26 I Spotlight on... Washington DC


Above: The Jefferson Memorial in spring


NOVEMBER 2017


CITY LIVING Up until 20 years ago, Kenner says DC was “very much a federal town driven by federal jobs”. But over the past seven years, job growth has solely been driven by the private sector and, in the past five years, statistics suggest up to 1,000 people a month (many of them young, unmarried and educated) are moving here from other parts of the US. “If you were to call us a state, we would be one of the fastest-growing states in the country,” he says. DC is one of the wealthiest parts of the country but is seeking to diversify its economy away from the public sector – the government is a key employer, accounting for 14 per cent of jobs. Tourism is a major earner – more than 21 million visitors came in 2015, spending US$7 billion. New opportunities are also opening up in high-tech, healthcare, education, green tech and media. “We have a very active start-up scene,” Kenner says. I meet local Instagrammer Laurie Collins (otherwise known as @dccitygirl with 42,000 followers) on a sunrise photography tour of the cherry trees – a gift from Tokyo in 1912 – around the Tidal Basin reservoir. Through the lens of her camera, Collins manages to capture a great deal of beauty in DC: the Jefferson Memorial framed by pink- blossomed boughs; a reflection of the wedding-cake dome of the US Capitol; and the peppermint vaulted ceiling of Union Station, which is undergoing a US$7 billion revamp, to be completed by 2020. Collins says: “DC has changed in so many ways. Certain neighbourhoods you would never be caught dead in are becoming revitalised. People are making the effort to raise their children here, rather than moving them out to the suburbs once they reach school age. Others are investing in neighbourhoods by bringing their business into the city, making it easier for us to shop, eat and enjoy local


entertainment here in our own backyard.” A major new attraction is the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, which opened on the National Mall in September 2016. Alongside established areas such as quaint Georgetown and upmarket Kalorama, where the Obamas now live, there is the Beverly Hills-style City Centre retail complex, unveiled in 2014 (before this there were no designer stores, people tell me). The biggest upcoming project is new-build “waterfront city” the Wharf (wharfdc.com), just south of the National Mall – phase one opened this autumn. Eventually there will be 1,400 apartments, a yacht club, three hotels, a concert hall, four piers, 75 restaurants and shops, a conference centre and a mile-long promenade. Meanwhile, hotspots such as H Street NW and Shaw


are now home to trendy ventures such as All Purpose pizza (allpurposedc.com), cocktail bar Columbia Room (columbiaroomdc.com) and Kinship restaurant (kinshipdc. com), which serves inventive New American cuisine. Kenner says: “People are finding an authentic


Washington experience that did not exist a few years ago – people are not demanding Starbucks coffee but local chain Compass. When they go to bars, they don’t tend to order a Miller Light; they want a DC Brau.”


This is exactly what I do when taking a seat at the W hotel’s rooftop bar, POV. The sun is going down and there is a perfect view of the White House and the needle-shaped Washington Monument. I think of the Latin inscription painted inside the dome of the Capitol: E pluribus unum – “Out of many, one” – and wonder how long it might be until a 51st star is added to the US flag. n Visit businesstraveller.com/tried-and-tested for a review of the Sofitel Washington DC Lafayette Square. sofitel.com, washington.org


businesstraveller.com


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