Inept mayor to run again-Middle-class flees Washington
Ian Rooney
Page E8 THE OTTAWA CITIZEN FRIDAY, JANUARY 2,1988
MIDDLE CLASS FLEES WASHINGTON
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Spirits sink as inept Mayor Marion Barry vows to run again
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By HUGO GURDON
The Daily Telegraph
WASHINGTON-New Year's Day was ruined for Washington's
dwindling middle class, which awoke to news that Mar-
ion Barry might stand for a fifth term in this year's
election.
The prospect of more of Mr. Barry, whose chronic mis-
rule prompted U.S.president Bill Clinton and Congress
to strip him of all but ceremonial powers last year,
could accelerate the flight of middle-class families
to the suburbs.
On the day Mr.Barry dropped his bombshell, the census
bureau revealed that Washington's population fell yet
again last year, to 528,964, it's lowest since 1933,
the trough of the Depression. That's a far cry from
Washington's peak population of 900,000 in 1943.
Few doubt that the spectre of Mr.Barry looms large in
the minds of the fleeing multitudes.
The U.S. capital was designed to be a showcase to the
world, but it is the worst-run city in the country.
Its taxes, crime, infant mortality, even murder rates
are the highest, its schools are among the worst, and
its roads are falling to pieces.
Mr. Barry, who, to his critics, embodies all that is
wrong with Washington, is characteristically buoyant
about his chances. He told the Washington Post:"There
are days I wake up and say, 'I'm ready to do it. 'I'm
a hard campaigner and I have a winning style."
Even if he were to run, however, he would be unlikely
to win the landslide he enjoyed last time in 1994,pun
dits say. For the first time, a growing number of the
city's blacks, who account for 80 per cent of Washing
tons total population, disapprove of the job he has
done.
His popularity survived even his conviction and six-
month's imprisonment on drug charges in 1990 after he
was videotaped smoking crack in a washroom hotel room
with a woman.
The federal government took over the administration of
the city in August 97, after Republicans and Democrats
agreed they could no longer stand by while the nations
capital sank deeper into a poo-squish of incompetence,
and alleged corruption.
The flight of the middle-class from Washington is part
of a national trend in which Americans are moving away
from the high-tax, high-regulation, low-growth econom-
ies in the North-east, and starting new in the booming
South and West. They are effectively voting with their
feet for better, smaller government.
While Washington withers, the population in neighboring
Virginia, which voted solidly for Republicans in Novem-
ber, is growing by one per cent a year. On average, one
person has fled Washington, every hour, the past seven
years.
In contrast, 1000 people a week have moved to Las Vegas
The populations of Texas, Arizona, California, Nevada,
Florida, Montana, and Georgia are all surging and they
may all get extra seats in Congress when constituencies
are redrawn in 2000.
Connecticut, Illinois, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania all
could lose seats, with voters moving to the other side
of the country.
This makes grim reading for Democrats; the areas they
control are losing voters to states wherein Republicans
hold sway.
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Ian Rooney
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