"The more than 600,000 residents in the District still have no voting representation in Congress, despite the fact that D.C. has a greater population than Wyoming or Vermont. And local residents' interests are frequently used as leverage in larger congressional negotiations. (For a sense of how racially charged this is, consider the fact that roughly half of the District's population is black, while Congress is 87 percent white.)
What follows is a look back at the many times Congress has trampled on D.C. rights."
http://www.nationaljournal.com/politics/7-times-congress-bargained-away-d-c-s-rights-20141211
I recently had a conversation about DC natives, in which someone said 'no one really lives in DC' and it's such a common (and totally problematic) feeling among the sort of transient-youth population I am part of in DC right now. I don't feel like I live here, really, I just am living here. So, weirdly, I feel totally unaffected by the DC rights thing even though I pay taxes and benefit from the city services and am subject to local laws and stuff. And the majority of people I interact with either don't live in the district (I.e. They live in Maryland or Virginia), or haven't been here more than maybe 3 years or aren't planning to live here for more than another few years, or all 3.
From my perch, there isn't a huge amount of investment in DC or what it is. It's a hotel city for us.
And it's sort of like the themes of every dystopian novel ever - I spend most of my time in the hotel bits, in streets that are sometimes terrifyingly clean, and don't see what needs to be cared about or fostered or supported and I don't see the communities eroded by the hotel-ization of more and more neighborhoods. And I probably won't, because I am going to be gone soon.
I feel like I sometimes claim to be getting really DC, but what I really mean by that is that is the policy world - be sure to call me out if I ever pretend to be any part of the real city.
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