Our city is on track to be the laughing stock of our region again

[Anonymous]

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local-beat/Gray-Stuns-Fenty-on-Home-Turf-100024544.htmlOur

Gray will probably win this thing and start turning the clock back to the 1990s. The residents of this town deserve what they get. We deserve crappy schools, limited services, high crime. You realize that a majority of the people that work for the DC govt, don't even live in DC, most live in Maryland, so Gray's win will help lower their unemployment rate as he re-bloats the city govt. Don't call me a troll, because I'm a DC taxpayer who is just saddened at the way the promise of Rhee's reforms will be dashed and we'll go back to the same old school system that has bred more adult illiterates than any other city. I'll be sending my kids to private.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:You realize that a majority of the people that work for the DC govt, don't even live in DC, most live in Maryland, so Gray's win will help lower their unemployment rate as he re-bloats the city govt.

This complaint might hold more water if our current Attorney General did not live in Virginia.

[Anonymous]

Don't let the screen door hit you on the way out.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You realize that a majority of the people that work for the DC govt, don't even live in DC, most live in Maryland, so Gray's win will help lower their unemployment rate as he re-bloats the city govt.

This complaint might hold more water if our current Attorney General did not live in Virginia.

Straw man response Jeff. A) He did move in to the city. B) He made a lot more money working in the private sector before he recently became attorney general (2008).

We have people that have been basically stealing your tax dollars and they don't even live and pay taxes in your city. These people have been robbing us blind for decades.

[Anonymous]

Gray has made the idea that DC residents are the ones who should be working for the city. Marion Barry is the one who created Ward 9. That needs to stop.

At the same time, we need to have enough workforce housing, particularly for DCFD, MPD and teachers to be able to afford to live in the city. Mayor Fenty sat on the inclusionary housing regulations for almost three years, costing the city hundreds of units of housing that would have brought these city employees back into the fold.

The poster complains about people who have been 'stealing" from the city, but makes no mention of the $82 million that the mayor has basically given his Kappa Alpha Psi buddies at the expense of DC taxpayers.

And I am not a Gray supporter, but Fenty is really messing this up.

[Anonymous]

I honestly don't know who I would support if I were still a DC resident. I feel like the choice is between an arrogant, corrupt but effective administration and an unproven, likely incompetent and ineffective administration.

[Anonymous]

11:57 Bingo. That's why after weeks of indecision I am voting for Fenty.

[Anonymous]

P.S. And I really don't like Rhee. So this is a big deal. Though I might change my mind again!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:... Though I might change my mind again!

Presumably when it hits you that effective corruption is no virtue.

Actually, I think the differences on this race are mainly between those who care most about issues where the administration has put the moneyed interests over the people, who therefore oppose Fenty, those who care most about issues where Fenty's effectiveness has accomplished good results, who therefore favor him, and those who are bothered by his methods but are not heavily invested in one set of issues versus the other (like Jeff?), who are undecided or turned off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the differences on this race are mainly between those who care most about issues where the administration has put the moneyed interests over the people, who therefore oppose Fenty

You know, I'd like to hear exactly what this means, putting "the moneyed interests over the people." Please give specifics. Otherwise, it's just poor folks complaining about the fact that the city is actually attracting a middle-class tax base finally. The idea that "some people have been left behind" through some Fenty policy is ridiculous. Some people think they've been left behind because middle-class people have moved to DC from MD and VA, bringing much needed goods, services, and crime reduction, and the left-behind feel comparitively poorer. While driving the middle-class back out to the suburbs may make the multi-generational poor of DC feel comparatively more wealthy (compared to the burnt-out vacant building next door), can anyone really argu that tese folks were better off during the bad old days of the 80s and 90s? Seriously?

[Anonymous]

Not pp, but if your family has lived in Shaw for 2 or 3 generations and suddenly you can't afford the rents anymore, then maybe you were better off before. Whether places like whole foods and the upscale home furnishing stores of 14th st. are "much needed" depends alot on your disposable income.

[Anonymous]

DC has always been a laughing stock outside the beltway. What is the difference now?

[Anonymous]

@13:27

I am not the PP, but let me give it a try.

The mayor has made a lot of money from developers. That is nothing new in politics. What is new, however, or 'special" in this case is that in many instances, these developers and contractors, have been given special dispensation of public land, or contracts to create spaces for city lease, either at no-bid contracts, or at pretty sweetheart deals.

See the West-End library as one example.

Try googling "Sinclair Skinner" or Ronald Moten. Check also about Abdullahi Burrow, who is part of a sham called Liberty Engineering. Liberty has been given a number of city contracts, and has been included in a number of development teams for engineering services eventhough they don't have any licensed engineers on staff. So what happens? The mayor grans a DC Engineering license for "merit". This is a guy who has failed the engineering licensing exam like 7 times.

Would you want to ride in an elevator certified by this guy?

The documented corruption to date is at least $82 million.

When you consider that the Mayor is trying to raid things like the tree fund to cover budget shortfalls that he created, while his friends are driving Porsche's, it paints a bleak picture of what four more years of this open and arrogant corruption would entail.

Oh and look also at the story about Bill Slover, who was a close Fenty friend and was appointed to the housing commission. As the chair, he was supposed to certify contracts let out by the housing authority. The mayor used this quasi-governmental agency to funnel contracts out to avoid DC City Council scrutiny (thus subverting the law). Mr. Slover noted that he couldn't, in his capacity, authorize the contracts. So what happened? According to news articles, he was replaced within 4 hours of blowing the whistle.

Yes, this is a Mayor who deserves another four years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You know, I'd like to hear exactly what this means, putting "the moneyed interests over the people."

The specific issue that irked my neighborhood was way back at the beginning of his stint on the Council. In his campaign he said he would back the will of his constituents on an issue of building townhouses with two-car garages on a green space next to a Metro station. Despite a resolution of the ANC opposing it and petitions that indicated 5 or 6 to 1 popular sentiment against it, he supported it, and since it was in his ward, so did the Council. And as Mayor, his appointments to agencies like the BZA have consistently been in that same pro-developer mold.

In the interest of self-disclosure, while I say nothing against those whose main concern is the poor and the homeless, these are probably middle class issues.

[Anonymous]

Did you think the Takoma Park proposal should have remained greenspace or should have been more dense, with ground floor retail?