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Tradition-Bound Washington Adjusts to Life in Pandemic

Associated Press

   WASHINGTON - The cherry blossoms were the first to go.
   Not the pink flowers themselves; they arrived on schedule in mid-March
   along Washington's Tidal Basin. But for Washingtonians, the cherry
   blossoms are more than a tree. They're the kickoff to the capital's
   prettiest season: yes, clogging downtown streets with tour buses, but
   also spurring locals to make a predawn detour to the National Mall or
   providing a good excuse to cut out of work early.
   But as the coronavirus began bearing down on the United States, hulking
   dump trucks and police cars swept into downtown, blocking off the
   streets around the Tidal Basin and abruptly halting one of Washington's
   most cherished traditions.
   As it turns out, Washington is indeed still a city of traditions, even
   in the era of Donald Trump, whose presidency seemed to have turned the
   nation's capital upside down. But the pandemic has wreaked more havoc
   on Washington than even Trump could, forcing old institutions to draft
   new playbooks, upending the city's prized social calendar and narrowing
   the gap between the political elite and the average Americans they're
   supposed to be serving.
   "Washington has never had an experience like this," said George Condon,
   historian for the Gridiron Club, the capital's oldest social club for
   journalists, and a reporter for the National Journal. "Right after
   Pearl Harbor, we canceled dinners but everything else resumed. Things
   didn't shut down like this for the (1918) flu pandemic."
   Even in the anxious and fearful days after 9/11, which initially sent
   lawmakers and West Wing staffers fleeing the Capitol and the White
   House, the return to those landmarks was swift. Being physically
   present in the center of Washington was seen as a sign of American
   resolve.

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