Rachel Sadon
Photo by angela n.
Muriel Bowser has kicked off paloozas, launched pilot programs, and “brought the funk,” and she wants you to know about it.
The administration released a “progress report” yesterday detailing their efforts from the first six months in office. “I am pleased to report that Washington, DC is strong and getting stronger,” Bowser lets us know in the introduction to the ten-page document. “Our economy is thriving, our schools are improving, and our finances are in good shape.”
Sure the streetcar is still aimlessly riding around and there’s an unexplained spike in summer gun crime and an ongoing affordable housing crisis—but, you know, they’re working on it.
After a campaign notoriously short on details, the laundry list of initiatives shows a busy bureaucrat who has focused many of her efforts on communication programs to engage with citizens and a series of targeted initiatives (there’s no shortage of cutesy names—innoMAYtion, the F.R.E.S.H. Summer initiative, and AlleyPalooza, among them.) But she hasn’t pursued any major overhauls similar to the schools takeover that her political mentor, Adrian Fenty, undertook during his first few months in office.
The otherwise cheery report ends on a tribute page to D.C. firefighter Lt. Kevin McRae, who died after after battling a two-alarm fire in Shaw in May.
