Infrastructure and Inequality in Washington,D.C.: Environmental Change and Federal Management of the District’s Forgotten River

Abstract

The District of Columbia has long served as a test case for federal planning priorities. Congress has jurisdiction over the District, and has historically delegated different agencies to administer the capital on its behalf. Those agencies have been given wide latitude to build the District according to their vision for a grand and monumental capital city, often to the exclusion of city residents. This article provides a detailed history of the Kenilworth neighborhood of Washington, D.C., which was home to the city’s main garbage dump and a nearby public housing complex. The history of infrastructure in Kenilworth shows how the District has balanced the desire for a clean, monumental capital against the interests of many low-income, Black communities. By doing so, it did not isolate Kenilworth from the rest of the city, but instead deeply intertwined its fate with those of the communities surrounding it.