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Staff Writer

Ambar’s latest stories

Voices of Zion
Arts

Voices of Zion Bring Back Black Georgetown

Alliance for New Music-Theatre’s production combining opera, musical, and church gospel exposes—and celebrates—Georgetown’s Black roots.

Before gentrification and discriminatory public housing policies plagued Georgetown, before the neighborhood became synonymous with White wealth […]

by Ambar Castillo
Excluded workers pose for a photo on the steps of the Wilson Building ahead of the first vote on the 2023 budget
News

Excluded Workers’ Budget Demands Go Unanswered With First Vote

Allen keeps cops out of schools over Mendelson’s wishes, and McDuffie defeats Cheh’s effort to defund the Woodley Park Main Street

In the first of two votes yesterday, the D.C. Council unanimously approved the District’s $19.5 billion 2023 budget. Big-ticket items on Mayor Muriel Bowser’s wish list—like more police officers and greater investments in affordable housing—made it in. So did tens of millions of dollars dedicated to programs ranging from additional school and family support services…

by Ambar Castillo and Alex Koma
A bed at G Street Apartments, a Sanford Capital property.
City Desk

How City Desk Reporters Found Their Niche

The beat took reporters to wild and warry places.

City Desk is not a desk job. Never mind that I never actually had a desk in City Paper offices (they’d moved out of the space on 15th Street NW at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic before I came on board in 2021). The beat takes you from migrant safe houses and street demonstrations…

by Ambar Castillo