Capitol Hill, America
Quick notes from inside the beltway....
D.C.'s the global think tank capitol. What's that mean to the city's daily life, other than an endless supply of op-ed pieces for the Washington Post?
Visit a good neighborhood southeast asian restaurant, and the storefront next door is a CFIbranch.
Attend a bloggers' summit held at a bar and learn that at least two of the five panelists have tank affiliations, one with the Center for American Progress, the other - who was brilliant - with the New America Foundation.
Visit the National Building Museum and across the street, there's the newer office of the National Academy of Sciences-- featuring great lobby art, an excellent, airy cafeteria and a better book store. And like RAND in Santa Monica, an institutional commitmentto working by committee that's echoed in the building's architecture, most obviously by the "collaboration rooms" in lieu of "conference rooms."
To add more context... To visit D.C. and to ride the subway system is, in part, to see scores of commuters wearing badges and identity cards strung around their necks; to notice a man reading a catalog advertising advanced degrees in military intelligence, and others reading the Atlantic Monthly; to overhear a conversation between two people about why Los Angeles' subway system thus far has been a missed opportunity....
Photo Credit: The image accompanying this post was taken by Flickr user Rob Shenk. It was used under Creative Commons license.
