Fenty's Failings

It's not a Black White thing.

I am white. I confess. Largely spotted actually in the summer with overgrown freckles that I am beginning not to be able to tell the difference between age spots as I now qualify for AARP membership and half priced coffee at McDonalds.

I am annoyed at DC. Lots of reasons but here is the big one- Metro. I know it isn't nice or fair to blame all of Metro's foibles on the Mayor but come on- can't you do better?
It's not just that 9 people actually died in a crash this past year while some driver who had been suspended numerous times was allowed to operate manually what theretofore was supposed to be on automatic as was reported yesterday, it's not that they are raising fares or making people actually pay the full fare before riding and not go into negative balances on their metro cards (where else do you get to ride without the fare?)- it's not that the schedules are perpetually on "delay in both direction" so half the trains run on schedule, nor that rather pathetically all the Sunday schedules in one of the most major tourist destinations in the country are so unreliable that a twenty minute ride with a connection can take you an hour and a half on a sunday. All that is bad enough- disasterous really compared to the Paris Metro, New York City metro and anywhere else in Europe. Here is what I hate- deciding that I will take metro to Reagan for an out of town trip with a suitcase and finding that the cavernous Dupont metro escalators are on half throttle and only work up so I have to walk
the entire length of the metro steps with a heavy suitcase downstairs in heels. Generally I need to stop in the middle and get my breath because I start seeing double and nearly lose all the belongings of my purse as I swing the load alternatively from side to side. Add that to the connection required from red to orange line a twenty minute ride to Reagan takes and hour and a half on Sunday and I could easily miss my flight.
There is no excuse for this I think to myself. Why on earth don't the escalators ALL work? Can they always all be broken?
And here is another one- is this saving overtime to do track maintenance in the middle of a week-end? Do you all have something against night time work after the Metro shuts down? Perhaps you can do all your track work hiring Muslims who fast during the day in Ramadan and get it all done during the month of Ramadan after sundown- so we are not stuck sitting idle on the track with delays for random maintenance.

We have a first world city with third world Metro- and it is infuriating.

Then there is that issue of that pesky assistant DA who keeps filing what I consider harassing vexatious civil protection orders to prevent his father from testifying about the fact of his less than savory past and efforts to keep his father quiet about issues he finds unappealing in violation of what a lot of people would consider basic first amendment rights- at huge taxpayer expense as the 'domestic violence" chief of the DC DA's office tries to hammer slam this old guy with a five year civil protection order- for testifying at City Hall about, among other things, abuses of the DA's office which employs his son.

I thought that this was the Capital of the country.

If they spent all the money the DA's office spent on prosecuting this old guy and gave it to Metro maybe people wouldn't miss their planes and the escalators would all run so ladies trying not to get heart attacks lugging their luggage down the cavernous still escalators would get to their destinations in one piece.

And here is another pet peave-
Gardens. Ever been to a European city that didn't have the most beautiful spectacular public gardens? They are everywhere in every european city. They have competitions for the best gardens and books written on various styles. It's a beauty thing.
We may have the best public parks program, but Here we are in the nation's capital and DC's public spaces are by comparison to anything in Europe just pathetic. For example, look at Dupont Circle. A fountain, a small ring of flowers, grass, circular benches. Now go to Hyde Park or Regent's Park in London and look at the landscaping. Why isn't there for example just a ring around the circular benches around the whole park the most spectacular bed of rose bushes or flowers? It's just dingy grass. Washington Circle? Grass. We do large spots of grass and turf OK in some places- but why isn't the DC Mall a place of brilliant flowering plants? Why isn't there a garden with overflowing flora in McPherson Square or Farragut North? The gardening is a joke. It's not like we can't find the cheap day labor standing on the street corner by the wholefoods on 14th street or in Columbia Heights.
Have none of the DC parks and recreation folks been outside the country? Do they not visit places like Johnson's the florist/landscape place in Van Ness/Friendship Heights? Do you not know what a pair of pruning shears looks like? This city has spaces to be about a thousand times more beautiful with a little more thought and planning- and should be as the nation's capital. It should be the jewel of the country.

So I gave Fenty a while to try to get it right and I just feel like a change- how about you?