This is rebuttal to those who now wish to pull their kids out of D.C.P.S., leave the city and begin a new wave of white flight. I'm not mad at you. We all have choices to make in life.
Leadership is an ephemeral quality in political figures. People tend to impute it, even where it doesn't exist. People wanted leadership in the current Mayor of D.C. and failing to find it in Fenty's Potemkin village construction projects or his overt pandering to gentrifiers, the people turned to a grown-up, (Vince Gray) hoping (quite reasonably) to find it there.
While Vince Gray is no charismatic, firebrand politician, steeped in civil rights history and dogma like a Marion Barry ( please stop trying to compare them, it just doesn't fly, not remotely) he is a proud son of Washington, with a broad understanding of what we were, what we are and what we are supposed to be a city.
Part of leadership in a democracy or in business, is communicating properly with those being led. Creating a sense of buy in. Rallying the troops. On these fronts Fenty was ultimately ineffective. Only his republican guard--people too new to the city, too young and too selfish to think beyond their own narrow parochial concerns, got his message. The rest voted him out.
If Washington, D.C. should become Portland or New York then we will lose what makes the city worthwhile, we'll become another of the increasing number of "McCities." Good taste, no substance.
If that's what the public wants, why not tear down Southwest and build a Las Vegas on the Potomac? I am not down for that program and apparently the majority of voters weren't either; thanks be to God. It's not like I got a contract out of the deal--and I am a member of the relevant fraternity.
The shock troops of gentrification came to our fair city because of the uniqueness of the place. They liked its social duality, its racial mystery. We can never quite equal the blandness of Portland or the energy and crass commercialism of New York, so why try? We should try to perfect what we are: a relatively small, funky, up-south town with swagger. An enclave often visited by beautifully desperate circumstances and the haven of most sophisticated Black folk in the world.
I can live with that. In fact, I wouldn't have it any other way.
Part of leadership in a democracy or in business, is communicating properly with those being led. Creating a sense of buy in. Rallying the troops. On these fronts Fenty was ultimately ineffective. Only his republican guard--people too new to the city, too young and too selfish to think beyond their own narrow parochial concerns, got his message. The rest voted him out.
If Washington, D.C. should become Portland or New York then we will lose what makes the city worthwhile, we'll become another of the increasing number of "McCities." Good taste, no substance.
If that's what the public wants, why not tear down Southwest and build a Las Vegas on the Potomac? I am not down for that program and apparently the majority of voters weren't either; thanks be to God. It's not like I got a contract out of the deal--and I am a member of the relevant fraternity.
The shock troops of gentrification came to our fair city because of the uniqueness of the place. They liked its social duality, its racial mystery. We can never quite equal the blandness of Portland or the energy and crass commercialism of New York, so why try? We should try to perfect what we are: a relatively small, funky, up-south town with swagger. An enclave often visited by beautifully desperate circumstances and the haven of most sophisticated Black folk in the world.
I can live with that. In fact, I wouldn't have it any other way.
I was born in D.C., have lived here for nearly 47 years and after last week's primary, I think I'll stay a while. After 12 years of government by pie chart, instead of by head and heart, it's starting to feel like home again.
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