Lunar Dispatches: Farewell Washington, DC

My time in Washington, DC has come to an end. For now, anyways. I lived in the beautiful, clean, surreal, eclectic, pretentious, infuriating, monumental city for almost four years and will look back fondly on the experience. Now that I've left, I'd like to record some of my observations on our nation's capital, followed by a series of photos from my last few weeks there (as well as a few from earlier this year).

To begin, Washington, DC is a stately place as befits its role as America's capital city. The great seats of our federal government are housed in fancified buildings along wide, tree-lined boulevards. It's not often but, if you stick around long enough and indulge in the city frequently enough, you're bound to see some of the people who sit in high places of power...

In my time here, I've seen Bush Deputy Defense Secretary and World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz at Kinkeade's, Bush Attorney General Michael Mukasey in Dupont, Clinton Treasury Secretary and Obama economic advisor Larry Summers on Metro, Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett in a car near the White House, New York Times columnist David Brooks outside CSIS on K St., and Clinton Secretary of State Madeleine Albright at Equinox. Not a bad list of politicos to have glimpsed out and about.

The District of Columbia is infused with history. Every which way you turn something important happened or someone notable lived. To give but a few examples: Grover Cleveland used to have a cottage in my Cleveland Park neighborhood. My office building was a half block from James Monroe's old house. A plaque on the facade of a greasy restaurant in Chinatown informs passersby that it was once the Surratt boarding house where the conspirators in the Lincoln assassination plotted.

This depth of history often goes unnoticed to the city's young demographics. Young and transitory. Very few people that you meet are actually from Washington, DC. They're from faraway places like South Dakota, Montana, or Mumbai. DC is just where they are for now, until the next step of their education or career. I've noticed that people living in DC tend to retain their original geographical identities. It's not "I'm from DC" but rather "I'm from [insert random place] and am living in DC."

While the city is visually spectacular it is not perfect. There are downsides. It's expensive and somewhat full of itself. This is fair to a degree because what people do there is important but an uncomfortable uptightness permeates the air--gnawing doubt within each associate and every staffer that the effort they are putting forth isn't sufficient for the grand ambitions they harbor. That's an aspect that I'm looking forward to getting away from.

DC, as much as it is not New York, is also getting more crowded and more congested. It wasn't meant to support this many people and its infrastructure is sagging. The waits on weekend Metro are hellish and unless you're taking it at rush hour (when the crowds can be overwhelming) be prepared to wait patiently for the next subway train.

To encapsulate what's not great about Washington, DC in a phrase is hard to do, but I've heard two sarcastic descriptions which are as pithy as they are apt. "Washington is Hollywood for ugly people," according to Senator John McCain, capturing the mentality of many that call the District home. Before that, President John F. Kennedy once described it as a "city of Northern charm and Southern efficiency." While perhaps a bit harsh, this too nicely summarizes what makes DC maddening.

But where else is it possible to stride across bridges built in the tree tops? Or gawk at towering marble pedestals to democracy on America's front lawn (i.e. the National Mall)? DC has much more green space than your average major metropolitan area which is spread throughout the city and goes a long ways towards making it livable. The city's beauty is its saving grace. This I will miss.