Businesses that thrive on the city’s nightlife are fighting a potential move to cut back Metro’s hours, saying a midnight closing on the weekends would overburden their late-night employees and cause financial hardship and reduced hours for workers. The Restaurant Association Metropolitan Washington is leading the charge against the cutback, which was floated last week at a Metro board meeting as a means of reducing the agency’s $72.5 million budget deficit and freeing up more time for track maintenance. According to Metro, closing three hours earlier on Friday and Saturday nights would save $5 million annually and create an extra day each week for maintenance.
But the restaurant association said early closing hours “will seriously harm, if not kill, established and emerging entertainment districts” such as Penn Quarter, the U and 14th Street corridors and Arlington’s Ballston corridor.
“We are a world-class city, and we have a fabulous dining scene,” said Lynne Breaux, the restaurant association’s president. “And the irony is D.C. and the federal governments are talking more and more about … increasing train travel and transit, and to go backwards and limit the hours is nonsensical.”
David Moran, managing director of Clyde’s Restaurant Group, said a cutback in hours would severely hamper employees’ ability to work late nights at downtown restaurants Old Ebbitt Grill and Clyde’s of Gallery Place.
“We have a lot of employees who live in Prince George’s or Montgomery County,” Moran said. “And it’s not uncommon for Old Ebbitt or Clyde’s, from midnight to 2 o’clock in the morning, to still have 40 to 50 people working.”
Many of them take Metro, and it wouldn’t be economically feasible for them to take a $40 cab ride home, he said.
“This [proposal] by Metro affects whether or not we can hire people and limits their availability,” Moran said.
The Downtown D.C. Business Improvement District also is preparing to fight the cut if the board includes it in the budget proposal, spokeswoman Karyn Le Blanc said. Metro also is considering additional taxpayer subsidies, widening the wait times between trains or even selling naming rights to stations.
The District’s nightlife businesses have fought this fight before — the proposal came up during Metro’s previous two budget cycles.
The biggest critic of
those proposals, D.C. Councilman Jim Graham, is no longer on the Metro board. However, Breaux said opponents are looking for support from Graham’s replacement, Councilman Tommy Wells, who spoke against the idea following last week’s board meeting.
