by Kevin Palmer
Washington. It's a dateline. It's a capital. It's a hometown. Many people have written about the dual life that this city must play--grand stage for the nation's triumphs, scandals, tragedies, and tribulations on one hand; home to more than half-million regular Americans on the other. You see, Washington was designed to be different. Unfortunately, it's because of this paradox that the city has always had a sort of uncomfortable self-consciousness.
It's had its share of bright moments--two hundred years of presidential inaugurations, balls, protests, celebrations, honors, galas, and the occasional Super Bowl celebration--but it also has endured some less glitzy moments in the sun. It earned the unwanted recognition as the Murder Capital of the World in the early 1990s (we foisted that one on New Orleans a few years later), the city that reelected a convicted drug felon as mayor in 1994, and the city that nearly went bankrupt in the mid-90s. Thankfully, most of these things are behind us. Violent crime and homicide have decreased significantly in the past four years, we elected a new mayor in 1998, and the city has posted four surpluses in a row (with the Federally-appointed "control board" soon to remove the remaining shackles from the District's budget).
And if the real estate market is any indication, a recommitment to living in the District has been going on for several years, after decades of population decline. The most recent figure from the Census is 572,000 residents (the city's all-time high was 840,000 in the 1950s). As have other urban areas, Washington has seen a resurgence in homeownership (the most coveted properties often sell within days of being listed) and a tight rental market. New apartment and condominium buildings are being proposed and built all over the city. The most expensive, the Regent on 16th Street, NW, has rents from $2500 to $7,000. And a new Ritz-Carlton in the West End offers penthouse condominiums with private roofdecks for a mere five mil.
The District is taking a new tack on public housing, as well. The recently-departed housing receiver (the DC Dept. of Housing had some lean years as well) did a thorough job of rehabilitating and renewing some 5,000 units of housing, while at the same time setting up programs where residents can feel a sense of ownership and responsibility for their living space. So far, it's had astounding effects on the famous problems of many of these places: East Capitol Dwellings, Kentucky Courts, Garden Terrace, and so forth.
But when a tourist visits Washington, they don't think about or visit the gritty city that occasionally they hear about in sensationalist TV news programs or shows like "COPS" or "America's Most Wanted." They see monumental Washington, where parades, inaugurations, and all the business of stately America is done. They know the museums and memorials built to presidents, heroes of war, and other historical figures are in this part of the city, but few think to venture beyond the official Washington to experience "the city." They haven't been given much reason to do so in the past.
Cities like New York, Boston, and Philadelphia have helped their visitors to explore their urban assets through extensive marketing, redevelopment, and cleanup of formerly seedy areas. Where tourists now delight in the the charm of historic neighborhoods, city markets, waterfronts, and subway systems, heavy industry or red-light districts once reigned. Perhaps the pattern is true elsewhere, but it seems that Washington suffers more from a lack of this promotion of other aspects of it's life. This, too, is changing, though. The Committee to Promote Washington, as well as the DC Heritage Tourism Coalition (promoting historic tourism), has made strides in the last year to develop neighborhood walking tours that pull tourists and history enthusiasts beyond the Mall. And the Downtown DC business improvement district has joined with the Commission of Fine Arts, the National Capital PlanningCommission, and other groups to design a system of wayfinding signage that highlights important landmarks and sites throughout the city.
Other signs of an improving capital city are the sight of cranes jutting out across the skyline. From the southeast waterfront, where the US Navy recently restored its historic Navy Yard and moved nearly 5,000 workers from suburban offices, to the rapidly changing Chinatown neighorhood, drastic changes are evident. But this progress is not without loss: DC's Chinatown, while never as expansive as San Francisco or New York's, has given way in the last two years to typically suburban-style establishments, such as Legal Seafoods, Ruby Tuesday and Fuddrucker's (a hamburger chain). In the works are a Jillian's theme restaurant, 21-theater multiplex, and a chain health club as part of an enormous apartment and retail complex adjacent to the 1997 MCI Center sports arena. The small three- and four-story townhouse Chinese carryouts that once provided Peking duck to a hungry Washington clientele now serve suburbanites seeking sameness in their urban experience. Like New York and Baltimore, Washington also celebrated the opening of an ESPN Zone in time for last spring's March Madness. But development in today's urban market is driven by what sells and what investors are willing to risk. Often that is borne out by a suburban model for retailing, where the dollars are. Contradicting this trend, the Freedom Forum, which operates the popular Newseum in Rosslyn, Virginia, recently closed a deal to purchase a prime piece of real estate on Pennsylvania Avenue for a record $100 million. Part of the purchase includes $25 million to give to the District's housing authority to build new housing elsewhere in the city. The project will also include about 100 upper-tier condominiums at the site, across from the Department of Justice and down the street from the National Archives.
Yet, iun spite of all of these improvements, and a general feeling of prosperity throughout the city, there is one thing that consistently gnaws at the conscience of most District residents. We are reminded of it time and again whenever our local government, consisting of an elected mayor and city council, prepares legislation toward its own agenda. Unique among any jurisdiction in the country for its sovereignty to the US Congress, the capital is beholden to oversight by people elected from as far away as Alaska and Hawaii.
Local residents can put forth a referendum asking for lower taxes, to recall the mayor, or to build a new school, and people who aren't obligated even to pay a commuter tax in this town can pull the plug. Washington's love-hate relationship with Congress goes back as far as the founding of the city. And it's an injustice that has been fought with varying degrees of success almost since then. The last attempt at establishing justice in the District was in 1978, when local officials successfully got a floor vote on achieving state status for the residents of Washington, but the measure failed to garner enough support from the needed two-thirds of the House to pass.
Thus, the irony of every Washingtonian is that we live in the greatest symbol of democracy on Earth, but are summarily denied the opportunity to participate fully in such a concept because of our colonial status. We have the right to vote in presidential elections, yet our voice is not heard on matters that affect our daily lives. Even when we take matters into our own hands, decisions can be made to overrule our will by people who share no common interest in our cause. One classic example is the needle exchange debate: senators and congressmen from across the land have stepped up to prevent such a program from seeing the light of day every time it is proposed. And the city's budget is often delayed by Congress because various political hot potatoes are often attached as dubious riders, resulting in emergency legislation to enable the city to continue operating.
Will these things ever change? Will Washingtonians finally be able to enjoy full citizenship, denied us for the past 200 years? Many have argued that the Framers could not have truly intended to disenfranchise so many future Americans when writing the Constitution. One hypothesis is that at the time of its writing, travel between the congressional district from which the senators and representatives came and Washington was so slow that most of the leaders would have to live in Washington, and thus ought to be the body that ruled it. Yet, today, nearly none of these same politicians choose to make Washington their adopted home, choosing instead to take residence in McLean, Virginia, or Potomac, Maryland. This, of course, further exacerbates the difficulties between the city and its uninvited de facto leadership.
With each change of administration, the rhetoric remains the same. The city's leaders attempt to strengthen democracy by appealing to the new powers for some form of true home rule. Others have suggested that if our local affairs are going to be at the mercy of people we didn't elect, we should at least be excused from the heavy burden of federal taxes District residents must pay. This logic follows from the fact that territories such as Puerto Rico and Guam may have similar Congressional oversight, but their residents aren't asked to pay for that privilege with exorbitant taxes. Still others have said that people who choose to live in Washington are aware of the situation, and thus should simply accept that this is how it is. If our nation had taken that tack throughout history, we would all probably still be subjects of the British monarchy.
Thus, the next time you visit Washington, I challenge you to appreciate its beauty, take in its history, and delight in the wealth of resources it offers. But consider venturing beyond the Mall and museums, and visit other parts of the city to see that real people actually live in this unique place. And keep in mind the struggle for democracy that those people are still grappling with. Perhaps with enough awareness from the nation's voters, Congress would get the message that Washington deserves its own voice.
Kevin Palmer is a graphic designer in Washington, DC. He figures the more you know about Washington, the less you'll believe what you hear on "The District" and "West Wing."
