Former Washington Mayor Marion Barry Dead At 78

[$tevie]

rjmacs wrote:
Everyone remembers the Marion Barry of FBI-setup fame, but few recall what incredibly important work he did on behalf of the citizens of the District when they had virtually no control over the city in which they lived. Barry had innumerable flaws, and did many bad things during his tenure, especially late in his career. Nonetheless, he served the poor and underrepresented residents of D.C. with great vigor and commitment. He helped to bring Home Rule to a city that was previously administered (poorly) by outsiders, and worked to make city government an entity to serve the people, not rule them.

Chocolate City will remember the Mayor for Life as a complicated character, both gifted and selfish, driven and capricious, generous and greedy. Others will vilify him as purely bad/corrupt, because they either never really knew his whole story or because he's an easy target. I prefer to see the broader picture of the man.

I have a few FB friends who met him over the years and they are currently discussing how much they liked him and how little he represented the caricature we all hold of him. Granted, they could all be delusional but it did get me to wondering.

[Lemon Drop]

I have a lot of respect for his civil rights activism as a younger man.

But it's easy to make the case that DC would have been much better off if he'd never become mayor. It's not like he's the only person who wanted the job.

[rjmacs]

Lemon Drop wrote:
I have a lot of respect for his civil rights activism as a younger man.

But it's easy to make the case that DC would have been much better off if he'd never become mayor. It's not like he's the only person who wanted the job.

Make the case, LD. Who would have made a better mayor when he was running? You lived here - who did you support?

[robfilms]

rjmacs wrote:
[quote=Lemon Drop]
I have a lot of respect for his civil rights activism as a younger man.

But it's easy to make the case that DC would have been much better off if he'd never become mayor. It's not like he's the only person who wanted the job.

Make the case, LD. Who would have made a better mayor when he was running? You lived here - who did you support?
when i was in dc, i though walter fauntroy would have been a better mayor.

he was not as "cool" as "marion barry, marion barry".

but fauntroy did a decent job as a congressional rep for dc.

i feel confident his quality would have aided dc at a time before the crack scourge that marion barry ignored took over the city.

ymmv

be well.

rob

[robfilms]

now that my memory has been jogged by a near thirty year absence from dc, i always thought eleanor holmes norton would have been a great dc politician.

she also ended up in the house as the dc non-voting delegate.

during the decade i was in washington, dc was politically a very corrupt time. it had a long run of corrupt politicians who often catered to upper-middle-class interests who resided in the nw, rather than the "plain" folks from se.

then again, "the hill" would often intercede into most dc affairs that could potentially "embarrass" the president and/or congress that held sway.

to this day, the fact that dc is not the 51st state is a real sham(e).

again, to my mind, marion barry was a fraud.

then again, time has soothed my opinions in matters that i was very involved in a long time ago.

ymmv

be well.

rob

[Lemon Drop]

rjmacs wrote:
[quote=Lemon Drop]
I have a lot of respect for his civil rights activism as a younger man.

But it's easy to make the case that DC would have been much better off if he'd never become mayor. It's not like he's the only person who wanted the job.

Make the case, LD. Who would have made a better mayor when he was running? You lived here - who did you support?
By the time I moved to DC, Barry had already been elected to two terms and was an entrenched institution. The depth of corruption was just beginning to show - not to mention his severe drug and alcohol addictions and their impact on his ability to work. It's more than a bit ironic that at a time when the crack cocaine epidemic made DC the "murder capital" of the country, the mayor was partaking himself. It wasn't just the FBI sting, that was the tip of the iceberg, this man had a very serious problem and had no business representing such an important city. I hardly see how the two men (I think it was two) he defeated for the Democratic nomination in '78 could have been worse.

[Dennis S]

"Our crime rate is not bad as long as you don't count the murders" or something like that.