Thursday, May 15, 2008
Went to Washington D.C. for a couple of days with my husband. We went for the the National Portrait Gallery, which was a pleasant surprise, as is the Freer Gallery. Visiting monuments was not a pleasant surprise. The reflecting pool is a smelly, mosquito-infested, algae-ridden mess, full of beer cans and other garbage. It was like a dirty kiddy pool in an abandoned trailer park. The Washington Monument looks like shit--the lower corners have sad cement patches that look like crappy spackle jobs people do on dinged interior wall corners. Cement has been splatted over walking paths near the Lincoln Memorial that originally were lovely fixed pebble walkways. What would Lincoln and George say? I've long thought that Jesus would be pissed if he could come back, assuming he really existed, but I think the "founding fathers" would be even more angry. What the fuck have we done? The District of Columbia was a swamp to begin with, literally, and it's a swamp figuratively too. Driving in D.C. is the biggest cluster fuck ever--who the hell planned the street grid there? Downtown DC in general, with the exception of monuments and historic buildings, feels like one big bland office park. People bitch about New York's architectural mess--NY has NOTHING on DC. And DC people all look like extras from the movie "Wall Street." Yuppie politician hell. Worst of all, the grass at all these monuments and institutions isn't even really grass at all--it's brown dirt ruts and dandelions--very sad. If you want to know whether we are functional as a country, as a federal government, as a people, go to DC. I guess the grass and maintenance is the first thing to go when we're snared in yet another bazillion-dollar pointless war.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
You forgot one more stock element in your timeworn charicature of D.C.: people who come here and see 1/20th of the city before writing tiresome diatribes about it.
Gotta disagree. I've lived here 2 years and you're right on.
I'm with Bird. While the 'dirty trailer park' description is spot-on and funny, the rest of it is all yawn-worthy cliche. Especially since you were looking at your fellow tourists, and not any of the actual locals.
I've only been to Times Square, so I'm guessing all of New York is full clueless tourists, neon, advertisements, strip joints and traffic. Nope, nothing to see in that whole city.
I'm going to have to lean in agreement with Bird and Shannon. Admittedly, the lawn on the National Mall could look a lot better and might if tourists would walk on the paths and not on the lawn. Hm, there's a thought, no?
Our downtown is a mix of mish-mash architecture with height restrictions in place so we don't become a concrete, steel, and asphalt wasteland like some of America's larger cities can be. It may not seem hip and is perhaps quaint, but at least we can see the sky without lying down on the sidewalk first.
And yeah, our monuments may have a little wear and tear, but they have meaning and significance and awe millions of people every day and every year.
As for the traffic, you can thank Pierre Charles L'Enfant for that. He was a friend of George Washington's and the same asked L'Enfant to lay out the city. L'Enfant designed it with defense of the city in mind should an invading army ever attempt to lay siege to our city. We haven't had to test it in battle yet, but I dare say an invader would leave quickly after getting caught in one of our thirteen traffic circles near the more important parts of the city.
And, yes, there's more to D.C. than just the National Mall and all the wonderful museums. There's Rock Creek Park and Capitol Hill and Embassy Row and National Cathedral and the Shrine of the Immaculate Conception and Civil War sites and Arlington National Cemetery and Kenilworth/Anacostia and all of the neighborhoods that make Washington a unique and storied city. Unlike NYC, which is a lovely city in its own right, Washington is the nation's city. It belongs to the people.
Yeah, we have some shortcomings and the federal government is a mess and we're in a war we shouldn't be in, but that's no reason to dismiss this great big town/little city out of hand. You should come again for a visit. We're more than you give us (dis)credit for being.
I'm going to echo other DCers. It would be like visiting New York and just hanging out at Wall Street or Broadway. Yeah, that would really tell you what New York is like, wouldn't it?
And blame the Bush Administration cutbacks to the National Park Service and tourists' lack of respect for the condition of the Mall and the Reflecting Pool. Both used to be in better shape.
Post a Comment