Good news City Paper readers,

With your support we’ve smashed through our initial $1,000 in matching funds, and already surpassed 600 members. Thank you so much to the hundreds of you that have stepped up to support your community newspaper. In more good news, our campaign is inspiring more people to step up and give. Another reader from our initial supporter’s network was inspired to chip in to match the next $2,000 we raise through our membership program. Which is good, because we’ve set an even more ambitious goal—1,000 members. Help us reach that goal and make up for lost ad revenue due to the pandemic by becoming a member. And if you’re already a member, or can’t afford to become one right now, let your network know about our matching funds campaign, and encourage them to join as well.

If you’d like to make a larger gift and help us create a matching funds campaign, please contact membership@washingtoncitypaper.com.

Here are highlights from our most recent COVID-19 coverage:

• Not all small D.C. restaurants and bars will make it through the COVID-19 crisis. Read what five owners say they’d need to survive.
• A delayed makeover of D.C.’s unemployment website impacts tens of thousands of residents.
• Local arts groups rely on community funding in the absence of government support: “We simply don’t know what, if any, funds will be available for any kind of emergency relief.”
• As COVID-19 cases increase in homeless shelters, D.C. provides hotel rooms for some unsheltered residents.
• DC Jail inmates file class action lawsuit against DOC leadership over response to COVID-19.
• For the first time in its 61 years of business, Ben’s Chili Bowl is uncertain of its future. What if D.C.’s black-owned restaurants can’t recover from the effect of COVID-19?
• The nurses’ union says 37 school nurses will be temporarily laid off for not taking part in the COVID-29 response. The union is filing an unfair labor practice against management.
• A D.C. neighborhood organizes a stuffed animal scavenger hunt for cooped up families. 

Want daily COVID-19 updates? Sign up for District Line Daily, our weekday news roundup. 

We’re here to keep you entertained and moving. 

• Last night arts editor Kayla Randall and multimedia editor Will Warren watched 28 Days Later. Use #CityPaperArtsClub on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram to share your thoughts on the film and they’ll incorporate your feedback into their conversation.Listen to their chat about the first Arts Club book pick, The Plateau by Maggie Paxson. 
• Revel in the unhinged dairy/rock crossover tale of the Fort Reno ice-cream-eating-motherfucker and peruse the work of local screenwriter/director Rian Johnson here. 
• Have you taken up running yet? Many locals are hitting the trails to combat anxiety and burnout. 

Like this section? Sign up for City Lights, a weekly roundup of artsy goings-on currently dedicated to helping you enjoy staying home. 

And now for some throw-back distraction!

Here are some light-hearted pieces and interesting long reads from our archives to fill your quaran-time. 

• The Answers Issue 2020: Settle in to discover something new about the District.
• An Oral History of Gentrification in Shaw and U Street NW
• Three Generations of a Ward 7 Family Find Work and Fulfillment in Urban Farming

You can also digitally flip through our archives on Issuu.

Thanks for reading, D.C. Stay home, stay well, and, if you can, please consider becoming a member.