Photo by fromcaliw/love.

Last Friday, I received an email from a poster to the Columbia Heights listserv. The email, which was generously bolded and incredibly rambling, contained several veiled threats which claimed that if people didn’t write-in Mayor Adrian Fenty during November’s general election, then Vince Gray would be sure to take away D.C.’s shiny new bike-sharing system. It was a Sisyphean task to excerpt anything really substantive from the body of the email, but here’s a shot:

“During the Mayoral Campaign, Mayor Fenty’s opponent framed doggie parks, bike lanes, and the evolution from a car-centric city as catering only to yuppies. Most DC residents loved Gabe Kleins’ vision and initiatives to a transportation system where residents have options for getting around the city.”

You get the idea. Sure, its just a batty email on a neighborhood listserv — hardly a rarity around D.C. But the fact that things like Capital Bikeshare (and dog parks and bike lanes, for that matter) are such an attractive target for the Fenty write-in folks is obviously a hangover from the campaign: the narrative that Gray is really only out to reinstate the interests of Washington’s anti-gentrification crowd.