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D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty's obsession with physical fitness may be about to get him into trouble with his constituents. It seems that when he's out training with his cycling team, D.C. Velo, the mayor has been using a large motorcycle police escort that allow him to both flaunt traffic regulations and tie up traffic, WTOP's Mark Segraves is reporting. WTOP spotted Fenty and his team as they "rode on parkways where bikes aren't permitted, ran red lights and stop signs and created traffic backups wherever they went." These rides reportedly occur during weekday business hours, and there's evidence that they are responsible for a large amount of police overtime hours spent doing nothing but waiting for the mayor to show up for his ride. Plus, there's video!
Best part of the story? This narrative about Fenty spotting the WTOP news crew and attempting to dodge them:
Last month, Fenty spotted WTOP with a video camera as he rode along Rock Creek Parkway. Minutes late, as Fenty and his teammates rode along the parkway, the mayor darted across the road and onto the bike path, where he dismissed the police escort and took off through the woods.
A few days later, when WTOP caught up with the mayor and his bike team again, they had moved their training ride to Bethesda, where more than 20 cyclists - along with a D.C. Police escort - tied up traffic along Goldsboro Road, MacArthur Boulevard and other major roadways.
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Give this man a Pulitzer
Good grief this guy sucks.
I can't wait to vote for Leo Alexander for mayor. Fenty's done.
(BTW, District Daily has a good piece on the mayoral candidate opposing Fenty)
I can't wait to vote for Leo Alexander for mayor.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, let's not get carried away. Shouldn't we at least consider starting a draft movement for a retarded monkey first?
(This message paid for by RETARDED MONKEY FOR MAYOR 2010 EXPLORATORY COMMITTEE. Man in Yellow Hat, treasurer.)
With America's sons in the fields far away, with America's future under challenge right here at home, with our hopes and the world's hopes for peace in the balance every day, I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes or to any duties other than the awesome duties of this office--the Resident Troll of DCist.
Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your Mayor.
I long for the days of a fat, unathletic mayor with hair... Hell, even a semi-athletic mayor with a comb-over would be preferable at this point.
Just livin' the dream, livin' the dream.
honestly, this is pretty small potatoes, people. good god, he went through a yellow left-turn arrow in that video. as soon as we've killed off everyone who comments here who hasn't done that, the only person left will be over the river talking to themself at the end of the day.
Eff that. I don't need a frickin' police escort to disobey traffic laws, and neither does he. Do it on your own time and your own dime, Mr. mayor.
I think you meant "a yellow left-trun arrow."
Sure we have, but with out the police escort of course.
I suppose I shouldn't be any more, but I am amazed at how tone-deaf this mayor is about almost everything. As a fellow cyclist and triathlete this just pisses me off, because it's going to come back on the rest of us who don't have police escorts in the form of more ticked off drivers who'll be less inclined to yield, or at least drive more cautiously around those of us who're attempting to follow the law. What the heck is the man thinking here? Does he not have ethics counsel who would talk to him on appearance issues? Does MPD not have their own ethics counsel who should be pushing back on these abuses? What a load of horsesh*t.
+1...Alexander '10
Just want to jump in before this turns into the usual "I hate cyclists because they [Fill in the blank]!" type of discussion.
I race locally and have ridden these roads a thousand times. I see two issues here:
1) The cycling: When I go out in a big group, we do our best to take up as little space as possible by riding single-file or in a tight double paceline. Of course, some of the best roads out there (MacArthur Blvd., for example) don't have a shoulder, leaving cars to get stuck behind us or make the dangerous move of passing on a double yellow line. Usually drivers are understanding, and we try to be understanding in return by helping them pass when possible. But sometimes they're not. And they honk. And yell. And tell us to get off the road. The point is that we share the road, and that takes understanding and responsibility on both fronts.
2) Mayor Fenty: He's the mayor and he needs security. He's also human. I don't think he should be kept from riding his bike because he's our top elected official. But I won't lie that I'm a bit bothered that his security detail seemed to exceed the role of simply protecting him and is actively breaking up traffic to let the group get through.
He's also riding during the week during work hours...sorry, but our city is a bit on the skids right now and he's out riding his bike in the middle of the work day? That's what Saturday and Sunday are for and that's what 6 a.m. is for.
Compare and contrast with London mayor Boris Johnson. Fenty abuses his police protection; Boris Johnson is the police protection.
My biggest problem with this is Mark Seagraves driving and videotaping at the same time!!
I swear Mark Segraves has a hard-on for Fenty. If it's not about giving away free Nats tickets, it's where his kids are going to school. Do us all a favor, Mark, and just ask him out!!
Seagraves/Fenty just replace Ezra Klein/Austermuhle as the rich, creamy Fluffernutter manwich of my dreams. All that hot, sweaty interracial action's got me harder than Chinese algebra.
You forgot to add the Matt Yglesias cherry to the Martin/Ezra Klein Sundae.
Fenty is a piece of shit.
Flout the law, not flaunt the law.
Well, personally, I'd rather that people flaunted the law than flout it.
He does this all the time and not just in DC....
One of his training routes takes him on Democracy Bvld over by Montgomery Mall where Ive seen him and his escort motorcyle run every single red light between 7 locks and Old Georgetown
Well, D.C. cops certainly don't have jurisdiction in MoCo! Maybe a Montgomery County cop will hit Fenty and his entourage with some tickets.
Williams had a security detail of 17, and they traveled in a motorcade pretty much wherever Williams went. Not coincidentally, Williams didn't get out (even to community meetings) much.
Most of the time, Fenty has a security detail of 0 (zero), but he is out at meetings, walkthroughs, etc A LOT. About the only time you see him with security is on bike rides like these, or at huge events, like the annual MLK march on MLK Blvd. And then instead of an assigned 17-person detail, he taps special events cops, which would not exactly be walking the streets in Trinidad anyway.
Really, it's not that big of a deal.
at last, we agree on something.
I'm sure we also agree that my relatives in Montana and Virginia probably enjoy better hunting than we in DC do!
No way. DC is better. We have lions, Oryx, Pandas, you name it.
Just call them "charismatic mega-fauna in a barrel" :)
I wouldn't be surprised to find out Williams had very real death threats. He was the first mayor that stood a chance of ending the gravy train that was DC government. As such, I'm sure a lot of people came unhinged at the idea of possibly losing their job-for-life.
Fenty's in the same "they hate him because they lost thier jobs" boat. Maybe even more.
hey, hey, wait a second. what was with that trinidad dig in there? was that really necessary?
jesus krispies, this neighborhood has a rep that isn't earned. there are 5 or 6 neighborhoods i can think of right off the top of my head that are more dangerous—and one of them has a target in the middle of it.
No offense, IMGoph, but you don't live in Trinadad and, anyway, I'd rather piss you off than those 'bamas in Barry Farms.
Ad that to the fact that Clifton Terrace and Park Morton, while not exactly "friendly territory", are pretty much pacified and you get what you get.
Again, no offence. :)
Oh, you do live in Trinidad now.
My bad.
I got no opinion on use of a security detail, as I got no idea how real threats against a city mayor are, but using your detail to clear your way through red lights is annoying.
I'll never forget seeing Police Chief Ramsey use his security detail to 'hold' illegal parking in one lane of 15th St for him and a huge posse at Old Ebbitt Grill. Totally screwed traffic on 15th Street for the better part of an hour.
And it most definitely was not some work function. It was him and his buds, having dinner.
That will always be my lasting impression of him.
I'm fine with this. People don't bitch about the VP's motorcade every morning/night, so why the bitching about this? And people don't question whether the VP's motorcade is taking him to work or going to see a buddy. Ditto for the mayor: he needs a security detail no matter where he goes and no matter what the nature of his travel - and no matter what the mode of transportation.
Um, there's a pretty big difference between the Vice President of the United States and Adrian Fenty.
you got that one right! Cheney paralized half the city when he finally decided to take his dog to the vet. Actually, to be fair to Fenty, that "security detail" is the smallest detail I've ever seen for any official around here. And looking at the video, they don't show a lot of evidence for running red lights, actually none. I suspect this story and video may be part of a stealth "re-elect Fenty" campaign
The security detail/police escort appears in that video to consist of a single motorcycle cop. Hardly a major use of city resources. Ever seen Michael Bloomberg, or in the old days, Giulliani race through NYC, or DC with their motorcades? A single motorcycle is nothing.
Yeah, one motorcycle cop is relatively nothing, especially considering that motorcades for the White House or State Department frequently require several MPDC motorycle officers and police car units. The presidential motorcade requires the time of something like 30-35 MPDC officers.
Of course, the red light running is another issue all together...
why can't DC have a mayor who just smokes crack? this guy sets a terrible example for kids with all this focus on health and exercise!
instead of chewing on a big fat lunch, he's riding his bike? right at lunch time, at the peak of rush hour? i once got stuck behind this bunch on bradley, with the police motorcycle in tow. They were barely going 30 mph in a 35mph zone. then they stopped for the light at huntington that i would have been able to blow through if it hadn't been for them, very frustrating! that light takes forever, and they didn't move.
A mayor in top triathletic condition is a mayor that spends too much time exercising.
Dont know if it's been posted or if it should be posted, but he starts his rides from Cycle Life in Georgetown. I go down there for lunch to hang out with a friend that works there and when i walk in Fenty is always coming down the stairs from the gym. At the front door he has around 4-7 riders with him but never a uniformed police officer on a motorcycle or a patrol bike.
at :53 seconds he's heading back to the bike shop.
i like fenty but this blows. this town is waist deep in self-important a**holes shutting down the city with their motorcades.
So one motorcycle cop = "Large Police Escort"?
Get a grip people. I watched a couple minutes and didn't see one instance where he was "holding up traffic".
The man has his issues and like him or not, he is the mayor. But, considering he halved the size of the previous mayors security and police detail and drives himself around a majority of the time, I think the occasional single motorcycle cop is allowable.
I kept waiting for traffic to come to a "crawl" too. And whereas I've grown quite used to police escorts in DC, do we really need the whole crazed-photographers-tailing-celebrities-and-causing-accidents madness of LA here too?
How long are these rides, though? During the work week? Doesn't he kind of have other stuff to do? Would he fire another city worker taking this much time during the day?
Man, when I'm at work Ike Leggett better damn be working - or at least commenting on DCist.
The guy works at least 14 hour days 5 days a week, and 8 hour days on the weekend. Seriously.
It's not like taking off for an hour or even two a day (or even two days) a week really deprives the taxpayer of value for their money.