On January 4, 2019, D.C. Policy Center Executive Director Yesim Sayin Taylor was cited in a Wall Street Journal article on the city’s spike in homicides in 2018:
The city has improved by many measures. Over the past 10 years, the number of employed residents rose 32%, the jobless rate fell by about half and the population grew more than 16%, according to the nonpartisan D.C. Policy Center.
In November, the region landed a coveted prize when Amazon.com Inc. said it would locate a new campus with up to 25,000 workers in Arlington, Va., just over the Potomac River from Washington, which stands to benefit in myriad ways.
But Washington east of the Anacostia River, a mostly African-American area home to many low-income city residents, hasn’t seen much growth in employment and job opportunities, said Yesim Sayin Taylor, the policy center’s executive director. That part of town remains the epicenter of violence: 102 of last year’s 160 homicides occurred east of the river.
Read more: Illicit Guns Fuel 38% Murder Increase in Washington, D.C. | Wall Street Journal