General Lee's House, Arlington, Virginia

Washington DC is a city l have visited so many times over the last decade that I feel as equally at home there as I do in London. Washington is, however, not without its problems. Its financial arrangements are never less than chaotic. In May 1995, for instance, some services ground to a halt because the city could not pay its bills. The carcasses of what the television news described as 'euthanised' pets were left to rot in large bins under the remorseless glare of the hot sun. The American news media is always ready with an inelegant euphemism to conceal the realities of life. In more recent months, the stark reality of Washington's appalling financial crisis has been revealed. In the spring of 1996, the city faced a debt of $72 million. It has been re-christened the 'district of calamity', and Washington's controversial mayor, Marion Barry (who has periodically disappeared in search of 'spiritual and physical renewal'), has been stripped of all spending powers by Congress.