Morning Roundup: The ‘Fenty Caved and Closed D.C. Government’ Edition
Dear Mayor Adrian Fenty,
You caved?! You closed the D.C. government? We had so much more faith in you than that.
Yes, the federal government is closed. City and county governments in Arlington, Alexandria, Anne Arundel, Howard, Montgomery, Prince George's, and everywhere else are closed. The D.C. public school system, and every other school system in the area, is closed (some until next week!). There's no Metrorail service above ground and no Metrobus. There's no Circulator. No MARC. No VRE.
But what does all of that mean? Must the District's employees stay home just because everyone else is doing it? What is this, third grade?
What's the saying—"What doesn't make us stronger kills us"? Or something like that. You are so much better than that, Mr. Mayor.
Things were looking so good for a while there last night; it was well after dinner time and you were holding strong, just like you have been the last few days. Around 8 p.m., your Department of Public Works was even sending out email messages to neighborhood listservs urging residents to put their trash out for collection today, even despite forecasts calling for more snow and increasingly gusty winds ("near blizzard conditions"!): "Mayor Fenty is committed to providing trash collection if at all possible," wrote Kevin Twine, staff assistant at DPW. "If DC Government is open tomorrow, we are asking those with Wednesday collection to place their trash bags or supercans in the front. We will make every effort to collect them. We regret your frustration and appreciate your patience."
Never mind that 25 percent of the D.C. snowplow fleet is reported to be out of service. Trash pickup will go on!
We could picture you this morning, walking down your nicely shoveled walkway, getting into your Smart Car, hitting the gym for a workout, then reporting for duty. And all your public servants would be right there behind you.
Then, at 10:53 last night, came the news. It arrived in our inbox, a message from Alert DC with the subject line: "Government Offices Closing." We took a breath and opened it. Inside were the saddest, most disappointing 19 words imaginable: "On Wednesday, February 10, 2010, DC Government will be closed, with only emergency and essential personnel reporting for duty."
Seriously, Mr. Mayor, next Snowmageddon let's do better.
Photo by Darrow Montgomery
8:00 am
Ha! Ha! Like Nelson would laugh it on The Simpsons. Maybe Super Fenty will change in a phone booth --oh right, we don't have those anymore-- and attach a plow to his Smart car and plow the whole city by dinner.
8:40 am
Boy,
I sure hope this note is tounge and cheek.
Otherwise, fenty sure has raised you people's expectations.
DC sucks at dealing with snow! Not just bad. You suck. The District worked its ass of all THREE major storms this month and a half.
You should be applauding the man for not just packing in and waiting for it to thaw. Like our genuis leaders have done in everyother storm.
He isn't supposed to change his mind in a blizzard?
Talk about a thankless job.
9:47 am
Fenty's been ridiculous for opening Monday and Tuesday. How about asking Fenty for an accounting of how many staffers actually were in the office both days and how many customers they assisted? Foolish egotistical move on Fenty's part.
9:54 am
oh no! What if Obama makes fun of him again?
10:05 am
Why can't anyone value the fact that this Mayor wants government workers to serve the residents?
You deserve Marion Barry back!
10:14 am
So what exactly is the point of this "letter"? You sound like an ass. Considering most DC workers don't actually live in the district, I think Fenty would have been foolish to expect them to drive or actually attempt using Metro's limited service. An 8 hour work day isn't worth the risk.
However, I am totally surprised by the lack of preparedness shown by DC's gov't. I don't understand why there was still snow on the ground on Monday morning. It stopped snowing Saturday night! If Fenty deserves criticism it's for the past couple days, not today.
10:38 am
Why in the hell should D.C. Government employees be required to come to work in these hazzard conditions and the Federal Government and other local municipalities are closed? Are you saying D.C. Government employees lives are of no worth? I work at Georgetown University and when the Federal Government shuts down due to bad weather, the University shuts down too. Erika you are retarded for writing such a insensitive article. You should be bannished out in this snow storm with your liberal bullshit artticle. You are a racist knowing most of the D.C. Govenment employees are black, but others working in Maryland and Virginia governments are mostly white. I guess white government employees lives are more important.
11:04 am
Hymesb, get a sense of humor. DC has certainly done a laudable job with the snow this year given his resources, but Fenty deciding to stay open as long as he did (especially while Metro was underground only) was irresponsible and reckless. Many employees in my agency were forced to drive in on icy roads from DC, Maryland and Virginia, and others were just unable to report. It's unfortunate that he feels its appropriate to risk the safety of his employees for the sake of his re-election. Just another example of his unrepentant arrogance.
11:05 am
...not the mention the fact that he doesn't give his employees notice until the very last minute. Just disrespectful and rude.
11:09 am
BlackOmega, same goes for you. Look up the word "sarcasm" in the dictionary and then re-read Erika's article. It's excellent satire.
Now, re-think your pathetic race card play. It's quite insulting black Americans who don't use their race as an excuse for misplaced outrage.
Jeebus.
Signed,
White DC Gov employee
11:38 am
Cr, fuck you and the white horse you rode in on cracker.
11:49 am
I wonder how MPD and DCFDs personnel and shift changes are playing out, considering all those white boys who commute from as far away as OHIO to collect and selfserve??
This is the VAUDVILLE show of a bootlikkin' negro trying to be something that he isn't and his SWAN SONG of an identity crisis!!!
"DC Government will be closed, with only emergency and essential personnel reporting for duty."
MAKES SENSE TO ME!!
12:03 pm
Seems simple enough to me.
First, Erica's article is satirical.
Second, the roads just weren't that bad yesterday. They weren't great, but I got around town just fine. If people were motivated- say by needing a paycheck, food, or just by plain old bordome, they could and did get out and about.
Today is different. The region is in a blizzard.
I'm staying home and cooking all that food I bought yesterday.
12:10 pm
Downtown Rez, I am sure white federal workers living in Virginia, Maryland, and D.C. got out will white municipal city employees from Fairfax, Arlington, Montgomery, Howard, Anne Arundel, and PG counties. D.C. non essential employees should have stayed home Monday, Tuesday, like the other local jurisdictions, plus Metro buses were not operating regularly and some bus routes did operate. Your side kick Truth Hurts think Fenty the light skinned Negro is super man. Downtown Rez and Truth Hurts are both under cover racist crackers.
12:14 pm
Only a totally crazed individual would have kept D.C. government open today, and Fenty is not that crazy. I think that the problem with Monday and Tuesday, is that he didn't seem to take into consideration any of the difficulties involved in getting to work on those days. They had a one hour delayed arrival on Monday, and none on Tuesday. They didn't even get early dismissal yesterday, even though the snow started around 4. People had their cars damaged, got stuck in snow, and stranded on the metro. And for what? It was clear that Fenty's concern for scoring a political point outweighed his concern for his workers safety and well being.
2:54 pm
see comments 11,12,14.
7:46 pm
I think that Fenty is the equivalent of the proverbial overseer, from the days of the plantation. History shows that the overseer was deemed worst than the master based upon his unquenchable, obsequious desire to prove to his master that he was determined to show his master that he was just as hard on the slaves as the master could be. I parallel that to Fenty's blatant, callous, thoughtless, counter-intelligent thinking regarding the opening of the DC govt and the well-being of the District's employees.
But I really believe that Fenty, playing the money game - (just like he does thru Rhee with the Title I dollars to have kids classified as needing special education thereby not counting them in the population of DC public schools, therfore the false impression of improved test scores) whereby he would require DC govt' employees to use their personal leave, accomplishing the task of reducing the fringe (vacation) liability and not incurring the cost of admistrative closing and having to pay employees for closing.
Fenty is an arrogant jerk no matter how you slice it and I hope that this serves as another incident for him to put more nails in his political coffin.
8:07 pm
@UNCG-grad, I agree with you.
8:11 pm
@ UNCG-grad
exactly!!
howz I'm doin' boss'!
10:01 pm
Funny, and then more funny still that people can't see the obvious sarcasm!