Talk:Washington, D.C./Archive 1

message: This page should be merged with District of Columbia. -  13:44, 30 Sep 2002 . . Ram-Man
District of Columbia 22:34, 7 Nov 2002 . . Ram-Man (merged everything to Washington, District of Columbia) - Recording merge. - Patrick 10:04, 1 Oct 2003 (UTC)
thread_title: Merge with DC article

message: Can anybody explain why it is called "District of Columbia"? What does it have to do with Columbia?  - sanders_muc
:From Columbia: 
::Columbia shouldn't be confused with Colombia... The name "Columbia" is/was a poetic name for the United States of America, which largely fell out of use in the early 20th century.
:Does that help? –Hajor 05:22, 11 Feb 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Origin of "Columbia"

message: For some reason the first link in the "Demographics" section seemingly can't be made to work. If you know what's wrong, please help. Thanks! 82.82.142.209 22:08, 25 Aug 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: Done.  The external site link right before it in the previous section was missing a bracket.  Postdlf 23:49, 25 Aug 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Wikipedia screwup 

message: There is a Washington Ave just southwest of the Capitol: Yahoo! Map.
I removed the reference to it not existing. Can someone verify that all 50 states have namesake streets? I suspect that this is true but can't be sure. Ohio has Ohio Drive, but no avenue I believe. Polynova 02:23, 6 Oct 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Washington Ave. 

message: I'm going to begin merging District of Columbia (geography) into this article. I'm going to move the Physical Geography section across, delete the Neighborhoods section (placing it here for reference) and replace it with the District of Columbia (geography) Municipal geography section.
Finally, I'll put a notice on the source page that it is being merged into Washington, DC Geography Section. That will leave on the source page the intro paragraph, the history section, and External Links.
===Neighborhoods (old subsection)===
Washington includes many distinct and historic neighborhoods:
* 16th Street Heights
* Adams Morgan
* American Univesity Park
* Anacostia
* Bellevue
* Benning Ridge
* Brentwood
* Brightwood
* Brightwood Park
* Brookland
* Burleith
* Capitol Hill
** Eastern Market
** Barracks Row
* Chevy Chase
* Chinatown
* Cleveland Park	
* Columbia Heights
* Crestwood
* Deanwood
* Dupont Circle
* Eckington
* Foggy Bottom
* Forest Hills
* Foxhall Crescents
* Foxhall Village
* Friendship Heights
* Georgetown
* Glover Park
* Hawthorne
* Hillcrest
* Hill East
* Kalorama Heights
* Kingman Park
* Le Droit Park	
* Logan Circle
* Manor Park
* Michigan Park
* Mount Pleasant
* Near Northeast
* Near Southeast
* The Palisades
* Penn Quarter
* Petworth
* Shepherd Park
* Shaw
* Swampoodle
* Takoma
* Tenleytown
* Trinidad
* Wesley Heights
* West End
* Woodley Park
Done. I've moved the source page's External Links to become a subsection of Geography. Perhaps it should be a subsection of External links (eg External Links/Geography). The Neighborhood list needs some beautifying, but I'll let people review these changes first.
:Considering that "Washington, D.C" is already quite large, is it really advisable to merge the geography material back iknto the main article? Why not just rename District of Columbia (geography) to Washington, D.C. geography? —choster 19:09, 30 Jan 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Merging from [[District of Columbia (geography)]]

message: Washington includes many distinct and historic neighborhoods:
* 16th Street Heights
* Adams Morgan
* American Univesity Park
* Anacostia
* Bellevue
* Benning Ridge
* Brentwood
* Brightwood
* Brightwood Park
* Brookland
* Burleith
* Capitol Hill
** Eastern Market
** Barracks Row
* Chevy Chase
* Chinatown
* Cleveland Park	
* Columbia Heights
* Crestwood
* Deanwood
* Dupont Circle
* Eckington
* Foggy Bottom
* Forest Hills
* Foxhall Crescents
* Foxhall Village
* Friendship Heights
* Georgetown
* Glover Park
* Hawthorne
* Hillcrest
* Hill East
* Kalorama Heights
* Kingman Park
* Le Droit Park	
* Logan Circle
* Manor Park
* Michigan Park
* Mount Pleasant
* Near Northeast
* Near Southeast
* The Palisades
* Penn Quarter
* Petworth
* Shepherd Park
* Shaw
* Swampoodle
* Takoma
* Tenleytown
* Trinidad
* Wesley Heights
* West End
* Woodley Park
Done. I've moved the source page's External Links to become a subsection of Geography. Perhaps it should be a subsection of External links (eg External Links/Geography). The Neighborhood list needs some beautifying, but I'll let people review these changes first.
:Considering that "Washington, D.C" is already quite large, is it really advisable to merge the geography material back iknto the main article? Why not just rename District of Columbia (geography) to Washington, D.C. geography? —choster 19:09, 30 Jan 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Neighborhoods (old subsection)

message: The following discussion was held on WP:RM. 
====Washington, DC → Washington, D.C.====
*Move to standard rendering of name. Neutrality/talk 01:50, Dec 15, 2004 (UTC)
*That's a tough one. Standard according to whom? The postal abbreviation is DC, and people would probably rather see "New York, NY" than "New York, N.Y.", and certainly not "Tampa, F.L." But, of course, D.C. is also an initialism, and not merely a postal abbreviation. Can you cite a reference that states the D.C. is considered the official nomenclature? --Golbez 19:54, Dec 15, 2004 (UTC)
**Most people who follow style manuals and prefer formal usage would rather see New York, N.Y.  Omitting the periods from state abbreviations is questionable usage; Chicago Manual of Style permits it for D.C. now (whereas dropping them was formerly unacceptable), but this is controversial. I don't know where the traditional state and territory abbreviations are recorded in law (or even if they ever were put into law), but they date to an era when dropping the periods simply was not done at all in English. It's essentially a question of following trendy, business- and military-style usage (no periods) or adhering to the traditional formal usage (with periods). (There is, BTW, no F.L.; the traditional text abbreviation is Fla., while the postal code is FL.) —Tkinias 08:40, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: I hope not many people who work on this encyclopedia really believe that a modern dictionary doesn't provide help on proper usage of a word, or that common slang usage trumps proper usage.  After all, is this supposed to be the Gettopedia or a free Brittanica-style encyclopedia?  —Mike 22:12, Dec 18, 2004 (UTC)
*Support. I don't see the traditionally correct form "Washington, D.C." as having been "supplanted". Here on wikipedia there are many hundreds of articles which link to the traditional form. Jonathunder 22:54, 2004 Dec 17 (UTC)
*Support. Common usage is so close to the correct form that it will not confuse. Timrollpickering 13:36, 18 Dec 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Requested Move discussion

message: *Move to standard rendering of name. Neutrality/talk 01:50, Dec 15, 2004 (UTC)
*That's a tough one. Standard according to whom? The postal abbreviation is DC, and people would probably rather see "New York, NY" than "New York, N.Y.", and certainly not "Tampa, F.L." But, of course, D.C. is also an initialism, and not merely a postal abbreviation. Can you cite a reference that states the D.C. is considered the official nomenclature? --Golbez 19:54, Dec 15, 2004 (UTC)
**Most people who follow style manuals and prefer formal usage would rather see New York, N.Y.  Omitting the periods from state abbreviations is questionable usage; Chicago Manual of Style permits it for D.C. now (whereas dropping them was formerly unacceptable), but this is controversial. I don't know where the traditional state and territory abbreviations are recorded in law (or even if they ever were put into law), but they date to an era when dropping the periods simply was not done at all in English. It's essentially a question of following trendy, business- and military-style usage (no periods) or adhering to the traditional formal usage (with periods). (There is, BTW, no F.L.; the traditional text abbreviation is Fla., while the postal code is FL.) —Tkinias 08:40, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)
replies: text: I hope not many people who work on this encyclopedia really believe that a modern dictionary doesn't provide help on proper usage of a word, or that common slang usage trumps proper usage.  After all, is this supposed to be the Gettopedia or a free Brittanica-style encyclopedia?  —Mike 22:12, Dec 18, 2004 (UTC)
*Support. I don't see the traditionally correct form "Washington, D.C." as having been "supplanted". Here on wikipedia there are many hundreds of articles which link to the traditional form. Jonathunder 22:54, 2004 Dec 17 (UTC)
*Support. Common usage is so close to the correct form that it will not confuse. Timrollpickering 13:36, 18 Dec 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: [[Washington, DC]] → [[Washington, D.C.]]

message: The History section has no mention of emancipation, desegregation, or the riots of 1968. These are major events in the history of D.C. which should be in this article. Is anyone familiar enough with these topics to write about them?  --Polynova 00:30, Jan 6, 2005 (UTC)
:I think the history section about the War of 1812 could really be more in depth, specifically about the US retaking the city, if anyone is knowledgeable. Tkessler 02:52, Feb 15, 2005 (UTC)
::I don't think the Americans did retake the city, did they?  Rather, the British Army simply left--it was a raid, not an invasion.  Certainly the language of the article as is--giving specific starting and ending dates for the "expedition"--seems to me to imply that at the end of the given period, the British simply marched out.Binabik80 05:00, 18 Feb 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Binabik80 is right; the British marched in, burned the place, and then retreated. There was no occupation or retaking of the city. See Burning of Washington Carter 14:35, 18 Feb 2005 (UTC)

text: The article being overweight to begin with, I created a new History of Washington, DC article. I added a quick mention of emancipation and the riots, but obviously more work is to be done, including trimming more out of the text in the main article. - choster 23:08, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Omissions in History section 

message: I removed the foll bec the image was missing. If anyone can find the image or fix the link, please do. "" Nurg 04:57, 14 Mar 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Link to missing image

message: The religious affiliations of the citizens of DC are:
* Protestant: 68%
* Roman Catholic: 16%
* Other Christian: 1%
* Other Religions: 3%
* Non-Religious: 7%''
Those add up to 95%. —mikko (speak) 22:13, 15 Apr 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  Religion section 

message: This page looks great - has anyone thought to list it on WP:FAC?  There are a few wrinkles (some better images; consolidation of choppies sections of prose; references) but these should be easy to deal with, I should have thought. -- ALoan (Talk) 11:04, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)
replies: text: Excellent feedback, thanks.  Separating the lists out into new main articles, with a  reference and a short summary here, is a good idea.  Someone else will have to say whether it is comprehensive enough, and add the missing info: not my city, I just thought the article looked pretty well worked up.  Article length is less of a concern these days, although separating parts into separate main article should help!  Perhaps WP:FAC was too ambitious - WP:PR first? -- ALoan (Talk) 20:21, 21 Apr 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: FAC?

message: As a graduating college senior I looked into this article as a repository of great coverage and links to outside information on D.C.  It seems to me that in this day and age of relocating, subletting through websites, and short term stays in foreign cities that Wiki's hold a special place.  This is where current, relevant, balanced reporting can be found and used to make sound judgements.  Where else can one find current statistics, GIS maps, local media, and the coupling of a huge scope with very detailed information under each category.  This entry was very useful for me in my research and work in relocating to D.C.    Has anyone else had similar experiences?  
Gbshore 12:48, 17 May 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  article relevance & usage 

message: According to the article on the White House, the story that the phrase "White House" became associated with the president's residence after it was repainted following the burning of Washington is an urban legend, "confirmed" by Snopes.  Would there be any objection to removing this bit from this article?--SFBADanceDude 01:07, 26 May 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  "White House" Naming 

message: I checked the History of Washington, DC article and every other place, but couldn't find any specific statement, affirmative or denying, about whether the future capital got its current name already in the earliest stage of planning, during the search for the land, in some political debate, or sometime later (eg. was renamed after G.W.'s death). Neither have I found any evidence about who proposed that name, or who made the final decision. I suppose this could be something every local boy and girl knows, but for the sake of all the others Earthlings, someone could mention it explicitly. After all, it could be of some interest, whether G.W. made a decision to found a town by his own name or not. I think at least the date could be included in this article, too (besides the History). --Oop June 30, 2005 22:12 (UTC)
:According to HowStuffWorks.com the names "Columbia" and "Washington" were chosen by the three commissioners Washington appointed to acquire land and prepare for the city's development. NARPAC quotes a 2001 Washington Post article on the matter which includes Madison and Jefferson in a similar account, taking place September 8, 1791.- choster 30 June 2005 22:41 (UTC)
::I added some info based on this website. --Polynova June 30, 2005 23:38 (UTC)
:::Many early references were to the "Federal City." Also, I believe that until the 20th century or so, mail was still addressed to Washington, DC -- or Georgetown, DC -- or Tenleytown, DC -- or suchlike, as though "Washington" were just the downtown. Doops |  talk 06:13, 21 July 2005 (UTC)
replies: text:  Some people still use "Georgetown, D.C." But Washington City, Georgetown, and Washington County were all merged into one entity by Congress in 1871. Carter 08:28, 21 July 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  When was the name decided, and by whom? 

message: Just finished somewhat of a major reorganization for this article, which hopefully organizes things much better and makes it easier to read. I've followed examples from other featured articles, such as Seattle, Washington and Louisville, Kentucky, as well as Chicago (currently a FAC). The article now follows the general order as such:
*History (still need to largely rewrite this, as well as the linked article)
*Geography and Climate (mostly migrated from separate Geography article)
*People and Culture
**Demographics
**Landmarks and museums (no longer a list, but written out)
**Media (also largely written out instead of listed)
**Performing arts
**Sports
*Economy (still needs serious editing; did not really touch this part)
*Infrastructure
**Local Government (Fed Gov't is mentioned at the very beginning, with links to other articles on the US Govt)
**Schools (links to lists of schools, but section is now written out)
**Transportation (roads, airports, metro)
*Sister cities
*See also (basically, this contains links to all of the lists of things associated with the city; neighborhoods, past mayors, etc. I also put the Crime section in a separate article and linked to it from here, as well as a see also link in the Demographics section).
*External links (cleaned this up a bit, and moved several link lists to other articles, like history and crime). Dr. Cash 04:34, 2 August 2005 (UTC)
thread_title: Major Reorganization

message: upon reading section zero on this page it wasn't clear to me that D. C. stood for the District of Columbia, I think this needs to be stated explicitly. —Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason 04:02:53, 2005-08-10 (UTC)
I learned as a kid that it stood for De Capitol.
O.k., I'll go back to sleep now. Bunthorne 06:09, 18 August 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  D. C.