Random MOCO Pic of the Day--a little bit of Memphis in MOCO

Elvis has left the building.  In fact, he was at my polling place yesterday!

Fighting for Millennials--City/Suburb edition

City and Suburb have history.  There are slights, fights, outright insults, and more than a fair share of cold shoulders.  So, it probably shouldn't surprise us that they'd fight over millennials as well.

Until recently, however, everyone thought the city had won that battle (many times over).  We're constantly bombarded with stories about millennials' preference for urban hotspots.   

Well, it turns out (according to a recent Washington Post article) that a lot of millennials can't actually afford to live in the city, or can only afford to do so if they shack up dorm style in 1 and 2-bedroom apartments.  And, let's not even discuss group housesmillennial warehouses. Turns out millennials at the upper end of the age bracket are also having trouble 'upsizing' inside the city when they get in a family way.  Two bedroom apartments are in short supply and even more ridiculously expensive than the city's already ridiculously expensive 1-bedrooms.   

What does all of this mean?  Well, we know that millennials are moving into the city at higher rates than any other age group.  But, it turns out they are also the largest age group moving out. 

Who could have seen this coming?  Everyone, it seems, but the stewards of Mayor Gray's 'One City,' who've been busy celebrating the luxurification of the District of Colombia.  It was, after all, Gray's former Director of Planning, Harriett Tregoning who called 14th Street's transformationinto the Champs Elysees"fascinating, anomalous and wonderful for the city!"

But, never fear millennials, neighboring Prince George's County has your back!  After the Washington Post published its article, Eric Olson, a county council member in Prince George's County came a' courtin'!  Turns out PG County has bike trails, some walkable neighborhoods, access to public transportation, and most of all affordable rent. 

I don't have a dog in this fight (I live in MOCO), but I'd hate to see the battle for millennials reduced to a battle over which is better--city or suburb.  The real problem is that the DMV is an expensive place to live, and the closer you get to downtown DC, the more expensive it becomes (with some notable exceptions).  There's also a dearth of affordable housing in the city, and many of its close-in suburbs.  Until that problem gets addressed, the real segregation lines will continue to be economic (and social), not generational. 

Random MoCo Pic of the Day--Old Signs I Love, Splash Park Edition.

I love old signs, and the DMV's inner suburbs are full of them.  Here's my latest find.  Lake Manor Splash Park.  This is possibly the cutest dolphin I've ever seen. 

Maryland Colleges are Cheap (sort of).

Yesterday the Washington Post's GovBeat Blog gave Maryland its weekly 'top state' award.  Why?  Because Maryland has managed to keep increases in its in-state tuition rates in check for several years.  

How did Maryland do this?  Big props go to Governor Martin O'Malley.  After he took office he enacted a 4 year tuition freeze at all Maryland state schools.  After the 4 year freeze was over, the General Assembly kept annual tuition hikes at 3%.  O'Malley was also willing to increase the money the state spent on higher ed (34% according to the WAPO article) by raising some taxes and moving money from other parts of the state budget.

Let's pause for a minute to consider just how remarkable this is.  Most states are slashing higher education budgets.  A 34% increase is virtually unheard of.  Many states have also seen tuition rates more than double in the last decade.  In 7 states (New Hampshire, Arizona, Kentucky, Alabama, Hawaii, Louisiana, Illinois) tuition increases were over 100%.  The highest increase (a whopping 162%) was in New Hampshire.  Virginia's rate managed not to double (97.6% increase), but just barely.   

This is a win for Maryland, but only in a relative sense.  Why?  Because Maryland's behavior only looks exceptional by comparison.  Tuition still increased by 47% in Maryland over the last decade.  And, that rate is still huge when you consider that earnings haven't kept pace.  In fact, they're mostly flat when you adjust for inflation.  It is also worth noting that Maryland's yearly tuition plus fees, room and board (for the 2012-2013 academic year) was about 18k a year.  That means a person who pays the full price tag will go 72k into debt.  That's a lot of debt to saddle graduates with.  Not everyone can work on Wall Street loot and pillagewhen they graduate.

So, what else can we cut so Maryland can freeze tuition again?  I'd suggest Maryland's next governor and its General Assembly start by looking at the salaries of its university's top level administrators.  Over the last 20 years university administrators have started compensating themselves as if they work on Wall Street (ok, maybe 'off-Wall Street').  According to a Chronicle of Higher Education survey the median presidential salary at public universities was $421,395 in 2011.  You can search here for Maryland's figures.

Universities have also increased the number of upper level administrators on their staffs.  Apparently, provosts and deans now multiply like rabbits.  Just ask their offspring--the vice provosts, associate deans, assistant deans, and chief research officers that now litter higher ed's upper management ranks.   Not surprisingly, these guys are also compensated well enough to afford something besides tweed jackets with threadbare elbow patches (see here).

Universities will tell you they need these people, and this is the price it takes to get them.  That sounds awfully self-serving when you realize these are the same people who presided over the 'crisis in higher ed'--defined here as the toxic combination of state retrenchment and ballooning tuition.

So, Maryland, why not cut some administrators' salaries, or cut some upper level administrator positions.  Hell, you could even cut both.  I suspect we'd all be better off without the extra layer of fat cat bureaucracy.     

Note:  in the first edition of this post I mistakenly put Maryland's average annual tuition at 12k.  That amount was for the 2002-2003 year.  The correct figure for 2012-2013 is 18k.   

The Mighty Potomac

After 5 days of rain, the Potomac is running high and mucky.  But, it is still gorgeous.  These pics are were taken from Hains Point, looking east towards the southwest water front. 

Who is the 'New' DC for Anyway?

Who does DC belong to and who is it being remade for?

When I moved to DC in 1998 no one asked these sorts of questions. The city wasn't in good enough shape for there to be any real scrambling for pie pieces.  In 1995, 3 years before I arrived, the city hit rock bottom when then Mayor Marion Barry approached Congress for help covering city expenses.  Instead of a bailout Congress ordered an austerity plan.  The Financial Control Board took over the city's budget, and not surprisingly, lots of slashing and burning ensued.*  

These questions matter now, though, because the work that began in 1995 to remake the city has borne fruit.  Lots and lots of people want to live in DC.  As a result, rents are high, vacancy rates are low, and houses on the market don't sit for a spell.

Suddenly, a lot more people want pieces of the pie than there are pie pieces to be had. 

There's been a lot of coverage of what this means for the city's African American population, who used to comprise a majority of city residents.  Many mourn "chocolate city"--the affectionate nickname the Parliaments gave the city in the 70s--and resent the appropriation of black culture to sell cocktails and even entire neighborhoods.  

Here, I want to discuss what this means for the city's class makeup.  And, as usual, it was a Washington Post article that prompted my thoughts. The article, which showed up this weekend, describes the attempt to turn City Center, a new development in Penn Quarter, into a luxury shopping area equivalent to Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles. Can TMZ be far behind? 

So, who exactly are developers hoping to woo to Penn Quarter?   

Sorry bureaucratic cubicle dwellers, it's not you.
My apologies underpaid denizens of NGO land.  This is way above your pay grade.
Professors?  You can't be serious--did Chomsky teach you nothing?   
Excuse me Mr. Firemen, but you know the drill.  We let you work 72 hour shifts because you already live in West Virginia.   
I hate to pile on, dear DCPS teachers--first Michelle Rhee, then Common Core--but you're out too. 
DC United fans--snap out of it!  This relationships has been going no where for years.

No, in Penn Quarter, at least, here's who the new DC is for (per the Post):   

"A lawyer leaves a deposition and pops into Tumi for new carry-on luggage ($680). A tourist ducks out of the rain and treats herself to a classic trench coat from Burberry ($1,695). Two conventioneers skip the plenary session for a couple hours of power shopping: a flirty dress at Kate Spade ($448), a cashmere sweater from Zadig & Voltaire ($535), maybe a leather Le Pliage tote from Longchamp ($555)."   

I know.  I can't believe they left the lobbyists out.  Life is so unfair. 
Just don't come north.  Please.  


* None of this means, of course, that people living in DC didn't love it, or at least love it when they weren't busy hating it (as a southerner by birth I know a little about love/hate relationships with home).  It's just that a lot of outsiders weren't clamoring to join them. 

Random MOCO Pic of the Day--The Wishy Wash

Old, or unconventional signs have been catching my eye lately.  This one, for a laundromat on University Boulevard, is my latest catch! 

DC's new transportation plan: Green elitism?

Yesterday's Washington Post had an interesting article about the DC Department of Transportation's long range transportation plan.  Unfortunately, like a lot of green initiatives, it is fairly elitist.   

First, let's start with what the plan proposes.  There are new features like water taxis and streetcars as well as improvements to the existing metro and bus system.  Bikers will also get a boost with more paved road reserved for bikes lanes.  There's even a plan to charge commuters a toll to drive into the city. The goal is to make DC greener by forcinggetting people out of their cars.

So, why is this plan elitist?  Three interconnected reasons.  The first is that the plan doesn't take into account the changing distribution of the region's working class and poor populations.  DC's Poor and working class population used to live (primarily) in inner city areas.  They often faced disinvestment and high crime, but there was one benefit to their location--proximity to public transportation.  As DC has gentrified, many of these people have been pushed into the suburbs, or even exurbs.

Second, public transportation becomes less available and efficient the further you move from the city.  There are fewer bus lines and wait times between buses can be more than half an hour.  Likewise, metro stations tend to be located further apart in the suburbs, and the hub and spoke nature of DC's system means that it is often difficult to move from one suburb to another without routing through the city first.  These difficulties are compounded for poor and working class people who also have to find a way to get to their nearest metro stop.  Most can't afford to live within walking distance of a station because rents/home prices tend to be higher near them.  This means that car dependency is not just a choice (as it is often presented) but an unavoidable fact of life for many people at the bottom half of the income spectrum.

Third, if you charge people to drive into DC, you are essentially instituting a regressive tax.  That is, the people who cannot afford to live in the city or near a suburban metro stop will be the ones who have to pay it.  Some will pay it because they have no choice.  But, others, especially those at the bottom of the scale may simply avoid the city altogether--not because they want to but because they can't afford the cost or time it would take to enter it via public transit.     

There's nothing wrong with making it easier to move around DC without a car, but unless and until public transportation in the entire DMV is improved, the city should stick with carrots and leave the sticks behind.  Otherwise, DC's green will come with a side of exclusion. 

MOCO Map of the Week--Percent White by Census Tract 2010

Today's map looks at the distribution of the white population in Montgomery county.  People who identify as white comprise 59% of the population in Montgomery County.  The white share of MOCO's population is slightly higher than it is for the state of Maryland (58.2%), but substantially lower than it is for the country as a whole (72.4%). 

Two patterns stand out from this map.  First, the white population in Montgomery is clustered in three places--along DC's western border (and extending along the Potomac), in the county's most western tracts, and in the northern tip of the county.  Second, there are four tracts where the white population is greater than 90%, and all of them are located inside the beltway in Friendship Heights/Bethesda (see mini-map below). 

Random MOCO Pic of the Day--Derelict Art Deco

I saw this gorgeous art deco remnant a couple of days ago on Piney Branch near University Boulevard.  Al's is no more, but there's something gorgeous about the simple shapes, no frills font, and almost cartoon vehicles mixed together in one sign.