Reply to DC Chosen Best Place to Raise a Family

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]By the way this is what the decline of a middle-class suburb looks like:

http://greatergreaterwashington.org/post/10896/montgomery-struggles-to-compete-as-both-suburb-and-city/

There's a tension between the old interests who want to maintain the "suburban character", and the new interests who want to combat sprawl and gridlock that are threatening the underlying quality-of-life.  And since the two are in equilibrium, gridlock ensues.  No one can turn the ship around, and it just keeps going on a collision course with the iceberg.

Again, I'm predicting that in a decade there will be suburbanites moving out of certain areas of Montgomery County into the city (if they can afford if) for better educational opportunities. [/quote]

But what's your solution? Raze the suburbs? Dump the millions of people who live outside DC limits into DC? Would that mean the entire city would be skyscrapers? Would you still want to live there? You should be happy there are people who want to live in the suburbs, frankly.

My other question is: If it's all about being in walkable communities and not driving to work, do you have a problem with suburbs where this is a possibility (Arlington, Fairfax, Falls Church City, Alexandria City, Bethesda)? Or are these places okay in your book, and we just need to demolish the places outide the beltway? And then what do we do with those people?

Rather than extoll the virtues of city living and trashing the burbs, I'd like to know what YOU people want to see happen. Let's face it: DC isn't big enough for all of us. Or do you really not give a rip what happens, and you're all just hoping your DC property is worth $1 billion someday?[/quote]

What makes you think I have a solution?  My goal is to identify emerging trends and use them to my family's advantage.  I do think the area is going to have to get a heck of a lot more dense, because population growth in the DC area is slated to be among the nation's highest over the next few decades.  I think that in a decade or so DC is going to be almost uniformly upper middle-class, and that the suburbs will become more and more starkly demarcated into neighborhoods of haves and have-nots.

On the one hand, I wish folks in the suburbs good luck with the corner they've painted themselves into over the last fifty years--and I think that if they elect smart folks, and hold to a strategy of smart-growth and targeted density, they can probably pull off a successful transformation.  On the other hand, I own a house in the city, so it's in my personal financial best interest that they not do so.[/quote]

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