Anonymous
Post 11/10/2017 23:23     Subject: Anyone been here since the 80s / early 90s? How did smart locals react to Marion Barry
smart locals moved out of the city
Anonymous
Post 11/10/2017 23:21     Subject: Anyone been here since the 80s / early 90s?
Anonymous wrote:The DC of the 80's/90's is not the same DC of today. Barr y related to his voters in a very human way. He wasn't perfect, he had his fair share of demons but that just made him more approachable to the people in his community. That's why voters kept voting for him no matter what he did.





His re-election slogan was "He may not be perfect, but he's perfect for DC."

How true then, and how sad.
Anonymous
Post 11/10/2017 23:18     Subject: Anyone been here since the 80s / early 90s?
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:It's said that MB did help some -- basically the local contracts leech and chiseler class who moved out to PG County. That's how PG got such luminaries as Jack Johnson and his bribe-stuffing missus. MB disserved the poor souls who stayed behind in DC and actually depended on the DC government for a decent education for their kids and basic social services.

Jack and Leslie Johnson had nothing to do with the DC government.


Wrong, bro! Leslie Johnson in particular was schooled and steeped in the fetid, corrupt, pay-to-play DC political culture.

"Mrs. Johnson eschewed the law firm life that many of her Howard classmates chose, preferring a 9-to-5 job that would let her get home to her kids. She worked for the D.C. government for 27 years, becoming an administrative law judge, a post that paid $91,000 when she retired last year."

Ms. Johnson's "service" with the DC government, from 1982-2009 began under the Mayor-for-Life and continued through three of his mayoral terms and a number of his years on the DC Council.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/07/AR2010120706997.html?sid=ST20101112040

Anonymous
Post 11/10/2017 22:22     Subject: Anyone been here since the 80s / early 90s? How did smart locals react to Marion Barry
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Marion Barry was a DC fixture in a different era. The DC of the 80's/90's is not the same DC of today. Barry related to his voters in a very human way. He wasn't perfect, he had his fair share of demons but that just made him more approachable to the people in his community. That's why voters kept voting for him no matter what he did.




He related to his black voters, you mean. As a UMC white, I found his favoritism toward blacks and covert (or even overt) disdain toward whites both shameful and racist.


THIS, exactly.
Anonymous
Post 11/10/2017 21:55     Subject: Anyone been here since the 80s / early 90s? How did smart locals react to Marion Barry
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Marion Barry was a DC fixture in a different era. The DC of the 80's/90's is not the same DC of today. Barry related to his voters in a very human way. He wasn't perfect, he had his fair share of demons but that just made him more approachable to the people in his community. That's why voters kept voting for him no matter what he did.




He related to his black voters, you mean. As a UMC white, I found his favoritism toward blacks and covert (or even overt) disdain toward whites both shameful and racist.


Anonymous
Post 11/10/2017 20:49     Subject: Re:Anyone been here since the 80s / early 90s? How did smart locals react to Marion Barry
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Marion Barry expressed racist views and made DC a national joke. It’s amazing to see that people still support him.


THIS.


It is possible his biggest legacy in DC is the overt racism from blacks towards whites.


Don't forget his racist remarks about Asians.
Anonymous
Post 11/10/2017 20:31     Subject: Anyone been here since the 80s / early 90s? How did smart locals react to Marion Barry
I remember circa 1997 being at a neighborhood meeting with around 200 people who were angry about the new convention center. Barry showed himself to be a master. First, he addressed the crowd and said he understood their anger, but that there wasn't time for all 200 to speak. He handed out pieces of paper and told people to write down their grievances and he would make sure they were addressed. This diffused them. Then he spoke for a bit, and his personal charisma won over the crowd. He took a few questions and it was a different room. I have never seen such personal magnetism.

As a side note, as someone who lived near the convention center site and followed the process I can say that every promise that was made to the community was broken. But the hospitality industry got what they wanted.
Anonymous
Post 11/10/2017 15:45     Subject: Anyone been here since the 80s / early 90s? How did smart locals react to Marion Barry
Anonymous wrote:Marion Barry was a DC fixture in a different era. The DC of the 80's/90's is not the same DC of today. Barry related to his voters in a very human way. He wasn't perfect, he had his fair share of demons but that just made him more approachable to the people in his community. That's why voters kept voting for him no matter what he did.




He related to his black voters, you mean. As a UMC white, I found his favoritism toward blacks and covert (or even overt) disdain toward whites both shameful and racist.
Anonymous
Post 11/10/2017 14:59     Subject: Anyone been here since the 80s / early 90s? How did smart locals react to Marion Barry
Anonymous wrote:The ignorance of continued devotion to Marion Barry honestly makes me so mad. What he did to people of color is disgusting. Barry sentenced an entire generation to a high chance of poverty by failing to provide quality public education. He also literally sentenced to death so many young men and women by not getting the crime in our city under control.

Barry saw his role as using the city's coffers and power to build a black middle class. He bloated every city office and agency to ridiculous proportions, often creating unnecessary and redundant jobs, and there were often no qualifications needed for hiring beyond skin color and, at the higher levels, the right connections. Public services here were a total joke. You think they're bad now? Multiply that by 50, and that was the District in 1990. The irony is that a huge number of those lazy, incompetent city employees moved out of the city to Maryland because even they were fed up with the schools and the crime!

But, he created a summer jobs program, which you know was so daring and original.

Thank God we were blessed enough to have Anthony Williams save our butts. He laid the foundation to turn this city around and I will forever be grateful for his leadership, which I feel has sadly been unsung.


I grew up in MoCo and have lived in DC since the early 1990s. I agree with much of this statement. Understood within the context of newly-granted Home Rule, Barry's first years were exciting and liberating for African Americans in DC. However, the short-term political gain of employment for a large number of city residents came at the expense of those on the receiving end of city services such as students, the elderly, children in the welfare system, the mentally ill, the sick, etc. I don't believe that Barry ever set out to harm his constituents but that, indeed, was the end result and we are still grappling with its lasting impact on residents today.

Anonymous
Post 11/10/2017 14:58     Subject: Anyone been here since the 80s / early 90s? How did smart locals react to Marion Barry
Marion Barry was a DC fixture in a different era. The DC of the 80's/90's is not the same DC of today. Barry related to his voters in a very human way. He wasn't perfect, he had his fair share of demons but that just made him more approachable to the people in his community. That's why voters kept voting for him no matter what he did.



Anonymous
Post 11/10/2017 14:51     Subject: Re:Anyone been here since the 80s / early 90s? How did smart locals react to Marion Barry
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Marion Barry expressed racist views and made DC a national joke. It’s amazing to see that people still support him.


THIS.


It is possible his biggest legacy in DC is the overt racism from blacks towards whites.
Anonymous
Post 11/10/2017 14:50     Subject: Re:Anyone been here since the 80s / early 90s? How did smart locals react to Marion Barry
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I'm a native Washingtonian, born in 1958, and have seen a lot. Barry was an embarrassment, and the fact that the city re-elected him that last time made DC residents a laughing stock. But I'm one of the white people whom a previous PP said doesn't count, so oh well.



The current city counsel wants to build a monument to celebrate Barry:

http://wjla.com/news/local/dc-council-takes-step-towards-placing-statue-of-marion-barry-in-front-of-wilson-building


Ironic, no, at the same time that people elsewhere are pulling down statues of law-breaking old racists.


THIS x1000. But the irony will go right over their heads.
Anonymous
Post 11/10/2017 14:49     Subject: Re:Anyone been here since the 80s / early 90s? How did smart locals react to Marion Barry
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I'm a native Washingtonian, born in 1958, and have seen a lot. Barry was an embarrassment, and the fact that the city re-elected him that last time made DC residents a laughing stock. But I'm one of the white people whom a previous PP said doesn't count, so oh well.


People said newcomers don't count. Pay more attention.


Nope, "people" (meaning one incredibly self-centered and rude poster) said "know-it-all WHITE newcomers don't count). Not racist at all.
Anonymous
Post 11/10/2017 14:48     Subject: Re:Anyone been here since the 80s / early 90s? How did smart locals react to Marion Barry
Anonymous wrote:Marion Barry expressed racist views and made DC a national joke. It’s amazing to see that people still support him.


THIS.
Anonymous
Post 11/10/2017 14:47     Subject: Anyone been here since the 80s / early 90s? How did smart locals react to Marion Barry
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:There's something that has gone right over the heads of all of you here clucking about how much Barry sucked: the people who put him in office don't give the slightest damn what you think. You're white people. Most of you moved here within the last decade or so. Barry was never your Mayor. Your experience and your opinion, when it comes to Marion Barry, is invalid and completely without merit. What you say....it just doesn't matter. Not to us. We were here. We remember Barry. And we were never embarrassed of him. Newly arrived white people don't get to rewrite history, and don't get to give us our own opinions. So call him all the names you want. It just helps us identify you as a racist. Not that we needed any more help, but still.


DP. This includes newly arrived of any race, color, or national origin.


But oddly, most of the the people talking about how bad Barry was ARE almost exclusively newly arrived white people who either aren't old enough to remember Barry or didn't live in DC at the time.

It's not older Asian people moving here and mouthing off about Barry. Or younger people from west Africa. Or anyone from Central America.

Nope. It's mostly all younger, know it all white people.


It's funny how you simply assume things you know nothing about. I'm white, born and raised in DC. I lived there from 1968 until I got married, in 1990. DC is very much my city, just as much as it's yours. Who do you think you are, acting like the city is exclusively for blacks? Get off your high horse. My family, neighbors, and friends who lived there during that time were all very much Barry's constituents. And we're free to give our opinion of the disaster that was Marion Barry.