The plain fact of the matter is Washington DC was more efficiently run when it was managed by a Congressional comission, the theory being if the Congressmen were going to live there, they’d better make sure the city was run in the best manner possible. Then DC home rule was instituted in the 1970’s and it seems it’s been downhill ever since.
Columnist George Will has called DC a failure of democracy. Whatever anyone may think of Mr. Will it’s hard to argue with the premise.
My view is that intead of just building a functionally designed car barn they threw in a lot of bells and whistles including solar power, underground sistern, special architechture, etc…that is what drove up the cost.
DC had years of Congress setting the standard for governance - they are just emulating Congress in getting nothing done.
Wait a minute there is built but unused track in Anacostia?
In the first place, I doubt Congress had any such far sighted ideas about creating a city Congressmen would want to live in. For long decades they tended to stay in boardinghouses because their work didn’t take all year and they were interested in saving money. If memory serves right, Congressman Abraham Lincoln saved money by not only staying at a boarding or rooming house, he even shared a bed! Yup. As Casey Stengel used to say, “You can look it up.”
Second, isn’t it much more likely that the “downhill” in Washington DC in the 1970s was caused, not because home rule was institued, but rather because during those years white people, for all kinds of reasons, simply moved out of the city and into the suburbs?
Isn’t is true that the same thing happened in nearly all major cities in America, especially those north of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi? It was quite obvious in Cleveland: middle-class (well, as we used to define middle class) people wanted a newer, lager house with a big yard, etc. It was black and hispanic people that bought the older houses because they were now affordable to them. This situation repeated itself all over this region.
Without doing any research on the topic I’ll posit this: After World War II, in Washington DC the white middle class of government workers and their families simply sold their houses and moved to Maryland and Virginia. These people tended to have better paying jobs than other government workers and the government workforce kept growing in size, indeed it still does. And the expanding subway system facilitated this exodus as
[quote user=“NKP guy”]
In the first place, I doubt Congress had any such far sighted ideas about creating a city Congressmen would want to live in. For long decades they tended to stay in boardinghouses because their work didn’t take all year and they were interested in saving money. If memory serves right, Congressman Abraham Lincoln saved money by not only staying at a boarding or rooming house, he even shared a bed! Yup. As Casey Stengel used to say, “You can look it up.”
Second, isn’t it much more likely that the “downhill” in Washington DC in the 1970s was caused, not because home rule was institued, but rather because during those years white people, for all kinds of reasons, simply moved out of the city and into the suburbs?
Isn’t is true that the same thing happened in nearly all major cities in America, especially those north of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi? It was quite obvious in Cleveland: middle-class (well, as we used to define middle class) people wanted a newer, lager house with a big yard, etc. It was black and hispanic people that bought the older houses because they were now affordable to them. This situation repeated itself all over this region.
Without doing any research on the topic I’ll posit this: After World War II, in Washington DC the white middle class of government workers and their families simply sold their houses and moved to Maryland and Virginia. These people tended to have better paying jobs than other government workers and the government workforce kept growing in size, indeed it still does. And the expanding
[quote user=“NKP guy”]
In the first place, I doubt Congress had any such far sighted ideas about creating a city Congressmen would want to live in. For long decades they tended to stay in boardinghouses because their work didn’t take all year and they were interested in saving money. If memory serves right, Congressman Abraham Lincoln saved money by not only staying at a boarding or rooming house, he even shared a bed! Yup. As Casey Stengel used to say, “You can look it up.”
Second, isn’t it much more likely that the “downhill” in Washington DC in the 1970s was caused, not because home rule was institued, but rather because during those years white people, for all kinds of reasons, simply moved out of the city and into the suburbs?
Isn’t is true that the same thing happened in nearly all major cities in America, especially those north of the Ohio and east of the Mississippi? It was quite obvious in Cleveland: middle-class (well, as we used to define middle class) people wanted a newer, lager house with a big yard, etc. It was black and hispanic people that bought the older houses because they were now affordable to them. This situation repeated itself all over this region.
Without doing any research on the topic I’ll posit this: After World War II, in Washington DC the white middle class of government workers and their families simply sold their houses and moved to Maryland and Virginia. These people tended to have better paying jobs than other government workers and the government workforce kept growing in size, indeed it still does. And the expanding
This is embaressing because the next town that want to to a trolley line under budget no matter how honest they are wont get the support.
I hink the problem is that trolley/light rail advocates began emphasizing the idea of these lines as an economic development attractor, rather than for their transportation potential. Polititions grabbed on to the dreams of economic development, at the expense of practical transit considerations. So they were in a hurry to build anything with rails, not worrying if anyone actually rode the mislocated lines.
My biggest question of the ‘street car line’ is ‘What is its purpose?’
DC already has a rather extensive Metro heavy rail elevated/subway system operating in Northern Virginia, the District and Maryland. What purpose does the street car line satisfy that Metro lines don’t fulfill?
Area not served by Metro and less expensive to install than Metro. Does connect with Metro with very little duplication.