Martin Austermuhle
Harry Jaffe: In writing something of a goodbye column to RFK Stadium, Jaffe recounts the many struggles the District overcame to attract a baseball team. And though plenty of people played important roles, he feels that one deserves extra attention — former Mayor Anthony Williams. “The hero of the piece has to be Williams, an unpopular mayor who — despite his wandering attention span — kept swinging away at an unpopular crusade to use public funds for the new ballpark. Williams should get a permanent seat, if not a section in his name,” he writes of the new stadium.
Marc Fisher: So, is it flip-flopping or merely a political compromise? That’s the question Fisher asks about Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, whose recent comments on both slot machine gambling and gay marriage differ significantly from past pronouncements. “Bottom line: Words matter, especially for a politician who’s built his career on his ability to inspire,” writes Fisher. “‘Believe,’ said the billboards Mayor O’Malley erected in Baltimore to instill hope in a dying city. It’d be a shame if voters watching Gov. O’Malley had to conclude that they just don’t know what to believe.”
Jonetta Rose Barras: In the second of her columns relating a visit to New Orleans, Rose Barras argues that the struggling city can learn a thing or two from the District. “Think seventh Street NW before Douglas Jemal helped initiate its transformation. New Orleans is similar to the District in the early 1990s: the business community suffered an incompetent government that faced a nearly $1 billion shortfall,” she writes. “President Bill Clinton and Congress rescued D.C., taking over select state functions while creating a control board to oversee daily operations. Is this the recovery model for New Orleans?” As long as they don’t follow our lead on public schools, why the heck not?
