Fenty To Metro Riders: "Screw You"

May 5, 2005: "As equipment threatens to become less reliable, it is vitally important to finance additional capital maintenance for both the subway and the bus system." -- Rudolph G. Penner, The Urban Institute, before the Committee on Public Works and The Environment Councel of the District of Columbia.

March 23, 2006: "As a result of its investigation, the Safety Board made the following recommendations: ... Either accelerate retirement of Rohr-built railcars, or, if those railcars are not retired but instead rehabilitated, then Rohr-built passenger railcars should be retrofitted with crashworthiness collision protection that is comparable to 6000-series railcars." NTSB

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June 22, 2009: Metro trains collide killing 9.

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June 24, 2009: "The only appropriate response is to begin to eliminate the crash-unworthy cars with this year's appropriations." -- Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton. The Washington Post

June 26, 2009: "D.C. Metro crash highlights underfunding of public transit systems." The Christian Science Monitor

July 9, 2009: "Fuck you, Washington." -- Adrian Fenty (paraphrased), The Washington Examiner. DC pulls its $50 million share of Metro funding from its budget, jeopardizing $150 milling in matching Federal funds.

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Because if there's one thing that we can really afford to cheap out on today, two weeks after the worst accident in Metro's history, it's funding Metro.

I am no longer of the opinion that Adrian Fenty and the DC Goverment is a bastion of corruption and lies. Now, I am pretty sure that they're just common-or-garden variety stupid.