Sunday, April 17, 2011

The contradictions in Washington DC / 2

For many years, crime in Washington DC was American as apple pie. In the same hours of the arrest of Mayor Vincent Gray, of which I spoke in the first of these two bets, your favorite blogger was under Capitol Hill for a brief visit, the third within two decades. The city is historically famous for its crime rate among the highest in America, a result of the race riots of 1968 and the crack epidemic of the eighties, which led to the end of last century, particularly the emptying of entire neighborhoods by white, with a loss of 200,000 people in 800,000.

The worst, according to data from the DC Metropolitan Police Department, was reached in 1991 when the District of Columbia reached a record of 471 murders in a year. Since then, things have improved to the point that the last Crime Ranking Metropolitan Washington is only the 185th most dangerous city among 378 considered over 75,000 inhabitants.

On the other hand, Washington DC continues to be the great city of embassies, prestigious universities (among others, is home of the famous Georgetown University, which houses one of the best departments of Italian in the world), and the altar of political commitment by all Member USA. The real heart of the empire, and that feeling you feel not only when you walk along the National Mall monument, national park today, but also when observing the rest of the impressive urban architecture, neoclassical style, maybe a little 'kitsch, a judging by the eye of the Roman chronicler.

In Washington, despite the humid subtropical climate (to the point that the Italian Foreign Ministry, the city has long been considered "hardship"), is also home to many foreigners, starting with the Italians. Among others, the Piedmont Caterina Fava, who has chosen to settle here a few months ago with her husband, taken in a local university.

"It's a very sbilianciata city," he said in a brief interview, "people with very rich and powerful, and many people under poverty line and among the worst public schools in America. However, the danger is sometimes more perceived than real and relates more to certain demographic areas, at least for the type of violent crime.

" According to Catherine, the U.S. capital is recovering, "There are more areas off limits, as it once was. But a huge wave of thefts occurred last Christmas in the afternoon shopping in Georgetown, one of the areas considered safer, and certainly the richest and most 'white'. " The situation is improving thanks to a process of gentrification started in various districts of East Eighth street, on North Capitol Street NW.

The impressions of Catherine, who is also the author of the blog nice foot in both camps, are validated by the recent analysis by James Gimple and Dante Chinni, Patchwork Nation Our authors of the essay. The Surprising Truth about "Real" America (2010), whose data on the District of Columbia are summarized in this website and talk about a town inhabited mostly by people "educated and connected to the social fabric." Even if you do not have any statistical significance, I conducted my skin a micro sociological experiment that ended with no problems.

Together with my girlfriend - the Caribbean and then in black leather - we walked hand in hand up and down North Capitol Street NW, through groups of unemployed young blacks who looked at us as if we were from Mars - or from Toronto, as in the reported effects my shirt university. Yes, mixed couples in Washington DC are much less common than in Toronto, and the looks of surprise or disapproval question that we have collected have come in almost equal measure by all or passersby African-American (East Eighth street) and then from all or most of the passers-white leather (West Eighth street).

Yet my partner and I walked quietly, but not ignored or even insulted by the lads wasters bothered by the muscles rippling, which have pushed hard to say goodbye with a friendly "Hello." Along the same route to return, I caught a fit of self-sacrifice spirit of the fact, I had the classic brown envelope under the arm of the liquor store (in the U.S.

is prohibited to show alcohol in public, sic) with two inside good bottle of Italian red. Despite a clear familiarity with the alcoholism of our neighbors, no one told us anything and we arrived at their destination with only a slight problem for me Sunshine, given the unexpected 30 degrees centigrade for a day in April.

For once, the only discrimination on the basis of skin color was the sun.

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