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

[Anonymous]

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

It is when the (likely) alternative is ineffective corruption.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

Yes, all you middle class and upper-middle class families, get back to the suburbs. We don't want you, or the tax revenue you bring. How dare you move into our formerly crappy neighborhoods and improve living conditions, what with all your grocery stores, restaurants, shops, and other businesses that weren't here before! We want our urbal wasteland back! And now you want to improve the schools, too. The nerve of some people!

Please.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Yes, all you middle class and upper-middle class families, get back to the suburbs. We don't want you, or the tax revenue you bring. How dare you move into our formerly crappy neighborhoods and improve living conditions, what with all your grocery stores, restaurants, shops, and other businesses that weren't here before! We want our urbal wasteland back! And now you want to improve the schools, too. The nerve of some people!

Please.

because if you can't buy organic endives or $20 chocolates in a neighborhood it must be a wasteland (and it's only upper income people who want good schools)

I'm not saying it's a bad thing for middle class families to move into DC, but I can understand why not everyone jumps and down for joy about gentrification.

[Anonymous]

Almost 20 year DC homeowner here and I am very torn about this election and trying to make up my mind. I hear all the criticism of Fenty and take it seriously. Having said that, I have yet to hear one thing from Gray that makes me think that he would be an overall improvement (and I have concerns about him as well as Fenty on the corruption/cronyism front). I do think that things have gotten dramatically better in the city since I moved here and that they have continued to get better in the past four years. I don't think it is fair for Fenty opponents to ascribe all good things that have happened to things that happened before Fenty became mayor. I also think that the DC schools are finally improving at least somewhat, the buildings are in decent shape for once and improving, etc. In fact one of my biggest problems with Gray's supporters is the criticism of firing teachers. Even if I assume that some of those firings were unfair, it is still better for the kids and the system to have people know that they can be fired than to have the years in which essentially no one could be fired no matter how incompetent. I feel the same way about the social workers that Fenty fired and some of the other city agencies.

My question for Gray supporters then because I am still uncertain about where to go on this is: can you identify for me one or two specific policy issues on which the two disagree and tell me what Gray would do? and nothing mushy like make government work for the whole city. I want specifics like he would raise one kind of taxes to raise money to implement x program. Or he would fire Michelle Rhee. Or whatever. I don't think I can vote for him based on personality alone and need some policy difference so that I can think about who is on the right track.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: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.

Yes, all you middle class and upper-middle class families, get back to the suburbs. We don't want you, or the tax revenue you bring. How dare you move into our formerly crappy neighborhoods and improve living conditions, what with all your grocery stores, restaurants, shops, and other businesses that weren't here before! We want our urbal wasteland back! And now you want to improve the schools, too. The nerve of some people!

Please.

because if you can't buy organic endives or $20 chocolates in a neighborhood it must be a wasteland (and it's only upper income people who want good schools)

I'm not saying it's a bad thing for middle class families to move into DC, but I can understand why not everyone jumps and down for joy about gentrification.

Funny, but there's a ton of local working-class folks who have decent jobs working at that Whole Foods. My guess is that they're pretty happy the Whole Foods is there. Now, I know there are some who think it'd be nice if we could abolish the middle-class in DC, populate it entirely with the unemployable, and give all of them make-work jobs with DC DHS, but that's been determined to be unsustainable.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Now, I know there are some who think it'd be nice if we could abolish the middle-class in DC, populate it entirely with the unemployable, and give all of them make-work jobs with DC DHS, but that's been determined to be unsustainable.

Can you actually identify one individual that believes this? Link to one blog article, one quote in a newspaper, a radio program? Anything? Does this person exist anywhere other than your head? I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that the worst thing about Fenty is Fenty supporters.

[Anonymous]

Jeff, if you read the accounts of the Ward 4 Straw Poll, you will see clear evidence of just that.

One of my concerns is that the hubris will increase and the city will suffer. I have seen no evidence of humility from the Mayor. None.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:Jeff, if you read the accounts of the Ward 4 Straw Poll, you will see clear evidence of just that.

One of my concerns is that the hubris will increase and the city will suffer. I have seen no evidence of humility from the Mayor. None.

I was at the straw poll. I don't need to read accounts. There was no evidence of that. Can you point to something that can be better substantiated?

[Anonymous]

My question for Gray supporters then because I am still uncertain about where to go on this is: can you identify for me one or two specific policy issues on which the two disagree and tell me what Gray would do? and nothing mushy like make government work for the whole city. I want specifics like he would raise one kind of taxes to raise money to implement x program. Or he would fire Michelle Rhee. Or whatever. I don't think I can vote for him based on personality alone and need some policy difference so that I can think about who is on the right track.

Gray has promised to give charter schools seeking permanent facilities the first right of usage over developers. That alone is enough for my vote.

[Anonymous]

Sorry, I was typing too darn fast.

V. Gray promised to allow charters the first right to vacant schools. Thus, he is promising not to sell government property to developers at the expense of DC school children sharing their schools with homeless shelters. warehouses and other temporary locations.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now, I know there are some who think it'd be nice if we could abolish the middle-class in DC, populate it entirely with the unemployable, and give all of them make-work jobs with DC DHS, but that's been determined to be unsustainable.

Can you actually identify one individual that believes this? Link to one blog article, one quote in a newspaper, a radio program? Anything? Does this person exist anywhere other than your head? I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that the worst thing about Fenty is Fenty supporters.

Fine, then what's all this nonsense about folks being left behind? It's pure resentment politics, and it's tearing apart the social fabric of the city. A city is healthiest when it has a healthy representation of *all* socioeconomic classes. That means folks can actually get jobs at places like Whole Foods, rather than bitching about the fact that they sell arugula.

We're not there by any stretch of the imagination.



But never mind that, we need to put a stop to this transformation the city's undergoing until the "folks who've been left behind" catch up. That's the *core* of the Gray message. Without that, he's got blue-ribbon commissions, and fact-finding panels.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:
Fine, then what's all this nonsense about folks being left behind? It's pure resentment politics, and it's tearing apart the social fabric of the city. A city is healthiest when it has a healthy representation of *all* socioeconomic classes. That means folks can actually get jobs at places like Whole Foods, rather than bitching about the fact that they sell arugula.

I'm guessing that you weren't able to find an individual that supports what Fenty supporters are claiming "some" think. Did you notice where that blue line in your chart starts over on the far left? Those are the people being left behind. What about them? Do any of you care about them? Or, is it the Fenty line simply to declare them "nonsense"?

Gray has been enthusiastically endorsed by the DC Chamber of Commerce. Do you think that is a group that supports a candidate who wants to roll back economic growth in the City?

In my opinion, the greatest threat to the social fabric of DC is coming from Fenty supporters who are mischaracterizing Gray supporters in an attempt to scare white people. It's a constant refrain of "Gray is the next Barry" and other false charges (note to Fenty supporters, Barry endorsed Fenty last time around and it's Barry's youth employment program that Fenty has been mismanaging). This sort of crap should be beneath you.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:I was at the straw poll. I don't need to read accounts. There was no evidence of that. Can you point to something that can be better substantiated?

I think the reference was probably to what happened in the forum, which a little birdie tells me you were unable to attend. Here is one report, although I don't how accurate it is, since Imhoff is not a disinterested reporter: http://dcwatch.com/themail/2010/10-08-04.htm

I would like verification of the description of Bowser's participation.

[Anonymous]

17:53 here

Indeed, I was going both on the Imhoff report and emails I received from friends and neighbors who attended, who verified some of the behavior described by Imhoff by the Fenty campaign staffers.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:I was at the straw poll. I don't need to read accounts. There was no evidence of that. Can you point to something that can be better substantiated?

I think the reference was probably to what happened in the forum, which a little birdie tells me you were unable to attend. Here is one report, although I don't how accurate it is, since Imhoff is not a disinterested reporter: http://dcwatch.com/themail/2010/10-08-04.htm

I would like verification of the description of Bowser's participation.

Nothing in that report supports the allegation that there are people who want to "abolish the middle-class in DC, populate it entirely with the unemployable".