Wednesday, May 26, 2010
GGW: Gray Cuts Streetcar
Greater Greater Washington is reporting that at about 2am this morning Council Chair Gray cut almost all of the funding for the H Street-Benning Road streetcar. Apparently his office must be getting a lot of phone calls about this because they pretty much know what you are calling about before you even start talking. ray's office is now telling people that he is working on restoring the funding.
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28 comments:
A truly shocking turn of events. If the funding is cut maybe we can just keep h street the way it is now.
tonyt
the pug
Or maybe it will be time to purchase a couple of handcars and railcycles, no need to let the track go to waste.
Railcycle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Draisine-templin.jpg
Handcar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Prokudin-Gorskii-02.jpg
gray is all about 'transparency' -- i.e., a return to the days of when he last ran an agency (remember who was Mayor then -- yes, our fearless council member from ward 8). nothing like a 2.00 am shift in an "open" process. Gray just confirmed my vote for Fenty.
Anon 11:14, those aren't hipster-ish enough, I'll be riding my Draisine down to Sticky Rice.
I wasn't a big fan of the streetcar and am lukewarm about Fenty, but this jackass move of slashing the budget for the streetcar at 2 AM without discussion and then lying about it pretty much cements my mayoral vote.
And there I was leaning more towards a vote for Gray. Definitely going to reconsider my vote!!
I just called Vince's office to register my complaint and they have the voicemail system on now. My frustration with Fenty is through the roof but Vince just turned me into a strong political opponent.
Seriously, how can you even consider Gray? He's no less likely to steer contracts to his construction company of choice, and he's dumber than a box of bricks -as evidenced by this latest move-.
H Streeter
Insane.
Keep calling everyone. This would be devastating for the neighborhood. Not just the businesses of course but all of the people who moved here in the last 6 years and invested here. A lot of the momentum was based on the streetcar.
This appears to be a false report.
What is everyone's gripe with Fenty? He gave contracts to his friends. That MIGHT be relevant. However, I wouldnt give a crap if it streamlined a process and got things done quickly and cheaply. It's only a problem if we overpaid. Is there any evidence of that?
I just got through and the guy answering wouldn't provide any background on why Grey did this. He just asked which Ward I was in and whether I was for or against the cut. Fantastic.
The cut is real, its not a false report.
Gray is obviously in the pocket of the Committee of 100 Marsupials.
This is hilarious, gotta be more to the story.
OK, so gray cut this shit. It's still gotta get voted on, right? What are the prospects for it holding up?
i just called. they asked me what i was calling about and when i said street car funding, they asked what ward. I told then and they said thanks for calling. when I said wait dont you want to know what i have to say? The guy said, they are voting on it right now so it does not really matter what you think. WOW!!!!!
Jackie Chiles... I mean Vincent Gray's contact info:
(202) 724-8032
fax (that could be fun to bombard) (202) 724-8085
VGray@dccouncil.us
Disgusting. So much for transparent government.
I just called Gray's office and got sent straight to voicemail. I was more than happy to leave a message informing the Chairman that he just lost my vote.
Has anybody been able to get a hold of Tommy Well's office? What are they saying about this? Did Tommy vote for the budget with the streetcar cuts in it?
Hey, whatever amount of money they're spending on the streetcar is too much. Why make infrastructure improvements to make DC more livable when we could be using that to import more homeless people from the suburbs, freeing up funds in MD and VA.
Gray for Mayor!
jj,
They haven't voted yet. Tommy Wells is arguing for the streetcars. Barry, Gray, and Graham are opposing restoring funding. Mendelson was opposing, but now he wants to restore the funding.
I just e-mailed with Tommy Wells. he said that as of now (12:26) the $$ is out, but that there is a final vote this afternoon. He has prepared an amendment in preparation for that final vote. He asks that we keep calling his colleagues. Keep up the calls/e-mails!!
I got voicemail at the official office but I got through at the campaign. The guy I talked to pointed out I need to direct my comments to the official office. When I mentioned that my Gray lawn sign has been pulled and I would be encouraging my neighbors to pull their yards as well he tone changed. Suddenly he was VERY interested in my concerns. I encourage everyone to let Gray's campaign office know directly that their is a very real and immediate reaction to this move.
Just emailed them saying I was pulling my street sign and sending Fenty a check. Just left a voice mail stating the same.
I have called and emailed Vince Gray, letting him know that me and everyone I can convince will be there to obliterate him at the polls.
I actually cant believe this. Even for the DC government.
This may be a stupid question but why doesn't Fenty just deny Gray's proposal? And why does Gray have the authority to cut funding for this? He's just a ward 6 council member. Sorry..I'm not into politics, can someone explain this to me?
1:25,
Gray's not the Ward 6 Councilmember (that's Tommy Wells), he's the Chair.
I still think this is just a way for Gray to position himself as a fiscal conservative, like Fenty did when he voted against the baseball stadium. I can't imagine that the funding won't be restored. The tracks are already in. The streetcars are already here. It would be so stupid. It just smells like a campaign stunt.
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