Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > General U.S.
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
View Poll Results: If the nation's capital moved, what city would make the best capital?
Boston 20 10.99%
New York 52 28.57%
Philadelphia 49 26.92%
Chicago 61 33.52%
Voters: 182. You may not vote on this poll

Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 08-06-2007, 01:44 PM
 
Location: Live in VA, Work in MD, Play in DC
699 posts, read 2,228,991 times
Reputation: 276

Advertisements

Do you know how much stuff and people you would need to move? I don't know if you could bring that many people and office space to an existing city without having the whole entire infrastructure crumble. We're talking about millions of people and hundreds of millions of square footage of office space.

You couldn't just move the White House, Capitol Hill, and the Supreme Court. You would have to move the Pentagon, the CIA, the FBI, the DEA, the ATF, and other federal enforcement. You would have to move hundreds if not thousands of government agencies under each department such as agriculture, commerce, education, health and human services, homeland security and so much more. And those are just listing the Executive branch agencies. Not just our government, but all the foreign diplomats, ambassadors, consulates, consultants and their staff. Military personnel. Lobbyists from every large company, organization, union, etc from every part of the country. Large government contractors and other corporations closely related to government work like Lockheed Martin as well as large organizations such as the World Bank.

Imagine all of that on top of a New York, Chicago, Boston, or Philadelphia. Or even a Houston, Atlanta, or Denver.

The city would cave in under all that weight.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 07-19-2008, 10:29 PM
 
Location: RVA
2,420 posts, read 4,694,878 times
Reputation: 1212
People who would like to see the capital moved are the same sort who would like to rewrite the Bill of Rights to suit their beliefs. However, if I had to choose, I think Las Vegas would be perfect.

I can't believe anyone seriously answered this question with Atlanta. Jesus, will people ever stop hyping the place?

Commence listing Fortune 500 companies, it's all you've got. The Olympics were a fluke and cable news is a joke.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-19-2008, 11:49 PM
 
Location: Omaha
1,137 posts, read 2,273,570 times
Reputation: 326
I think a smaller city in the middle of the country would be better, like Boulder, CO. or something. DC already has a crime problem, as comes with any major urban center, and that isn't a good thing to have with so many prominent people walking the streets trying to be safe.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-20-2008, 12:49 AM
 
Location: Houston, Texas
10,447 posts, read 49,524,546 times
Reputation: 10614
If it were up to Bush the Dictator he would choose to relocate the White House in Saudi Arabia, possibly even Bagdad. He needs to be close to his pet projects.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-20-2008, 01:01 AM
 
Location: Prepperland
18,837 posts, read 14,024,084 times
Reputation: 16504
Default You cannot move the capital

The District of Columbia aka City of Washington, was land ceded by Maryland, to the United States, In Congress Assembled. At the time of the U.S. Constitution, the Federal Government had no land to call its own. This caused a problem since wherever the government met, that created a conflict of interest, if not conflict in jurisdiction.

Technically, DC is the ONLY land that the U.S. government can claim exclusive jurisdiction outside of the States united.

If the U.S. Congress disbanded, Washington reverts back to Maryland.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-20-2008, 01:16 AM
 
Location: Chicagoland
4,027 posts, read 7,259,277 times
Reputation: 1332
If we ever moved the capital it should be to some place in Kansas because that would be close to the center of the country.

I did vote for Chicago though because it was the nearest to the center of America.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-20-2008, 01:20 AM
 
186 posts, read 637,587 times
Reputation: 132
Also, the United States had won the American Revolution (I hope we all know that lol). We were in huge debt. The government felt that the newly-founded states should foot their part of the bill. The south was against it as many of them fought for the British (loyalists) and felt the north were the ones who really supported the war. Thus, the south felt that the north should pay more to cover the debt than the south. A compromise was made and the capitol was moved from philly to washington, d.c. to be more geographically centered so that the south would have more repsresentation. At the time, they could not fly or drive, they had to travel on buggy and the weather was not always feasable (been to the south during summer or the north during winter?). So, it was moved to Washington, D.C. to be in the middle of the country to please the south and to get them to pay for some of the debt this country was in after wars and starting a country from scratch.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-20-2008, 01:29 AM
 
Location: Road Warrior
2,016 posts, read 5,564,556 times
Reputation: 836
Please do not let the feds make another hellhole of another city, if you want get rid of it or let D.C. be D.C.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-20-2008, 01:50 AM
 
Location: Prepperland
18,837 posts, read 14,024,084 times
Reputation: 16504
Quote:
Originally Posted by loboABQ View Post
Also, the United States had won the American Revolution (I hope we all know that lol).
JG: You might be surprised to learn that the U.S. did not defeat King George.

Articles of Confederation, 1777

Article I.The Stile of this confederacy shall be "The United States of America".
Article II. Each state retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every Power, Jurisdiction and right, which is not by this confederation expressly delegated to the United States, in Congress assembled.


Though the Articles were written in 1777, they were not ratified until the war was almost over. The Continental Army was not the U.S. Army. So technically, the PEOPLE defeated King George. If you doubt it, check out the TREATY.

King George did not surrender to the "United States, in Congress assembled."

Proof:

"The people of the state, as the successors of its former sovereign, are entitled to all the rights which formerly belonged to the king by his own prerogative."
Lansing v. Smith, (1829) 4 Wendell 9, (NY)

"At the Revolution, the sovereignty devolved on the people and they are truly the sovereigns of the country."
Chisholm v. Georgia, 2 Dall. 440, 463

And you thought the government was sovereign...

"Government is not Sovereignty. Government is the machinery or expedient for expressing the will of the sovereign power." City of Bisbee v. Cochise County, 78 P. 2d 982, 986, 52 Ariz. 1

Believe it or not, under international law, sovereign Americans are not obligated to bow, and have the same social status as any other monarch.
The vulgar expression, "Kiss my royal American @ss", is legally accurate.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 07-20-2008, 02:47 AM
 
Location: New England & The Maritimes
2,114 posts, read 4,892,445 times
Reputation: 1114
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2Adam29 View Post
I think a smaller city in the middle of the country would be better, like Boulder, CO. or something.
yaaaaa maaaaaaaaan
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > General U.S.

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top