Capital idea

I'm now in the process of moving to Washington, DC. This really is a great city, from a planning perspective at least. Like other planned cities, among which I'll count Philadelphia, downtown New Haven, and New York north of Canal Street, L'Enfant's city follows a sensible grid pattern. It also has the diagonal streets (those named for states), which also makes sense (since the shortest distance between two points is a straight line and, separately, I think the hypotenuse of a right triangle always has to be shorter than the sum of the two legs, which, for the record, I think can be proved using the Pythagorean Theorem.

But what's especially smart about this city's planning is the height restriction in place. The popular belief is that no building in the district may be taller than the Capitol. Supposedly there's legislation to this effect, and I believe that historically there may be. Other sources seem to suggest that a modernized zoning code (one that restricts height based on the width of the street in front of the building) is in place. For a decent and believable review, see this article. If anyone knows for sure, or has a cite to where Congress' legislation on the subject may exist, I'd be interested to see it. But what matters most is that the height restrictions ensures an acceptable ratio of pedestrians to sidewalk space. This is something that most other cities--especially New York--do not enjoy.