Same old, same old #1,000,243

I have a sense for why the Washington Post editorial page isn't too favorable on democracy within DC proper. See, the Post runs these great exposes, such as today's article on former City Councilmember H.R. Crawford, and how he's received millions of dollars in HUD projects, with many many problems, and likely nothing will happen. See "Building on Broken Promises" from today's front page.

Just like how nothing pretty much happened after all the articles the Post ran on the city's Community Development Corporations... See this past blog entry "Falling up -- Accountability and DC Community Development Corporations."

I don't even have the energy to write about the big piece from today--two full inside pages from the jump. One could argue that programs like those managed by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development aren't so much about "helping" people in need of housing as much as they are welfare programs for connected developers.

And speaking of connections, H.R. Crawford is on the Metropolitan Washington Area Airports Authority--they run National Airport and Dulles Airport. (See "Airport Board's Travel Spending Has Few Limits.")

It's all about the Growth Machine. And of course, the local media is (mostly) part of the Growth Machine, i.e., the chair of the DC Chamber of Commerce for 2009 is the publisher of the Washington Business Journal...