Various people have been wanting to close 18th St. to traffic for years, either occasionally or permanently, but until June of 2020, it had only happened on Adams Morgan Day. When the Covid-19 pandemic struck in the Spring of 2020, various community organizations, individuals, ANC1C, and the Adams Morgan Partnership BID (AMPBID) proposed the street be closed as a tool to help restaurants survive. In June of 2020, Mayor Muriel Bowser implemented that proposal, closing the street to traffic from Friday evening, June 26 through Sunday evening, June 28 (the street was reopened to traffic overnight each night). The closure was hugely popular both with the businesses as well as residents and we immediately began planning to make the closure a regular occurrence. Unfortunately various Covid-related guidelines and other unforeseen obstacles prevented that from happening.
