I saw this other blogpost today from another Detroiter now a DC-er. This comment: "Detroit may be my hometown, but DC is my home," really resonated with me, because it's largely how I feel. In light of the paperwork being mysteriously lost several months after the firetruck incident, I'm feeling even more acutely the problems of corruption, bureaucratic ineptitude, and incompetence that is still present in this city. Thankfully, DC won't elect another Barry, just like Detroit won't elect another Kwame (right? right?). But the City Council still remains a tier below or more what it needs to be (DC still elected another Barry). And as someone committed to the District, in a way that I wasn't committed to Detroit, I do fear that slippage will occur, despite the countless positive things about the city. Whether it's the growth in housing prices, the largely successful Capital bikeshare program, Michelle Rhee's transformation of city schools and the growth of charters, the transformation of area neighborhoods like my own H Street corridor, the development of retail in the city like Costco, and I could go on. I'm not even sure that Vince Gray's rather mediocre term as mayor will undue some of the development and growth that has occurred.
I hope Detroit will turn around, I really truly do. And I hope it can catch up to DC at some point, even if it takes a decade. And I equally hope that DC won't slip backwards because it can't get its government ethics problems curbed.
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