Still no vibrant urban core. Height restrictions and the inevitable
scarity of affordable Class A commercial office space have encouraged
businesses that might otherwise be inclined to locate in the city out
to the suburbs, and even beyond into ex-urban hells like Loudoun and
Charles counties. Long workdays bracketed by exhausting commutes back
and forth to these outer suburbs. Rise of faux town centers in
otherwise indistinguishable places like Reston, Ballston, Rockville,
Bethesda, and Silver Spring serve to pull people out of the city at
night and encourage them to stay out on the weekends. Disproportionate
representation of current and ex-military in the metropolitan area who
still hear Taps playing in their heads every night at 9:30 pm. Downtown
business base of government, accounting/auditing, lobbying, trade
association, and national and international law firms not known for
attracting the, shall we say, bohemian demographic that demands your
“urban perks”. Lingering perceptions that the District still annually
vies with Detroit for the title of Murder Capital of the United States.
Georgetown, an area that might otherwise attract your “wealthy, single,
young people”, is limited by the absence of Metro service, the
surrounding neighborhood’s well-known and powerfully expressed aversion
to noise, fun and other signs of life, and the sense that the whole
place stopped being cool about 40 years ago. That ridiculous “Capital
of the Free World” ethos that demands long hours at the
department/agency/bureau/institute/office in the service of freedom
just isn’t conducive to lots of down time.
I am sure there are others
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