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

News this month

Looking for a seat

Washington, DC, may be the hub of American politics, but its residents have little say in Congress, with only one non-voting delegate in the House of Representatives and no senator. In May proponents of greater representation in Congress saw a glimmer of hope, when the House Committee on Government Reform voted 29 to 4 in favour of a bill that would create two new seats in the House of Representatives, one for the District and one for another state, probably Utah. The bill must be approved by the Judiciary Committee before it proceeds to a vote in the House.

Sponsored by Thomas M. Davis III, a Republican representative whose district includes DC’s suburbs, the bill does not create a seat for a DC senator. Nevertheless, it marks the best chance that the District has had in recent memory of winning congressional voting rights. Opponents of the plan argue that it is unconstitutional, and the scheme has had trouble winning over Republicans leaders, as the District is overwhelmingly Democratic. To address this issue, Mr Davis included the provision to create a second new House seat for the state which would have received another seat if one had been available during the last reapportionment: Utah, a Republican stronghold. If Congress passes the bill, it will be the first time the House has expanded in almost 100 years.

School's out, for good

Faced with declining enrolment, Clifford Janey, the District’s school superintendent, has proposed closing six of the city’s public schools before the next school year. The plan, he argues, would consolidate underused school space and free up as much as $8.2m annually for educational programmes. The school board will now hold public hearings before making a final decision on Mr Janey’s recommendation on June 28th.

The closures, which would move about 1,400 students to other public schools, would be the city’s first in almost ten years. Mr Janey said this was the first phase of a plan to close up to 30 schools by autumn 2008. The system has lost about 10,000 students in the past five years and, according to the Washington Post, almost half of the city’s 147 schools are under-enrolled. Mr Janey explained that he had chosen the six schools for their low enrolment, poor academic records and ailing physical condition, but critics complained that he had targeted schools in poor neighbourhoods. The superintendent also recommended that nine other District public schools be required to lease unused space in their buildings to either charter schools, which which are free of the District's direct control, or the city government. The District’s charter schools have seen enrolment surge: more than one-fifth of DC students now attend the District’s 51 charter schools, up from none ten years ago.

Owning up

Almost a year-and-a-half after Major League Baseball came back to Washington, the league announced new owners for the DC baseball franchise. Bud Selig, the league’s commissioner, said on May 3rd that he had chosen a bid from a group led by Theodore Lerner, a local property developer, to buy the Washington Nationals. Major League Baseball unanimously approved the sale of the team at their meeting on May 18th, ending a 17-month search for an owner. The team’s price? A cool $450m, making the Nationals the second-most expensive team in baseball’s history, after the Boston Red Sox, which was sold for $700m (in a deal that included the team's stadium, among other properties).

Among the groups bidding for the Nationals, the one headed by Mr Lerner was not the most popular among local politicians, who have been bickering with the league over the $611m stadium that the city will help build. Some have complained that the Lerner group is not diverse enough. Mr Selig explained that he was swayed by the group's deep roots in the area, which make them a stabilising force for the fledgling team. Mr Selig also noted that the group included Stan Kasten, a former president of the highly successful Atlanta Braves baseball team. The Lerner group is expected to take control by mid-summer.

Falling on deaf ears

Gallaudet University, the world’s only university for the deaf, erupted in protests in May over the selection of its new president. On May 1st the university’s board of trustees selected the school’s provost, Jane Fernandes, to lead the institution, provoking students to rebel with sit-in protests, a camp-out at the school’s main gate and other demonstrations. Staff joined in, passing a vote of no confidence and demanding that the selection process begin anew. The response has been so vehement—with students still demonstrating—that Celia May Baldwin, the interim chair of the University’s board of directors, resigned the day after the announcement, citing stress from the search process.

Students and faculty complain that Ms Fernandes, though deaf, is “not deaf enough”—she grew up reading lips and did not learn American Sign Language until she was in her 20s.
Furthermore, her critics carp that the selection process did not include enough racial minorities (Ms Fernandes is white); many were angry that Glenn Anderson, a black faculty member who has served as chairman until last year, was not among the finalists for the post. Ms Fernandes replaces I. King Jordan, who is leaving the presidency at the end of this year. Mr Jordan became the first deaf president of the school in 1988, taking the position after similar student protests forced trustees to reverse a decision giving the job to a hearing candidate.

Tax free

America’s Supreme Court in May quashed any lingering chance of the District imposing a commuter tax. The Home Rule Act of 1973, which gave the District the ability to govern itself, expressly forbade a commuter tax. But because of the District’s unique position as a city without a state, it has struggled to stretch its narrow tax base to deal with outsized demands on infrastructure, a problem some say could be relieved by a commuter tax. According to a 2003 study by the Government Accountability Office, the District could pull in between $470m and $1.1 billion in yearly revenue from a commuter tax. In recent years, city advocates have tried and failed to overturn the ban in lower courts; now that the Supreme Court has rejected their efforts, their fight is over for good. But while a commuter tax is off the table, the Washington Post reported that support is building in Congress to set up an annual federal subsidy for the city, starting at $800m.

Catch if you can

June 2006

Master Drawings from the Woodner Collections

Until October 1st 2006

With work from da Vinci to Degas, Botticelli to Picasso, this collection of drawings offers a crash course in art history. The show’s 116 drawings span six centuries, displayed chronologically, from a pair of 14th-century works to some drawings by Picasso and Georges Braque from the 20th century. This impressive collection was assembled by the late Ian Woodner, a real-estate developer. After his death, his daughters donated 145 pieces from his 1,000-strong collection to the National Gallery. This show marks the 15th anniversary of this generous gift.

While more than half of the drawings are from the 15th and 16th centuries, the exhibition is dazzling for its range, from portraits to classical scenes, rough sketches to detailed landscapes, graphite-on-paper to more complex watercolours.

The National Gallery of Art, Constitution Ave (at Third and Ninth Sts). Open: Mon-Sat 10am-5pm, Sun 11am-6pm. Admission is free. See the museum's website.

More from the Washington, DC cultural calendar