KBH's Dangerous Digs

Many senators rent apartments or townhouses in the District or Virginia, but many of those that have served longest have become homeowners in the District.

For instance, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) resides on Whitehaven Street near the Naval Observatory, while across the Normanstone greenbelt, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Ten.) lives in a stately residence on Woodland Drive in Massachusetts Avenue Heights. During the 2004 election cycle election, we had the first true hometown ticket, with Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and then-Sen. John Edwards (D-N.C.) living one street away from one another in Georgetown.

According to a recent Post article, 44 of the Senate's 100 members own homes in D.C., 22 of which were recently caught exploiting a city law that allows for breaks and exemptions on property taxes for residents who own homes (but not for homeowners that claim residency in another state, as many senators do). Sen. Hutchison was one of these twenty-two, alongside twelve Republicans, eight Democrats, and one independent. This hint allowed DCist to explore District home ownership records, giving an interesting insight into the neighborhood Sen. Hutchison calls home.

Hutchison owns and lives in a stately Capitol Hill rowhouse in the Stanton Park neighborhood of Capitol Hill, at left, half-way between Maryland Avenue NE and Massachusetts Avenue NE and a stones-throw away from the U.S. Capitol, the Supreme Court, and Senate office buildings. Trees line the streets, couples walk their dogs and frequent nearby outdoors cafes and bars, and rowhouse after rowhouse speak to a neighborhood steeped in Washington history and closely linked to the city's most prominent political players and nearby Congress.

While the house sits in Ward 6 -- a sprawling and diverse area encompassing all of Southwest, all of Southeast west of the Anacostia River, and parts of Northeast south of Florida Avenue and Benning Road -- the demographics of Hutchison's neighborhood are closer to those of affluent Wards 2 and 3 than they are parts of Southeast and Northeast less than a mile away.

Ward 6 is 31.6 percent white and 62.6 African-American. Hutchison's house is located in a census tract where black becomes white -- 88 percent of her neighbors are white, .07 percent African-American. Eighty-six percent are college grads (compared to the 43.6 percent average for Ward 6), enjoy a per capita income of $55,797 and median household income of $58,274 (roughly $14,000 and $30,000 higher than those of Ward 6, respectively), and suffer from a poverty level that barely exceeds 3 percent (while the percentage of Ward 6 residents living below the poverty line surpasses 20 percent). The median value of single-family owner-occupied housing units in her tract is $311,000, substantially higher than the Ward 6 average of $169,802. Hutchison's home was recently valued at $607,670.00.

Hutchison's abode falls within Police Service Area (PSA) 102, pictured at right, an area that runs from East Capitol Street up Second Street on its western-most corner and extends as far north as Florida Avenue NE, moves east along Florida and meets Maryland Avenue NE at 14th Street NE, and is contained on its east flank by Ninth Street NE up until Maryland, where it cuts up towards Florida. PSA 102, though including less affluent areas north of H Street NE, is relatively safe, and is fast becoming much safer. During the first six months of 2004, the Metropolitan Police Department logged 634 criminal incidents, among those two homicides, six sexual assaults, seventy-seven robberies, one-hundred thirty-one burglaries, and one-hundred forty-two stolen cars. In the same period this year, the total number of incidents stands at 395 -- a 62 percent reduction. No homicides have yet occured, only one sexual assault has been reported, and robberies, burglaries, and stolen cars have decreased on average by 48 percent. Additionally, Hutchison's house is within the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Police Department and the U.S. Capitol Police --two distinct police forces that are well-armed, well-trained, and quick to respond to instances of crime in the area.

In promoting the legislation, Sen. Hutchison invoked the safety of the city's residents to garner support and sympathy. While there is an argument to be made that the city may well be safer if its residents are allowed to protect themselves and their properties with handguns, it is less convincing when made by a Senator whose primary residence in the District is in an affluent and generally crime-free neighborhood.

None of this is to say Sen. Hutchison cannot make this argument -- if she feels safer with a gun at her side, few demographic or criminal statistics will make her think otherwise. But residents whose neighborhoods are often beset by waves of violence and criminal activity may have a stronger argument to be made in this regard, though few have done so to date, and even fewer have garnered the support necessary to impulse a change in local gun laws.

Gun ownership in the District is clearly a debatable topic. Early last year Sandra Seegars, a member the D.C. Taxicab Commission, proposed that the city allow taxicab drivers to carry guns for self-defense, a move that was followed by a lawsuit accusing District officials of violating the Second Amendment rights of city residents. Late last year, as a similar measure was debated in the halls of Congress, the Post highlighted a city resident living in a dangerous area of Northeast who admitted sympathy with the proposal, conceding:

I might feel safer with a gun in the house. So, yes, you ask me, a gun would make me feel safer. It's what they were invented for.

One thing is District residents arguing for an end to the handgun ban. But is that argument best made by a senator seeking to fend off non-existent intruders from within the safety of her Capitol Hill home? Probably not.