Mayor Vincent Gray is almost a year and a half into his term, and I am beginning to believe he’s finally getting the hang of the job. Enough with the town hall meetings, Vince is starting to govern.
Pity, then, that the rumor mill inside the Wilson Building is rife with reports that federal prosecutors are getting closer to handing down indictments in the investigation of Gray’s mayoral campaign. These rumors come and go, so I don’t put much stock in them. My sources in the U.S. Attorney’s Office were tight-lipped, as always.
For the first time since Gray took office, I’m starting to appreciate the way he’s running the government and the direction he’s taking the city. It’s been about a year since accounts of the cronyism and corruption of his first months dominated the news. You know, his top aides and “trusted friends” like Lorraine Green and others doling out jobs to kith and kin. You remember, reports of Gray’s campaign aides funneling cash to candidate Sulaimon Brown, who would then harass incumbent Adrian Fenty.
We’ll have to wait for federal prosecutors to sort through the facts, but in the meantime, Vince Gray and his agency heads are making progress, in three realms: education, environment and development. I figure they deserve some credit, with a nod toward Fenty’s people, many of whom are still in the government.
In education, Gray has been wise enough to embrace and support Chancellor Kaya Henderson. Near as I can tell, he has backed her in budget battles. He stood by her side last week when she rolled out her five-year plan. He has yet to face the fire that will flare up when Henderson has to close schools, perhaps as many as a dozen. Will “Uncle Vince” be able to deliver bad news to neighborhoods that elected him mayor? We shall see.
This week, Gray continued his long-standing drive to begin educating kids early and follow them through to actually getting jobs. What a concept! Gray started to beef up the city’s early childhood education programs years ago. He made sure Henderson included them in her five-year plan. Good move.
On environmental matters, I am a big fan of Harriet Tregoning’s 20-year plan for the continued greening of the capital city. When I was a kid, we imagined a future depicted on “The Jetsons,” a cartoon with characters zipping around in flying machines. Gray and Tregoning rolled out a vision of a city where people will walk and bike and eat veggies from farms on the tops of buildings. Sounds fantastic, right?
But change is afoot. Gray’s development boss, Victor Hoskins, has finally inked a deal that will see a 2.2 million-square-foot project built over the Center Leg Freeway, between downtown and Capitol Hill. The project was conceived in 1986, when Marion Barry was mayor. Hoskins finally landed it. The “farms” will be on the roofs.
Call it far-fetched, but at least Vince Gray and his team are climbing out of the pit they created for themselves.
Harry Jaffe’s column appears on Tuesday and Friday. He can be contacted at [email protected].
