Media attention on stewardship of public assets

Last year, the Boston Globe decided it was the "Year of the Beaches," bringing attention to 14 beaches over the course of the year. The first editorial, "The year of the beach," and a photo gallery linked to the separate editorials on each beach remain online. From the gallery:

Greater Boston has 15 miles of public beaches, stretching in a sandy arc from Hull to Nahant. But in the years before the Boston Harbor cleanup, residents got out of the habit of using many of them. In a series of editorials, the Globe's editorial board sizes up each of these beaches -- and considers ways to redeem these glorious seasonal assets.

From "The future looks sandy":

This recent series of Globe editorials about 14 metropolitan beaches found that problems still exist. But the larger discovery was how a group of beach activists from shoreline cities and towns pushed their issue to the top of the agenda of the state Department of Conservation and Recreation.

Most any metropolitan newspaper could serve its communities by bringing such attention to the public buildings and parks its in jurisdiction.

The Post did a story that is similar, "The Price of Neglect" on boiler maintenance in the public schools. However, the Post missed the boat by not taking this idea to its logical conclusion, to how the District Government manages and stewards its assets more generally. Note that relatedly, Arlington County produces an online database on the status of capital improvement projects.

The Office of Property Management in DC did announce the creation of a database on public assets, although I am not sure about the extent of the data (i.e., does it include properties owned by each individual agency, many of which maintain their own properties). See the press release "OPM Publishes First Comprehensive List of Properties Owned or Controlled by DC Government ."

My joke is that the DC government's primary property management strategy is demolition by neglect.