In a recession with record unemployment, simply pasting the word “jobs” on any document gets people dreaming of contracts and paychecks. No doubt mayoral candidate Vincent C. Gray was hoping his “Creating Real Economic Opportunity” plan would have such an effect.
Don’t believe it.
Gray has called the 14-page document “dynamic and far reaching.” But in it he just regurgitates current programs and policies while proposing to expand government, establish task forces, “better coordinate” existing agencies and groups, and hold summits.
For example, Gray would expand the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Economic Development, creating a director of business services and a director of real estate services. (The latter may be a position for his good friend Chris Smith, the developer who helped Gray with renovations — not the fence — at his home.)
Where has Gray been? Surely he knows there already is a Department of Real Estate Services.
Gray also proposes to work with the federal Department of Homeland Security to create jobs and “community incubation zone working groups.” He compares Ward 8, where unemployment is 30 percent, with Ward 3 and its 3 percent unemployment rate as if to suggest that Ward 8 has been neglected deliberately — something his economic plan would halt.
But obviously he has lost touch with those “most distressed neighborhoods” for which he wants to provide “living wages and economic opportunity.”
Many of the residents in Ward 8 lack the educational background to capitalize on opportunities in today’s high-tech economy — like those from DHS. They also may have substance abuse or health issues.
Defeat Poverty DC, a coalition of 100 organizations, understands the problems facing many of the city’s chronically unemployed: “What will Gray do to improve basic literacy and numeracy skills for the 20 percent of D.C. adults needing such help,” asked Campaign Director Michael Edwards in a statement that raised concerns about funding for the plan, enforcement of existing laws, and the number of people who could benefit.
“Gray’s plan leaves us [with] many questions,” Edwards said.
A key question is the veracity of statements made in the document.
Gray said, for example: “The current administration has not focused on the [health care] industry in a way that serves all residents equally.” That’s a deliberate misrepresentation. Mayor Adrian Fenty, working with at-large Councilman David Catania, won approval to invest more than $79 million in the United Medical Center, the only hospital in Ward 8. After its owners defaulted on a loan earlier this year, the administration moved to assume control of the institution — over the objections of the city’s chief financial officer and other folks, including myself.
And then there is this: Gray said he would responsibly design and manage the summer employment program.” His plan was released one day after he and the council declined the mayor’s request to extend this year’s program by seven days.
Each time I read Gray’s plan for jobs and economic development the smell of disingenuousness grew stronger and more odious.
Jonetta Rose Barras’ column appears on Monday and Wednesday. She can be contacted at [email protected]
