If Fenty Wins...

[Anonymous]

Klein switched Constitution Ave, NE from one-way in the morning to two-way all day. That alone makes him the best DDOT director in the last 50 years.

[Anonymous]

The design for the Constitution Avenue conversion was completed in the last Fall of Tony Williams term. The conversion was installed after Fenty took office and he took credit for it (as usual). DDOT would not install the pavement markings for the conversion until the temperature was warm enough for them not to peel up right away. Check the dates of the public comment ANC meetings, they were before Fenty took office.

[Anonymous]

Well 9:15, it appears that 13:54 has delivered a strike in your direction. It also appears that all the good things that have occurred recently in this city were the result of T. Williams and team. If Fenty wins, who will he steal his bright ideas from the second time around.

[Anonymous]

Don't worry. Vince Gray has already told the residents of Ward 3 to expect less return on the high tax rate, expect lower property values, and higher taxes. If they vote for him they get what they deserve.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't worry. Vince Gray has already told the residents of Ward 3 to expect less return on the high tax rate, expect lower property values, and higher taxes. If they vote for him they get what they deserve.

Yada, yada, yada. We've heard this old and tiresome rhetoric before. Don't you have anything new to spew.

[Anonymous]

I do not understand why Ward 3 voters are so enamoured of Fenty when his overspending has erased all the fiscal good that Williams did. Yes, Fenty has gotten things built---but only by paying 5X markups over the true cost (with the differential being pocketed by his frat brother cronies). I would rather risk Gray's dithering than experience another four years of Fenty graft----which will drive this city over a financial cliff.

And then who do you think is going to be picking Ward 3's pocket for higher taxes?

[Anonymous]

I'm a Ward 3 white person who has already voted for Gray. I'm tired of the corruption and very optimistic about the future. I hope I do get what I deserve!

Go Gray!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do not understand why Ward 3 voters are so enamoured of Fenty when his overspending has erased all the fiscal good that Williams did. Yes, Fenty has gotten things built---but only by paying 5X markups over the true cost (with the differential being pocketed by his frat brother cronies). I would rather risk Gray's dithering than experience another four years of Fenty graft----which will drive this city over a financial cliff.

And then who do you think is going to be picking Ward 3's pocket for higher taxes?

I live near one of the parks that got spruced up. Yes, it's a nice improvement but it wasn't worth all the extra thousands of dollars we paid over the normal price.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I do not understand why Ward 3 voters are so enamoured of Fenty when his overspending has erased all the fiscal good that Williams did. Yes, Fenty has gotten things built---but only by paying 5X markups over the true cost (with the differential being pocketed by his frat brother cronies). I would rather risk Gray's dithering than experience another four years of Fenty graft----which will drive this city over a financial cliff.

And then who do you think is going to be picking Ward 3's pocket for higher taxes?

You really know nothing about economics and budgets do you? First of all we've just gone through the deepest recession (with no signs of ending) since the Great Depression. Even through that the city has been able to keep its great bond rating, quality of life has improved, projects have continued (libraries, schools, recreational centers, roads etc) and the city's financial health is in relatively good shape. Has Fenty made some mistakes with his friends? Of course. But Gray has those skeletons in his closet as well. AND, Gray was inept at during the last time he was in a CEO type roll in the Kelly administration. Why bring this up? Well that is his record and you are your record. Some people with no record and only voting present were able to run with no record and thus no skeletons or no real time where they had to take a stand. Now we see a lack of leadership. To vote for a guy with no real plan except "we can do better" is absurd. It's so ridiculous how naive some people are that they think this guy will be a panacea for all that ails this city. Those people in the areas with 20% unemployment will still be unemployable unless they get hired to sit in a room and do nothing by the city government. The teachers union has destroyed the schools in this city and they are more focused on keep themselves employed and wages increasing. After all what is the role of the union? To protects it's members. It's not the "Student's Union". A lot of Gray supports like to take any credit away from this administration and give it to WIlliams. Fair enough, but I look at Fenty as continuing whatever programs Williams tried to put in place to make this a world class city. Gray seems to want to either reverse that or at least stem the tide. Sorry but the ship has sailed on gentrification and the reverse white migration. By the time we have the next election the city will look radically different than it did in 2000. I think it;s a good thing, as now you don't have a few people in one part of the city shouldering the whole tax burden. PErfect example. A dog park is being built in Mclean Gardens (Newark St). This area probably has more dogs per capita than anywhere else in the city but it became a lightning rod for racial politics. Nver mind the fact that these people also pay taxes and have been petitioning for YEARS now for this dog park. I'm enthusiastically voting for Fenty, some of my neighbors are holding their noses and voting for him. Either way I know that we have a known quantity with him and I like that than Gray's unknowns.

[Anonymous]

Has Fenty made some mistakes with his friends?

What an amazing understatement.
And yes, we are in a recession. All the more reason why Fenty should not have been overspending by 5X (with 4X of that being siphoned off to Skinner & Karim) in order to "create results" to sustain his Nouveau-Barry strong-arm form of government. And, given the rate with which he has been stacking all the city boards and commissions with his woefully unqualified running buddies and family friends, another 4 years makes it likely that he will just further entrench himself in true Barry-esque fashion and create a Mayor-for-life Fenty juggernaut of arrogance and theft.

Don't get me wrong---I'm no Gray fan. Am I concerned that he will pay more attention to the unions that have contributed to the dysfunctional schools and government? Yes. But I'd rather risk four years of Gray mediocity ---in the hopes that an attentive DC populace in 2014 will elect a more qualified, competent, and honest alternative to either of the two poor choices we have this year, than risk an entrenched Fenty "machine".

[Anonymous]

Really? The hundreds of thousands that was spent is bankrupting the city? As opposed to the hundreds of millions in entitlements?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I do not understand why Ward 3 voters are so enamoured of Fenty when his overspending has erased all the fiscal good that Williams did. Yes, Fenty has gotten things built---but only by paying 5X markups over the true cost (with the differential being pocketed by his frat brother cronies). I would rather risk Gray's dithering than experience another four years of Fenty graft----which will drive this city over a financial cliff.

And then who do you think is going to be picking Ward 3's pocket for higher taxes?

You really know nothing about economics and budgets do you? First of all we've just gone through the deepest recession (with no signs of ending) since the Great Depression. Even through that the city has been able to keep its great bond rating, quality of life has improved, projects have continued (libraries, schools, recreational centers, roads etc) and the city's financial health is in relatively good shape. Has Fenty made some mistakes with his friends? Of course. But Gray has those skeletons in his closet as well. AND, Gray was inept at during the last time he was in a CEO type roll in the Kelly administration. Why bring this up? Well that is his record and you are your record. Some people with no record and only voting present were able to run with no record and thus no skeletons or no real time where they had to take a stand. Now we see a lack of leadership. To vote for a guy with no real plan except "we can do better" is absurd. It's so ridiculous how naive some people are that they think this guy will be a panacea for all that ails this city. Those people in the areas with 20% unemployment will still be unemployable unless they get hired to sit in a room and do nothing by the city government. The teachers union has destroyed the schools in this city and they are more focused on keep themselves employed and wages increasing. After all what is the role of the union? To protects it's members. It's not the "Student's Union". A lot of Gray supports like to take any credit away from this administration and give it to WIlliams. Fair enough, but I look at Fenty as continuing whatever programs Williams tried to put in place to make this a world class city. Gray seems to want to either reverse that or at least stem the tide. Sorry but the ship has sailed on gentrification and the reverse white migration. By the time we have the next election the city will look radically different than it did in 2000. I think it;s a good thing, as now you don't have a few people in one part of the city shouldering the whole tax burden. PErfect example. A dog park is being built in Mclean Gardens (Newark St). This area probably has more dogs per capita than anywhere else in the city but it became a lightning rod for racial politics. Nver mind the fact that these people also pay taxes and have been petitioning for YEARS now for this dog park. I'm enthusiastically voting for Fenty, some of my neighbors are holding their noses and voting for him. Either way I know that we have a known quantity with him and I like that than Gray's unknowns.

Reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw a couple years ago. "Cthulu '08. Fuck it, this time I'm voting for the GREATER of two evils."

Your friends need to grow a pair. "Fenty's corrupt but he's a known quantity" is a juvenile political assessment strategy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Really? The hundreds of thousands that was spent is bankrupting the city? As opposed to the hundreds of millions in entitlements?

Entitlement spending is federal level. Graft, corruption, and incompetence are local.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Gray seems to want to either reverse that or at least stem the tide. Sorry but the ship has sailed on gentrification and the reverse white migration. By the time we have the next election the city will look radically different than it did in 2000.

Oh puh-lease, Gray is not trying to reverse gentrification. You have him mixed up with....oh, that's right Marion Barry. Of course, that's where this was leading!

BTW, we just got a dog park in our neighborhood but it wasn't Fenty who got it for us, it was our councilman. Fenty isn't the only guy in town who can hand out the dog parks.

[Anonymous]

http://www.dcwatch.com/themail/2010/10-09-01.htm

Towanda Paul-Bryant is Fenty’s current Chairwoman of the Real Property Assessment and Appeals Board. Following her appointment in late 2008, three members of the Board resigned in early 2009, http://tinyurl.com/2aytfo5. One publicly claimed that she had politicized the Board, http://tinyurl.com/3yqy9rj. Now Paul-Bryant has been awarded a CBE (certified business enterprise) contract with the District (under the DC Supply Schedule Awarded Contracts) under the business name of Chase Creek Media. This contract is effective from July 11, 2010, to July 10, 2010, for “marketing media & public information services.” Chase Creek Media has also received $800,000 from Fenty’s reelection bid according to the campaign’s schedule B, “itemized operating expenditures.”

This is a lot of money for a company with a web site that is “under construction” and has an office in the Willard Hotel. Isn’t it a conflict of interest for a person with such an influential appointed post to have both a contract with the city and to receive close to $1 million from Fenty’s reelection campaign? To do what? Where is the money trail? Oh, and Paul-Bryant’s husband, William Bryant, is Fenty’s fraternity brother, and just recently he was added to the company’s listing as an owner. I discovered this information last week, and then he was not listed as an “owner” of Chase Creek Media; now he is. What is Chase Creek Media? What does it do? Why does its owner hold an appointed position in the DC government, receive a city contract, and receive a massive from the mayor’s campaign committee?

By the way, Keith Lomax, who became infamous for driving a taxpayer-paid car that is used by Fenty, is also on the DC Supply Schedule for CBE’s. His office is in Maryland, though by law CBE’s must have a DC office and/or residence.