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The Washington metropolitan area
The Washington metropolitan area
PaulL. Knox Urban Affairs Program, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA
~G. Greer and E. Greer, Greater Washington at Mid-decade, Report No 1, Greater Washington Research Center, Washington, DC, 1985.
The Washington metropolitan area is rapidly reaching the point where it can truly be regarded as a 'world city': a seat not only of national government but also of national and international corporate headquarters, financial institutions and business services. It has become one of the most prosperous and, in many ways, urbane of US metropolitan areas. At the s a m e time, however, it remains sharply polarized in ethnic, socioeconomic and ecological terms, and its overall development has had to take place within the framework of a uniquely unrepresentative and unresponsive system of government and planning. The city that was founded as a national symbol and a showpiece of planning has become an exemplar of the congested, fragmented and polarized urbanization of advanced capitalism. In the last 30 years Washington has bccn transformed from a 'federal town" to a 'world city'. As federal involvement has extended in both private and public sectors, so Washington has become increasingly attractive as the setting for the offices and headquarters of corporations, national trade and professional associations, and interest groups. Although still
290
dominated by federal employment, it is now a national infornmtion and communications centre and a major coordinating centre for all kinds of international activities, both public and priwae. It is, moreover, the hub of a newly cmcrgcnt "crescent city" of nearly eight million people that stretches from the southern border of Pennsylvania to the northern boundary of North Carolina, encompassing t h e B a l t i m o r e , W a s h i n g t o n , R i c h m o n d - P e t e r s b u r g and N o r f o l k Newport News metropolitan areas.~ The Washington metropolitan area itself has a population of three million which, in overall terms, is distinctively affluent and well educated. Nearly one-third of all adults are college graduates, compared with around one-fifth in metropolitan New York, ttouston and Los Angeles. In 1985, when the national average household income was $28 41)(I, the average for the Washington metropolitan area was $42 0(1(1. Nevertheless, Washington remains rather bland and lifeless, and has not yet developed the cultural vibrancy, economic fecundity and social continuity that characterizes established world cities. In large part, this is a function of the city's unique economic base, the transience of CITIES November 1987
much of its population and the insensitive governance of the District of Columbia. The result is that the prosperity of the area's suburbs and shopping malls, the grandeur of its vistas and monuments, the magnetic power of its federal facilities and the urbanity of its young professionals stand in stark contrast to the sterility of most of the built environment, the extent and intensity of poverty and crime, the congestion of traffic, the chronic shortage of affordable housing and the prosaic lifestyle of the majority of the population. These contrasts are especially pathetic in view of the intentions and aspirations of the city's founding fathers.
Early plans.
The decision to locate the national capital on the Potomac River was a political compromise that was reached in 1790. The Capitol's cornerstone was laid in 1793, and by 1800 the archives, general offices and government officials were moved to Washington from Philadelphia. The original plan for the city had been drawn up in 1791 by Pierre Charles L'Enfant. The dominant element -in his plan was the use of the Capitol and the White House as terminating vistas for long straight pathways, or malls, in the Baroque style. Radiating from the buildings were two series of broad avenues that converged into intersections that were designed to give direction and
'monumental Washington was able to develop in an appropriately grand setting' character to the city and to create a series of subcentres, carefully located, like the Capitol and the White House, on natural rises in the terrain. Perhaps the most important aspect of L'Enfant's plan, however, is that it was conceived as the heart of a city of 800 000 at a time when the entire country had a population of only' t h r e e m i l l i o n . As a r e s u l t , monumental Washington was able to develop in an appropriately grand setting. despite the early dismissal of L'En-
CITIES November 1987
fant himself and the subsequent erosion of the harmony of his original design by the imperatives of new municipal and governmental functions. The city's population grew substantially during the Civil War, including more than 40 000 freed slaves, whose presence set a pattern of racial polarization that was to have a major impact on the modern city's character. By the late 19th century, the city had reached a population of almost half a million and had acquired an impressive assemblage of monuments and public buildings. It had also acquired the congestion, slums and acute social problems of all Victorian cities. Because of its lack of a manufacturing base, however, it attracted few immigrants and grew at a much less dramatic pace than other major US cities. In 1901, the McMillan Plan for the city emerged as the outcome of power politics that were at least somewhat influenced by a desire to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the removal of the capital from Philadelphia, and by a desire promoted by the American Institute of Architects - to develop Washington as a showcase for advanced ideas on civic art.-" The McMillan Plan was the first comprehensive plan for any city in the USA and became a great influence on the city planning movement in the country as a whole. Based on the Beaux Arts concepts of the day, the Plan revised and extended the original 19th century core and called for the construction of the Union railroad terminal and a Potomac River memorial bridge; the eradication of a major slum area; the initiation of a scenic preservation programme for the urban fringes; and the creation of parks, parkways and recreational complexes. Soon afterwards (in 1910), a height restriction of 110 feet was imposed within the District of Columbia, to preserve the visual dominance of key federal structures and to ensure as far as possible the integrity of the dramatic perspectives of L'Enfant's plan. The consequent absence of skyscrapers makes Washington peculiarly distinctive among US cities. -
2J.A. Peterson, 'The nation's first comprehensive city plan: a political analysis of the McMillan Plan for Washington DC, 19001902', Journal of the American Planning Association, Vo151, No 2, 1985, pp 131-133.
291
e#y,m //e 3Greater Washington Research Center, The
Changing Washington Economy, Washington, DC, 1985.
The modern economy. The federal civil service is by far the largest single employer in the metropolitan area, and civilian government jobs - state and local as well as federal - account for more than one-third of all employment. The second largest sector of the metropolitan economy is the service sector. In part, this is
'the federal government still dominates, but its role is changing'
4J-C. M. Thomas, 'Washington', in J. Adams, ed,
Contemporary Metropolitan America, Ballinger, Cambridge, MA, 1976, pp 297-344.
292
a product of the tourism generated by monumental Washington and the complex of museums and galleries around the Mall; but more important are the office jobs generated by the interest groups and corporations attracted to Washington by the presence of the national legislature and its bureaucratic executives. Within the service sector, business services (such as management consulting, data processing and R & D) account for nearly 30% of all jobs, while legal services are the fastest growing service subsector, expanding by 23.3% between 1977 and 1982. Manufacturing activities, on the other hand, have never been an important component of the metropolitan economy. In the 1970s, manufacturing employed less than 5"/,, of metropolitan manpower, with printing - dominated by the G o v e r n m e n t Printing Office accounting for about 40% of this. Recently, however, technology-oriented firms have emerged as a significant element, having been spawned and sustained by federal government contracts. This is part of a much more significant change in the metropolitan ecom)my: the federal government still dominates, but its role is changing. Direct civilian government employment has suffered recent declines (there was a net loss of 30 ()()() jobs between 1977 and 1982), and the spending power of the average federal employee has decreased by more than 15% over the past decade as federal pay rises have failed to keep pace with inflation. Meanwhile, however, there has
been a significant increase in federal purchases of local goods and services. 3 Between 1979 and 1983, these purchases almost doubled, from $3.4 billion to $6.7 billion, reaching a level that represents more than half the dollar value of the area's federal payrolls. More than 8()()() local companies received federal contracts in 1983, with the lion's share going to companies providing communications equipment, defence systems R & D, social services, architectural and engineering services, data processing services, and professional services. This shift away from government employment toward government purchasing has brought with it an important spatial shift in the locus of federal activity, jeopardizing the employment base of the central city while intensifying the growth of outlying jurisdictions - notably Fairfax, Loudon and Prince William Counties. Changing ecology. This very distinctive economy is reflected in the social ecology of the area. In comparison with other large metropolitan areas, Washington not only has a more prosperous and more middle-class p o p u l a t i o n , but also a population that contains more young adults, fewer children, more single persons and more small households. Within the metropolitan area, the residential
'the most striking ecological feature.., is the segregation of the large black population' mosaic is dominated by the classic combination of sectors and z o n e s ) The most striking ecological feature, however, is the segregation of the large (over 830 0(l(l in 1980) black population, which is concentrated in the eastern sections of the District of Columbiv and the adjacent parts of Maryhmd. In structural and psychological terms, one of the most important features of the social geography of the region is the Beltway, which was completed in the 1960s and has served as a powerful unifying force in the
CITIES November 1987
e,q economics and culture of the whole region (Figure 1). It has also fostered decentralization at an accelerated rate, generating large shopping centres, new industrial parks, new high-density highrise residential agglomerations, and vast new office complexes. Federal agencies, having restricted office suburbanization until the 1960s, now lease millions of square feet of office space in suburban Maryland and Virginia. Annual population growth rates for the first half of the 1980s in the secondand third-tier suburbs around Washington were between 3 and 4%, compared with about 1% in first-tier suburbs and
losses of between 1 and 2% in the District. 5 Currently, the fastest growing area is Stafford County, VA, which has yet to see its first shopping centre, but which expects to see an increase of 30 000 people by the year 2000. 6 The archetypal suburban growth centre, however, is Fairfax County, VA, where a sustained construction and property boom has created one of the contemporary world's most striking growth centres. Between 1965 and 1985, the amount of office space in Fairfax County increased more than 950%, from 3.1 million sq ft to almost 32.8 million sq ft. By 1985, 665 R & D, technical manufacturing and technical
5G.Greerand E. Greer, op cit, Ref 1.
6V. Alston and J.
Langford,'Outlying
counties continue to
see rapidgrowth', The Region (journalof the Metropolitan WashingtonCouncilof Governments),Vo127, No 1, 1986,pp 12-15.
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Figure 1. Location map, showing major centres of federal employment: (1) CBD (170 000); (2) Southeast federal area (26 000); (3) Bolling/Anacostiafederal area (16 000); (4) ArlingtonPentagon complex (45 000); (5) Belvoir federal area (12 000); (6) Quantico federal area (11 000); (7) Andrews Air Force Base area (10 000); (8) Suitland federal area (6 000); (9) Beltsville federal area (12 000); (10) National Institute of Health/Navy Medical area (16 000). CITIES November 1987
293
~C. Baker, 'The uneven impact of Washington Metro', Journal of the American Planning Association, Vo150, No
1,1984, pp 11-14.
8Peat, Marwick, Mitchell and Co, Fiscal Impact of Metrorail on the Commonwealth of Virginia, Executive
Summary, Washington, DC, 1985. 91bid.
services firms were located in Fairfax County, employing over 51 000 people. In addition, there were 111 national and international trade and professional associations and 33 corporate headquarters, employing another 10 000 people. Retailing is also important, with two of the largest shopping malls on the East Coast, Tysons Corner and Springfield, tapping (via the Beltway) a huge, affluent and sophisticated suburban clientele. In 1985, Fairfax County had the highest median household effective purchasing income in the region, at $45 000 (compared to $23 800 in the District). It also had a total of more than 9000 PhDs in its labour force. Another major stimulus to the spatial reorganization of the entire metropolitan area has been the subway system, the Metro, opened in 1976 (Figure 2). A r e c e n t s t u d y by the M e t r o p o l i t a n Washington Council of G o v e r n m e n t s (COG) found that the bulk of all new non-residential building in the metropolitan area between 1979 and 1982 took place within a 15-minute walk from a Metro station, and it is estimated that
about two-thirds of the construction started in the next 20 years will be c o n c e n t r a t e d n e a r M e t r o stations, v Already, the Metro system has made a visible impact in fostering nodes of suburban office development (Figure 3). The vice-chairman of MCI Communications, a company that moved to the Washington area because of the importance of being near federal offices, has observed that: 'The Metro system was the primary reason that we purchased a large office building and had a second one built for us in Virginia . . . During the next 15 months, we expect to increase the number of employees in Virginia to about 4000 and add three additional office buildings. '~ And the president of T. Oliver Carr, a major developer in the Washington area, has noted that: 'Our suburban strategy has been driven to a great extent by Metrorail. Were it not for Metro, we would not have ventured out of our traditional District of Columbia market. "'~ Nevertheless, ridership on the Metro system has been relatively modest, accounting for between 5 and 10% of suburban commuter traffic and about
Figure 2. The Metrorail system. 294
C I T I E S N o v e m b e r 1987
Figure 3. Crystal City office complex from the National Airport Metro stop.
20% of traffic entering the CBD. Moreover, commercial development around suburban Metro stations has generated a significant amount of extra suburb-to-suburb traffic that cannot be served by the Metro's radial layout. Residential development near Metro stations has by and large been displaced by more lucrative commercial uses, with the result that intense conflicts have occurred in several jurisdictions over land-use and strategic planning issues. The central city, meanwhile, has experienced some significant restructuring, with the result that the net population losses of previous decades have been stemmed. Washington was in fact one of the first US cities to experience largescale gentrification of central-city neighbourhoods. 1° In Georgetown, for example, the black population was bought out by the young professionals and government employees who came to Washington during the New Deal. More recently, this form of residential succession has resulted in the upgrading of a broad spectrum of neighbourhoods, as CITIES November 1987
rates of household formation among the in-migrant 'yuppy' baby-boomers intensified levels of housing demand. At the same time. both public and private initiatives have resulted in significant changes t h r o u g h r e n e w a l and r e s t o r a t i o n schemes. In the 1960s, a restoration movement was targeted on the Capitol area, while a major renewal scheme brought a radical change to southwestern Washington, directly south of the government buildings on the Mall. Decaying, two-story brick row houses were replaced by townhouse and multifamily complexes in garden settings that are generally regarded as one of the most successful large-scale urban renewal projects on the eastern seaboard. The centrepiece of the Southwestern Renewal Program is the non-residential 10th Street Mall and L'Enfant Plaza area, which includes large office complexes built for the Department of Transportation, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and others. More recently, Pennsylvania Avenue has been renovated, Lafayette Square (facing the White House) has
I°D.R. Goldfield, 'Private neighborhood redevelopment and displacement. The case of Washington', Urban Affairs Quarterly, Vol 15, No 4, 1980, pp 453468.
295
11D.E. Gate, 'Race, redevelopment and renewal in Washington's dichotomous downtown', paper presented to the annual meeting of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, Milwaukee, 1986. 12j.p. Maxwell, No Easy Answers: Persistent Poverty in the Washington Metropoftan Area, Greater Washington Research Center, Washington, DC, 1985.
been redesigned, Union Station has been renovated as the National Visitor Center, the vacant Willard Hotel has been restored and reopened, and a large convention centre has been built in the centre of the District. Perhaps most significant of all, however, has been the consolidation of the CBD. ~ In the 1950s and 1960s, Washington's downtown experienced a precipi-
'the new downtown did a great deal to restore business confidence in central Washington' tous decline as the combination of metropolitan decentralization, racial change and, finally, the 1968 riots, made the area unattractive both for customers and investors. Yet the growth of the federal government in the 1960s brought a need for additional central office space, and a 'new-downtown" grew up several blocks to the north and west of the old one, disengaging the office function of the CBD from the rapidly declining retail functions. The financial success of the new downtown did a great deal to restore business confidence in central Washington, and the inflated land values that resulted in the new downtown, together with the arrival of the Metro system, the building of the convention centre, the renovation of Pennsylvania Avenue and the gentrification of nearby neighbourhoods, have drawn recent investment eastwards, with the result that the old downtown has been redeveloped with new hotels, shopping malls and offices.
Contemporary problems and policies. In spite of, a n d partly because of, all this growth, the Washington metropolitan area faces a variety of problems in terms of urban development. Growth and decentralization have intensified problems of traffic congestion, with a quarter of all limited-access and arterial highways already choked to the point of having seriously interrupted flows during rush 296
hours. There is also an acute shortage of parking space throughout the area. The Metro system, in addition to its inability to serve inter-suburban traffic, is conspicuously slow in developing routes to serve the black sectors of the city. Other public services and facilities are even less adequate, particularly in the central city where a large indigent population persists. Poverty rates among black residents of the District are three times the overall area-wide average and nearly six times the rate for suburban whites. ~2 As in other US cities, the problem is particularly acute among black female-headed households, which are localized in southeastern neighbourhoods of the District. In addition, the District has a large and very visible homeless population that can be found, incongruously, on park benches and gratings in most of the small parks that occupy the intersections of L'Enfant's plan (Figure 4). Homelessness notwithstanding, Washington's housing problems are acute by any standard. The legacy of over 100 000 substandard and/or overcrowded dwellings at the beginning of the 1960s
'homeownership eludes an increasingly large segment of households' has proved difficult to thin out in the face of persistent poverty and the displacement of low-income households by gentrification and renewal. Meanwhile, the pace of growth in much of the metropolitan area has driven house prices so high that home-ownership eludes an increasingly large segment of households, particularly younger and single-headed households. In 1985 the median value of a single family home in the McLean district of Fairfax County was nearly $160000; for townhouses the median value was nearly $146 000. Rental housing is also becoming increasingly inaccessible, despite the construction boom. The average monthly rent (excluding utilities) in Fairfax County in 1985 was
C I T I E S N o v e m b e r 1987
Figure 4. Homelessness in central Washington. $517; and more than one-third of the renter households in the County were paying more than 30°/,, of their incomes for rent. ~-~ What is particularly worrying for communities such as Fairfax is that it is extremely difficult to attract entry-level personnel in key professions such as teaching and health care. In 1959, Constantine Doxiadis, in a report prepared for the Redevelopment Land Agency, ~4 called for Washington to become the nation's pilot project in a crusade for a new kind of US urbanization. While Washington has certainly experienced a great deal of growth and change, it has patently failed to confront systematically the congestion, poverty and polarization that dismayed Doxiadis. Of course, this does not make Washington exceptional. But it should be pointed out that Washington's development has taken place under an exceptionally awkward system of government and planning. While most US metropolitan areas suffer from jurisdictional fragmentation, Washington has had to carry the extra burden of having a hamstrung central city. Until 1974, the citizens of the CITIES November 1987
District remained largely voteless, and the central city was governed by a commissioner appointed by the President of the USA, with all legislation affecting the city having to be passed by Congress. The House District of Columbia Committee and the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee were required to initiate all legislation pertaining to the District, and city planning functions were the responsibility of a National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) appointed by the President. While this system did a great deal to furnish monumental Washington and to help revamp some of the surrounding elements of the built environment, it proved extremely insensitive to the needs of the District's residents and almost totally incapable of any kind of strategic approach to urban development. In 1973, a degree of ' H o m e Rule' was given to the District, with provision for the popular election, every four years, of a mayor and a city council with powers to set taxes, make budget amendments and oversee local government agencies. However, Congress reserved the power
13Fairfax County, Report of the Affordable Housing Task Force, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, Fairfax, VA, 1986.
14C. Doxiadis, The Federal Capital: its Future and its Redevelopment, Doxiadis Associates, Athens, 1959.
297
~sj. Garreau, 'The shadow governments', The Washington Post, 14 June 1987, ppA1 and A14. ~6National Capital Planning Commission, The Year 2000 Plan, NCPC, Washington, DC, 1961.
298
to veto any actions perceived to threaten the 'federal interest', and the budget is still reviewed and enacted by Congress. Public utilities remain under a Public Service Commission appointed by the President, and land-use issues are handled by a special Zoning Commission. Ironically, this undemocratic setting has fostered well developed citizens' associations that have been able to mobilize local participation in a broad variety of development issues. In addition, it has been estimated that there are more than 2000 'shadow governments' in the Washington area; 15 ad hoc organizations that levy taxes, regulate behaviour, adjudicate disputes, provide police protection, channel development, enforce aesthetic standards, fill potholes, remove snow, and provide day-care facilities. Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments had been established (in 1957) as a consortium of local governments in Virginia, Maryland and the District in order to address area-wide issues. In 1966, it became the official metropolitan plan-
ning agency for the Washington area, although the NCPC remains the central planning agency for the federal government in the metropolitan area. The NCPC has traditionally been concerned, above all else, with the embellishment of the capital's natural and historical features, although in 1961 it did attempt a comprehensive plan based on the concept of radial corridors.16 More recently, this comprehensive plan has been amended to take the form of statements of goals, planning criteria and policies that focus less on strategic, structural issues and more on the twin concerns of the economic base (ie federal employment) and the natural and historical features of the region. The CoG, meanwhile, has come to give special attention to housing, public services and transportation issues. Nevertheless, Washington remains deficient in terms of democratic local government and planning structures, and until these deficiences are made up it is unlikely that its aspirations to "world city" status • an be matched by its performance as a showcase of US urban development.
CITIES November 1987
PaulL. Knox Urban Affairs Program, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA
~G. Greer and E. Greer, Greater Washington at Mid-decade, Report No 1, Greater Washington Research Center, Washington, DC, 1985.
The Washington metropolitan area is rapidly reaching the point where it can truly be regarded as a 'world city': a seat not only of national government but also of national and international corporate headquarters, financial institutions and business services. It has become one of the most prosperous and, in many ways, urbane of US metropolitan areas. At the s a m e time, however, it remains sharply polarized in ethnic, socioeconomic and ecological terms, and its overall development has had to take place within the framework of a uniquely unrepresentative and unresponsive system of government and planning. The city that was founded as a national symbol and a showpiece of planning has become an exemplar of the congested, fragmented and polarized urbanization of advanced capitalism. In the last 30 years Washington has bccn transformed from a 'federal town" to a 'world city'. As federal involvement has extended in both private and public sectors, so Washington has become increasingly attractive as the setting for the offices and headquarters of corporations, national trade and professional associations, and interest groups. Although still
290
dominated by federal employment, it is now a national infornmtion and communications centre and a major coordinating centre for all kinds of international activities, both public and priwae. It is, moreover, the hub of a newly cmcrgcnt "crescent city" of nearly eight million people that stretches from the southern border of Pennsylvania to the northern boundary of North Carolina, encompassing t h e B a l t i m o r e , W a s h i n g t o n , R i c h m o n d - P e t e r s b u r g and N o r f o l k Newport News metropolitan areas.~ The Washington metropolitan area itself has a population of three million which, in overall terms, is distinctively affluent and well educated. Nearly one-third of all adults are college graduates, compared with around one-fifth in metropolitan New York, ttouston and Los Angeles. In 1985, when the national average household income was $28 41)(I, the average for the Washington metropolitan area was $42 0(1(1. Nevertheless, Washington remains rather bland and lifeless, and has not yet developed the cultural vibrancy, economic fecundity and social continuity that characterizes established world cities. In large part, this is a function of the city's unique economic base, the transience of CITIES November 1987
much of its population and the insensitive governance of the District of Columbia. The result is that the prosperity of the area's suburbs and shopping malls, the grandeur of its vistas and monuments, the magnetic power of its federal facilities and the urbanity of its young professionals stand in stark contrast to the sterility of most of the built environment, the extent and intensity of poverty and crime, the congestion of traffic, the chronic shortage of affordable housing and the prosaic lifestyle of the majority of the population. These contrasts are especially pathetic in view of the intentions and aspirations of the city's founding fathers.
Early plans.
The decision to locate the national capital on the Potomac River was a political compromise that was reached in 1790. The Capitol's cornerstone was laid in 1793, and by 1800 the archives, general offices and government officials were moved to Washington from Philadelphia. The original plan for the city had been drawn up in 1791 by Pierre Charles L'Enfant. The dominant element -in his plan was the use of the Capitol and the White House as terminating vistas for long straight pathways, or malls, in the Baroque style. Radiating from the buildings were two series of broad avenues that converged into intersections that were designed to give direction and
'monumental Washington was able to develop in an appropriately grand setting' character to the city and to create a series of subcentres, carefully located, like the Capitol and the White House, on natural rises in the terrain. Perhaps the most important aspect of L'Enfant's plan, however, is that it was conceived as the heart of a city of 800 000 at a time when the entire country had a population of only' t h r e e m i l l i o n . As a r e s u l t , monumental Washington was able to develop in an appropriately grand setting. despite the early dismissal of L'En-
CITIES November 1987
fant himself and the subsequent erosion of the harmony of his original design by the imperatives of new municipal and governmental functions. The city's population grew substantially during the Civil War, including more than 40 000 freed slaves, whose presence set a pattern of racial polarization that was to have a major impact on the modern city's character. By the late 19th century, the city had reached a population of almost half a million and had acquired an impressive assemblage of monuments and public buildings. It had also acquired the congestion, slums and acute social problems of all Victorian cities. Because of its lack of a manufacturing base, however, it attracted few immigrants and grew at a much less dramatic pace than other major US cities. In 1901, the McMillan Plan for the city emerged as the outcome of power politics that were at least somewhat influenced by a desire to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the removal of the capital from Philadelphia, and by a desire promoted by the American Institute of Architects - to develop Washington as a showcase for advanced ideas on civic art.-" The McMillan Plan was the first comprehensive plan for any city in the USA and became a great influence on the city planning movement in the country as a whole. Based on the Beaux Arts concepts of the day, the Plan revised and extended the original 19th century core and called for the construction of the Union railroad terminal and a Potomac River memorial bridge; the eradication of a major slum area; the initiation of a scenic preservation programme for the urban fringes; and the creation of parks, parkways and recreational complexes. Soon afterwards (in 1910), a height restriction of 110 feet was imposed within the District of Columbia, to preserve the visual dominance of key federal structures and to ensure as far as possible the integrity of the dramatic perspectives of L'Enfant's plan. The consequent absence of skyscrapers makes Washington peculiarly distinctive among US cities. -
2J.A. Peterson, 'The nation's first comprehensive city plan: a political analysis of the McMillan Plan for Washington DC, 19001902', Journal of the American Planning Association, Vo151, No 2, 1985, pp 131-133.
291
e#y,m //e 3Greater Washington Research Center, The
Changing Washington Economy, Washington, DC, 1985.
The modern economy. The federal civil service is by far the largest single employer in the metropolitan area, and civilian government jobs - state and local as well as federal - account for more than one-third of all employment. The second largest sector of the metropolitan economy is the service sector. In part, this is
'the federal government still dominates, but its role is changing'
4J-C. M. Thomas, 'Washington', in J. Adams, ed,
Contemporary Metropolitan America, Ballinger, Cambridge, MA, 1976, pp 297-344.
292
a product of the tourism generated by monumental Washington and the complex of museums and galleries around the Mall; but more important are the office jobs generated by the interest groups and corporations attracted to Washington by the presence of the national legislature and its bureaucratic executives. Within the service sector, business services (such as management consulting, data processing and R & D) account for nearly 30% of all jobs, while legal services are the fastest growing service subsector, expanding by 23.3% between 1977 and 1982. Manufacturing activities, on the other hand, have never been an important component of the metropolitan economy. In the 1970s, manufacturing employed less than 5"/,, of metropolitan manpower, with printing - dominated by the G o v e r n m e n t Printing Office accounting for about 40% of this. Recently, however, technology-oriented firms have emerged as a significant element, having been spawned and sustained by federal government contracts. This is part of a much more significant change in the metropolitan ecom)my: the federal government still dominates, but its role is changing. Direct civilian government employment has suffered recent declines (there was a net loss of 30 ()()() jobs between 1977 and 1982), and the spending power of the average federal employee has decreased by more than 15% over the past decade as federal pay rises have failed to keep pace with inflation. Meanwhile, however, there has
been a significant increase in federal purchases of local goods and services. 3 Between 1979 and 1983, these purchases almost doubled, from $3.4 billion to $6.7 billion, reaching a level that represents more than half the dollar value of the area's federal payrolls. More than 8()()() local companies received federal contracts in 1983, with the lion's share going to companies providing communications equipment, defence systems R & D, social services, architectural and engineering services, data processing services, and professional services. This shift away from government employment toward government purchasing has brought with it an important spatial shift in the locus of federal activity, jeopardizing the employment base of the central city while intensifying the growth of outlying jurisdictions - notably Fairfax, Loudon and Prince William Counties. Changing ecology. This very distinctive economy is reflected in the social ecology of the area. In comparison with other large metropolitan areas, Washington not only has a more prosperous and more middle-class p o p u l a t i o n , but also a population that contains more young adults, fewer children, more single persons and more small households. Within the metropolitan area, the residential
'the most striking ecological feature.., is the segregation of the large black population' mosaic is dominated by the classic combination of sectors and z o n e s ) The most striking ecological feature, however, is the segregation of the large (over 830 0(l(l in 1980) black population, which is concentrated in the eastern sections of the District of Columbiv and the adjacent parts of Maryhmd. In structural and psychological terms, one of the most important features of the social geography of the region is the Beltway, which was completed in the 1960s and has served as a powerful unifying force in the
CITIES November 1987
e,q economics and culture of the whole region (Figure 1). It has also fostered decentralization at an accelerated rate, generating large shopping centres, new industrial parks, new high-density highrise residential agglomerations, and vast new office complexes. Federal agencies, having restricted office suburbanization until the 1960s, now lease millions of square feet of office space in suburban Maryland and Virginia. Annual population growth rates for the first half of the 1980s in the secondand third-tier suburbs around Washington were between 3 and 4%, compared with about 1% in first-tier suburbs and
losses of between 1 and 2% in the District. 5 Currently, the fastest growing area is Stafford County, VA, which has yet to see its first shopping centre, but which expects to see an increase of 30 000 people by the year 2000. 6 The archetypal suburban growth centre, however, is Fairfax County, VA, where a sustained construction and property boom has created one of the contemporary world's most striking growth centres. Between 1965 and 1985, the amount of office space in Fairfax County increased more than 950%, from 3.1 million sq ft to almost 32.8 million sq ft. By 1985, 665 R & D, technical manufacturing and technical
5G.Greerand E. Greer, op cit, Ref 1.
6V. Alston and J.
Langford,'Outlying
counties continue to
see rapidgrowth', The Region (journalof the Metropolitan WashingtonCouncilof Governments),Vo127, No 1, 1986,pp 12-15.
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Figure 1. Location map, showing major centres of federal employment: (1) CBD (170 000); (2) Southeast federal area (26 000); (3) Bolling/Anacostiafederal area (16 000); (4) ArlingtonPentagon complex (45 000); (5) Belvoir federal area (12 000); (6) Quantico federal area (11 000); (7) Andrews Air Force Base area (10 000); (8) Suitland federal area (6 000); (9) Beltsville federal area (12 000); (10) National Institute of Health/Navy Medical area (16 000). CITIES November 1987
293
~C. Baker, 'The uneven impact of Washington Metro', Journal of the American Planning Association, Vo150, No
1,1984, pp 11-14.
8Peat, Marwick, Mitchell and Co, Fiscal Impact of Metrorail on the Commonwealth of Virginia, Executive
Summary, Washington, DC, 1985. 91bid.
services firms were located in Fairfax County, employing over 51 000 people. In addition, there were 111 national and international trade and professional associations and 33 corporate headquarters, employing another 10 000 people. Retailing is also important, with two of the largest shopping malls on the East Coast, Tysons Corner and Springfield, tapping (via the Beltway) a huge, affluent and sophisticated suburban clientele. In 1985, Fairfax County had the highest median household effective purchasing income in the region, at $45 000 (compared to $23 800 in the District). It also had a total of more than 9000 PhDs in its labour force. Another major stimulus to the spatial reorganization of the entire metropolitan area has been the subway system, the Metro, opened in 1976 (Figure 2). A r e c e n t s t u d y by the M e t r o p o l i t a n Washington Council of G o v e r n m e n t s (COG) found that the bulk of all new non-residential building in the metropolitan area between 1979 and 1982 took place within a 15-minute walk from a Metro station, and it is estimated that
about two-thirds of the construction started in the next 20 years will be c o n c e n t r a t e d n e a r M e t r o stations, v Already, the Metro system has made a visible impact in fostering nodes of suburban office development (Figure 3). The vice-chairman of MCI Communications, a company that moved to the Washington area because of the importance of being near federal offices, has observed that: 'The Metro system was the primary reason that we purchased a large office building and had a second one built for us in Virginia . . . During the next 15 months, we expect to increase the number of employees in Virginia to about 4000 and add three additional office buildings. '~ And the president of T. Oliver Carr, a major developer in the Washington area, has noted that: 'Our suburban strategy has been driven to a great extent by Metrorail. Were it not for Metro, we would not have ventured out of our traditional District of Columbia market. "'~ Nevertheless, ridership on the Metro system has been relatively modest, accounting for between 5 and 10% of suburban commuter traffic and about
Figure 2. The Metrorail system. 294
C I T I E S N o v e m b e r 1987
Figure 3. Crystal City office complex from the National Airport Metro stop.
20% of traffic entering the CBD. Moreover, commercial development around suburban Metro stations has generated a significant amount of extra suburb-to-suburb traffic that cannot be served by the Metro's radial layout. Residential development near Metro stations has by and large been displaced by more lucrative commercial uses, with the result that intense conflicts have occurred in several jurisdictions over land-use and strategic planning issues. The central city, meanwhile, has experienced some significant restructuring, with the result that the net population losses of previous decades have been stemmed. Washington was in fact one of the first US cities to experience largescale gentrification of central-city neighbourhoods. 1° In Georgetown, for example, the black population was bought out by the young professionals and government employees who came to Washington during the New Deal. More recently, this form of residential succession has resulted in the upgrading of a broad spectrum of neighbourhoods, as CITIES November 1987
rates of household formation among the in-migrant 'yuppy' baby-boomers intensified levels of housing demand. At the same time. both public and private initiatives have resulted in significant changes t h r o u g h r e n e w a l and r e s t o r a t i o n schemes. In the 1960s, a restoration movement was targeted on the Capitol area, while a major renewal scheme brought a radical change to southwestern Washington, directly south of the government buildings on the Mall. Decaying, two-story brick row houses were replaced by townhouse and multifamily complexes in garden settings that are generally regarded as one of the most successful large-scale urban renewal projects on the eastern seaboard. The centrepiece of the Southwestern Renewal Program is the non-residential 10th Street Mall and L'Enfant Plaza area, which includes large office complexes built for the Department of Transportation, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, and others. More recently, Pennsylvania Avenue has been renovated, Lafayette Square (facing the White House) has
I°D.R. Goldfield, 'Private neighborhood redevelopment and displacement. The case of Washington', Urban Affairs Quarterly, Vol 15, No 4, 1980, pp 453468.
295
11D.E. Gate, 'Race, redevelopment and renewal in Washington's dichotomous downtown', paper presented to the annual meeting of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning, Milwaukee, 1986. 12j.p. Maxwell, No Easy Answers: Persistent Poverty in the Washington Metropoftan Area, Greater Washington Research Center, Washington, DC, 1985.
been redesigned, Union Station has been renovated as the National Visitor Center, the vacant Willard Hotel has been restored and reopened, and a large convention centre has been built in the centre of the District. Perhaps most significant of all, however, has been the consolidation of the CBD. ~ In the 1950s and 1960s, Washington's downtown experienced a precipi-
'the new downtown did a great deal to restore business confidence in central Washington' tous decline as the combination of metropolitan decentralization, racial change and, finally, the 1968 riots, made the area unattractive both for customers and investors. Yet the growth of the federal government in the 1960s brought a need for additional central office space, and a 'new-downtown" grew up several blocks to the north and west of the old one, disengaging the office function of the CBD from the rapidly declining retail functions. The financial success of the new downtown did a great deal to restore business confidence in central Washington, and the inflated land values that resulted in the new downtown, together with the arrival of the Metro system, the building of the convention centre, the renovation of Pennsylvania Avenue and the gentrification of nearby neighbourhoods, have drawn recent investment eastwards, with the result that the old downtown has been redeveloped with new hotels, shopping malls and offices.
Contemporary problems and policies. In spite of, a n d partly because of, all this growth, the Washington metropolitan area faces a variety of problems in terms of urban development. Growth and decentralization have intensified problems of traffic congestion, with a quarter of all limited-access and arterial highways already choked to the point of having seriously interrupted flows during rush 296
hours. There is also an acute shortage of parking space throughout the area. The Metro system, in addition to its inability to serve inter-suburban traffic, is conspicuously slow in developing routes to serve the black sectors of the city. Other public services and facilities are even less adequate, particularly in the central city where a large indigent population persists. Poverty rates among black residents of the District are three times the overall area-wide average and nearly six times the rate for suburban whites. ~2 As in other US cities, the problem is particularly acute among black female-headed households, which are localized in southeastern neighbourhoods of the District. In addition, the District has a large and very visible homeless population that can be found, incongruously, on park benches and gratings in most of the small parks that occupy the intersections of L'Enfant's plan (Figure 4). Homelessness notwithstanding, Washington's housing problems are acute by any standard. The legacy of over 100 000 substandard and/or overcrowded dwellings at the beginning of the 1960s
'homeownership eludes an increasingly large segment of households' has proved difficult to thin out in the face of persistent poverty and the displacement of low-income households by gentrification and renewal. Meanwhile, the pace of growth in much of the metropolitan area has driven house prices so high that home-ownership eludes an increasingly large segment of households, particularly younger and single-headed households. In 1985 the median value of a single family home in the McLean district of Fairfax County was nearly $160000; for townhouses the median value was nearly $146 000. Rental housing is also becoming increasingly inaccessible, despite the construction boom. The average monthly rent (excluding utilities) in Fairfax County in 1985 was
C I T I E S N o v e m b e r 1987
Figure 4. Homelessness in central Washington. $517; and more than one-third of the renter households in the County were paying more than 30°/,, of their incomes for rent. ~-~ What is particularly worrying for communities such as Fairfax is that it is extremely difficult to attract entry-level personnel in key professions such as teaching and health care. In 1959, Constantine Doxiadis, in a report prepared for the Redevelopment Land Agency, ~4 called for Washington to become the nation's pilot project in a crusade for a new kind of US urbanization. While Washington has certainly experienced a great deal of growth and change, it has patently failed to confront systematically the congestion, poverty and polarization that dismayed Doxiadis. Of course, this does not make Washington exceptional. But it should be pointed out that Washington's development has taken place under an exceptionally awkward system of government and planning. While most US metropolitan areas suffer from jurisdictional fragmentation, Washington has had to carry the extra burden of having a hamstrung central city. Until 1974, the citizens of the CITIES November 1987
District remained largely voteless, and the central city was governed by a commissioner appointed by the President of the USA, with all legislation affecting the city having to be passed by Congress. The House District of Columbia Committee and the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee were required to initiate all legislation pertaining to the District, and city planning functions were the responsibility of a National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) appointed by the President. While this system did a great deal to furnish monumental Washington and to help revamp some of the surrounding elements of the built environment, it proved extremely insensitive to the needs of the District's residents and almost totally incapable of any kind of strategic approach to urban development. In 1973, a degree of ' H o m e Rule' was given to the District, with provision for the popular election, every four years, of a mayor and a city council with powers to set taxes, make budget amendments and oversee local government agencies. However, Congress reserved the power
13Fairfax County, Report of the Affordable Housing Task Force, Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, Fairfax, VA, 1986.
14C. Doxiadis, The Federal Capital: its Future and its Redevelopment, Doxiadis Associates, Athens, 1959.
297
~sj. Garreau, 'The shadow governments', The Washington Post, 14 June 1987, ppA1 and A14. ~6National Capital Planning Commission, The Year 2000 Plan, NCPC, Washington, DC, 1961.
298
to veto any actions perceived to threaten the 'federal interest', and the budget is still reviewed and enacted by Congress. Public utilities remain under a Public Service Commission appointed by the President, and land-use issues are handled by a special Zoning Commission. Ironically, this undemocratic setting has fostered well developed citizens' associations that have been able to mobilize local participation in a broad variety of development issues. In addition, it has been estimated that there are more than 2000 'shadow governments' in the Washington area; 15 ad hoc organizations that levy taxes, regulate behaviour, adjudicate disputes, provide police protection, channel development, enforce aesthetic standards, fill potholes, remove snow, and provide day-care facilities. Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments had been established (in 1957) as a consortium of local governments in Virginia, Maryland and the District in order to address area-wide issues. In 1966, it became the official metropolitan plan-
ning agency for the Washington area, although the NCPC remains the central planning agency for the federal government in the metropolitan area. The NCPC has traditionally been concerned, above all else, with the embellishment of the capital's natural and historical features, although in 1961 it did attempt a comprehensive plan based on the concept of radial corridors.16 More recently, this comprehensive plan has been amended to take the form of statements of goals, planning criteria and policies that focus less on strategic, structural issues and more on the twin concerns of the economic base (ie federal employment) and the natural and historical features of the region. The CoG, meanwhile, has come to give special attention to housing, public services and transportation issues. Nevertheless, Washington remains deficient in terms of democratic local government and planning structures, and until these deficiences are made up it is unlikely that its aspirations to "world city" status • an be matched by its performance as a showcase of US urban development.
CITIES November 1987