What can D.C. do about abandoned diplomatic buildings?
Countries from all over the world have an embassy in the northwest area of Washington D.C. known as Embassy Row. According to a report from the Associated Press, residents and officials are facing the uniquely D.C. problem of what to do with these diplomatic buildings that become abandoned.
Because the State Department has designated the homes as diplomatic properties, the city is often unable to take action when these homes fall victim to neglect. This is creating the problem of eyesores in high-end neighborhoods such as Kalorama.
In other neighborhoods, residents are expected to maintain their properties at the risk of fines, according to the DC Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. As City Councilman Jack Evans said to the AP:
“If I have a vacant house in the Shaw neighborhood that’s becoming a problem, I can call in the cops, clean it up, throw a fence around it and if necessary seize it for unpaid taxes. I have a lot of tools in my toolbox. But I don’t have those tools available to me if it’s a diplomatic property.”
Diplomatic properties are controlled by the State Department, which is then controlled in large part by the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, the AP explained. The Vienna Convention explains the risk in seizing a diplomatic property, noting that the reasoning must be extreme. Often, concerns of local residents over an eyesore are given less weight than the potential for international strife.
“We have to balance (local residents’ concerns) with making sure we’re not making things harder for ourselves overseas,” Cliff Seagroves, acting head of the Office of Foreign Missions, said to the AP.
How does one handle this seemingly untouchable problem? Seagrove said negative press on abandoned embassies is often effective in “embarrassing intransigent nations into action.”