Washington D.C. may be our favorite U.S. city. It’s large enough to have everything you want within easy reach but small enough that you don’t have to fight for space on crowded streets. They’ve even opened one of our favorite New York restaurants, Carmines, and will soon open a Crumbs cupcake shop. But most of all, Washington is simply beautiful. Probably due to its origins as a planned city with European roots, Washington just seems like it was put together by people who valued aesthetics. It is no surprise that six of the top ten buildings in a recent “America’s Favorite Architecture” survey reside in D.C. Naturally the great government buildings, like the Capitol, and the fabulous monuments are highlights, but many of the city’s lesser buildings are absolutely gorgeous too. Walking down miscellaneous streets while surrounded by the dizzying mix of grand architectural styles is a joy.
And as a tourist, I’ve never seen so many free things to do in any other city. In what must be a socialist plot to undermine our capitalist democracy, the Smithsonian’s 12 museums, the national zoo, the National Gallery of Art, the Holocaust Museum, the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, the U.S. Capitol, the Library of Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court, all of the national monuments, and probably a whole host of things I’ve missed or forgotten, are completely free. What other city can top that?
Everywhere Once 
Careful Brian, you’re hammer and sickle are showing. Private donations went into the construction of many of those monuments. I don’t think you see too much of that in socialist societies. I donated money to both the Vietnam and WWII memorials. That is one of the great advantages of a free capitalist society. I decide what to do with my earnings.
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Careful Bob, your confirmation bias is showing. A relatively modest amount of private donations go in to most of the things on that list; far short of the amount required to claim credit for them. The vast Smithsonian complex of museums gets only about 10% of its annual revenue from private donations. Most of the memorials (Washington, Lincoln, FDR, and Jefferson) were constructed with public money as were all of the government buildings. And even the large $197MM raised to build the WWII memorial would only be enough to fund the D.C. parks department for a couple of years.
One of the great advantages of not seeing the world in absolute blacks and whites is being able to appreciate the virtue and necessity of public places as well as private ones. 😉
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Ah, I guess this is some of my confirmation bias showing. As to you’re WWII memorial example…. http://www.wwiimemorial.com/default.asp?page=funding.asp&subpage=intro
Unfortunately they probably had to use a large part of their endowment after the 10/2/10 Progressive/Communist march on the mall….http://ironicsurrealism.blogivists.com/2010/10/02/one-nation-rally-trashing-america-photos/ They really are the earth first people aren’t they. Or is it someone else will clean up after me?
Bob
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