Anonymous wrote:Another day for me in the hellscape. Had to bike on well laid bike paths from my home in NW down into SW. had to get lunch by walking through the hellacious eastern market where there were vendors and restaurants that wanted to sell me delicious food from different cultures. Then, I had to pay zero dollars to swim in a beautifully maintained pool that I get access to for free. And now I have to sit on my porch and have beers with a few neighbors. What a terrible city

You know that not everyone lives in NW and works on Capitol Hill, right? Some folks are having to deal with pretty frequent shootings in their neighborhood, and they don't feel safe.

Maybe if like DC Realtime News you were from DC and made living as a citizen reporter you wouldn’t care only about your own expanding backside

Another day for me in the hellscape. Had to bike on well laid bike paths from my home in NW down into SW. had to get lunch by walking through the hellacious eastern market where there were vendors and restaurants that wanted to sell me delicious food from different cultures. Then, I had to pay zero dollars to swim in a beautifully maintained pool that I get access to for free. And now I have to sit on my porch and have beers with a few neighbors. What a terrible city

DC Council “passes” the laws just like the BM

What does this mean?

Can’t believe my taxpayer $ support No-Do to pass a Cuba resolution and refuse to utter the word “crime”. That’s not your job. But murders and shootings of children and innocent bystanders are, ATVs are, bad schools and poor housing are — you’re not only incompetent but purposefully harmful to DC.

You are irrelevant and now a national joke. You blew the stateshood for the generations to come. Resign.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it's lack of understanding of the nuance. Let's start with "gentrification". The progressive push I've seen is against displacement and biased improvement - i.e., white people are benefitting more significantly than Black people in DC. It's not to stop economic development and revitalization, but to do it in a way that benefits people who have been historically disadvantaged. Does that help at all?

With gentrification, those property owners see an increase in the value of their properties. You can't change how individual buyers and sellers operate. Rather than trying to cram more residents into Ward 3, DC should spent public money on improving the infrastructure, schools, and parks in Wards 7 and 8. That will improve immediately the character of those areas.

It is very possible to ensure affordable housing, could be means tested could be grandfathered. Requires mature adult government so no dice

Anonymous wrote:I think it's lack of understanding of the nuance. Let's start with "gentrification". The progressive push I've seen is against displacement and biased improvement - i.e., white people are benefitting more significantly than Black people in DC. It's not to stop economic development and revitalization, but to do it in a way that benefits people who have been historically disadvantaged. Does that help at all?

With gentrification, those property owners see an increase in the value of their properties. You can't change how individual buyers and sellers operate. Rather than trying to cram more residents into Ward 3, DC should spent public money on improving the infrastructure, schools, and parks in Wards 7 and 8. That will improve immediately the character of those areas.

Re: Carjacking... seems nearly all of them are committed by juveniles. Is this our problem? They aren't being prosecuted as adults? Prosecute carjacking as adults and they won't be back to do another one.

The fallout from the bill making just won’t stop.
The news today are a roller coaster

Don’t forget about needing a true State university. I believe one of the smartest things the Rs could do is increase DC TAG significantly. It would be a hardship to go from a well resourced DC TAG to only UDC.

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Of course it’s a stupid 2 minute analysis, but it seems to me equally naive to assume we declare statehood and give nothing up. When and where has that ever happened?

I'm going to have to retire from this discussion because it really is not worth my effort to continue spending time trying to convince someone who doesn't even know the basics of US history. How do you think we manage to get 50 states?

Okay, will do too. Perhaps I’m ignorant but it’s more that I’m not that trusting. Look at the Brexit and the EU. All the bets were off. I think we rely on a very generous interpretation of shrinking the Federal District and establishing a state and keeping all the privileges and no one trying to usurp that plan.

Can DC afford to be a State?

Yes. Washington, DC now operates as if it were a State and its vibrant urban economy has a bigger gross domestic product than many States.
It says only this (see my comments in [])

Can DC afford to be a State?

Yes. Washington, DC now operates as if it were a State and its vibrant urban economy has a bigger gross domestic product than many States. [Assumes status quo. 75% if the economy depends on that]

DC residents pay federal taxes – more per capita than any state and more total federal taxes than 12 states. In fact, we are a donor state, meaning DC gives more in federal tax dollars than we receive. The same cannot be said for the vast majority of states.  [agree, but let’s consider not paying taxes, it would make statehood path easier]

DC has balanced its budgets year-after-year for at least 20 years and has a AAA bond rating, a rating higher than 35 states. [assuming status quo]

Local taxes, not federal dollars, constitute the vast majority of the District’s budget. [how much more will a resident have to pay if we lose one Department, if we lose two etc]