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I usually arrive at Dulles and take the train from West Falls Church downtown. That line is where I get my first impressions. This time, however, I'm  arriving at downtown National so my study will be somewhat flawed. But I will be doing a lot of metro riding from downtown to Maryland and back. If the moods of subway riders accurately reflected current day politics, everyone should be very depressed. When I was there last time there was some hope that the Democrats would do something with their newly gained power. There is no longer much hope on that front.

I told Bush; don't play chess with the freakin' Russians.
by LEP (rafifoon@yahoo.com) on Tue Oct 23rd, 2007 at 04:37:09 PM EST
[ Parent ]
That was one of the most brilliant description of DC's political economy I've ever read.  It's not quite that simple, though.  To be sure, there exists an aristocratic gang in DC; and, yes, they all live in and around Georgetown -- once a wonderful area, and now nothing but ugly, over-priced clothing stores and shitty restaurants.

I think he's more wrong than right about Alexandria and Chevy Chase, although I have very little experience with the latter.  Those are largely middle-class areas pumped up by a ton of investment designed to grab aristocrat dollars from the District.  Incomes are high in both ($60-70k median as I recall), but prices are sky-high and the incomes are nowhere near what you'd find in Georgetown, where studio apartments sell at close to seven figures.  (Seven figures, even by the ridiculously small standards of Washington, buys a hell of a lot of house in Alexandria.)  Alexandria is more a college-student and young-professional kind of area, with some older natives -- blue- and white-collars who managed to get on the property ladder before the DC market took off into the stratosphere -- sprinkled in.  Chevy Chase is a bit older, but similar from what little I've seen.  The possible exception is Old Town (the area that everyone thinks of immediately when Alexandria is mentioned even though it's such a small chunk of the city), which is unbelievably wealthy.

I'd disagree about the Northwest suburbs of Baltimore.  They're cheaper than DC because of the fact that it's Baltimore -- DC's crackwhore sister.  It wreaks of rotten fish and, whenever I've visited, it's been nearly impossible to see through the smog across Inner Harbor (all one or two hundred yards of it).  Unemployment and crime are sky-high.  (I'd still take it over Georgetown, though.)

It really is just the area in and around Georgetown that captures the aristocratic element.  The Washington Cocktail Circuit area.  Those who live in the District outside of that area are generally hoping to get there.  Those of us who don't live in the District love to mock it, being unimpressed by the hoighty-toighty garbage it's all about.  It's essentially London, for three times the price and no personality.

I love the last paragraph, and especially the last line.  Amen.  I hate martinis, and I'll be God-damned if I'm paying a million bucks for some shitcan condo.  Guinness and grungy apartment for me any day.

Where's your motherf*%&ing flag pin?

by Drew J Jones (blahblahblah@blahblahblah.com) on Wed Oct 24th, 2007 at 07:36:54 AM EST
[ Parent ]
The commuters from the Orange line out at West Falls and Vienna would likely be depressed.  That's Ground Zero on the housing market.  It's all dependent upon where in DC you are.  The Green and Yellow lines -- the Prole lines -- will be happy.  The Red Line will be depressed, with all the once-"rich" Maryland residents having seen their wealth evaporate over the last year.  The Blue and Orange lines will be mixed, depending on which end of them you're on (Maryland happy, Virginia sad).

That's the economic side.  The political side is all-depressed, since the West-of-the-Park crowd (only area where you'll really find Republicans) doesn't ride the subway.

Where's your motherf*%&ing flag pin?

by Drew J Jones (blahblahblah@blahblahblah.com) on Wed Oct 24th, 2007 at 07:53:31 AM EST
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