A letter to the editor in today’s Washington Post perfectly depicts the general competence of the D.C. government:

A recent experience provides an interesting metaphor for life in Washington. As I was walking along Wisconsin Avenue in Georgetown, I was passed by a huge city dump truck with a revolving device astern scattering chemical pellets across the frozen pavement. Before I could finish a silent “thank you” to Mayor Anthony Williams for this service, another city vehicle traveling behind the dump truck passed me. It too was a huge truck — with rotating brushes extending to its sides. It harbored a huge vacuum and was sucking up every loose item on the street.

The Post titled this letter ‘Zero-Sum Service’. Of course, the sum is actually a good deal less than zero, since the city is spending money to achieve this zero sum.

And it’s interesting that the writer, a Washington resident, gives a description of the second ‘truck’, rather than calling it a street-sweeper. If he’s lived in Washington all his life, it’s possible he’s never seen one before.