is DC really a joke?

[Anonymous]

i've been in DC for four years and i have a young child. when we moved here, many people said things about how poorly run and disorganized the city was. and i always thought that they were being heavy handed. until now. so many things have happened to me lately, even just little things, that have me thinking that this city is really, really poorly run. i guess the reason it's bugging me so much now is that my child is about to start DCPS.

i've had (more than a few) bad experiences with parks and rec, with transportation, with emergency services, with health care issues (through my work) and with DCPS. and when i think about some things that people i know closely have dealt with with regards to city services, it boggles the mind.

i love living in the city and i am not a suburbs type, but i am getting sick of all this crap and am lately thinking about fleeing for bethesda or arlington. am i just having a bad summer? is it my mother bear instincts on the rise because i am about to put my dd in DCPS. or is DC just a lost cause?

[Anonymous]

Many if not most metropolitan areas have its share of bureaucracy, hassles and frustrations you have to deal with. But they also a lot more than what you will find in smaller areas. With the good comes the bad.

[Anonymous]

There are certainly plenty of snafus. Fortunately there are people in town who help. Mayor Fenty has a person in each ward charged with helping people receive city services. You can find contaact info for your ward at http://ocrs.dc.gov/ocrs/cwp/view,A,3,Q,572799.asp. Your advisory neighborhood commissioner may also be oof help. You should be able to get information about your commissioner from http://anc.dc.gov/anc. One last option: email (or call the office of) the city council member from your ward, or one of the at large members.

It does not excuse the failures of the bureacracy that political pressure can help, but at least you get what you need. At least some of the time, anyway. On the pretty good chance you already knew all this, sorry to waste your time.

[Anonymous]

I'm originally from Cleveland (talk about cities as jokes!) and I was always struck how DC is such a combination of an international city and Cleveland. I think it has been part of the local psyche for a long time. We aspire to London or New York but deep inside we suspect we are Cleveland.

On the other hand, if you have been here for a long time you can see how things have changed for the better. I'm still stunned that I was able to make an appointment to get my car inspected and spent about 10 minutes at the inspection station. And I recently renewed my car registration on line and was absolutely sure they would muck it up and I'd be fighting with the city for weeks -- registration arrived, like, 4 days later. The DCPS schools my daughter attended have both been renovated -- unfortunately, after my child attended -- (and we should note that these renovations were planned under Dr. Janey, not initiated by Michelle Rhee).

That said, I don't think you're having a bad summer. This is the way things are here. You just have to decide if it's worth putting up with or not.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in PG County and yes, we always though of DC as a joke. Granted, PG County isn't run much better these days. But I do think you will find a lot of similar issues in any urban city. I love an urban environment, too, but I don't have the tolerance for a lot of that stuff. It's just like anything else, do you love urban living enough to put up with the crap? If not, Arlington or Silver Spring are nice still-urban alternatives. Not quite sure about Bethesda.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in PG County and yes, we always though of DC as a joke. Granted, PG County isn't run much better these days. But I do think you will find a lot of similar issues in any urban city. I love an urban environment, too, but I don't have the tolerance for a lot of that stuff. It's just like anything else, do you love urban living enough to put up with the crap? If not, Arlington or Silver Spring are nice still-urban alternatives. Not quite sure about Bethesda.

Holy crap, when PG County looks down on you, you have to wonder how bad things have gotten . . .

[Anonymous]

DC is an national embarrassment, really. Were you here during the Marion Barry days? Now THAT was funny.....

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
DC is an national embarrassment, really. Were you here during the Marion Barry days? Now THAT was funny.....

Eh. I doubt 95% of the people who live outside this area give us much thought at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
DC is an national embarrassment, really. Were you here during the Marion Barry days? Now THAT was funny.....

Eh. I doubt 95% of the people who live outside this area give us much thought at all.

Or if they give us thought, it's because they're angry at Congress and/or the President and they don't realize that there are real people who live here besides the big name politicians.

[Anonymous]

Of course, it's a joke. It's just like every other major democratically controlled city. High crime, lousy schools and a corrupt government.

[Anonymous]

Pick your schools for your child wisely; you can get a great and unique education in DC, but it depends on the in-house administration (NOT DCPS proper). Go public or charter--save your money--but do your homework, advocate and participate in a fair and positive manner for your child and his/her class, and pick WISELY. -- former DCPS teacher

[Anonymous]

Yes, it is. Despite my strong general belief in limited government, I believe that DC is so poorly run (from the police department all the way to the DMV) that it should be taken over entirely by the federal government and truly run as a "federal district." The portion of DC that runs itself is a disaster.

You need only witness cops who do nothing while flagrant traffic violations occur in front of their eyes (witness K Street in the mornings), listen to comments from the police chief (former) like "We don't subscribe to the broken windows theory of policing here" (i.e., "we just let petty criminals go until they kill someone, and hope it's on the PG side of the line"), look at the state of the DC public schools, and point to the continued election of Marion Barry as proof positive of the disaster that DC is.

Also, the "Washington" that people think of elsewhere in the country (and internationally) is the federal Washington (White House, Mall, Congress, Smithsonian, monuments, etc.), not Mayor Fenty's local town. So I'm not sure if people realize what an embarrassment the local part of DC is. Then again, Marion Barry may be a big enough embarrassment to stretch beyond local jurisdiction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
You need only witness cops who do nothing while flagrant traffic violations occur in front of their eyes (witness K Street in the mornings), listen to comments from the police chief (former) like "We don't subscribe to the broken windows theory of policing here" (i.e., "we just let petty criminals go until they kill someone, and hope it's on the PG side of the line"), look at the state of the DC public schools, and point to the continued election of Marion Barry as proof positive of the disaster that DC is.

I don't necessarily disagree with your post except this part about the "broken windows" theory. There is some debate about whether this is true or not. I don't think it's fair to assume that the said police chief just didn't care about petty criminals.

[Anonymous]

I have my gripes about DC too, having lived here almost 35 years. But give up democracy for efficiency? No thanks!

Besides, we'd probably end up with the same blundering bureaucrats botching whatever experiments Congress decided to foist on us.

[Anonymous]

Yes, DC is a joke. I was born and raised here and any long-time resident knows that the city is just poorly run. Things have improved over the last few years, but all you have to do is go live somewhere like Arlington (I did for a few years), and you will see what you are missing. Things there just run smoother, and there are more services, all for fewer tax dollars.