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KLMNO POSTLOCAL Talk to us. Talk to newsmakers. Talk to each other. Join the conversation at
postlocal.com Hot topic: weather Wow! That was some storm!
Readers of the Capital Weather Gang blog shared their observations online about Thursday’s high- powered storm, which moved from the Pittsburgh area down to this region.
Y MIKE DEBONIS
Will Fenty’s war on the old guard fail?
ou don’t have to see Mayor Adrian M. Fenty’s new campaign ads to know the script.
Headlines describing a government mismanaged into near-bankruptcy dance on screen as a female narrator addresses Vincent C. Gray’s four-year stint as director of the Department of Human Services: “Your daily mismanagement and your department’s incompetence pushed the city to the brink of bankruptcy,” she says, intoning: “We can’t afford to go back to those bad old days.” A Fenty campaign spokesman said Wednesday
that the ads are “trying to highlight the contrast between the two candidates.” But what Fenty partisans are attempting to foment isn’t a matchup between an affable-but-plodding chairman and an arrogant-but-hard-charging mayor so much as a battle for the future of the city, a choice between becoming a “world-class” city or going back to those “bad old days.” At last week’s Ward 4 straw poll, Fenty campaign aides sought to take the focus off their candidate’s poor showing by focusing on who showed up: The old-timers — folks like Rock Newman, the onetime boxing promoter and Marion Barry confidant; Cora Masters Barry, his estranged wife and architect of Barry’s 1994 comeback; and, of course, Barry himself, who ambled outside the straw poll with a Gray sticker on his jacket. The choice between old and new is the
KATHERINE FREY/THE WASHINGTON POST
Veterinarian Pat Skipton, left, with the help of Jerry Conner, who takes care of the camels at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds, sews six stitches in the head of Matt, a 6-year-old, 1,600-pound camel, who was hit in the head by a tree branch that came down in the storm that blew through the area.
CuseFan07: “Now at work where I have power, I’m starting to realize just how insane that storm was. As a dorky, avid weather fan. . . . I’ll admit that I was pretty scared.”
JerryFloyd1: “Several of my colleagues had their cars smashed by trees this a.m., including a per- son driving on Canal Road. Fortunately the big tree rolled off the top of his car and the only dam- age was a cracked windshield.”
jhbyer: “My cat and I were asleep here in Annan- dale, windows open (no A/C) when what sounded
like early morning construction work woke us. As it grew more continuous, it occurred to me it could be thunder, but, nah, it was the wrong time of day and besides it didn’t sound ominous like thunder. Suddenly all curtains blew straight into the room held aloft by ahhhh, blessedly coooool gusts, nice, so nice that when the rain began to fall I couldn’t bear to close the windows.”
akchild: “I was at work this morning when the storm hit SE D.C. One of my co-workers had just come in, and said she just missed the rain. Then
someone else said, ‘Wow, it’s getting really dark outside!’ We watched the brunt of the storm, and dealt with the resulting ceiling leaks — it was a fun morning.”
hockeypunk: “Aha! so it was all Pittsburgh’s fault. . . . Jerks.”
More weather talk, plus forecasts, analysis, photos and
more, at
washingtonpost.com/ capitalweathergang.
Q&A
Going Out Guru Stephanie Merry took a question about design-inspired activities for a student during a live chat with readers yesterday at
PostLocal.com.
Tips for designing women
Q: “My little sister is visiting this weekend; she’s an interior design student. Are there any good exhibits or things to do related to that field? In particular, I think she likes the textile end of it. Thanks!”
A: In that case, take her to the Textile Museum. If she has any interest in mid-century design, I’m sure she will fall in love with the “Art by the Yard” exhibition of fun, bright textiles by mid-century female designers. If she wants more of an overview of different styles, the museum also has a sampling of its permanent collection on display with everything from Roman Empire- to Victorian England-era textiles.
“ Today on
POSTLOCAL.com
COURTESY OF JILL A. WILTSE AND H. KIRK BROWN III COLLECTION OF BRITISH TEXTILLES — THE TEXTILE MUSEUM
Lucienne Day’s “Sequoia,” 1959, left, and “Apollo” are part of the vibrant “Art by the Yard” exhibit on mid-century female designers at the Textile Museum that runs through Sept. 12.
The Going Out Guide has plenty of ideas for activities, dining, music and more — and you can submit your own comments and reviews. Visit
goingoutguide.com.
THE DAILY QUIZ
On what page of the Weekend section can you read about the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair?
EARN 5 POINTS: Find the answer, then go to
washingtonpost.com/postpoints and click on “Quizzes” to enter the correct response.
Friend us Track the news and send us messages right from Facebook.
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Travel tips The latest on getting around the D.C. area this weekend.
washingtonpost.com/transportation
More Kelly There’s no John Kelly column today, but you can chat live with him online at noon.
washingtonpost.com/discussions
POINTS EVENTS
Read Online, Earn Points PostPoints members earn 25 points for visiting
washingtonpost.com five times or more within one week! That’s right, you earn points for reading the news. Just make sure you’re signed in, and your 25 points will be automatic.
Conversations
“It may be faster to type an emergency number, but it’s more efficient to text key information so you don’t tie up phone lines. One operator can talk to one person, but, in an emergency, one operator could potentially monitor 10
texts.” — reader FishBulb, responding to Susan Kinzie’s story about how relief organizations such as the American Red Cross are now tuning in to social networks to find people who need help
Follow — and communicate with — the Post’s local coverage team on
Twitter at
twitter.com/postmetro.
An experimental project has added bike-lane-only traffic signals onNew Hampshire Avenue to shepherd cyclists across 16th Street, notes Post columnist Robert Thomson at his Dr. Gridlock blog. If it’s successful, more lights for cyclists could be on the way for U Street. The signals look like regular traffic lights, only with bicycle shapes on the lights. “We know that this is already a very popular route for many cyclists, but it can be treacherous getting through the intersection,” said DDOT Director Gabe Klein in a statement. “These changes will make it safer without impacting other traffic.”
A selection of reader responses: Signals for cyclists
1995hoo: “I’ve seen these sorts of bike signals in European cities (I believe Copenhagen was the one that had the best-developed separate bike lanes) and they seemed clear enough there. Who knows how they’ll be here.”
blankspace: “Can we also get the cyclists to wear helmets, not wear headphones, not ride on the sidewalk downtown, and just plain pay attention to where they’re going and the other traffic?”
cranor: “Scofflaw and dangerous cycling is not really an issue. What is an issue is poor driving which kills the majority of cyclists, pedestrians and drivers — and also kills a lot of pets and destroys personal property.”
LastCommaFirst: “The struggle isn’t so much about technology, rather it’s about getting individuals (drivers, riders and
pedestrians) to equally respect the rules already set forth and courtesy on a societal level.”
Discuss this topic and more commuting issues at
washingtonpost.com/drgridlock.
POINTS & REWARDS
Circle Wine & Spirits Get the buzz on weekly specials, new store items, and the wine tasting calendar. See
circlewineandspirits.com.
Mattress Warehouse The State Theatre
Spring for a new mattress here and enjoy many seasons of restful nights. See
sleephappens.com. Regency Furniture Showrooms
washingtonpost.com/postpoints
Escape the heat and take a dream tour—so many ideas for your home! Find the nearest location at
regencyfurniture.biz.
This restored theatre in the Falls Church historic district is a favorite for live music and private events. See
thestatetheatre.com.
Not a PostPoints member yet? Log onto
washingtonpost.com/postpoints for more information about this exciting free program.
foundation of the Fenty message, but it’s been presented in a manner that further stretches a divide that he’s already torn open with zest. And it might not do him many favors. Consider his predecessor, Anthony A. Williams, who for all the criticism he took in his two terms as mayor for his political aloofness, maintained respectful relations with the old guard — with Newman and Cora Barry, to name two. Williams, like Fenty, fired his share of city employees, but he managed to evade a mass insurgency. This was a guy, after all, who couldn’t even get on his reelection ballot but still cruised to an easy victory as a write-in. But where Williams parachuted into the city’s political culture and handled it with care, Fenty was raised in it and came to loathe it — his stump speech these days attacks the empty speeches, the fake smiles, the hollow promises he says he heard growing up. In ex-Cabinet official Gray, he sees the embodiment of those old ways, ripe to be vanquished for good. The irony, of course, is that Gray was no Barry acolyte — he was plucked from the nonprofit worldby Mayor Sharon Pratt, who was herself elected as reformer, someone who would “clean house — with a shovel, not a broom.” She failed, of course, and Congress took over
the city less than two years after she left office. Gray, as Fenty’s ads will tell you, did not have an easy time running Pratt’s largest agency. But by attacking Gray’s public service — and
by, in essence, lumping him in with Barry’s personal and governmental excesses — Fenty further alienates the civic-minded, mostly black middle-class Washingtonians who have long formed the city’s political foundation. “It’s insulting, because there were too many people who worked their level best to do the right things,” says a former Barry official who still interacts with the District government and wished to remain anonymous. “That’s not to say the government was perfect by any stretch; clearly, huge mistakes were made. . . . But it is insulting to people of that age group that Vince and I happen to fall into.” Gray, make no mistake, is trying to take
advantage of the flip side of Fenty’s feint in his own delicate way. A radio ad he released to respond to Fenty’s spots ran on traditionally black stations and claimed that “Fenty doesn’t have a plan to help the rest of us.” And there’s the matter of Barry, who knows the game of how to deliver his political punch — still potent in his home ward and other eastern pockets of the city — without alienating the rest of town. That’s what he did for Fenty in 2006, endorsing him a week before Primary Day. Outside the Ward 4 straw poll, Barry hemmed
and hawed on his endorsement plans. By way of explanation, he favored this reporter with impromptu lines from Kenny Rogers’s “The Gambler”: “Got to kno-o-ow when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em,” he crooned. “Know when to walk away, know when to run.” The patrons of Georgena’s, the Ward 8 bar formerly known as the Players Lounge, felt they knew plenty about Barry’s hand Monday night, after Fenty and Gray debated in a forum held across the street. “He’s endorsed Gray,” said a Barry-admiring retired city employee enjoying a Budweiser — never mind that no such public nod has been tendered. No negative ad will shift his vote, but that’s not who Fenty’s trying to reach. The Fenty campaign is betting that this year’s electorate is different from the ones that elected Barry, Pratt and Williams — whiter, younger and scared of what this city once was. That’s quite a gamble.
You can read Mike’s blog and write to him at
washingtonpost.com/debonis.
A complete list of PostPoints Spots can be found at
washingtonpost.com/postpoints.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 13, 2010
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