Reply to Anyone been here since the 80s / early 90s? How did smart locals react to Marion Barry

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[quote=Anonymous]It wasn't a black or white thing when Barry was first elected mayor in the late '70s. It was a liberal thing, and in a city of liberals, his message played well in just about every ward. The guy was winning elections with massive citywide margins.

But as the years went by it became clear that his policies were bankrupting the city. He borrowed heavily from the U.S. Treasury to pay for massive government spending, mostly on his plan to give a city job to just about anyone who applied for one, no matter how incompetent or unqualified they were. This led to the non-working city bureaucracy that still lingers today. He tried to stem the growing crack cocaine epidemic by going on an MPD hiring spree, again bringing in people who had no business wearing a badge. And he saw himself as above it all, as evidenced by his infamous Super Bowl trip to California in January 1987 while the city was getting pounded by a snowstorm.

https://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/city-desk/blog/13062944/today-in-d-c-history-marion-barry-the-super-bowl-and-the-blizzard-of-indifference

And then there were his personal issues, which everyone knows about. By the end, his personal patronage policies kept getting him votes, but he was mostly regarded as a sad joke by everyone else.[/quote]

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