EDITORIAL
Are things any better?
(Published February 21, 2005)
As Mayor Anthony A. Williams considers seeking re-election to a third term in 2006, it is fair to examine whether D.C. residents are really better off now than they were when the mayor first took office in 1999. The Common Denominator plans to do that in a series of stories and editorials during the coming months.
While the mayor and his supporters like to point at the city's healthy bottom line as a measure of success, quality of life has always been a more accurate reflection of whether political leaders are doing their jobs well.
In the District, officials have concentrated so intently on numbers in recent years to build a $1.2 billion nest egg of cash reserves as a "rainy day fund" that they apparently failed to notice the showers turning into a torrential downpour.
Consider, for a moment, some of the basic needs of D.C. residents.
- FOOD: Residents who live east of the Anacostia River have lost two supermarkets, one independently owned and the other chain-owned, since October 1998 and now depend on only two Safeway stores and a series of small neighborhood markets to serve their grocery needs. Meanwhile, city officials continue to focus on luring new chain grocery stores to parts of the city that already are served by other supermarkets. What happened to the mayor's March 2000 pledge to break ground for two new supermarkets east of the Anacostia River by the end of 2000?
- SHELTER: Housing costs have skyrocketed in the District, making it much more expensive to buy or rent a home, and real estate taxes have soared. Young adults, renters and senior citizens on fixed incomes are among residents finding they are increasingly "priced out" of remaining in their hometown. Meanwhile, city officials close homeless shelters to spur further "economic development" projects and refuse to cut real estate tax rates as they add up an unbroken string of annual multimillion-dollar budget surpluses. The mayor continues to make excuses for not fulfilling his 1998 promise to voters that he would buy a home in the District if elected, while urging others to take the plunge and live with the consequences.
- JOBS: More than 26,000 D.C. residents were counted among the jobless seeking employment at the end of 2004, pushing the District's unemployment rate to among the highest in the country at 9 percent – despite declining national unemployment and virtual full employment in the suburbs. Meanwhile, city officials continue to crow about the thousands of new jobs being created in the District by tax-supported "economic development," despite most of those jobs going to non-residents who pay no D.C. income tax. Williams administration officials say that unemployed D.C. residents simply need to "get smarter" to qualify for the jobs.
We invite our readers to e-mail their comments, both positive and negative, about Mayor Williams' tenure to editor@thecommondenominator.com or mail them to Letters to the Editor, The Common Denominator, 680 Rhode Island Ave. NE, Suite N, Washington, DC 20002.
Copyright
2005 The Common Denominator
