In the face of this, our city leaders have abdicated their responsibilities. They continue to spend money on programs (such as ill-conceived electric bike subsidies) without assessing effectiveness or thoughtfully ranking them against other priorities. To real leaders, the solutions would be obvious: hire more police, enforce the rule of law in all respects, ensure judges impose responsibility for unlawful conduct, enforce truancy laws, clean up the streets and improve schools, including more options for school choice.
This city is on the fast road back to the worst days of the 1970s and 1980s. It will take decades to fix if effective leaders do not start doing the fundamental tasks that we expect and demand our government to perform.
Kevin O’Brien, Washington
I always look forward to Colbert I. King’s columns. Not because he’s a D.C. native, as am I. Not because I tend to agree with what he has to say. It’s because I trust his word. I trust that he won’t write what he hasn’t done the legwork to justify.
Like Mr. King, I am worried about the state of our city. On Jan. 6, he cited the millions in taxpayer dollars spent just since 2021 to alleviate homelessness, opioid-related deaths and the city’s “harrowing crime statistics.” Despite hefty expenditures, the city seems to be spinning its wheels. Has the city studied best practices of municipalities that are succeeding for their inhabitants or at least doing a better job?
The Jan. 6 Metro article “Housing agency dispute emerges” detailed the D.C. auditor’s charge that the city’s bond rating is threatened by failure of the D.C. Housing Authority to report its financial information to her office. The Housing Authority is already under federal scrutiny and has not completed an audited accounting of its books beyond fiscal 2021 despite an order to do so from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
And the Jan. 6 news article “Garland reports ‘deeply disturbing spike’ in threats to public servants” reported on Attorney General Merrick Garland’s remark that the country has taken a violent turn since the attack on the Capitol in 2021. The article noted that while cities such as Baltimore and Detroit (not to mention New York and Chicago) saw a decline in homicide rates, in D.C., “2023 marked the city’s deadliest year in more than two decades.”
I’m with Mr. King when he asks whether the city’s elected leaders ever reflect on their capacity to govern.
Hope R. Harrington, Washington
Read More: Opinion | D.C. leaders must stem the city’s decline