America's Small Town

Planning to visit Washington DC makes you think that you will be going to a big city. If you take the time to study the history of the city, you will find that, in fact, it is just a small town with a big reputation. The original plan for the city shows it was physically larger but part was given back to the state of Virginia as part of the strategy to prevent the Civil War. Also, it did make sense to make the border at a river. In the Civil War that would have made it easier to defend. On television they have all of these conspiracy theories to show how the plan for the city developed. Just maybe it was because they wanted the city to look like a formal European garden. The design of the city does have one major problem. The city was built in an era that will never be seen again. If you try to drive around the central part of the city you know that traffic is always a mess. Today the large blocks that contain the major buildings that are the center of our Government, are all congested all day.
Some things have been done to help. I noticed one building where the central court had been converted to parking. At the treasury building, they actually do use some car pool vans to help. Many of those going to work do use the subway system. Of course that is not perfect, but does help the city survive the automobile age that we now live with. This is just a small town in size and attitude. The beltway concept that is designed to cover the attitude of government employees also applies to those who live in the city. They seem to be isolated as a part of the city. Part of that is the out dated concept that the National Government needs to govern the city. It is just a city like any other and the fact that it houses the Government is not as important as it was at the start. Should the National Government make the traffic laws around the area that contains Wall Street? In fact it may be a worry, that if the Congress loses this power the members of Congress would actually need to pay parking tickets or that diplomats from other Countries would need to follow the traffic laws. I have visited the city several times and noticed a couple of major things. In general, the city looks cleaner, BUT then the National Mall looks like a mess. It may be because it was fall and a major event was planned for the next day. The general opinion that this area that is, in fact, the Nation's front yard and needs to be cleaned up to represent the Nation best to all of our visitors. The current look is closer to that of a foreclosed home.

If my Congressman could do what he says he can do, maybe he could lead in this area and help us make our Nation’s Capitol look its role.