Gray's Town Hall Meeting in Ward 3

[Anonymous]

Jeff - probably some pencil pushing lawyer that does nothing to benefit society but take up good air and water.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Jeff - probably some pencil pushing lawyer that does nothing to benefit society but take up good air and water.

Hopefully not!

Otherwise this "productive" member of society is spending a shitload of billable hours bloviating on the internet, deceiving her/his boss and charging clients for her/his "productivity."

Oh, the irony. It burns.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Jeff - probably some pencil pushing lawyer that does nothing to benefit society but take up good air and water.

Now, now, now. Don't fall into the nastiness of the crazed poster. My profession do not claim this looney toon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Jeff - probably some pencil pushing lawyer that does nothing to benefit society but take up good air and water.

Now, now, now. Don't fall into the nastiness of the crazed poster. My profession do not claim this looney toon.

JFF
Anyone get the feeling the whack job is either a) a member of Peaceaholics, b) a Fenty frat brother, c) Peter Nickles, d) a satirist a la Rush Limbaugh, e) Vince Gray in disguise, f) Michell Rhee's wedding planner or g) an advertiser on the facebook page they keep pushing.

Jokes aside, even if Fenty were to win, who in their right mind would work for Fenty as chancellor after he threw Rhee under the bus? The election should NOT have been a referendum on HER. He shouldn't have had to rely on her to flaunt the spirit if not the letter of the Hatch Act.

Fenty needs to take responsibility that he failed to lead. He's the one who lost. Not Rhee, not the Post, not ignorant black people, not Marion Barry. Fenty.

[Anonymous]

Um, why the ignorant Black people comment, 12:06?

[Anonymous]

Race and class are inexorably mixed in DC politics. Gray knows that, and the "one city" campaign that he based around dog whistles of bike lanes and dog parks has really no more resonance, meaning, or relationship to reality than the phrase "Operation Iraqi Freedom."

Nonetheless, he won. From my own point of view, that is truly awful news, but he deserves the chance to prove his skeptics wrong. He's got his job cut out for him. Telling the people that saw massive improvement in city services under Fenty that they have to pay more in taxes for priorities that they oppose will not be popular, and the condition of the schools is not going to help. No chancellor worth the money is going to want that job after Rhee resigned under these circumstances.

Fenty struck me as a bit of a dope and was inexcusably politically tone deaf, but he appointed good people and let them do their jobs. Crime is down in all the wards. Test scores improved. City services (bulk trash pickup, for example) are more efficient. He did what he said he was going to do, and was fired for it.

Gray strikes me as a smart politician--well-versed on process, strong survival instincts, no interest in results. He has survived in DC politics a long time. The odds are, therefore, that he's a good legislator and a horrible chief executive. His constituencies (the teachers union, etc) will want their paybacks. A results-oriented executive would not tolerate a roll-back. A politician would, because he'll survive the next election. The reality is that the last election demonstrated that Gray can keep his job not only in spite of alienating wards 2 and 3, but because of it. There will be tremendous pressure on him to turn the clock back, and it's in his electoral interest to succumb to it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Race and class are inexorably mixed in DC politics. Gray knows that, and the "one city" campaign that he based around dog whistles of bike lanes and dog parks has really no more resonance, meaning, or relationship to reality than the phrase "Operation Iraqi Freedom."

Nonetheless, he won. From my own point of view, that is truly awful news, but he deserves the chance to prove his skeptics wrong. He's got his job cut out for him. Telling the people that saw massive improvement in city services under Fenty that they have to pay more in taxes for priorities that they oppose will not be popular, and the condition of the schools is not going to help. No chancellor worth the money is going to want that job after Rhee resigned under these circumstances.

Fenty struck me as a bit of a dope and was inexcusably politically tone deaf, but he appointed good people and let them do their jobs. Crime is down in all the wards. Test scores improved. City services (bulk trash pickup, for example) are more efficient. He did what he said he was going to do, and was fired for it.

Gray strikes me as a smart politician--well-versed on process, strong survival instincts, no interest in results. He has survived in DC politics a long time. The odds are, therefore, that he's a good legislator and a horrible chief executive. His constituencies (the teachers union, etc) will want their paybacks. A results-oriented executive would not tolerate a roll-back. A politician would, because he'll survive the next election. The reality is that the last election demonstrated that Gray can keep his job not only in spite of alienating wards 2 and 3, but because of it. There will be tremendous pressure on him to turn the clock back, and it's in his electoral interest to succumb to it.

I agree with a lot of what you said, but keep in mind that it wasn't just Wards 2 & 3. Fenty won Ward 1 - by far the most racially and economically diverse ward in the city - by a large margin. Demographics are destiny. I didn't vote for Gray, but he is no dummy. He recognizes the demographic shift of the city, and he will try to chard a moderate (by DC standards) course that upper income professionals can live with. He won't be reelected in four years if his base is limited to Wards 7 and 8. Of course, he may not be interested in a second term given that he would be 71 by then.

[Anonymous]

15:00 why do you repeat yourself. You are beginning to sound like a drone. Can you come up with something new to add.

BTW--DCPS test scores are down in every ward of the city. My trash has been picked up on time for the twelve years I have lived in this city. And, violent crime is down in the entire country. That is not a phenom that was carved out for the District of Columbia alone. Robberies and burglaries have actually risen in the District in the last three years.

[Anonymous]

The open secret of the Dem primary is that there were a *ton* of middle-class voters who gave Gray the benefit of the doubt, and who were tired of Fenty. If Gray fails to continue the reforms of the last two mayors, the council will keep him in check, but more importantly, he'll be *pulverized* in the next election.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:r it.

Gray strikes me as a smart politician--well-versed on process, strong survival instincts, no interest in results. He has survived in DC politics a long time. The odds are, therefore, that he's a good legislator and a horrible chief executive.

Could you clarify what you mean by this, pp, because Vincent Gray has only been in electoral politics for 6 years. Yes, he worked for Pratt for a couple of years as a bureaucrat but he has mostly worked in the non-profit world. He first ran for office in 2004 and he hasn't been in politics anywhere near as long as Jack Evans, Jim Graham, David Catania, Phil Mendolson or Marion Barry who were household names even then.

[Anonymous]

17:07
Gladly. From 1991 to 94 he was a political appointee. After that, he was appointed to an NFP whose job it was to work with the government. If you think that there were no politics involved in that, I've got a credit default swap I'd like to sell you. In 2004, according to his web page, he's been in the council. He's had an upward trajectory in his accomplishments, but the slightest intimation that he's some sort of political outsider seems (ahem) stretched.

By my reckoning, he's been involved with DC politics for nigh on 20 years minimum. That's a long time to some of us--long enough for him to learn the ropes pretty well.

Oh--and 16:02--scores were down in 2009-10, but up overall for the last three years. link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/13/AR2010071306622.html
The kids got their books on time this year, I heard.

As to violent crime, a 25.8% drop in homicides since 2008 can't be tied entirely to a correlation with a more broad national trend. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/01/AR2010010101829.html

I have yet to see anyone make any policy-based argument for getting Gray into office other than Fenty's a jerk.

[Anonymous]

And one other thing--16:02
Bulk trash pickup is not trash pickup. You have to call for it. they never used to show up when they said they would.

[Anonymous]

Quoting the Washington Post is useless. Once Katherine died, the paper began to slowly lose credibility. Today, it has very little, if any, credibility.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And one other thing--16:02
Bulk trash pickup is not trash pickup. You have to call for it. they never used to show up when they said they would.

Hmm, maybe it was the requester. I did not seem to have a problem with pickups.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:17:07
Gladly. From 1991 to 94 he was a political appointee. After that, he was appointed to an NFP whose job it was to work with the government. If you think that there were no politics involved in that, I've got a credit default swap I'd like to sell you. In 2004, according to his web page, he's been in the council. He's had an upward trajectory in his accomplishments, but the slightest intimation that he's some sort of political outsider seems (ahem) stretched.

By my reckoning, he's been involved with DC politics for nigh on 20 years minimum. That's a long time to some of us--long enough for him to learn the ropes pretty well.

Oh--and 16:02--scores were down in 2009-10, but up overall for the last three years. link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/13/AR2010071306622.html
The kids got their books on time this year, I heard.

As to violent crime, a 25.8% drop in homicides since 2008 can't be tied entirely to a correlation with a more broad national trend. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/01/AR2010010101829.html

I have yet to see anyone make any policy-based argument for getting Gray into office other than Fenty's a jerk.

Uh, this statement is completely unscientific. You cited a Washington Post editorial, not a research article -- and it happens to be an editorial that does indeed claim it's a correlation with a national trend:

The national decrease in murder began about two decades ago. In 1991, the national homicide rate hit 9.8 per 100,000 inhabitants, prompting forecasts of permanently rising street violence -- then fell to 5.7 in 1999. Many wondered whether this "Great Crime Decline" could be sustained for another 10 years. The answer would appear to be yes: By 2008, the murder rate had drifted down to 5.4 per 100,000, the lowest level since 1965. And given the preliminary figures, the rate for 2009 should be lower still. Indeed, if present trends continue, America will experience a degree of public safety not known since the 1950s.

Please read your cites before you post them. You're wasting our time.