Using the “paint by the numbers” technique, the picture of Tony Williams’ administration looks like something Edvard Munch might create. As in, makes me wanna scream.
First number = 1,225.
Let’s start with the incessant squabble over parking at the proposed baseball stadium. Keep in mind that we’re talking about 1,225 spots for bigwigs, those who will sit in the luxury suites; you and I will never see those spaces, unless they hire us as valet parking attendants.
Now let’s tally the cost of each spot. The mayor wants to dig an underground garage, which could cost $50 million, which puts the price of a spot at $40,816. The Lerners, who bought the Nationals, prefer a lot aboveground, at a cost of $21 million, or $17,142 per space.
The mayor’s math has finally pushed me to the point of comparing baseball construction costs with other needs in our city. What else can we get for $40,000, instead of a slab of concrete for a rich guy’s Benz? Books for students? More cops to slow our rising robbery rate? More social workers for our neediest residents?
Which brings me the second number: 68.
AJustice Department report on the dismal care afforded patients at St. Elizabeths Hospital says the city is short 68 nurses at St. Es, our hospital for residents who need psychiatric care at an institution. The shortage of nurses has led to these numbers: two patients died in 2004 when they were attacked by others; three died last year because of poor medical care.
Our third number is two, which refers to the number of city-run agencies for the needy that have been so badly run on Williams’ watch that they are candidates for takeover by federal courts. One is St. Elizabeths; the other is the Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Administration.
Our final number: 13.
This represents the number of trips to foreign countries that Mayor Williams has taken in the past 12 months; it includes planned trips to France and South Africa. My unofficial tally of days spent traveling to countries such as China (twice), Greece, England (twice), Senegal and Greece comes to 50. I gave up trying to count miles.
Being a fan of Tony Williams, I have tried to avoid becoming one of the nags who note every time he leaves town. But the calculus of failures in caring for those who need city services the most has driven me to join the chorus.
Williams would like his legacy to be bringing baseball back to town, enshrined by the ballpark he has called “my baby.” But any city leader must be judged, ultimately, by how he or she has cared for the people who need help in making it through the day, rather than those who need help parking.
With just more than six months left in his term, Williams needs to park himself in the office and try to cut down the number of Washingtonians dying at the hands of his shoddy city agencies.
Harry Jaffe has been covering the Washington area since 1985. E-mail him at [email protected].
