Anonymous wrote:What about the tens of thousands of young people from east of the river who through the summer jobs program got their first exposure to a real job and a glimpse of what kind of life they could make for themselves outside of the block they grew up on IF they applied themselves?

Or the thousands of families who had thanksgiving turkeys when they couldn't afford to buy their own?

Minority business owners and contractors who got their first chance at big budget jobs and a chance to grow their businesses, after being shut out of such opportunities by the all white old boy contractor network?

And lest you forget, Barry was SHOT while trying to get other DC council staff to safety during the Hanafi Muslim attacks in DC.


He wasn't perfect. Everyone knew that. But those flaws made him relatable to the people who voted for him. Everyone has a family member who had a problem with booze or drugs, or went to jail. It's a reality for them. And they saw in Barry someone who had the same flaws as someone they loved, and he went to bat for them.

You don't need to tell me how bad DC schools were, I know. I was Cardozo class of '88. I was here. A white kid growing up in Columbia Heights, at the height of the crack wars, before a bunch of out of town assholes moved in and converted it to pricey condos. No recently arrived gentrifier dipshits from someplace else need bother to educate me about DC politics, I was here.

The covert racism in some of these posts is sickening, but it's also exactly what I expect from the "new" DC residents.

And YOU call yourselves "progressives".

While we should have understanding and empathy, normally one wouldn't want to make the person CEO of an enterprise employing 45,000 people, providing crucial services with a $10 billion budget. Otherwise, there's the risk of disastrous results, which is pretty much what the people of DC got.

Aside from Barry's corruption, incompetence, racism, drug use, etc., what really stands out was the way he evaded paying taxes for years. The guy was basically a career criminal.

What about the tens of thousands of young people from east of the river who through the summer jobs program got their first exposure to a real job and a glimpse of what kind of life they could make for themselves outside of the block they grew up on IF they applied themselves?

Or the thousands of families who had thanksgiving turkeys when they couldn't afford to buy their own?

Minority business owners and contractors who got their first chance at big budget jobs and a chance to grow their businesses, after being shut out of such opportunities by the all white old boy contractor network?

And lest you forget, Barry was SHOT while trying to get other DC council staff to safety during the Hanafi Muslim attacks in DC.


He wasn't perfect. Everyone knew that. But those flaws made him relatable to the people who voted for him. Everyone has a family member who had a problem with booze or drugs, or went to jail. It's a reality for them. And they saw in Barry someone who had the same flaws as someone they loved, and he went to bat for them.

You don't need to tell me how bad DC schools were, I know. I was Cardozo class of '88. I was here. A white kid growing up in Columbia Heights, at the height of the crack wars, before a bunch of out of town assholes moved in and converted it to pricey condos. No recently arrived gentrifier dipshits from someplace else need bother to educate me about DC politics, I was here.

The covert racism in some of these posts is sickening, but it's also exactly what I expect from the "new" DC residents.

And YOU call yourselves "progressives".

If 'the people he represented' meant the political hacks, the cronies, the connected, the shifty operators, the no-show contractors, and the leeches who only know how to suck the lifeblood out of local government, then yes, Barry perhaps did "good" for them. For "the least, the lost and the last" -- Barry's professed constituency -- he did terribly. How much of the directed, wasteful, no-deliverables D.C. 'consulting' contracts resulted in better public schools, housing or services for them? Barry's sticking-it-to-the-Man-schtick may have given some voters a sugar high, but for the poor who were dependent on city services, Barry mis-served them badly. For all of his bloated DC city workforce (and Barry's administration lacked even an accurate count of the number of District employees), the D.C. government couldn't even pick up the garbage or open the schools on time. Barry basically bankrupted D.C., earning it the name Dysfunctional City. If it hadn't been for the federal control board (and Tony Williams as the CFO), D.C. would have turned out like Detroit, but with worse roadways.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This. Not to mention that at a time when they are literally knocking statues of Confederate racists off their pedestals in places like New Orleans and Richmond, along come DC local politicians who are falling all over themselves to commemorate a modern-day racist and crook, Marion Barry. This is someone who, aside from his crack use, serial disrespect of women, tax evasion and corruption, repeatedly disparaged with his public racist statements groups like Asian-American shopkeepers, Filipino-American nurses, etc.

Now they want, at taxpayer expense no less, to erect statues, name UDC buildings, rename Ballou HS, all to celebrate DC's Great Leader and Mayor-for-Life. (On Ballou, please, please don't do this to a storied high school. A John Lovitz film already made a national joke of "Marion Barry High.")

As bad as Barry was on his worst days, he never came close to comparing to Confederate leaders. Making such a comparison is ridiculous. Barry never owned another human being, never advocated slavery, and certainly did not go to war with the United States. As for his faults, you will be hard pressed to find any perfect individual represented by a statue.

It's, uh, high time for DC to move on from the Barry era. Barry became a national joke and nearly turned the District of Columbia into one, as he was running DC into the ground. Why would anyone want to perpetuate all that and honor such a dishonorable character?

46 year old white conservative male here, grew up in DC and Maryland, lived in this area my entire life:

Marion Barry was an honorable man who did his best as he understood it to represent and bring up those in D.C. who had no voice at the time.

He was also a flawed man, but those flaws should not be counted against the good he did for the people he represented.[b]

Barry is only an embarrassment to those too ignorant or racist to understand or learn who he was. Barry was an Eagle Scout. He had a Masters in Chemistry. He was very close to completing medical school when he decided to enter politics. To say that he was anything other than an accomplished, complicated man who tried to do well by those he saw as without a voice is shameful

You're an ugly, ugly human being.

"

"[b]The good he did for the people he represented"?! Heck, DC public schools were so bad during Barry's time that the bathrooms lacked doors and toilet paper. The condition of public housing was appalling. Violent crime was rampant. The DC government couldn't even pick up the garbage reliably.

As for the Masters in Chemistry, perhaps before there was Walter White, Marion Barry was the original "Breaking Bad"!

He created an unsustainable uneducated black middle class based on patronage. For a man who was educated, one would have thought that he would have aspired for those he represented to be more educated and better than him.

It shows how fossilized some of DC's politicians are, that they don't realize that much of the late mayor-for-life's base either has died or long ago moved to PG County -- taking their low expectations for good governance with them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This. Not to mention that at a time when they are literally knocking statues of Confederate racists off their pedestals in places like New Orleans and Richmond, along come DC local politicians who are falling all over themselves to commemorate a modern-day racist and crook, Marion Barry. This is someone who, aside from his crack use, serial disrespect of women, tax evasion and corruption, repeatedly disparaged with his public racist statements groups like Asian-American shopkeepers, Filipino-American nurses, etc.

Now they want, at taxpayer expense no less, to erect statues, name UDC buildings, rename Ballou HS, all to celebrate DC's Great Leader and Mayor-for-Life. (On Ballou, please, please don't do this to a storied high school. A John Lovitz film already made a national joke of "Marion Barry High.")

As bad as Barry was on his worst days, he never came close to comparing to Confederate leaders. Making such a comparison is ridiculous. Barry never owned another human being, never advocated slavery, and certainly did not go to war with the United States. As for his faults, you will be hard pressed to find any perfect individual represented by a statue.

It's, uh, high time for DC to move on from the Barry era. Barry became a national joke and nearly turned the District of Columbia into one, as he was running DC into the ground. Why would anyone want to perpetuate all that and honor such a dishonorable character?

46 year old white conservative male here, grew up in DC and Maryland, lived in this area my entire life:

Marion Barry was an honorable man who did his best as he understood it to represent and bring up those in D.C. who had no voice at the time.

He was also a flawed man, but those flaws should not be counted against [b]the good he did for the people he represented.[b]

Barry is only an embarrassment to those too ignorant or racist to understand or learn who he was. Barry was an Eagle Scout. He had a Masters in Chemistry. He was very close to completing medical school when he decided to enter politics. To say that he was anything other than an accomplished, complicated man who tried to do well by those he saw as without a voice is shameful

You're an ugly, ugly human being.

"

"The good he did for the people he represented"?! Heck, DC public schools were so bad during Barry's time that the bathrooms lacked doors and toilet paper. The condition of public housing was appalling. Violent crime was rampant. The DC government couldn't even pick up the garbage reliably.

As for the Masters in Chemistry, perhaps before there was Walter White, Marion Barry was the original "Breaking Bad"!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I know Trayon White personally, and he's been an activist and community organizer / advocate for at least 15 years


To sugggest he isn't worthy of a council seat representing people he's been fighting for for almost two decades is disgusting

Speaking of Marion Barry, it seems like Barry's old campaign slogan fits Trayon like the proverbial glove: "He isn't perfect, but he's perfect for DC!"

You think you're clever, but you're actually very much an ass.

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This. Not to mention that at a time when they are literally knocking statues of Confederate racists off their pedestals in places like New Orleans and Richmond, along come DC local politicians who are falling all over themselves to commemorate a modern-day racist and crook, Marion Barry. This is someone who, aside from his crack use, serial disrespect of women, tax evasion and corruption, repeatedly disparaged with his public racist statements groups like Asian-American shopkeepers, Filipino-American nurses, etc.

Now they want, at taxpayer expense no less, to erect statues, name UDC buildings, rename Ballou HS, all to celebrate DC's Great Leader and Mayor-for-Life. (On Ballou, please, please don't do this to a storied high school. A John Lovitz film already made a national joke of "Marion Barry High.")

As bad as Barry was on his worst days, he never came close to comparing to Confederate leaders. Making such a comparison is ridiculous. Barry never owned another human being, never advocated slavery, and certainly did not go to war with the United States. As for his faults, you will be hard pressed to find any perfect individual represented by a statue.

It's, uh, high time for DC to move on from the Barry era. Barry became a national joke and nearly turned the District of Columbia into one, as he was running DC into the ground. Why would anyone want to perpetuate all that and honor such a dishonorable character?

46 year old white conservative male here, grew up in DC and Maryland, lived in this area my entire life:

Marion Barry was an honorable man who did his best as he understood it to represent and bring up those in D.C. who had no voice at the time.

He was also a flawed man, but those flaws should not be counted against the good he did for the people he represented.

Barry is only an embarrassment to those too ignorant or racist to understand or learn who he was. Barry was an Eagle Scout. He had a Masters in Chemistry. He was very close to completing medical school when he decided to enter politics. To say that he was anything other than an accomplished, complicated man who tried to do well by those he saw as without a voice is shameful

You're an ugly, ugly human being.

Anonymous wrote:I know Trayon White personally, and he's been an activist and community organizer / advocate for at least 15 years


To sugggest he isn't worthy of a council seat representing people he's been fighting for for almost two decades is disgusting

Speaking of Marion Barry, it seems like Barry's old campaign slogan fits Trayon like the proverbial glove: "He isn't perfect, but he's perfect for DC!"

I know Trayon White personally, and he's been an activist and community organizer / advocate for at least 15 years


To sugggest he isn't worthy of a council seat representing people he's been fighting for for almost two decades is disgusting

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This. Not to mention that at a time when they are literally knocking statues of Confederate racists off their pedestals in places like New Orleans and Richmond, along come DC local politicians who are falling all over themselves to commemorate a modern-day racist and crook, Marion Barry. This is someone who, aside from his crack use, serial disrespect of women, tax evasion and corruption, repeatedly disparaged with his public racist statements groups like Asian-American shopkeepers, Filipino-American nurses, etc.

Now they want, at taxpayer expense no less, to erect statues, name UDC buildings, rename Ballou HS, all to celebrate DC's Great Leader and Mayor-for-Life. (On Ballou, please, please don't do this to a storied high school. A John Lovitz film already made a national joke of "Marion Barry High.")

As bad as Barry was on his worst days, he never came close to comparing to Confederate leaders. Making such a comparison is ridiculous. Barry never owned another human being, never advocated slavery, and certainly did not go to war with the United States. As for his faults, you will be hard pressed to find any perfect individual represented by a statue.

It's, uh, high time for DC to move on from the Barry era. Barry became a national joke and nearly turned the District of Columbia into one, as he was running DC into the ground. Why would anyone want to perpetuate all that and honor such a dishonorable character?

Anonymous wrote:This. Not to mention that at a time when they are literally knocking statues of Confederate racists off their pedestals in places like New Orleans and Richmond, along come DC local politicians who are falling all over themselves to commemorate a modern-day racist and crook, Marion Barry. This is someone who, aside from his crack use, serial disrespect of women, tax evasion and corruption, repeatedly disparaged with his public racist statements groups like Asian-American shopkeepers, Filipino-American nurses, etc.

Now they want, at taxpayer expense no less, to erect statues, name UDC buildings, rename Ballou HS, all to celebrate DC's Great Leader and Mayor-for-Life. (On Ballou, please, please don't do this to a storied high school. A John Lovitz film already made a national joke of "Marion Barry High.")

As bad as Barry was on his worst days, he never came close to comparing to Confederate leaders. Making such a comparison is ridiculous. Barry never owned another human being, never advocated slavery, and certainly did not go to war with the United States. As for his faults, you will be hard pressed to find any perfect individual represented by a statue.

The politicians who champion Marion Barry in public laugh at his supporters in private. It's a litmus test really: If a DC politician speaks of Barry fondly vote them out of office.

This. Not to mention that at a time when they are literally knocking statues of Confederate racists off their pedestals in places like New Orleans and Richmond, along come DC local politicians who are falling all over themselves to commemorate a modern-day racist and crook, Marion Barry. This is someone who, aside from his crack use, serial disrespect of women, tax evasion and corruption, repeatedly disparaged with his public racist statements groups like Asian-American shopkeepers, Filipino-American nurses, etc.

Now they want, at taxpayer expense no less, to erect statues, name UDC buildings, rename Ballou HS, all to celebrate DC's Great Leader and Mayor-for-Life. (On Ballou, please, please don't do this to a storied high school. A John Lovitz film already made a national joke of "Marion Barry High.")

haven't demonstrated success and do not have the credentials to manage one fast food location let alone a city or Ward like Brandon Todd, Trayon White, City Manager Rashad Young, new chancellor Antwan Wilson, etc. There are several more incompetent black men city officials and people in high level roles that are horrific and don't have to do anything. Those roles that do not have as much spotlight so they get to use tax dollars to do what they want. As a black woman I know there are competent successful black men in DC but people keep setting our people up for failure by hiring uncle toms. It's embarrassing and inaccurate of the black story.

Here we go again with another joke of a human who was given a high level of responsibility. Trayon White posted bail for an ANC member who assaulted his girlfriend (http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/news/loose-lips/article/20864492/cm-trayon-white-posts-bail-for-anc-commissioner-charged-with-assault). Trayon claims he spoke with the girlfriend and the story didn't line up. Really? Being a council member makes him an investigator? It isn't the fact it's a friend and another black man? Or the fact that Trayon also has a history of being abusive toward black women (I know this because I grew up in his neighborhood). This is disturbing. I continue to not be surprised by the abuse of power and atrocities committed by DC public officials because this is how it has always been and it's our mayors like Bowser who make sure it remains this way. A black woman who could be a leader for change but instead throws her own under the bus, lifts disgusting black men to power, and panders to white rich people.