Economist.com Cities Guide: Washington, DC Briefing - April 2006

News this month

Finally

Major League Baseball (MLB) has finally agreed to a 30-year lease for a new stadium for the Washington Nationals baseball team. Signed in early March, the lease is the product of months of debate between MLB, which owns the team, the city’s mayor, Anthony Williams, and the city council. The agreement, which caps city costs for the stadium at almost $611m, will allow construction to begin on a site near the Anacostia river, about a mile from Capitol Hill. Both the city and the team stand to make money from the stadium once it opens in 2008. According to a new study by the city, the District could pull in more than $23m each year in the stadium’s first 22 years of operation. This estimate reflects expected tax revenues from what the study projects to be roughly $200m in annual gross revenues for the team—not including television rights—making the Nationals one of the richest franchises in the game.

But such rosy projections for the stadium have been met with some scepticism. Last year only two teams, the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox, earned more than $200m. Meanwhile, the mayor hopes the stadium will bring business to its blighted neighbourhood, but this may not happen for some time. The Washington Post reported that new retailers are unlikely to open there until at least a year after the new park opens.

Majority minority

Members of racial minorities will soon comprise the majority of residents in the Washington, DC, metropolitan area, according to a report from the Washington Post. The change, expected to come in the next four to eight years, will be the product of long-term demographic trends: minorities already comprise the majority of residents under 40 years old, and in the District itself African-Americans account for 70% of the population. Racial minorities are estimated to make up 47% of the residents in the metropolitan area.

This demographic shift can already be seen in some other big urban areas, including Miami, Houston, Los Angeles and San Francisco. While growth in minority populations can feed racial tension, the Post noted, experts believe this has been minimised in the area because many of the region’s minorities are financially secure. One research group estimated, for example, that 45% of minority households in the Washington metropolitan area earn at least $75,000 each year, more than in any other metropolitan area.

Money train

Prospects for a 23.5-mile metro-rail extension to Dulles Airport grew brighter in March. Local officials announced on March 27th that this would be financed in part by revenues from the Dulles Toll Road. The extension had been waylaid as District officials struggled to find a way to pay for their share of construction (the federal government is also chipping in). The project’s hefty price tag—$4 billion—had prompted planners to reduce the number of rail cars and pedestrian bridges for passengers. Already a plan to put the rail line underground through Tyson’s Corner, in Virginia, has been rejected because of its prohibitive cost.

Under the new agreement, the regional airport authority, which runs the free Dulles Airport access road, will assume control of the Toll Road and probably raise fees to help pay for construction. The project should be finished by 2015.

Say cheese

Drivers who suffer the daily commute from Maryland to Washington, DC, have new reason to be ill-tempered. According to the Washington Times, Maryland drivers received an overwhelming majority of fines from the District’s traffic camera programme. The newspaper reported that more than 64% of drivers cited by the programme in February were from Maryland, compared with 20% from Washington and 9% from Virginia. The District’s police chief, Charles Ramsey, denied that the programme unfairly targets Maryland drivers. But the Times noted that almost one-third of traffic cameras are in areas used by commuters, many of them on routes from Maryland.

The cameras have generated $135m since they were introduced in 1999, from fees for red-light violations at $75 each, and speeding tickets of up to $200. Having already collected $5m in fines from speed cameras this year, the programme is expected to bring in more than $30m by the end of 2006. Unfortunately for the programme’s book-keepers, this may be a slightly smaller figure than in the past: in February only 2% of the 2.7m drivers monitored in the city were caught for speeding, the lowest since the programme began.

Last call

Washington, DC—a city of transients, transplants and immigrants—lost a home-grown institution in March, when the Olde Heurich Brewing Company shipped its last case of beer. The company was launched in 1986 as a successor to the original Heurich Brewing Company, which brewed beer from 1873-1956 on the site of what is now the John F. Kennedy Center for the Arts.

Gary Heurich, grandson of the original brew-master, Christian Heurich, used his family’s original recipes for his new Olde company, but had the beer brewed in upstate New York. Mr Heurich had hoped one day to open a brewery in Washington itself, but while the beer achieved some local fame, the company never made a profit. Mr Heurich finally decided to heed all the red ink. He will now direct his energy towards saving his grandfather's house, the “Brewmaster's Castle”, in the District's Dupont Circle.

Catch if you can

April 2006

Dada

Until May 14th 2006

Dada was born amid the fury and confusion of the first world war. In response to a world gone mad, artists began shattering rules and conventions in art. This exhibition, which claims to be the most comprehensive Dada show ever, divides the works geographically, from Dada’s origins in Zurich and then Berlin, Hanover, Cologne, New York and Paris.

To underscore the context of this avant-garde movement, the exhibit opens with a room of photographs from the first world war, and a looping reel of silent, black-and-white documentary footage. The Dada work itself is dazzling in its variety and complexity, with paintings, sculptures, collages, photographs, films, prints and needlepoints. This splendid show is worth a long visit.

The National Gallery of Art, located on the National Mall between Third and Ninth Sts at Constitution Ave, NW, East Building. Open: Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 11am-6pm. Admission is free. See the museum's website.

More from the Washington, DC cultural calendar