DIVIDED IN ITS MAJESTY

WASHINGTON PRETTIES ITSELF FOR THE INAUGURATION AS THE FORTUNATE AND NOT-SO-FORTUNATE LOOK ON

Even after nearly two centuries, Washington is never blase about an inauguration. Nowhere is the sense of nervous excitement about a new administration more pronounced than in official Washington, the in-group of the affluent and ambitious and those who make their living catering to them.

Unlike the rest of the country, where an inauguration is a remote occasion glimpsed on television, one more news event in a regular workday, in Washington, Jan. 20 is a holiday that is impossible to ignore.

Thousands of out-of-town visitors and journalists descend on the city. Traffic is rerouted. Streets are clogged with limousines ferrying fur-swathed celebrities to glamorous parties.

Restaurants feature special menus, hotels are jammed, caterers work overtime and stores stock extra supplies of formal clothes.

For weeks in advance, teachers discuss the inauguration in class. And despite often-wretched weather and bitter cold, thousands of people always jam Pennsylvania Avenue to watch the traditional parade.

"The inauguration takes precedence over everything," said William Sinclair, a native Washingtonian and president of the Greater Washington Board of Trade.

"This is the most exciting time that this city experiences -- ever. The entire city really spruces up and puts its best face forward."

Israel Rubin, a financial planner from suburban Maryland who has attended every inauguration since 1961, finds the simple majesty of the swearing-in ceremony particularly moving.

"It's the solemnity of the moment, the fact that we can accomplish a peaceful transfer of power without guns or bombs," said Rubin, who plans to attend today's ceremony and parade with his 27-year-old son, who works for the Central Intelligence Agency.

"The inauguration kind of brings everything together," Rubin said.

"There's a special excitement, a sense of people coming from all over the place, the feeling that after all the fighting of a campaign, the country is pulling together. For a few days, the city is a different place."

Even those who are not part of the insiders' Washington -- many of them Democrats who question the wisdom of a lavish inauguration at a time of a record federal deficit and millions of homeless people -- hope that Bush's inaugural theme of "peace, prosperity and independence" will apply to more than the affluent.

"There is some anticipation that at least things can't get worse, and that Bush is a little more humane and on a personal level more sensitive" to poverty, homelessness and drug abuse, said the Rev. Thomas Nees, executive director of the Community of Hope, which operates a network of shelters for homeless families.

"The common people of this city, well, we just kind of wait until the inauguration is over and things get back to normal," Nees said.

"We're sort of the onlookers who watch the party."

The Rev. Ernest R. Gibson, executive director of the Greater Washington Council of Churches, agrees.

"There's a hope that the harsh cutting of domestic programs is over," said Gibson, who is also pastor of First Rising Mt. Zion Baptist Church. The 1,500-member church is located a couple of miles from the White House, in Shaw, an impoverished Northwest neighborhood that contains some of the city's most notorious drug markets.

Looking ahead to the Bush presidency, "I have not heard the cries of woe that have been heard through the present administration," Gibson said.

"But I certainly haven't sensed that the worst is over. In the last eight years, the severity of the crisis for poor people has greatly increased."

Recently, Gibson said, he arrived at his church at 6 a.m., three hours before the start of regular food distribution, to find 236 people waiting in line.

Although few -- if any -- of his parishioners will be personally involved in the inauguration, Gibson said that many feel "that it is relevant and they will watch it on television."

James Johnson, 40, who says he has spent the past year living on a bench in Lafayette Square near the elegant Hay-Adams Hotel, is hoping he can watch the festivities on television too. "I guess I'm an American so I'm a part of it," said Johnson, who sleeps in a nearby alley and gets his one daily meal from a mobile soup kitchen that parks nearby. "But to tell you the truth, it doesn't have a lot to do with me."

For Johnson and the two dozen other homeless men and women encamped in Lafayette Square, preparations for the inauguration are a constant, often-bitter reminder of a celebration that does not include them.

The park that serves as their temporary home is ringed by landmarks of official Washington: St. Johns Church, where President-elect George Bush and his family will attend a private worship service several hours before the swearing-in; Blair House, scene of the official diplomatic reception following the parade; and of course, the White House.

For weeks the residents of Lafayette Square -- some alcoholic, others mentally ill, all poor -- have listened to the high-pitched whine of power saws as construction workers erect an impressive blue and white reviewing stand in front of the White House. Some resent the elaborate preparations for a celebration that, at an expected cost of $30 million, will be the most expensive in history.

"Why don't they use the money out in the streets where it will do some good, rather than for their own big parties?" asked Wallace Duve, 30, a former employee of PTL, Jim Bakker's former television ministry, who is now homeless. "This inauguration has absolutely nothing to do with us."

For another segment of the city, its business leaders, the inauguration is a perfect time to show off the new retail and commercial developments that are altering the appearance and character of Washington and its suburbs.

"People talk about Silicon Valley, but look at all the high-tech parks out toward Dulles Airport or Columbia, which people see as they come in from the airports," said Sinclair, who is president of Washington Federal Savings. "I've had a lot of out-of-towners tell me that while they're here, they want to be sure and visit White Flint or Georgetown Park," two local malls.

Neiman Marcus, the Texas-based retailer, is hoping that the prominence of Texans in the new administration will help its sales.

"From a retailing standpoint, the inauguration is a big event and it's very competitive," said Harold Nelson, vice president and general manager of Neiman's Washington store.

"We really try to make sure we're on our best behavior and that our store looks its crispest."

Nelson said his store has retained some of its extra Christmas help and has stocked "hundreds and hundreds of dresses" ranging in price from $250 to $10,000.

Local teachers take advantage of their proximity to a historic event by adding lessons on the presidency and government.

"I suspect the majority of {my students} will actually go to inaugural events," said Arnold S. Goldsmith, a government teacher whose students at Langley High School in McLean include the children of senators, diplomats, bureaucrats and at least one former presidential candidate.

"In general, there is a great deal of interest in this, especially because Bush is a Republican," he said. Most of his students' parents are also Republican; Langley is in the wealthiest part of Fairfax County, one of the richest jurisdictions in the country.

"Even with the kids who are Democrats, their parents are heavy hitters, so they tend to be pretty involved," Goldsmith said.

"A lot of them have already worked in campaigns."

Goldsmith has assigned papers on how history judges presidents and led discussions of Bush's Cabinet selections.

"We talk a lot about ideological shifts and the electoral process and the need to participate."

Dennis Patrick, a history teacher at West Springfield High School, says he and his colleagues encourage students to participate in inaugural events or to watch them on television.

"I know the typical reaction will probably be, 'Hey, it's a holiday, let's go skiing,' " he said. "In some cases, they can't perceive any difference in candidates. Instead, they see how one candidate is better managed than the other."

The preeminence of the inauguration also is reflected in less obvious ways. Several months ago, when Wendy McCollough of Northwest Washington was planning her son's fifth birthday party, she had to consider its timing.

She booked a party room at the Four Seasons Hotel in Georgetown early, and settled on Sunday, Jan. 22, when she assumed most inaugural events would be over.

"I'm a Democrat, but many of the children's parents are Republicans who are pretty active, so I wanted to pick a date that didn't conflict with the inauguration when the hotel would also be booked," McCollough said. By Sunday, she said, "I figured the parents would be pretty tired, but the kids would be ready to celebrate."

Articles appear as they were originally printed in The Washington Post and may not include subsequent corrections.