Bowser getting $525K in taxpayer funded improvements to her Colonial Village home

[Anonymous]

Corruption is her forte.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there really a security threat necessitating a guard booth?? If so, then I guess it's fair for that to be publicly funded, but I have never heard of a DC Mayor being the subject of a threat like that.

She should 100% be paying for her own fence and retaining wall. GMAB.

DC should really just have an official mayor's residence with built-in security, continuity of government features, and space to host official events.

Otherwise, we need to rebuild the wheel every time we have a new mayor.

Some rich person offered to donate one a decade or so ago. It was turned down for some reason.

DC Racial politics. Someone offered to donate a Foxhall Road mansion to the Distict when Tony Williams was mayor for use as an official mayoral house. The hue and cry! A DC mayor shouldn’t be living in Ward 3. How disrespectful to the black majority of District residents! That Ward 3 was considered as only suitable home for the mayor. During the same time, Williams proposed to sell the ugly Brutalist UDC Campus at Van Ness for development and to build new UDC facilities at the St Elizabeth’s site. He reasoned that DC could realize a big gain on selling a campus that was some distance from most of its students while creating new, more convenient facilities on a site that already looked like a storied college campus. Oh, the hue and cry. Moving UDC out of Ward 3 was disrespectful to its black majority of students. And exclusionary and discriminatory!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The improvements were categorized as “renovation to MPD 4th District North Office” which is the MPD guard shack at the end of her driveway.

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/746504/bowsers-colonial-village-home-is-getting-525000-in-taxpayer-funded-improvements/

With all these improvements, it sounds like Bowser is running for reelection.

Local journalism is important!

"Much of the work includes security upgrades to the two-story house. Documents filed with the Department of Buildings describe the replacement of a “security booth” on the property for the mayor’s Metropolitan Police Department detail, as well as the installation of a new fence behind the home and three “exterior light poles w/ integrated security cameras.” (Amusingly, some of the permits describe the project as the “renovation to MPD 4th District North Office, which may be technically accurate, but leaves out some important context.) The plans submitted to DOB also call for the widening of the home’s driveway, the replacement of a retaining wall that runs alongside it, and the installation of a new guardrail at the house’s “rear yard terrace.”"

If I were the mayor of DC, I would want these additional security upgrades. There are a lot of bonkers people out there who target elected officials, judges, etc.

You’re an idiot. She’s getting fixes to her driveway, retaining walls, and even roofs installed over outdoor areas to make them enclosed. She’s trying to wrap in major home improvements into ‘security upgrades’ to make it appear legit. It’s money laundering except taxpayer dollars for personal home improvements she should be paying 100% out of pocket for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Corruption is her forte.

Watching people defend her on Twitter is certainly weird.

Unless someone has a personal stake in Bowser's administration at this point, I cannot understand support for her

[Anonymous]

With all this sunk cost in the mayor's home, should DC even bother with electing someone else? DC could save a lot of money by just making Bowser mayor for life.

[Anonymous]

I'm not a fan of Bowser but she needs some security and having crossed paths with her many times her security detail is not excessive at all (I've been able to walk right up to and speak with her) and having some sort of reasonable accommodations for the MPD folks at her house 24/7 seems completely reasonable.

But this cost and scope of work does seem over the top.

[Anonymous]

So many of you seem to be unable to read for comprehension:

“ Other permits describe more cosmetic changes to the home, such as the replacement of the front door and front-facing windows, the addition of roofs over uncovered portions of the home, and renovations to the basement. These projects are managed by the same private construction firms working with DGS on the security upgrades, but they are not listed among the elements of the project coordinated by the city agency, so it’s unclear whether they’re also publicly funded.”

Let me copy/paste the key sentence ——>

“it’s unclear whether they’re also publicly funded.”

This is just a hit job without any basis in reality.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:With all this sunk cost in the mayor's home, should DC even bother with electing someone else? DC could save a lot of money by just making Bowser mayor for life.

The way they are spending on this it sounds like she's running for a 4th term.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there really a security threat necessitating a guard booth?? If so, then I guess it's fair for that to be publicly funded, but I have never heard of a DC Mayor being the subject of a threat like that.

She should 100% be paying for her own fence and retaining wall. GMAB.

DC should really just have an official mayor's residence with built-in security, continuity of government features, and space to host official events.

Otherwise, we need to rebuild the wheel every time we have a new mayor.

Except that she is the mayor of a city. Not a state governor. Very different.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have no problem with this. I wouldn't want to be the mayor of a large city like DC without adequate security.

Then don’t run.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is there really a security threat necessitating a guard booth?? If so, then I guess it's fair for that to be publicly funded, but I have never heard of a DC Mayor being the subject of a threat like that.

She should 100% be paying for her own fence and retaining wall. GMAB.

DC should really just have an official mayor's residence with built-in security, continuity of government features, and space to host official events.

Otherwise, we need to rebuild the wheel every time we have a new mayor.

Except that she is the mayor of a city. Not a state governor. Very different.

\

NYC, Los Angeles, Denver, and Detroit have mayoral residences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So many of you seem to be unable to read for comprehension:

“ Other permits describe more cosmetic changes to the home, such as the replacement of the front door and front-facing windows, the addition of roofs over uncovered portions of the home, and renovations to the basement. These projects are managed by the same private construction firms working with DGS on the security upgrades, but they are not listed among the elements of the project coordinated by the city agency, so it’s unclear whether they’re also publicly funded.”

Let me copy/paste the key sentence ——>

“it’s unclear whether they’re also publicly funded.”

This is just a hit job without any basis in reality.

It shouldn't be "unclear." By this time it should be clear who is paying for those cosmetics changes. The fact that the DC government is silent about it and doesn't state clearly that the cosmetics changes are not being payed by taxpayers says the obvious: Bowser is using public money to renovate her house under the excuse of security concerns.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Corruption is her forte.

Watching people defend her on Twitter is certainly weird.

Unless someone has a personal stake in Bowser's administration at this point, I cannot understand support for her

I don't like Bowser, but if you're going to criticize a politician, you should focus on their track record, not on hit jobs like this where it's not clear that anything wrong has been done. This is just a stupid distraction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The improvements were categorized as “renovation to MPD 4th District North Office” which is the MPD guard shack at the end of her driveway.

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/746504/bowsers-colonial-village-home-is-getting-525000-in-taxpayer-funded-improvements/

With all these improvements, it sounds like Bowser is running for reelection.

Local journalism is important!

"Much of the work includes security upgrades to the two-story house. Documents filed with the Department of Buildings describe the replacement of a “security booth” on the property for the mayor’s Metropolitan Police Department detail, as well as the installation of a new fence behind the home and three “exterior light poles w/ integrated security cameras.” (Amusingly, some of the permits describe the project as the “renovation to MPD 4th District North Office, which may be technically accurate, but leaves out some important context.) The plans submitted to DOB also call for the widening of the home’s driveway, the replacement of a retaining wall that runs alongside it, and the installation of a new guardrail at the house’s “rear yard terrace.”"

If I were the mayor of DC, I would want these additional security upgrades. There are a lot of bonkers people out there who target elected officials, judges, etc.

You’re an idiot. She’s getting fixes to her driveway, retaining walls, and even roofs installed over outdoor areas to make them enclosed. She’s trying to wrap in major home improvements into ‘security upgrades’ to make it appear legit. It’s money laundering except taxpayer dollars for personal home improvements she should be paying 100% out of pocket for.

This is what bothers me. Zero issue with actual security repairs. But these are more than security, this is home maintenance and excessive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So many of you seem to be unable to read for comprehension:

“ Other permits describe more cosmetic changes to the home, such as the replacement of the front door and front-facing windows, the addition of roofs over uncovered portions of the home, and renovations to the basement. These projects are managed by the same private construction firms working with DGS on the security upgrades, but they are not listed among the elements of the project coordinated by the city agency, so it’s unclear whether they’re also publicly funded.”

Let me copy/paste the key sentence ——>

“it’s unclear whether they’re also publicly funded.”

This is just a hit job without any basis in reality.

Transparent contracting would solve that issue