Washinghton DC
RN Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â IntroductionA
Washington, DC, city and district, the capital of the United States of America. The city of Washington has the same limits the District of Columbia (DC), a federal territory established in 1790 as the site of the new nationality € ™ s permanent capital. Named after the first U.S. president, George Washington, the city has served since 1800 as the seat of government. It is also at the heart of a region metropolitan dynamics. In the 20th century, Washington, DC, metropolitan area has increased rapidly as the responsibilities of national government increased, both domestically and worldwide.
The city is situated at the confluence of the Potomac and Anacostia rivers and is flanked to the north is and southeast by Maryland and south-west Virginia. Although the city has retained some aspects of its Southern origin, it has taken a far more cosmopolitan. At the same time, the city struggling with economic and social disparities, and a number of its residential neighborhoods suffer from poverty and crime. Washington € ™ s climate is hot and humid in summer and cold and wet in winter. The daily average temperature-3a C (27 ° F) to 8 C (46 ° F) in C ° in January and 22A (72A ° F) to 31A C (88A ° F) in July. The city averages 98 cm (39 inches) of rainfall per year.
IIa      Washington and its suburbs
AA Â Â Â Â Â Â Â The outline of a city
Designated to serve as the permanent seat of the federal government beginning in 1800, the District of Columbia was named for Christopher Columbus. It was created from land ceded by the states of Virginia and Maryland, and have incorporated the existing port cities of Alexandria, Virginia, and Georgetown, Maryland. The district was originally 259 km (100 square miles), or 10 square miles, as established under the Residence Act 1790. The site of the central city was designed by French architect Pierre Charles Lâ € ™ Enfant in 1791. The rest is a open area that extends north of the border with Maryland. It was designated as Washington County. In 1846, Congress returned Part of the federal district that had first been ceded by Virginia.
In 1871, the cities of Georgetown and were consolidated with Washington County to become Washington, DC, making the city, county, and the Federal District and the same. Washington, DC area Total 176 km (68 square miles), and the Washington metropolitan region € "which, in addition to Washington, DC, contains 24 counties in neighboring states of Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginiaâ € "has a total area of 17,920 km ² (6,920,000 square).
In its plan for the city of Washington Lâ € ™ Enfant attempted to symbolically represent the new United States and its republican government. It gave prominence to each of those were then the main elements of government € "the executive and the legislature. It also features the States to give their names large diagonal avenues. These he arranged both according to geography and to each state ™ € s importance in the process of nation building. Massachusetts, in Virginia, and especially in Pennsylvania, with its associations with both the Declaration of Independence and the signing of the Constitution, won the most important. Avenues named after other states leading role in the ratification of the Constitution, including Delaware and New Jersey, intersected at the Capitol. In addition, Lâ € ™ Enfant hoped that the intersection of diagonal avenues with citi € ™ s straight street grid number and letter provide squares where each state would locate facilities, thereby giving the same symbolic importance in the capital they held in the federal system.
BÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Diagrams settlement and development
Initially Washington was slow to develop the characteristic dense settlement cities. By the 20th century, however, Washington had filled its open spaces and dominated the surrounding area, which remained largely rural. This trend changed after the Second World War (1939-1945), the city has lost population in the suburbs of Virginia and Maryland. While the federal presence remained concentrated in Washington, he has also considerably increased in the suburbs. At the same time, new private business € "The fastest growing source of Regional Employment €" are concentrated almost exclusively in areas outside the city.
Although outside the metropolitan area expanded, it does not randomly. Growth tends to track the location of federal facilities in outside the city and the development of major transportation routes. During the Second World War, the construction of the Pentagon as the seat of the Ministry of Defence promoted the development of proximity on the side of Virginia's Potomac River. Growth was also stimulated by other key equipment, including the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Langley, Virginia, and the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), the National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Science and Technology) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), all in Maryland.
   CA      Public Buildings
Washington is home to many famous and interesting public buildings and monuments. Many of them associated with the federal government. The Capitol of the United States is located on a hill 27 meters (88 feet) above the Potomac and consists of two wings that branch from a central rotunda. The north wing is occupied by the Senate, and the south wing by the House of Representatives. The rotunda is crowned by an immense dome, topped by a statue of a woman who represents liberty. East of the Capitol is the Supreme Court building, with its portico modeled after a Greek temple. North Capitol at the end of Delaware Avenue, is the massive Union Station, now a shopping center and a station that has long been a hub of the city.
From the Capitol, Pennsylvania Avenue runs slightly northwest and Constitution Avenue runs directly west. Between 6 to 15 streets NW the two avenues are an area known as the Federal Triangle. In this triangle are concentrated a number of buildings public, including those of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and the Departments of Justice and Commerce. Also in the triangle is National Archives Building, which contains the original drafts of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States Kingdom, and the Bill of Rights.
Just north of the triangle, on Tenth Street NW, is the J. Edgar Hoover Building, headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). On the block north of the building, Hoover, Also on Tenth Street, is Ford's Theatre where President Abraham Lincoln was shot in 1865, and in the street is the Petersen House, where he died. Together, they form FORDA € ™ s Theatre National Historic Site.
Northwest of the triangle, at 16th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue, is the oldest Federal Building in Washington, the White House, official residence of the President of the United States. The foundations of the hotel have been placed in 1792, and all presidents except George Washington has occupied it. Tours are conducted daily through the ground over the famous and first-floor rooms, as the East Room, Blue Room, and the State Dining Room.
Accompanying the White House Department Treasury are buildings on the east and the Executive Office Building, in the west. Across the street from Blair House, the guest house official to visit the heads of state and other dignitaries. Blair House, built in 1824, served as temporary home for the Executive President Harry S. Truman and his family from 1948 to 1952, while inside the White House was largely rebuilt.
North of the White House is Lafayette Square with a statue of General Andrew Jackson made from a melted down cannon captured by Jackson during the War of 1812. Western White House, New York Avenue and 18th Street NW, is one of the oldest monuments of Washington, the Octagon. Completed in 1801, Octagon houses a museum dedicated to architecture and the early history of Washington, and also houses the American Architectural Foundation. He was one of the earliest structures residential built to Lâ € ™ Enfant ™ € s plan. During the War of 1812, British troops set fire to the White House, by destroying its interior. President James Madison and his family lived in the octagon, while the White House was being rebuilt.
South of the Federal Triangle is the Mall, a narrow park that stretches about 1.6 km (1 mile) from the Capitol to the Washington Monument. Although the mall officially ends at 14th Street, arranged greenery extends to the Potomac. The Washington Monument, whose marble shaft dominates the skyline, rises 169 meters (555 feet) high near the center of the park. The interior of the monument is hollow, and visitors may either climb its 898 steps or ride a lift of 150 meters (500 feet) for a magnificent view. A height restriction law enacted by Congress in 1899 ensures that no private structure Washington, DC, exceed the height of the monument or the Capitol.
Beyond the monument in West Potomac Park, still in a straight line from the Capitol, Lincoln Memorial mass. This monumentality € ™ s 36 columns represent the 36 states of the Union when Lincoln's death in 1865. Its interior contains a great stone seated figure of Lincoln carved by sculptor Daniel Chester French. Nearby, the Arlington Memorial Bridge spans the Potomac River and connects with the Lincoln Memorial Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. Located in the cemetery are the Tomb of the Unknowns, Arlington House, home of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, and on the slope directly below the grave of President John F. Kennedy.
Near Lincoln Memorial is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. This monument commemorates U.S. men and women who died during the Vietnam War (1959-1975). Southeast of the Lincoln Memorial is the Tidal Basin, framed by Washington famous Japanese cherry trees. The government of Japan gave the cherry trees in the United States in 1912. Reflected in the water Tidal Basin is the Thomas Jefferson Memorial. The circular memorial with marble columns contains a bronze standing figure of Thomas Jefferson by sculptor Rudolph Evans. Approximately halfway between the Jefferson Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial is the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, which opened in 1997.
Da        Precincts
Neighborhoods time prime minister close to the activity at first, especially Georgetown, Foggy Bottom and the hill Capitol, have all declined over time. Although they have been rediscovered and restored in the second half of the 20th century, in communities intermediate newest became popular. In the mid-19th century streetcars began to offer easy commute to areas outside of downtown. At that time, Anacostiaâ € ™ s section Uniontown, where abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass settled after the Civil War (1861-1865), and Le Droit Park, near Howard University, Washington has evolved as € ™ s first suburbs.
In the early 20th century, Mount Pleasant, a few miles north of the White House, became popular. With the availability of motor vehicles first and then Cleveland Park Wesley Heights and American University Park emerged as preferred residential destinations. Just above the old town, the area known as Shaw emerged as the section most prominent black city. The concentration of theaters and other social activities there gave U Street the nickname of Black Broadway. A little further above the old city, the Adams Morgan section emerged in the 1960s as one of Washington € ™ s of the most diverse, with large populations of immigrants from Latin America and the Caribbean.
Over the years, the suburbs outside the city grew fast. In addition to more areas such as Arlington, Virginia, and complex Chevy Chase, Maryland, a suburb of new office and retail have emerged at Tyson € ™ s Corner, Pentagon City, Virginia and Freedom Plaza in Maryland.
  IIIA POPULATION
Washington, DC, has increased slowly since then its origins to the Civil War. The founders expected to emerge as a great city because of its favorable commercial site along the Potomac River. However, the city has been unable to fully exploit its opportunitiesâ € "due to, among other things, a lack of federal funding for development € "and it lags behind other major port cities of the East Coast. Washington € ™ s population exploded during the civil war increase of a modest population of 61,122 in 1860 to 109,199 only a decade later. During the first half of the 20th century, the presence Federal in the city expanded and the population has grown with it, reaching a peak of over 800,000 in 1950.
Population citi € ™ s dropped thereafter, because he lost suburban residents. Nearly 69 percent of the population lives in metropolitan Washington in 1940 by 1960 this number had fallen to 37 per cent and less than 16 per cent in 1996. In 1998, the city population was 523,124. In contrast, the population of the metropolitan area in 1996 was estimated at 4,563,000.
In part because the District of Columbia has been trained at the origin of the slave states, the National Capital has always been a major presence in black, about 25 percent of the population from its origins to the Second World War. After war, many white families moved to the suburbs, and demographics citi € ™ s changed. In 1957, Washington became the first great American city with a black majority. Between 1950 and 1960 Washington € ™ s the presence of blacks has increased by nearly 50 percent from 280,803 to 411,737, while the white population declined by one third.
Until recently, the vast majority of black population was located in the city. But as the previous generation of white, black middle class began to leave town and move to the suburbs. In 1990, when the population citi € ™ s was 606,900, blacks constituted about 66 percent, compared to about 30 percent white. Hispanics that may be of any race, accounted for about 5 percent of the population. The city had about 400,000 black residents, but only two counties Prince George's surrounding ™ € s, Maryland, and Fairfax, Virginia, contained a total population of about 430,000 blacks.
During early 19th century, Washington had no industrial base that drew immigrants to other cities, and if the population has retained its essentially original. In the late 19th century, small Italian and Eastern European Jewish communities, creating their own churches and synagogues and institutions associated with ethnicity. Many descendants of these immigrants left the city for the suburbs in the 1950s, with much of rest of the white population. While the Italian Roman Catholic Church, Holy Rosary, still works near Union Station, few of its parishioners still live in the city. Most of the early synagogues near downtown are gone, replaced by black Protestant congregations.
A small community Chinese formed in Washington in the late 19th century. Initially concentrated downtown along Pennsylvania Avenue, Chinatown offers several blocks north to make way for the completion of the Federal Triangle complex in the 1930s. Chinatown still exists along H Street, NW, but only about Washington third € ™ s 3000 Chinese listed in the 1990 census, living in this region. An additional 37,000 Chinese live in the surrounding suburbs. In the suburbs, they are joined by more recent immigrant groups from Asia, most notably Vietnamese, Cambodians and Lao. The suburban Maryland and northern Virginia support Asian populations of about 100,000 each.
Hispanics form the other major immigrant group in the region. Although the district Columbiaâ € ™ s population is about 5 percent Hispanic, the largest number of these Immigrants are located in the suburbs: an estimated 90,000 and 100,000 in Maryland, Virginia. In 1991, the Washington metropolitan area ranked tenth in the nation as a destination for new immigrants.
IVA Â Â Â Â Â EDUCATION AND CULTURE Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â AA Â Â Â Â institutions of higher education
It was George Washington € ™ s dream that the host city of the capital of a national university. Congress, however, was reluctant to fund such an entity. Therefore, if a number of institutions have aspired to national roles, none has been favored by a national mandate. Founded in 1789, the University Georgetown is the oldest Roman Catholic college in the United States. George Washington University was founded in 1821 by Baptists as Columbian College. University Gallaudet is the only liberal arts university in the world specifically for deaf and hearing impaired students. Former Union general Oliver Otis Howard founded Howard University as a university essentially black slavery was abolished after 1865. The two other universities private in the city are the Catholic University of America and American University. In addition, the city opened the University of the District of Columbia with congressional approval in 1977 by the consolidation of a teacher € ™ s College, a college town, and a technical institute.
In the suburbs of Virginia are George Mason University in Northern Virginia and the College community in the suburbs of Maryland University of Maryland at College Park, Montgomery College and Prince George's € ™ s community colleges. The Consortium of Universities of the Metropolitan Washington Area links most of the area € ™ s public and private institutions of higher education. Through the consortium, a student in an institution may take courses at another institution.
BÂ Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â There Religious Sites many churches in the Washington area, the largest and most impressive of which is the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul more commonly known as the National Cathedral. Another imposing church is the Roman Catholic National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, a mixture of Byzantine and Romanesque architecture, which stands on the grounds of the Catholic University in northern Washington. Other famous churches include New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, where Lincoln worshiped, St. John's Episcopal Church, known as the Church of the Presidents because he has been followed by ten presidents, St. Matthew Roman Catholic cathedral in the presence of President Kennedy, and Christ Church, where Thomas Jefferson loved. Outside the city is the temple of the Washington Church of Latter Day Saints, completed near the Beltway in Maryland in 1974.
    CA     Museums
The most famous museum in Washington is the Smithsonian Institution. With the aid of a grant from the Englishman James Smithson, Congress chartered the Smithsonian in 1846. The Smithsonian is a collection of many different institutions that are world famous for their art, historical and scientific collections. The National Museum of African Art was the first museum in the United States devoted exclusively to African art. Museum Natural History is home to many world D € ™ s most famous gems, and the National Museum of American History traces the development United States through exhibitions scientific, technological and cultural. The National Air and Space Museum has aeronautical exhibits that include the original boat used by the Wright Brothers and the Mercury capsule in which astronaut John Glenn made the first orbit around the earth.
Museum Hirshhorn and Sculpture Garden contains notable paintings and sculptures from the 19th and 20th century European and American artists. Arts and Industries Building and the Freer Gallery of Art House collections of American art and Asian. Another major art collection, the National Portrait Gallery, is in a building with the National Museum of American Art, which houses American paintings, sculptures, prints, folk art, and photographs of the 18th century today.
Over time, the Smithsonian has evolved to be so-called nationality € ™ s in an attic reaching and diversity throughout the research and educational institutions. In recent years, other, more specialized institutions have joined the rich set of cultural institutions that make up the Smithsonian. In addition to the many historical and artistic collections, the Smithsonian includes the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholarsâ € "a living memorial to former United States President Woodrow Wilsona €" which supports research and writing of candidates at national level to spend time with their work in Washington.
Other important collections in Washington include the National Gallery of Art, an art gallery in the nation's leader, with important collections of European paintings and American, the Dumbarton Oaks Museum, with a collection of pre-Columbian and Byzantine art, the National Building Museum, dedicated to American achievements in architecture, construction, engineering and design, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, which provides information on the persecution and murder of Jews in Europe during the Second World War. There are also several venerable private institutions, such as the Corcoran Gallery of Art, launched in the years 1880 through a bequest of banker William W. Corcoran and the Phillips Collection, opened in 1921 near Dupont Circle on the first € ™ citi Museum of Art modern. The Historical Society of Washington, DC, located in a 19th Century mansion built by the magnate Christian Heurich beer, is the only institution exclusively dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of Washington € ™ s rich local history.
Da         Library Library of Congress is the national library of the United States and includes a register of all books printed United States. Among its valuable documents are the first draft of Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and a first draft of the Declaration of Independence as composed by Thomas Jefferson and revised by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin. The library is € ™ s music collection contains original manuscripts, ranging a sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven in the score of the musical Oklahoma!, and a large collection of instruments. Affiliates Folger Shakespeare Library contains 79 folios first (random start) of Shakespeare's plays, and curiosities like a corset that Queen Elizabeth I of England was in the late 1500s. Other distinguished libraries in Washington include the National Agricultural Library, which has more than one million volumes on botany, zoology, entomology, and chemistry, and the founders of Howard University Library, with 50,000 volumes on the history Black and culture.
EA Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â The Performing Arts in Washington provides many opportunities for the arts the scene. The National Theatre, founded in 1812, hosts new theatrical productions. Arena Stage, founded in 1949, opened a new facility in the early 1970s as part of the redevelopment area citi € ™ s south-west and has reached worldwide recognition for its productions. Also From the early 1970s, the Elizabethan theater of the Folger Library began offering productions of Shakespeare. Twenty years Later, the Shakespeare Theatre opened to enthusiastic audiences in the restored Lansburgh Department Store on Seventh Street downtown.
A really stimulating great for arts citi € ™ s came in 1971 with the opening of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The center includes the Opera Hall together, and the Eisenhower Theater, and also provides a home for the National Symphony Orchestra, Washington Ballet and the American Film Institute € ™ s National Film Theatre. The center's opening has spurred the creation of a number of small theaters to serve the interests different. In the suburbs, the Wolf Trap Farm Park for the Performing Arts in Virginia and Merriweather Post Pavilion in Maryland have become major centers of performance.
FA Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Cultural Events
Washington hosts many annual events, including the National Cherry Blossom Festival, which celebrates the flowering of Japanese cherry trees in the Tidal Basin. Hispanic Week Festival takes place each summer in Washington since 1970. The Mall hosts fourth annual report of July fireworks and the National Folk Festival. The city also celebrates the Chinese New Year, Columbus Day, and St. Patrick's Day with € ™ s parades.
VA Â Â Â Â Â Â Â RECREATION
The Washington area has many parks and well-known recreational areas. The Washington Mall is € ™ s largest park, and hosts numerous events and events special. Nearby parks East and West Potomac, consisting of land reclaimed from the Potomac River, provide space for a range of activities recreational facilities including rugby, softball, volleyball and polo. The Ellipse, between the White House and Washington Monument, is a large public park that contains the step zero, where distances are measured on all national highways that pass through Washington. In the city, Rock Creek Park, which stretches from downtown at the border of Maryland, is home to the National Zoological Park. The National Arboretum is in northeast Washington. In addition, the intersection of Washington € ™ s the main diagonal avenues with other streets laid out on a grid on the right provides a number of small parks.
Professional sports are important in Washington. For many years Griffith Stadium in Le Droit Park hosted the National Negro League Homestead Grays € ™ s and the American € ™ s League Washington Senators. Integration of Major League condemned the gray, and the poor fan support resulted in a movement of free for the Senators. Another team that left town was the team the Washington Redskins professional football, which moved to Prince George's ™ € s County, Maryland, in 1997. As the team proposes to city suburbs, however, the region € ™ s team of professional hockey, Washington Capitals, the team basketball and the Washington Wizards, returning to downtown after spending nearly a generation in the suburbs of Maryland. The capitals and the Wizards play in a new sport and entertainment complex, the MCI Center, which opened in December 1997. The Centre helped to revitalize the downtown. The DC United soccer team, a recent arrival in Washington, a rapid success and became national champion in 1996.
VIA        ECONOMY            AA Main economic activities  from the date of its origin, Washington should emerge as a commercial center because of its location along the Potomac River. However, the city behind other major port cities such as Baltimore, along the East Coast. Instead of Commerce, the driving force of the citi € ™ s economy proved to be the federal government.
At first, no more than several hundred workers, the bureaucracy Federal has grown steadily in the 19th century and exploded in the 20th century. By 1940, 44 percent of civilian workers in the city of Washington were Federal government employees. Although the private economy has grown faster than the public sector after the Second World War, he remained still nearly related to the presence of the federal government through the proliferation of national associations, lobbyists, subcontractors, lawyers and accountants involved in the work of government. On America € ™ s growing global role of partitions created jobs in organizations like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Organization of American States, in addition to the U.S. government ™ € s own state services and defense. These federal jobs has boosted the economy and increased the value of real estate in Washington, especially in the 1980s, and the federal government has continued as an important presence in the city during the 1990s.
The Tourism is the second most important aspect of citi € ™ s economy. National monuments and museums attract more than 18 million visitors each year; hotels are numerous. The city hosts many conventions, and a large center opened in 1983. The functions of the federal government and local tourism industry have created a large service economy, which employs more than one third of all citi € ™ s workers. Manufacturing is of only minor importance and is dominated by the printing, publishing and food industries.
 B       During Transportation A years, the transportation hub to and from Washington Union Station, served by several railroads. Built in 1907, Union Station occupies 10 hectares (25 acres) in the heart of the city. During the second half of the 20th century, airports and highways have become important. Washington is served by three commercial airportsâ € "Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Washington Dulles International Airport and Baltimore-Washington International Airport €" with vast national and international connections.
In 1964, a highway known as the device has been completed around Washington to facilitate traffic. The 36 cloverleaf intersections bind to all main roads of the city. In 1976, a subway system opened in the city that stretches in Virginia and suburbs of Maryland. Called the Metro, the system should extend over 160 km (more than 100 miles) to the end in the early 21st century.
CA Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Economic Problems
Following the growth of Washington € ™ s white-collar jobs in the 1980s was a growing gap in income between € ™ s citi residents. disadvantaged areas, neighborhoods with predominantly black, were subjected to the scourge of drugs and violence associated. These areas were concentrated in the older sections of the northeast quadrant and southeast of the city. Even the center has increased property values, so do Washington € ™ s murder rate. During the 1990s, it became one of the deadliest cities in the country. While the region has prospered over the last half century, much of downtown behind. Citi € ™ s tax base has decreased by more and more families to middle and upper middle class have moved suburbs. This lower tax base has contributed to a financial crisis for the city.
CONTEMPORARY ISSUES OF GOVERNMENT AND VII Â
Unlike any other part of the United States, Washington has not fully representative government. Although its political structure has changed over time, the city has remained subordinate to the federal government. This is supported under Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, which states, â € œThe Congress shall have power â € | to exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever over such District â | € that can by the transfer of certain states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of government.â € The idea of the exclusive solidified In 1783 when Congress, then in Philadelphia, faced angry veterans of the American Revolution who demanded to be repaid. When the authorities of Pennsylvania did not intervene to protect the Congress, many members stressed that any permanent seat of government should be controlled Congress. This experience is almost forgotten, Washington remains without direct representation in the national government that oversees much of its operation.
The Constitution, however, did not prohibit the creation of a body lower the government to deal with local affairs. In 1802, Congress authorized an appointed mayor and city council elected to Washington. In 1820, he expanded the right to vote and the office of mayor subject to the election People. In 1871, Congress substituted a largely appointed territorial government € "although locals still voted for a house delegatesâ € "as an instrument to consolidate the cities of Washington and Georgetown County. When the experiment generated costs that Congress is too expensive, it has eliminated the popular election in Washington in 1874 by placing the local government under a commission of three persons appointed by the president.
Initially, this system has been welcomed to replace the partisan politics of professional management. But defects of the Commission became clear over time. In 30 surveys conducted between 1934 and 1941, Congress found that the power and responsibility were unevenly distributed among the Commissioners and various federal agencies, and political whim controlled most of the shares. Check 1949 and lasted more than a decade, the Senate has repeatedly voted to give local elections in Washington. However, the neighborhood center Committee has refused for over 20 years to bring the bill to the floor for a vote. Finally in 1973, Congress authorized the popular election of a mayor and city council for Washington.
In 1974, the Home Rule Act, which established the mayor and city council, became law. The law, if restoration popular elections, retained considerable power for Congress to review legislation and allow Washington € ™ s budget. It also prohibits the city from taxing federal property or income earned in the city by people who went to work outside district. These restrictions are a cause of tension between city officials and Congress.
In the mid-1970s, local activists began an effort to secure Washington € ™ s independence. They argued that the Constitution requires only a maximum size for the District, not no minimum size. Therefore, they suggested that the District of narrowing the area between the White House and the Capitol and the part Residential District of Columbia become a new state, New Columbia. Congress, however, has yet to vote on the proposal until 1993, when the House of Representatives rejected the measure 277-153.
Marion Barry has been the dominant figure in local politics from Washington Rule the house has taken effect. He served as mayor, but eight years, all from home rule began in 1974. First elected mayor in 1978, Barry established a reputation a competent administrator and a defender of the rule of the house that was committed to solving the Citi € ™ s social problems. Years later, the scandal has affected his administration, and in 1990 he lost a bid for a fourth consecutive term after being arrested and convicted for smoking crack. After serving six months in prison, he made a dramatic comeback, securing the first municipal council elections in 1992 then mayor in 1994. Barria € ™ s return to power has generated immediate controversy. However, it soon became clear that the city faces a crisis even greater in a projected budget deficit of 750 million dollars in the coming year.
With the city can not get loans private sector to pay its debts, Congress intervened by passing the District of Columbia Financial Responsibility and Management Assistance Act of 1995. This measure established a control panel with broad powers, a move justified by Congress that mismanagement and overstaffing had compromised the credit citi € ™ s Under the act, the President appointed five persons to the board of directors to put the Citi € ™ s Finance under control. Urged Congress Control Board to cut jobs.
Barry, however, refused to cooperate with the Control Board, and instead chose to emphasize the citi € ™ s needs. He said Washington € ™ s problems arising more revenue inadequate for high-cost and urged the federal government to pay more to Washington € ™ s obligations. He recommended that the federal government assumes most of the costs of state functions supported by the city since 1974, but his proposal has received no sympathy in Congress. However, two years later, without the participation of Mayor, President Bill Clinton made Barria € ™ s approach in its budget Federal suggested. In August 1997, the national government increased its share of Medicare costs and the highway in the city, assumed responsibility for financing Washington € ™ s pension plan, and took over operation of the District € ™ s prison system.
By accepting these measures, Congress has insisted on exercising greater influence in Washington. It has empowered the Commission control to choose his own city manager and expand its operational control over all but a small part of daily activities. By terms Congress set up the Control Board, these powers will revert to the city only after it meets three balanced budgets on. This restriction, even in the best case, will leave Washington with little control of its own local affairs in the next century.
VIII Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â HISTORY
Washington € ™ s contemporary crisis is deeply rooted in its history. From the beginning, there was tension resulting from the Citi ™ € s dual function of both city and the capital. While reserving the right to exercise exclusive jurisdiction over the District, Congress has lavished attention on certain sections of the city while others suffered from neglect, is an unavoidable conflict of interest.
George Washington saw no conflict between the city and capital. Instead, he designed the new capital the cornerstone of nation building. He estimated that the district Columbiaâ € ™ s location on the Potomac River would leave exploit business opportunities in the west. Such success could have obtained national loyalty, but the states were too jealous of each other to join in the promotion of National City.
The first problem arises over the site selection of the city. State governments have fought bitterly on the site of the capital, in the hope of a location near their particular influence would the new government. Then, Once a location has been chosen, the states resisted paying taxes for necessary improvements to the house of the new government. To finance construction of the city, land € ™ s district is divided into lots, two thirds were reserved for roads and federal buildings. The rest was sold to the public. Despite this, the funds behind. In addition, the plans of the man hired to build the city, Pierre € ™ Child, have been so expensive, and Lâ € ™ Enfant himself so embroiled in conflicts with landowners, it was finally dismissed in 1792. Accordingly, the District was far from complete when the national government moved there in 1800.
Federal funding for improvements are still few in the capital € ™ s early years. Development has been slow, and the city has raised criticism from visitors from the United States and abroad. In 1814, during the War of 1812, the city was occupied and burned by the British. This means that much of the city has been completely rebuilt, which further taxed funds.
When the city sought help from Congress to build a canal west of boosting its trade, Congress has refused. When when she finally allowed the Chesapeake and Ohio (C & O) Canal in 1828, it was too late to make a difference. A decade earlier, target = "_blank"> New York completed the Erie Canal very successful, and has been dominating trade in the West. In addition, Baltimore Washington jumped in the race for regional control when he began working on the nationality € ™ s first railroad, the Baltimore and Ohio (B & O), 1828.
In 1835, a congressional committee led by Senator Samuel Southard admitted that funding for the Congressional District has been inadequate. Southard argued that the general plan of the city was too great a burden for local authorities to support alone. His report has generated sufficient federal funds to repay a debt on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, but the city needs more higher than income in the 1860s.
After the civil war, Republicans in Congress saw a chance to implement social reforms in Washington. In addition to making Washington the first place to enforce the emancipation slaves, Congress put an end to segregation of transport and to eliminate all references to race in the Civil Code. Congress granted the right to vote in black men, even though many northern states rejected such measures. With the overwhelming support of black, Republicans Local politics took power in Washington in 1868.
Some party members resisted social innovations, however, seeking instead to promote physical improvement of the city. After the British burned the city in 1814, Congress had considered moving to Washington elsewhere. Relocation has become an issue again with both physical improvements necessary deferred during the civil war. Locals argued that without investment in the physical city, the government would abandon Washington, and he would be condemned.
Mainstream Republicansâ € "led by Alexander Shepherd, a former plumber entered politics during the Wara € "campaign to move from social to physical reconstruction. In 1870, they broke with the radical Republicans in power and elected their own candidate for mayor. The following year, they convinced Congress to impose a form fully new territorial administration, with a governor and a Senate appointed by the president and a house of delegates elected by popular vote.
Alexander Shepherd assumed considerable influence in the new government by its position as a director of a new board of public works. Under his leadership, the city consistently improved his physical appearance: the classification and cobbled streets, planting trees and sewer development. These improvements suppressed efforts to move the capital to a more central location in the United States.
But Shepherd € ™ s expenditures have also been controversial, prompting investigations by Congress in 1872 and 1874. In the first case, a committee charged gently friendly the district government, stating that in the pursuit of citi € ™ s improving the level of debt should not exceed 10 million dollars. In 1874, power had shifted in Congress, and Shepherd now face hostile criticism. With debt of more than $ 18 million, Pastor argued that the unpaid taxes and the absence of a sufficient tax base bothered him. Congress was less favorable to that time, and members reiterated the arrest report Southard 1835 that the city could not support the expenditures with the federal government.
Congress then adopted a plan to provide a regular payment from the federal government in the district to meet at least half of its expenditures operation. In accepting this argument, however, members of Congress insisted on a more direct control. In 1874, they replaced the territorial government with a committee of three persons appointed by the president. One of the persons to the Commission should be chosen from the ranks of the Army Corps of Engineers and was responsible for overseeing public works.
A number of physical improvements have followed, and as the turn of the century approaching, Washington assumed a modern form. However, the presence of federal did not distinguish. With encouragement from representatives of the American Institute of Architects, a special Senate committee formed draw a new map of Washington. Presented with a bang in 1902, this proposal included a provision of federal buildings along the Mall connected to a regional park. It took more than 25 years to realize this vision, but by the early 1930s, as the Federal Triangle complex along Pennsylvania Avenue nearing completion, the planners can not claim that the capital was finally worthy of the national government has allowed.
Instead of uniting city and capital, however, the emergence of downtown new set of federal presence outside of Washington € ™ s residential areas. This possibility had been recognized since the beginning of the century. While the Senate has prepared its plan developed, social activists expressed concern for the rest of Washington. They pointed in particular to unhealthy conditions in many poor neighborhoods, especially in the alleys where small houses had been built to accommodate a majority black population.
Efforts to ensure better housing occupied several generations reformers. First, private funding has been used to provide housing for low income residents, and in 1930 Washington formed nationality € ™ s first public housing authority. The Langston Terrace public housing complex in the north of Washington was built with funds provided by the federal government. There, blacks are better housing. But politics has evolved after the Second World War. Fearing the effect of the relocation of white families to the suburbs, Congress authorized funds to provide a program of urban renewal in the model Washington € ™ s Southwest Sector. Designed to attract middle-income residents to the city, the bulk of the renewal area have led the displacement of most € ™ s area mainly black residents.
The federal funds that had made possible the improvement an old article of revenue from Washington city improved, but they have also increased tensions with citi € ™ s growth the black population. A renewal effort later in Shaw immediately north of downtown has provoked opposition from the neighborhood around the rallying crying, â € € ŒNO more Southwests.â Out of this experience emerged a powerful coalition of citizens determined to plan Neighborhood € ™ s their self-renewal. Where Congress has authorized a non-voting delegate in the House of Representatives Washington in 1971, the leader of the effort to revitalize neighborhoods, Walter Fauntroy, was the first to occupy the post. He supported the rise policy of his fellow civil rights activist Marion Barry.
The era of home rule has been inaugurated in 1974 as an affirmation of local versus federal powers. As its most successful representative, Marion Barry was able to secure funding federal, but at the same time, he consciously built his political strength at home by distancing himself from federal oversight. Suspicion of a government National has become so ingrained in the majority of local residents, Barry returned to power easily, even after his arrest and conviction for the use drugs. Congressi € ™ s 1995 decision to impose a control commission of the city has struck many residents as another blow to Citi € ™ s political independence. Although the council has promised to seek solutions to citi € ™ s policies and problems budget, finance prevails. As the bicentennial anniversary of the federal presence in Washington in 2000 approaches, the city and capital remain in a relationship difficult and unstable.
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