Defending Fenty

Despite holding the title of Most Loathsome Washingtonian, Adrian Fenty has some supporters. "Josiah Swampoodle" of City Desk is one of them. Let's take a look at his defense of the Ayatollah of Ward 4.

SINCE THE MAYOR has chosen to trash Adrian Fenty, a few words on his behalf, albeit far short of an endorsement, might be in order. Whatever his faults Fenty could be expected to return some of Washington to Washington. Since the federal takeover and the election of Williams, DC has not only increasingly become a city in service to major corporate interests but it has been steadily drained of its own spirit and soul. If it's not about making money it doesn't matter. The new "local" baseball team - called the "Nationals" and whose ownership is still undetermined - symbolizes the deeply colonial gestalt of the city. And DC has been the target of relentless socio-economic cleansing that has left its schools and health system in shambles even as our leaders brag about "economic revitalization."

"Socio-economic cleansing"? Really, now. People want to move in because D.C. is somewhat more safe, clean and hip than it was a few years ago. Having more money, they outbid existing residents for housing. The pour millions into their new houses, employing contractors and attracting businesses to formerly abandoned storefronts. How many Drum Circles For Peace do you have to attend to get so deaf to the market economy that functions everywhere around you that you confuse it with Serbian war crimes? The problem is not that new people are moving in (generally a good thing) but that the city's renters aren't seeing any of the benefit. Blame redlining. Blame racist creditors. Blame the federal minimum wage. But don't blame the people who are paying the much-needed property taxes.

Keep in mind that Columbia Heights, Shaw, Eastern Market and Mt. Pleasant were all getting yuppified a year ago when we didn't have a baseball team. Yes, "Nationals" is a crummy, nondescript name and the stadium deal is getting worse with every revised cost estimate, but what does that have to do with gentrification? Would you prefer a model more like Gary, Ind., in which people migrate in only one direction?

The city, as we have noted before, often feels like the lobby of the world's largest Marriott Hotel, filled with people moving through without loyalty or interest in the place they are using.

In case you haven't noticed, D.C. has a raison d'etre, and it is government. Administrations and summer internships come and go, bringing in a stream of people who do their business here for a while and then skedaddle when it's over. As opposed to steel, carmaking or soybean production, it's a relatively smart thing to base your city's economy on, since it never really falls out of fashion.

It's time we got some of our own faults back. Whatever Marion Barry did wrong, he didn't have to subsidize a major corporation to do it. In fact, Barry was the last leader in this town to give it a reputation. Unfortunately, he didn't care enough about what sort of reputation, but you never forgot under Barry that you were living in a special place called DC.

What, a bowtie isn't enough personality for you?

Good mayors do the same thing. It's only a part of their work but it's an important one and Fenty at least has the potential. He is, among other things, the product of a small business family, something not only rare in DC politics but in national politics as well. Small businesses have never had an advocate in this town yet a thriving small business ecology would produce far more local jobs than continuing to import non-taxpaying suburbanites to downtown high rises.

Now, Josiah is treading a thin line between Marxist class-consciousness and biological determinism. Did Jimmy Carter spend his four years in the White House on peanut issues? Is Abe Lincoln primarily known for his work on log cabin building codes? Just like it doesn't take the son of small businessmen to look out for local shopkeepers, you don't need to be born as a scion of the corporate machine to respond to the interests of big business. Besides, who said this is an either/or issue? Why can't the corporate lawyer who spends his days on K Street also want a decent place for coffee when he gets back home to his new condo in Shaw?

With his youth, Fenty also has the hook to cross ethnic boundaries, creating the potential of a young white-black coalition. He's smart, and he's been on the right side of things more than most of his potential opponents.

Why can't an old person build a white-black coalition? Also, how is Fenty's youth a benefit to his campaign if he is best known for his Falwellesque crusades on small-bore social issues? The fact that he's going after booze and video games shows, more than anything, that he is more attuned to bullsh*t posturing than providing the concrete non-partisan solutions that we young people are supposed to crave.

But on the more personal side is the likelihood that Fenty would start to bring DC home again. And that would be real good because we sure have missed it.

If bringing D.C. "home," whatever that means, can be achieved by spouting platitudes about "listening" and "unity," we must be in better shape than I thought.

Posted by rj3 at June 6, 2005 12:38 PM

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Posted by: Chris at June 7, 2005 12:34 PM

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