Accountability

Unkempt city park bench. Photo by Baltimore Sun reader Robert Wray.

The San Francisco Chronicle (ChronicleWatch), the Toronto Star ("Read more Fixers," "Fixer's Guide to Getting Things Done"), the Philadelphia Daily News, and the Baltimore Sun (Watchdog archive) each have a regular watchdog column that focuses on municipal activities--not embezzlement, but more on quality of life issues.

Plus, the Chronicle has a column by Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross that covers more serious "screw ups" and abuses of the system (Matier and Ross page).

I remember the Sun doing an investigative story where reporters called in anonymously ten different problems in city parks. They went back 2 or 3 months later to discover that maybe 8 or 9 of the 10 problems remained uncorrected, and they did a big piece on it, taking (I think) two full pages inside the front section following the jump.

The Washington Post did something similar for a brief period, in the Thursday District Extra section, but they haven't done so for many years.

A column like this is important, because it shows often disconnected officials that people are paying attention, that outcomes matter.

Too often, I don't think this is the case in DC, and I wish that the Post would run a similar feature once again.

See "Filthy park bench sullies Baltimore's slogan," in the Baltimore Sun.


City Department of Transportation worker Floyd Arrington replaces the slats of a bench at Patapsco Avenue and Annapolis Road. (Sun photo by Kenneth K. Lam / December 3, 2007)