Anti-Street Harassment and the DC Community Safety Audit

This post is by Katherine Broendel.

As a way of marking the first International Anti-Street Harassment Day, devised in part by my friend and colleague Holly Kearl, my partner and I took part in the Washington, DC Community Safety Audit. The Community Safety Audit was one of the first to be conducted in Washington, DC, the city in which I live and work. The audit was planned and organized by Holly and her fab Stop Street Harassment site/blog/book, as well as Shannon and Chai from Holla Back DC! (Holla Back DC! is a community action grantee of the American Association of University Women).

It was designed to assess the safety of our city and the accessibility of its public spaces for everyone, because street harassment limits women’s and LGBTQ people’s access to public spaces. Volunteers for the day consisted of teams of DC residents or those who work in DC. Teams spread out in each of the city’s eight wards, paying attention to the groups and individuals hanging out in public spaces. Were they mostly men? Mostly women? A mix? Families? Younger people? Older people?

We also noted any unsafe or inaccessible spaces, as well as our general feelings about the safety of our surroundings. We looked for anything from harassing behavior toward women and the LGBTQ community to the accessibility of public spaces and transit for people with disabilities.

My team swept parts of Ward 3 — specifically, the area from Cleveland Park, down Connecticut Avenue through Woodley Park, and then across the Duke Ellington Bridge to Adams Morgan(if you’re unfamiliar with DC geography, you can check out a map here). We even swept through a Metro (the subway in DC) station at Woodley Park/Adams Morgan. While we did not see any harassing behavior, we did note that the station was not accessible to everyone. Not very surprising for DC, though: three of the station’s escalators were out. However, on a good note, the station had four station managers, so it would be possible to find someone if you needed help.

Overall, the general group consensus was that it was a pretty safe environment — we didn’t witness any harassing behavior, and due to the proximity of the National Zoo, there were lots of families around. We did note a couple places along the route that would have felt a bit unsafe at night and/or alone, but we thought that on a Sunday afternoon, the area is amenable to most people to be out and about. That being said, I recognize that may not have been the experience of all the teams. I’m pretty sure there will be different feedback across the wards when this audit is conducted at night (which it is currently scheduled for the first week of May).

It was a really cool experience to be part of something historic — the first community safety audit in Washington, DC. I look forward to hearing about the experiences of the other teams, seeing what comes from the night-time safety audit scheduled for the first week of May, and what recommendations all the teams will be making to improve the safety, accessibility, and welcoming of all individuals to DC’s public spaces.

Katherine (Katie) Broendel, AAUW’s Acting Senior Media Relations & Marketing Associate, earned her Master’s degree in Public Communication at American University in Washington, DC. Her thesis focused on the framing of sexual violence in the media. She earned her BA in Geography at the University of Mary Washington, and has worked for several non-profit organizations in Washington, DC, including the National Geographic Society. Twitter: @kbster

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