Reply to No Walmart for DC- What'll Become of the Real Estate Values in the Areas Close By Prospective Sites

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]People in DC will continue to shop elsewhere, further reducing DC's tax base and ability to provide basic municipal services. It's a vicious cycle. WalMart isn't some great benevolent entity, but they are someone willing to invest lots of $, employ lots of people (albeit not at first year associate wages), and provide needed taxes and development in poorer communities.
[/quote]

Laughably wrong.

What constrains DC's tax base is the[b] lack of available housing for middle-class households[/b]. That means building more 3/4 bedroom condos with ground-floor retail, and encouraging mixed-use development on the boundary of gentrifying areas. Given a choice between having 100,000 new DC residents who will drive to MD or VA to buy durable goods, versus having stagnant population growth and big box stores with "ample parking" scattered around town, only a fool would choose the latter.

And the more sprawling suburban type developments we permit/encourage in DC, the less attractive DC will be for new residents who want to live in places like Capitol Hill, Columbia Heights, and Old Town.  Big box stores make DC shittier; that reduces in-migration.[/quote]

It's not the lack of housing.  The middle class isn't moving to DC b/c the public schools suck so even if they can find the affordable house, they'll have to spring for private school tuition.[/quote]

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