Your summary of the WMATA discussion is right on overall. One small clarification: I didn’t say (or didn’t mean to say) that WMATA is “mismanaged” and “wasteful,” but rather that like any large organization, it has some mismanagement and some waste. I noted that even at Google, which is widely praised as one of the best places to work, some managers do a bad job, some employees don’t pull their weight, and they often spend money on initiatives that end up not working out. WMATA can be a better organization, but we also can’t expect perfection before residents are willing to support giving it the resources it needs to make transit better.

Eric Blair: We publish a lot of pieces by people with different points of view on a number of issues. Each author’s viewpoint does not necessarily reflect the views of myself or other editors. We have had many articles strongly favoring more rights for students, and all of the panelists including myself expressed support at the event for students having a strong say in neighborhood affairs.