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October 1, 2005
A Diatribe About Poverty, and a Thank You to Mayor Williams
With Mayor Williams not seeking a third term, this marks an end of an era here in Washington. And while normally I find myself writing about National and International affairs, I find myself needing to comment on Mayor William’s leadership of the city that I call home.
Alright, technically I don’t actually live in the District. But I’ve given people directions here, so by those standards I can call this city home. The biggest criticism of Mayor Williams that I’ve heard thus far is that he didn’t do enough to address the issues of the city’s poorest residents. One hears the tales of the decrepit state of the city’s homeless shelters (I’m reminded of the joke my grandfather used to tell about the restaurant – the food is terrible and the portions are so small). I personally see the lines at the soup van in McPherson Square almost everyday as I go from the office to the Metro. I am not blind to these problems, and to the trap that the poorest of the poor often fall into.
The reality remains that the District of Columbia is woefully unequipped to handle the problems of poverty. Washington does not receive any revenue from people who work in the city, but do not live there. The biggest employer does not pay any taxes to the city for its staff or for the land that it owns. Washington needs as many “Yuppies” as it get to keep the Police Stations, Fire Stations, and Schools open. Yes this pushes people from their homes, and I recognize that many of these people rent and don’t own, and therefore don’t receive real compensation for the fact that the value of where they lived suddenly and dramatically rose.
The chaotic exodus that results from a change in land values happens whether those values skyrocket or plummet. Those old enough to remember know what happened to the major cities of this country in the 1950s. Many call it “White Flight”. But I don’t think it’s that simple – it’s “Middle Class Flight”. The Middle Class African American Community left the District at the same time, many of whom went to places like PG County, but also to Reston (A fact about my hometown which makes me very proud that in a time of true racial strife, we opened our doors to our friends and neighbors). Only the truly wealthy and the poorest of the poor remained in the cities afterwards. This concentration of poverty led to the failed 60s experiment of high rise housing projects – let’s pile the poor on top of each other. The resulting disaster that befell every major city is still being felt today. But it taught us one thing – trying to control crime by sweeping the poor into ghettos magnifies the problem.
The best solution we have to deal with this is to do what we can to spread out the poor so that they live in economically mixed neighborhoods. We do this with a proverbial carrot – not a nightstick. We offer housing benefits, but only a limited number in an individual jurisdiction (so as not to tip the delicate balance). We provide for better schools in all districts in the region. We make both physical and mental healthcare affordable for everyone, but especially those that need it most. And most importantly, we make sure that jobs and job training are available.
Education is the silver bullet. Education will always eviscerate poverty and crime. But we also need to eliminate ghettos and help these people move into real neighborhoods where they’ll have a real chance at a real education. If people are presented with a real opportunity, their inherent distrust will placated by the desire to make a better life for themselves. We will never eliminate poverty, but we can at least reduce it and make sure that there are services available for those people that truly need it the most.
Mayor Williams had been in a unique position where he the leader of a city that has no state. He has no course of action with a local entity, and because of the continued lack of voting rights for citizens in the Nation’s Capitol, he has no course of action with the federal government despite the fact that their offices dominate our city. Every other big city mayor has some help. Mayor Williams has been on his own – and for that alone he earns our respect. But Mayor Williams also made strides to eliminate the rampant corruption that marked the Berry years, attempted to improve the schools, got the potholes under control (at least in places like Downtown & Golden Triangle), eliminated the Control Board, oversaw a massive renaissance of many neighborhoods including Downtown, U Street, Dupont Circle, Adams Morgan, Columbia Heights, and Capitol Hill. And finally, Mayor Williams brought us baseball.
Hey Tony – thanks.
Posted by MikeSager at October 1, 2005 12:51 PM
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