Painting "Gray" over "Fenty" on signs now official priority

Government

Painting "Gray" over "Fenty" on signs now official priority

by Mitch Wander • March 8, 2011 3:31 pm

When Mayor Gray took office, we suggested he ask agency directors not to spend precious funds replacing all mentions of previous mayors with his own name on signs.

Image from DC Water.

DC Water instead made a video showing them changing their own sign.

Now, an anonymous yet fiscally responsible source shared an administration email asking agencies to make it "a priority" to replace or cover over the names of previous mayors or their agency heads:

From: Robinson, Tony (EOM)

To: Hoskins, Victor (EOM); Hanlon, Brian (DRES); Harper, Ollie (OPEFM);
Cooper, Ginnie (DCPL)

Cc: Graves, Warren (EOM); Sousa, Jose (EOM); [Philip Artin]; Williams, George (DCPL); Jenkins, Ruth (OPEFM); Coleman, Lucian (OPEFM); Bonvechio, Jeffrey (DCPL)

Sent: Mon Mar 07 14:33:20 2011

Subject: Project/Site Signage

Victor, Brian, Ollie, Ginnie:
All ongoing project and site signage must be updated as soon as possible to reflect the change in leadership. All projects signs bearing former administration leadership (Mayor, Agency Heads etc.) must either be replaced or covered with new leadership names.
I believe the City Administrator has discussed this issue with some of you. If not, this is a priority he has asked me to work with you and your staff in accomplishing as quickly as possible.
Please identify a point of contact on your staff who can provide updates on getting project signage changed and provide ongoing updates until completion. Should you have any questions about this request, please let me know.
Tony
Tony Robinson
Director of Public Affairs
Office of the City Administrator

Staff from Office of Public Education Facilities Modernization, Department of Real Estate Services, Executive Office of the Mayor and DC Public Library appear in the email's "to" and "cc" fields. The email also went to one non-DC.Gov email address: Philip Artin, Senior Vice President, Special Projects with construction firm McKissack & McKissack.

It would be interesting to know whether these instructions were approved by Mayor Gray himself or represent an independent effort by City Administrator Allen Lew. In either case, the administration should immediately rescind this order to preserve tax dollars and focus agency leadership on legitimate high-priority projects.

To avoid this problem in the future, Gray can ask that signs not list any names at all, and simply replace the old adminisration's names on current signs with nothing. That will reflect the leadership change while removing the need to replace all names in the future every time a mayor or agency head changes.

37 comments

Tags: Allen Lew, DC, signs, Vincent Gray

Don't use the incoming mayor's name in vain (on signs) (Dec 16, 2010)
Would Gray maintain or reverse DC's momentum? (Jun 21, 2010)
Does DC really need a Deputy Mayor for Education? (Nov 12, 2010)
Should urbanists be nervous about Vince Gray? Part 1 (Jul 20, 2010)
Should urbanists be nervous about Vince Gray? Part 5: Who would Gray hire? (Aug 19, 2010)

Mitch Wander first arrived in Washington, DC over 25 years ago as a US House of Representatives page while in high school. An avid promoter of DC living, Mitch has lived in wards 1, 2, 3, and 6. He and his wife are proud DC Public School parents. He serves as an officer in the US Army Reserve.

Comments
Add a comment »

Goo-goo alert! Goo-Goo alert!

Quick, call in an op-ed team!

by charlie on Mar 8, 2011 3:36 pm • link • report

ugh, the puffing-out-your-chest BS has to stop. no more "look what i did" signs! it was bad when fenty did it, it's bad that gray does it, it was bad when barry and williams did it.

it's a WASTE OF TIME AND MONEY.

by Geoffrey Hatchard on Mar 8, 2011 3:37 pm • link • report

OK. So who wants to manufacture a bunch of 'Mayor Sulaimon Brown' signs, and hang them on top of the signs of public agencies around town?

by andrew on Mar 8, 2011 3:43 pm • link • report

Meh. Couldn't this have been one of hundreds of emails talking about all kinds of city government to-do stuff, both mundane and important?

Also, remember, this is the Mayor's PUBLIC AFFAIRS guy, so what else is going to be his priority? Sending out cheerful news releases, making sure there is adequate lighting for pressers?

by Ward 1 Guy on Mar 8, 2011 4:13 pm • link • report

Let's recall Gray, and we'll get some other random guy in there. Government might end up being cleaner. And there's even a possibility it will even be effective! Consider this my endorsement of Some Other Random Guy.

"PoliSci Lesson #8332: Why Hope is Not a Plan"

by oboe on Mar 8, 2011 4:19 pm • link • report

And yet Mayor Fenty and his CA demanded that all the signs were changed over as of his inauguration date...

Interesting that DDOT wasn't included on the list (?)

by Some Ideas on Mar 8, 2011 4:20 pm • link • report

Is anyone aware of the cost associated with doing this?

by HogWash on Mar 8, 2011 4:46 pm • link • report

Your tax dollars at work

by Jacob on Mar 8, 2011 4:56 pm • link • report

@Some Ideas - Justifying it because the previous guy didn't only perpetuates the problem. True, Gray is no worse than those that went before him on this count, but perhaps we could hope for him to be better.

by ah on Mar 8, 2011 5:50 pm • link • report

I wonder if he's going to pull Fenty's name off the center of the soccer field at Harriet Tubman. And if so, will he replace it with his own?

by mark on Mar 8, 2011 6:03 pm • link • report

I'm rather fond of this one:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thisisbossi/5510789494/

by Bossi on Mar 8, 2011 6:50 pm • link • report

Nice symbolic thing to hammer on. But we can be talking about serious issues. While this will cost money, it is probably even less than the thousands of dollars wastes on SUVs.

Unfortunately, focusing on thousands of dollars is not going to save the DC budget. Come on David, you're and engineer, you understand the concept of orders of magnitude.

So, please start complaining about serious issues. Let's say at least 8 figures, i.e. 10 million or more. The rest is not worth wasting our time on.

by Jasper on Mar 8, 2011 7:16 pm • link • report

It's the myriad of small issues and petty dollars which the masses can understand & seem to go marching to the voting booth on... not the huge things that actually matter.

With stuff as easy to address as keeping signs neutral (if at all) or refraining from decked-out SUVs, I'd say it's perfectly reasonable to call it out... it's less an act of budgetary restraint but more an act of good faith to the collective mindset of the taxpayers.

Besides, my free time is free; feel free to waste it.

by Bossi on Mar 8, 2011 7:22 pm • link • report

David who, Jasper? Mitch Wander wrote this article.

by David Alpert on Mar 8, 2011 7:24 pm • link • report

Nothing that a few cans of spray paint cant fix.

by TGEoA on Mar 8, 2011 9:12 pm • link • report

LOL ... So the signs should remain saying 'Mayor Fenty'?

Will you guys just get over it. Fenty's not mayor anymore. The sour grapes isn't very flattering.

by Lance on Mar 8, 2011 9:25 pm • link • report

Why do the signs have to have the mayor's name on them at all? Then they don't have to be changed.

I don't see "PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA" plastered all over the ARRA signs.

by MLD on Mar 8, 2011 9:46 pm • link • report

When I'm Partially-Benevolent Emperor of Earth, I'm going to put my name on everything... signs, mailboxes, the more less mobile wild animals; and I'm going to do it in Comic Sans.

by Bossi on Mar 8, 2011 9:57 pm • link • report

@Lance-Permanent signs should have Fenty's name removed and nothing replace it.

Non-permanent signs (eg. construction projects) should retain their existing sign until the end of the project.

by ah on Mar 8, 2011 10:06 pm • link • report

@ah 'Non-permanent signs (eg. construction projects) should retain their existing sign until the end of the project.'

I like that idea.

by Lance on Mar 8, 2011 10:23 pm • link • report

If I wanted someone to put there name on everything I would have voted for Borf.

I still might in the special election. He has interesting ideas on education.

by David C on Mar 8, 2011 10:24 pm • link • report

Call it what it is. You get a generic DC sign, and if you want to slap your branding on it, you can pay out of campaign funds. Your successor gets the same choice.

by John on Mar 8, 2011 11:21 pm • link • report

Lance (and others):

It was annoying when Fenty did it. And Williams.

But it's more than annoying when Gray does it. Why? Because during Fenty and Williams we weren't facing an enormous deficit.

It's one thing to see waste when your city/economy are growing, and you are flush with cash.

Quite another when we are talking about services cutbacks and tax increases.

Equally galling are the One City signage campaigns. Not because of the slogan. But because it seems to ALWAYS include Vince Gray's name, so much so that it seems to be just an excuse for campaign-style signs.

It's tacky in good times. Downright inexcusable in bad.

by Hillman on Mar 9, 2011 7:18 am • link • report

And we still have to see the name of a convicted criminal on the government building on U Street. If we're going to waste money like this, shouldn't that be the first to go?

by Mike on Mar 9, 2011 7:59 am • link • report

As far as I'm concerned, as long as Gray continues his strategy of demonizing Fenty, while hewing as closely as possible to every single one of the particulars of Fenty's reign--including an equal (but not greater) level of corruption--I'm satisfied.

It's like we're watching a "made-for-TV" movie of the Fenty years starring Phil Morris playing Jackie Chiles playing Fenty.

by oboe on Mar 9, 2011 9:38 am • link • report

@ David: David who, Jasper? Mitch Wander wrote this article.

You're still editor, right?

by Jasper on Mar 9, 2011 1:55 pm • link • report

Jasper: There are many editors. Read here.

by Geoffrey Hatchard on Mar 9, 2011 2:00 pm • link • report

We're a group of people who write articles about their opinions. I make sure they're well-written, something likely interesting to readers, and not totally contrary to the values of the blog. I am not actually writing all the posts and putting them under different people's names.

by David Alpert on Mar 9, 2011 2:01 pm • link • report

Right, and also as Geoff said, we've recently moved to a system where more people are editing besides just me. Which reminds me, I should do a post introducing that.

by David Alpert on Mar 9, 2011 2:02 pm • link • report

@Dave Alpert. Please -- we all know you and lance are the same person.

That would be some performance website -- an entire website, with multiple commentators, all arguing back and forth, and all the product of one seriously twisted mind.

by charlie on Mar 9, 2011 2:10 pm • link • report

charlie: http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/1937/lunch-links-closing-the-case/

by David Alpert on Mar 9, 2011 2:15 pm • link • report

@charlie,

I can tell you for a fact that that's not true. How do I know this? Because Lance is *my* alter-ego; and I his.

We suffer from split personality disorder: he is the polite but disingenuous side of my personality; I, the rude but intellectually honest side of his.

Our doctor tells us this condition is, unfortunately, untreatable.

by oboe on Mar 9, 2011 2:17 pm • link • report

@Oboe; then we have a real problem, because I'm pretty sure you're just o projection of my mind. Just yesterday, I was caught on a red light in a crosswalk, and I got out of the car and repeatedly started to hit my car with the stick I carry for those purposes....

@Alpert, as I said, a seriously twisted mind. I am turning off my internet now. Goodbye.

by charlie on Mar 9, 2011 2:26 pm • link • report

I think you're all just a manifestation of my extended acid trip. Including Lance...he's the "bad trip" part.

by John on Mar 9, 2011 2:38 pm • link • report

@David C. You should never utter the name of that vandal. It only encourages him. That person spray-painted his name in large letters on the side of my house and on a neighboring historic property, both of which were constructed in the 1890s and lasted over 100 years as unpainted brick. Until that guy came along. Punk vandals who do this don't understand the extent of damage they do to our city.

by Ward 1 Guy on Mar 9, 2011 5:56 pm • link • report

Why do we put the names of anyone on anything ? If someones name goes on anything it should be a requirement that it be permanent which means no welcome to XX City, County, State, Country signs, no built by XX signs etc.

The only time a name should go on something is if its their memorial and nothing else.

by kk on Mar 9, 2011 8:16 pm • link • report

"Have faith in our ideas, vote Gray". Clown. Not you, Mitch, but Alpert.

by Rake on Mar 10, 2011 3:20 pm • link • report