Me and the Mayor

OK so we've seen that Sr. Fenty, the mayor of the good city of Washington, is in the news for various P.R. gaffes. In his zeal to "get things done" and "live a normal life" he has succeeded in ruffling feathers thusly:

1. He shunted some public monies slated to develop parks and playgrounds throughout the city via the DC Housing Authority to contractors with whom he had some long term personal relationships. This end run allowed him to avoid the pesky oversight (aka "approval") by the DC Council, resulting in more anger amongst the politicos, as they were still miffed about his odd refusal to share Nationals and Bullets tickets. Why anyone would be angry about not getting to see mediocre sports products...oh never mind. Notice how they like to call his friends "frat brothers"? Ya know, a coupla words and suddenly there's cronyism.

2. Training on his bike with his mates from DC Velo and other local clubs in the middle of the day has raised the eyebrows of the humorless press, who ominously intone about running red lights, slowing down mid-day traffic, utilizing valuable police resources, and taking long lunches on the saddle. This is fodder for local newscasts and LooseLips in the City Paper, so we're in for a juicy few weeks of mayor and cyclist bashing. Yay. My only request for these "journalists" is to GET THEIR FACTS STRAIGHT about cycling, the law, and minding one's own business before they prattle on about how weirdos in spandex are interfering with their right to "use the roads that we pay for with taxpayer dollars".

So here's where it gets interesting, because 3 weeks ago I may have tipped the first domino in the whole sordid "mayor who rides a bike at lunchtime and funnels work to his friends" controversy, also popularly known as "MWRBLFWTHF gate". It's a mouthful, I know, but we'll get used to it, as the local press will surely use this moniker freely as they get to the bottom of things. Rolls right off the tongue. So here goes.

At the end of the process of converting a sow's ear into a silk purse, as they say, I often attend ribbon cutting ceremonies for rehab projects that our firm completes. I've mentioned before that the gratifying aspect of my work is seeing how we can literally change lives by improving the living conditions of the working poor (and working not-so-poor, and non-working poor, etc). The culmination of design and construction efforts is a show often attended by the mayor or whatever muckety muck happens to be running the jurisdiction of our projects.

Three weeks ago, in the Fairlawn neighborhood of southeast DC, we waited for the mayor to show up at the ceremony. The usual bunting and balloons festooned the newly landscaped front lawn of the building, a tent with food, drink, and TV cameras waiting, and small throngs of people rounded out the scene. About an hour after the scheduled time, the mayor pulls up in his SmartCar and wades into the "crowd", shaking hands and looking past each person, looking to the next gladhand. As he looked my way and shook my hand, I greeted him with a reminder that we had met at a groundbreaking ceremony this past April at yet another project. My hook at that time was a remark "Hey I ride with some of your friends". He stopped, looked at me, and we engaged in some conversation about the riding scene and some of our mutual acquaintances.

This time there was a flicker of recognition, as the bike was our common bond. So I pressed him further and asked him to bring the family out to DCCX that upcoming weekend. he politely declined, citing a busy schedule, and that he prefers riding on the road, etc. Maybe next year. Great talking to you, time to move on. So he stepped up to the podium, gave his remarks, toured a unit, and began to make his exit.

(Unfortunately for the mayor, this is what he missed)

On his way out, he needed to make the obligatory stop in front of the cameras, so as he (seemingly reluctantly) made his way to the news crews, he passed by me again. But he stopped, shook my hand again, and engaged in some more bike banter, asking my name, and talking cyclocross. As we chatted, I felt this odd sensation of quiet descending around us. Couldn't put my finger on it, but it was odd. We finished our short chat again, and he began talking to the talking heads. I left the site and headed back to work.

So later that evening I saw that his site visit was the lead story on Channel 5, not because the press wanted to focus on his interest in housing, but because the DC Housing Authority/Parks and Recreation scandal was brewing. Seems that while we were talking, it got quiet because, I don't know, maybe the newsies were trying to figure out who I was, and did I have anything to do with this "breaking news".

Look closely in the background and there's a renovated slum. It's much better than it used to be, really. Happier people live there for sure, and the intercoms actually work.

I give myself too much credit. What really happened is that they heard us talking about riding bikes and they decided to go jump on another "scandal". I know that this station hates the mayor, but c'mon. This piece is about as amateur as they come.