Where's Planning

Image from the "Where's Waldo?" series of children's books.

One of my jokes that the previous planning director didn't like is that DC has an Office of Land Use, not an Office of Planning, otherwise all the various planning efforts underway by various DC Government agencies would be coordinated, reviewed, and perhaps managed by an expanded Office of Planning.* At the time I made that crack, the Library System, Schools, and Parks departments all had planning efforts underway. Plus there were planning efforts or reviews of the EMS department as well as plans to create a hospital in Ward 6.

From "Fenty, Rhee Plan to Close Schools and Reduce Staff," in today's Post:

Mayor Adrian M. Fenty has told the D.C. Council that he and Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee intend to close schools and eliminate teaching positions next year and that they need $31.6 million until those savings can be achieved.

In a Nov. 19 letter to Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray (D), Fenty did not say how many or which schools would be closed or the number of positions to be cut. But the mayor's correspondence was the first public indication from Fenty and Rhee that they will continue former superintendent Clifford B. Janey's plans to eliminate millions of square feet of space that is unused because of declining enrollment. Since last summer, the system has operated 141 school buildings while enrollment has dropped from 55,000 to an estimated 49,600 students this school year. ...

In his letter, Fenty made clear that he and Rhee plan to take a different tack to shutting schools than Janey's staggered plans to close 19 underenrolled schools over several years. "The intent is to rightsize the facilities inventory to match enrollment through a single, unified consolidation plan instead of a multi-year approach," Fenty wrote. "The mayor and chancellor are committed to rightsizing the DCPS as soon as possible."

The closures could save the school system an estimated $23.7 million in costs associated with utilities, operational maintenance and staff, including principals, custodians and clerical employees, according to the mayor's letter.

Don't get me wrong. I think the rightsizing approach makes sense. But certainly the impact on neighborhoods, the utilization of public assets, the possibility of creating co-located programs, etc., ought to be considered and planned, and likely won't be.

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* one of my criticisms of a possible "Planning Commission" as has been advocated for by many citizen groups, and a proposal I probably favor myself, is that if a Planning Commission doesn't have oversight of the planning efforts of all the various DC Government agencies, then what they do in large part won't really matter.