
Washinghton DC
I INTRODUCTION
Washington, DC, city and district capital of the target = "_blank"> United States of America. The city of Washington has the same boundaries as the District of Columbia (DC), a federal territory established in 1790 to host the permanent capital of the new nation. Named after the President of the United States first, George Washington, the city has served since 1800 as the seat the federal government. It is also at the heart of a dynamic metropolitan region. During the 20th century in Washington, DC, region Metropolitan has increased rapidly as the responsibilities the national government increased, both at home and around the world.
The city is located at the confluence of the Potomac and Anacostia rivers and is flanked to the north, east and south-eastern Maryland and southwestern Virginia. Although the city has retained some aspects their southern origin, which has taken a far more cosmopolitan. Meanwhile, the city grappling with the social and economic inequality, and several residential neighborhoods suffer from poverty and crime. Washington climate is hot and humid in summer and cold and wet winter. The temperature daily average of -3 ° C (27 ° F) to 8 ° C (46 ° F) in January and 22 ° C (72 ° F) to 31 ° C (88 ° F) in July. The average city 98 cm (39 inches) of rainfall per year.
II Washington and its metropolitan area
An outline of the city
Appointed to serve as permanent seat of government since 1800, the District of Columbia, was named after Christopher Columbus. Been created from land ceded by the states of Virginia and Maryland, and joined the existing port cities of Alexandria, Virginia and Georgetown, Maryland. The district was originally 259 square km (100 square miles) or 10 square miles, as provided by law on the residence of 1790. The site of the central city was designed by French architect Pierre Charles L'Enfant in 1791. The rest is an open area north of the border Maryland. He was appointed Washington County. In 1846, Congress returned to the federal district that had been ceded by Virginia.
In 1871, the cities of Washington and Georgetown were consolidated with Washington County to become Washington, DC, making the city, county and district Federal and the same. Washington, DC has a total area of 176 square kilometers (68 square miles), and the Washington Metropolitan area, plus Washington, DC, with 24 counties in neighboring states of Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia has a total area of 17,920 kilometers square (6,920 square miles).
In its plan for the city of Washington, L'Enfant attempted to symbolically represent the new United States and its republican government. He gave importance each of those who were the main elements of Government-the executive and legislative branches. He also participated in the States to give their name to the great diagonal avenues. They arranged both according to geography and the importance of each state in the process of building nation. Massachusetts, Virginia, and especially Pennsylvania, with its associations with both the Declaration of Independence and the signing of the Constitution, is the most common. Avenues name other states with an important role in the ratification of the Constitution, including Delaware and New Jersey, cut into the Capitol. In addition, L'Enfant Hopefully the mailboxes of the intersection of diagonal avenues with the grid of city streets and numbered lines provided for each state to locate facilities, giving them the same symbolic importance in the capital they had in the federal system.
B patterns of settlement and development
Initially Washington was slow to develop the network of a characteristic dense settlement cities. In the 20th century, however, Washington had filled its open spaces and dominated the surrounding area, which remained largely rural. This model has changed after the Second World War (1939-1945), as the population of the lost city to the suburbs of Virginia and Maryland. While the federal presence remained concentrated in Washington, has also expanded considerably in the suburbs. At the same time, private companies the new source of growth fastest regional employment was concentrated almost exclusively in areas outside the city.
While the metropolitan area expansion abroad, not by chance. Growth tends to track the location of federal facilities outside the city and development of major transport routes. During the Second World War, the construction of the Pentagon, headquarters of the Department of Defense sponsored the closing of development along the Potomac River in Virginia. Growth was also stimulated by other key services, including Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Langley, Virginia, and the Committee on Atomic Energy (CEA), the National Bureau of Standards (now the National Institute of Science and Technology) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), all in Maryland.
C Public Buildings
Washington is home to many buildings Public and famous and interesting sights. Many of them are associated with the federal government. The Capitol of the United States are on a hill is 27 meters (88 feet) above the Potomac River and consists of two wings that branch from the central rotunda. The wing north 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 building of the Supreme Court, with its portico, the model of a Greek temple. North Capitol at the end of Delaware Avenue is massive Union Station, now a shopping center and a station that has long been a center of the city.
From the Pennsylvania Capitol Avenue is slightly northwest and Constitution Avenue runs directly west. Between 6 and 15th Street NW the two avenues form an area known as the Federal Triangle. In this triangle are concentrated a number of government buildings, including the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and Ministries of Justice and Commerce. Also in the triangle is the National Archives building, which contains the original drafts of the Declaration of Independence the U.S. Constitution and 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). In the block north of the Hoover building, also on Tenth Street, is Ford's Theater, where President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, and in the street is Petersen House, where he died. Together, they form Ford's Theater National Historic Site.
Northwest of the triangle on the street 16 and Pennsylvania Avenue is the oldest federal building in Washington, From the White House, official residence of the president. The foundations of the house were established in 1792, and all presidents George Washington, except that it has occupied. Tours are conducted daily across the floor most famous stadiums and first floor rooms, including the East Room, Blue Room and State Dining Room.
Accompanying the White House are Department of the Treasury Building to the east and Executive Office Building to the west. Across the street is Blair House, the official guest house Visits of Heads of State and other dignitaries. Blair House, built in 1824, he served as the temporary residence of the leaders of President Harry S. Truman and his family 1948 to 1952, while inside the White House has been largely reformed.
North of the White House is Lafayette Square with a statue of General Andrew Jackson made from a melted cannon captured by Jackson during the War of 1812. To the west of the White House New York Avenue and 18th Street NW, is one of the oldest monuments of Washington, the octagon. Completed in 1801, the Octagon houses a museum devoted architecture and the early history of Washington, and is also home to the American Architectural Foundation. It was one First residential structures built according to the L'Enfant plan. During the War of 1812, British troops burned the White House, the destruction of its interior. The President James Madison and his family lived in the octagon, while the White House was being rebuilt.
South of the triangle Federal is the shopping center, narrow park that stretches for about 1.6 kilometers (1 mile) from the Capitol to Washington Monument. Although the mall officially ends at 14th Street, green space extends to the Potomac. The Washington Monument, whose marble shaft dominates the skyline, is 169 meters (555 feet) near the center of the park. The interior of the monument is hollow, and visitors may either climb its 898 steps or ride an elevator to 150 meters (500 feet) to magnificent views. A law prohibiting high passed by Congress in 1899, provides that no private structure in Washington, DC, will expand higher the monument or the Capitol.
More Beyond the monument in West Potomac Park, still in a straight line from the Capitol, the Lincoln Memorial is massive. This monument 36 columns represent the 36 states of the Union when Lincoln died in 1865. Its interior contains a great stone seated figure of Lincoln carved by sculptor Daniel Chester French. Nearby, the Arlington Memorial Bridge across the Potomac River and connects the Lincoln Memorial to Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia. Located in the cemetery are the tombs of the Unknowns, Arlington House, the residence of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, on the slopes just below the grave of President John F. Kennedy.
Close Memorial Lincoln Memorial is the Vietnam veterans. This monument commemorates the men and women who died during the Vietnam War (1959-1975). South-East Lincoln Memorial is the Tidal Basin, framed by the famous Washington 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. This circular, marble statue column contains a bronze standing figure of Thomas Jefferson by sculptor Rudolph Evans. Approximately halfway between the Jefferson Memorial and Lincoln Memorial is the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, which opened in 1997.
D Barrios
The once-Close early in the first quarter to the Federal activity, including Georgetown, Foggy Bottom and Capitol Hill, all declined with time. Even if they were rediscovered and restored in the second half of the 20th century, new communities became popular provisional. By mid-century, 19th trams began offering easy routes to areas outside the city center. At this time, Uniontown Anacostia section, where abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass settled after the Civil War (1861-1865), and Ledroit Park near from Howard University in Washington developed the first suburbs.
In the 20th century, Mount Pleasant, a few miles north of the House On White became popular. With the availability of automobiles in the first place Cleveland Park and, later, Wesley Heights and American University Park emerged as residential destinations Favorites. Just above the downtown historic area known as Shaw emerged as the black's largest city. The concentration of theaters and other social activities are U Street the nickname of Black Broadway. More information about the old city, the Adams Morgan section emerged in the 1960s as one of Washington's most diverse, with large populations of Latin America and Caribbean immigrants.
Over the years, the suburbs outside the city increased rapidly. In addition to the old neighborhoods like Arlington, Virginia, and Chevy Chase, Maryland, a suburb of new office and retail complexes have arisen in Tyson's Corner and Pentagon City in Virginia and Maryland Freedom Plaza.
III POPULATION
Washington, DC, grew slowly from the time of their origins to civil war. Its founders are expected to emerge as a great city because of its favorable commercial site along the Potomac River. However, the city proved unable to fully exploit the opportunities, because, among other things, the lack of federal funding for development and lags behind other major port cities along the East Coast. Population of Washington, at the height of the civil war, from a small population from 61,122 in 1860 to 109,199 only a decade ago. During the first half of the 20th century, the federal presence in the city grows and population has grown with it, reaching a peak of over 800,000 in 1950.
The city population dropped thereafter, losing to residents suburbs. Nearly 69 percent of the population lives in metropolitan Washington in 1940, In 1960, that number had dropped to 37 percent and less than 16 per cent in 1996. In 1998 the city had 523,124. In contrast, the population of the metropolitan region in 1996 was estimated at 4,563,000.
In part because the District was originally formed by the slave states, citizens of the capital have always been a significant black presence, approximately 25 per cent of the population its origins in the Second World War. After the war, many white families have moved to suburbs and demographics of the city have changed. In 1957, Washington became the first major U.S. city with a black majority. Between 1950 and 1960, the black presence in Washington has increased by almost 50 per cent from 280,803 to 411,737, while the white population declined by one third.
Until recently, most of the black population is in the city. However, as the previous generation of white, the black middle class began to leave town and move to the suburbs. In 1990, when the city numbered 606,900, blacks represent about 66 percent, compared to about 30 percent of whites. Hispanics, who can be of any race, constituted about 5 percent of the population. The city had about 400,000 black residents, however, only the two surrounding counties of Prince George, Maryland, and Fairfax, Virginia, with a combined population of about 430,000 blacks.
During the 19th century, Washington had no industrial base that has attracted immigrants from other cities, and the population is most often born in the character. In the 19th century, Italian and small communities Jewish Eastern Europe formed, creating their own churches and synagogues and institutions associated with ethnicity. Many descendants of these immigrants have left the city to the suburbs in the 1950s, with much of the rest of the white population. While the Italian Roman Catholic Church, Santo Rosario, still in operation, near Union Station, some of its parishioners still live in the city. Most of the early synagogues near the center left, replaced by black Protestant congregations.
A small Chinese community formed in Washington in the 19th century. Initially focused downtown along Pennsylvania Avenue, Chinatown moved several blocks north to make way for the completion of the complex of the Federal Bureau of Triangle 1930. Chinatown still exists along H Street, NW, but only about one third of Washington in 3000 Chinese census live in that region in 1990. Additional 37,000 Chinese live in surrounding suburbs. In the suburbs, they are joined by recent immigrant groups from Asia, including Vietnam, Cambodians and Laotians. The two Asian populations suburban Maryland and northern Virginia support of about 100,000 inhabitants each.
Hispanics Another large group of immigrants in the region. Although the population of the District of Columbia is about 5 percent of Hispanics, the largest number of these immigrants 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.
IV EDUCATION AND CULTURE colleges
It was the dream from George Washington to host the capital of a national university. Congress, however, are reluctant to fund this entity. Consequently, if a number of institutions that have a term of national participation, none has been honored with a national mandate. Founded in 1789, Georgetown University is the oldest Catholic university in the United States. George Washington University was founded in 1821 by Baptists as Columbian College. Gallaudet University 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 in a predominantly black university after slavery was abolished in 1865. The other two private universities of the city are the Catholic University of America and the American University. In addition, the city opened the University of the District of Columbia with the approval of Congress in 1977 by the consolidation of a university professor, a college town, and a technical institute.
In suburban Virginia, George Mason University and Northern Virginia Community College in suburban Maryland, the University of Maryland in College Park, Montgomery College and Prince George's Community College. The Consortium University of Washington Metropolitan Area, most links to public institutions and private education and higher. Through the consortium, a student enrolled in an establishment may take courses at another institution.
B sites Religious There are many churches in the Washington area's 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 Romanesque and Byzantine architecture is based on the Catholic University of northeast 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 It was followed by ten Presidents, St. Matthew's Roman Catholic Cathedral, with President Kennedy, and the Church of Christ, when Thomas Jefferson loved. Outside City of Washington Temple Church of Latter Day Saints, was completed near the ring road in Maryland in 1974.
C Museums
The most famous museum Washington is the Smithsonian Institution. With the help of a gift of James Smithson English, Congress chartered the Smithsonian in 1846. The Smithsonian is a collection of many different institutions which are world famous for its art, history and science collections. The National Museum of African Art was the first museum in the United States devoted exclusively to African art. The Natural History Museum of the many famous jewels the world, and the National Museum of American History traces the developing Member States of the United Nations through science fairs, technology and cultural. National Air and Space Museum has aeronautical exhibits that include the original ship used by the Wright Brothers and the Mercury capsule in which Astronaut John Glenn became the first orbit of the earth.
The Museum and Sculpture Garden Hirshhorn contains paintings and sculptures of a century European 19th and 20th and American artists. Arts and Industries Building and the Freer Gallery of Art house fine collections of American art and Asian. Another most important art collection, the National Portrait Gallery, is in a building with the National Museum of American Art, which houses American paintings, sculptures, graphics, folk art and photographs of the 18th century to today.
Over time, the Smithsonian has evolved a granary called nation in a comprehensive and diversified means of research and education. In recent years, others more specialized institutions joined the wide range of cultural institutions like the Smithsonian. Besides the many artistic and historical collections, The Smithsonian includes the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a living monument of former U.S. President Woodrow Wilson, who owns the research and writing national experts selected to spend time working in Washington.
Other important collections in Washington include the National Gallery of Art, an art gallery, head of the nation, with important collections of European paintings and American Museum Dumbarton Oaks, 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 about 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, began in the 1880s through the bequest of banker William W. Corcoran and the Phillips Collection, opened in 1921 near Dupont Circle in the city as the first museum of modern art. The Historical Society of Washington, DC, located in a 19th century residence built by beer magnate Christian Heurich, is the only institution dedicated to preserving and interpreting the rich local history of Washington.
D Library The Library of Congress National Library is the United States, and includes a record of every book printed in America. Among its valuable documents are the first draft of Gettysburg Address of Abraham Lincoln and a first draft of the Declaration of Independence as written by Thomas Jefferson and edited by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin. Library contains a collection of original music manuscripts, ranging from a sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven in the score of the musical Oklahoma! and a large collection of instruments. The affiliated Folger Shakespeare Library contains 79 first folios (early impressions) of Shakespeare's works and rarities, like a corset that Queen Elizabeth I of England was at the end of 1500. Other distinguished libraries in Washington include the National Agricultural Library, with more than one million volumes of botany, zoology, entomology and chemistry, and the Library founders, Howard University, with 50,000 volumes relating to black history and culture.
E The Performing Arts Washington provides many outlets for the performing arts. The National Theater, founded in 1812, new hosts theatrical productions. Arena Stage, founded in 1949, opened a new facility in 1970s as part of redevelopment of south-west of the city and has achieved global recognition for their productions. Also in the 1970s, the Elizabethan theater the Folger Library began offering productions of Shakespeare. Twenty years later, Shakespeare's plays open to enthusiastic audiences in the restored Lansburgh Department Store in the center of Seventh Street.
A boost for arts in the city came in 1971 with the opening of John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The center includes the Opera House, Concert Hall and Eisenhower Theater, and also provides a home for the National Ballet Orchestra of Washington and the American Film Institute's National Film Theater. The center opened to stimulate the creation of a series of smaller theaters and serve different interests. In the suburbs, the Wolf Trap Farm Park for the Performing Arts in Virginia and Merriweather Post Pavilion in Maryland have become major performance centers.
F Cultural Events
Washington hosts many annual events including the National Cherry Festival in Florida, which celebrates the flowering of cherry trees Japan in the tide pool. Hispanic Festival a week takes place each summer in Washington since 1970. The mall is home to one quarter of fireworks Annual display in July at the National Folk Festival. The city also celebrates the Chinese New Year, Columbus Day and St. Patrick's Day with parades.
V LEISURE
Parks in the Washington area has seen and many recreation areas. The Mall is the largest park in Washington, and hosts numerous events and events special. Middle East and West Potomac Parks, formed by reclaimed land on the Potomac River, provide space for a wide range recreational activities such as rugby, baseball, volleyball and polo. The ellipsis between the White House and Washington Monument is a large public park Milestone containing zero, where distances are measured in all the national highways passing through Washington. In the town of Rock Creek Park, which extends from downtown to the Maryland border, is home to the National Park Zoo. The National Arboretum is in northeast Washington. In addition, the intersection broad avenues of Washington in diagonal with other streets arranged in a grid of Law offers a number of small parks.
Professional sports are important Washington. For many years, Griffith Park Stadium Ledroit Homestead hosted the Negro National League in gray and senators of the American League in Washington. Integration of Major League condemned the gray and poor fan support leads to a movement of relief for the Senators. Another team that left town was the team of professional football Washington Redskins, he moved to Prince George's County, Maryland in 1997. While the team moved to the outskirts of the city, however, the professional hockey team in the region, the Washington Capitals and the team basketball, the Washington Wizards, returned downtown after spending nearly a generation, in suburban Maryland. Capitals and Wizards play a new sport and entertainment, the MCI Center opened in December 1997. The Center has helped revitalize the downtown. The soccer team DC United a newcomer to Washington, a rapid success and became national champion in 1996.
VI a great economy of economic activity at the time of its origin, Washington should emerge as an important commercial town because of its location along the Potomac River. However, the city has lagged behind other most major cities such as Baltimore Harbor, along the East Coast. Instead of trade, the force driving the economy of the city proved to be the federal government.
At first no more than a few hundred workers, the federal bureaucracy has increased steadily during the 19th century and exploded in the 20th century. In 1940, 44 percent of civilian workers in Washington were employees the federal government. Although the private economy has grown faster than the public sector after World War II, is still closely linked to the federal presence through the proliferation of national associations, lobbyists, contractors, lawyers and accountants associated the work of government. Increasingly, the global role of the United States has created dozens of jobs in organizations like the World Bank, the Organization International Monetary Fund and the Organization of American States, in addition to specific government services to U.S. State and Defense. These jobs Federal stimulus to the economy and increase property values in Washington, especially in the 1980s, and the federal government remained a significant presence in the city throughout the 1990s.
Tourism is the second most important aspect of the economy of the city. Monuments national and museums draw more than 18 million visitors each year, hotels are numerous. The city hosts many conventions and a major convention center opened its doors in 1983. The functions of government industry, federal and local tourism has created a strong service economy, employing more than one third of all workers in the city. Making a minor and is dominated by the printing, publishing and food industries.
B Del transportation for years the hub of transportation 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 roads have become important. Washington has three commercial airports, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Washington Dulles International Airport and Baltimore-Washington International Airport, with connections broad national and international.
In 1964, a road known as the bypass was completed around Washington to facilitate movement. Its 36 intersections clover linked to all major routes to and from the city. In 1976, a subway system opened in the city that extends to the suburbs in Virginia and Maryland. Called the Metro, the system should grow to more than 160 km (100 miles) to end early 21st century.
C Economic Problems
One result of employment growth in Washington white-collar in the 1980s was a growing income gap between people of the city. Disadvantaged, predominantly black neighborhoods, became the subject of a scourge of drugs and associated violence. These areas are concentrated in the older areas of the quadrants north-east and south-east of the city. Although the objective of real estate values, as well as the murder rate in Washington. During the 1990s he became one of the deadliest cities in the nation. While the region has flourished for much of the last half-century much of downtown has been left behind. Tax base in the city declined more and more middle and upper middle class families have moved to suburbs. This base of lower tax contributed to a fiscal crisis of the city.
VII and Government Affairs
Unlike anywhere else in the United States, Washington has no political representation in its own right. Although its political structure has changed over time, the city has been the federal government. This position is based on Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution, which states: "Congress shall have power … to legislate exclusively in all matters relating to the District … May that by the cession of particular states and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of government. "The idea of exclusive consolidated in 1783 when Congress, after meeting in Philadelphia, angry Veterans of the American Revolution against demanding back pay. When Pennsylvania authorities have not intervened to protect the Congress, several members stressed that any permanent seat of government should be under the control of Congress. From this experience, almost forgot, Washington still has no direct representation in the national government that oversees most of its operation.
The Constitution however, prohibits the creation of a body below the government to handle local affairs. In 1802, Congress authorized the appointment of a mayor and city council elected in Washington. In 1820 he expanded the right to vote and make the office of mayor by popular vote. In 1871, Congress replaced a government largely territorial appointed While city residents still voted for a House of Delegates, as a tool to consolidate the cities of Washington and Georgetown Washington County. When experience has involved costs that Congress has been too expensive, which eliminated the popular election Washington in 1874 through the local government under a board of three members appointed by the president.
Initially, this system has been favorably received for the replacement of political parties in the professional management. However, the shortcomings of the Commission revealed over time. In 30 investigations between 1934 and 1941, Congress considered the power and responsibility have been misallocated between Commissioners and various federal agencies, and political whims, which controls the majority of shares. From 1949 and for over a decade, the Senate has repeatedly voted to grant local elections in Washington. However, the District Committee of the House has refused for over 20 years to bring the bill to the floor for a vote. Finally, in 1973, Congress authorized the election of a mayor and city council of Washington.
In 1974, the Home Rule Act, which established the mayor and city councilor, became law. The event, despite the restoration of popular elections, maintains considerable power for Congress to consider legislation and to authorize the budget in Washington. It also prohibits the imposition of city government property Federal or income obtained in the city for people who commuted to work outside the district. These restrictions are always a cause of tension between the city officials and Congress.
In the 1970s, mi, local activists began an effort to ensure the independence of Washington. They argued that the Constitution gives only a maximum size for the Federal District, not a minimum size. Therefore suggested that the District is reduced the area between the Capitol and the White House and the residential portion of the District of Columbia become a new State, the New Colombia. Congress, however, even 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 in Washington since its entry into force of the rule of origin. He served as mayor for eight years only, since the Home Rule began in 1974. First elected mayor in 1978, Barry established a reputation as an able administrator and a defender of the autonomy was committed to solving social problems of the city. Years later, the scandal has affected his administration, and in 1990 lost a bid for a fourth consecutive term after being arrested and convicted for smoking crack. After serving six months in prison, he returned spectacular securing the first election to City Council in 1992, then as mayor in 1994. Barry returned to power caused immediate controversy. However, little is became clear that the city is facing a crisis even greater in a budget deficit of $ 750 million next year.
With the city can not borrow from the private sector to pay its debts, Congress intervened by passing the District of Columbia Financial Responsibility and using the 1995 Act. This measure provides a control panel with the major powers, a measure justified by Congress because of mismanagement and overstaffing has jeopardized the credit of the city. Lower the terms of the Act, the president appointed five members to the Board for the city's finances under control. Congress ordered Council control to reduce the costs work.
Barry, however, refused to cooperate with the Control Board, and chose instead highlight the needs of the city. He said Washington over the problems of insufficient income to high costs, and urged the federal government to pay more for bonds of Washington. Recommended that the federal government assumes many of the costs of state functions responsible for the city since 1974, but his proposal has not received any sympathy in Congress. However, two years later without the mayor, Bill Clinton included in its approach Barry proposed federal budget. In August 1997, the national government has increased its share of Medicare costs and the highway in the city, assumed responsibility for the design of pension funding in Washington and took over operation of the prison system district.
In accepting these measures, Congress has sought to exert greater influence in Washington. It authorized the Board of Control to choose their own administrator and the City extension of operational control over all but a small part of daily operations. Under the terms of the constituent congress of the board control these powers are returned to the city after three consecutive balanced budgets. This restriction, even in the best case, will control limited to Washington on their own local affairs in the next century.
STORY VIII
Contemporary crisis in Washington is deeply rooted its history. From the beginning there was tension resulting from the dual function of the city as its capital. Reserve the right to exercise exclusive jurisdiction on the Federal District, Congress has lavished attention on certain parts of the city, while others suffered from neglect, being an inevitable clash of interests.
George Washington saw no conflict between the city and capital. Instead, the new capital designed as the cornerstone of nation building process. He believed the District of Columbia, located in the Potomac River would take advantage of business opportunities west. This success could have obtained national loyalty, but the states are too jealous of each other to participate in the promotion of a city National.
The problem first emerged on the selection of the seat. State governments have fought bitterly over the site of the capital, with the hope of proximity would particularly influential on the new government. Then, once a site, States resisted paying fees for necessary improvements to the house of the new government. To finance the construction of the city the land for the county was divided into lots, two thirds of which were reserved for roads and federal buildings. The rest was sold to the public. However, the fund delayed. Furthermore, plans of man hired to build the city, Pierre L'Enfant, were so expensive, and the child himself so involved in litigation with owners, which was finally rejected in 1792. Accordingly, the District was far from complete when the national government moved there in 1800.
Federal funding for improvements remain weak in the early years of the capital. The development has been slow, and the city have been criticized by 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 had to be completely rebuilt, financed Tax.
When the city seeking help from Congress to build a canal west of stimulating trade, Congress refused. In the time he was finally authorized the Chesapeake and Ohio (C & O) Canal in 1828, it was too late to make a difference. A decade before New York had completed a great success of the Erie Canal, which dominated Western trade. In addition, Baltimore jumped ahead of Washington in the race for regional control when he began working on the first path iron in the country, Baltimore & Ohio (B & O) in 1828.
In 1835 a congressional committee led by Senator Samuel Southard admitted that funding Congress for the District is inadequate. Southard argues that the general plan of the city was too great a burden for local authorities to cope alone. His report generated enough federal funds to pay a debt incurred in the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, but it remains higher than urban incomes have continued in the 1860s.
After the Civil War, the Republican Congress saw an opportunity to implement social reforms in Washington. In addition to make Washington the first place to enforce the emancipation of slaves, Congress ended the segregation of public transport and deleted all references to race in the Civil Code. Congress has granted voting rights of black men, while many Northern states rejected such measures. With overwhelming black support, local Republicans took political power in Washington in 1868.
Some party members resistance to social innovations, However, instead seeking to promote the physical improvement of the city. After the British burned the city in 1814, Congress had considered moving from Washington to another location. Offshoring has become a new problem with many physical improvements necessary deferred during the Civil War. Local argued that without investment in the physical city, the government gave up in Washington and would be condemned.
Mainstream Republicans led by Alexander Shepherd, a former plumber who entered politics during the war campaign for a change of social reconstruction physics. In 1870 he broke with the Radical Republicans in power and elected their own candidate for mayor. The following year, persuaded Congress to impose a whole new way of territorial government, with its governor and the Senate appointed by the president and a house of delegates elected by popular vote.
Pastor Alexander has become enormously influential in the new government by its position as administrator of a new council work public. Under his leadership the city to update its appearance: the grading and paving streets, planting trees, developing and sewers. These improvements stifled efforts to move the capital to a more central place in the United States.
But the pastor also costs rise controversy, prompting investigations by Congress in 1872 and 1874. In the first case, a committee Friendly gently criticized the district government, stating in seeking to improve the city, the debt level should not exceed 10 million dollars. For 1874, power had shifted to Congress and Shepherd now faces hostile criticism. With debts of more than 18 million dollars, the shepherd said unpaid taxes and the absence a tax base sufficient bothered him. Congress was sympathetic, at least until this point, Members reiterated the case Southard, report of 1835 that the city could not sustain the costs associated with the federal government.
Congress then adopted a plan to ensure regular payment of the federal government in the district to fill half of their operating costs. In accepting this argument, however, Members of Congress insisted on a more direct control. In 1874, the territorial government is replaced by a three-person committee appointed by the president. A person in the commission would be elected from the ranks of the Army Corps of Engineers and was responsible for overseeing public works.
A series of improvements physical, and followed since the turn of the century approached, Washington took its modern form. However, the presence of the federal government did not discriminate. With the help of representatives of the American Institute of Architects, a committee Special Senate has to devise a new plan to Washington. Presented with a bang in 1902, this proposal provides a set of federal buildings along the Mall connected a regional system of parks. It took 25 years to realize this vision, but in the 1930s, the Federal Triangle complex along Pennsylvania Avenue was nearing completion, planners may argue that the capital finally worthy of a national government that is hosted.
Instead of uniting the city and the capital, however, the emergence of downtown new set of federal presence, outside the suburb Washington. This possibility has been recognized since the turn of the century. While the Senate adopted the plan developed, social activists has concerned about the rest of Washington. They particularly highlighted the poor conditions in many poor neighborhoods, especially in the streets, where small houses had been built to accommodate a majority black population.
Efforts to ensure better standards of housing occupied by several generations of reformers. First, private funding has been used to provide housing for low income residents, and in the 1930s Washington formed the nation's first public housing authority. The complex Langston Terrace public housing in the north of Washington was built with funds provided by the federal government. There, blacks found better accommodation. But the policy has changed after the Second World War. Fearing the effect of the relocation of white families in the suburbs, Congress authorized funding to provide a model of urban renewal program area in southwest Washington. Designed to attract middle income residents of the city, the wholesale renewal of the area displaced many residents of the predominantly black region.
Federal funds that made possible the improvement of some Former Washington improved income, but also increased tension with the growth of the black population of the city. A further renewal effort in Zone Shaw just north of downtown has attracted the opposition of the neighborhood around the slogan "No more than Southwest." Out of this experience came a powerful coalition of groups of citizens decided to plan the renewal of their neighborhoods themselves. When Congress authorized a non-voting delegate in the House of Representatives of Washington in 1971, the leader of reform efforts in the area, Walter Fauntroy was the first to occupy this position. He argued the rise Policy Fellow civil rights activist Marion Barry.
The era of internal autonomy in 1974, it opened as an affirmation of local against the prerogatives of the federal government. As representative of the most successful, Marion Barry was able to secure federal funding, but at the same time, consciously built his political force in the country to distance itself from federal oversight. The suspicions of the national government has become so embedded in most local residents readily Barry returned to power even after his arrest and conviction for drug use. The decision of Congress in 1995 to impose a control board of the city, struck many residents as a further blow to the political independence of the city. While the Council agreed to seek solutions to the city policy and budget issues, finance priority has been given. As the bicentennial of the federal presence in the approaches to Washington in 2000, the capital and to remain in a relationship difficult and unstable.
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