For Visitors, the Capital Is Copacetic

The intersection of 14th and F Streets NW, looking south, is closed off and deserted. (Gerald Martineau — The Washington Post) Related Links News From Today's Post: NATO Softens Conditions The Nightmare That Wasn't Summit Notebook Becoming 'Frontline' States Rise in Arrests of Mentally Ill Skipping NATO to Meet Middies From Style: NATO & the Zen of Summitry For NATO, Toasts Without Bubbly Q&A: How to Prepare Map of Street, Office Closings

By Philip P. Pan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, April 24, 1999; Page B1

Zurich newspaperman Markus Spillmann took a break from the NATO summit, gazed across the quiet, majestic boulevard that 14th Street NW had become and shared his impressions of Washington in spring.

"There just aren't very many stress factors here," he said, in all seriousness. "The traffic is not so bad. The people are friendly. It's all so calm. It's very nice.

"It's much better than three or four years ago. It looks like a lot of buildings have been refurbished and cleaned up, and you don't see as many poor people on the streets anymore."

Then he added: "It's a little too calm. I prefer New York."

If the District didn't put on its best face for the thousands of foreign diplomats and journalists who converged on the city yesterday, it certainly put on its cleanest one. With much of downtown closed and lined with security, summit participants glimpsed a city so serene and orderly it ceased to resemble the one that most residents here know.

Lisbon journalist Eduardo Mascarenhas compared it to Moscow under communist rule, a capital sanitized for the outsiders. "It's nice, but it looks a little fake for Washington," he said. "I'm sure if you go a little bit out of the area, you'll see the same old problems: the violence, the drugs, the people trying to rob you."

But most visitors were far more charitable. There were compliments about the hotels, the restaurants, the overall performance of summit organizers, the scenery. "Look how everything is blooming," remarked the Romanian foreign minister, Andrei Gabriel Plesu, as a motorcade whisked him through the city.

Several delegates mentioned pleasant meals in Georgetown. Others said they loved Adams-Morgan. The Greeks singled out the Greek-influenced architecture. The Azerbaijanis were wowed with a side trip to the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis. Daniel Domanovsky, a reporter from Slovakia, said he liked the "policemen in golf carts," referring to the Secret Service agents patrolling the empty streets downtown.

"Very unusual. A nice touch," he said. "Everything is going well."

There were scattered complaints, of course. A Belgian cameraman didn't get his morning wake-up call. A Turkish diplomat was barred from an important Kosovo meeting because of a bureaucratic foul-up. Countless European journalists griped about not being able to smoke indoors. Pavel Swieboda, a member of the Polish delegation, said he found the summit cuisine less than impressive. "Don't people use seasoning here?" he asked.

But most visitors gave high marks to the city, or at least the version of the city they saw.

Niels Helveg Petersen, the Danish foreign minister, said he arrived at Dulles International Airport, enjoyed "trouble-free access" to the Watergate hotel and immediately took his son, a member of the Danish Parliament, out for dinner.

"We had no practical problems getting down to Georgetown and finding a restaurant and treating him to a meal," Petersen said. "But I had a special car, so we had no problems getting anything."

The Hungarian delegation also took in the sights in a style befitting visiting dignitaries – in limousines, not crowded tour buses. They spent the morning at Mount Vernon and the afternoon at the Smithsonian's Museum of American History, where a favorite turned out to be the First Ladies exhibit.

Janos Horvath, a Hungarian parliament member, had nothing but praise for every aspect of his stay, from the Madison Hotel – "a competent hotel, very well equipped" – to the District's appearance. "It looks very impressive, very clean, very orderly," he said.

He said the city looked even better than on his previous visits. "I don't know the current Washington, D.C., politics, but from my impressions, I want to say that as an economist and as a political person, the city must be well managed."

Danish Prime Minister Poul Nyrup Rasmussen also complimented District and federal officials for making the city a hassle-free zone for them.

"I'm delighted to be in Washington," he said. "I have nothing to complain upon. . . . I could imagine there would be some differences if you did not have the policeman to guide us. But everything has functioned okay and all right."

The Portuguese prime minister, Antonio Guterres, said the summit preparations were "perfect." His defense minister, Jose Veiga Simoa, said of the city: "Better traffic, more organized. . . . It's a good look."

Other visiting heads of state struggled to get a sense of the nation's capital beyond the bubble of security and luxury in which they had been placed.

"Where we are? Can you show me?" Latvian President Guntis Ulmanis asked a reporter after a 40-minute interview on NATO policy, European diplomacy and Kosovo. Ulmanis pulled out a map of Washington and smiled when the reporter pointed to the dot that is the Omni Shoreham in Woodley Park.

The most common complaint was about how the city seemed to shut down at night. "I love the town. You smell power here," said Vasco Colares, a spokesman for the Portuguese defense minister. "It's a pity it dies on weekends."

Members of the Greek delegation asked around about Greek nightclubs in the District. They were chagrined to learn the nearest one is in Baltimore.

Polish journalists Jan Skorzynski and Krzysztof Darewicz also headed for Baltimore, to see an exhibit of 17th-century Baroque art by Polish masters.

"As far as we know, Washington is a suburb of Baltimore," Skorzynski said.

Darewicz said he loved Washington's green, open space and flora. He was impressed with the public access for the disabled – "we don't have that in Europe," he said – and the relative scarcity of billboards and McDonald's restaurants. He also liked the fact the city is not overwhelmed by concrete canyons created by towering skyscrapers. But he said he wouldn't mind a little more hustle and bustle or joie de vivre.

"I always thought Washington as the capital of the wealthy superpower, the most powerful country in the world, should in a sense reflect this powerfulness. But it doesn't. It's flat," Darewicz said.

Summit participants repeatedly compared Washington with New York and found Washington lacking. "I like it for a couple of days," chuckled Belgian Defense Minister Derycke, who has been in Washington a few times before. "It's a very beautiful city, but politically very tense. And to Belgian standards, it's not too exciting."

His spokesman, Andre Rubbens, is on his first trip to the U.S. capital. "In comparison with New York, Washington seems, if you allow me to say, quite provincial," he said. "But it's beautiful."

Other foreign diplomats, perhaps the most Washingtonian of the visitors, said they were simply too busy with politics to sightsee and form an impression of the District.

"During the summit," said Petr Burianek, a member of the Czech delegation, "It's impossible to do anything but the summit."