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Call it the Great Hustle.
Despite record unemployment and concerns of widespread business closures early in the coronavirus pandemic, the number of people seeking to start and develop their own businesses in the D.C. region surged, a Washington Post analysis shows.
While more than 1,000 establishments in sectors including food services, construction, entertainment and wholesale disappeared during the first part of 2020 in the D.C. metro area, the number of new brick-and-mortar businesses continually increased in the next few quarters and surpassed the number that closed, Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows. That growth — much of which came in educational services, health care, construction and finance — does not include the online shops that economist say have grown as well.
Covid closed downtown D.C. businesses. Many reopened — in the suburbs.
Combined, the District, Maryland and Virginia saw…
