators so the rain wouldn’t get it. There are so many fundamental problems there that need to be solved. And then safety was a big issue, but again I think Sarles has done a pretty good job of addressing safety. Then reliability. It all keeps going back to money. To make it more reliable, you need more money to upgrade the service and everything. It’s not a sexy issue, and it’s not going to get focused on a lot. But what we do today is going to be so critical for the future. You’re going to have people 20 years from now looking back, as I’m doing now, and saying, ‘What were they thinking? They had one of the finest subway systems in the world, and they just didn’t take care of it.’ We gotta get on that.

DCist: I’m going to combine two questions together: statehood and the Height Act.

Evans: Height Act is easy. I’m opposed to any changes to that.

DCist: Yes, that’s very clear. But in Council Chair Phil Mendelson’s letter opposing changes to the Height Act, he wrote “Other Home Rule issues … are exponentially more important than a right to change heights — a right that citizens don’t want and that the Office of Planning now claims it may not want to exercise.” So now it’s become sort of a home rule debate, with some statehood activists questioning why D.C. wouldn’t want more control over the decision-making process.

Evans: The bottom line: My constituents and I do not want a change in the Height Act. I think it becomes risky if we do anything beyond what we’ve already done. I’m a firm supporter of the District having control over its own affairs. But with the Height Act, right now in this environment because of the proposals being put forth by [Office of Planning director] Harriet Tregoning and the administration, people are very concerned that … if we were to change anything right now we’d lose control over the Height Act. It is a question, and I’m aware of that. It’s a dicey question.

DCist: Would you keep Harriet Tregoning on as director of the Office of Planning?

Evans: I’d have to evaluate everybody when I became mayor.

DCist: Patrick Madden of WAMU reported on how you and Councilmembers Vincent Orange and Muriel Bowser, as mayoral candidates, are “exploiting a loophole they voted to close.” That loophole was closed through Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie’s campaign finance bill, which passed unanimously. Do you have a response to that?

Evans: Absolutely. I don’t agree with that part of the bill, and everybody knows my position on that. I think that we should not, in any way shape or form, limit LLCs from contributing. I didn’t have the votes to take that part out, but I agreed with many provisions. Sometimes in politics you vote for a bill, even though there are some provisions you don’t agree with. If I had seven votes I would’ve moved to eliminate that part from the bill, but I didn’t have seven votes. I did go around, and I think nine people agreed with me. They just didn’t want to vote with me because of the public ramification.

The District has some of the strongest campaign finance laws in the country. Contrast us with our neighbor to the south [Virginia]. They have no limits. [Governor-elect] Terry McAuliffe got three checks in one day and raised $750,000. He got a $250,000 check from [former President] Bill Clinton, he got a $250,000 check from [attorney] Peter Angelos and a $250,000 check from [media mogul] Haim Saban. Three checks. Now for Jack Evans, that’s $6,000. Not $250,000. I never see anybody writing about Virginia. Why is that? Our laws are the strongest in the country. The limits are really low. We can barely take from anybody. Yet in Virginia there are no limits. … We have some of the strongest laws in the country here, and people are still critical of them. It boggles my mind sometimes.

Disclosure is the key. As long as I disclose where I’m getting my money from, it gives people the opportunity. If you don’t like that a candidate takes LLC money, you know what you can do? Vote for the other guy. But why would you constrict someone from trying to raise money?

DCist: Moving on to a Loose Lips column on Mayor Vince Gray’s re-election announcement that mentioned your shared accomplishments. You have a positive relationship with the mayor.

Evans: I do.

DCist: The question is, why should people in D.C. vote for you as opposed to the mayor?

Evans: I’m not running against the mayor, I’m running for mayor. I will present my platform, my views, what I’ve done, my experience, and what my vision for city is, and then people can chose based on what they hear from me and what they hear from others. But I’m not here to contrast myself with anyone else. I’ve been here 22 years on the Council and have an enormous record of achievement in the city. And it stands on its own as far as being, in my view, the best candidate to lead this city going forward. I think there’s really a tremendous record there and hopefully people will look at that record and vote for me based on that.

DCist: That brings me to my final question, the big picture. First 100 days, what do you do? What are your top priorities?

Evans: Education and economic development.

On the education front, sit down with our chancellor Kaya Henderson, and present my vision of the city and begin implementing that vision. And on the economic development front, continuing the discussion we had a bit earlier, bringing economic development to the neighborhoods that need it. Which leads more importantly to job creation, an issue that many, many people in our city are concerned about.

The most recent example, the convention center hotel, where I’ve created 600 jobs for D.C. residents that we are interviewing for right now. Using both models to begin progress in those areas.

A third thing would be just to make sure that the city — this kind of gets lost in the whole discussion — is continuing to deliver on the basic services that people want. I think that that’s critical. The most important street to everyone is the street in front of your house. So you want to make sure the trash is picked up and the streets are clean. Then there’s public safety, there’s police there, neighborhoods are safe. All that. That would be part of the first 100 days as well.

DCist: What do you think is the biggest problem facing the public school system?

Evans: There’s no biggest problem, there’s issues facing the system. I break it down into really almost like a day. We need to get our children into school earlier. We’ve made progress. We now have them in pre-K. … One of the things that I’m going to try to get done is to get all of our children into school at an earlier age. I’m the father of three children, triplets, and I saw that with them.

What makes a great school? Principal, teacher, curriculum, safety, parental involvement. Those of the five things that make a great school. If any one of those is missing, chances of that school succeeding drops by 40 percent. … To make sure that every one of our schools focuses on those five things, particularly parental involvement. That’s a big deal. Parents want to be involved, they just don’t know how to do it. And so we have to reach out. And on the backside is the wrap-around services for when children get out of school at 3 o’clock or 3:30 until about 7 o’clock at night. I saw my children needed help in those times periods to get their homework done, to get something to eat, to be ready. We have the ability in the city to provide that. We’re just not doing it right now.

Many parents are concerned — and this in an issue we’re grappling with now — with the feeder system. If I start my child at Garrison Elementary School, where’s my child going to middle school? Where’s my child going to high school? I want that certainty. I want to know what I’m getting into here, if you want me to stay here. So how are we going to make this whole feeder system work for us. And there’s the charter school program, which is a whole ‘nother kettle of fish over here. How is that going to interact with our traditional DCPS system in order to provide a quality education for every one of our children?

It was interesting at that teacher’s union debate, the one thing that kept getting left out no matter how many times I raised it: This is all about educating our children. People want to talk about something else. I can’t tell you the number of meetings I sit in where the education of our children is never brought up. It’s always about something else. And my fundamental approach is educating our children. How can I get a system in place that’s going to work? That’s what we need to do. It’s a lot of challenges that I’ve given you. I could give you more. I could go on and on about the challenges that we face in this environment. But that’s the key to the future of our city: education and jobs. They’re interlinked. God, if I could fix the public school system I’d have a much easier time on the job’s front. But with the system failing that’s where you have so many children graduating who don’t have any skill set, who can’t get the jobs because we don’t have jobs for people who don’t have skills.

The community college and the University of the District of Columbia, the two are very important. Beefing up the community college, at least in the interim period, for children coming out of our high schools who are not ready for college. And UDC has to find a niche for itself, and that would be for children who graduate from our high schools, who want a four-year education and don’t want to go away somewhere. So we really need to have that college to be there to provide a great college education. And I think we can make that happen.