DC Statehood

Taxes. We pay more per capita than any state (the most recent year I could find the per capita rates for was 2015).

Our gross income tax revenue for 2018 was 28,443,717,000. Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, Wyoming, and Vermont combined paid in 27,443,756,000. They get 10 Senators; DC gets none. They each have one Representative in the House; DC has a non-voting delegate.

Yech!

On the elevator from the platform to the mezzanine at my office metro stop, there was a pile of human excrement. This is awful, disgusting, potentially a health hazard, etc.

However, the thing that struck me was that, unlike Ville de Quebec or Brussels or London (the latter two, I'm referring from the 1980s), DC, and most US cities, have gotten rid of public bathrooms.

We say that it's to reduce opportunities for drugs or for cleanliness, but it's at least partially to drive out the homeless population. The fact that it can also have an impact on people with disabilities, doesn't seem to occur to anyone.

How do we make a livable city? Well, lots of opportunities for walking and biking is a good start, but slow locomotion means a livable city needs to include public restrooms.