Talk:Washington, D.C.

Crime in Demographics?

Crime in DC has an article of its own, why is it a subsection of Demographics? Demography doesn't study crime stats. Sativa Inflorescence (talk) 15:48, 6 January 2023 (UTC)

I've 'promoted' the Crime section so it isn't a subsection of Demographics. —ADavidB 07:55, 7 January 2023 (UTC)

While I agree that having "crime" under demographics feels incorrect, I also don't think having it as a separate section makes sense. Other cities, like Chicago, known for their crime issues (regardless of whether some city articles should have more of an emphasis on crime), don't have it as its own section. I like Chicago's set up -- "Law and government" with crime nested in. You could rename "city government" for DC "law and government" and add crime there. Defrank1 (talk) 20:14, 12 January 2024 (UTC)

Citations needed

More than two years ago I raised concerns about the number of missing citations in this article. Since then this number has only grown to 28, which would be an automatic fail for an FA candidate. Unless this issue is fixed soon, I don't see how we're not going to have to nominate this for FA review. Bneu2013 (talk) 03:54, 22 January 2024 (UTC)

What do you mean by "missing citations"? Are you referring to dead links within citations? Please be more specific as to what is missing and where, as it will help with corrections. —ADavidB 00:36, 31 January 2024 (UTC)

(I later realized you mean the number of "citation needed" statements within the article, as this section is titled.) —ADavidB 00:42, 31 January 2024 (UTC)

I've resolved four of these by adding sources, and invite help from other editors. Removing unsourced information is sometimes a good response as well. —ADavidB 05:25, 3 February 2024 (UTC)

Why is the National Cathedral in the Info Box but I was blocked from adding the National Basilica for religious balance?

If you're gonna have the National Cathedral (Episcopalian) it's only fair to also have the National Basilica (Catholic) otherwise it just looks like religious favoritism. Either have both or neither.

These are both significant architectural landmarks of near identical size (the National Basilica is the 2nd tallest building in DC) it doesn't make sense to have one but not the other IMO.

I was told by a mod that I could not add St. Patrick's Cathedral to the New York City info box because that would be "favoritism towards Catholics when American cities have churches of many denominations" WHY DOES THAT NOT APLLY HERE?

Alfred Carbo (talk) 01:15, 4 February 2024 (UTC)

Too many building images

Skimming through this article, way too many of the images are just exterior shots of neoclassical-style buildings. D.C. has plenty of those, yes, but they connote very little to readers, most of whom won't be able to identify them at a glance, about what content will be in that article section. In a few cases, they are the only real option, but in many others we could swap them out for better alternatives. Sdkb ^talk 06:39, 29 February 2024 (UTC)

Collage

2020 consensus

From top, left to right: The Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, the Capitol, National Cathedral, Washington Metro, storefronts in Adams Morgan, Air and Space Museum, White House.

Recent version

Capitol Hill, National Mall and Downtown

The Capitol

District Wharf

Georgetown

National Cathedral

Washington Monument

Smithsonian Castle

The White House

In 2020, myself and a few other editors did a comprehensive redesign of this article's collage. We looked at the corpus of available quality images, considered the various visual signifiers of the city (going beyond just the touristy National Mall view), and applied established best practices for collage composition. The version we came up with (above left) I thought was really good. Unfortunately, image collages have a bad habit of deteriorating if not closely monitored, and when I checked in recently, it had deteriorated to the version on the right. Going through the changes:

The deteriorated version puts the captions under each individual image rather than at the bottom, breaking up its visual cohesion and increasing its overall length (which is particularly bad, since space is at a high premium given the article's already-long infobox). There can be an argument for doing that sometimes when the captions are really important (although personally I think such cases are very rare), but given that many of D.C.'s icons are globally recognizable, it's particularly weak here.

The 2020 design has a nice balance. It includes three images of iconic National Mall landmarks, but balances those with others: the National Cathedral, representing all D.C.'s landmarks outside the Mall; a featured picture of a WMATA station, a system known for its iconic architecture and encountered daily by many Washingtonians; storefronts in Adams Morgan, giving a sense of D.C.'s economic character and local neighborhoods; and displays in the Air and Space Museum to represent the Smithsonian museums.

The choices in the deteriorated version, by contrast, are weak. Collage images appear smaller than normal ones, so it's important that they look good at small scale. The top image is far too zoomed out to work for that — the Capitol building is miniscule, and basically nothing else is visible. Farther down, I'm flattered that an image I took of the Wharf is used, but it's very generic — it could be a marina in any city, so does nothing to visually identify D.C. The image of Georgetown is also so far zoomed out that the only identifiable element is the Key Bridge, which is not exactly the Golden Gate. The Smithsonian Castle image, while nice, is a poorer choice to represent D.C.'s museums than a gallery interior — someone who doesn't live here is unlikely to know what that building is, so it just adds to this article's overload of building exterior images rather than instantly connoting museums.

Given all this, I propose that we restore the curated 2020 design. Courtesy pinging Cristiano Tomás, who reverted my recent attempt to do so, and APK, who was involved in the redesign. Sdkb ^talk 00:45, 4 March 2024 (UTC)

I'm trying to figure out why including an interior Metro image is ludicrous. Metro's interior brutalist design is an iconic feature. Overall there are way too many photos in the article. Same goes for a lot of the neighborhood pages. APK hi :-) (talk) 03:57, 4 March 2024 (UTC)

Agreed, APK.

Seeing no further engagement from others, I'm going to restore the edit. Sdkb ^talk 03:34, 8 March 2024 (UTC)

@Cristiano Tomás has now reverted the edit twice, without engaging here, most recently with summary restoring stable montage - it is BAD PRACTICE to have INDOOR IMAGES in a city's montage, I dont know how many times I have to write this. From Tokyo to Toronto, Paris to Beijing, London to Los Angeles. There doesn't seem to be any blanket consensus that I'm aware of that it is bad practice to have indoor images in the city, and examples of other cities that don't happen to have indoor images doesn't constitute one. Building from first principles, images in city collages ought to be visual signifiers representative of the city, and if indoor images fit that bill, why not use them? Sdkb ^talk 03:59, 17 March 2024 (UTC)

FWIW, here's another vote for the 2020 version, basically for all the reasons given by @APK: better photography, iconic Metro design, and a nod to the Mall museums (easily the most-visited things in the city and the most-visited museums in the hemisphere). PRRfan (talk) 05:20, 17 March 2024 (UTC)

Columbia fact check

Wikipedia says DC, Columbia,was named for female. Wrong!!! Named for Christopher Columbus 2601:981:4401:1EA0:5166:5D93:CE43:CC52 (talk) 18:25, 15 March 2024 (UTC)

Please carefully read Columbia (personification), which explains the female personification and its origins from Columbus's name. Cullen328 (talk) 18:29, 15 March 2024 (UTC)

I'll say it again maybe somebody will listen this time

I was told adding St. Patrick's Cathedral to the New York City collogue was "unfair religious favoritism" why does the same not apply here with the National Cathedral? It doesn't make any sense. Mods need to address this. Either apply rules consistently or don't have them at all. Alfred Carbo (talk) 13:49, 20 March 2024 (UTC)