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Mayor Fenty was our main guest tonight at the monthly association meeting. We discussed many subjects of burning interest including the homeless housing and services projects around 2nd and H, vacant property, and pedestrian safety. You can read all about it in the meeting notes.
Comments
video up on ANC 2C02 Commissioner Chapple's blog:
http://chappleanc.com/public/index.php/2008/04/16/crime_discussion_at_april_mvsna_pubic_me
Posted By Si Kailian / At 4/16/08 6:50 AM
http://chappleanc.com/public/index.php/2008/04/16/crime_discussion_at_april_mvsna_pubic_me
Posted By Si Kailian / At 4/16/08 6:50 AM
I'm glad that there is a video record of the Mayor's presentation. I have always been a big Mayor Fenty supporter, but he was being blatantly dishonest last night. His comments on TV do not square with his feigned "surprise". I expect more out of our city leaders.
The Mayor's attempt to play semantics with members of the community was embarrassing. Whether it is a "shelter," "transitional housing," or "supportive housing," he should have been up-front.
Leaders often need to take hard, uncomfortable stands, and they need to be man or woman enough to defend those stands to their constituents. Mayor Fenty did not do so last night, and he lost some of my respect in the process.
Posted By Blackgrey / At 4/16/08 11:00 AM
The Mayor's attempt to play semantics with members of the community was embarrassing. Whether it is a "shelter," "transitional housing," or "supportive housing," he should have been up-front.
Leaders often need to take hard, uncomfortable stands, and they need to be man or woman enough to defend those stands to their constituents. Mayor Fenty did not do so last night, and he lost some of my respect in the process.
Posted By Blackgrey / At 4/16/08 11:00 AM
Re: Blackgrey
I agree that Fenty didn't come across as very direct. I think some of that rises from the fact he has a macro job and these are micro issues. But he does want to hear the micro neighborhood issues and delegate to his staff to take action which is important. I tended to believe him that the park on H St NW between 2nd and 3rd is not slated to be built on. I also appreciated that he promised that an official (deputy mayor?) from his office would attend the MVSNA membership meeting with more direct answers to some of the specific questions about certain properties. We will see. I'm new to the neighborhood and may not be cynical enough about promises for followup.
Posted By Paul / At 4/16/08 11:57 AM
I agree that Fenty didn't come across as very direct. I think some of that rises from the fact he has a macro job and these are micro issues. But he does want to hear the micro neighborhood issues and delegate to his staff to take action which is important. I tended to believe him that the park on H St NW between 2nd and 3rd is not slated to be built on. I also appreciated that he promised that an official (deputy mayor?) from his office would attend the MVSNA membership meeting with more direct answers to some of the specific questions about certain properties. We will see. I'm new to the neighborhood and may not be cynical enough about promises for followup.
Posted By Paul / At 4/16/08 11:57 AM
Fenty was not at his best last night. At his fourth(?) meeting since 5pm, (and after I reviewed the video once up close) he looked visibly tired. It was the first time I've seen him read the meeting briefing notes right in front of his audience -- as if for the first time. He might have given better answers if he was a prepared as he usually is. Questions are worth a follow up to amf@dc.gov.
Posted By martin / At 4/16/08 1:20 PM
Posted By martin / At 4/16/08 1:20 PM
Despite Fenty's ill preparedness, I thought we had good dialog regarding the plans for the homeless. We made clear that we want the community to be engaged and we got a promise to get Neil Albert's office to meet with the community. I trust that the Mayor will facillitate this as there are several sites & issues to cover. I want to thank Miles Groves from DNA for sending me the latest official word from Fenty's office (Miles, you rock):
http://dc.gov/mayor/news/release.asp?id=1270&mon=200804
none of the docs mention 2nd & H or 4th & L sites, and they are intending to close Franklin Shelter by October. IMO working towards supportive housing, especially in a small or mixed income situation is a favorable approach.
Posted By Si Kailian / At 4/16/08 2:22 PM
http://dc.gov/mayor/news/release.asp?id=1270&mon=200804
none of the docs mention 2nd & H or 4th & L sites, and they are intending to close Franklin Shelter by October. IMO working towards supportive housing, especially in a small or mixed income situation is a favorable approach.
Posted By Si Kailian / At 4/16/08 2:22 PM
Give Fenty a break. As Si notes, his appearance and the good questions will start a dialog and potentially a new park at 2nd & L.
If you want to see a bad appearance by a politician, just remember when Jack Evans came by last October and was extremely evasive and didn't offer any solutions or follow up.
Posted By Sam Farmer / At 4/17/08 5:30 AM
If you want to see a bad appearance by a politician, just remember when Jack Evans came by last October and was extremely evasive and didn't offer any solutions or follow up.
Posted By Sam Farmer / At 4/17/08 5:30 AM
Fenty also said that these new community housing projects would be a 1/3rd mix all around, but wasn't there just a new community project that just went up with only 10% low-income residents?
The mayor, I think, actually does care about the homeless/about-to-be homeless population, but we've seen a lot of shelters close and not nearly enough low-income housing to take its place.
Posted By Matt Siemer / At 4/17/08 11:50 AM
The mayor, I think, actually does care about the homeless/about-to-be homeless population, but we've seen a lot of shelters close and not nearly enough low-income housing to take its place.
Posted By Matt Siemer / At 4/17/08 11:50 AM
Matt - you make an interesting point. I think from the developer's view of things you can't fit more than a few low income units into a new building and expect to sell the rest of the building to sell for market rate. Consumers have choices. I'm certainly not paying 500/sf to be in a building that is 1/2 or 1/3 low income housing when I could get the same price somewhere else. I'm not averse among people of diverse income groups but I wouldn't paying top market rate to do so. I'd want to get a little bit of a bargain for buying into a building of this type. So developers aren't only losing revenue on the low income units, but if the mix is too high they also lose demand for the market rate units.
Posted By Jason / At 4/17/08 12:01 PM
Posted By Jason / At 4/17/08 12:01 PM
Hi Jason--I think you just hit on the main issue when a city depends to much on new communities to solve their low-income housing issues (e.g. Chicago right now). I was a little shocked to hear Mayor Fenty say recently that new communities were going to be the DCHA's solution to their backed-up waiting list. Consumers do have choices, and especially so here. I think if prices were dropped slightly below market value for the "market rate" units there would be a lot more people willing to buy in to the idea (including developers).
Posted By Matt Siemer / At 4/17/08 1:35 PM
Posted By Matt Siemer / At 4/17/08 1:35 PM
Unfortunately I wasn't able to make it to the meeting the Mayor attended.
Whatever his performance at this meeting, I do think it's worth acknowledging that he has shown up to two of these meetings in a little over a year. I don't recall ever seeing Tony Williams at MVSNA, and I've lived here since 2003 (others may have longer memories on that score). I give Mayor Fenty points for effort.
Posted By Don Gordon / At 4/24/08 4:01 AM
Whatever his performance at this meeting, I do think it's worth acknowledging that he has shown up to two of these meetings in a little over a year. I don't recall ever seeing Tony Williams at MVSNA, and I've lived here since 2003 (others may have longer memories on that score). I give Mayor Fenty points for effort.
Posted By Don Gordon / At 4/24/08 4:01 AM
