One key lesson the pandemic taught us is that about one-third of the population can effectively work from home. Among the D.C. ruling class, the figure is far higher. So why not make it permanent, starting with Congress?
The Capitol and hearing rooms could be turned into big-screen Microsoft Teams meetings for tourists. There would be a dwindling number of riots either of the widely condemned Jan. 6 variety or the media-supported riots of last summer due to this dispersal of power and wealth.
K Street could wither on the vine with no concentration of Congress in town to lobby. As D.C. completes its transformation into a city of first-class museums and monuments, eventually every department save the Pentagon and State Department could help spread the wealth.
The area north of the Potomac could be retroceded to Maryland, just as the area south was retroceded to Virginia in 1850. The city, with its beautiful national park, would become a congressional district in Maryland; the 23rd Amendment could be repealed; and we’d have no more silly talk about a single-industry 61-square-mile town about 1⁄17th the size of Westmoreland County becoming the 51st state.
David Staples
Hempfield