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And on a weekly call between the D.C. Council and the mayor’s office Friday, the mayor’s office told At-Large Councilmember Christina Henderson that DC Health is not granting waivers at the moment. “I asked what metrics we need to meet to rescind the mask mandate,” Henderson wrote on Twitter. “They are hesitant to tie to any particular metric.”

At-Large Council member Christina Henderson asked for an update from the city regarding contacting unemployed residents to ensure they know about the federal resource.

If The Voter Ownership, Integrity, Choice and Equity (VOICE) Amendment Act passes, voters, starting in 2024, could choose up to five candidates for each office on the ballot and rank them based on their preference. If no candidate captures more than 50 percent of the first-choice votes, then the election automatically goes into a runoff. Henderson described ranked-choice voting as the ideal means of leveling the playing field for women candidates and those representing historically oppressed constituencies and marginalized political interests. Proponents have also argued that ranked-choice voting reduces negative campaigning and the influence of campaign funding while increasing voter turnout.

Henderson joined WAMU to discuss the fiscal year 2022 budget, including Tuesday’s first vote to raise the marginal tax rate on residents earning $250,000 or more to fund social services like housing vouchers for residences experiencing homelessness and higher wages for childcare workers.

“Races are more dynamic and collegial with genuine policy debates supplanting negative campaign tactics,” Ms. Henderson said. ● Many voters liked ranked-choice voting. In Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, Andrew Wilkes, 35, a pastor and policy director for Generation Citizen, a nonprofit civic-education group, said he felt the system gave voters more choices and made it easier for candidates of color to enter the race. He ranked Ms. Wiley first among the five candidates he listed for mayor.

“Is it possible for you all to update your website that either DCPS reopened strong, regular DCPS site to provide information about the pediatric immunizations? Because (you) have, like, eight school-based health centers that can do childhood immunizations, and it was nowhere on your site. But it was on (the) DC Health site. I feel like that’s a small thing that you can give families information about,” Council member Christina Henderson said during the Committee of the Whole meeting.

Christina Henderson asked whether any consideration had gone into instituting a scholarship incentive — a program Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan unveiled for the state earlier this week — that could bring in more kids ages 12 to 17 to get vaccinated.

Cheh and Councilmember Christina Henderson (I-At Large) both advocated for a broader look at the 295 stretch, suggesting a study to turn it into a boulevard instead of a freeway or turn it into a tunnel with a park over it. “Let’s use this opportunity to think a bit more creatively and innovatively about how we connect, reconnect neighborhoods, and redo or rather correct the injustice that was done before,” Henderson said, pointing to a document about how 295 took out more than 35 homes, several stores, a popular nightclub, and a church when it was built in the 1950s.

The collapse left the majority-Black community increasingly isolated from the other side of the highway, shining a light on equity concerns. D.C. Council members Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3) and Christina Henderson (I-At Large) called on the city to conduct a broader study about how to better connect the two sides. Among the possibilities, they said, is slowing traffic through the corridor.

Councilmembers like Mary Cheh, who is head of the Transportation Committee, and Christina Henderson have also written to DDOT, pushing for an investigation and solutions.

The 8-to-5 vote came after a lengthy debate in which legislators who opposed the ban — and even some who favored it — raised concerns that the law could create opportunities for Black smokers to be harassed by police, and that the city would be unfairly targeting a smoking choice preferred by Black residents.

D.C. Councilmember Christina Henderson said it's important to rebuild the bridge because many residents used it to access the Deanwood Metro station. Henderson said that more than $3 million already marked for bridge maintenance in next year's budget "definitely" wouldn't be enough to replace the bridge.