DC Mayor - who to vote for

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bowser too beholden to developers who are maximizing their own personal profits at the expense of DC citizens

Oh noooo. Those terrible developers who built nice buildings and new restaurants and who helped drive down the crime rate through urban renewal. They’re the worst! We need more subsidized housing on every block!

Have you looked at what’s happening near Forest Hills? More crime in the voucher buildings. More middle class renters being displaced. But the developers are fat and happy.

Then the city should not require the building owners to take section 8 vouchers. Boom! Issue solved.

Buuuut that’ll never happen.

[Anonymous]

Bowser. I don’t think R White knows how to run anything. And I was very unimpressed about how he decided to use schools and covid as an opportunity to grandstand and make political attacks on Bowser, instead of partnering with the mayor to help DC kids. I think reasonable people can disagree on what happened with schools, but using schools to further your campaign is just sooooo slimy.

[Anonymous]

Robert White basically said he was going to give anyone who wanted one a job in the DC government. The last thing the DC government needs is a bunch of unqualified taking up space and making everything even worse. Hard pass. Sadly I'll be voting for Bowser.

[Anonymous]

Bowser. I don't care about developers getting rich, honestly. Get money. I care about schools staying open and crime stats going down and R. White will not be helpful on either front. He's too far to the left for me on most issues.

[Anonymous]

I can't even believe that having open schools is an issue we still need to worry about in 2022, but it is. (I'll note that R. White tried to introduce a bill that would close schools again in 2022.)

OPEN SCHOOLS, people. What kind of breakdown of society is it that people think it's a good idea to close schools, particularly after everything we've learned about the negative repercussions of doing so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would like a mayor that is tough on crime, and not scared to arrest and jail violent criminals, someone who is beholden to developers because it’s clear they turned the city around since it faced utter decay under folks like Marion Berry, and someone who will cater to UMC parents who would consider sending their kids to DC public schools.

I literally do not care how antithetical that may be to the values of the vast majority of progressive, urban, city dwellers who make their home in this town. I do too and it’s clear that they’re misguided altruism and desires for the same types of progressive policies as other major cities don’t work. Look at San Francisco and its recall of Chesa Boudin or its ultra progressive school board members. I just want common sense, bread and butter stuff.

If someone car jacks or mugs someone, arrest them and put them in prison, don’t release them in perpetuity back to the streets.

If a child is showing advanced ability in math, allow them to thrive in an ap class, don’t stick them with remedial learners who would retard their progress.

If building luxury condos, dog parks, roof decks, pop ups and the like increase home values, so be it. Let the market work as it should. Chill out on all the rent control and DCRA bureaucracy as well.

It’s pretty simple. But, as studies show, humans are biologically programmed to root for the underdog, so anything I say is met with reflexive shock. How can this poster be so cruel!!!?? Think of the poor families…no dude, if people can’t hack it, they can move like everyone else. We should have some to of social safety net, but not tons of ineffective programs funded in perpetuity that show no signs of abating poverty. I like the paid leave proposals for maternity leave and some summer jobs stuff, but seriously we can’t subsidize the same generations of families in projects in perpetuity and claim it’s unfair no to.

Although I find this perspective repellent, I appreciate PP laying out there in all its insular, racist, misinformed glory. It represents a real and not uncommon set of beliefs that people who watch a lot of cable news (not just Fox) believe. A lot of wealthy white people don’t like seeing homeless people, conflate homelessness with crime, and believe that violent crime is surging when in fact it remains at historically low rates.

The San Francisco example is instructive. Homicide and violent crime rates are actually down there, while property crimes are up. Obviously, property crimes affect quality of life, but the idea that SF is some violent hellscape is completely unsupported by facts. And to the extent that property crimes are up, it’s funny how progressive DAs and policies get the blame, but no one wants to talk about the incredibly low rates of crime-solving by police. If you’re interested in data and a balanced look at this, check out this article: https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Chesa-Boudin-San-Francisco-crime-statistics-recall-16268178.php

[Anonymous]

Anybody but Developers in my pocket Bowser. Well not Trayvon either.

[Anonymous]

Bowser was the mayor who told her Police Chief to dismantle the "jump out crew" in proactive policing versus reactive policing. Crime has sky rocketed in the last eight years under Bowser. Now the police only take police reports after the fact. Mostly, they sit in their cars in their favorite location, usually under a tree.

[Anonymous]

Robert White. He's not perfect, but at least he's ethical, so it's a good starting point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Robert White. He's not perfect, but at least he's ethical, so it's a good starting point.

Lol no, he's not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Robert White. He's not perfect, but at least he's ethical, so it's a good starting point.

Ethical!?

https://washingtoncitypaper.com/article/179500/robert-white-flips-supports-solesource-sports-gambling-contract/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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

Same.

This is a tired and misleading trope. Instead of people giving Bowser credit for "reopening schools", she should be held accountable for the total sh*tshow that virtual learning was. She had her DCPS folks literally lying in Council oversight hearings about how everything was going great, when in actuality kids were doing worksheets for months and there weren't enough laptops/devices for students. The Council wanted to know that school buildings would actually be covid-safe places before sending people back into them. And a reminder that, while some of you were itching to get your kids back to in-person learning, a majority of DCPS families wanted to continue virtual. Blame Bowser and DCPS for not figuring out how to effectively achieve hybrid learning or having some schools in person while others remained virtual. Don't blame Robert White for Bowser's mess.

I'm a Ward 3 public school parent, and Robert White has my vote all the way!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I would like a mayor that is tough on crime, and not scared to arrest and jail violent criminals, someone who is beholden to developers because it’s clear they turned the city around since it faced utter decay under folks like Marion Berry, and someone who will cater to UMC parents who would consider sending their kids to DC public schools.

I literally do not care how antithetical that may be to the values of the vast majority of progressive, urban, city dwellers who make their home in this town. I do too and it’s clear that they’re misguided altruism and desires for the same types of progressive policies as other major cities don’t work. Look at San Francisco and its recall of Chesa Boudin or its ultra progressive school board members. I just want common sense, bread and butter stuff.

If someone car jacks or mugs someone, arrest them and put them in prison, don’t release them in perpetuity back to the streets.

If a child is showing advanced ability in math, allow them to thrive in an ap class, don’t stick them with remedial learners who would retard their progress.

If building luxury condos, dog parks, roof decks, pop ups and the like increase home values, so be it. Let the market work as it should. Chill out on all the rent control and DCRA bureaucracy as well.

It’s pretty simple. But, as studies show, humans are biologically programmed to root for the underdog, so anything I say is met with reflexive shock. How can this poster be so cruel!!!?? Think of the poor families…no dude, if people can’t hack it, they can move like everyone else. We should have some to of social safety net, but not tons of ineffective programs funded in perpetuity that show no signs of abating poverty. I like the paid leave proposals for maternity leave and some summer jobs stuff, but seriously we can’t subsidize the same generations of families in projects in perpetuity and claim it’s unfair no to.

Although I find this perspective repellent, I appreciate PP laying out there in all its insular, racist, misinformed glory. It represents a real and not uncommon set of beliefs that people who watch a lot of cable news (not just Fox) believe. A lot of wealthy white people don’t like seeing homeless people, conflate homelessness with crime, and believe that violent crime is surging when in fact it remains at historically low rates.

The San Francisco example is instructive. Homicide and violent crime rates are actually down there, while property crimes are up. Obviously, property crimes affect quality of life, but the idea that SF is some violent hellscape is completely unsupported by facts. And to the extent that property crimes are up, it’s funny how progressive DAs and policies get the blame, but no one wants to talk about the incredibly low rates of crime-solving by police. If you’re interested in data and a balanced look at this, check out this article: https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Chesa-Boudin-San-Francisco-crime-statistics-recall-16268178.php

Thank you for your perspective. I agree my post isn’t for everyone. It comes across as jaded, lacking in optimism and cynical.

I accept that. However, having grown up and lived in crime filled parts of this town, i have no issue with what I wrote.

I also question your claims of falling crime rates. That’s flat out wrong, but I don’t have two hours to spit out recent crime trends from statistical charts for you.

Also, my post wasn’t racist, that was you projecting. In fact, the burden is on you to specifically identify which parts you claim as racist. This isn’t a game of darts where you can just lob out unhelpful accusation of racism. Explain.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Bowser too beholden to developers who are maximizing their own personal profits at the expense of DC citizens

That is my concern.

Honestly, building new apartments in DC is the only good thing that she has done. I'm voting for her since housing policy is the most important thing for future growth. She is quietly the best YIMBY mayor in america.

Except lower and middle class renters in DC, many of whom speak English as a second language and are non-white, have been displaced from the more affordable apartment buildings in Ward 3 as developers get $$$$ benefits converting the buildings into luxury apartments or disastrous Section 8 voucher buildings that offer no real support services for the voucher recipients (compare all the voucher buildings around Forest Hills on Conn Ace to Ward 3’s much more successful shelter which gets support from Friendship Place). Developers and Bowser it seems couldn’t care less. Are these results intentional or mismanagement or do developers want the vouchers to fail after they’ve reaped the $ benefits so they can convert the buildings into more luxury apartments and condos?

DC is expensive. If I couldn’t afford to live here, I would move.

[Anonymous]

Bowser is sadly the least worst