We know D.C. Get our free newsletter to stay in the know.
Five hundred million is a number so round—resting halfway between zero and 1 billion—that it’s a convenient accounting figure. It’s the number of dollars in the U.S. Congress’s initial appropriation to finance the Civil War. It’s the maximum value of a contract awarded to construction firm Contrack International for work done in Afghanistan. Most recently, it’s about the number city officials are tossing about for a should-be-old-school-quaint ballpark that the city will build on the shores of the Anacostia river in Southeast. But before the District spends this substantial hunk of dough on a stadium, maybe it should look at some other uses for its taxpayers’ $500 million.
Item: Average D.C. public-school teacher’s salary
Cost: $64,029 per year
What $500 Million Will Get You: About 7,809 extra teachers for a year
Item: Street sweeper
Cost: About $100,000
What $500 Million Will Get You: About 5,000 sweepers
Item: Salt to melt ice on wintry roads
Cost: About $480,000 a winter
What $500 Million Will Get You: About 1,042 reasonably safe winters
Item: Renovation of Congress
Heights Recreation Center basketball and tennis courts
Cost: $300,000
What $500 Million Will Get You: About 1,667 better places to play ball
Item: Department of Public Works annual budget
Cost: Roughly $105 million
What $500 Million Will Get You: About five extra years of top-notch trash collection
Item: City Museum operating budget
Cost: $2.3 million (fiscal 2004)
What $500 Million Will Get You: About 217 more years of such exhibitions as “Chinatown: Place or People?”
Item: The lobbying services of Patton Boggs LLP
Cost: $450 per hour (average)
What $500 Million Will Get You: One partner, working on D.C. statehood 12 hours a day, seven days a week, for about 254 years
Item: Arlington County’s total property-tax assessment
Cost: Roughly $40 billion (2001)
What $500 Million Will Get You: About 1.2 percent of what should belong entirely to the District
Item: Seven-member ANC budget
Cost: $20,000 (typical)
What $500 Million Will Get You: 25,000 years of bickering
Read more News stories
Art accompanying story in the printed newspaper is not available in this archive: Emily Flake.
This isn't a paywall.
We don't have one. Readers like you keep our work free for everyone to read. If you think that it's important to have high quality local reporting we hope you'll support our work with a monthly contribution.