Chauvinism, mediocrity and robust systems

About 4 or 5 years ago, I evinced interest in creating a "Jane Jacobs book group," which I never got around to getting off the ground. But I got some indications of interest and one person commented that by comparison to NYC, DC is an "immature" city, without the kind of built environment that typified Manhattan, the place that Jane Jacobs wrote about in Death and Life of Great American Cities.

I replied frostily, stating that DC, especially downtown, had that kind of building stock at one time, but most of it was destroyed--reproduced--in the process of rebuilding downtown in the 1980s and 1990s into larger buildings with a limited number of entrances. (The riots didn't help. They led to a destruction of the base of independently owned retail.)

Downtown DC in the 1940s. Original source unknown.

But in some respects DC is an immature city, one where a fervent narcissistic focus and a rampant belief in a uniqueness that limits comparison to other places and practices allows for a redefiniton of mediocrity as superiority, and a continued focus on people rather than the development of robust processes and systems that can function beyond individuals, and deliver excellence.

(For some influences on my thinking, consider Moynihan's paper "Defining Deviance Down" and the discussion by Wanda Corn in The Great American Thing: Modern Art and National Identity, 1915-1935 where she makes the point that focusing on uniqueness means that work cannot be compared.)

Certainly, the failure in the Tax Office with regard to the property tax scan is an example.

But so is the failure of controls, systems, and processes in the DC Government Summer Jobs Program for students. This has always been a program more focused on patronage than results--students getting paychecks became lifelong supporters of Marion Barry, without understanding that jobs are about providing effort and attendance in return for pay.

No wonder a lot of people in DC have a hard time understanding how employment works, and why some segments of the population experience high unemployment. (See "Fenty Faces Backlash From Problems in Youth Jobs" from the Post.)

There is a delicious irony of Marion Barry calling for an investigation of the failure of this year's program to properly pay and supervise participants. Doesn't the failure of the DC Government start with his ascension to the Mayoralty?

It doesn't help that the same people let the public school system decline precipitously, again, in favor of access to the system as a source of contracts and jobs, and a lack of concern about quality outcomes, in this case, highly and well-educated students. (Home rule started with a popularly elected school board. This preceded the Home Rule Charter, and a popularly elected Mayor and City Council.)

Note that for all the talk about Chancellor Rhee and Mayor Fenty and the school system and "reform," the fact remains that personnel decisions and actions remain arbitrary and capricious--at least based on the view of many of the people who are losing their jobs as principals and/or teachers--seemingly a matter of connections and loyalty rather than about merit and quality.

It may be a long time before DC Government is focused on performance rather than the ability to control contracts and give people well-paying jobs. Even under the Fenty Administration. Although there was a fair amount of progress under the Williams Adminsitration.

From "Won't Get Fooled Again" by The Who:

I'll tip my hat to the new constitution
Take a bow for the new revolution
Smile and grin at the change all around me
Pick up my guitar and playJust like yesterday
Then I'll get on my knees and pray
We don't get fooled again

The change, it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the foe, that' all
And the world looks just the same
And history ain't changed
'Cause the banners, they all flown in the next war ...

There's nothing in the street
Looks any different to me
And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye
And the parting on the left
Is now the parting on the right
And the beards have all grown longer overnight
-------------
Speaking of which, today is the deadline for registering to vote to be able to vote in the 2008 election primaries in DC.

Chauvinism-parochialism is very much evident in local planning and capital improvements. Much of DC planning is focused on wards, and city-wide planning, especially with regard to capital improvements, doesn't seem to exist.

I think about this in terms of the creation of recreation centers all over the city, while failing to designate some of these centers as "regional" facilities with enhanced facilities and capabilities.

Similarly, every ward seemingly has to have its own Office of Aging-managed "senior wellness center."

Since these facilities are used mostly during the day, when recreation centers are barely used, why not have had the Office of Aging and the Department of Parks and Recreation do joint facilities planning?

Do we really need a Ward 4 Senior Wellness Center on Kennedy Street, less than 2.5 miles from the Ward 1 Senior Wellness Center (under construction) on the 3500 block of Georgia Avenue?

And there are plenty of recreation centers surrounding these facilities.

(Note that I attended a meeting about the Ward 6 Senior Wellness Center in December 2001. It's still under construction. Meanwhile, it is within a few blocks from the Sherwood Recreation Center, and three under-utilized DCPS school buildings--Wilson Elementary, Ludlow-Taylor Elementary, and the Prospect Learning Center.)