DC Mayor - who to vote for

[Anonymous]

I like Bowser. The council sucks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I like Bowser. The council sucks.

Bowser really doesn’t care about efficiently running city agencies or services. But everyone on the council in the same position would even less competent, not to mention the crazy ideologues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:there seems to be a trend where people have a specific complaint with bowser -- too much crime or schools closed too long. and they want to protest that by voting against her and for....a candidate who would be way worse on those issues.

think schools were closed too long? uh, r. white and t. white are not your guys. if we had listened to them, schools would have been closed for most of this year too. r. white in particular has no problem with keeping kids out of school indefinitely.

think crime is too high? r. white and t. white are the stereotypes of politicians who are soft on crime.

the underlying problem here is that not enough people run for mayor. we need more and better choices.

but among the people we have to choose from, it's basically bowser vs. a people who pretty much unqualified to be mayor. if one of the whites were elected, i suspect phil mendelson would become our de facto mayor.

This.

[Anonymous]

She’s a pretty even keeled woman, given the nutso context. Think about what all was thrown at her. Her council are equal parts corrupt and demagogues. East Germany comes to mind. Any chance we could get rid of the Council and have a Mayor plus Federal Gov and Statehood. Like a Governor? But none of the lunatic fringe? Like in Ward 1?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:there seems to be a trend where people have a specific complaint with bowser -- too much crime or schools closed too long. and they want to protest that by voting against her and for....a candidate who would be way worse on those issues.

think schools were closed too long? uh, r. white and t. white are not your guys. if we had listened to them, schools would have been closed for most of this year too. r. white in particular has no problem with keeping kids out of school indefinitely.

think crime is too high? r. white and t. white are the stereotypes of politicians who are soft on crime.

the underlying problem here is that not enough people run for mayor. we need more and better choices.

but among the people we have to choose from, it's basically bowser vs. a people who pretty much unqualified to be mayor. if one of the whites were elected, i suspect phil mendelson would become our de facto mayor.

This.

[Anonymous]

I went with Bowser because I appreciate that she was mayor during an unexpected global pandemic and I’ve generally been happy with the way she’s managed that crisis. Schools were closed longer than I’d have liked them to be, but since they’ve been back open DCPS has been following the science and finding ways to keep kids in class via test to stay. We’ve had super easy access to free rapid tests, PCR tests, and masks. Our travel/quarantine requirements have been reasonable.

While the pandemic took center stage for the past 2 years, there have also been non-covid accomplishments that I appreciate from Bowser. She closed DC General and built shelters in more integrated neighborhoods throughout the city. Her “build, baby, build” attitude has brought a lot of new housing to the city, affordable units and market units.

I’d like to see more from her on deprioritizing cars in favor of busses, bikes, and pedestrians. I’d like her to stop clearing encampments unless there’s a real safety concern.

In the end, I think she’s done a decent job given the context of the past few years, that’s not a small thing. I want to see her accomplish more, and hoping she will use this next term to do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went with Bowser because I appreciate that she was mayor during an unexpected global pandemic and I’ve generally been happy with the way she’s managed that crisis. Schools were closed longer than I’d have liked them to be, but since they’ve been back open DCPS has been following the science and finding ways to keep kids in class via test to stay. We’ve had super easy access to free rapid tests, PCR tests, and masks. Our travel/quarantine requirements have been reasonable.

While the pandemic took center stage for the past 2 years, there have also been non-covid accomplishments that I appreciate from Bowser. She closed DC General and built shelters in more integrated neighborhoods throughout the city. Her “build, baby, build” attitude has brought a lot of new housing to the city, affordable units and market units.

I’d like to see more from her on deprioritizing cars in favor of busses, bikes, and pedestrians. I’d like her to stop clearing encampments unless there’s a real safety concern.

In the end, I think she’s done a decent job given the context of the past few years, that’s not a small thing. I want to see her accomplish more, and hoping she will use this next term to do.

Bowser did an amazing job with pandemic supports such as free and accessible rapid and PCR testing. My family in other parts of the country didn't have anything like it and were jealous. To clarify, Bowser tried to open the schools earlier. Robert White and other progressives were vehemently opposed to it. Robert White and Janeese Lewis George are endorsed by the local teachers union. The union was very opposed to reopening, so White and George supported efforts to keep schools closed. They opposed schools opening for the 2021-2022 school year too. They also introduced legislation that would have kept schools closed for about half this school year. Luckily that wasn't passed. I understand that schools were kept closed for too long, but I'm floored by the people who vote for White because they wanted schools open sooner. Schools would have been closed for much longer if he was Mayor.

[Anonymous]

Bowser has dirty hands soiled by developer kickbacks and is Bowser-first - goes to Cuba in February on a "listening tour" for DC Healthcare, goes to Paris in Springtime for "business development," travels to Delware for the Biden victory party and a time when was telling DC peeps not to leave the state because "she had to be there to represent DC." It's all ego and/or to support her million-dollar home purchase on the Gold Coast and her next gig when she is finally not mayor anymore. I predict Robert White will take it as a protest vote.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Bowser has dirty hands soiled by developer kickbacks and is Bowser-first - goes to Cuba in February on a "listening tour" for DC Healthcare, goes to Paris in Springtime for "business development," travels to Delware for the Biden victory party and a time when was telling DC peeps not to leave the state because "she had to be there to represent DC." It's all ego and/or to support her million-dollar home purchase on the Gold Coast and her next gig when she is finally not mayor anymore. I predict Robert White will take it as a protest vote.

Then you have to decide whether her dirty hands (all 3 candidates have dirty hands) are worse than Robert White's dirty hands that resulted in school closures and an increase in crime all to keep his union endorsement. To me it's clear that Bowser is the least harmful choice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bowser has dirty hands soiled by developer kickbacks and is Bowser-first - goes to Cuba in February on a "listening tour" for DC Healthcare, goes to Paris in Springtime for "business development," travels to Delware for the Biden victory party and a time when was telling DC peeps not to leave the state because "she had to be there to represent DC." It's all ego and/or to support her million-dollar home purchase on the Gold Coast and her next gig when she is finally not mayor anymore. I predict Robert White will take it as a protest vote.

Then you have to decide whether her dirty hands (all 3 candidates have dirty hands) are worse than Robert White's dirty hands that resulted in school closures and an increase in crime all to keep his union endorsement. To me it's clear that Bowser is the least harmful choice.

Robert White does not have dirty hands - there has not been one whiff of that ever (unlike Bowser). You don't like the teachers union because they represent women, and POC, which is your baggage. If you were intellectually honest, you would support removing schools from mayoral control and having an effective school board as a check against OSSE, mayor, teacher's union. All unions represent workers - that is why unions exist. Many parents wanted school closures and masking until Spring 2021 when most adults could be vaccinated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like schools open and Robert white would still have them closed, so bowser it is.

Same.

But schools are not going to close for COVID in the future, so how does this factor into other education decisions? No snark, honest question from a parent who is still weighing the candidates.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like schools open and Robert white would still have them closed, so bowser it is.

Same.

But schools are not going to close for COVID in the future, so how does this factor into other education decisions? No snark, honest question from a parent who is still weighing the candidates.

There are constant battles on what's best for the teachers union vs. what's best for students. For example, R. White and Janeese George are advocating to eliminate standardized testing for students. Without this, we can't measure academic progress. The real reason they want to eliminate testing is so schools won't have the evidence for poor teacher performance so they can't remove ineffective teachers.

The union and their supporters have also opened the door to closures for any elevation in levels for any illness. You do know that Robert White and George introduced legislation to keep schools closed this current school year, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I like schools open and Robert white would still have them closed, so bowser it is.

Same.

But schools are not going to close for COVID in the future, so how does this factor into other education decisions? No snark, honest question from a parent who is still weighing the candidates.

There are constant battles on what's best for the teachers union vs. what's best for students. For example, R. White and Janeese George are advocating to eliminate standardized testing for students. Without this, we can't measure academic progress. The real reason they want to eliminate testing is so schools won't have the evidence for poor teacher performance so they can't remove ineffective teachers.

The union and their supporters have also opened the door to closures for any elevation in levels for any illness. You do know that Robert White and George introduced legislation to keep schools closed this current school year, right?

If you mean the emergency bill that would have implemented case level closure thresholds, or the bill to expand virtual learning for a few hundred students, then yes. If there was a more sweeping bill that would have required virtual learning for all this year, i missed it. I’m very against school closures (my special needs child suffered terribly under them), but I am in favor of requiring a Covid vax for all students and teachers and also pro-masking this year while we waited for the youngest students to become eligible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went with Bowser because I appreciate that she was mayor during an unexpected global pandemic and I’ve generally been happy with the way she’s managed that crisis. Schools were closed longer than I’d have liked them to be, but since they’ve been back open DCPS has been following the science and finding ways to keep kids in class via test to stay. We’ve had super easy access to free rapid tests, PCR tests, and masks. Our travel/quarantine requirements have been reasonable.

While the pandemic took center stage for the past 2 years, there have also been non-covid accomplishments that I appreciate from Bowser. She closed DC General and built shelters in more integrated neighborhoods throughout the city. Her “build, baby, build” attitude has brought a lot of new housing to the city, affordable units and market units.

I’d like to see more from her on deprioritizing cars in favor of busses, bikes, and pedestrians. I’d like her to stop clearing encampments unless there’s a real safety concern.

In the end, I think she’s done a decent job given the context of the past few years, that’s not a small thing. I want to see her accomplish more, and hoping she will use this next term to do.

I came to the same conclusions. I'm pretty neutral on Bowser, but she seems to keep things running competantly. I'm OK with that. I think the White's would both be worse when it came to schools, crime, business climate, etc.

I think Bowser will do a better job of building more housing and getting people back into downtown DC than any other candidate. Her and Mendo both got my votes.

In short, I'm not hungry for change.

[Anonymous]

I voted for Robert White because I am sick of Bowser doing nothing about crime. White may ALSO do nothing about crime, but Bowser has had ample chance to make things better and they are decidedly worse, so she doesn’t get my vote.