WASHINGTON (AP) – No city experiences a shutdown quite like Washington.
Besides the economic impact, a shutdown warps the nation’s capital on a cultural, recreational and logistical level.
Furloughed federal employees can find discounts on meals, theater tickets, marijuana and more. Desperate parents roam the city on weekends searching for something to occupy their children now that dozens of free museums and the zoo have closed.
For a while, couples couldn’t get married because the city court system is partially funded by Congress.
The current partial shutdown, now in a record fourth week, has provided a quiet boon for Mayor Muriel Bowser’s government. Officials have rushed into the void to claim unprecedented new powers while making a public show of literally cleaning up the federal government’s mess.
