One hundred days down. Only 1,361 to go. Having sprinted through his first 100 days in office — plotting a school takeover, unveiling a $9 billion budget, leading the charge for voting rights — D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty said Thursday he’s now settled in for the long haul to four years.
“I love every aspect of my job,” the mayor said during his 100th day news conference at the Barry Farm Recreation Center in Southeast. “I don’t see any of it as a challenge. I see all of it as an opportunity.”
Fenty, who took office Jan. 2 with an unprecedented mayoral mandate, claims to have met 94 percent of the 103 goals set for his first 100 days. His action plan of roughly 200 objectives takes his administration to a year and beyond.
Among his successes: He won preliminary approval for his education reform plan, instituted more aggressive community policing, awarded construction of the Ward 1 Senior Wellness Center, broke ground on the expansion of the Navy Yard Metro Station, launched a traffic safety education campaign, appointed an affordable-housing coordinator and removed 150 vehicles from the city’s fleet.
But the opening of the first supermarket in Ward 8 has been pushed back to the fall. Work on the Ward 4 Senior Wellness Center is ongoing. And the District has yet to sign a land lease with the developer of the Old Convention Center site, or approve the bond financing package for the proposed NAACP headquarters in Anacostia.
“We know that we’ve got a long way to go and that this city will not be all it can be until we get these things done,” Fenty said.
Ward 8 D.C. Council Member Marion Barry described Fenty’s efforts in tackling crime, poverty and other pressing challenges east of the Anacostia as “very vigilant.” But the former mayor and others urged Fenty to tap more Ward 8 residents for top government jobs.
“We need to hire more people from Ward 8 and we will,” Fenty said. “We don’t have any excuses.”
