Tell the Administration How You Would Run the City

Whether we like to admit it or not, most of us are Monday morning quarterbacks when it comes to local government. Whenever the District's government does something foolish, many of us are quick to assume that we could do better. Well, now we have a chance to prove it.

During last year's mayoral campaign, the D.C. Appleseed Center ran a campaign soliciting resident input into the city's most pressing problems. From the 1,500 submissions they received, they produced a briefing book which included everything from school reform to the arts. The organization then passed the book on to Mayor Adrian Fenty.

Now they have taken the campaign a step further. As part of the mayor's CapStat sessions -- focused meetings on some of the city's toughest problems -- D.C. Appleseed has asked for resident input on affordable housing, substance abuse and Fire and Emergency Medical Services. The input, which is collected on their website, will then be taken to City Administrator Dan Tangherlini, who has promised to include proposed ideas in coming CapStat sessions on the three issues. The deadline for input is October 29 for affordable housing, November 14 for substance abuse and December 3 for Fire and Emergency Medical Services.