This month marks one year since Mayor Adrian Fenty took office. Let's review the first year with this young, ambitious politician at the helm of our city.
As a D.C. councilmember representing Ward 4, Fenty gained a reputation as a can-do leader who focused on the needs of the less fortunate members of the District. As a candidate, he built a strong following among people from all backgrounds with a promise to focus on inequality. Amazingly, he won in all 142 precincts in a city that is very diverse in terms of race, income and education.
With this electoral mandate, Fenty presented a plan called "100 Days and Beyond" that would jump-start the process to improve the District's performance on health care, public safety, housing and, most importantly, education.
The major accomplishment of Fenty's first year has been his ambitious steps to improve the District's failing schools. In order to exert more control on education policy, he took power away from the Board of Education and placed his office in charge of the schools. His reforms to increase accountability and repair school infrastructure have ensured that, for example, every D.C. school opened in August on schedule - a rare occurrence in the past. It is hard to say this early, however, what effect Fenty's plan will have on school performance indicators like test scores and graduation rates.
Fenty has also demonstrated political courage in ensuring affordable housing for D.C. residents. He has begun to implement plans to construct more than 3,000 units of affordable housing for middle- and low-income residents. In a city where housing costs rise fast, Fenty's plan is a shot in the arm for D.C.'s many working-class residents. Despite pledging to build more public housing, though, Fenty has so far failed to follow through on a campaign promise to issue rules on inclusionary zoning or requiring a percentage of new residential units in a development to be designated as affordable housing.
These reforms duly noted, the one major shortfall of Fenty's first year in office has been his my-way-or-the-highway attitude toward governing. His style has needlessly made his reform program more difficult to implement and has alienated many of his supporters.
Soon after his election victory, for example, he chose a new police chief without asking the advice of any public safety experts or the former police chief beforehand, preferring his own judgment instead. The process of reforming the schools has also not been very transparent or inclusive. Fenty argues that D.C. residents want results, not process, but he seems oblivious to the fact that an inclusive process can be an end in itself.
More recently, the rough, angry edges of Fenty's governing style have started to show through publicly. Last month, when a D.C. councilmember reminded Fenty that he had to get the approval of the council to sell school buildings, Fenty barked, "Are you threatening me?" and cut off another councilmember who tried to diffuse the confrontation. In a sign of internal tensions within the Fenty administration, the D.C. attorney general resigned recently because she felt Fenty was not heeding her opinion on legal matters. What Fenty fails to recognize is that long-term success in politics is about learning to pick your battles wisely and maintaining good relations with your friends as well as your rivals.
Fenty's focus on the District's long-standing social issues is to be commended. Unlike his predecessor, he is truly a champion of the less fortunate. He has accomplished a great deal so far, but these successes are threatened by his go-it-alone leadership style. Let us hope in the new year that he learns to play well with others so he does not sabotage his own reform project.
Travis McArthur is a senior in the School of International Service and a D.C. politics columnist for The Eagle.
