Forty or so miles down Interstate 95 in Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser confronts a curious dilemma. It seems a certain local resident doesn’t think very much of the job she’s been doing leading the District of Columbia and, specifically, has a major gripe with the amount of crime, graffiti and homelessness in the nation’s capitol.

Under most circumstances, such criticism might be overlooked as the rantings of a local resident. But given it’s coming from the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue who has the power to do much good (or harm) to her city, Mayor Bowser is in a tough spot.

So far, she’s been careful not to attack President Donald Trump directly and has merely suggested to reporters that the possibility of a federal takeover of D.C. — a prospect both Trump and certain members of Congress have raised once again — is a “distraction” from the important work of making the District a better place to live.

The history of D.C.’s governance structure reveals much about the current situation.

In 1973, during the Nixon administration, Congress passed the Home Rule Act, granting the nation’s capital, among other things, the power to establish its own city council for self-governance. The D.C. city council was, and remains, constrained in executing specific actions, with Congress retaining ultimate authority to impose its will on the city. However, the Home Rule Act conferred upon them an important power that was unavailable to them for some time: the ability to democratically elect public officials to create and enact laws.

The governance of D.C. has undergone significant transformations seemingly every decade or so. After it was fully constructed in the early 1800’s, a mayor was appointed by the President alongside a democratically elected city council.

Subsequently, the mayor became democratically elected. Things then changed, and this was followed by a system where one chamber of the city council was appointed by the president while the other was democratically elected.

Eventually, self-governance was entirely abolished in favor of a three-member board of commissioners overseeing the city. This was succeeded by a governance structure comprising a mayor-commissioner, an assistant mayor-commissioner, and a nine-member city council, all appointed by the president.

This lasted for nearly a century until, finally, the current system came into place which features a democratically elected mayor and a 13-member democratically elected city council.

The bottom line? D.C. residents have been fighting for self-governance for generations, and at this point, they likely just want to be left to govern themselves in peace.

But can Congress and the president be solely blamed for all the insanity? D.C. has more at stake than the average U.S. city. It is the nation’s capital after all, and the most powerful people and most important secrets of our nation live there. That’s why, despite it having home rule since 1973, there are still restrictions on what Bowser and members of the D.C. Council can do as Congress still has broad jurisdiction over the nation’s capital.

And Trump’s complaints aren’t wholly without merit. D.C. does have a crime and drug problem. But what must be maddening to full-time District residents is that the head of the federal government’s executive branch already has the ability to address some of that city’s greatest needs.

These problems have been persisting long before Trump came into office. So why hasn’t a single administration, including Trump, partnered with the city to make meaningful change? Why tout silliness like the “Bringing Oversight to Washington and Safety to Every Resident Act” or “BOWSER” (Get it?) that would repeal home rule and deny local residents what little self-governance they now enjoy?

What’s clearly needed here is a history lesson and we’re not talking about a review of the U.S. Constitution and Article I’s requirement that the nation’s seat of government be sited in a federal district apart from states. No, we’re talking about the long and troubling history of D.C. residents being treated as political pawns, subjected to the whims of the federal government like an ongoing experiment in governance.

We would gently remind Trump and any future president that the District is still part of the United States and deserves better.

You want greener, safer, more prosperous spaces? Well, we do, too. Now, how about we find ways to make that happen and recognize that we have a shared interest, investment (and governance role) in our cities, our counties, our states and our nation?

_____

©2025 The Baltimore Sun. Visit at baltimoresun.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.