About
the Authors

Why and How We Conducted
This Evaluation

Acknowledgements

Summary of Findings

The Grade: Indicators and Scores

Verbatim
Quotes from Guidebooks

How to Contact the Publishers of the
Guidebooks

A Content ANALYSIS of Popular Washington, D.C., Tourist Guidebooks
— from a D.C. Point of View

Evaluation of 26 Tourist Guidebooks

About Visiting

Washington, D.C.

How Well Do Tourist Guidebooks Tell the Story of the District of
Columbia?

January 2000

by

Mark David Richards

and

Cherith Anne Richards

About the Authors

Mark Richards is a sociologist who has lived in a variety of District
neighborhoods (Mt. Pleasant, Columbia Heights, Kalorama, Georgetown, Dupont Circle) for 15
years.  He currently lives in Dupont East near
the “17^th Street Strip,” and works as senior associate at Bisconti
Research, Inc., an opinion research firm, in Woodley Park. 
Richards was born in Pennsylvania, and has lived in North Carolina; Kentucky; Paris
and Strasbourg, France; Bouaké, Ivory Coast; and Tombouctou and Diré, Mali.   He speaks French.  Richards authored “Making Up Our Mind in a Democratic Age:  A Review of the Social Science Literature on Land
Use Decision Making,” (June 1994);
“Searching for Environmental Justice in a Democratic Age:  Review of the Discourse on Environmental
Inequality,” (July 1996); “Case Study
of Neighborhood Identity: Washington, D.C.’s Dupont East Neighborhood” (April
1997); “How a Modern Electricity Company Went
to the Roots of Democracy to Build Public Trust” (September 1997); and “Struggle for Democracy: A Local Sociopolitical History
of Washington, D.C.” (1998).  He also developed a series of fact sheets on
DC, and is writing “Hope and Delusion in the Nation’s Capital: Struggle for
Democracy in the District of Columbia,” his doctoral thesis for The Union
Institute, which he is doing for fun.  He
doesn’t want to read another guidebook about DC for a long time.

Cherith Richards is a student of sociology at The University of
Maryland in College Park, where she resides.  She
works as Research Assistant for Bisconti Research, Inc. 
She was born in North Carolina, and lived in Greensboro where she researched
discontinued patterns while working at Replacements Ltd., the “world’s largest
china, crystal, and flatware company.”  She
also lived in Paris, France, Bouaké, Ivory Coast, and grew up in Tombouctou and Diré,
Mali.  She is one of a few Americans who
speaks Songhai like a native Malian.  She also
speaks French.  She has traveled throughout
the Caribbean where she worked on a cruise ship for a couple years.

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Why and How We Conducted This
Evaluation

DC residents host over 20 million visitors
annually.  Visitors come to the nation’s
symbolic center to see the federal institutions and to learn about the nation’s
history and heroes.  Washington, DC—known
worldwide as the capital of Democracy—is packed with museums documenting the story of
the ongoing American experiment in self-government.  Most
federal museums and monuments are located within the National Capital Service Area (NCSA). 

Outside the monumental core there are over one
hundred neighborhoods that are not located in any state. 
These neighborhoods are animated by half-a-million residents who call the District
home.  The story of local DC parallels the
story of the nation—but it is not the same story. 
It is a unique story that is both important and interesting.  The objective of this study was to evaluate how
well tourist guidebooks cover this story.

To evaluate the guidebooks for benchmarking, a list of important
historic and current sociopolitical facts about the District of Columbia was developed by
Mark Richards and circulated among Stand Up for Democracy in DC Coalition members,
grassroots and civic leaders, and individuals knowledgeable about DC.  They reviewed the list of facts for
comprehensiveness and accuracy.  The facts
(“factors”) clustered into the following six categories
(“indicators”): 

• Local self-government and home rule
• Population and economy
• National representation
• Congressional authority
• DC citizens’ historic struggle for equal citizenship rights
• DC’s contribution to the nation

We visited bookstores with extensive tourist guidebook
selections—Borders Books, B. Dalton Bookseller, Crown Books, and Kramerbooks &
Afterwords, Lambda Rising—and purchased the latest editions of guidebooks to
Washington, DC.  We included “newcomers
guides” and three guides published (available via Internet) by the Washington
DC Convention and Visitors Association.  We
excluded single issue guidebooks (children, concierge, dining, mystery, etc.). 

Altogether, we evaluated 26 guidebooks.  We read each one and identified statements of fact
similar to those on our list and typed the quote and page number where the information can
be found (see “Verbatim quotes from tourist guidebooks”). 

There are 40 statements of fact (factors).  We calculated the percentage of tourist guidebooks
that mentioned each factor.  The total number
of guidebooks (26) equals 100%.  If a factor
was mentioned in 10 of 26 guidebooks, that is 38% of the total. 

The 40 factors were clustered into six main indicators.  The score for an indicator is the average
of all the scores for each factor in that indicator. 
Numbers were rounded.

Guidebooks Evaluated (For complete information, see end of
report):

• Access — Washington DC (1998)
• African American Heritage and Multicultural Guide by the Washington DC Convention and
  Visitors Association (1999)
• Backstreet Guides — Moving to Washington, DC: The Practical Companion to Your New
  City, From Settling in to Stepping Out (1996)
• Berlitz Washington, DC Pocket Guide (1999)
• Econoguide: Washington, DC, Williamsburg (2000)
• Fodor’s City Guide Washington, District of Columbia: The Ultimate Sourcebook for
  City Dwellers (1999)
• Frommer’s Irreverent Guide to Washington, DC (1999)
• Frommer’s Washington, DC From $60 a Day: The Ultimate Guide to Comfortable Low-Cost
  Travel (1998)
• Gay and Lesbian Traveler’s Guide by the Washington DC Convention and Visitors
  Association (1999)
• The Guide to Black Washington—Places and Events of Historical and Cultural
  Significance in the Nation’s Capital (1999)
• Idiot’s Travel Guide to Washington, DC (1999)
• Insight Guides: Washington, DC (1997)
• Let’s Go Washington, DC (1998)
• Lonely Planet Travel Survival Kit: Washington, DC & the Capital Region (1997)
• Mastering DC: A Newcomer’s Guide to Living in the Washington, DC Area (1998)
• Michelin–Washington, DC (1997)
• National Geographic’s Driving Guides to America — Washington, DC, and
  Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware (1996)
• Newcomer’s Handbook for Washington (1997)
• The Rough Guide to Washington, DC (1997)
• The Smithsonian Guides to Historic America: Virginia
  and the Capital Region — Washington, DC, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware (1998)
• Travel & Leisure — Washington, DC: The Complete Guide for the Discriminating
  Traveler (1997)
• Ulysses Travel Guide: Washington, DC (1998)
• The Unofficial Guide to Washington, DC (1998)
• Washington, DC: The American Experience—Visitor’s Guide to Washington, DC by
  the Washington DC Convention and Visitors Association (1999)
• The Washington Historical Atlas: Who Did What When and Where in the Nation’s
  Capital (1992)
• Washington On Foot (1992)

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Acknowledgements

Francine Cary, Editor of Urban Odyssey: A Multicultural
History of Washington, D.C. and former Executive Director of the DC Humanities
Council, encouraged me to pursue this project.

Members of the Stand Up for Democracy in DC Coalition provided
helpful review and comment, and provided needed encouragement to bring the project to
fruition.

George LaRoche, Attorney for the Adams v. Clinton
lawsuit, spent a great deal of time reviewing the statements for detail, precision, and
accuracy.  His critique was tremendously
helpful.

My sister and colleague, Cherith Richards, a student of
sociology at the University of Maryland, volunteered to help conduct the analysis.  She spent hours doing the hard work of tabulating
and transcribing quotes from the books.

A host of
individuals knowledgeable about DC history and civic life provided encouragement, review,
and/or helpful comments.  They include:  Bob Arnebeck, Author, Through A Fiery
Trial: Building Washington 1790-1800; Kenneth R. Bowling, Co-Editor, First
Federal Congress Project and Author, The Creation of Washington, D.C.; Timothy
Cooper, President, Democracy First, The
Statehood Solidarity Committee; Winnie Gallant, Community Activist;
Matthew Gilmore, Librarian, Washingtoniana
Division, District of Columbia Public Library; Bette Hoover, Director of American Friends Service Committee/DC Peace
& Economic Justice Program; Anise Jenkins, Community Activist and
Secretary of Stand Up for Democracy in DC Coalition; Eugene D. Kinlow, Jr.,  Secretary and Trustee of the Committee
of 100 and Community Activist; Florence Pendleton, Shadow Senator, District of
Columbia; Jamin Raskin, Professor of Law, Washington College of Law, American
University; Counsel for the Alexander v. Daley lawsuit; Peter Schott,
Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner; Tom Sherwood, Author, Dream City: Race,
Power, and the Decline of Washington, D.C.; NBC TV4 reporter; Kathryn Schneider
Smith, Executive Director, DC Heritage Tourism Coalition; Editor, Washington At Home and
Author, Port Town To Urban Neighborhood: The Georgetown Waterfront of Washington,D.C.
1880-1920; Sam Smith, Author, Captive Capital: Colonial Life in
Modern Washington; The Statehood Papers:
Articles On D.C. Statehood 1970-1991, and Editor, Free DC News Service, Paul
Strauss, Shadow Senator, District of Columbia, and Karen Szulgit, Community
Activist.

In the end, inaccuracies are my responsibility and I welcome critique
— learning is lifelong.

Mark David Richards

George Washington, 1732-1799

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Summary of Findings

Introduction

The story of the District of Columbia is unique, important, and
interesting.  It is a story that a good writer
can tell fairly well in a few pages.  It is a
story that few have heard, but many would be interested to know.  Where would one expect visitors to Washington, DC
to hear about this important story?  One would
expect tourist guidebooks to tell it—but do they?

An article in The Washington Post (“Misguided,”
April 19, 1998) pointed out that travel guidebooks in general are frequently unreliable
and of a quality that is “widely uneven, ranging from highly detailed and insightful
to disorganized compilations of public relations handouts.”  Our question was specific to DC—how well do
guidebooks to Washington, DC cover the local angle—DC’s story?  And what do they tell?  With this project, we set out to answer that
question.

The Invisible District

L’Enfant’s “City of Magnificent Distances” has
been called many things.  Most guidebooks
mention that Charles Dickens called Washington City the “City of Magnificent
Intentions.”  From our study, local DC
appears to be mostly invisible, hidden amorphously in the shadows of the spotlights
focused on the federal institutions it hosts.  Although
not realistic to expect to find all we searched for, some information would seem to be
important in understanding DC.  DC’s
story can be told with a few pages and in a timeline. 
Yet half of the facts that we searched for were not mentioned in even one of the 26
guidebooks, including:

• That DC is responsible for most state, county, and city functions was omitted by all
  guides;
• That the local economy is larger than the economies of 14 states, that DC pays more
  federal taxes than 6 states, and more per person than all but one state was omitted by all
  guides;
• Over 80 percent failed to mention that Congress has exclusive legislative authority over
  DC and what that means;
• Over 75 percent failed to mention that DC does not control its own local $4.6 billion
  budget and what that means;
• Over 70 percent failed to mention that DC citizens do not have voting representatives in
  Congress and what that means;
• Not one guidebook mentioned that DC’s local court judges are appointed by the
  President;
• Not one guidebook mentioned that the federal government is the largest land owner, uses
  local services, exempts non-profits at will, and pays no taxes or compensation;
• Not one guidebook mentioned that DC citizens have struggled for 200 years to gain equal
  citizenship rights—not one guide mentioned DC’s attempt to pass a Constitutional
  Amendment, and over 75% failed to mention DC’s attempt to become the state of New
  Columbia;
• And maybe not so surprising since they are so current, not one guidebook mentioned the
  two pending DC lawsuits against the federal government;
• And, not one mentioned the Statehood Solidarity Committee’s petition against the
  federal government before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

Perhaps most astonishing is that no guidebook recognizes
DC citizens as having made any contributions to the Capital District.  Their role as host to the nation’s federal
institutions over 200 years has been completely omitted, despite that they sacrificed
their most important right, equal citizenship, because when the federal Constitution was
written the states felt exclusive legislative authority by Congress was needed for
security reasons.  Overall, guidebooks scored
a 1.5 of a possible 100—that’s almost as low as they can go.

Despite this grim assessment of coverage of DC’s
story, some guidebooks were much better than others (see Table 1).  Guidebooks from England and France, countries that
have had a historic interest in the United States… scored highest in telling
DC’s story.  Also high on the list are
guides from former British colonies—Canadian and Australian rooted guidebooks.  Two guidebooks with regional roots scored quite
high also.  On the other hand, “newcomers
guides,” Smithsonian guides, and DC’s own “official” guides chose to
largely omit DC’s story and focus on the federal story or commercial interests. 

Here is a brief description of the guides from top to
bottom:

The Winners—Michelin and The Rough
Guide—covered 30 percent of the information.  Both
guides have European roots (Michelin in France and Rough in England).  Michelin, in good Cartesian form, offers an
excellent US history, maps, charts and diagrams, a timeline, cross references, and further
sources of reading.  It’s slim, so
won’t weigh down the shoulder bag.  Rough,
true to its name when it comes to graphic design, provides a nice city history and a
section on “The Planning of a Capital City,” and “Governing DC.”  The commentary is rich, and may warm DC
activists’ hearts and give Congress heartburn (“shunned by the white political
aristocracy, the city is run as a virtual colony of Congress…”).

2^nd tier—Ulysses (25%),
Frommer’s Washington, DC From $60 a Day (23%), and Lonely Planet (23%) score
high on telling DC’s story;  Ulysses, Canadian,
is a compact reading pleasure; while not so interesting graphically, it offers a nice
history of the US, and weaves local DC into the story with “Democracy in the Capital
of the Democracy,” and “Citizens Who Don’t Vote.” Ulysses even
reminds that the War of 1812 in which the US capital was torched by the English was
related to US expansionism into Canada.  Frommer’s offers a wealth of information for the budget conscious
traveler, including a full city map and discount coupons (look out Source Theatre, here I
come!).  Lonely Planet, head office in Australia, is like the other
Anglo-rooted books in that it is graphically challenged, but packed with
information—like the Canadian guide, starting with prehistory of the Americas, native
peoples, and a step-by-step tour through US history. 
It offers maps as well as information about the whole Capital region.  The Berlitz pocket guide is the most compact of touring guides,
with glossy photographs and nice text.  It has
a brief history of the capital city.

3^rd tier—Frommer’s Irreverent
Guide, Guide to Black Washington, and Washington Historical Atlas—covered
20 percent. 
These guides were produced by regional authors. 
Irreverent is a bit funny and annoying at the same time (it takes
potshots at locals).  It is the only guide
that tells “how to find out what’s really going on with the D.C.
government”—by tuning in to WAMU’s FM 88.5  
DC Politics Hour with Mark Plotkin Friday’s at noon, and it packs a lot
of practical information into few pages.  Guide to Black Washington tells some of the most in-depth and accurate
sociopolitical information and shouldn’t be limited to an African-American audience.  Graphically simple, it is organized by
neighborhood, provides excellent information about places and people, and links these to
African-American history.  The Washington Atlas, like the Guide to Black Washington, should be
on every local’s bookshelf.  It is also
organized by area, then by building or historic site. 
It provides a wealth of historic information, linked to specific buildings and
neighborhoods, and provides a timeline.  The
Washington Atlas mentioned more DC neighborhoods than any other guide (40 of 114
neighborhoods mentioned).

4^th  tier—Let’s
Go (18%), Econoguide (15%), National Geographic’s Driving Guide (15%,) and
Travel and Leisure (15%).  Let’s
Go is written by 200 Harvard students and
provides lots of good info and deals for the budget conscious traveler.  Although printed on low-quality paper, it contains
a wealth of information and maps.  Like most
of the guides, it has factual errors (this one jumped out: “In May 1870, Congress
gave Washington the right to choose a mayor.  Deputy
Mayor Alexander “Boss” Shepherd took charge de facto in 1871.”  Congress, in fact, picked a Governor FOR DC.)  But, Let’s Go does discuss statehood—under the heading
“State of Confusion.”  Econoguide provides a nice little history of “the Capital
City, the story of Washington, DC, “ but like others leaves most of the local DC
story out.  It provides discount coupons and
good information, but is weak on maps.  National Geographic is a high-gloss, well-designed publication that covers
not only DC but also Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland and Delaware.  Travel
and Leisure, written by a former Washington
Post staff writer, is a slim and trim, nicely written, hardback guide that is mostly
upbeat about DC’s future.  It offers a
brief history, a timeline, and nice maps.

5^th tier—Access and Insight
Guides—covered 13 percent.  Access
is organized by neighborhood, offers maps, and has a 3-page timeline history.  Insight is a high-gloss beautifully
designed guide with excellent photographs and a pleasing narrative that weaves the local
into the national.  However, it is a bit
select in what facts it chooses to tell and has a point-of-view that sounds a bit suburban
DC—here’s how it describes “Washington’s four faces:”  “There is the Washington that is most
generally conjured up the name—the administrative city that governs the vast military
and bureaucratic machine… Then there is social Washington, hovering not so discreetly
behind the closed doors … of the exclusive salons of Georgetown, Kalorama and Embassy
Row… The third Washington is referred to by both its white and its African American
residents as ‘Chocolate City’ –- the 70 percent black Washington known as
the crack and murder capital of the world.  …But
there is a fourth Washington, and it is this Washington that is finally forcing the
capital into becoming a coherent, normal place to live, functioning beyond the shadow of
the Capitol.  It is the Washington that lies
outside the District of Columbia line.”

6^th tier—Smithsonian Guides to
Historic America (5%), The Unofficial Guide (5%), Backstreet Guide (3%),
Fodor’s City Guide (3%), and African-American Heritage and Multicultural Guide (3%)
all have one thing in common—they don’t tell much about local DC. The
Smithsonian Guide, titled “Virginia & the National Capital Region”(shouldn’t
that be Washington, DC and the Capital Region?) is a high-gloss publication with
beautiful photographs.  The African-American
Heritage and Multicultural Guide is a nice publication of the Washington DC
Convention and Visitors Association, but it omits local sociopolitical history so
important to African Americans in DC and so well articulated in the Guide to Black
Washington.

The Losers—The following guides excluded
DC’s story altogether: Gay and Lesbian Traveler’s Guide (an otherwise excellent publication of the Washington DC
Convention and Visitors Association), Mastering
DC Newcomers Guide, Newcomer’s Handbook, Washington, DC: The American
Experience, (also by the
Washington DC Convention and Visitors Association), Washington on Foot (an otherwise wonderful book by the National Capital
Area Chapter American Planning Association and Smithsonian Institution Press), and the Idiots Guide.   The Idiots Guide informs readers that “This book isn’t for
idiots.  It just shows you how to visit a town
full of them.  Despite the crazy mentality
here, I still get a thrill every time I’m in the city, and so will you.”

Guidebooks one might expect to score high on telling
DC’s local history, such as newcomer guides, Smithsonian guides, and those produced
by DC’s own Convention and Visitors Association, scored in the bottom tiers.  DC’s three guides, available over the
Internet (www.washington.org), are attractive and
free publications packed with useful information.  The
American Experience is mainly a resource book with listings.  It does have a one page listing of 13
neighborhoods, which it uses as a legend throughout the guide.  The Gay and Lesbian and Multicultural
Guides demonstrate that DC is making an effort to be inclusive.  Each one offers an interesting history of the
respective identity group and their link to DC.  The
sociopolitical history is perhaps more important to these two groups than to others, yet
there is little mention of it.  The Multicultural
Guide mentions home rule and ANCs in passing.  Perhaps
the abysmal scores by DC’s own can be attributed to fear of being perceived as
“political,” or fear that if they mentioned the local story, important to
residents, Congress might use its power to harm them in some way.  It is well know that local officials and political
elites factor in the Congressional presence into their local actions. 

Table 1

Best to Worst

Ranking of 26 Guides on Coverage of Local DC Historical and Political Information

Total Factors
(Out of 40) Mentioned in Guidebook

Newcomers Guides

The Backstreet Guide,
ranking next to last on sociopolitical issues, claims to give an “insider
perspective,” because “[o]ur writers grew up in these cities, lived in them, and
have loved them for years.  The listings in
this book come from the ‘insider’s perspective—from the native’s body
of knowledge about the city—not from what other guides, magazines, newspapers, and
ratings sources say,” and asks readers to think of them as your “all-knowing
friends.”  Backstreet provides
useful information for newcomers, including information about some neighborhoods (Adams
Morgan, Capitol Hill, Cathedral Heights, Cleveland Park, Dupont Circle, Foggy Bottom,
Georgetown, Glover Park, Mount Pleasant, Tenleytown, Woodley Park) and the suburbs.  About Mount Pleasant, the guide notes that
“Property crime is more or less guaranteed.” 
About Foggy Bottom, it notes that “The odd name… dates to when the
nation’s capital was little more than a swamp.  …It
is made up of students and well-heeled bureaucrats.”

Mastering DC, ranking last on informing newcomers about
sociopolitical issues, points out that when it comes to neighborhoods, “there is
something for everyone,” from urban neighborhoods to suburban cities and towns.  Mastering DC provides information on a many
of DC’s neighborhoods (it scores second highest on this measure, having mentioned 37
neighborhoods).  It offers general maps
showing neighborhood locations, as well as a good overview of the metro region.  There is a chapter on “Dealing with the Local
Bureaucracy.”

Newcomer’s Handbook
also ranked last in our evaluation.  It did,
however, note that DC “isn’t just a government town anymore.”  It reassures newcomers with “Don’t worry
about being a newcomer—in Washington almost everybody is or was.  There are native Washingtonians, of course, but
they are greatly outnumbered…  Few
Washingtonians have old family or neighborhood ties in the area.”  It says that “Washington isn’t one city.  The Washington metropolitan area… is actually
a city and two states…  although they are
very close geographically, they are oceans apart philosophically.”  It notes that “DC is also more political.  Residents only attained limited self government a
few decades ago and they take their local politics seriously.”  Newcomer says that “Washington’s
crime is concentrated.  …drive-by
shootings and gang slayings … usually occur in the Northeast and Southeast
quadrants… Most Washingtonians who live and work outside these areas of the city do
not witness the daily violence firsthand.  …And
fewer people are willing to take a chance on moving into fringe communities like Mount
Pleasant, Southwest…”  It says that
“Congress created [Rock Creek] park more than 100 years ago when the area was rapidly
becoming the unofficial dump.”  It
provides information on Georgetown, Foggy Bottom, Dupont Circle, Adams Morgan, New U,
Kalorama, Connecticut Avenue Corridor, Cleveland Park, American University Park, and
Capital Hill, as well as the suburbs.

Frequently Mentioned Topics

North/South Compromise,
Virginia & Maryland Land—Most guides note that the location was born of a
compromise between the north and the south, and land was ceded by Virginia and Maryland;
many note that Virginia’s portion retroceded.  Treatment
of retrocession is quite different from guide to guide—Access says Virginians
changed their minds and asked for it back, Fodor’s says the quarters of DC are
very uneven because the southern quarters lost all their area to Virginia in the
retrocession, Michelin says Alexandrians became disillusioned and felt they had
suffered economically and politically as part of the District, Rough Guide says
slave-owning Alexandrians were opposed to being in the District to begin with and few were
sorry when Virginia demanded its land back, while The Unofficial Guide declares
that Virginia “snatched its lands back.”

Home Rule—Although
most guides didn’t explain “home rule” or what it means, over half
mentioned that DC gained home rule in 1973.

The “Boss”—Forty-eight
percent mentioned the Territorial government, the wonderful municipal improvements made by
“Boss” Shepherd, and many attributed his work to making the city a real city.  Quite a few mention the debt he created, but only
10 percent mentioned that he was appointed by the President, not elected, and only The
Guide to Black Washington explained how the “Boss’s” mismanagement was
used by Congress to blame the city and snatch away the vote, mainly to cut out newly
enfranchised blacks.  The different ways in
which guidebooks treat “The Boss” is interesting (see detailed quotes for the
flavor).

Table 2

Most Frequently Mentioned Items

The Blur

One common problem in the
guidebooks is that local DC is frequently blurred with the federal government.  Very often, DC history is merged into text about
federal history, with no distinction made—as if the authors couldn’t quite sort
out the differences.  Often DC is presented
as Uncle Sam’s “company town,” subsidized by the American public, and the
federal image—politicians, bureaucrats, lawyers, and deal makers—is superimposed
onto local DC.

Frommer’s Irreverent
Guide, which claims to be written by “insiders,” with “nothing to sell
but the truth” quotes the 1951 Washington Confidential, informing visitors
that Washington is “’a made-to-order architectural paradise with the political
status of an Indian reservation, inhabited by 800,000 economic parasites; no industries
but one, government, and the tradesmen and servants and loafers and scum that feed on the
highest average per capita income in the world, where exist the soundest security, the
mightiest power, and the most superlative rates of crime, vice, and juvenile delinquency
anywhere.’ (Things are different now; there are only about 600,000 parasites.)
…Washington is also a city of paper pushers (okay, computer inputters now).  It produces hardly anything except laws, policy,
and opinions.”

Topical Indicators

Of the six indicators to
measure coverage of DC’s sociopolitical history, not one scored over 25 out of a possible 100, indicating little depth of coverage on the issues.

Figure 1

Depth of Coverage

Average Score on Six Topical Areas

26 Tourist Guidebooks

Coverage of DC’s Neighborhoods

We incorporated a simple measure to evaluate the scope of neighborhood coverage.  We identified which guides mentioned the most
neighborhoods (Table 3) and which neighborhoods were mentioned most frequently overall
(Table 4).  Neighborhoods mentioned most were
usually given most extensive coverage, while others were mentioned in passing or in
reference to a building or historic event.  We
did not evaluate quality of neighborhood coverage.

Table 3

Scope of Neighborhood Coverage: Best to Worst

Ranking of 26 Guidebooks

Number of Neighborhoods Mentioned in Each Guide (Out of 114 Checked)

Table 4

Most Frequently Mentioned Neighborhoods — Top to Bottom

No. of Neighborhoods Mentioned (Out of 114 Checked) in 26 Guidebooks