My views:

A) Statehood’s a joke. DC should rejoin Maryland, AKA retrocession. It’s not only the better solution, constitutionally, politically and economically, it’s the more plausible one. If Statehooders want representation in Washington, let them vote for two Maryland Senators and a couple Marlyand congressmen.

B) DC’s biggest problem isn’t that it doesn’t have enough rich people, it’s that it has too many poor people. Meanwhile, Middle Class blacks keep leaving town because they’re, well, middle class and they want the same things for their kids that everyone else does. So we get left with a lot of very poor blacks and a lot of very rich whites (and some very rich blacks) and the city’s politics reflect that. Anthony Williams seems to recognize this and that’s why he’s been so successful.

C) And, finally: ENOUGH talk about “no taxation without representation”! Yes, it’s true to a point. But it’s also written into the Constitution. If you don’t like it, move! However, I do think the far better and more exciting idea would be to make DC exempt from Federal Taxation. We could voucherize poor folks in existing low income housing so that they would have to be bought out when this city became Monaco-on-the Potomac, and do a few other things to help thee poor with the inevitable dislocation that would ensue. But we would see the greatest economic boom ever. Of course, the government would lose trillions as zillionaires all moved to DC. But someone smarter than me, say Ramesh, could figure out how to fix that problem. And yes, as a homeowner, I definitely have a conflict of interest here. But that doesn’t mean I’m wrong.