WAMU-FM reported this morning that tourism is up in the nation’s capital – a 3 percent increase in domestic visitors and a 22 percent boost in international ones, according to Destination D.C. – which got me thinking, of course it is!

It’s not like there are armed robberies downtown, half a block from the White House, in the middle of the day, and it’s not like people have been shot inside museums, and it’s not like the Metro system isn’t safe.

Oh, wait.

As Borderstan notes, there was an armed robbery downtown, half a block from the White House, yesterday afternoon (at 16th and K). And someone was shot inside the Holocaust Memorial Museum. And there was that crash on the Metro that left nine people dead, scores more injured and lots and lots of questions, especially since it’s becoming ever-clearer that the problems were long-standing and have yet to be fixed.

But none of that, thankfully, should affect the way tourists see the city at all.