Spotlight on... Washington DC I 25
51ST STATE? Washington DC occupies a 177 sq km plot of land wedged between the states of Maryland and Virginia. It is a compact, low-rise city with grand neoclassical architecture arranged around the National Mall, which stretches between the Lincoln memorial in the west and the Capitol in the east. When it was founded in 1790 by George Washington, its four ten-mile borders created a neat square. It was designed as a federal entity distinct from the rest of the US. Even today, when every one of America’s 50 states has a democratic voice in the form of representation in Congress, the capital’s 670,000 citizens do not. It is part of no state and has limited home rule. It has never had a senator and it wasn’t until the 1960s that people were given the right to vote in elections. All DC has is a non- voting delegate, Eleanor Holmes Norton, who serves exclusively in the House of Representatives but is not allowed to vote on the issues of the day. As a consequence, residents have little say on issues related to healthcare, the environment, social security or gun laws. It’s no surprise to hear that locals have been campaigning for Washington DC to gain statehood. The cause has most recently been spearheaded by Democratic mayor Muriel Bowser. After a meeting with President Trump in December, she said: “He is a supporter of the District of Columbia, he’s familiar with the District of Columbia and he wants to be supportive.” But whether or not he is willing to consider granting her wish remains to be seen. Until then, cars will continue to drive around Washington with licence plates reading: “Taxation without representation.”
businesstraveller.com
This sense of disenfranchisement has no doubt affected
Washingtonians over the decades, and has only been heightened since a return to Republican authority. Kenner explains there has never been a Republican mayor of DC. “We have always been under one party – and that is the case today,” he says. With this in mind, you can understand why it has been a necessity for the city to forge its own identity, separate from politics. “Washington DC’s energy can be felt in multiple forms – we actually operate fairly well regardless of who the president is,” Kenner says. Elliott Ferguson, president and chief executive of Destination DC, agrees: “Politics are separate from the Washington DC that we promote.”
NOVEMBER 2017
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