Nanny-Statehood Now! Nearly every candidate running for office in D.C. favors doing more to lower childcare costs even as Mayor Muriel Bowser proposes to cut childcare programs, WAMU’s Alex Koma reports. Koma quotes the head of a District daycare network predicting that “the next mayor is going to inherit a childcare crisis.” What voters should notice: There’s a lot less agreement on what would fix this. Notably, one endangered program — the “pay equity fund” — funds daycare owners to pay workers more, not necessarily slash costs. Mayoral candidate Janeese Lewis George has proposed expanding subsidies to all families so that no one pays more than 7 percent of their income.

Fountain Heads. Flowing water has been spotted in the long-dormant fountains at Meridian Hill/Malcolm X Park and the new ones in Lafayette Square. Both parks have been under repair as part of Trump’s push to spruce up the city ahead of the semiquincentennial. And Interior Secretary Doug Burgum re-opened the newly fixed Tidal Basin. Trollish take you’ll hear a lot this summer: One conservative, apparently forgetting about that whole laying-off-thousands-of-us thing, cites all this as proof that Trump “has been D.C.’s best president in a generation.” Still, whatever the rest of the record, functional fountains are really nice!

The Developers, They Write Checks. Commercial real estate money in the mayoral race has overwhelmingly gone to Kenyan McDuffie, report Bisnow’s Emily Wishingrad and Jon Banister. That’s not so surprising, given the socialist politics of his top rival. But it’s notable because a lot of YIMBY advocates have gravitated towards Lewis George, who has set a much higher goal of new housing units. Interestingly, Lewis George’s real estate contributions tend to come from architects and nonprofit employees, while McDuffie gets money from people at deep-pocketed national firms. Business-guy quote: Lewis George’s “unrealistic ideas” could put D.C.’s “financial stability at risk.”

Merch Madness. Anyone in the mood for DCA- and Dulles-branded shirts, hats, and coffee cups? Like one of the mobile lounges at IAD, they’re coming soon, according to the Washington Business Journal. The airport merch merchants hope to capitalize on a trend of people buying up transportation-themed gear as a sign of belonging, the way locals embrace Metro branding. Safe to say, alas, that neither airport has quite the dedicated fan base of Washington’s subway system. The online store goes live soon.

Finally: Did you know the DC Public Library has a Friendship Bench program, which connects grandmothers with people who just need to be listened to? It’s up and running at the central MLK Library and at the Mount Pleasant, Anacostia, and Woodridge branches. To schedule your sessions, visit dclibrary.org or call 202-679-2939.

Today, Emma Uber reports on one constituency whose opinion of youth curfews hasn’t been part of the roiling city debate: The kids themselves. Read the top of her story below.

Marquis Clyburn Jr., a 14-year-old from Southeast D.C., summed up his thoughts on the youth curfew in two words: “It’s trash.”

He delivered his scathing opinion from the Kennedy Recreation Center in Shaw as younger children played on inflatable bounce houses and older teens filmed trending TikTok dances off to the side. As he spoke, another boy around his age entered the building sporting a hood and ski mask. A woman at the front desk asked him to remove the face coverings.

“It’s 90 degrees,” she said. “You not hot?”

Pump It Up Palace was one of more than a dozen youth events hosted by the D.C. Department of Parks and Recreation last week. Clyburn attended Wednesday night with his mother, but said the event was “for babies.” He much preferred the teen jams – late-night parties the District has historically held in the summer, but began hosting earlier this year in an effort to curb large teen gatherings in neighborhoods such as Navy Yard and U Street. A nationwide phenomena, the chaotic meetups have at times erupted in violence.