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DC Continues to Focus on Economic Development after Terrorist Attacks

WASHINGTON, DC-In the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the Pentagon across the Potomac in Arlington, Mayor Anthony Williams convened business leaders to talk about how to keep the District's economic priorities on track.

By Marlon Millner | Updated on September 24, 2001

WASHINGTON, DC-It’s getting back to business as usual in the District, even in the aftermath of two horrendous terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Arlington, VA on Sept. 11. To get back to some semblance of order, yet focus on challenges that exist because of how the region was forever changed, Mayor Anthony Williams convened civic and business leaders to talk about economic issues facing the city.

The city was effectively shut down on Sept. 11 after a plane crashed into the Pentagon in nearby Arlington, VA. Ronald Reagan National Airport was also closed and has not yet reopened. Williams talked openly with 50 other business leaders at the Grand Hyatt in downtown Washington about how this has had an amazing ripple effect.

According to the District, before the attack:

  • Tourism was up-with a record 75% occupancy rate in the city’s hotels for 2000
  • Office vacancy rates were down at 3.3% as 2000 ended
  • Unemployment was down-with 3,700 more jobs than the same time last year

But since the terrorist attack:

  • Of the more than 100 hotels in the city, average occupancy is down more than 50%
  • Of 3,000 restaurants, many are cutting jobs and cutting orders for food and supplies
  • And of the 260,000 who work in the city’s tourism industry, 50,000 are at risk to lose their jobs

Williams also made special mention of the closing of National Airport. Overall, he said tourism brings the city $4 billion annually, and many of those tourists get to Washington by flying to National. Directly, 1,500 of the airport’s 10,000 employees are District residents, and $12 million of the nearly $100 million generated annually by the airport goes to the District.

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