DC Watch's Dorothy Brizill comments:
DC’s Strategic Plan and You
Dorothy Brizill, dorothy@dcwatch.com
On Wednesday, November 14, Mayor Gray released his Five-Year Economic Development Strategy for the District of Columbia, which details an ambitious plan to create one hundred thousand new jobs and attract one billion dollars in new tax revenue to the District over the next five years. According to the one hundred twelve page document, the genesis for the strategic plan was "In the spring of 2012, [when] Mayor Vincent C. Gray and Victor Hoskins, the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development, engaged the business schools of The George Washington University Georgetown University, Howard University, and American University to take a leadership role in developing a strategic plan for the nation’s capital." The project was overseen by an executive committee that was co-chaired by David A. Thomas, dean of Georgetown’s School of Business since 2011, and Doug Guthrie, dean of George Washington’s School of Business since 2010. Research for the project was conducted by the deans of the District’s business schools and by sixteen MBA students who were recruited to work on the project. The findings and recommendations that are detailed in the strategic plan are largely drawn from interviews with one hundred eighty-five "stakeholders," who were almost exclusively from the District’s business community, but most of whom were not District residents.
Since civic leaders in the District were not consulted or directly involved in the development of the strategic plan, it is now important that residents review and analyze the final document, since it could serve as a blueprint for future District government policies and actions that will have an impact on many District residents and neighborhoods (especially those in close proximity to existing Metro stops, the St. Elizabeth’s East Campus, Walter Reed, McMillan Reservoir, and the Southeast Waterfront.
Long ago and far away, the lumpenproletariat workforce peoples of Bloomingdalia and Strongholdia, in deepest Developmentistan, lived happily in their ancient homes surrounding the equally ancient fertile plains of McMillania, content with their quiet, busy, active lives. One day, the Omniscient, Infallible, Redneck, Socialist city fathers approached the lumpenproletariat workforce peoples and barked, “Behold, the fertile plain of McMillania is a sore to the eye, it is not GREEN, but with the help of the fathers’ friends in the building trades this worthless sylvan beauty may be transformed into a modern aluminum siding, prestressed concrete, and vinyl wonder, and make it truly GREEN. The fathers’ friends in the building trades will also enhance the electability of the fathers with an entirely different sort of GREEN, necessary just now with the fading generosity of the venerable healer Thompson. Trust in the fathers’ infallible wisdom, which is greater than that of the workforce, to know what is best for thee.” The workforce lumpenproletariat, amazed at the vision of the fathers, cried, “But it is green already, and it is a solace to the eyes, the verdant heart of all that we value, and it is a place of refuge from the daily noise of the city, albeit hidden behind fences.” The city fathers proclaimed that green is not in fact GREEN until it has been enhanced with modern building materials, and that McMillania’s true value is in dollars and cents, not natural beauty, and that its history would be no match for the bulldozer. The lumpenproletariat workforce waxed wroth with the fathers and puzzled at their strange definition of GREEN, much questioned the fathers’ wisdom and infallibility, and pondered deeply on the inelectable modality of the financial. The fathers pleaded, “Thee, the lumpenproletariat workforce, need shoddy housing to improve thy century-old neighborhood, and need the bracing flow of increased traffic and increased flooding threats to enliven this quiet neighborhood, and some chain stores to threaten the quality of thy lives.” “Like a hole in the proverbial head we need these things, happy as we are with the life we have made in our lovely homes,” responded the workforce, and cursed the fathers with many bitter words.
ReplyDeleteThis guy, Kirby, sounds like he may be having a manic episode.
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