I don’t get to spend a lot of down time in D.C. anymore (I lived there for a time), usually more like cabbing or Metroing from Amtrak to meeting or event etc. But I was there on Saturday and was reminded, as I passed some of my favorite spots, how ugly the city has become–largely since 9/11. Now, the Capital building is under construction, but places like the Washington Monument are now blockaded with ugly white slab walls, as a security precaution. Unless those walls are downright indestructible, I doubt they’re worth the eyesore. It doesn’t help either, people’s attitude toward their government, I suspect–further distancing them from it.