Ward 4 Vincent Gray meeting

[Anonymous]

Anyone go? 12 weeks ago I would have been all over it, but I'm first-trimester exhausted and have to remind myself to care about politics. But I'm still curious to hear how it went.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone go? 12 weeks ago I would have been all over it, but I'm first-trimester exhausted and have to remind myself to care about politics. But I'm still curious to hear how it went.

It was packed, with several big names in attendance. Sterling Tucker (our first Council Chair, if you're new) was front row center. Several Council members, of course, and just in the row ahead of me, Gladys Mack and Ethel Delaney Lee, two women of long-time influence. What surprised me is that I saw many conversations between such folks that showed they had not seen each other in a long time. It was clearly not a group that had been working in concert to get Gray elected, as the stories of the resurgent old guard would have it, but more the old guard coming out to see the new guy in town.

Gray spoke for a long time, without notes, about numerous subjects, including great stress on educational reform. He linked himself with much of what went on under Fenty, without saying anything, as far as I recall, to criticize his predecessor. There was also a question period, with Gray responding with knowledge of each subject, but generally not in a pandering way.

Disclosure: I was a Gray supporter, and predisposed to react favorably. But still, it seemed surprisingly smooth, given the emotional level of the Fenty supporters. Perhaps they just stayed away.

BTW, Jeff was there, and will probably give a much more detailed report.

[jsteele]

I attended. It was very crowded. I guess there were over 1,000 people and the church got very hot. Beyond that, it was basically a love fest. Muriel Bowser introduced Gray and had a lot of good things to say about him. She kept emphasizing that we should all vote for Gray on Nov. 2. Fenty didn't show up, despite it being his home ward and only about 4 blocks from his house. I'm not sure if his name was even mentioned, though one questioner did say something about "the other mayor".

Gray gave essentially the same speech he has been giving at all of the town halls. He discusses his history a bit on the basis that people don't know him, pitches his vision of education reform which emphasizes early childhood education, vocational training, and community college, and then wraps things up by talking about statehood. One thing that might make news, though probably not in the manner he would hope, is his suggestion that early childhood education begin at 6 months. He said that he doesn't care what you call it, but people need childcare and why shouldn't that childcare be an educational opportunity. I think there is something to be said for this idea, but probably not when you are facing massive budget cuts. Moreover, I've already seen tweets saying, "Gray wants kids to begin school at 6 months" which is not really a fair description of what he said.

If you have been to other Ward 4 community meetings, the main actors and issues are pretty familiar. We need more police on the streets, the elderly are not getting the services they need, gentrification is pushing out long-time residents, etc. Not a lot of new ground was covered. An audience member supported raising taxes on the rich and Gray described how difficult budget cuts were and how many programs were already cut to the bone, yet we have a deficit. You can only get rid of the deficit through cuts or revenue increases. He said he would be discussing this issue and he believed people in DC were compassionate and might support tax increases if they were pitched right. He said that guilt-tripping people wouldn't work, but if you explained the need they might go along. Frankly, I wasn't quite sure of the distinction.

A moment of levity occurred when an audience member spent considerable time describing a program that had taught him computer skills. He described the program as "life-changing" and urged Gray to attend a class or two. Then it turned out the program was based in Arlington and I thought for a moment that the audience was going to lynch the guy. Gray said we have enough problems funding programs in Wards 1-8 and don't need to worry about Ward 14.

One audience member also asked Gray if he was going to get involved in the Ward's council race in two years. That was a shot at Bowser who was Fenty's hand-picked replacement and would be a likely target of Gray supporters. Gray said he hadn't thought about it and was only thinking about the election on Nov. 2. For what it's worth, I think Bowser is pretty popular and it would be a mistake for Gray's people to start going after her already. But, people have their ambitions and I'm sure there are a lot of potential candidates who would like to see her weakened.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reports, folks!

[Anonymous]

Many, many thanks for the reports. (And hearing about the heat and the crowd makes me feel much better about not having attended--I probably would have wound up fainting!)