GOOD LETTER to the Washington City Paper: “I read the Feb. 7 Loose Lips column on congressional voting rights for D.C. with an all-too-familiar feeling of disappointment. Once again, a local media outlet frames it in terms of D.C. statehood, as if that were the only method available. Once again, a local writer castigates those mean old Republicans for denying statehood, because D.C. is overwhelmingly Democratic across all racial and income barriers, and would send Democratic representatives–and, especially, two Democratic senators–to Congress.

“I have lived in the District for over 40 years, and I could count on one hand the number of times I have seen local commentators mention (briefly) a far simpler method: retrocession of the District to Maryland, with a small federal core downtown preserved for government buildings.[clipped]

“John Lockwood, Cathedral Heights”

Lockwood doesn’t mention the other reason statehood will never happen: D.C.’s finances would collapse. No city can support itself without suburbs to draw revenue from. D.C. would need the same massive cash infusions from the federal government that it gets now, but statehood would have removed the rationale for those infusions. D.C., like pretty much any city, is incapable of being a stand-alone state.

My (egregiously long) post about statehood follies is here.