Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin ‘Restore Honor’ to Washington
• July 26, 2011

 

-Glenn Beck is coming to town. So is Sarah Palin. They’re bringing about 300,000 folks with them for a major conservative rally called “Restoring Honor”, a fevered brain child of Beck’s originally meant to be about honoring American servicemen—and who can argue with that—but which has now enlarged the scope of events to Beck’s vision of America’s future. This Saturday, 10 am -1 pm, no signs or guns allowed.

Beck gave his own estimate of the number of people likely to come in requesting a permit. Which he got.

If that many show up, you can bet pretty much how most of them—including Beck and Palin—feel about the 9/11 mosque that’s supposed to be going up a shy two blocks from the hallowed ground of where the Twin Towers once stood: No. Absolutely not.

One of the rallying cries over the mosque controversy is that it’s an example of massive insensitivity on the part of the planners, and anybody who supports the idea, including President Barack Obama – who in any case said he didn’t actually give his approval for the project, but just wants to support freedom of religion. You can’t argue with that.

On the matter of insensitivity…let’s give a big raspberry for Mr. Beck. He’s holding his massive rally on the mall on the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. Beck claims he didn’t realize that it was the same date until it was too late, and the plans had already been made.

Perhaps he learned it on the nightly news.

But in any case, Beck says he has a dream, too, and that this is very much about civil rights and that he now carries the mantle of American visionary. It was not reported whether he cried or not while explaining himself. He did not mention the mosque at the time.

Here are some things about the mosque issue. New York Mayor Bloomberg supports it. So do many people who also believe in religious freedom and freedom in general, and whose beliefs are every bit as vehement as the anti-mosque crowd.

Now you can understand – if not necessarily agree with – the relatives and victims of 9/11 on their stand. They don’t’ want a mosque there in that proximity (two blocks) because it would be an insult to them and the victims. But like a lot of things tend to do, this thing has gotten a little out of hand.
Ask a basic question: how far away should this mosque (actually an Islamic Cultural Center supporting Inter-faith activities, according to its supporters) be? If not two blocks, how many? If not lower Manhattan, where? New Jersey? Florida? Well, no. They don’t want mosques there either. Or in Tennessee or in various places in the West and Midwest. These folks are saying: Be afraid. Be very afraid of the other.

Maybe they needn’t worry. Of the millions of dollars the proposed center would cost, only around $15,000 has been raised, which makes its appearance unlikely any year soon. And the Inman of the center is in any case a Sufi, the least militant, the most tolerant sect of Islam that exists.
But it’s too late for that. The anti-mosque movement — which is what it appears to be — is spreading like wildfire, which is perhaps what you might call an intended consequence of the actions of the opposition.

The Easy Rider, & A Harley Too
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Dennis Hopper
Dennis Hopper, the iconoclastic Hollywood actor who died of prostate cancer last week at the age of 74, was famous for his groundbreaking, very un-mainstream ’60s movie “Easy Rider,” which he both directed and starred in.

One or two things you can say: Hopper’s life was no easy ride, nor was he easy to work, live or fall in love with. Any number of mainstream Hollywood directors, ex-wives, shrinks and, no doubt, some drug dealers could attest to that.

Yet Hopper was a flaming original, a balls-out rebel, whose work as an actor, and certainly as the director of “Easy Rider,” will outlive him and last.

James Dean, the actor Hopper emulated and admired the most, would have been 79 now, had he not flamed out in a fatal Porsche-at-100-miles-an-hour crash at 24, after completing “Giant,” the last of only three major films, thus assuring him of not living the life of Dennis Hopper.

Hopper appeared with Dean in small parts in “Giant” and “Rebel Without a Cause.” The latter, directed by another edgy sort, Nicholas Ray, was practically a nuthouse full of unconventional, rebellious and troubled young actors, sort of like a busload of Lindsay Lohans. There was the mercurial Sal Mineo, who played the suicidal outsider Plato, there was hep-cat Nick Adams, there was Natalie Wood, young and gorgeous, who became a big star but never quite grew up and died in a drowning accident in her 40s.

And there was Hopper, who played a gang kid, who outlived them all. (Who would’ve thunk that one?) Not that he didn’t come close to running his life over a cliff several times. He acted in Westerns and became friends with John Wayne, who at one point saved his career.

Still, always plagued by drug addiction, he was skidding down again when he and Peter Fonda, a troubled son of his famous father Henry and sister to Jane, got up enough money (half a million) and made “Easy Rider,” about a couple of low-life drug dealers on a journey through America in the counter-culture ’60s. Fonda played a cat named Captain America, Hopper a guy named Billy (as in the Kid). They get gunned down by rednecks at the end, but not before roaring across small town America and New Orleans in their own rolling thunder, hooking up with a drunken, young lawyer played by Jack Nicholson and drugging out to acid and acid music.

It was a huge hit, and it made Hollywood feel stupid for doing stuff like “Doctor Doolittle.” Hopper had a gift, it was plain to see, and he encouraged other young directors like Spielberg, Coppola and Scorsese. He made a legendary movie called “The Last Movie,” which almost turned out to be prophecy, a Western in Peru in which the hero (Hopper) ends up crucified. This kind of hubris and spend-thrifting gets punished, and eventually, he landed in an asylum, skipping rehab altogether.

From then on, he was legend: he played psychos, creeps, drunks (“Speed,” “Blue Velvet” and “Hoosiers”) with elan and honesty, and revived his career yet again. His looney, whispery, dangerous voice became a little like unnerving muzak, his face got craggy and he became a beloved icon.

He was in the midst of the television series “Crash,” playing a Hollywood type with his usual rough irony, when he contracted prostate cancer. True to form, even in the middle of dying, Hopper was also in the middle of a nasty divorce battle from the woman who will be forever known only as the last Mrs. Hopper.

But you haven’t seen the last of Hopper. Get a bunch of his best (and worst) films for a weekend, and please include “Apocolypse Now” and a John Wayne Western. Afterward, you’ll feel enlightened, hung over, in a daze, a little fuzzy. Afterward, have a boilermaker for Dennis the Menace.

‘LITTLE BENNY’ Harley
Go-go is pure Washington, D.C. music.

You better know that, because if you don’t know that, you don’t know nothing.

Ask former Mayor Anthony Williams, who, being from out of town, and wearing a bow tie, appeared not to be steeped in the lore and legend of D.C.’s go-go music and musicians, and was roundly dissed for it by those who were.

Now, the D.C. go-go scene lost one of its most vital and influential members with the death of Anthony Harley, 46, who was famously known by his nickname “Little Benny” as a trumpet player and singer.

Harley was a member of Rare Essence, one of the top go-go bands. If Chuck Brown is generally considered the god-father of the funk that is go-go, and endless rhythmic jamming style that keeps old hearts young, then Little Benny is the guy that deserves to stand alongside him, because he kept the music when Brown, now in his 70s, went on tour. In fact, Little Benny had played with Brown right before he died.

Harley was one of those classic D.C. musicians (like Buck Hill) who did other things to live, even working in electronics. He came out of Ballou High School and had a father who had a singing group, Frank Harley and the Bell Chords.

Most of all, he was a D.C. man, playing D.C.’s music all the time. You can listen to go-go on a CD all you want, but you won’t get the rare essence of go-go unless you’re there. For that, there’s only memory.

Editorial: We’ve had our Fill of Philly
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-Geez. Can’t Mehmet Kocak just give it a rest?

Rumors, arresting as the scent of melted mozzarella, have seeped out and spread fast among
neighbors that the former owner of the irreparably besmirched Philly Pizza has again filed papers for an operating license at the same location he was forced to board up just six months ago. At the time, Kocak so vehemently defended his rights as a restaurateur he began to seem a kind of self-styled paladin of pizza.

You can’t say he doesn’t get points for effort. However, it’s one thing to stick to your guns for a time, and another to remain totally intractable when backed into a corner — literally — by residents on all sides. When the neighbors are inviting the mayor out to see you off, isn’t it time to throw in the towel?

Kocak maintains that this time around, his proposal is for a different, more innocuous sort of operation — a kind of hot sandwich shop — but the signs are ominous, most notably his request for a 550-degree conveyor oven three feet wide. You want pepperoni with that?

At the height of the fiasco earlier this year, we sat down with Kocak to make sure we understood his side of the story. His argument — essentially that he was being singled out — was a little maudlin, a little put-upon, but on the whole well reasoned and worth a listen. That, however, was before an organized coalition of neighbors, ANC commissioners and city officials, including the attorney general, mayor and DCRA chief, ordered him out. In the process, he huffed, dragged his feet and even operated on a suspended license until he was threatened with jail time. In a word, Kocak played bad politics in a town where politics matters.

Now, to put it bluntly, we’re as tired of this perpetual debacle as the households of Potomac Street. Exactly why Kocak would want to rekindle a neighborhood feud and further strain relations between the University and neighbors is a mystery, but it seems more and more to have to do with a misguided and self-interested pursuit of profit. While we applaud the growth of small businesses in Georgetown, it must take a back seat to the welfare of its residents, without exception. Philly, or whatever its latest genesis, has worn out its welcome.

Georgetown Eyes on Strasburg
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Beer? Check. Hotdog? Check. Strasburg jersey? Check. After roaming M Street speaking with eager and angry baseball aficionados about Stephen Strasburg’s debut tonight, I have come to a conclusion: Nationals fans are psyched, Nationals bashers are scared.

“I wish him the best of luck. He may put up the numbers, but there’s no way they will win,” said a devoted Oakland Athletics fan.

Dodgers fan Daryn Towle doesn’t believe he will live up to the hype. “It requires experience to do well in the majors. [Strasburg] just doesn’t have it.”

Well, my good ol’ Nationals fans beg to differ. With a 100 mph fastball, Georgetown locals have hope in their hero and are waiting to see if this could potentially be a winning season.

“I can’t wait to see him pitch. I know he’s a rookie, but I can just see him throwing those strikes and getting a perfect game,” said fan Bryan Pike. “It’s a gut feeling.”

As tourists and Pirates fans pour into the city to watch this potentially history-making game, Georgetown local Calvin Smallwood says, “It’s great people are coming out to support our nation’s pastime for once!”

T-minus-3 hours until Strasburg takes the mound and I can guarantee that residents of Georgetown, as well as ESPN junkies worldwide, will have their eyes focused on our hometown tonight.

‘Greener’ Gas: Where Should We Fuel Up?
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Washingtonians live in an environmentally friendly city. New buildings meet green standards, transit ridership is very high, residents use a mix of renewable energy and recycling to increase sustainability. Locals, who value their health and the environment, shop at bustling organic grocery stores and farmers markets. D.C. residents are leaders in “green” living.

They are also horrified by the ongoing oil spill that has shattered lives and the ecosystem of the Gulf of Mexico. President Obama and environmental leaders have embraced this leadership moment, calling for an end to foreign (or all) oil dependence in as few as two decades — a reversal of a 15-year trend of more driving, flat fuel economy, higher greenhouse gas emissions, and more complicated and risky oil extraction. Local residents must also channel their outrage into better choices for our planet.

In the short term, Washingtonians can reduce their carbon footprint by carpooling or grouping errands by location. In the long term, they can choose to live in walkable communities or buy more energy-efficient cars. When they fill their gas tanks, they must not decide, as usual, on the cheapest or closest option. Instead, they must select an oil company based on its environmental, employee, and regional impact. They must also disregard oil company “greenwashing” efforts, such as BP’s “Beyond Petroleum” campaign, which overhyped small renewable energy efforts, and Shell ads showing a pristine marine sanctuary supported through only a few thousand dollars.

A wealth of truly relevant public information on environmental, safety, lobbying, and spill records can help consumers pick a pump. There are some excellent sources:

– One of the most comprehensive is the Sierra Club’s 2007 article called “Pick Your Poison,” which records human rights or environmental abuses, companies’ stances on global warming and green initiatives. The information is shocking — it details huge pipeline and tanker spills, murdered activists, large fines and contaminated water. It also ranks the oil companies on their environmental impact, with Sunoco coming in first (“Top of the Barrel”); Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, Valero Energy Company, and Citgo next (“Middle of the Barrel”); then ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips (“Bottom of the Barrel”); and BP (dishonorable mention, as of 2010).

– Federal government records from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Minerals Management Service, and the Coast Guard forecast and track the impact of oil company activities. Consumers generally can’t easily search these Web sites and compare companies. But a handful of nonprofits are doing the dirty work. For example, a Center for Public Integrity study showed two BP refineries of the 55 that are now federally inspected accounted for almost all (97 percent) of the past three years’ flagrant workplace violations.

– Community stakeholders and environmental groups communicate on the Web about local issues with oil extraction, processing, and transportation at sites such as www.chevrontoxico.com and www.oilwatchdog.org.

Sorting through this information will likely become even easier. Web and iPhone applications that point consumers to the cheapest and/or closest gas stations are being released to give consumers access to this information. These apps might also have consumers check priorities — such safety records over renewable energy initiatives — and push out rankings or more information.

Washington area residents care about the environment, but still drive an average of around 22 miles per day. They must think twice before they fuel up. Local drivers must read through available oil company information and stay up to date on Web and phone applications. It’s one of many critical ways to care for people, pelicans (other wildlife too!) and our planet.

High Time For Oil Conservation
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In the time it takes you to read this sentence, the people of the United States will have used up (forever) 100,000 gallons of oil.

The most important well ever drilled was in a remote section of northwestern Pennsylvania in 1859 by “Colonel” Edwin Drake. This may have been the first successful well ever drilled for the sole purpose of finding petroleum, and began the international search for oil that eventually changed the way we live.

Today hydrocarbons power our economy. They provide the raw material for fertilizers to put food on our table and for the plastic containers that we drink from. They also drain our funds, enrich our enemies by bankrolling terrorism, corrupt our political system and foul our environment. Much like the whale oil of old, petroleum is a depleting resource. Petroleum, coal and natural gas (the “fossil fuels”) are forms of stored energy from trillions of plants and animals that were buried before dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Of course, new oil is still being formed today in some parts of the world, but you might have to wait another 150 million years to turn it into something you could use in your car.

Oil is only worth something when its final value is more than what it costs to produce it. As we drill deeper, the costs of extraction go up exponentially. In the case of deep offshore drilling, very little of the difference between revenues and costs accrues to our benefit. Unlike countries that have already nationalized their petroleum industry (like Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Libya) only a relatively small portion goes to our government in the form of royalties and taxes. The rest accrues to the benefit of largely foreign shareholders who often recycle that money back into our own economy by buying even larger interests in American assets like other oil properties, real estate and shares of American banks.

Many of us have heard that the U.S. is sitting on enough domestic reserves of gas and coal to last centuries. We are not told that much of the gas is too deep and the coal too remote to produce it without heavy subsidy. Natural gas development requires substantial investment in infrastructure spending. And, after centuries of mining, our shallow coal resources have been heavily exploited. The recent Massey Energy explosion in West Virginia brought renewed focus to the dangers of deep coal mining.

Deep water provides its own set of challenges. Typically below 1700 feet, offshore platforms cannot physically rest on the sea floor and instead must float on the surface. By now, we all know what problems can be created when things go wrong thousands of feet below.

Whenever we suffer through an oil boycott, a fall in the value of our currency, a terrorist attack or a disastrous oil spill, we must again remind ourselves that we have to act now to conserve. Alternative forms of energy such as solar and wind are simply too undeveloped to have an immediate impact, though efforts in those directions must be encouraged. Nuclear energy is burdened by its own set of problems — exorbitant costs, the risks of an accident or terrorist attack, the threat of proliferation and the challenge of disposing of the nuclear waste to name but a few. A nuclear accident will make the Gulf spill look tame. Unlike oil pollution, deadly radiation cannot even be seen or smelled. Then there is the issue of uranium depletion. The best ores of uranium have been mined, leaving mainly low-quality ores left to exploit. And with a country the size of ours (compared to the size of France, which has an active nuclear program) it would take a massive investment in many dozens of new plants taking many years to make even a small dent in energy availability. Some experts think that hydrogen will form the basic energy infrastructure that will power future societies, replacing today’s fossil fuels, but that vision probably won’t happen until far in the future.

There are obvious things we can do personally to save energy by changing our habits. Others, such as increased mileage standards and light rail systems, can only be accomplished though government mandate. Higher taxes on energy will spur a better allocation of resources. The higher cost of gasoline in Europe has led to the widespread use of lighter fuel efficient vehicles and greater utilization of public transportation. Higher taxes on energy use might be acceptable if offset by tax cuts elsewhere. Higher prices for petroleum products will inevitably curb consumption. Would it not be better that the proceeds from higher prices be directed to our own treasury rather than to foreign entities?

The unemployed are another wasted resource. As a temporary measure during the Great Depression, FDR created the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) to provide jobs to millions while providing natural resource conservation on public lands in every state. During that time, volunteers planted nearly 3 billion trees to help reforest America and constructed more than 800 parks that would become the foundation of our state parks today.

We can and should vote for candidates who promise to do something to promote conservation and the environment. We have all heard the mantra “Drill Baby Drill” from the likes of a certain political figure (I won’t embarrass her by mentioning her name). How many times must we be reminded? The U.S. today consumes a fourth of the world’s supply of oil, almost 3 times that of number two contender, China. As the populations of the developing world continue to trade in their bicycles for cars, the price of oil is certain to rise. Comprehensive climate and energy legislation must be given top priority — now.

There are no easy solutions. Wrenching lifestyle changes are going to happen anyway. Perhaps these can be greatly lessened by our immediate attention.

The author, a former oil industry analyst for a major mutual fund company, is a frequent contributor of photographs to The Georgetowner and The Downtowner.

The Georgetowner Endorses Adrian Fenty for Mayor
•

Say what you will about his communication skills. Criticize his attitude all you want. But Adrian Fenty is getting things done in Washington.

We are prouder of our city today than we have been in a long time. The bus system is running more efficiently than ever. There has been development from Southeast Waterfront and Anacostia to the upper Northwest. Crime rates are down, park development is up, bicycle accommodation is being taken into effect for the first time, job growth is up despite the worst nationwide financial deficit in almost a century, and the list goes on.

As far as education is concerned, to quote the Washington City Paper, “When it comes to reforming a failed school system, you either go monomaniacal or go home. It’s naïve to think that you can do it while simultaneously making nice with the old guard.” Though Michelle Rhee might not be the most popular woman among council members, her and Fenty’s combined ambition to raise DCPS above the low standards the city once accepted will improve the future lives of children and in turn ensure the quality of our city in the coming decades.

Fenty is bringing real change to Washington, and his passion for the city is made clear in the difficult decisions he continually makes without hesitation. We are in a good place. Cutting him off now would be a tremendous mistake. As the old adage goes: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

We urge the city to go out and vote in the mayoral primary tomorrow. The city needs our voice now more than ever. Get to the voting booths and be heard. Go to www.dcboee.us to find out where to vote.

The Purgatorial Restoration of the City’s Flagship AME Church
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The Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) at 1518 M St. appeared recently on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s list of the country’s 11 most endangered historic places, and on the D.C. Preservation League’s annual list of the most endangered places in Washington. Founded in 1838, the structure stands as a significant piece of cultural and architectural heritage, a bastion of advocacy for human rights.

From anti-slavery leadership in the mid-19th century, to fighting on the front lines for civil rights, to AIDS education and voter registration projects today, Metropolitan AME Church not only been a major center of worship, but also an institution in the forefront of the civic, cultural, and intellectual life of African Americans. In 1895 it hosted the funeral for Frederick Douglass, a regular attendee, and in 2005 held the memorial service for Rosa Parks.

The red brick Victorian Gothic-style church was constructed exclusively by donations from AME congregations across the country. Their goal was to establish a permanent presence near the White House and U.S. Capitol in order to pressure the federal government for equal treatment of the African American community.

Walled in on three sides by recent development projects, the church has suffered numerous structural cracks resulting from vibrations during adjacent construction. The congregation has been a responsible steward, funded major repairs over the years to maintain the building and has begun a restoration drive. However, previously unknown, ongoing water infiltration has caused more extensive damage. Over the years, the 29 stained glass windows have been compromised due to deteriorated lead jointing, the grand staircase and sanctuary floors have settled, and inadequate internal gutters have caused water damage to the walls and ceiling. The building urgently requires a multi-million-dollar rescue effort, an investment that Metropolitan AME Church’s community of dedicated supporters simply cannot afford.

And while the U.S. government and District BIDs have been manically funneling its resources into a kaleidoscope of potentially unstable city programs and distributing grants in attempts to defibrillate the economy — the blind faith in the success of electric cars comes to mind, despite almost a century’s worth of evidence to the contrary — they sometimes neglect the true strength of communities. In history and unity lies strength, and by neglecting the foundations of our country’s past as it deteriorates beneath infinite parking garages and office buildings of the big businesses that tanked the financial sector in the first place (which are in themselves on the life support of government loans), we are only further impeding the recovery of our local communities.

This is probably nothing that will go noticed in the short term, nor will the detriment ever be precisely quantifiable. But without the surrounding culture and the history of fighting for human rights, for freedom, a fight that Metropolitan AME Church has stood for since its foundation, Washington as a city has little to stand for at all. The health of a richly historic community in the nation’s capital is surely worth the price of one building’s renovation. While Metropolitan AME hosts patron-dependent “Historic Restoration and Preservation Crab Feasts” at $55 a ticket, one wonders who could step in and lend a hand.

Liquor Moratorium Needs Loosening
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-May we request a moratorium on, you know, the moratorium?

Meaning, of course, ABRA’s liquor moratorium for Georgetown, which begins at Wisconsin and N Streets and applies to every restaurant within a third-mile radius, and is now up for its five-year renewal later this year. Several weeks ago, the ANC gave its blessing to a renewal, with the recommendation that two more available licenses be issued in order to, as ANC 2E05 Bill Starrels put it, “dampen the bidding wars.”

Such a comment touches on the larger issue at stake: that any restaurant hoping to sell liquor within the heart of Georgetown must bid for a finite resource. Too finite, in our opinion. Currently, new establishments seeking a license must purchase it at a premium from defunct restaurant owners, who may hold onto their license as long as they like until they get the price they want.

You can see where simple economics comes into play. Demand is skyrocketing, while supply remains dismally low, not to mention hoarded for profit. A Georgetown liquor license nowadays goes for $70,000. And insofar that any restaurant larger than a take-out sandwich joint cannot hope to profit without liquor sales, we can expect any prospective eateries to set up shop elsewhere, where they won’t immediately be set back a hundred grand.

Which is a shame. As Ginger Laytham of Clyde’s remarks, “This is not just a restaurant issue, it’s a whole community issue.” We agree. With a struggling retail market that seems to only attract national chains, this neighborhood more than ever needs to facilitate the establishment of locally owned restaurants and bars where Georgetowners, their friends, and visitors alike can gather to socialize and enjoy the cachet unique to this community. While we are sensitive to the notion that establishments selling alcohol may be catalysts for disorderly conduct, we also point out that incidents like the recent Philly Pizza fiasco don’t always require getting liquored up.

Does all this necessitate a complete repeal of the moratorium, or the handing out of licenses carte blanche? No, but we believe the law could do with a bit of curtailing. We urge ABRA and the city council to issue more liquor licenses to Georgetown, and to enact legislation that would lower the value of those already issued — by adding expiration dates for defunct licenses, for instance — so they are less of a cash cow and more of a transferable, affordable resource.

A New Shade of Gray
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Well, city council Chairman Vincent Gray has gone and done it.

After months of prodding and speculation in the media and among political types in the District, Gray has decided to take on incumbent Mayor Adrian Fenty and run against him.

He made his announcement at a spirited rally where the key rhetorical elements were “one city” and “we can do better,” which got the people in attendance at Reeves Municipal Center going, but didn’t give too many clues on substance or policy difference that Gray might have with the mayor.

Still, the announcement accomplished at least two things: it ended speculation about Gray and transferred it to speculation about who was going to run for Gray’s chairman position.

The one certain thing is that Gray will not be chairman next year, and that’s the big risk in his decision: that he could become Linda Cropp, the sitting council chair four years ago who decided to run for mayor and got soundly trounced by Fenty, managing to lose every precinct and ward in the city. Now that he’s opted to run against Fenty, Gray cannot run for re-election as council chair, an election he was a sure bet to have won. He could be a man without a job if he fails to unseat the sitting mayor.

Gray is obviously optimistic about his chances. On the surface, his is in the very least a serious candidacy, although the probabilities for success remain very, very iffy. Gray may have been encouraged by a recent poll that showed a decided unhappiness among voters with Fenty, but it was a poll from which you could extract mixed meanings.

Many district voters and residents, many of them in the poorer and majority black areas of the city such as Ward 8, 7, 6, 5 and 4 (Fenty’s own ward), are not happy with the way Fenty has governed, even if quite a few others praise his action-fueled ways, citing favorable homicide and crime stats, a major school takeover and reform effort that’s beginning to show favorable results in some areas and general quality of life improvements. It was a poll that seemed to say “we like some of what you’ve done, but we don’t like how you did it.” Which is to say that Fenty was perceived as distant, somewhat arrogant, a “does not play well with others” (especially the city council) kind of leader, often high-handed, secretive and single-minded. A poll also showed that in a one-on-one race against Fenty, Gray would narrowly win.

Yet these objections, while heated, also seem somewhat ephemeral — they’re not the sort of thing you on which you can place a big political bet. More troublesome may be the results of an investigation into Fenty’s bypassing the council in awarding contracts on parks and recreation projects. And just this week, the anger of residents where four people were killed in mass shootings was high after Fenty — rumored to be vacationing in Jamaica — failed to show up at the site. To be fair, the mayor’s presence at scenes of tragedy and trouble has been consistently high in the past.

Then there’s the question of how legislation will fare on the council when a number of its members are engaged in running for office, and that would be especially in the case of Gray. It’s budget time, and Fenty last week presented his budget for fiscal year 2011 to the council and to the public, a budget fraught with potential controversy, given its unsightly $500 million-plus deficit. At the meeting with the council, Fenty greeted Gray with a hug, the first time the two men apparently had seen each other or talked in months.

Fenty’s relationship with the city council — especially Gray — has deteriorated drastically, beginning with the choice of Michelle Rhee as public schools chancellor, the selection of which the Washington Post knew about before Gray was informed. Rhee’s own drastic reform efforts, which include high doses of national publicity, the mass firing of teachers and stalled contract talks with the teacher’s union, seemed to mimic Fenty’s style.

Such treatment obviously rankled Gray, especially after he supported Fenty in his school takeover effort.

But Fenty is also a tough, high-energy campaigner with a big war chest of nearly $4 million. This late in the game, that’s a lot to catch up with, although Gray is rumored to be trolling for support with the Cafritz family and folks like Judith Terra, a former Fenty supporter.

Then there’s Don Peebles, the bucks-rich developer who may yet run, which might distract the focus of voters, if not the contributors.

Gray — now dubbed Vince Gray on his campaign website — is a careful sort who likes building consensus. Fenty, at least if the polls are correct, is seen as someone who likes to act and make decisions and not look back or apologize.

Gray’s decision sparked a scramble among candidates looking at his council chairman seat in an increasingly volatile city council. Ward 2 Councilman Jack Evans, the council’s longest sitting member, has already unequivocally said he will run. Solid rumors have it that Kwame Brown, the appealing and popular at-large member will also run, and there are speculations about Phil Mendelson, another veteran at-large member who faces a re-election challenge, is also considering a bid for the seat.

That speaks to a certain instability on the new council, which recently celebrated its 35th anniversary under Home Rule. Six council members are up for re-election this year, many of them first timers. That makes this year’s budget deliberations a possible arena for political combat.

In this atmosphere, and with this late start, what are the odds on Gray’s run? It remains a long shot, but there are some things he can (and some that he must) do to give himself the best chance. The most difficult might be catching up in the financing sweepstakes. He (and Fenty) must also be careful to not let their differences create a have-and-have-not political climate. But Gray has to do more than complain about Fenty’s style. Fenty and Gray represent two different political generations in Washington, something that can favor Gray, who can draw support from folks used to being politically active. But he has to, at some point, make policy distinctions between himself and Fenty. It’s one thing to be prickly about Rhee and her methods, or Fenty and his methods. He’s got to show how a Gray administration would be different in substance, not just style. Both Vincent and Vince have to show up at the candidate forums which are a hallmark of D.C.’s election campaigns.