The cloud of gloom hanging over Washington is getting a little thicker: A plurality of residents surveyed in a Washington Post poll earlier this week said the city is on the wrong track.

45 percent of respondents said the city’s headed in the wrong direction, while 40 percent say it’s doing fine. Residents aren’t too sad, though—-with 5 percentage points between the sides, the poll just cleared its 4 percent margin of error.

A plurality of residents haven’t felt the city was headed in the wrong direction since the Post poll in 2006, when the city was beset by a rise in crime.

People over 30, women, and white residents are more likely to think the city is declining. Black residents were evenly divided in the poll, according to the Post.

These results would belie the typical argument that Wilson Building chaos isn’t affecting the city’s overall mood.

Photo by Flickr user Mr. T in DC under Creative Commons license