The District's new ceremonial key to the city comes with a wooden box, a plaque and inscriptions in English and Latin.
It also has an imposing price tag: $2,000, or more than 20 times what mayors in New York and Chicago have charged taxpayers for the keys they hand out to visiting dignitaries.
"It's an extraordinarily substantial object for the cost that was given," said sculptor John Dreyfuss, who designed the key.
(Kevin Clark -- The Washington Post)
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A Modern Look: District officials unveiled a new ceremonial key to the city that they will present to select visiting dignitaries and has a price tag of $2,000.
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District officials said their key's sleek design is intended to celebrate the city's evolution into a thoroughly modern metropolis. And, they said, it will be given to only a select few.
On Wednesday, Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D), who helped conceive of the new key, gave the second one to Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski during a ceremony at Blair House. The first one was given last year to Jack Valenti, former head of the Motion Picture Association of America.
"We're the nation's capital. We're the most important city in the world, and this is our signature salute to someone of enormous impact and stature," Williams said yesterday in an interview.
In previous years, the District's mayors handed out an antique-style key -- one with the words "Key to the City" stripped across the spine and an image of the Capitol at the base. Sharon Gang, a spokeswoman for the mayor, said yesterday that she could not immediately provide the cost of the old keys because they were last purchased during the administrations of Marion Barry and Sharon Pratt.
Williams said he supported creating a new key to mark the dawning of a new era. "It was important to have a key that situated the city in a technology economy in the next century."
Four years ago, the District enlisted John Dreyfuss, a Georgetown sculptor, to design the replacement. Dreyfuss said his mission was to create "a new and completely modern key to the city."
The artist said he chose stainless steel as the material to "represent the new technological world that the District is a leader in." The inscription for one side of the 10-inch key is Justitia Omnibus -- Latin for "Justice to All." An English motto, chosen by the mayor, appears on the other side: "Opportunity for All." Along the key's edge, the artist made eight indentations of various shapes to represent each of the District's wards.
The price tag covers $850 for the casting, $700 to laser-engrave the words, $200 for a plaque, $130 for a presentation box and $120 for miniature renderings of the D.C. flag and map that appear on the key.
"It's an extraordinarily substantial object for the cost that was given," Dreyfuss said. "The mayor really, really, really wanted it to express the artistic point of view. It wasn't just to find a ready-made key to the city out of a trophy shop and have it engraved."
Other cities take a less-expensive approach.
New York City, for example, spends $60 on the ceremonial keys that Mayor Michael Bloomberg hands out. Chicago's mayor hasn't handed out a key since 1996, and that one cost $169, including mounting and packaging. In San Francisco, the mayor gives $150 keys that are paid for with private funds.
D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1), told of the price of the key, called it a "nice symbolic gesture" but added, "Surely it could be accomplished for less money.
"All this type of thing is open to criticism by the average person who doesn't understand why we have to spend money on this, and there's a lot to be said for that point of view."
It's not a perspective shared by fans of the key, including the mayor, who said that his aides have told him that its cost will fall over the years as more are produced. He was unable to immediately provide any details.
"We don't plan to give it to a thousand people," he said. "We plan to give it to very few people."
