Seriously is THIS the way it is here? (low income, neighborhoods)

[vanyali]

Yes, it's no secret that DC has bad government. The place has never been run well.

[newtodc0408]

I think the Goverment does that to drive out crime (get more rich and well to do people in the area) ... but what they dont seem to get is that, THAT type of thinking doesnt PREVENT crime it only enforces it. With that said....we all know that but doesnt mean you have the RIGHT to take what does not belong to you simply because you do not have it.. You learn that leason when your a kid. I mean come on.

Straying off the topic for a second....

It was weird today. I was out walking the new dog I got and she went up to 2 people sitting on some stairs.... and i was telling the dog to say to "hi" them and these teenagers looked at me like I was on effin crack. Maybe they were. I dont get it WTF is wrong with people? Has most people forgot what it's like to socialize?
I mean how effin rude can you be????? Blank stares from both of them? WTF?!

[vanyali]

That's weird. I hate it when people don't want to let their dogs "say hi" to my dogs, or see my (small spaniel) dogs coming (on a leash, on the sidewalk) and cross the street to avoid us. On the other hand, it hasn't been my experience that people in the DC area are overwhelmingly like that. Here in Charlotte people are all like that, but that was new to me when I moved down here after growing up in NOVA. And just last week I was up in the DC area, and struck up conversations with numerous people walking dogs past me in VA, DC and MD. Now I sound like some dog-walker stalker, but really, I think the people who walked past me just happened to be friendly.

[breakingfree]

Originally Posted by newtodc0408

It was weird today. I was out walking the new dog I got and she went up to 2 people sitting on some stairs.... and i was telling the dog to say to "hi" them and these teenagers looked at me like I was on effin crack. Maybe they were. I dont get it WTF is wrong with people? Has most people forgot what it's like to socialize?
I mean how effin rude can you be????? Blank stares from both of them? WTF?!

At least they didn't laugh at you, which is the response most people tend to get when dealing with teenagers here. DC teens have absolutely no respect! Find me one who does and I'll eat my words!

[rlchurch]

Originally Posted by vanyali

Yes, it's no secret that DC has bad government. The place has never been run well.

Actually DC runs pretty well these days. The previous mayor did a very good job and the current mayor is really making some changes. The city runs a fiscal surplus these days and it's debt is highly rated. Property values are holding steady today after several years of pretty dramatic increases.

[vanyali]

Originally Posted by rlchurch

Actually DC runs pretty well these days. The previous mayor did a very good job and the current mayor is really making some changes. The city runs a fiscal surplus these days and it's debt is highly rated. Property values are holding steady today after several years of pretty dramatic increases.

Isn't the city government closing down some of its few functional public schools to grab the land that the school buildings sit on to hand out to condo developers? Maybe DC is run well compared to the past, but would you really call it a well-run city?

[ffknight918]

Originally Posted by breakingfree

At least they didn't laugh at you, which is the response most people tend to get when dealing with teenagers here. DC teens have absolutely no respect! Find me one who does and I'll eat my words!

I'm barely out of my teenage years(I'm almost 21), and I'm already sick of teens. haha I'm guessing it's partly because I've matured a lot since I didn't go away to college like most. I stayed home and have a job(firefighter) where I'm working with all older people and have to listen to them to be able to perform the job well.

[Moth]

The DC government is slightly more efficient than the Supreme Soviet under Stalin.

Ironically, up until the 60s, DC was known as having one of the best civil services, an outstanding police force and it was not unknown for kids from Maryland and Virginia to pay tuition to attend DC Public schools.

Williams made a lot of improvements, but there is still a long way to go.

[slim04]

Originally Posted by Moth

The DC government is slightly more efficient than the Supreme Soviet under Stalin.

Ironically, up until the 60s, DC was known as having one of the best civil services, an outstanding police force and it was not unknown for kids from Maryland and Virginia to pay tuition to attend DC Public schools.

Williams made a lot of improvements, but there is still a long way to go.

I do a lot of pro bono work in DC and I can tell you first hand that many of its agencies are very poorly run, particularly the DCRA and the Child and Family Services Agency. I could go pages upon page of horror stories and the utter disregard they have to help their citizens, even for real basic things.

Anyways, these are more high profile failures:

The tragic and preventable murders of her children by Banita Jacks, the refusal to crack down illegal child care centers, lead in water and the agency's attempt to cover it up, David Rosenbaum needlessly dying because of improper EMT procedures, our worst in the national schools, our schools not up to fire code, tax office personnel embezzling $50M plus, the federal takeover of the DC prison system, the terrible conditions at DC Mental Health Facilities almost resulting in another federal takeover of the system, the lack of decent medical facilities in SE DC, the only major city that pumps raw sewage in our rivers when it rains, and our crumbling libraries.

Williams was a good mayor in terms of stopping the huge deficits the DC government was running, convincing some businesses like XM to come in to the city, and laying the groundwork for the new baseball stadium. Of course those are no small feats. But also keep in mind he benefited from a strong local economy and soaring property values (and resulting tax base).

In terms of getting the city's agencies from being poorly run, his only real success was getting the trash picked up on time. Williams really needed to take on those agencies and their entrenched bureaucracies, but he didn't really have the heart to do so (other than the CFO office he used to run).

The new administration is at least acknowledging the problems and trying to fix the mess that has developed over the past 30 years. Fortunately, if you live in an affluent area in DC, many of these poorly run agencies don't really affect you, but they have a huge impact on a lot of people in DC.

[vanyali]

Why not use the fact that the richest tax payers don't care about most of the bad city services to the city's advantage? It seems to me that if DC could get its schools in order, even more people would move back to the city, its tax base would explode, and then the city government would have more breathing room to tackle the other problems.

Yeah, some people have already started moving back into the city, but most either don't have kids, or they have to move right back out again once their kids are school-aged and they find out that they can't find a spot in a private school, or their kids age-out of some marginally acceptable public elementary school in NW and the parents move to the suburbs for middle school and beyond.

Of course, "fixing the schools" is easier said than done. But getting rid of all the stupid horror stories about not even being able to get the books out of the warehouse and into the schools, grabbing school land in suspicious land deals, etc. etc, would be a good first step.