"Whom do you think is the best candidate for DC Mayor and why should members of the Bloomingdale community support that candidate?"
Thursday, September 02, 2010
"Whom do you think is the best candidate for DC mayor?"
A V Street NW resident has asked me to post this question to the Bloomingdale community regarding the upcoming mayoral primary:
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26 comments:
Fenty - May not be nicest most pleasant person in the world but look around. Things are so much better in the past 3 1/2 years. All the complaints that are being voiced against him are the same ones that are voiced against every mayor. "Your friends are getting contracts", "You don't listen to the needs of the people", "You didn't do this..." "You didn't do that..." Every mayor the same thing and some times it has been worst then just these types of complaints. If you like the path the schools are going,Fenty if not then you know Grey is going to fire Rhee. Do you like the path and the actions of the Police? If not guess what happens to Lanier. My real beef isn't with the mayor it is more with the councilmembers any way. They hold up things, for example the park issue that Barry held up just for political reasons. That is the sort of thing going on all the time and it happens among the councilmembers. Remember if the mayor puts up something he wants done and they vote it down or they don't enact legislation to change something that is thier doing, not the mayor.
fenty's egomania is his bane. Grey, for better or worse, will be our next mayor.
Fenty. Total jerk but has made progress. Especially in DCPS.
Gray. Thoughtful, nice, inclusive....but hasn't stood for anything this campaign except being nice. Don't know what you're getting with him.
Grey is a throwback to the Barry era - he was head of the Human Services department during that period. 'Nuff said!
Agree with Bikerindc - Barry-era politics I hope come to a dead halt in the near future. Fenty has his cockiness, but if that is the reason to vote against him, that is unfortunate. Gray will stall progress in the city....
I'm voting for Grey because of his background in disability services - doesn't seem like disabled people are even on Fenty's radar.
tony williams was in the barry administration and he was a great mayor.
I like what Julia said, at least Vincent Gray may be more sensitive to people with disabilities, but wasn't he caught using city funds to pay for his campaign?
SIGH!
I didn't vote for Fenty in 2006, but I've been impressed with his appointments and his skill as the city's chief executive. The fact that Gray leads in the polls is symptomatic of what's wrong with American politics. We vote for the likable candidates and then scatch our heads wondering why they don't govern particularly well.
State Houses, Governors mansions and Congress are full of bland, amiable politicians who can't make a decision without taking a poll. Building consensus can be an important skill for a legislator, but being conciliatory isn't necessarily a recipe for effective executive leadership.
It appears, however, that on September 14th in the District it will continue to be a recipe for getting elected, and that is truly unfortunate.
"Gray is a throwback to the Barry era" is nothing more than a Fenty campaign desperation pitch. It won't complete.
Also, the enormous progress in DC in the past 11 - 12 years can be credited to ANTHONY WILLIAMS. Not Adrian Fenty.
But the biggest reason not to vote for Fenty is the corruption. The contract and development deals he has steered to his fraternity brothers, enriching them at the expense of DC taxpayers is outrageous. DC is not his little kingdom, from which to reward his supporters from the spoils.
Fortunately, in 10 days he becomes a lame duck.
i agree with anonymous that its a desperate fenty campaign pitch directed mostly toward people that don't really know barry.
my biggest concern with gray is the rabid endorsements he is getting from certifiable loons.
i'm on the eckington list serve and read the salivations of robert branaum. today he posted an article that basically said fenty shouldn't be elected because he has appointed too many non-white people.
both sides don't deserve to run this town.
For all of you anti-Barry people, check his record on the things that he did for the city. He had personal problems, but they did not affect how he ran the city. He didn't take special interest money and he never forgot that a people need jobs in order to continue to make progress for the city. That is why he started the Summer Youth Employment Program, to take care of everyone who needed to work. Fenty gets a big fat FAIL on that front. He tried to blame the economy and the council, but, in fact, it was his administration's mismanagement of a program that ran almost flawlessly for more than 20 years. If you are not a long-time DC resident, you should not speak to what you think you know about the Barry era.
As for campaign finances, take a look at Fenty versus Gray. Yes, Fenty has a bigger war chest, it is because he started fundraising two years ago. That should raise some eyebrows to the respect that he was out fundraising instead of running the city. Where do you think those funds came from? His supporters, supporters like Sinclair and Moten, who are both under investigation. I also find it odd that Moten, a true Fenty-lover and Gray-hater, and his organization, Peaceaholics are under investigation by the FOP because they refuse to report how they spent the grant money given to them. I hope that those reading this are not so naive to believe that a good chunck of the money that Fenty has been handing out to his frat brothers by way of city contracts is not flowing right back into his campaign.
On the topic of education, things are not always what they, or Fenty, would have you to believe. If you take a look at the achievement in DCPS, it looks impressive and it looks like there is some progress. However, that progress is not across the board and across the city. Schools in Wards 7 and 8 are still in the same place they were before Fenty and Rhee. Fenty and Rhee have benefited from the economic downturn in the respect that fewer parents in the more affluent areas of the city can afford to send their children to private school. Therefore, you have the illusion of school improvement and an increase in enrollment. Higher performing students, who would otherwise leave the DCPS system, are staying because their parents can no longer afford $24K+ a year for private schools. Also, these parents do have enough to make healthy campaign contributions. Meanwhile, the less affluent population is stuck in their low-performing schools balancing out the stats. As an added note, SAT scores for DCPS students have been on a decline for the past three years.
I believe that Fenty is a big FAIL. DC has the highest unemployment rate it's ever had, and it's not just because of the economy. His administration did not enforce the DC law stating that all city contracts must use DC residents first. He completely botched the Summer Youth Employment Program, adding to the unemployment stats.
As for the schools, it is easy to show improvement when you pay, yes pay, children to go to summer school. Also, it is also easy to raise the stats when you high-performing students of parents who would, in better economic times, otherwise send their children to private school. Meanwhile, the AYP scores for children in schools in less affluent parts of the city have remain unchanged.
BTW, bikerindc, this city needs a lot more than new bike lanes that hinder the flow of traffic in the city on a daily basis during rush hour.
If more people used the bike lanes during rush hour there would be less traffic. That's the point of the bike lanes in the first place. Bikes are traffic, not a hindrance to traffic.
The argument regarding affluent people pulling their kids from private school causing a bump in the test scores is a total fallacy. Where is your proof of that? Who's to say that people aren't pulling their kids out of private schools due to the fact that Michele Rhee's programs are actually working?
In terms of whether or not Chancellor Rhee's programs are actually working for DC students, the City Paper recently had a cover story on that very issue: http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/articles/39647/michelle-rhees-campaign-to-diversify-dc-public-schools-means-wooing/full
Neither the Democrats nor Republicans care about DC, otherwise we would have voting rights. So who really cares whether it's Fenty, Gray or some Republican. I'll cast my vote for the Statehood canidate in the hopes that someday the rest of the electorate will wake up and smell the roses.
Hate Fenty's personality and nepotism... but still gonna vote for him because of: 1) michele rhee (who has finally given me hope of not having to move to the burbs when my child is school age); 2) speed bumps and few drug dealers on my block; 3) Library at Shawn metro;....in other words, proven results. For me VG is an unknown quantity and while nice will probably be too inclusive to get anything done. Furhter, Why can't VG commit to Rhee? Do i vote for people who can't stand up for their beliefs? No.
Of course you honkeys would be pro-fenty. He's safe, huh?
Real niggas vote Gray!
Anonymous said...
Real niggas vote Gray!
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i agree.
and decent mature african americans will vote fenty.
by "decent" do you mean white lookin' niggas? Your codespeak is hella racist, ock.
what's wrong with white? jerk.
I will vote for Fenty because despite the fact that I don't particularly like him, I don't need to. The city has been improving, and the schools have been improving. Better schools mean more families moving back into the city, and a higher tax base....nothing to do with color my friend.
families can't afford to move back into the city because of the premium on whiteness, cracker.
by "decent" i meant people that don't throw racial slurs around and most especially people that don't say "nigga".it must suck to always look for a reason to bitch and shout racism.
That's funny. I had to look up the word 'cracker' as I was unfamiliar with it. According to what I found... 'Cracker, sometimes white cracker, is a pejorative term for poor whites.[1] It is especially used for the white natives of the U.S. states of Georgia and Florida (Georgia crackers and Florida crackers), but it is also used throughout the Southern United States and more widely in North America.'
That's funny as I am neither white, poor, or consider DC the south.
Friend, you need to stop using words that you are unfamiliar with and more to the point rethink your posture. It is really unhelpful.
I am still voting for Fenty...and aside from people moving back into the city because schools are improving, people are not leaving the city for better schools. Those are both good things.
Good luck with your anger management.
Anonymous said...
families can't afford to move back into the city because of the premium on whiteness, cracker.
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bigotry is a good formula to stir up hatred. time honored.
i realize your ignorance is stopping you from seeing that there are black people that do not believe the same way that you do about Vincent Gray and gentrification. and that there are white folks that do.
it's sad really. pathetic even.
you'll have to get over your bigotry before you get much respect.
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