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Cities: Washington D.C.

Washington D.C.

New stories may use “Washington” to refer to our federal government, and “Capitol Hill” similarly for the United States Congress. But Washington is more than synecdoche. It’s one of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas and also one of its most walkable. It’s a rich source of beautiful, historic neighborhoods and towns. And it’s a transit success story.

Minutes from the White House are neighborhoods bearing no resemblance to the National Mall. Grocery stores, bars, shops and theaters line 14th Street, for instance, a lively commercial street largely destroyed after the 1968 riots and now a pulsing center of activity.

Besides the occasional diagonal avenue or circle park, it’s easy to forget you’re in the nation’s capital. For many residents of D.C., that’s the way they like it; many Federal office districts, like L’Enfant Plaza, are depressing reminders of failed 1960s urban renewal. But over in Dupont Circle, Columbia Heights, or Capitol Hill (the neighborhood), residents of brightly colored Victorian row houses walk to the local farmer’s market each Sunday.

The 1970s Metro subway saved D.C. from the era’s urban decline. Downtown districts increasingly filled with crime and parking lots now host the nation’s top law firms and hip restaurants. In neighboring Arlington, Metro and smart urban planning turned a bypassed old suburb into the preeminent example of Smart Growth in the nation. In Bethesda and Silver Spring, suburban crossroads have become walkable downtowns, an experience nearby Tysons Corner, the edge city that gave edge cities their name, hopes to duplicate when four new Metro stations arrive next decade.

—David Alpert, Greater Greater Washington

City Highlights

  • Paris, City of (Stolen) Bikes

    Kevin McMahon | November 11th, 2009 | 2

    The popular Vélib bike-sharing network in Paris, France, is suffering from theft and vandalism. Will this have an effect on similar programs here in the U.S.? (more)

  • Web Exclusive: Redraw the Line?

    Maggie Tishman | August 27th, 2009 | 2

    In a web exclusive, Maggie Tishman takes a close look at the poverty line, an official measurement that many think is antiquated—and maybe even dead wrong. Here, a look at the line’s modest origins, and some possible alternatives being implemented in America’s cities. (more)

  • Crime’s Bottom Line

    Ben Adler | June 16th, 2009 | 0

    Around 9:30 p.m. on a Monday night in July 2007, Elana Berkowitz, a Harvard graduate student who was interning in Washington, D.C., returned from a business trip to the row house where she was renting a room in Mount Pleasant, a gentrifying neighborhood next to the sprawling, woodsy Rock Creek Park.

Washington D.C. Archives

URBANEXUS

  • DC

    December 1969