Economist.com Cities Guide: Washington, DC Briefing - August 2005

News this month

Welcome

Washington’s National Zoo announced two new arrivals in July, one human and the other animal. On July 9th, the zoo’s panda Mei Xiang gave birth to a tiny and apparently healthy cub—the first birth for the panda at the zoo. After artificially inseminating the mother in March, zoo officials watched her closely for months, unsure if she was actually pregnant. When the wriggling cub popped out—apparently about the size of a “stick of butter”—zookeepers said even the mother looked surprised. They say Mei is an attentive mother, despite early befuddlement, and her baby has become increasingly vocal, grunting with greater frequency. (Mother and child can be viewed 24 hours a day on the Panda Cam.) On August 2nd zookeepers were finally able to get close enough to see that the cub is a boy.

The zoo will also soon welcome a new director, John Berry. A former Interior Department official in the Clinton administration, he has been running the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, which raises money from government and private sources to help conserve wild creatures and their natural habitats. He starts his new job on October 1st.

Precautions and changes

Metro officials ratcheted up train security after the London transport attacks in July. The transit agency has increased the number of patrols and has searched the stations for hidden explosive devices. The last time Metro conducted this sort of comprehensive search, according to the Washington Post, was immediately after the September 11th attacks. Metro officials also plan to increase the security training that their employees receive. Station managers, train operators and janitors undergo such training when hired, according to the Post, and in some cases get annual refresher courses.

Meanwhile, running the 106-mile system seems to challenge the agency as much ever. The committee that manages the system has debated lengthening trains to offset decreased frequency. In late July, Thomas Davis, a Northern Virginia Republican representative who has supported DC representation in Congress, introduced a bill to provide $1.5 billion in new funds for the Metro system, tied to greater oversight.

Cherry, cherry, lemon

The DC government hit local slot-machine advocates with a record fine of $622,880 on July 29th, after finding that they had used fake petition signatures to get a measure onto the ballot. The measure would have authorised a 3,500-slot casino. The pro-gambling lobby hired consultants to take control of the petition drive, which took five days in July 2004. Thousands of the signatures were ultimately thrown out and the measure did not appear on the ballot. But while foreign investors underwrote the campaign, the city issued the fine against the local business leaders who supported the measure. According to the attorney representing the pro-gambling group, it has little more than $3,400 in the bank. The election board said that the fine could be lowered to $575,000 if it is paid by August 16th.

The friendly (but wary) skies

When flights resumed in and out of Ronald Reagan National Airport after the September 11th attacks, new rules confined passengers to their seats in the 30 minutes after take-off or before landing. The rule, designed to prevent terrorists from taking control of a plane near the capitol, was often annoying for passengers, particularly those who wished to visit the loo. To their relief Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security secretary, announced in mid-July that the rule would be suspended, as part of a broad reorganisation of the Transportation Security Administration. Instead, aircraft security is now heightened by hardened cockpit doors, more sophisticated screening procedures and more air marshals on flights.

Even as commercial passengers gain more freedom, private pilots who stray into the restricted airspace over the capitol could face stiffer penalties. Under a bill supported by Republican and Democratic House leaders, pilots who violate the secured airspace—a 16-mile no-fly zone around the capital—could face fines of as much as $100,000. Their bill also fines pilots up to $5,000 if they violate rules in a broader Air Defense Identification Zone that extends up to 50 miles from the capital, according to the Washington Post.

A new way to ride

Washingtonians have a new way of getting across the district. Starting July 10th, a bus service called the DC Circulator began offering routes running from Georgetown to Union Station, for $1 per ride—cheaper than a typical Metrobus’s $1.25 or the $1.35 minimum for the Metro train. The service, a product of a public-private partnership, is the latest in a venture that has met with success in Los Angeles, Miami and Salt Lake City, according to the Washington Post.

The circulator fleet consists of 29 buses designed to be more comfortable than regular metro buses, with low floors, big windows and three doors instead of the standard pair found on most buses. The buses will run every five to seven minutes, from 7am to 9pm. The Metro system has a radial design, bringing people into and out of the city, but this new bus system—with one route running from Georgetown to Union Station and a second running from the Convention Centre to the Waterfront—is designed to cover gaps in Metro coverage.

Catch if you can

August 2005

Irving Penn: Platinum Prints

Until October 2nd 2005

Platinum printing was briefly popular around the early 20th century, but it virtually vanished when platinum became scarce during the first world war. Irving Penn, a photographer who was dissatisfied with conventional reproductions of his works, started in the 1960s to develop a new version of platinum printing. This exhibition has 83 of Penn’s works using this method.

The process gives pictures a stark, almost raw quality, heightening the contrast between light and dark and bringing out details invisible in more standard prints—which the exhibition deftly points out. The photographs here are mostly portraits, some of luminaries such as Pablo Picasso and Saul Steinberg; others are “ethnographic studies” of New Guinea and Peruvian natives, Hell's Angels and rock stars. These studies are rather jarring, as Penn disliked shooting people in their normal surroundings, preferring to pose them in his portable studio.

The National Gallery, on the National Mall, West Building, Ground Floor. Open: Mon-Sat 10am-5pm; Sun 11am-6pm. Entry: free. For more information, visit the museum’s website.

More from the Washington, DC cultural calendar